Our planet was old, far older than any other in the galaxy. We had been here for a very long time, an ancient species. The other stars hadn’t even opened their eyes when we were drinking in the beautiful skies with ours. Peaceful, kind, intelligent, and full of life we were but like all other species, we too were approaching our end.
Located in a tiny corner of the universe tucked away neatly behind the shadow of a large burning star, our planet Taurieyn prospered in every way. It was lush and full of life but as time passed on it soon began losing its vibrancy. Almost as though it was getting old. Guess millenniums passing by erodes even rocks. We started losing everything quickly after that, the land, the water, the food, and very soon the people. Soon we’d be nothing more than another floating rock in the universe. We had to leave, soon.
“No! We are not going to discuss this anymore!”
“But chief-!”
“No!”
The chief’s cape swished behind him regally as he turned and left the room, taking his guards with him. I threw my hands frustratedly in the air and growled in anger,
“Stubborn! Absolutely stubborn!”
“Calm, sister. Calm.” My brother tried to soothe me, “He’ll come around. They all will eventually.”
“When? When does this planet collapse on itself? When we all die of thirst and hunger? They are dying Rei! Everyone, the young, the old, the rich, and the poor. Everyone.”
I hit the table feeling helpless.
“What can we do?” My brother asked quietly as he continued, “They are scared.”
“I’ll take scared over dead any day of the week,” I replied.
“Ren, we are talking about changing planets, not outfits. You must give them time to get acclimated to the idea.”
Frustrated I turned towards the door to leave, “We wait any longer and there will be no time.”
…
I stepped out and the heat almost suffocated me, the air outside almost poisonous to breathe. It took effort for me to even open my eyes and see. Long, empty stretches of cracked ground awaited me as I looked around me. It looked like our planet was splitting from within.
“Ren! Ren!!” Someone yelled and I heard footsteps approaching me.
“Doctor?”
“Ren…!” He panted with his hands over his knees as he stopped before me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked feeling worried, never having seen the calm man harried like this before.
“It happened again.” He whispered.
“Gods have mercy, no,” I replied, my voice hoarse.
…
Bodies. So many bodies. Young, old, men, women, and children. Dead, all of them. The ground around them lay splintered and broken as though it had simply burst from within. The air hung heavy with dust; this had happened a while ago.
“Ren, what are we going to do? We just lost hundreds of people, and the count is only increasing with these quakes and eruptions. More will die if we don’t do something.”
“What do you want me to do doctor? What can I do?”
“Talk to the chief! You and Rei have his ear in the council! Tell them we need to leave!” He hissed looking frantic.
“What do you think we have been doing? They don’t want to listen! They are scared!” I replied, feeling equally frustrated, the heat was driving me half-mad.
“Then I’ll just continue to treat corpses.” He whispered and left.
I stood alone looking at the carnage, my skin blistering in the heat.
…
“My people, we are dying. Our home will soon be our funeral pyre. We are a race of intelligence, curiosity, and superior beings but none of it will matter if we cower in fear because the dead cannot achieve anything.”
Rei’s voice echoed in the atrium, all eyes keenly observing him, he was a great orator, my brother, with a penchant for drama and attention. If anyone could convince these people, it would be him.
“But where do we go?” A reedy-looking old man asked.
“To another planet, Fenris is the closest one that boasts life on it.” I chimed in. My brother threw me an exasperated look and continued,
“As my sister put forth, there are many planets in a habitable zone, and we take our pick of whichever one we like and is the best for us.”
“…but what if we don’t like it later or something is wrong there?”
“We can’t just go!”
“What about our lives here?”
The atrium was soon filled with whispers, doubts, and fears, making it hard for anyone to be heard.
“Enough.” The chief’s quiet voice echoed; everyone became silent immediately as he continued, “I will not see everything we worked so hard for turn into ashes. We prepare to leave.”
That seals it then I thought, feeling elated for the first time in weeks. I shared a glance with my brother who was smiling with relief too.
We had done it.
…
“But why can’t I bring along my shelf?”
“Are you mad? There isn’t any space left for people, let alone your shelves!”
“Can I take my plants?”
“No.”
“What about my favorite couch?”
“What?! Bloody…! No!”
“Peiomatix! How is it going?”
“Ren! Finally! Everyone has lost their bloody minds! Taking every single thing from their homes. I am losing my mind arranging the pods.”
“Ah, they are just worried, they are leaving behind their whole lives after all. Don’t take it too hard.” I soothed the frazzled man and checked in on the pods.
