Humans solely believed that Nature stopped at the bounds of their mighty blue earth. Humans were wrong, as always, but refused to accept their mistakes, like time never taught them to. Hundred years after the demise of their home known as Earth, the Newland starship travelled through black space with the first generation of Humans born outside the bounds of Nature. These new Humans could not wholeheartedly say “Earth is our home.” without a twitch appearing at the edge of their lips. It would be like saying “Freedom is beautiful” on the Earth that perished 100 years ago. Both were sentences that meant nothing. Earth wasn’t their home, they were homeless by the millions. Freedom isn’t beautiful, they all died slaves alongside the Earth they called home.
It seemed to Maya that she was the only one who accepted these words to the heart. Everyone else beside her in the Newland ship barely said, “We are Earthly beings!” with proud enormity, and actively searched for a New Land they could conquer and call home. In that sense, these new spaceborn-Humans are the same as the ancestors she read in the books. But in any other sense, Maya considered themselves the descendents of Humans, the forefathers of something else, or a nameless being that bridges between Humanity and whatever lies in the future. The future wasn’t far away at all. The ship was always finding possible new homes for them to reside on, and sometimes would actively pursue their way towards those planets. Only to be greeted by the same sight in every single one. The indigenous people, the blue, white, horned, flat, aliens always managed to drive away those who set foot on their ground. Who would in turn return to the ship and complain, We can find another home somewhere else. Let these monkeys wither in their so-called planet, with blatant arrogance. The real reason was that it was unlivable, either by the presence of pocketed death-gases, poisonous air, or deadly soil of some kind. As the books told her, Maya knew, Humans won’t turn to anything that didn’t provide profit. It seemed as if some peculiar qualities descended through space and time to these new Humans. The worst ones. Like racism, curses, unmatched selfishness, a complete disregard for anything but themselves. As usual, Numans, which Maya liked to anoint them, never failed to disappoint her.
“Commander Dawn,” called her lieutenant. “We’re at touchdown.”
Maya felt the metal beneath her feet compress and release from the ecstasy of touching solid ground. They were part of a special group of numans called the home-makers, who actively scoured planets living conditions back to the Newland ship so as to decide wether to begin its conversion to Earth 2.0. Each commander had a special way of ruling their ships, and Maya Dawn, the commander of 3rd division ruled with an iron fist in her vestibule.
“Jock. I’m heading out,” she announced as the air-suit closed around her neck. The mildly frigid air blasted through blow-holes directly to her nose. “You know the drill. Do not sway from protocol!” she warned.
“Yes, commander!” replied her subordinates with the one-hearted salute to the chest.
As Maya set her foot onto solid ground, the vestibule door closed behind her with immediate relief. She much preferred the silence over the metallic vibrations. With only an absurdly long cord connecting herself to the Numan enterprise, Maya began her exploration on the blue planet they saw from outer space. The rules of her ship were simple. No one but Maya went out to explore the planets due to the dangers they might be exposed to. If communications are lost at any instance, they must declare her deceased after a specified amount of time. If she gives command that the planet is inhabitable, there will be no questions asked and the ship must return back. If Maya announces for some reason to abandon her, there must be no backlash, and her orders must be executed instantly. Maya carefully handpicked the members of her crew who looked most likely to follow the iron fist with which she ruled. But even they were just puppets of a Numan society which she no longer wished to identify as. Maya had only one wish, one which the others could never understand.
The mist ahead of her had no plans to show her dream’s way. They had landed on the only identifiable landstrip from space as the planet had a thick and opaque atmosphere. Upon landing, all she could see was white mist from east to west. With anxious breaths, Maya began her 15-hour exploration into the lands of planet B12–06/9930 in Numanity’s hope of finding Earth 2.0. It took her an hour of walking before the mist finally began to show kindness. Prior to this, Maya could only identify that the grass of this planet came in green, blue, and purple colour with impartial distribution. Other than that, the only sound she could hear was the feeble echo her breath made upon the glass sphere her head was encapsulated in. That is, until she reached the edge.
“Comms check. Commander, do you copy?”
…….
“Commander Dawn, do you copy?”
…….
“Commander?”
“Yes,” she had forgotten about her ability to form words. “I am alive.” Which felt like the most truthful sentence Maya had ever spoken with her lips. “I am alive,” she repeated. Her eyes refused to blink. Her breast thumped and fell in repeat. The drop of tear that began from her eye found its destination at her pointed chin. She was alive.
Before her eyes was a sight even the most modern of virtual-creators could not replicate in the VM-machines back at Newland. Before her was the sight for which she lived her miserable life. Before her, the mist descended off the cliff, a waterfall of white sponge, to form the clouds that covered B12–06/9930’s shy surface. Thick needles emanate from beneath the clouds, tearing apart the heavens and creating an empire of a thousand rock fortresses in front of her eyes. Massive cliffs with near vertical dropoffs stood majestically swimming through the white clouds, shining from the starlight, in shades of red, green, dirt, turquoise, and magenta. Rocks resembling crystals, painting the skies in a delicate artform unknown to Numanity. Misty waterfalls falling from the edges of each and every one of them. Wide plateaus at their helms upon which each looked a separate world on their own. She realised that they themselves were perched upon one, and that there was an entire planet beneat her feet to explore. Maya’s face began to smile that familiar smile. The one that she wore in exploration. The one she wore while saving wondrous planets from the plague known as Numanity. The one she wept in between unknowing wether her dream would one day be reality. She wanted to explore. She wanted to live. She wanted to see the naked body that hid beneath the misty whites. She jumped.
