With Great Power...

"What are the chances?"

The girl lying on the grass looked up at her friend.

"Chances of what, Maz?"

The other girl sighed, peering closely into her telescope. She adjusted a knob and then another, focusing the lens.

"What are the chances of us being stuck here?"

"Maz, you're speaking in riddles again..."

The girl looked away from her instrument. Mazal Hassan was a grad student at Rose City University. She was slowly working towards her PhD in Astrophysics, slogging through useless papers and lectures to do it. She enjoyed her work, but she felt incomplete somehow. She had driven for two hours with her roommate to get as far away from the city lights as they could, all to see the Perseid Meteor Shower happening tonight. This was supposed to be leisure time for Mazal. Still, as she looked up at the stars in their multitude, one thing became clear. She was bored.

Mazal slumped down on the ground next to her friend, leaving the telescope to it's own devices.

"I mean," she said, "look up there. All those stars. Each one with it's own solar system. Uncountable numbers of planets and limitless possibilities. Out of all that, what the Hell are the chances of us getting stuck on this boring-ass rock?"

Janet Turnell pushed her brown bangs out of her face and laughed. She and Mazal had been friends since freshman year during their undergraduate studies. They had been assigned as roommates then and had stayed together throughout the years. Janet was studying to be a Field Biologist. Mazal could only assume that soon she would be speaking with an accent and wrangling crocodiles.

"I don't think it's as bad as you think Maz. You just spend too much time sitting in lecture halls and laboratories. You need to get out more, like this!" She pointed up at the stars. "Tell me that is boring."

"It's not!" Mazal retorted "That's the problem! Out there is big and explosive and amazing! Down here is just... Dull." She groaned and sprawled out on the grass. "I just want some real excitement, you know Janie?"

Above them, the shower was starting, hundreds and hundreds of flashes shooting across the night sky. Mazal sighed once again, awed at the spectacle.

Jane rolled on her side and propped herself on her elbow, staring at Mazal with her hazel eyes. "I don't know what to tell you Mazal. Maybe you should go camping with me sometime. A few months ago, we had a pack of wolves only a mile or two away from camp."

"Thanks J, but I don't think that's what I'm looking for."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to settle for being plain old Mazal."

"Yeah, I guess..."

The two fell silent and watched the show above them for awhile. The crickets chirped in the background and somewhere off in the distance and owl hooted, serenading a mate in one of the adjacent trees. It was calm and quiet.

Among the flashes, there was a glimmer just a bit brighter than the others. The glimmer, unlike the others, did not fizzle out right away. As a matter of fact, it didn't fizzle out at all. It was getting brighter and maybe even larger. Mazal propped herself off the grass and furrowed her eyebrows. It was getting larger and looked like it was moving faster and faster.

"Jane. Get up." Mazal urged.

"What?"

"I said get up!"

The two quickly scrambled off the hill they had been sitting on and away from the area. In a few moments, there was a muffled 'thump' and when the two women looked back, there was a large indent in the hill.

"Oh shit!" cursed Mazal, "My telescope!"

She scrambled up the hill to find the two thousand dollar investment in pieces. Mazal then let loose a string of furious curses in Hebrew, chucking a piece of the rubble far off into the night.

Jane, however, was paying attention to something else. "Mazal!" she shouted, "Mazal, come look at this!"

"Christ Jane, what the Hell is it? That thing is trashed. Do you have any idea how much it... cost... me..." Mazal's voice faded as she saw what Jane was talking about.

Inside the crater was a small fragment of rock about the size of a pencil. It was smoldering and wafts of smoke were rising off of it. Most noticeable of all though, the rock was glowing with an eerie white light.

"What the Hell is that Maz?" Jane sounded worried.

"It's... It's a meteorite."

"I know that stupid! I got through high school didn't I? I mean, what the Hell is it?"

"I don't know! It's not a Perseid, I know that. They're not big enough to make it through the atmosphere."

"Then what the Hell is that?!"

"I said I don't know... And that's why we're getting it." Mazal made to slide down into the shallow crater, but she felt Jane grab a hold of her arm.

"No," she said, "No way! You don't know what that thing is made of! What if it's radioactive? You should call Professor Reiner and let him get some people to handle this."

"What?" Mazal replied, "And let that bastard take all the credit?! Christ knows his head doesn't need to get any bigger! Nope. No fucking way. This is my find, and I'm going to be recognized for it. Go get me a plastic bag." With that, she clambered down into the crater.

She got down on her haunches and put her hand close to the rock. It had cooled down remarkably quickly, but was still giving off a glow. Assured she wouldn't be burned, Mazal took the rock in her hand and examined it closely. It was porous and very light. Most of the mass must have burned up on entry. The light seemed to radiate from the middle of the mass and was pouring out of the small holes.

As Mazal examined it, the glow seemed to glow brighter. In seconds, she had to shield her eyes from it. Behind her, she heard Jane scream something. A sharp pain suddenly shot through her entire body and then there was nothing.