3rd Place: Planet 210

“Happy Holidays!” Aspen yelled, his voice echoing through the training room.

I glanced at him for a second before stopping the treadmill. Sweat dripped to my eyes as I stepped off and sat on the bench. He walked towards me as I began wiping my face.

“You’re awake this early? Shocking,” I finally said, throwing the dirty towel above my bag and grabbing my water bottle.

“Well it’s officially Winter back at home, and I’m helping set up the holiday decorations. You know how much I love the holiday season.” He replied, sitting next to me. “Besides, it might help ease some of that homesickness and anxiety of this mission.”

A small ringing came from my watch before a voice began talking, “Ms.Winters, you’re needed in the captain's office.”

The hologram disappeared and I looked at Aspen. The Captain was gone for a couple days and if he had good news he would have called for a meeting with everyone, this couldn’t be good. As I began to pack my stuff, Aspen gave me a pat on my shoulder and walked off, our silent way of saying good luck without jinxing ourselves. Grabbing my bag I headed out of the training room. The walk to the Captain’s office was short and I found myself there before I could think of reasons for being called in. I knocked on the door and a few seconds later it opened.

The Captain was sitting at his desk looking through the pages of what seemed to be a really old book. A new scar was on his cheek, looking a couple days old. I cleared my throat and he looked up, motioning me to his desk. “Hello, Winters, I need your help. I just got word from our scouting team that another planet has been frozen over. Planet 210, originally an inhabited planet with most of its surface being a hot sandy home, is now covered in snow.”

“What would you like me to do?” I asked, placing my bag on the ground.

“I need you and your team to go to Planet 210 and see if there are any survivors. If you see anyone bring them back, the faster we find who is doing this to all the planets, the faster we can stop it.”

The flight to the planet took a while. The team took the time to figure out a strategy and plan once we arrived. In the end we decided to split into two groups and scout the area for any survivors. Once we landed on the planet, I could see the worry on everyone’s faces. This could go many ways and everyone understood that. I was just glad Aspen stayed back on the Main Spaceship to help with repairs.

As soon as we exited the ship, the wind bit into my skin. It wasn’t a cold that made my fingers go numb but a cold that went to my bones making it hard to breathe. We split into our teams and began walking into the endless white. It was so hard to see, we almost bumped into each other. That’s when I noticed a small dim light a couple feet away. We began following it, my eyes staying glued to the light until it was bright enough to see our surroundings. We arrived in front of a small house. Someone knocked and the door opened, a voice ushering us inside.

The house was cold, probably built to maintain it cool in the hot weather of the planet. A large group of people huddled together, all looking at us. 

“Let’s split up,” Aniie, one of the members said, before walking into the crown of people. I followed suit, making sure my translation device was on. I began asking people questions. No one knew anything about the storm, some said it was hot and sandy and then switched up. It was clear that no one was used to the cold weather. Some had small shades of blue on their fingers. As I reached the other side of the house I spotted someone walking towards me. Getting closer I noticed it was a woman. Her long pointed ears were drooping to her neck as if in fear.

She stayed silent but pulled out a small device. It was a video of someone freezing the planet’s core. Then a small shard was thrown, hitting the person in the face. As I looked closer I let out a gasp.

Before I could say anything to the woman, someone else pulled her away taking the video with her. As they walked away I reached towards my intercom, turning it on before speaking.

“Aspen, this is Celeste. I found the culprit.” I said my voice lowering to a whisper, “It’s the Captain, he’s been playing us all.”