Skip to content

In This Future Or The Next

Stories by Leon de la Garza

Menu
  • Home
  • The Journeyman
  • About
  • Contact
  • Copyright Notice
Menu

The Stars Are Gone

Posted on January 22, 2015April 2, 2015 by Leon de la Garza

We sailed away many days ago. It’s strange because sometimes I forget what I did the day before, or sometimes I forget why I walked into a room. The everyday memories of our travels are fleeting. Our actions routinary, but I will never forget the day we left, no matter how far away that day is from my present.

I remember walking to our vessel. Thousands upon thousands of people watched us from afar, from a safe distance. It looked like a sea, and they roared like one too. The many voices of the people I belong to echoed through the valley as one, like the waves of an ocean hitting the shore at dawn. *It was dawn*. The dawn of a new era, and there we walked up to the shore, ready to venture out into the open black sea of space.


I remember the countdown. I was strapped to my seat staring at myriad controls, listening to the soft voice of an artificial woman

“Three.” She said, and I thought of the mountains. Always firm, always there, standing over us, telling us stories from ancient times. Their massive bodies guiding our people for millennia. That day they were relieved of their duty, they could finally rest, for we were going out, searching for other worlds, and the stars would fill their place.

“Two.” She said, and I thought of the oceans. At a point in time they seemed infinite. They awakened in us the sense of wonder, that craving to explore, to go beyond the place where the world ended, and risk falling into the infinite abyss.

“One.” I remember the last time I said ‘goodbye’. I had said to my mother, seconds after she passed away. She had said it too, seconds before she left. She embarked on a journey with no return, and on that day I did too.

“Ignition.”

We lost contact with Earth after four years, and that was the last time I heard a voice from my world. After that we were alone, sailing from our star to the next. We had many hopes. We endured the solitude and we endured our enclosed lives. We did it because we saw our destination, because when we got there we would start a colony, and from that colony we would thrive.

Last month the lights went out. The stars disappeared. The galaxy went dark and we stared dumbfounded at the empty panorama outside our vessel. The others couldn’t take it.

Now I am alone. Now I’ve fallen into the infinite black abyss. Now I wait for death.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archives

  • January 2025
  • May 2024
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • July 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • March 2016
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • August 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
© 2025 In This Future Or The Next | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme