Eve

7 0 1

by silblackbess

by silblackbess

"We request all citizens to make sure every child and person in need of special help moving or using transportation to the nearest moving colony is safe and carrying their documentation when boarding. We also ask everyone to leave their pets and other belongings. Our intergalactic vehicles provide all necessary equipment and accommodations to ensure safety and comfort during your flight and stay." While looking around, at the despair of his neighbors, he thanked his father for the prediction he made years ago. "No animals. What do you think they're making these gigantic ships for? We're going to leave this place and set sail before it's too late for us." Seventy years. It was the time it took to build all those hundreds of what they called moving colonies. Each ship was the size of a small town. And they were all self-sustainable. During those seven decades people from each corner of the world were more than instructed, they were well trained for life in the colonies. Since it was all they'd have, for generations. Leaving the planet was no guarantee of survival. The list with the names of the first 100 volunteer astronauts, from all over the globe, stayed in everyone's memories. The first couples. Two hundred years ago they departed from the space station orbiting Uranus – our Father god – and left towards the unknown through a wormhole that would send them billions of light-years away from our system. A suicidal mission. But there they were. After many days of the most absolute and deranging silence – only to the space agencies, regular citizens just forgot about it after two or three days of buzz in social medias – came the first contact. Everyone is well. Instruments indicated the existence of a nearby solar system a few hundred light-years away. And that was it. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren came. They all learned their parent's jobs and moved on. Travelling, travelling. Searching for a place to house our race. But there was no more time to waste. For the last 400 years population growth had drastically decreased. Not due to the increased mortality rates derived from the ever growing wars or the degradation of the environment. No. A consensus was needed. All leaders gathered and decided: truce. Truce in conflicts, truce to nature. Truce to birth rates. Twelve billion people. Impossible. Not even with all the technology at hand. Not even with the future development of these technologies. Laws and decrees surfaced. Controlling, monitoring. IT'S NECESSARY. It's us against the rest of the universe. Against the chaos of chance. It brought us here and we are not leaving. And everyone is hoping the planet will last just a little longer. Please, we have nowhere else to go. Not now. We need a little more time. We'll be leaving really soon. It's just a little stretch in the schedule. New rules were written. New constitutions. New laws. All do's and don'ts inside the colonies. When do we leave? How many will fit? We don't know. No one gets left behind. Ten billion. Eight billion. Five billion. Three billion eight hundred million. I wonder if our species will vanish before we are able to find our salvation. So space stations around Earth and neighboring planets were built. A launch schedule was set. Huge space shuttles took off in different dates from various points of the planet heading towards the stations. From there to the moving colonies. Then to the space station in Uranus. And finally through the wormhole. And goodbye Sun. Where to? To where we hear news that we may live. In nearly half a millennium it is amazing how much life in Earth has changed. But we exhausted the soil. Extinguished many animals. Depleted all minerals. Dried so many rivers. Still they came. All among those left, came. Watched from afar families leave their furniture and their memories behind. Their dogs, cats, lizards. Every child, that would sadly get on a bus or a car to the nearest launch station. Being an astronaut was no longer a dream. Schools now had special training. And scientists had to answer "how to transport a baby in a space voyage?" They all took off, soaring far away from here. Watched by animals. And the last one out had no doors to close or lights to turn out. Only a promise never to make those mistakes again. And an apology stuck in our throats.