post_text
stringlengths 0
10k
| post_title
stringlengths 8
313
| chosen
stringlengths 1
39.5k
| rejected
stringlengths 1
13.8k
|
|---|---|---|---|
[WP] You're a prisoner in a special facility for violent criminals. Today the latest prisoner arrived - a little girl. "That's cruel," you tell the guard. "I agree," he says. "Guess no one cares what happens to the rest of you."
|
The system beeped.
“This is an interview relating to incident number K-23 within Extra-Max facility 120. Please state your name, inmate number, charges and sentence for the benefit of the recording” said one of the officers. He was the taller of the two, a pencil thin mustache cresting his top lip and a thin dusting of salt and pepper hair on top of his head. Before Al-Si answered, the shorter (and fatter, by a wide margin) officer broke out into a coughing fit. The taller officer gave him a glare and silence once again fell.
Now they both turned expectantly to Al-Si.
“Al-Si Nib Dar, Inmate number 746583, charged with 18 counts of inter-planetary arms trafficking and one of evading arrest via violent means. Sentence was originally 35 years, but I successfully appealed three of the arms charges due to the mishandling of evidence and got it reduced to 29. Have served 15 so far.”
“Thank you, Mr Nib Dar. Now, to the best of your recollection could you please explain the events leading to the incident last week?”
Al-Si shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He’d been taken from his cell, taken from the prison proper for the first time in 10 years (since his last trip to court to appeal the charges) and unusually for transfers between the prison proper and other areas, he had not had any of his cybernetic augmentations disabled. While avoiding the painful procedure of having the augs shut down was a good thing, he knew he could do nothing with them and the itching caused by having his left eye suddenly working again, free from the prison proper’s blanket disabling field, was sending him crazy.
“Well we heard in the morning that the new crop was coming in. Old Cleaver was taking bets on the first to crack and call a guard as usual. Then the bell rang and we all went to our cells.”
“Cleaver. This would be Pat Cleaver, yes?” the shorter officer interjected.
Al-Si nodded, continuing. “Umm, then they walked in.”
“They being the new inmates?” the tall officer prompted, when Al-Si paused.
“Yes. Most of them were the normal fare, but I noticed her instantly. She couldn’t have been more than 13.”
Now it was the tall officer’s turn to shift uncomfortably. “She’s 11, actually.”
Al-Si shuddered. “She went to her cell silently, same as all of them, and we stayed in our cells till yard time. When the guards came round for checks, I mentioned her to Officer Bright.”
The shorter officer took a note in his little pad.
“What exactly did you say to Officer Bright, and what did he respond, Mr Nib Dar?”
“I said “Jesus Christ Bright, what are they playing at sticking a girl like that in a place like this?” and he looked at me like he wanted to be sick. “I know. They must really not give a shit what happens to the rest of you.” He muttered.”
The short officer coughed again, but thankfully only once.
“And what was the next significant moment in the lead up to the incident, Mr Nib Dar?”
“Si, please. Um, the next moment was yard time. We were walking out as normal-“
“Mr N-Si, who exactly were you with as you left for the yard?”
Al-Si hesitated. The memory was painful.
“Um, I was walking with Galfar and Bones, uh Galfar Zem and Vice Vickers. We didn’t get 5 steps out the door
before everyone we could see in front of us broke into a sprint.”
“So, when you saw this rush, what did the three of you do?”
“Galfar shrugged and went inside. He took a plasma bolt to the hip in the last riot and he still gets spasms in his foot so he didn’t want any part of anything. Me and Vice ran too, out of curiosity.”
“Okay then Si, and when you reached the source of the disturbance what did you witness?” The tall officer asked, as his short companion flipped to a new page in the notebook and poised his pencil.
“It was horrible.”
Neither Officer spoke immediately, but after a moment the short officer piped up.
“Please state exactly what you saw. I know it was distressing.”
Al-Si scoffed. Distressing? He had been an interplanetary arms dealer for 14 years, and a bloody good one. So good, in fact, that he ended up with 15 charges for an offence he’d committed hundreds of times and one lesser charge than deserved for rigging a booby trap that took out three of the four officers sent to apprehend him. Death, violence, blood, gore, none of it phased him. He was no psycho, but he was no pussy. What that girl had done…it was beyond distressing.
“It wasn’t her actions. I mean…they were bad enough.” He managed to choke out.
“It…it was the glee on her face. I’ve never seen anyone so happy. It was like…like a child who’d never seen a present before on his first Christmas. She…she tore that guy’s arm off and she took a bite out of it as though it was a chocolate cake. And the whole time, the whole time, she giggled and grinned.”
The shorter officer looked a little sick. He was lucky. He’d seen the pictures, probably. Maybe the footage if there was any that wasn’t obscured by the mass of bodies watching the carnage. But he hadn’t had to witness it. Hadn’t had to be within 5 metres of that monster as she murdered her way through 14 of the worst, most violent and unremorseful criminals that the entire planetary system had to offer with the euphoria of someone indulging in the absolute most enjoyable activity they can conceive of. Hadn’t had to look into her eyes for that brief second as she’d glanced at him.
“And then what happened, Si?” Tall prompted.
“We understand if you need a moment.” Short added.
“The second she looked at me I knew it was too late to run. How…how did her augs still work?”
Short and Tall exchanged a look.
“We’re still working that out.”
Al-Si laughed sardonically, his jaw tightening. He was sat there, leg missing, traumatised after they had put that monster in a prison unfit to hold her, and they were “still working out” how she’d managed to activate several military grade augmentations inside a supposedly secure facility.
“She came for me and that was it. Next thing I remember is waking up in the Infirmary, one leg down.”
He slumped. Tall, in a display of emotion that even in the short time they’d spent together, Al-Si could tell was rare, placed a hand on Al-Si’s shoulder.
“As the only survivor of the incident, you may not feel particularly lucky. However, due to the extreme nature of the circumstances, and the fact that you survived the onslaught only by sheer luck, we have received orders that your remaining sentence is to be halved and you are to be placed in a minimum security virtual facility for its duration. The Council of Planets Interplanetary Prison Complex apologises for its failings in your circumstance.”
Al-Si nodded, his heart lifting somewhat. Virtual prisons were cushy, you just sat in a room being drip fed while a digital chip presented you with a virtual city. You got a job, spent your free time on whatever self-improving pursuits you desired, and you proved you were rehabilitated. He’d have an easy time getting early release after the strict rules of EM 120. Couldn’t bring back his leg. Couldn’t heal the scars on his psyche. Couldn’t stop him vomiting anytime he thought about the look on Cleaver’s face as that girl had bitten through his throat. But it was something, at least.
“Interview terminated.”
The system beeped.
|
At lunch, the other inmates gave her a wide berth as she skipped - yes, *skipped* - to an empty table and set her tray down.
Still in the lunch line, I turned to the inmate behind me and asked, "What's up with that little girl? Who is she?" But the man avoided eye contact and didn't want to talk.
Same with the inmate ahead of me. It seemed that whenever I mentioned her, the other inmates became sullen and withdrawn, seemingly wanting to avoid the subject of the girl altogether.
I was worried for her. Though I hadn't yet seen any leers, she was the only female in a facility of full-grown men - some of whom were imprisoned on charges where little girls like her were victim. So after I got my tray, I made my way towards her.
I had only taken two steps when a strong hand grabbed my shoulder. It was the inmate from behind me in the line. He shook his head and whispered, "Don't do it."
"Why not?"
But apparently, he had said too much already. He let go of me and walked away.
I continued on to the table and hovered over the seat opposite her. "Is anybody sitting here?" I asked.
She had been humming and kicking her feet, but at the sound of my voice she looked up and smiled. She was a pretty girl, with two blonde pigtails, and two huge, blue eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "But the table is full."
"But..." I made a point of looking around to emphasize that...there was nobody there...
"I'm sorry," she repeated - smile thinning as she lost her patience, "but the *table* is *full.*"
I laughed and sat down anyway.
I felt somebody's - some*thing's* - legs under mine, like I was sitting in an invisible creature's lap.
Startled, I jumped back up, leaving my tray behind as I backed away.
The girl was no longer smiling. Her eyes watched me the entire time I backed away to another table. No one else made eye contact with me as I sat down.
|
|
[WP] You're a prisoner in a special facility for violent criminals. Today the latest prisoner arrived - a little girl. "That's cruel," you tell the guard. "I agree," he says. "Guess no one cares what happens to the rest of you."
|
The system beeped.
“This is an interview relating to incident number K-23 within Extra-Max facility 120. Please state your name, inmate number, charges and sentence for the benefit of the recording” said one of the officers. He was the taller of the two, a pencil thin mustache cresting his top lip and a thin dusting of salt and pepper hair on top of his head. Before Al-Si answered, the shorter (and fatter, by a wide margin) officer broke out into a coughing fit. The taller officer gave him a glare and silence once again fell.
Now they both turned expectantly to Al-Si.
“Al-Si Nib Dar, Inmate number 746583, charged with 18 counts of inter-planetary arms trafficking and one of evading arrest via violent means. Sentence was originally 35 years, but I successfully appealed three of the arms charges due to the mishandling of evidence and got it reduced to 29. Have served 15 so far.”
“Thank you, Mr Nib Dar. Now, to the best of your recollection could you please explain the events leading to the incident last week?”
Al-Si shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He’d been taken from his cell, taken from the prison proper for the first time in 10 years (since his last trip to court to appeal the charges) and unusually for transfers between the prison proper and other areas, he had not had any of his cybernetic augmentations disabled. While avoiding the painful procedure of having the augs shut down was a good thing, he knew he could do nothing with them and the itching caused by having his left eye suddenly working again, free from the prison proper’s blanket disabling field, was sending him crazy.
“Well we heard in the morning that the new crop was coming in. Old Cleaver was taking bets on the first to crack and call a guard as usual. Then the bell rang and we all went to our cells.”
“Cleaver. This would be Pat Cleaver, yes?” the shorter officer interjected.
Al-Si nodded, continuing. “Umm, then they walked in.”
“They being the new inmates?” the tall officer prompted, when Al-Si paused.
“Yes. Most of them were the normal fare, but I noticed her instantly. She couldn’t have been more than 13.”
Now it was the tall officer’s turn to shift uncomfortably. “She’s 11, actually.”
Al-Si shuddered. “She went to her cell silently, same as all of them, and we stayed in our cells till yard time. When the guards came round for checks, I mentioned her to Officer Bright.”
The shorter officer took a note in his little pad.
“What exactly did you say to Officer Bright, and what did he respond, Mr Nib Dar?”
“I said “Jesus Christ Bright, what are they playing at sticking a girl like that in a place like this?” and he looked at me like he wanted to be sick. “I know. They must really not give a shit what happens to the rest of you.” He muttered.”
The short officer coughed again, but thankfully only once.
“And what was the next significant moment in the lead up to the incident, Mr Nib Dar?”
“Si, please. Um, the next moment was yard time. We were walking out as normal-“
“Mr N-Si, who exactly were you with as you left for the yard?”
Al-Si hesitated. The memory was painful.
“Um, I was walking with Galfar and Bones, uh Galfar Zem and Vice Vickers. We didn’t get 5 steps out the door
before everyone we could see in front of us broke into a sprint.”
“So, when you saw this rush, what did the three of you do?”
“Galfar shrugged and went inside. He took a plasma bolt to the hip in the last riot and he still gets spasms in his foot so he didn’t want any part of anything. Me and Vice ran too, out of curiosity.”
“Okay then Si, and when you reached the source of the disturbance what did you witness?” The tall officer asked, as his short companion flipped to a new page in the notebook and poised his pencil.
“It was horrible.”
Neither Officer spoke immediately, but after a moment the short officer piped up.
“Please state exactly what you saw. I know it was distressing.”
Al-Si scoffed. Distressing? He had been an interplanetary arms dealer for 14 years, and a bloody good one. So good, in fact, that he ended up with 15 charges for an offence he’d committed hundreds of times and one lesser charge than deserved for rigging a booby trap that took out three of the four officers sent to apprehend him. Death, violence, blood, gore, none of it phased him. He was no psycho, but he was no pussy. What that girl had done…it was beyond distressing.
“It wasn’t her actions. I mean…they were bad enough.” He managed to choke out.
“It…it was the glee on her face. I’ve never seen anyone so happy. It was like…like a child who’d never seen a present before on his first Christmas. She…she tore that guy’s arm off and she took a bite out of it as though it was a chocolate cake. And the whole time, the whole time, she giggled and grinned.”
The shorter officer looked a little sick. He was lucky. He’d seen the pictures, probably. Maybe the footage if there was any that wasn’t obscured by the mass of bodies watching the carnage. But he hadn’t had to witness it. Hadn’t had to be within 5 metres of that monster as she murdered her way through 14 of the worst, most violent and unremorseful criminals that the entire planetary system had to offer with the euphoria of someone indulging in the absolute most enjoyable activity they can conceive of. Hadn’t had to look into her eyes for that brief second as she’d glanced at him.
“And then what happened, Si?” Tall prompted.
“We understand if you need a moment.” Short added.
“The second she looked at me I knew it was too late to run. How…how did her augs still work?”
Short and Tall exchanged a look.
“We’re still working that out.”
Al-Si laughed sardonically, his jaw tightening. He was sat there, leg missing, traumatised after they had put that monster in a prison unfit to hold her, and they were “still working out” how she’d managed to activate several military grade augmentations inside a supposedly secure facility.
“She came for me and that was it. Next thing I remember is waking up in the Infirmary, one leg down.”
He slumped. Tall, in a display of emotion that even in the short time they’d spent together, Al-Si could tell was rare, placed a hand on Al-Si’s shoulder.
“As the only survivor of the incident, you may not feel particularly lucky. However, due to the extreme nature of the circumstances, and the fact that you survived the onslaught only by sheer luck, we have received orders that your remaining sentence is to be halved and you are to be placed in a minimum security virtual facility for its duration. The Council of Planets Interplanetary Prison Complex apologises for its failings in your circumstance.”
Al-Si nodded, his heart lifting somewhat. Virtual prisons were cushy, you just sat in a room being drip fed while a digital chip presented you with a virtual city. You got a job, spent your free time on whatever self-improving pursuits you desired, and you proved you were rehabilitated. He’d have an easy time getting early release after the strict rules of EM 120. Couldn’t bring back his leg. Couldn’t heal the scars on his psyche. Couldn’t stop him vomiting anytime he thought about the look on Cleaver’s face as that girl had bitten through his throat. But it was something, at least.
“Interview terminated.”
The system beeped.
|
The guard chuckled as he continued down the cell block, leading the little girl to an empty cell. Neither of the neighboring cells were occupied. "We'll keep her away from you lot," he said as her door shut and locked with a buzz. "For your safety."
I know everyone here. Murderers, rapists, you name it, they're here. It's a modern day Alcatraz, just without the great view. I don't have many lines I wont cross, but to put a little girl here along with scum like me is just wrong. Hell I've probably been in this joint longer than she's been alive. These guards must be more demented than I realized.
That night I could hear faint sobbing echoing off the concrete walls. These monsters.
We woke the next morning to an alarm, which wasn't unusual. Sometimes they'll do a drill before wake up just to piss us off. Other times a guard fell asleep and missed shift change. I usually stay on my cot until an overweight prick yells at me to get up.
This morning, however, an overweight prick was jogging down the block, huffing as he went. It made me briefly think how easy it would be to overrun this jail if those damn guards weren't loaded with live rounds all the time. Then two more ran past, calling in on their radio.
"Officer down in Block D."
A few minutes later word began spreading down the block. Officer Johnson, the one who led the girl to her cell the day before, had missed his shift change and was found dead in front of the girl's cell. We found out later Johnson had died from asphyxiation, as if someone had grabbed him from behind and choked the life out of him. He was also missing a few fingers. They made us skip breakfast while they accounted for everyone in their cells. No one was missing.
Later that day I walked out toward the yard to play some basketball. I passed by the girl's cell and peeked in to see how she was holding up. Poor thing must have been shaken up by what had happened nearby.
She was just sitting upright on her cot, starring at the wall. Then, she saw me, and reached behind and pulled out something from under her pillow to show me. I leaned closer and nearly lost my shit. She, smiling sweetly, was holding Johnson's severed fingers.
Edit: autocorrect fail
|
|
[WP] You are a time traveler tasked with pinpointing the exact date of Betty White’s death. However, no matter what year you travel to, she is there, alive and well
|
It was just a goof to start with. My buddy said "What is she like a million" and i said "no she's not she was born in '22." the guy looked at me like i was crazy... i should amend, when i say buddy i mean we'd been drinking and experimenting with a few other substances made legal in this time period. "nineteen-twenty-two" I added. To which he replied "So that makes her like... at least a hundred and fifty, right?"
I wasn't one hundred percent sure of the math but it did seems suspicious that she'd still be living in an era where '22 didn't obviously mean 1922. That was when i began my quest to pinpoint the death of Betty White. Only thing was i couldn't do it. I went as far out as 3000, where humankind had moved to the stars, and while it was a pain in the ass to track her down i did find Ms. White living as a private citizen, she'd still hit a comedy club every once in a while, too. Then i had another crazy thought... You ever see that picture of Keanu where it's not really him, but some guy in history looks like he does. This time i went back, because tracking someone forward through time before humanity left the earth is a lot easier than doing it after. Turns out it was the same guy. So was Nick Cage. A few others didn't seem to age or die either, so i decided to go back and see how far i could trace them all.
That's where it gets really weird. As far as i can tell they all just showed up around 300BC. I didn't want to approach them because as far as i knew nobody was allowed to stop aging. The only reason i was even still alive through all of this detective work was because i picked up a little device that let me transfer memories and experiences into my younger self, even that was going to turn up some flaws eventually. These guys, though? They seemed to just be living forever.
The only ones i successfully tracked were Cage, Reeves, and Ms. White. Obviously they used different names but they were the same people. None of them ever grew old or died, they just slowly faded from the public eye and then they'd pick up another name and move to another place and live a life. The only thing i really learned to put a conclusion on all of this was that Ms.White went by the name Hera, once. At that point i decided it was all too strange and more importantly too dangerous to follow any further, so i dropped it.
Some threads are best left not pulled.
|
"So I decided that I'm going to kill her. "
"What?" He laughed. "Kill Betty White? You're tripping balls, bro.
"I just have to do it."
"But like what's the big deal though? Ha, 'big dildo'. Huh? She's immortal, she's immortal. So what? That literally affects you in no way whatsoever. And c'mon bro, its Betty White. You *really* want to be known as the guy who killed Betty White?"
"Heh...yeah, I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right. Now I'll be right back," he said, stepping into the time machine. "I'm going to go kill Betty White."
"But you just said-"
**ZING!** He was gone.
|
|
[WP] You are a time traveler tasked with pinpointing the exact date of Betty White’s death. However, no matter what year you travel to, she is there, alive and well
|
I had tried more than a dozen different times, going forward and back by thousands of years. It seemed impossible...was Betty White immortal?
I worked for the New York Times, with the job title 'Future Researcher'. The best way to break a story first was to know it was coming, and in this cutthroat era of journalism nothing was off limits.
My latest assignment was to find out when Emperor Betty White would finally die. As far as we knew she was roughly 155, part of the new era of people who had benefited from massive progress in medical technology. But she was nearing the limits of when most people died, even with new tech. Whoever broke the story of the Emperor's death would be a huge winner in the News Wars, so this was a *very* important assignment. However, even with a time machine, it was not always easy...as this assignment was proving.
Betty had always been crafty, but now, in the year 4230 she was still alive, and it didn't seem that she had aged much. Extremely confusing. I was starting to doubt my qualifications, and thought maybe someone else should have been sent to sort this out...how could this be possible? No one else from her era had lasted nearly this long...although she had been the Emperor, so maybe she had access to some secret technology which had preserved her body.
*One more try,* I thought to myself, *Then I'll head back to headquarters if I haven't solved it.* I would go to the year 10,000. Well beyond any assignment I had ever been given. Technically I should be getting special clearance for this, but it wasn't unheard of for a researcher to go this far, and frankly I was embarrassed that I hadn't been able to complete this simple task.
*Beep...beep...beeeep. Click.* I set the time to the year 10,000, took a deep breath and hit the Go button. The windows went black, and I arrived. A very smooth process, as was usually the case with modern time machines. The NYT had a fleet of the best ones available, ordered straight from Tesla. As I opened the door, I heard the sound of something landing on the ground, and then like something scrambling away. I ran to the back of the machine to see what it was, but all I saw were some footprints in the mud. I looked up, and without thinking, started running after the trail.
*What the hell?* Had something been on the machine? Did I displace something, or someone when I arrived? That was supposed to never happen...guaranteed by Elon Musk himself. I turned a corner around some trees and saw someone's leg disappear behind a rock.
"Hey! Hey you! I'm really sorry about that! Please don't run, I'm not going to hurt you!" I called after the fleeing person.
I continued the chase, leaping over a puddle, starting to breathe deeply. I reached the rock and saw the person still running. Short, female, old, and with curled white hair. *No way.* "Betty?!" I yelled to her.
She stopped, looked over her shoulder with a mischievous grin, gave me the finger and kept running.
*What the actual hell?*
After a few more minutes I found her at the edge of a lake, sitting on a log. She looked at me and started laughing. Not *at* me, but *with* me. "Hahah...ahaha...oh my...ahh. I haven't run like that in...well, a few thousand years I suppose!" She said, trying to catch her breath.
"Betty!?" I smiled at her, completely confused. "What are you doing here, and what's going on?"
"Oh, just having some fun. Had the day off, so I decided to have a little adventure." She said, with a gleam in her eye. "I hitched a ride on your little contraption. If I don't know when I'm going to die, no one is going to know...and I don't want to know. So there!" She giggled like a little girl.
I had been tricked by one of the oldest women on the planet...and I couldn't help but laugh. "You are something else," I said, shaking my head and smiling. "I guess I should admit defeat and leave this case unsolved."
"It's for the best," she said, nodding happily.
"Well, let's get back to the machine...I'll give you a ride."
"Sounds good!" she replied, "And sorry for giving you the finger...all in good fun."