“How many pods have already left?” I asked.
“Three till now.” He answered looking distracted as he typed away on a screen.
“Just three?”
“Yes I… wait what…?” He looked at the screen in concern.
“Pei? Pei, what’s wrong?”
“The pods…” He looked pale now.
“Pei… what happened to the pods?”
“They… they crashed…the first two crashed… crossing the mountains… the ground exploded there and the heat and debris hit two of the pods and they crashed.” He finished weakly, looking faint.
“Pei. How many were in the pod?” I asked.
“Each pod can hold up to 1000. Ren my god we lost 2000 of our people.” Pei looked sick as he sunk to his knees.
“No. Pei, listen to me. Pei! Snap out of it. We cannot tell this to others. They’ll never leave.” I shook him and tried to make him understand.
“Ren… Ren, we can’t hide this.”
“Why?”
Pei looked at me sadly, tears pooling in his eyes.
“Ren, I’m so sorry.”
“Pei… what do you mean? Pei?” I felt sick as I saw the tears fall from his eyes.
“Who was in the pod? Pei, please! Who was in it?!” I shook him as he remained silent.
“It was the Chief and his retainers Ren. I am sorry Ren. Your brother, I am so sorry.” He sobbed as he held on to me weakly. For the first time in years, I felt cold. All these years and I never felt so directionless.
I looked at the screen and saw the last pod manage to escape our orbit and move toward our new home. That single light blinking on the screen was the culmination of what my brother and I had stood for. A chance.
A chance to not just survive but thrive. To be able to breathe without constantly burning from within. A home.
I wiped away my tears and straightened myself. My face grim I looked over at Pei,
“The plan remains the same. We are getting everyone off of this planet.”
Pei’s face looked grim, but he nodded in agreement.
…
Outside a crowd of people had already gathered and waiting for the pods with their meager belongings.
“Pei! We are here! When do we leave?”
“Yes! We have been waiting for a while now.”
I raised my hand to get their attention.
“My people, calm. We’ll be leaving now. So don’t worry. Just follow us in this direction towards the pods.”
We started guiding the people toward the pods when we heard a yell.
“Stop! Everyone, stop! You’ll all die!”
A man came running towards us panting in the heat.
“What is the meaning of this?” I asked.
“Ha! As if you don’t know!” He said scathingly and turned back towards the crowd, “My people, it is with great grief I must announce that our chief is dead! And it is because of this godforsaken plan of leaving our birth planet! He perished in those accursed pods!”
The air was immediately punctuated with whispers and accusations.
“I knew it! From the beginning I said -!”
“My Chief! Oh lord!”
“What do we do now?”
“I am not going in one of those.”
“Stop! Everyone, listen to me! We are so close to escaping!” I cried out.
“No! No more of this! We will listen to this no more! We will stay here, in our homes! We will fix our planet!” The man yelled.
“How can you fix what is broken?” Pei yelled back.
“We cannot stay here! We must leave!” I pleaded.
“And then what? End up like your brother?” The man replied, drawing gasps from everyone.
“Oh, the poor dear.”
“Rei is dead too?”
Ignoring the whispers, I stepped forward, “One pod made it. They cleared the mountains. They are safe. Safe. They are going home. If we stay here. We will die.”
“It was the Chief’s order!” Pei yelled.
“What Chief? He is dead! How can we obey the dead?!” Someone yelled from the crowd.
“Yea! What if we die like that too?”
“Only one made it…? Were the other two pods destroyed?”
“Poor odds.”
“Stop! Everyone, please! Stay calm. We will start boarding the pods now.” I tried to maintain some kind of order in the chaos.
“No! We are going to our homes now. We need to find a new Chief. We follow our Chief, not you.” The man said and departed. They all left with him looking back at me pityingly.
I felt… shattered.
“Ren… it’s not your fault, you did everything that you could.” Pie murmured kindly but somehow, I couldn’t hear him at all. It wasn’t just me, somehow, we had all failed. Shrugging off Pie’s hands I made my way toward the exit. I opened the gates and the heat slammed into me, much worse than ever before I felt the ground tremble beneath me and somehow knew we were too late.
Behind me, I could dimly hear Pei yelling in fear and saw people running in panic toward us, towards the pods. They wanted to escape but it was too late now.
They thought of all the reasons to not do this and let their fears guide them right into their demise. All their reasons to not do something led them right toward why they should have done it in the first place.
The yells grew louder and somehow all I could see was the light of the third pod.
They were going home.
