On the other side of the sky, a small, gloomy rock was creeping in space, silently, becoming increasingly dangerous. This obscene star, which was hardly noticeable, aggressively zipped through space. At its sheer scale, it would be catastrophic if it hit a planet…
As a scientist, Aryan never really had a passion for researching and publishing papers, the traditional science. He longed to save his planet, to become a hero. He wanted people to remember him as a remarkable person in history. Of course, he knew it would never happen, but he was still intrigued by the idea itself. “One can dream,” he said, trying to comfort himself. He had just been accepted to be an astronomer or what the ancestors called stargazers. They were given the job of space exploration, which was a word that Aryan was always quite fascinated by.
It was just a typical day. He walked, slowly toward the LT, taking in the fresh air. X-13 was a beautiful place, much like our own planet: the sun shone through his window, the lush trees dotted around the hill, the noises of children playing outside, and the fluttering wings of a sparrow. Walking outside his cottage, he marveled at the nature surrounding him, which was densely filled with all sorts of scenery; so much so that it became a jungle.
He was a new stargazer. As a child, he was always mesmerized by the sheer beauty of
stars, and how they would form bizarre shapes in the sky. In his wild imagination, he
would picture the stars like a dragon, or a mighty horse, or any other countless little
things that he could think of. Thoughts wandered within his mind as he slowly walked
towards the Launch Tower.
He was here, at last—the Launch Tower. Entering the majestic building, made with fine
marble. The roof was supported by grand arches and pillars, with several models,
blueprints, and spacecraft designs on every wall. The whole interior was decorated with
a sense of professionalism as if he was entering the Temple of Space. Then, a man
dressed in a suit of white approached him.
“Hello, Sir,” Aryan said, stammering.
“I believe you have received the necessary training?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“We have a new mission starting in about an hour. Tyson will come along with you. He’s the guy that usually goes on these missions, so he’ll teach you everything you need to know.”
“Yes, Sir.”
With that, Frank walked back into his office. Then, as Aryan was staring through the shadow of Frank, Tyson approached him.
“Oh, Hello, You must be Aryan,” Tyson said, with a friendly but fierce voice.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Well, I’ll teach you the necessary procedures to control the shuttle.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“CV-1X has primarily been designed to be on autopilot, meaning that your only job is to use the ultra radiation sensors to look for stars. In case of emergencies, there’s a giant red button, which you push to send a signal to us. We will immediately send backup vehicles. I’ll meet you at the launch. You’ll have to go through multiple weeks of training to be able to operate the spacecraft all by yourself.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, Tyson slowly walked away before turning and saying “Oh, and record everything that you see. If there’s anything that you don’t recognize, send it to the database for Lia to look over everything, and make sure things are fine, you know. She’s the girl in the office there, and she records and analyzes all of the stars we find.”
An hour later, Tyson found Aryan standing next to the space shuttle, and he led him into CV-1X. After a long decontamination process, he walked inside. The entire building was full of countless little buttons and wires, each on stone buttons, labeled, small windows pointing to the void of space. Several devices were on the ceiling, and blue railings were around the observing seats. Several instruments were scanning the sky, with a map of X-13 on one of them. Above, a system shone bright green lights throughout the spacecraft to show that it was ready. Tyson walked into the control room, pushed a few buttons, and the spacecraft launched. As Aryan turned away, looking outside of the window, Tyson quickly entered a message in the system and pretended as if nothing had happened.
Aryan could not describe the feeling that was within him. He saw X-13, the place that he had spent decades in, disappear to the size of a pin. He looked back at Tyson, who seemed to be typing things in the command room. It occurred to him about how fragile life was and how small compared to the sheer size of most of these stars. Nothing was that out of the ordinary, contrasting to what would happen soon.
CV-1X was traveling at blistering speeds, leaving behind heavy trails of smoke and debris. A few minutes later, observation began. Tyson instructed Aryan to focus the ultraradiation sensors in a specific direction. This was quite strange to Aryan, as the place he was zooming in on seemed to be empty. After a while, the computer printed out an image. The image that came back was filled with stars, each unique, glowing brilliantly as if they wanted the whole universe to look at them. There were giant, quarter-of-the-image stars, more minor, blue ones, and any other star you could imagine. Aryan found everything exhilarating, then noticed an unusual star. There was a tiny fleck of gray in an obsolete, empty section of the image. It was probably the smallest thing in the picture, so much so that Aryan had to squint to see it. He wondered if it could even be considered a star, and even if it was, It looked like it had been forgotten, wandering around space aimlessly.
