When the absolute unknown stares you in the face, what would you do? All of humanity was answering that question, albeit in their own individual ways. Nathan and Natalie sat on their couch, leaned towards the television in a silent but gnawing fear. The furthest colonized planet from Earth had stopped communicating with all other colonized planets for 7 standard days now, and no one knew why.
“In all honesty, I’m surprised this didn't happen sooner” Nathan said, now leaning back on the sofa.
“What do you mean?” Natalie replied.
“I mean, we’ve been spreading out into space for over one thousand years now, we were bound to run into something.”
Natalie looked away from Nathan and back to the television screen. “Day 7 of No Contact” displayed beneath the news anchor as she told the local news. There never really was anything interesting on the news. One hour a day, mostly local, nothing too out of the ordinary. Ten years ago there was a murder in town, something so rare people still talk about it to this day, but for the past 7 days it's mostly been this. No contact from New Dawn.
Nathan laughed, “remember when they first colonized that place 10 years ago? Furthest distance not only from Earth, but from any planet whatsoever. I wonder what we found?”
“It could be some sort of space storm, that's what people have been saying” Natalie replied.
“Maybe.”
Natalie continued to sit forward towards the television, her arms crossed. She realized how tense she looked, and decided to get up and walk outside on the porch.
Outside, she looked at the apple trees in their yard. Natalie and Nathan poured what little money they had on buying the place. They finally moved in a year ago, and were quite pleased with their simple but relaxing life. They always wanted a child, and were finally thinking of trying for one. Nathan had bought some lumber to build a new room for their future baby, with Natlie looking at the pile of wood thinking about their future, with butterflies in her stomach with the prospect of being a mother. Natalie looked at the pile of lumber but could no longer feel the butterflies, all she could think of was “No contact from New Dawn. 7 standard days”
“It could be space storms,” she kept telling herself, “that's what everyone thinks is most likely.” She walked towards the closest apple tree and looked at the fruit. She looked at all the apples and leaves on the tree, blocking out everything else. There was no past, no future, only her and the tree. Eventually there was no Natalie, only the tree. Calm.
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Natalie walked back inside and saw Nathan sitting on the couch with a renewed sense of unease. Before she asked what was going on, she looked at the television screen. In bold red letters across the bottom of the screen “Contact Lost with Planet Orleans, Reason Unknown.” Planet Orleans, the closest planet to New Dawn.
The town of Daleson was a small community of around 1500, named after the war hero of the same name who fought in the Kaiser Wars over five hundred years prior. Though many people would convein in the town square in the evening after a long day of work to drink and socialize, it was a rare sight to see the entire town there at the same time. The only instance of this was during certain festivals, and even then there were always some who stayed home. It had been one day since the news of Orleans going dark, and now, the entire community was in the town square and the local pubs surrounding it, all talking about the same thing. Though there was an underlying unease with the townsfolk, there was also a sense of intrigue and curiosity. Everyone wanted to know what was going on, and everyone had their own theories, with the most common being some sort of space storm, with some even thinking the two planets had joined some alliance and wanted to separate from the rest of humanity.
A man called out from the local pub out towards the crowd. “There’s news! There’s news about Orleans!”
Natalie and Nathan were close to the pub's entrance, and were able to get inside while most were trapped outside due to the size of the crowd. There were several televisions on the wall above the bar, all showing the news. The news anchor came on screen and began to speak, but stumbled over her words. Natalie noticed she was pale. “Contact with Orleans has been reestablished.” The news anchor paused. “We now have images from the surface of the planet, the footage is said to be from about 10 standard hours ago.” A video from outside a large city on Orleans. The city was on fire, with large ships hovering above it. They were unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Large and long horizontally, like many transport and military spaceships mankind had in its arsenal, but these ships, the material they were made from, almost looked like the exoskeleton of an insect. More footage played, more cities on fire with the same kind of ships hovering over them. “Reports are coming in that half of the major population centers on Orleans no longer exist. The leaders of all human systems will be convening for the first time in centuries to discuss mankind's first contact with another intelligence.”
The next day contact was once again lost with Orleans. The day after that, mankind's leaders met on Earth. Their decision was a controversial one, although few rejected their logic. For the first time in over 500 years, mankind was to band together as one entity, and mass conscription into a fighting military force for all of mankind would now commence. The day after the announcement of the draft, every person aged 18 to 50 in Daleson were conscripted into the military. The next day, when military spaceships came to pick up Natalie, Nathan, and the rest of the eligible recruits from the town, contact was lost with planet Vanta, the closest planet to Orleans.