Lucas was relieved that he finally graduated from college, he had gotten the degree he wanted, a doctorate degree. Mom would be so happy for him. He wanted to become a scientist- and his dream came true - he didn’t want to be a chemist, like all kids dream of, he wanted to study the galaxies. His mind was brought back to the ceremony when everyone threw their hats into the air but he was a little behind everyone because he had been thinking.
“Which job do you think I should pick?” showing William the options listed on his computer.
“Whichever one you want,” he answered from the couch while eating popcorn.
“I want an actual answer,” Lucas said, still looking at the options.
“Oh, then…" William got up and looked over Lucas’s shoulder. "I would say you would probably like the bottom one more.”
“Okay, I’ll try to get an interview. Thanks for the help.”
"See ya!!”
“Bye,” said Lucas while watching William walk away. William has been his best friend ever since the very beginning of high school, they both loved science, they were about the same age, William being five months younger, and they had the same hobbies. Once William was gone Lucas pulled out his favorite book from a drawer and started reading.
It wasn’t till 5 o’clock that the company called saying, “We would like an interview with you. Would 10 a.m tomorrow work for you?”
“Yes it would work,” he said and then he prepared dinner for himself. Once he had eaten he called it an early night.
“Is this really necessary?” Lucas groaned.
“Yes,” answered the professor.
“Name?”
“Lucas Dark.”
“Gender.”
“Male. Anything else?”
“Yes.”
After finishing with the interview he finally got the job and then dialed William. “Did you get the job?! Did the interview go well?! If you did get the job want to play laser tag tonight to celebrate?!”
“One question at a time, William.”
“Ok, did you get the job?!”
“Yes, I got the job.”
“Want to play laser tag then?”
“Sure.”
“What time?”
“Would 7 o’clock work for you?”
“Yeah, 7 would work. I’ll tell John and Ethan.”
“K, see you tomorrow.”
“Bye.” Lucas loved laser tag, but he usually lost against Ethan who was great at it. Ethan had found a glitch in the system where pointing a laser at a certain angle to the ground created what Ethan called an artificial blackhole that 'killed' everyone within a 14 -foot radius - so he almost always won, but Lucas hadn’t been able to re-create the glitch yet.
“Now, you may all play laser tag.” said the Register, while they walked into the arena.
“Should we do obstacles?” asked John.
“Sure,” replied Lucas.
“Everyone take your places,” Ethan announced. Lucas climbed up on a bar by jumping and grabbing it.
“Wait, who do you think should be it?” William asked
“I will be it: 3, 2, 1,” answered Lucas. He shot his laser at William, but William had taken cover. He jumped off the pole, and in the air, shot at John and hit, then he hit the ground and rolled, dodging a laser from William. How did John tag William so fast? But then William jumped over a rock and hit Lucas. They lost track of time till, eventually, an employee came in and said, “Time is up.”
While they were leaving, Lucas said, “See ya everyone, I’ve got to get to bed early since my job starts tomorrow.” So he went back to his apartment and went to bed.
“So you’re telling me, that in four months this event will start disrupting human life?” asked Lucas.
“Sadly, yes.” answered the professor.
“And I could help stop that?” Lucas said, truly saddened.
“Yes, you could help stop it.” the professor replied.
“I want some time in my apartment to take this all in.”
“Well, you took it in a good way."
Lucas learned that a neighboring galaxy was going to collide with this galaxy, which would disrupt the atmosphere and their orbit around the sun, which would end up killing the human race. Technically the side effects would start before the human race dies. The human race would be 100% dead in 1.7 years, but the asteroids getting thrown off course would start in four months. He was glad he took this job, because if anyone could stop this, it should be him. His mom had always told him to use his intelligence to help people.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Lucas didn’t know what to do… how could he possibly stop the galaxy from dying? What should I do? He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called William, “Hey, could you come over?” asked Lucas.
“Sure, right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok, bye.”
“Bye.” He was going to tell William because he needed help thinking of ideas.
Once William got there, Lucas said it. “I know it’s hard to take in and hard to believe, but the galaxy is going to die.”
“I already know.”
“HOW?!”
“Don’t be that loud other people could hear we’re in an apartment you know.”
“Still how?” Lucas asked lowering his voice.
“Well… I picked the other job, you know you were debating which job to pick? I picked the other one and apparently our two companies are working together.”
“Ok, what if we trade ideas?”
“Sure, I was thinking maybe we could try breaking the center of the galaxy making it not held together which could make the other stars, like, fly in different directions, but then we still would have to block the ones that come to our solar system. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it might actually work.”
“Great idea. I still haven’t thought of any ideas.”
“Well, it’s getting a little late, maybe let’s sleep on it.”
“Good idea, bye.”
Once William left, Lucas checked his calendar, he had nothing for today, but tomorrow he was having a family dinner. Well, those are always tiring, he thought, so he went to bed.
While he was driving to his dad's house, he noticed the unusual, extreme traffic. It was very strange it would normally take him forty minutes to get there, but it ended up taking him one full hour to get to his family's house. Ah shoot he thought. His parents always got angry if you were more than ten minutes late. He was twenty seven minutes late. He parked his car in the driveway, walked up, and knocked on the door. It immediately swung open, his stepmom immediately yelling, "Don't be late!!!!!"
"I'm sorry," he apologized.
"Well, at least come have dinner."
"I'm coming."
Once he saw the food his mouth started to drool. There was turkey... the best food ever! He went and got a seat as fast as he could and cut a slice for himself. Everyone had already started eating. It was so good to be back with his family. Once they were done he decided to leave. But not before saying, "Thanks for the dinner! And have a good night." And then he realized why it was very busy on the roads. He literally forgot the time, it was 4 PM when he got here - rush hour traffic. He opened the door to the driver's seat and got in the car. When he got to his apartment he had an orange and laid down on his bed to go to sleep. But then his eyes popped open. He had an idea how to save earth! He immediately reached for his phone and called his boss.
“What is it?”
“I know how to save the galaxy!!!”
“HOW?!?!”
“We find a big star and shoot high energy lasers at it, making it become a black hole which would redirect the galaxy so it doesn’t hit us; there would still be little chunks of rock, ice, and other stuff that would come flying towards us, but we could block that.”
“That actually sounds like it could work… I know it’s late at night, but could you come to the laboratory and scout for suitable stars?”
“I’ve already got in my car.”
“Here’s the star map of that area,” said his boss while handing a map to Lucas, “are any of these stars suitable?” he asked.
“The red ones are.” Lucas looked at the map for 10 minutes and then said, “I think this star would be the best,” pointing to a star on the left.
“I agree,” his boss replied.
“How many light years away is that star?”
“1.3.”
“That star will definitely work.”
“How will we protect us from the rocks that will fly to our solar system?” Lucas asked.
“I’m not sure, but the company we are partnering with is in charge of that. Someone named William found a solution."
"Oh, they’re covering that? That’s good," Lucas replied and silently added Go William.
A little more than a year later… Lucas heard his phone ringing in his pocket. He reached for it it was his boss. “What is it?”
“It’s been one year.”
Lucas immediately hung up and said to William, “Sorry I gotta go.”
Once he got there, he shouted, “Can I look through the telescope?”
“Of course,” his boss answered.
Lucas looked through the telescope, he saw a faint blue light moving to the left and then he muttered. “I really did it. I really saved the galaxy.”
the end