If you could go to space, would you? Such a simple question, yet the answers you can come up with are endless.

On the surface it seems like an obvious one; of course! Who wouldn't want to go to space and see what's out there? Floating in zero gravity, looking over the world from above, exploring the unknown and what's beyond. There's so much to do out there it's impossible to list it all.

But in reality, it's much more complicated than that, like most things in life. In today's age; it's all science fiction. Just sending a single person to the moon, which is relatively close to Earth, relatively being a key word, is still a difficult task. The cost of constructing the rocket and the fuel needed to launch it, the calculations needed to make sure everything works perfectly, training astronauts to not only make it to outer space, but also living in it, for a certain period of time as well.

Take the international space station for example. It's pretty close to Earth, sure, but it needs to stay in orbit, not to mention that fuel is finite up there, so they need refueling missions and other supplies such as food and water for the astronauts onboard, and oxygen, don't forget oxygen; the gas that gives us life.

If oxygen runs out, it's game over. And that would be devastating.

There's so much more that goes into Astronomy. Once you start thinking about the subject in depth, there's no point in which you can stop. Light is believed to be the highest speed an object can reach, which means that if it does reach it, it becomes light itself. However, what if it was possible to go beyond that? Now we get to something called science fiction. In spite of everything, we still don't truly know.

It was once believed that flying was impossible, the ability given exclusively for avians, bugs, and certain mammals. But no, the Wright Brothers invented the first airplane, a literal air-plane. Sure, at first it only flew across a small field, more like gilded than flew, but eventually engines were added to the planes, they were designed more efficiently, they were given propellers; they were improved, and improved they were.

There is an endless amount of examples that could be shown such as that one, the point being that nothing is ever truly impossible. That's what separates science fiction from fantasy. Confusing the two is easy, the main difference is that one follows the rules of physics, or at least tried to stay as close to reality as possible, while the other throws everything out of the window and gives the middle finger to the universe. You can guess which of the two is which.

In space, at least the observable one, are many incredible phenomena. Stars of many types; red stars, dwarf stars, neutron stars and everything between, some even have names! We call ours The Sun because, well, it's The Sun. Our Sun. The star that gives us life, and the same one that can take it away at any moment. A scary thought, but a provoking one.

One of the many things you can find in space is a little something called a Black Hole. What's a Black Hole, you ask? Well, we don't really know.

Let me explain. A Black Hole, as the name suggests, is a Black Hole, no, not your butthole little Timmy, go back to the corner you degenerate.

A Black Hole is a very interesting irregularity in space. It is thought that some have existed since the Big Bang, on the condition that that theory is true. There are many theories as to how a black hole is born, but one thing is known for sure. When a star dies, it usually explodes in a Supernova; a beautiful, yet deadly explosion of radiation that would make a Geiger Counter orgasm.

The thing is, on extremely rare occasions, instead of violently exploding, the star collapsed in upon itself. And when a large amount of mass is compressed into a volume proportionally tiny to the mass, it doesn't want to do that. But the process can't be undone, and the impossible happens; a black hole is born.

Inside a black hole is a Singularity, a point at which the density and gravity are infinite. It has an Event Horizon at which light can no longer escape, meaning if you go past that point you're a goner. It's a hole in space, a place where the rules don't apply, a literal tear in the fabric of reality.

It is the byproduct of God dividing by zero.

What significance does it hold for the average Joe? None. Absolutely nothing. It's out there, sure, unless you're some working in some space agency or studying physics everything that has been stated so far means jack all. And why did I tell you all of this? No particular reason. None at all.

Although, it was important to the owl using a massive telescope to observe the night sky.

The owl was around his early 50s, soon to be a grandfather as well. He had mostly brown feathers, some brighter and some darker in coloration. His height was a little below average and his eyes were hazel just like his feathers. He wore casual clothing in his workspace, which was an observatory atop a high mountain.

The owl dreamed of becoming an astronaut since he was just a kid. He had taken all the right classes in college and went out of his way to learn as much as possible about space, his main focus being Astronomy and rockets, obviously. He still remembers the day the International Space Agency, or the ISA for short, sent him a letter inviting him for an interview for a position in their company. It is one of the happiest days of his life right beside the love of his life and his children.

But life can't be all sugar and rainbows, he thought that he had everything ready, that he would go through the intense training and fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, but he didn't. He couldn't.

Only because of his bad eyesight. For some reason, they denied him the position he was so determined to get because his eyes didn't serve him well enough. At first it stung to hear that come out of the administrator's mouth, but he got over it within a couple of days. With the high pay and the often convenient working hours, who could complain? Even if he didn't land on the moon, he still reached the stars.

