“This is mothership to Comet Gain, do you copy? Blu? Midi? Are you there?”
The beeping of the communicator had taken the place of the singing of the birds. Its crackling voice was fighting with the sound of the river to be heard. It was a while before Blu and Midi finally woke up.
Blu felt the warmth of the sun on her cheek and the smell of fresh air as she woke up. This was almost able to lift her up until she realized that what she felt was coming from their burned ship. She looked around and saw Midi still unconscious which made her heart instantly beat faster than the beeper. She swiftly ran to him and put water from the river on his face, trying to wake him up. The beeper did not have to fall behind anymore as Midi opened his eyes to Blu’s eyes which looked as if they were plucked straight out of the clear sky.
“Are you ok? Where are we?” Midi muttered.
“I’m okay. Get up. Here.”
Midi got up and they were sitting on the ground resting their backs on a rock facing the river. Midi was becoming restless without knowing where they were.
“Where are we? Oh! The ship!”
“I don’t know if we could salvage anything from it now,” Blu started looking around after a sigh.
“I don’t know where we are but look how everything is shaped! It seems so organic. It looks like every small thing has a role in composing this… wow! I’d never seen something like this back home.”
“You still wouldn’t leave your room even if it did,” Midi replied with a chuckle.
Both of them noticed the beeping communicator just as he said it. Midi quickly got up and hurried to it and started talking.
“This is Midi. Can you hear us?”
The cracking voice of the communicator sounded like the most beautiful thing they ever heard. “Oh, glad to hear from you! We were getting worried.”
“Where are we??” Midi was anxious.
“We are not sure of it either. We think something is jamming our signal to properly pinpoint your location. But first, are you okay? How’s the ship?”
“We are fine. Can’t say the same for the ship though. It looks completely burned out.”
“We will take it as good news that you’re fine. We have good news for you also, we have started on making a plan to getting you back here.”
“What about the whole mission?”
“We’ll worry about that later. We don’t think you will be able to do much of it with the state of the ship anyway. We will focus on getting you back first. But don’t expose yourself to humans! They are not ready yet. But you will have to rely on some of the things they’ve come up with, unfortunately.”
The first thing they needed was to know where they were. They had to go back to some of the earliest astrology uncovered by humankind. A sky map and a sundial. The sun had shown off its great wealth of gold at dusk and was slowly hiding behind the mountains. But it had already made everyone jealous. The night came about and the lights started to turn on one by one. Blu and Midi were astonished at the different views of the night canvas.
“I wish I could have this for the ceiling in my room. Do you think those stars have a purpose? Do you think maybe they are there for us to find our way through all this? Or do you think they are doing something we wouldn’t know for centuries?” muttered Blu as if she was in a trance.
It was not hard for them to do the mapping and create a sundial with the things they found around them. But it was crucial to get them back as now they knew where they were. Now they had to move on to complicated things. They had to learn and explore the surrounding area and the atmosphere of the area. They had a package of supplies sent from the mothership to help them get through these tasks. It was at times a frustrating thing to make especially in the conditions they were given. But it made them appreciate some of the things they had taken for granted. It made them appreciate the finesse that went into them.
Then there was the rocket. The thing that’s supposed to launch them back into where they came from. Their ride back home. Now they were close to getting back. But problems hit the mothership.
“They are saying they’re not getting funds from home. They’re saying they are trying to work something out but I don’t know,” Midi sighed with exhaustion and disappointment.
“Do you think we are wasting everyone’s time and resources? We should have done a better job landing our ship. I don’t know if we are even worth all this hassle.” Blu looked at Midi for a bit as he started picking his fingers.
“We’ve gone through a lot together. We’ve seen a lot together. You remember Catorine. You know how tiny we are in this never-ending universe. We were literally thrown into this world without much in the way of a heads-up. All we can do is try our best and that’s okay. We will take one day at a time. We got this far didn’t we?” It was a slow night for both of them. But they sang their woes into the night.
They went on working on the rocket and the spacesuits needed to launch the mission. They never had to design their own suits before, they actually had fun doing different things with them. The news they got didn’t spoil the mood as it seemed that the mothership had struck a deal where they would get the funds if they brought some of the technology in medicine the humans had uncovered regarding space travel. Everyone was full of joy except for Blu and Midi as they were hit with a belated dread as they realized that they are going to have to study medicine.
And it was finally here. The time for them to leave Earth and go back to whence they came. They had connected with Earth more than they would. The singing of the birds mixed with the percussion of the river made for wonderful afternoons. How the sun would try its best to wipe every tree, mountain, and rock in its color had become a game for Blu and Midi, as Midi supported the sun and Blu supported everything else. As they were launching back into the stars, the feeling of bittersweetness swept over them as they took a final look at everything around them and thought, “It’s not so bad”…
Written By: Dilhara Savinda (Editor – “Into the Stars”)
Featured Image Courtesy: https://bit.ly/3ttuSwp
