You know what I think? Home is the best place in the whole universe. The

Kingstons felt the same too. It's been almost a year ago they left for space and since then, they haven't stepped their foot on the Earth for what seem like eons to them. After being selected as the co astronauts to go on a space voyage to Mars a year ago, they celebrated the nomination with their close families and friends. John Kingston kept his junior brother, Owen, in his mansion to babysit his nine-year-old son, Harry. Ciara Kingston made sure she gave Owen a lot of money that would be enough for Harry's needs. After bidding their co workers and well wishers goodbye, their spaceship propelled at an amazingly beautiful speed into the atmosphere. Two months later, their spaceship crashed into a huge spatial rock, causing it to lose control. They were so lucky that their spaceship was already close to Mars. It crashed there. They made their way out of the spaceship slowly after recovering from their shock. They both thought they had died when the spaceship crashed. They came out of their partially wrecked ship and began to spacewalk on Mars. After walking for a while, Ciara noticed a glow faraway on a slightly elevated land. They walked cautiously towards the light. Before them was a glowing gem. They quickly took it and walked back to their crashed spaceship. They contemplated on what to do with it, until John came up with the idea of testing it with the ship's power core. At first, Ciara hesitated on the idea but her husband lured her into succumbing. After several attempts, John succeeded in activating their ship to life. They quickly went inside the ship and came out with spare parts to replace the wrecked parts. Together, they fixed their ship and continued their space voyage. A month later, they came back with excited findings about the planet Mars.

• GRINGOLD CITY •

FEBRUARY 2017

John and Ciara Kingston were welcomed warmly on their arrival at the city hall by the people of Gringold. Their boss shook hands with them on a job well done. They had finally made a record of being the first astronauts from Gringold to make a voyage to space.

"Congratulations  Kingstons," the boss at the astronomical zone, Dr. Carlos Hovers, complimented as he shook hands with the couple.

"Our pleasure boss," the couple replied with smiles on their faces.

Everyone took their seats at their designated levels, ranging from mere citizens to the leaders of the city.

Afrer some congratulatory speeches from different leaders of the fast growing city, the Mayor stood up to give a final appreciative speech on their first space bound success.

"It's a honor to announce to y'all, that our esteemed city of Gringold, has finally made a record for herself, all thanks to the astronomical zone and their marvelous astronauts, the Kingstons."

A round of applause was heard from the crowd that had gathered to watch the memorable event at the city hall.

"Six years ago, no one would ever imagine that Gringold would produce legit history records, starting with their first visit to the Moon two years ago, and now to Mars months ago..." the speech of the Mayor went on for a whike, after which he ended with a grateful speech directed at the Kingstons, "...this city will soar higher...if people as devoted as the Kingstons continue to exist."

The Mayor dropped the mic, followed by a thunderous applause that escaped the mouth of the city hall. More speeches were given afterwards.

.

The Kingstons, accompanied by Dr. Hovers, walked majestically to their limousine parked outside the city hall. Dr. Hovers shook hands with the Kingstons before they entered their limousine.

"I'm very happy about Astroworld's successful record, all thanks to you two," Dr. Hovers said as he shook John and Ciara.

"We also are grateful," John smiled as he replied on behalf of himself and his wife.

"Will see you at work when you come back from your special break," Dr. Hovers spoke further as he bade the couple goodbye.

"You too sir," the couple chorused with a relieved tone. They both felt uneasy when their boss stood with them, with the fear of him smelling something fishy within them. They quickly boarded their limousine after getting a lot of camera flashes from photographers,journa­lists and reporters.

.

John sat thinking at one corner of the limousine. Ciara served him a chilled glass of juice as she joined him.

"Honey, what are you thinking?"

"Uh," John sighed as he realized the state he sat in. "Nothing actually."

"You know I won't buy that statement honey, you can't hide anything from me," Ciara spoke as she caressed her husband's back with her right arm, "tell me, it is about the gem we found?"

John gave a nod of affirmation.

