Chapter Text
“Space is boundless.”
“On the grand scale of things, we’re just a blip on a map. A map too big for any human to peruse. It’s a cliche to say it— what lies beyond our predetermined walls is infinity.”
“Uh, so step I shall into the realm of uncertainty. The realm of—”
The words stopped flowing.
“Ghh!!” a pale man with unkempt blond hair groaned. “Noo!!” he yelled as he slammed his fist onto the desk.
“What now?” an older feminine voice sighed from the other side of the office, eyes dotting through the massive window around the cityscape far below.
“I.. I forgot the line in reference to the first moon landing!” he bitterly complained. “It.. it was supposed to be perfect, Ms. Haydt!” he shouted and spun around in his chair, but immediately halted upon seeing her face. The woman wore a scowl, one seemingly made especially for the young man. Her arms were crossed, posture unnaturally straight, no matter how turbulent the man’s whining was.
“I.. uh, look..” the blond fumbled over his words. “Just.. just tell me this wouldn’t sound badass, okay?”
She continued to wordlessly glare.
He cleared his throat and grounded himself with a supreme air of confidence. “One small step for man. A giant step for mankind. Now, a tremendous step for humanity.” he recited proudly.
“Mankind and humanity share the same basic definition.” Ms. Haydt quickly intervened.
“What, I—”
“It’s redundant.” she barbarically furthered.
“But it—“
“No, Jason.”
“Ghh!” the man groaned again. “It’s ‘Wells’!” he exclaimed, standing from his seat as he joined Ms. Haydt’s side. With a view at the large bay window of the office, his eyes darted around the vast skyline in the distance. “My dad probably didn’t dream this big at the start of his life, but one day.. he just did. I think it’s totally cool if I finally follow that same thought process..”
The woman scoffed and turned away from the unkempt man. “Your father never attempted something so outlandish, such as establishing a thriving space colony on the moon. What I can say for certain.. I just can’t believe you’ve consistently ignored my counsel to this point. This isn’t—“
“ —isn’t what your father intended for Apaxi. ” Wells finished. “Yeah, I know. Look, I’m inspired by my dad, but I’m no Linzer.. okay? It’s the time for Wells the Second now, and it’s gonna be out of this worrrrld!” he dragged out and held his hand out toward the woman.
The woman slowly turned back toward Wells, wearing an expression that almost signified she was gravely offended.
“W-what?” Wells stuttered. “It was just a pun. Not even a smirk..? I’ll acknowledge I’m probably not as wise and savvy as my dad—”
“Oh, probably ?” she repeated.
“Ghh.” he held his hand over his heart dramatically. “That stings. But.. if anything, you should be relieved by this outcome. As long as you and the rest of the eggheads on the board stay true to my terms, Apaxi is yours.” he explained before signing his statement with a shrug. “I’ve never been a businessman like my dad, but even I can see it’s a win-win.”
“Even so,” Ms. Haydt sighed, “we the financial advisory board still have your messy expenditures to tidy up.”
“Look at Apaxi— what you call an ‘ all-time low since the “Apaxi Oil Spill of 2207” travesty ’ is actually—“
“Stop.” she interrupted. “Jason, that was over a hundred years ago. When this conglomerate was thrice as small.”
“..you done derailing my arguments with boring exposition?” Wells spoke up.
That familiar, silent scowl crawled back onto her face.
“Where was I then?” he wondered aloud. “Oh right— IS still a budget surplus! Hold your applause, folks!”
“We have customers whose livelihoods are dependent on us. It only makes sense we remain on top. However, it does not excuse waste. You’re too stubborn to hear it from me, though.” she coldly insisted.
“Ms. Haydt.” the blond froze in place. “..why are you so bold as to roast me like this?”
She simply raised an eyebrow at his question.
“Okay, that was probably a stupid question, I’ll admit. Anyway, this talk of roasting marshmallows brings a thought to my head. Drumroll.”
The room was entirely silent, capitalized by Ms. Haydt’s glare of death.
“Good enough. And actually, it’s more so a wish. After all is said and done, after my wish is carried out— I think we should start over.”
“Start over..?” she questioned.
