Life in the stars

Oscar Maronwood was playing video games with his brother Andy when a big thudding sound startled them.

"What was that?" Oscar said, looking at Andy.

"Let's go check it out," Andy said.

They walked out of their house and saw a big rectangular capsule in the yard.

"What the hell is that?" Andy said.

"Come on, let's check it out," Oscar said.

They walked up to the capsule, it had a blue color switch, under which there was some text printed on it. The text said, "Press it."

Oscar was going to press it when Andy stopped him. "What are you doing?" Andy hissed.

"What?" Oscar shrugged. "Let's check it out."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because we don't know what it is. It fell from the sky."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I want to check it out. Maybe there are aliens trapped inside."

Oscar was about to press the button but Andy stopped him again. "No, it's dangerous," Andy said.

Oscar sighed. "Okay, what do you want to do then?"

"Let's leave it here and call our space agency."

His forehead creased. "What? No, you know what they will do. They will take it to their base and we will never hear about it ever again."

"How are you sure?"

"They always do this," Oscar said. "Don't you see the news? They say the space agency is hiding things from public. They know about aliens, maybe they even have some trapped in their base."

"That's not true, man," Andy said. "Those are just conspiracy theories."

"No, they are not. I know it. They know about aliens."

"Oh yeah? Have you seen one?"

"No, because they are hiding information from public."

"How about us? We are their employees. We work in extra-terrestrial research in the space agency. If they would have known about aliens, at least we would have known."

"They are hiding it from us too, man. Only the people at the top knows."

Andy rolled his eyes. "Oh god. You should really stop watching those conspiracy videos. It really messed up your mind."

"It's the truth, man. I get it, it is hard to believe, but that's the truth."

"Whatever, man. You believe what you want to believe but don't press that button. I am calling the space agency." Andy took out his cell phone to call.

"No." Oscar pressed the button before Andy could make the call and the capsule's door opened up.

"No," Andy said, putting down the phone. "I told you not to do it."

Oscar chuckled. "I did it anyway."

"Step away from it." Andy covered his mouth with his hands. "We should wear masks. It may be contaminated."

"It's not." Oscar walked inside the capsule.

"Oscar, wait." Before Andy could stop him, Oscar was already inside.

Andy stood outside covering his mouth. He was scared. He always has been like that, but Oscar was the opposite. Oscar was impulsive. He doesn't think much and does anything that comes on his mind. That's why most of the time Oscar gets in trouble, and Andy had to clean up his mess.

"Hey, Andy, come inside," Oscar said from inside the capsule. "It's safe."

"No, come outside," Andy said. "We need to inform the agency."

"Stop whining about the agency and come inside. There is a small spaceship here."

A line etched between Andy's eyebrows. "What?"

"Yeah, come. It's safe, man. Don't be scared."

Andy gathered his courage and walked inside the capsule. It had green colored sparkling floor and walls. There was a small oval spaceship at the middle and Oscar was smiling observing it.

"So gorgeous," Oscar said, touching its roof.

"Why would a capsule land outside our house with a spaceship in it?" Andy said.

"Maybe it was some alien's, and by mistake it landed here."

"Maybe."

"Look at the controls, man." Oscar opened the spaceship's door and sat inside. There was a keypad and a screen at the front, nothing else, no steering or any gear to touch.

"Don't press anything," Andy said.

Oscar pressed a button on the keypad and the screen was turned on.

"Wow!" Oscar said.

"What's wrong with you?" Andy said, sitting on the seat next to him. "We don't know anything about it and you are pressing buttons? It can be dangerous."

"No, it isn't. This is cool. We have discovered an advanced alien spaceship."

Some instructions appeared on the screen. It said, "Press the travel button to travel to the closest star system."

"Closest star system?" Oscar rubbed his chin and looked at Andy. "That's Alpha Centauri."

"Yeah, but that's too far, 4.37 light years away," Andy said. "To travel there we need to travel faster than light."

"Yeah, even if we travel at the speed of light it will take 4.37 years."

"We can't be in a spaceship for more than four years, Oscar. Let's get out of here." Andy stood up from the seat but Oscar grabbed his hand and made him sit again.

"Who said we have to stay here for four years," Oscar said. "Maybe this spaceship has tachyon particles."

"Tachyon is hypothetical, Oscar. Nothing can travel faster than light."

"What if it's not hypothetical? What if it's real?"

"What if it's not?"

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, man. Be optimistic for a second."

"I don't want to. We have no idea what we are getting into."

Oscar pressed the button on the spaceship and smiled. "Let's find out."

Andy's eyes widened in shock. "NO!!!!" He pressed the button again in hope that the spaceship won't fly, but it was too late. The spaceship's doors closed in a second and it flew into the sky.

"What the hell have you done?" Andy raised his voice.

"We are going to Alpha Centauri," Oscar said.

"You idiot!" He shouted. "You killed us."

"No, we will be fine. We are going to explore a star system by this spaceship. We will make history, man."

"No, we screwed."

