The History of the Stars

Nick and David stared up at the sky. Their eyes gazed at the bright stars which illuminated the horizon like tiny candles in the night. The soft, warm bed of grass beneath the two gentlemen provided a comfortable resting area as the moonlight blanketed the lads in its glow.

"It really is cool, isn't it? There are so many stars in the sky, each a million miles away." Nick said, looking up in awe at the bright lights ahead.

"Yeah, when you put it like that it's really awesome. I've never really taken the time to appreciate how beautiful they are." David responded, his voice quivering. The perspective really got to him. All these stars, each so far away, and there they were on a small floating rock in an infinite space. The two fell into silence again, adoring the majestic view they had. Trees and shrubbery shook in the wind. It was the perfect night for the two stargazers. Minutes went by without a word spoken until David once again broke the silence.

"Do you think that there might be something out there? You know, life besides us in this universe?"

Nick paused for a brief second. He allowed David's question to sink in for a moment. He his eyes fell as he stretched his body out before responding.

"Well, there's an infinite universe out ahead of us. Anything is possible you know, but I'm pretty sure that there's a species of aliens out there. I'm willing to bet that they're weird looking, smelly, and have horrible tastes in music and art."

David shifted his head and looked at Nick strangely. "How can you be so sure that there are aliens out there, and how can you be sure that they have bad tastes?" David inquired.

"Because, David, there's one of them directly to my left."

The two men chuckled at this, particularly Nick. In fact, Nick seemed to be having a grand time at the expense of his friend, but David didn't blame him. His buddy always did things like that. David admittedly enjoyed the pokes and jabs as well.

"Yeah yeah, keep talking like that and one day I'm gonna get you back big time," David assured Nick.

"Hey David, speaking about aliens and space and whatnot, I actually happen to know that it takes the sun's rays about twenty minutes to reach our planet.."

"Nick, what the hell does that have to do with aliens and space?" David asked in a condescending manner.

"It has to do with space and aliens because the same thing applies to the stars and planets we see. They take time for their light to reach us. That means that technically speaking, we're looking into the past right now. Theoretically, the stars we see could be inhabitants with aliens and we're peering at their species in the past. Who knows, maybe they're looking right back at us."

"That's actually pretty interesting Nick, I actually didn't know that."

"Know what, that I'm smarter than you in pretty much everything?" Said Nick, laughing aloud.

"No, I didn't know that you were such a massive nerd!" David shot back. Nick clutched his chest, pretending to writhe in pain before playfully crying in agony. The two friends chuckled amongst themselves. Having decided to call it a night, they got up and made their way towards David's red truck. They drove through the road and into a clearing. On the horizon, they could see a star that twinkled in the distance. Nick pointed towards it and spoke.

"That star was a planet. I remember reading lots of articles on it. Apparently, scientists were really interested in it. What you're looking at now is a glimpse into the past. Several thousand years ago a large asteroid collided with that planet. Destroyed the whole damn thing. What you're seeing right this moment is the bright explosion created by the impact."

"So, it was just another planet? Why were scientists so interested in it?" Questioned David.

"They thought that it could maybe have harbored some kind of life in the universe. Guess people got excited about possible aliens. Truthfully, the idea of something unknown living outside of this planet terrifies me, but the idea that we could possibly be alone in such a large universe scares me as well."

David agreed. The idea of it all did sound frightening.

"Well, what made them think that the planet could have been inhabitable?"

Nick turned and looked at David for a minute before responding.

"Apparently a large portion of its surface was covered in water. Not to mention that they discovered it had its own atmosphere. It was even thought to have vegetation and land. It had all the components of life really, it was just that it was so far away we couldn't really tell."

David turned and looked at Nick before forcing a murmur out of his throat.

"Do.. do you think there was life on it?"

Nick shrugged and replied in a voice equally as low.

"I don't know man. All this information and stuff is just speculation. Just from estimates and stuff... y'know? Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. If it did, we're seeing the death of a whole species right before our very eyes."

David nodded his head and spoke once more.

"And if it didn't, then we still might be just a speck in this infinite space. Alone in a universe bigger than we can even dream of."

The red truck continued down the road in the night, the bright lights above twinkling throughout the sky, a hologram displaying millions of years of history located in an infinite real of isolation.