The “forgotten star” seemed to be coming towards X-13. As the image updated, it seemed to be getting slightly more sizeable. Aryan realized that it might have been a star that was just born, expanding in size until it became similar to all the other ones. He scanned them through the database, preparing to show them to Lia. After clicking on it, he saw that the system had given it a name: Oblitus.
Oblitus slowly zoomed towards X-13. Yet, no one was aware of it as it went quietly through the empty cosmos, eager for freedom after being released.
CV-1X slowly descended back down into the Launch Tower. Aryan pondered whether he should ask Tyson about Oblitus, but stopped himself before talking. The two silently exited the spacecraft. Tyson told Aryan that the next mission for him would be tomorrow.
Aryan slowly walked towards Lia’s office, still heavily shaken by Oblitus and the whole experience of coming back down to X-13, and knocked on the door. “Come In.” a voice said.
With that, Aryan cautiously opened the door. She seemed to be fond of perfume, a heavy scent of it flowing into her room. The room was heavily decorated with pink, with banners hanging from the ceiling and a whole wall of paintings.
“Yes, how may I help you?”
“Well, I got sent with Tyson up on that shuttle, and while observing, I was greeted with a, well, different star.” He said, handing the image to Lia.
Lia seemed intrigued. After noticing it, she carefully slid it under the printer, which began swallowing the image. The image focused on Oblitus and came out with big red letters: “ASTEROID. MAY BE DANGEROUS.”
“According to our location in time and space, the asteroid would probably wipe out our entire species, the chances of an asteroid appearing is astronomical. There’s no reason to worry, it wouldn’t happen unless someone intentionally sent one.” After that conversation, Aryan left the office. He wasn’t too perturbed about Oblitus, but he did have a strange feeling. Frank saw him and showed him to his office, unaware of his strange actions.
Aryan was then instructed to work on a report about the stars, and every once in a while, he would go outside to take in some fresh air. Whenever he did that, he would keep an eye on the sky.
Aryan, as he left the office, had a mix of emotions. The excitement from being an astronaut and looking at his planet from space still hadn’t worn off, but he still had an uneasy feeling about the asteroid hitting X-13, destroying the things that he had worked so hard for. Still, he seemed to be convinced that everything was fine.
As he approached back home, Silver had seen him and immediately began running through the backyard, shaking and dancing around when he reached him. “Not now, Silver.” He said, carrying the white dog onto his shoulders. “You must have been longing for food.” As he walked towards the house, there it was. An asteroid, barely coming into view, in the corner of his eye. Unconscious of it, he opened the door and went through.
That night, he lay in bed, pondering about the launch tower, Lia’s warning, Oblitus, and he felt an eerie sense of what was about to come. The thoughts circled through his mind, profoundly troubling him. Could an asteroid have been what wiped out his ancestors, forcing the survivors to flee to X-13? And, well, would he meet the same fate as his original, home planet, Earth? His ancestors came to this planet for a reason - It was quite hospitable, but it was also located so far away from everything else that no asteroids would be able to hit it.
No. No. He wasn’t going to let that happen. He wasn’t going to watch as all of his friends
were destroyed by this Oblitus. He was going to fight back, show that he was worthy of
staying on this planet, and become a hero. If the asteroid destroyed everyone he knew
and loved, he was dying with them. It was better than dying from guilt, knowing that he
couldn’t save his friends or escape from the planet.
But how? Another part of his brain asked. How would you successfully diverge the
asteroid, and are you sure it would even hit X-13 anyway? It probably wouldn’t even hit
us and fall into orbit around a different planet. Lia didn’t seem too worried, and she had
more experience than me.
The two sides of his mind talked back and forth, arguing over what he should do. They ran through his mind again and again. He gave up on the idea of getting any rest.
The following day was about the same as the previous one. He walked into the Launch Tower. Before he even got to it, Lia called him and took him into her office. She seemed much more cheerful than before as if there was a tingling excitement within her. “The system has been doing extensive amounts of research, and it has confirmed that it is implausible for the asteroid to hit X-13,” Lia said. This was a massive relief to Aryan, and he felt much better.
