Hope is a Seed. Death is a Star.

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. The body was silhouetted by the vivid luminosity of a dying star. In an eternal rotation, the body moved in a lifeless ballet. It really was quite beautiful despite the terror of it all. Shafts of refracted light caught the eye as they entered and splintered through the tiny droplets of moisture and blood leaching from the form. What does one call a droplet if it does not drop? If it has no gravity to command its descent? In the absence of gravity, the clustering molecules took on the appearance of sparkling jewels, rubies, and diamonds, adorning the body with a sort of holiness. But holiness suggests a godliness and there was no divinity here, only death. One can’t help but wonder what it feels like to breathe out air and breathe in a void. Would the lungs curl in like the knees of the grief stricken? The face of the floated resembles very closely, that which looks on in horror.

The reflection in the glass of the ship’s hull betrays her visage. Here he is before her, for the last time, a final image seared so severely into her retinas as to form sunspots in its wake. Despite being separated by the highly tempered alumino-silicate glass, built to withstand pressures that seemed to pale in comparison to that which now hammers at her temples, she felt as though it would only take an extension of her arm to touch him. Oh, what she would give to touch him.

~

He held her hand. A gesture that became her only point of focus as they plummeted towards Earth. The shuttle moved like a bullet train on enflamed tracks. The smoldering heat of the atmosphere licked out red and blue tongues against the outside of the craft. She had dreamt of this moment thousands of times. In these dreams she found herself falling through the air, approaching Earth with fatal speed, though she felt no fear. Rather, she felt gratitude at the chance to come so close to her true home. Just to have the chance to see it up close, to take a deep breath of real unfiltered air, to feel wind on her skin, would make death feel like a worthy consequence. It would be a privilege to be the first in her family to be buried in the ground, to return home on a molecular level, to be consumed by bugs and animals, by intricate networks of mushrooms that would hollow away at her until she became the very earth she longed for. She would gladly die for that, but would she feel the same if she knew it wasn’t her death that would be the cost?

“How long are you headed down for?” Asked a woman dressed ceremoniously in the fashion of the old world.

“Just the weekend. The boss invited us when my husband got promoted.

"What about you?” Responded a woman dressed almost identically.

“It’s my sons first time”. The first woman said, her hand brushing the hair of a small 8-year-old boy.

“Wow, so young!”

Most people never step foot on Earth in their whole lifetime. Such privileges were usually reserved for those with deep pockets and generational affluence. The only way someone could work their way into a position of even coming close would be to marry in, get on a research team or obtain a certain forged document... make that two.

Fio came from a politically charged and socially educated family. They were outspoken protestors of the current government and took part in many large demonstrations calling for change and the disbanding of their oppressive systems. They were never persecuted lawfully out of fear of furthering the strength of their cause, but their passports were banned indefinitely, not that they had clearance to use them in the first place. Astra’s mother was an engineering professor at the University, her father was a botanist and mycologist who was endlessly intrigued by the natural world. He had only visited Earth once on a research trip to collect samples, but he spun that one experience into countless stories which he would tell her about every night before bed. He would speak of its beauties, its wonders, the power of the ocean, the sound of the birds and the way that each and every cell worked together to create the miracle of life.

“Did you know that trees speak to each other?” He said one night. Her eyes widened with disbelief.

“How?”

“They use these very special networks called mycelium to share nutrients." He brought his hands together to form the shape of a web, interlocking and branching outward.

“They are always connected and always speaking to one another, we just can’t hear them because they communicate through pure consciousness, they’re beyond words. Many people think that just because something doesn’t behave the way we do, that somehow, they are less intelligent, but in many ways it’s the opposite. Some think that just because us humans don’t have roots to bind us to Earth that we somehow don’t need it to survive at all, but I don’t think that’s true. I think we belong to it more than we like to admit.”

“What happens if you take a tree out of the ground?”

“It dies.”

Neither Fio nor Astra, in their 23 years of life, had visited Earth.

~

“What do you think it’s like?” Fio asked Astra as they lay beneath the large bay windows in their sector. The stars blinked mockingly at them.

“I don’t know, but I know those stupid projections don’t even come close.” Responded Astra.

“God, I hate that bullshit. I know it’s meant to motivate us to work harder but all it does is remind me of just how trapped we really are. It makes me sick.”

In an effort to boost morale, projections of earthly scenes were cast upon the walls of the colony. When Fio was little he walked up to one of them, it was of a meadow awash in golden light, and reached out his little hand to touch the grass, to feel their prickly blades on his skin. Instead he was met with the cold hard steel of the ship’s walls. It was the first time he felt his heart really break.

