Image
Journey by Dmitry Zaviyalov
Words
Neal Ulen
When : Where
Somewhen : Somewhere
Preparations for the his pilgrimage were drawing to conclusion, much to his relief. His ancient bones could no longer stand the stifling heat, nor could his constitution abide the dirty rodents that constantly crawled under his slippered feet. He was ancient, and he would be glad to be rid of this world and leave it far behind, even if it meant his ultimate finality caused him a brief scintilla of remorse. It is the fate of the Progenitors. He’d accepted it centuries ago. Well, it felt like centuries … and might have been, but he can no longer remember.
He stood and stared idly at the gleaming behemoth that would be his home for the next ten years. The final years of his life.
The journey would begin in a cataclysmic blaze of superluminal engines and end with the rebirth of his people on another world. His biological indoctrination and integration complete, the massive void-ark baking under the stark desert sun waited to propel the embodied essence of his people across the stars. It would deliver him, and them, to a new home world where the cycle would begin anew … following another cataclysmic, but destructive, blaze of nuclear fire.
As the ancient Progenitor mantra goes … “One must destroy before one can build.”
.FIN.
Images & Words © 2019-2023, Neal Ulen.
Other images/videos cited © to their respective owner(s).
1 Comment
Oh, my gosh! So many questions. Will he be awake on that 10 year journey? Will the ship be forced to crash in a “blaze of nuclear fire?” How will he die so his people may live? Pretty sure I need more than 223 words of this story! LOL!