Heaven’s Path

The grand, modern metal doors at the entrance of the banquet hall slid open with a low, resonant hum. As it did, as if in a movie, it slowly revealed Astra Sera in all her striking presence.

"It seemed as if she had timed this, she came out the moment the announcer said her name. She also looks completely normal now." Xavier thought to himself, a little shocked, while looking at Astra. He still felt the same way regarding how she looked before. However, there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.

"It seems to me like she's completely fine after everything. That's great. Anyways she looks so stunning! I'm actually excited if she sits next to me…" Aria said in her head, almost forgetting how Astra looked before.

With an unreadable smile, Astra stepped forward with measured grace, her tall, statuesque frame commanding the space. Her dark skin was radiant under the warm golden glow of the chandeliers. It had contrasted beautifully with her flowing purple robe. The robe flew down her curvy figure majestically, while her lips glossed faintly. 

Her blonde hair tumbled in soft waves down her back, the pale strands catching the light with every step she took. The soft click of her black heels against the polished marble floor echoed in the stillness. Each sound it made marked her slow, deliberate progress into the hall as she headed toward the stage. Her intense light gold eyes seemed to observe the room with a clarity that almost made everyone feel as if they were the only person in her line of sight. Her eyes were behind her shaded glasses, which made it look all the more otherworldly.

For most in the room, this was the first time seeing Astra in the flesh. As such, many were taken aback by Astra Sera's beauty for a moment.

"She's magnificent. And to look so gorgeous as an astronomer, no less." someone whispered in awe, their voice barely audible above the faint hum of murmurs.

"You're right, I don't think there's ever been an astronomer or scientist where their beauty matched their intelligence," another person at an adjacent table responded as a joke.

"Dark skin with potentially natural blonde hair! I don't think I'd ever get used to such a combination to be honest." One journalist muttered to their partner.

"Look at her, wow…" a woman muttered to her companion, clearly speechless. This was the most common reaction throughout the people seated at the banquet tables.

The journalists and reporters near the front sprang into action, catching Astra as she began to walk toward the stage. Camera shutters clicked at least once every second! They couldn't miss the moment as Astra begins to stroll to the podium to talk about the potentially world changing event. 

One reporter whispered to a colleague, while trying to catch certain angles. "Look at her. This seems more like a TV show introduction to a model." His tone had a hint of annoyance to it.

Others quickly jotted down notes or whispered updates into recorders. "Dr. Astra Sera, arriving as though she belongs not just in this banquet hall, but in the stars themselves!" one journalist murmured as she tried to sound grand for her news station.

"She's so young, accomplished so much, despite her controversial discovery. And yet…" a skeptic reporter began, but their words trailed off as they glanced at her, momentarily caught in the gravity of her presence.

Even among the scientists seated at their tables, there were murmurs of disbelief and admiration.

"Let's see what she has to say first. She's beautiful and accomplished, but I'm still not fully convinced by her study." A skeptic boldly said.

"Well, we'd have to see that prediction of hers," an old accomplished scientist responded. "If she's wrong, the critics will destroy her. But if she's right…"

It was evident that the air in the room felt charged, as though Astra's very presence had tilted the atmosphere! 

Despite this, Xavier and Aria remained silent, simply watching as the energy suddenly shifted. 

As she reached the center of the hall, the announcer's voice rang out, cutting through the subdued voices. "Let me say it again, ladies and gentlemen, our guest of honor: the brilliant, trailblazing Dr. Astra Sera!"

Thunderous applause erupted, some clapping with genuine admiration, others with cautious respect, but every pair of eyes in the room remained locked on her.

Astra turned toward the center of the room and inclined her head in acknowledgment, her faint smile unreadable, and continued toward the podium as she stepped on stage. Cameras continued to flash as the journalists continued to murmur among themselves, their pens and recorders working quite rapidly to capture every moment!

Clearly, the room had not only enjoyed Astra Sera's presence, but had allowed itself to be swallowed up by the enigma's beauty and aura! 

But…how does the person herself feel?

For Astra, when she walked in, she felt a certain uneasiness.

However, it was not the same feeling as she had before. It couldn't be any more different.

For Astra, the uneasiness felt like a contortion of inevitability, isolation, and most prominently, apathy.

