A Ray of Death and Hope (fiction)
The room was pitch dark but I saw him standing at the window with the moonlight glow on his face. Deep in thought or none at all I couldn�t tell. He just stared out the upper floor window. I came up behind and put my arms around him and stood watching whatever it was that had his attention. He was warm and comforted me as I held him close. I never asked what it was that fascinated him outside but he answered anyway.
You know he said. There are countless worlds up there undiscovered yet. Some with living beings and others barren of anything but rocks and dust.
What got you thinking of other worlds I ask?
Oh, I just felt a presence is all. Like someone was standing at a window looking and thinking the same things I am. An eire feeling it felt like. Just something that came over me. From here there is nothing but darkness and the 2 moons shining but somewhere there are others. I can feel it and he turned to touch the smooth skin covered metal of her face. The radiation cover slid over the buildings windows blocking out the harmful rays and forming it�s nightly barrier.
She went and plugged herself into the regenerator for the night. He would take care of her until it was time to restart her internal works in the morning. She would unconsciously view the films of the days episodes during her dormancy.
He turned on the glimmer ceiling and sat down at his panel staring at the screen full of asteroids hurtling through space. He saw his reflection in the dark voids of the universe on the screen and touched his face. The welts had receded now that the barrier had gone up. His medication partially controlled the skin disease as his blood adapted more and more yearly. Science had taken great strides in dealing with the radiation absorbed but he knew in time it would swallow him. That is why he built her. His memory and all he knew and did were transferred to her each night so in time she could replace him when he was no longer capable of normal functions. He was of an earlier generation and they were dying out slowly at the beginning but now at a more rapid pace. A newer family of humanoids were taking over. The future was in their hands as the ones born later still dwelled deep under the surface of the planet hidden away from the harmful rays. In time they or another generation would return to the surface it was hoped. He visited daily with the few relatives he had left through the panel screen. The huge silver cities loomed in the background housing a healthy population. It was so cold and distant but it was the only way they could be sure of living free of the pall that hung over them. When his time came his body would be flung into space to dissolve lessening the chance of recontamination of future explores. It seems the radiation was only absorbed thru the tissue and it stayed there for thousands of years re-infecting the planet over and over. In time he would explore the universe one particle at a time. ............His own particles.
Vision Quest
� 2002 T Lovett |
