Short Stories ~ Nomi

STARDUST: Beyond The Stars (𝕊𝕔𝕚-𝔽𝕚)

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𝑨𝒏 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒚𝒂𝒓𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒕, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒓𝒚.

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I was doing the dishes when the crash came.

It felt like an earthquake, but more sudden and disorienting.

I cried out in shock and the plate I'd been rinsing off slipped from my hands. It shattered on the floor, but I hardly noticed.

It was over before I had time to react.

I looked around at the aftermath: things that had previously been on shelves were now broken on the floor and lamps and vases were knocked over.

I shakily walked outside to see how badly my neighbors had been affected.

I looked down the street and was shocked at how little wreckage there was- none, in fact. My neighbors to my left and right were also peering out and exchanging confused looks, but other than that, there weren't tree branches or rubble on the street anywhere.

It was as if the earthquake had come from my back yard.

I hesitantly went back inside and closed the door. How odd, I thought to myself, I didn't know earthquakes could be so small.

I decided that there was no harm in checking the yard, just to see how bad it had been affected.

~•~

My jaw dropped when I saw what awaited me.

The whole backyard seemed to have been upturned. There was barely any trace of the green grass I had worked so hard to maintain, and it was replaced by dirt, rubble and...

I stared at what could only be described as a tiny space ship, carving a path of destruction through my backyard.

"What the heck?" I muttered, eyes still roving over the mysterious object.

I decided to do what any sane human would do and inspect the possibly alien spacecraft.

It was too small to be a ship; it was more like some sort of escape pod or temporary shuttle. It was pointy at the front, allowing it to plow through the atmosphere and there was some sort of parachute billowing out the back.

The parachute couldn't have done much, though, considering the severity of the crash.

It dawned on me that there might be a severely injured person inside the pod and I rushed to check.

I ran up to the large metal shuttle, put my face up to the foggy glass and peered through.

To my relief and surprise, the pod appeared to be empty. Slightly confused, I walked over to the other side to see if there was some sort of door or hatch.

Why would someone send down an empty space pod?

I found a groove along the lower part of the pod and stuck my fingers in it. After a minute of struggling to open what I hoped was some sort of door, it finally popped open with a soft hiss of air.

The whole side of the pod opened up, revealing the single empty seat and control panels inside.

"Wow." I breathed.

My curiosity growing, I began to search the space pod for any explanation of what it was and why it was in my backyard.

At last, when I was about to give up, I found a book jammed in between the seat and the opposite wall of the pod.