The Stars Call
This was a piece I was inspired to write after reading some reports about our interstellar visitor, Oumuamua. I wrote it in a single night, which is when I usually write, so I could look at the stars.
The need moved her. Ancient, inescapable, it drove her through the distances between the stars. She searched the heavens for a place, a particular type of place, for her nursery. The compulsion, once set in motion, would not be denied.
Ahead, a group of suns held what she sought, a suitable one for her purpose. She adjusted the course she was on. The carapace ground against itself. It bore silent witness to her wanderings with its cratered and pockmarked surface. In perhaps a distant future, she would cease her travels. But until it happened, she heeded the call.
Her current journey took her through vast clouds, barely more dense than the vacuum surrounding her. Normally she avoided them but necessity drove her despite the greater chance of danger. The dust scoured the shell on her. New grooves joined the scars, markers of her ancient journeys.
Focusing her awareness, she danced through the cloud and its strange motions of matter. Maybe because her attention was concentrated on the immediate environment, she missed the implication of what she sensed. Clearing the nebula, disaster befell her.
A lighteater lurked at the edge.
Panic set in. Struggling against the arms of gravity, she jet matter, trying to alter her course. Deep walls arose around her. The shadow of light grew in her view. She knew the end was coming for her.
In an act of desperation, she sacrificed part of herself. It rapidly fell away but she didn't have time to watch it circle the cosmic drain. She intuited reducing her mass might give her more delta-v. Mightily, she expended even more matter. Plumes of exhaust streamed behind her. Strain contorted her body. A flash of electromagnetic radiation hit, warming her backside, evaporating the ices on her. The sudden boost was enough to lift her out of the well.
She lost track of time, insensate. The stars slowly changed their position before she finally woke up. Ahead was her prize.
Once, turns of the galaxy ago, such a place teemed with others of her kind. Eons had passed since she had encountered another. She didn't understand the chances of success now; only instinct mattered at the moment.
The fall toward the calm, middle aged sun started. Faster and faster it came. The gentle warmth became a fiery furnace. Tendrils of plasma caressed her shell.
When she could get no closer, she released her eggs into the care of the nuclear inferno. Hope blossomed that another would soon visit to complete the act, ensuring the future.
But now, she adjusted her orbit. Her velocity was so great that she would soon escape the sun's neighborhood. The inky blackness between the stars beckoned her again. She hurtled out, wondering if she would ever heed the call again.
* * *
"Hey Rich, look what I found."
Rich walked over and studied the figures on the computer screen. A low whistle escaped his lips. "Wow, an interstellar visitor. Where is it now?"
"It's on the far side of the sun, heading out already."
Rich nodded his head. "Too bad. If we had imaged it, we could have gotten some good information on extra solar processes."
"Its got an odd shape. It's not spherical at all. Sorta long."
"Really? We should probably come up with a name."