THE HIVE

Chapter 24

There's a common sentiment amongst kids.

Ask them, what your favourite planet is. They'd answer, "Saturn! I love the rings!"

"Mars! We are going there soon, aren't we? It has the highest mountain in the entire solar system!"

"Venus! It's the brightest! It outshines the stars!" That is beautiful though. The planet named after the femme fatale of the gods, outshining all the other stars in the night sky; but that child probably might not have heard about the dog named Sirius.

"Jupiter! It's the biggest planet there is! It's moons' are as big as planets and it has a never ending storm! It's so cool!" Then he'd pause, look through his encyclopedia and add, "Oh! And it says here you could fit two Earths inside the Great Red Spot. Our planet is so puny compared to Jupiter... "

The bastard from the backbench would smugly smirk and say "Uranus. Bahahaha!"

Giving him no mind, some others would name Mercury, since it's the fastest planet there is, and someone may name Neptune because they like it's pretty blue colour and it also has never ending storms. Kinda...

But, only a handful of children would attempt to say, "Earth." The little girl who says it- there's a good chance that her parents taught her to say so. To sound pure and hopeful, which actually sounds cheesy and cringey to the others because it doesn't sound genuine coming from a child's mouth when there are far more interesting planets around.

There might also be a nerd who'd point out planets from other solar systems, but the teacher bans him, saying that's cheating.

However, few realise why Earth is so special. Because, to us, it's not. It's the most normal planet. Because, we are the most used to to it. Because, it is home. The other planets are surely far more exotic.

But in fact, they are not.

Earth is an abnormality. Was...

It's the only planet to harbour life. Until I found out... it's not the only one.

It has bore us, creatures who can ponder their own existence consciously and act to uncover their roots, and slowly break away from the boundaries nature had set for them.

Earth, has always been, the most exotic planet in our solar system.

In fact, our solar system was by far the most exotic out of all the others that we had managed to discover.

We had a medium-sized star, while most had red dwarfs. We had Earth! And another peculiarity, we lacked the most common kind of planet. A superearth. A planet which is rocky, at least two times larger than the Earth and which has a dense atmosphere like the gas giants, with a mass upto ten times the mass of the Earth. A planet bridging the gap between the rocky planets and the gas giants.

A planet, that we have all found ourselves on, now.

And having found a planet we didn't have in our solar system, we have lost a planet that we had known ever since humankind came into existence. The only planet we knew of, until a millennium ago.

It only churns my memory of the day I realised my planet Earth... was so special. The day, I ceased being the jerk backbencher calling Uranus my favourite planet.

Yeah, that was me.

_____________

I sense a great flood sweep me past. The peaceful fantasies of my dreams are shattered by gushing cold water.

"Waaaaah!" I heave in breaths as I sit up with eyes sprung open. "Mum! I told you that is barbaric!"

"Do me a favour and get up on time then. Sleeping at two in the morning is unhealthy."