Trillions upon trillions of moved across the surface of the sun each heading to their destination. Each working for the benefit of the star. Their home. Their life. Buried within the surface of this giant star was one little hydrogen atom worker named Hyrum.

Within the sun most of its total atoms is hydrogen with a small portion made up of helium. From there smaller and smaller amounts are made up of the other elements up to the twenty-sixth element. Iron is the least common and most dangerous element to the sun. If too much iron is created in a sun it will die and go out.

Hyrum moved through the insides of the sun. Many signs stood tall around the swarm of atoms indicating the locations of various factories of the sun. Some of the signs he passed included ‘Fusion Reactor’, ‘Photon Production’, ‘Gravity Factory, and ‘Magnetic Field Farm’.

He had just finished up his job at the Fusion Reactor for the day, so he was heading back out closer to the surface of the sun. As he left he passed another sign it read ‘Congratulations to another great day and 272776832689678057146323469681 kilograms of iron created so far’. From behind him the sounds of fusion continued. Anxious atoms ran at each other with increasing speed until the two merged.

After looking around the corridors of the sun for a while Hyrum found his friend Henry who had recently been promoted to Helium rank and moved from the Fusion Reactor to the Gravity Factory.

“Hey, Henry. How is the new job going?” asked Hyrum.

“It has been great. The place is so cool. Get to interact with some of the higher-ups occasionally and we get to monitor the entire system,” said Henry his voice a bit higher than one might expect.

“What is the system like? You promised me that you would tell me once you got your upgrade.”

“Come I’ll tell you, but we should get away from others. I can’t have them over here.”

The pair of them turned down another pathway and cut through some less occupied areas to get some more privacy. Henry grabbed Hyrum by the arm and guided him to another area. His large size helped him in this regard. His body was four times as large with the strength to match it. Low-level hydrogen workers passed them without paying them any mind. By the time the two of them were out of view the thoughts of the busy atoms were likely on to other things.

“Come on. We’ve gone far enough. Tell me already,” said Hyrum as his patience waned and his interest in the system peaked.

“I guess this is good enough. You’ve got to promise not to tell anyone else. Ok?”

“It is not like I have many other people to tell this to, but yes I can keep it a secret.”

“So, within the Gravity Factory I have mostly been learning the ropes and how all of the machines work and learning how the readouts work. But I have kept an eye out for info about the system for you. I don’t know what fascinates you so much about it. I didn’t think it was that interesting and everything…”

“You are avoiding the question,” said Hyrum interrupting Henry’s ramblings.

“Sorry. I found the readouts and info about the system. From what I saw this system contains two giant rocks circling the sun with gasses swirling around them both.”

“Wow. We have two planets in our sun’s system.”

“Yeah. It is not that impressive actually. We are in semi-regular communication with other nearby stars because we’ve traded atoms in the past and I know one of them has ten planets.”

“Really. That must be so much work for their sun factory to work with so many planets.”

“It is totally unstable. The higher-ups ran some numbers about resource management because one of their planets is too much for them to handle so they will start to merge the planets into a more manageable five or six.”

“I would love to see that. Can you imagine the display of lights and the sheer power as the sun lets them collide? All of the debris and comets formed from it.”

“You really are a weirdo sometimes. You know that” said Henry.

“Only you say that, but I only talk to you which is probably why I haven’t been promoted yet. Why don’t we check it out? I want to check out this other system you have been talking about.”

“Oh no, we should not.”

“Why not. Is there something dangerous there?”

“Uh. I think there is. I haven’t been to all of the areas and…”

Hyrum cut of Henry again. “Come on. I promise I won’t touch anything there. It will be like I wasn’t even there at all when I leave.”

“Ugh. Why do you have to be so annoying sometimes.”

“Come on it is part of my charm. Besides, we both have plenty of time left before we have to get back to work.”

“We will need to make a quick stop back at my place then beforehand. I can’t have you going on the tour dressed like that.”

Hyrum looked up and down at his clothes. He was wearing an orange vest and hard hat that was labeled ‘Fusion’ and on one side had his id tag that started with HY for hydrogen followed by a long list of alphanumeric symbols for his designation.

