Once upon a time there existed a planet called Earth. In the entire solar system, Earth was the only planet that had life, water, and trees on it. It was extremely magical, heavenly, and beautiful. The people and animals that lived here were full of love, care, talent and grateful to be born on such an amazing planet. Humans, the top-most spices of this planet had such evolved brains that they built the most unimaginable things. The technology reached to an extent where humans started wondering if there existed another such majestic planet like Earth elsewhere in the Universe.

And, to curb their curiosity and find answers, Earth people launched the most hopeful spacecraft into the space: The Voyager Golden Record. The aim of this spacecraft was to find other life forms in the space, learn about them and inform them about Earth, its people, animals, tress, and music.

After the launch, NASA, the organization that launched the Voyager addressed the world saying, “We believe that launching this spacecraft into the cosmic ocean is a very hopeful thing for the mankind. The Voyager has a Golden Plate with sounds and images that show the diversity of life on Earth. It has photographs of people and animals, eclectic musical selections, and greetings from a child saying: Hello from the children of planet Earth.”

For years the Voyager kept wandering in the space. It saw no sign of life, water, or a livable planet.

But, in 2024, the Voyager detected some life-like movement. It came across a tiny planet that showed signs of life. The Voyager sent the co-ordinates of this planet to NASA and NASA launched another spacecraft to the same location in hope to get more information about this new planet.

Like Earth, this new planet didn’t have trees, technology, or trash. The only thing it had was huge water bodies. The few aliens that lived on this planet, were dwarf-sized, super-thin, and survived solely on water. Just a glass full helped them survive for days. And the best thing about them was they always kept smiling like a Quokka. They were unaware of feelings of sadness, anger, or fear. Even when someone died on this planet, the aliens believed that the soul would go to a higher planet… so they celebrated deaths too on this planet.

When the Voyager landed on the new planet, without any fear, everyone started jumping, waving, and celebrating in excitement. Aster, a young alien dodged everyone and started moving around the Voyager. “Woo.. What is thing thing made of..”, “This is so magical, it flies on it’s own..”, “This is a gift from the Universe,” everyone discussed amongst themselves.

Aster started examining the Voyager and saw the Golden Plate. Within the first few trials, the Golden Plate started playing and as it played, the most amazing pictures flashed in front of all the aliens. It started with the images of animals, trees, people, and other amazing things of Earth and at the end, music started playing and a sweet voice said, “Hello from the children of planet Earth.”

“Wooo-hooo, what is this sound?”, “Why do these creatures look so different?”, “Haha, they are so funny and fat,” “They look like monsters,” the aliens said.

Days passed and all the aliens soon forgot about the Voyager and the Golden Plate. But, Aster was very curious, he wanted to know more about the Voyager so every night behind’s his parent’s back, he would go to the Voyager, play the Golden Plate, look at the images, listen music and the child’s sweet voice. He would spend hours learning about the spacecraft’s technology, build and functions.

3 months later, the second spacecraft launched by NASA reached the new planet. Again, all the aliens surrounded it and started examining it. But this time there was no Golden Plate or any information about Earth. The aliens didn’t give much heed to this spacecraft and soon forgot about it. But someone’s heart was jumping with curiosity upon seeing another spacecraft. Aster, again behind’s his parents back and under the darkness of night, would go and examine the second spacecraft. Shockingly, without any technological background, Aster learnt everything about working and functioning of the new craft in just a few weeks.

Aster had become so passionate about exploring the Earth that he decided to take this new spacecraft and visit Earth. He informed all the aliens about his expedition and everyone started cheering and celebrating. Such weird yet magical aliens, they weren’t scared of absolutely anything.

Next day, Aster was all set to leave for Earth. He took some water in a vessel and bid everyone a goodbye in the second spacecraft. Two months later, after a tiring space journey, Aster finally reached the Earth..

But what he saw next was nothing close to the pictures of the Golden Plate. There was plastic and garbage everywhere. The trees, animals and people he had seen in the pictures were healthier, happier and harmonious compared to what he was seeing in real. In real, everyone looked weak, diseased and under-nourished. The extreme garbage and pollution had taken a toll on the entire ecosystem of Earth.

For the first time ever in his entire life, Aster felt something he had never felt before. He felt sad. Looking at this unexpected condition of living things on Earth, he didn’t know what to do. By this time, everyone on Earth knew about the arrival of Aster. People at NASA assured humans that there was nothing to be scared of.

Aster’s body couldn’t bear this new feeling of ‘being sad.’ In just one hour of reaching Earth, his body and mind started deteriorating. Earth people tried a lot to revive Aster’s health but it was all in vain.

In his last words, Aster addressed the Earth people saying, “When I saw the pictures of Earth, it’s animals, trees and people, I was delighted. The Earth looked so magical that I couldn’t help myself from visiting it and knowing more about it. My space journey was amazing but when I reached Earth and saw all the garbage and plastic, for the first time ever, I felt sad. We, aliens are unaware of feeling sad but you all look familiar with it. Still you feel sad for all the wrong reasons in life. Well, no reason is greater than Earth’s misery. Please start feeling sad for this beautiful planet’s tress, animals and land. The soul of Earth is crying beneath the blankets of plastic, cement, stinky water and tons of waste. And, trust me, I am coming from space, there is no other planet like Earth. Love it and be grateful for being blessed with it’s resources. And, to all the people who think there is no hope left for Earth now. Please stop. Earth is the most hopeful planet ever, had Earth people not hoped to find life elsewhere in space, I wouldn’t have been here. So please don’t lose hope, things can change, Earth can go back to it’s original state. All you have to do is Hope and work together,” saying this Aster took his last few breaths.

The last few living beings left on Earth felt guilty but Hopeful again.

The next day, Aster’s ashes were sent back to his planet and along with it were a few tree seeds from Mother Earth. When the spacecraft reached Aster’s planet, Aster’s mom dad started looking for Aster and just then they found a box with Aster’s ashes in it. They immediately understood what had happened. But on this planet, there was no sadness, so every alien gathered and celebrated Aster’s life and thanked the Universe for taking Aster’s soul to a higher level.