Dust to Dust

When the dust settled upon the earth. I was not there to see it. But my grandfather was. He remembered the day the sky melted. When the sins of all the world demanded back pay for so many years of dominion over our once beautiful world. 

“I remember the ash.” He said. “I remembered the dust and ash from the remains of destroyed buildings and disintegrated People. The smell of sulfur. The sight of the sick and dying.”

He started to mutter under his breath then. I had to lean forward to listen.

“Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field”.

He than looked out the window. His eyes seemed to glaze over. His mind reliving that day.

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,”

My grandfather started to shake then. His voice cracking more with every word. “

“till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

My mother walked in then. Her face was a wash with anger. It was far past my bed time. Then she seen her dad. Shaking. Looking out the window to the world he lived on once. Her face softened like the hum of our homes generator. My grandfather was one of the last who was alive who knew what life was like on earth. Before the surge hit it. Turning the once blue and green marble to a rust colored orb of lifelessness. 

It has been ten years since my grandfather told me of life on earth. He and the last of his generation are gone now.

Looking out at the dead world beyond the windows. I sighed and turned. 

“You okay”

I smiled to Emily. My best friend and bunkmate.

“Yeah, just thinking”.

 Emily smiles. “Yep that’s you, David the thinker. Well snap out of it okay. C’mon, we have to hurry. We are going to be late”.

Emily grabs my hand and yanks me to the Executive Corridor. She’s right, we can’t be late for our last moon walk. 

*

Standing in the air lock. My breathing is unsteady. Our turn is next.

Emily looks over and squeezes my hand. 

“till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”

I’ve had those words in my head for ten years. I wonder about them a lot.

Humanity, the once pride of the Milky Way. Now reduced to a small fraction of its former number. Living inside a dead moon, that is orbiting a even more dead planet. living in a bunker that I have called home since birth. Lived under lockdown condition ever since I could breath. We have to ration food, energy, even water. The same water that had been reused from the toilets and showers so many years. There is no water on the moon after all. Definitely no more left on earth. A glance up tells us that. 

“You okay?” Emily ask. The countdown in our HUD’s showing sixty seconds till hatch open. 

“I was just thinking of dust” I say. Even with her visor down, I can see the confusion on her face. It makes me smile besides my mood.

“Do you think it’s worth it? Living in the bunker. Being restricted to want we eat, drink. Even how long we can be alone because it’s ‘to dangerous for ones mental health.”

The timer in our HUDs ticked to zero. I open the hatch and close it behind us. The view is the same from inside the bunker. However it is far different from having a thick bunker wall and thin piece of glass between you and the vacuum of space. 

“Is that even worth taking out tomorrow”,I say pointing to the horizon. In the distance Excalibur sits on its launch pad.

Emily looks at me. Her eyes and face hidden behind her visor. 

“Is it”? She asked me. Her voice still over the comms. “Do you think it’s worth it David. I know you think about it a lot. Life in the bunker. Always looking at the dead world we never walked on. But there is no point in thinking of what didn’t happened David.”

 She points to the dead planet in the sky “that is not our future David.” 

Her finger moved to Excalibur in the distance “that is, that’s the future David.”

Tomorrow is the virgin flight of Excalibur. Unknown to must of the bunkers population, including Emily, I know a secret. I know the rest of the bunker think that Excalibur is a way for humanity to get off this moon. To just branch out to the stars. Hopefully one day to find a new home for us.

But I know the truth. Seen it from some reports that I read from my fathers office. Excalibur is humanity last Hail Mary. The bunker is breaking down. The home we grew up in will not last another ten years.

I can feel Emily’s stare. I sigh and say “I know, it’s just…I’m scared Emily”.

Emily’s voice lightened “I know David, so am I. But want ever happens on are trip. Will face it together. Besides, remember the plan. We will be back in twenty years if we don’t find anything in Andromeda. In cryo. That will feel like seconds”.

I know she is smiling behind her visor. I wince behind mine.

I really want to tell her there is no coming back. The fact that tomorrow I will never see my father or mother again. I will not sit in the center atrium and watch the sun filter

through the dome windows. I will never visit my grandfathers grave again. Those thought try, even to this moment, to overwhelm me. 

“Hey” Emily says. Grabbing my gloved hand. “Have faith. We’re going to be ok”. 

I grab her hand back and we stand for a moment and watch the dead planet above us before heading over to the Excalibur launch pad and finish our final checks for tomorrow.

*

“All systems are good HQ” Emily said into her headset in the co-pilots seat next to me. In the seats and holds behind us were one hundred thousand of the smartest and fittest the bunker had to send out into the darkness of space. A last Hail Mary indeed. 

When we launch, we will all watch the goodbye tapes are families had made for us. Then when we wake from Cryo, we will all watch the video by the government of the bunker. It will break the news to everyone aboard that they will never return home again. Because home will be long dead. 

Whatever we find in Andromeda is all we have.

 “Ready to launch Commander” Emily said next to me. She is smiling that bright smile. She is going to be devastated when she hears her goodbyes today to her family is the last time she will talk to them. I wonder if she’ll still have faith after that. 

Faith in herself?

Faith in me?

“unto dust shalt thou return.”

I know I should tell her. Tell her all I know. But I can’t. I am scared of leaving. But want I am must scared of is leaving the moon bunker. Without my bunkmate. 

“All systems are go” said the launch control room.

 “You are ready for launch Excalibur. Good luck, and God speed.”

I placed my finger over the ignition button on the controls. I look over to Emily again. She smiles at me. I hold that image in my head for a second. Taking in her glow and radiance. That joy and hope that rest in her face, body, and soul. 

I press the ignition button with what Emily said I should try to have more of.

I pushed it with all the faith I had left. The rest I left to the heavens, and where ever my dust shall call it’s home. 

*

“Tell me the story again mommy”,  the little girl said. She looked at her tired mother with gleaming eyes. The eyes of innocence and wonder. 

“Ok” the mother says. “But this is it, one last time”.

The mother picks up her daughter and holds her close. The wind is gentle and cool. On the distance horizon, there is Omega city. The first to be built by the founders when they landed here from fabled earth a very long time ago. The commander of the Excalibur had a statue in the center of town. Right next to his wife’s and children’s graves. 

“The ship descended onto the new world like angels from the highest heights of all the heavens.” The mother proclaimed with gusto and pride. 

The field that story time took place, became quite and still. The mother retold her daughter the story again. Even the dust seemed to become still and listen. As if it to was eager to hear the amazing story one more time.

The End