Hello, everyone! This time I took prompt #156 gravity, as inspiration. I kind of felt the need to write about something this existential drama of leaving Earth that has been wandering on human's mind for a while. Hope you enjoy it :)
Uncle Musk Never Knew
At the event commemorating the Borders-X crewmembers, there was a ridiculous number of people, including the leaders of the most powerful nations. Even tensions between United Cyborgs and Neo-Qatar had been set aside by this milestone.
“We want to thank these brave men and women, who risked their lives to save us in our almost last chapter as a civilization...” the director of the space project pronounced emotionally.
Such a moment was overwhelming. People were totally exalted, until one of the crew members, Martha Wekins, stumbled on the stairs for the medal rewarding.
At first they thought it was all nerves, but soon they discovered it was something much worse.
Wekins' fallen body suddenly began to be dragged as if by a magnet. Although the other borders-X astronauts tried to help her, the force pulling her off the platform increased.
Horror dulled all hope when people noticed that at different points around them, mini black holes began to form.
Flags, pets and people were dragged and dematerialized faster and faster by the gravitational action exerted by the strange holes.
Both the technological forces of United Cyborgs and Neo-Qatar battled this invisible enemy relentlessly. Within a week, they were able to identify a translucent virus of extraterrestrial origin as the genesis of all this chaos.
The “Drill Worm”, as the virus was called, came along with the Martian mission. Rapidly reproducing, it was useless to get rid of everything that came from the Red planet. In fact, day by day, the battle seemed to be more and more an uphill climb.
Wormholes, the ones that were so much hypothesized as ways to travel space-time instantaneously, ended up being an apocalyptic nightmare that swallowed the matter-energy of the little civilization left on Earth.
“We can't handle this anymore. People and cities are disappearing. Sir, we must go to Mars again as soon as possible,” suggested Martha Wekins upon learning that the Drill Worms were already arriving at the bunker in Hawaii after two weeks of heavy siege.
“I'm afraid the enemy is already too close for all of us to go,” replied Lhozi-X4, commanding general of the United Cyborgs army.
“But general, we need you...”
“Stop! You are now left in charge as the head of the emergency team. The submarine train is now ready, Wekins,” Lhozi-X4 sentenced.
In the end, there were only twelve crew members who would board the submarine train to Tokyo to use the last shuttle to the Red Planet.
“We are the hope for new life. More than ten thousand years of history will evolve with us!” exclaimed a very excited Wekins before starting the train.
Almost the entire crew activated the train's thrusters to have a fleeting launch to Tokyo, with the exception of the chief.
It wasn't really long after her words, when she fell into nostalgia of remembering her childhood in Kansas before the Cyborg Crisis and the Alien War forced humanity to look for a way on how to leave home.
Martha came back to her senses as she was slapped in the face.
“Please, order!”
“Commander Wekins! Star radar reports that a meteor will impact Earth just as we reach Tokyo,” a crew member explained.
Martha said nothing. She just looked at the radar for a few seconds, before realizing its uniqueness.
“It's not a meteorite,” the commander affirmed.
Everyone was left looking at each other guessing their leader's insanity from so much heavy stress. But she was right, because when they arrived in Tokyo, they confirmed that “it” had not hit the Earth, but landed.
However, it had not landed just anywhere, “it” made contact with Earth right on top of the rubble covering the United Cyborgs base in Shibuya.
Even with all the experience and preparation, Martha and her team couldn't help but feel human when faced with the unknown so suddenly.
One of Martha's subordinates, seeing her mute, ordered the others to execute a furious attack on the new potential threat.
To everyone's surprise, none of the instruments of war reacted. On the contrary, they began to dematerialize like grains of sand in a freshly turned clock.
The team's fear joined Wekins' bewilderment. No one could believe what was happening, especially when they saw that, with utmost ease, a humanoid body with silver coloration and no distinguishable face descended from the roof of the Shibuya base.
“My greetings, Earthlings. Akxilium does not wish war against you. I came for the virus,” the alien solemnly pronounced with a thunderous voice.
Almost as if by inertia, Wekins snapped out of her astonishment, and speaking for Earth, asked:
“Who are you? How are you informed of us and our context?”
“I am Akxilium. I was born as an antidote to an anti-matter type virus created by mistake in the MG57 galaxy 5 million years ago. My only mission is to destroy that virus, and I believe I will finally succeed,” replied the alien visitor looking up.
“Why didn't you before, and now you do?” continued Wekins still unsure of what the intruder was saying.
“I think this virus devours matter-energy slower and slower thanks to all the primitive mass on Earth. Sort of luck. It used to ravage with great force and speed, that's why I couldn't save Mars,” Akxilium clarified before disappearing with unparalleled speed.
From outside, multiple screeching sounds began to be heard. Sounds similar to metal tearing became louder and louder, alternating with low frequency explosions.
As leader, Martha Wekins should have been the first to go to the shuttle, but she was already determined not to get on, no matter how many times she was urged by her subordinates, who, in fact, made their escape to Mars.
Out of all the chaos that seemed to be happening outside, the rubble covering the base began to disappear, and Wekins could finally see the battle between the alien entities.
Due to the speed with which Akxilium attacked the Drill Worms, it seemed to be everywhere. Every time it located the virus, it absorbed it vehemently and the metallic screeching from before could be heard.
This war scene went on for quite a while, until a general silence pervaded the place. The image of Akxilium was no longer multiple. Only one body could be seen floating among the last skyscrapers of Tokyo.
As if it were something out of context, Wekins' gaze was detached from the extraterrestrial battle, to focus on how her subordinates were fleeing in the shuttle.
For her it was the postcard between life and death, the past and the future. Undoubtedly, an apocalyptic hope. Although in the blink of an eye, it was nothing more than a nightmare, as from what seemed like the stratosphere, the largest Drill Worm emerged.
This new tornado-like virus was 10 times bigger than a regular one, and came with the ultimate avenger's attitude, its first victim being the shuttle.
Watching it disappears like cosmic dust brought Wekins to her knees. It revived her childhood traumas. She could not believe that her life had been ruined again after so much effort.
The action of the virus became more intense and everything stuck to the ground, including Wekins, began to float towards it, as if gravity did not exist. She was not only shocked, but also about to be devoured.
For its part, the Akxilium remained inert among the pieces of floating city that kept disappearing into the mouth of the virus.
But this was not because it had given up. Instead, the antidote alien was preparing its best counterattack.
Akxilium condensed all the mass absorbed by millions of years, and as if it were a ballistic missile, it headed with a speed close to the speed of light towards the monstrous virus.
Such a collision was seen by Wekins as a huge multicolored ball with great gravitational force that first expanded unceasingly, and then, in a matter of seconds, dwarfed and paled, until it shattered into thousands of pieces, like a crystal object.
After such unbelievable sight, Wekins opened her eyes again in what looked like a laboratory. She rested on a bed with many sensors placed on her, and several people watching intently.
“Welcome back to life, commander Wekins,” Mohamed Neo III, the leader of Neo-Qatar, said cordially.
Martha frowned, and asked:
“Earth is in incredible danger, what are you doing here?”
“No more!” proclaimed the emir before adding, ”the virus was eradicated thanks to the work of the antidote Akxilium. Now the Earth is free forever.”
It was this little dialogue that preceded a whole new era of humanity on Earth known as “Restored Life”, in which any intention of interplanetary invasion was abandoned, and the few people left on Earth (one million), unified into a single great nation in South America, of which Martha would be its first president.