During the next few months, Frank, Tyson, Aryan, and Lia worked together as a group, scanning space for any danger, as well as focusing and studying hundreds of stars. Aryan had pretty much forgotten about Oblitus. He was ready to go on another mission, and he could control the spacecraft properly himself.
Once again, Tyson and Aryan were blasted off into space with CV-1X. Frank instructed Aryan to focus the radiation on a different section of the sky. He studied them, once again, and recorded them. There was a random blue star towards the left, a smaller, red star right next to it, much less visible, or a dark, yellow star, centers lined with stripes of blue and white. Work was nothing out of the ordinary, and the spacecraft would land back down soon anyway. Tyson gave Aryan instructions, and CV-1X slowly drifted back to Earth. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Aryan saw Oblitus coming into view, visible from the night sky.
It’s coming. Oblitus.
He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating, as he knew that it was nearly impossible for it to cause any actual danger, but seeing it up so close had made him doubt everything again. Tension built up in his mind, but he didn’t want to tell this to Lia. She already said that it wouldn’t collide with X-13, and telling her that would make him seem scared.
Those thoughts from a few months ago that he just blocked off came pouring in again, like heavy rain. He seemed to be acting strange, Frank thought, as he dashed outside and looked up at the sky. There was nothing. Not a single trace of Oblitus. He went back to work, believing that he was just hallucinating. He went back to work, documenting and recording more stars.
That night, he looked up at the sky, preparing to drift off to sleep. But then, as his vision faded, there was Oblitus, right there, heading straight for X-13. This time, he was a hundred percent certain of it.
Over the next few days, Aryan seemed to be worried, until he finally couldn’t hide his thoughts anymore and talked to Lia.
When Lia saw Oblitus after Aryan pointed to it, she realized that there was a problem. She ran back inside, perhaps even more concerned than Aryan was. Aryan followed her closely, and the two went and talked to Tyson and Frank. Frank immediately rushed outside. Upon seeing this, Frank rushed to contact the government, while Aryan and Lia just stared at the sky, as if it was coming at any moment. Tyson was, however, exactly the opposite, hiding a slim smile on his face. He kept this to himself, trying to not raise suspicion among his friends. Luckily, they were too busy to notice.
The entire planet was now aware of the asteroid. Children, too innocent to understand their fate, pointed it out to their parents as if it were a giant ball of ice cream. There were about a billion pairs of eyes, pointing towards the asteroid at any given moment, watching it closely. The shops and the streets were all paralyzed, and the shops had shut down. People ran home to talk to their families as if it was the last time they could see them because, well, it probably was. The launch tower stopped carrying out missions to space, and everyone started to panic. Aryan’s worst nightmare came true.
Somewhere else, Tyson was having a conversation.
“Excellent job on releasing the asteroid without them noticing it. I made sure that CV-1X wouldn’t be able to spot your spaceship, so it was able to send an asteroid here. Prepare an emergency vehicle, and I’ll be on it before the asteroid lands here. I’ve literally inserted the soul of our species into it, which is what’s making it so powerful. If it doesn’t kill them, we’ll die.”
“Yes, yes. An unearthly voice replied. “Let’s hope it wipes out everything here. Then, we will be the only galactic civilization left. Hurry now, disguise yourself as a human again.”
Frank got into CV-1X and launched it into the sky after careful consideration. He zoomed in on Oblitus, took a picture, and flew the rocket back down. The rest of the planet watched on anxiously. Frank froze, still disturbed by the news, and started wondering if this was the end. About an hour later, Frank came back with an image, and he put it in the machine. The machine scanned and said: 2 WEEKS. That was how long it would take to collide with the surface.
After the news, the whole planet exploded into a state of constant chaos, as if it hadn’t already. It was just like Earth, five centuries ago, which had suffered from the same problem.
Aryan was trying to find a solution to the problem. He needed a big rocket ship, one enough to drag it out of orbit, but how would they have enough time to build one? How would he even be able to diverge the asteroid? He devoted every minute of the day to finding a solution, even if it could delay the asteroid at best.
“So many questions, yet so few answers.” he thought, listening to the widespread panic outside. Aryan tried desperately to find something, but his mind was just inconveniently blank. TheaAsteroid, as it was, was coming even closer and closer, possibly the size of their star from the planet’s perspective. The last hope that remained within individuals had died out, and everyone accepted the fate of X-13.