“Yeah, absolutely. I think given how our relationship started, it’s the healthiest thing for us! And uh.. I don’t mean any of this in a weird way.”
“But what do you mean?”
“Look, I know you were close to my dad. And to see him gradually.. pass and his son in charge the very next day? His son you’ve never spoken a word to in your life? His son that is more so a dreamer than a tactful oil baron?” Wells took a breath. “I know you hated it, and I don’t really blame you. I don’t think it had much to do with me, but more to do with the stress that my dad had just passed. I mean, I’ll acknowledge my presence at the tippy-top of the food chain didn’t really help since I’m the polar opposite of my dad, but what the heck would you call it, Ms. Haydt?”
“What? I don’t..” she began before expelling a heavy sigh. “..I’ve got a question for you, Jason.” the woman proposed.
“First off, call me Wells. Second, I’m no longer taking questions that I’ve already covered in the handouts I gave you and the round table.” he declared matter-of-factly.
She stepped closer to him, cutting through his words. “Why.. why cryoslumber? And why be shot into orbit? It all seems so theatrical, even for you.”
Uncharacteristically, Wells went silent for a long moment, causing Ms. Haydt’s face to pass a concerned expression.
“Three reasons.. no, two reasons I’m at liberty to share, Ms Haydt.” he deadpanned as he turned from the bay window.
“Reason one— I want to skip directly to that day. I may be a dreamer, but even I know my limits. And I know the reality shows that it’ll be a while before everything is cleared, and my space colony is up and running. I can’t imagine something like that happening overnight, so what makes sense to me is this.” Wells explained before looking over his shoulder at the older woman.
“Twenty years in there will feel like twenty minutes to me. That’s a lot less waiting.”
“Mm.” she acknowledged. “And what's your second reason?”
“Reason two.. it’s a big one, Ms. Haydt. When’s the last time you tried doing a somersault?”
“..excuse me?” she dryly questioned.
“You know, like a roll.” he simply answered. “Okay, how about a cartwheel?”
“Why are you asking me such foolish questions?” she demanded, annoyance tainting her voice.
“Lunar aerobics.” he answered.
“Again— excuse me?” she inquired, gritting her teeth.
“I want to do gymnastics on the moon, Ms. Haydt! If I live out these years outside of this pod, I’ll be in my forties, or worse.. my fifties when my space colony is ready! Screw that— I need my youth if I’m to take advantage of this!” Wells explained, his eyes glistening.
The woman sighed to herself for what was likely the thousandth time. “You’re as hopeless as you were the day you were slotted head of Apaxi.”
“On the contrary, Ms. Haydt. I’m too hopeful, and I don’t give up on what I want! Just like my dad didn’t in the years of honing this beautiful conglomerate. He’s.. he’s really the hero of this one, so I should remember to pay tribute to him a few times in my speech tonight. Perhaps it is theatrical, but that’s just the kind of guy I am!” Wells declared, then scurried back to his desk to jot down more notes, grabbing a blank cue card.
“Still think that’s what he’d want?” the woman grumbled.
“No. He knew how this world works, and knew how to placate.” Wells suggested as he kept writing. “As we know, my dad lived through the worst solar flare event in recorded human history. That kind of tragedy would destroy someone like me.. but my dad? It enriched him, it grounded him. He went through life how he had to, became more. So.. I guess I’m going about life in my own way, and maybe I’ll become more too.”
Ms. Haydt cut through his self-rambling; “Do you not worry you may be disgracing your father’s name with this dream of yours?”
“It’s my name too.” Wells answered. “I’ll.. make him proud from beyond Earth, okay? And you, the financial board, will do the rest and make him just as proud too in the meantime. Can’t you just live with that, Ms. Haydt?”
“Hardly, but it pains me just as much to admit it’s not my choice.” she sighed again.
“Wait, you admit defeat? I mean, uh, you accept my terms?”
“Only because I know you won’t quit. I suppose that you were actually correct about that after all, Jason.”
“..I’ll let that one pass.” Wells smiled slightly. “Ms. Haydt, you just made a financially intelligent decision in this broom closet tonight! May our futures be golden ones!”
