The 119th Element

Chapter 2 ・The Dreams of Planet Noirania

Selene's POV

I didn't think it would be this difficult to get to. As my instincts were always pretty terrible I stood a figure. "You can do this, I'm sure you will." said my grandmother who seems to motivate me in every way possible. That's maybe how I have the dedication to get here, to get where I'm heading, to save the Earth. Even if I left my family with angst and sorrow I knew that in the end it was for them, it was for all of our safety.
March 23rd, 1983. I'm currently 36 years old as of now, and we're 7,500,000 light years away to Sulderremia. As I've sat in my compressed-floating like bed, Sheikh approached me and had said "Hey, Selene. Me and Armond figured out that once we reach the planet, it'll be the early 90's now. Super close to being a senior citizen, huh?" It came to my realization that, with this mission I can't have any children or enjoy my life. The rest of the members of the mission won't be able to experience life nor enjoy it. It was kind of like a win-lose moment between our satisfaction or others satisfaction. That sentence had me thinking, what would I had become if I wasn't a scientist? I then responded saying "Have you enjoyed life at the fullest, Sheikh?" "Maybe, maybe not. I don't know honestly. I have a kid who only saw me at the ripe age of 2. Considering that we left in 1979, and its now 1983, he must be in kindergarten. I wish I was there for him, but I couldn't and I wouldn't have be able to either way." Sheikh said. We talked for a while, It may be a painful talk but we both knew what we needed to do and that was to do this for our loved ones. It may not seem like it but it isn't an obligation for us. For others, it may seem like an obligation but for us it's compassion. After the chit-chatting, I began working and researching more about Yraditium and its key factors. It's sarcastically amusing on how I've been researching this element that has the potential of saving our Earth for nearly 9 years! Physics isn't really my thing so I let Lilia solve the quadratic formulas most of the time. I'm more on the biology, chemistry, and environmental side of Science. As me and Lilia were researching I told her "Lilia, let me do the solving and you do the researching." I guess I wanted to step out on my comfort zone and try to do the solving because what if Lilia would die? Lilia responded to me "But, aren't you appalling when it comes to Physics? I'm not offended you in some sort but, what if you mess the equation up?" "Just wait, let me try this to see if I enjoy this or not. I'm only gonna do a small portion don't worry." I humbly said. Lilia had watched me with fear that I may mess this up but, voila! I did it with grace even though Physics was against my primary. I only know my basics of Physics in scientist level, and that may be it for my Physics performance. "Wow, you actually did it!" said Lilia. "Well, do I look like I deserve a merit? Haha! You must be funny, it's only one simple equation! What's the worry?" "That's no ordinary equation, Selene. That's the equation to the primary basis of Yraditium!" said Lilia. "Well there's no need to have worry let's just grab a sn-" I got interrupted suddenly by Armond's call. "Everyone, look it's a black hole! It's super huge!" We all gathered to the control station and had seen a huge black hole, with those beams as light as the sky, maybe an understatement but those disks is so perfect, it supports the blakc hole immensely well. I wish we took a picture, but we couldn't due to how much pixels everything in space takes and may fill up our camera's storage. I asked Armond if how many light years more till we get to Sulderremia and we may be close since it's only 6,300,000 light years away. It may be December 1983 now, and this month was my little sister's 16th birthday. I wrote her a heartfelt letter even though I can't transmit it to her. My sister's name was Aurora, pretty name isn't it?
"Dear Aurora,
Happy sweet 16th! I hope that you're safe and grandma's taking care of you now. I'm assuming grandma is now 71? The last time I saw you was 4 years ago but, I hope I can make it up to you in the near future. We might even get you your favorite sushi store downtown in New York, whatd'ya say? I love you my little sister and I wish you well in Earth.
                                                                       Best Regards, your older sister Selene."
It hurts not to see your family for 4 years, I can't even believe my sister is 16 and I'm now 36. I feel sad but, I have the whole team to celebrate with. "Merry Christmas, everyone!" I spoke. We all exchanged wintery, warm messages as a gift. Although, we may not have much in the spaceship what matters is our compassion and unity. The spaceship was about to approach the wormhole and can faster our travel by around the time of February. We all are excited, delighted and happy but at the same time missing home, missing the crowded towns due to festivities.
January 15th, 1984
NASA had observed minor to major cracks of the earths proportions and had caused an earthquake with a magnitude 7.5 east of India and caused a 25 meter tsunami. Fatality of 1,000,000 were claimed and affected 5 countries aswell. Selene's team had no time to waste and needed to do more swift action since this is the start of the Earth's downfall. The world may be ending unexpectedly in a hundred years or so.
