The Greater Universe

Liftoff

Max watched out the carrier ship's window as the surface of their home planet got smaller and smaller below them. Somewhere down there, in the spaceport surrounded by wind turbines settled on the red rocky plains of the Martian surface, were their parents, who had not only both managed to turn up on time to say goodbye to them, but somehow refrained from quipping at each other until Max's ship took off.
Sighing, Max finally turned their eyes away from Mars' rolling plains and instead focused on the dark blue sky, which, once the small passenger ship managed to break through the wispy clouds, began to sparkle with stars.
This summer was probably going to be the weirdest Max had experienced in their sixteen years of life, because this summer was the summer their parents were finally getting a divorce.
It wasn't like Max hadn't seen that coming - since the day they could talk they knew their parents weren't exactly happy together, but they hoped the reason they'd stayed together this long was to protect them from the emotional damage of being a child of a broken home - although, it would've been nice if they'd waited until Max moved out to live on their own. Or at least one more year. Or maybe not told them about them impending divorce before they left for Venus so it didn't completely ruin their visit with their totally-awesome and never-getting-a-divorce-ever-because-they-are-actually-in-love-and-not-just-pretending-to-be Uncle Luan and Aunt Anivene. And their cousin Sebastian, who was the closest thing they'd ever had to a best friend, even if they hadn't seen each other in person since they were both five.
Max sighed, mindlessly reaching to the seat next to them until their fingers met soft, fluffy fur. They weren't entirely alone on this trip; their parents were technically obligated by law to accommodate for Max's Registered Emotional Support Companion, or RESC. Zally was a very carefully crafted GMC - Genetically Modified Companion - and a cross between a sheltie and an orange tabby. She was practically the only constant in Max's life, she'd been right there by their side through everything since the day they'd been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety at age nine and their specialist recommended their mother look into a trained Companion to ease their symptoms.
Cat-Dogs were a rare Companion type to come by, and required a lot of special care due to their absolute minefield of genetics, but Max had known from the moment they saw her that Zally was the Companion for them - and right now they needed her more than ever, even though they refused to let it show to anyone but her.
Furiously wiping away tears they hadn't realized were there, Max gritted their teeth against the painful lump in their throat and forced a smile as there was a quiet knock on their compartment door - that would be the stewardess.
"Good evening, Patron!" The stranger said cheerfully as Max granted her access to their small square-shaped room - which only housed two seats which could be folded into a small bed, just enough leg room for minimal comfort if you weren't overly claustrophobic, a small circular window opposite the door, and a large screen taking up one wall for visual entertainment, "thank you for choosing Enterprise Starlines, is there anything I can get for you to make your flight more comfortable?"
Max shook their head politely.
"No, thank you," they murmured, "not right now."
The stewardess opened her mouth to continue her very scripted-sounding greeting, but Max saw her eyes drift to the window and her expression turn from that odd forced-happiness to confusion and concern.
Max turned their head to follow her gaze and started as they spotted what she had seen.
Just above the thin clouds in Mars' lower atmosphere, which the ship had just left, was a massive black triangle hovering stationary near the spaceport. It was made of some kind of metal, that much was clear, and a few dim blue lights shimmered across its surface. It was obviously a spacecraft of some kind, but it wasn't any model Max was familiar with - it wasn't of human origin.
It wasn't exactly uncommon for visitors from other worlds to show up in this solar system ever since humanity had expanded their reach across the galaxy, but typically the public was made well aware of any extraterrestrial guests due to arrive soon, and Max was fairly sure they would have remembered a broadcast about a ship this massive on its way to Mars.
"You see that too, right?" The stewardess asked hoarsely, sounding on the verge of panic.
"Uh... yeah..." Max responded slowly - the fact that the ship's staff didn't know what this was either was, quite frankly, rather alarming. "What is it?"
Without answering them, the stewardess slammed the door to Max's compartment shut, making Zally jolt in her sleep. Max heard the stewardess' frantic footsteps running up the aisle, likely towards the cockpit to alert the captain.