Astra Sera stepped forward, walking how she always does. She had no distinction in her movement before and after she came into the hall. She took in the radiant atmosphere of the hall instantly, absorbing every corner of the room fully. 

The elegantly dressed men and women. 

The journalists surrounding her. 

The chefs and cooks that had momentarily stopped their procedures to look at her. 

Xavier and Aria. 

The shimmering gold chandeliers, the opulent white tables. 

The camera flashing in her face. 

The golden walls of the room, the glass dome that had the Milky Way peeking into the hall.

 A lot of it was different from the previous hall she went to.

"It seems like there's a lot of distinctions aesthetically…" Astra says in her head.

Then, the murmurings. She heard every ounce of the whispers about her, but she never truly listened to them. 

No matter how clearly Astra heard a whisper from even the farthest corner of the room, each one was like the noise you would hear from a crowd casually speaking among themselves.

However, despite each murmur never truly reaching her, she knew exactly what each of them were about.

And for each of the murmurs, Astra saw that every last one of them came from shadowy, sometimes blurry silhouettes.

To her, walking into this room felt as if you were walking into a completely blank room filled with pitch black dolls, each one surrounding you. And strangely, each doll spoke in white, static noise. One would normally think that something strange was going on; there would be an anxiety that something more will eventually come. There should be something more, right?

But there wasn't. And Astra Sera knew that there never could be anything more.

Astra continues to walk in the hall with an unreadable smile. She does nothing more than wave and begin to step up on the stairs to the podium. For a second, Astra saw the "podium" transform into a semi open door that leads into a dark river, and then suddenly transform back. Astra knew she was hallucinating again.

"It seems like there's quite the difference…" She said to herself, her voice inaudible.

As Astra approached the podium fully, the announcer slowly stepped back. He held out his hand to her, inviting her to a handshake. She nods her head and gives a faint smile while shaking his hand. She then approaches the podium, with loads of reporters making sure to capture and record every moment of a potentially world changing event. 

Once Astra gets adjusted, she gives her greetings to the crowd. She made a slight joke which amused the crowd with laughter. A short story is told, and numerous announcements about the world of astronomy regarding images of Gravastars and dark matter were given, which elicited applause from the crowd.

"Anyway, so let us get to the reason why we're done with the small talk, let us get into the real matter as to why we're here," To Astra, this was the moment she was prepared for, and everything else was just fluff.

But for her, something strange happens.

She started to feel a massive headache, similar to the tremendous head pain that she got from earlier.

It wasn't as bad, but it was bad enough for her to feel as if her brain was going through a tumultuous storm. It was still so bad! She wanted to scream!

"Regarding the Polaris Shift, it is important to note that there are fully rational reasons as to why I am so confident." Despite the pain, she absolutely could not allow a repeat of the situation before! She had to keep perfect composure, despite the fact that she had absolutely no idea of what was going on, or what was the cause of the headaches.

"Every single one of my mathematical supports have not been disproven, and a pattern in the stars shows that it will happen exactly three days from now, on December 31st, 2029. This pattern, which has been found by me, has been used to predict other astronomy events with unparalleled accuracy. This has been used by multiple physicists, and many astronomers tried to find major flaws that discredit it, but can't."

As soon as Astra mentioned this, some skeptics in the audience thought that this all sounded supernatural and couldn't bring themselves to believe such a thing. They thought this despite the evidence Astra had put forward. Some in the audience were wondering why she was repeating herself, since she's already mentioned these points multiple times before.

Of course, Astra was repeating her points as there were a good amount of people in the audience who weren't fully aware of such evidence.

There were also some who were wondering about the "why" of this event, as in, "why is Polaris shifting in the first place?" Funnily enough, Astra also belongs to this group of people.

Nonetheless, most people in the audience listened attentively, understanding what she had to say.

"Here is why this event is so important for the world of astronomy. A gift from the heavens, I would like to call it." Astra continued. "This could help us predict the movement of stars and galaxies, and even smaller bodies like asteroids, with more accuracy!" Astra said with some enthusiasm. 

As such, the audience gave her the obvious appropriate response: another generic round of applause. Soon enough, this sound was drowned out. 

