What lies above us

Prologue

What lies above us
By: Blue

"I was, I remember, I still remember when the first time I pointed the telescope at the sky and I saw Saturn with the rings. It was a beautiful image."
Umberto Guidoni

Prologue

A shining moon's surface stretched out in front of a group as they stepped down from stairs of the MK 42 light glider, a thin ship with space travel capabilities and great inner atmosphere speeds, onto the lunar surface. Nearby, a deprepid colony sat abandoned and dormant. A group with a very important mission waddled towards the first dome and into an airlock; in the low gravity environment, it was a bit harder to move. As the airlock sealed, it hissed and filled with air. When the group reached the inside, they wandered down a set of stairs, leading to a large, sealed vault door. With the push of a switch on the metal wall nearby, it slowly opened. Inside was a dark room. The smell of old dusk and damp books told the travelers they were at the right place.

One masked member of the group stepped up and creeped inside. The  human was most likely male, as can be assumed by his height and broad shoulders. His black combat boots, designed for low gravity space environments, pushed aside the century old dust that had collected on the floor. Another member waddled to an ancient switch that they flipped up onto the 'on' position.

Below, the sound of mechanisms, gears and generators whirring into life filled the place, making it seem more alive than a few moments beforehand. One by one, rows of lights flashed on with a loud click from all of them. From the back of the room, the sounds of large computer systems booting up echoed around the library.

A hologram of a typical, pretty young lady engages. She had a sterile white dress on and wore a blue ascott around her neck. The first human who had entered found that hologram revolting. The people who built this place couldn't have done with just a simple sprite could they? The hologram appeared from a device above the first male, she produced a smile before bowing and beginning her introduction.

"Greetings!" It said in an artificial warm and peppy tone, "I am the Informational Mapping Protocol Hologram Version 4. To activate my needs, simply ask for my help." She bows and her hologram flickers before disappearing.

Near the front of the room was books, and towards the back was large computer data banks and many access points into the systems. A few of the masked humans shuffled through the shelves of books. One of the group members searched through databases on a monitor, but the last one, who was seemingly the leader of the crew, walked to a model of old earth with its city's and country's labeled. The hologram appeared next to him and started to relay information.

"This globe represents the planet known as Earth in its prime. The main intelligent species known as homo-sapiens, or humans, had reached new heights for their kind in technological and social areas. Unfortunately, due to the humans' idiotic nature, they could not cooperate for a better cause. The human race ended up fighting for valuable resources. In the end, the most powerful side of the species ended up creating an Omega Government.

"This form of government was supposed to be a complete democracy, but in the end, it became an oligarchy. A data file shows the Omega was abusive to many of the populace of earth.This lead to a rebellion a few hundred years after the solidification of the government. The rebellion started a secondary government that gained mass force.This sudden gain in opposing force caused panic in the aristocratic people of the higher tiers who were benefiting from their government, but the force was not enough to wipe the rich batsards off of the face of the planet. The last act of the rich Omega government was to create super weapons. A large planet wide grid used to wipe out any life within its radius, the system used different forms of disasters, one per satellite. The weapon was named Scáileáin Saol, or life saver.

"This was the literal worst name for it, clearly. The 'Scáileáin Saol' was used and ended up wiping out 95% of the human population. The humans, luckily, had such a high population and still had plenty of their kind to spare the race," the hologram concluded and flickered, shutting down.

The man sighed and crossed his arms as he walked through the room. His crew shuffled around between shelves, looking at the ancient texts. They were not thieves nor raiders; they did not want the data or books for profits. They wanted to explore the ancient colony. The group leader walked to a lift placed in the far back corner of the room. Its ancient gears whirred to life and pushed him up towards a private hold on the surface of the moon. The lift hissed when it reached the top.

An immense dome looked out into the starry void above. Large rocks drifted among the stars, as well as Earth. Earth was a recovering planet with a barren wasteland that had patches of green. The ocean was an ugly blue-green with large brown patches where humans had dumped waste. The whole planet was a mess, and, to top the whole thing off, a neon green grid surrounded the entire planet.

The man sighed and shook his head looking at a high-tech, movie prop looking console on the back wall. The console activated and flipped up as he approached, its fan humming softly. He slipped off his large, futuristic looking gloves, typing a command.

Around the earth, the green grid of energy slowly dimmed until it was impossible to see. When the grid had died down completely, one of the main reactors blew up. No sound came from the explosion. Shrapnel flew at high velocities everywhere, including into the domes on the moon. "Damn!" he yelled, his deep voice echoing around the dome. He slipped on his helmet and gloves, initiating the airflow within the suit. A crack appeared in the top of the dome, then another. A last piece of metal, what looked to be a piece of the satellite, hit the dome.

It shattered outwards, followed by the quick sound of air rushing out for a moment. The one man in the domed room was dragged out into space, flung away, abandoned with no hope of rescue. He would die from asphyxiation, starvation or thirst all alone in the abyss of space.

"So this is how I'm going to die, not with a bang but with a nothing," he said before he sighed and closed his eyes, "Goodbye my friends... I hope, if there is an afterlife, I see you there." He couldn't say any more names; he sobbed slightly.

His name was Areo, and he just saved the earth.