Reflections

The dome towered over them by what felt like miles, the steel and trans-para-steel created the structure, it reflected the light from the nearby sun, but blocked the harmful rays.

Tom and Lyisa walked through the recently completed structure taking in the fresh steely smell,

‘I would say it smells like a new car, but it really does not,’ Tom said,

Lyisa turned to him in her usual, REALLY, look and smiled, ‘We need to plan this right, the garden needs to incorporate as much as we can.’

‘Where shall we start, there is so much space to fill, we need paths so people can enjoy the plants,’

‘What about the central path idea, making a circle around the very centre,’ Lyisa said,

‘I love the idea, but what about the centre?’

‘I already have it here,’ she said, holding out a small seed,

‘What is that?’

‘An acorn.’

‘Oak tree, they do not like growing in low gravity.’

‘I know, that is why it is perfect!’

They walked to the very centre of the dome, measuring the distances, and making a small deep hole, Tom created a makeshift path around the area, ensuring that there would be enough space for the tree to grow, he turned and knelt with Lyisa and taking her hand, they both looked into the hole that the single acorn sat in, it seemed so alone and very small.

‘I hope you know what you are doing with this, there are other trees that are more easier to grow that this?’ Tom turned just enquiring,

‘I am sure, I have been working on a nutrition supplement plan for the drones to keep up with.’ she smiles at him knowing he was just as invested in this garden project.

They covered the seed and watered it with the soil nutrient mixture, standing they took a few steps back and gazed at the spot for a few minutes.

One year later their park project was in full swing, the plant bedding had settled really well with a large variety of flowers and other foliage, the pathways were all in place, an outer ring around the edge with seats as regular intervals, four pathways lead inwards to a second ring that allowed visitors to enjoy being in the middle of the park. The final ring was around the middle, after a year, the oak tree had grown to one meter fifty centimetres, Lyisa was really please with the growth, the trunk was nice and thick, the branches were growing well.

Lyisa and Tom sat opposite the tree, smiling to each other, this was to be their legacy to old Earth, the dome was becoming exactly as they expected.

Another year past, the dome was complete, lyisa and Tom sat with their baby girl, showing her the tree they planted, now towering over three meters high, the drones were humming around over the dome, trimming some plants, feeding others.

Small animals and bugs were introduced into the biosphere, creating an authentic feel to the “Old Earth Park”, they placed their baby into the repulsor car and pushed her around the park, showing her some of the sights of the old world.

Ten years later, war had broken out between the Andromeda Empire and the Galactic Accords, the Andromeda Empire had invaded the Milky Way galaxy pushing to take control over the Accord, Tom had been send out to fight in the conflict leaving Lyisa with their three children to take care of the Memorial space station.

Word had been received that Tom was killed along with the ship he was working on, during an assault in a distant sector of the galaxy, Lyisa fell into a deep sadness and withdrew into herself, feeling her world had been destroyed, there was just no need to carry on. People around her helped to support her and to support the children during this time of great loss, but she was not the only one who had lost their loved ones, many millions of humans, Antari, Centauri, Gemini, Percians and many more species were suffering with the onslaught of the Andromeda Empire.

Six months later the war was nearing it’s end with the Andromeda Empire now controlling over eighty percent of the galaxy, planets were in ruins, left as mass graveyards, ships were scattered amongst the stars in pieces, the Empire just kept coming with no end in sight.

A fleet of Empire ships entered the Sol system, destroying the outer defences, they approached the space station ready and poised to wipe it from the galaxy, and then nothing, they just stopped their attack.

The Empire had all stopped, not just in the Sol system, but the whole invasion force has stopped their assaults.

A small shuttle craft left a large capital ship and docked with the space station, troops walked into the main area, not attacking but securing the area so their supreme commander might enter.

The tall figure entered the station, and read the sign over the entrance,

“Welcome to the Old earth Preservation Station, please take the time to walk around and enjoy sights, sounds and the atmosphere of the Old Earth.”

