Kepler: Humanity's Ark

by Kyle Perkins

  I can’t do it anymore. There is only so much strength I can muster.

  “I need your help,” I ask my people for the only thing I will be unable to do myself. “I need Orrin’s body brought to the meadow. I want him to be buried there… by the lake.”

  I fall to my knees in defeat.

  ***

  I toss the final handful of dirt over his body. The tears haven’t stopped flowing since I gave my orders. Burying my father was one thing, but this is something much different. The pain is searing through me as my heart begins to heal from the break. He said it would mend, he didn’t say it would be easy.

  “You all may go. Return to your loved ones and hold them tight. We will begin to rebuild with the next light.” The star has already begun to hang low in the sky, casting an indigo hue across the meadow, only tearing me apart more.

  After I am sure that I am alone, I reach into my pocket. The heat of the black stone warms in my hand. There is only one place that this belongs, over his heart, buried deep in the dirt. The strands of blue brighten as I push it into place. With the stone in place, I will forever be able to find him. Years from now, after the greenery has overgrown the meadow, there will always be a way to find him.

  I can’t stay here, but I am not ready to go back to my people. I need a little more time away to gather my thoughts. I don’t know what to tell them about how to clean up the mess of the star people. Deciding to take a walk to the mountains, I follow the path to his camp.

  The woodlands are of no threat to me, granting me no obstacles. The blood bushes are as empty as the others as I pass them. I crawl atop of the boulder and spot Orrin’s camp.

  Surprised by what I see, my eyes open wide as I watch as one by one, every power pack that was connected to Orrin turns to dust.

  “Impossible,” I say under my breath. I can’t believe what I think I am seeing. I move quickly to the other side of the rocks as long, tree-like creatures stand off to the side of the camp. They are the same creatures that I saw within my protection over my people. I had never seen them before, and I am sure no-one else saw them, but here they are now, doing exactly what I had no idea how to make go away.

  Every piece of technology that was left behind is being turned to dust. It isn’t until Erikk and E-7 become residue on the grass that I panic.

  They can’t remove him! I need to know that he is here. I need him to be here, with me.

  “Please don’t take him from me. Please,” I unknowingly plead with the ones below me.

  One of them looks up to me, as I stand there, unwilling to fight or scream. I just want it all to stop. I want for it to just be done.

  “Aya, we will grant you your request. We will only remove the suit, but his body may be shared with your meadow. We owe you at least that,” one of them says to me as the others keep working on destroying the ships and the surrounding pieces of foreign materials.

  I want to ask more about who they are and where they come from, but I won’t. I have been granted what I asked for. “Thank you.”

  “The remaining men will be removed when you return to your home. Take your own advice, Aya. Return to your loved ones, let us finish,” it says.

  “I have no-one to return to. Everyone has been taken from me,” my voice cracks in realization of my future. They all stop moving as a different one looks to me.

  “You have a future with a man and a family. You have no idea what your future has in store for you. Go make the future that you want.” They all get back to work as if I was never there.

  I might not want to believe them, but there is more for me and I know it.

  ***

  “Mommy, will you tell me the story again?” My little girl waits for me to finish placing the stones at the burial sites before we head to the meadow.

  “Now, which one would you like to hear today?” I ask her, knowing exactly which one she wants me to tell.

  “I wanna hear the Kepler story.” At only six years old, I can deny her of nothing.

  “Let’s say goodbye to your grandfather and I will tell you on the way to the meadow, okay?” She grins from ear to ear, before yelling her goodbye over her shoulder.

  I laugh at her excitement as I blow a kiss to my father’s grave. He was a true leader and a wonderful father. I didn’t have the respect for his position within the land until I was responsible for it.

  “Come on, Mom. I’ll race you to the gates.” She starts running before she finishes her sentence. Of course, I let her win because I know where I will find her.

  As I peek around the corner, I find her sitting at the base of the statues of the two men that I have missed every day for the last ten years.

  My father stands to the left, while Orrin is to his right.

  “Mommy, I want to find a captain of my own. I bet he was really cute,” she says without knowing just how much he meant to me. When she is older, Garret and I will have to tell her the whole story, but for now she will know the fairytale that we call the Battle of Kepler.

  “Bye Papa! Bye Orrin!” Erika says to both men before tugging at my dress. “Tell me the story! Tell me the story!”

  “Can you give Mommy one minute, please?” I kneel to her level and give her a quick kiss on the forehead.

  “Yes, just hurry,” she says impatiently.

  I turn around to face Orrin.

  “Hi. I think about you every day. You were right, as always. My heart did mend, but I didn’t forget.” I place a glowing stone at his feet, watching it glow with the others that I have left every year on the same day.

  “I want you to know that I still love you and not a day goes by that I don’t think of you.”

  Tiny footsteps sneak up on me as I finish talking to what I have left of Orrin.

  “It has been a minute. Can we go now, please?” She is begging now, so I blow a kiss to Orrin and leave the cemetery with my little girl’s hand tucked into mine.

  “Alright, Erika. Here is my story…”