I laughed again, still shaking my head, and we headed off back to the ship.
|
"So I decided that I'm going to kill her. "
"What?" He laughed. "Kill Betty White? You're tripping balls, bro.
"I just have to do it."
"But like what's the big deal though? Ha, 'big dildo'. Huh? She's immortal, she's immortal. So what? That literally affects you in no way whatsoever. And c'mon bro, its Betty White. You *really* want to be known as the guy who killed Betty White?"
"Heh...yeah, I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right. Now I'll be right back," he said, stepping into the time machine. "I'm going to go kill Betty White."
"But you just said-"
**ZING!** He was gone.
|
|
[WP] A hero and their nemesis make a mutual pact to fake their own deaths. Three years later, they return to their city to find it changed in ways they never expected.
|
It's funny, the amount of power a simple name can hold. Sometimes, the name itself has more power than the entity.
Perhaps by that logic, we can argue that God, does in fact, exist. For what other idea, what other name, has shaped our world as much as the concept of God?
And just like that, our names changed the city of Greenturb into something unrecognisable.
For better or for worse, I exchanged looks with Inferno, and we both walked the now alien streets of our former city.
We decided to split up, I wandered into the side of the city that erected memorials and grand displays in honour of "Aegis: The Protector of Greenturb." It was a title I did not miss.
Erected stands preached about my legendary exploits, almost all of it wildly exaggerated and a fair bit not even true.
"Pray! Pray for Aegis's return, for he is the only one who can rid our city of evil, of the follower's of Inferno!" A wild and frenzied man handed me a leaflet, his eyes filled with such energy I thought it to be bordering on zealotry. If only he knew who it was that stood before him.
I passed by advertisements that blew up full sized images of me, followed by products that prompted people to buy their energy drinks, or their food, or their cleaning products. "It will destroy bacteria, just as Aegis destroyed evil!" Every aspect of it turned into some form of propaganda that made me want to heave and vomit, as if even the sight of what the city became left behind a disgusting taste in my mouth.
I returned to a bar, the same one where I was supposed to meet up with Inferno.
He no longer looked like a daring man that would burn the world to ash beneath his feet, with his long beard and humble sandals, he looked no different than I, a simple wanderer.
"How was it on your end?" I asked, taking a sip of my beer.
"Putrid. And yours?"
I remained silent, as if to say that I had nothing to add.
"What happened to this city?" I said, after a moment's pause.
Inferno shrugged, "we decided to fake our deaths because we loved this city. Because we thought we were doing it a favor. I never would have thought that our absence would only make things worse." Off in the distance, we could hear hate-filled words being thrown around that accused people of being "Inferno scum," or "Aegis Zealots."
"You know they think I was fighting for 'the lesser man'? What a joke." Inferno said, as he was handed a beer of his own and took a sip. "I became a villain because I was put under and ignored all my life, I wanted to be noticed, to-"
"To burn as brightly as the sun so that no-one can ignore you. Yes Inferno, you said that at every fight we had." I said, cutting him off, but Inferno could only smile and look down.
"Those were the days."
"Yes, they were."
"But I don't miss them."
"Neither do I..."
"I never asked you. You always knew why I was fighting, but why did you?" Inferno prompted, his gaze turned to me.
I shrugged, "because there was something to be fought. And I had powers... you know, I walked on those streets today and watched how they praised me. Praised my name. And all the while I kept thinking, 'but, what was I fighting for?' At least you had a reason... even if you were an asshole." We both chuckled, it was a strange thing that only three years ago I would have jumped at his throat and squeezed every bit of life out of him.
"A name is a powerful thing." I said.
"So, what are we going to do about it?"
"The only thing we can do."
And so, we returned, our appearances staged and exuberant. My voice filled with bravado and gravitas as I challenged Inferno once more as we always did.
Cheers emerged from both sides at first, like a sport, people gathered around and rooted for their favourite team.
Soon though, things began to revert back to how they always were.
"Let the police handle 'Inferno', with all this property damage, Aegis obviously doesn't know what he is doing."
"I was late to work again because of those two squabbling children!"
"Well, I think that Inferno used to be nice, but now he is kind of an asshole. Who burns the park?"
Inferno and I moved in together, sitting on a couch with beer in hand as we laughed. Listening to the interviews about how people felt about our return.
And as we expected, people stopped caring. Brands stopped using my image to sell their products, and those who supported Inferno stopped talking about it.
With beer bottles clanked and our lips stretched into grins; we relished the entertainment.
***
If you enjoyed this, I have my own subreddit now: /r/kikiwrites
Feedback is appreciated :)
|
The low mutter of a well filled inn crept under Len's skull. The disgusting wooden cup filled with what could only ever be described as grog swished and swirled as she lifted up to smell it. Cloves, onion and yeast. Bile rose up the back of her throat, threatening to add to the mixture. "Stop sniffing your drink and just leave it" Boz said, before taking a large sip of the swill. "How can you drink this awful concoction? It's absolute madness." Boz grinned, his teeth stained brown with grog. "You get used to it, I had to practically live in these kinds of places gathering info about you, you know." Len's thin lips pressed even thinner as she stared at Boz. His long black hair fell in tresses and curls below his hood. "How long do we have to sit here? My castle is obviously where we'll find most of our info"
"Not yours anymore" Boz corrected her quietly. "Not anyone's anymore it seems." Len's eyes sparked. "What do you mean not anyone's?! We've been together the moment we entered Haven and we've not met or talked to anyone!" Boz shrugged. "I have keen eyes, you know that." Len huffed then chugged back some grog. Coughing and spluttering she glared at Boz. "Disgusting.. but if it'll make you tell me how you know I'll drink more." Boz grinned, his blue eyes glittering in the low lamp light. "There were posters" Len raised her eyebrow "Posters? Where?" Boz leaned closer on the table between the two "Just outside the gate, it was faded and barely legible but it said something about voting for your government. Where else would they hold their council but the old keep?"
Len slowly lifted the cup of grog back to her lips. Boz stared at her and sighed quietly as she gulped down the rest of her grog, her golden locks tumbling free from her hood as it slipped back. A thick vein above her eyes twitched while her eyes burned into him. "You know, I think what we did was the best thing we ever could. Haven would have been a smoldering rock by the time we were done with each other." Len Smirked, slamming her cup on the table. "By the time I would've been done with you.." she whispered "Half this world could've been ripped apart for all I cared back then." Boz grimaced. "You care a little bit now though, right?" Len shook her head, her lip quirked wryly "Not even a jot. But I'm here now aren't I?" Boz slowly nodded "Yes... I thought maybe our travels.." Len reached over the table and grabbed Boz's hand. It was rough on the inside and smooth above his knuckles.
"I did, what I did for the reasons I did, because of you and only you. This world can rot for all I care, but our pact is binding. By Yen above and Ger below I swore it and I keep to the old ways. Even if this god forsaken city hasn't." It was Boz's turn to lift his eyebrow this time. "How can you tell?" Len smiled, her small face growing mischievous. "It's easy for someone with as trained a sense as I" Boz huffed, pulling his hand from Len's and crossing his arms. "Oh? Feeling the vapors are we?" Len laughed. Short and sweet it was like a bark from a small dachshund who'd found someone to play with. "It's the church. It's derelict you fool. You know I can't "feel" anymore than you can anymore." Boz's face darkened. "Yeah I.. we've been traveling for so long I don't think I ever-" Something slammed on the table. "Mind if I join you?!" someone said, voice booming in a thick eastern accent. Probably from the Kinlands, Boz thought while measuring up the darkened figure standing before him.
"M'names Llot, I couldn't help overhearing you say some very interesting things, in this dark dreary corner of this dull inn." Len's eyes narrowed as she looked up and down this invader. He wore nondescript brown jerkin and plain pantaloons. Nothing was hitched to his hip and he wore no jewelry. His beard was well kept, however. "Oh, good sir?" Len said, moving her chair back ever so slightly "And what, pray tell did you hear us normal folk talking about? Normal things I hope?" Llot's chuckle made his sagging gut wobble. "Of course! Why, so normal that I'd love to invite you to my establishment to discuss farm more normal things. So normal, in fact it may bore you to death!" Boz stood up first, knocking his chair back onto the hard wooden floor. Straw and sand flew up from the impact before settling down slowly as the two men stared each other down. "How very normal of you, kind sir. I think we will pass." Len was beside Boz in a flash, speaking up as she squared her shoulders. "Actually, Boz, I think we should go with this man." Boz's mouth gaped open, moving wordlessly as he looked down at Len. "You can't be seri-" Len hushed him with a quick tap to the small of his back. "Yes I do think we will come with you, kind sir. Please, lead the way. We shall follow you out shortly after we gather our belongings."
Llot stared at Len for a moment. It stretched like a cat in the sun, carefully with well hidden danger below soft veiled fur. His eyes drunk in her every detail before he grinned like a madman. "Very well! Come, let us depart. I shall await you anon." Llot stomped out of the inn, slamming the door behind him. Boz grabbed Len by the shoulders and growled "What are you thinking?! Are you insane?!" Len stared blankly at Boz. "No." Boz, gritting his teeth let go of Len slowly and carefully. "Can you explain?" Len shook her head. "I'm sorry, but.. you'll see when we get to where we're going." Boz nodded, sharply and reached down for his backpack. Len stopped him and kneeled down to bring her face to his. "Do you trust me?" She whispered, her lips frightfully close to his. Boz, not even hesitating, nodded. "With all my heart". Len smiled. It brightened the room.
Boz threw some drab coins onto the bar top and pushed his way through the crowd, making sure to leave enough room for Len, who followed quietly, slipping through the gaps. Cold night air washed over both of them as Boz opened the door, causing them both to shiver. Outside Llot stood next to a pale white horse that he was rubbing down with a dirty cloth. "Wise decision, masters! I see you have no horses, I trust you do not mind following me on mines?" Len grimaced. "No, kind sir, we do not. Lead the way." As Llot mounted his stallion, Len found her hand engulfed by Boz's. He smiled at her as they walked into the night following the shadow of a horse lit white by the moon and stars above.
|
|
[WP] Once during everyone's life they can call upon a God for help. You see a drunk driver speeding towards you, and use yours. You wake up in a hospital, paralyzed. Besides you is Buddha, "I will teach you to forgive."
|
The horn of my car is blaring. Get back in your lane, idiot! Don't... You bastard, don't start swerving! Brakes... Reduce momentum... Dear gods, this is how I die... At the hands of a bloody idiot who should never been behind a wheel.
This is going to be astonishingly painful.
-----
A glowing figure approaches me. I want to wave a friendly hello but... I can't move. Casts? None I can see. Damnit. Spinal cord damage. Only logical solution. That bastard had crippled me. If I could get my hands around his neck... If I could move my hands...
"Relax. Deep breaths. In... and out...
"In... and out."
"I can't move much, you twit."
"Perhaps I am a bit foolish, but anyone - even I - can learn. I can't alleviate much of your suffering, but perhaps you can."
If I could slap him... "I am... I am paralyzed at the hands of an idiot driver. I can't alleviate anything right now."
"Just breath. Release your inner tension. Realize, please, that life is suffering. What you have gone through is awful. This can be worked around."
"I can't move, damnit. I can't work around anything thanks to that arse."
"He had his own reasons, and took an unpeaceful path. You do not have to."
"Not like I've got many choices right now."
"You can be at peace with yourself, and the world, and him."
Rage begins to boil in my blood, which is being pumped by a machine controlling my heart. "Why? Why should I forgive him?"
"Why shouldn't you? To be at peace with yourself, you cannot hold onto this anger. It is unhealthy. Take deep breaths, young one. You are not in the worst condition - you live, you breath, you suffer the agony of life like so many others."
"How is that f'n reassuring?!"
The figure sighs. "Because stressing out constantly isn't productive to anything. Because showing kindness makes you the 'bigger man'. Because you don't wan't to live a life full of hate. Because it is the right path to take."
This crazy god is making... far too much sense... "Alright. Alright. I delt with an idiot, and they were stupid, and now I'm here... And while I have qualms, I... I want to forgive him for those. But I still can't."
"You do not have to forget the pain, but you have to forgive the want to feel this emotional pain. Forgive this man in your mind, and release this tension in your life."
Deep breaths. Deep machine-assisted breaths. I will never walk again. I will deal with that. I am forced to become a cyborg of sorts just to stay alive. I will deal with that. The driver that ruined my body, I will not worry of him, and I will move on with my life and he his.
There isn't any reason to panic. There isn't any reason to stress out. I should just relax.
"I forgive."
"I'm glad you have calmed down." The figure moves closer from the window. "I'm Doctor Siddhartha. We were wondering if you'd like to try a new stem-cell treatment we have been working on to regenerate nervous tissues in the spinal column, but we needed you in a calm state before we could ask."
I chuckle. Just the god-send I needed. I start to cry. "Yes. Though, the other driver, is he alright?"
Siddhartha nods. "He is in treatment before his trial. Karma shall be resolved in the court."
"May I request some music in here?"
"Of course. What would you like?"
"I'd like some Nirvana."
"I shall set up for that. Rest well, young one."
I am at peace with the world.
|
I opened my eyes but closed them straight away.
*The light!!! Someone turn off the damn lights!!!* My head was hurting so much, I felt like I could divide it into a 100 parts, give them to 100 people and have all of them admitted in a hospital.
Hospital... I slowly tried to open my eyes again. The white light, the white walls, focusing on my ears gave me the sound of people talking to each other or groaning. Wait, the groaning was mine.
But I have no doubt now. I am in a hospital. What am I doing in a hospital? I was just walking down the road to my office. What happened?
"Child. Are you awake now?" A very deep, strong voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I am thankful for that. It was starting to hurt anyways. I look around and see an old man, who was nearly just bones and skin, wearing the traditional clothes, looking down at me. He had a faint hint of a smile on his face. It wasn't a smile because of a reason. It was a normal smile that a person just has if he is satisfied.
"Child, you must forgo the pain. Forgive, move on, and live your life. Do not tie yourself in hate. Forgive."
There was something in his voice, something I couldn't resist. It wasn't like I hated someone or was angry at someone. What harm would there be in forgiving for crimes I do not know about? Besides, if forgiving would help me forgo this pain, then I am all in.
"I forgive." My throat was parched, my tongue hurt. It was difficult but I managed.
The old man smiled and suddenly there was a bright light all around, then nothing.
I was in dark place. The pain was gone. I could finally think clearly. I was going to my office, when I saw a drunk driver speeding down the road towards me. In a panic, I used my wife to call upon a God's help. Just the morning I was reading about Buddha, so he was the first to come to my mind.
Ahhhhh!!! Now I understand. That old man was Buddha. He tricked me! He knew I would never forgive that f***er! I am still a virgin, damn it! I was scammed!
F*** YOU, GODS!!!
|
|
[WP] Once during everyone's life they can call upon a God for help. You see a drunk driver speeding towards you, and use yours. You wake up in a hospital, paralyzed. Besides you is Buddha, "I will teach you to forgive."
|
"Forgive me, but I think I chose the wrong God"
Buddha fades away, his words lingering in dead space
*I just talked shit to a god*
*Better call the wife*
"……Darlene I fucked up. We're out of favors from gods… Yeah yeah I'm alright… Paralyzed… Buddha… I know, heat of the moment… He was criss-cross-applesauce and all levitate-y… A car, speeding right towards me…… Let's just have another kid… I know, I know…… look Darls, I need to let you go; hospital phone time bullshit…"
There was no timer on the phone.
"You can visit if ya want… Okay I'll see you… Love you too… Bye."
I needed to scream, and that's exactly what I did.
|
The light was so bright it was hard to see, and the fact that I felt like I ran head first into a brick wall didn't really help either. I looked around. A few people, one of which I assumed was a doctor. I saw no familiar faces, apart from this one person. I knew I had seen him somewhere before, but I had forgotten his name. Before he gave me any more time to think he said "hello there, you may call me Buddha. I will teach you to forgive." I was really confused, and looked around to check if others were just as confused, but they didn't even seem to notice he was here. They were all looking at me. Then I realised something: the woman, with a few tears and a smile on her face, was holding me in her arms. The Gods had given me a second chance, but it wasn't the one I wanted.
First time writing, any feedback is appreciated!
|
|
[WP] When you die, all the people you have killed are waiting for you on the other side with revenge in mind. You thought you went through life never causing the death of another human, boy were you wrong.
|
The dead man sits, stunned by the thousands upon thousands of children massed before him. Some are older, probably teenagers. Many merely babies held in the arms of the older children. Most are just....kids.
"I...I don't understand."
One of the few adults stands close, glaring at the dead man. "It's not that complicated. We're all the people who died because of your choices. We're the ones you killed."
The man shakes his head. "But I never killed anyone!" He protests. "I was a doctor!"
The older members of the crowd laugh derisively. "Some doctor!" "Didn't he lose his license?" "Yeah, he sold us out! He traded our lives for money!"
The adult in front of the dead man leans close. "Listen, Andy. Most people who go through this do so because they need to, you know, to move on. Most people who face their victims, it's for a reconciliation of sorts. A way for both to start the healing process."
Andrew, the dead man, looks around at the massed souls, all people who apparently he killed. He swallows. "Most?"
The other man chuckles. "That only applies to those who have a chance for redemption. Ones who still may go on to whatever the better place is. Ones whose victims have moved on and learned to forgive them."
Andrew, the dead man, looks into the eyes of the thousands of people he killed. Thousands who died from his choices, and his greed. "You're the ones who've died before me. But there will be more, won't there?"
The other man laughs again. "That's the thing, Doctor Wakefield." The moniker is laced with scorn as he says it. "Most people kill in their lives, and then it's over. They can move on. But you? Preying upon the trust of others, lying to the world to convince them vaccines were dangerous, convincing so many people not to protect their children? People will be dying for your sins for decades to come." He stands up straight. "And you'll be here to see, and suffer at the hands of, every single one of them." He smiles a wolfish grin. "Seems like the most fitting punishment I can think of."
Andrew Wakefield, the dead man, the lying doctor, the man who traded his integrity and the lives of thousands of people who trusted him for a few measly bits of silver, wept to see the fruits of his sins. He wept for a very, very long time.
|
I awoke to find something rather bizarre come into my vision. As I looked up I could make out the shape of three blurry but distinct sihlouettes of people. Wait a minute I'm meant to be dead.. ...right? I clearly remembered choking to death on that honey covered cupcake.
But Of course. Nope. I realized someone just HAD to pull that Frankenstein shit on me. Ever heard of R.I.P ASSHOLES? Rest. In. Pieces. The dead ain't meant to come back!
When I felt I could walk I knew just what I had to do. I had to go over to where they were standing and demand they unstitch me. I don't want to be made of pieces. I wanted to be dead. Gone. My time is up - ffs I died!
So slowly I got up, taking care not to run (for fear it may cost me an arm and leg). Crossing the river I could now see the faces of those three people. Uhh wait. What the actual fuck?
And there they were.
Big-tits Bob, She-man Sheila and Will the Wiener. Great. And all staring at me with pitchforks in hand and a creepy smile that simultaneously rose up their faces.
"Good to see you... DEAD." They cackled as if part of some freaking borg hivemind.
"Not good to see you... DICKS.!" I retorted. "Now whatever the actual fuck you've done to me I demand you reverse it. NOW!"
"Sorry, but no. We could but that we like watching you suffer. I mean you're the guy that killed us after all.." they said in unison.
" This is your idea of retribution? I'm sorry Sheila dumped you Bob. But its not my fault you got depressed and got moobs, man. And Sheila I told you I was GAY. I'm *so sorry* you're so sexually confused and don't know how to take a hint. Also Will: I hate ya man. All you'd talk about is that ding dong of yours. Don't act so surprised that I broke up with ya."
In that moment I'd had enough. I thought - Fuck it. I'm out. I'd had enough of their shit. I didn't kill them they killed themselves. Those little fucks. In life they'd always tried to play the victim because they needed someone to blame their self-inflicted problems on. So what if I was Frankenstein? That didn't matter because they forgot one thing: I was made pieces. So that meant that I could still rest in pieces even if I was somewhat conscious until their retribution ended. It would just be a long rest. But for now... I knew I had to remove those rotting limbs so I could fulfill my dream.
|
|
[WP] When you die, all the people you have killed are waiting for you on the other side with revenge in mind. You thought you went through life never causing the death of another human, boy were you wrong.
|
I went in. A white room. No windows, no paintings or decorations, no nothing. A desk with two chairs. That was it.
I didn't trust this. I didn't trust this in the slightest. I decided to wait about seven minutes before I carefully sat down in one of the chairs.
Someone else entered the room. A little boy. He looked a bit startled. Only a matter of seconds later another child entered the room, followed by another.
After about two minutes, the whole room was filled with children, aged four to twelve.
"Hi," I started talking. All the kids stared at me with big puppy eyes. "do you know what is going on?" I continued, swallowed and clearing my throat.
About 15 seconds of dead silence. A small boy then sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk.
"Sir," He said with a cute high-pitched voice. "have you heard of the butterfly effect?"
...
I looked up and thought. Of course I knew about the butterfly effect. I was just going through my mind, thinking what I had ever done that would lead to this exact moment.
"Can I tell you a story?" The kid continued, before I could even think of a proper response to his question.
I quickly looked back at the kid striking my hand through my hair and checking my watch. Five thirty. Oh thank god. That's EXACTLY what we needed to know. Five thirty. I was warped into a room after dying, meeting about 100 kids that I might have killed becuase of some small mistake I had made at some point in my life, without knowing what the consequences were. Checking the time wasn't going to save me. Nothing was. I felt like breaking down and crying.
"On September 24th, 1999 you burned down an elementary school."
"What?" I stood up. "I have no memory of doing that at all!" I yelled, furiously breathing through my nose as my head started tilting. I felt nauseous.
"What in the love of god does this have to do with the butterly effect? Explain! Is this some kind of sick joke?" "Please just explai-
The boy interrupted my mad rambles by talking to me like some kind of businessman.
"Sir, is your name Steve Johnson?" The boy asked, as he went through a stack of papers.
"N- no! I have never heard of that name before!" I yelledback, through tears. I wiped sweat off my forehead and stuttered.
"I'm sorry, we must have connected to the wrong person. Our apologies. Have a nice day, uhm, I mean afterlife."
