Planet Creation - Unstable Conditions

Planet Creation
Part One

Unstable Conditions

     An explosion destroyed a planet. Bits and pieces of it flew out in all directions. “What just happened?” The voice of Avom asked.

     Avom sat behind a small table with three other humans, one on his left and two to his right. All four had shocked looks on their faces as they stared at the large image monitor in front of them. That monitor was slowly returning to a Space image. One second it was bits and pieces everywhere. And the next it was an image of Space.

     Across from the humans sat four Kausuins. Hollun swiveled around in his seat to face the humans. The other three did it at the same time. He sat one seat to the right of Avom. But the male/female sitting arrangement was the same.

     Hollun glanced at each one of his fellow Kausuins. They all nodded yes. Then he looked back at Avom. “That is what is going to happen to Kausuin if you don’t help us.”

     Avom opened his mouth to speak. But Yilla, seated just to his right, spoke first. “You didn’t need to show us that. Planet Creation has already agreed to help you find a new world.”

     “We know that,” said Hollun. “But it’s taking you a lot longer than we thought it would take. And we wanted to show you just how badly we need a second Kausuin.”

     “Do you really think that what’s going to happen to your planet?” Avom asked.

     Sartarri glanced at Hollun, who nodded yes before she answered Avom. “Yes, we do. Our overpopulation problem is that bad.”

     The other human male, Frimm, spoke next. “It doesn’t look like you have populated all of your planet yet. Have you thought about populating your waterways and within Kausuin?”

     “Of course, we considered that. But we can't-do either one of them,” Qualt said after getting a nod yes from Hollun.

     Hollun took over. “We aren’t water breathers. And the death threat from a collapsing structure is too great of a risk for us to do that. The same is true about our mountains and underground. We can hollow it out. But the risk of collapse is too great for us to take that chance.”

     Avom looked at the other humans before he responded. “That’s what we thought. But we had to ask because you didn’t mention it in the questions we asked you.”

     Urrai spoke before looking at Hollun. Hollun gave him an angry look in response. “That’s something else we don’t understand. Why did you ask us all those questions? There must have been forty to fifty of them total.”

     “We asked you those questions so that we can re-create your new world the way you want it,” said Avom. “Those questions help us to know what your world will look like once it has been created.”

     Reevie, the other human female, took over. “We can re-create Kausuin Two any way you want it to look. If you want it the same as the first one, we can do that. And if you want it completely different or something in-between, we can do that too. It’s all up to you. That’s why we asked you so many questions.”

     “That’s what we really don’t understand,” said Hollun. “It’s not the questions themselves. But why you need them. We just thought you would find a planet near us. Then you would help us to move there.”

     “It’s not that simple,” Yilla spoke first. “We wish it was. It would make our responsibilities a lot easier.”

     Frimm took over. “We were having the same problem as you are twenty thousand years ago. And we just picked the first three planets near us. But all three ended in disaster. The fourth one did last a lot longer. It lasted about three thousand years before it ended too.”

     Avom retook control of the conversation. “After the third one, we realized our mistakes. That’s when Planet Creation began. The first ones we helped was ourselves. As we were doing that, we also realized we weren’t the only ones with that problem. We have been helping planets like yours ever since then.”

     The Kausuin representatives looked at each other in confusion. “We still don’t understand why you can’t just pick us a planet,” said Hullon. “If it doesn’t work out, we can always come back to you for help.”

     Urrai spoke without acknowledgment. And he got the same angry look again. “You are killing us with these delays. Just select us a planet. And we will take our chances.”

     “What Urrai is trying to tell you very badly is that we are getting desperate,” said Hollun. “We have tried everything to reduce our population. From limiting a family’s total to war, a Kausuin-made plague, a personal selection like the elderly or disadvantaged, even individual death. But nothing worked.”

     “Your overpopulation problem should be over with very shortly,” said Avom. “There are five planets in this part of the Sector that we should be able to re-create for you. And I’m sure that we can all of them. But we have to check them out first.”

     “Why do you need to do that?” Sartarri asked after getting her yes nod.

