ACT 0: BEFORE THE ACCIDENT

In their childhood, Andromedes and Galileo spoke of and faced their earliest fears together. Neither of them would know that one day, both of them would encounter their worst fears alone.Prior to Andromedes’ fusion with the dying star, he was the much admired captain of an astronaut expedition team. After a mechanical accident that resulted in his untethering from the spacecraft, he was fated to drift alone into the unknown.

ACT 1: THE END / THE BEGINNING

When Andromedes was floating aimlessly in space, he drifted near a star, also dying. In a collision of two lives that could not be more different, their memories and desires were briefly shared— and the star, having lived for billions of years— no longer wanted to die.It witnessed the astronaut’s cries as a baby, his childhood glee and bruises, his frustrations and misery as he grew older, and the overwhelming realization and acceptance of death arrived early. The star, having never understood something so frail, so human, wanted more.And Andromedes was able to see more than any of his own kind would ever witness— eons passing in a heartbeat, the constant fire that burned within until it would collapse on itself. But it was the star’s quiet loneliness that rippled most ferociously through the dead of space.

The two lives, both about to end yet entrapped in the longings of the other, seem to reach an agreement of a celestial scale as Andromedes opens his eyes once more and breathes for the first time— in a body that would not fail him like it did before.

ACT 2: THE GRIEF

On Earth, the astronomer Galileo grieves the presumed death of his best friend. He attends the funeral for Andromedes— a public event that lauds him with achievements and the dreadful title that Galileo loathes: the first human to die in space.

Unable to cope with his best friend’s death, Galileo stubbornly believes that Andromedes is still alive out there, somehow and somewhere. His many years of studying the vast unknown of space— coupled with his grief— leads to an obsessive fascination towards his research.

ACT 3: THE DISCOVERY

On a weekday evening in the city, Galileo witnesses an abnormal shining light from the sky. He watches it and suddenly feels overcome with an indescribable emotion. After a few seconds, it disappears as if it never occurred and Galileo realizes a single tear has rolled down his cheek.He attempts to investigate this strange occurrence from his observatory for the countless days and nights afterwards.

ACT 4: THE LONGING

Following his rebirth as a celestial entity, Andromedes lingers in space. With his newfound energy and abilities, he frequently explores the far reaches of space in hopes of continuing his astronaut team’s mission of finding extraterrestrial life.Hesitant to face his loved ones in his changed form yet aching to be reunited, he often returns to watch wistfully over Earth from the moon.

ACT 5: THE DREAMS

On the anniversary of the anomaly’s first sighting in the city, Galileo has a strange dream of a glowing figure falling from the sky during a meteor shower. He awakens before he catches the mysterious entity.

On Andromedes’ birthday, Galileo has another strange dream in which he follows a small star through a barren landscape until he is led face to face with the glowing figure again. It seems to reach out to him before he is jolted awake by his alarm. Oddly, Galileo feels as if he has known the mysterious entity his entire life.

———— TO BE CONTINUED

Original story and characters by lunarelles