The Twin: Life Beyond Earth

“Thursday, 

December 3^rd 3125

Dearest Walker, 

I hope this letter finds you in the pink of your health. I know you’re mad at me for missing your birthday, but the situation here at SpaceGen is only getting worse with time. Remember how I told you about that strange signal our team received from space a week back, well……we’re still figuring where it came from. And I might go onboard for Mission Val, so don’t trouble your mom while I am out. Take care lad and enjoy your special day!

Yours lovingly, 

Dad.”

PRESENT (6^th May 3145)

DAY 1 

32-year-old Astronaut Walker L. Reynolds clutched onto that piece of paper for one last time as tears rolled down his chin. It was a letter, dated 20 years ago, from his dad, a renowned Astronaut, who’d disappeared only 2 weeks after going onboard Mission Valora. Following his father’s footsteps in the field of space science and astronomy, there he stood, inside a huge and rather suffocating capsule, all set to become the first man in the world to set foot on a planet that existed almost 4 billion light-years away from Earth. The only reason he’d agreed onto doing this mission, which was more like a closure to finding life beyond our planet, was to find his dad, who’d spacecraft, The Cosmodian 16-A, had suffered a technical glitch in that very atmosphere, exactly 20 years back, making it loose complete contact with Earth. No one knew what happened after that. Millions of dollars were spent on finding the crew, which included Walker’s dad with 4 others, but nothing was found. And so, it was finally after twenty years that the company was launching yet another mission to the planet of Valora, located in the Kyrin galaxy, that was nearly 4 billion light-years away from Earth. It was a 250-day mission, which included Walker L. Reynolds, setting foot on the Valorian-soil and examining the atmospheric conditions of the planet in order to answer the simple question: can life exist on Valora? Not only did they have to test the abundant gas present there but also collect the planet’s soil and bring the sample along with them for a thorough examination of it in the SpaceGen Laboratory. On what sounded like an easy-going mission meant spending a total of 104 days stranded in a capsule, that although appeared to be giant from the outside, hardly had any room for the two inside. The main reason behind this all Valora thing was a queer signal anticipated by one of the departments of SpaceGen in the year 3025, which almost sounded like a shrilling voice of a young man, asking for help. Lasting for a total of 46 seconds, the only decodable words in the mysterious voice were, 

“Is’s come to an end! All of it……. Please help somebody”

The signal had come from the very location Walker was heading to, as what else would a human do if the aliens themselves gave you a call. But the only problem that existed was the fact that the existence of Valora being 4 billion light years away meant that the signal had left the planet almost 4 billion years back, so even if life existed in the planet back then, there happened to be no surety that those sending the signals were still there, alive. 

One human, left alone in a tiny room, surrounded by nothing but darkness, brought tons of boredom along. Spending 6 months of your life doing nothing may sound tempting at first, but it really wasn’t. 

DAY 104

Finally, the most awaited day of his lives had arrived, when the whole world had eyes on the mission and hopes on the spacecraft. It was the day that decided the fate of not only the boy who had survived, but of the entire world. The hope of discovering signs of life beyond Earth. As the destination came closure, every person, penny, resource, amount and time spent on mission, all of it came down to one single question, “Will he discover life beyond Earth?”

SpaceGen being a top-tier company, had guaranteed a year before the making of Cosmodian 18-B that it won’t be a failure, at any cost. And so, being the man of their words, Astronaut Walker L. Reynolds, became the first of many people to step foot on the land of Valora, after a very much successful landing. But what he saw next instantly counteracted the fact that he’d landed alive. While entering the atmosphere of Valora, he’d already sensed that something was not making sense. The planet had lost its Star centuries back, which meant that there was to be no light in the planet, or as he assumed. Instead of seeing huge but empty dust mountains and vast stretches of stranded lands, with deep ocean bodies, his jokingly made him see huge skyscrapers, vehicle-like machines floating across the skies, robots moving around the streets and echoes of human-like voices. Assuming that it was probably just a dream, as what else would someone’s heart anticipate seeing after spending months suffocated, although knowing in the subconscious mind that it’s not practically possible. He was dumbstruck, rather utterly confused. That to such an extent that he started frantically pinching himself, assuming he’d finally stop daydreaming. But, as if it was a sign from the universe, like the Lord Himself couldn’t resist showing humanity what they had been missing out on all this time, and that all those years of figuring out whether we humans are the only civilization that exists or not, the answer stood there, right in front of him. As he gazed up, towards the clear sky, full of stars, he was awestruck by a heavenly constellation, that somehow appeared to match the pendant he was wearing, the same pendant his dad had given him, as a last memory of him. 

