They were definitely not alone. The university's shared virtual rooms were open to all students on campus, and as the news spread, the empty boxes on the periphery began to fill, one by one. Faces appeared, connecting from different dorm rooms, homes, and even the quiet corners of the library. Each one had settled into their own small digital box to witness this historic and frightening moment. Some were anxious, some excited, and some were just there to be part of the crowd. The live broadcast on the main screen was their common ground; it was like a theater stage where humanity's fate was being debated, and they were the audience in the front row.
The anchor's voice on the live broadcast filled the silence in the room. "...Infrared sensors from the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed that no propulsion traces, no heat bursts, were detected during the object's trajectory change. This defies the laws of physics as we know them. It's as if... it's moving by warping the fabric of spacetime..." An image from the JWST control center in Maryland appeared on the screen. Dozens of scientists were glued to the complex graphics and numbers on massive displays. The tension on their faces looked as if they were being crushed under the weight of an equation they couldn't solve.
"Warping spacetime?" Liam murmured. "These... these guys are talking about 'Warp Drive.' Star Trek is happening, folks."
Chloe, however, was terrified. "Or it's a weapons technology so advanced we can't comprehend it, Liam. They could make their next 'warp' right in the center of the Earth."
Simultaneously, CEOs of private space companies began to join the broadcast. The charismatic leader of Astraeus Aeronautics, in his flawless suit, was practically filming a commercial. "Our Falcon 9 fleet is ready. We can launch a 'Scout' module equipped with high-resolution cameras into orbit in T-minus three hours. All we need is their approval." The opportunism, palpable even in this moment of crisis, made Petter sick to his stomach.
Then the broadcast connected to the International Space Station (ISS). Japanese astronaut Kenji Tanaka's face appeared through his helmet's visor, with the magnificent blue-and-white curve of the Earth behind him. His voice came through the static. "We... we can't see anything from here. The sky... is calm, as usual. But we can feel it. All those conversations down there, that panic... It's as if the planet itself is holding its breath. The object's position is completely out of our line of sight. We are trying to make adjustments but... it's too fast." Tanaka's voice carried a note of loneliness and helplessness, suspended in the infinite void of space.
"The guys got front-row tickets, but the show is playing on the wrong side," Liam commented, the tension in his voice belying his attempt to lighten the mood.
The focus of the discussion was slowly shifting to the main topic: What should be done? War, or communication? Directors of observatories from all over the world began to join the broadcast. From Russia's Roscosmos agency, an old general, every line on his face clearly carrying memories of the Cold War, spoke in a harsh voice. "Acting hastily would be our biggest mistake. This could be a plasma phenomenon or a magnetic anomaly we have never seen before. We cannot pull the trigger without knowing what we are firing at."
Immediately after, Dr. Arisawa, a calm and serene woman connecting from Japan's JAXA center, took the floor. "We must see this as a 'message' before we see it as a threat. The universe is asking us a question. Should our answer be our noisy weapons, or a quiet effort to listen?"
Petter was torn between these two opposing views. His logic supported the Russian general's cautious approach. But his heart wanted to believe Dr. Arisawa's poetic, hopeful words.
The virtual room was now overflowing with dozens of tiny video windows. The screen looked like the honeycombs of a beehive. In every window, there was a different life, a different reaction. In one window, a student's mother appeared from behind, touching her son's shoulder, whispering a question. In another window, a small child with a cat on their lap was staring at the screen, trying to understand what was happening. These small, personal moments made the massive, abstract debate on the broadcast more real, more tangible. This wasn't just a decision for politicians and generals; this was also the fate of that mother, that small child, that cat.
It was at this point that a young, idealistic representative from the European Space Agency (ESA) put forth that incredible proposal. "This is not a decision that can be made by a few people behind closed doors. This concerns all of humanity. Maybe... maybe for the first time in our history, we should actually hold a global referendum. Communication, or defense? Let humanity vote on its own destiny."
A murmur rose in the virtual room. "He's insane!" Liam shouted. "He wants internet trolls and bot accounts to determine humanity's first contact protocol? The people who make 'Let's Send Lasers to the Traveler' polls on ChronoFeed are going to get the launch codes for nuclear missiles?"
Chloe, however, was undecided. "But don't you see the beauty in the idea, Liam? The chance to act as truly one people for the first time... For everyone's voice to be heard..."
"The security vulnerabilities would be a nightmare," Petter cut in. "Other countries could launch cyber-attacks to manipulate the result. Fake news would spread. People would vote out of fear and panic. Democracy works with an informed and knowledgeable electorate. Right now, no one is knowledgeable. We are just scared."
