“The Universe. Appahetea”—which means the Universe—”It’s so… massive. Ever expanding.”

Tomki laid on his back, looking up into the eternal night sky. He was cold, though he had the ability to lay where he was for a few minutes before becoming uncomfortable. He continued to talk to himself.

“Appaheatea. And even though I can not understand it… It’s so beautiful.” Tomki put his hands underneath his head. “Appaheatea. I can… see you, yet I can not see all of you. Appaheatea.”

It was odd: it was almost like Tomki knew that the Universe was always there, but he never seemed to acknowledge it or he never realized how large it was. He never took the time to look at it in all of its glory.

“Appaheatea.” He closed his eyes for a moment, envisioning what all of it would look like if he could see all of it at once. Tomki could not envision anything but stars, forever and ever. When he opened his eyes a poem—or maybe it was a song—came to his mind.

“Onward, traveler,

Through the cosmos,

Forever, onward.

Behold, the stars.

Behold, the world,

Forever, onward.

Explore forever,

To your heart's content.

Forever, onward.”

A flash of light came over the night sky as the two humans slept. It was a meteor, or a comet, or whatever what someone may label it; whatever it was, it was some sort of space junk, whether it be trash, metal, or debris from something larger. The light that it produced was almost like the light produced from a bolt of lightning, being there for one moment and then disappearing the next moment. From the comet came the sound of something burning, along with almost a crystal like sound—although, maybe it was some sort of ringing sound, or maybe it was a noise that to the reader would be similar to wind chimes. Whatever it was, it was loud and prominent, and anyone on the surface of Makemake would be able to notice it. Hearing the sound, they would turn up to the sky and witness the flash of light that was described before.

That same comet continued to go onward and take its path down to the surface of the planet, colliding with the rocky terrain. Sparks flew, and with them chunks of melting stone spilled out onto the cold ground; when the molten stone came in contact with the earth it made a sizzling sound as the ground attempted to cool it. When the evaporated water dispersed itself throughout the atmosphere and cleared away from where the comet had hit the planet, a small, minute crater could be seen. Like how one would be able to see the flashing lights that the comet produced while it took its path in the night sky, they would also, in the same instance, be able to feel a noticeable clap of sound that, with it, came a rumble and a shake of the earth. Of course, the comet was not large enough to have a significant impact on the planet; what did have the capability to make an impact on Makemake, however, was what came of the comet.

As the story has been told so far, the comet is a comet. However, this is not entirely true, and the comet was not actually a comet, though one would think it to be a comet or a meteor or something of that nature. What it truly was was a shuttle—actually, it was more of a capsule than a shuttle, but still it did act as a shuttle for something. That something was a beacon. The common name for it was a flagger; as a beacon, it sent out a “light message” out to anything nearby, but as a flagger it is used to tell where something is and if it came in contact with something, usually a planet or some celestial object that will not burn it or shred it into oblivion. This specific flagger was sent by someone, obviously far away from Makemake, and whether it be from a person out in the stars or that it was sent out accidentally and was not meant to be sent out, it landed on Makemake.

When it landed, it was still intact for the most part. The outside capsule of the flagger was scraped up, as any object that was hurtling at a planet at just about the highest speed it could go. Even though the outside was injured that did not mean that the inside contents were not. Flaggers that were to be sent out of spacecrafts or shot like a cannonball were always made with a strong outside shell so that the inside of it could be protected. Now that the object was on the surface of Makemake, it opened; from it, a beacon of light, more like a laser than anything else, shot out from its top, into the darkness above. That message that the laser sent may have been picked up by someone passing by, whether they be in the atmosphere of Makemake or even in a specific radius outside of the solar system it resided in.

From the beacon was a noise; a noise that the reader was accustomed to. A beeping sound. A rhythmic beeping. Once, twice, thrice.