Masago's feet once more pounded the floor with a flurry of fancy footwork on her way to the club room. She danced and twirled and leaped above and around the obstacles in her way. She danced through the school hallways light as a feather while carrying her bag and the giant pile of papers in both hands.
Yonezawa Masago continued her performance through the school hallways until she finally reached it and she stepped inside and set down the papers on a table. "Whoo! Feels good to finally set that down." She laughed. "Oh man I can't wait to see their faces when they see my write-up! Club Tonight is going to be so much fun!" She bounced in the air a few times to loosen up and get used to moving around without carrying all that around and then she turned to the door and hurried out only to nearly run into The School Janitor Mister Toshinobu. A hulking hefty grizzled balding old man with short buzzcut grey hair and a short stubble.
"Oh Mister Toshinobu! I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there!"
"Oh that's quite alright. Really, I should apologize to you for the jumpscare." He chuckled. "Of course it's hard to believe someone as big as me could sneak up on anyone. Were you daydreaming again?"
"Well you know me: Total space case." She giggled. "My friends think I'm an alien."
"An alien eh? That would certainly improve things around here. Ah life's been so boring. We could really use some spice in our lives."
"I wouldn't worry about that. I think the meteor shower, as awesome as it was already, was a sign. A sign of things to come. I think that something amazing is just around the corner sir."
"Just around the corner, eh? Well, it was a rather spectacular meteor shower so just might be right. I certainly hope so." He chuckled. "You're a good kid, Masago. You always know how to lighten the mood. Here. Take this." He handed her a hall pass card. "Just in case you end up being late."
"Ahhhh! Oh man that is so helpful! Thank you so very much!" She accepted the card and bowed her head before she turned and hurried back to class.
Toshinobu watched her leave until she turned the corner and then he turned back around, closed the club room door and moved on with his day to get back to work.
-
Misago finally made it back to her classroom, skidded to a stop, twirled, opened the door and slipped right inside and then she danced across the room to get back to her chair and got set-up.
"Just in time all over again, eh Masa?" Tahara teased her.
"You know me! I always arrive right in the nick of time."
"That's my girl. Say, have you been on social media yet today? People are already picking up meteorites! They landed all over the city! Maybe around the world!"
"Whaaaa? Are you serious? That sounds awesome! That's so lucky!"
Tahara laughed. "I'll show you after class. They're seriously cool looking."
"I can't wait. Man I'm so excited! We have got to go Meteorite Hunting after school today!"
Class was fun of course, a nice way to wind down after all of her excitement from last night and really sit back and relax as she took in the Morning Lessons. There was plenty of chatter about the meteor shower of course and Masago continued to get hyped about the meteorites. "Ohhhh man that sounds so cool. I sure wish I had the chance to pick one up already."
"Don't worry about it, Masa. Knowing your luck? You'll probably stumble across them on your way home from school today."
"That sounds about right. I bet Masa's got a meteorite radar somewhere."
"You bet I do! It's built right into my head!" She joked to the laughter of her classmates.
The kids might be laughing now but not a single one of them realized the horrors unfolding in the world around them. Across the globe, people were gathering the fallen meteorites, unknowingly becoming hosts for the invaders. Upon contact, these entities leaped from the meteorites into their bodies, spreading like a contagion. The virus rapidly multiplied within them, swiftly overtaking their systems. Infected individuals would soon become gravely ill, collapsing and losing consciousness. At this critical point, the invaders infiltrated the host's brain, trapping their consciousness in a mental prison within The Hive Mind as the invaders linked up with it. By this stage, the invaders had fully commandeered their hosts, manipulating them for their sinister agendas. The bodies would then miraculously recover from their ailments, moving about once more, but now entirely under the control of the invaders.
The invasion was taking place around the world in broad daylight and nobody realized it. The infected were left completely unable to call out for help as their consciousness remain locked away within The Hivemind. Their memories being slowly erased until they would be left as nothing more than empty shells locked away forever.
The Earth needed a savior now more than ever.
-
Blindingly fast streaks of light shot across the stars, soaring through the vast expanses of the universe, across galaxies and systems, moving at unfathomable speeds towards the Milky Way Galaxy directly on target with Planet Earth.
