What About Theia?

5

TWs: Intrusive thoughts, government/political stuff, panic attacks, past death, holding secrets/broken secrets, arguments, and hurt. Stay safe :)

Astrodude hummed as he hammered away at his spaceship, trying to fix one of the boosters.

"How much time before Mars orbits back?" He asked his assistant.

"A few more hours." The AI voice rang back through the intercom of the ship.

Astrodude huffed, "Alright. Just a few more screws and it'll be done."

"You should think twice about visiting an uncharted surface."

"Titan's not that uncharted. Sure, we know little to nothing about most of these moons and their strange planets, but we've managed to chart out and theorize where they came from and what they're like." The earthling explained, "Also, Titan was the one who forced me to explore his surface. I didn't want any part of it."

"Are you going to send a notice to the mission general about what you discovered?"

Astrodude hummed, shrugging his shoulders, "I-"

"Hey, Astrodude!" A booming voice spoke over him as a planet cast a shadow on the tiny being.

"Agh-!" Astrodude nearly dropped his wrench and screwdriver into the deep void of space. He fumbled against the ship as he took a deep breath and turned around, "Oh, h-hey, Earth."

"Are you busy?" The blue rocky planet asked as he smiled.

"Uh, kinda? I'm working on my ship so I can continue my mission." Astrodude turned his attention back to the spaceship.

The Earth nearly groaned as he rolled his eyes, "You're still on about colonizing Mars?"

"Sorry, Earth- I can't go back to... well, you- until I find a way to terraform Mars." Astrodude did feel bad about doing this to the lively planet. Knowing these planets were somewhat sentient made him have second thoughts about colonizing them.

Earth held his tongue, wanting to yell at the Earthlings about what they were doing was wrong for so many reasons. He knew all the great powers living on his surface, he knew of their motives, and he knew they were going to stop at nothing until one of them claimed the entire world and beyond as their so-called kingdom.

"Anyway, did you want something?"

"Oh, yeah," Earth looked around, his voice lowering to a whisper, "I need to ask you a question."

"What is it?" The earthling closed the metal hatch on the spacecraft, moving to the cockpit.

"Do you know a planet named Theia?" Earth shifted, following the earthling around to the other side of the ship.

"Theia...?" Astrodude quirked an eyebrow, peering at the planet before him, "I'm assuming you're talking about the giant impact hypothesis and not the myth?"

"Giant impact hypothesis...?" Earth uttered. He didn't like the sound of that, feeling a pit growing deep within his core.

"Yeah, scientists believe that Theia orbited the Sun, nearly along the orbit of you, or Proto-Earth, since you didn't have any life back then."

'What-!?' Earth's eyes widened. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Theia was eventually influenced by the gravitational influences of Jupiter, Venus, or even both, resulting in a collision between you two."

Earth felt himself shaking as his eyes dropped to the deep space under him. Astrodude's voice faded out, echoing through his ears as he felt his eyes burn.