Galactic Phenomenon

Submitted into Contest #62 in response to: Write about a character putting something into a time capsule.... view prompt

6 comments

Creative Nonfiction Fantasy Science Fiction

As night fell the blue haze of day lifted to reveal the stars. I always felt that this was closer to the truth of who we are. Stars shone as sugar spilt over black marble, glistening in the sun. The night sky was such a welcome sight, appearing like magic at each sunset, promising to return as she faded in dawn's first light.

Sipping my coffee I could feel the tepid, overly bitter flavour and it was lacking real cream. However, it was a source of caffeine so I drank it heartily like a sailor drinking his whiskey.

Gripping my hands along this masterpiece; I could feel the cracks and bolts; the nuts and crannies; the lens lifted itself upwards towards me. The clear glass reflected the light into my eyes; it was an optical amazement. I remember the first time I got this work of art; the emotions and sensations I felt at that time are indescribable.

Space science is in my blood; my grandfather used to be an astrologist. I can remember that day as vividly as anything else it was my 18th birthday and my parents worked their socks off to buy me this. From the moment I saw this it mesmerised me and captured my full attention. It was a telescope; no not just any telescope it was the Eichholtz Telescope Martime, one of the best telescopes in history.

Clasping onto the handle, my fingers intertwined with each other. The ruff wood rubbed against my skin. The heat of the coffee warmed my face. Nevertheless, I couldn’t care less; I could see the stars that filled up the sky like pale corn into freshly turned ground. It was the promise of life in the darkness, a sense of warmth springing from the cold. The midnight struck the sky and lit the night sky up.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see it: it wasn’t an asteroid or a comet; it left streaks of pink in the sky; set a trail of itself as if it wanted to be followed. As I magnified my telescope, I could see a ball of light floating in the atmosphere; striking my eyes its power shocked me it was nothing  like I’ve ever seen before. I knew what I had to do so I hit the record button. Suddenly, it set itself on fire. Spitting out particles of ash and soot, the foreign object scraped the sky. Spewing out light, this celestial body poured out its radiation. Rings orbited this astronomical body; just like the ones of Saturn and these were made of water vapour and dust; they circled around this celestial body and tried to cool down the fires however they just made it stronger. Travelling at the speed of light, this distant object shot through the sky and it was gone.  

Zooming in as far as I could; I couldn’t see any more. it was gone in an instant and others didn’t follow; the only thing left was a streak of pink haze floating in the ambiance. It was gone as soon as it came.

One question raced my mind: What was that thing?

Running downstairs I sped out of my house.

“Where are you going?” asked Mum

“I need to go to the local library urgently.” I replied instantaneously

She nodded and let me go on. She must know that this was important

The local library was empty; as usual. I ran towards the space sections, my favourite. Surely there must be something. No, no. Not that one, I kept grabbing books and putting them in the wrong order; I could see the infuriated face of the librarian. Oops. I couldn’t comprehend how no one had seen this object before and not kept some sort of record; it was outrageous. There must be some records or information about this foreign object; how could this go without anyone seeing it. I checked my phone for the news but nothing was there. How unusual!

Confusion consumed me; it was like being in a tub of fire. Bafflement. My mind was surging with perplexity.

Well what should I do now?

Well what can I do now?

Oh yes. I will go to the space centre library. I’ll say it’s important; they should let me in.

Running around the whole library I found it finally:

it’s called a Quailiser; it’s an elliptical ball of heat and light and comes from some distant planet; it keeps orbiting space at the speed of light and its rings are made of steam and space dust. I remember that it had 3 rings maybe that could mean something; but I’m not sure. The last time it was seen was 253 years ago. Before, it was 1230 miles away however now it was around 900 miles away. It’s coming closer. There is nothing else known about it.

I need to go home right now.

I ran up the stairs and looked through my recordings; the Quailiser was unusually beautiful. The streaks danced around in the sky and the Quailiser sped past all the stars.

Writing, that is what I should do.

For hours I kept on writing; I needed to write up this amazing discovery. This was seen to be a seldom event; that should’ve made history; but didn’t and no one else seems to know about it.  I kept writing and writing until my hands started to ache. I felt like the whole world was at my disposal; I knew what I should write. I wrote down my theories and my findings; my hypothesis and my conclusions. Stuck pictures and annotations onto the sheet of paper. I could see the images in my head they were flashing continuously. I wrote about how close it was coming and how it could be closer next time.

 I need to do something: I have to ensure that the future generations will receive this information and they should be aware of this phenomenon. I will put all this information into 10 time capsules; and place them everywhere; in each country.

This was a galactic phenomenon. 

October 09, 2020 17:55

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6 comments

09:46 Oct 16, 2020

Nice write up, intelligent! what could be put in time capsule

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Palak Shah
14:52 Oct 16, 2020

Thanks

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Pratik Bhandari
07:06 Oct 13, 2020

Speechless...superb

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Palak Shah
14:47 Oct 13, 2020

Thank you

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21:45 Oct 14, 2020

Amazing story!

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Palak Shah
14:42 Oct 15, 2020

Thank you

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