51 Planets to See Before the Universe Collapses

meiti (meye-tee)

Scort Muggins, Human Year 3271:

We made it to Meiti. It was time to find my father. What a thrilling inflection point. Woohoo.

We landed on the planet and wasted no time, asking all of the Meitians if they had seen my father - or any other human - in the last decade or two. Although they were a generally kind and helpful species, none of them could help us. No being knew my father or his whereabouts. They blankly stared at me with their four eyes, listening with their giant ears, unable to lead us in the right direction. (See Figure 41.1)

If I wasn’t going to find my father on this planet, then I had no idea what the Hethuin supercomputer meant when it told me to come here to find my father. He wasn’t here. Nor had he ever been it seemed. The supercomputer must have been wrong. Or maybe this was all a sick joke. After all, the supercomputer was the rudest, most arrogant piece of machinery we had met in the universe. 

Then we met Gliff. Gliff actually found us. I guess it had heard that we were looking for my father and wanted to help. It explained a truly unique thing about Meiti: its star had almost been sucked into a blackhole, but instead, was slingshot around the black hole by the pull of gravity and launched in a different direction at an incredible speed. Meiti orbited this star, which was traveling about the speed of light. That meant that when orbiting in the same direction as the star was traveling - with parallel velocity vectors - Meiti was going faster than the star. Obviously, Meiti also rotated, so points on its equator traveled even faster than the planet. [Note: The farther a point is from the rotating axis of a sphere, the farther that point has to travel to make a full rotation. And such a point has to do it in the same amount of time as any other point on the sphere.] (See Figure 41.2)

In short, Meiti’s star was traveling at light speed. Meiti was orbiting around the star, and when its velocity vector was pointing in the same direction as the star’s vector, Meiti was traveling at lighter speed. On Meiti’s surface, the revolution of the rotation was making it so the land along the equator was traveling even faster. There was a single point along the equator - when the velocity vectors of the star, the planet, and the rotation were all parallel - that traveled at lightest speed. [Note: For an explanation of lighter speed and lightest speed, see “Mars”.] The point of interest was only significant for less than a split second once in a Meitian year. 

The Meitians restricted any of their species from going to that exact spot. It was forbidden, since several Meitians had vanished after stepping onto the spot and were never seen again. Although Pleeft, Luskem, toast-bot, and I had been traveling at lightest speed in our ship, the effects of traveling at such speeds as an organic life form without protection in a vehicle was unknown. 

I failed to find my father on Meiti. But I figured this rare phenomenon was the reason the Hethuin supercomputer had told me to come here. So Gliff led us to the secret spot. The ground was flat and bare. There weren’t any notable landmarks in sight. For a moment, I thought Gliff had led us here to take our stuff and leave us for dead, but then it pointed out a small circle in the sand that marked the specific spot. It was possible that my father had come here to witness this same event, maybe even stepping onto the point himself, traveling at lightest speed without a vehicle, and disappearing. If I chose to follow my father’s footsteps, I didn’t know if I would disappear, die, or finally see him again. I mean... flirk. I didn’t even know if he had had the courage to step onto the point at all.  

I did though. Flirk him. I couldn’t put my friends in any danger though. Because I didn’t know what would happen, I said my goodbyes to the gang.

“Pleeft… whistle for me one last time,” I asked Pleeft, knowing that she never developed a talent for blade whistling like the rest of her species. 

“Screw you,” she said - the reply I expected. “…But I’m really glad you plucked me from Spaltnia and took me with you. Thank you for that,” she added - the additional reply I did not expect. 

“Do you want some toast?” the toast-bot sadly offered. 

“I will in a minute.”

I turned to Luskem. 

“Here are the keys to the ship,” I said to Luskem. “Pleeft shouldn’t drive with her blade arms.”

“You don’t have to do this, Scort,” Luskem refused, not taking the keys. 

“I do.”

And Luskem knew that. This is what the whole journey had been about, regardless if I ever admitted it to myself. I set the keys on their head-body and hugged Luskem. I gave their leg an additional hug. After spending so much quality time with it, I felt the leg needed the extra love. It had regrown Luskem twice now. 

Luskem, Pleeft, and toast-bot stood a safe distance away and watched as I stepped onto my physical inflection point. They didn’t see much. I vanished in a flash. It was like the finale of a magic act without any of the showmanship or fanfare. 

RATINGS

Hospitality — 7/10
Food — 6/10
Sights — 3/10
Activities — 4/10
Family Friendly — 0/10
Disappearing — TBD