DAY 111 

Walker opened his camera, to do what he’d been doing for the past week now. Keeping living records of the Valorian Civilization. 

“Honestly, I still think we’re still dreaming. It’s funny how we humans always thought of aliens as green-colored creatures with antennas, when they were nothing but are look alikes, except for that robotic voice, but hey you get my point. It’s been…almost a week here at Valora, for me. Those tiny creatures of Earth must be worrying cause it’s almost 42 days for them, considering the fact that 1 day on this planet is equivalent to 7 days on Earth. I said ‘tiny’ because that’s what we are in front of these exceptionally civilized people. I always believed that in the past 10 centuries, we humans have done quite a good progress, developing a mission that used the concept of wormholes and space-time corridors to reach the other end of the universe, but watching them, and the level of technology that they use, just gives me another level of insecurity. Anyways, these people are very much welcoming and warm-hearted. Surprisingly, they say that their first Yen, which means the very first person to be born on this planet, the Valora, had already predicted billions of years back that one day, a man from another civilization will set foot on this prestigious land, in search of life beyond Earth. In case you’re wondering how I am ecommunicating with these people, so for the starters, they obviously do not speak English, but all thanks to their technology, they have this automated language conversion system attached onto their suits along with some hearing aids latched on their ears. So, whatever I speak, gets concerted from English to their Valorian language, and whatever they speak, appear in English on their screens, making it easy for me to read the text and understand them. But you know what’s the coolest thing about these guys? They do not simply eat good hot meals like us, they have a whole system controlled by machines where the internal body is directly connected with an automated system that derives that particular nutrient your body requires at a particular time, along with the exact quantity of it, which then is taken by them in small, white, insanely boring bags. No offence, but how can someone simply choose a chemically made, tasteless packet of nutrients over all those mouth-watering meals? However, I cannot simply deny the fact that these Valorians have made an impressive-”

A loud, buzzing sound of an alarm is heard all over the city of Anlopia, the main controlling centre of the whole planet. Suddenly, everyone starts gathering outside, leaving their buildings as their Yen announced, 

“The Time has arrived. Today officially marks the end of a civilization that lasted for a total of 7.5 billion years now, leaving an impressive footprint for our descendants. I hope everyone knows what to do. Our past generations had already predicted this moment decades back, that this very civilization will mark its end after a man from Earth shall arrive in our planet, which also commences the start of Project Green, a new beginning to us Valorians. Because remember, they call us ‘aliens’, but we call them our ‘Twin’. With that, we Valorians officially sign off. Goodbye.”

What would a human do, being in a no-man’s land, with absolutely no one but your own heart that itself appears to be counting its last breaths? With a vague memory of the Yen uttering something like Project Green, he made this way back to the spacecraft, alive. He had quite a few minutes before he would see his life flash before his own eyes, before the newly discovered civilization would come to its very end, after supposedly being hit by an asteroid, as told by the Yen. But the real question was, 

‘What did Walker have to do with Valora coming to an end?’

DAY 261

“Here we are, again. Honestly, I think I’ve gone all crazy now, I’ve……. I’ve become a lunatic now. These people on Earth say that. They say that the whole Valorian Civilization was nothing but a big hallucination, that the planet exists, but not those highly advanced people. What I believed was our twin was nothing but a memory. I refuse to believe that it’s true. That they only live in my memory. That day, while coming back to Cosmodian, I decided to send a quick signal to Earth, asking for help, explaining to them that it’s all coming to an end. I wonder if it ever reached them or not?”

Upon reaching Earth after a traumatic trip to Valora, which did raise his hopes at some point of time, but the effect of the aftermath was enough for him to forget that life does exist beyond Earth. On what was meant to be a return as a ‘savior of humanity’ he was only bombarded with the coldness of humans. No one even dared to believe that he’d actually be telling the truth, and thus Walker was kept under observation in the eyes of some of the best psychologists of the country. One such day, as he was having the usual heated conversation with his counsellor, he came upon a sudden realization, 

“Day 102, something had unexpectedly gone wrong in the spacecraft that day. I have vivid memories of….of that message that glowed on my screen, that said, ‘HISTORIC TEMPORAL COORDINATE LOCKED INSTEAD OF CURRENT TEMPORAL COORDINATE.’ It really didn’t make sense back then, especially when I was about to land. But today, as I think about it, if the spacecraft entered the historic coordinate, it means the Valora I entered, it wasn’t-

“The Valora that exists today. That’s what it means, Walk. You haven’t gone mad; it’s just your brain reeling with the sudden shock of what you saw that day,” replied Mr. Chen, his counsellor. 

