Once upon a time Story: Lost in Space Full of Comets "

The rocket flew freely in the middle of the star-clad sky before slipping over a sea of ​​ash, dragged up to tens of kilometers and leaving a trail of depression deep enough to extend like a moat. A thick fog formed around a space shuttle lying with a nose embedded in a gray sandstone. The hinges trembled for a moment, then the door jolted from inside, opened forcibly. One by one, the crew jumped out, their bodies clad in silver uniforms. The haze of dangling ash fell on them. "I told you, do not take the coordinates!" One of the crew yelled as he waved his hand over the uniform suit.

"Who do I know?" Said the other crew. Her feet are submerged in a monochromatic ash pile. "I just follow the instructions from the center!"

"Enough!" The captain snarled as he took a step across the ash. He covered his mouth and nose with one hand. "Now we must find a way to get back to Earth."

"Negative, Captain," said Koveer, who held the position of the Captain's right hand. "The distance from Mercury to Earth is about ninety-one million kilometers. It feels safer for us to try to get back to the International Space Station. "

"All right," nods the Captain. "Then we have to find a way to get back to the International Space Station."

Koveer paused.

"What else?" Asked the Captain impatiently.

"Our rockets have been totally destroyed," Koveer said. "How do we-"

"I do not know!" Replied the Captain. "Wonder, what has to be answered now?"

The four warriors-the astronauts stood apart from one another. All around them were drooping ash as far as the eye could see with a circle of open craters everywhere. There are as big as bowls, some of which extend to a radius of hundreds of kilometers. The sky above stretched thick and showed the glitter of the stars. There is no atmosphere. The hot ball they recognized as the sun hung dashing in the sky, much bigger than the sun on Earth, with a warm, almost blinding-like light bias-like being in a studio room constantly illuminated by gigantic floodlights. A hot breeze blows from all directions, but is still within the limits of tolerance: striking the face and making their bodies sweat. With great effort they made their way through the dust of ash that soaked the feet to half a calf.

"Now where are we going?" Asked the Captain.

Koveer took something out of his uniform pocket. "Ouch, this compass needle does not stop spinning."

The captain shook his head. "Your compass is useless here."

"Then I do not know where to go. Without a compass, we are blind. "

The captain pointed forward. "Advanced."

The other two crew members-Yureko and Abatul-followed from behind, alert with laser rifles stretched behind their backs and pistols in hand. They step slowly with caution. The Captain is ahead. Koveer behind him. Yureko is third. And Abatul in the last row. They form one column and each holds a weapon of choice. The craters are scattered very much and in various sizes. The sun was glowing brightly. Although not too far away, sweat has flooded. And they keep going.

At some point, the Captain looked back. Deadly rocket carcasses no longer exist in sight. The ash desert where they tramped their legs seemed unbounded. In the distance, rotating around the sun, they could see Earth-the size of a coin-emitting a whitish blue light.

"Wait," Koveer said. He raised a hand in the air with fingers clenched. "I heard something."

The four soldiers-the astronauts were silent, opened their ears and listened to the voices around them. "I did not hear anything," Yureko said.

"Me too," Abatul said.

The captain frowned. Silence. Then-

"Comet!"

They looked up: dozens of pebbles of varying sizes fell like rain from deep depths of sky, reddish in color, and leaving traces of smoke in the air. Yureko jumped to the side and buried himself under a pile of ash. Abatul spread his foot and moved a little faster away from there. The captain was on his stomach. Koveer could only look up and look at the beauty of it.

The pebbles crashed into the dust, causing a hot hiss. Initially, one by one. Then at the same time. A thick fog re-forms in the air. New craters began to appear. So-

"Earthquake, earthquake, earthquake!"

The shock came shortly after the last pebble fell onto the ash. They cling to their weapons-submerged in ash. The fog around them grows thicker, the higher it rises in the air, the more solid. Sunlight burns their backs. For more than fifteen minutes, they surrendered. Buried with ash. Only their heads are still emitting at the end of the shock. Koveer was the first to break free. He hurriedly pulled another from the ash pile. Their faces are streaked. Their mouths are full of ashes. The four spit out here and there.

The captain looked back, surprised. "See!"

The rocket carcasses they had left a few miles before were now behind them. As if they never left.