On the Wings of Hope: Prose (Recognized)

Time of heroes

"Accompanying persons are requested to leave a launching pad. The launch will be initiated in thirty minutes by Earth time," a quiet and methodical voice filled the space. Dozens of people – seeing off their relatives in a new difficult voyage for them – at last looked away from a starship and started moving to a waiting hall. Some smiled hopefully, faces of others were filled with tears. Guards even had to forcefully seize one man, who still didn't stop beholding this conqueror of space and was waving his hand to a departing brother. The rest departed willingly.

But minutes of farewell is now behind. Last thirty minutes, dividing mother Earth from myriads of other vast space worlds.

"Colony vessel will be launched in five minutes. Pilots of starship – inform us of your readiness."

"Alpha-one. Ready."

"Alpha-two. Ready."

"Alpha-three. Ready."

"Zeta-one. Ready."

"Zeta-four. Ready."

"All systems are green. We are ready for the launch of a colony star vessel "Trailblazer"."

"We understood you, "Trailblazer". The launch will be made in one hundred and twenty seconds of Earth time."

And just an instant later, totally disregarding the discipline, the words broke through, "Good luck to you, guys!"

"Thanks, cosmodrome "Star Way". We will do everything in our powers."

Ten seconds to launch. Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five...

It seemed to them this very instant, that those ten seconds lasted for the whole eternity – wonderful and everlasting. It seemed, that just as quiet – always – these short words will beat off their mysterious rhythm, and Earth, Mother Earth, their space home, one of the myriads, will caress their sight with its familiar and dear landscapes. And that this launch pad, and this star vessel, and cosmodrome control tower, looming in a distance will never-ever disappear from the sight. And that the sun will shine just as warmly, and tomorrow, only twenty hours later, this planet will meet its new day. But by that time they will long be gone... And each of them during these short and at the same time, never-ending instants remembered his own life in this star home.

They say, that when one is dying, all his life, all its particles – both bright and dim, all its flights and fallings, – they are all swirling before him. These last instants are extremely short – and at the same time practically endless. They are like the awakened eternal memory, drawing a slice of his past before a man... one of his steps in eternity.

They weren't dying – they were reborn anew during these instants, and during same instants, their memories were recreating the images of their past before them. They remembered the childhood – how each of them was a beautiful young and still totally helpless child, having come to this world. They remembered, how this very child has finally grown up, learned the world to which he has come, and how he has fallen in love with it. Each of them was traveling his own path – some in a desperate and furious run, some measuredly and easy, some even joyfully jumping. Yet the roads of their destinies once joined together and since then they have been traveling as one. They have formed a unity during all those years – and thus they will work as a single whole.

"We shall make it," those were the thoughts of everyone.

And thus they came at last – these words. Or, truly, just a single one.

"Launch!"

The ship rushed upwards, furiously speeding up, desperately trying to leave from under terrestrial gravitation. And once again instants of time flow as a series of small eternities, disappearing in something so much greater. And once again a new life – and myriads of births each and every second of a life's journey. And yet somewhere deep in themselves a woken up gentle melancholy of a native home, left for a while – a home, where they will surely return ten years after when their mission will be fulfilled.