“You know, at some point we need to figure out what’s going on up there” I say as I get hit with a step up enziguri

“Why’s that?” Asher questions without looking away from the screen

“Because.” Ellie pauses as her character does a leg sweep and transitions into a standing moonsault

“There’s been no civilized life up there…. As far as we know ever. And now there’s suddenly structures that have nothing to do with NASA.”

“And we should care about this….. why exactly?”

Asher’s character takes the momentum back and flatten’s Ellie’s character with a powerbomb. The ref counts to 3 and the match is over. Ellie rolls her eyes as Asher giggles a bit and drinks some water.

“Because” Ellie says, turning to face Asher on the couch. This is the first time in modern history we actually have proof of civilization on another planet. Another way of life. We should study it. Try to understand it.”

Asher ponders this for a bit before answering.

“Why do we need to understand what life is like on Venus?”

A tear forms on Ellie’s cheek as she tries to find the words. Asher’s face softens in concern. Ellie takes a deep breath and speaks

“Because I don’t understand what life is supposed to be like here. Society isn’t making much sense and I’m thinking there might be a better way. Think about this”

Ellie gets up and Asher holds her hand, knowing they’re going to the telescope. He starts walking but traces a small circle on Ellie’s palm, indicating somethings up.

“Something wrong, babe?” Ellie asks while giving Asher her full attention.

“I’m just……. wanting to know what you mean when you say you don’t understand what life is supposed to be like. We’re going to school. We have friends. We’ll get jobs…”

Asher looks down at the floor, starting to understand what Ellie means

“Yeah. We go to a school we hate. Have friends that are better off as enemies, and in this market…. Ugh.”

Asher looks up slightly but still can’t meet Ellie’s eyes. There’s a lot of truth in her words. They both go to a university that makes them feel like garbage every second they’re there, they haven’t heard from their “friends” in awhile, and the last job Asher took gave him nightmares and panic attacks. But still. He can’t understand why his girlfriend keeps looking to the stars for answers.

Ellie can sense the sadness in her partner’s soul. She opens her arms and gently embraces him. He squeezes back a little tighter. They stay like that for a few moments before separating.

“How are we feeling baby?” Ellie asks softly.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Asher smiles. “I’m good”

“Good. So…..”

Asher nods. “Let’s see what nonsense that little stick showed you”

Ellie rolls her eyes and leads the way up the stairs into her library. It’s a cozy room with a few bookshelves. Mostly comics, philosophy, and astrology. There are religious texts but Ellie’s collection is not focused on one particular religion, but rather any spiritual text that offers insight into the creation of the universe.

One wall of the library has a stain glass window with 3 panels, one pink, one white, and one blue. The white panel in the middle opens at the top to allow the telescope to view outside.

The telescope itself is state of the art from NASA itself. It’s connected to Ellie’s laptop which allows her to punch in coordinates or directional commands which the telescope responds to and moves, rather than having to hone in on tiny stars herself. She quickly taps in coordinates for a zoomed in view of Venus and beckons Asher to come look. Asher raises his eyebrows at Ellie and chuckles a bit, expecting to see nothing but a gas giant. He timidly steps up to the telescope and puts his eye to it, and what he sees nearly makes him fall over in surprise.

“Ellie! There’s people surrounding the building and walking around!”

“WHAT?!” Ellie practically shouts as she furiously taps on her keyboard, pulling up the telescope’s view on her screen. Sure enough, there are now several figures bustling about what seems to be a residential building. Or maybe a headquarters? All that could really be made out was a tall rectangular building with several smaller sections and vaguely human-like figures that appear to be radiating with some form of energy.

“This…. This is incredible. Asher, we have just discovered intelligent life on another planet!”

“Yeah, I….. I never thought years of stargazing would lead to more than just….. stars.”

Just then, Asher notices a ship of some sort landing near the building. It’s a triangular prism with a circular base, which allows it to hover. It slowly descends to the floor and one side opens down into a ramp, allowing a few dozen…. People? Beings? Creatures? To exit and mingle with the others. Several of them are carrying large crates.

“Maverick, are you seeing this?”

“Yes, and if we’re lucky….”

Maverick punches in a command to the telescope to follow the ship. It takes off slightly faster than the speed of sound, which forces Ellie to switch tactics.

“Ash, we’re going to try to have the telescope follow where the ship will be, since it’s going too fast to follow moment by moment. You might get a little dizzy, okay?”

“W…. Will I fall?”

Asher gulps as he looks down from the stairs which are a good 7-8 feet above the hard wood floor. Certainly wouldn’t be fun to take a spill like that.

“Gotcha covered babe”

Ellie winks at her partner as she hits a button on her keyboard, which causes a large mattress to grow out of the library floor, completely surrounding Asher.

Asher’s shoulders relax as he exhales and grips the telescope. It jerks downwards and to the left, as it goes past earth and mars and aligns itself with Jupiter. From there it keeps shooting downwards before being sucked into what appears to be a black hole. The telescope gets confused and tries to find the ship again, causing Asher to lose his grip and fall off onto the mattress.

Ellie walks over as Asher sits up and laughs a little.

“You okay bud?”

“Well I’m a little shook, but it was fun” Asher jokingly complains as he’s pulled to his feet

“Well I thank you for being the brave guinea pig”

“And I thank you for this” Asher says, tapping his foot on the mattress

“Always. I’d never let you get hurt. Especially not while searching for extraterrestrial life on other planets.” Ellie states matter of factly, as if she does this every day.

“I…. I don’t think we just searched for it. I think we found it.”

“Well…” Ellie pauses a bit as she motions for Asher to follow her downstairs. They sit down on the couch and drink some seltzer to ease the queasiness in their stomachs. “We found something. Something nobody has seen before. The question now is what do we want to do about it?”

She looks to Asher, unsure of herself.

“Well, being the smart one in this couple, I’d say we should be patient and document what we find. We only have so many resources and I’m sure NASA will eventually help if there’s anything to this. But right now….”

“Nobody would believe us?”

Asher nods, a little sad to admit it. “Right now from the research we’ve done they seem to be focused on finding human habitable planets and developing a craft that can reach them in a reasonable amount of time. The ship we saw is promising, but we need more information.”

Ellie’s stomach growls loudly

“We also need food”

“Facts” Asher says as he pulls out his phone. “I think this calls for a celebration! Chili dogs and shakes?”

“Hell yeah, punch it in”

Asher punches a code into the “InstaFood” app and orders two chili dogs, a strawberry shake for himself and a cookie dough shake for Maverick. A few seconds later he gets a notification that the order has been 3D printed and is waiting in the InstaFood unit in their kitchen. They both rush to it like dogs hearing a dinner bell.

“You know, I don’t think any amount of advertising or research will get me to understand how this Instant 3D printed food…. exists. I keep thinking I’m gonna bite into some wires or plastic or….. something.”

“I know right! But it’s still better than what we could come up with in the kitchen.”

“Well, not better than what I could’ve came up with in 2019. 2090….. yeah I couldn’t cook this for shit”

The two laugh as they enjoy a relaxing night with old Star Trek movies.