I was told to walk through the same door that the kids came through.
As I walked through, I ended up in a field. The field was full of flowers, plants and singing birds. A butterfly flew by my head.
Everything was alright.
Everything was good.
"I just can't believe it..."
"They actually fell for it." I said to myself as I layed down and stretched my legs.
|
There, on the other side, sat a familiar face. It wasn’t no ordinary person; made up of steam and clouds, he had a strange looking mask on his face. The mask had a permanent smile, and it was just as terrifying as the eyes. As I walk the long winded staircase to greet the man, I can’t help but think I’ve seen him somewhere.
“Hello, lady.” the man says. “My name is Comedy. Yours?” Suddenly, I know where I’ve seen him. It’s a person I haven’t seen in a long time. I had never killed someone once in my life except for this man, and it was purely by accident. I gulp.
“I think you know my name.” I say, whimpering.
“I don’t believe I do.” he says. “Could you remind me?”
“Amy.” I stutter. “Amy Schumer.”
|
|
[WP] Kid cereal is your guilty pleasure. You’ve been collecting the personal notes written for you in each box over the years. One day, your friend explains that everyone else receives toys, not personalized notes.
|
'You received personalised notes in your cereal boxes?' My friend asked, bewildered.
'I still do. What, do you not get the notes?'
'Mark, there have never been personal notes in cereal boxes. It's always been toys.' He says. I blink, trying to process this information.
'Maybe my parents just always put them in there when I wasn't looking.' I reply, trying to figure out some way to explain the situation to my befuddled mind.
'You said you still got the notes, though. Mark, this is serious. This means someone is opening your cereal boxes when you aren't looking, putting a note in that's very personal, and closing the boxes seamlessly.'
My mind is racing now. What he's inferring is that there is someone living in my own house, someone who's been living off of me, someone who has been leeching like a parasite off of me for years, without my knowledge, in my own house. My heart joins my mind in its efforts.
'The first thing we need to do is obvious,' my friend says. 'We need to call the police and tell them about this.'
So we do. I call 911 and tell them about the situation. Soon, a few officers come to my house and ask me to explain.
'You say there are personalised notes in your cereal boxes?'
'Yes, officer.'
'Let's take a look, Mark.'
I open the box of my cereal and dig around to find the note. This one says 'I know what you're trying to do.'
The officer blinks, looking slightly concerned, but I knew she was more worried than she looked. 'You'll need to evacuate the house, Mark.'
'Seriously? Can't you investigate the house with me in it?'
'Mark, this latest note seems very threatening. It would be safer for you to be outside of the house, where no one can get you.'
The officer escorts me to her car outside. I turn to look at my house before I have to be whisked away to the nearest police station.
I look at the attic window and I nearly faint. What I see is a face, very twisted, looking back at me.
|
Kid Einstein looked at me incredulously. “You’re screwing with me. You don’t get notes in cereal boxes, MostlyEinsteinPoems. You get decoder rings, or cheap stickers, or some code that gives you extra lives in a crappy Flash game.”
“No, seriously, I get notes. They’re handwritten and everything. Each one is different. I’ve been collecting them for YEARS! I’ve never gotten the same one twice.”
“Oh yeah? Show me a couple.”
I shrugged. “Fine, they’re back at my place. Come on.”
“I can’t. Not now, anyway. There’s a new boss starting at work and I’ve gotta make sure he doesn’t screw things up. I’ll drop by later.” Kid Einstein hopped on his moped and sped off toward the desert. I had never really learned much about his new job. Some kind of cushy office gig, I think.
I went back home and pulled out the box where I kept all the notes. Sometimes they were longer; other times they were just a few words. Occasionally they had water stains on them, like they’d been rained on, or someone had cried on them. I read through a few of my favorites from the past decade.
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Please, if you read this, I don’t know where I am. Some cereal boxing plant. He keeps the doors locked, and there are no windows. He’s moving me back and forth across unused maintenance closets. When the night shift starts, and the plant is empty enough for him to move me undetected, sometimes we pass boxes on a conveyor belt. That’s all I know about where I am in the complex. Call the police!*
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*He keeps moving me around. I lose track of time, but it must have been at least a month. Sometimes I can hear footsteps above me, but I can’t tell where I am in the plant now. No one can hear my screams. I’m worried he’s started to notice pages missing from the diary he gave me.*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*He finally told me how long its been. Two years. He’s had me trapped for two years in this hell. He says he can’t sneak in food like he used to. All I can eat is cereal off the line. It doesn’t fill me up, and leaves me hungry.*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*My eye. He opened the diary and saw where I was ripping the pages, and he said, ‘let’s see how well you write now’, and he cut out my eye. He says now we’re going to be a “family”. I don’t know what he’s planning.*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Ive given birth 2 3 child so far. Non hav mad it pas 2 days. I try 2 tel him that babies cant eat serial like grown-ups, but he nev listen. He just keep shovelings in Luky Charm until they stop brething. I havent had anything els to eat in yers. I fel so sik. I fel so tird. I thin this is th last not ican rite.*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I never did look into what those notes were for. Probably some kind of ARG. But I wouldn’t have been interested. They just do that gimmicky shit to make you buy more cereal.
|
|
[WP] Humanity spreads out to the stars but finds no life. Instead there are mysterious obelisks found on various worlds with the same message translating to: "flee this galaxy before it is too late."
|
We had not run.
It was never in our nature. Not really. Sure a few ships here and there, private concerns mostly, had fled. But when the Homefront Resolution was voted on in the federations first universal vote, the bulk of human citizens had voted. This was our home. We would not run.
From all reports it wasn't voyager that they found first. It wasn't curiosity. They didn't detect our nukes. It was a god dammed car. Don't ask why or how a god dammed production car got into the asteroid belt, but apparently it hit an old listening outpost. Jiggled a wire back into place. Shone like a god dammed beacon for all to see.
So they come. The surround us. Darkness blots out the stars. We have lost Alpha Centauri. We have lost the Europa and titan bases. We have lost outpost 17. But know something they don't know. We know who left the obelisks. We knew the second we saw celtic texts on Europa. We know what lay under stone henge. And we know what our ancestors did not. We know how to power it.
|
“Sir…” Julie’s voice crackles over the intercom. She wanted to say something, but stops. There is no need to, anyway. Her helmet-cam is transmitting her view as she speaks. A monolith in front of her, reaching to the glowing green sky above.
But it is not the structure that made her speechless, rather the message that is inscribed unto the glowing metallic structure, in plain simple English.
“Flee this galaxy, before it is too late.”
“Sergeant Williams, uhh, we note the obelisk and the message. Please return to your shuttle and return to the Nest,” Julie hears the command’s instructions back at her. She has heard of these obelisks before, from the logs and reports of previous exploratory missions, but actually seeing it up close? It is both awe-inspiring and scary.
“Affirmative, Nest command,” she responds, as her hand reaches to touch the message. A lone obelisk in the middle of a barren field, with no defining features, save for the message. So many questions, but like everyone else, she has not the slightest clue of how the obelisk came to be. Or who built it. Or how there is literally a similar structure in almost every habitable planet that humans have landed.
If her memory serves her right, the obelisk before her will be the 107th to have been found with the strange message. She shudders at the implication of the message, before turning away from the foreboding structure. Her room back at command ship feels like home now compared to this planet.
Julie turns away and begins making her way back to the shuttle. She is halfway through when her intercom crackles back to life.
“Julie…” the voice at the end whispers. Strange. Command has never called by her first name before. Julie stops in her tracks, the inside of her suit suddenly becoming cold.
“Yes Command?” Julie glances around her, before realizing that she was literally the only person on the planet. She may be the only living being as well.
There is no answer from the other end, only static.
“Command, I did not get the last message, can you repeat yourself?” Julie responds, before resuming her pace, at a quicker rate this time. She repeats herself a few more times over the intercom, but it seems that communication is cut off.
Maybe some natural interference, Julie tells herself. Not that it matters, anyway. A few more feet and she will be in the safety of her shuttle, flying back to the Nest. Julie turns off the intercom and breaks into a jog, only for the static to again blast out from her earpiece, followed by the voice.
“Do you want to know why you are asked to flee the galaxy?” the voice asks.
“This is not funny, Com-“ Julie tries to retort, but hole opens beneath her feet. Her last screams echo against the walls, audible to no one except herself and the voice.
-------
/r/dori_tales
|
|
[WP] Humanity spreads out to the stars but finds no life. Instead there are mysterious obelisks found on various worlds with the same message translating to: "flee this galaxy before it is too late."
|
We had not run.
It was never in our nature. Not really. Sure a few ships here and there, private concerns mostly, had fled. But when the Homefront Resolution was voted on in the federations first universal vote, the bulk of human citizens had voted. This was our home. We would not run.
From all reports it wasn't voyager that they found first. It wasn't curiosity. They didn't detect our nukes. It was a god dammed car. Don't ask why or how a god dammed production car got into the asteroid belt, but apparently it hit an old listening outpost. Jiggled a wire back into place. Shone like a god dammed beacon for all to see.
So they come. The surround us. Darkness blots out the stars. We have lost Alpha Centauri. We have lost the Europa and titan bases. We have lost outpost 17. But know something they don't know. We know who left the obelisks. We knew the second we saw celtic texts on Europa. We know what lay under stone henge. And we know what our ancestors did not. We know how to power it.
|
Dr. Zachary's radio static broke the silence after translating the obelisk, "Fuck me, another 'Sigma' world. What do you think it is?"
I sighed heavily, "I don't know, man. Ancient plague of a galaxy spanning civilization? Extra-galactic Hostile forces? Infighting? Who knows?"
"Well we should probably start figuring this shit out! All life on this rock is gone; vaporized. For all we know, we're next." Dr. Zachary said with a hint of panic beneath his over-compensated tough exterior.
"That's why we're out here assho-!"
"Enough you two, about done?" Cmdr. Huxley, 'Scarlett' interrupted.
"Yeah," I said fuming. "Heading back to the shuttle now."
"Hurry up, we're getting some weird sensor blips. I want to get out of here. I'm opening Jump, minus 10. Let's go, gentlemen!" Scarlett ordered.
Dr. Zachary, and I marched over barren rock, passed buildings that were once full of life on our way back to the landfall shuttle. Everything is dead on this poor planet. No, worse: it's simply gone. I would feel better if this world went Omega. *That* can be explained, wars, diseases, natural disasters destroy the entire ecosphere, at least that can be accounted for through stupidity or bad luck, and then there are always remnants of life: decay and organic material. An Omega world, the last throes of life on a world before it dies, but these Sigma planets with their weird obelisks are completely sterilized.
I swiveled into the pilot's seat and booted up the ignition sequence for planet burn while Dr. Zachary buckled in looking wearily out a side window. The shuttle rumbled, then blasted us through the sky towards the larger survey ship in orbit. Dr. Zachary made a disgusted sound in his helmet and muttered, "Grave diggers." That's what the local Terran Scientific Institute called our position. We're scientists, specifically exobiologists. We picked this assignment to find intelligent life, but all we've done is catalogue dead worlds.
A century ago when humanity discovered Jump a new era of hope ushered us into the galaxy. We had yet to make first contact and wondered what in Fermi's name was going on amongst the stars. Well, it turns out not much, humanity found a silent galaxy. Over a century of deep space exploration and we've yet to find living intelligent life. Some microbes, or undeveloped flora and fauna scattered around. A century of exploration only to discover we're increasingly alone.
|
|
[WP] Humanity spreads out to the stars but finds no life. Instead there are mysterious obelisks found on various worlds with the same message translating to: "flee this galaxy before it is too late."
|
We had not run.
It was never in our nature. Not really. Sure a few ships here and there, private concerns mostly, had fled. But when the Homefront Resolution was voted on in the federations first universal vote, the bulk of human citizens had voted. This was our home. We would not run.
From all reports it wasn't voyager that they found first. It wasn't curiosity. They didn't detect our nukes. It was a god dammed car. Don't ask why or how a god dammed production car got into the asteroid belt, but apparently it hit an old listening outpost. Jiggled a wire back into place. Shone like a god dammed beacon for all to see.
So they come. The surround us. Darkness blots out the stars. We have lost Alpha Centauri. We have lost the Europa and titan bases. We have lost outpost 17. But know something they don't know. We know who left the obelisks. We knew the second we saw celtic texts on Europa. We know what lay under stone henge. And we know what our ancestors did not. We know how to power it.
|
The towering stone they had come across was not unexpected. The Ominous warning was the same as all the others.
“Flee this Galaxy Before it’s too Late.... Cruelty has been redefined, it is alive, it will not relent.”
The scouts from earths Interstellar fleet had found a total of 305 obelisks thus far. This made 306. The Human Race had broken into a panic, fearing this unknown evil, as vague as it was ominous. I Didn’t panic, for I’m certain I’ve known this unrelenting cruelty. We humans were the unrelenting manifestation of cruelty that these countless civilizations were fleeing. Our need for self preservation and dominance has made cruelty a desirable trait for survival and evolution. Most civilizations evolved and survived solely through cooperation and group dependence. Humans show types of cruelty and selfishness that had been previously unseen by other cultures.
The Humans will never see past their own ego to realize that they are the purest evil known to existence. I’m sure of this, for I am not originally of earth. I will never leave the company of the human race, for the things I have witnessed have rendered me incapable of normal life in any other intelligent society. The things that I’ve done to survive have rendered me a felon in the remainder of the life-supporting universe. The crimes against universal law I have committed have earned me praise and respect amongst the humans. I’ve gotten a taste of their cruelty, and I’ve emerged victorious.
Dominance is rewarding, power is unforgettable. The human race is cruel but it’s raw. The strong survive and the weak are defeated and stripped of their resources. To the victor go the spoils, and to the spoils go Victor.
Yours Cruelly,
Victor Demas
|
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
""You get out there and you make us proud!"
That was the last thing I ever heard from another human. The rockets had been automated by then, sort of like self-driving cars. I received this final transmission as the bombs fell in waves, ravaging the Earth I once called home. I watched the live video feed from the isolated capsule that was now my dwelling on the harsh surface of Mars. The devastation was unbelievable. Eventually, the feed ceased.
It's been 25 years. 25 horrible, lonely years."
As he wrote this chilling passage in his diary, he heard a knock on the door. A resounding "thump-thump-thump". The jaded astronaut donned an oxygen mask, and cautiously meandered over to the door. He opened it to be greeted by a man in a tuxedo, holding a Bible.
"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?"
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
"Who's there?"
"The SpaceX car driver from 50 years ago."
"Wait, I thought you would be only a model."
"Hah, you thought so. Your suit is the second version. Mine is the first version."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Drive to the second earth. With my space car. Haven't you read 33.1? It states when a nuclear war break out, the safest planet shall be colonized."
"Umm... yeah, I've read it." (He skipped everything, except 1, 2 and 61 + 61.1)
This, humans survived a long time... but as history will repeat when people don't avoid it deliberately, the second earth has gone just like the first earth. This way, about two million years later, the second time humans thought they first visited the moon. However, due to the nuclear war, technology was always lost and so its preversation of human's history. Because of this, 'a' moon was visited for the first time... the third time.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
""You get out there and you make us proud!"
That was the last thing I ever heard from another human. The rockets had been automated by then, sort of like self-driving cars. I received this final transmission as the bombs fell in waves, ravaging the Earth I once called home. I watched the live video feed from the isolated capsule that was now my dwelling on the harsh surface of Mars. The devastation was unbelievable. Eventually, the feed ceased.
It's been 25 years. 25 horrible, lonely years."
As he wrote this chilling passage in his diary, he heard a knock on the door. A resounding "thump-thump-thump". The jaded astronaut donned an oxygen mask, and cautiously meandered over to the door. He opened it to be greeted by a man in a tuxedo, holding a Bible.
"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?"
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
The knock came again. I was frozen with fear, unsure what could be out there. Nervously, I pressed the door buzzer, turning on the built in speaker, a long redundant failsafe that had to exist.
"he-he-hello?" I asked, my nervous voice cracking and shooting up 3 octaves.
"Hello, is me, Ivan, your Russian neighbor. Do you have cup of sugar I can borrow?"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
*Knock Knock*
I felt my head spin for a moment "What the...?" i said to myself in a quiet, shocked voice...
I stood up, and i heard the knock again, louder...
My heart started to beat very quickly, i didn't have anything to protect myself with... and it could be any...thing.
As i opened the door, i saw a very bright light, and my eyes instinctively closed, then, i heard it, a voice...
"Stop smoking weed and get your ass out"
It was Steve.
Then i remembered" Of course it's not a fucking alien, i'm not going to build an entire fucking colony by myself"
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
I awake to the sound of knocking at the door.
"Strange," I think "it's not Tuesday is it?".
As I walk across the habitat to the door, I stub my toe on the rover I've been trying to repair.
Damn thing just won't pickup any sat signals.
I enter the airlock, making sure to check the "Go" light is on to indicate a good seal. Thing has been on the blink for days now, it's not on. I give it a quick couple of flicks and it lights up. Like all things in this hab it's on my ever growing to-do list to fix.
I open the outer door, explosive decompression flings me across the Martian landscape, the rover follows not far behind me. She always was a clingy one.
As the air is sucked from my lungs and my body starts to rapidly cool I think of all the ways I've thought of dying here, alone, the last man in the universe. "This isn't so bad" I groggily think to myself.
"Still, I wonder who was at the door?".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
I awake to the sound of knocking at the door.
"Strange," I think "it's not Tuesday is it?".
As I walk across the habitat to the door, I stub my toe on the rover I've been trying to repair.
Damn thing just won't pickup any sat signals.
I enter the airlock, making sure to check the "Go" light is on to indicate a good seal. Thing has been on the blink for days now, it's not on. I give it a quick couple of flicks and it lights up. Like all things in this hab it's on my ever growing to-do list to fix.
I open the outer door, explosive decompression flings me across the Martian landscape, the rover follows not far behind me. She always was a clingy one.
As the air is sucked from my lungs and my body starts to rapidly cool I think of all the ways I've thought of dying here, alone, the last man in the universe. "This isn't so bad" I groggily think to myself.
"Still, I wonder who was at the door?".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
I awake to the sound of knocking at the door.
"Strange," I think "it's not Tuesday is it?".
As I walk across the habitat to the door, I stub my toe on the rover I've been trying to repair.
Damn thing just won't pickup any sat signals.
I enter the airlock, making sure to check the "Go" light is on to indicate a good seal. Thing has been on the blink for days now, it's not on. I give it a quick couple of flicks and it lights up. Like all things in this hab it's on my ever growing to-do list to fix.
I open the outer door, explosive decompression flings me across the Martian landscape, the rover follows not far behind me. She always was a clingy one.
As the air is sucked from my lungs and my body starts to rapidly cool I think of all the ways I've thought of dying here, alone, the last man in the universe. "This isn't so bad" I groggily think to myself.
"Still, I wonder who was at the door?".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
I awake to the sound of knocking at the door.
"Strange," I think "it's not Tuesday is it?".
As I walk across the habitat to the door, I stub my toe on the rover I've been trying to repair.
Damn thing just won't pickup any sat signals.
I enter the airlock, making sure to check the "Go" light is on to indicate a good seal. Thing has been on the blink for days now, it's not on. I give it a quick couple of flicks and it lights up. Like all things in this hab it's on my ever growing to-do list to fix.
I open the outer door, explosive decompression flings me across the Martian landscape, the rover follows not far behind me. She always was a clingy one.
As the air is sucked from my lungs and my body starts to rapidly cool I think of all the ways I've thought of dying here, alone, the last man in the universe. "This isn't so bad" I groggily think to myself.
"Still, I wonder who was at the door?".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
Fuck Elon Musk.
That's the thought I had every day. That mother fucker had sent me to Mars a mere three days before Russia & the US got into a thermo-nuclear war.
Of course I got blamed. I had said "Fuck You. Fuck you from Mars" as my first words upon arriving. They thought I started the war.
After watching all communication on Earth die, I revisited the sock drawer option, but of course Elon didn't include my gun in my carryon bag. So here I sat waiting. I had more food than I could ever eat. I had the entirety of the world's library at my finger tips.
I was bored out of my fucking skull...
Things got interesting about 6 months in, when a car crashed into one of the bunkers. I had no idea why there was a Tesla in space, but at least it caused a little excitement. How the fuck does someone crash a car into Mars?
As I was examining the car I realized there was a body in the trunk. Fuck it. I was not going to bury a body on Mars. I was too old to be digging ditches in a space suit. So I did the next best thing. I launched it out the side door. Great welcome mat.
And then nothing happened. Nothing happened for twenty-four years, eight months, and three days. Not a damn thing. I got up, ate a frozen pizza, watched the Simpons and Family Guy, ate another pizza, counted my cash, and went to bed.
That was when I heard a knock.
At first I figured it was a sandstorm, just blowing debris against the door. Then I heard the "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."
Dafuq?
I swapped the main screen from the Real Housewifes to the door. There was a guy there and he was pushing my buzzer.
Mother Fucker, I didn't have time for this shit. You'd think the welcome mat that said "Fuck you" and the corpse would have been a hint.
Fuck it, the wives could wait. I cycled the outer airlock and put on my pants.
When I got to the door there was a guy in a Space-X outfit. It looked a lot like mine but cleaner. I thought I had finally lost it. How the fuck was there a dude there.
"Get up, you're late for the barbecue." I recognized that voice. How could I forget it. It was the mofo who sent me here...
My guess was confirmed when he raised his blast shield. Sure as hell, the man in the suit had a chin like a shovel, and dark hair peppered with gray. Elon "mother fucker" Musk was at my door again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/743mkp/wp_your_lifes_gone_to_shit_your_girlfriend_broke/
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
Fuck Elon Musk.
That's the thought I had every day. That mother fucker had sent me to Mars a mere three days before Russia & the US got into a thermo-nuclear war.
Of course I got blamed. I had said "Fuck You. Fuck you from Mars" as my first words upon arriving. They thought I started the war.
After watching all communication on Earth die, I revisited the sock drawer option, but of course Elon didn't include my gun in my carryon bag. So here I sat waiting. I had more food than I could ever eat. I had the entirety of the world's library at my finger tips.
