By: Ethan Tu

As Alex trudged up the stairs leading to the spacecraft, a thought crossed his mind, “what if he actually found them? Would he kill the creatures at first sight, like he was ordered to, or would he be too shocked to even move?”

“Stop worrying about what you will do when we find them when you know we never will,” said his partner for the mission, Kat.

Alex and Kat had trained together a few years before and had finished at the top of their class. They worked well together, but after the training Kat became a terminator and Alex chose to be a defender.

They were a part of the Space Rangers, an international group whose purpose was to defend the Earth from space attacks. Over the last few years, a group known as The Heads had been targeting Earth using never seen before long range attack weapons. Thankfully none of their attacks succeeded, but many defenders had died using their spacecraft as shields– blocking the missiles and causing them to explode before reaching Earth.

Only one extremely talented group of terminators had seen The Heads, and they disappeared soon after they were spotted. Alex’s parents were in that group of terminators, and Alex always had a strong feeling they did not just “disappear”.

When Alex and Kat finished checking the spacecraft’s controls, they started the countdown and tore off into space. They accelerated through space, passing by planet after planet until all that was left of the sun was a bright dot.

Once they reached the area where The Heads were spotted, Alex and Kat would have to search that area until the spaceship’s battery ran low. Over 30 teams had previously explored the region and the result was always the same. Nothing.

When they arrived at the area where The Heads were originally sighted, there were no obvious clues that The Heads had been there before. Alex veered the ship toward a small group of rocks, thinking there would be clues there. He jumped off the spacecraft in his suit and told Kat to scan the area for anything unusual.

After a few minutes of investigating, he noticed small tracks in the rocks, almost like a pattern, and after losing many brain cells trying to figure out what they could mean, he had a slight hunch about where The Heads were.

He called Kat to pick him up, hopped back on the spacecraft, and told her about his findings. The tracks in the rocks were tiny marks his parents used to represent a direction. They looked like normal rock creases to everyone else, but Alex’s parents had told him how to spot them.

There were creases in specific rocks that created a star shaped pattern, which Alex assumed meant The Heads were located around a star. “Then we will go to the nearest star,” Kat decided.

As they neared the star, Alex noticed a bustling city in the distance with creatures that looked like an accurate representation of The Heads scurrying in and out of hubs.

“So that’s where they build the weapons,” Kat angrily said. “Get ready for a fight, we are going to destroy this place.”

As Alex ran to the weapons compartment of the spacecraft, ready to open fire, he noticed a star shape that matched the one on the rock that his parents marked earlier, and when he zoomed in with his goggles, he saw his mother and father’s name on a laboratory-like building called Saving Earth.

At that moment, a missile was launched from it and as it passed him, he realized that the heads were not attacking them with missiles, they were sending them machines that could remove carbon dioxide in the air and ultimately help save the Earth.

After rushing over to tell Kat that The Heads were sending the missiles to help the Earth, Kat and Alex spent a few minutes watching the beautiful city that had flying taxis, alluring lights, and buildings floating high above the ground, until an alert in the spacecraft sounded.

“Incoming missiles from The Heads, defenders on standby,” a voice from inside the spacecraft said.

“I’m sure not going to miss that alert,” Alex said jokingly as they rushed back home.