“Sure is a mighty big crater for a tiny little rock, ain’t it Dr. Revis?” George inquired. “Why’d we have to park so far away.”

“It’s not just a rock Mr. Cranton, it’s an asteroid. Now keep walking, it's only been a few minutes,” replied the professor.

“Well that don’t look like no rock to me. All this walking and there ain’t even a rock?!” George blurted.

Dr. Revis exclaimed, “Well good thing we brought the finest geologist in the state of Arizona to tell us that! It is obviously some sort of spacecraft.”

George remarked, “Well where in the world did this darn thing come from? It ain’t look like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“Well open it up! Hasn’t there got to be a pilot?” I replied. “George, help me pull open the door.”

“It’s stuck! Pull harder, Lance!” George added.

“I’m trying,” I answered.

“Idiots,” exclaimed Dr. Revis, “there’s an open hatch on the top. Let me just climb up and look…well there is no pilot, they must have been ejected out of this hatch, but there is a book that might tell us something. It says ‘Diary’ on the cover, let me read it.”

“My name is Theo. If you can read this, that means my plan has succeeded and I have returned home to Earth. Where was I you ask? Well that’s what I’m about to tell you. I was sent on a secret NASA mission on a one way ticket to help set up a new colony on Mars. It was kept secret because NASA believes that they are going to make trillions off of this new colony and could not allow any global competition. I was sent with a team of four other astronauts and we all had our own specialties. I was the construction planner; I was meant to survey the land near our landing site and plan where the first Martian city would be built. After we landed, all was well for about a month. I had found a perfect spot just a couple miles off of our landing site: a wide, flat plain. It seemed to stretch on forever, as if reaching towards the sun. The cool breeze whistled softly across the land, rolling small clouds of dust by my feet. I could see the city that soon would be there, equally immense as the plain itself and bustling with people. We would enrich the soil and irrigate so that the wind rustled the trees and not dust. We would erect buildings to blot the horizon, such that the view felt less threateningly empty and more welcomingly full. It would be a beautiful city to rival all those on Earth and maybe surpass them.

I returned to our base to alert Dustin, our commander, of my findings. As I reached the camp, I spotted what appeared to be another spacecraft on the horizon; a flaming dot crossing over the clear sky like a shooting star. We contacted NASA to see if this was planned; perhaps a supply ship had been sent for us. They knew nothing of this second mission, so we assumed that our plans were leaked and competition had already arrived. They looked to have landed in the same perfect plain I had just surveyed; I was furious. At least, we were separated by a few miles, so there was to be no likely interaction anytime soon unless we initiated, so mission control ordered us all to leave the other camp alone. The next day though, Dustin didn’t show up for breakfast. We checked the camp but found him nowhere. He had told no one he was leaving, but we all knew where he had gone: to spy on the new camp. We then noticed that our rover was missing, with tracks leading to the suspected area. This meant that, if we wanted to follow him, we would have to walk. We gathered supplies for our long hike and marched on. Those same few miles I had driven to find it seemed like a never ending hike on foot; we made it to the plain by the end of the day but there was no sign of Dustin. We could see the other camp in the distance and began our trek towards it. There was no cover on the plain so they knew we were coming. Our only hope was that they were not hostile and Dustin was simply having a chat with them. We were not so naive.

We arrived to the camp, but there was hardly anything there, only a shuttle. We were confused: where did they plan to live? Any planned mission would surely provide their astronauts with shelter. I climbed the small ladder up to the entrance and knocked on the shuttle door, prepared for anything, or so I thought. The shining silver hatch creaked open as if blown softly aside by the wind. Dustin slouched in the doorway, gaunt and sickly looking, barely staying upright. His body collapsed lifelessly and fell gracelessly past me down the ladder to feet of the rest of the team; I was too stunned to react and catch him. If he was alive, he sure didn’t look the part. I saw another figure had entered the doorway wearing a spacesuit like none I had ever seen before: jet black and matte, lacking the typical large, round, and clear helmet, replaced by a simple and tight face covering like a head sock but made of what seemed to be a strange metallic fabric. You could not see the figure’s face, only the outline through the garment. We all stared in awe at the inexplicable suit. The figure spoke English, but with an accent unlike any I’d ever heard, like a soft slur.

“He will live…” she uttered. It motioned as if to shut the door, but I reacted quickly and threw myself through the doorway, taking it by surprise. I had to know where they came from and what they had done to Dustin. Two of my teammates quickly joined me, but we were soon surrounded by at least a half dozen identically dressed astronauts.

They seemed curious and afraid of us, maybe even angry at me for refusing to let them shut the door and ignore us. What had they done to Dustin? Would they do the same to me? I decided that, yes, they would, maybe worse. This thought was affirmed when they placed my entire team in a sealed room. I remember nothing after this.