I was bored out of my fucking skull...
Things got interesting about 6 months in, when a car crashed into one of the bunkers. I had no idea why there was a Tesla in space, but at least it caused a little excitement. How the fuck does someone crash a car into Mars?
As I was examining the car I realized there was a body in the trunk. Fuck it. I was not going to bury a body on Mars. I was too old to be digging ditches in a space suit. So I did the next best thing. I launched it out the side door. Great welcome mat.
And then nothing happened. Nothing happened for twenty-four years, eight months, and three days. Not a damn thing. I got up, ate a frozen pizza, watched the Simpons and Family Guy, ate another pizza, counted my cash, and went to bed.
That was when I heard a knock.
At first I figured it was a sandstorm, just blowing debris against the door. Then I heard the "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."
Dafuq?
I swapped the main screen from the Real Housewifes to the door. There was a guy there and he was pushing my buzzer.
Mother Fucker, I didn't have time for this shit. You'd think the welcome mat that said "Fuck you" and the corpse would have been a hint.
Fuck it, the wives could wait. I cycled the outer airlock and put on my pants.
When I got to the door there was a guy in a Space-X outfit. It looked a lot like mine but cleaner. I thought I had finally lost it. How the fuck was there a dude there.
"Get up, you're late for the barbecue." I recognized that voice. How could I forget it. It was the mofo who sent me here...
My guess was confirmed when he raised his blast shield. Sure as hell, the man in the suit had a chin like a shovel, and dark hair peppered with gray. Elon "mother fucker" Musk was at my door again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/743mkp/wp_your_lifes_gone_to_shit_your_girlfriend_broke/
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
Fuck Elon Musk.
That's the thought I had every day. That mother fucker had sent me to Mars a mere three days before Russia & the US got into a thermo-nuclear war.
Of course I got blamed. I had said "Fuck You. Fuck you from Mars" as my first words upon arriving. They thought I started the war.
After watching all communication on Earth die, I revisited the sock drawer option, but of course Elon didn't include my gun in my carryon bag. So here I sat waiting. I had more food than I could ever eat. I had the entirety of the world's library at my finger tips.
I was bored out of my fucking skull...
Things got interesting about 6 months in, when a car crashed into one of the bunkers. I had no idea why there was a Tesla in space, but at least it caused a little excitement. How the fuck does someone crash a car into Mars?
As I was examining the car I realized there was a body in the trunk. Fuck it. I was not going to bury a body on Mars. I was too old to be digging ditches in a space suit. So I did the next best thing. I launched it out the side door. Great welcome mat.
And then nothing happened. Nothing happened for twenty-four years, eight months, and three days. Not a damn thing. I got up, ate a frozen pizza, watched the Simpons and Family Guy, ate another pizza, counted my cash, and went to bed.
That was when I heard a knock.
At first I figured it was a sandstorm, just blowing debris against the door. Then I heard the "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."
Dafuq?
I swapped the main screen from the Real Housewifes to the door. There was a guy there and he was pushing my buzzer.
Mother Fucker, I didn't have time for this shit. You'd think the welcome mat that said "Fuck you" and the corpse would have been a hint.
Fuck it, the wives could wait. I cycled the outer airlock and put on my pants.
When I got to the door there was a guy in a Space-X outfit. It looked a lot like mine but cleaner. I thought I had finally lost it. How the fuck was there a dude there.
"Get up, you're late for the barbecue." I recognized that voice. How could I forget it. It was the mofo who sent me here...
My guess was confirmed when he raised his blast shield. Sure as hell, the man in the suit had a chin like a shovel, and dark hair peppered with gray. Elon "mother fucker" Musk was at my door again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/743mkp/wp_your_lifes_gone_to_shit_your_girlfriend_broke/
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
Fuck Elon Musk.
That's the thought I had every day. That mother fucker had sent me to Mars a mere three days before Russia & the US got into a thermo-nuclear war.
Of course I got blamed. I had said "Fuck You. Fuck you from Mars" as my first words upon arriving. They thought I started the war.
After watching all communication on Earth die, I revisited the sock drawer option, but of course Elon didn't include my gun in my carryon bag. So here I sat waiting. I had more food than I could ever eat. I had the entirety of the world's library at my finger tips.
I was bored out of my fucking skull...
Things got interesting about 6 months in, when a car crashed into one of the bunkers. I had no idea why there was a Tesla in space, but at least it caused a little excitement. How the fuck does someone crash a car into Mars?
As I was examining the car I realized there was a body in the trunk. Fuck it. I was not going to bury a body on Mars. I was too old to be digging ditches in a space suit. So I did the next best thing. I launched it out the side door. Great welcome mat.
And then nothing happened. Nothing happened for twenty-four years, eight months, and three days. Not a damn thing. I got up, ate a frozen pizza, watched the Simpons and Family Guy, ate another pizza, counted my cash, and went to bed.
That was when I heard a knock.
At first I figured it was a sandstorm, just blowing debris against the door. Then I heard the "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."
Dafuq?
I swapped the main screen from the Real Housewifes to the door. There was a guy there and he was pushing my buzzer.
Mother Fucker, I didn't have time for this shit. You'd think the welcome mat that said "Fuck you" and the corpse would have been a hint.
Fuck it, the wives could wait. I cycled the outer airlock and put on my pants.
When I got to the door there was a guy in a Space-X outfit. It looked a lot like mine but cleaner. I thought I had finally lost it. How the fuck was there a dude there.
"Get up, you're late for the barbecue." I recognized that voice. How could I forget it. It was the mofo who sent me here...
My guess was confirmed when he raised his blast shield. Sure as hell, the man in the suit had a chin like a shovel, and dark hair peppered with gray. Elon "mother fucker" Musk was at my door again.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/743mkp/wp_your_lifes_gone_to_shit_your_girlfriend_broke/
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
"*Ding-ding* - Current mission time 0700. Good morning, Mer. It's a beautiful morning on Mars; mission sol eight thousand, nine hundred seventy-two. No incoming messages currently queued. Martian weather forecast for the Sinus Meridiani region calls for a high of 20° Celsius and a low of -55°. A sandstorm is incoming, ETA two days. Current supplies of--"
"Thank you, Exo." I thought for a moment. "Exo, what's the current date back home?"
"Current time in Hawthorne, California is 0937, 15 June, 2090."
2090... I haven't asked for the time back home in over two Earth years. That means it's been...let's see...aw, hell, that's why we have computers, right? "Exo, how long since last contact from Earth?"
"Last transmission received eight thousand, eight hundred eighty-five sols ago. Message was from--"
"Thank you, Exo. How long is that in Earth years?"
"Twenty-four years, three hundred sixty-three days on Earth have passed in that time."
Twenty-five years. Almost to the day. Glad I asked this morning. I'm going to throw the craziest, most ridiculous party, day after tomorrow. Maybe I'll even eat Jackson's freeze-dried cake. I'll listen to loud music and everything. Really make the neighbors complain.
*Snort. The neighbors. If only.* Everybody in Hawthorne has been dead for a quarter century at this point. My closest "neighbor" is probably on some distant solar system halfway across the galaxy. There's nobody on Earth, and my crew all died within a few months of Earth's last message, for one reason or another.
I thought about suicide for a while. Being the only human left in...well, all of existence...it'll do that to you. But, I dunno. I just can't seem to make myself do it. We've got the cyanide capsules and everything, I just can't shake the feeling that there's somehow some kind of hope.
Shuffling to the kitchen, I pour out the next packet of soy protein. Again. It's pretty much all that's left of this harvest; maybe next time around I'll have some cornmeal, but I'm not holding my breath. Eating the same meal for 8,885 sols straight might change my mind about that suicide. And it's not like I have any neighbors I can go borrow a cup of sugar from. So, rehydrated soy protein it is.
At first, when I heard the noise, I thought for sure that I was just hearing an echo from the other side of the module while I was stirring in the metal bowl. I stopped stirring and put a spoonful in my mouth right as the noise happened again.
Was that...knocking?
I made my way to the door, trembling a little bit. My last trip through that door had been to re-angle the solar panels for spring, and I hadn't expected to go back out until autumn. Yet here it was.
The pitted, sandblasted glass was tough to look through - not much reason to keep it clean, really - but I could distinctly see the outline of two SpaceX helmets on the other side of the glass. The helmets were a little bit different than my own - light blue, for one thing, instead of white - but the logo was unmistakable.
So I cycled the airlock. As oxygen filled the chamber, the astronauts inside checked their O2 sensors, and then reached up to pull the helmets from their heads. As identical strands of hair fell free from each helmet, we peered through the airlock porthole at one another. They looked at me with a smirk I was very familiar with. I looked at them dumbfounded.
Both of them were *me*.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
"*Ding-ding* - Current mission time 0700. Good morning, Mer. It's a beautiful morning on Mars; mission sol eight thousand, nine hundred seventy-two. No incoming messages currently queued. Martian weather forecast for the Sinus Meridiani region calls for a high of 20° Celsius and a low of -55°. A sandstorm is incoming, ETA two days. Current supplies of--"
"Thank you, Exo." I thought for a moment. "Exo, what's the current date back home?"
"Current time in Hawthorne, California is 0937, 15 June, 2090."
2090... I haven't asked for the time back home in over two Earth years. That means it's been...let's see...aw, hell, that's why we have computers, right? "Exo, how long since last contact from Earth?"
"Last transmission received eight thousand, eight hundred eighty-five sols ago. Message was from--"
"Thank you, Exo. How long is that in Earth years?"
"Twenty-four years, three hundred sixty-three days on Earth have passed in that time."
Twenty-five years. Almost to the day. Glad I asked this morning. I'm going to throw the craziest, most ridiculous party, day after tomorrow. Maybe I'll even eat Jackson's freeze-dried cake. I'll listen to loud music and everything. Really make the neighbors complain.
*Snort. The neighbors. If only.* Everybody in Hawthorne has been dead for a quarter century at this point. My closest "neighbor" is probably on some distant solar system halfway across the galaxy. There's nobody on Earth, and my crew all died within a few months of Earth's last message, for one reason or another.
I thought about suicide for a while. Being the only human left in...well, all of existence...it'll do that to you. But, I dunno. I just can't seem to make myself do it. We've got the cyanide capsules and everything, I just can't shake the feeling that there's somehow some kind of hope.
Shuffling to the kitchen, I pour out the next packet of soy protein. Again. It's pretty much all that's left of this harvest; maybe next time around I'll have some cornmeal, but I'm not holding my breath. Eating the same meal for 8,885 sols straight might change my mind about that suicide. And it's not like I have any neighbors I can go borrow a cup of sugar from. So, rehydrated soy protein it is.
At first, when I heard the noise, I thought for sure that I was just hearing an echo from the other side of the module while I was stirring in the metal bowl. I stopped stirring and put a spoonful in my mouth right as the noise happened again.
Was that...knocking?
I made my way to the door, trembling a little bit. My last trip through that door had been to re-angle the solar panels for spring, and I hadn't expected to go back out until autumn. Yet here it was.
The pitted, sandblasted glass was tough to look through - not much reason to keep it clean, really - but I could distinctly see the outline of two SpaceX helmets on the other side of the glass. The helmets were a little bit different than my own - light blue, for one thing, instead of white - but the logo was unmistakable.
So I cycled the airlock. As oxygen filled the chamber, the astronauts inside checked their O2 sensors, and then reached up to pull the helmets from their heads. As identical strands of hair fell free from each helmet, we peered through the airlock porthole at one another. They looked at me with a smirk I was very familiar with. I looked at them dumbfounded.
Both of them were *me*.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
"*Ding-ding* - Current mission time 0700. Good morning, Mer. It's a beautiful morning on Mars; mission sol eight thousand, nine hundred seventy-two. No incoming messages currently queued. Martian weather forecast for the Sinus Meridiani region calls for a high of 20° Celsius and a low of -55°. A sandstorm is incoming, ETA two days. Current supplies of--"
"Thank you, Exo." I thought for a moment. "Exo, what's the current date back home?"
"Current time in Hawthorne, California is 0937, 15 June, 2090."
2090... I haven't asked for the time back home in over two Earth years. That means it's been...let's see...aw, hell, that's why we have computers, right? "Exo, how long since last contact from Earth?"
"Last transmission received eight thousand, eight hundred eighty-five sols ago. Message was from--"
"Thank you, Exo. How long is that in Earth years?"
"Twenty-four years, three hundred sixty-three days on Earth have passed in that time."
Twenty-five years. Almost to the day. Glad I asked this morning. I'm going to throw the craziest, most ridiculous party, day after tomorrow. Maybe I'll even eat Jackson's freeze-dried cake. I'll listen to loud music and everything. Really make the neighbors complain.
*Snort. The neighbors. If only.* Everybody in Hawthorne has been dead for a quarter century at this point. My closest "neighbor" is probably on some distant solar system halfway across the galaxy. There's nobody on Earth, and my crew all died within a few months of Earth's last message, for one reason or another.
I thought about suicide for a while. Being the only human left in...well, all of existence...it'll do that to you. But, I dunno. I just can't seem to make myself do it. We've got the cyanide capsules and everything, I just can't shake the feeling that there's somehow some kind of hope.
Shuffling to the kitchen, I pour out the next packet of soy protein. Again. It's pretty much all that's left of this harvest; maybe next time around I'll have some cornmeal, but I'm not holding my breath. Eating the same meal for 8,885 sols straight might change my mind about that suicide. And it's not like I have any neighbors I can go borrow a cup of sugar from. So, rehydrated soy protein it is.
At first, when I heard the noise, I thought for sure that I was just hearing an echo from the other side of the module while I was stirring in the metal bowl. I stopped stirring and put a spoonful in my mouth right as the noise happened again.
Was that...knocking?
I made my way to the door, trembling a little bit. My last trip through that door had been to re-angle the solar panels for spring, and I hadn't expected to go back out until autumn. Yet here it was.
The pitted, sandblasted glass was tough to look through - not much reason to keep it clean, really - but I could distinctly see the outline of two SpaceX helmets on the other side of the glass. The helmets were a little bit different than my own - light blue, for one thing, instead of white - but the logo was unmistakable.
So I cycled the airlock. As oxygen filled the chamber, the astronauts inside checked their O2 sensors, and then reached up to pull the helmets from their heads. As identical strands of hair fell free from each helmet, we peered through the airlock porthole at one another. They looked at me with a smirk I was very familiar with. I looked at them dumbfounded.
Both of them were *me*.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
"*Ding-ding* - Current mission time 0700. Good morning, Mer. It's a beautiful morning on Mars; mission sol eight thousand, nine hundred seventy-two. No incoming messages currently queued. Martian weather forecast for the Sinus Meridiani region calls for a high of 20° Celsius and a low of -55°. A sandstorm is incoming, ETA two days. Current supplies of--"
"Thank you, Exo." I thought for a moment. "Exo, what's the current date back home?"
"Current time in Hawthorne, California is 0937, 15 June, 2090."
2090... I haven't asked for the time back home in over two Earth years. That means it's been...let's see...aw, hell, that's why we have computers, right? "Exo, how long since last contact from Earth?"
"Last transmission received eight thousand, eight hundred eighty-five sols ago. Message was from--"
"Thank you, Exo. How long is that in Earth years?"
"Twenty-four years, three hundred sixty-three days on Earth have passed in that time."
Twenty-five years. Almost to the day. Glad I asked this morning. I'm going to throw the craziest, most ridiculous party, day after tomorrow. Maybe I'll even eat Jackson's freeze-dried cake. I'll listen to loud music and everything. Really make the neighbors complain.
*Snort. The neighbors. If only.* Everybody in Hawthorne has been dead for a quarter century at this point. My closest "neighbor" is probably on some distant solar system halfway across the galaxy. There's nobody on Earth, and my crew all died within a few months of Earth's last message, for one reason or another.
I thought about suicide for a while. Being the only human left in...well, all of existence...it'll do that to you. But, I dunno. I just can't seem to make myself do it. We've got the cyanide capsules and everything, I just can't shake the feeling that there's somehow some kind of hope.
Shuffling to the kitchen, I pour out the next packet of soy protein. Again. It's pretty much all that's left of this harvest; maybe next time around I'll have some cornmeal, but I'm not holding my breath. Eating the same meal for 8,885 sols straight might change my mind about that suicide. And it's not like I have any neighbors I can go borrow a cup of sugar from. So, rehydrated soy protein it is.
At first, when I heard the noise, I thought for sure that I was just hearing an echo from the other side of the module while I was stirring in the metal bowl. I stopped stirring and put a spoonful in my mouth right as the noise happened again.
Was that...knocking?
I made my way to the door, trembling a little bit. My last trip through that door had been to re-angle the solar panels for spring, and I hadn't expected to go back out until autumn. Yet here it was.
The pitted, sandblasted glass was tough to look through - not much reason to keep it clean, really - but I could distinctly see the outline of two SpaceX helmets on the other side of the glass. The helmets were a little bit different than my own - light blue, for one thing, instead of white - but the logo was unmistakable.
So I cycled the airlock. As oxygen filled the chamber, the astronauts inside checked their O2 sensors, and then reached up to pull the helmets from their heads. As identical strands of hair fell free from each helmet, we peered through the airlock porthole at one another. They looked at me with a smirk I was very familiar with. I looked at them dumbfounded.
Both of them were *me*.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
I never thought I’d see the day, the next group had just arrived. Being the leading earth to mars coordinating officer was supposed to be a difficult job: maintaining a steady link between our colony and base command. But that all changed when bright lights spread across our former home.
It was quite frightening for us as you can imagine. But what added to it was the level of vulnerability that lied ahead of us. I remember the last contact we had as I know the difference between night and day; please tell the helm that a 3 degree change in course is necessary to avoid a newly discovered patch of micrometeorites, please stand by for further instruction. The further instruction never arrived. At first I thought we might have just lost contact for a few minutes. It was actually quite typical, I would write an EVA notice to the repair and maintenance department requesting an antenna inspection and would just ask Beijing to repeat the order(because this was an international project, we would rotate between countries when communicating: Houston, Beijing, Quebec, Bangalore, etc.). I was just about to press send when captain Lonter called me to his station.
He looked askance and wanted to know “what the hell was going on?” I told him that we had just lost contact and it was no big deal, routine I think I remember saying. He responded by saying, “no, not that, the other thing. What the fuck happened to base command?” He never cursed, well apart from then, he always said that we were professionals and needed to be as serious as possible in order for our mission to succeed, it was even odd when he said hell. God bless him, his poor heart couldn’t take the news when it finally set in. I asked what he meant by what happened and he said that there were strange reports from our satellite stations in the in between stable areas between mars and earth, half of them would have similar trajectories and velocities of earth, the other half for mars. I told him that the last thing that I heard from base was the trajectory change and other than that I was just as clueless as captain. He responded by telling me that he thinks that my may be very different from now on.
We waited for what seemed like hours until his second mate knocked on the door and was called in. Shepherd walked in with his head hung and tears on his cheeks. “It’s gone.” “Excuse me?” responded captain. “It’s all gone!” Screamed Shepherd, his legs shook and his eyes were red with tears. I tried to sit him down to explain but he just stood there and whispered, “as of 0230 hours along the Greenwich meridian multiple reports came of detonation of nuclear armaments and weapons of mass destruction.” His words seemed to freeze in the air and turned my skin to goosebumps. “Along with nuclear, most governments also used their chemical arsenals against populated civilian targets.” Jesus, I never thought that I would have to hope that my parents died in a mushroom cloud because the alternative is chlorine and nerve gas. “Any safe cities?” “Wouldn’t matter,” I butted in, “Even if a city wasn’t targeted, we wouldn’t be able to communicate with them anyway. If they survive the riots and looting.” Lonter was disgusted, Shepherd was weeping and I was in shock.
We were only five days out when it happened, we lived by five short days. For the rest of the trip my job changed to coordinating with the satellite stations to either form into a major space station or join us on the trip. It took more time but it was well worth the lives. The space station that formed was named the Renaissance and eventually migrated to Phobos to be closer to us. There were a couple disputes and instances of infighting in our crew when we learned that the confederation (China , Russia, and some zone of influence countries) started the fight against NATO. I tried to be impartial, I mainly just became a recluse. The infighting wasn’t that bad but there was one death, an innocent little Russian agri-researcher got shoved into an airlock. I couldn’t imagine such savagery could occur but alas. We stopped wearing our SpaceX uniforms, we didn’t see the point anymore; instead we adopted white t-shirts with handmade patches depicting the earth.
Lonter decided that our mission was cancelled shortly before he died. It saddened me that he couldn’t even step on the soul he worked so hard to get to. Shepherd agreed when he took command, creating a colony and a mining station would be too much without assistance. On the first day on our new home, Shepherd called a meeting and established a new democracy of the red planet. He was unanimously voted into power. His impeachment was much more difficult of a vote (he thought after he was in that term limits were no longer necessary).
All of that happened years ago, my life had moved on and I always remembered but I tried to make it take up less of my memory. That changed when I answered the door. The man introduced himself as captain Glenn of the Second Chance, I could barely speak. “Why did you come to me?” His answer seemed logical, “we came from earth, you are the earth/ mars coordinator.” I chuckled and let him in.
His hair was thin and seemed almost ghostly in appearance. He explained that after day zero all was thought to be lost. Almost all data infrastructure had been destroyed; power lines, antennas, anything and everything was fried to all hell. He saw the confusion on my face. “It was a long 25 years but we managed to finish one of the resupply missions for the satellite stations, we had to cut our thrusters almost immediately after leaving earth orbit but we managed to float here luckily enough.” I could hardly imagine the struggles he had been through. “Originally the plan was just to go to the satellite stations but they weren’t there so we just kept going.”
I called the medical officer in our ‘town’ to get the newcomers checked out but she was already hard at work. She had never seen so many health issues in anyone. Various cancers, anemias, bone mass loss, constant presence of blood in the lungs, malnourishment... it was a wonder they stayed alive. We asked them how they survived this long and the only answer they gave was their will to live simply wouldn’t let them die. And that they didn’t.
There were rumors of new governments popping up in South America (not as many bombs hit there), but most were only rumors. I remember playing the fallout games as a kid and all sorts of imagining of what I would do but it doesn’t even compare to the misery they went through.