As the debate heated up, Petter's room door flew open. Maya burst in, still in her light blue dress, her face a mixture of anxiety and curiosity.
"Bro!" she called out, her voice echoing in the room. "They're saying aliens on TV! What's going on?"
Petter's entire focus snapped from the global crisis to his sister. He turned to his friends in the virtual room. "Well, our little pixie has arrived," he said, his voice tired but affectionate. Then he got up from his chair, knelt in front of his sister as she ran to him, grabbed her by the waist, and lifted her into his lap in one motion. When he sat back in his chair, Maya was safe in his arms.
"This is what's happening, sweetie," Petter said, nodding toward the main screen. On the display was a stylized animation of the object moving toward the Moon's orbit. "We have a new visitor in the sky."
Seeing Maya in Petter's lap, there was a momentary change in the other windows of the virtual room. Tense faces softened, some even smiled slightly. Chloe's eyes had welled up with tears. Petter kissed his sister's hair. "Look, there are a lot of big brothers and sisters here, sweetie. They are all watching with us."
Maya looked at all the faces on the screen with astonishment. She waved shyly. "Hello..." she whispered.
"Hello, Maya!" voices rose from several windows at once. For a brief moment, the terrifying tension dissipated, replaced by the pure, human warmth that came with the presence of an innocent child. Even Liam was smiling. "Hey, little lady. You made it just in time for the most exciting part."
The anchor's voice on the broadcast broke the warm moment. "We are confirming the development. Launch protocol for an unmanned, high-speed observation rocket, codenamed 'Argus-1,' has been initiated from Vandenberg Emergency Launch Base. The objective is to get as close as possible to the object and obtain the first high-resolution images."
A live feed from the launch base in California appeared on the screen. Night had fallen, and on the launch pad, illuminated by massive floodlights, a thin, elegant rocket pointed toward the sky like a spear. The countdown had begun.
"TEN... NINE... EIGHT..."
Everyone in the virtual room held their breath. The chat had stopped; all eyes were locked on the launch pad.
"SEVEN... SIX... FIVE..."
Maya was watching the screen with a fear mixed with excitement. The noise of the countdown and the huge rocket on the screen had frightened her a little. She turned her head and pressed it against Petter's chest.
"FOUR... THREE... TWO..."
Petter felt how fast his own heart was beating against his sister's head. "What's wrong, sweetie?" he whispered.
Maya didn't answer, just squirmed a little and snuggled closer to her brother.
"ONE... IGNITION!"
Petter wrapped his arms tighter around his sister, one hand on her neck, the other on her back. "Don't worry, sweetie," he whispered in her ear. "Everyone's here, okay? We're just watching what happens."
On the screen, the rocket's engines ignited, engulfing the pad in a blinding white light and a cloud of smoke. Argus-1 began to rise, slowly at first, then with incredible noise and power, ascending into the sky. It was piercing the darkness, like a fiery spear of hope.
As the rocket left the atmosphere and entered the silence of space, commentary began to come in from the various observatories.
The old general from Roscosmos's voice was heard: "Thrust vector is stable. Speed is nominal. Let us hope this curiosity does not end with the same result as poking a hornet's nest."
Dr. Arisawa from Japan had a different tone: "Look at how silently it progresses. We are sending an emissary. I hope the message it carries is more than just the cold lenses of our cameras."
An official from China's CNSA center was focused purely on the data: "Argus-1 will reach the estimated contact point in twelve minutes. All our sensors are locked on, ready to measure even the slightest electromagnetic response from the object."
The minutes passed like an eternity. There wasn't a sound in the virtual room. Everyone was waiting for the first images from the rocket's camera. On the screen, the rocket's simulation was getting closer and closer to the mysterious object orbiting near the Moon.
And then... the image came through.
Everyone in the virtual room gasped in unison. The image was staticky at first, then it cleared. And what they saw... was breathtaking.
The object was not a perfect sphere. Its surface was covered in interlocking, constantly shifting, iridescent hexagonal patterns, as if made of a living, organic crystal. It wasn't absorbing light; on the contrary, it was glowing with a soft light from within, in shades of amethyst and emerald green. On its surface, there were slowly moving, luminous veins that resembled spiral galaxies. Behind it, the cratered, gray, and dead surface of the Moon served as a dull and boring backdrop to this living, shimmering marvel. In that moment, the thought that this object was not a ship or a machine, but perhaps a living, breathing entity, crossed everyone's mind at the same time.