     Reevie spoke first. “Mostly, what we are checking for is if it’s already inhabited. It doesn’t look like any of them are. But if there is once started re-creation it will kill them.”

     Avom took over. “We are also looking for anything that can prevent us from doing re-creation. There aren’t too many things that can. But there are a few.”

     “We will soon find out about the first planet,” said Frimm. “We'll be there in a few days.”

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     Yilla and Avom stood in front of a large image monitor looking up at a planet on it. Seated behind them were the four Kausuin representatives. “How does it check out? Is that Kausuin Two?” Urrai asked without getting the nod. She didn’t even look at him as usual. But he did look at her. His light green pulsating.

     “I’m getting new data on it right now.” Yilla looked down at the equipment below the image monitor. Beeps, buzzes, and colored lights were flashing all over it.

     Avom never took his eyes off the monitor. Yilla returned to looking at it as numbers, letters, and words started appearing randomly all around that planet. “So far, it looks good.”

     “Great,” said Avom. “When can we start moving there.”

     Yilla looks at Avom. He looks back at her. They both sigh, almost at the same time. But it’s Avom who turns toward the Kausuins. “Don’t rush us. We still have a lot of this planet to check out.”

     Just then a loud sound began. Along with it, a pulsating red light started too. The Kausuins started panicking. Frantically looking all around them. Avom returned his gaze at the monitor. Yilla tapped a button on the equipment in front of her. The sound and pulsating stopped.

     “What was that?” Hollun asked.

     “We don’t know what is happening,” said Avom. “But it doesn’t look good. That alarm doesn’t go off unless there is a serious problem.”

     Yilla bent over and started tapping the button on the equipment under the monitor. A few seconds later she looked up at the monitor as it started pulsating a red light every other second.

     Looking at Avom, Yilla sighed. “According to these readings, a bunch of quakes just happened down there. They only lasted a few seconds. But they all happened at the same time.”

     “What does that mean?” Sartarri asked.

     “It means we can’t live on this planet,” said Urrai. “Isn’t that what it means?”

     “Not necessary,” said Avom as he turned toward the Kausuins. “If it’s just the quakes, we can eliminate that problem with re-creation. But I don’t think that’s the problem here.”

     Yilla looked at the Kausuins. Then at Avom. “Unfortunately, it’s not. There are too many of them. And it happens a lot, almost daily. We can eliminate that and most of the quakes. But not all of them.”

     A few seconds later Yilla continued. “That’s not the reason why the alarm sounded, though. It’s because of what the quakes open up from within the planet. It is a chemical we call Doffim.”

     Urrai started to open her mouth to speak. But Hollun spoke first. “What does that mean to us?”

     “It means that Urrai was right,” answered Avom. “You can’t colonize this planet.”

     Yilla looked at the Kausuins sadly. Then she looked at Avom. Suddenly, she smiled. “Maybe they can’t live there. But I know who can, the Vohn.”

     “What is a von?” Hollun asked.

     “The Vohn isn't a what. They are from an overpopulated planet like yours. We are looking for a new world for them too. And it looks like we just found them one.” Avom looked at Yilla. “Contact the Vohn about this discovery.”

     “Wait, a second,” shouted Urrai. “You can find them a new planet, but not us.”

     Hollun looked at Urrai angrily. His light green face pulsating green. “Overpopulated too, just how many planets are you trying to help with this problem?”

     “Did you really think you were the only one?” Yilla asked. “We are currently trying to find new worlds for about thirty other planets.”

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     Avom was in the same room as before. At least it looked like the same one. Only now he was looking up at a black monitor. Avom glanced behind him to see the last of the Kausuins leaving that room. Her long tail and her floppy ears flapping wildly as Sartarri left. The entrance slid shut a second later.

     After looking at Yilla still beside him, Avom looked back up at the black monitor. Yilla tapped a few buttons in front of her. The monitor turned into an oblong position. And an image of a tall individual appeared on it. But only their body and about half their legs could be seen by Yilla and Avom.

     Yilla pushed a few more buttons. And the image moved upwards to reveal an oblong gray, bald head. “Is it true?” Cusoom asked. “Have you found us another planet to live on?”

Word Count = 1,693