Chapter 22.5. Backup planet.
The deadline for Eve’s investigation was tomorrow so Silas wanted to prepare a few things for the worst case scenario. In an event a full out war started, his family would need to be protected from the aftermath.
For that he needed to travel a bit further than usual. So he needed someone to look after his family while he did just that. A certain old man.
In the quiet morning, 5am, Berlin sat across from Silas in a quiet bar downtown. The owner of the bar knew better than to bother the two S-rankers and gave them their privacy in a corner booth, even though it costed him some customers.
“Why did you drag me here kid?” Berlin took a drag of his cigarette, the smoke coming out with each word. He wore a white t-shirt and dark pants, looking more like a retired boxer than an S-ranker.
“Because I want you to babysit my family while I do some stuff,” Silas cut to the chase, his hand drumming on the table in an impatient manner.
“I’m not too keen on covering for you while you stick your dick in some street rat,” Berlin chuckled, ash falling on the table.
He sighed, rolling his eyes.
“It’s not that and you know it. There might be a situation soon and I need to be prepared,” Silas said with a glare.
The other man’s face became serious in an instant.
“Care to explain? Or are you just gonna be a cryptic fuck?” He took another drag, his eyes looking straight into his soul.
Silas leaned back on his chair, folding his arms. “If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine,” he mocked.
Berlin grunted.
“Fuck you...fine.” He put his cigarette on the ashtray and said, “You got an hour before I get bored and return to doing more important shit.”
An hour was more than enough.
Silas stretched out his hand for a handshake.
The other man took it. In that instant, a contract was formed. Not magical but a simple man-to-man promise between two powerful people. After that Silas vanished from the bar.
Berlin lit a new cigarette, his expression dark. The kid was up to something stupid and will probably make a big mess, and that mess will fall onto the Association to clean up, on him.
Before the awakening, astronomy was an interesting fields that humans looked up to. They wondered what was up there among the stars, if there was other life. Even now the answer remained unknown. Only a few S-rankers had gone into space. Fewer reached the moon before they ran out of air and were forced to return. A certain space mage however knew a few things about what lay beyond the Earth.
At this moment Silas was standing on an asteroid, its rocky surface was barren, void of any life or even mana. It floated in a sea of endless darkness. This asteroid was his storage space, a safe place to put things that could be useful later. He couldn’t just have a garage after all.
The first thing he took out was an egg: fertilized turkey eggs, the second thing was seeds of kales, potatoes, the third thing was canned food, enough for the Vane family for 6 months.
What was he planning? Well in case the Earth blew up or something like that, his family would need a new planet to live on. Proxima Centauri b. A planet a bit bigger than earth, orbiting a star a mere 4 light years away from Earth. Even to Silas that was a distance he had never crossed.
But when the girls were just born Silas got paranoid and did a small reconnaissance mission with a very long chain of rifts connecting. The planet was breathable for humans, had some weird animals and a lot of vegetation.
And now he would terraform parts of it, make sure there was food to grow. He still had to take water and build a shelter...the list went on, but it could wait for now.
After putting everything in a bubble of space and sealing it, he turned his attention to Earth. Silas didn’t want to leave them alone even for a second but Berlin was there. He could trust the old man.
So he began his long journey to the closest planet that could be his family’s new home. Space was technically empty, mana existed but in small quantities, so his space magic was easier to use but the distance between things was vast. The first rift he opened took him to the edge of the Solar System. Then the next one to a random point in the galaxy. And so on and on it went.
When the portal finally opened to Proxima Centauri b he was a bit out of breath and dizzy. The planet looked like a blue marble, bigger than his home. Its orbit was slow, taking eleven Earth days to do a full rotation and the sun looked a bit red from here. Taking another breath, he opened the rift in the sky of the planet, the wind blowing his hair back. It smelled...wet. Like soil.
His boots landed on the ground and he looked at the flora that surrounded him. He chose this area because it was close to a small lake of fresh water. It would be good for planting his seeds. His job now was to test the eggs and see if they were still alive and if they would survive in this alien soil.
He created a makeshift nest, a hole in the ground, put the turkey eggs inside and covered with leaves and mud. Then he planted the seeds.
Looking at his watch, he realized he was away for only twenty minutes. Good.
The last step was the water, he needed to test it for anything that could harm his girls. Filling a vial with the liquid, he put it in a space bubble to analyze later at home.
Just as he was about to make a portal back home, something caught his eye. A furball. It was a small creature, the size of a cat, with six legs and purple scales covering it. Two wings were folded on its back and its eyes were large and green. It had two tails that twitched with curiosity. The beast looked up at him, tilting its head.
Silas stared back. Was it friendly or should he squash it like a bug? The beast walked closer to him, its movements slow and cautious, not aggressive. It rubbed its head on his leg, purring.
No mana signature either. Weird.
The little thing was kinda cute though.
Crouching, he extended his hand to it, letting it sniff him and the beast licked his fingers, its tongue warm and rough. Then it nuzzled into his palm, asking to be petted.
“This was how the first humans and wolves met, I suppose,” Silas said as he scratched the animal behind its ear. It purred louder.
Was this the first contact with another planet’s fauna? Should he name it? Nah, he was overthinking. It’d probably be dead by the time he returned or even if he returned. He gave the creature a pat on the head and teleported away.
The beast looked at the empty spot, confused, then it yawned and curled up near the eggs, ready to sleep.
Back on Earth, in the bar Berlin was on his tenth cigarette. His clock had hit the second hour mark but the kid didn’t return yet. Just as he was about to leave. Space rippled and there he was, the damn kid.
“Kid, your sense of time is shit. The fuck did you do for two hours huh?” He said, exhaling smoke.
Silas looked around then at his watch. One hour passed since he came. Ah. Time dilation.
He grinned. “Went for a walk. Nothing much. Is everything going alright on your end?”
Berling squinted. “Well you smell like day-old fish and mud.” He threw his bud in the ashtray and stood up.
A laugh escaped Silas’ lips. Even if Berlin acted like a grump, he still stayed after the time limit.
“Thank you old man.”
They went out of the bar and separated ways, one going to the Vane residence and the other going to who knows where.