The Blue Planet

By Mark Rogo

The first book of this series, 23 Hours, was a labor of love and an intense lesson in the skills of writing. I dont even pretend to have those skills, but I do fool myself into thinking they might have some value to someone other than myself. If you enjoyed 23 Hours, I think you will love The Blue Planet. Its shorter and more focused, and less oriented as a social commentary, an outcry against the wrongs of the world. All in all, its just a lot more fun, with an incredible ending.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524579258

Mark Rogo

Mark Rogo is a frustrated author, deciding late in life that his bucket list needed attention. His various careers through life have led him in different directions, none of which quelled his desire to write. After graduating La Canada High School and the University of Pacific, Mark entered Southwestern School of Law, only to discover that Perry Mason was nowhere to be found. His next move was to join the family business, as a used machinery dealer, which became his career for over twenty years. Eventually, he bought Morton Machinery Company and transformed it from a stocking dealer to a multi-faceted company with divisions in leasing, new machinery sales, asset-based lending, and controlled liquidations. The United States economy had other ideas, and as the manufacturing base left the country, so did Mark’s desire to work harder and earn less. So he followed the path his wife had embarked on, and once again reinvented himself as a real estate agent, which is where you will find him today at Coldwell Banker in Beverly Hills. Mark’s passion for life centers on his trophy wife of 40 years, Lynn Mirisch Rogo, their two daughters Marcie and Lisa, a son-in law Anil, and two perfect granddaughters.

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Copyright © 2017 by Mark Rogo.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2017901301

ISBN:                  Hardcover                      978-1-5245-7927-2

                           Softcover                        978-1-5245-7926-5

                           eBook                            978-1-5245-7925-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/08/2017

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CONTENTS

Introduction and Acknowledgments

Prologue

Volume 1 My Remaining Time in Earth Orbit

Chapter 1 Returning to Yavari

Chapter 2 The Message

Chapter 3 More Messages

Chapter 4 The Future of Earth Changes Course

Chapter 5 The Committee

Chapter 6 Those Pesky Russians

Chapter 7 The Committee Visit

Volume 2 Return to Montoid

Chapter 8 A Trip under Pressure

Chapter 9 The Supernova Savior, the Evil Baryonic Cloud, and the Tablets of Moses

Chapter 10 The Trip to Mount Zion

Chapter 11 Discussions at the Council

Chapter 12 Moving Closer to the Glow’s Prophecy

Chapter 13 Discussions with My Women

Chapter 14 The Energy Collective

Chapter 15 Preparations for Battle

Chapter 16 The Hail Mary Pass

Chapter 17 The Final Battle

Glossary

About the Author

INTRODUCTION AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The first book of this series, 23 Hours, was a labor of love and an intense lesson in the skills of writing. I don’t even pretend to have those skills, but I do fool myself into thinking they might have some value to someone other than myself. If you enjoyed 23 Hours, I think you will love The Blue Planet. It’s shorter and more focused and less oriented as a social commentary, an outcry against the wrongs of the world. All in all, it’s just a lot more fun, with an incredible ending.

You should know where some of the characters come from. As is the case for many authors, I was inspired by my family. I greatly admire my wife and the burden she carries being married to a madman. She can be obstinate sometimes, especially when it comes to the welfare of our daughters, but she also has great patience and a caring heart, which she reserves for me and my emotional swings. She was my inspiration for both Miriam and the Queen. Captain Hadassah is based on my daughter Marcie, and Princess LiJoRoGu is the embodiment of my other daughter, Lisa.

While I penned these two books, many things happened in my life. I turned sixty, my mother turned eighty-five, I was blessed with two granddaughters, and my wife and I celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary. There were many happy occasions to enjoy during that short period, but noticeably absent were my father, Morton Rogo, and my father-in-law, Marvin Mirisch. Both men played a very important role in my life, unknowingly complementing each other’s contributions, as if my own fifth-dimensional was guiding my life. Marvin’s brother, Walter Mirisch, was one of my inspirations who helped to start the whole process because at eighty-seven, he decided to turn his life story into a book; he finished his autobiography at eighty-nine.

I did not write these books for any other reason other than to say I have written a book. In the process, though, I learned a very tangible, valuable lesson: anyone can write a book, but it’s really hard to tell a story. In future generations, I do hope my heirs will take to heart the story behind these books, that they will get out there and do something with their lives, that they will stop merely surviving and get on with the process of living. Write a book, climb a mountain, sing a song, dance all night, fall in love, see every movie you can! Listen to the stories of friends, and love life for every minute you are alive.

