Tonight of all nights, I’m happy to be alone at my grandmother’s lake house. It’s August, the sky is clear, and there is not a soul in any of these vacation homes along the shore. With the moon being in the new phase, it set well over six hours ago. This is the perfect time to watch the sky.
I found my old telescope in a box in the attic, dusty and slightly dented, but it should still serve its purpose. I ready a spot near the lake, being careful not to get too close to the water. Though this telescope has a slight dent in it, it’s better off than its predecessor which is currently at the bottom of the lake. I grumble to myself as I think back on my own stupid mistake.
“If I lost another telescope the same way, no one would let me hear the end of it. Mom and Dad were so mad about that,” I say to myself as I finish setting up the tripod. “But, even with the dent, this is still a much better one, anyway.”
The objective for tonight is to watch the peak of the Perseids, which according to my Spacely Voyage magazine, is supposed to be one of the best meteor showers visible in the Northern Hemisphere. And even though the magazine says that I don’t need a telescope to see them, I don’t see what harm bringing one would cause. I sit down in the chair that I set up next to the telescope and watch as the first speck of dust meets the atmosphere and leaves a trail behind it. After the first hour of viewing, at least fifty more meteors followed suit. I try to avoid being childish and keep this completely scientific, but I start to think that, if these weren’t just dust particles from a comet’s tail, I could have made over fifty wishes.
After two hours of watching the Perseids, I start feeling sleepy and decide to call it a night and start again the same time tomorrow. As I begin to dismantle my telescope, a light in the sky distracts me. It starts small at first, no bigger than one of the meteors, but then I see it start to grow. Along with its steady growth comes a loud booming noise. I set my telescope back up and point it directly towards this new object.
“That’s... that’s a fireball.” I’ve heard of these fireballs before, but this was my first time actually seeing one with my own eyes. I look through my telescope again and, to my surprise, see that the massive rocky portion of the fireball doesn’t seem to be shrinking as it flies further through the Earth’s atmosphere. The sound quickly grows loud enough that I have to cover my ears, my sudden motion causing me to knock my telescope over. I forgo picking it up and look directly into the sky and see that this loud, fiery object is heading in my direction.
“This isn’t good!” Fear starts to creep into the core of my body as I start to remember what happened in Russia a few years ago. Luckily, that object was only about 15 meters wide and exploded in the air, but it still injured around 1,500 people. This meteorite is probably twice that size and doesn’t seem to be ready to explode. “If that hits, it’ll destroy this whole area!” At the speed that this rock is moving towards me, I know there would be no point to run away.
I brace for impact as I watch the fireball head towards the center of the lake. Amazingly, the rock begins to slow as it moves closer to the water until it stops and hovers less that ten feet above the surface. Puzzled by how this massive rock can float like this, I reset my telescope and aim at the bottom of the rock, seeing what appear to be thrusters struggling to keep it in the air.
“Wait, since when did meteorites have thrusters…? What is this thing?” As the fear of the end of the world escapes me, the fear of the unknown has taken its place.
The thrusters, either purposefully or due to failure, stop, causing the large object to fall into the lake and a massive wave to head my direction. I grab my telescope and run to the front of my grandmother’s lake house, hoping the distance is enough to keep me from being swept up by the water. The wave causes lake water to encroach the entire house, surrounding my feet and soaking my shoes. As the water flows back to the lake, I look around to see that, other than everything being wet, nothing is out of the ordinary and the large object is nowhere to be seen.
“It couldn’t have been a dream,” I mumble to myself as I walk back towards the lake. I take a few steps into the yard, only to stop when I hear a voice speaking a language I never heard before. I stop as I see a dark figure standing on the shore and yelling something unintelligible towards the sky. Since there is no visible moon at the moment, and no lights around the lake to provide any sort of luminance, all I can make out is that this being seems humanoid, but since I just saw a rock with thrusters, this could be anything.
Not knowing who or what was standing on the shore, I try to slowly and quietly back away, but a needlessly loud twig manages to find its way underneath my sopping wet shoe. As the twig snaps, my eyes dart towards the creature by the lake, who has clearly heard me and is now moving in my direction. I hold my telescope’s optical tube like a baseball bat, prepared to void its lifetime replacement warranty if this thing attacks me.
The being stops just out of reach of the end of the optical tube and starts to speak its native language again. Terrified but attempting to remain calm, I slowly respond back saying, “I don’t know what you mean.” While trying to communicate back, I realize that it is most likely unable to understand me, also. The being tilts its head in confusion then brings its hand towards its head, stopping at where its mouth should be. Not knowing what might happen, I shut my eyes on instinct, but within a few seconds, under my eyelids, I see a red light. Cautiously, I open my eyes to see a red light glowing on the being’s face followed by a sigh escaping from its throat.
“This is going to be a most troublesome affair. I was not supposed to be seen by the intelligent species.” The being’s voice is deep, but seems annoyed by his predicament. With the red light shining on its face, I can make out some of its features and it appears to look very similar to a human male. “I was far too careless…,” he mumbles to himself as he sighs again. “What am I supposed to do now?”
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