The Scalian Legacy

June 18th, 2015 in orbit around Helos 4—173 light-years from Earth

Lieutenant Seredino was gazing out the large window in the central observatory portion of the Helosian space station as he floated in zero gravity. His planet of Helos 4 below looked so far away and yet the two hundred and sixty-mile distance didn’t seem too intimidating. The space station flew quickly in orbit around Helos 4 as the solar system’s bright white star shone down on the planet. The swirling cloud cover was fairly light, allowing Seredino to enjoy most of his planet’s surface features. He enjoyed looking upon the large blue ocean that surrounded the one large land mass, where all Helosians lived. This single land mass spanned more than half of the planet and nearly reached its southern pole at one point. There were towering mountainous regions to the north with white covering the tallest of areas. There were desert regions to the south and long pathways of green pastures to the west. There were many deep blue lakes of various sizes scattered throughout to round out the gorgeous scene.

This was Seredino’s first extended stay at the space station. It was a bittersweet thought to be enjoying these wondrous views while being away from his family for several months. But this is what he had worked for his whole life and he wouldn’t trade it away for anything. He knew he would cherish these experiences and be proud to share them with his children.

Lieutenant Seredino was thinking his free time was winding down when he noticed it. It was a very large, black, spherical object that appeared under and to the right of the space station. It had appeared out of nowhere and was headed for the center of the Helos 4 land mass.

Seredino pushed himself to the left edge of the room and pressed the communications button.

“Mareez zayay!” he exclaimed in Helosian, asking the bridge crew if they were seeing it as well.

They replied in the affirmative, but there was nothing they could do. The Helosian space station had no military weaponry, it was a research vessel. The black spherical object seemed to have appeared within the Helos 4 atmosphere. As it barreled towards the surface, it began to light up the compressed air in front of it, creating a large bright white streak in the blue Helosian sky. Seredino demanded contact be made with their control center, but the bridge let him know this had already occurred.

He knew missiles could be launched from the ground against this approaching menace, but there did not appear to be enough time. The object was a few seconds from hitting the surface. A minute ago he had looked upon this view admiringly, but now he stared at it with dread and helplessness.

The object hit the surface and a brilliant flash pulsed brightly causing Seredino to cover his eyes briefly. The enormous blast created a a rapidly expanding mushroom cloud. He yelled out as loud as he could as the searing emotional pain inside of him exploded. He kept glaring out the window in horror as the bottom portion of the cloud extended quickly. Miles were being swallowed up every second before his eyes. He focused on the westerly section of the land mass, where his family resided. They still appeared to be far from the blast site. Perhaps they would be spared, he thought through the terror.

As the spreading of the of the blast slowed, Seredino sensed it would not reach his family’s location, but still must have killed hundreds of millions of Helosians. He couldn’t watch the destruction any more. He pushed himself through the connecting hallway to head to the bridge to talk to his shipmates. As he entered the corridor, a shockwave from the blast hit the space station.

Staggering as the space station rocked, he crashed hard against the side of the corridor. Then he heard a loud clanging noise from the forward section. He could see through the small corridor window that one of the solar panels had torn off and smashed into the front of the space station. He heard screams, but they were almost immediately snuffed out as the integrity of the space station had been compromised.

As the air pressure diminished Seredino felt a strong pull, followed by a loss of consciousness.