It is common knowledge at this point of the storm on Jupiter, the “red spot” as it is called. My colleagues and I have started calling it the “Great Eye”. We have only found one documented case of the phenomena we nicknamed “Spot blindness”. We have, however, started hearing unconfirmed cases of the phenomena. It can best be described as a sense of impending doom when observing Jupiter, oftentimes accompanied with a phrase. In the one documented case we have, the phrase was “I see you”. This phrase was heard being emitted by everything after the first instance of contact with Jupiter. After the person in question went off of a gut feeling they came across a small lake in which a meteor suddenly, and inexplicably changed course and crashed into the lake, killing several fishermen and drying up the lake, leaving nothing behind other than a smoldering crater.
Now, me and my team are researching the meteorite and trying to understand the whole situation with Jupiter. We think we’ve discovered the problem and we have no way to solve it. Let me take a different approach to the story, explain a few things before truly going into the thick of it. I am the lead researcher in the field of all things unnatural and extraterrestrial. My work is often kept on the down low and that’s when I do get work. Though I will say, this is the busiest we’ve been in a long time. It all started when he started picking up a repeating signal coming from Jupiter, nothing crazy, just three rhythmic thumps followed by a pause.
That was about two and a half decades ago, at that time, I was but a lowly intern but that’s not what was important, what was, is that it didn’t stop, until a couple months ago. It didn’t stop so much but changed, instead of being a rhythmic thumping, it started becoming more complex, sounding like words. The words themselves have not been formally identified but many have thought to have heard the phrases “I see you”, “Precisely you”, or “Icy Moon’’. I personally hear; “Spicy soup” but no one else shares my thoughts.
When the meteorite crashed we were immediately called upon. I and two of my colleagues were the first of my division to make it there. We were cleared to get close to it and inspect it, it was glossy, steaming, black and charred while still having a shiny, reflective nature about it. I think my least favorite piece about it was how solid yet porous, matte yet glossy, charred yet clean, wet, yet dry. The entire stone was a huge contradiction to itself. Running my gloved hand across it I came across another contradiction, it was smooth and somehow rough, it didn’t make sense and it hurt to think about. After a lot of talking to people and getting permission to talk to more people, we finally got clearance to take a sample of the rock. We took it back to one of the portable labs just outside of the crash site and found out that it was made from minerals that we had never seen from space.
We went back to the crash site to find no one, not a single person. My team looked high and low, in things, around things, we looked everywhere but there was nothing. We called up our supervisor and asked her what we should do about the situation. She told us to continue on with the plan we originally set out to do then get out. We carefully walked up to the meteorite and drilled a hole inside of it only to find a thick black sludge pour out. Just as soon as it started the sludge stopped. We heard a cacophony of squeaks and high pitched screams as multiple small creatures spewed out of the small hole we drilled, hundreds of them came out, they looked like the sludge that came just before them, they looked like they were made of oil.
The monsters scattered in every direction and I cursed myself for letting this piece of extraterrestrial research just slip from my grasp like that. My next thought was to open the rock the rest of the way but I would need more permission. So I did as I had before and called my supervisor who told me that I didn’t have to ask for every little thing and to just go ahead and do what I see fit. So I did and I cut it open. To my and really all of my team’s surprise, we found a pristine, clean, untouched blue sunflower. As I gazed into the flowers’ immaculate colors and I suddenly felt a presence of being watched, so I turned around and looked out of the crater where my colleagues were once standing, they were just there. I walked up the wall of the crater and looked around. Nothing, not a sign of my team, no track marks, no lights in the distance, no sounds of moving bodies, nothing. I gazed up into the sky when I got a massive migraine unlike any other that I had had before. I fell to my knees and clutched my head in my hands.
I looked back up to the sky which at this point was pitch black, not a star in the sky, they were there ust seconds ago when I looked up, two seconds ago. The only thing in the sky was a single red dot, in the rough position of Jupiter, hell, not rough, exact point of Jupiter. As I stared I felt it stare back, then, it blinked. The light went out then back on in a fraction of a second. I don’t remember a whole lot after that. I think I passed out. I woke up later that night. I have no Idea how long I was asleep because I don’t know the time when I passed out. I was still the only one there but the stars had returned but the red Jupiter had not gone away.
When I got back to my main lab, no one saw what I did, the red eye was still there but no one could see it, my team was still missing and so was everyone that worked on that site except for me. I don’t think that I’m lucky, I think I was chosen. I can’t look out at the stars without getting debilitating migraines. I have become useless to the team and effectively fired. That flower is gone, the monsters are gone, the researchers gone, and all the evidence that the meteorite was ever there. The rock itself was nothing but ash and dust. The only thing that is left is the crater. I still get paid by the government, but that’s to keep me quiet, well, the money wasn’t enough. I need to get this out, if you get migraines or hear voices when looking at Jupiter, call the police, they will extend you to people that can help. Until we figure out exactly what to do to fix this, we need all the help we can get.