Athena

He was a speck of dust compared to the vast, alien landscape. The orange and purple sands surrounded him. He had no clue where he was or how far he had gone. All he knew was that he was lost and he had nothing human to give him comfort. The only things that he was familiar with were the demolished ship, his deceased comrades and himself. He wondered where he was. It did not matter, he figured he would be better off dead.

The expedition he was on got caught in the middle of a stray meteor shower, this caused them to go off course and crash onto this desolate planet.

#

He looked around for something, anything that might get him out of here. Then he decided to head back inside the ship. Once he got inside he could not see any thing. He was searching for the backup generator. The ship landed in an odd angle causing him to have to climb. He crawled over soft lumps, these were his shipmates. His hand touched something. It was a floor, now it was turned into a wall. He groped the tar-like darkness above him hoping to find a door that should have been there. His fingers slid in to a small crack. It took him several short seconds to register what this was then he put the other hand into it. He pulled his hands apart in hopes of getting the minute hole larger. Adrenaline rushed throughout his body, bulging about inside his vaines. Scraping metal echoed through the craft and some sparks flew dully casting small, insignificant traces of light onto his surroundings. Finally the hole was large enough for him to push himself up through it. His muscles ached greatly from his previous feat of strength.
After a brief struggle he made it to the room that was above him. It should have contained the back-up generator. No lights were on; this was not a good sign. He felt the air above him. His hand hit something. They were long, thin and swung before him. He grabbed them to investigate further. They were wires.

He was now filled with rage. He yanked the wires out of the wall and threw them down; they hit the room below. Then he kicked whatever was in front of him. Metal buzzed with the impact of his foot. Gravity took over his body causing him to loose his footing and crash on a dead body below. Under most circumstances, if he knew what he had fallen on he would go into a panic. Not now. It did not matter what happened, nothing mattered to him anymore. He was trapped and he wanted to get off of this strange place.

He looked up at the only source of light, which did not even reach the interior of the ship. The light was coming from outside. It was the sun. He crawled over to it. His eyes were in immense pain once he got out. He looked around.

He had to communicate with his home base. The ship was useless. The back-up generator did not even function. There was no way getting anything done; besides, he had already tried it. He began to walk. Where he was going he was not sure, but he needed to go somewhere.

#

His legs buckled from walking too much and the intense gravity wanted to crush him. He was not sure how long he was walking. It could have been seconds or years. Possibly there was no time here. There was nothing to keep time with.
He continued his mindless journey, still hoping.

His hope paid off.

A bizarre structure jutted out from the horizon. He began running toward it, as joy was his engine. It got closer. It resembled a building. There was a city up ahead, this meant civilization. Finally he would get help.

#

A chance of receiving help was very slim since everyone was dead. Skeletons littered the ancient roads. The rotting buildings were only held up by a maze of brown, dead, decaying vines. However, he continued searching for any possible survivors. “Hello!” he cried.

“Hello!” replied his echo.

He tried to gain somebody’s attention several more times but all he got was his own voice.

He spotted a skyscraper with one door that was ajar. He walked over to it. The space between the outer wall and the door was to narrow for him to squeeze through. He needed to pull it open more, this was getting rather tiresome.

#

Just enough light penetrated the foliage-covered windows for him to navigate without much difficulty. Almost directly in front of him was a staircase. Since it seemed rather convenient, he ascended it.

Each step shivered and moaned underneath his feet. The man glanced up. Lights of various colors flickered above his head. Electricity. Hope.
His feet picked up his pace. The lights got more intense the higher he got up. He could almost touch them as a joyous grin appeared onto his face. The staircase gave away from underneath him.

He began to fall, again. His hands sprung up and clasped onto the ledge he had created. He was a moth flying to the soft, warm glow of lamps casting their rays form within a pleasant looking house only to slam into a window. The remaining steps slowly crumbled into nothing as he tried to pull himself up. He grunted through his gnashing teeth. Slowly inch by inch he worked his way up as his numb mussels bulged to the size of basketballs. Once he was high enough he managed to throw his legs over the edge. Getting up the rest of the way was simple. The floor still remained unstable.