"Don't worry 'bout that honey, he won't find out," Ciara continued. A brief pause "Unless we tell him," she finally concluded with an uncertain tone.

"You know it ain't of any use when we are caught." John sipped his juice with a face deserted of emotions.

"Stop thinking 'bout that gem honey, you should be thinking 'bout your family," Ciara uttered with a sarcastic tone as she walked away from her husband.

John dropped his juice and stood up to meet his wife. "You know that the gem could cost us our career should in case Hovers finds out."

"You know what?" Ciara spoke with a tone of concealed conclusion, "why keep the gem? Why don't you hand it over to him?"

"Me and you know Hovers is not to be trusted," John held his wife's shoulders as he spoke, "he's been looking for a way to fire us."

Ciara walked away from John with a confident look. "What 'bout that? We gat our own personal lab at home, so?" she faced John, "we still get to live our normal lives."

"Getting fired is different from resignation, you shoulda known that by now," John replied with a dissapointed tone.

*

The limousine came to a halt at the gate of the Kingstons mansion. Seconds later, the gate parted and the limousine drove in. The Kingston felt like home after five months of being away from Earth. Everywhere seemed too quiet for the couple as they alighted from their limousine. Where is Owen? John thought. Where is Harry? Ciara thought. They kept their thoughts to themselves due to the little fracas they had in the car. They headed for the huge door and pushed it open. Everywhere was dark as void. They paused and faced each other, only to see their surprised expressions in the light that came through the doorway. All the lights in the room suddenly came to live, followed by a "Welcome home!" exclamation. The couple were surprised to see their son holding a plate of cake in his hands as he descended down the stairway to embrace them. Ciara felt like the happiest woman in the world. Five months ago, she never imagined her son would do something amazing like this in the future. Harry always stood out to be a self-centered kid since his childhood, due to him being the only child of the family. She could barely imagine what Owen has done to change her son to be this caring. She collected the plate of cake and held her son around the shoulder and led him to the table, accompanied by a demented John. His mind was far away from his family.

"It feels good to be at home!" Ciara exclaimed once they all sat down. Harry grabbed a little knife from the table's cutleries and sliced a piece of cake. He handed the piece he sliced over to his mother. "Have a bite."

Ciara gladly received the piece and gave it a trial bite. Her facial expression couldn't hide the fact the cake was delicious. John simply sat down arms crossed on the table, saying nothing.

"Wow, this tastes awesome!" Ciara complimented as she savoured the taste of strawberry flavor on her taste buds. "Who made it?"

"Harry made it," a voice echoed from the balcony. The family at the table all turned towards the balcony. Owen gave a smile as all eyes fell on him. He descended down the stairs to meet the family.

"Welcome home John," Owen threw an embrace around his elder on reaching the dinning table. John patted his brother's back with a smile. He was very glad for everything he has done for his son during his absence. Owen released from the hug with a smile and walked over to Ciara. "Welcome home Ciara," he gave her a peck on her cheek afterwards. He finally sat down amongst the family at the dinning table.

"Nice job you been doing Owen, am grateful," John congratulated his brother once he was sitted.

"Nah, ain't a thing bro. Harry's been a good kid all along," Owen replied with a smile. He quickly noticed the lines on his brother's forehead. "What's up bro, anything wrong?"

John gave a sigh and made to leave the table. "Nothing Owen, just that I'm tired." He was almost heading towards the stairs when Harry ran after him with a piece of cake in hand.

"Hey dad, have a bite before you retire off to bed," Harry said as he came face to face with his father.

"Sometimes later kid," John replied with an uninterested tone.

"Please dad, try it out," Harry pleaded.

"Honey, accept what your son is offering, please," Ciara chipped in.

John gave a sigh of defeat as he took the piece of cake from his son. He disappeared upstairs afterwards. Dad must be really tired as f..., Harry thought as he made his way back to the dinning.

"Don't feel bad Harry, your dad is really tired," Ciara patted her son as he approached the dinning table with a sullen face.

"I gat you momma," Harry replied, glad that his mother was there for him. "Why don't we all hit the sack?"