The morning sun filtered through the tall windows of Wakano High School, casting gentle rays across the bustling hallways. Chatter buzzed like a swarm of bees as students rushed to their homerooms, all abuzz with the same topicâthe mesmerizing meteor shower that had lit up the skies the previous night. It was a sight so extraordinary that even those who had never bothered to look up at the stars had found themselves captivated, and now, it was all anyone could talk about.
Professor Goyaâs morning Astrophysics class, known for its group of particularly curious minds, was no different. The room was already filled with excitement as students speculated on the phenomenon, their voices rising in a chaotic symphony of awe, wonder, and wild theories.
When the door slid open and Professor Goya entered, the class instantly fell into a respectful silence. He was a tall, slender man with neatly combed hair that had long begun to gray, giving him an air of wisdom. His kind eyes surveyed the room, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"Good morning, everyone!" He greeted the class with a warm smile.
The students immediately stood up from their desks and greeted him in unison with a bow of their heads. "Good morning, Professor Goya!"
"Please take your seats everyone." He replied and gestured for them to sit down and they followed his instructions as they eagerly awaited the start of the conversation. "As I'm sure you all know, last night's meteor shower was a once-in-a-lifetime event." He began as he set his bag on the desk and clasping his hands behind his back. "And not just because it was breath takingly beautiful. You see, what made it truly remarkable was that it was visible across the entire world. An astronomical event on that scale? Well, lets just say it doesn't happen all that often." He chuckled. "Now. Who here would like to express their own theories about how this could've been possible, hm? Lets get a friendly discussion going everyone!"
The excitement returned to the room once more as the students raised their hands up again. Each one of them obviously eager to present their own theories on the global visibility of the meteor shower. Tahara was the first one to put forth her hypothesis on the event.
"Maybe a comet was involved? If a large comet passed close enough to Earth, its tail could shed a vast amount of debris into our atmosphere which could create a prolonged, intense meteor shower that could potentially be visible worldwide. The comet's trajectory would need to ensure its dust trail intersects Earth's orbit over an extended period though to make the meteors visible across various time zones."
"An excellent suggestion Miss Tahara. I'm glad to see you've been studying astronomical events. Who's next?"
Nishikawa was picked next. "Maybe a greater asteroid or comet broke apart into many smaller pieces due to gravitational forces or a collission with another space object? If the fragmentation happened close enough to Earth the debris could have spread out and it would be visible from around the world as it entered the atmosphere resulting in the meteor shower."
"What if the Earth happened to move through a particularly dense cloud of space debris from the comet breaking up? If it was large enough that would result in multiple parts of the Earth encountering the debris simultaneously." Chihoko offered.
"Jumping off of that idea, it could be the result of a massive collission between two objects in the asteroid belt resulting in a vast cloud of particles in all directions, potentially creating a ring of debris that Earth would pass through. If this debris cloud orbits the Sun in a way that intersects with Earth's orbit, it could cause a global meteor shower when we pass through it." Yonezawa theorized. "Or, you know, powerful solar activity interacting with the orbit of a comet or asteroid belt causing a shift that sends more debris towards Earth."
The students continued to toss out ideas with each other and the teacher until Tsukiko piped up from the back. "Has anybody considered it might've been aliens hitching rides on the meteor shower to come to Earth?" The class erupted into laughter and even Professor Goya chuckled at the notion. As the laughter died down however, Masago raised her hand up again.
"Professor, I'm having a brainstorm about this one." She declared and stood up. "If I may?"
"Please by all means."
"Eeeee!" She declared and hurried up to the whiteboard and began drawing it on it with a marker. "Now, I'm not saying we've got a spaceship armada flying in under the radar," she joked in a teasing manner as she began scribbling equations. "But there
could be a
chance that the meteorites from last night brought something interesting along with them." She turned around with a pirouette to face the class her eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. "I'm talking about the
possibility of microscopic extraterrestrial life. You know, bacteria, spores, things like that." Several students murmured, their interests clearly piqued. Tahara leaned forward with her hands clasped and a big smile on her face. Professor Goya sat back with a smile and his arms crossed. She had their full attention. Masago bounced on her heels and continued the lesson. "To calculate the odds of this? I'm going to be taking a page from Frank Drake's work: The Drake Equation. I'm sure you're all familiar with it from class but as a quick refresher? Here it is: *N = R â Ă fp Ă ne Ă fl Ă fi Ă fc Ă L.* This equation is used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. But we can tweak it a little. Instead of looking for full-blown civilizations, we adjust the variables to look for microscopic life that could have hitched a ride on those meteorites..." She began explaining each term, her chalk darting back and forth, translating the formula to fit her hypothesis. âR_* would be the rate of star formation in regions where these meteorites might have originated. Then f_P, the fraction of stars with planetsâwe could stretch this to include other celestial bodies, like asteroids or comets. Next, n_e would be the number of these bodies that could potentially support or carry microbial life..."
