Crash

I look at the stars, yellowish dots on a dark blanket. The night sky has always mesmerised me.

I want to go home.

Every now and again when something in the sky decides to change direction, I can see it in seconds. Unlike the people around me who saved for months or years to buy one, I made my own telescope from what I could salvage from my ship after I crashed on this planet nearly ten years ago. If only they knew.

‘I want to be an explorer’ I said one evening. ‘Dee, I don’t want to be a Professor just talking about travelling to other solar systems.’

‘You are not a simple Professor at the Space Academy, Vor’ said my wife gently caressing my face. ‘You worked hard for that title. Besides, you are the most innovative Professor of your generation. The propulsion system you designed can make ships travel three times faster than the speed of light. Our planet has the fastest ships in our solar system. You will be remembered for ever, Vor.’

I want to go home.

“They sure are beautiful tonight.” The voice has come from my left. The man is about the same height as me and has short blond hair. He usually comes accompanied by his friend, a tall heavy-set man with a deep voice, who sometimes places his telescope to my right. And he is doing it tonight.

“Yes, they are, mate” I hear in my right ear.

Their conversation always begins this way. I don’t join in. Instead I look at the sky again slowly moving my telescope so I won’t miss a thing. Very soon I stop hearing the noises around me.

When I am ready to scream from the pain in my back, I decide to take my head away and stretch. As I am listening to the cracking noises of my spine, there is a flash of light in the corner of my eye. Something in the sky is moving.

Less than a minute later a commotion starts among the starwatchers near me.

“What do you know! It’s a shooting star!” says a man with a red trucker cap pointing at the sky with the beer bottle in his hand.

“I disagree” replies a man wiping the lenses of his glasses. “Look again between Alpha Centauri A and B.” His calm, steady voice and cargo pants have always made me think of him as a teacher.

Soon there is more buzzing around me. Others had spotted the same thing. I adjust the lens to a magnification that people of Earth don’t possess yet. I hold my breath. An orange-yellow ball of fire is crossing the night sky.

“I reckon it’s a comet.”

“Nah, meteor for sure.”

Chunks of conversations begin flying over my head from all directions. But I am the only one who can tell the difference between a comet’s tail or chunks of meteor and a powerful engine capable of moving a ship across the universe. And I am definitely looking at an engine. I watch its exhaust fumes for a few seconds and my heart starts racing. They had been designed to look like space dust on purpose. I should know, since I was the lead designer of the system.

After all these years of broadcasting the signal from the wreckage of my hidden ship they had finally found me. I am going home!

‘Dee, my love, we will be together till the end. And I will be a Professor again. I imagine the Space Academy will no longer want me to teach the same course from the same old dusty books. Surely, they will ask me to teach something new. After all, I will be the only expert on Earth and human civilisation.’

As soon as I take my eye away from the telescope, I feel my body being propelled forward by a slap on my back.

“What do you say about that, mate?” Deep voice was grinning ear to ear at me.

“It’s bloody beautiful!” I try to sound less enthusiastic then I actually am but I can’t do it. I want to shout and jump for joy.

He quickly joins his friend and they start chatting to some of the other people. I go back to tracking the ship.

I see the exhaust fumes before the ship again. They’re the same colour. This can’t be. They should change colour when the ship’s speed decreases. It needs to slow down otherwise they’re going to crash! Please, gods, I want to go home.

I increase the magnification again and my heart stops. I see a hole in the side of the ship. My brain goes into overdrive as I start packing my things. Was there a malfunction? Are they all dead? Have they abandoned ship? I have to be ready. I need to take one last look before I put the telescope away in its case.

The ship has a different trajectory now. It’s on a downward path. The increasing speed made the hull look red hot. I blinked and it vanished. I guess I was expecting loud crash noises, explosions and fire balls. But there is nothing.

I increase the magnification one last time. The view makes me gasp. An entire wall of water has appeared. It looks like a tsunami but I know it isn’t. The ship has crashed in the ocean and I have to find it.

 I toss the telescope in its case, praying that the lenses are still intact, and I run back to my car.

 “Hey, buddy! Where are you going?” Deep voice was still smiling as he was talking. “Some of the boys called the local TV station and they’re coming to interview us. Don’t you want to be on TV?”

“No, thank you!” In my hurry my answer comes as a shout.

I throw the gear on the back seat and fumble for the phone.

“Siri, get directions to the ocean.”

“Getting directions to the ocean” replies the female voice from the phone in the holder on the dashboard.

I want to go home.

I look at the stars dotting the night sky and turn on the engine.