"That's... that's impossible..." Liam stammered.
Chloe had her hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "It's so... beautiful..."
The rocket's camera was getting even closer to the object. The incredible details on its surface, those living veins of light, became even more pronounced. For the first time in its history, humanity was getting such a close, such a clear view of an extraterrestrial intelligence, or at least, its creation.
Just then, as the object began to pass in front of the dark side of the Moon, the strange thing happened.
The moment that shocked everyone, that overturned the laws of physics, that defied all logic and reason...
The object suddenly vanished, as if by a magic touch, as if it had never been there at all.
There was no explosion. No flash of light, no energy discharge, no warp speed effect... None of it. In one frame of the video, the magnificent, glowing entity was hanging in front of the Moon. In the very next frame... there was only empty space, the Moon, and the stars.
A deadly silence fell over the live broadcast. The scientists were frozen, staring blankly at the data on their screens.
In Petter's virtual room, everyone's jaw had dropped in shock. Liam's hand was frozen in mid-air; Chloe's sob was caught in her throat.
Petter instinctively hugged Maya in his lap even tighter. In that moment, he was faced with a truth greater than that massive, global mystery, that technological marvel, that political debate: They didn't understand. They didn't understand anything at all. And what they were facing was far, far beyond their imagination.
In that moment, it was as if time itself had frozen. The anchor's voice on the live broadcast choked for a moment, then turned into a high-pitched shriek: "What was that?! Did the equipment fail?! Is it a technical malfunction?!" The faces of the scientists on screen, in the light of the complex data graphs, were fixed in blank expressions mixed with astonishment and fear. It was as if they had all been subjected to an incomprehensible spell at the same time.
In Petter's virtual room, the silence was just as sharp. Liam's mouth was still open in shock; Chloe hadn't been able to pull her hand away from her face. Similar expressions of shock were reflected from the other student windows on the periphery.
"What just happened?" Chloe whispered, her voice trembling. "Is it gone? Or... did it just turn invisible?"
"Data loss? Or did the rocket explode?" Liam murmured, his voice like the echo of a mechanical failure. But his eyes were locked on the image of empty space on the screen.
Petter hugged Maya in his lap tighter. All the programmer's logic inside him was searching for an algorithm to explain this situation, but it found none. "No," he said, his voice more an attempt to convince himself than a statement of belief. "If the rocket exploded, it would have left a trace. If it was data loss, the image would have frozen or turned to static. This... this just evaporated."
About ten seconds passed, maybe less. That silent, frozen moment was suddenly broken. The hair on Petter's arms and the back of his neck suddenly stood on end, as if a sharp electrical current had shot up his spine. It felt as if an invisible, world-sized lightning bolt had struck everywhere at once, or was about to. The air felt charged with electricity, as if every molecule was vibrating, being crushed by an invisible force field. It wasn't a physical blow, but the sensation was a vibration that went to his very bones, an instinctual alarm.
Maya, in Petter's lap, shrank in fear. She gripped her brother's t-shirt tightly with her small hands, turning and pressing her head against his chest, her whole body trembling. "Bro! What's happening?!" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
From his sister's reaction, Petter knew that what he was feeling was real. This wasn't just paranoia that only he was experiencing. The other student faces on screen were feeling it too. Liam's eyes had widened in panic; Chloe was clearly trying to cover her ears with her hands.
On the live broadcast, the same panic was on the faces of the scientists. The initial frozen looks at the observatories had been quickly replaced by frantic expressions. On some screens, indistinct, rustling sounds were rising in the background. "Anomaly in the upper atmosphere... Vertical movement observed... Magnetic field irregularities..." These faint whispers lasted for such a short time that no one was sure if they were real or just a reflection of their feelings. But one by one, the live feed connections to the observatories began to cut out. First China, then Russia, then JAXA... Each window turned a dull gray. The anchor's voice was now in open panic: "We've lost the feed! What's happening? We're getting no signal from Roscosmos! Or Tokyo!"
The students in the virtual room also grew agitated. Screams and the sounds of mothers yelling for their children could be heard from a few windows.
Just then, Petter's room door opened. His mother, Sarah, stood in the doorway, looking at the empty space on the screen with a shocked expression. The compassionate look on her face had given way to terror and anxiety. Maya, trembling in Petter's chest, looked as if she was about to cry.
Petter tried to stay calm, slowly stroking his sister's hair. "I'll be right back," he murmured, addressing both his sister and his friends in the virtual room. He slowly stood up, with Maya still in his arms. He gave his friends one last look. Liam's mouth was still open; Chloe's eyes were filled with tears.