“What is wrong with this?” said Hyrum. Henry just rolled his eyes.

Henry brought Hyrum to his apartment area. Henry’s apartment was much larger than Hyrum’s befitting his size. Everything was scaled to his size as well. When Hyrum went to sit on the couch he sank into it.

“Wow, this place is great. I wish I lived here. Do you perhaps have any food? I am quite hungry from work. I didn’t get a chance to bring it up earlier,” he said trying to crane his neck to look back at Henry who was much more comfortable within the apartment.

“Take this,” said Henry ignoring Hyrum’s question.

“Wow. Thanks.” He paused. “What do I do with this?” Hyrum lifted up the pile with some effort.

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“You wear them,” Hyrum said bluntly.

“I know they are clothes silly. But they are too big for me.”

“They are big enough for your mouth.”

“Touché. So, what should I start with? There are like ten pairs of clothes in here.”

Henry groaned as he got up to help him change. Hyrum decided to keep his clothes on only leaving his hard hat behind. Henry had him get on Gravity Factory outerwear and then proceeded to stuff the insides with the additional clothes into the suit until Hyrum was nearly the same size as him.

“There you go,” said Henry as he patted Hyrum’s now inflated body.

“You know this is quite uncomfortable,” said Hyrum. He tried to stand up from the couch but fell back and sunk into the couch once more. “ I don’t know if this is going to work,” he said exasperatedly spreading out his arms and legs.

“Well, if you want to get it then you will need to look the part. I’m doing this for you so are you going to try or not?”

“Fine.”

With a heave and a hand from Henry he got himself up from the couch and started waddling towards the door.

“This is so dumb,” said Hyrum as he tried to walk.

“I think it is quite fun. This is already much better than the time you got tickets to the Flare Launch Extravaganza.”

“Don’t remind me. I almost threw up being sent into the void like that for a few minutes.”

“Haha, and I got to see it in full screen too. The other Hydrogen atoms at the time were laughing their asses off and made bets to see if you were going to be one of the unlucky few that would be flung into the ether.”

“Just lock your door and let’s get out of here,” Hyrum grumbled.

So, Henry did just that.

--------

It took Hyrum some time to get used to the ‘disguise’ that he was wearing. At several points, he had to adjust it to make it more comfortable for him and make sure he could see over the large belly and chest he now had.

“This is getting too hot,” Hyrum complained.

He had done this for a while now since they left the apartment. Various atoms gave them odd glances and stares as they went, but none bothered them.

“You’re like ninety-nine percent air. Just deal with it and shut up. We are almost there. This is what you wanted right?”

“You know I was hoping for more of a guided tour that is done by professionals and gives you interesting facts and gives you crayons to draw your own dinosaur at the end with some candy.”

“You mean the neutron tours they give to babies?”

“Yeah like that.”

“I guess you are almost small enough for that. You runt.”

“Hey, that is just rude,” said Hyrum giving Henry a playful push in response. Henry did not move at all. “I may be small but that is just how I was built. It is not like it was my fault that my electrons are out of whack sometimes.”

“You only have one electron.”

“Exactly. It is sooo unfair,” he said dropping his head and dropping his hat in the process.

Henry picked it back up and put it firmly back on Hyrum’s head. “You know all you have to do is rank up to get more. It isn’t that hard once you work enough and get in line for it.”

“But I hate lines.”

“You do know that the lines aren’t real for the fusion reactor, and they are now all digital.”

“Oh really. That would have been useful. Maybe if you had told me earlier I would have just ranked up in time instead of wearing this stupid outfit.”

“But you are too lazy for that,” said Henry.

“I am much too lazy for that,” said Hyrum as he turned to Henry and gave him a big dopey smile.

“Let’s just go inside. Now keep quiet for a few minutes at least.”

“Of course. Of course. I will be on my best behaviour.”

Hyrum opened the doors to one of the Gravity Factory entrances and let Hyrum waddle in. Inside thousands of Helium workers milled about near the entrance alone. Along the walls were walls of text documenting the history of the sun and the importance of the Gravity Factory. Next to the walls were small glass cases with a variety of tools used by the factory over the years. Hyrum was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

“It is just like a neutron tour,” said Hyrum in a higher-pitched voice.

