A Horrifying Discovery

She had forgotten how free she felt in space. No ground to fall onto, no gravity to hold her to the floor—in fact, in her particular vessel, there was no floor at all; every surface had been utilized. She floated through the ship’s umbilical cord and emerged in a small excursion module and began her descent to the mysterious orb’s surface.

A light atmosphere pushed against the ship’s outer walls, simulating a gravitational tug towards the planet. Small red and orange wisps of plasma shot off the surfaces directly engaging the atmosphere and presented a beautiful view through the small window in front of her. Before her eyes land masses became continents, continents countries, countries states, states counties, counties towns, towns blocks, and, finally, in an open field near what appeared to be a statue of some sort, her ship’s deceleration jets activated, gradually bringing her towards the ground, ending with a small thump.

She had never seen anything like it before.

The door’s pneumatic levers hissed, and a whoosh of outgoing air tugged her gently towards the opening. Once pressures equalized, she stood, observed the land beneath her and her ship, and took her first steps toward destiny.

Once safely on the land, she slowly spun around to take in the dramatic scenery. What appeared to her to be fragmented housing complexes surrounded her, as did small vessels with broken windows and orange-brown exteriors which she presumed to be rusted iron. She decided to take a walk.

The year was A.D. 3147, and to date not a single human soul had set foot on an alien landscape aside from the earth’s moon. Many a space station had been constructed, mainly around Jupiter and other large planets in nearby star systems, but no solid body had presented itself as safe and worthy of human tread. Then, out of nowhere, a small blip on a radar screen in a far off space station yielded a planet much like Earth, with an atmosphere of roughly fifteen percent oxygen, ground primarily of mineral compounds of aluminum and iron, and vast oceans of liquid water. The resemblance prompted local scientists to push for an expedition onto the mystery planet, and the Intergalactic Congress, after many nudges, finally granted permission and funding. The end result was Astronaut Julie Tremain’s historic footprints on a new world. From what she had observed, the planet closely resembled Earth, with one large irregularity: a massive crater, roughly five hundred miles across, spanning most of one of the continents. The hole appeared to be several dozen miles deep, and shock waves, frozen in time, lay around the crater for thousands of miles. The land immediately under and surrounding the crater, including the terrestrial tidal waves, had solidified into a sand-like consistency, smoother than a ball bearing, and just as shiny. She delved into the crater to explore.

Few free bits of debris remained, but she managed to harvest a couple chunks of this new glass. She loaded them into her harvester pack and trudged out of the dimple. What appeared to be the remains of a once-great civilization lay in the distance, and she entered her vessel to investigate.

Upon arrival she found constructs that at their bases appeared rectangular, but towards the top, directly above the vertical walls, browned and blackened spires stuck straight up, and an irregular pattern, like a crumbled cookie, lay atop, insinuating that the blast had decimated the area and tore and burned these great buildings. A statue lay ahead. She marched onward.

As she drew closer to the irregular obelisk of green and black, she noticed an eerie feeling arising within herself, like she was in a familiar place. The shape appeared more and more like something she had read about in history texts, and, after coming to within five hundred feet of its base, she drew a horrifying conclusion.

“Station Seven…come in…”

“We read you, Julie.”

“I think I know which planet I’m on.”

The crew, many thousands of miles away, beamed towards her nothing but silence.

“Continue, Julie.”

“I think I found the Statue of Liberty.”

She began to cry.