As every second passed by, the speed of the spaceship increased drastically. It was moving so fast that they couldn't see clearly. There was only blackness outside. The screen at the front showed the speed of the spaceship. It said, 200000 miles per second.

"See, I told you it travels faster than light," Oscar said. "Every minute its speed is increasing. My guess is we will be in Alpha Centauri in a couple of hours."

Andy froze. He was terrified by what Oscar did. He thought he was going to die, but looking at the spaceship's speed on the screen gave him a bit of relief. Maybe it is possible. The spaceship had the ability to travel faster than light.

*************************

After eight hours they entered the Alpha Centauri and entered the atmosphere of a rocky planet. Andy was asleep. Oscar shook his arms and woke him up. "Hey, wake up," he said. "We are here."

Andy opened his eyes and looked outside through the door's glass. "Where?"

"In Alpha Centauri. We entered the atmosphere of a rocky planet. I don't know which one is it."

That planet had similar clouds like Earth. The spaceship was moving beside it. After a couple of minutes, the speed of the spaceship slowed down and they saw many tall buildings and advanced roads on the ground where many creatures were walking here and there. They were fat, had grey skin and had big heads and ears.

"Aliens exist!" Oscar exclaimed. "See, I told you."

Andy's eyes widened in shock. "Yeah," he said. He was finding it hard to believe, but it was really happening. There were aliens walking on the ground and some vehicles were flying around at a very fast speed.

They landed near a U shaped building and two oxygen masks hung in front of them. A text popped up on the screen. "Wear this," it said.

"These are oxygen masks?" Andy said, examining his mask. "Where is the oxygen cylinder?"

"You don't need oxygen cylinder." The text popped up on the screen. "It extracts the oxygen from the atmosphere and makes it available to you."

"Wow," Oscar said. "Amazing technology." He and Andy wore the masks and the spaceship's door opened on its own. They stepped out of it and two aliens walked up to them. One of them had a pointy nose and the other one had a wide mouth. They were wearing a long dress which covered their body from neck to toe. It had some buttons on it, some of which were shining.

"Welcome to our planet," one of them said. "We were waiting for you."

"You speak English?" Oscar asked in surprise.

"Yes, we learned all of your languages."

"What?"

"Yes, we have been observing and studying your planet and your species for years."

"Why?" Andy asked.

"Because we want to be friends with you. We wanted to visit your planet, but we were worried that your species might attack us. We have found out that you have deadly weapons that can wipe out a city with the press of a button."

"Yeah, we have. But you should have tried. Humans don't attack anyone without a reason."

The alien narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure? We have studied your species and found out that you have fought each other many times."

"Yeah, there were many people in the history who got hungry for power," Oscar said. "But that's changed now. We have learned. Now we try to prevent wars."

"I understand, but still we didn't want to take any risk. That's why we sent a spaceship, so that you figure it out how to use it and come here to meet us."

"And that's exactly what we did."

"Yes." He smiled. "We are glad that you are here. Now you two can learn about us and go back and tell other humans about us."

Oscar rubbed his hands in excitement. "Great."

"I am Valino," one of the aliens said and looked at the other one. "And this is Aantrek."

"I am Oscar, and this is my brother Andy."

"Nice to meet you," Andy said with a smile.

The aliens smiled back. "Nice to meet you too," they said together.

"Come, let's give you a tour," Aantrek said.

They took Oscar and Andy to their building. It had holograms all over the place. The holograms outside were big like a screen, some were so big that it can cover a whole building. They were showing some advertisement in their language which they didn't understand. The whole planet use renewable energy from their suns. Alpha Centauri has three suns unlike our solar system with only one. They breathe nitrogen, but their noses were not like humans. They have upgraded themselves in such a way that they can survive breathing nitrogen or oxygen or carbon dioxide. They don't age like humans, they can live as long as they want unless someone kills them or get any unknown disease that they can't cure. Their planet has internet too, all the aliens stay connected with it and they chat and video call like humans on earth.

"This is awesome, man," Oscar said. "We made a great discovery. Thank god, you sent the spaceship to us. We are the first humans to travel to a different star system."

"Would you like to share your technology with humans?" Andy asked.

"Yes, of course," Valino said. "We want to learn from you too."

"What you want to learn from us? You are way more developed than us."

"No, that's not true. You know a lot of things that we don't."

"Like?" Oscar asked.

"Like love?"

A line etched between Oscar's eyebrows. "What??"

"Yes, it is amazing how you people feel it. We have seen you, but we never understood it. We want to understand it and feel it like you people do."

"Love can't be understood, it can only be felt," Andy said.

"Then teach us how to feel it."

Andy and Oscar looked at each other. It was weird that the aliens wanted to feel love. On earth no one need to feel it, it is felt on its own. "We can try," Andy said.

"Good," Valino said. "Go back to your planet and tell your species about us. If they want to meet us, come back and tell us. Maybe bring some of them with you."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, that's it. If they agree, then we will share our technology with you. We can both help each other."

