So I'm writing something up about life way back when. Honestly this is experimental and I'd appreciate any input people could give me on grammar, composition, and general feel of the story. So, here goes!
Contingency
“It’s gone,” the Young Man said.
“Are you sure?” the Principal mused as he wondered towards the other, looking at the light display.
“Positive. Look at the visuals.”
“God on high…” came a quiet feminine voice from the far right of the display.
The Principal moved away from the display, hobbling along on his cane. He stopped at the center of the dark room and spoke to the Young Man.
“Do the other colonies know?”
“We’re the first due to proximity. I’ve sent word as best I can.”
He breathed deeply and rested both hands on his cane. “We’ve no real networks yet, do we?”
“Nothing large enough to allow everyone to know quickly.” The Young Man stated while bringing a second display of the region up and sending it to the middle of the room. Stars danced around the floating display as yellow lines connected them. Blue dots moved out in real-time as they moved outwards in all directions from the region. Smaller red dots moved towards them and other stars at a slightly faster pace than the blue dots.
“Then may we be granted mercy…” he spoke quietly as he closed his eyes, walking past the stars and towards the Man and Woman. “We cannot waste time, we must begin preparing.”
“What do you suggest?” piped the Young Woman, previously silent and staring at the incident on the first display.
The Principal stopped in front of the image of the bright light displayed on the screen, churning and spinning as if alive. “Storage,” he quietly uttered. “We must save our cultures.”
The Young Man approached him as the central display turned on is axis. ”Don’t tell me you’re thinking mass-…”
“No. Information,” he interrupted. “We must preserve our cultures in text, logs, and the like. Without that, we will fall.”
“A library shouldn’t be priority,” the Young Woman spoke up, drawing closer to the Principal. Her eyes showed fervor and a tinge of annoyance. “What about our people?”
He looked at her as a father would at his child. She had grown up so much, similar to her mother in so many ways, caring for others without a thought of reward, or even potential cost to herself. “We’ll do all we can. Many are on temperate worlds and can sustain life independently. “
“Many more aren’t,” she said looking at him, annoyance beginning to grow.
The Principal looked at her squarely, analyzing everything about her, her speech, and her movement. “What do you suggest?”
She turned and looked to the Young Man. “What ships are left in the area?”
“Not many,” his fingers played over the lights floating in front of him as the map changed to a display of the solar system. The system held a single planet mid terraforming, a basic sun and a few asteroid belts in the process of being stripped. “They’ve either been stripped for the planet, deep in the unknown, or automated with no passenger room. Everything else looks destroyed.”
“Destroyed?” she said quietly.
“Yes. Contact’s been lost with many. I’d seen a lot of signals and neural communication activity but…nothing now,” he said in a monotone voice. If any of this was bothering him, he did not show it.
The Principal spoke after holding silent during the Young Woman’s discussion. “How large was the incident radius?”
Without looking at them, he brought the display to focus on a small dot outside the system. “Large.”
“Define large,” the Principal spoke again, somewhat more hushed.
The dot suddenly had a small ring formed tightly around it before it began expanding further and further. It eventually stopped near the systems border before ’10 AU’ was displayed in the space between the dot and the end of the circle’s radius.
He gave pause to this as he stared at the event radius. “How far were the affects?”
“Nothing too far, the end is the edge of that circle. I’m sure the Center will see it happen soon though, other worlds will follow,” the Young Man stated as he zoomed the map out to show the Constellation thus colonized.
“Then we don’t have a lot of time. We have to get people off those worlds. Now,” the Young Woman said more firmly. She was beginning to lose her cool.
So much like her mother.
“And how do you propose we do this? We can’t contact everyone on a whim. This isn’t home,” said the Principal.
“There’s no emergency channel? Don’t tell me these damned fools didn’t establish a back-up plan in case something like this happened. Why would they do that when they know nothing about where they’re sending us?” she stated, looking back at the center display of the stars and dots, all moving as if in a dance.
“Eagerness, a desire to explore overshadowing common sense,” said the Young Man who turned to look at the pair.
“Indeed,” the Principal said again. The two feeds shut off. The room was plunged into darkness for a split second before a large portion of the black wall opened up to reveal a monstrous window overlooking the terraforming planet. The color of the system seemed to have changed just slightly. “We must do what we can now. We can call for ships while doing this. We must preserve our race at all costs, we must distribute it to those who it can be entrusted to, and we must ensure our knowledge stays alive.”
“More than 8000 years of history preserved by us?” said the Young Man. The trio walked towards the window, all dressed in matching blue and white uniforms. The Old Man looked out at the system and stars as he clutched his old wooden cane. He never thought he would end up in such a position. To be so close to a paradise, only to have it snatched from his aging hands. Fate was indeed cruel. ”No, everyone must do their part.”
“We can’t expect complete cooperation,” said the Young Woman.
“Then we must strive to cooperate with those who will. Everything must be preserved, even our own efforts to preserve it,” he stated, placing a wrinkled hand on the window.
“I suppose you’ll want a good many chips then?” said the Young Man as he looked out into the stars, his eyes beginning to blink with different hues of blue as he sent out messages to those who needed them.
“Transfer everything we can from our side onto multiple chips. We will begin this effort right here, right now. Store them, copy them, and recopy them. Send them to anyone we feel trustworthy and level-headed given a situation like this. Try to contact academics across 451 and CMS,” he said as he turned to face the Young Ones.
The Young Woman scoffed slightly as she leaned her forehead against the polymer. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to stop us. It’s the perfect opportunity to create your own little Empire.”
The Principal chuckled quietly. “I wouldn’t worry about his insane banter and fanaticism to create much more than a group of small cultists with no power.”
He looked back out to the stars and planet before speaking again. “You know what must be done. Keep this to yourselves now to prevent panic. Tell the others to do the same. Our ways must be preserved first and foremost. With knowledge, with our perseverance, and God willing, we will survive,” he stated, gripping his cane tightly.
“We’ve a history of being resilient. Let us not allow this little event, “he spat the word as he dismissively waved his hands at the changed coloring in the system, “do us in.”
He turned back to the pair and nodded to them. “Get to work; I will begin my own preparations. I am counting on you both.”
The two nodded as they walked towards the darker part of the room as a small opening appeared. They disappeared into the light before it closed. The Old Man turned back to the stars and sighed. “May we be granted mercy,” he mused again. He looked towards the black wall as the window extended itself to show the source of the changed light in the system as it churned, twisted, and pulsated, as if alive. He furrowed his brow looking at the monstrosity. He could only hope she was safe. “Naked we came from your womb, yet even naked we cannot return,” he stated.
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Topic: Contingency (Read 1119 times)