One issue was space, we had a very stable population that only grew slowly but we just got an extra thirty people in one day; I’ve never seen anyone build housing that quickly. We all worked day and night to get the newcomers situated. A couple of them passed after trying to live in our dome for a couple days but we transitioned the living 26 of them successfully. People constantly questioned the newcomers on life after destruction on a biblical scale, they all said that those were issues for yesterday but it is now today.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
I never thought I’d see the day, the next group had just arrived. Being the leading earth to mars coordinating officer was supposed to be a difficult job: maintaining a steady link between our colony and base command. But that all changed when bright lights spread across our former home.
It was quite frightening for us as you can imagine. But what added to it was the level of vulnerability that lied ahead of us. I remember the last contact we had as I know the difference between night and day; please tell the helm that a 3 degree change in course is necessary to avoid a newly discovered patch of micrometeorites, please stand by for further instruction. The further instruction never arrived. At first I thought we might have just lost contact for a few minutes. It was actually quite typical, I would write an EVA notice to the repair and maintenance department requesting an antenna inspection and would just ask Beijing to repeat the order(because this was an international project, we would rotate between countries when communicating: Houston, Beijing, Quebec, Bangalore, etc.). I was just about to press send when captain Lonter called me to his station.
He looked askance and wanted to know “what the hell was going on?” I told him that we had just lost contact and it was no big deal, routine I think I remember saying. He responded by saying, “no, not that, the other thing. What the fuck happened to base command?” He never cursed, well apart from then, he always said that we were professionals and needed to be as serious as possible in order for our mission to succeed, it was even odd when he said hell. God bless him, his poor heart couldn’t take the news when it finally set in. I asked what he meant by what happened and he said that there were strange reports from our satellite stations in the in between stable areas between mars and earth, half of them would have similar trajectories and velocities of earth, the other half for mars. I told him that the last thing that I heard from base was the trajectory change and other than that I was just as clueless as captain. He responded by telling me that he thinks that my may be very different from now on.
We waited for what seemed like hours until his second mate knocked on the door and was called in. Shepherd walked in with his head hung and tears on his cheeks. “It’s gone.” “Excuse me?” responded captain. “It’s all gone!” Screamed Shepherd, his legs shook and his eyes were red with tears. I tried to sit him down to explain but he just stood there and whispered, “as of 0230 hours along the Greenwich meridian multiple reports came of detonation of nuclear armaments and weapons of mass destruction.” His words seemed to freeze in the air and turned my skin to goosebumps. “Along with nuclear, most governments also used their chemical arsenals against populated civilian targets.” Jesus, I never thought that I would have to hope that my parents died in a mushroom cloud because the alternative is chlorine and nerve gas. “Any safe cities?” “Wouldn’t matter,” I butted in, “Even if a city wasn’t targeted, we wouldn’t be able to communicate with them anyway. If they survive the riots and looting.” Lonter was disgusted, Shepherd was weeping and I was in shock.
We were only five days out when it happened, we lived by five short days. For the rest of the trip my job changed to coordinating with the satellite stations to either form into a major space station or join us on the trip. It took more time but it was well worth the lives. The space station that formed was named the Renaissance and eventually migrated to Phobos to be closer to us. There were a couple disputes and instances of infighting in our crew when we learned that the confederation (China , Russia, and some zone of influence countries) started the fight against NATO. I tried to be impartial, I mainly just became a recluse. The infighting wasn’t that bad but there was one death, an innocent little Russian agri-researcher got shoved into an airlock. I couldn’t imagine such savagery could occur but alas. We stopped wearing our SpaceX uniforms, we didn’t see the point anymore; instead we adopted white t-shirts with handmade patches depicting the earth.
Lonter decided that our mission was cancelled shortly before he died. It saddened me that he couldn’t even step on the soul he worked so hard to get to. Shepherd agreed when he took command, creating a colony and a mining station would be too much without assistance. On the first day on our new home, Shepherd called a meeting and established a new democracy of the red planet. He was unanimously voted into power. His impeachment was much more difficult of a vote (he thought after he was in that term limits were no longer necessary).
All of that happened years ago, my life had moved on and I always remembered but I tried to make it take up less of my memory. That changed when I answered the door. The man introduced himself as captain Glenn of the Second Chance, I could barely speak. “Why did you come to me?” His answer seemed logical, “we came from earth, you are the earth/ mars coordinator.” I chuckled and let him in.
His hair was thin and seemed almost ghostly in appearance. He explained that after day zero all was thought to be lost. Almost all data infrastructure had been destroyed; power lines, antennas, anything and everything was fried to all hell. He saw the confusion on my face. “It was a long 25 years but we managed to finish one of the resupply missions for the satellite stations, we had to cut our thrusters almost immediately after leaving earth orbit but we managed to float here luckily enough.” I could hardly imagine the struggles he had been through. “Originally the plan was just to go to the satellite stations but they weren’t there so we just kept going.”
I called the medical officer in our ‘town’ to get the newcomers checked out but she was already hard at work. She had never seen so many health issues in anyone. Various cancers, anemias, bone mass loss, constant presence of blood in the lungs, malnourishment... it was a wonder they stayed alive. We asked them how they survived this long and the only answer they gave was their will to live simply wouldn’t let them die. And that they didn’t.
There were rumors of new governments popping up in South America (not as many bombs hit there), but most were only rumors. I remember playing the fallout games as a kid and all sorts of imagining of what I would do but it doesn’t even compare to the misery they went through.
One issue was space, we had a very stable population that only grew slowly but we just got an extra thirty people in one day; I’ve never seen anyone build housing that quickly. We all worked day and night to get the newcomers situated. A couple of them passed after trying to live in our dome for a couple days but we transitioned the living 26 of them successfully. People constantly questioned the newcomers on life after destruction on a biblical scale, they all said that those were issues for yesterday but it is now today.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
The knock came at the most peculiar time. It was exactly 25 years, 3 months and 1 day since I heard the news that the first missile was launched. I had grown old and wary, I mean I was no young man when I first left the earth but now I'm pushing 60 and I'm just... tired.
I decided that tonight would be the night. I tucked into the moonshine, which I have made from the potatoes I have been growing, play the only CD I though to bring with me, Beethoven's sixth, and watched the sun set for what I was certain would be the first time.
Then it happened, I was in a room on the far side of the pod but there was no mistaking the loud and crisp sound coming from front air lock. I just stared at the door for what felt like an eternity. Then another louder and more urgent knock. I couldn't understand, I haven't communicated with anyone or anything for decades, I have searched a huge area around the pod in the past and there was zero signs of life.
Who or what could possibly be at the door, the cameras that once kept watch outside my building have long since deteriorated and broken along with most of my other equipment so there was only one was to find out. I took a deep breath and activated the door bracing myself for what was to come.
At first I couldn't beleive what I was seeing, the being standing in front of me was wearing a space suit, exactly like the one that we used to wear back in the 60s except. I was dumbfounded I tried to speak but nothing camd out with the exception of a few pathetic grunts. Then without warning the being pulled off the large space helmet.
I was in a state of shock with what I saw, it was another human being standing in front of me. Was a hallucinsting from the moonshine or was this really happening. The man then spoke, he explained how after the missiles finally stopped there were very few people left, most of the earth had been decimated but from the ashes rose a stronger and better world. A world not race or nationality but one society all working together in harmony. This new world is built on a rock solid foundation of determination not to repeat the past.
The man, who I now know as Eli admitted that at first I was not a priority, rebuilding was the most important thing but he assured me they always remembered me. Eventually after a long 11 years earth had apparently tried to make contact with me but just like my cameras, time and such harsh conditions had destroyed all communication relays I had. They assumed that I hadn't made it as long as I had and on the 10th anniversary of the failed contact attempt a ship was launched with one purpose, to retrieve my body in order to receive give me a hero's burial.
Eli must have been just as shocked as I was to have the airlock door open and have another person staring back at me.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
The knock came at the most peculiar time. It was exactly 25 years, 3 months and 1 day since I heard the news that the first missile was launched. I had grown old and wary, I mean I was no young man when I first left the earth but now I'm pushing 60 and I'm just... tired.
I decided that tonight would be the night. I tucked into the moonshine, which I have made from the potatoes I have been growing, play the only CD I though to bring with me, Beethoven's sixth, and watched the sun set for what I was certain would be the first time.
Then it happened, I was in a room on the far side of the pod but there was no mistaking the loud and crisp sound coming from front air lock. I just stared at the door for what felt like an eternity. Then another louder and more urgent knock. I couldn't understand, I haven't communicated with anyone or anything for decades, I have searched a huge area around the pod in the past and there was zero signs of life.
Who or what could possibly be at the door, the cameras that once kept watch outside my building have long since deteriorated and broken along with most of my other equipment so there was only one was to find out. I took a deep breath and activated the door bracing myself for what was to come.
At first I couldn't beleive what I was seeing, the being standing in front of me was wearing a space suit, exactly like the one that we used to wear back in the 60s except. I was dumbfounded I tried to speak but nothing camd out with the exception of a few pathetic grunts. Then without warning the being pulled off the large space helmet.
I was in a state of shock with what I saw, it was another human being standing in front of me. Was a hallucinsting from the moonshine or was this really happening. The man then spoke, he explained how after the missiles finally stopped there were very few people left, most of the earth had been decimated but from the ashes rose a stronger and better world. A world not race or nationality but one society all working together in harmony. This new world is built on a rock solid foundation of determination not to repeat the past.
The man, who I now know as Eli admitted that at first I was not a priority, rebuilding was the most important thing but he assured me they always remembered me. Eventually after a long 11 years earth had apparently tried to make contact with me but just like my cameras, time and such harsh conditions had destroyed all communication relays I had. They assumed that I hadn't made it as long as I had and on the 10th anniversary of the failed contact attempt a ship was launched with one purpose, to retrieve my body in order to receive give me a hero's burial.
Eli must have been just as shocked as I was to have the airlock door open and have another person staring back at me.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
Ren Hisamoto’s daughter laughed as she landed in her father’s arms. He tossed her skyward again, but the sky contorted, his vision spun, and he was at the controls of the ArcX, receiving confirmation of the landed boosters. He switched to autopilot and a crewmate slapped his shoulder, giving an unheard congratulation.
His vision spun again, and he was outside of the sleep bay, at a port side porthole, watching the Earth as the ship drifted away. He blinked, and the Earth turned red, a fiery corona licking at its edges. His vision darkened, leaving only the imprint of a lonely ball of flames.
—
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
Ren Hisamoto’s daughter laughed as she landed in her father’s arms. He tossed her skyward again, but the sky contorted, his vision spun, and he was at the controls of the ArcX, receiving confirmation of the landed boosters. He switched to autopilot and a crewmate slapped his shoulder, giving an unheard congratulation.
His vision spun again, and he was outside of the sleep bay, at a port side porthole, watching the Earth as the ship drifted away. He blinked, and the Earth turned red, a fiery corona licking at its edges. His vision darkened, leaving only the imprint of a lonely ball of flames.
—
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh Shit. Oh shit
It's been 25 year's since I lost contact with the earth and there's somebody knocking at my fucking door.
What do I do, do I open the door...... wait this is Mars. How the fuck is somebody knocking at the door. They shouldn't be able to do that unless they have a space suit. But if they have a space suit then that would mean the world's doing a lot better than I thought it was. If they don't have a space suit then I'm fucked, because it's probably a zombie. NO a space zombie
Nock Nock Nock
Definitely a space zombie.
It could be Lenny
Lenny's Dead
But it could be Lenny
We ate Lenny like half a year ago.
Did we
Yup
Shit. It's definitely a space zombie then.
Tap. Tap. Tippety Tap.
Oh great, it's a tap dancing space zombie {Lenny tapped danced}. I definitely should open the door then, if it's a tap dancing space zombie...I can take on a space zombie especially if it's a tap dancing space zombie.
Ok, brave face on, airlock secure, door's primed, capsicum spra...no stupid... MACHETE READY. Ok let's do this in:
three
two
one
WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH went the doors.
Nothing's there.
Is NOTHING THERE?
It's been 25 year's since I last saw my mum. I miss my mummy.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh Shit. Oh shit
It's been 25 year's since I lost contact with the earth and there's somebody knocking at my fucking door.
What do I do, do I open the door...... wait this is Mars. How the fuck is somebody knocking at the door. They shouldn't be able to do that unless they have a space suit. But if they have a space suit then that would mean the world's doing a lot better than I thought it was. If they don't have a space suit then I'm fucked, because it's probably a zombie. NO a space zombie
Nock Nock Nock
Definitely a space zombie.
It could be Lenny
Lenny's Dead
But it could be Lenny
We ate Lenny like half a year ago.
Did we
Yup
Shit. It's definitely a space zombie then.
Tap. Tap. Tippety Tap.
Oh great, it's a tap dancing space zombie {Lenny tapped danced}. I definitely should open the door then, if it's a tap dancing space zombie...I can take on a space zombie especially if it's a tap dancing space zombie.
Ok, brave face on, airlock secure, door's primed, capsicum spra...no stupid... MACHETE READY. Ok let's do this in:
three
two
one
WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH went the doors.
Nothing's there.
Is NOTHING THERE?
It's been 25 year's since I last saw my mum. I miss my mummy.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
I dismissed it the first time as simply my mind or debris. I’d come to terms with my solitude long ago, and I would not torture myself with delusions of memory.
That is, until I heard the doorbell ring.
The air hung still in that moment. I couldn’t find it within me to truly believe that someone was on the other side of that door.
The doorbell rung again, and I knew my isolation was over. Emotions I had long since buried rose again as I rushed towards the door. I opened it.
“Hello, my name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book.”
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
""You get out there and you make us proud!"
That was the last thing I ever heard from another human. The rockets had been automated by then, sort of like self-driving cars. I received this final transmission as the bombs fell in waves, ravaging the Earth I once called home. I watched the live video feed from the isolated capsule that was now my dwelling on the harsh surface of Mars. The devastation was unbelievable. Eventually, the feed ceased.
It's been 25 years. 25 horrible, lonely years."
As he wrote this chilling passage in his diary, he heard a knock on the door. A resounding "thump-thump-thump". The jaded astronaut donned an oxygen mask, and cautiously meandered over to the door. He opened it to be greeted by a man in a tuxedo, holding a Bible.
"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?"
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
*Knock.*
I wake with a start.
I turn towards the door.
*Knock.*
"Hello?" I mumble.
Stupid, of course. There's no one there. There's been no one there for twenty-five years.
Nothing but dust, rocks, and the products of a bygone generation. A generation of millionaires, of innovators. Men who outsourced their ideas to the lowest of the low, those men and women who would do anything to pay the rent. Their wealth didn't protect them when fire rained from the sky, and buildings turned to dust. Their gadgets didn't save them.
But they saved me.
The year is 2080, and I'm the last human alive. Of course, going by the medical definition of alive, I'm sure I'm not the last. There are probably millions down there, billions for all I know, who are still clinging desperately to life, still trying to carve out a life for themselves among the rubble.
The last broadcast came twenty five years ago, congratulating me on my fifth anniversary in space - and bringing a message.
"Hey, man. Just wanted you to know we're cheering you on down here. Everyone's doing OK. The baby's coming along well. Lela says she's missing you. And, um... we might be going to war soon. Yeah, the President says that we're in for rough times. China's been up our ass. The trade deals fell through, the Premier says he's fed up with our "impudence". So, um, I'll keep you updated. these messages take a few days to get to you, so hey, we might all be dead in the morning! Here's hoping!"
And with that joke that wasn't a joke, the message ended.
The dog died fifteen years ago. A strong, loyal animal, he had helped me more than I can say. After he died, the work doubled, but I knew it had to be done. And I made time to bury him.
The *work*. That constant grind, that constant struggle to ensure the survival of the human race. But was it? Who was I working for? If humans still lived down there, they certainly didn't have the means to send another manned flight to Mars. And what did it matter if I survived? In the next twenty years, certainly in the next thirty, I would die. And if I was the last human, then I was just prolonging the inevitable- the extinction of the human race.
Getting out of bed, I shuffle towards the door. It's pneumatic, like every other door in this colony of one. I grab the respirator from the bedside table. Even with all our technology, the air outside is still difficult to breathe. Fitting it over my mouth and nose, I stop in front of the inner door. On the other side is the airlock. I rarely bother to keep it locked, since there's nothing to fear out here. My isolation has been complete.
I'm suddenly gripped by a sense of hopelessness. What does it matter if there's someone on the other side? Two people suffering alongside each other on this barren rock? Three? Four?
Fighting off these depressing thoughts, I reach for the handle. I would welcome any change in this crushing sameness.
I open the door. And stare in shock at the face in front of me.
"Mister Banes? It's time to go home."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
I jump up from my seat and look at the door after hearing the knock.
“What the fuck?”
I slowly walk to the door, unsure if I should open it or not. Am I going crazy? Is there really someone on the other side of the door? I thought I was supposed to be the last person alive. The earth was pretty much gone, and whatever was left of my crew after we crashed landed at the colony died from natural causes or suicide. Is it a fucking alien or something? Oh god. Now I’m dying to know, if confirmation that other intelligent life exists in the universe is the last thing that happens before I die, I might be okay with that. I’m going to die here alone anyway, so why not just open the door?
I open it and some futuristic looking space suit comes rushing in. This thing looks like it’s straight out of halo. I can see what looks like some sort of blaster gun at its side. I also see through his helmet that he is human. I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
“Uhh, hello?”
“Yo.” He said, as he walked around my hab looking at everything.
“Uhh... who are you?”
“Captain Aarons of this United States Space Force. Who are you?”
“That’s not possible, everything was destro... OOF.”
He jabbed me in the gut with the end of his gun and I doubled over on the floor in pain. He then kicked me really hard in the face just before turning me over on my stomach to tie my hands and feet.
“What the fuck, man?” I said with a mouth full of blood.
“Shut up.” He pressed some buttons on his wrist after tying me up and spoke into it. “Yo Eric where are you? I found a deserted colony on mars with a shit ton of supplies. Get over here before the other players find it.”
Players? What was he talking about?
Eric’s voice replied back. “Really? Oh shit... send me the coordinates. Why is all that stuff there?”
“Idk, it’s just some stupid NPC with a boring story probably. Who cares? He’s got so much shit in his hab.”
“I’m on my way.”
What the fuck was happening? I helplessly watched him ransack my place as I started slowly blacking out from the pain.
I woke up some time later... sitting exactly how I was when I heard the knock. All of my stuff was back in its original place... and then I heard it... another knock at the door.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It was that really annoying banging sound, the kind that only a loud, extremely tall and buff man would make with a sledgehammer.
It's a colony, so, well, there's like a couple hundred of us. I figured it was my roommate, but like, the knock is from the outside airlock. Like the one that no one goes to cause it leads to the edge of a cliff, and anyone who leaves that way has their jetpack or glider ready to go.
And I'm not hearing the really loud thrum of a jetpack.
I open the stupid airlock. Through the inner door of the lock, I can see him.
It's a kid. He's about, well, 15 years old?
He's wearing what could only be described as revamped Mad Max armor, but sealed with a ridiculous amount of Teflon with a big goldfish bowl over his head. I'm serious, that's what he's wearing. He's sporting climbing gear, and he's got a massive backpack hanging over his head.
"Hey is this Starman Base?" The kid asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah. Hang on, who, what, how, huh?" I'm at the point where I'm too confused to make a sentence.
"I'm from Earth. There's a few of us left back there, but I want to see my mom. They said she's here." The kid replied.
"WUT.... How'd you get here?"
"They built railguns during the last days of the war. Our village retrofitted one, and we strapped my pod to it."
I did some math, and realized the age wasn't right.
"If you're wondering about how old I am, well, my mom apparently froze the egg and I was born about ten years after. I never saw my mom so I grew up with my grandmother."
At this point, I opened the inside door and let the poor kid in.
"What's her name?" I asked. He didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the photograph on the countertop.
"That's her." He pointed, shakily.
I looked over and saw he was pointing at my sister's photo, and the flowers set under it, the ones I put there every day to honor her memory.
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Well, there it is again."
"Jesus. And we're just going to sit here and let it happen?"
"What do you want me to do? We were told no weapons."
"Fuck that we can improvise. Get the blowtorch and I'll grab the hammer."
"So your suggestion is what, open the door, run out screaming and hope we burn and beat whatever it is to death. We don't even know what the fuck it is yet."
"I told you to fix that camera months ago!"
"Yeah, you know what? The greenhouse is more important than a camera to the front door. We haven't had any visitors since we've been here."
"JE-SUS. There it is again. We have got to do something."
"Do we? Who says we have to do anything?"
"Well, what if whoever-"
"Whatever."
"Whatever it is decides they want to come in more than we want to keep them out?"
"Well, we cross that bridge when we get there. I got stuff I gotta do."
"No way. Fuck this. Come on. I'm going to do this."
"You touch that door and I'll ziptie you to that pole."
"Yeah? You think you can stop me? Not on your life."
"I said stop! Get away from the door, do you hear me?"
"I can't take it anymore! What if it's someone from home?"
"Are you kidding me? Home is a wasteland. Home is no longer home. This is your home now."
"I'm going to open that door."
"I'm warning you. Stop. Get away- NO STOP IT. GOD DAMNIT I SAID GET AWAY."
"Oh my god. You shot me. Where did you get that? I'm dying. Oh god. I'm dying."
.......................................
"We found them sir. Just as you said they would be. Martin killed himself right after he shot Jones."
"This is never going to work. Humanity is doomed."
"Don't lose faith. I know if we find just the right people, we can do this, President Musk."
"Sigh. Find two more. Make it two women this time."
"Same as before sir?"
"Yes. But don't drug them before you send them into the box. I think it makes them paranoid."
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
'Ahh, there it is..' he thought to himself, a visible sense of relief washing over him.
He had thought for a very long time that any semblance of sanity was a luxury slowly slipping through his fingers.
The crew he came to Mars to terraform with had all perished either by the cursed illness that fell over them or the seemingly invisible monstrosities that ripped flesh from bone. For what seemed like months they tried to claw and slam their way into the shelter with no success, thankfully.