Ciara stood up, "Yeah, my boy, that's right." She led her son upstairs to his room. On the stairs, she wondered what has done to her son to make him a brand new person. She quickly brushed the thoughts off her mind. She felt it was of no use thinking of how her son changed. What matters to her presently is her family. She kissed her son goodnight and left for her room.

*

Next Morning

Seven-thirty. The alarm clock ringed loudly. Harry jerked up from his bes with a start. He sighed and laid back when he discovered the sound that disturbed his sleep. The alarm went on for the next five minutes. During this time, he pressed his pillows against his ears to prevent the ringing, all to no avail. He stood up from his bed and faced the alarm clock with an angry snare. The alarm clock rang onwards to his utter annoyance.

"Would you keep quiet!" Harry exclaimed, slamming his fist against the alarm clock's power off button In frustration.

"Getriod, thought I told you to set alarm my at eight and not seven-thirty," Harry uttered angrily to his A.I.

" † Yes, you did master Kingston, but in my research it says your school starts at eight. So if I wake you by seven-thirty, you'll get to your school early and not getting detained again †," the artificial intelligence replied swiftly.

Harry fumed for some seconds before he spoke further."Whatever, it's the last day of school. Nobody cares if I get to school late." Pause. "Thanks anyway, at least uncle won't have to shout at me today." Harry admitted as he rubbed his palm against his eyes to clear them of sleep. He wished he could sleep for ages, but that was one big fantasy that would definitely not happen.

"Would you turn on the jacuzzi, please. I feel like having a hot bath during this winter," Harry requested.

"Done Master Kingston," the artificial intelligence replied

Harry immediately went into the bathroom and had his bath for twenty minutes. He came out afterwards and dries himself up with a thick brown towel. He headed for his closet and selected his outfit for that day; a black Slim Shady hoodie, a tight blue jean and a black Nike sneakers. After dressing up, he placed his headphone around his neck and quickly switched it on. The first song on his playlist, Lose Yourself by Eminem, escaped through the speakers.

"His palms are sweety, knees weak, arm are heavy there is vomits on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti, he's nervous..." Harry sang along as he picked up his school bag from his hanger and placed his laptop in the open space left in it. He walked out of his room, down the stairs, heading for the front door. He noticed the dinning was empty, Mum and dad might be sleeping, he thought. No need of waking 'em up. He wasn't hungry anyway. He walked through the front and called the driver immediately. He really don't want to be late today, like Getriod said earlier. it was the last day of school....

Harry's driver pulled the car over in front of Gringold City Senior High. At that moment, Harry stopped syncing to the song he was listening to. He lifted his bags and sighed in disappointment. How bad could it be? It was always the same thing anyway, he thought as he got out of the car. Everyday he spends with people older than him was annoying. He was been put up three grades ahead by his father for his intelligence. At first, he loved it but as time went by, he began to dislike the whole thing. He walked straight into the school. There was a different atmosphere at school today – every body was being friendly, shaking hands with each other. Normally, it would have been bunch of nerds sitting in the corners reading; bullies messing with people with smaller statures and all that. Bullies didn't bother Harry anyway. He was away from nerds and bullies, isolating himself as possible as he can. He located his locker and opened it using the iris scanner. Immediately it flashed a green light, the door slid open. He placed his school bag in the locker and removed his laptop and searched through the bag for something. He brought out a flash disk afterwards. He closed the locker and walked towards the ICT laboratory.

JOHN assembled the new recruited team to have an overview of the first project of the scientific organization Owen stood beside him. The crew stood on their feet in the middle of the laboratory.

"As y'all know, my wife and I went on a space trip...during our long stay in Mars, we found something interesting that could solve some scientific problems," John spoke as he pressed a button on his watch. An image appeared on the screen. Every one in the room were amazed; they all had curious looks on their faces.

Ciara who stood beside the screen smiled and continued.

