Ad Astra

Ad Astra.  That was what inscribed on the heart shaped locket he held.  Many years ago he had found it in one of all to many abandoned houses that now inhabited the world.  His mother had given it to him before her passing, and her mother had given it to her.  It would have gone to one of his two sisters presumably if they were around at the time of her passing, but as with so many children, they did not survive childhood. 

Brandon was 17 or there about to the best of his knowledge.  He did not have a watch or calendar, as those were exceedingly rare.  It had been three weeks since he had seen another person.  It wasn’t his longest stretch in-between meeting another human, though, it was the longest in some time.  For the last year he was trying to make it to Toronto.  It was known as one of the few remaining densely inhabited places left on the continent that had a livable climate.  Brandon was not overly sad about not seeing another human in three weeks, as he had killed the last person he saw.  He had never killed before. 

There was no warning.  The man came out of nowhere.  He tacked him and had his hands around his neck before he even knew he was there.  Brandon struggled against him but could not pry the man off.  He fumbled around and found a stone within reach and without thought, slammed it into the man’s face.  The man never rose again.  While most of the people he had met since he started this journey tried to help him along his way as best as they could, they made sure to warn him against such men.  They said that there would be folk that sought to steal one’s possessions at any means, but they also implied more sinister and monstrous motives of these that pray on lonely travelers.  He knew it was in self-defense, but could not shake the fact that he had taken another’s life.

From what the last friendly human he had met, he should be in Los Angeles any day now. He continued to thumb the locket remembering his mother handing it to him.

“What does it say?”

“Ad Astra.  It means To the Stars.  Or, at least,  that’s what my mom told me.”

He knew when I looked upon the night sky that stars are what he saw, but couldn’t’ fathom how one could get there.  There were a few times when his parents were still around that they pointed out a strange object and said that this used to ride us long on the ground or that used to fly us through the clouds.  He never knew if this was true, or something to keep children entertained in a world without real joy.  Nevertheless, on this day he wanted to believe.  He wanted to believe that somewhere out there amongst the stars there was something better.  There had to be.

And then he saw it.  It shook him out of his wanderings.  It stopped him in his tracks.  Toronto.  It had to be.  He ran. He knew that he shouldn’t, but this was a year in the making, or maybe perhaps his whole life.  His family had always talked about going, though, they never wanted to risk the journey with children in tow.  At long last he was there.

As he ran, he saw the impossible.  He saw what he had always dismissed and just recently dreamed.  What he saw was in conceivably large and slowly floating down.  Seemingly right on top of him.  He tied to gauge its landing radius and ran for all he was worth to get out of the way.  Jumping, he barley made it out of the way as it touched the scorched earth. 

Brandon rolled over from and sat up.  He did not know what else to do but watch.  What else was there to do when faced with something so foreign.  In a timely phrase, he was star struck.  And then it opened.  A ramp extended.  A…man…walked out.  He looked much like any person that he saw in his travels, except…  his skin was a dark pink, almost red, with shimmering silver hair.  He stood at the bottom of the ramp for several moment just looking about, until he locked eyes with Brandon.  Frozen, he just stared back.  He continued to stare as the stranger walked toward him until he was upon him.    Without saying a word, the man gently lifted his locket from his chest to look upon it.

“As children, we were taught of these, though, I never dreamt of seeing on, especially here.  Earth.”

The man looked around for a few more moments.

“Do you know what this is?”

“A locket.  My mother told me it said Ad Astra.  It means to the stars.”

The red man smiled.

“You are remarkably correct.  I had not thought after 300 years anyone remember.  Do you know of its significance?”

“No.  My mother gave it to me and her mother to her.”

“This was given to those that were left behind.  As a promise.  A promise long in the making, but today fulfilled.”

“What promise?”

“To return for those left behind.  We are here to take you home.  Well, our new home.”

“Where is this new home?”

“Mars.”

The man looked up to the sky and began talking almost, it seemed, to himself.

“We used to think that this, earth was humankind’s birthplace, but years before most of us left, we discovered that there was once life on Venus.  That the next planet from this one closer to the sun.  As humans are want to do, we had to know more.  In all of the ideas of what we thought we would find, we would have never have guessed what we found.”

He looked straight at Brandon.

“You see, we had at least populated one planet before this one.  Our species had lived on Venus before migrating to Earth.  We do not know if the sun had flared or become too hot, or if our species had ruined that planet, as we had this one.  So, we migrated again.  I think we have at last learned from our past.”

The stranger held out his hand.

“Are you ready to go home?”