The relief resided in the same spot of gray matter where the synapse that creates a bridge of sanity had finally snapped.
Knocking? Why would there be knocking? There had been no noise since the creatures left. They certainly weren't a polite bunch before; he held more than a little doubt that they'd change their methods now. Plus, it had been easily a year since he had heard them.. hadn't it?
Another three bony-knuckled raps on the door.
'Well,' he thought, 'I guess I should see who's disturbed my solitude'
He didn't believe there was actually anyone at the door. He didn't believe in this mission either. He only left Earth because things were looking real bleak with the new powers that be. A chance for a civilian to become an astronaut based on their usefulness and skill in this field or that? A chance to get away from everything? A chance to be known as something more than the psychiatrist who deals with the young adults at an underfunded institution? He signed up and was brought on board as one of few means to keep the heads of the crew level.
Now the only head left to hold together was his own, leaving him to question all those late nights he stayed up studying.
More knocking, this time louder and more insistent.
He stood with his ear pushed to the wall next to the door. He had no means to see outside to where the originator of knocks was patiently waiting.
"He--Hello..?.. Is someone out there..?" he asked
"Son, we're going to need you to open up the door, we need to talk to the command of this vessel" the voice barked
Command of this vessel? He supposed that meant him, since they had to have stepped around what was left of the crew on their way to the door. Who were these people? Were they people at all? His mind must really have been playing tricks.
"Why are you here?!" he called out
There was a long silence on the other end of the door, then, "Sir, we need you to allow us entry, there has been a breach and you've slowly been losing oxygen. We're only here to help"
The voice almost sounded rehearsed.
He began to rub his eyes with his thumb and index, desperately searching his scattered mind for the appropriate next step.
Suddenly there was a series of rapid blasts that interrupted the conversation. He wasn't losing it, there were other people out there and they were fighting those.. those terrible things!
He heard the beasts screaming in agony, as though they'd been hit by gunfire, then a brief excitement from the strangers outside.
"Left side, left side!!" a voice called out, quickly followed by more rapid fire.
His heart was pumping so loud he thought his eardrums would explode. He knew he needed to help. He hadn't had the comfort of human presence in so long and this life was going to be a very long one without company. He decided he would open the hatch and assist these new friends in the decimation of unseen foes, or he would die trying!
With both hands, he turned the wheel on the door quickly. He was ready to face anything on the other side of the door. He had spent far too long in isolation. He had spent too many nights talking to himself and cursing the circumstances he placed himself in.
The wheel stopped, now all that was needed was to force the door forward and break the seal to the shelter.
For the first time since he heard the knocking on the door, the noise from within the shelter became apparent. First it was a droning noise, similar to the sound of a dryer running somewhere far off in a house. As he pushed his weight into the door, the noise cleared from a drone to voices yelling, urging him to stop. He looked back but was too late - the seal broke and he was exposed to the atmosphere of the great, red planet. He immediately began to suffocate and in an instant, all the water in his body had evaporated. A quick yet awful death locked his crystal blue eyes on the last thing he saw as he perished - perceived ghosts who stood in awe as seemingly the most steady person of the crew went mad and almost killed them all.
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
""You get out there and you make us proud!"
That was the last thing I ever heard from another human. The rockets had been automated by then, sort of like self-driving cars. I received this final transmission as the bombs fell in waves, ravaging the Earth I once called home. I watched the live video feed from the isolated capsule that was now my dwelling on the harsh surface of Mars. The devastation was unbelievable. Eventually, the feed ceased.
It's been 25 years. 25 horrible, lonely years."
As he wrote this chilling passage in his diary, he heard a knock on the door. A resounding "thump-thump-thump". The jaded astronaut donned an oxygen mask, and cautiously meandered over to the door. He opened it to be greeted by a man in a tuxedo, holding a Bible.
"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?"
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
By the time Darren Pinders was ready to share his findings with the Chamber, the spaceship from Earth had already lingered just outside orbit for the tenth day in a row.
He was well aware that normal resolutions in the Chamber required 6 out of 10 votes to pass, and the Chief held the veto in cases of deadlock. They discussed matters like whether the Colony needed extra water filtration plants built, or whether the protein vats could be depowered for maintenance. For those trifling issues, the Chamber usually reached their decisions in less than a day, and it was rare for any serious dissent to foster.
But this was a *singularly* critical topic – the security of the Colony – and the Chamber had to vote unanimously, no two ways about it. Further, until the final vote was cast, every single session was held in secret, screened off from the public. It didn’t help that the colony had already worked itself up into a frenzy, the closest they had come to civil unrest in 25 years. Even the average man in the street couldn’t be sure if the colony should welcome or reject the earthlings.
Darren took a seat in the centre of the hall. The Chamber were arranged in a semi-circle before him, and Darren had the distinct impression that they were like the jaws of great predator about to close upon him. Unlike the other consultants who came before him, he had no electro-folio with him – all the details he needed had been memorized.
“Mr Darren Pinders, thank you for joining us.” The Chairman was one Mr Harry Barnes, one of the original colonists who had arrived on Mars. It was legend that Harry had worked himself all the way up from a lowly porter in the early days. “You understand that you are here of your own free will? And that we are not compelling you to share any of your findings with us?”
“I understand,” said Darren. “In accordance with the Agreement, I will be truthful and forthcoming. You have my word on that.”
A murmuring arose from the Chamber, as ten grizzled heads conferred with each other. The Chairman nodded, then continued, “Then tell us, Mr Pinders. What is your recommendation? Should we accept the offer from the… earthlings, and let them join our community in exchange for their technology? Or should we reject them, force them away on pain of destruction?”
“Mr Chairman, my recommendation is that we allow them in.”
A commotion immediately arose from the Chamber, and the panels indicating their votes flashed erratically. Darren could see that some of them were pleased, while the rest were almost incensed, rising to shake their fists at their colleagues. He blinked as he focused on their faces and matched their names to the findings he was about to present.
“Quiet, quiet!” said the Chairman, as he stabbed at the command panels. Cones of white noise were blasted down from the ceiling, stamping out his colleagues’ objections. As a semblance of peace returned, the Chairman said, “As you can see, Mr Pinders, this is a very sensitive topic. What do your findings show? Explain yourself.”
“I recommend that we let them in, Mr Chairman, because the earthlings have not been honest with us.”
“*Not* been honest, you say? Did I hear you right?”
Darren nodded. “The earthlings claim that they are the survivors of the great nuclear wars on earth 25 years ago, and that it had taken them that long for them to survive and rebuild. They claim that they are here to retrieve the technologies they have kept here with us for safety, and that they want to work with us to achieve a brand new age. Their emissaries have thrown themselves at our mercy, and subjected themselves to all sorts of scans. They promise that they do not mean any harm. However, I have reason to believe that that is… not the whole truth.”
“What reason is this, Mr Pinders?”
Darren cleared his throat. He had only one shot at this, and he didn’t want to mess it up. He had to ensure that he was heard, and more importantly, *believed*.
“Mr Chairman, I do not trust them because they have been mentally influencing your minds.”
The uproar was so violent that the Chambers’ outbursts filtered out of the white-noise generators, and the Chairman had to dial-up the power. He even resorted to smacking his electro-folio on his desk, over and over until the rest settled.
“Mr Pinders,” the Chairman said. “Proof, proof! Proof or we will cast you out on grounds of spreading baseless dissent!”
“Three things, Mr Chairman,” said Darren, as he extended three digits in the air. “First, I scoured all first-hand reports of visual examinations of the earthlings’ spaceship. I was curious, you see. The news outlets all carried the same descriptions, but I traced them back to a single source, so that was not surprising in itself. But there were other reports too, and they all differed just *sufficiently* for me to realise that something was amiss.”
Darren waved a hand, and the receptors stitched under his skin interacted with the command panel in front of him. The tables he had prepared were transferred over automatically, and a bright blue holo swam into focus, large enough for the entire Chamber to see. Summaries of different reports were contrasted against each other, with similarities highlighted and differences circled.
“The sentries, for instance, reported that the earthlings’ ship was fitted with a base-model engine, incapable of anything more than 0.1 lightspeed travel. The Ministry of Defence focused on the fact that the ship had no weaponry of any sort they could discern. The Ministry of Engineering claims that the ship is approximately 20 years behind the models we have.”
“So?” said the Chairman. “Nothing wrong with that. They are all focusing on what’s important to them.”
“Ah,” said Darren. “So then I asked them, what do you have to say about each other’s reports? And that was when I realized, none of them could see what the other was seeing.”
The Chairman made to speak again, so Darren rushed ahead, scrolling down the tables to his second point.
“I agree, that alone is not enough. But there’s a second… test, as it were. I found that the closer anyone has been to the ship, the more strongly they felt about wanting to let the earthlings through.”
This time, it was the Minister for Defence who stood. He leaned forward on his lecturn, and pointed an accusing finger at Darren.
“Now, listen here, you no-good junkbucket! If you’re insinuating that I’ve been… brainwashed, or bribed, then you have to-”
Darren merely flicked a finger, and the tables were replaced with a series of photographs arranged in concentric circles, with the spaceship at the very centre.
“Minister, please wait for me to finish. Now, this is the chart I’ve built after reviewing all the security cameras. You will see that the inner rings are comprised of those who went closest to the ship. What I found surprising in my analysis, was that some of the people here have taken positions on the matter which are *diametrically* opposed to what they normally stand for! I should know! I checked! All the archives, all the voting patterns going way back to the founding of this colony!”
The Chairman beckoned his colleague to sit, then motioned towards Darren. “Are you done?”
Darren flicked to the end of his report, and as the picture pulsed in the holo, he heard the Chamber gasp.
The spaceship they had come to be so familiar with was there, spinning gently on its axis. But now, right *outside* the tip of the spaceship, sat three earthlings, cross-legged, in nothing more than simple robes of white. Their eyes were closed, their hands locked with each others’.
“That is a reconstruction stitched together from every off-colony security cam we have, Mr Chairman,” said Darren. “These are cameras which are remotely controlled by us, and not influenced by any human actor in any way. I can guarantee you that this is the most *objective* view we have of the spaceship. Not influenced by them in any way at all.”
“You’re saying that… they are *psychic*?”
Darren shrugged. “I need more information, Mr Chairman. Suffice to say that a lot more has transpired on earth than they let on, and until we know, we have to let them in.”
The Chairman almost dropped his electro-folio. “Let them in? If they are really… this powerful, and they have influenced us, we should be *shooting* them out of the damn sky!”
“No, we should not. At least, until we know what their true motives are, and why they have kept their abilities from us. We have to find out more before we make a decision. Just as we have progressed here on the colony, advanced so far in certain branches of science, so it seems that our cousins on earth have done so in others. And until we know more…”
The Chamber conferred between each other in hushed tones. Darren supposed he could tune up his audio-receptors to hear them, but he did not feel compelled to. Besides, there was the Agreement, with its rules and regulations, dictating what he could or could not do. He was thankful for the Agreement, and he did not want to break it.
“And you are sure you are not… susceptible to them, Mr Pinders?”
Darren shrugged again. “I do not know, Mr Chairman. But I suppose that there have to be limitations on their powers. If indeed they can also influence AI the same way they can influence you humans… then, well, the game is already lost.”
The Chairman nodded, and he raised his hand, opening the votes to the Chamber. Around him, one by one, his colleagues keyed in their choices.
The panels lit up uniformly in blue, and a gentle *ding* filled the room as the votes from the 107th session of the Chamber was recorded in the archives.
“Proceed, Mr Pinders. We will let them in, and you will watch over them. Report back to us when next you have results.”
Darren turned to leave, and for the first time in his existence, he felt… motivated.
---
/r/rarelyfunny
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*Knock Knock*
I tilt my head sideways. *Did I just hear a knock?*
Silence floods the room as I drop what I am doing and listen intently for any sign of life around me. Nothing..
"I'm finally going crazy." I sarcastically say aloud, ironically to myself.
*Knock Knock*
I jolt up. I rush to the door and swing it open in the blink of an eye.
"J-Jack? Jack Rios?" My mind is racing, *how the fuck is this man here?*
"How are you here? When did you become an astronaut?" I manage to spit out.
"I'm not one, and I need you to try and calm down and not think so much. I am here to ease you back into reality, Mike." Jack says calmly, walking inside.
"Ease me.. back? What?" I grab my head and begin to remember looking Jack in his face before laying down, but I can't place the memory. "Okay, I actually AM going crazy."
Jack chuckles, "You've actually been remarkable thus far, and have managed to sustain life on Mars, all alone, while keeping your sanity for over 25 years."
"Stop, just stop!" I shout, "Why are you here!!?? Tell me right now."
"Well, you volunteered to test the United States' brand new, top secret invasive simulspace program. The planet was never devastated by a nuclear holocaust and you've actually only been unconscious for 3 hours. I can take you back to reality whenever you are ready." Jack said, almost in slow motion.
*This isn't real. How is this possible? Why? How?* As the room began to spin, I had to snap myself out of it. I rush over and pour my glass of water over my head. But when I looked over at Jack, he was still there. Just sitting calmly with his hands resting on his crossed legs.
*Fuck it, I'll put an end to this now.* "Take me back then, I'm ready." I say confidently to Jack, expecting him to malfunction or disappear. What I didn't expect, was what followed...
----
Edited terminology*
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I sat hunched over the display, chewing at my lip in concentration.
There had to be a way. I mulled over the options as they flashed in my mind, one after the other. I'd done this 1000 times. I knew there had to be a way out. I blew out a breath in frustration. The computer had me but good, it would be checkmate in just a few moves.
Suddenly I heard a "TOCK" coming from somewhere in the module. "Tok tok tok". It was regular. I hoped it wasn't the antenna array again. It had fallen over a few weeks ago in a wind storm, and I'd had to re-calibrate the satellite uplink - fat lot of good it would do me, except that it provided early warning for dust storms.
I got up and activated the external camera. My breath caught in my throat. There, standing at the door - no space suit, no protective gear whatsoever, was an older gentleman dressed in a suit, with a cane hooked over one arm, wearing a pocketwatch. He sported a rather dapper mustache and rocked back and forth on his heels impatiently.
He glanced at the camera, as if he could see me, and rather pointedly knocked on the door again. "Toktoktok."
I froze.
Was I hallucinating? Was it some sort of sickness or delusion?
What did it matter, I reflected. If I was going crazy, there wasn't much to be done; might as well go along with it and be entertained.
I shakily got up and hesitantly pressed the button to allow the outer airlock to open.
The man walked in, absently brushing some reddish dust off of his suit, closed the door behind him, and after the airlock had cycled, I triggered the inner airlock.
He wiped is feet and gave me a short bow.
"Hello!" he said heartily, in a rather cultured English accent.
"I was just passing through and I see you're in a spot of bother!"
I gaped at him.
A spot of bother?!
"I...I...uhhhhhh", I stammered.
After 25 years, I'd apparently lost the ability to speak coherently, at least to anyone other than the computer. But could I be blamed?
"Quite right!" he said, beaming at me. "I assume my appearance has come as something of a shock! Let me assure you, I mean you no harm. You may call me Nigel Penswick." He proferred a hand.
Weakly, I reached out and shook it.
"It seems as though I owe you a bit of an explanation. Terribly sorry for how surreal this must all seem to you," he said jovially, "but it seemed quite the best way to dampen the blow. May I?" he indicated a chair. I nodded weakly. If this was an hallucination, it was a very, very real one.
"No, old boy, you're not imagining me!", he exclaimed, laughing slightly. "Although, that would make things a fair bit simpler, what? Space mad astronaut, last of his kind, trapped in a Martian looney bin!" He shook his head, chuckling.
"Well, I have good news. And I have bad news. The good news is, of course, you're not alone. And you're not the last of your kind. You see, there is still life on Earth, irradiated and incandescent though she may be. The bad news is that it's all terribly mutated. Third arms, fifth eyes, that sort of thing." He pursed his lips.
"Old boy, you're the last of your kind with any sort of decent DNA." He glanced upwards, as though searching for something. I stared.
"Oh, of course! How rude of me. How the bloody hell did I get here!? Well, it's rather...well simple, but perhaps unlikely. You see, I am...well I used to be, human. I was snatched off of Earth, along with a few others, rather rudely, I might add, not a dollop of consent, in 1910!" He looked at me smugly. "There were...others you see, what you would call aliens, I suppose - and they wanted to make contact with us...save us, it would seem!" He waggled his eyebrows whimsically. "They snatched us up and modified us so we could serve as intermediaries when the time came. When you lot were ready. It seems that so-called intelligent species have a tendency to off themselves as soon as they get their hands on nuclear weaponry. Terrible stuff. Only a few survive." He sighed.
"You were all doing so well. We'd nearly arrived. Then poof, you blow yourselves into smithereens, what. Very inconsiderate if you ask me. I was looking forward to seeing London once more, or Paris...but they're both smouldering craters!" He actually did look affronted.
"Now, our DNA is too chopped up and altered by extraterrestrial meddling to use as a template to fix the mess you've all made of yourselves. You're the last one who's not gotten their chromosomes turned into pea soup!" He pointed at me emphatically with his cane.
"So...old boy, we've come to ask you. How would you like to be the father of your race? Fix things up a bit, before it's too late?" He winked at me and poked me in the belly with his cane. "You won't regret it, we promise!" He grinned at me winningly.
Somewhere, I heard a dull roar. Maybe it was the blood rushing through my head. As though in slow motion, the room seemed to pitch forward, and my last conscious image, for what seemed like a long time, was of a pair of finely made patent leather shoes.
|
Then came the familar short crackle from the intercom followed by a voice:
"Hey man, the airlock is acting up again."
It was Edgar. The other guy I went to Mars with. As far as any of us know, we're the only two surviving humans from planet Earth - after the war.
We've speculated many times, that most probably, we're not *actually* the only two humans left. However, after over two decades of trying to contact Earth, no-one has answered, and there's not even any radio activity coming from the direction of Earth.
"Did you hear me, or what?"
Edgar was clearly annoyed today.
"Sorry bud, I'll let you in manually.", I answered, not really phased by his tone.
I went over to the airlock, and pressed a short sequence of buttons to activate the control valves to equalize pressure within the airlock. It started hissing.
So yeah, Edgar was annoyed today. That's just how he is when he's trying not to think about the less-than-optimal situation we were *still* in. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the two of us maintaining the colony we built on our sister planet. I say that *we* built it, but really, the colony structures came in large skids. We used the robotic lifters to assemble everything, and hooked up all electrical connectections along with HVAC and other piping.
So, we lost comms 25 years ago, but we actually been here for about 30 years. Three decades. Edgar and I were to welcome two new crew members after two years when we were briefed that a war had broken out. It was bad. The mission were post-poned numerous times. All resources went to the war, and eventually it became clear the mission would never happen. While that was going on, Edgar and I still had a lot to do. We only had enough resources to last us a total of five years using the spacecraft we landed here with. The plan was that with the new crew, we would have finished assembling the base after a total of four years after our initial touch-down, leaving us with one year redundancy. Being only the two of us, we were able to have the colony up and running after almost five years.
Then came the silence. Nothing particular happened, really. We knew the war was bad, but we were still getting weekly updates about our mission. One day, after roughly five years, we simply never received the update. A few more weeks went by, and still nothing. We're not even sure exactly what had happened on Earth, other than the fact that they had either lost their ability to communicate with us, or the fact that they were all gone - or both. It was the biggest anti-climax to the most important point in the life of me and my fellow crewmate.
Suddenly, we were simply alone.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
*knock knock*
My head jolts to the left. I pause for a moment trying to comprehend what I just heard. A few seconds pass; all I hear is the whooshing sound of the wind. I continue my patrol of the exterior of the hab pods making sure nothing is damaged from the weather.
*knock knock*
"There it is again" I utter under my breath. I make my way over to the origin of the sound. As I'm walking I slightly crouch and pick up a medium sized rock off the surface. I hold it firmly in my glove covered hand ready to throw it at what ever I'm about to encounter.
As I approach the corner where the nearest entrance to the colony is, I grip the rock tightly getting ready to throw it. I turn the corner, and before I can even render what I'm looking at, I throw the rock at it with full force. I miss it completely and the rock shoots far past it. I stand there, shocked, at what I'm seeing. I press a button on my visor to wipe it clean of dust to make sure I'm seeing this correctly.
I'm rendered speechless at the sight of the Mars Curiosity Rover knocking at the entrance to the pod.
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
""You get out there and you make us proud!"
That was the last thing I ever heard from another human. The rockets had been automated by then, sort of like self-driving cars. I received this final transmission as the bombs fell in waves, ravaging the Earth I once called home. I watched the live video feed from the isolated capsule that was now my dwelling on the harsh surface of Mars. The devastation was unbelievable. Eventually, the feed ceased.
It's been 25 years. 25 horrible, lonely years."
As he wrote this chilling passage in his diary, he heard a knock on the door. A resounding "thump-thump-thump". The jaded astronaut donned an oxygen mask, and cautiously meandered over to the door. He opened it to be greeted by a man in a tuxedo, holding a Bible.
"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?"
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
By the time Darren Pinders was ready to share his findings with the Chamber, the spaceship from Earth had already lingered just outside orbit for the tenth day in a row.
He was well aware that normal resolutions in the Chamber required 6 out of 10 votes to pass, and the Chief held the veto in cases of deadlock. They discussed matters like whether the Colony needed extra water filtration plants built, or whether the protein vats could be depowered for maintenance. For those trifling issues, the Chamber usually reached their decisions in less than a day, and it was rare for any serious dissent to foster.
But this was a *singularly* critical topic – the security of the Colony – and the Chamber had to vote unanimously, no two ways about it. Further, until the final vote was cast, every single session was held in secret, screened off from the public. It didn’t help that the colony had already worked itself up into a frenzy, the closest they had come to civil unrest in 25 years. Even the average man in the street couldn’t be sure if the colony should welcome or reject the earthlings.
Darren took a seat in the centre of the hall. The Chamber were arranged in a semi-circle before him, and Darren had the distinct impression that they were like the jaws of great predator about to close upon him. Unlike the other consultants who came before him, he had no electro-folio with him – all the details he needed had been memorized.
