Dawn of Hope- Exodus

by Dobrin Kostadinov

  ‘Run!’ I murmured just like many other who were sitting in the nearby tents although all of us knew that we were watching a recording of something that had already happened, a recording of a life that had already been lost.

  Three, two, one . . . A blinding light flashed across the screen and the picture died. Silence fell all around, terrifying, dead silence.

  Was that our victory? More tragic than a defeat. We lost a lot, we lost our leaders, our mentors and a large number of our regular soldiers as well as many a man from the mobilized units. We lost our bravest hero, Thomas. And as the saying goes, without sacrifice, there can be no victory.

  Despite that act of heroism, the sorrow inside my heart was deep because I knew that now, somewhere around the ship, between the walls of steel, Mila was cursing the entire world. She had it all, but now no one close to her was left alive. Because she, Zanev, Alan, Scott, Jean-Pierre and too many others gave their all without asking for anything in return. And men like Liu, Hiroshi, Lieutenant Milev, General Saadi and Colonel Thomas Ivanov along with all else gave away their lives, too. These are our heroes, our new legends. But if they were here now, right in front of me, I am sure they would deny the splendor of the bravery and heroism by saying something like: “What hero am I? I’m a soldier, a regular soldier”. . . Those people showed us what loving thy brother meant, what loving both those who are closest to you and those you do not know meant, what loving an entire people and even one whole species meant. They were our lesson on humbleness and humaneness. I could not leave things like that. All the notes I had taken, the events and conversations I had witnessed–they had to see the light of day, they had to be made accessible to our small community. The truth about the known and the unknown facts and events which laid the foundation of our new beginning on that still alien planet had to be told so they could give life to our legends. But now was not the time. Now all I wanted was to get some rest and be tended to as I deserved . . .

  After the moments of silence and grief that we all sank into for a while, the people around plunged back into haste and noisiness. A young woman came inside the tent. I did not recognize her at first, but a few seconds later I remembered her.

  ‘Let me wipe that sticky liquid off your skin first and then I’ll tend to your wounds,’ she said in her gentle voice, giving a faint smile that made me light up and brought back the memory of her. That was the girl had I run into while we were travelling in American Pride on our way here. She was an exquisitely looking young lady, obviously a nurse. But she did not recognize my face. Perhaps because I was all covered in blackness and dirt and who would realize it was me in that condition? Something else, though, flashed through my mind. It dawned on me that I had stories to tell her, something to impress her with. That was a sign I had to pluck up the courage to do it. Now I had to be a hero, a hero of my own.

  ‘Hello, I’m Nolan,’ I stretched my grubby hand out in an attempt to finally get introduced to the girl I occasionally thought of. What a coincidence that was, or maybe it was destiny . . .

  ‘Hello, my name is Dahlia, pleased to meet you . . .’

  We could finally start counting peacefully our days on Menoetius. It was the beginning of June 2121 on Earth, but for us, here, that was day one, year one. The time, however, was ceaselessly going by. We paid homage to the dead, healed the injured, yet we did not stop there. Roman’s plan was still strictly followed and, with that, hope found its way back into our hearts; little by little we got out of that dark and ugly state of despair that kept us cornered and did not seem to want to set us free. We all helped one another and despite living in want and toiling over making a life for ourselves here, we could eventually call that planet our home.

  Days and nights came and went and the grayish-white were forced to stay in the ocean where they belonged. Mountain after mountain came tumbling down and the human species could once and for all breathe easily and commence the solidification of the new, fragile Menoetian civilization . . .

  Our existence on the new planet turned into months and years and we kept looking ahead without glancing back for a second. We failed to contact anyone on Earth, they could not get through to us either. Was there even anyone left there? Perhaps in years’ time some of them would come and join us. But how would we greet them? With bread and salt maybe? No one knew how far we could get, how different we could be when that moment arrived. Probably it all depended on time which could either keep intact the bond between us and our historic memory, or set us apart after the hundreds and thousands of years spent in isolation from each other, making our common beginning a rivalry for land and life.