Oscar nodded. "Okay. Let's go then."

"Now?" Andy asked.

"Yes, we will come back again."

Andy nodded. "Okay."

They went back to the spaceship and got inside.

"You can trust us," Valino said. "We want to be your friends."

Oscar nodded.

"Everything you saw is recorded," Aantrek said. "You will find a video on the screen, show it to your people."

"Okay," Oscar said. "We will do it. We will be back with some other people, who knows maybe the president."

"Okay," Valino said, flashing a smile. "Bye, have a safe journey."

The doors of the spaceship closed and they flew into the sky. Like before they travelled faster than the speed of light.

Oscar wanted to see more of the planet and learn about the aliens, but he couldn't learn everything in a day. He thought of staying there for a couple of days, but before he could ask, the aliens asked him to go back and tell other humans. He didn't want to be rude, so he listened. Maybe I will explore their civilization the next time, Oscar thought. I guess then they will tell us more about their technology.

"So, what are we going to do?" Andy asked. "Should we tell our space agency now?"

"Yeah, but they won't be the only ones," Oscar said. "We are going to make our tour video public."

Andy's forehead creased. "What?"

"Yes, I will upload it online. Normal people deserve to know the truth. If we only tell the space agency they will hide it from people and tell us to do the same."

"Maybe that's the right thing to do. There is a reason the space agency doesn't tell people the truth."

"What? No, people should know about it. They have no right to keep it secret."

"Yes, but they do it so that people doesn't freak out."

"Freak out?"

"Yeah, think about it. What will happen if everyone in the world finds out that the aliens exist and they want to meet us? People will go crazy, there will be chaos."

"People will discuss about it, yes. But there won't be any chaos."

"How do you know? Different people would have different reactions. Some may welcome the aliens but some may protest against it."

"Protest against it?" He chuckled. "Are you crazy? Why would anyone protest against it?"

"They may think that the aliens can be hostile."

"What?"

"Yes, you know those movies with aliens conquering our world, it has influenced many people's minds. I am sure there will be many people who would protest against it. I guess our military won't take it lightly. They will get ready for war or maybe they might protest too."

"They won't, okay. We will convince them. We will show them our video and they will understand. That's why the aliens gave us a recorded video of our tour, so that we can convince our people that they are nice. They want to be friends."

"It's easy to say." Andy said, crossing his arms. "But some people never trust anyone that easily, even if we show them the video."

"We will see, okay. Leave it to me. I will handle it." Oscar lay back on the seat and closed his eyes. "Now get some sleep. We have eight hours until we reach Earth."

They closed their eyes and rested. After eight hours they reached Earth and landed near their house. It was a pleasant morning, the skies were clear and the sun was rising above its horizon.

"We are home," Andy said. "Any idea how to send the video from this spaceship to our computer?"

"Damn it! We should have asked them," Oscar said. "Why the hell did we forget to ask them? Now we would have to go back."

"No, we don't. I have an idea."

"What?"

Andy opened the spaceship's door, went inside the house and came outside with his laptop. "This spaceship may have WIFI," he said.

Oscar's forehead creased. "What?? This is an alien spaceship, man. They are far more advanced than us. I am sure they use something else, not WIFI."

"What's the harm in trying?" Andy tried to connect the nearby WIFI and found a connection. "This might be it." He pressed the button. "Yes."

"What happened?" Oscar walked towards him to look at his laptop. A video was being sent automatically to Andy's hard drive. "Is it the video?" he asked.

"Yeah," Andy said. "See, I told you. They knew about our technology, that's why they didn't tell is how to send the video. They knew we will figure it out."

"Great. Play the video."

Andy played the video. Like the aliens said, it recorded everything they saw. It was one hour long video of their tour which showed almost everything, the tall buildings with the holograms, the flying vehicles, the aliens walking on the street and their different houses.

"Now upload it on YouTube," Oscar said.

"Don't you think we should go to the agency first?" Andy said.

"No, I told you why. They would want to keep it secret. Upload it now and then we will go to them."

"Okay." Andy uploaded the video. It took a bit of time, but after a couple of minutes it was online.

They didn't waste any more time. After uploading it they went to the space agency to meet their boss Lamber Middleton. Lamber was in his office staring at his laptop, sipping his coffee when Oscar and Andy stormed inside.

"Sir, we have to tell you something amazing," Oscar said.

Lamber put down his coffee on the table. "What happened?" he asked.

"We went to a planet in Alpha Centauri."

"What??"

"Yes, there we met aliens," Andy said.

Lamber narrowed his eyes at them. "Are you two drunk?"

"No, sir. We are completely sober. We have proof." Andy took out his laptop and opened it on Lamber's table. "They knew you aren't going to believe us, that's why they recorded everything we saw there. Look." He played the video.

Lamber sat on his chair and watched the video, but still he didn't believe it. "Are you screwing with me?" he said. "This can be made with visual effects."

"No, this is not created using CGI or visual effects, sir," Andy said. "This is real. We were really there."

