Chapter 14

Connie

‘Supernova Site’

An incessant beeping in the room was starting to give me a headache. Did they not hear it? What the hell was it?

“What is that noise?” I asked, looking around.

“A warning. Four warships are here. They have stopped on the other side of the sun,” Bob said as he turned the sound off.

“Warships? Are we in danger?” I asked, getting up from my seat to look more closely at the screen.

“No. They are not taking a defensive formation. I believe they are here to transmit the explosion to the kingdom. There is no need to worry until they fire on us,” Billy said.

“Fire on us?” I exclaimed. “You said those are warships! If they fire on us, we will be nothing but space dust. Look at them, they’re huge!”

My panic was rising, but this was serious. I have never so much as seen a gun in my whole life, and now I was sitting in a tin can, on the business end of four warships.

Bob zoomed in on the image, and the ships came into focus. The massive, scary-looking ships still hung in the air.

“This is panic you feel. And fear. Is that correct?” Billy asked.

“Never mind that,” I said. “We need to get out of here. What if they decide they don’t like us and blow us up?”

“They will not do so without the consequence of retaliation by our race. Stay calm.”

I turned back to the screen and folded my arms. The warships in the distance turned toward the sun, and away from us. I was relieved that they were no longer pointing at us.

Billy came to me with a small tray in his hand and said, “You will need to place these on your eyes, to protect you from the light.”

He pushed a small metal tray with two tiny silver orbs on it into my hands. They were the same ones they used when we first met.

“What are they?” I looked closer at them. The metal balls spun in place, like a liquid layer moving on the surface.

“They are made of smart matter. They have been programmed to filter all harmful light, radiation, and unknown particles so that you can look directly at the explosion.”

He pushed the tray closer to me and waited.

“How do I put them in?”

“Would you like me to do it for you?” Bob asked. I glanced over at him, and nodded. “Will it hurt?” I asked.

“As we said before, all procedures on this ship are painless.” Bob glided over to me and picked up one orb in each hand. He turned to me and waited.

“What do I do?”

“Tilt your head back and keep your eyes open,” Bob said, coming up behind me, towering over me a good two feet.

I turned my back to him and arched my back till my head was horizontal. I looked at Bob and nodded. I focused my eyes on the ceiling and waited.

I saw his hand come over my face and get close. When it was only a few inches away, he dropped both balls into my eyes.

I blinked reflexively. “Whoa! Oh wow, okay!” I shouted as the cold metallic liquid moved over my eyes. My vision turned dark, but the more I blinked, the more it cleared.

“Can you see?” Billy asked after a moment. I looked around hoping to spot something unusual in my vision, but it was clear and normal again.

“Yes, nothing has changed,” I said, assuming the orbs hadn’t worked.

“Your vision will remain the same. The smart matter will filter out harmful elements. You should not have any difference in your sight,” Bob said.

“Okay. Yeah, I can see fine,” I said, looking at him.

“Then we are ready,” he replied. “My calculations say the explosion will happen in three hours.”

I sat down at my place on the bridge and put my feet up onto the empty control panel in front of me.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked.

“Wait,” Billy said. Both went into a rigid, motionless stance, staring out the window. I waited to see if they would move, even just a finger, but they were statues.

“Right,” I mumbled, looking at the screen. It was still focused on the warships in the distance.

I looked closer at them, marveling that these were real alien spaceships, just hanging out in the same spot we were.

With the enormity of the universe, we were both watching the same incredible sight.

When Billy and Bob finally moved again, they both looked back at me, as though ensuring I was still there, and then back out at the sun. “It will begin soon.”

I stood and went to the front of the room, as close to the screen as I could get, and crossed my arms over my chest as a wide smile spread over my face.

The sun boiled and turned in a kaleidoscope of colors. It grew brighter and brighter, and as the light was getting too much, I saw the room dim around me.

I looked over at Billy, and saw that it wasn’t the screen getting darker, but my own vision.

The sun suddenly pulled in on itself, and in a moment, a massive, bright explosion dominated the screen around me. I gasped at the sheer beauty and power of it.

A shock wave erupted out of it, heading in every direction, including ours. “Um, guys, should we be here with that coming our way?” I asked.

“The shock wave will take six weeks to reach this place. We will be long gone by then,” Bob said, not turning away from the sight.

“It’s incredible,” I whispered to myself. “Just…incredible.”