“Broom closet?” she nearly croaked.
“Not literally. Anyway, since that’s settled— do you think that we have a deal on the other side?”
“What?”
“Once my moon colony is curated, and my spaceship lands on the moon in a wondrous display of grandeur— a fresh start for the two of us once I step out of my pod.” Wells proposed with certainty.
“Hmph.” Ms. Haydt groaned. “We will see what happens.”
“Aw, you’re gonna be such a sweetheart in twenty years, I bet.” Wells’ grin widened impossibly wider.
“ Please don’t push it.” she pleaded with desperation.
“Okay, fine. I’ll jot that down in my notes too. Don’t fraternize Ms. Haydt in twenty years, husband or not. ”
“..I just hope for your sake that what you expect is what you’ll receive. We on the advisory board will reluctantly do what we can for your star-crossed dream—”
“Gol, that is a damn good phrase!” Wells interrupted. “I’m totally including that somewhere in my speech tonight, okay? Star-crossed dream .. it’s basically poetry.”
“Hopeless as ever. Clueless even.”
“Don’t worry, I heard what you were saying.” the blond mentioned. “I’m sure you and the board won’t fail to grant my star-crossed dream , haha. It’s still poetry.”
Ms. Haydt cringed as she listened to him dawdle on her words. “We’re not waking you up until it’s time.”
“I’d expect nothing more than that, Ms. Haydt.” he replied as he turned and smirked at her once more. “After tonight’s speech, you could say that we won’t see much of each other for about twenty years, huh? I look forward to it, though, even if you don’t. If you need anything, I’ll be in space. And soon after — at least from my perspective — I’ll be stepping out of my pod into a bright future.”
“Think so?” Ms. Haydt shook her head and dryly chuckled.
“I know so,” he answered as he turned back to his cue cards atop the desk. “I’m including this next one in my speech, by the way. I swear it’s good even if it’s a cliche.”
His smile suddenly receded when Ms. Haydt left the room. With a heavy breath, his mind briefly wandered his days growing up, and his interactions or lack thereof with his departee father. Finally, he grasped his pen and wrote two words at the bottom of the last cue card.
Afterward, he slowly stood from the desk and peered outside at the bustling cityscape. “ Hell trickles down from the top of the world. ”
Soon, he would be giving his address to millions— then after, he’d be shot up into space, set to orbit for decades until it was time for his grand return. Many before him had only dreamed of establishing a colony among the stars. The idea itself intrigued him, for what he felt were all the wrong reasons. Forcing a smile to creep up his lips, his eyes lingered briefly on the last cue card as he exited the room, specifically on the last two words he penned.
Goodbye Earth.
————
The last thing that Wells remembered was stepping into his cruiser of choice— a large satellite ship he aptly called a ‘satellite barge’, since he was incapable of coming up with anything catchier. His last action as he recalled it was backing into his cryoslumber pod— he was waving off Ms. Haydt and a few other fogies from the advisory board. The chamber was filled with robotic beeps and lights from the surrounding controls and machinery.
He smiled at Ms. Haydt, preemptively eager to see her again. Then, the glass door of the pod slowly closed..
In the next moment— he awoke.
“Gol.. twenty years and we’re here. I’m so exc—”
Wells immediately hit his face on the glass door of the pod, which was only slightly ajar.
“What the heck? Terrible timing for a technological malfunction, on my best day ever, no less!” he complained and pried the door open.
Upon stepping out of his pod, he immediately sensed the difference in atmosphere. The once-still air now felt gusty and humid. The lights and machinery in his barge were all unpowered, and dust skittered through the air, carried heartily by the wind. At the far end of the room was a billowing light, shining through a newfound crack.
“What the heck again..?” Wells muttered as he stepped forward, nearly tripping on rubble strewn across the floor.
He slowly approached the opening in the wall. As he did, more heat kissed his cheeks. Anxiety bubbled in his stomach as he slowly came closer. He peered outside and was briskly blinded by a harsh light.
“Shit!” he cursed in frustration and stomped through the opening. His pupils were still dilated from the dimness of his satellite barge, but he knew that he exited it when he dragged his feet into a thick mud. In moments, the blond man was on his knees, but caught himself moments before planting his face into the soil.