He got to his feet. His heart still raced.

Off to his right was the source of his near ended journey. Red and green danced before him. He went to it.

It was impossible. This place looked like it had been uninhabited for centuries. However it was there as clear as day. Working, real electricity, he could not believe it. It was a miracle. He jumped and shouted with happiness.

The inside of the room was infested with buttons. He went over to one of the control panels on which they were contained. His eyes scanned over it in search of something helpful. They stopped when he perceived something vary familiar looking. It resembled a phone. He hastily picked it up and placed it to his ear. It buzzed causing him to quiver with delight.

Slight complications arose when he realized he was not aware of the techniques necessary for operation. Once again he looked for a button to push. After a minute, it would have been if he knew what time it was, he gave up. Then he carelessly pressed one for he had nothing to loose.

After a few, short would be seconds he heard the first human voice for as long as he can remember. “Intergalactic Communications, how may we help you?” it asked. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

“I want to contact earth.”

“Anywhere in particular?”

He laughed. “I don’t care, just as long as I get out of here. I just want to talk to people!”

“Let’s see,” several minutes of horrible, unwanted silence, “we can put you in touch with the United Nations. Are you fine with that?”

“Yes! Yes! Of course! Hurry!”

“Please have patience,” cried the person at the other end, clearly frustrated with this demanding astronaut, “it’ll only be a couple of minutes.”

“That’s too long!”

click.

Silence.

Another voice took over the other line. “Earth Communications Base.”

“I need you’re help,” cried the spaceman with an exhausted tone of voice.
He received no reply; instead he overheard a terrifying conversation.

The man who began talking to him shouted to another person that was in the same room with him. “Contact the Pentagons now!”

“Why sir?” asked the other person.

“We’ve just received a call from Athena.”

“Are you sure?”

“Look at Transmission Tracker yourself.”

More silence loomed about him until the woman whom was talking to the man that picked up the phone stated, “Yes, sir! Right away sir!”

“Tell them we failed to destroy all of the Athens.”

“Yes, sir!”

Then there was a sudden click on the other end.

He collapsed to his knees and wept. He could not believe it. He was on Athena.

Planet Athena was similar to earth in almost every way, even language. Two centuries ago this place was discover by us humans. We observed that they were quite possibly more intelligent that what we were. This could not be tolerated; the fear of common people being afraid of wiser creatures is what had caused that extensive amount of government cover-up so long ago. This outraged most of us. All of earth went to war with the Athens in pursuit to see who was the superior being. As you could probably figure out, we were triumphant. If any remained alive they would only love to get their hands onto us. We thought he was one of them. How awful indeed.

The phone rang. Our unfortunate hero glanced up at it. He was afraid to answer it.
It rang again. He reached for it.

Ring. It was now in his hand, then he placed it to his ear and pressed the button he had pressed before.

It rang one last time before he could talk. “Hello?” he said as calmly as he could.

“Listen, we’ve already sent the troops to blow you up. You hear?”

“I’m not one of them.”

“What kind of idiot do ya take me for? Of course you are!”

“My name is Ray Wells.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of Ray’s on your miserable, little planet.”

“Listen!”

“Shut up! We aren’t gonna let you get the revenge you want! We don’t care what you think! Have a nice day!”

The ignorant man slammed down the phone leaving Ray alone one more time.
Let them come to blow his body apart, at least that would be a favor. What a choice, wait for his air to become depleted or wait for the bombers to come for him. It would only be a matter of time before he found out which would come first
He got to his feet and began thrashing about. His hands ripped at the foliage, he pounded his fists into the panels. This was not happening! He screamed as his head crashed into the walls. It was all he could do. It was all he could do. One would be safe to say that he was an Athen because he was no longer human, instead he was a blabbing ball of insanity.

They should have listened. If they would have he would not be in the condition he was in now. The only thing left to do was wait for death.