Popsicle

Gateway62 wasn’t due to go offline, so its sudden disappearance was alarming to everyone at GateCorp. It had been ten years since they last lost a satellite that wasn’t a scheduled destruction. Then, two of their own had collided due to faulty software. The problem was immediately rectified, and those responsible were fired. If GateCorp could have imprisoned them for negligence, they would have, but incompetence apparently wasn’t a criminal offence, despite costing the company millions through damages, fines, and the loss of a regular client.

This time, as far as anyone could tell, Gateway62 hadn’t collided with theirs or any other company’s satellites. There’d been none nearby. The orbital paths of all satellites were carefully tracked to prevent such incidents as space grew busier and busier. And GateCorp themselves now boasted the highest safety record among all satellite companies since the incident ten years ago, making the likelihood of a collision even more improbable. Their pledge to reduce space debris was one they took very seriously, not only for their public image, but for gaining new clients as well.

Any satellite they destroyed was brought down in a controlled zone where debris could either be collected or would burn up in the atmosphere. But that hadn’t happened to Gateway62. The delayed heat images hitting the screens after the satellite went offline showed the dish was in pieces. It had definitely been destroyed, but how or why was unknown.

The satellite’s small and durable backup location beacon, however, had survived, and all eyes were now on its signal as it drifted off course alongside thousands of tiny fragments. Initial tracking suggested the wayward debris could be on a potential collision course with several other satellites in the vicinity. GateCorp needed to immediately warn everyone involved. A disastrous chain reaction in space was the last thing anyone needed, especially with a shuttle currently in orbit and several new billion-dollar clients being touted.

As phone calls were being made, a collective confused gasp took ahold of the GateCorp Command Room as new images revealed a solid unknown object drifting near Gateway62’s previous location. Whatever hit it, it wasn’t another satellite. The object in the latest images looked tomb-shaped. It could have been part of an older station still stuck in orbit, or something lost during a space walk, although both options seemed highly unlikely.

The shape did resemble a discarded rocket, but they were all tracked, and none were currently in the surrounding area. Was it possible one had been missed? It seemed extremely unlikely given the attention to detail everyone in the various space programs displayed. Mistakes in space could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, so they didn’t happen often.

Also, despite it being difficult to judge from the images, the object appeared smaller than a rocket. Whatever the strange unknown object was, there was now little doubt in anyone’s mind that it had been responsible for the destruction of Gateway62.

The space shuttle Pioneer was informed of the Gateway62 incident, and brisk calculations fortunately showed that they were safe in their current location from any wayward debris. As part of their mission, they were in space to run tests on a new high-resolution camera designed to take exterior photos of the International Space Station and any other orbiting bodies in order to aid with maintenance and emergency repair work.

After GateCorp had shared their images of the unknown tomb-shaped object with the United Space Agency, Pioneer was asked to point the experimental camera in the destroyed satellite’s direction. The United Space Agency had been just as stumped by the object as GateCorp, and a swift check with other agencies across the globe drew more shakes of the head.

No-one was claiming ownership.

As the five-strong shuttle crew were safely out of harm’s way from the orbiting satellite debris (that was now being fully tracked), they were only too happy to have a unique test subject for their camera. They manoeuvred the shuttle into a new safe position and aimed the ridiculously expensive camera where Gateway62 should have been. The images it relayed back to the United Space Agency and GateCorp were beyond remarkable…

A decision needed to be made, and quickly. Another shuttle couldn’t be launched in time to retrieve the alien body captured by the Pioneer’s camera. The Pioneer was already nearby, and while the manoeuvre to reach the body was potentially risky and off-mission, it would change everything we knew about, well, everything! Many within the United Space Agency considered it worth the risk, despite their risk-averse nature. History was calling out to them. Life as we knew it was about to be re-examined.

The mysterious alien was close to forty-feet tall and eight-feet wide in its frozen state. The size of a shipping container. Any bigger, it may not have even fitted in the Pioneer’s cargo bay, and any hope of retrieval would have been lost. As it was, it was going to be a snug but doable fit.

Its head was the size of a car door, and shaped like one too. The creature appeared to have something that could have been an eye in the centre of its massive head, but the high-resolution photos didn’t show any signs of a nose or ears. There was a slit that may well have been a mouth, but that was pure speculation for now while the alien was in its frozen state. The photos also showed an overly thick neck, which was triangular in shape. The alien appeared to have some form of limbs, but it would be a stretch to describe them as arms or legs. Tentacles maybe? There were seven in total, spread throughout its massive frame. The high-resolution pictures showed there were no digits, with each limb potentially having some kind of ‘sucker’ at the end.

The creature was monstrous, and magnificently strange. Unlike anything we’d ever seen, even in the deepest depths of our diverse and wonderfully bizarre oceans. Otherworldly, which seemed appropriate for something lost and frozen in space.