~

The two of them kept their eyes to the ground for the majority of the descent, careful not to bring attention to their presence and alert anyone of their deception, but their curiosity begged them to look, just to take a peek. The shuttle was slowing as it readied to land a few hundred yards out, allowing them to see, for the first time in their lives... the Ocean. It was brilliant, its depths incomprehensible. She squeezed Fio’s hand so hard his fingertips began to quickly resemble that of the cresting white caps. The shoreline pressed up against one side of the base which housed the commercial landing docks, awaiting their arrival.

It was the air that met them first, sweet, and clean with a salty bite from the nearby sea. It filled them with a buoyancy that carried them forward, almost weightlessly as they took in more and more of their surroundings. Long before either of them had ever existed, it had become very clear that the only way to keep their beloved planet alive was to move all industry and day to day life somewhere that could no longer impact it. Once the colony was built and the majority of humankind was relocated to its outer reaches, the restoration of Earth began. Astra had once read about invasive species of plants in one of her father’s old books. Hogweed, broom, ivy, even blackberries were among those listed. She remembers thinking that each of them was quite beautiful and harmless in appearance, all the while moving, climbing, wrapping themselves around the necks of their hosts until they fall heavy and limp in the suffocating embrace. She remembers one species in particular not being listed.

The sound of boots on the tarmac seemed to parallel the quickening beats of her heart as they neared the processing centre. Before they walked through the large double doors, she looked up to where they had come from. Far in the distance, like a lofty dream, all soft on the edges and void of colour, the colony loomed.

~

The broad-shouldered Officer looked long and hard at the documents in hand, his eyes peering up beneath his heavy brows occasionally as he verified their identities.

“Welcome to Earth.” He said, papers extended. Fio reached for them and nodded his head in thanks. They walked towards the exit with purpose, like it was the most natural thing in the world, as though it was their birthright, assuming their roles as rightful heirs to a stolen empire.

~

Fio gripped the handle with both hands as he turned the crank, heavy gears shifted within the metal of the side entrance. He had found it on an old architectural blueprint of the city while working in the archival department. It was one of the only cities that still existed after the migration. It stood as a bridge between the stars and the planet. Beyond its walls lived nature in all its pristine glory. He spent weeks planning a path from the facility to the door and how to avoid heavily monitored areas. A final click sounded, and the door cracked open. Fio looked to Astra who stood at his side, they took a deep breath, and then opened it. At the doors edge stood a small pink flower, beyond that, a patch of lush grass, beyond that, a vast and expansive forest and within, the dark eyes of a small spotted fawn. The moment seemed to last a lifetime, the three pairs of eyes scanning each other, taking each other in, before the fawn finally made its retreat. The whole place seemed to hum with movement.

Astra was the first to cross the threshold, her feet carrying her forward until her hand rested against the base of a massive Redwood. Old growths that had only been seedlings at the time of humanities ascent, were now the size they once had been before they were reduced to cabins, furniture, and kindling. They now stood as tall and as rooted as ever.

~

They walked, until their legs could barely take another step, until they knew they were far enough to rest. Silver light caught their eyes as it crept through the trees. The ocean, they could tell by the smell of it, could hear the song of the seabirds. Then they were running, across sand and rock until their boots filled with water and their bodies crashed into the sea. Neither knew how to swim, but they had no fear. Fios smiling face adorned the surface of the rolling waves like a delighted buoy. Astra felt her laugh start from the very depths of her stomach, felt it foam up her throat until it poured out of her like a broken tap, until the laugh turned into a yell, into a scream, one which shook her and sent birds scattering through the air. Fio began to scream with her, releasing his sadness, his rage, replacing it with delight, with a sensation they had only dreamed of.

Freedom.

Their screams sent ripples across the ocean, made fish quiver and scurry, leaving clouds of sand in their wake. Here, their screams held weight, they had effect, they felt their very existence penetrate the lifeforce that vibrated in everything around them.

Up there, their screams held no weight, had no effect, wielded no power. Hands were not removed, and feet did not cease to drag heavily in protest. When she yelled for him, begged for him to be spared, it came out as a soundless whimper, a mouth slackened in a deadened cry.

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

But for now, they do matter. For now they belong. For now they’re together. When Astra opened her eyes to gaze into that big blue sky, a bloom of orange and red began to take shape, haloed by billowing grey smoke.

The flowering of rebellion.

The colony had been attacked.