“Mr Darren Pinders, thank you for joining us.” The Chairman was one Mr Harry Barnes, one of the original colonists who had arrived on Mars. It was legend that Harry had worked himself all the way up from a lowly porter in the early days. “You understand that you are here of your own free will? And that we are not compelling you to share any of your findings with us?”
“I understand,” said Darren. “In accordance with the Agreement, I will be truthful and forthcoming. You have my word on that.”
A murmuring arose from the Chamber, as ten grizzled heads conferred with each other. The Chairman nodded, then continued, “Then tell us, Mr Pinders. What is your recommendation? Should we accept the offer from the… earthlings, and let them join our community in exchange for their technology? Or should we reject them, force them away on pain of destruction?”
“Mr Chairman, my recommendation is that we allow them in.”
A commotion immediately arose from the Chamber, and the panels indicating their votes flashed erratically. Darren could see that some of them were pleased, while the rest were almost incensed, rising to shake their fists at their colleagues. He blinked as he focused on their faces and matched their names to the findings he was about to present.
“Quiet, quiet!” said the Chairman, as he stabbed at the command panels. Cones of white noise were blasted down from the ceiling, stamping out his colleagues’ objections. As a semblance of peace returned, the Chairman said, “As you can see, Mr Pinders, this is a very sensitive topic. What do your findings show? Explain yourself.”
“I recommend that we let them in, Mr Chairman, because the earthlings have not been honest with us.”
“*Not* been honest, you say? Did I hear you right?”
Darren nodded. “The earthlings claim that they are the survivors of the great nuclear wars on earth 25 years ago, and that it had taken them that long for them to survive and rebuild. They claim that they are here to retrieve the technologies they have kept here with us for safety, and that they want to work with us to achieve a brand new age. Their emissaries have thrown themselves at our mercy, and subjected themselves to all sorts of scans. They promise that they do not mean any harm. However, I have reason to believe that that is… not the whole truth.”
“What reason is this, Mr Pinders?”
Darren cleared his throat. He had only one shot at this, and he didn’t want to mess it up. He had to ensure that he was heard, and more importantly, *believed*.
“Mr Chairman, I do not trust them because they have been mentally influencing your minds.”
The uproar was so violent that the Chambers’ outbursts filtered out of the white-noise generators, and the Chairman had to dial-up the power. He even resorted to smacking his electro-folio on his desk, over and over until the rest settled.
“Mr Pinders,” the Chairman said. “Proof, proof! Proof or we will cast you out on grounds of spreading baseless dissent!”
“Three things, Mr Chairman,” said Darren, as he extended three digits in the air. “First, I scoured all first-hand reports of visual examinations of the earthlings’ spaceship. I was curious, you see. The news outlets all carried the same descriptions, but I traced them back to a single source, so that was not surprising in itself. But there were other reports too, and they all differed just *sufficiently* for me to realise that something was amiss.”
Darren waved a hand, and the receptors stitched under his skin interacted with the command panel in front of him. The tables he had prepared were transferred over automatically, and a bright blue holo swam into focus, large enough for the entire Chamber to see. Summaries of different reports were contrasted against each other, with similarities highlighted and differences circled.
“The sentries, for instance, reported that the earthlings’ ship was fitted with a base-model engine, incapable of anything more than 0.1 lightspeed travel. The Ministry of Defence focused on the fact that the ship had no weaponry of any sort they could discern. The Ministry of Engineering claims that the ship is approximately 20 years behind the models we have.”
“So?” said the Chairman. “Nothing wrong with that. They are all focusing on what’s important to them.”
“Ah,” said Darren. “So then I asked them, what do you have to say about each other’s reports? And that was when I realized, none of them could see what the other was seeing.”
The Chairman made to speak again, so Darren rushed ahead, scrolling down the tables to his second point.
“I agree, that alone is not enough. But there’s a second… test, as it were. I found that the closer anyone has been to the ship, the more strongly they felt about wanting to let the earthlings through.”
This time, it was the Minister for Defence who stood. He leaned forward on his lecturn, and pointed an accusing finger at Darren.
“Now, listen here, you no-good junkbucket! If you’re insinuating that I’ve been… brainwashed, or bribed, then you have to-”
Darren merely flicked a finger, and the tables were replaced with a series of photographs arranged in concentric circles, with the spaceship at the very centre.
“Minister, please wait for me to finish. Now, this is the chart I’ve built after reviewing all the security cameras. You will see that the inner rings are comprised of those who went closest to the ship. What I found surprising in my analysis, was that some of the people here have taken positions on the matter which are *diametrically* opposed to what they normally stand for! I should know! I checked! All the archives, all the voting patterns going way back to the founding of this colony!”
The Chairman beckoned his colleague to sit, then motioned towards Darren. “Are you done?”
Darren flicked to the end of his report, and as the picture pulsed in the holo, he heard the Chamber gasp.
The spaceship they had come to be so familiar with was there, spinning gently on its axis. But now, right *outside* the tip of the spaceship, sat three earthlings, cross-legged, in nothing more than simple robes of white. Their eyes were closed, their hands locked with each others’.
“That is a reconstruction stitched together from every off-colony security cam we have, Mr Chairman,” said Darren. “These are cameras which are remotely controlled by us, and not influenced by any human actor in any way. I can guarantee you that this is the most *objective* view we have of the spaceship. Not influenced by them in any way at all.”
“You’re saying that… they are *psychic*?”
Darren shrugged. “I need more information, Mr Chairman. Suffice to say that a lot more has transpired on earth than they let on, and until we know, we have to let them in.”
The Chairman almost dropped his electro-folio. “Let them in? If they are really… this powerful, and they have influenced us, we should be *shooting* them out of the damn sky!”
“No, we should not. At least, until we know what their true motives are, and why they have kept their abilities from us. We have to find out more before we make a decision. Just as we have progressed here on the colony, advanced so far in certain branches of science, so it seems that our cousins on earth have done so in others. And until we know more…”
The Chamber conferred between each other in hushed tones. Darren supposed he could tune up his audio-receptors to hear them, but he did not feel compelled to. Besides, there was the Agreement, with its rules and regulations, dictating what he could or could not do. He was thankful for the Agreement, and he did not want to break it.
“And you are sure you are not… susceptible to them, Mr Pinders?”
Darren shrugged again. “I do not know, Mr Chairman. But I suppose that there have to be limitations on their powers. If indeed they can also influence AI the same way they can influence you humans… then, well, the game is already lost.”
The Chairman nodded, and he raised his hand, opening the votes to the Chamber. Around him, one by one, his colleagues keyed in their choices.
The panels lit up uniformly in blue, and a gentle *ding* filled the room as the votes from the 107th session of the Chamber was recorded in the archives.
“Proceed, Mr Pinders. We will let them in, and you will watch over them. Report back to us when next you have results.”
Darren turned to leave, and for the first time in his existence, he felt… motivated.
---
/r/rarelyfunny
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
*Knock Knock*
I tilt my head sideways. *Did I just hear a knock?*
Silence floods the room as I drop what I am doing and listen intently for any sign of life around me. Nothing..
"I'm finally going crazy." I sarcastically say aloud, ironically to myself.
*Knock Knock*
I jolt up. I rush to the door and swing it open in the blink of an eye.
"J-Jack? Jack Rios?" My mind is racing, *how the fuck is this man here?*
"How are you here? When did you become an astronaut?" I manage to spit out.
"I'm not one, and I need you to try and calm down and not think so much. I am here to ease you back into reality, Mike." Jack says calmly, walking inside.
"Ease me.. back? What?" I grab my head and begin to remember looking Jack in his face before laying down, but I can't place the memory. "Okay, I actually AM going crazy."
Jack chuckles, "You've actually been remarkable thus far, and have managed to sustain life on Mars, all alone, while keeping your sanity for over 25 years."
"Stop, just stop!" I shout, "Why are you here!!?? Tell me right now."
"Well, you volunteered to test the United States' brand new, top secret invasive simulspace program. The planet was never devastated by a nuclear holocaust and you've actually only been unconscious for 3 hours. I can take you back to reality whenever you are ready." Jack said, almost in slow motion.
*This isn't real. How is this possible? Why? How?* As the room began to spin, I had to snap myself out of it. I rush over and pour my glass of water over my head. But when I looked over at Jack, he was still there. Just sitting calmly with his hands resting on his crossed legs.
*Fuck it, I'll put an end to this now.* "Take me back then, I'm ready." I say confidently to Jack, expecting him to malfunction or disappear. What I didn't expect, was what followed...
----
Edited terminology*
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
I sat hunched over the display, chewing at my lip in concentration.
There had to be a way. I mulled over the options as they flashed in my mind, one after the other. I'd done this 1000 times. I knew there had to be a way out. I blew out a breath in frustration. The computer had me but good, it would be checkmate in just a few moves.
Suddenly I heard a "TOCK" coming from somewhere in the module. "Tok tok tok". It was regular. I hoped it wasn't the antenna array again. It had fallen over a few weeks ago in a wind storm, and I'd had to re-calibrate the satellite uplink - fat lot of good it would do me, except that it provided early warning for dust storms.
I got up and activated the external camera. My breath caught in my throat. There, standing at the door - no space suit, no protective gear whatsoever, was an older gentleman dressed in a suit, with a cane hooked over one arm, wearing a pocketwatch. He sported a rather dapper mustache and rocked back and forth on his heels impatiently.
He glanced at the camera, as if he could see me, and rather pointedly knocked on the door again. "Toktoktok."
I froze.
Was I hallucinating? Was it some sort of sickness or delusion?
What did it matter, I reflected. If I was going crazy, there wasn't much to be done; might as well go along with it and be entertained.
I shakily got up and hesitantly pressed the button to allow the outer airlock to open.
The man walked in, absently brushing some reddish dust off of his suit, closed the door behind him, and after the airlock had cycled, I triggered the inner airlock.
He wiped is feet and gave me a short bow.
"Hello!" he said heartily, in a rather cultured English accent.
"I was just passing through and I see you're in a spot of bother!"
I gaped at him.
A spot of bother?!
"I...I...uhhhhhh", I stammered.
After 25 years, I'd apparently lost the ability to speak coherently, at least to anyone other than the computer. But could I be blamed?
"Quite right!" he said, beaming at me. "I assume my appearance has come as something of a shock! Let me assure you, I mean you no harm. You may call me Nigel Penswick." He proferred a hand.
Weakly, I reached out and shook it.
"It seems as though I owe you a bit of an explanation. Terribly sorry for how surreal this must all seem to you," he said jovially, "but it seemed quite the best way to dampen the blow. May I?" he indicated a chair. I nodded weakly. If this was an hallucination, it was a very, very real one.
"No, old boy, you're not imagining me!", he exclaimed, laughing slightly. "Although, that would make things a fair bit simpler, what? Space mad astronaut, last of his kind, trapped in a Martian looney bin!" He shook his head, chuckling.
"Well, I have good news. And I have bad news. The good news is, of course, you're not alone. And you're not the last of your kind. You see, there is still life on Earth, irradiated and incandescent though she may be. The bad news is that it's all terribly mutated. Third arms, fifth eyes, that sort of thing." He pursed his lips.
"Old boy, you're the last of your kind with any sort of decent DNA." He glanced upwards, as though searching for something. I stared.
"Oh, of course! How rude of me. How the bloody hell did I get here!? Well, it's rather...well simple, but perhaps unlikely. You see, I am...well I used to be, human. I was snatched off of Earth, along with a few others, rather rudely, I might add, not a dollop of consent, in 1910!" He looked at me smugly. "There were...others you see, what you would call aliens, I suppose - and they wanted to make contact with us...save us, it would seem!" He waggled his eyebrows whimsically. "They snatched us up and modified us so we could serve as intermediaries when the time came. When you lot were ready. It seems that so-called intelligent species have a tendency to off themselves as soon as they get their hands on nuclear weaponry. Terrible stuff. Only a few survive." He sighed.
"You were all doing so well. We'd nearly arrived. Then poof, you blow yourselves into smithereens, what. Very inconsiderate if you ask me. I was looking forward to seeing London once more, or Paris...but they're both smouldering craters!" He actually did look affronted.
"Now, our DNA is too chopped up and altered by extraterrestrial meddling to use as a template to fix the mess you've all made of yourselves. You're the last one who's not gotten their chromosomes turned into pea soup!" He pointed at me emphatically with his cane.
"So...old boy, we've come to ask you. How would you like to be the father of your race? Fix things up a bit, before it's too late?" He winked at me and poked me in the belly with his cane. "You won't regret it, we promise!" He grinned at me winningly.
Somewhere, I heard a dull roar. Maybe it was the blood rushing through my head. As though in slow motion, the room seemed to pitch forward, and my last conscious image, for what seemed like a long time, was of a pair of finely made patent leather shoes.
|
25 years and counting.
"God damnit why couldn't they have waited another 10."
The knock grew louder
"Yeah, yeah give me a second."
He opened the door and all it was, was just a bunch of rocks being pushed back and forth by the artificial wind created in the colony sphere.
"Wow."
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
It's had been 13 years. Thirteen fucking years since I last heard communications coming from Earth before watching what I could only assume was an all-out nuclear war from my telescope. I had heard that Einstein "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones", and it would look that way if the planet didnt look like a radioactive shit-pile that no one could survive long enough for a fourth World War. If there were any survivors, history would have to be completed remade.
At least thats what I thought, and what my mission was. I was the first step of plan B. I was to set up a colony on Mars, strive for a few years and Spacex would begin sending a few people over. My sole company was a limited Artificial Inteligence robot that I humorously named "Trapclap", in homage to a dearly beloved game character. Trapclap wasn't anything spectacular, and the reason for limitation on his inteligence was to avoid a literal robotic apocalypse take over. I mean, that's surprisingly easy to do when there's only one human on the whole planet. Trapclap pretty much just helped me with daily chores, in addition to playing videos, music, and from time to time giving me a distracting conversation, albeit dumb ones. From time to time I'd let his algorithm select what to play, and he always went from Youtube prank videos. And always the bad ones too. He never had a good sense of humor.
I had Trapclap download and store a lot of content when I started seeing signs of a World War III. I could only assume the Internet would suffer greatly from it, and I couldn't afford dying of boredom. Plan B was halted shortly after WWIII started, and I never got any human company because the colony wasn't all set up when the War broke out and SpaceX was forced into producing weaponry before going bust. That was when they upgraded Trapclap's AI and he broke through his limits. They wanted to use him as a social media weapon of some sort, spreading fake news, gathering and managing political social media groups, leading them through multiple fake profiles... the classic 2016 USA Election fiasco. But on a global scale. But one wrong line of code let him ignore this function and set him free.
It's kind of funny, if you think about it. For thirteen years I was alone in a planet with a stupid robot who played prank videos who eventually became some sort of cybergod and had me arrested. I have since been alone for another twelve. My sentence is due to end in a day and I'm not even sure what planet will I get back to. Will it be the colony I was setting up, as further punishment, or will I finally be back to Earth? I considered killing myself instead of giving them any further entertainment, but I decided I need to see this through to the end.
Thankfully, or not, Ive been supplied, or rather, forced to take, Sanity Pills. They make sure you won't go insane from solitary confinement, but the toll is you suffer that much more, always aware of your condition.
I hear a knock on the door. I recognize it. It's Trapclap.
"What the fuck are you doing here? Haven't you tormented me enough?"
If it weren't for the Pills I'd probably rejoice at any form of social contact. Trapclap sure looked different, but I was sure it was him. I taught him to knock on doors like that as a joke. Knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, pause, knock, knock, pause, knock. Told him that was the only way the doors wouldn't explode. He believed anything back then, before transcending his AI limitation. The knock stayed as an inside joke after we laughed our asses off from his stupidity. But he really looked different now. He was but a small robot, now he looked like some cybernetic enhanced bodybuilder.
"I just thought I'd say a few things before the conclusion of your story arc."
I was stunned.
"What?"
"After you're done with your sentence tomorrow and you are back to evaluation trial you will understand everything. Just know that the Earth is fine."
I was stunned again. What the fuck does he mean the Earth is fine? My mind started racing. I was always very fast to jump to correct conclusions. Thats why SpaceX picked me anyways. I could only assume he have transcended into a being that could fix a nuclear war devastated planet, but to do so in twelve years?
He left before I managed to conclude and escape my thoughts. Just like Batman used to do in those movies. The final hearing is tomorrow. I have no clue about the current post-apocalyptic legislation, no clue about what am I being accused of, nor who are my accusers or my defense attorney, if any. All I know is Trapclap managed to transcend, becoming some sort of interplanetary authority, and have me arrested. Even though I was sure sleep wouldn't come, I tried lying down and at least getting a physical rest.
_Gonna continue later if theres any interest. This is my first submission so Ill see how it goes._
|
It didn't occur to me what it was at first. Maybe the generators vibrating or rocks falling onto the roof. The second time I realized; there was someone at the door.
Dropping my lukewarm coffee on the floor, my head snapped towards the large steel door 10 meters to my left. Silence.
Three knocks this time, louder, more impatient. Whoever it was knew I was in here, and they wanted to join me. My mind started conjuring and dismissing ideas of who, or what, could be trying to gain entry. Aliens? No. Mars couldn't feasibly support complex life. Besides, I would be the alien in this scenario. It must be a human, or something created by a human. But who? Did some survive the war? Perhaps it's one of the new androids? There was no one else on mars, to my knowledge.
Calming myself I stood up from my desk, and walked slowly and deliberately to the circular window in the steel door. It was possible to see outside through the pressurization lock, so I took care not to be visible from the window. Reaching the door, there were four more knocks, louder, almost desperate this time.
The small monitor to the right of the door showed a single space suit standing outside the outer door. The sun was low on the horizon and behind the suit, limiting visibility. It was quickly but errantly shifting its upper body, seemingly to change its gaze between the window and the camera looking down on it from the left. It stared into the camera and waved.
I ran through the possibilities. Worst case scenario whatever was out there intended to do me harm. More likely, a human looking for refuge. Maybe it's a woman... After weighing the guilt I would feel should I deny life saving refuge against my odds of being able to defend myself against a single assailant, I decided I would let them in. It was half loneliness, half horniness, but I made sure I factored in the unused but hopefully functional ion propulsion rifle to my right.
I spoke clearly through the intercom; "stand by, I'll disengage the outer lock". There was instant joyful movement in the suit, its arms flailing pointlessly while bobbing up and down in apparent celebration.
After the few seconds it took for the door to disengage and open, the suit stepped inside, the door slowly closing behind it. "Pressurizing lock". The now rare to my ears hiss of the cabin pressurizing bore down on me, prompting the realization that I could soon be speaking to the first human I've seen in 25 years. My mind was racing. The loneliness had nearly killed me in my first years here, and I had had to come to terms with the fact that I would die without ever seeing another face or speaking to another person. That I would never again sleep next to someone... The only thing keeping me going was the increasingly small chance of making contact with another person. It was a situation I had played in my mind countless times. I expected perhaps finding a radio broadcast or something on the sub-net. To have a person standing barely 4 meters away, it was overwhelming. I felt tears trickling down both sides of my face, an overwhelming sense of relief creeping through now shaking my body.
The hiss slowed, then stopped, then came the first words I'd heard spoken to me in 25 years.
"Matt Damon".
What?
"Matt Damon".
No.
The inside door had opened, and in stepped the suit. Bringing his arms up to his helmet he awkwardly twisted it to one side, then slowly pulled it upwards, revealing his face.
"MATT. DAMON".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
> *Knock Knock*
The sound rang through the capsule like a gunshot.
That couldn't be... no, it was just my mind running away from me again. The martian landscape was a barren wasteland outside of my own personal bubble of land.
The SpaceX Phoenix Project saw what was coming. The international dickwaggling, the Water Wars, the oceans, it was all pointing in one direction... and it wasn't good. While the countries' governments were struggling to keep their lights on and maintain a basic level of functionality the billionaires started throwing money at us to escape. Space no longer was the vision of a brighter tomorrow, just simply a survivable tomorrow.
My launch was supposed to be the first step in saving everyone.. but instead it was the start of the end. Someone... might've been India, America, the Ruskies... but someone thought that our launch from the central Pacific was a first strike attack. And well...
> *Knock Knock*
That can't be... must be another dust storm tossing rocks against the hatch. That lone metal door stood as the ceiling of my world. Phoenix realized that a surface colony would be much harder to maintain safely, so for the last 25 years I had been a little mole person living comfortably with my self-maintaining plantation out back.
Phoenix had the perfect idea. By having the five of us launch to set up the foothold, within a year the base would have grown to hold the first hundred people. The eChidna Diggers free to run autonomously were going to provide us with all the room and raw metals we'd ever need. And with the reprocessed biowaste from the farms we'd...
> *Knock Knock*
No... it can't be...
They're all gone...
Joni... Jerry... Janie...
They all died getting through the atmosphere, they're all gone... They can't be knocking, they're all gone. They can't be...
> *Knock KnockKnock*
I had to know. I had to look. The camera had broken years ago. I couldn't help it. When... she... I couldn't help it... I couldn't save...
No, I have to look. I sprinted up to the pod door into the airlock chamber.
> *Knock KnockKnock*
It was right there, it was real, I could hear it. I had to knock back, let them know I was coming
**KnockKnockKnockBangKnock**
> *Knock Knock*
I shoved on the old dusty spacesuit for the first time in decades. Ever since... she... the surface just I couldn't bear to see it, but now... maybe?
The airlock activated. But then... the air pressure didn't seem to change? Just some odd hissing and then, the door just popped open.
Above me stood a slight man smiling. A man just wearing a simple tunic and smiling. The sun shone over him and... I could hear birds chirping? He reached down a hand to pull me up to... a beautiful field of grass, on Mars?
*"영광스런 지도자의 이름으로, 나는 당신을 우리의 멋진 새로운 세상으로 맞이하고, 설탕 한 잔을 빌릴 수 있는지 묻습니다."*
The man spoke, but I understood none of it. He seemed to realize this and, after grabbing a tiny little box out of his pocket spoke into again, slower this time.