“Soil..?” he questioned aloud, his eyes finally starting to adjust. He felt the humid, heavy air weighing down on him as he looked forward. Past this mud pit he knelt in, sifted chartreuse grass that beckoned whichever direction the wind commanded. Wells glanced upward, trees too slightly swayed with the periodic gusts of wind, holding and sometimes shedding leaves of green and purple. The sky that almost seemed to hide behind the rustling canopy was as brightly green as the leaves themselves.
Wells rose to his feet and jumped out of the pit of mud, trying desperately to brush the dirt from the legs of his slacks. “Perfect. Absolutely ruined my first day on the moon.”
He quirked an eyebrow in spite of himself. “Why is the sky green and why is there a jungle on the moon?”
He turned around to study his satellite barge. A giant divide had cut across his satellite barge. “Wait, where’s the rest of it?” he questioned as he began to circle around it. The surface of his barge heavily contrasted its interior— it was a dirty dark gray and was caked in splotches of encroaching brown stains, as well as several large abrasions. As Wells fully circled behind it, his attention was caught by a trail of brambles and fallen trees littering the ground. His eyes followed the trail of floral destruction as it sourced from further up a hill.
“..okay, this isn’t the moon.” he whispered as he came to a dead stop. Suddenly, he sprinted back to the front of the barge. He trudged through the mud and dove back inside. He ran to a computer terminal and began mashing on its keyboard and buttons, receiving no response from the machine. Next, he took to the nearby securely fastened desk, and started sifting through its drawers, tossing out broken devices and components. “This crash broke all my emergency tools!”
In the last drawer, he found a satellite phone that was unscathed. He tried to turn it on, but was met with failure. He popped open the back to observe the batteries, to be met with a white substance protruding from them. “Oh, that’s nasty. Guess twenty years is long enough to dissolve these bad boys..” he groaned as he tossed the phone aside.
“At least I got these.” he declared, eying the flare gun and its associated cartridges, all marked with an Apaxi logo on the side. He scooped them and took the flare gun in his right hand.
Wells carefully stepped over the pond of mud below his exit on the barge and after letting his eyes readjust, observed his surroundings. Countless trees surrounded him, all of them still blustering with the wind. He realized how quiet it was besides the wind and distant birds. “Where the hell are all the animals? Documentaries said there were so many animals in jungles like these..” he muttered as he walked back around to the back of his satellite barge and began pacing up the hill alongside the trail of cluttered logs and mud. As he marched upward, a massive horizontal log seemed to levitate in the air far above the hill. He quirked another perplexed eyebrow. After nearly a minute, he was panting as he finally reached the summit.
His eyes widened. The horizontal log that confounded him was a large branch that attached to a gargantuan tree, its leaves providing that innate canopy that shaded his crash site and the entire surrounding area. Roots from this tree were categorically thick, most wider than most of the other tall jungle trees that alone towered over Wells.
“What.. the hell is this?” he wondered. “This thing is like a hundred redwoods packed into one. How can this kind of tree exist?”
The engorged roots of the tree sprawled for what seemed like miles to Wells, as the large tree itself was still a fair distance from where he stood. He noticed that the trail his crash landed barge created appeared at this spot. He glanced upward trying to find a barge-shaped incision in the leaves above, but found nothing. Spotting another incline several meters from this trail, spotting a clearance where more light managed to shine through the possessive canopy. He unpocketed his flare gun as he approached this next hill and pulled the trigger, shooting a red smoky trail airborne.
As he arrived at the summit, he immediately locked eyes with a humanoid figure with glaring black eyes. They were garbed in ivy garments, sporting leaves and vines that hung from the top of their head. On their hip, haphazardly hung a jagged bow.
“Hem!” the figure shouted. A few more figures appeared from behind the first, bows in their grasp.
“Hem! Hem!” the others started cooing towards the blond.
“What the hell, man?” Wells spoke, holding his arms out in confusion. “What are you guys wearing?”
The five ivy-clad hunters drew an arrow from their quivers and expertly took aim at Wells.
He drew a quick breath in response. “Gol.”