"I'll reconnect in a bit," he said, his voice sounding distant even to his own ears.
When Petter and Maya joined their mother in the living room, she was still in shock. She was trying not to let Maya see, but Maya was smarter than that. Still in Petter's arms, without lifting her head, she asked her mother in a trembling voice, "Did the aliens come, Mom?"
Sarah took a shaky breath. "No, sweetie," she said, trying hard to keep her voice from trembling. "There's just... a problem. The scientists are trying to figure out what's going on."
Petter sat Maya on the couch, then turned to his mother. "Mom, what are you feeling?"
Sarah had clasped her hands together, her fingers intertwined. "It's like... something is trembling inside me, Petter. An emptiness in my stomach. I've never felt anything like this in my life. It feels like a disaster is at the door."
"Exactly," Petter said, nodding. "Like that moment right before lightning strikes."
Maya, huddled in the corner of the couch, pressing both hands to her chest, murmured, "I felt it too. My tummy hurt."
This was a shared experience, even if it wasn't concrete proof. It was a primal fear, devoid of scientific explanation. They sat for a while, crushed under the weight of silence and uncertainty, trying to imagine the chaos the outside world was descending into.
Petter, thinking he had calmed Maya down a bit, wanted to go back to his room. "I'm just going to pop into my room. Maybe I can connect with Liam and the others." But Maya instantly latched onto him, grabbing his clothes. "No! Don't go!"
Seeing the pure fear in his sister's eyes, Petter gave up. "Alright, come on then, let's get you to bed, my little fish," he said. Although his mother wanted to approach, Maya made it clear she felt closer to her brother and wanted to stay with him. "Come on," he said, and carried her in his arms to his own room.
Petter gently laid Maya on his bed. "Were you very scared, my beautiful pixie?" he whispered, stroking her face, her eyes, her nose. Maya just nodded, her eyes full of tears. "Should we take off your dress, or do you want me to call Mom?"
"No! I'm not taking it off!" Maya protested.
Petter didn't insist. He tucked her into bed, still in her sundress. When he touched her small, bare feet, Maya's body was still trembling. Petter came up with a plan to lift his sister's spirits. He suddenly pressed his fingers into the soles of Maya's feet. Maya recoiled from the sudden tickle and curled up. "Brooo!" she yelled, her voice still tearful, but it also carried the seed of a laugh.
Petter had no intention of stopping. "Come here, you little fish," he said, sliding onto the bed. He started tickling her belly, her armpits, and her stomach all at once, practically kneading her. "Where's my beautiful fish, my one and only..."
Maya was both trying to maintain a pouty face and convulsing with laughter. She didn't fail to complain, but the cloud of fear on her face had begun to dissipate, replaced by a playful mischief. Petter grabbed his sister by the legs and flipped her upside down. Maya, pressing her arms against the bed, almost did a handstand, giggling as she hung upside down. She was having a lot of fun.
Petter let out a loud laugh and tried to lift her in one go. In that moment, Maya's sundress rode up a bit too much with the movement. Petter immediately adjusted the situation, pulling her back into a hug, then tossed her into the air a few times and caught her. The screams Maya let out as she soared through the air echoed joyfully in the room. It was as if she had transferred her fear into this physical play. For a moment, at least, she was cheering up.
In that moment, a clear decision formed in Petter's mind. Even if the world was ending, he would leave his computer on that broadcast and stay with his sister. He needed to get through this moment and forget.
"Now, look what we're doing," Petter said. He messed up Maya's hair with his hands so that it completely covered her eyes. "What am I pointing at!" he asked.
Maya shook her head, but Petter's hand was in her hair. "Nope, you're wrong!" Petter said. He asked again, and Maya was wrong again.
Maya got a little annoyed. "Ugh, bro!"
"Hush now, you little fish," he said, and kissed her through the hair covering her eyes.
Maya looked at her brother, that mischievous sparkle still in her eyes. "Bro, can I give you a kiss too?"
"Come on then," Petter said and leaned down. He felt Maya's big, wet kiss. "That's it. Now it's time to sleep, okay, beautiful?"
Although Maya didn't exactly want to, she was happy that her brother was staying with her. "Okay, fine," she murmured.
Petter lay down on the bed, pulling his sister next to him. Maya rested her head on her brother's arm and fell asleep quickly. But Petter was being eaten up inside. What had happened that made the observatories leave the broadcast one by one without explanation? What was going on? This silence was even more terrifying than the object's sudden disappearance.