Writers Jam

**

Year 2789, Planet Horace Tina, Gorgorn Galaxy

Leyla was an ambitious young Horacin, who was studying Inter-Galaxy Relations. Though she had never traveled beyond her own galaxy, she had devoured books, journals, and articles on intergalactic cultures. Her knowledge rivaled those who had actually voyaged across the stars and galaxies.

To her luck, her school organises an Inter-Galaxy Linguistic Conference. It was a whirlwind of languages, ideas, and lifeforms. 

Leyla, wide-eyed and eager, met beings from distant planets. Some even from faraway galaxies. Yet, amidst the excitement, she felt small. Unwise. Less capable. Everyone around her seemed more impressive, more experienced. 

During one of the sessions, she opened her computer to take notes. 

A curious, unibrowed being from the planet Tehrim (in the Taskala Galaxy) noticed the stickers on her laptop - an image of three characters having tea: Sisco, Captain Kirk, and Luke Skywalker. He chuckled softly.

Leyla noticed this. 

After the session, he approached her.

“I liked that sticker,” he said with a grin. “You’re into earthling fiction?”

“Yes,” Leyla smiled. “It fascinates me.”

“I’m Didam, from Tehrim,” he introduced himself.

“oh, I’m Leyla,” she replied nervously.

Before they could say more, their friends called them away. A brief goodbye. A quick smile. But the connection lingered.

Over the next few days, they kept crossing paths - shared glances in the hallway, polite handshakes, short greetings.

Something electric hung in the air between them. Their friends surely noticed this… inter-galactic bond.

The conference ended and, Didam left for his home with a promise to stay connected with Layla and ofcourse other beings he met in the conference.. 

Leyla, however, sends him digital stickers -  small tributes to the stories they both loved. She knew he wouldn’t see them for a while. Communications between galaxies took time. But still, each day, she sent him one.

Finally, when Didam returned home and checked his messages, he found his inbox filled with her stickers. He stared at them in silence.

Something inside him felt missing. It was as if he had left a piece of himself on Horace Tina. Perhaps… with her.

There was an eeriness in the air - something unspoken, hanging between galaxies. Both of them, in their own corners of the universe, found themselves staring at the stars for days

They both knew they would never meet again.

They both knew life would carry them forward, to separate paths, to distant futures.

They both knew they could never be together.

They had known it since the moment they met.

But what they shared in those brief moments - was a glimpse of something rare.

A glimpse of love.

This love ?
a memory now,
soft and suspended in time.

It may grow in silence,
like a hidden root beneath alien soil,

or fade gently,
like light retreating behind distant moons.

But it will remain, may be a flicker,
a warmth, a trace in the quiet folds of their galaxies.

Not forgotten.
Just… quietly there.
Always.**