"Yes, sir. It's true," Oscar said. "If you don't believe us, test it. Call the programmers to check if the video has CGI."

"Yes, but you won't need to do it," Andy said. "We have another proof. We have the spaceship, through which we travelled to Alpha Centauri."

"Where is it?" Lamber asked.

"Outside our house."

Lamber took a moment to think. He didn't want to believe them. If any alien spaceship would have entered the Earth's atmosphere the space agency would have known, but still he decided to give it a shot. Andy and Oscar was his good employees, they won't joke about it. It was worth checking out. "Okay, take me there," Lamber said.

They took Lamber to their house and showed him the spaceship. The spaceship was right there at the back of the house with its doors open. Lamber was astonished when he saw it.

"Amazing," Lamber said, examining the spaceship.

"See, we told you it is real," Oscar said.

Oscar and Andy told Lamber everything that happened till now.

"Oh god." Lamber said, massaging his temples. "You have made a great discovery. This is going to change the world."

"Yes, sir," Oscar said. "The best part is they want to be friends with us and share their technology. They just need permission to come here."

"Why they need our permission?"

"Because they don't want us to attack them if they enter our Earth."

"Okay, did you tell anyone about this?"

"We uploaded the video on the internet."

His eyes widened. "What???"

"Yes, people deserve to know, sir."

"You shouldn't have done that." He raised his voice. "Do you know what will happen? People will freak out."

"Yes, but still they deserve to know. It's their right."

Lamber pressed his lips and sighed. "Okay, whatever. What's done is done. Take me to their planet, I want to check out their lives, their technology, everything."

"Okay, we can go now."

Oscar was about to open the spaceship's door, but just then Lamber put his hands on his chest and started to cough.

"What happened, sir? Are you okay?" Andy asked.

"My...…my chest is hurting," Lamber said. "Aahhh!" He fell down on his knees and his eyes turned red.

"Let's get you to the hospital," Andy said, grabbing Lamber's arm. Oscar grabbed the other arm and they both took him to their car and drove to the nearby hospital. The doctors took him to the emergency room and Andy and Oscar waited outside.

"What the hell happened?" Andy said. "He was fine."

"Maybe he had a heart attack," Oscar said.

"Heart attack?"

"Yeah, don't you know? He had one a year ago. He has high blood pressure and his cholesterol is way over the normal range."

"Oh god." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "I hope he survives."

Just then some people in the hospital started having the same symptoms Lamber had a couple of minutes ago. They started coughing putting their hands on their chest and fell down. Some even started vomiting blood.

"What the hell?" Oscar said.

The doctors were trying to help them, but after a few minutes they started having the same symptoms too. One by one people started dying. The ones who were fine started running out of the hospital in fear.

"Oh my god!" Andy said. "Something is wrong, man."

Oscar looked at Andy in horror. "It's us," he said.

"Yeah, it's like some virus. Maybe we brought it from that planet."

"No, that can't be. If we brought a deadly virus, then we should be infected too, but...…but we are fine."

"Maybe we are immune to it."

Andy and Oscar glanced at each other. They knew they made a huge mistake.

"It's them," Oscar said. "They did it. They infected us so that we can spread it among people."

Andy nodded. "We are the medium," he said.

Terror overtook his face. "Yes."

"Come on, we have to leave. We can't let anyone die."

They both got out of the hospital, got in their car and drove back home. The whole way they saw other people getting infected, some even died on the streets.

After arriving home, they got out of the car and went towards the spaceship. "Oh god, oh god, oh god, we made a huge mistake," Oscar said, strolling around the yard nervously.

"That's why they sent the spaceship," Andy said.

"That was their plan, and we are part of it. Oh god!" He massaged his temples. "We are screwed, man. We are so screwed."

"Hey, calm down." Andy grabbed his arms and made him look at him. "Calm down, okay. We will figure something out."

"Figure out what? We will have to kill ourselves."

"No." Andy took out his hands off his arms and shook his head. "There must be another way. Let's go back to their planet."

"And then what? Fight them? You have seen their technology, man. They are way more developed than us. We can't defeat them."

"We.....we don't need to fight them. We have to play along."

"What?"

"Yes, let's go back and tell them that our people will come to their planet in a few days. Till then they sent us to learn more about them. That will buy us some time."

"Buy us time for what?"

"To find a cure."

Oscar's forehead furrowed. "Cure? They don't have a cure."

"How do you know that?"

"Because they made it for us, so that they can kill all the humans and take over our planet."

"Look, we are scientists. We can make a cure ourselves if we find out about the virus they made."

"We don't need to find out about the virus." Oscar looked at his hands. "It's in us."

Andy paused for a moment to think. "Yeah, you are right," he said. "We are immune to it, maybe we can develop a cure with our blood."

Oscar smiled. "Yes, we can. Let's examine the virus and study it in our lab."

