Prologue

Dawn broke slowly over the coastline of the Floridian peninsula of the United States of America. It was the 2nd of August, the sky was clear, the wind was minimal. As the minutes passed slowly, many workman and government scientists working for NASA were getting the through the last few safety checks and clearances for this morning's launch. By 0700 everything was green-lit. By 0730 the public and the press were allowed to enter the outer perimeter and take their places to enjoy the historic occasion. By 0800 the governor of the state of Florida, the speaker for the house and even the vice president came and gave speeches for the occasion. The president couldn't be in attendance, this was an unfortunate but understandable circumstance. A visit by the prime minister of Japan was to happen just an hour after the launch, there simply wasn't enough time.

At 0830 the launch was set to start. The excitement in the air was palpable. This was a new step into the future. Humanity was going to send their first AI pilot into the far reaches of the solar system. The dangers of space travel were still far too numerous for humans to go beyond the moon for any length of time. But with this new technology humanity didn't have to.

"T-minus ten seconds to launch." The voice over the intercom called just as the final countdown began. The people in attendance grew silent as the countdown was called out. This being an official launch by NASA, the standard NATO alphabetical pronunciations were observed in full.

The blast of the rocket boosters was intense. Even from the crowd's seats hundreds of yards away the wind picked up and the jets of flame were as bright as a second sun. The massive space ship rocketed up, gaining altitude and acceleration the longer it went on. In less than a minute the vessel was but a small speck in the sky above. Meanwhile those in the command center were celebrating a good launch. Many were hugging, laughing, and giving one another high fives. The jubilation lasted only a minute or so however as the commander of the operations called for everyone to get back to their posts. The easy part was over. Now everything was about to get more difficult.

"Sir, the rocket has left the earth's atmosphere and will soon reach high orbit." He nodded and checked his console for anything outside of the normal parameters. Nothing. Everything was green. Another successful launch.

"Good, you know what to do people. So get it done. I expect this bird to separate stages and to begin the journey towards Luna's orbit by 1300." Everything was green on the sensors. Stage separation was a success, and all was looking good. Following earth's orbit to line up for a jump towards Luna was all green. The hours passed in routine monotony. However around 1130 the commander had begun to develop a knot in his stomach. He was a man of intellect but he also followed his intuition. Something felt off. He double checked, no, triple checked the instruments. Everything was green. Nothing came up on the sensors. He asked others to run checks and those even came back green.

"Sir... is everything alright? You look like your gut's telling you that something's up." He frowned as he glanced up to see his second extending a mug of coffee in his direction. He sighed and took the mug with a nod of gratitude.

"That's exactly what's happening. But every single system, sensor, camera, and microphone is working as intended. Hell I've even sent word to the pilot and they checked all their systems twice for my sake. Nothing is amiss, everything is textbook... better than textbook. But still my gut is twisted into knots. Something is wrong but I just can't put a finger on what." His second smiled reassuringly and gently tapped his own mug against the commander's.

"We'll figure it out. There's no better crew, and no better commander. But there's no use worrying. All it will do is age you." He smiled slyly as he turned to walk away. The commander was going to throw a remark their way but the twisting in his gut became a hard wrench.

"Sir! We've taken severe damage to the engine! The ship is beginning to spin out of control!" He looked at the sensors once more and yet again nothing! No radar signature, nothing on cameras, nothing! He was about to call out his orders when all the sensors, readouts, and displays suddenly went dark.

"Sir... we lost the ship... ground based scans sense nothing but our own deb- wait something has been picked up... no... this can't be right... the readings indicate that we hit a small comet?! Why didn't it show up on the scans?! Sir according to the calculations the ship ran straight into the flight path of a comet roughly the size and shape of a coffin. Even though it was small our scanners should have picked it up. And to make it worse it only now showed up on the sensors after the collision." The commander sighed as he covered his face with both hands and rubbed. Of course!

"Sir." He slowly looked up at the console and saw the small avatar of the AI pilot. They looked sheepish.

"Yes Alaina?" The AI's avatar looked like it took a steadying breath before it spoke. The people who programmed her- it... programmed it were good at making it act human.

"I'm sorry. I checked everything multiple times when you asked... and yet I still failed to see the obstruction." He sighed again and leaned back in his chair. It wouldn't do for the AI to get a complex from guilt. So he smiled softly and shook his head.

"No... we all failed to see it. I just want to know what that thing was made of. If none of us could see it until after whatever was blocking our sensors and cameras was destroyed... then do you think it was some kind of radioactive element? Something that emitted a spectrum of EMP that we haven't encountered before? Or fuck it, let's go crazy. Was it aliens that sent a deep space stealth probe attached to a rock?" That last comment got a few people in the room to chuckle breaking the tension. It even managed to get the AI to smile.

"EMP and radioactive isotopes are both unlikely due to the ground based systems also being affected just as much as the ones on the ship. Alien stealth tech inconclusive. Possible but highly improbable. I went ahead and searched the web for any mention of such a comet matching the description, time of year, and all possible orbit cycles. I only came up with one tentative link. According to an ancient account of early astronomers, a comet was said to cross the sky every 35 years. It was called many names in different regions, but the one I found that was most fitting is the Star of Calamity. According to myth that spawned the name, seven angels caused a great calamity upon earth. For their crimes against God and the kingdom of man, they were cast out from heaven and imprisoned within a comet to travel the empty void of night for all eternity. Those angels were said to return to the heavens every thirty five years to see if they've earned their repentance." The commander smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"You're studying ancient myth now? I thought you were a scientifically minded AI." The avatar on the screen frowned and rubbed the back of their head in apparent embarrassment.

