Swirling Mind

Part One

Present time- February 8th two-thousand-fifty-five (02/08/2055)

one-thirty A.M (1:30 A.M)

“Nyx!” Dr. Fair yells out to him, an alarm wailing loudly behind her. “Nyx- honey, we need to get to the ship-!” A loud explosion goes off in the background, ringing in Nyx’s ears as he stirs awake, only just sitting up when Dr. Fair grabs his hands and yanks him out of bed.

“Nyx baby, I know you don’t know what’s going on, but we have to hurry-” she speaks rapidly, her expression terrified yet reassuring, another explosion setting her off balance, crashing into Nyx.

“What’s-” Nyx starts to speak, but is cut off by Dr. Fair yanking him out of his room, rushing down the hall, and guiding him quickly to the lab, while only in her PJs.

“Mom-” Nyx calls out as she rushes him to the lab, “MOM!” He shouts, finally gaining her attention as another explosion goes off.

“What’s going on- why is everything blowing up?” Nyx’s voice is hoarse from sleep, his breathing rapid as he tries to make sense of this. Dr. Fair pulls him into the lab, grabbing a small cage.

“The virus- the virus activated the planetary contamination protocol...” she speaks slowly, her eyes wide.

“We have to get to-uh- May! We need to get to May.” Dr. Fair takes his hand, holding the cage in her other hand as she rushes them both to the launch bay, where May, their government-issued space travel habitary ship, is.

“What do you mean by that!?” Nyx yells out to his mom, having only a small idea of what the protocol does.

“The virus is basically destroying the planet!” The words hit Nyx as if they were a tank, a gut-wrenching feeling filling his being and making him sick, only able to move because of Dr. Fair’s constant and firm yanking, practically dragging him behind her as they make their way to the launch bay.

“So- wait- it’s killing thousands- no- millions of people?! In one go?! Why do we even have a contamination protocol that damaging to begin with!?!” It’s hard to breathe; his lungs are on fire as he tries to wrap his head around everything that is going on.

“Yes, that’s why we have to get to May and prepare to evacuate the planet-” Dr. Fair states as they enter the launch bay room, handing Nyx the cage and starting the launching sequence.

“But why do we even have that protocol?” Nyx’s question this time is firm, making it clear he is not going to back down from this.

“To stop any threats from making it to the other colonies that are not on Earth, we send a distress signal to the other colonies as the protocol is activated, that way the other colonies know to be cautious of Earth ships-” Dr. Fair’s voice is calm and direct despite the evident fear in her eyes, guiding Nyx into May’s command deck.

“So- what- its plan is just to kill everything?” Nyx questions, still holding the small cage, now finally taking a moment to look inside, only to see an egg.

“What’s with the egg-?” He is cut off by another explosion, his ears ringing and his body shaky.

“We don’t know what its plan is, or why it exists to begin with. The only thing we can do is outsmart it-” Midway through her explanation, she calls out to the physical form of May, an older model android body with complete connection to the ship’s mainframe,

“May, please start the thrusters and begin the stabilizing sequence.”

“Yes, ma’am,” May states, her voice strangely warm for such a robotic sound.

“Thank you- Nyx, honey, I need you to watch that egg while I go find your father, okay?” Dr. Fair’s expression is now pleading, staring directly into Nyx’s eyes and calling out the little boy inside him that always listened to his mother.

“O-okay....” He agrees slowly, holding onto the cage tightly.

Dr. Fair smiles, whispering something to May before she leaves, locking the airlock behind her, causing a loud “pssffff” sound to echo through the ship as the cabin and airlock are completely filled with oxygen.

Just as Nyx begins to calm down, he remembers the stowaway he snuck on board the night prior.

“Oh no.....Minex-” gently but swiftly placing the small cage on a nearby table, Nyx darts into his room on board May, finding an asleep 6′1" Greek man in his bed, already knowing who it was despite not seeing him in a week.

“M-Minex...?” Nyx quietly calls out, creeping closer to his bed.

“Mmm..?” He rolls over, opening his eyes slightly, his expression soft,

“What...?” Minex’s voice is low and rougher than Nyx expected.

“So uh- just to uh- warn you and everything- we probably- definitely will be taking off soon?” Nyx answers quickly, rubbing the back of his neck, unsure of how he was going to explain Minex’s being here to his parents.

“What?!” He exclaims loudly, shooting up out of the bed, hitting his head on the ceiling,

“Ow-! Hell, man- really?” Minex is rubbing his head while pouting, waiting for Nyx to explain further.

“The hell you mean take off?” Minex stares directly into Nyx’s eyes

Two years prior- August thirteenth two-thousand-fifty-three (08/13/2053)

“GAH-!” There Nyx was, in his last year of high school at 17, in the boys’ changing room, caught by the new exchange student trying on a dress from a friend’s dare, completely modified.

“Oh....um...sorry- did you want me to leave-?” they ask as Nyx gets changed as quickly as possible in front of them.

“I um- no- wait- please don’t tell anybody- please man-” practically falling over as Nyx pleads for his social life.

“I’ll do your homework for no charge for a month!” offering it without trying to convince them not to tell first.

“Okay, sounds good, give me your phone.” He holds out his hand, waiting for Nyx to give over his phone.

“Why would I give you my phone-?” Nyx questions aggressively; he would never give up his phone like that.

“So I can text you, idiot-?” he laughs, not mockingly but jokingly, like they’ve already become friends, a stark contrast to his appearance. His hair is long, a deep brown veil covering most of his face. His skin is rough from who knows what.

“O-oh....pffff-!” Nyx can’t help but laugh at his own misjudgment, pulling out his phone and handing it to the boy.