They went back inside their house. They had a lab in the basement where they study rocks found in meteors and asteroids. It was their job. They have been doing it for years for the space agency, but today they were going to examine an unknown virus from an alien planet. They had no idea how they were going to make the cure even if they learn more about the virus. It was not only from another planet, but was from another star system. The virus might have been made with substances which doesn't even exist on Earth, but still they wanted to try. There was no other choice. They had to do something to stop it or else, the entire human species will die.

"Get a syringe," Andy said.

Oscar grabbed a syringe from the closet and took Andy's blood, and then Andy took his blood. They both began to study the virus. It was difficult to understand as it was from an alien planet but still they tried their best.

"The virus was under us but still it didn't kill us," Oscar said.

"It's like we were vaccinated, but our immune system didn't kill it," Andy said. "It stored it inside our body."

"How is that possible? How can they vaccinate us? We don't remember them putting any syringe inside our body."

"Maybe they used something else. They are more advanced than us, I am sure they have other ways."

"Other ways like? Food, water? We didn't eat anything there."

"We didn't, but we breathe the oxygen they gave us."

Oscar snapped his fingers. "Yes, the oxygen masks."

Andy went outside and brought back the oxygen masks from the spaceship. It was in good condition. They started examining it.

"We can make a cure with our blood and this oxygen masks," Andy said. "We just need to know what they used in the masks."

They kept studying the masks and their blood for days. People were dying all over the city. The virus was spreading fast. For two days they didn't sleep and kept working on a cure. They even brought some rats and experimented on them.

"I think this should work," Oscar said, showing Andy a tube filled with some gas.

"Are you sure? The last one didn't work," Andy said.

"I know, that's why I changed it a bit. I put some more oxygen in it."

"Okay. Let's test it on the virus."

They watched through their electron microscope and used the gas on the virus. The virus started dying after a couple of seconds. Joy bubbled up inside them.

"Oh god! We did it!" Oscar shouted in joy.

Andy laughed. "Yes, finally."

"Let's test in on an infected human."

Andy nodded. "Make some more. We are going to the hospital."

They manufactured some more of that gas and collected it in a cylinder which had a long tube attached to it. Both of them put it in the truck and drove to the nearby hospital. Before they could reach the hospital they saw people dying on the street. They took one cylinder and the tube and ran towards one woman who was coughing up blood.

"Hey, hey, ma'am, breathe with this," Oscar said, forwarding the tube to her. "This can save you."

The woman didn't even think for a second and put the tube in her mouth and took a deep breath. After a couple of seconds, her breathing turned normal and she started feeling better.

"Thank you, thank you," she said. "Please, save my daughter. She needs it too."

They went inside that woman's house and helped her daughter too. On the street many people were suffering, they started helping them one after another. A group of military people wearing Hazmut suits were walking with their guns trying to keep the infected people away. They sealed the whole town so that no one can go in or out. They saw Oscar and Andy curing people and came running towards them.

"Hey, hey," one of the military man said. "You really cured that woman?"

"Yeah, we did," Oscar said. "We made a cure."

"But it's not enough," Andy said. "A lot of people in the city are infected. We need to produce the cure at a large scale."

"Come with me," the military man said. "I think I can help."

He took them out of the town in their helicopter. After flying for a couple of minutes it landed on a roof of a building. Two men wearing Hazmat suits walked up to the military man. "Who are they?" one of them asked.

"They developed a cure," the military man said.

"What??"

"Yes, get Smith. I think he can help these guys save the city."

The two guys went inside and came out with another guy in a yellow Hazmat suit.

"Where is the cure?" the new guy asked.

"They made it," the military guy said, pointing his finger at Andy and Oscar. "I have seen it work."

The new guy looked at Oscar and Andy. "Come, come inside. We need to talk."

He took them to his lab. There were many scientists working, all of them were in Hazmat suits.

"Tell me, how you made it," the scientist asked.

"We will tell you, but can you produce it on a large scale?" Andy asked. "You know spreading the gas all over the city."

He nodded. "Yeah, I can."

"Then let's get started."

The leader of the scientists gathered all the scientists in the lab and Andy and Oscar explained them how to make the cure. Within a couple of hours they made a lot of the gas which could cure a lot of people at once. They made it like rockets, which were launched in the air. After reaching a certain level in the sky, it blasted spreading the gas all over the city. All the people started feeling relief, their symptoms started disappearing after a couple of seconds of breathing it. It worked and at the end of the day all the people were cured, but sadly the ones who died couldn't come back.

The scientist and the military asked Andy and Oscar how they made the cure, but they didn't tell them the truth. It was their fault so many people died. They were responsible for it, but it was a mistake. If they try to explain it, they won't understand and put them in prison. So they lied about it and told them that they were somehow immune to it, they didn't know the reason, but they were immune to it. That's how they made the cure. The scientists and the military believed them and thanked them for it.

"You two are heroes," the scientist said.

"Thank you," Oscar and Andy said together.

All the scientists took out their Hazmat suits as now they weren't scared of the virus anymore. A news reporter came inside the building and walked towards Andy and Oscar. "We want to take your interview," he said.

"No, no, we can't," Andy said.

