The Meteor

There was a star system, like many others. This star system, our star system, had something different; it had, as far as we know, one of the few planets in our galaxy capable of supporting life. We would look at the stars outside, but we would not see any planet with life on it, even with our telescopes.

Some of us Lotsos imagine what organisms from another planet would be like. What would they look like? What environment would they live in? Would they be friendly or hostile? But many of us assumed that any intelligent life out in the vastness of space wouldn't be visiting us anytime soon, let alone learn about our existence.

I had always been fascinated with what was beyond our planet. I would dream about reaching outer space and exploring the stars, meeting new lifeforms.

But that was all just a dream. For now, at least.

We may know how to potentially fly outside of the atmosphere of our planet, but we still cannot find a proper way to create a vehicle capable of doing so, let alone gather the resources needed to build such a vehicle. In the meantime, we would just live out our lives normally and hope that they would come to us.

We had been around for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps even millions, at least according to historians and the oldest of our people. The oldest of our species that we know of is Tarmin, who is over 100 thousand years old. Even the second oldest Lotso that we know of is only slightly less than 50 thousand years old. We had put him in charge of our nation, due to him being the wisest of us from all of his years of living. Our people had just managed to properly sustain ourselves, and Tarmin said that we could finally move on to researching more things. Things that involved something that wasn’t on our planet.

Like going to outer space.

Our ever-expanding species needs lots of space to live and grow. It was fairly obvious to most that eventually we would take up all the space on Solaris, if we had dared to destroy the habitats of the various plants and animals that share the planet with us. Right now, there is still a relatively large amount of space left for us, but Tarmin told us that it was best to start preparing for the future now rather than when we would have to push animals from their homes to accommodate ourselves.

Scientists were tasked with researching how things would work in space, and engineers were sent to design machines and vehicles that could operate there. And they are making significant progress, too.

Somebody had the idea to send out a message to everybody out in the galaxy that we exist, and it was actually approved. Scientists say that it could take a very long time for anybody to receive it, however.

Whatever we do know about space comes from observation of the stars and whatever objects from space that reach the surface of our planet. Whenever we see something fall through our atmosphere and crash down somewhere, some people will rush over to see it while others will just let them see it for themselves. I have even seen a few stay up very late to see if anything comes down from the stars. After all, it could be something unique that could reveal something new that we needed, or even be a completely different organism from hundreds of lightyears away.

Today, another space object streaked through the sky, leaving a trail from where it came. I was one of those who would always rush for the object. Today was no exception. By the time I got there, a dozen people had already surrounded the fallen object. It was nothing new, just a small meteor the size of a fist sitting in a large crater. It was collected by scientists for possible research, and we left, knowing that we would be informed if anything new was discovered.

The next day, it was revealed to have been just another normal meteor, nothing else. Some were disappointed, but it was not like something unusual would come our way more often. It was a normal day; I went to the grocery store to work, then went home, prepared supper, and went to bed. As I lay down, I kept thinking about what could possibly come from space, other than the usual meteors and sunlight.

I couldn't sleep thinking about that, so I decided to get out of bed and go for a walk.

The air wasn't as cold as it normally was during the night, and I could sense something was off. I kept walking, still thinking about what object from space could possibly come in the direction of our planet when I realized that I had walked out of town. I turned back, but I couldn't figure out which way I had gone. In an attempt to retrace my footsteps, I tried to walk back the way I came when I heard a sound behind me.

It did not sound like any animal or Lotso that I ever heard.

It sounded mechanical.

I turned in the direction of the sound and started heading towards the source. Not much time had passed until I found it.

There was a crater, and laying in the center was a meteor, the size of my head. Maybe even bigger.

It wasn't very common for meteors to crash down on the surface of Solaris 2 days in a row, and its size was much bigger than the normal meteors that we found. Why had I, or anybody else awake at night, not seen this meteor fall and crash? I looked closely, but it was hard to see anything since I had not brought any lights with me.

Suddenly, I heard the noise again, coming from inside the meteor.

Did an alien species finally find us?

I was about to find out.

The meteor split open, revealing a sphere with what looked like an antenna sticking out of the top. It floated into the air, seemingly using nothing else to support it.

I stepped back and watched in awe. The thing appeared to be some kind of advanced machine of some sort.

"....Hello?" I said nervously.

The thing did not respond. Then, a red light turned on, on the surface of the drone. It appeared to be examining me. Before I could do anything else, it quickly flew away.

I needed to tell others what I had seen, even if they didn't believe me. I gathered up the remains of the meteorite that housed the machine and ran back towards town.

As I ran, though, I heard a growl. A creature suddenly jumped out and attacked me. Caught completely by surprise, I fell back and the animal pounced on me. Seconds later, a few more of them rushed out and pounced on me as well. They were Palarmads, I realized. Thin, carnivorous animals that hunt in packs. I panicked and cried out for help.

Shots were fired, and the creatures hissed and then ran away, frightened by my rescuers. Two figures, who had presumably been the ones who saved me, rushed over and helped me up. In the dark, I could not see their faces. "What happened?" asked one. I told them my story, how I went out for a walk, got lost, found the meteor with the strange machine, then got attacked. "I have the meteor pieces here for proof!" I said, holding out the pieces. "Let's get you back to town," said one. "We will show this to the researchers on the project searching for aliens."

We eventually got back to town, and under the streetlights I could see who they were; Carlon, my employer, and Lanpen, his son. "What were you doing outside at night?" I asked them.

"We heard about a pack of Palarmads roaming around the outskirts of town causing mischief. They had chased off some of the people delivering supplies to our store, so we had to scare away the pack to prevent any further trouble. Luckily, you lead us right to them."

Soon, we got to the research center, and we told the night shift researchers about my story.

"Interesting," said the lead night shift researcher. "Can you allow us to take possession of the remains for examination? Once we confirm that this is true then we will tell the public." I handed over the meteorite remains and they got to work. "You can go home now," he said. It's late at night and you don't seem to be night shift workers, you should get some sleep."

We said goodbye to the research staff and left.

"I wonder what that machine was for," said Lanpen. "Lanpen," said Carlon. "I doubt we will know what it is for until it has done what it came here to do. It could be for spy on us, because it didn't communicate at all, it simply left. Also, it was not only hidden within a meteor to try and blend in, we didn't even see it at all. Any of us would have been able to spot it if it was that big."

"I doubt that this is all a hoax though, because I know that our buddy here would never lie, and he could not create such realistic-looking meteor chunks. No offense," replied Lanpen.

"None taken. But I will go home now, if you don't mind. It's very late now," I said.

"Very well, we will see you tomorrow," Carlon said. And with that, we parted ways.

I kept thinking about the drone on my way home. Was it really here just to spy on us? Maybe it was an assassin of some sort? But I was tired, and I went to bed.

I never saw the drone again. The research team confirmed that the meteorite remains were from outer space, but were not composed of what normal meteorites usually were. Instead, it was made of an unknown substance very similar to rock, but different in molecular structure. We hear about sightings of the machine every few days, but it was never found or captured. I just hope that whoever sent this thing here ends up being friendly to us if we ever meet.