The next morning, you wake to a deep blue sky,

heavy with stars fading into daylight.

 

Beyond the horizon, a pale glow gathers. 

The first hint of dawn. 

 

The wind turbines creak softly in the breeze,

their blades slicing the dim air like metronomes.

 

You knock on Cyan’s sleep pod.

 

You hear her rustle awake.

 

“Coming!” She pipes up 

 

Together, you set off toward the silo.

Your footsteps crunch over gravel

as the hum of machinery grows louder.

 

 

Something catches your eye. 

 

Then you see it. 

 

You freeze. 

 

In the east.

Low on the horizon, it hangs like a bluish-pink moon

with a trailing stream of light, glowing brighter than the dawn.

 

“MEGA” you whisper.

 

Cyan stares, transfixed. “It’s real…”

 

You both walk on in silence,

the imposing meteor shining like God’s lantern in the indigo sky. 

 

The air tastes electric. 

 

A strange déjà vu ripples through you; as if you’ve seen this all before, though you can’t place where. 

 

A traveler at the end of a long journey, approaching a final destination.

 

“Where did you come from? What do you know? Who are you?”

 

The questions swirl in your mind as the silo comes into view,

glowing like a monument.

Floodlights paint it white-hot against the dim sky.

 

The earth trembles underfoot.

 

“Engines warming up” You say, half to your self half to Cyan 

 

“Morning!” Xeno’s voice cuts through the hum as he hops down

from a scaffold, a coil of fuel hose slung over his shoulder.

 

His grin is tired but unshaken. “Ready to save the world?”

 

Cyan raises an eyebrow. “So what exactly happens when this thing explodes?”

 

“Best case?” Xeno says, wiping his hands on a rag. “We get a very impressive fireworks show.”

 

He tosses the rag aside and checks a fuel gauge. “Worst case? Total devastation. But don’t focus on that. Timing’s everything. We have to hit MEGA at the exact moment it enters the atmosphere which…” he glances at his watch “…is in about an hour.”

 

~

 

You wait in the control room with Cyan,

a glass-walled bunker across from the silo.

 

Time drags.

​

Forty minutes pass. The single window faces away from MEGA,

but you can see dawn spilling in: deep pink bleeding to red,

the turbines stark against the light.

 

The roar of the silo engines builds until

the walls hum and your teeth buzz.

 

Xeno bursts through the door “We’re almost at one hundred percent,” he says, voice clear with focus. “This is it.”

​

 

Suddenly, his console flashes crimson.

 

A harsh alarm splits the air, and a synthetic voice stutters to life:

 

ＴＡＲＧＥＴＴＩＮＧ    ＳＹＳＴＥＭ     ＦＡＩＬＵＲＥ

ＴＡＲＧＥＴＴＩＮＧ    ＳＹＳＴＥＭ     ＦＡＩＬＵＲＥ

​

Cyan stiffens. “What does that mean?”

 

“I… I don’t understand.” Xeno slams the side of the monitor, eyes flicking across numbers.

 

Cyan glances at you with concern.

 

Xeno curses, half to himself. “The fragments were perfect.

The lock was clean.

The system just won’t hand control to the autopilot…”

 

He falls silent, shoulders sagging.

 

“There’s only one option now,” he says finally, voice flat. 

 

“Either I go… or we all go.”

 

You feel the floor tilt beneath you. “What do you mean?”

​

He looks out the narrow window at the silo, engines breathing smoke.

 

“I’m going up.”

 

“What? Xeno, no. You’re joking, right?” You already know from the look on his face that he isn’t joking.

​

“If I don’t go,” he says with a small, almost amused laugh, “...you know what happens.” 

 

He rests a hand on the console. “This is why I built the manual override. The AI can run things here without me. Better to go out a hero than a -”

“NO!” You cut him off. “No, man, we’ll fix it, we’ll figure something out, you’re not-”

 

He lays a steady hand on your shoulder. His eyes, calm and sharp, have never looked more like an older brother’s.

Your eyes well up. Your vision blurs.

“Hey,” he says softly, “Trust me”

 

Xeno picks up his helmet “You two stay put. If something goes sideways, hit this,” he says, pointing to a lever labeled CONTAINMENT. “If everything goes right, you'll have front-row seats to the best fireworks show in history.”

 

He clips the helmet on “Say a prayer” he says, nodding once before closing the glass visor.

For a moment the glass reflects you both back at yourselves; tired and terrified - and then he’s gone, running across the gantry toward the ladder that vanishes into the silo’s side.

 

You and Cyan sit.

You listen to the noise climb until you feel it in your chest. 

 

On the main monitor, Xeno’s telemetry scrolls: heart rate steady, oxygen good, a tiny dot moving through the command module like a very calm ant. Your throat is dry enough to crack.

​

“Almost time” Cyan says, looking at a count you hadn’t noticed. She reaches for your arm and grabs hold.

Somewhere outside, clamps release.

 

A synthetic voice counts down with indifference. 

 

“Liftoff” 

 

The window goes black with smoke. The monitors show the silo leaping upward, CERULEAN sliding down its side like a word being erased.

 

“Two minutes to intercept.” Cyan announces 

 

“MEGA entering the atmosphere,” you reply 

 

The rocket burns a line toward the imposing visitor.

It steadies, corrects, steadies again. You think of Xeno playing StarBlaze in the arcade as kids, driving the space ship into the final boss with ease as everyone cheers him on.

​

“Ten Seconds to impact,” Cyan whispers. Her fingers bite crescents into your sleeve.
 

 

“Five Seconds!”

 

 

“One…”