150, Stars

Aquarius had to adapt to a life at land. He did not mind, because he did not feel welcomed in sea any more. He often wondered about what happened and partly figured it out. After all, he had seen the powers at land and could imagine that it could be dangerous anywhere. He also remembered his first encounter with the fire and how uncontrollable it became. Mostly, he lay in his freshwater pond, thinking.

At night he watched the sky. He became fascinated by it. The two moons were beautiful. He even thought he noticed a shift in the water level, when the two of them was at his side of the globe. Strange, he thought. The stars fascinated him even more. Their patterns became recognizable. In this way, he noticed when a planet, which looked like a moving star, appeared at the night sky. One year he saw a red one. Another year he saw a blue one. Finally he discovered a big yellow wandering star.

Meanwhile, the Oort planet had passed the orbits to the three outer planets. The fifth planet was almost in time for a full collision. The Oort planet did not encounter the planet or its objects. But the gravitation force of the 300 times as massive planet did pull the Oort planet considerably. Most of the objects were consumed by the Jovian planet. The impacts were not that heavy this time because the objects speed was slower.

An Oort object was the exception though. Following the Oort planet, there was an object with the size of a moon. It lost its grip when the fifth planets gravitation became overwhelming. The moon accelerated directly towards the planet. A direct hit was determined. The impact was not quite visible, but as a broad blink through the atmosphere occurred. The whole moon hit directly like a bullet and penetrated the surface. A volcano, at the diameter of the moon, exploded. The difference between the hot surface and the cold atmosphere made a cyclone of glowing gasses over the volcano.

The Oort planet itself was forcefully pulled by the 300 times as massive Jovian planet. It accelerated dramatically in its way around the Jovian planet. The direction of the Oort planet was altered with 90 degrees. Consequently, it headed towards the inner planets orbits in their opposite direction.

Aquarius had grown old, when he noticed a fourth wandering star. He was intrigued that it seemed to come out of the big yellow one. The following nights was cloudy, so he could not see any star. Then, one clear night he saw the new wandering star again. He was a little puzzled that it seems to have grown and had a little tail. It pointed in a direction away from the sun. Luckily for us, he though to himself, it is sailing pass us. In the days to come, he became certain that it grew larger by the days. However, it kept the same position in the sky. The object became his main concern. There must be something wrong, he thought. That was the breakthrough in his thinking. Then it became obvious that the object move towards him, despite the direction of the tail.

As the size of the object grew, his fear grew as well. When it became the size of Astro’s moons, he decided to do something about it. The Aquarians should be alarmed. His communicator had died out a long time ago, so he had to go down there for himself. As soon as he passed 10 meters depth, two armed guards rushed to stop him. Despite their aggression, he managed to loan a communicator and signal a message to the superior officer. It simply told who he was and that there might be a serious danger at the surface. He had to wait a long time for the response. He watched the Oort planet grow by the days. Meanwhile, he was certain that the moons altered their courses. They seemed to be drawn to the alien object.

The weather was getting harder by the days. He found shelter in the cave from his first visit to the island. If this continues, he thought, the island will be flooded. Maybe this is my chance to escape unnoticed? Then he saw signaling at several places on the island. They were calling for him. He was scared because he knew this had to have some serious outcome. On the other hand, he had waited so long for a chance to end the exile, and realized that this was his only choice. The guards used containers of sea water to be able to breathe normally. However, the extra weight and the land gravity made their walking rather clumsy.

Once down in the sea, he was taken directly to a major building. Inside, there was a long table with high ranking officers. They looked grave. The chairman signaled, we know who you are, despite all the madman reputation. We will get straight to the point. What are you up to this time? Aquarius was taken by surprise; he was going to be blamed. He was going to be closely interrogated and he had no convincing story to tell. However, all he could do was to be as sincere as possible. There is a new moon coming, he signaled. The Aquarians had almost no interest and knowledge of the land environment, and even less about astrology. The answer merely underlined the reputation of a mad scientist. He hold on to the fact that a new moon seemed to be approaching and that he had nothing to do about it. After all, he knew he still was discredited, when the final comment was, don’t you dare bringing this new Luna of yours down here.

He was held custody in a room. No guards ever talked to him. He noticed that the sea environment seemed to be disturbed now and then. He feared that his sea stream redirectors had something to do with it. Then he certainly would be blamed for it all. But he figured that the stormy weather at the surface was effecting the undersea environment as well. The Aquarians knew that the moons position had something to do with changing of the sea level. The entering of a new moon, even a small one, could make rather large disturbances, they thought. The scenarios were frightening.

Suddenly a top ranking officer came alone to his room. This was strange, Aquarius thought. The officer was grave. This is an unofficial visit, he signaled. What do you want, and you will get it. Once again Aquarius was taken by surprise over the aquarians presumptions about him. However, he could not resist the chance to answer; a normal progressive life. That’s granted, now you tell us what to do, the officer replied. All I can do when this happens at the surface is to take shelter in caves. I suggest you all do the same. That was not the answer the officer hoped for. It meant giving up and let society be damaged. Even aquarian life could be harmed, he thought. Maybe I could go to the surface to see how the situation is now? Aquarius asked. Maybe the Luna is passing and the interference is going away?

Suddenly the surroundings lit up. The major signaler, which was placed at the top of a tower, sent constantly out warning signs to the aquarians. Both of them looked out of the window. Aquarius had seen a whirl once a long time ago. But he had never seen two at the same time, and never this close to a town. He was immediately allowed to leave for the surface, escorted by heavy guards. He got to the shore, hydrated and managed to stumble his way to the cave. Exhausted and dizzy, after resting, he crawled to the opening of the cave. Outside the storm grew heavier. He could not see much and crawled back into the cave and fell asleep. After a while he woke up to a strange stillness. He was very relieved by thinking the whole thing was over.

Aquarius ran out to the open and gazed around. It was most certainly still on the island. However, it was surrounded by a wall of mist. He found it very hard to breath and poured some water into his lungs. Getting clear again, he looked up. There he saw, at the clear sky, the new Luna four times as big as the moons used to be. The Astro’s moons themselves seemed smaller and must have drifted closer to the Luna. This is never going to be the same again, he thought. His body froze and he did not reach the cave when the walls of mist caught him. The mist was very wet. He realized it had to be the sea itself that was dragged toward the Luna in a whirl.

The cyclone covered the whole planet. All the atmosphere and water was dragged towards the Luna in a global tornado. All water with living organic matter was sucked out in space. It all froze to ice crystals and cracked into smaller pieces. All of Astro's’ organic matter and beings were drifting in space in ice-cubes. The planet Astro was finally stripped.

The gravitation force was so strong that even the planet itself was about to alter its course. It began to shake so hard that the ground quaked. New volcanoes erupted and the surface was unrecognizable.