Stories by Leon de la Garza
In a distant planet of a distant stellar system, under the dimming light of an orange star, a man stood silent, staring at his fallen ship. He didn’t know what had happened, he didn’t know how he had ended up in that alien planet, with his fate almost sealed, with his crew dead and…
Darkness engulfed Earth. Acid and ash rained over the continents. The wind screamed as it passed through the cracks and the holes and the windows of the decaying cities. A sad melody rang over its atmosphere reaching every corner of the world to remind its non-existent inhabitants of the death they had endured. A…
I entered this chamber fifty two years ago. I remember that day in its entirety. My memories before it are sparse, it was a different life, they were different times. I remember my body. They said it was perfect, I was short, slim, smart. I agreed with them when they told me, but they didn’t…
“Do you know what people said back then?” “What?” “They said humans would not survive.” “Really? Why did they say that?” “I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine being alive back then. Problems must have seemed insurmountable to them. I suppose they saw their end around every corner, with each new sign of trouble, with…
I have been travelling the galaxy looking for a new home. Thousands of us volunteered. We scanned the planets, we scanned the stars and when we were done, we moved on to the next. There are no days or nights here. There is always darkness. A darkness so deep that even myriad stars can’t rid…
It was in a universe before our universe. It was in a far away world of a far away galaxy. It was the humans’ third emergence from the soup of the ground, it was the first time they had escaped their world and the first time they explored the vastness of the cosmos. People were…
There is a place in this ship that few people know about and that I like to visit. It’s hidden below the storage area in the back, near where June and Boid go and kiss themselves when the lights go off; They don’t know that’s where I spend the nights, they don’t know I watch…
I can still see it from here. I haven’t lost track of it yet. Among the millions of stars around it, it still shines blue, it still looks like home. I spend my days walking through these white hallways, the ones with the soft floors, the ones where your feet don’t hurt after having walked…