"Why not?"

"We have to go."

"But…..you saved the world. People should know about you. Don't you want to be famous?"

"No," Oscar said. "We don't."

The reporter was surprised by their statement. Who won't want to be heroes? Who won't want to be famous? Everybody loves it when people praise them, but Andy and Oscar wasn't interested in it. How could they? Despite after saving the world, they had guilt inside of them as they were the ones who caused it in the first place.

Andy looked at the military man. "Take us back home," he said. "We have some unfinished business."

The military man took them back in his helicopter and dropped them in their home. He thanked them again and left.

"Oh god! We don't deserve this," Oscar said. "Because of us so many people died."

"I know, man, I know," Andy said. "But it was a mistake."

"I was so stupid." Oscar looked away and a tear ran down his cheek. "I should have listened to you."

"Hey." Andy grabbed his arms and made him look into his eyes. "It's okay, you didn't know."

"But still….." He gulped. "I should have been careful. So many people died, man. All because of me."

"No, not because of you, because of those aliens. They are to blame, not you."

He nodded and wiped his tears. "It's not over. They tried to wipe us out. I am sure they are going to try again."

He nodded. "Yes. That's why we need to do something."

"Do what? We can't fight them. You have seen how advanced they are."

"We don't need to fight them. We need to do what they did to us."

"Make a virus?"

"Yes."

Oscar's face drained of color. "Have you lost your mind? They are from Alpha Centauri, Andy. We know just a little bit about them and their planet. To make a virus that can kill them, we need to study their whole body."

"We will."

"How?"

"We will go back and tell them that our superiors sent us back to study them and their planet first."

"You think they will believe it?"

"They will. They won't have any choice."

Oscar shook his head. "No, no, they will know. They are smart."

"They won't, okay. They have no idea what happened on earth. We are not going to tell them. They are 4.3 light years away."

"But....it's too risky."

"We have to take the risk. It's about saving our planet and fixing our mistake."

He nodded. "Okay."

Oscar had still doubts about their plan. What if it doesn't work? The aliens might find out the truth. If that happens what will they do then? It was a big risk, but there was no better idea they could think of.

They both got in the spaceship and travelled back to Alpha Centauri. Like before they landed on the alien's planet after eight hours. The doors opened on its own, and Valino and Aantrek walked towards them. It seemed like they were waiting for them.

"What happened?" Valino asked. "You are back so soon?"

"We told our people," Andy said, getting out of the spaceship. "They will be here in a few days."

"Why? Some of them could have come with you."

"No, they wanted us to know more about your planet, your species and your technology."

"Okay, but what about the spaceship? You brought it here, how will your people visit us? To my knowledge your species haven't discovered how to travel faster than light."

"Yeah, but they have made a replica of your spaceship. They will come in it."

Oscar glanced at Andy. What the hell he is saying? Oscar thought. A replica of their spaceship? They won't believe that.

"Okay," Valino said. "But we already showed you our planet, our species."

Oscar was surprised to see that they bought it. "Yes, but we want to learn more," Oscar said before Andy could speak. "You know in details."

"Okay then. As you wish. I will take you to one of our hotels."

A rectangular flying vehicle landed near them and its doors opened. Valino and Aantrek got inside it. "Get in," Aantrek said.

Oscar and Andy got in the back seat and the vehicle flew away. It took them to a sparkling purple color skyscraper and landed on its roof. The aliens took them to a luxurious room with comfy beds. The room looked exactly like the rooms in expensive hotels on earth. There were taps and shower with running water in the bathroom, there were windows with beautiful creamy curtains and a table and some chairs.

"This is amazing," Oscar said. "Do you guys use the same type of stuff like us?"

"No, we made the room just for you," Valino said.

"We made the things with our 3d printers. We studied how you live and made according to it," Aantrek said.

"Great," Oscar said, rubbing his hands. "What about food?"

"We made that too."

"With your 3d printers?"

"Yes, exactly like your planet. Tell us, what you want to have?"

"Umm....a pizza."

"Okay." Aantrek snapped his fingers and after a couple of seconds, an alien entered the room with a pizza in a big round plate. He put the plate on the table and left.

"Wow!" Andy said, grabbing a slice of pizza. "This is awesome." He took a bite. "Hmm...it tastes exactly like a real pizza."

"It is a real pizza," Valino said. "Just that we made it in our planet. It was difficult to make all the ingredients, but still we managed it."

"We made a lot of them," Aantrek said. "We thought you were going to bring some of your people."

"Our people will come," Oscar said. "Just not now. You have time, so make a lot of our food."

"We will, Oscar. We will. Get some rest, I am afraid we would have to leave you two here. We need to go to a meeting."

"Okay."

"See you in the morning," Valino said and they both left the room.

After they left Oscar closed the door and turned to Andy. "Now what?" he asked.

"We follow them," Andy said. "Open the door." He walked towards the door.

Oscar opened the door and they both followed the aliens without alerting them. They got in their flying vehicle and flew away.