I've seen so many planets, beautiful ones but were deceiving due to the fact they contain lots of toxic elements, ones that were unpleasing of smell and unpleasing of elements. Earth's planet formation is truly a miracle since It's a rare planet that's habitable. We only had 3 weeks before we get to our destination and as with that, it is gonna be Sheila's 43rd birthday so that's a blast. Asides from positivity, negativity reflects. 600,000 light years away from time dilation January 24th, 1984, an asteroid the size of 13 suns almost struck us and that may cause air ventilation and the destruction of the back wing spaceship. But, due to how spectacular and gifted Armond is, the impossible didn't happen. During the 2 weeks of travel, I've experimented chemical after chemical with Lilia, Sheikh and Sheila made the spacesuits which were in the process of completion and Armond is continuosly controlling the ship. Due to how massive our spaceship is, we had decorated it in some time. We had a greenhouse that had CO2, a telescope made by Sheikh, beds designed by Sheila, and much more. It was like an interactive experience with cooperation. Finally. After 14 days, we reached the worm hole and immediately traversed through it. "Hang on tight, everyone!" As Armond said. We held on tight but the gravity and pressure was so immense all of us got nauseous but, we made it to the planet that had Sulderremia or as we call it "Planet Noirania." We landed our spaceship inside the planet and the planet was so toxic, we only had 8 hours to stay in this planet WITH these suits. The planet had poisonous water, degrees cold as -18°. All of us had split up and tried to find Sulderremia. Sheikh and Lilia went East, Armond went North, I went West, and Sheila went South. Sheikh and Lilia were running towards East and stumbled upon a volcano, that spits put Francium chemicals that can destroy human life easily with a snap. The fact that volcano was the size of 13 Krakatao's frightens the human inside of me. "Oh, crap. Sheikh, we need to run! That's freaking Francium outta volcano!" Lilia said. "Alright, we got this let's run! Sulderremia is glowing in gold and isn't in here!" As the volcano's lava was quickly engulfing East, they ran towards the center in which they travelled to me, which I was in West. In the North, Armond had found a jungle full of mercury stained trees. "How come life can sustain here? How are there trees?!" Armond questioned. As Armond travelled through the jungle, he found a shining whisker and voila! It was Sulderremia. He ran as fast as he could but, he was starting to get lost in some way. In the South, Sheila was all alone in which she found an ocean full of mercury, plutonium, and toxins in it. Sheila had ran from the ocean in which she had a bad thought about it and ran to the center, trying to return to the spaceship. I was also starting to feel bad thoughts about this planet too. There was too much going on, and I feel like I'm being strangled in guilt, engulfed curiousness, and much more. In the West, I had found the same jungle Armond was in. Due to how much I love the more branchy, leafy side of Science, I noticed that life did exist here millions of years ago. Mercury stains? That gets us the idea. I explored the jungle and found nothing so I headed back, but I was stuck in the jungle. It was too vast and large I couldn't find where I was. I couldn't touch the trees nor climb them. Lilia and Sheikh were headed West but, due to Lilia's asthma, she couldn't handle it anymore and they returned back to the spaceship as Sheikh was running and carrying Lilia. Luckily, Sheila returned to the ship and headed for entrance and as she observed, something was not right. Water levels were rising as if it was about to be high tide and waves were forming. "Is that, a small wave? No, wait. THAT'S A TSUNAMI!" Sheila shrieked and panicked, unable to do anything in her power. Armond, was still lost in the jungle, might be close to get out but the tsunami was faster than him. Selene? I don't know about her case, but she was running and running. Sheikh had made it to the spaceship with Lilia and Sheila had opened the doors and quickly ran to them in distress. "Where's Armond and Selene?! Are you both okay?" said Sheila. "No, Lilia's been attacked by asthma and she needs ventilation, get her water." "Yes, I will but, do you see that wave?! That contains so much toxins and may kill them!" asked Sheila. "Good lord, what is that! It's so huge! It's like the size of THE VOLCANO WE FOUND!"Sheikh screamed. Armond, got out of the jungle and quickly ran. He noticed that the wave was approaching faster than ever and ran. But, there was something in his mind. It was, Selene. Armond, may had a feeling Selene was in the jungle. It was only a feeling but it felt so strong. After so much consideration, Armond went back into the jungle and ran to find Selene. On the other hand, Selene was losing hope, just crying as she was waiting for her death. She was so far away from the jungle she regretted everything about even coming inside of the toxic-stained jungle. "I guess, this is how I die? I'll never see my family again, this is how I die. Fascinating. I guess this mission is quite impossible after all." The tsunami was so close, it was so swifty the members of the spaceship were both scared for Armond and Selene. "You can do this, I'm sure you will." The words Selene remembered. The words that brought her courage. The words that were MEANINGFUL to her. She got back up her feet and ran and ran to get out of the jungle. Armond came looking for Selene and gladly, Armond found her running and running so he ran into her direction. "Selene!" he shouted and he caught her attention in which Selene ran into him with pride and relief. "Let's get out of here, theres a tsunami which is about to approach all of us. Let's go!" "Did you find the Sulderremia?" Selene had asked. "Yes, I did indeed! Haha!" Armond replied. Selene was in joy and happier than ever that the first mission had succeded. The tsunami was reaching East and reaching South aswell, Sheikh, Lilia, and Sheila were worried about Armond and Selene in which they chose to drift off because they already accepted their fate that two of their members had died. But, LUCKILY as the tsunami was covering the planet, Selene and Armond made it with 6 seconds of drift off to spare. Sheila opened the door and quickly let them in. They embraced Selene and Armond in worry and cried desolute tears as Sheikh was controlling the spaceship, rising up and leaving the planet. "What a jerk both of you are. You made us worry!" said Sheila. "Don't worry, we got the Sulderremia!" In shock and delight, the other three were happy that the frist mission was a success even though they were close to encountering death. The second mission was obtaining Nihtalisibia, which takes a lot of time to get to. The first segment was a success, I had lost hope in the start but, gained strength in the end.  "You can do this, I'm sure you will." Those words will never leave my heart and soul no matter old I am. I love you, grandma. Take care of Aurora for me.