Isiselyn
Old
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2008
- Posts
- 77
- Location
- St Austell, Cornwall
- Society
- OldTimers
- Avatar Name
- Isis Sissi Innana
Journal extract following '10'....
So much time had passed. It had seemed a lifetime, and indeed in some ways it was a lifetime, since I had felt the grass under my feet, the sun on my face, the cool breezes tease my hair and listened to the peaceful stillness of nature. For now my only escape from the madness could be found from my bunk with the curtains closed to those outside. Even there I was bombarded with the constant hum of human activity, the shouts, whisperings, arguments, cups and glasses on tables, cheers from rowdy groups playing cards, laughter, doors opening and closing and beneath it all the purring of the ship's systems which were keeping us alive.
The heat was horrific. The smells too. So many of us cramped into such overcrowded conditions with no reprieve. The government on Earth believing that we still need more bodies in a place where an entire planet of colonists struggle to survive in limited ships and space stations. It was a wonder we had not killed each other and I often feared it was only the constant fear that the robots may attack that kept us from turning on each other. For what would we do if they came at us now? There was no escape route. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. These ships had never been designed for what we were using them for. They would put up a fight for a while but supplies were so limited and it would only be a matter of time before they would defeat us and Calypso would be lost forever.
There had been rumours recently. Stirrings on the grapevine of imminent changes to our circumstances. That we would soon be walking on the surface once more. Snippets of overheard intelligence telling of rebuilding in the towns, cities and outposts we had lived in before the attack. That soon we would be sent back to the surface, to a Calypso similar in nature to that the first settlers found, unknown, unseen, undone.
We accepted that all we had known before was lost. In the five years that had passed since the evacuation and revival of our colonists we had seen for ourselves the devastation the Typhon had waged on our home. When the dust clouds had cleared we noticed that the planet itself had seemed to have shifted and who knew what that would do to the plants and animals? Would all now be extinct or would some have flourished while others perished in their new conditions? There seemed to only be the influence of one sun now too and we could see darkness fall, we would once again experience nightfall- the beauty of dawn and dusk not experienced since our days on Earth,
Fires had raged across the continents, so bright and fierce we could see them from space. Volcanoes had erupted, earthquakes had ripped the lands apart and changed the shape of all we knew. And who could tell what devastation had been caused by the ice age that had followed the dust cloud? The scientists had their theories but as always we were kept in the dark on the details. I only hoped that this was not to stop us from abandoning a now hopeless planet for the dreadful but at least known conditions of Earth.
Then there was the crater. It was massive- we could see that from here. I recalled sitting there with my friend, the hundreds of others standing by, all asking the same questions. Where was the Typhon? Would we see it? When would it hit? Seeing the destruction it left behind I now understand why nobody at Hades saw it with their own eyes. To have done so much damage to our world it must have hit with a speed that gave us no chance of witnessing our fate. I wondered what would be left. I doubted there would be any sign of human life there at all but would we find some element of the ship? Or would the intensity of the fires that had raged have wiped all signs and even removed the trace elements from the very soil?
They say the evacuation to the surface will start soon. That we will be sent back to the planet in groups, each one to different places we had once known. They reckon the first ones down will be sent to Port Atlantis. Maybe this will now become the main city now our capital has gone. Nobody knows where we will end up, what we will find there or what creatures, if any, we will have to face. My bags are packed. Save for this journal I hold in my hands all my possessions for those first few hours are with me. My weapon, ammunition, armor and medical supplies all within easy reach. If we are about to return then we must be ready. There has been no official word on what will become of us once we are there. We must be prepared for anything. We will once again fight for our survival on a strange new world. The old colonists standing on level ground with the new, side by side and as one. Is this the new Golden Age so many had spoken of? I fear for all of us. So many have been lost before and we can only hope that our losses in these times of trouble are few. We all know our species in many ways depends on this planet for survival so survive we must. I pray for us all.......
So much time had passed. It had seemed a lifetime, and indeed in some ways it was a lifetime, since I had felt the grass under my feet, the sun on my face, the cool breezes tease my hair and listened to the peaceful stillness of nature. For now my only escape from the madness could be found from my bunk with the curtains closed to those outside. Even there I was bombarded with the constant hum of human activity, the shouts, whisperings, arguments, cups and glasses on tables, cheers from rowdy groups playing cards, laughter, doors opening and closing and beneath it all the purring of the ship's systems which were keeping us alive.
The heat was horrific. The smells too. So many of us cramped into such overcrowded conditions with no reprieve. The government on Earth believing that we still need more bodies in a place where an entire planet of colonists struggle to survive in limited ships and space stations. It was a wonder we had not killed each other and I often feared it was only the constant fear that the robots may attack that kept us from turning on each other. For what would we do if they came at us now? There was no escape route. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. These ships had never been designed for what we were using them for. They would put up a fight for a while but supplies were so limited and it would only be a matter of time before they would defeat us and Calypso would be lost forever.
There had been rumours recently. Stirrings on the grapevine of imminent changes to our circumstances. That we would soon be walking on the surface once more. Snippets of overheard intelligence telling of rebuilding in the towns, cities and outposts we had lived in before the attack. That soon we would be sent back to the surface, to a Calypso similar in nature to that the first settlers found, unknown, unseen, undone.
We accepted that all we had known before was lost. In the five years that had passed since the evacuation and revival of our colonists we had seen for ourselves the devastation the Typhon had waged on our home. When the dust clouds had cleared we noticed that the planet itself had seemed to have shifted and who knew what that would do to the plants and animals? Would all now be extinct or would some have flourished while others perished in their new conditions? There seemed to only be the influence of one sun now too and we could see darkness fall, we would once again experience nightfall- the beauty of dawn and dusk not experienced since our days on Earth,
Fires had raged across the continents, so bright and fierce we could see them from space. Volcanoes had erupted, earthquakes had ripped the lands apart and changed the shape of all we knew. And who could tell what devastation had been caused by the ice age that had followed the dust cloud? The scientists had their theories but as always we were kept in the dark on the details. I only hoped that this was not to stop us from abandoning a now hopeless planet for the dreadful but at least known conditions of Earth.
Then there was the crater. It was massive- we could see that from here. I recalled sitting there with my friend, the hundreds of others standing by, all asking the same questions. Where was the Typhon? Would we see it? When would it hit? Seeing the destruction it left behind I now understand why nobody at Hades saw it with their own eyes. To have done so much damage to our world it must have hit with a speed that gave us no chance of witnessing our fate. I wondered what would be left. I doubted there would be any sign of human life there at all but would we find some element of the ship? Or would the intensity of the fires that had raged have wiped all signs and even removed the trace elements from the very soil?
They say the evacuation to the surface will start soon. That we will be sent back to the planet in groups, each one to different places we had once known. They reckon the first ones down will be sent to Port Atlantis. Maybe this will now become the main city now our capital has gone. Nobody knows where we will end up, what we will find there or what creatures, if any, we will have to face. My bags are packed. Save for this journal I hold in my hands all my possessions for those first few hours are with me. My weapon, ammunition, armor and medical supplies all within easy reach. If we are about to return then we must be ready. There has been no official word on what will become of us once we are there. We must be prepared for anything. We will once again fight for our survival on a strange new world. The old colonists standing on level ground with the new, side by side and as one. Is this the new Golden Age so many had spoken of? I fear for all of us. So many have been lost before and we can only hope that our losses in these times of trouble are few. We all know our species in many ways depends on this planet for survival so survive we must. I pray for us all.......