"No, how the hell we could follow them now?" Oscar said.

"We don't have to," Andy said. "We just need to see on which building the vehicle lands."

They walked to the edge of the roof to see as far as they can. There was too much noise on the ground, it seemed like the aliens were having some kind of celebration. Many aliens were dancing and drinking on the streets, some were even singing in their language. Andy and Oscar didn't focus on that, they kept their eyes on the vehicle.

"What if it flies far away?" Oscar asked.

"Then we have no choice," Andy said. "We will have to randomly start looking."

The vehicle landed on a building with a H symbol on the top of it.

"Thank god." Oscar sighed. "We saw it."

"Come on, let's go," Andy said. "We have to reach that building before they fly away somewhere else."

They walked back into the hotel's corridors and started looking for the lift or stairs, but didn't find any. Most of the walls had holograms where aliens were saying something holding different things. It seemed like those were advertisements.

"They are advanced than us," Oscar said. "They must use something else."

"What?" Andy said.

"Let's ask an alien."

"What?? No, we can't risk it. They will tell Valino and Aantrek."

"We will lie. We will make something up."

Just then they saw an alien walk to the corner of the end of the corridor and tap the wall, a keypad appeared. The numbers in the keypad were in the alien language. The alien pressed one number and he disappeared from there.

Andy smiled. "Oscar, we have found the way," he said.

They walked to the corner and tapped the wall like the alien did. A keypad appeared.

"We don't know their language," Oscar said. "How will we know which number means what?"

"Let's try the last one," Andy said. "I am sure it means ground floor. Grab my hand."

Oscar grabbed Andy's hand and Andy pressed the button. They disappeared and appeared in a hall, where many aliens were walking. Some were eating, some were talking and some were busy checking their holograms. Oscar and Andy kept going straight and after a few minutes they got out of the building.

"See, I was right," Andy said.

"Yeah, let's go to that building with H symbol," Oscar said.

They walked towards the H symbol building. It took them a couple of minutes but they reached there. While going there, aliens on the street checked them out as they were different. They tried to avoid eye contact with them and kept walking towards the building. After entering the building they saw Valino and Aantrek walking towards the corridor at the east with two other aliens. Oscar and Andy followed them, and after a couple of minutes the aliens entered a room and closed it's door. Oscar and Andy got inside the next room and climbed out of the window. They moved to the next window and peeked through it. A tall fat alien entered the room. The two aliens who came with Valino and Aantrek left the room and closed the door. The tall fat alien sat on a green color thing which looked like a sofa and Valino and Aantrek sat opposite of him. They started talking in their language.

"What the hell are they saying?" Oscar whispered.

"It's their language," Andy whispered back. "Shit! I wish we had a translator."

They stayed there for a minute to understand what they were saying. They thought maybe observing their body language will help, but it didn't. The aliens didn't react, they were just talking, it was impossible to understand what they were discussing.

"Let's get out of here," Andy said. "There is nothing to see. I am sure they are having a meeting where they are discussing about killing our species and conquering earth."

"Yeah, I guess so," Oscar said.

They walked out of the room and started exploring the building. There were many rooms in which aliens were watching something in their holograms, some were even playing games in it. Some were eating, some were sleeping and some were even dancing. After exploring for an hour they found a lab at the 58th floor. It was empty. They entered inside and started checking out its holograms. Suddenly, an alien walked into the room.

"What you two are doing here?" the alien asked.

Andy and Oscar were startled and they got nervous, but they tried to not show it.

"We are just exploring your planet," Andy said. "Want to learn more about your species and your planet."

"Why?" the alien asked, walking towards them.

"Because our people want to know. That's why they sent us. Valino and Aantrek knows. They even gave us a room to stay."

"Oh." The alien pressed his lips and nodded.

"Can you tell us about your planet and your species?" Oscar asked. "We are trying to read the information here, but we couldn't understand. It's in your language."

The alien took out two small circular device from a closet and handed it to them. "Wear it on your forehead and select English," he said. "You will be able to read everything."

Oscar checked the device. "How can I wear it?" he asked.

"Put it on your forehead, it will stick to your skin."

"Okay."

They wore the device and a virtual display appeared in front of their eyes where they needed to select language. They selected English and all the information on the holograms translated to English.

"That's awesome," Oscar said.

They tried to read everything they could and the alien got busy in his work at the lab. They searched for the information about the planet and its species. It said the aliens breathe nitrogen, like humans about thirty percent of their bodies were made of water. Oxygen can make them stronger and Methane gas was poisonous for them, even breathing it for ten seconds can kill them.

"Got it," Andy said.

"What happened?" Oscar asked.

"Let's go," he whispered. "We got what we need."

The alien heard them and looked at them. "What did you get?" he asked.

"Ah, you know information," Andy said.

He walked towards them. "What information?"

"Information about you and your species."

"Yeah, but why did you get excited about it."

"Because we loved it."

The alien got suspicious and narrowed his eyes. "No, there is something you are hiding from me."

"What??" Andy chuckled. "No." He looked at Oscar. "Oscar, tell him."

"Yeah….yeah, we.....we are not hiding anything," Oscar said, stuttering.

"No, you are," the alien said through his teeth. "I can sense it. You two are nervous."

Andy knew there was no way the alien would let them go. He will keep them there and tell Valino and Aantrek. So before he could do that Andy turned around and farted.

"What the hell???" the alien started to feel choked. His mouth and nose began to bleed and then he fell on the ground. "What did you do?" He groaned.

Andy leaned down towards him and gave a devilish smile. "We found out what can kill you," he said.

"Noooo!!!!" The alien vomited blood and gasped for breath. "Please.....please….." He choked on his blood and died.

Oscar was standing there in shock. "You killed him with your fart?" he said.

"Methane," Andy said. "It is poisonous for them, can kill them in seconds."

"Wow! We don't need to make a virus then."

"We don't." Andy smiled. "We just need to make a lot of methane here. I am sure we can extract it from some of the chemicals."

"Yeah, we can, but there are a lot of aliens on the planet. We can't make that much methane."

"We don't need to. We just need to make enough to blackmail them."

"Blackmail them?"

"Yes, so that they can never dare to wipe us out ever again."

They gathered all the chemicals in the lab and started extracting methane in two cylinders. It was easy for them as now they could read everything in the holograms, they used aliens' technology and did it a lot faster. After they were done, they carried the cylinders on their back and attached two tubes with it. They went back to the room where Valino and Aantrek were having a meeting with the tall fat alien.

The aliens stood up instantly after Andy and Oscar stormed inside with the cylinders.

"Oscar? Andy?" Valino said. "What are you two doing here?"

"We are here to make a deal," Andy said.

"A deal?"

"Yes, we know what you are up to," Oscar said. "We were so stupid to believe you. Because of you so many people died."

"What are you talking about?" Aantrek said.

"Drop the act, Aantrek. We know what you did. We saw it, people died, but guess what, your mission failed. We managed to make a cure and save our people."

Valino and Aantrek exchanged a look and then they looked at them.

"Okay, that was not expected," Valino said, flashing a devilish smile. "But no worries, we can send you back with another virus."

"No," Andy said. "You can't."

"Oh really?" Valino smirked and walked towards them. "We are more advanced than your species. You can't defeat us."

"We can." He showed him the tube attached to the cylinder. "See this, it is filled with methane."

Valino's face drained of color and his eyes widened in fear. "What???"

"Yes, we know what kills you." Andy clenched his jaw. "So back off. You are not taking over our planet."

"If you try again, we will come back and fill this planet with methane," Oscar said. "Trust me, we can make a lot of it."

Valino took a step back, and Aantrek and the tall fat alien exchanged looks. They were terrified.

"Do we have a deal?" Oscar asked. "If not, then we can kill you right now, and then your entire species."

The aliens looked at each other in horror. They didn't expect this. They thought they had a full proof plan which was going to work, but now they were the ones who were weak against two humans.

"Okay, okay," Valino said. "We have a deal."

"You will never ever come to our planet," Andy said.

"And won't try to release a virus," Oscar said.

"We won't go to your planet anyway," Aantrek said. "You have nuclear weapons. That's why we tried sending the virus with you."

"Why not on some meteor?" Andy asked.

"We tried that too, but your people examine the meteor and make sure that it is free from any pathogen. Whenever they find any, they keep it in a secured place until they develop a way to kill it."

Oscar looked at Andy and gave a smug smile. "See, I told you, the space agency knew a lot of things. They kept it a secret."

"Yeah, and they have a good reason for it," Andy said and turned to the aliens. "Why conquer our world? We could have helped each other."

"Help?" Valino chuckled. "You can't help us. You are a dying species. You are polluting your planet at a very fast rate, within a few centuries you will be dead anyway."

"No, we won't," Andy said. "I get it, we have problems, but we will solve it."

"We will see," Aantrek said, raising his chin. "That planet will be ours, we just wanted to have it sooner."

"You won't have it. You will never have it. Our people will now know what can kill you, so beware. Stay away from our planet. If you try anything like this again, this time we will wipe you out."

"Okay, okay, we understand. I guess we will have to look elsewhere."

"Good."

They left the building and went to the spaceship while the aliens watched. Oscar and Andy exchanged looks and smiled at each other. They did it, they protected their planet and defeated an advanced intelligent alien species. It was amazing, but still they were responsible for those people who died because of the virus. There was nothing they could do to fix that, but they made sure that it doesn't happen again. They travelled back to the Earth, went to their space agency and told them about the aliens and about the methane gas. They changed their story a bit, so that they don't held them responsible for the outbreak. They said the virus was in the spaceship. The space agency wanted to see the spaceship, but Andy and Oscar burned it after they landed on Earth. They knew if the space agency found the spaceship, they would want to visit Alpha Centauri, but it was dangerous. The aliens could plan something else and manipulate the humans to kill their own species, so they made sure that no humans can travel there again.