“Text me, and I’ll add your number to my phone, oh, and yeah- what’s your name?”

Looking at his phone, Nyx sees the name Minex, smirking as he decides to text.

‘That’s not your real name, is it?’

Minex smiled mischievously as he replied ‘No’

“My name is Nyx, nice to meet you, ‘Minex.’” The two boys burst out laughing wholeheartedly, smiling ear to ear, before high-fiving and heading to class.

Present time- February 8th two-thousand-fifty-five (02/08/2055)

Two-fifty-five A.M (2:55 A.M.)

“So basically, you know that virus, the one we think is hacking people’s memory implants?” Nyx asks, avoiding Minex’s gaze, knowing that if they made it through this, there would be a lot of explaining to do.

“Yeah?” Minex’s voice was slow and suspicious, his eyes squinting slightly as he stared at Nyx, practically demanding that Nyx meet his gaze with his body language.

“Well....umm..... it’s uh....trying to blow up the planet.” Nyx finished his sentence quickly, rushing out of the room immediately, hearing a loud and concerned “what” coming from his room as he entered the main cabin of the ship, a local living space much like a small apartment with sitting space and a minimal kitchen space.

“Hello, Nyx,” May greets Nyx as he moves into the kitchen, making himself a glass of water, causing him to jump in place, not expecting her to be there.

“Oh- hello, May....aren’t you supposed to be prepping the-your body to launch?” He shifts his gaze away from May, finding it weirdly hard to make eye contact with her robotic facial features.

“I am currently 12% completed with the stabilizers and 82% completed with preparing my main body for launch.” Nyx had forgotten that she, while having a physical body, is still primarily just the ship’s mainframe system with a personality.

“Nyx!” Minex had finally come out of Nyx’s room, after mentally wrapping his head around the information, and getting into actual clothes rather than a ripped-up tank top and sweatpants for sleeping.

“Ah....yeah?” Nyx looks to the floor as Minex approaches and takes the water out of his hands, taking a sip.

“Explain what you had said.” Minex seemed so nonchalant about stealing Nyx’s water, leaving him open-mouthed and a little offended.

“I don’t really know how to explain it honestly, I don’t quite understand it myself, I wasn’t told much by my mom-” he stops himself from talking, remembering his Dr. Fair had not returned with Dr. Dox yet and swiftly heading to the airlock, looking out of the observatory window, an extremely secure and clear, metal type substance made for space travel,

“I had forgotten your vitiligo was spreading...” Minex states quietly as he stands next to Nyx, his expression reminiscent, and Nyx, despite wanting to respond, stays silent. He doesn’t know what’s wrong, but he can feel something is horribly wrong through every fiber of his body.

“Minex...can you..uh...go hold the egg- it’s in a cage...in the...” Nyx does not even have a chance to finish his sentence before a massive explosion sends both him and Minex crashing into the wall of the airlock,

“What the hell was that!?” Minex yells out as Nyx gets up and sprints to the door of the airlock.

“May- What’s going on- what was that-?” Nyx knew the planet was self-destructing, but that explosion was massive; there was simply no way it could occur on such a small planet.

“The planet has split. Stabilizers not fully prepped, please buckle up, we will be launching in T minus-” May answers over the intercom in the ship,

“What?!-You can’t! Mom’s not back yet!- Minex, go hold onto the cage-!” Minex follows Nyx’s command without question,

“Wait- What do you mean the planet has split?!” Before Nyx can even listen to the answer, May begins to launch, catching a glimpse of Dr. Fair sprinting back to the ship, begging May to wait for his mother.

“Launching in 10......9......8.....7.....6....” She counts down over the intercom,

“May!- do not launch! Mom is almost back- we can wait!” His entire body is spinning while he stands in place, watching his mother, the woman who raised him since he was three years old, running towards him with a fear in her eyes he’s never seen before, begging and pleading at the top of his lungs for May to wait.

“May-! I said wai-!” Nyx is cut off as the ship lifts off the landing pad, sending him falling backwards and out of the airlock. The airlock doors close as Nyx is flung into the hall cabin wall.

“May don’t! I’m begging you!” Getting up on his feet as best he can, Nyx begins to bang against the airlock doors in a last hope of saving his mom, knowing it will do nothing.

“3.......2...” Nyx’s voice becomes hoarse as he screams for his mom, knowing she can’t hear him, sobbing with his entire body before a large table is sent flying into him, the last glimpse of his mother before blood covers his eyes is that of pure terror in hers, May launching as the massive explosion from the planet splitting in half hits them, sending the ship and many fragments of earth hurtling towards the other planets.

“Nyx-!” Minex manages to pull the table off of Nyx as they both get thrown around the hall cabin.

“Nyx we have to get to the command deck!” having to practically carry Nyx from his grief and disorientation from the leaking head wound, Minex pulls Nyx to the command deck and buckles him into a seat before securing himself in as they both watch football field sized pieces of earth crash into Mars and Venus, tearing apart their colonies and surface, causing a horrific chain reaction into Mercury and Jupiter, completely obliterating the dwarf planet Ceres. It isn’t until pass Pluto that May regains stability and stops moving, the front of the ship, the command deck, faced directly at the mass destruction of not one, but four of the eight planets, and Ceres. Pieces of Mercury and Venus launching into the sun, as Mars becomes a new asteroid belt the second it hits Jupiter, leaving a crater twice its size in the planet and devastating the surviving colonies in the aftermath.

“Holy.....god...” Minex whispers to himself, tears streaming down both the boy’s faces, everything they had ever known, gone with no way of ever returning, five colonized planets completely obliterated, mass extinction of millions of species. The shock of everything alongside his gushing head wound causes Nyx to lose consciousness, Minex passing out soon after from the weight of it all.