Taking another sip from his coffee mug, he sighed in satisfaction, the caffeine helped him get through the night shift like many other workers around the world. He used the swivel chair he was sitting on to stroll to one of the tables nearby, placing the temperature room cooled coffee, then strolling again right back to the telescope.

The telescope was massive, almost two stories in height. However, there were ones far larger than the one the owl was tasked with, but this one was still of great quality. Taking another look at the computer screen, from the current rotation of the world, the owl could spot Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, the others were either too far to find or opposite to the Earth's current position. If he so wished to, he could zoom in over one hundred times!

He spotted the moon just out of the corner of the screen, so without much thought, he decided to move the telescope to get a full view of the moon. Its craters were as magnificent as ever and the dark side was partially showing. Everything seemed in order here.

Until a shining spectacle appeared behind the moon, moving away from its circumference. Probably just another meteor, he thought. Instinctively, he wanted to find out what kind of asteroid could give off such a strong reflection. It could've been composed of a mix of minerals that gave the rock its eye-catching characteristics. He had spotted many passing objects in his career, some celestial and metaphorical; and this one was no different.

Getting a better look at the asteroid, he squinted his eyes in confusion. The object was completely hidden by the light of the sun which was unusual for an asteroid. Then he saw that it was also slowly rotating, taking its sweet time to reveal its true appearance to the Astronomer.

The object was a space shuttle. It was made entirely of metal which explains why it was so easy to spot in the first place and why it was so reflective. It was shaped like the head of an arrow, and with the picture enhanced enough, he could also spot a strange flag embedded on its backside; six white stripes and seven red ones alternating between one another horizontally, at the top left corner a blue square with many stars.

He had just spotted an unidentified object.

At this point, if he was still holding his mug, he would have dropped it, shattering it and spilling its contents on the floor in a mess. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, he wanted to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing right, but was too afraid that if he blinked the object would disappear, a fragment of his own imagination due to how late he was staying awake. His mouth hung open, both of his eyes unblinking, has stopped working.

Without a moment too soon, he pulled out an old flip phone from his pocket, one that has served him for well over a decade, and called the only appropriate number on his list; the Chairman of the ISA. He only had to wait a few seconds before a he answered the call, tired and confused at why the owl would call at such an hour.

"Why are you calling me this late?" The Chairman, a black panther, asked with irritation in his voice.

"I-I-I-I-"

"What? WHAT?!" The owl swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat with an audible gulp, a cold sweat trickling down his forehead.

"I-I saw something. I-I don't know what i-it is." He stuttered from the excitement of his discovery, his mind was running wild with the endless theories of what he was still seeing on the digital screen could be.

"...What do you mean, "saw something?""

"UFO. a UFO." He finally spat out. There was no reply from the other line at first, but after a moment or so, the Chairman replied.

"Send me proof. Now."

Without another second to waste, the owl placed the phone on what little space was available near the keyboard, swiftly inserting an encrypted code to the computer in order to take a screenshot. The encryption was perhaps an unnecessary security measure in case of, well, something like this. In the possibility that the observatory spotted something that could be classified as "sensitive information for the public", and you never know who can be watching. As technology advances, so do the hackers.

Once a decent quality image of the spacecraft was downloaded, he immediately sent it to the Chairman who was still on the line, patiently waiting for the proof he desired. It wasn't because he didn't believe the owl. In fact, he had known him for a couple of years and had struck conversation from time to time. He needed the proof to show the others, the other being the government, the president and everyone else who would know what to do with this discovery.

With a ping, the image was now in the Chairman's gallery, safe and sound in his electronic device. He took a few minutes to take in the news; the owl had spotted what could possibly be aliens in space. This was history in the making, this was going to change everything, possibly even debunk some theories.

For a moment he was lost as to what to do, who should he contact? The first and foremost thing they had to do was keep this a secret for the time being, hell, he wasn't fully believing what the owl had said. But the proof was right in front of his eyes, the trademark logo at the bottom of the image couldn't be pirated in any way.

"We keep all of this quiet for now. No one can know about this, understand?"

"O-of course."

"I'm sending more people to your station. Whatever you do; do not take your eyes off of that thing, understand?"

"Yes."

"I'm hanging up now, the president has to know, this… this changes everything."

The owl sighed again, this day was not something he could've ever been ready for. Finding aliens so close to Earth wasn't on his bucket list, scratch that, finding aliens at all! How could this even be possible? He tried not to overthink the matter, for now he'd keep watch of the spaceship.

Despite the uncertain future, the owl knew one thing for sure.

There's something out there.

Author's Note:

This is my third story so far.

Writing isn't as easy as it looks, but I enjoy doing it. I appreciate any thoughts and suggestions you have, feedback in general.

Stay well and hydrated.

-FacelessUser