Dead Earth

New Beginnings, Old Memories

  “Beautiful”. The word hung in my mind as I glanced down at the Earth. Stars glittering, moon shining, the sound of a heater putting out hot air every few minutes, then stopping when I turned the switch to the left. I looked down on my tight compartment, returning back to my slot to see the continent of North America, my old home. The planet was ravaged by solar flares after the Earth’s outer core stopped spinning. Eventually, the Earth’s electromagnetic field destabilized. To the right was the sun grossly enlarged in space, to the left was the moon, cold and distant. On it,  the largest space station known as The United Nations Metropolitan. And behind me was the space station, The Galactica floating calmly through space. Created just after the disaster. Most civilizations fled to the last frontier while they still could. Space. My name’s Justin Carter, a space engineer and officer of the United North American States. The year’s 2065. About 30 years after the the flares began. I am 23, born in one of the only civilizations still left on Earth. I was transferred to The Galactica when the shields gave way. I gave a tug on the tether that kept me attached to the station. My intercom flared as I heard a familiar voice shout the words I was expecting.

     “All men inside now! There is a solar flare about 2 minutes away, get in as quickly as you can” said the commander of The Galactica, Kaden Laurence. I yanked myself into the gravitational field and fell with a thump. I got up and saw a familiar face, the face of my friend Charlie.

    “Cutting it a little close again, aren’t we?”, said Charley.

    “I can’t help it, it always brings back old memories.” I replied.

    Home, I only remember small parts of it. I was young then. A tan couch which my dad would always sleep on, a brown recliner, a portable tv, and a small radio. I remember my dad. He had a small brown mustache, a brown tint in his skin, and what looked like sideburns. Mom, had hazel hair, and emerald eyes. And her voice. Sweet, joyous, and caring.

    “You coming or what?” The words shocked me back into reality.

“They need us back at mission control" said Charlie.

     "What for?". He gave a stern look he always gave me when he got tired of me.

    "Bloody hell, will you just come already?". He had black hair, pale white skin, and what they called a british accent back in the day. "Come on o'l buddy, Kaden ain't gettin any younger". "Yeah, yeah, yeah,  don't get too ahead of yourself" I said. I slowly took off my suit and began walking through the system of hallways.

              "Justin". Kaden Laurence said behind his wooden desk (a luxury). "I hear you are an engineer. Graduated from Engineering Academy at The United Nations Metropolitan".

"Yes sir" I replied. Kaden's face proved he was disappointed in my answer. "Well, a settlement on Earth is having technical issues with their shields. They have technicians down there but they feel it would be best if you came down. Why? I don't know. You're not very special in my eyes. Nonetheless they have a list of candidates, including you. Well?”. It took some time to just comprehend what he had just said. Earth? No one ever went back down. Earth. The hellish place that was once our home. And me? Of all people? Like Kaden had said, I'm nothing special. I had just barely passed in the United Nations Metropolitan Engineering Academy.

“No”. Kaden almost looked surprised. He then ushered me to leave. They'll survive without me. Like Kaden said, there was a whole list of candidates.

Earth. We read about it in our studies at the Galactica education center. We had created a time of peace, for the most part. Then it happened. Without cause, the outer core stopped spinning. The electromagnetic field keeping the earth from turning into another mars, dissipated. Then the first solar flare came. Destination: Europe. It killed millions, but what happened after was worse. Widespread panic. People slaughtered on the streets. No electricity caused food to spoil and resources became scarce. The United Nations decided it was time to leave everything behind. They then reached for the stars. The international space station tripled in size, and multiple other space stations were set up including The Galactica. Earth soon became a hospitable place. New creatures sprang up from the caves and crevices. Transmissions from settlements reporting strange spider like creatures and vicious rats the size of full grown humans with incisors strong enough to crush metal. Then the transmissions went silent. In fear for what might lurk in the shadows, we cut off almost all transportation between the earth and any of the space stations. I would have dreams, of my old life down on earth. Sometimes I would see my house. Sometimes my dad. Sometimes my mom. I just woke up one day, white everywhere. Confused, I tried to sit up only to find that my whole body was sore. Then, a doctor came and told me that I was saved. They told me the shields went out. That I was the only survivor. Total BS. Until they showed me an orbital view of my old home, I didn't believe them. One thing I do remember about the day I woke up was, that I was cold. Even though it was 70 degrees in the room. It must have been the table. Yeah, of course it was. But for some reason, all my memories were fuzzy. A minor side effect of my first space travel the doctor said.

Being an engineer is hard. Justin do this. Justin do that. I quickly began to scan through the filters in the oxygen converter. Apparently, there was a blockage in this sector. I hate my job. I slowly crawled through the hot and smelly vents. I nearly jumped as a group of rats scurried past me. How did these things get on this ship in the first place? I looked over to the Visa Brace on my arm. The screen came to life and showed me my location in the vents. Okay, right, left, straight, left. Got it. These filters were specially designed to take carbon dioxide (CO2) and turn it into oxygen (O2) that we could breath. It also made electricity through fission. I came around the corner to find the blockage, a mouse nest. Man I hate my job.

Serenity. There I sit on the couch in the living room. The tele in front of me, some show that destroys your brain is on. Then it isn’t. I picked up the remote, clicking the buttons hoping that something will turn my show back on. Then the power goes out. My dad frantically runs into room. The look of despair on his face. The tele comes back on for only a few seconds. And the reporter says, “We’re all gonna burn”.

I wake up in my bed. Palms sweaty. Short of breath. Just another dream. I pull my hand out from underneath the sheets to check my VisiBrace. Even the screen was sweaty. I lay there. Silence. They say that if a person is exposed to absolute silence for long periods of time, they start to go insane. But then again, the sound of silence can be soothing.

“Justin!”. My opened to the sight of Charlie’s face.

“What time is it?” I said as I looked at my VisiBrace. The clock read 3:32 am.

“Hush! Let’s not wake up everybody. There is an emergency down at the Terra colony. Kaden needs you now. There has been a perimeter breach”.

The hallways were a blur has I sprinted towards Kaden’s office. The creatures that the lie beyond those energy fields are deadly and could tear apart the colony. In our studies of attempt to re-colonize Earth, we learned of a colony named Constantinople. A containment breach in their nuclear reactor forced them to power down their shields until fixed. Within 21 hours, the city had fallen silent. No transmissions, no flares, just silence. Satellite photos revealed nothing except for what we already knew. The streets were empty, there were no thermal readings, and no lights shone at night. A colony of over 10,000 people, dead within a day. This is what the Earth has become.