I awoke to the high pitched screeching of my alarm. I opened my eyes and stared up at the water stains on my ceiling. I let the alarm ring for a little while, allowing its screams to really wake me up. Finally I rolled over and slapped the off button, then sat up. Looking to the wall on my left I see the calendar. I picked up the marker on my bedside table and crossed off the date, July 5. As I looked at this date my eyes shifted over to a different date. Circled and written in red on July 16 it said APOLLO DEADLINE. Seeing this brought down a wave of anxiety that I doubted would be leaving anytime soon. Today was the day I would have to go and tell the boss that it wasn’t possible. That we’d never be able to get a rocket to the moon. We’d been working on a way to figure it out for months and have made zero progress. The problem with rockets is that we need enough fuel to get it into orbit, but we also need the thing itself to be light enough to lift off the ground in the first place. In order to compensate for the weight we get more fuel and stronger jets but that increases the weight even more and we end up in this cycle with no end. None of us have any idea how to fix it. We gave up and I was elected to give the news. This was probably going to lose me my dream job.

I was awoken from my daydreaming by my wife yelling from downstairs “Honey! Get out of bed, you’re going to be late for work!” A small smile crept onto my face but it was swept away almost immediately. What was she going to think when I got home and I told her I got fired. I didn’t want to imagine the way she would look at me.

I dressed quickly and left the house without eating breakfast. The drive over to the facility did nothing to ease the foreboding feeling in my stomach. I didn’t even sing along to the music on the radio. When I arrived I gave one last fond look to the building like I was walking to my death. I stepped through the halls and each footfall felt like another weight on my shoulders. None of my coworkers wanted to look me in the eyes. In no time at all I was standing in front of the office of my boss. The nameplate on the door read Mr. Richards. It was this moment that I realized I’d never bothered to find out what his first name was. I reached out a shaky hand towards the handle and turned slowly.

The inside of Mr. Richards’s office was absolutely immaculate. All of the papers, pens, and files on his desk were set at ninety degree angles and color coded. The room was also symmetrical straight down the middle. One chair on each side of the room and file cabinets on the walls opposite from each other and right at the exact center of his desk was Mr. Richards himself. I always thought that he looked a little odd. Very pale skin, fingers that were just a little bit too long, and he always wore sunglasses, even inside. I assumed his eyes were oversensitive to light. But I’d never asked.

“Good morning Dr. Jackson” he said in a monotone voice without looking up from his papers. “What can I do for you?”

I swallowed hard and said “uh...n-nothing sir I just have some uh... news.” He still didn’t look up. He simply waited for me to finish. “Well sir… the deadline for the rocket sir. I don’t think it’s going to be possible for us to be done in time… to be honest I don’t think what we are doing is even possible.” Mr. Richards didn’t respond for a while. He seemed to be deep in thought. Finally he sighed and looked up at me. “I really hoped that I wouldn’t have to do this.” He stood up from his desk and walked over to one of his filing cabinets. “Do what sir,” I said nervously. He didn’t respond. He opened one of the cabinets and then lifted out a false bottom. He reached in and pulled out a piece of paper with many complicated equations. He hands it to me and says “This will get it done.” I grabbed the paper and began to read. Half the stuff on here was incomprehensible to me. “Giving this to you will be both a blessing and a curse to you and your people.”

I stared at him. “I’m sorry Mr. Richards but I don’t quite understand. Our people? You say that like you aren’t human.”

“First of all, my name isn’t Mr. Richards. My name is impossible to pronounce so I won’t bother actually telling it to you though. I was sent here by the High Council of the Galaxy to give the species of Earth a test. A test to see the capabilities of your kind. We implanted the idea of going to your moon into the mind of your “president” and waited to see if you could figure it out for yourselves. However with this news that you are giving up I must give you the answer. You may see this as a good thing but it is not. If your species had figured it out on your own the Council would have made contact and told you of other worldly society. However it is evident you humans don’t have the brain capacity for this. Therefore the council will make sure that no matter how far you advance into the cosmos, you will never make contact with any extra terrestrials. Your species will live out the rest of its days thinking it is alone in the vast universe.” I stared at him again then began to laugh. 

“Oh my god that is rich. Did you come up with that on the spot?” but when my laughter subsided I could see that Mr. Richards face was deadly serious. “Oh come on.” I said “You can’t honestly think that I would believe that.”

“It doesn’t matter what you believe. But those formulas will fix your problems. After today you will never see me again. But don’t you forget what I have told you.” And with that he vanished on the spot. I stumbled backward in disbelief. How did he do that? Must be some sort of trick. But then I remembered. The pale skin, the long fingers, the sunglasses. He was telling the truth. And no one is going to believe me.