SOS CH 71 (Patreon)

Noah looked all around but all he could see, outside of the sun was nothing more than the stars shining in the distance.

“Is…This a joke?” A modicum of anger started seeping into his voice.  Space was large and no matter how high Noah's vision was, it would be impossible for him to see other planets with his naked eyes if they weren’t close enough.

“This is sadly not a joke.” Dorothy placed a hand on his shoulder before snapping her fingers with her other hand, prompting blue screens to appear all around them, “From the current coordinates, we are exactly where the moon of Sol-III, or rather Earth, should have been. From such distance, Earth should have been visible but as you can see…There is nothing.”

The screen moved and showed different planets. Only five planets to be exact.

“We discovered information about Sol-III on Sol IV. The remains suggest that the earth vanished or was destroyed approximately 50,000 years ago after a war prolonged war against the Parasites. A war that they lost. Earthlings were able to save seed of their civilization and were sent into space sadly they did not have the technology necessary to keep them alive past a certain point. The ships we found were full of nothing but corpses. Mostly intact corpse but still corpses.”

Images after images appeared, showing everything to Noah and all he could do was listen silently. The corpses in particular were quite haunting to see.

This was an Earth. An earth with a different history. An earth with different people but truly similar circumstances. There was just one very little thing he needed to know,

“Did they…In the history of Sol III, how did they fight against Parasites?”

Dorothy looked up, “Well, they didn’t. They weren’t able to put up much of a fight. We discovered they had a very limited understanding of Mecha. But those were standard Mecha if compared to those we have now. They were not even able to use Dark Matter. As you can imagine this didn’t end well.”

She shook her head, “When the council discovered the incursion of parasites in this solar system it was already too late. The parasites had already left the planets which was another mystery for us since this simply doesn’t happen. But we judged that they did so because they erased and assimilated all life. Furthermore, while they control the Triangulum Galaxy. Their control on the Milky Way is not enough for them to push too much.”

Parasites were the worst pirates that could exist. Protecting an entire galaxy was hard. It was even more so when all the major forces found ways to oppose each other.

Parasites would slip through the track, attack recluses planets, assimilates them then go on their merry ways.

They were like locusts or pests that were nearly impossible to get rid of.

Not all Parasite hives were enemies. Some in fact had very good relationships with the different parliaments and there was even talk of accepting them in the galactic alliance.

This was a rather complicated and sensitive topic.

“Well enough about the parasites. What matters is earth. Honestly I am surprised that your colony managed to reach so far. The planet you were stranded on was four light years away from earth. It's honestly a miracle they managed to reach this in only 50000 thousand years.”

Four light years might sound relatively small but this translated into a distance of 25 trillion miles which would need approximately 148,000 years to cover.

Doing so in a third of the time necessary was extraordinary.

Dorothy asked, her voice was filled with solemnity. “Going back to the topic. All this time, what happened to Sol-III had been a mystery.  A mystery no one cared about outside of a few enthusiasts.”

The Sol system was just a small system in a very big universe. Everyday millions of inexplicable things happened in space and no forces had the resources necessary to care.

Oz was in much the same situation. The only reason she even cared about Sol III in the past was because the Sol system was only a few dozen light years away from Oz.

She had been worried Parasites had discovered some antimatter technology and would go on a killing spree but slowly lost interest when she realized this was just the work of a small hive.

Now though,

“After what we witnessed not long ago. It isn't much of a mystery now is it?”

What happened to Earth might have been the same as what happened to this lone planet. Which would mean that Earth was related to a White Gate.

Noah closed his eyes and thought deeply. It was possible that this earth was occupied by one of the Constellations and that one also started the destruction protocol.

Honestly, Noad did not know enough to formulate a proper hypothesis.

“I only see 5 planets. What happened to the others? Only Earth vanished, right?”

New screens appeared, showing two different planets,

“Sol II and Sol IV also known as Venus and Mars respectively by the Earthling. The two planets were moved by the Imperial Family and placed in their museum.”

“Museum?”

Noah was wondering if he heard things wrong and Dorothy could only give a bitter smile.

“The imperial family has many interesting hobbies. One of which is adding planets with particular histories to their collections and placing them in artificial solar systems of their creations. The expositions are generally not open to public outside of very specific dates or specific occasions.”

“What is the name of the royal family?”

“Imperial Family. Be very careful. They do not play around with this title. As for their name, the current king is—Arthur Pendragon.”

Noah could only let out a dumbfounded laugh. This seemed so fitting he was not even surprised.

After laughing out for a while, Noah smiled. He could feel a certain weight off his chest.

Sure the situation did not suddenly become better and sure there was nothing to be happy about learning that an entire civilization was wiped out while the remains were used as some sort of attraction in a museum.

But for him this was very important. He had been wondering what should be his next goal after all this.

How could he find the next gate? Where should he even go?

Now though, the answer was a little clearer.

Planet Mars.

He had a feeling that he would be able to find more answers there.

But before going there, he needed to become stronger. He needed to become better.

After all who knew what would happen.

This was why,

“Thank you.”

He took Dorothy’s hand and bowed his head slightly. It was quite awkward with how small he was but Noah did not care.

“Truly thank you.”

He continued to utter. He did not know Dorothy's goal in approaching him. He did not know if she was someone he could really trust and believe in.

But — She was a benefactor. She helped him escape the planet before its destruction and decided to help him in finding his bearing in this new world.

Noah was many things. An arrogant idiot, a prideful bastard, and a crazy maverick.

But he was not an ungrateful bastard. This day would be forever carved in his memory and one day, he would pay back everything tenfold.

Thus Noah swore internally.