"This, my friends, is a Martian orb...found floating on a slightly elevated landform, defying gravity...the orb powered up our ship and got us back to earth in an unbelievable speed..." she paused and continued, "during my hypothesis, I figured out that this orb has more power than every thing that may ever existed in this universe....I and John came up wiharmlesis...using the orb to create enough energy that can power the whole city of Gringold..."– pause –"you see, I believe the orb can absorb any form of energy and release it to receiving entities. Another theory by Owen was that the orb was used by the Martians to balance the energy of the sun in their planet which made it habitable for them. Even after the extinction of the whole Martian race, the orb kept taking energy and releasing it around the planet in harmful quantities...too much energy caused the planet deterioration, making it it the 'partially habitable planet' we all know today," Ciara explained with a tone of confidence. After a brief silence, questions began to pop out of the crowd.

"How sure are you that this 'orb of a thing' belonged to the Martians who habited the planet?" a man in grey suit asked .

"During our stay, we found somethings that proved signs of life...death actually. That was why we quited our job to work on this orb as our last project...take a look at this," John swiped the screen on his watch, another image appeared on the screen. A figure in a strange garment lying on the floor dead, its face was somewhat different from the one of a human.

"How do you intend we use it for what you've planned?" the man asked again.

"We have the prime accelerator all the way to Africa. This can be used on powering any type of energy. As explained, it needs vessels to absorb enough energy and transfer it to the main engine and in just a blink of an eye, we would have enough electricity in the whole city..infact with the enough energy, the whole country could benefit from it," The crew clapped their hands together. Their reaction gave John a positive reaction."With no more questions, we'll begin the project tomorrow. For now, the orb will undergo test with the prime accelerator," John announced. He signaled to Ciara afterwards. She walked towards the power accelerator. She went behind a screen and punched some keys, initiating the test run session at the process. The orb immediately flew in mid air and stop. The orb glowed a fierce blue. The crew stared in amazement at what they saw. A multiple test to clarify the effectiveness of the orb, the lab became deserted.

HARRY'S car arrived at the Kingston Laboratory after school hours. He got down from the car and headed for the building. He was very glad when he sighted his uncle coning out of the building.

"Is this place approved? Didn't they just finish the construction?" he asked his uncle out of curiosity and he walked closer to him.

"I am not in the position to answer that question," Owen replied as he walked down towards the driveway. Harry followed behind.

"Come on uncle," Harry begged.

"John's still in there. I think you should ask him," Owen replied as got into the driveway. He walked over to his car and unlocked it with a remote lock. He got in afterwards and drove away. Harry stood there for some seconds disappointed. Why don't you just go in and see dad? He walked towards the building confidently after succumbing to his thoughts.

Everywhere looked deserted before Harry's eyes. There was no sign of human life as he walked into the laboratory. He was about to call out to anyone that was present in the laboratory but he decided to keep mute. He walked down the steps into the test unit in the laboratory. The door slid open and he walked through. He heard the door sigh behind him as he walked down the steps to the floor. The ceiling above him had bluish fluorescents showering rays of light on all angle of the laboratory. He looked around in utter awe. Everywhere looked fantabulous! He heard footsteps on the floor above his head. Who would that be? He brushed the thoughts off his mind as a glowing cylindrical tube that leveled from the floor to the ceiling caught his attention. He walked over to it. He caressed the glass as he walked out the tube. The orb inside the tube glowed to his wonderment. All of a sudden, the fluorescents above him flickered. He removed his hand from the glass tube in alarm. The fluorescents flickered on and off. He walked away from the tube. More flickers came into the unit. He headed for the door in haste. He stopped abruptly. He heard people running on the top floor. Then silence. An ear piercing scream echoed. He dropped to his knees holding his ears. The corner of his eye caught a crack developing on the surface of the tube. The flickers was getting intense. Rays of fierce blue light escaped the cracks on the tube. Harry made to exit the unit but he felt too weak to stand. In a split second, a blinding ray of light struck his face and before he could turn to know what was happening, a huge explosion went off. Shards of glass accompanied by blinding rays went in all direction, leaving the unit in debris afterwards...