Fiction: The Guardian of Planet No. 621

This month's Words for Wednesday is hosted by Elephant's Child. This week's prompts are: Unsuitable, Ladies, Didn't, Crocodile, Home, Cards And/Or Life, Wall, Appeared, Voice, Both, Slipper. I used unsuitable, didn't, home, life, wall and voice. You can find more participants at Elephant's Child's blog over here.

Fiction: The Guardian of Planet No. 621

Ben didn't mean to do it. There was only a slight sense of regret as he flew back. But the sell was final and in no way could he undo the deed without consequences.
    The buyer, the Meekends, promised under contract, to do everything to keep Martha from harm. It was a plan that Ben wasn't entirely certain about but Martha, the nickname he gave to a planet that he had called home since he was a youngster, had been nearing some kind of end. In selling it, Ben had saved it. Or so he kept telling himself.
    Back on Martha, Ben's days became calmer and unobliging. His neighbor and friend, Paul, had noticed the change. Before, Ben used to rush here and there whenever there was a planetary attack which happened almost every other month but now all he did was worked in his garden and kept leisure hours.
    One sunny morning, Ben went out and looked up. There was a strange layer above the clouds, some sort of clear cloak yet, the sky was nice and bright. Even as he kept looking up, he saw the cloak there. The humans saw only sky.
    Curious, Ben sent a message to the Meekends: Had you done something to Martha? What was this cloak around the planet?
    The Meekends' reply: Only a little something. We, the Meekends, after much discussion, had came to this final and only solution. It is for Martha's best survival to use what we called, the protection cloak. This cloak keeps the planet in its own orbit and thus, no one can enter to invade it.
    Ben: Was this a proper thing to do to Martha? By putting the planet in its own orbit, you are keeping people trapped within.
    Their reply: Martha and the humans that inhabited the planet are our property. We will protect it however we like.
    Ben had no respond to this. The Meekends were right. The planet was theirs and they could do whatever they liked. There was no part in the contract about the humans. Ben had overlooked it but perhaps this too will protect the humans as well as Martha.
    But each morning, as Ben looked up at the sky, he couldn't help but wonder if this cloak might hinder the little planet. But he stored that thought away. It was no longer his problem, however he felt.
    A few months passed. Ben became used to the cloak. He kept thinking it wasn't an unsuitable way to protect a planet. He had seen worst.
    But Martha began to wither. The pollution that was mostly light drift became worst and people became ill. As more time passed, people tried to leave the planet but with the cloak, it was impossible. Those who flew to the sky, came back down defeated and in pieces. Some aimed weapons at the sky but that only caused destructions and death below.
    After a few days of pondering, Ben sent a message to the Meekends and asked if he could purchased Martha back. They had a contract but Ben was willing to pay or trade everything he had. Martha was his one and only home. He did not want to see it destroyed in this slow fashion.
    After a month-long negotiation and constant alterations to a new contract, an agreement was made. The Meekends finally got two uninhabitable moons, one pass to a blackhole gateway that will send half a million Meekends to a distance galaxy of their choice and a schematic for a space architecture that will allow the Meekends to build their own home in space. Ben was fine with trading the moons as he had collected many moons and planets over the centuries. The blackhole gateway was something he had never liked using and was easily able to part with it. But he was a little uncertain by the last request as he hated to have the Meekends live among all the other planetary species as the Meekends were not known for sharing. But Ben kept his promise as he had always done. Being dishonest was never an option for him. He would never tarnished the beliefs of his people just to get something he wanted.
    A week afterward, the cloak was removed and once again, Martha was free but she was still at her infant stage. Many things had eroded the planet through the centuries and the little growth she had from time to time was still not enough. Ben replenished the air around the planet but the damage was done. He cursed himself for being a fool. If he had not been so careless in passing Martha off, thousands of people would not have suffered and death would not have claimed so many.
    Ben was hesitant to admit it. His plan for Martha had failed again. But he could not cried for the lost. He never could. It was one of the disadvantages of his species. They could feel everything that humans felt but they could never shed a single tear even if their three hearts were breaking. After the events of these pass few months, he realized he was as good at making mistakes as the humans and probably more so as his mistakes could affect thousands if not millions of lives. And as he looked around him, at his house walls, listened to the voices and sounds outside and pictured all those dwelling on Martha, he wondered again, if perhaps he was the wrong guardian for this planet. Nevertheless, he was created for that purpose and he was the last of his kind.
    Alone, Ben flew away from Martha. He snapped his fingers and Martha started to shrink. Smaller and smaller she got until Ben could not see her from his spaceship. He snapped his fingers again and the planet was in the palm of his hand. It was cold and light, like a baseball he had held once. What was it that kept him tied to this planet? Was it because he had lived there and had relations with a human some hundred years ago? He had promised her he would protect the planet but he had made that promise long before he met her. She was gone now but many generations of her family still thrived and lived on Martha. His friend Paul was one of her descendants.
    For four centuries, Ben had never imagined he would want to protect any one species over others but he wanted to protect Martha's people and not just Paul but the many others he had met and known and even though he would eventually see them perished, he had a lingering sense, whatever he had felt from them and for them, it would last a few eternities.
    Ben put the ship on auto pilot and made his way down the brightly lit white corridor and toward the last door at the end. The circular doors slid opened at his presence. He stepped inside.
    The room was painted white all over. Air vents above gave off a constant cool breeze. Ben strolled down the isles. Shelves and shelves full of planets but the shelves were not necessary as the planets had no gravity and they floated.
    There was planet No. 99, a small orb that would have perished if Ben had not healed it. Planet No. 622, was a sibling of Martha's but the lifeforms there were destructive and started war after war. They almost destroyed the planet before fleeing it. Ben sighed. Too many planets he had purchased and rescued over the years were living out their last lives here in this chamber. No one wanted them and the inhabitants were not so eager to stick around so most of the planets here were without lifeforms. Ben never claimed ownership for them in the way other species did. He had taken them in for safekeeping only.
    For each planet, Ben tried to find a good owner but Martha had been the most difficult one to place. New owners had no clue how to take care of her. She had ten already and the eleventh, the Meekends, were the best out of all of them.
    Ben walked toward the end of the second isle where he placed Martha, Planet No. 621 on the left of No. 622. Martha floated above the shelf. The light of life lit up below the orb. It will restore Martha to her healthy self until he finds her another owner. He studied the planet for a moment. Even in this small size, he could feel the weight of it. It was not her mass but the people living on it that worried him. With one last look, he left the chamber. His footsteps echoed down the corridor - a reminder that he was again, alone.