Life is a precious gift, and we must all put far more effort into recognizing that.

PROLOGUE

In the human quest for survival, nothing changes priorities like the prospect of failure. The prospect of being extinguished, although quickly reversed by the alien leadership, still gave pause to the humanoids of Earth. Being labeled as the dearth of the galaxy also gave them pause. Either way, the higher life forms on the blue planet that resided third from a medium sized burning star in a nine-planet system were all forced to give credence to their identity as destroyers of a planet on which they waged war against themselves and their environment.

This wasn’t the case for all of them though. At the aliens’ final moments on the blue planet, a little over one hundred humanoids, representing friends and family of the Galactic Grand Overlord, boarded one of three cruisers in Earth orbit, and, without notice or fanfare, joined the departing aliens for the trip back to their home planets on the other side of the galaxy—for societies that were not only largely void of cultural entertainment and fanfare but also void of warfare, poverty, and jealousies.

This is the next chapter in the life of the Grand Overlord and his adventures, aboard the Galactic Federation battleship GF Moses, leading a small group of humans from the blue planet to their new homes on the alien planets of Montoid and Yavari.

VOLUME 1

My Remaining Time

in Earth Orbit

Chapter 1

Returning to Yavari

It was both an exciting and emotional trip for all 107 of the friends and relatives who had decided, at the last minute, to accept my invitation and board our military shuttles for a short trip to the cruisers orbiting Earth. I could see the looks on the faces of my Earth wife, Miriam, and my daughters, Rachel and Hannah, as they peered out the molecular windows, watching in awe as we left Earth’s atmosphere, with the vastness of space opening up to swallow us. It was too much for many of them to process at once, and some began to cry as they realized they were catching their last glimpse of a planet that had been their home and the home of all their ancestors since the dawn of time. None of them knew what was in store for them, and all of them began to have second thoughts. To their credit, though, not one came to me to ask to be returned to Earth … except Miriam, my Earth wife.

She approached me in the middle of a transmission to the deck officers of the lead battleship and asked to speak with me alone.

"Where, Miriam? As you can see, we’re all in this shuttle together. We’ll be on board the Moses in three minutes, and we can talk privately then. In the meantime, I need to finish this conference and—"

I can’t wait, she responded, with tears in her eyes. I don’t know what emotions I was feeling, what made me do this, but my whole life is on Earth, and I’ve got no idea where we’re going, what we’re doing … How will I raise our daughters there? What role will I play as your wife? What about your other wife, the Queen? Where I will live? What will I do?

As I looked around, I could see the same questions lingering in the worried expressions on the faces of the others, my family and friends. My parents and Miriam’s looked at me questioningly, their faces pleading for answers. They didn’t have to say a thing; their facial expressions said it all. There were forty of them on one shuttle, and I assume the same thoughts were going through all forty of those minds. The only one who really had any clue about where we were going was me; for rest of them, it was the fear of the unknown was intolerable.

I will answer all of your questions shortly, I answered Miriam, but I made sure to speak loudly enough for all to hear. I promise that no one will be forced to leave for Yavari until your questions are answered on board the battleship. Right now, though, it’s imperative that I finish this transmission immediately to assure our safety and the safety of my crew.

As soon as the words left my lips, I realized it was the wrong thing to say to a shuttle full of humans who were already filled with fears and second thoughts.

Hadassah knew what I needed to do and walked over to sit with Miriam and comfort her. In the meantime, I continued to address the deck officers.

Early readings had confirmed that the strange time ribbon, now thought to be controlled by a fifth-dimensional life form, had indeed shrunk to a fraction of its previous size and remained stationary and dormant in a distant sector. For many decades, that unusual anomaly in the galaxy had exhibited properties previously unknown to us, including the seemingly impossible physical attribute of being located at more than one specific coordinate in space simultaneously, as measured from five different satellite stations. Most importantly, it reacted against our numerous attempts to pierce it over a period of a Yavarian half century and prohibited us from entering the quadrant of the galaxy that was home to Earth. That goal on the part of the Galactic Alliance was a stated policy objective for defensive purposes only: our intent to confront the warlike humanoids and demand they cease attempts to launch space platforms capable of delivering nuclear payloads. They started delivering that message 257 Earth years ago, when I became the rendition from Earth, chosen by the Yavarians, and meant to be an example of the humanoids of the blue planet. Back then, they listened to Earth’s leaders and agreed to study me for three days on board a space cruiser orbiting Earth, to determine our ability (or inability) to be a peaceful part of the greater galaxy. Then the time ribbon appeared before I could be returned to my home, forcing our cruisers through numerous quadrants of intergalactic space in a speed unknown before and thrusting them back into their home galaxy. Until now, there was no known way to return to Earth.