A knot of worry formed in Max's stomach as they turned their attention back to the strange craft, just in time to see it disappear from sight completely, zipping off at the speed of light and causing a thunderous tremble through the ship. The lights flickered ominously.
A faint ding rang over the intercom after a few seconds of eerily calm silence, and Max half listened as the captain began to speak.
"Good evening, Patrons! Thank you for choosing Enterprise Starlines. You may have just seen an odd object if you are seated on the port side and were looking out your windows, and you likely just felt that slight bit of space-turbulence. Rest assured that this is nothing to worry about, this is likely some standard MarsGov procedure we weren't previously informed of or an unscheduled visit from interplanetary ambassadors."
The slight tremor in her voice betrayed her fear - she clearly had no idea what had just happened and was desperately trying to reassure herself as much as the passengers.
Peering back out the window again, Max strained to see if they could spot the mysterious craft again, but it had long vanished from sight. For some reason, the fact that it was gone was just as concerning, if not more so.
There's nothing I can do about it, Max told themself firmly, remembering the anxiety-management tactics their therapist had told them, don't get caught up on it, don't have a panic attack. Distract yourself. Take deep breaths.
Max closed their eyes and sucked in a long breath, filling their whole chest, then slowly let it out before opening their eyes again and turning their attention to the screen in front of them. Luckily, it was already set to OurWatch (the platform Max watched most things on), and one of the current Lives was none other than their Uncle Luan himself.
Max smiled, anxiety levels dropping like a rock into water, and joined the Live, running their hand through Zally's thick mane.
There was something about Max's uncle that was inherently comforting. Maybe it was his voice, maybe it was his mannerisms, or maybe it was just because Max knew him in person (and knew that they shared the dreaded ADHD/anxiety combo), but just seeing his face and knowing that they'd be with him in a matter of hours made Max forget all about the strange unidentified spacecraft almost immediately.
Luan wasn't at all like his brother, Max's father. Whereas Luan was gentle and considerate, Max's father was harsh and aggressive. Apparently, he'd always been that way, and the only reason Luan still kept in contact with him was for Max and their mother's sake.
Max often wished that their mother would consider moving to Venus after the divorce was over, so they could be closer to Luan and his family, but whenever Max brought it up, she shut them down.
Sure, Venus wasn't perfect, but neither was Mars. Max would rather be living in a slightly dirtier environment closer to people they loved than a pristine penthouse apartment that constantly reminded them of their parents' blowout arguments.
Earth could have been an option, if moving there wasn't such a hassle as most EarthGov branches didn't want settlers from other planets to return - something about overpopulation that Max didn't fully believe, but the adults all seemed very shaken by, even though the Mars and Venus colonies had left their home planet over six hundred years ago.
Apparently, Earth was still nothing but treacherous wilderness and densely packed cities with toxic air and too many people, all desperately trying to keep their precious homeworld intact.
Honestly, Max would still take that over sharing a planet with their father.
Don't think about your dad. Focus on your uncle's stream.
Max took another deep breath, letting their uncle's voice pull them back to reality.
"I didn't miss! You saw nothing!!" He exclaimed indignantly, and Max couldn't help but laugh over the fact that Luan absolutely had missed the horrific digital monster he was fighting and it had just resulted in his character getting killed (and probably not for the first time this Live).
Max recognized the game their uncle was playing immediately, one that had been a favourite of both of theirs (and Sebastian's) since Max was little. House of Wickedness was arguably "just another monster game", but if you said that to Luan he'd definitely have something to say about it, as would Max (though Max probably would be a lot less polite about it, seeing as they'd practically been raised on the series).
Max even knew what part of the game Luan was on by now; it was the fourth instalment of the series, which they had snuck into Luan's office with Sebastian to watch him play when they were about three or four - up well past their bedtime, but too curious about Luan's work to go to sleep. They just hadn't realized that they could be seen by the viewers of the Live, who immediately began asking what the hell those two little kids standing in the shadows on the other side of the room were doing.
