Beyond Earth: The Celestia-X Expedition
Characters:
· Vyom (Leader): 25-year-old IT graduate, kind, resourceful, and becomes the leader.
· Aadhya (Mechanical Engineer): Skilled engineer, pragmatic, and inventive.
· Rishab (Spaceship Control and Management): Expert pilot, sometimes impulsive, but dedicated.
· Sachi (Botanist): Knowledgeable about plant life, curious, and analytical.
· Aarav (Computer Engineer): Tech-savvy, initially physically limited, but resilient.
· Mission Director: A wise and somewhat secretive leader of the ISRO project which aims at reviving of Alien Spaceship, Celestia-X.
PREFACE
They said the stars were silent.
But they lied. In the final days of Earth’s golden age, when machines ruled and men were forgotten, a whisper slipped through the static. Not a broadcast. Not a signal.
A memory. Encoded in silence. Hidden in light. Waiting for one mind, one moment, one heart still listening. That heart belonged to Vyom—a jobless IT graduate in a village overlooked by progress. A ghost in a world built for algorithms.
The whisper found him. It came not through the cloud or cable, but through an unmarked letter, a spilled glass of water, a code long buried. It led him away from everything he knew—into a forest untouched by time, where something not of this world waited.
A ship. Alive. Aware. And afraid. It spoke in pulses. In symbols. In dreams. And it chose him.
Now, as humanity teeters on the edge of extinction and an ancient enemy awakens in the void between galaxies, Vyom and a team of unlikely souls must unravel a legacy left by beings who saw our fall… centuries ago.
This is not a story of heroes.This is a story of those who heard a whisper when the universe screamed.
A story of a world we could never return to…and a new one we must fight to create.
Chapter 1: The Whispers of Fate
The year is 2060. Gujarat, India, is a land of contrasts. Bustling cities thrive alongside ancient traditions, but a silent crisis grips the nation: mass unemployment. Automation and technological advancements have made countless jobs obsolete, leaving millions, even the educated, struggling to survive. Among them is Vyom, a 25-year-old IT graduate. He is known in his village for his kindness and willingness to help others. He lives with his aging parents, whose ability to work is declining, adding to Vyom's burden. He spends his days tirelessly searching for work, navigating a digital landscape where complex algorithms seem to favor experience over education, rendering his skills obsolete.
One sweltering afternoon, Vyom returns home, defeated after another fruitless job search. His mother looks up, her eyes filled with a mixture of hope and worry, the lines on her face etched deeper by each passing day. "Any luck, beta?" she asks softly, her voice barely a whisper.
Vyom shakes his head, the weight of his failure pressing down on him, a familiar ache in his heart. "Nothing, Amma. It's like I'm invisible to them. The automated systems... they've taken everything." He collapses onto a simple wooden chair, the heat and disappointment making him feel dizzy, the advanced climate control system in their small home doing little to alleviate the oppressive heat.
His father, who is reading a tattered newspaper, lowers it and sighs, the holographic display flickering with grim news. "The government's promises... they ring hollow in our empty kitchen. Their augmented reality broadcasts speak of progress, but we see only struggle."
Suddenly, Vyom notices a peculiar letter on the table. The envelope is unmarked, an anomaly in a world where almost all communication is digital and instantaneous. The letter inside contains only a set of coordinates. Initially dismissing it as a prank, a relic from a bygone era, Vyom tosses it onto his desk. "Probably just some outdated advertisement," he mutters, his voice laced with bitterness.
Later, as he prepares a meager meal of lentils and rice for his parents, he spills a glass of water. "Aargh!" he exclaims, annoyed. He plans to clean it later, but as time passes, he notices the water is not evaporating. Instead, it begins to coalesce, defying the room's atmospheric regulators, forming distinct patterns of dots and dashes on the floor.
Intrigued, Vyom, with his IT background and knowledge of coding, recognizes the patterns as a rudimentary form of Caesar Cipher code. His heart quickens. This is no ordinary spill; it's a deliberate message, bypassing the digital networks. He grabs a cloth, carefully outlining the water Caesar Cipher code, preserving the message, and then rushes to grab a pen and paper. His hands tremble slightly as he painstakingly deciphers the message, revealing a sequence of numbers and the word "BODMAS." A wave of adrenaline surges through him. He realizes this is more than just a random occurrence. "This... this can't be," he whispers, his mind racing, trying to make sense of the archaic communication method in this age of quantum computing. He grabs a pen and paper, applying the BODMAS rule to the number sequence. The result is another set of numbers.
His father, meanwhile, is reading a tattered newspaper. A world map is spread on the back page, a rare physical copy in a world dominated by interactive digital displays. Vyom's eyes dart between the numbers he calculated and the map. A jolt of recognition! The numbers on the map, marked in faint ink, match the coordinates he deciphered. But these coordinates point to a remote region in the dense forests of Africa, a place largely untouched by modern civilization, a stark contrast to the hyper-connected world he knows.
Doubt wars with a flicker of hope. Could this be a job offer? A mistake? A trap? He has no money for such a journey, a journey that would require traversing vast distances with supersonic transport and traversing treacherous terrains. He looks at his parents, their faces etched with worry and love. He can't tell them about this, not yet. It sounds too crazy, even to him.
Yet, the persistent pull of the unknown, the strange way the message appeared, seemingly bypassing all modern communication systems, and the desperation of his situation compel him. That night, sleep evades him. He tosses and turns, the coordinates burning in his mind, the mystery of the message keeping him awake. Finally, as the first rays of dawn paint the sky, filtered through the smart glass windows of his room, he makes a decision. He will risk everything.
The next day, he sells his few possessions, explaining to his confused parents that he has a lead on a job, a good one, a chance to use his skills in a new way. He hates lying to them, but he can't bear to see the hope in their eyes turn to disappointment if this turns out to be nothing. He borrows a small amount from sympathetic villagers, promising to repay them tenfold, a promise he's not even sure he can keep, and books a ticket on a supersonic transport, a marvel of 21st-century engineering that has replaced traditional air travel. As he boards, he looks back at his village, a mix of fear and excitement churning within him, the holographic advertisements of a gleaming future feeling distant and mocking. This journey will take him across continents, into the heart of a mystery that could change his life—or end it.