Her voice was clear and confident, filling the room with her passion for the topic. The class watched as she meticulously wrote down probabilities and figures, occasionally pausing to do mental calculations, correcting herself, and speeding up again. There was a quiet focus in the room, a kind of collective holding of breath, as Masago drew the equation to a conclusion.
"Annnnnd therefore! When we calculate the likelihood based on everything we know-about the meteor shower's global visibility, the diversity of potential celestial origins, and the various factors that could allow microscopic organisms to survive space travel-there's actually a fairly high probability that the meteorites could have brought something tiny, yet alive, down to Earth." She stepped back and finally took a deep breath and slowly blew it out before she finished her speech. "Buuuut, if they did? I doubt it would be from a developed civilization. More like...interstellar hitchhikers you know?" She replaced the marker and cleared her throat as she turned around to face her friends and classmates.
The room was silent for a moment, as if absorbing the weight of what she had said. Then, Professor Goya began to clap for her, slowly at first, but soon the rest of the class joined in with him and a wave of applause washing over Masago. You put this girl in an Astronomy Class or anything related to space/the stars and watch her
shine! She beamed and began taking bows to everyone.
"Excellent, excellent, Masago! Bravo! Bravisimo! I'll need to run your calculations by a few of my math colleagues to be absolutely sure but from where I stand? It all seems solid." The Professor complimented her as he stood up and took pictures of it with his phone. "In fact..." He paused for effect to put everyone in suspense. "I'm SO impressed that I'm giving everyone a few extra points today!"
The class changed from applause to cheers and high-fives were exchanged across the room. Masago bowed to the Professor and returned to her seat while Tahara raised her hand up and Masago slid into her seat to give out her own enthusiastic high-five.
"That was awesome, Masa! You knocked it out of the park!"
"No wonder you're the star student! Guess all those years buried in astrophysics books paid off, eh?"
"You can say that again!" She laughed a little. She might still be a little breathless but she was riding high off of her performance regardless. "Although....although, I think the real challenge is convincing everyone that these 'hitchhikers' are real and not just another product of my overactive imagination."
Tahara laughed as she rubbed her back. "Hey now, if anyone's gonna find proof, it's you girl. Just don't summon any little green men on us, okay?"
"No promises!"
The Professor let everyone continue their conversation before he finally gestured for the students to settle though a smile still lingered on his face. "Alright, alright, time for the real class to begin everyone. Alright, lets delve deeper into the physics of what we saw last night. But before we do, I have one last question." He turned his attention towards Masago. "Hypothetically speaking, if there were microscopic life on those meteorites, what do you think they'd be like?"
Masago hesitated for a moment before she crossed her legs and arms and thought about it. "Well...presumably speaking they'd have to be tough. Real tough. I'm talking real survivors. After all, they'd be traveling through the cold vacuum of space, exposed to radiation, and then enduring the fiery descent through our atmosphere. Whatever they are, they wouldn't be easy to kill."
The class fell quiet again, this time with a sense of unease, as if her words had cast a shadow over the earlier lightheartedness. Professor Goya nodded thoughtfully. His expression bemused.
The bell rang, signaling the start of the lesson proper. Professor Goya gestured for the students to settle, though a smile still lingered on his face. âAlright, letâs delve deeper into the physics of what we saw last night. But before we do, I have one last question,â he said, his eyes twinkling with curiosity as he looked at Masago. âIf there
were microscopic life on those meteorites, what do you think theyâd be like?â
Masago hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. âWell, theyâd have to be tough. Survivors. After all, theyâd be traveling through the cold vacuum of space, exposed to radiation, and then enduring the fiery descent through our atmosphere. Whatever they are, they wouldn't be easy to kill.â
The class fell quiet again, this time with a sense of unease, as if Masagoâs words had cast a shadow over the earlier lightheartedness. Professor Goya nodded thoughtfully, his expression inscrutable. "Survivors indeed, eh? Alright then. Lets get started class."
