WHY Are You?!
Blurb
Aaron Ashford has everything – wealth, status, looks and logic. But peace? Not even a glimpse. After a heartbreak that shattered him not just in love but in belief, Aaron begins to question everything – his mind, his purpose, even the meaning of life itself. Restless to make sense of this misty life – a life that has an end after all. He’s not searching God, neither denying the faiths. He’s a rare persona who questions science and religion both. He wants answers to WHY from science and answers to HOW from religion. But the clock is ticking fast and nobody knows when is the last moment.
When a cosmic discovery hits the mankind with panic, Aaron sees hope from another soul. She’s clear in vision. Deep in thoughts. Peaceful at heart – but hides deep battle scars underneath that veil. He doesn’t want to accept her faith – he only wants to experience that peace she held in her Earthly eyes.
What is it? Religion… or science? A random coincidence from nothingness… or a consequence of Divine intention? Who Are You? More importantly, WHY Are You?!
A story with science and religion, drama and love, living and dying. If you’re confused whether to live in the moment or long for something higher, this book is for you…
A routine night turns critical when NASA’s anomaly system flags a gravitational disturbance. What Dr. Carter finds could shake the Earth’s future.
It was March 3rd, 2024. The high-tech control room filled with sleek monitors, holographic projections and four chilling astrophysicists, three of which sitting casually talking while having coffee. It was the Deep Space Observatory dimly lit at 2:47 AM.
Elize sat all alone in the front row looking at the main viewing screen, spanning an entire wall. It was displaying a live feed from the James Web Space Telescope (JWST), showing a vast stretch of the Ursa Major constellation.
Dr. Eliza Carter was the lead young astrophysicist and the new head of the NASA’s Gravitational Anomaly Division. She sat at her table, a sleek, L-shaped desk covered by the multiple holographic data screens illuminated by the blue glowing dots. Just a week old in the department, she was tired of work and the nonsensical background conversation. She let the smoke from her cigarette in the air when a beep sound caught her attention. Something was wrong.
She stuck her red hair strand behind her ear that came out loose from her messy high bun.
“What’s that…?” she whispered looking at the monitor, narrowed eyes. A red warning flashed on the AI-assisted anomaly detection system. HORIZON’s monotonic female AI voice echoed the observatory;
“Unidentified gravitational distortion detected! Source, unknown. Distance from Earth, 0.0555 light years. Processing…”
Elize’s eyes furrowed as she stood up to take a closer look. Snuffed the cigarette on the desk anxiously, she quickly turned her attention to the gravitational wave graph – the behavior was strange. Its normal functions were interrupted by violent unnatural spikes. She made some stressful rhythmic taps on her glowing console, expanding the data feed. On her left was a holographic projection of the Ursa Major. It was highlighting a region with something invisible bending space itself, distorting starlight around it.
“HORIZON, please run a density analysis!” Her voice had urgency and fear of knowing the results. The background chit chat went mute as well.
There were numbers on the screen in front of her. Pausing for nanoseconds to process the velocity calculations, the event horizon estimations, the readings of all areas. And then, the results popped up in red.
A second’s delay later, that was heavy on her to wait, HORIZON voiced, “WARNING: Detected object exceeds expected mass range. Calculated Schwarzschild radius suggests, a singularity.” Cold sweat covered her now plain, forehead. The word ‘singularity’ made her heart skip a beat.
She grabbed the intercom. “Control, I need immediate verification on GR analysis now!” The three others in the chamber, joined her workstation.
“ByteBot,” Lian Wu called in a loud voice, “please bring the anxiety pills for me.”
“It’s okay, Li. Can possibly be an error.” Consoled Karl.
Lisa stared at him and repeated in a question, “Possibly?” He went quiet.
The HORIZON echoed again, “Trajectory analysis in progress. Projected path estimations suggest direct approach toward the inner Solar System.” Elize took a deep breath closing her eyes tightly, her fingers held the edge of the console rather firmly. A pin-drop hush spread through the room.
The next 10 seconds of silence were deafening following which, came the detailed readings.
“This is a Blackhole.” Announced HORIZON and made the ambiguity a fact.
While the world begins to brace for an astronomical threat, one young man wrestles with a different kind of gravity — the weight of existence itself. Peek inside Aaron’s mind as he questions the very reason for life, love, and the universe → Read Now
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“Behind the Book” — WHY I Wrote it…?
Since the age of 14, I have been always called out for my heavy questions – questions often labelled as senseless or not something to ask for. Discussions with friends, family and even teachers led to conclusions of just ending the talk instead of searching for answers.
These constant dismissive discussions became my trigger – my reason to seek answers on my own to the questions that most people fail to answer or even comprehend.
Overtime I began to recognize that I couldn’t accept randomness as the basis of my existence. Being born in a Muslim family, I was gifted with both religious upbringing and scientific mindset. I was naturally inclined to question both dimensions, researched about it and even found my Ikigai… but this was not it. One of the aspects of my Ikigai was still unfulfilled – “What the World Needs”.
This realization led me to an important journey – some ideas in religion and science were not necessarily in conflict, but could intersect. This overlap of two seemingly opposing domains gave me an urgent sense of responsibility, to let this come out in a way people can relate and understand what it all means. And at least, dare to question things instead of simply accepting the norms of the crowds – religious or scientific.
Eventually, when the clouds in my head began to vanish, and the fogs were lifted, my motive became a public service, that is a part of my Ikigai.
I decided to transform my hobby of writing into something larger than life, that could challenge minds and stir souls. That’s when I began to craft this hybrid genre – a Psychological Sci-Fi Romance book called “WHY Are You?!” – the primary goal of searching the souls and the cosmos – the subtle yet powerful connection of religion and science – dare to ask questions pushed down to the subconscious.
So, dive in, curious beings! And be a part of my debut novel “WHY Are You?!” now.