It was the year 2085 when humanity discovered a new planet called XERBAB-7. Because of its similarities to Earth, it was called "New Earth."
Darian was a biologist sent to this other planet around 10 years ago. At least, that's what it felt like for him. This planet is called XERBAB-7 and its proximity to a black hole makes a single year here pass extremely slowly.
Darian was sitting near a lake, the same one he had used in these last 10 years to fish. For him, it felt like only 10 years had passed, but on Earth, time moved differently. In fact, while a single year passed on XERBAB-7, five years would pass on Earth.
Or at least, that's what the scientists told Darian before he was sent away. The calculations were wrong; one year on XERBAB-7 didn't equal five on Earth, but fifty.
"Oh, this one is surely big!" Darian was currently fishing. In the old bucket next to him, there were already a lot of fish, around four, even though he had started fishing only 30 minutes ago. He wore his usual hat, the one he wore every time he had to fish.
By putting in more strength, he was able to catch another one. "Eh, it surely is my lucky day today," said Darian, happy that he caught another fish. Realizing that he had caught enough, he decided to stop. Darian grabbed the bucket next to him and started to return to his base.
"Let's call it a day," he whispered while he started to walk across XERBAB-7. Even though this planet had many similarities to Earth, the grass was a different color; it was purple rather than green. At first, it felt strange to him, but without realizing it, he had gotten used to it.
While he was walking, he suddenly heard a rustle in the bush next to him. 'There shouldn't be any dangerous animals...' he thought as he grabbed the knife from his pocket.
Thanks to one of the robots sent together with him 10 years ago, called Aegis, it was ensured that Darian could walk without any problems. Aegis made sure that no dangerous animals could be found near his base or attack him.
But the moment the creature came out of the bush, Darian felt reassured. The creature that just emerged was a small fox. This animal was the most unique creature Darian had ever found on this planet. It had a beautiful color palette; while its main body was white, the tails had some shades of purple on them too. This creature had exactly nine tails, and Darian had never found any creature similar to it.
This creature felt special to Darian. In fact, it seemed like it could easily understand him. This fox would sometimes pass by Darian's base, though in the last year, Darian realized it had become rarer to see it around.
"Oh, hello old friend!" said Darian while the little fox jumped on top of his shoulder and curled up next to him.
"You're lucky; I've caught some extra fish. Do you want to eat one of them?" Darian asked the small creature, who remained curious at the sight of the fish in the bucket.
Darian began to walk towards the base with the small fox curled up on his shoulder. His base, even though he had remained on this planet for 10 years, had never changed. Darian always had a small hut with an even smaller laboratory. Even though one of the robots who came with him, called Mason, proposed an upgrade to the base, Darian always refused. It was mainly because he enjoyed having this small space for himself.
When he got closer to the rocket, he suddenly heard what seemed to be an alarm. The moment he heard it, Darian's heart began to beat faster. Only one thought crossed his mind: 'It's time to go back home.'
Darian immediately started to rush towards the rocket. The small fox on his shoulder, caught by surprise, couldn't help but fall, but Darian didn't even notice. He simply left the bucket with the fish inside the rocket and immediately went to see what was happening with a big smile on his face. This text appeared on the display of the starship: "THE BATTERY ON EARTH HAS FINISHED ITS CHARGE. IT'S TIME TO RETURN TO EARTH… calculating the coordinates…"
The starship's power came from a battery linked to Earth. When it drained completely, that was the signal, the mission was over. The battery's internal timer, set for ten XERBAB-7 years, triggered the siren when the time came.
"No way… I can't believe it has already been 10 years…" said Darian, unable to believe his eyes. Without even noticing which coordinates were written, the rocket was ready to be launched, and Darian realized he couldn't lose a single moment.
"I need to collect all the samples of plants and important stuff that I've found in these years!" he shouted, rushing outside the rocket. While he ran out, the small fox entered the rocket, and Darian didn't even see it.
After five minutes, he grabbed a lot of samples and carefully put them on the rocket. "Bye XERBAB-7, I'm sure we will see each other again." Darian gave one last look at his base before the doors of the rocket closed.
