Burnout

The first thing Rita notices is the heat. It’s a blanket smothering the room, a stifling, choking sensation, that claws

on the inside of her throat. She feels around the table for water, a fan, anything, as quietly as she can, but it is hard to see past the haze in her head. She can’t quite pinpoint the source; perhaps it's from the spotlights overheard, or her dress collar, or the mass of bodies pouring into the room, all brandishing holo-pads and microphones, clambering for a spot closest to the stage. They’re all shouting and wavering their arms, adding to the heat, and she can’t help but squirm.

“Congratulations on yet another Noble prize, professor!” a reporter yells from the front. Her father, seated on her

left, smiles and nods graciously.

“You’re very kind, thank you.” 

The same reporter speaks up, “Professor, my question relates to the wormhole you discovered 15 years ago in the

Oculus system, and the planet that’s most recently emerged from it. Can you truly confirm or deny this planet came from another dimension?” That question draws an uproar, and the reporters surge forward again in anticipation. Her father raises his hands as if to placate the crowd. It is the same gesture she watched him practice over and over again in their mirror in the days leading up to the press conference. For all his obsession with appearances, she couldn’t deny how controlled he looked, even down the slant of his brow. The people in the room deflate, marginally, as if disarmed. 

“My team and I have long hypothesized for a long time about the significance of the Oculus Wormhole. Our

working theory was it was a connection - a bridge, perhaps - between our universe… and the next. Of course, this was all just speculation on our part, with no scientific backing. But with this year's launch of our Andromeda colonies, our observable universe was expanded to the point where this new planet was detectable. There is still much we do not know about this planet, but regardless, it is nothing short of groundbreaking for humanity’s interstellar advancement.” 

He adjusts the hologram hovering above their heads, moving its gaze towards the most infinitesimal speck in the

sky. It shimmers, like a pool of honey, before focusing. From their spot on Earth, the new planet was nothing but a reddish blip bobbing in and out of view. She could barely even see its outline over the sea of microphones and camera flickers surrounding them. Yet people all around her gasp, eyes set reverently upon this speck in the sky. She squints at it, trying to puzzle out what more could they see, as her father turns back towards the crowd. A hand shoots up in the back. “Professor Liao, I understand you’ve acquired the exclusive naming rights of this planet. Do you have any idea of what its name will be?” Rita watches as her father chuckles, a sheepish look on his face, and her palms grow slick with sweat. 

“Yes… about that. After some careful thought, I’ve decided this planet will share its name with my daughter Rita,

who is with me here today.” The whole room swivels their heads, and Rita resists the urge to sink even lower into her seat. “It was, after all, discovered on her fourteenth birthday, and its present distance is approximately fourteen lightyears.” He shares with a laugh, dipping his head towards the audience. Rita watches as they all join in, basking in his ease; she supposes they think he is effortlessly amiable, a rarity amongst his kind of typically dull, boring scientists. A silent scoff tears itself from her throat, but her father is gesturing again, as he motions towards her, his daughter, then up towards the star, his miracle. “This was the least I could do for my only daughter.” 

The media eats it up; they are ravenous for this. They have never seen anyone like the professor, so gracious, so

unbearably domestic, as to bestow his child such an honor. Planet naming was nothing new - there was the abundance of interstellar companies, tycoons, and colonies filing for those rights every day. But this planet was different. It was hard to believe it was even real; Rita certainly couldn’t. A planet from beyond what their world, from another dimension. A gateway to an entirely new universe of life and possibility. Their cameras flicker again. 

“She’s a beauty just like the planet, professor!”

“Smile, Rita!” 

“My God, she must be special!” 

“Rita? How does it feel having this newest planet named after you?” 

Hungry eyes descend onto Rita. The back of her neck prickles uncomfortably, as the entire world’s eyes bore into

her. She glances to her side, towards her father, for help. He promised her should have to speak, just sit there and nod along. The silence drags on for a touch too long. He shifts towards her, but her lips can’t seem to separate. Speak, his eyes seem to scream, and so she does. 

“Um…” he shoves the microphone into her hands. Rita can feel them tremble as she stutters through the

sentence, clearly unrehearsed and unpolished. “We talked about it over dinner. Once. I never expected my father to go through with the idea. It’s all a bit much…” 

Murmurs ripple through the crowd, as people nod their heads. It’s a sea of approval - they think she’s humble,

despite the immense honor. They like her. Her father squeezes her shoulder approvingly, and she straightens up. The smile on her face now feels less forced, and she hopes her father feels the same. Another wave of flickers blinds her. 

