They Ain't Heavy
Heat.
That's all there was, really. Blinding, scorching heat that couldn't be kept out.
It hurt. It hurt everybody. Regardless of race, or religion.
They all cried, and huddled together in groups, looking up in anguish at the orange sky, as the great sun which had powered life and had fueled dreams, slowly died.
Drifting in a daze caused by the loss of its own kind, the star whale had come. Answering the prayers of those humans. They seemed to know, it believed, what it had come for, and though they were frightened, they seemed to trust it. It thought as they pulled it down to the ground that perhaps they could all search together, for a new place to belong.
Then the drilling began. The hammering and the nailing. And the whale could not help but cry in pain as the vast sheets of metal were bolted onto its body. But of course, the little humans could not live in the vacuum of space the way it could. They had to shield themselves, and make a little shell for themselves. It knew this. So the whale did not fly away, and did its best not to struggle.
Soon, they all climbed upon it's back, and it took them up, away from their scorching world, into the cold of space. It could tell they were all afraid, and that they felt guilty about the way they hurt, as they held on so tightly. There was a pain, deep and throbbing, that it felt within its skull which had started even before they started moving. The whale could not explain what might be causing it, but its song became mournful. It could not help it, though it tried. It did not want to upset its fellow travelers, or to worry them more. I did not know, the humans had chosen not to hear it.
Then after a few days of moving through space, the pipe which the humans had put into its mouth started to carry it food. The whale tried to think that it was a nice gesture, for them to share things with it, to feed it, even if it was the remains of their dead. It did not complain.
It was upset, and very concerned however, when the living started to come down the pipe. It was sure that it was some error, and it would spit them all back out again. The little ones, the children, especially so. It was never going to eat one of them. The thought crossed its mind that the humans might be going insane. It accelerated, trying to reach a safe port as soon as it could, for their sakes.
Time passed. And the pain and the years started to blur into each other. Through it all - the ion storms, the meteor showers and the scorching gamma rays of a pulsar, the star whale continued. When it pushed its way up into the ship, and was horrified as it watched the humans upon its back twisting themselves into knots. It tried to put on more speed, and feared the worse for its little friends.
It watched, with interest, as the people from the blue box arrived. They seemed so out of place, compared to all it had seen over the last years, and it was relieved to see a glimmer of new hope in each of them. This was what the humans needed.
The changes came thick and fast, then. It seemed only a blink of an eye to the great whale before the bottom part of the human shell fell away, and the pain in its head finally stopped. It was a little disappointed when the two people chose not to stay. Still, they had done something wonderful. They had managed to turn back the tide of insanity, and there were no more people fed to it. As an added bonus, the whale could see out now.