“So, Valora was real, right? But only it was the civilization that existed billions of years back, as its distance from Earth being 4 billion years means that I entered the Valora that existed about 4 billion years back. So, the civilization itself ended 4 billion years back. 

But wait, this doesn’t sit right. If travelling 104 days in the Cosmodian took me about 4 billion years back, in the past of the Valora that we see now, that means the Earth I came back to, is the one-

“That existed 4 billion years back, you’re right. This isn’t 3145 Walker; this is the primordial Earth. And the real hallucination wasn’t what you saw back there in Valora, the real hallucination is you imagining me, your friends, your family and all these people, as they were, just because your mind refuses to accept that you’re left all alone in this planet, that too when life hasn’t arrived in the planet. But as they say, whatever happens, happens for the good. So, you arriving on primordial Earth isn’t coincidental, it has a motive behind.”

Everything goes blank. As the 32-year-old astronaut opens his eyes, he finds himself, in a rather familiar, but at the same time unrecognizable surrounding. It was his own planet, but only 4 billion years back, back when life had no signs of existence. Back when Earth was mostly covered in water, with subtle pieces of habitable land, but only demanded a force to start the very origin of life. His hands went over to the metal-like box he’d brought along with him from Valora, given by the Yen himself. He opened the box, that although appearing small from the outside, had plenty of room on the inside. It was yet another of their many inventions. But it wasn’t merely a gift. Inside were small bags labelled as, BIOLOGICAL SEEDS’, ATMOSPHERIC CATALYST’, GENETIC ARCHIVES’ along with an endless list of environment conditions. Under one of those bags, was another packet that read, 

‘NO.23 – PROKARYOTES’ 

Along with that, he discovered a small note, attached to the box, that read in a neat handwriting, 

“To all the Earthians, 

You humans call yourself the smartest civilization, forgetting about the ones who gave you the very life you now enjoy. You guys are definitely the most comical civilization, spending decades discovering something that has been growing with you all along. You spend billions of dollars discovering life beyond Earth, completely disregarding the fact that it had been you all alone who discovered your own life. I hope you finally got what Project Green meant, after all it was not some confidential project made by us, but it was made only to start life on Earth, as we all know that nothing is temporary. Good luck with those bags, we believe in you, Walk’! Because again, “You may call us ‘aliens’, but we call you our ‘twin’.” 

Yours obediently, 

The Valorians”

6^th May, 3125 

(Day ~ 4 billion)

A young boy, no more than 12, is drawing a sketch for a school project, on ‘how do you imagine an alien?’ After completing his painting, he writes his name on the bottom left of the page, “Walker Louis Reynolds.” Then, he eagerly rushes to his father, who was busy setting up his telescope to show his son a planet called ‘Valora’ which has recently come under the suspicion of the scientists to be the planet with the most plausible signs of life, especially after they’d received a strange signal from the same planet. 

Upon seeing his son’s creativity, as he’d drawn the most out of the box sketch of an alien he’d ever seen. His type of alien had a human-like appearance, except that it was highly advanced in terms of technology, labelled as,  ‘ALIENS: OUR TWIN.’

Then, they start with their usual session of star gazing, something that they did on a daily basis. Amidst his father’s explanation of the Earth-like planet, the boy, out of complete inquisitiveness, questions, 

“Dad, how did life appear on Earth?” to which he replied with a dry laugh, 

“We still don’t know, Walk.”

With that, the two turned their heads towards the night sky, as a heavenly constellation appeared, that gave an uncanny resemblance to the pendant on the boy’s neck. It was like the universe answering the young man’s question in the best plausible way, as someone wise once said, 

“We humans often tend to spend our entire lives searching for something that has been silently growing with us all this time.” 

Written by Priyadarshini Kholia

FAQ's The Twin: Life Beyond Earth

Who is the protagonist of this story?

Walker, a 32-year-old astronaut embarking on a deep-space mission.

Where is Walker traveling to?

He is journeying through the Kyrin galaxy toward planet Valora, a glowing alien world shrouded in mysterious cyans and violets.

What is the significance of the paper Walker is holding?

It is a faded, weathered letter that holds deep personal meaning, driving his quiet determination and emotional connection as he gazes into space.

What is the emotional tone of this scene?

The mood is melancholic, reflective, and cinematic—capturing a quiet moment of focus and resolve rather than sorrow.

What visual art style was used for the thumbnail?

The scene is rendered in soft, loose watercolor with delicate ink line-art accents, utilizing deep cosmic blues, indigos, and vibrant aquas.

Where can you buy books?

You can buy books at Bookosmia.com and Amazon.

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Photo Credit – AI generated images from Chat GPT and Magic Media from Canva .Gemini AI and jetpack Image Generator

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