Tiger's Short Stories

The Lights in the Sky Are Stars

“D-did it work?”

Levi opened his eyes, the feeling of his nerves all finding their way back in to place like nothing he thought it’d be. But here he was, standing, a bit dizzy, but still on his feet. Slowly moving his arm, the tingling sensation of numbness faded, telling him to take it slowly. Should something had gone wrong, he knew he shouldn’t push himself until he knew for sure. “I, think so,” he responded, the voice echoing in his helmet sounding even weirder than before.

The darkness around him made it impossible for him to see where he was walking, or where she was. Moving his hand up to the switch on his other wrist, he turned the flashlight on, allowing him to see this strange world.

The blue on the ground was like nothing he’d ever seen before, the strange material coming nearly up to his knees, glimmering off the light on his wrist. It took some effort to walk through, but he managed with slow and steady steps. “Where are you, Heather?” he asked.

“I see your light; keep shining it,” the response soon came through his helmet. “It was off by few dozen meters, so I came in about a meter off the ground and fell.”

“Are you okay?” Levi asked, starting to look around for any sign of her. If she needed some medical treatment, well, they’d need to get back quick. And he never knew when he’d get the chance to come here again. Of course, her safety had to be the top priority, then again, even coming here had to be one of the riskier things that he’d ever done.

“I think so,” she said after another delay of a few more seconds than he had hoped for. “A bit sore, but I’m guessing that’s normal. The darn light is busted though, so I’ll have to come find you.”

That allowed Levi to breathe a sigh of relief. He then aimed his light upward, figuring that was the easiest way for her to find him. However, as he looked up into the light that illuminated the area, he noticed something else, another light. No, it was more like many lights, which dotted the black expanse as far as he could see. Beyond number and count they filled his view. “That’s incredible,” he said.

“What is?” she responded, though the statement wasn’t really aimed at her.

“Above us, all of those lights shining. There has to be millions of them.” Levi wondered if it was even possible to count them. Some seemed to be brighter than others, then there were those that seemed to be like a smudge of dirt on a white screen, except this was white against black.

He didn’t even noticing her reaching him, his mind too focused on the many lights, and his suit blocking out the sound of her approaching. “What do we do now?” she asked.

He brought his light across the barren land, the blue on the ground reflecting wherever the light went. The ground beneath the blue, seemed to be more uneven than he was used to as he and Heather slowly lumbered their way forward, no destination in sight, but only the wonder if this strange and wonderful world.

Soon Levi’s light came across a structure against the landscape, several objects protruding from the surface. “Is that some sort of building?” Heather asked, now taking the lead and rushing as quickly as she could to see what the building could be hiding, though with the constraints of the suit, she couldn’t get far, and Levi wasn’t far behind, the strange place piquing his curiosity even more than before.

Heather made it to what seemed to be the best place to enter it, though a number of the walls had started falling down, and it looked like the rest of it could collapse at any moment. “We may want to investigate from afar,” Levi said.

“It’s not like this would be the most dangerous thing we’ve done today,” Heather replied. “Hurry up, I want to get a good look around here. Who knows what we can find.”