A Fantastic View

Today on Earth, unlike the labor planets, life is not a struggle. Rain falls, inevitably multiplying in volume and weight. Marking time in it’s rhythm while watering all that lives under the starlit canopy of the sky.

A far cry from when the planet was both Earth and Labor planet. When the sky often saw the crimson blood of man. In the times when there was so much conflict that not even the jungles, mountains, and prairies could stop the strife of love, life, and labor.

Thus humanity and the earth itself were on the brink of destruction. The planet and it’s people, hateful toward each other. Mother nature regretting the volcanic explosions that created the primordial soup of life. Ultimately regretting humanity’s evolution from the Earth’s underworld.

Conflict fueled by the lazily divided duality of the living. Represented by the two sided coin of intellect and instinct; man and beast. A black and white oversimplification of that which is most complex. Man. Alas, making men of measurable units, from irrational animals, being indeed, infinite decimals.

Later with an understanding of duality the earth was rebuilt in order to fulfill the understanding of conflict. In the face of instability, and the inability to put together the infinite. The only resort was to accept the comforting cycle of human dualism without its counterpart. Take away that which argues or argues back, it matters not. Thus limiting life to a one dimensional experience. A further simplification that leaves any creature comfortable, careful, and keeping of it’s single aspect left to lose…

Yet, the animal and the intellect can never be fully separated as the intellect governs with the complete savagery of the animal. Ultimately the soul of humanity lost and longing within the comfort of consistency. Creating the one way pedestrian pavement.

And so, as the cool grey air lingers, September rolls from August and into October, as the dark matter currents push and pull with wakes that will never meet.

These thoughts fill my head as I work. Ughh, but who am I to comment, just another galactic citizen scraping the barrel for the leftovers that might feed me to continue to the next one. Myself included would rather death over facing the hypocrisy of my life, thus I live as I do. Even as I try to distinguish myself as somebody, I am everybody else. The definition of normal.

“Hey! What are you doing over there?.”

The words pierce me as arrows do.

“What? You want me to work faster?” I respond. “The Sirus crabs bite and I've already 4 fingers that barely move from every snap they’ve taken.”

Larry starts towards me. His fat rolls rumbling with every step, the beads of sweat dripping down from his pits, along with his hair flopping from side to side briefly exposing the bald spots that he neatly tried to comb into obscurity.

Beats languishing on earth I think to myself, as Larry continues across the floor with his smug smile and energy of a manager that works only when he is “teaching”. Otherwise, he is happy to sit along the walls of the huge hanger gambling on his company pad.

The hanger sits on top of a space elevator over the planet of Demetres. A place, where those who wish to leave behind the Earth go in search of galactic permits to get onto upper planets. The hanger itself opens directly into the universe with stars and galaxies outstretched for as far as the eye can see... Basically the only perk of the job

Larry grabs the large shipping container as tall as any of us. He pulls a crab out and quickly slides rubber bands onto the crustacean’s claws and mutated mouth which contains more teeth than I would care to count or know about. One of the crabs is worth more than an entire week of processing in the hanger. How I envy those Astro families who left Earth first. Sure the first generations were almost entirely decimated but, Oh! If they could see how the survivors came to be paid dividends.

“Now that is how you do it! Larry exclaims. See! You can do one every 2 seconds and I expect that or you are on the next ship back to earth.”

Every two seconds…

The shift change bell rings as relief washes over me.

“Hey! What are you doing over there”

This time the words drift like a feather on warm air.

It was Hannah with her usual humor.

You’ve got to stop eavesdropping, it's not funny” I answer, still frustrated from the day.

Hannah thinks she is so clever and maybe she is.

“Lighten up X we just got off and the bars down on the surface just came back on. Let’s go grab a drink and hope this isn’t the sun fire that will eventually envelope Demetres.”

The current fire has been unlike others yet, just like the rest. Labor planets are always like that, either too cold or too hot. Something has to be wrong with it or it would be an upper planet. They usually have some expiration date that no one seems to keep up with. What's the use? There are enough desolate planets and persons to not care. Demetres is supposed to be guaranteed for another 300 years but, if what happened on Phoenix is any indicator then there is no extent to the neglect in order to prolong the work for as long as possible. 4.2069 million lives lost.

“Thinking too much again huh? Here’s an alcho-slug, slurp it up!”

Without another word it goes down perfectly, like every night.

