Inherently Innocent

And Be Our Guide

"Log one. I have just arrived on Earth. The grass is just like the books describe it to be. The first thing I've done has been to take off my shoes and feel them with my toes. It's colder than I expected, but the sun is warmer than I thought. I believe I've landed near mid-day. I have to see how the temperatures are at night to determine just what continent I'm in. The ship is functional, but won't be able to take flight again. I'll use it as a shelter until further notice. I landed further west from the nearest river than I would have wanted, but it is a relatively short walk. There is no abundant fauna nearby beside the occasional, what I believe to be, bird in the distance scared of the spaceship."

Ro stopped the recording. She turned her face to look out the ship's window into the grass, maybe in search of an animal. The poetic mixture of green and blue made her press the recording button again.

"I am going to step out. My goal for the day is to find fauna, or interesting flora. If I find any peaceful herbivores, I will try to take them for livestock. I won't be around to answer in seven minutes, Mars Station. Leave a recorded message for my return."

She pressed send and left the ship.

She was wearing her shoes that time, so the grass was as soft, yet not as ticklish as it had been the previous stroll. She was also taking a gun with her, although she wasn't expecting to use it at all. Another difference was that, this time, Ro walked further away from the ship, not following the trail that the hard landing had left behind. She had traced the open wound she had left on the Earth, a brown scar of scratched black dirt. But this time, she walked over intact soil and unbothered grass, rejuvenated miraculously since the absence of her kind on the blue dot. Ro dug her feet on the grass until she found dirt. Dark, humid, fertile dirt.

"This can make a nice settlement," She thought out loud, accustomed to doing it after so many months alone on a spaceship with nothing but a frequently muted microphone.

It was a change from the dusty red planet, though Ro couldn't identify if it was a good or bad one. For now, it was only a change. Change of air, change of lands. She was finally on the promised time of freedom, duty, safety.

Something caught her attention over the naked horizon. It was completely different from the martian surface, with its buildings and domes, and most importantly, its constantly moving lights. No, this was quiet, full of enigmatic shadows and concording colours. The occasional leaf flew in the air at ease with the clear blue skies. Oh for how many nights had she dreamed of seeing those clear skies. And she hadn't even seen the bewitching sunsets and sunrises the planet had to offer.

"Now, where are you hiding your animals, Earth?" Ro pulled her shirt down. She wore no sleeves so as to not have to clean her clothes' armpits so often, and at least for a few months, she wouldn't have to worry about the temperatures that land had, though she had heard they could be quite versatile. Still, she carried no more than a simple bag to take back whatever odd thing she could find. Seeds, bones, branches. Anything could be of use, first to study, and then to use. Not in the boring sense the Mars Station asked of her. Ro wasn't interested in the DNA of the reborn Earth, or the different ways evolution had taken previously extinct animals. She was interested in turning logs into chairs, or branches into bows. She had the chance to be wild, and she was going to take it. Even if she was the descendant of Zale Marull, and every other accursed Marull to ever walk the surface of the red planet, Ro would not make the same mistake as her predecessors. She would not become a boring leader just in pursuit of some glorious legacy of conquests to leave behind. She would just live her wild life. And make it her priority to make the best future for those that would live on the Earth she would build. For her and for every other human that would land after everything went well. They'd be joyful on the blue planet, able to once more feel the grass under their toes.