The moment the door closed, the rocket turned on and slowly left the ground, entering space. The robots that came together with Darian looked up at the rocket; they were currently building a city for the humanity that was supposed to arrive.
"I'm sure we will meet again, Darian," said the robot called Pax, who was the closest to him, especially because Pax had a powerful AI that could comprehend human emotions and talk with them without any problem.
'Dammit, I didn't say goodbye to the robots,' thought Darian. He tried to look outside the window of the rocket and spotted the big city that the robots were building. "Well, I'm sure we will meet again," he said, looking outside with a big smile on his face.
"And now… I just need to relax," he whispered as he sat down in his chair. In his mind, memories of XERBAB-7 were playing, especially when he first met the weird fox…
It was the fourth year after he arrived on XERBAB-7. On the first day of the year, he encountered that fox, which entered his right arm. Darian realized that the fox was slowly fusing with him, and after it happened, his whole body began to change. He looked more like a snowman, but Darian didn't have control over his body.
In fact, his arm started to point towards the sky, and a shard as big as a skyscraper was shot into the sky. It felt like the shard traveled for a few seconds before it crashed against something. A huge scream could be heard from the sky and everything became dark for a moment; it felt as if something huge had passed right on top of their heads.
"I wonder what that fox is doing now… don't you think so too?" Darian said as he spotted the small fox inside the ship. After he finished the sentence, he realized that he should be alone on the starship, and that fox was the same one he was wondering about.
"WHEN DID YOU GET IN?!" he shouted, laughing. The fox, who was sleeping, jumped in fear, not expecting Darian to let out such a loud scream. Snowy slowly opened its eyes and stared at Darian.
"Well, I can't do anything about it anymore… maybe I should keep you a secret?" whispered Darian while grabbing the fox in his arms. He realized that he hadn't given her a name yet.
"Snowy… yeah, you should definitely be called Snowy. Do you like this name?" Darian said, smiling happily. It felt like Snowy slightly moved its head in agreement.
Nine days passed in the silence of the void. Darian spent them tending to his plants and watching the fox, which seemingly didn't need to eat or drink. But on the tenth day, the excitement turned to ash.
"This... this isn't right."
The star charts on his monitor were a mess. The constellations were shifted, and the solar winds were erratic. When the ship finally broke through the clouds of Earth, Darian didn't see the blue marble from the history books. The continents weren't there anymore, or at least most of them had been swallowed by the sea.
He noticed that something big had crashed against the Earth; it was a planet that was black and could barely be seen.
"What?! Is this Earth?" Darian suddenly looked at the coordinates displayed below and realized that they were nothing like Earth's elliptical path.
"What is that thing…" he said, scared while looking outside. Darian couldn't believe his eyes. The moment the starship began its landing, Darian saw that everything around him was only water.
Darian knew that the place where the starship was supposed to land was Ukraine, but under him, there was only ocean. The water wasn't deep at all; in fact, it only reached his feet. Before landing, Darian looked at the picture of his family.
"Maybe I won't be able to visit your graveyards…" Darian realized that he couldn't bring many things with him. He took a few items in his bag and went outside with Snowy on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, I guess you won't be able to see Earth in all its beauty… come on, let's see what happened here." Darian and Snowy started to walk in a random direction. For ten minutes, there was only water and the sky was a totally different color; it was gray.
After those ten minutes, he was finally able to see some land. There, Darian saw a creature that felt like it was waiting for him. It stood five-foot-nine, a bipedal nightmare of ink-black skin. Where a hand should have been, a long, serrated blade of bone grew from its forearm, extending down past its knee.
"Hello?" Darian called out. "Who are you?"
The creature didn't answer and Darian walked slower, scared. Suddenly, once Darian was close enough to the creature, the monster started to walk in Darian's direction too.
Darian backed away, and once the creature took a faster pace, Darian did the same. He reached the land and the creature kept following him from behind. It felt like the monster was walking with a simply inevitable and crushing purpose.
Then, the ground ended.
Darian skidded to a halt at the edge of a jagged cliff, looking down thirty feet into a dark, silent abyss of water. He was trapped.
He had returned home after five hundred years, only to find that the world had ended and the monsters were waiting