This wasn’t really my goal. My private goal was in direct contradiction to my orders from the Galactic Council and their leader, the Shantee. I intended to return to Earth after so many nights of loneliness and despair, find the love of my life, my Earth wife, Miriam—who, by now, was nothing but bone and shreds—and to lie down beside her in life and join her in our next one. My 257 Earth years on Yavari and Montoid were filled with exploits and achievements, but my heart never left Earth, and my love never left my Earth wife.

The time ribbon had other ideas though. There I was, 257 Earth years later, expecting to see an Earth destroyed by war and environmental desolation. Instead, I discovered that Earth was only twenty-three hours older than the planet I’d left behind to serve as an intergalactic guinea pig. We knew it was due to the time ribbon, which had the ability to manipulate time and space. We also knew it had taken literally billions of square parsecs of open space and eliminated all of it, leaving the blue planet’s solar system on the outskirts of the Galactic Federation.

That galactic eviction left a whole series of defensive questions that required immediate answers. If the time ribbon had rewritten space maps so the nine-planet solar system was closer to the Alliance members, then it had also rewritten them so distant higher life forms were that much closer to our home planets of Yavari and Montoid. As the Galactic Grand Overlord, it was my responsibility to redirect the positions of our sensor satellites along a new defensive line that would provide early warnings on any new problems coming our way. The problem we faced was that we had no idea what technology was floating around out there in the unexplored outer parsecs; thus, we had no idea what to look for.

Please go ahead, Captain, I continued.

Overlord, our intelligence analysts have discounted any meaningful danger from the blue planet. Their current level of technology does not appear to harbor any threat that even requires minimal threat analysis. On the other hand, our remapping has brought up on our sensor screens a whole series of new signals and sounds previously unknown to us. We will continue to analyze those.

Captain, please redirect the relays to convey those galactic readings to RANDI-4 for analysis for any indication of higher life forms. Our four RANDI labs, research and development labs, were the forefront of our technology achievements and all under my command. Captain Hadassah needs to be in the loop. Ask our senior technology team to meet me in my quarters upon my arrival, with a full plan of action to redirect the sensor satellites along the far edge of the nine-planet system. We need to form a three-parsec line in cubit arcs to scan a subquadrant area. If there are higher life forms out there, I want to know about them sooner rather than later. I’m in no mood for a surprise party.

Yes, Overlord. They are asking for a few more ansos of time. Our engineering officers are in process of testing thrust. Navigation is checking sensor readings from OofM to confirm a return route void of interference, and the Baron insists on a private meeting with you upon your return. Also, your wife, the Queen, has sent a private transmission for you. You can view it in your quarters upon arrival.

Our Office of Movement was responsible for coordinating sensor readings from throughout the galaxy that would identify solid objects, gaseous clouds, solar flares, black holes, and other interstellar roadblocks to a safe flight home at speeds many times greater than the speed of light at 180,000 earth miles per second.

For a Yavarian with no sense of humor, I found it odd to detect a slight grin from the facial muscles of my officer of the deck. Oh well. The Queen surely knew by now that my Earth wife was alive and well. We said our good-byes to each other several turns of the moon earlier, and she had cried at the prospect of losing her husband—not due to battle but due to the heart. I had told her and my daughter Hadassah that I had no intention of returning to Montoid after the mission. My intent was to find Miriam, in whatever gravesite held her remains, and be with my Earth wife for my remaining Earth years.

Yet now I stood with Miriam at my side, along with my two Earth daughters and my Montoid daughter from the Queen, Captain Hadassah. My life was suddenly very complicated. My Earth offspring were staring at their father, a man 257 Earth years older, in a world where life expectancy was a mere 78 years. My Earth family was on its way to a distant planet, in a different galaxy, with a different gravity pull—a place where life normally led to a history of 800 Earth years. Yavari was the home planet for most, but Montoid was the home planet for my wife, the Queen, and our ten children. Oh, this is going be interesting.

As the transmission finished, we locked on to the tractor beam of the lead battleship and entered the lead bay. A collection of Jedidiah officers, dressed in formal military garb, met us upon our arrival to organize the humanoids and help them to locate their temporary accommodations. Hadassah had done well to organize all of this ahead of time. Clothing had been made, and maps of the battleship quarters were laid out to assure the humans that their care was important. It was wise of Hadassah to choose Jedidiah aliens from her home planet, those who understood Earth English, so the humans would not be confronted by the prospect of an unsettling language barrier and of having to talk to other higher life forms through the universal translators, which would have left them with yet another culture hurdle to overcome.

