The Stuck Aliens - Part1 - Mission to India

 It was 2030. ISRO had sent a manned space shuttle to Mars. There were five astronauts on board. They landed on Mars. At first glance, they saw rocks everywhere. They started looking for interesting things and collecting them. They were also looking for life, but could not find anything.

However, there were millions of tiny creatures hidden below the big rocks. They were too small and well disguised to be seen by humans. A few alien scientists saw the shuttle and went inside. Along with them they carried ZAX [a breathing gas] cylinders. Their names were Max, Roy and Harry. They were on a mission to find more about Earthlings and this was their chance. Suddenly, the astronauts came in to avoid a dust storm and closed the doors. The aliens were tiny and could not open the door. They were stuck inside for seven days. Every time the astronauts would go out, they tried to escape, but could not succeed. The space shuttle started its return journey to Earth. The aliens were stuck. But they did not panic. They decided to use this opportunity to go to Earth and learn more about the Earthlings.

When the driver left the seat for a break, the aliens played with the controls and by mistake changed the direction of the shuttle. When the driver came back, he was shocked and fainted. The astronauts found that they were going to land in the USA instead of India. They contacted ISRO headquarters and gave them the message. The ISRO headquarters was surprised, but they had no time to think about how the direction changed. They contacted NASA and explained the situation to them and requested permission to land their space shuttle. 

Meanwhile in the shuttle, Max said, “I think these ZAX cylinders will last for 5 Mars years. One Mars year is 687 Earth days”. Harry added, “So we have 3435 earth days in hand. We can learn all about these Earthlings - their language, lifestyle, food, etc.”. But they all wondered “How will we return to our home, Mars?”. Roy said, “We will have to figure it out when we reach Earth”.

The Indian headquarters got the go ahead from NASA for the landing. NASA had made the landing arrangements. The fuel was very low. The shuttle crossed the Exosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere, Stratosphere but in the Troposphere, they struggled a lot due to thick cloud cover. However, they made it through that somehow and landed on earth, in the USA.

The aliens went behind the astronauts and made it out of the door, unrecognized by any humans. Roy said, “We should hide from humans at any cost. If they see us, they will kill us”. They reached a large office building behind the astronauts. The Indian astronauts thanked the NASA chief and went to their hotel for a day. The aliens went behind them too.

Max suddenly shouted “Run!!” and everyone started running. When they came out of the room, they saw a waiter. Harry said, “Let’s have some fun”. Roy said, “What fun? Are you crazy?” Max said, “Don’t worry, just follow us”. Harry picked a stone lying on the floor and threw it at the waiter. The waiter got hit on his head and fell down. He was dumbfounded as he could not see anyone. Harry and Max were laughing out loud. Roy was surprised and said, “Guys, stop this nonsense, we need to figure out a way to go back home”. Harry said, “Don’t worry, we can stay here for many more days. Let’s explore first”.

 The waiter saw something moving on the floor. Then the waiter shouted and went to his manager and said, “Sir, I just saw some aliens in lobby number four.”. The manager did not believe him. He said, “Have you gone nuts?”. The waiter said, “Sir, please check the CCTV cameras”. On his insistence, the manager saw the footage. He also saw something moving. It was really tiny. They zoomed in to the max capacity. But couldn’t recognize anything. He said, it could just be some dust particles or broken toy parts. He didn’t think there was any danger to the hotel.

Meanwhile, the waiter was disturbed and wanted to find the aliens. The aliens were carefully walking behind the waiter. Suddenly the waiter stepped his leg back and broke Max’s cylinder. He didn’t even realize he had stepped onto something. Max was having trouble breathing, but Harry quickly repaired Max’s cylinder. Max thanked Harry and said, “I want to take revenge”. They gathered many stones from the pots in the hotel lobby. When they saw the waiter, they threw all stones like a hailstorm on the waiter. These were small pebbles, but the waiter was stunned and fell down. All of them ran to an astronaut’s room before the waiter could see them.

They were all laughing at the waiter’s plight. Suddenly Max saw the astronauts packing up and said, “Hey, the astronauts are going to leave. Let’s go.’’ Harry said, “Yes, they are going back to India. I have heard so much about India and I want to see it”. They started following the astronauts. Max, Roy and Harry sat in the trunk of the taxi to reach the airport. They followed the astronauts in stealth and finally boarded the flight. They were hiding in the overhead storage. Harry said, “We’ve made it here, but I am worried thinking how will we return back to Mars’’. After a few hours the airplane landed in India. As usual the aliens followed the astronauts. While the astronauts were waiting for their bags, Harry said, “Hey, I can see water coming out of the tap over there.’’ Roy said, “Yes, but will the water be the same as the water on Mars?”. Max ran to the water tap and drank some water and said, “Wow! This is even better than what we get on Mars. It’s so pure. Earthlings are lucky”. Then they continued to follow the astronauts and reached ISRO headquarters. The astronauts updated everyone – a large team of engineers and astronauts and after four hours, finally retired to their rooms.

The aliens went into one of the rooms. There, they saw many books – most about space exploration. They found a book about India’s Mission to Mars – called Mangalyaan. They started reading it. They were very impressed with human technology and innovation. They also read that India is planning another mission to Mars soon. Max, Harry and Roy were happy to read this and made a plan to go back home with ISRO’s next Mars mission. Until then, they decided to explore India, its diverse culture, its colourful festivals, the grand temples, the Taj Mahal and above all – it’s delicious food! Satisfied, they went to sleep. They had completed their mission of coming to Earth.

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Part 2 coming soon

- Aryan Naik