As she fell through the frigid clouds of planet B12–06/9930, her thermal sensors flamed out to zero, before once again rising back at the edge of the white cloth that hid her secrets. As the last sheet of cloud passed through her eyes, Maya’s smile widened in quick descend. As she fell through the air composed of Oxygen, Nitrogen, and pure Carbon gas as her sensors noted, she realised the silence through the comms penetrating her ears. The silence was elateful, even more so than the crumbling gravity through which she fell, but not more than the sights that lay beneath her. The stems of those great towers fell beside her to the ground, where their bases spread over a mountainous area in vibrant shades of VIBGYOR. The mountains then graduated from purple, to indigo, to yellow, and finally a familiar green upon which the vegetation of B12–06/9930 was covered. Maya pulled her parachute, the descent slowed, the sights remained, her smile permeated. She had not realised it had been three hours since she left from the ship. She had not realised it had been two since she last spoke a word. She had only the realisation that her legs would feel a new planet’s bosom, and she was elated for she knew not the mother to which she was born to.
As Maya unbound herself from the parachute she fell with, her eyes refused to blink at the magical world she descended into. Beside her was a tree the size of her commanding ship. Whose bark was brown with dirt, and green with unknown moss. To the west of her ran a rivulet through the broken rocks. The colour of which mimicked the glass of the Newland she descended from. H20, it’s composition said to her. But she knew far before. The sight was too familiar to misunderstand. To her north lied a hundred more trees, each of a different story. Some majestic and large, some short yet plump, some brown and strong, some green and withering. Of different shapes, sizes, domes, frocks, greens, blues, and rubies in colour. The heart which rested between her breasts resonated to the world her legs moved through. It was merely hour 6, and she sights still undiscovered to get through. For three more hours she basked in the little starlight that entered through the thawed clouds above her head. The walk, which would tire even the strongest of Numans didn’t break Maya’s inconsolable smile. She saw sights she dreamt of in her sleep. She saw sights which she read about in literary feats. She saw the world that was right in front of her. She saw the world that was lost from them, by pure arrogance and vain. Rivers, mountains, trees of shades she had not heard of were seen, but far from it she saw what she longed for. She saw life. She saw it in black beetles, blue rollies, green fishes, and four footed beastlings wandering, roaring, fornicating, being themselves. All of which had names she could never truly fathom. All of which she compared to the great animals that once roamed Earth 1.0’s sacred grounds. And then she finally saw it. Ashes of smoke rising from the grounds a little ways down the turquoise rock-scape she stood upon. She knew what it meant. Her heart knew what it signified. Her legs ran almighty. There were sights flashing by which she deemed to be unworthy.
She ran and ran till her glass sphere misted in sweaty breaths she released. Then she stopped, at the base of another pillar she saw from the skies. The ashes were just a few ways down the grass. Her heart thumped. Her soul danced. Maya broke through the leaves, broke through the branches, and knelt down the pasture that lied before her. She opened her eyes, peered through the starlight, and saw the sight she so longed to be with. It was life. It was two footed beings carrying baskets made of leaves. It was two footed beings, naked, with organs which resembled her own. It was two footed beings, whose colour was far unlike her own. It was two footed beings, who also bore a smile, which she definitely likened to her own.
“Comms, do you copy?” she whispered, her breath still exasperating.
“Co… Command… Commander Dawn…” it crackled in her ears.
With a thick gulp of fear rolling down her throat, Maya announced. “The planet is inhabitable,” she gasped. “The surface air is filled with Ammonia and Sulphur in gaseous form. There is no safe dirt on the ground suitable for cultivation. Vegetation is almost non-existent. The planet is a graveyard. Abort mission immediately.” Maya took another breath through her lungs, gulping another ball stuck to her throat. “Command… I give you my final order with these words. Abort mission Immediately. I am not able to return to you.”
“Commander Dawn… What do-”
“Do NOT sway from protocol!” She barked. He fell silent. “It was an honour working with you Jock. Tell my adieus to the rest.” Maya cut off the radio.
Following her, the cord from the skies travelled 52 kilometers to her destination. Slowly, with hands unmoving, she removed it from the knob. Without hesitation, the cord dashed backwards, to the ship where it came from. Just as she had taught them, her crew. The mission came first. They left Earth 2.0 unhesitated. She stayed back. Her suit slowly came off from the skin. As she set the glass dome above her head to the ground, she dragged in the fresh air from the new planet which she would call home. Maya felt reborn. For the first time, she drank fresh oxygen through her nostrils which was created by a force untamed by Numanity. She stripped down barren. Her unshaved arms rose in gooses to the cold breeze. Her breasts tightened, her teeth clattered, her legs twitched, yet her smile persisted. She turned back at the two legged beings living life unknown, her trembles died down in an instant. Nature didn’t stop at the bounds of Earth that Humanity destroyed. Nature is not to be bound by the Numanity that dwelled in space. Nature is not fond of ‘2.0’ in her name. Nature is a beauty that cannot be tamed. She revealed herself from the bushes, and eyes of grey, red, and blue fell upon her naked being. This was not Earth 2.0, this was Earth itself, she walked. Those that awaited her weren’t blue-beings, they were the humans that walked alongside her. Years after the dream had formulated in her childish mind, Maya walked naked into the world that gladly accepted her. She was no longer a Numan being. She was reborn, a Human.
