Y3K

 

     "Bloody fucking impressive, ain't it?"

     Daryl always had a way of being crass at the most inopportune times.

     "Yeah, if you count the deaths of millions within a few seconds of fire impressive." Jocelyn was decidedly less crude, and more of a humanitarian. The silence of the observatory was no longer penetrated by Daryl's swearing. For a few slow moments, the two sat in silence. In awe. They watched the blossoms of flame and radiation safely from countless miles away. Through the impenetrable glass on Eden 1-3, these two young adults marveled at the destruction of their ancestor's home. They hadn't been born there. Jocelyn had only visited once. But as they saw blue and green turn to red and white, they felt a large part of their souls erupt with Earth. As humans, they had witnessed an unprecedented evil.

     They knew that orbital firebombings and satellite guided plasma didn't cause pain. They knew that delay of light in space meant they were viewing something that had already transpired. However both of them felt the outrage that youth always has in the face of destruction. Yet never in history, from the Fourth World War's atrocities to the First Thermonuclear Conflict, had man's craving for blood ever created such disturbing and awe inspiring scenes.

     It was 2355 Hours, December 31st, 2999 Earth Time. From all the Orbital Colonies, the death of the human race was felt. The children seemed to realize it more than the elders. Everyone left realized that man had finally evolved into something more terrible than fiction could have ever created.

     Their brothers on Earth were almost all gone now. Over a simple international dispute that would have been resolved with diplomacy or a proxy war by simpler generations, the home had been destroyed completely and finally. Humanity's plight had been totally solved.

     The young lovers grimly realized the piece of history they had just witnessed.

     "Happy New Year…," one of them said. Neither could tell if it was themselves. As a new Millennium began, every citizen of Eden 1-3 looked out into space.

     There were two suns. Neither had ever contained anything but hellfire and hunger.