Back on earth, Darren rushed to headquarters to share the news.”This is a scientific breakthrough!” Announced the leaders of SEFER. The next week of work for Darren was being in charge for another major voyage to the sun to extract energy from the sun. Six months later, SEFER was going to launch 100 ships, with a crew of 300 people to the sun.

When he arrived at the center of the solar system, Darren began looking for the same spot that he had been at during his previous trip. “So, why do we need to go to an exact spot on the sun?” Asked Dexter, Darren’s co-pilot, and the head engineer at SEFER. “Um, well, you see… There are different spots on the sun where the size of the coronal loops changes, and we need to be at the one that is the furthest away from the sun,” Darren replied. Dexter seemed satisfied, and they continued with their search.

After a few hours, he found the spot. “Everyone come and rendezvous with my ship, and prepare to extract the energy from the coronal loop,” Said Darren as he keyed into the comm. Then, the loop came, and just as before, it appeared more as a flaming serpent than a ring of fire. Next came the smoke, a large, thick cloud of blackness came out of the loop and covered the first 20 ships in smoke.

“The hulls have been breached!” Screamed the panicking passengers of the ships that were engulfed in the smoke. Everyone heard the coughing and gasping for air over the comm until everything fell quiet. The silence as broken by the sound of Dexter’s voice yelling, “Evacuate the area! Repeat! Evacuate the area!” No! came the voice from Darren’s head, I must not let this mission fail! Right Darren replied silently, as if having a conversation with himself. I’ll go down as the one who destroyed the best chance earth had for generating clean energy!He keyed the comm,”No! Don’t leave, it’s not safe to go anywhere else! You must stay here!” But it was already to late.

As the ships began to flee across the face of the sun in an attempt to get away from the place where the first 20 ships were destroyed, they only found themselves in more smoke, but instead of the black smoke that took down the other ships, this time is was a blood red, that somehow seemed darker than space itself. Expecting the sounds of the passengers’ gasping for air, Darren and Dexter found their ears being blasted with screams of pure horror. After about 10 minutes of this, the sound finally died down into nothing.

Being the only 2 people who had not been attacked by the smoke that day, Darren and Dexter plotted the coarse back to Earth. “You have got to see this,” Dexter said, looking out of the window. Darren came over and was amazed by what he saw. The ships that had been exposed to the black smoke began moving. “They’re headed straight for us!” Yelled Dexter. Darren quickly moved the ship out of the way, and the other ships just kept going in the same direction.

“It’s as if they’re running away from something,” commented Darren. As if on que, the other 79 ships began racing towards the fleeing vehicles. As the ships came closer to each other, a blinding light shined through the windows of the ships that had been in the black smoke. When the lights went out, all 20 ships froze, dead in space. Earth, came the mysterious voice in Darren’s head is doomed.