After whisking everyone out of their homes and throwing them into space William fell to the ground unconscious, he had expended a large amount of his power in a single day exhaustion had been flirting with him since he woke up because of the energy used to heal him up earlier on the same day. As he fell next to his mother's body a teardrop runner through his cheek before the world turned black.
In the great, silent reach of space, drifting far beyond Earth's orbit, a small cluster was found in space, spinning slowly among the stars.
It had been an accident of discovery. A Japanese telescope had caught the shapes on a routine scan, and the technician who'd seen the feed had choked on air. Human forms, suspended ghostly in orbit around a tumbling trail of satellite debris, tumbling lazily in the dark. In less than a minute, the sight had tripped an alert system, and soon messages were pinging from Tokyo to Washington, Moscow, Beijing, and beyond.
United States: Shock and Silence
A young communications officer sat, by her lonesome, in the control room as the alert flashed across her screen. Her stomach dropped. She sent it up to her superior, who sent it to his superior until it had reached the highest offices at NASA and into the Department of Defense. An hour later, the emergency meeting was in full flow: scientists, intelligence officers, and military heads all sitting around a table, looking up at the grainy satellite feed projected on the wall.
It was unmistakable. These were human forms. Some wore remnants of clothing, though nobody could tell from where. The head of operations with NASA leaned in, staring grimly. "We have no record of anything like this," he said, his voice taut.
The Department of Defense urged them to keep quiet, to keep details at a minimum. A statement had been prepared but wasn't sent out—no one could afford to start a panic until they had some sort of answer. But the images weighed on every person in that room, those silent bodies drifting in endless space. No one spoke much as they left the conference.
Russia: A Grim Realization
Across the world, in Moscow, Roscosmos had the same images, coming directly from their Japanese counterparts. A cold shiver ran down the headquarters in the Kremlin, as it showed the feed. The president himself called for a closed-door session with Russia's topmost space officials along with intelligence agents and military advisers. Their faces went pale as they pored over the images.
There were dark chapters in Russia's space history: the accidents that were hidden, the failed missions whispered of but never publicly confirmed. The Kremlin's first reaction was suspicion. 'Could these be Russian astronauts from an undisclosed mission gone wrong?' The thought hung in the air, unspoken and dark.
After hours of deliberation, the Kremlin decided on a response: they would confirm the images but say nothing more. The Russian government was accustomed to silence, at least when the questions outnumbered the answers. But in the quiet of the Kremlin's offices, they knew one thing for sure: if these bodies turned out to be Russian, they would have a crisis on their hands.
China: A Controlled Response
Meanwhile, in Beijing, the Chinese National Space Administration received the warning via secure channels. As they convened in the headquarters, a murmur of unease spread across the gathering. The Chinese space program measured jumping, always crawling-but this find had cast a shadow for which they were not prepared.
The Chinese government wasn't taking any chances. The image remained within a tight circle of functionaries, denied publicly to the outside world. Meanwhile, analysts were comparing their records in minute detail, re-checking every detail from recent missions. Nothing matched, but the unease only grew. China proposed a controlled release of information that wouldn't say too much while nudging other countries to do the same.
Within hours, China sent an official request to the United Nations: they would take part in an international inquiry on one condition all other nations agreed to share whatever they found. Space was full of secrets, and China was willing to play the long game.
Europe: An Ethical Dilemma
A conference of scientists and officials sat in dumbfounded silence at the European Space Agency's headquarters. Coming from a culture steeped in the values of ethics and cooperation, debate immediately centered on the human dimension: 'If these were astronauts,' they debated, 'then who were they? Whose laws governed their remains?'
The Europeans were also more open to the idea of a unified reaction, and ESA called for agency unity. They drafted a proposal: an international mission to retrieve the corpses-to better preserve scientific evidence but also to give a semblance of dignity to the unidentified dead. A call of solidarity before this surrealist tragedy was prepared and sent out to the world's main space agencies.
United Nations: A Call for Cooperation
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs-UNOOSA took the ESA's proposal to heart. In a matter of days, there was an emergency assembly, wherein delegates from dozens of nations watched those same chilling images of bodies floating in endless orbit.
The somber tone of UNOOSA's director hushed the room. "This is more than a discovery," she said, "it's a reminder of our collective responsibility." She called for an independent investigation to be led by a coalition of nations. In a rare show of international harmony, the representatives from each country nodded in quiet ascent.
The World Watches and Wonders
Back on Earth, the news didn't stay contained for long. Headlines buzzed with mixed awe and terror, nicknaming it *The Silent Fleet.* Questions plunged newsrooms and social media: 'Who were these people? Why were they up there, and how had no one noticed?' Over-night conspiracies erupted, and folks looked up at the sky with newfound dread.
Then, careful statements were released by the governments, each not mentioning any details, assuring and disclosing nothing. But these rumors of lost missions, clandestine space programs, and forgotten tragedies added more fuel to this mystery.
Finally, the international recovery mission was planned, its team chosen from different nations all over the world. They were assigned to recover the bodies, try to trace their origins, and bring answers back to Earth.
For now, though, the world waited. Silent prayers were sent up for the lost souls drifting alone in space, and every government knew it was standing at the edge of history—or maybe at the edge of a long-buried secret waiting to be dug out.