Work Text:
Marna sat in a swivel chair at the station controls watching the Earth
below. Lovely planet she thought as she surveyed Earth. Such a lovely
planet all blue and green and cloud covered Sitting there, watching the Earth below her she felt overwhelmed by the planet's beauty.
It was not fair just to watch what would happen and do nothing. Always for good or bad they had watched and did nothing while the swarming masses below were born, suffered, lived and died. Their petty lives trapped in a wheel spinning and going no where.
A monster storm was brewing and twisting a hellish future that would grip the Asian continent and kill many millions of the beings below. There would be no warning from the station. The watchers just recorded the ongoing doom of Earth.
She looked down impartial unable to interfere for good or evil in the
ongoing horrific destiny of people like herself. The watchers
themselves were bred of the bones and blood of Earth cloned from the
individuals captured from the swarming masses below. Raised and taught
by the others to man the station and watch. Watch and record the death
and destruction for remote beings to study at their leisure.
It was a part of the planet's ecology whatever state that was in now after the damage caused by wars, pollution and greed. The arms of the storm reminded her of the theory which held the galaxy to be a kind of organized storm system which sucked in gas and dust at its centre and sent it all out
into the vast arms to condense into stars. This way planets were
created around stars to provide homes for endless new races beings. For
Earth it was a time of ending. The final century was being recorded
for a vast library of information kept by the others.
She looked at the smaller continent screens above the centre screen. There
were six huge storms forming around the world one depicted on each
smaller screen. The clock on the ceiling gave station time. Her watch would be over in half an hour.
Her last watch maybe.
She looked at the filtered sun screen. All the dangerous rays were blocked
from entering the station. She turned up the electronic magnification
and for a long time watched the prominences flare up and die. She looked at the canceroussunspots. The sight was hypnotic and frightening matter how many times she had seen it.
Early in the twentieth century a good deal of the natural ozone layer in the upper atmospherehad been stripped away as a result of atomic testing and the use ofaerosol sprays, resulting in much genetic damage in the late eightiesand nineties. Now the damage was to great. Earth was doomed.
Tears filled her eyes for a people she was part of but never knew. If
only there was a way to save more of Earth. Despite intense
psychological conditioning she wanted to save something of Earth. They
would never miss a small shuttle. If even a few people could be saved.
Seeds of disobedience were planted in her mind.
At times she felt the pangs of conscience. It was much more beautiful
and bearable from out here. In all this silence she sometimes thought she
could hear the universe breathing. It was alive, the whole starry cosmos
throbbing. Why did Earth have to die and take all humanity with it. It
was not fair. Where should her loyalty be with Earth or the mysterious
others.
She remembered the stifling milieu of broken twisted streets recorded
through the droids mechanical eyes the last days of human civilization.
Broken buildings and shattered glass. Dead dying diseased humans
huddled everywhere. The rich hid in the dark reaches of the Earth.
The storms would reach them too filling the deep underground tunnels
with dirty water.
One small ship she thought was all she needed and perhaps one hundred
humans out of the huddled masses below. If they could get away from the
solar system and find a place for humanity to grow and flourish again.
Maybe put away war and become as great as the others one day. She was
resolved and it was time to act. She made her way to the ship bay
instead of going back to her quarters as was expected.
Peter got up from his bunk and made his way to the watch room. He
was glad now to get away from his own thoughts of his death and return
to the visual stimulation of the watch screens surveying the swirling deadly storms below. Soon he would have too push the button that would send the
station to destruction in the abyss below just before he sent the last
information across the void of space.
He reached the watch room to survey the dying Earth rotting, overblown with grasping things living in their own wastes. The promise
of ancient myths, three thousand years old, had not been fulfilled and they had destroyed their world.
In the watch room Peter watched the angry dark clouds which enveloped
the Earth. He could feel the silence, and the angry movement of the changing patterns was not reassuring. The air could not clean
itself of al the man-made wastes, the rivers would run not clear again, and the oceans were deadly stirring dark pits of despair holding all the tears of the dying Earth. His eyes caught a flicker of an internal screen. What was it? It took him a while to find the source of the flicker that had bothered him. Marnie
in the ships bay! His eyes narrowed to flint. She looked like she was stealing a ship He knew what he had to do.
He found her there opening one the large cargo shuttle doors.
"What are you doing Marnie?"
His words were cold with anger.
She turned to face him wearily but resolved. Perhaps she could move him to reason.
"I want to save some of them. Please Peter. They are just like us."
She saw he was beyond reasoning a weapon now pointed between her small breasts.
His voice was hard and loud with anger
"We are here to observe and send the information on to the great library."
Marnie looked at him pleadingly her eyes sparkling with tears.
"Why listen to the others when they are not human?"
Peter bit his words out angrily.
"On Earth the winds are moving so fast you could never land now."
Peter watched Marnie. His arm raised holding the weapon. He fired. A
hole appeared between her breasts. Marnie's dying body toppled and fell to the
floor.
"We watch them and that is all we do?" He Yelled .
His hand opened. He dropped the gun to the floor and headed back to the observation room.