The Man Who Fell To ‘Earth’

‘Sir, we’ll have to proceed tomorrow to the planet. We have to then do preparations for the oxygen festival.’ said the advisor to the captain. ‘Okay tell the crew that we are going to leave tomorrow to reach the red planet. The captain pushed back the table and the chair he was sitting in slid carrying him to a crevice in the wall the chair shrunk to prevent the captain from any injury and then it slowly puffed out and expanded in to a bed, two robotic hands shot of of the bed helping the captain remove his shoes and get himself into his pyjamas. A brush soiled with toothpaste shot out from another opening eventually caught by a robotic arm which brushed the captains teeth.

The advisor took me and ushered me to my room. ‘Sir , he said with a feeble voice, tomorrow we will begin our journey to the red planet and the captain has ordered you to lead the crew.’ ‘ okay’ i said n a curt voice wishing some privacy. ‘ May i proceed to my room sir, i await your orders.’ he asked in a childish way. ‘ you can go, thank you.’ i dismissed him with the wave of my hand. I climbed up into my bed and assigned my robot to massage my head and plunged into an ocean of ecstatic thoughts. I was woken up by the strong gust of air and i felt i was sucked into space, when i fully awake up then i realized that it was my robot putting a vacuum pump in my face. I shooed my robot of and dressed up in my signature astro suit. I heard the cap(captain) ordering from the speakers, barking for me to get up and get my legs spinning. I went over to the office of the captain and he was asleep there snoring while his recording which perhaps he must have made last night was barking in the mic. I shook him awake and he got up looking embarrassed as i had discovered his secret.He called all of the members who were going to the red planet to bring supplies. He gave his prep talk and instructions for how to travel in space which we had almost heard every time we went out of the basecamp. We got ready and boarded the spaceship which we had named as ‘Buzz food edition’ The red planet which was our destination was the next planet to the earth. Here we went once in a week for suppliers and hunted and gathered our supplies there.

The earth was considered as a perilous planet as it was rumored to be inhabited by savage beasts who tear down anyone within their sight except their own species. I took on the controls and guided the ship out of our basecamp. One more thing we avoided earth was that that it had strong magnetic waves which kept our basecamp afloat and in one position in mid space. I was driving as if by instinct as i had driven this very ship through this very same path for almost about ten years. The years in out basecamp were same as to the years on the earth. I found no pleasure in the emptiness of the space and so i resumed thinking about the earth. The earth’s atmosphere burnt up anything that would penetrate it. I was tired of driving so i asked my comrade to drive as i dosed of leaning on one of the emergency doors. I heard a creak and i felt weirdly exposed to space and then i realized that i was embracing a drop out of the spaceship, the emergency door was not locked and i had payed for y laziness. I dared to glance down and felt certain that my fate was in the hands of an earth monster. Right below me was the earth and its atmosphere. I felt a tickling feeling in my gut. I plunged right into the atmosphere and realized the sanity of the rumor about the atmosphere burning everything up. I was relieved that was going to land on something brown which i guessed was land ( something solid!). I( watched as the intricate landforms grew larger and larger and i could see minute details. There were several landforms joint and water surrounding the landforms by all sides. I glanced right below me and noticed that i was going to land on a thick green patch. Then it all seemed to happen in slow motion- the green patch zoomed further and i landed with a soft thing on one of the the tall green structures. I had heard about these- yes! They were called ‘trees’. I climbed down the tree and stood beneath it, perplexed.

I was without my oxygen cylinder and then too i could breathe. I realized that there was oxygen present in the earth, almost everywhere flowing. I felt a cool wave of something invisible just flow past me and then i figured out that probably this was what kept the temperature monitored on the earth. I sat down underneath the tree and then i was able to breathe more normally and naturally. I figured out that trees were the source of oxygen here. Suddenly i heard a distinct but distant roar. I panicked at first thinking it as the rumored monster but then i decided to use the trees as hiding place and figure out who this ghastly monster was. Advanced towards the voice and ina clearing i saw a creature, massive in size who had a very rough skin and fangs. It was standing on four legs and it has a long neck. There was a tremor and gradually but very gracefully the animal stood on its hind legs and holding out its front legs like claws. I thought of naming it ‘dinosaur’. Dino was a slang for huge, frequently spoken at our basecamp and saur meant creature(synonym). I then realized that this planet could support life and there were many delicious things in this planet to eat. I heard a growl coming from the tree i was sitting under. I abruptly got up and realized that it was something that looked very similar to my specie, something with which i can rule this whole planet and start beautifying it from the scratch. This specie that was growling in the tree could be bred and taught to live like man. I almost fainted realizing that i had a lot of work to do. ‘Get your legs moving Mathew,’ I said to myself ‘you have a planet to modify.’

I have penned down a few stories into a book. There are a lot of more interesting stories like this in that book. To find out more click on the link in the description below

https://www.amazon.in/void-Where-all-genres-meet-ebook/dp/B07K37PBRR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547268742&sr=8-1&keywords=arnav+chokhawala

More stories await you,

thanks and regards,

Arnav chokhawala