*"영광스런 지도자의 이름으로, 나는 당신을 우리의 멋진 새로운 세상으로 맞이하고, 설탕 한 잔을 빌릴 수 있는지 묻습니다."*
A metallic pinging noise came from the box followed by it saying:
"In the name of the Glorious Leader, I welcome you to our wonderful new world and ask if I can borrow a cup of sugar"
|
It didn't occur to me what it was at first. Maybe the generators vibrating or rocks falling onto the roof. The second time I realized; there was someone at the door.
Dropping my lukewarm coffee on the floor, my head snapped towards the large steel door 10 meters to my left. Silence.
Three knocks this time, louder, more impatient. Whoever it was knew I was in here, and they wanted to join me. My mind started conjuring and dismissing ideas of who, or what, could be trying to gain entry. Aliens? No. Mars couldn't feasibly support complex life. Besides, I would be the alien in this scenario. It must be a human, or something created by a human. But who? Did some survive the war? Perhaps it's one of the new androids? There was no one else on mars, to my knowledge.
Calming myself I stood up from my desk, and walked slowly and deliberately to the circular window in the steel door. It was possible to see outside through the pressurization lock, so I took care not to be visible from the window. Reaching the door, there were four more knocks, louder, almost desperate this time.
The small monitor to the right of the door showed a single space suit standing outside the outer door. The sun was low on the horizon and behind the suit, limiting visibility. It was quickly but errantly shifting its upper body, seemingly to change its gaze between the window and the camera looking down on it from the left. It stared into the camera and waved.
I ran through the possibilities. Worst case scenario whatever was out there intended to do me harm. More likely, a human looking for refuge. Maybe it's a woman... After weighing the guilt I would feel should I deny life saving refuge against my odds of being able to defend myself against a single assailant, I decided I would let them in. It was half loneliness, half horniness, but I made sure I factored in the unused but hopefully functional ion propulsion rifle to my right.
I spoke clearly through the intercom; "stand by, I'll disengage the outer lock". There was instant joyful movement in the suit, its arms flailing pointlessly while bobbing up and down in apparent celebration.
After the few seconds it took for the door to disengage and open, the suit stepped inside, the door slowly closing behind it. "Pressurizing lock". The now rare to my ears hiss of the cabin pressurizing bore down on me, prompting the realization that I could soon be speaking to the first human I've seen in 25 years. My mind was racing. The loneliness had nearly killed me in my first years here, and I had had to come to terms with the fact that I would die without ever seeing another face or speaking to another person. That I would never again sleep next to someone... The only thing keeping me going was the increasingly small chance of making contact with another person. It was a situation I had played in my mind countless times. I expected perhaps finding a radio broadcast or something on the sub-net. To have a person standing barely 4 meters away, it was overwhelming. I felt tears trickling down both sides of my face, an overwhelming sense of relief creeping through now shaking my body.
The hiss slowed, then stopped, then came the first words I'd heard spoken to me in 25 years.
"Matt Damon".
What?
"Matt Damon".
No.
The inside door had opened, and in stepped the suit. Bringing his arms up to his helmet he awkwardly twisted it to one side, then slowly pulled it upwards, revealing his face.
"MATT. DAMON".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
""You get out there and you make us proud!"
That was the last thing I ever heard from another human. The rockets had been automated by then, sort of like self-driving cars. I received this final transmission as the bombs fell in waves, ravaging the Earth I once called home. I watched the live video feed from the isolated capsule that was now my dwelling on the harsh surface of Mars. The devastation was unbelievable. Eventually, the feed ceased.
It's been 25 years. 25 horrible, lonely years."
As he wrote this chilling passage in his diary, he heard a knock on the door. A resounding "thump-thump-thump". The jaded astronaut donned an oxygen mask, and cautiously meandered over to the door. He opened it to be greeted by a man in a tuxedo, holding a Bible.
"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?"
|
It didn't occur to me what it was at first. Maybe the generators vibrating or rocks falling onto the roof. The second time I realized; there was someone at the door.
Dropping my lukewarm coffee on the floor, my head snapped towards the large steel door 10 meters to my left. Silence.
Three knocks this time, louder, more impatient. Whoever it was knew I was in here, and they wanted to join me. My mind started conjuring and dismissing ideas of who, or what, could be trying to gain entry. Aliens? No. Mars couldn't feasibly support complex life. Besides, I would be the alien in this scenario. It must be a human, or something created by a human. But who? Did some survive the war? Perhaps it's one of the new androids? There was no one else on mars, to my knowledge.
Calming myself I stood up from my desk, and walked slowly and deliberately to the circular window in the steel door. It was possible to see outside through the pressurization lock, so I took care not to be visible from the window. Reaching the door, there were four more knocks, louder, almost desperate this time.
The small monitor to the right of the door showed a single space suit standing outside the outer door. The sun was low on the horizon and behind the suit, limiting visibility. It was quickly but errantly shifting its upper body, seemingly to change its gaze between the window and the camera looking down on it from the left. It stared into the camera and waved.
I ran through the possibilities. Worst case scenario whatever was out there intended to do me harm. More likely, a human looking for refuge. Maybe it's a woman... After weighing the guilt I would feel should I deny life saving refuge against my odds of being able to defend myself against a single assailant, I decided I would let them in. It was half loneliness, half horniness, but I made sure I factored in the unused but hopefully functional ion propulsion rifle to my right.
I spoke clearly through the intercom; "stand by, I'll disengage the outer lock". There was instant joyful movement in the suit, its arms flailing pointlessly while bobbing up and down in apparent celebration.
After the few seconds it took for the door to disengage and open, the suit stepped inside, the door slowly closing behind it. "Pressurizing lock". The now rare to my ears hiss of the cabin pressurizing bore down on me, prompting the realization that I could soon be speaking to the first human I've seen in 25 years. My mind was racing. The loneliness had nearly killed me in my first years here, and I had had to come to terms with the fact that I would die without ever seeing another face or speaking to another person. That I would never again sleep next to someone... The only thing keeping me going was the increasingly small chance of making contact with another person. It was a situation I had played in my mind countless times. I expected perhaps finding a radio broadcast or something on the sub-net. To have a person standing barely 4 meters away, it was overwhelming. I felt tears trickling down both sides of my face, an overwhelming sense of relief creeping through now shaking my body.
The hiss slowed, then stopped, then came the first words I'd heard spoken to me in 25 years.
"Matt Damon".
What?
"Matt Damon".
No.
The inside door had opened, and in stepped the suit. Bringing his arms up to his helmet he awkwardly twisted it to one side, then slowly pulled it upwards, revealing his face.
"MATT. DAMON".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
By the time Darren Pinders was ready to share his findings with the Chamber, the spaceship from Earth had already lingered just outside orbit for the tenth day in a row.
He was well aware that normal resolutions in the Chamber required 6 out of 10 votes to pass, and the Chief held the veto in cases of deadlock. They discussed matters like whether the Colony needed extra water filtration plants built, or whether the protein vats could be depowered for maintenance. For those trifling issues, the Chamber usually reached their decisions in less than a day, and it was rare for any serious dissent to foster.
But this was a *singularly* critical topic – the security of the Colony – and the Chamber had to vote unanimously, no two ways about it. Further, until the final vote was cast, every single session was held in secret, screened off from the public. It didn’t help that the colony had already worked itself up into a frenzy, the closest they had come to civil unrest in 25 years. Even the average man in the street couldn’t be sure if the colony should welcome or reject the earthlings.
Darren took a seat in the centre of the hall. The Chamber were arranged in a semi-circle before him, and Darren had the distinct impression that they were like the jaws of great predator about to close upon him. Unlike the other consultants who came before him, he had no electro-folio with him – all the details he needed had been memorized.
“Mr Darren Pinders, thank you for joining us.” The Chairman was one Mr Harry Barnes, one of the original colonists who had arrived on Mars. It was legend that Harry had worked himself all the way up from a lowly porter in the early days. “You understand that you are here of your own free will? And that we are not compelling you to share any of your findings with us?”
“I understand,” said Darren. “In accordance with the Agreement, I will be truthful and forthcoming. You have my word on that.”
A murmuring arose from the Chamber, as ten grizzled heads conferred with each other. The Chairman nodded, then continued, “Then tell us, Mr Pinders. What is your recommendation? Should we accept the offer from the… earthlings, and let them join our community in exchange for their technology? Or should we reject them, force them away on pain of destruction?”
“Mr Chairman, my recommendation is that we allow them in.”
A commotion immediately arose from the Chamber, and the panels indicating their votes flashed erratically. Darren could see that some of them were pleased, while the rest were almost incensed, rising to shake their fists at their colleagues. He blinked as he focused on their faces and matched their names to the findings he was about to present.
“Quiet, quiet!” said the Chairman, as he stabbed at the command panels. Cones of white noise were blasted down from the ceiling, stamping out his colleagues’ objections. As a semblance of peace returned, the Chairman said, “As you can see, Mr Pinders, this is a very sensitive topic. What do your findings show? Explain yourself.”
“I recommend that we let them in, Mr Chairman, because the earthlings have not been honest with us.”
“*Not* been honest, you say? Did I hear you right?”
Darren nodded. “The earthlings claim that they are the survivors of the great nuclear wars on earth 25 years ago, and that it had taken them that long for them to survive and rebuild. They claim that they are here to retrieve the technologies they have kept here with us for safety, and that they want to work with us to achieve a brand new age. Their emissaries have thrown themselves at our mercy, and subjected themselves to all sorts of scans. They promise that they do not mean any harm. However, I have reason to believe that that is… not the whole truth.”
“What reason is this, Mr Pinders?”
Darren cleared his throat. He had only one shot at this, and he didn’t want to mess it up. He had to ensure that he was heard, and more importantly, *believed*.
“Mr Chairman, I do not trust them because they have been mentally influencing your minds.”
The uproar was so violent that the Chambers’ outbursts filtered out of the white-noise generators, and the Chairman had to dial-up the power. He even resorted to smacking his electro-folio on his desk, over and over until the rest settled.
“Mr Pinders,” the Chairman said. “Proof, proof! Proof or we will cast you out on grounds of spreading baseless dissent!”
“Three things, Mr Chairman,” said Darren, as he extended three digits in the air. “First, I scoured all first-hand reports of visual examinations of the earthlings’ spaceship. I was curious, you see. The news outlets all carried the same descriptions, but I traced them back to a single source, so that was not surprising in itself. But there were other reports too, and they all differed just *sufficiently* for me to realise that something was amiss.”
Darren waved a hand, and the receptors stitched under his skin interacted with the command panel in front of him. The tables he had prepared were transferred over automatically, and a bright blue holo swam into focus, large enough for the entire Chamber to see. Summaries of different reports were contrasted against each other, with similarities highlighted and differences circled.
“The sentries, for instance, reported that the earthlings’ ship was fitted with a base-model engine, incapable of anything more than 0.1 lightspeed travel. The Ministry of Defence focused on the fact that the ship had no weaponry of any sort they could discern. The Ministry of Engineering claims that the ship is approximately 20 years behind the models we have.”
“So?” said the Chairman. “Nothing wrong with that. They are all focusing on what’s important to them.”
“Ah,” said Darren. “So then I asked them, what do you have to say about each other’s reports? And that was when I realized, none of them could see what the other was seeing.”
The Chairman made to speak again, so Darren rushed ahead, scrolling down the tables to his second point.
“I agree, that alone is not enough. But there’s a second… test, as it were. I found that the closer anyone has been to the ship, the more strongly they felt about wanting to let the earthlings through.”
This time, it was the Minister for Defence who stood. He leaned forward on his lecturn, and pointed an accusing finger at Darren.
“Now, listen here, you no-good junkbucket! If you’re insinuating that I’ve been… brainwashed, or bribed, then you have to-”
Darren merely flicked a finger, and the tables were replaced with a series of photographs arranged in concentric circles, with the spaceship at the very centre.
“Minister, please wait for me to finish. Now, this is the chart I’ve built after reviewing all the security cameras. You will see that the inner rings are comprised of those who went closest to the ship. What I found surprising in my analysis, was that some of the people here have taken positions on the matter which are *diametrically* opposed to what they normally stand for! I should know! I checked! All the archives, all the voting patterns going way back to the founding of this colony!”
The Chairman beckoned his colleague to sit, then motioned towards Darren. “Are you done?”
Darren flicked to the end of his report, and as the picture pulsed in the holo, he heard the Chamber gasp.
The spaceship they had come to be so familiar with was there, spinning gently on its axis. But now, right *outside* the tip of the spaceship, sat three earthlings, cross-legged, in nothing more than simple robes of white. Their eyes were closed, their hands locked with each others’.
“That is a reconstruction stitched together from every off-colony security cam we have, Mr Chairman,” said Darren. “These are cameras which are remotely controlled by us, and not influenced by any human actor in any way. I can guarantee you that this is the most *objective* view we have of the spaceship. Not influenced by them in any way at all.”
“You’re saying that… they are *psychic*?”
Darren shrugged. “I need more information, Mr Chairman. Suffice to say that a lot more has transpired on earth than they let on, and until we know, we have to let them in.”
The Chairman almost dropped his electro-folio. “Let them in? If they are really… this powerful, and they have influenced us, we should be *shooting* them out of the damn sky!”
“No, we should not. At least, until we know what their true motives are, and why they have kept their abilities from us. We have to find out more before we make a decision. Just as we have progressed here on the colony, advanced so far in certain branches of science, so it seems that our cousins on earth have done so in others. And until we know more…”
The Chamber conferred between each other in hushed tones. Darren supposed he could tune up his audio-receptors to hear them, but he did not feel compelled to. Besides, there was the Agreement, with its rules and regulations, dictating what he could or could not do. He was thankful for the Agreement, and he did not want to break it.
“And you are sure you are not… susceptible to them, Mr Pinders?”
Darren shrugged again. “I do not know, Mr Chairman. But I suppose that there have to be limitations on their powers. If indeed they can also influence AI the same way they can influence you humans… then, well, the game is already lost.”
The Chairman nodded, and he raised his hand, opening the votes to the Chamber. Around him, one by one, his colleagues keyed in their choices.
The panels lit up uniformly in blue, and a gentle *ding* filled the room as the votes from the 107th session of the Chamber was recorded in the archives.
“Proceed, Mr Pinders. We will let them in, and you will watch over them. Report back to us when next you have results.”
Darren turned to leave, and for the first time in his existence, he felt… motivated.
---
/r/rarelyfunny
|
It didn't occur to me what it was at first. Maybe the generators vibrating or rocks falling onto the roof. The second time I realized; there was someone at the door.
Dropping my lukewarm coffee on the floor, my head snapped towards the large steel door 10 meters to my left. Silence.
Three knocks this time, louder, more impatient. Whoever it was knew I was in here, and they wanted to join me. My mind started conjuring and dismissing ideas of who, or what, could be trying to gain entry. Aliens? No. Mars couldn't feasibly support complex life. Besides, I would be the alien in this scenario. It must be a human, or something created by a human. But who? Did some survive the war? Perhaps it's one of the new androids? There was no one else on mars, to my knowledge.
Calming myself I stood up from my desk, and walked slowly and deliberately to the circular window in the steel door. It was possible to see outside through the pressurization lock, so I took care not to be visible from the window. Reaching the door, there were four more knocks, louder, almost desperate this time.
The small monitor to the right of the door showed a single space suit standing outside the outer door. The sun was low on the horizon and behind the suit, limiting visibility. It was quickly but errantly shifting its upper body, seemingly to change its gaze between the window and the camera looking down on it from the left. It stared into the camera and waved.
I ran through the possibilities. Worst case scenario whatever was out there intended to do me harm. More likely, a human looking for refuge. Maybe it's a woman... After weighing the guilt I would feel should I deny life saving refuge against my odds of being able to defend myself against a single assailant, I decided I would let them in. It was half loneliness, half horniness, but I made sure I factored in the unused but hopefully functional ion propulsion rifle to my right.
I spoke clearly through the intercom; "stand by, I'll disengage the outer lock". There was instant joyful movement in the suit, its arms flailing pointlessly while bobbing up and down in apparent celebration.
After the few seconds it took for the door to disengage and open, the suit stepped inside, the door slowly closing behind it. "Pressurizing lock". The now rare to my ears hiss of the cabin pressurizing bore down on me, prompting the realization that I could soon be speaking to the first human I've seen in 25 years. My mind was racing. The loneliness had nearly killed me in my first years here, and I had had to come to terms with the fact that I would die without ever seeing another face or speaking to another person. That I would never again sleep next to someone... The only thing keeping me going was the increasingly small chance of making contact with another person. It was a situation I had played in my mind countless times. I expected perhaps finding a radio broadcast or something on the sub-net. To have a person standing barely 4 meters away, it was overwhelming. I felt tears trickling down both sides of my face, an overwhelming sense of relief creeping through now shaking my body.
The hiss slowed, then stopped, then came the first words I'd heard spoken to me in 25 years.
"Matt Damon".
What?
"Matt Damon".
No.
The inside door had opened, and in stepped the suit. Bringing his arms up to his helmet he awkwardly twisted it to one side, then slowly pulled it upwards, revealing his face.
"MATT. DAMON".
|
Edit: Wow thanks for all the upvotes!! My inspiration for this was a picture of the earth exploding and an astronaut looking at it from the moon. I love all of the submissions! Everybody has a different take on it!
|
[WP] You are a SpaceX astronaut on Mars. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. You hear a knock on the door.
|
"Hello, neighbour; I can't help but notice that you've built a colony on our planet." The thing was nine feet tall but so spindly it looked like it could fold up into a suitcase. "It's just, this is our planet already and you haven't got a permit."
"A permit?" I said, too bemused to express my shock.
"Of course a permit - you can't just go building colonies on other people's planets."
"But I've been here 25 years!" I said.
"We decided to give it a couple decades and see if you were just visiting but you really seem to have settled in, haven't you?" it said, stooping parallel to the ground and pushing through the airlock. It picked up my teapot between two fingers-like-spider-legs, and held it at eye level. "Settled right in."
I spent a moment in bemused silence as it peered with an unimpressed expression around my cluttered hovel.
"I've been alone, you see," I said.
"Have you?" it replied, head pivoting sinuously towards me.
"And I haven't had any visitors until now so I've not really kept it in a presentable state."
"I can see that. Not that it matters, you'll have to go back to your planet if you don't have a permit."
"But my planet has been destroyed!"
"What? Which one, Mercury?"
"No, Earth!"
"The blue one?"
"Yes the blue one, third rock."
"Third rock," it said, contemplating. "Yes, very wet, isn't it?"
"Yes very wet."
"You're mostly water, aren't you? I hear you can leak to death, is that right?"
"Not under most circumstances!"
"Anyway, what destroyed your planet?"
"Nuclear holocaust."
"You're still at the nuclear stage? How antique. Well, you'll have to go back. We'll fix it up for you."
"Fix it--do you understand, you gangly Martian, I am saying it's been annihilated by nuclear weapons."
"Yes you said that, how bad can the damage be? There were no antimatter munitions? You didn't expunge the atmosphere? Any dialithic spacial inversions? Is the xband constant destabilised?"
"No I don't think so..."
"Fine then, a little nuclear winter won't be any trouble. Do you want us to restock it?"
"Restock it...?"
"With life. Uh, 'Earth life'. We've samples going back quite a while I think. You are a *chim-pan-zee*," it said, carefully enunciating the word, "are you not?"
"No, no - human! Chimps is close, though, I suppose."
"Ah. Well, I think we have some human filed away. Ok, come with me, this will probably take a few hours. Bring a sandwich."
It stood impatiently by the door as I frantically made my last Martian sandwich and joined it hesitantly as it shooed me through the door.
|
It didn't occur to me what it was at first. Maybe the generators vibrating or rocks falling onto the roof. The second time I realized; there was someone at the door.
Dropping my lukewarm coffee on the floor, my head snapped towards the large steel door 10 meters to my left. Silence.
Three knocks this time, louder, more impatient. Whoever it was knew I was in here, and they wanted to join me. My mind started conjuring and dismissing ideas of who, or what, could be trying to gain entry. Aliens? No. Mars couldn't feasibly support complex life. Besides, I would be the alien in this scenario. It must be a human, or something created by a human. But who? Did some survive the war? Perhaps it's one of the new androids? There was no one else on mars, to my knowledge.
Calming myself I stood up from my desk, and walked slowly and deliberately to the circular window in the steel door. It was possible to see outside through the pressurization lock, so I took care not to be visible from the window. Reaching the door, there were four more knocks, louder, almost desperate this time.
The small monitor to the right of the door showed a single space suit standing outside the outer door. The sun was low on the horizon and behind the suit, limiting visibility. It was quickly but errantly shifting its upper body, seemingly to change its gaze between the window and the camera looking down on it from the left. It stared into the camera and waved.
I ran through the possibilities. Worst case scenario whatever was out there intended to do me harm. More likely, a human looking for refuge. Maybe it's a woman... After weighing the guilt I would feel should I deny life saving refuge against my odds of being able to defend myself against a single assailant, I decided I would let them in. It was half loneliness, half horniness, but I made sure I factored in the unused but hopefully functional ion propulsion rifle to my right.
I spoke clearly through the intercom; "stand by, I'll disengage the outer lock". There was instant joyful movement in the suit, its arms flailing pointlessly while bobbing up and down in apparent celebration.
After the few seconds it took for the door to disengage and open, the suit stepped inside, the door slowly closing behind it. "Pressurizing lock". The now rare to my ears hiss of the cabin pressurizing bore down on me, prompting the realization that I could soon be speaking to the first human I've seen in 25 years. My mind was racing. The loneliness had nearly killed me in my first years here, and I had had to come to terms with the fact that I would die without ever seeing another face or speaking to another person. That I would never again sleep next to someone... The only thing keeping me going was the increasingly small chance of making contact with another person. It was a situation I had played in my mind countless times. I expected perhaps finding a radio broadcast or something on the sub-net. To have a person standing barely 4 meters away, it was overwhelming. I felt tears trickling down both sides of my face, an overwhelming sense of relief creeping through now shaking my body.
The hiss slowed, then stopped, then came the first words I'd heard spoken to me in 25 years.
"Matt Damon".
What?
"Matt Damon".
No.
The inside door had opened, and in stepped the suit. Bringing his arms up to his helmet he awkwardly twisted it to one side, then slowly pulled it upwards, revealing his face.
"MATT. DAMON".
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.