Oasis Earth

By: submission | January 2, 2025

Author: Timothy Wilkie

Swathed in star shine and hidden behind the sun was our destination. I couldn’t wait to be buried in the bosom of old mother earth where the worms and insects thrived on bacteria not chemicals. A long time ago I threw away my mother for life among the stars. I had forgotten my ties and the further I went away the more fragile my bonds became until they shattered like glass.

Now that we were near, I felt entanglements with star charts and plasma drives start to loosen. But it was a dark world that appeared once we were past Sol. It still burned as hot as ever but there was no earth shine. No emerald-colored oceans and no blue skies. The clouds were so thick that they denied the sun. I had dreamed of her when I was drifting through infinity. Humans what had they done? I thought as my spirit entwined with the dead.

Was it long ago or yesterday that I left your green forest and blue skies. Only moments ago, I had left my ship to shuttle home. My captain and crew waited in an orbit out beyond Sol. Millions of miles around the sun on the cusp of the solar system they waited for my return with joyful news of home.

They called out to me, but I couldn’t answer for there was no way I could translate my disappointment to them. Such was my only solace earth, my dwelling place amongst the vast ever-changing cosmos.

Earth sustained echo pings in my ears as if to remind me of my loss. No! What had I thrown away? It was a dead planet I had returned to.

I made the horizon rise on my viewer in hope that maybe some had burrowed in deep into bomb shelters, caverns, or old mines. It must have been a surprise attack because humans had given up their defense systems centuries ago. This husk of a planet left drifting in space just to show the universe it could happen here.

What was the human persona, our sin, our crime? Did we love too much or was it we just couldn’t forgive? Setting my beacon for my mothership I turned my back on Oasis Earth yet again.

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