Despite getting in trouble for being up so late, the scream Luan had let out when he turned to look and saw his son and nibling standing silently behind him, with only the lights in Luan's setup to illuminate their eyes, was one of Max's fondest memories, simply because of how hilarious it was and continued to be.
"STOP sending heart stickers while I'm trying to concentrate!" Luan exclaimed, snapping Max out of their memories, "I appreciate it, but please stop!"
Max was laughing now, the painful lump in their throat and the fear making their stomach twist having totally dissipated in the face of their uncle's usual antics.
About halfway into the three hour trip, Max glanced out the window and spotted Earth slowly passing by against the black backdrop of space. Most of the planet was cast in shadow, so all Max could see were bright clusters of light where the cities were located, like someone had scooped stars out of the sky and sprinkled them across the continents in thick clumps.
It certainly didn't look like a wasteland, though. The cities were dense, but there were huge swaths of darkness that Max assumed were natural wilderness - forests, deserts, tundras, prairies, and all those other magical places Max had read about in textbooks that could only be found on Earth (at least in this solar system, that is). If any places were wastelands, it'd be Mars and Venus, with their endless rolling plains of rocks and dust or violent storms and acid rain so intense cities had to be built in the sky. Not to mention neither planet came with breathable air.
Compared to them, Earth seemed like a paradise, but in a matter of minutes, that paradise was gone from Max's view, and no matter how far they craned their neck to look back at it, eventually, that glittering ball of green and blue disappeared from sight, but as Max reluctantly turned to look the other way, they saw Venus - far, far ahead, just a small dot of glowing golden-brown, and positioned right next to the brilliant fiery orb that was the sun.
Venus was nowhere near as mysterious and captivating to look at as Earth, but it had its own form of beauty, at least from here. Max knew that as the ship got closer they would see the thick, swirling clouds of the planet's atmosphere, and the enormous domes of glass arching over the few cities, breaking through the massive waves of yellow dust, held in place by giant helium balloons the size of small asteroids and anchors made of the most acid-resistant metal in the galaxy reaching all the way down to Venus' hellish surface.
Next to Max, Zally stirred, and Max smiled at her, patting her fuzzy head as she slept.
"Almost there, Baby," they murmured, "another half an hour."
They were distracted from the view of their destination when they spotted an odd flickering of the stars outside the viewport.
Squinting, Max leaned forward slightly so that their face was almost touching the glass of the window, their breath causing it to fog up slightly so they had to frantically wipe it clean with their sleeve.
A large, black shape was blotting out the stars out there, making it appear as though the distant points of light were blinking out of existence and then reappearing just as quickly. Then, the object moved in front of the sun, and Max's blood ran cold.
It was the same unidentified ship from earlier, moving towards Venus at the same speed as the carrier ship.
Max watched with their heart hammering in their chest as the mysterious craft got closer and closer to Venus' atmosphere, then disappeared behind it.
Once again, the fact that it was gone from view was more unsettling than being able to see it. Where was it going? Who was on it? What did they want from humanity?
Max jumped at another faint ding from the ship's intercom system.
"Good evening, Patrons," the captain said in a much calmer tone than earlier, "thank you again for choosing Enterprise Starlines. We are about twenty minutes out from Venus' atmosphere, so please take this time to gather all personal belongings and ensure your space is as tidy as possible before leaving the ship. We hope your trip with us was as enjoyable for you as it was for us, and we hope to see you again for your next flight across our beloved solar system."
She didn't mention the spacecraft this time. Perhaps she hadn't even seen it.
Max leaned back into their seat with a heavy sigh, and Zally rested one of her paws on their knee. They let out a small laugh, ruffling her fluffy fur again.
Whatever was going on out there with that massive ship would surely never be important enough to be their problem. The most reasonable explanation was likely that they were a species humanity hadn't encountered yet looking to establish contact. There was nothing ominous about that at all.
So why did Max still feel the slightest flutter of worry in their stomach whenever they thought about it?