"According to my observations... humans, even scientists, enjoy a bit of mysticism every now and again. They find raw data and analysis far too dry for most conversations. Especially now that the current predicament has occurred, a bit of levity goes a long way to battle stress. Hence your own comment about aliens. But that leads me back to the issue at hand. Why didn't we see it? The only problem with the link that I mentioned is sightings of the comet had all but stopped. The start of this downward trend originated in the late sixties and only increased parabolically since then. Some observatories across the globe still report its coming and going but fewer and fewer every year. I was trying to figure out why when I had an epiphany. Most of all the telescopes used since then have been altered or purpose built to record their findings using computerized systems. As the number of these systems increased, the number of sightings have decreased on a nearly one for one ratio." The commander frowned. This wasn't what he was expecting to hear.

"So computer systems can't pick up this comet? But what, the naked human eye can? Why?" The AI Alaina furrowed the brow of its avatar and made a loud sigh. They were once again searching the web. Finally the AI blinked and frowned.

"You... you're going to hate this explanation commander." He sighed and braced himself. With a wave of his hand for the AI to continue it stated one simple word that made everyone in the room groan.

"Magic."

The debris of the small comet was shattered and thrown across the planet. All but a single piece was too small and fragmented to make it through the atmosphere. The piece that did make it however, was disregarded by practically everyone. This was because it was going to land safely miles off the southern coast of England. There were no ships passing through at that time, no off shore installations that could have been hit. And the estimated yield of damage was so small and the water so deep that the threat to the ecosystem was of no concern. And so in the early evening the piece of space rock hurtled its way down from outer space and landed with a mighty crash into the ocean.

There was only one man who noticed the falling star. One man who looked upon it and made a wish. The man in question was in his early forties and currently enduring his vacation away from his work. His name was Nathaniel Erikson, an anthropological professor and researcher. If one was to describe him they would call him bookish, well learned, hopeless when it came to women, and worst of all... a workaholic. He hadn't taken any time for himself since he began his career with the university, and that was over a decade ago... or was it over two now? He had honestly lost track. So when he finally decided to make the university's employment affairs office and lawyers happy by taking a short week of vacation... they practically threatened him with an early retirement if he didn't take at least a full year's sabbatical. Now stuck with twelve full months of paid leave to do practically anything, he didn't know what to do with himself.

He never went anywhere, he was always frugal with his money and lived well below his means, he cooked all his own meals, and had quite the savings built up. So it wasn't like he didn't have the funds to splurge on an adventurous vacation. But he simply had no drive to do so. He was a professor and researcher of anthropology. Every few months he was shipping off to foreign parts of the world and corresponding with colleagues doing the same. What on earth could he do now that he had a whole year to himself? Most of his friends had families or were his earlier mentioned colleagues. So he couldn't, in good conscious, whisk them away for an extended period of frivolity.

If he had been married he would have taken the wife to all sorts of places; romantic, silly, breathtaking or even rowdy places. But he wasn't married, and he was too old to start dating. He could go bar hopping and look for a another ship drifting the night. One who too was looking for a companion in a safe harbor for a night or two. But... that kind of thing was for men in their youth, or those with more confidence in speaking to the fairer sex. Frankly, he wasn't ever the sort to try one night stands anyway, so why suddenly start now?

There was one thing however that he had always wanted but had always put off... it was to be a father. He had grown up in a large family and though nowadays he was always alone by choice... there were times when his house felt vacant... empty. Maybe, he thought as he leaned back in his armchair. Maybe he should foster a child during his vacation? Or maybe even adopt? But what about when the year comes to an end? Could he dedicate the time to a child when he had to get back to work? He was getting older though and he noticed he couldn't spend as much time burning the midnight oil as he used to. Perhaps it was time to take it easier. Leave the grueling travel and research to those who were younger and hungrier for recognition. The more he thought about it the more he could feel a small smile creep upon his lips. What would it be like? He could picture it waking up in the morning, making breakfast for not just himself anymore, taking the child to school and then coming home to them waiting for him to make dinner. He smiled all the wider as he imagined the milestones. Their first high-school crush, sneaking behind his back to see them, getting caught, graduating from high school, going off to college... Him sitting in the front row at their wedding. Tears threatened to build up in his eyes at that thought. It was settled then. He decided that the first thing he would do on his forced vacation was to rent a beach house for two weeks. This would be long enough for him to relax, recharge and ready himself to take the step he never thought he would take.

So he packed his bags, rented a house on the coast and settled in to have a relaxing vacation... and he hated every moment he was away from home. The layout of the house was different, the building creaked in ways that he was not used to, the sounds of the ocean kept him up at night, and there was nothing for him to do! No papers to grade, no students to teach, no correspondence from his fellow researchers... it was driving him mad. He was like some drug addicted wretch who was going through withdrawal. He simply didn't know how to sit down and turn off his drive to work. So finally on the seventh night he walked out onto the moonlit beach and sat in the sand. The lapping of the waves, the twinkling of the stars, the fullness of the moon... it was all mesmerizing. Slowly by slowly he actually felt himself start to relax. And that's when he saw it. The star that was growing brighter and brighter in the sky. It was a meteorite that was going to fly overhead and crash into the ocean. So as he watched it fall he did something childish, and superstitious. Something that somehow just felt right. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath... and with all his might he wished upon the falling star.

And the falling star took notice.