I woke up in an entirely different world: the barren crust of a sun-baked landscape clashed with a vast ocean, spewing salt into the air. The dust billowed through amidst the soft wind, stinging anything that dare get in its way. I was alone, luckily still donning my spacesuit; I had no clue if I could breathe the natural air here. There was no evidence of what had happened to me. I had been left there to die. I had to go somewhere. I was low on oxygen and had no food or water. I peered down the coastline: to my right, nothing, to my left, the sun. I chose the latter. I trudged along the desolate coast like a desert nomad. After seemingly several hours, after exhaustion, thirst, and hunger had begun to slow my progress, the beach ahead appeared to take a sharp turn. I had found, perhaps, something. Either the beach simply turns back and I have unknowingly plodded to the tip of a peninsula, or I had found a harbor, and maybe life. I hurried as much as I could for my first glance at fate; to my amazement, I had found a port, yet there was no city as I had expected there to be.

A colossal egg shell, cracked in near perfect halves yet held upright by towering scaffolding. As I ran as fast as my waning energy could allow, I realized that my first glance had proven wrong: there was a city, but it was behind the shell. It was a huge city of  several dozen skyscrapers, the tops disappearing into the billowing clouds. There was nothing but space in between the soaring buildings, as if the shorter buildings had been buried and the towers had sprouted like trees. Even at this size, the shell seemed to dwarf the city. The city lay at the foot of a small inlet of the ocean that travelled from the heart of the city, through the foremost two buildings, which appeared identical and were connected by several bridges. On the other end, the inlet flowed between the sides of the humongous shell, finally reaching the ocean. It had to have been manmade, like a canal. The city was surrounded by a near semicircular ridge on the backside, creating seeming protection. Even with a city so large before me, I could see nobody else. It appeared an empty city. Even the eggshell appeared abandoned. I had too many questions to answer.

I did not realize that I had stopped to gawk at the view until I heard from behind me a voice: “An Outsider I see? One not acquainted with the great history of The Shell?” I  turned quickly in fear and surprise to find a dark cave entrance, empty like a void. There was nothing in sight, yet the hushed sound of heavy breathing wisped past my ear. I stood still like a deer in headlights; I did not know who was there, and the sound of their struggling breathing struck me menacingly. I sensed the figure moving towards me, yet I stood my ground, awaiting whatever should happen next. My terror faded to confusion as an old man in ragged robes matching the cave walls appeared before me. He donned no spacesuit, he donned no mask, he was human like me and he was breathing the air. He was not the only one here. “Why come in, let me tell you,” he walked away slowly and, I followed blindly. He began: “The Shell is the standing proof of the genesis of our world. Look out into the ocean. Look at it. The beginnings of that ocean came from The Egg and the ocean has grown immensely sense. Perhaps more Eggs have hatched elsewhere. Nobody knows, for no one has ever returned. Look into the night sky. Every star began as part of one such Egg as well, yet this Egg is special; it hatched our sun. Or, at least, the beginnings of our sun, which has only grown since. We could not have lived here without that Egg; we rely on the ocean for food. We came from Earth as a colony, yet we feel as though we are as much born of the Egg as is our planet. For this reason we call our planet Αυγό, meaning Egg in the language of the ancient Greeks of Earth,” he paused. The man held out an amulet to me: a silver egg with a golden sun in the middle. I hesitated, yet he ushered me to take it, so I held it in my hand, away from me, as if afraid it may harm me. He explained, “You are not from here. You are not from this planet. However you got here, you must go back. The Elders do not like Outsiders. Take this to your home but show nobody. They might not be fond of Outsiders either. Perhaps you may find another egg. Perhaps you may find where it came from.”

“That’s it, that’s all it says,” said Dr. Revis.

“Well it was the chicken of course!” George shouted.

“What sort of chicken could have possibly laid an egg large enough to hatch the sun and an ocean, larger than an entire city?!” I shouted back.

“Well something had to have laid it!” George stated.

“Perhaps not,” I replied, “maybe the universe truly began as a series of eggs.”

“Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?” George yelled.

“So that is ridiculous but some cosmic god-chicken isn’t?!” I responded.

“You are both out of your minds!” interjected Dr. Revis. The egg came from somewhere alright, and perhaps it was a chicken, but the egg did not create anything. The sun and the ocean did not come from an egg. That old man was crazy and so are you! Maybe even that Theo kid too! I’m not having any of this fictional story!”

“Hey, Revis, Lance woke up!” George called out. “Heat stroke,” he said to me, “you passed out but you’ll be alright. We’ll let you get your bearings and we’ll head on our way. Sure is a mighty big crater for a tiny little rock, ain’t it Dr. Revis?”