  It has been ten years that I have been asking myself those questions, but as the years rolled by the questions changed accordingly. We were in danger of other things. They were neither global warming, nor poisoned water, air or soil. Nor death from starvation, but rather things that were incredibly grave, yet set too far away in the future. We wondered when was the giant red star going to shrink and transform into a black hole? Or when was our distant neighbor, the white dwarf, going to come closer and cause the transfer of stellar matter to bring about a burning apocalypse? Maybe those were horrible predictions, but I will not stop believing that when the time comes in, other brave, indomitable souls will pave the way to our salvation.

  Human consciousness and imagination are divine and transcendental, yet limited only by time and space, for now. Our power lies in our intellect and our greatest discovery is science. It is the thing that has the power to solve our problems only if we’re wise and skillful enough to use it properly. Science’s principles for exploring the world in tandem with our burning curiosity, imagination and desire for life helped us made a step ahead even in the face of what at first looked like an inevitable self-destruction. That was the most dreadful ordeal we had endured on our way of becoming an interplanetary civilization. Slowly but surely we can one day become invincible because there will come a time when we will be indestructible; there will come a time when will be immortal and no one will know how far we can go in our yearning to become demigods . . .

  But there is still time to flow until that moment approaches us. Time in which we can forge our destiny. Because we are a species of wanderers and explorers tamed by the enchantment of the unknown. Our unquenchable thirst for the invisible and the unknown can only be satiated by the Universe. If we try to continue our examination and make an exodus on other planets, we may actually withstand the harshness of time. Thus human kind can last forever and turn into a galactic empire.

  Many will die before our grandchildren and more distant offspring could feel the firm foundations on which they will walk with dignity; before they have become the conquerors of the entire Universe. For now, slowly, with baby steps, we advance on our long path of progress and evade the deadly perils even though in the last moment. What seems to matter the most, is that we do not give up, but always strive to find yet another way out even if the road appears to have no end. But will we get lost amidst our labyrinth of an existence, or will we simply disappear without a trace as a civilization that destroyed itself? No one knows. Even the most distinguished of thinkers will probably lose their way in the thousands of possibilities which get multiplied by the second. All sorts of predictions would be in vain. Because that very one second is enough for someone to make up their mind to sow misdeeds and for another one to get inspired and show all the grandeur they are capable of.

  Nothing is impossible–time and the right people can prove that for sure, now and forever. That is precisely what we need–more strong and fearless individuals who stop at nothing and no one and whose sole purpose is to show that they can be both genius and illustrious. This could be you, the person who is reading these memories right now! Strong and fearless, born to accomplish great deeds. Ready to give hope, ready to be the one who brings it forth . . .

  Once Thomas told me that one should forge their character by being aware of what one’s goals are because in the end one is left a
lone and unprepared against circumstances. Perhaps that, too, boiled down to good self-awareness, but with me love, this rather short word, which could not describe even a part of the universe of emotions between two lovebirds, shaped me into what I should be and into what I wanted to be. It morphed a reporter into a writer who related this epic for the generations to come . . .

  Now the woman with the beautiful smile is by my side and I feel no fear, no pusillanimity, but only boundless strength that can move mountains and dry off oceans. The so called human love, which is in my opinion the only reasonable muse that invites genuine happiness in life, kept living even on the other side of the Universe. That came to show that no one had died for nothing.

  Even to this day once a storms rages and wind gusts up we remember those nightmarish days of death and ruin that marked the beginning of our new dawn. Only the brave ones leave their stamps and become legends. The rest of us are mere storytellers whose duty is to pass their life story on, or at least save it from oblivion . . .

  THE END

  * * *

  [1] Two rifts connected by a tunnel that establishes a pathway between two very distant points in spacetime.

  [2] A Russian military term meaning “Special Purpose Forces” or “Special Purpose Military Units”- used as a cover term for the different types of Russian special forces.

  [3] “Symbiotic robots” is a reference to symbiotic organisms–unicellular organisms, originated as a result of the mutually beneficial co-living of fungi and seaweeds (lichen for example).

  [4] An organic polymer, a stronger and more thermostable alloy than steel.

  [5] A cortical fold in the brain related to memories, aggression and motivation.

  [6] A two-handed elongated Japanese sword.

  [7] A large truck.

  [8] Different negative effects that come as a result of artificial lighting.

  [9]9 A type of matter that is unobservable by means of the contemporary methods of Astrophysics and Cosmology–it does not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic waves.

  [10] A unit volume of cosmic matter filled with high-temperature plasma that is retained by the magnetic field of that cosmic matter.