Siblings of Sol: Destruction of a Planet

Chapter 36

Kril pulls the heavy cloak tighter and moves to the railing, where the thick stem with the single flower has grown up the side of the fortress. He sticks out his tongue and moves it around. "Welcome. May I introduce Adam. The Mole that you have requested attend this meeting."

Adam can smell the scent from the flower, and quickly puts things together, and smiles as he walks over to stand by the large red flower. "Thank you for allowing me to talk with you."

Kril screeches slightly in a chuckle. "Your intelligence is high. When did you figure it out that the flowers are the true leaders of this planet, and we Shrils and Moles must obey them or suffer the consequences?"

Adam does not turn to Kril, but continues to address the flower, who he now realizes is the representative of the planets' entire vegetation consciousness. "You were the ones who wanted us at Jarl's village when we arrived. You made the path for us to follow and provided a hiding place for us when the Shrils went by. The emphasis on the flower beds and the competition for growing the best, and the most beautiful, explained what I thought was happening as we moved closer to the village that night that we arrived. Evian was traumatized by the Moles being processed, and could hardly move, but when we got closer to the village, I could smell the fragrance of your flowers and noticed that Evian's mood had changed to one of joy and arousal. We had not had anything to eat or drink at that time, so it had to be something in the air that was causing her to react that way."

Kril flicks his tongue around before responding. "They are impressed by your quick grasp of the situation and applaud your deductive powers."

Adam turns to the flower on the thick stem of the vine. "I do have one question for you though, and that is, why are you playing one side of the Shrils against the other? When I was in the lower chambers, you sent one of your workers, the bees, to search for me. Then when you had located me, you gave that information to the Naturalists and not to The Speaker."

This is news to Kril, and he also wants to know the answer. "They say that you have come at a time of profound change for the entire planet, and the powers that control the order of things."

Jard squeals slightly from the doorway at the response from the Crawlers. "I knew it."

Kril turns sharply to him. "You are only here to listen, not to engage in the conversation. Please keep your mouth shut."

The crawlers have just given Adam the last piece of the puzzle. "So, the bees are the ones that do all the work. They not only pollinate your flowers, but pass information around, keeping you informed as to what is happening."

Kril does not need to hear the Flower's response. "Yes, they beat their small wings at different speeds to change the vibrations that are sent through the air. It is those vibrations that the flowers sense and can read."

Adam looks out over the railing and down to the villages far below, and the light that they are giving off. "There must be hundreds of them," he thinks. He turns back to the flower and speaks up. "The bees collect the pollen from the flowers and make honey from it. That is the source of the enzyme that the Moles process in their bodies that the Shrils need to survive. Without the bees, the entire system would fall apart, and all three societies would quickly die."

Kril moves his tongue around to get the response from the Crawlers. "Yes, you have it right. But they have a much more important question to ask you, if you are done asking yours."

Adam gives a deep sigh, because now the time has come to find out the true reason for this meeting, and why they need him so desperately. "Please continue. You have manipulated events to get me here, so you can ask me what I know, and have set the conditions, forcing me to give you a truthful answer. So, ask away."

Kril uses his tongue to understand the Flower and turns back to face him after an extra lengthy conversation. He is visibly upset by what was said to him, and he eventually looks to Adam, after a quick glance to Jard by the door. "You may not know about an event that happened the other night, when an intruder to our system slammed into our neighboring planet, Aster."

Adam nods his head. "I saw the bright light in the sky, and knew it was something major. What has happened since then?"

Kril turns to Jard. "You will want to listen closely to what I have to say, because it affects all of us now."

Jard just dips his head in understanding.

Kril turns back to Adam. "It seems that when the planet Aster broke up under the attack of the intruder, numerous large pieces of the planet have been sent Sal-ward. The crawlers have determined that one of the larger pieces and numerous smaller ones are on a collision course with Mur. They will impact with us in ten periods. However, they are not sure where it will impact, and how much damage it will do at this point."

Jard stands straighter. "Why was I not informed of this? We need to leave before it arrives."

"I have just found out about this myself," adds Kril. "The response from Adam on his knowledge of the future will answer the question of our very survival, he is now the only one that can save us."

Adam looks from Kril to Jard, and then to the flower. "Go ahead, ask your question."

Kril already has the question and wraps the thick cloak around himself tighter, before speaking. "As you know or may not know, we have used the Sphere to go back in time to your planet Ter and seeded it with Shril, Mole, and the Crawlers essence, to make another world capable of sustaining our life if Mur was ever destroyed for some reason. The Sphere cannot take a person any farther forward in time than his own period, so we do not know if our plan has succeeded, because the Shrils and Moles on Ter are just now starting to develop. We cannot go to Ter and merge with our counterparts there yet. Fortunately, you can take us beyond our own time because you are from the distant future. Will you help us, Adam?"

Adam now knows exactly what time frame he is in, in relation to Earth's, and he must think very carefully about what he has to say to the leaders of Mur. He turns to Kril before looking to the flower. "I will answer your question truthfully on one condition."

"What is that?" asks Kril.

Adam looks to Jard pointedly. "After I have answered your question, and done what you have requested, I want your assurance that you will let Evian and myself go through the Sphere to my time on Ter."

Jard purposely looks away from him, as Kril has his tongue out to get the answer from the Crawlers. He turns to Adam and nods his head. "We agree, as long as you tell us truthfully, and please do not try to deceive us; the Crawlers can easily sense deception on your part."

Adam nods his head in agreement. "First of all, to confirm your suspicions of the conditions on Mur after the strike by the remains of the planet. In my time, it is barren and lifeless. Most of the surface water had been pulled away through the thinner atmosphere by the radiation of space. We have explored it with mechanized machines and there is no life larger than microbes left on the surface."

Adam pauses and takes a deep breath of the chilly air before informing them of the rest. "The event that sent the debris to your planet also sent some to Ter. The dinosaurs as we called them, who I assume were the results of your efforts to populate the planet, were destroyed when a massive rock hit the surface about sixty-five million cycles ago from my perspective. The Moles survived, but we are different somehow from the Moles here. I do not know what has caused that, but we have evolved into what you see before you. We control our planet totally, and there are about seven billion of us there in my time."

Kril shakes his head. "So, that is it then. We are done as a people; all our plans have failed, and we will cease to exist in ten periods."