As expected, none of the instruments pointed in the alien’s direction suggested it was alive. The corpse appeared frozen solid. Dead to the universe. How it ended up in space could be a mystery never solved. How long it had been floating in the stars, however, was something already being considered. They needed to recover the drifting body first before any early estimates could be made.

An order was given from the highest authority for the crew of the Pioneer to salvage the alien body. They were not to touch it themselves, simply scoop it up (for lack of a better scientific term) and keep it contained within the cargo hold while they returned to Earth. They would be credited for the discovery, along with the personnel at GateCorp who captured the initial image. After that, however, anything involving the alien would be out of all of their jurisdiction.

The crew of the Pioneer slowly inched the shuttle nearer to the colossal body, matching its speed and rotation the closer they got. The Pioneer’s large mechanical arm was deployed and eased towards its target, while two of the crew aided in the retrieval.

Up close, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was even more incredible than the pictures had suggested. The alien was comfortably three stories tall, absolutely dwarfing them. It was an ugly creature, looking like something out of a hellish nightmare, but nonetheless, this was first contact. That contact wasn’t going to be reciprocated due to the alien’s dead frozen state, but still, what an amazing moment. First contact with an alien.

As the mechanical arm eased its grip around the icy unknown lifeform, the two astronauts closely watched for any sign of damage. They couldn’t hear any breakage in the vacuum of space, and the pressure being applied was difficult to judge, so they simply had to carefully watch for any cracks in the alien’s frosty shell. When the arm had a strong enough grip without accidentally severing a frozen limb, it began to slowly draw the alien into the Pioneer’s cargo bay.

The whole process was agonisingly slow and tense, but two hours after initial contact, the alien was safely stored inside the Pioneer’s cargo bay, ready for transportation back to Earth. The retrieval was a complete success.

News of the alien was kept from the public for the first few months after its retrieval. Instead, the mammoth carcass was studied in a secure location. Top biologists from around the world determined that the alien had been dead for over forty thousand years, and had drifted through space from another planetary system. It had no sign of clothes or anything we’d consider hair. The slit was categorised as a mouth, but it had no teeth or tongue to speak of.

Its enormous body had several deep wounds lashed across it, which the scientists believed contributed to the alien’s death. Whether it had been in some kind of fight, or whether it was environmental damage of some kind, was unknown.

There was no obvious reproductive organ, and its gender couldn’t be classified. Its DNA was unlike anything we’d ever encountered and would have revolutionised medical science if we ever got our heads around it. When they carefully cut the alien open to take a look inside, its body was empty. There was no skeletal structure or organs to speak of. No one could come up with a good reason as to how the alien could appear to be intelligent life, yet have no organs or insides whatsoever. Had it always been that way, or had they been removed? The find was to remain classified as it was too unearthly to even consider. To add to the mystery, no brain was found either after the head was also sliced open.

How the alien functioned was to be lost to ancient history. The discovery muddled our own knowledge of life. Everything we believed we understood about biology and life was thrown into turmoil. Some conveniently suggested that maybe the alien wasn’t intelligent life, maybe more like plant life in nature, but that didn’t fit the eye and potential mouth. A hybrid of some kind, maybe? Sadly, the answers were never going to be found.

After a year of slicing and dicing the alien while trying their best to keep the lifeform in its original state, a decision was made to inform the public of the find. Too many leaks had occurred to keep the monstrous creature under wraps any longer, and the United Space Agency’s authority was beginning to be undermined. The announcement of the unique and terrifying discovery shook the world. Many discredited the alien’s existence, even when a further decree was passed to put the creature on public display.

The scientists had discovered about all they could. With another hundred years of research there was a chance they’d still discover nothing comprehensible about the visitor from outer space. Everything about the alien was too, alien. They had no earthly idea what they were looking at, and nothing of the alien could be used for anything useful on Earth. Hidden cures for human diseases were not going to be found within the alien’s DNA. It was a marvel of medical science, but a little too magnificent for us. Maybe a live specimen could have been of more use, but considering the creature’s age and way of arrival, that was very unlikely.

Plus, no one wanted forty-foot aliens wandering around the planet.

An outdoor display in New York was created for the alien. A freak show of sorts. It was kept inside an impenetrable clear bubble where no one could touch the creature, and its current state could be preserved. Whether it could still spread any kind of alien diseases was deemed undetermined despite assurances that it couldn’t, so it was best for everyone if it was still under some kind of strict protection. Armed guards were stationed around the exhibit at all times. The alien sideshow quickly became the biggest tourist attraction in the world.

The whole time it was on display, the gigantic grotesque alien began to slowly regenerate under the sun. It began to recover from its lengthy time frozen solid in deep space, and heal from the deep wounds it had suffered, and the smaller ones created by the human examinations.

Darkrique the Galaxy Destroyer was to return once again and rule the entire Milky Way like it once had after forty thousand years of exile. And the first planet to fall under its powerful might was unknowingly currently taking selfies with it.