The commander tilted his bulbus head comprehending the words, he pointed towards one of the people, a female and ordered ‘You, come, show me!’

Lyisa almost wet herself as the finger rested at her, she timidly walked towards the huge figure, ‘I am Lyisa, i am a botanist and curator here at the Preservation station.’

She beckoned to the figure and he followed her into the first dome.

The dome was filled with small displays showing old cities of the old Earth,

‘This one is called Paris, commonly known as the city of love.’ Lyisa went into her usual guide routine, ‘Here is London, famous for their upstarts, Monarchy and the Big Bang clock’

The commander moved closer to the exhibits frowning at them, and pointed to another one across the way,

‘This is called Washington, the Land of the Flea, it became the largest single nation in the world, this one is interesting, it is called Rio de Janeiro, famous for the freezing of a giant attacker, they turned it to stone.’

The commander kept looking closely at the exhibits but not saying anything,

‘Over here we have the Great Wall of China, we believe it was to keep a disease called Coalvid from spreading to the rest of the world during what they called the twenty first century.’

The commander spoke ‘Disease?’

‘Yes, in the early days of our technological era there was small micro organism they would spread from animal species to the human species, and it caused a lot of deaths.’

‘You mean, ta’nu’ba,’ he paused for a moment ‘Bugs?’

‘Yes, i guess you can call them that.’

They carried on and went into the animal exhibit, there were no full sized creatures roaming around, they had been extinct for many centuries, but using cloning and miniaturisation technology, they had created biospheres for the old creatures and allowed them to roam and live in a natural state.

The commanders eyes widened as he saw the small animals running around, splashing in water, sleeping and what ever else they would do. The first exhibit was based in old Africa, with elephants, lions, gazelle, hippopotamus’, snakes, beetles and so much more, they tried to create the same balance that the old Earth had.

The second exhibit showed a tropical environment with birds flying around, alligators, monkeys swinging from trees.

The commander was amused by the creatures, the exhibits were transparent from the outside, but the inside was not transparent, showing day and night cycles as on old Earth.

A smile came on the commanders face as he notices the sea exhibit,

‘Yes, this one is our most popular and our largest, we have all kinds of sea life, from the shark, blue whales, to small crabs and other sea creatures.’

‘Water? these live inside water?’ the commander enquired puzzled, similar to a child seeing these for the first time.

‘Yes, old Earth had many kind of life, most of it was actually in the water.’

‘Show more!’

They walked into the park, the flowers were in bloom, and the oak tree at the centre was getting even larger by the week. The commander walked around touching the flowers, he even took the time to smell some of them, pointing at the tree in the centre he asked ‘What?’.

‘We call these trees, they grew very tall and were all over the Earth at one point,’

‘They are not now?’

‘No, since the dark times, there have been no large trees on Earth, this is why we wanted to grow it here.’

‘Explain, dark times?’ the commander ordered with concern in his voice.

Lyisa, who would normally have just started spouting the history of the humans on the Earth, and what they did to their homeworld, but she felt reluctant, something felt off.

‘I do not really know the full story!’ she lied to him,

He looked at her and stated ‘You deceive me, you know!’

‘I do know some, but not accurately,’ she said trying to cover up a bit.

‘Tell!’ he commanded.

‘Old earth was not a happy place, the land was rich, animals and resources, but Humankind were fighting each other for the resources on their home, at some point in the past, they started a war with large deadly weapons, they turned the land to rubble, the sky darkened and most of the life died.’ she said sadly.

‘Human caused this?’

‘Yes, we did, but we are so different now, we ..’

He turned and walked off towards the docking port, he issued a command to his escort, they turned held up their weapons and killed everyone.

The Andromeda Empire continued it’s assault and destroyed all the species in the galaxy, leaving only a single space station spinning in orbit around an unusual red planet. The commander gave orders that this space station would be guarded until it could be moved back to their home for further investigation.