Short Stories

An Intergalactic Journey

Hundreds of drones zoomed ahead into the empty field buzzing loudly like bees swarming over a honeycomb. Dr. Verna watched from the window of the mother ship as the drones spread about the surface collecting data.

Just as she was getting ready to leave to the data informatics center, she heard a beep on her machine to indicate an incoming message; she clicked to accept the call and in a split second a three dimensional hologram image of her daughter flickered to life.

β€œHi Mom, What’s Earth?” her daughter asked

β€œWhat? Where did you hear that?”

β€œAt the Science Fair, I heard some of the older kids talking about something called Earth. What is it?”

β€œRiley, have I not told you not to listen in on other people’s conversation?”

β€œI’m sorry, mom!”

Dr. Verna looked at the virtual image of her daughter and wished she could reach out and touch her.

β€œWell, Earth was the name of an astronomical planet that was known to harbor life billions of years ago. It was inhibited by a variety of species, a majority of them called Humans. The planet is no longer active.”

β€œWhat happened?”

β€œThat is a long story for another day, my dear!”

β€œNo! Don’t do that. At least tell me what went wrong?”

β€œThe humans carried something within themselves they called β€˜humanity’ which, unfortunately, they were unable to sustain. That is what caused the destruction of their planet.” Dr. Verna explained.

β€œOh! That’s too bad!”

β€œYes, it is!”

What Dr. Verna did not tell her daughter was that she herself was one of the descendants of the species labeled humans. Or the fact that the place her daughter believes is β€˜home’ is in reality a mother seed ship called β€˜Transporter’ carrying the seeds of the last known species from Earth. Or that they have traveled light years in interstellar travel in search of a replacement planet that would provide them, at the very least, half the sustainable resources once available on Earth.

β€œDr. Verna, the drones are beginning to send in data. You are going to want to see this! We need you at the Informatics center,” said Dr. Nova.

β€œBe there in a minute!” she called back.

β€œRiley, I need you to get back to your class now. I will see you again soon” she said and dashed to the informatics center without waiting for a reply.

β€œDid you take a look at the data?” she asked her chief research associate Dr. Sega.

β€œYes, I did! And you definitely want to see this, Dr. Verna!” he replied in an excited tone that Verna heard for the first time since she met Dr. Sega.

β€œOK, let’s see, what have we here?” she said as she projected the data in front of her.

β€œIs this for real? Am I reading this right, Seg?”

β€œTold yea, you wanted to see this!”

β€œAccording to this the atmospheric gaseous composition here comprises of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and 1% of Argon along with traces of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides? And we had earlier noted a Standard Gravity of 9.8 m/s2 you say?” Dr. Verna asked with rising anticipation

β€œDrone CP2 send this in just a moment ago, here, take a look at this,” he said as he swiped the screen to load the latest information.

β€œHydrogen ions linked to hydroxyl ions? This…this means…”

β€œWe found Water, Verna! We found Water!”

β€œWater! Yes, the building block of life! Seg, do you know what this means? This means we found our Goldilocks planet! The planet where everything is just right for life to exist. Everything – water, atmosphere, gravity! This means, someday, our grandchildren will be able to walk on surface just like our ancestors on Earth did!” she exclaimed

β€œWelcome to our new home, Dr. Verna! Welcome to Kepler X2,” Dr. Sega replied!


This story was inspired from the prompt shared by Piyusha on her Story Continuation Challenge. Thank you, Piyusha, for an awesome prompt!

A Single Mother with an unbreakable passion to Live the Life! I am a Writer/Author by passion and an IT Project Manager by profession. I am also the voice of Artemis at In The Pantheon - a multi-author collaborative writing project. When not hunting as Artemis, I am busy querying agents and working on my multiple writing projects. Women Empowerment and Child Rights Advocate.

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