The night was quiet in the village, the only sounds the whispers of the wind and the chirping of crickets. But above, the sky wasn’t still. A streak of fire cut through the heavens, moving with unnatural speed. The light from the falling object reflected in the eyes of the villagers, who paused in their nightly routines, looking up in awe and confusion.

  The object plummeted toward the earth, an impossibly bright flash lighting up the night as it broke through the clouds, tearing through the air. The explosion that followed was deafening, sending tremors through the land, shaking the trees and rattling windows.

  In a small, remote village nestled at the foot of the Himalayas, the ground quaked violently. An entire section of the jungle was flattened, trees snapped in half, and dirt flew into the air. Where there had been nothing moments ago, now lay a deep, smoldering crater.

  As the smoke and dust began to settle, a strange sound echoed from the wreckage—like the whimper of an infant.

  A small, humanoid form lay at the center of the crater, wrapped in something that shimmered like the night sky. The child was barely larger than a human infant, its limbs thin and delicate, skin the color of moonlight. Its features were not of this world—its head slightly larger than human proportions, with faintly glowing eyes, wide and innocent. The tiny alien stirred, its breathing shallow and labored, the shock of its violent arrival evident in the way it trembled.

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  The villagers, slowly creeping closer from the edges of the crater, stared in disbelief. No one had ever seen anything like this. The child, barely conscious, let out a soft, pitiful cry that echoed in the stillness of the night, a cry full of vulnerability and fear.

  It wasn’t the thunderous crash that had drawn them in—it was the sound of something alive, something fragile, unlike anything they had ever encountered. Some of the villagers took a step back, terrified, while others—curious and unsure—crept forward.

  A young woman, trembling but drawn to the sound, cautiously approached the crater’s edge. Her heart raced in her chest. She had never seen a baby like this—no mother, no father, no family. The child was alone, injured, and abandoned.

  As she knelt down and extended a hand toward the tiny form, the alien's large eyes flickered open, locking onto hers. For a moment, neither moved. The village, its concerns about the British government and their own lives, seemed to vanish in that instant. All that mattered was the child, alone in the wreckage of the heavens.

  The woman’s breath hitched. She couldn’t leave it here. But what was it? Where had it come from? And what did it want? There were no answers. Only the soft, desperate cry of an infant.