We exited the shuttle to the fanfare of an arriving commanding officer; there was a little more flare than usual since the CO was the Galactic Grand Overlord. My security team immediately cordoned me, and my senior officers greeted me with their normal bland appearance and tablets. I was surprised that the Baron was not among the welcome wagon, and I felt unsure about how the effect of alien life forms on a battleship clearly orbiting 20,000 nautical miles above Earth would change the attitudes of the humanoids. When everyone was off the shuttle and the doors closed, I gave them a few minutes to look around and take in their surroundings.

The Baron was an unofficial part of my command structure on the battleship. Our lives had become interwoven together in a strange set of circumstances that could only be compared to the American Broadway play, West Side Story. Initially commanding these battleships and others in a large fleet to hunt down their cousins, the Jedidiah people, peace was eventually reached between the Queen and the Baron, brokered through my office. Thousands of years of hatred did not evaporate with a negotiated peace, and distrust remained for many years between the two tribes. But unbeknownst to all of us, my daughter with the Queen had become romantically involved with the Baron’s only son, and the two of them enlisted in our defensive forces. Tragedy struck early in their lives together when the Baron’s son was fatally stricken with a virus on a distant outpost. The grief of the parents on both sides reminded all of us that we shared a common heritage and a common love of our children, and Hadassah found solace in a new position as the Baron’s chief of staff. Today, she serves as my XO (executive officer) as a full captain in the defensive forces, and along with her expertise at command and the Baron’s familiarity with the technical specifications of the GF Moses, I was comfortable that my departure from the mission to find Miriam would leave the remaining officers and enlisted life forms in good hands. At least, that was the plan until we all discovered that Earth was merely 23 hours older than when we left her 257 Earth years ago.

The main bay is the size of an Earth football field, clearly dwarfing the shuttle and the fifty or so of us on the bay floor. Even when my security team backed off, at my insistence, there was still a sense of apprehension in the air for the humanoids, mitigated by their curiosity in their new surroundings. The walls of the bay contained molecular charges, conveying instructions and messages as part of the ship’s communication system. Even though the walls were visually consistent with metal technology, they also moved and shifted, as if made of something akin to molten lava. It didn’t help that the Yavarians floated instead of walked and had three eyes, garnering more wide-eyed stares.

Everyone, please listen to me. The Jedidiah officers have maps of the ship for you to help you find your temporary quarters. We also have clothing, supplies, and universal translators for each of you. They fit in your ear and will allow you to communicate with all life forms on this battleship. Although the Jedidiah life forms will be your primary contacts, you will plainly see our Yavarian brothers with their floating tubes and cloaks, a handful of Tesla tri-formed life forms who provide advanced technology support, as well as some others. Feel free to ask questions and communicate with them, for every higher life form on this vessel is a member of our version of your military, here to assist. There are some things you may not do.

Like what? Miriam inquired.

Number 1, you may not enter restricted areas. These are clearly marked on your maps and will be guarded by Yavarian military. Number 2, you may not interfere with any officer—in the performance of their duties. Number 3, under no circumstances may you show disrespect for any member of my crew. Number 4, in our galaxy, every planet has its own rotation and its own version of a year, a turn around its burning star. Each has its own definition of measurement of time and gravity, as you will soon discover. Therefore, we always refer to a specific planet’s time measurement, such as your Earth terms, like minutes, hours, months, and years. On Yavari, our day is termed as one turn of our moon, a year as one turn of our sun. This will be difficult to get used to, but it is an important part of your acclimation to this galaxy, which is why I’m mentioning it. Number 5, you must gather back here in this bay in two Earth hours so I can answer your questions and help to calm your fears. Please trust me when I say the vessels will not leave Earth orbit for one more day, so you will have sufficient time to reconsider your decision, monitor Earth news about your departure, talk to friends and relatives, and come to your own conclusion. Anyone who ultimately decides against the rendition to Yavari or Montoid will be returned to your home on Earth, no questions asked. Number 6, many of you have expressed a desire to bring aboard more of your personal items back on Earth, including photo albums and computers and items that retain a special memory in your life. The shuttles will be available to do exactly that.

Instantly, their faces were etched with looks of fear, excitement, hope, and concern. After so many centuries of learning to read body language to communicate with various