The weeks turned into days, and the lives left of every one were ticking down like an hourglass. The days passed so quickly, and time fell through people’s grasp.
Four days. That was what was left. The atmosphere was filled with a feeling of gloom, and the last few fires of hope had died down. People tried to enjoy their last days, to turn their attention away from a giant asteroid that would destroy the entire world, trying to enjoy their final days.
Then, amidst all this chaos, Tyson made a public announcement.
“Greetings, you humans. I am disguised as an alien, and our species was the only one left other than yours. So we decided to send an asteroid, and it’s too late for you to do anything now. I had sabotaged the controls of the spaceship. It’s incredibly powerful because I had fused my soul into it, and it would kill me if it didn’t hit X-13, but that’s not going to happen.” With that, he transformed into his true self, laughed, and launched the vehicle, which blasted off into space faster than any other rocket has ever been.
Everyone seemed shocked, especially the crew in the launch tower. Tyson had just betrayed all of them, and they would all die because of him. People tried to shoot down his spaceship with guns, but they just seemingly bounced off as the spaceship zoomed out of view, leaving the entire rest of the planet in dismay.
Aryan’s mind grew increasingly tense, and he knew he didn’t have much time. Ideas ran through his mind. He would have to save the world, no matter the effort or cost.
Then he realized.
There was hope. There was a method. One.
He wasn’t sure if it would work, but he needed to have CV-1X collide with the asteroid. He didn’t consider himself an exceptionally bright individual, and he would need confirmation from Frank. Frank told him that someone would have to go into the spaceship, basically order it to self-destruct and fly, at top speed, right into the asteroid. Someone was going to sacrifice themselves for X-13.
At that moment, his brain clicked. He realized that he would be the one.
This was it. There was no other way to do it. This was for his friends, his family, and this was for everyone on X-13.
Tyson wouldn’t have expected this. In retrospect, he seemed so selfish, so unaware of affection, so unaware of sacrifice.
He slowly trod towards the rocket. He knew that people would try to stop him, so he quietly went into the shuttle. Before anyone was even aware of what he was doing, it launched, as if commanded by the sky.
This was it, the last time he would enter the spaceship again.
With that, the spaceship launched into the sky. Aryan looked down on X-13 as his home. He thought of Earth, and how it had been destroyed. He felt lonely, all by himself on this spaceship, but he knew it had to be done. The planet watched, holding its breath, as the spaceship left the atmosphere. He looked at the asteroid. There was no remorse in his eyes as he slowly drove it into the asteroid. With a deep breath, he started moving it towards Oblitus. He knew he would be gone, but he didn’t care. He was only one individual, and X-13 mattered more than himself.
Everyone at X-13 had realized what he was going to do. They watched, with fixed eyes, at the rocket and the asteroid. Aryan, knowing that Oblitus would destroy the world, decided that it was now or never. With that, he crashed it into the asteroid. A giant boom followed this. The rocket crumbled, debris falling to Earth. A massive cloud of smoke dawned over the entire planet in the sky. As for Oblitus, it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
When the smoke cleared, there was no more Aryan, and Tyson was gone. Upon seeing
this, everyone realized what he had just done. They discovered that he had saved them, that
he had been so selfless that he was willing to sacrifice his life without ever asking for
anything in return. This was why X-13 was beautiful and strong: People were willing to die
to save each other. No one spoke for a good few minutes, and the planet was quieter than
ever, so much so you could hear the breathing, and the insects scuttling across the road.
The birds chirped in the air, unaware of what had just happened. The rest of X-13 kept
functioning as it had been before, but deep down inside, everyone had a feeling of sadness
for Aryan.
X-13 had quickly healed from their past. Children were playing outside again, the shops were opened, filling with customers, the sun was still shining in the air, undisturbed by anything, and the rest of the planet returned to its original state of prosperity. Frank went back to carrying out space missions, but he always had a feeling of emptiness, a sense of regret.
With that, Aryan left them forever, as the planet continued to live. Now, every once in a while, people would look up at the sky and remember the man who sacrificed himself for the world. He was a true hero, and they would remember him for what he had done. They were proud of him, no matter what. For him, everything was peaceful.