His body seemed to float toward the wall before his collar was caught by Henry.

“Keep it together.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Hyrum hissed as he tried to claw his way away from Henry and towards the info wall.

“I honestly forgot?”

“Oh.” Hyrum’s body deflated and Henry let go of him. He still ran over to the wall in glee.

Hyrum looked over the wall for what felt like hours before Henry convinced him to leave by showing him the current tools and machines they used. Hyrum continued to mutter to himself about how wonderful the factory was. Hyrum pushed other Helium atoms out of the way to show him around. He also took liberties to cover his whole hand over Hyrum’s mouth and face. Pretty soon he got the memo and kept his voice down.

They moved through several sections of the factory where information was gathered, used, and distributed to other parts of the sun. Eventually, they came across the ‘System Display’. In charts around them, it's showed it all as Henry described. Images of the planets blown up on screens and pictures of their trajectories and other information. Hyrum watched a video clip of the two planets circle the sun in a loop for what Henry felt went on forever. Like an excited child Hyrum’s excitement and attention jumped up and down between whatever was neared and most interesting. Henry at several point had to guide him away from the more dangerous stuff such as active machinery and gravity wells that would suck him away deep into the sun.

“Wow. This is amazing. I mean look at it. The planets are awesome. Look at the colors on its surface. The sun isn’t this cool at times. It is largely the same, but these planets. They are full of so many different elements compared to our sun.”

“I suppose it is pretty cool. I’m glad you got to see pretty much all of it,” said Henry.

“Yeah, it has been great. You should bring me again. Preferably sometime soon,” he said turning to Henry.

“Not happening. You can come back here when you are Helium rank.”

“Fine. But I should at least see it all right. Show me to the Bathrooms next,” he said triumphantly.

“You can’t be serious.”

“What of course I am. This suit is super uncomfortable. I need a few minutes to breathe and really do want to check everything out in here.”

“Whatever. Let me show you where it is.”

Henry grabbed Hyrum and dragged him once again towards the nearest wall and followed it to the nearest bathrooms. Henry decided to wait outside and endure the crowd of workers instead of waiting out Hyrum’s continued ramblings.

‘Finally. Some privacy and I can breathe again,’ thought Hyrum. ‘Those clothes weigh almost double me.’ He dropped the last of the clothes on the floor leaving only his work clothes before looking down. ‘Shit. I am going to have to put those back on later, aren’t I? I will make it Henry’s problem then. The tour was good at least. Until I get kicked out. The security guards are always a bit meaner to me than others because I can’t drop rank any further.’

He sat back in the stall. People went in and out of the stalls for a bit longer until there was suddenly no noise. Then two voices started speaking from near the outside of his stall. Hyrum got up and leaned up against the door and started listening.

‘Gossip is always my favorite. The world turned to silence for me. It must be my destiny to listen in on all of the Sun’s greatest secrets!’

“What is it you wanted to call me in here for? And the bathroom no less,” said the first voice.

“I found something weird. Only you can know right now,” said the second voice.

“But why the bathroom. We are not children did you really have to tell me in here instead of my apartment?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about it. Why I decided here is less important than what I have to say. So, I was tracking the large planet's elliptical orbit and found it was off.”

“So, what does it matter?” said the second voice.

“Of course, it matters. The orbit of the planet is dying. It is going to collide with the Sun. The Sun is hit by that amount of atoms then the Sun will start to die and go out. Eventually, it will go supernova because of this. We are already near the critical point and the planet will push the Sun far past it?”

“I don’t see where that is my problem.”

“Come on you got to help me. The sun is going to go out”

‘I want to help you.’ Thought Hyrum as he leaned closer against the stall door.

“What is wrong with the sun going out,” said the first person. “Suns go supernova or die all the time. They die and create new stars in the process.”

“I guess you weren’t the right person to tell. Ignore what I said I guess. It is not like anyone else can help me with this.”

‘But I am sure I can help you. In fact, I am going to make sure the Sun doesn’t explode with you. I am sure we can figure it out together. Screw that first guy.’ And with that shoddy logic, he burst open the door tumbling over the pile of clothes he had made in the process.