Under One Sky

Our Mistake

"It's just like that day," he says, out of the blue.

"Huh?" says the other. "What do you mean, dad?"

Some seconds pass before the father gives a response, his eyes gazing at a warm sunset.

"It's like the day we left Lyra," he says. "When we left her and the Earth."

The son, a black-haired youth, doesn't reply to the answer he got. He merely stands next to his gray-haired father, not understanding a bit of what's going on.

The two are at a park on the planet Levistia — an Earth-like world that humanity didn't know of until fifty years ago. Around that time scientists warned everyone of a rogue planet on course to destroy the Earth and all its children. Space travel was considered — a bold exodus into a world of stars — but there wasn't enough technology to realize this dream. People with kind hearts and men seeking heroic titles looked this challenge in the eye and charged at it. Their efforts went far, but their planning was faulty. Courage carried them on its fiery wings, and it dropped them to the cold depths of reality when its flames burned out. Their emotions were their only strength, and that wasn't enough.

At the same time, a majority of the Earth's wealthy poured an ocean of funds into a project to cheat Death. The concentration of cash and the myriad of scientists opened the gates of possibilities, and with this a beacon of hope lit up the world. Everyone could be saved, perhaps.

Eventually the project had a few great successes. Several spaceships, mountain-like and awesome to look at, were built. It was only a matter of time until enough were made to rescue all the lives in peril.

The thing never came to be. The elite backers of the plan stole away like thieves at dusk and boarded the ships, abandoning their fellow men to die whilst they sailed off in the ocean of stars. Shock, rage, sorrow and panic erupted in the wake of the escapees. They were branded traitors, cowards and scum, but not a single insult held any meaning. They were empty, hopeless words for they were directed at those in the heavens, too far to listen.

The old man in the Levistinian park is one of those who fled the Earth. He was but a young man then, travelling with his parents. They had sailed for a time until they found Levistia, and it was there that all the ships docked. Because of this that man lives, his life enriched by a crown of gray hair and a son to carry on his legacy.

If only those mattered to him right now, though. He frowns, looks at the pendant around his neck, and allows the sorrow within to trickle down his eyes.

"Dad, what …" says his son, noticing the tears, "what's going on? Dad? Dad!"

The old man breathes a heavy sigh.

"Alec, have you heard the news today?" he says, facing his son.

"Yeah, they said the Earth's okay and that NASA was wrong. Are you okay? Should I bring mom and —"

"No, I'll be fine." He turns to the sunset again. "You don't need to worry."

"Are you sure? …" He waits for an answer and receives silence. "Dad? Well, okay …"

"After I left the Earth, we travelled in space a long time," says the father, breaking the silence. "We didn't know where we were going, and we wondered what would happen. We had plenty of supplies, but how long would that last? We knew they weren't infinite, and with their eventual end would also come ours."

Alec listens. It's a story told to him before, but he doesn't want to interrupt it being told again.

"Many of us felt that to die was our well-deserved fate. After all, hadn't we sealed the deaths of everyone that didn't have the privileges that we had? Hadn't we committed a sin beyond forgiveness?

"This thought plagued our minds, and rightly so. But hope didn't cast us aside. After the long journey we found a new world, and we named it Levistia.

"It was here that I met your mother." He smiles at his son. "And it was here that you were born."

"For this I am grateful," he continues, looking at the distance. "A sinful man like me was able to live life this long …"

"But dad," says Alec, "you don't have to be so sad. The people on Earth are okay!"

Alec's father smiles, but it's a smile of infinite melancholy.

"You know all of my sins but one," he says. "On Earth I met a woman. We were friends at first, but soon we fell in love.

"Lyra was the pearl of my youth … my happiness, my everything. I thought I'd be with her forever. I wanted to marry her. My father said he wouldn't allow it, so I planned to escape with her.

"But before I could, people started saying the world was coming to an end. The dreams and joys I saw before me were being lost. I wouldn't live to see them, and neither would she.

"Then came a crossroads. My father told me the secret plan he hatched with his friends. We were going to escape by ourselves and leave everyone else. Never before had I hated him as I did on that day. We argued — I punched his face and I ran away. I rented a house with Lyra and lived with her.

"I was a happy man with her. I thought I could even ignore the planet that would turn everything to dust. I felt that she was happy as I, but she also seemed worried. I didn't know why, and I sometimes asked her. I never got an answer until later.

"She told me that she has my child. Our child. I was overjoyed, and I didn't understand why she'd be troubled. I told her so, and she started crying. Then she told me the truth — she was crying for our child, about to be born into a doomed world, its life cut short right after it's seen the light of day.

"I didn't know what to do. I told Lyra that we'll make it through this, but those were empty promises. I wished for a solution and found none.

"The problem ate at me. I fell into a depression — I ceased to give Lyra any more comfort and hope. I was useless, and she … she suffered evermore."

The old man pauses. He's sobbing. The tears rain down.

"Then … then one day …" he continues, "I came home … she wasn't there, and I saw a letter … she … she ran … away, she ran away to save me … she told me that she was beyond hope … and she told me to get on the ship … to live my life and be happy … and … and that until the very end, she … she loved me. …"

He says no more, succumbing to the feelings that shake his heart. He cries, and he keeps on crying. He thinks he feels his son's hand on his shoulder — a sign of comfort — but it doesn't stop the emotions from rushing with a tumultuous flow.

After a time he manages to compose himself. He calms down a little, enough to speak some more.

"I looked for Lyra," he says, "and I never found her. She disappeared from my life. Then the time came for my father's planned escape, and I did as Lyra told me. I ran away."

His tears stop. He looks at the sunset once more.

"If only I had been stronger … if only I had been there for you when you needed me, maybe we'd still be together."

He takes his pendant in hand and caresses it — a gift Lyra once gave him — the only thing remaining of his lost life. He gazes at it and gives it a kiss.

"Please … be alive … be happy, darling — you and our child …"