And so were the other sounds of whispering that went inside of Astra's ears.

Suddenly, while she was speaking, Astra found herself inside of a blank room that was completely white.

It was filled with dark dolls, each no more than 3 feet tall.

They had no definition to them.

At the supposed entrance of this room, there was a semi open door that led to a dark river.

There was no sound being emitted; the only sound Astra heard was the sound of her breathing.

Without saying a word, Astra walks up to the semi open door. As she walked up to it, the more it began to open.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Astra hears her own footsteps as she slowly approaches the door.

SLAM!

Suddenly, the door completely closed on itself! There were words written on the door that had just closed:

DO NOT LOOK AT THE NIGHT SKY

These words suddenly began to glitch. It then started to grow. After some time, it even grew bigger than the door it was on!

Suddenly, it got as big as the entire blank white room she was in!

In her peripherals, Astra noticed that her skin was pale white like it was before.

"What the-" She couldn't help being confused, shocked, and even scared!

But before she could even react, this mental image shattered and she was now back in the massive hall that contained the banquet.

In an instant, she realized that the faces of the people in the banquet hadn't changed, and those who were still murmuring were still whispering amongst each other. Some kept mentioning her appearance and how smart she was, while others joked how she was a schizophrenic who believes in the supernatural.

"Was it possible that no time had passed in that weird hallucination that I had? But that's not just it…the contents of it worry me. Why was I in such a weird room? What's with the weird dolls and the strange imagery of doors and rivers?"

"Then aside from that—I felt a tremendous headache despite not doing anything but speaking…why would such a thing happen? I don't have a lot of premises as to why. I have a few ideas that come to mind, but…" Astra sighed inwardly.

"…Most importantly, that message saying I shouldn't look at the night sky appeared again, however there was no night sky…is that message referring to something else? In either case, it can give me a clue regarding the scream I had earlier. What I know for certain though, is that looking at the night sky doesn't cause anything bad to happen…"

She thought all of these things immediately, showing no discernible emotion on her face. However, she realized she was still speaking, and she had to think about this thought later. 

"…Thank you, everyone." After some time, Astra concluded the speech she gave with a slight bow and a smile, and was met with a thunderous applause.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the new Einstein and the new Newton, Dr. Astra Sera!" The announcer quickly rushed to the mic as Astra stepped down the stage, with reporters and journalists accompanying her, asking her questions that she didn't care to answer.

"Why do I have to be the new Newton? Or Einstein?" Astra paid no mind to the shuttering sounds or quick flashes and addressed the announcer in her head.

Again, she thinks back on the previous banquets that she had.

"Dr. Sera, what are your thoughts on you pursuing a modeling career?"

"How does it feel being so young and being compared to Newton and Einstein?"

"How were you feeling when Dr. Tanaka openly criticized your work?"

And as she thought back, the questions that were asked brought her back to the reality that this one was no different.

Nothing changed. At this point, Astra Sera had not only grown apathetic, but she has now become sick of it.

Even though everything everyone did in the banquet made sense, she still felt this way. It wasn't unusual for everyone to be focused on her appearance and other superficial things.

After all, she has been used to such things for her entire life. And it's normal, given the fact that no one in the banquet knows Astra on a deeper level.

It wasn't all that bad, though. It was something she could tolerate despite it meaning that it would be extremely hard for her to find a genuine connection with people. The good thing is that 'extremely hard' doesn't mean it was impossible.

As such, a small hope was found within her.

This hope is something that she always had, even now…even despite the fact that she always felt more connected to the stars and the heavens.

And so, Astra continued to feel the same feeling she got half an hour earlier. She knew this contortion of emotions was why she felt that she got sick of everything that happened in the banquet.

As she completed her steps down the stage, she gave a small sigh, unnoticeable to anyone in the hall.

"I can't seem to feel like I belong here, despite almost everyone here being an astronomer." Astra says in her head.

After concluding that looking at the night sky wasn't what made her scream exactly, she looks at the stars through the glass dome, yearning for a connection.

And she always seemed to find it from this source.

"Maybe, I really can't connect with humans after all…" Astra couldn't realize it, but a small hope had completely disappeared from her heart.

However, like a fool, she will continue to chase it.