“This is going to make one hell of a front cover,” Rita can hear a reporter yell to their colleague. “A planet from

another dimension, the world-famous scientist who discovered it, and his daughter, its namesake, humanity's newest star - Rita!” 

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It’s the obsession that frightens her at first. It was a slow, steady thing, growing rapidly just weeks after the press

conference. Her name is on every broadcast, on every person’s lips. She had seen the rumors circulating online. How Planet Rita was some curse sent by God. How the whole thing was an elaborate lie, made to raise funds for the space program. How Rita herself must also be some kind of dimensional being. It was all nauseatingly ridiculous. But she can’t find it in herself to hate it all. Because with the obsession and speculation online also came the popularity. 

She saw herself first in the newspapers, then screens, then the giant hologram that sits over the city. It was

nauseating to stare at her own face so much, but what could she do? The story spread like a wildfire, engulfing the world with fervor. Rita’s name is the newest trend, fad, and commodity, flashing across every headline available. 

“Planet Rita - a Dimensional Mystery!” 

“Rita and Rita - Two Stars on the Rise!” 

“The Girl Wonder behind the Namesake, Rita!” 

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Rita replays the interview for the fifth time and suppresses her urge to cringe. God, did she always like to talk that?

Did she always sit that sloppily? In her bedroom, she readjusts her posture, shoving her shoulders back. It had been months since Planet Rita’s discovery, yet the sensation of it all never died down. Her father had booked her interviews, Tv shows, and live appearances on the daily. It had never truly sank in, her fame, her popularity, but her father urged her to embrace it. 

“This is what your mother would want for you Rita,” She remembered him saying. “Please, do it for her.” 

Suddenly, she feels a buzz on her wrist and lifts it up. A faint, honey-colored hologram of her father’s face suddenly

shimmered into view. Quickly, she trained her expression to be cheerful, controlled. Perfect.

“Rita, are you there?!” The urgency in his voice makes her falter. She hadn’t heard him speak like that since the

night of the press conference, with the reporters and the hours of questions. It was the sort of voice he used when everything changed. 

“Uh, Dad? I’m fine, is everything okay?” 

“Have you heard anything from the media lately?” 

The media? She glances back at her phone, the interview still on display. Her stomach drops. 

“No, not really. Did I do something wrong?” 

“No,” he pauses, and she realizes how bloodshot his eyes are, “But there are some rumors. Rumors about Planet

Rita… that it might hit the earth. But it's only rumored, this has nothing to do with you! I promise, but I need you to get out of the building. Now!” “What?!” 

Rita drops the hologram, running to the nearby television. She scrambles for the ‘on’ button, heart fluttering in her

chest. The screen flickers to life, and a man speakeasy frantically to the screen. 

“We have unconfirmed reports that we have lost visuals with the Pluto and Saturn colonies. We- we are getting

live reports that Saturn has also disappeared. Oh, something’s breaking now-! it seems our report is already dated. In fact, Rita has already entered our orbit! Everything, all the planets, have all v… v-vanished. I don’t want to believe it, but I fear planet Earth is doomed!”

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The news spreads just as quickly as Planet Rita’s discovery. Rita runs outside and ducks into an alleyway, her heart

racing, as people spill into the streets. They’re terrified now, accusing fingers pointed to the sky. Towards Rita. 

“How could this happen to us?” A woman wails, clawing at her throat. Rita watches, in muted horror, as the skin

back in bloody ribbons. A child runs by, screaming, as a trail of smoke trails behind him. His skin is on fire. Her stomach rolls and she stumbles out of the alley, desperate for air. But her face is too recognizable now. 

“It’s Rita!” Someone screams and points, and they descend onto her, fearful hands gripping at her clothes and

hair. “Rita, help us! Stop the planet!” 

“Stop!” She screams, “Let me go!” 

“Are you all blind?” one man roars, and crowds around him stutter to a halt. People hone in on the voice. The man

shoves his way through, eyes blown wide and sweat dripping down his chin. This man is the sort of person she’d hurry past on a street, with barely a hello or a goodbye exchanged to acknowledge his existence. A mundane face that could blend into any crowd. She has never met this man. But as his eyes contort into burning pools of betrayal, she realizes he knows exactly who she is. 

“It’s that girl! Rita and the Planet Rita; they’re the same!” He shrieks, “Think - why the hell would Rita come here of

all places when the universe is so fuckin’ huge? This can't be a coincidence - it’s a set-up, right before our eyes!” 

