The Sun Is Dying and Aliens Face Extinction in ‘Fugitive Planet’

From Chapter 6

Babekian child Weka Eyak gazed upward within a surface dome high above the underground city of Kwawba. The large, perfectly rounded, clear structure was all that stood between him and the dark, lethal environment looming outside. Temperatures outside the dome hovered just above negative 32 Pur—cold enough to kill any living creature instantly. Despite the comfortable climate inside, he instinctively puffed out his feathers, which covered his entire body, and held his two thin, sharply-angled wings and long, slender arms tight against his stout trunk. Save for a bright red strip of long, elegant feathers running along the top of his streamlined head, the remainder of his plumage shimmered a light green color. His six large, round green eyes, spaced evenly around his head, moved independently to scan the vastness of the universe above him. 

After traveling for thousands of years through the cold void of interstellar space, his planet’s atmosphere had long since frozen on the surface, and there was nothing to impede his view into the heavens. Amid the seemingly endless pinpricks of light, he found the cluster of stars that marked the location where their native sun had once shone. It was the location where his ancestor Ekim Eyak, and the other few survivors of their dying sun, had begun their perilous voyage across the galaxy in search of a new star system to call home. 

The feathers on his long neck glowed an amber color with gratitude as he thought of all those who had come before him. Nearly fifteen generations had lived and died deep underground, knowing only a world of cold and darkness. Yet, they had somehow pressed on, motivated by the hope of a better future. He felt privileged to be part of the generation that would witness the entrance into a new solar system, the solar system of the Boaba Star. 

Lowering his gaze within the dome, he noticed random flashes of color interrupting the darkness. Other city residents were congregating and communicating excitedly, for today was a day so many had dreamed of. It was the day when their planet would enter the gravitational field of the new sun. If all went as planned, they would be permanent residents of a solar system once again. The PTN, which his ancestors successfully used to escape their dying star, would now guide Babek into a new orbit, or at least that was the plan. But Weka was not ready to celebrate yet. 

His neck feathers turned bright purple with worry as he thought of all that could still go wrong. Unless everything went perfectly, they would pass by the star, or worse, collide with it. He remembered his father saying that just one ill-placed asteroid strike or major earthquake could ruin everything. And then there was the intelligent life on the third planet from the sun, the species that called itself human. They could prove to be the greatest risk of all. 

His grandmother was the first to discover the existence of the intelligent species on the planet they called Earth. Ever since that discovery, the inhabitants of Babek (known as Babekians) had been studying everything about the strange and volatile beings. It had not been challenging to learn about them, for they freely broadcast everything about themselves through electromagnetic waves or what they called radio waves. 

As a child, he suspected he had been shielded from much of the information about Earth life, but his grandmother and father once called the humans “cruel and violent creatures.” Although he knew they posed a risk, he could not help but be fascinated by them. He had heard them called “ugly” due to their lack of feathers and their different anatomy, but he disagreed with that assessment. He did find it unfortunate that they lacked wings and the ability to change their exterior color. He also found it a major flaw that they could not create energy from light—only organisms called plants possessed that ability. But he admired their versatility and ability to make up for their deficiencies with technology. 

He shook his wings as he tried to forget the risks and focus on the possibilities. If his people could successfully enter an orbit around the new sun, they could potentially live on the surface once again. He dreamed of flying in the open air, under the sun, even though he had never felt sunlight and did not know how it would feel. He had only heard stories—stories passed on for generations. But today, that would change. Today he would witness his very first sunrise. 

He shifted his eyes to look toward the horizon and noticed that the very tips of the nearby razor-sharp Mipok Mountains had begun to illuminate. His eyes followed the light as it traveled down the mountain ridges, and his head feathers rose high with anticipation. As the Boaba Star breached the horizon, its light reflected off the icy surface, refracting into its individual wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared, all of which were visible to his extremely sensitive eyes. The shimmering symphony of colors sang to him as if welcoming him to the solar system. Every feather on his body ruffled with pleasure. 

With Babek in the solar system's outer limits, the sun was still far away, but it provided enough light to unveil the landscape around him. For the first time in his life, he could see into the distance, and he was amazed by what he saw. Toward the north and east spanned the seemingly endless line of jagged, icy peaks making up the Mipok mountain chain. He had never realized how far they extended in either direction, creating an ominous barrier to the Muma Plateau on their eastern flank. Towering glaciers glowed light blue as they streamed from the mountain canyons, broken and heaved by the long battle between ice and gravity. They extended to the south and east, smothering the once fertile plains of Keku surrounding the dome. 

His eyes followed the glaciers west until they merged with the flat expanse of the frozen Brobim Ocean far in the distance. He dreamed of one day seeing waves strike the coastline for the first time and diving into the cool, crisp water after soaring in the sun-kissed sky. He fantasized about flying across the great body of water and over the grand Oag Mountains to visit the remains of the ancient capital city of Bakapi, the home city of Ekim Eyak. 

Everywhere across the seemingly endless expanse of ice rose a vast forest of massive, shimmering thrusters, like polished, metallic giants escaping from an underground threat. He marveled at their size, each spanning the width of an entire ancient city and rising majestically toward the black sky above. It would not be long before they ignited with fire for the day. 

He tried to envision what the planet's surface would look like after the atmosphere was restored and the ice melted, but, to him, the area outside the dome had always been a barren, cold, and forbidding place. He had difficulty imagining it as anything else. 

As the sun continued its rise, he turned his back toward it and spread his wings, each feather spanning out for an optimal level of absorption. What felt like a bolt of lightning ran through him as his body converted the light to food. His neck feathers sparkled yellow with glee. The sunlight was more delicious than any light he had ever tasted in the caves of Kwawba, located far below his feet. 

His thoughts wandered to Ekim Eyak, and he pictured him there with him. Having now tasted sunlight, Weka could better empathize with the devastation his ancestor must have felt as he said goodbye to the sun that gave him life. 

Did the ancient sun look the same as this new sun? Did it taste the same? There were so many questions he wished he could ask Ekim.