I look up at Hannah, her hay-colored blonde hair gleaming in the artificial light of the bar. Bags under her eyes and the folds of her skin filled with ash from the current fires. Yet her eyes blue, intense, and wandering. A living relic of earth. A moment where I marvel at the beauty of who is in front of me. Old world blue jeans only seen on Earth with a tank top stained brown from the endless days of wear. The only accessory she ever wore was a rustic silver heart shaped locket that had no doubt seen better days.

“When are we going to get out of here? We work and work but, not even close to a permit! Every night we drink only to repeat another day so that those on earth and the upper planets can live but, when will we be alive? I can’t be like Larry I won’t be!” I exclaim, as I start to feel the slug hit.

Hannah rolls her eyes.

“Don’t be so melodramatic jeez don’t you ever stop? Besides I told you, I have a plan X, do you not trust me? A permit to the upper planets has nothing to do with work.”

Intrigued I move closer as though there was anyone else in the bar besides the servobot.

“Word is that the fire really is getting out of control... A lot of the upper citizens here on management are getting ready to evacuate under the guise of the new season celebrations. The planet will probably be fine but, you know how the uppers are.

Nonchalantly she pulls two evacuation tickets from her denim.

“They could kill you for that!”

“Oh so you don’t want one?”

“You're crazy, people will know we are not the uppers. Eventually, we will be found and put to death if we use those.”

“Yeah but, at that point we will be on an upper planet. You wanna wake up tomorrow and lose feeling in another finger?”

She had a good point. Demetres was doomed and those on it as well. The propaganda starts to wear off after a couple of years and I had already lost count. Was it a trap? Twiddling my thumbs like a child. Caught between a rock and a hard place.

“Hannah you know I trust you. It’s not a matter of trust, rather fear. Fear that I'll end up worse off than I am now... if that’s possible.”

“It’s not” she responds.

“I’m leaving early tomorrow morning with the rest of the uppers if you want to come meet me for one last slug before we go. You know we might never get another one of these.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“X get up! It's showtime” I hear Hannah's familiar voice come over the intercom as I wake up in the massive housing unit, tens of thousands of units stacked on top of each other. Used crab shipping containers, reused to maintain mindless monkeys.

The musky air mixed with the aroma of the burning atmosphere creeping forward as pungent as ever.

So today is the day… a good day to die.

The constant multi-colored neon lights permeate my container as I dress myself trying to look my best. Trying to play the part. After all in a couple of hours I would be an upper and any betrayal to that fact would prove deadly.

As I walk out onto the crowded street I feel the web of people and asphalt moving against the grain of dark matter as the planet continues its orbit.

The sun above scorching as it is the closest it will ever get to the planet. Exactly why today is the day to evacuate. The most likely that the planet might blow up being in:

1 hour 4 minutes and 53 seconds to be exact.

Imagine, if right as we are leaving on the spaceship the final view as we drift away is exactly that of destruction. The reaper with a scythe of UV rays millions of miles in span and diameter. The shaft being 3.82 million decibels long. What a fantastic view. Terrifying and awe inspiring just as death’s reaper should be.

walk, walk, walk, stop, walk, run, stop, talk, walk.

The door to the bar opens. And there she is, waiting with the slugs. There are two others in the bar this morning though. I can’t remember the last time anyone was caught dead in this dive.

“Hey Hey” I say as I approach Hannah. Picking up my slug in the same motion.

GULP, SLURP, BURP

And off we go out the double doors.

Right as we leave the safety of the bar I see Larry and his unmistakable body, a unique blob at the reach of my sight. Him and some muscle at my door wondering why I am not on my shift.

Galvanized by the dread of explaining myself to Larry and the extra hours I would inevitably have to work I follow Hannah’s lead and start sprinting toward the evacuation site. Unscathed by any chance encounters and blessed by the stars themselves we make it through to the ticket line and board the craft.

“Finally”, I say as I sit down next to Hannah in the cushioned red velvet seats.

Turning to my right through the small window is Demetres and its growing sun. Feeling the rumble of the craft as it starts its ascent up into the atmosphere I see a simultaneous flash of light unlike any I had ever witnessed before. The true beginning and end, The resolution of intellect and instinct.

There sitting in an oversized vibro-steel soda can with rockets blasting underneath me I realize the futility of hanging on to what isn’t and finally accept what is; for once enjoying the singular moment before me.

I chuckle to myself, “What a fantastic view.”