Rita shudders. What the hell was going on? 

“It’s so goddamn obvious. This girl is calling it here to destroy us all!” The man hoists her up by the hair. She

screams as shrill voices fill the air. 

“After all the love we’ve given to her?”

“This - this isn’t true! 

She tries catching the gazes of the crowd, her eyes pleading. 

Planet Rita has nothing to do with me, she wants to scream at them, I’m innocent! Because she was, wasn’t she? She had committed no crime or injustice; she simply allowed people to do with her as they pleased. Market her, advertise her, worship her, she turned a blind eye to it all. Whatever made her father content, she was so willing to do. Where was he now? She glances around, desperate. Where was the man that led the sheep to the slaughter, telling her to run when the crowds would surely be out for revenge? 

“It’s all her fault!” The man yells to the roar of the people “We have to kill her! To survive!” 

She watches with staggered breaths as their fear turns to rage. The man tightens his grip on her hair. Someone

finds a wooden pole, and the crowd grabs her, bounding her to its tip. They bare their teeth and wave their fists hoist her up, closer towards the monster bearing her name. Someone brandishes a match in the air, and their fervor grows. The millions gathered rummage through their pockets, purses, and bags, fetching out the lighters and matchboxes they never got to use. One by one they light them. From her place above the crowd, it is as if she is floating on a sea of flickering lights, suspended in an endless infinity. 

“Kill her! Kill her! Death to Rita!” They shriek. The crowd is the women, children, and forgotten souls too poor or

too late to flee. This is the first time she had seen so many of their faces. Skin graying, hair in disheveled clumps. Gap-toothed snarls and dull eyes that once revered her and her star. The star they were hellbent on extinguishing. They toss matches and lighters into a pile below her and douse her in gasoline. She sputters as it drips down her face. It is acrid and revolting, settling in her mouth with a sour taste.

Honestly, Rita thought she would die quietly. Hidden onboard some remote Jupiter colony, living out the rest of

her existence. Fortunate enough to escape the eventual exercise in the survival of the fittest on Earth. Unfortunate enough to live it out alone. But no, this death is more fitting, and more freeing for many, to extinguish the one tangible thing that they have. The Rita above is set on a course to kill them all; the Rita here is to blame. She sniffles quietly as the gasoline stings her eyes. Yet no traitorous tears slip out. Instead, she thinks, because that is all she has left. She thinks about her father now, of his turned back and camera-ready smiles. She thinks about the crowd below, her name is on every pair of lips. 

“Rita, Rita, Rita!” they scream, and god, she was really sick of that name. A snippet of stardom, of spotlights and

people chanting her name. Is this really what her father thought she wanted? Rita was aware of how lucky, how honored she was, but — how can one say this without sounding weird? She just really couldn’t wait for people to forget about her. 

Then maybe they’d grow tired of their fury and will abandon the stake and run home to find loved ones. They may

keep burning the girl’s body, at least for a while, but then they will stop thinking about bloodlust and who they hate and devote their last thoughts to who they are. The ones with feuds unresolved. The married couples in need of fixing. The souls that were teetering for stupid reasons will stay alive. She likes to think the last moments of humanity will all be very relaxed and civilized, at which point the effort people were putting into prolonging the end will begin to falter, and instead live their last moments basking in the sky. 

She can now feel the warmth tickling her feet. It laps at her shoes, like a soft caress. It reminds her of the sea. The

sea, what was the sea again?

She looks around for her father to ask, but there is only empty space at her side. Right. She has asked this very

same question years ago. Before the broadcast, before Planet Rita, before she was so much more than just herself. 

Flashes of memory bubble to the surface. Of a cool, blue expanse. Of an endless sea was empty, yet brimming

with life. The sea of her mind is expansive yet intimate. It is never put on display, and free to change as it pleases. Her family went there, so many years ago, when they were whole. She can see it now, with her hands grasped tightly in those of a father dead and a mother long gone. The roar of the ocean is so loud in her ears. 

She tilts her head up and is greeted with a sea of red - an endless blaze of swirling colors and vibrant spots, of

jagged lines and an untameable ferocity. People around her gasp as This is Planet Rita, she realizes. No longer a speck in the sky, but here, in a final blaze of glory. A breathy laugh tears itself out of her throat and she strains against her bonds, trying to reach up. There is familiarity in its monstrous glow. The gasoline no longer burns, and her bare skin no longer shivers. Instead, something warm holds her softly, like a parent cradling a child close to their chest. She sobs, rejoices, and lets it dissolve her into the sea above.