Lesson
Ross Dale Kelly


It was a clear morning, with a transparent atmosphere, all the way to the central hub, orbiting around the planet which glowed light upon the land which was unnecessary now as we orbited around the Earth’s sun. Birds were making idle conversation as the early risers began to bustle around their homes and offices.

The whirring of motors began as pistons turned over, combusting with a steady rumble. I was already at the door to my car, fumbling through the many keys to find the one which matched the lock. My mug of coffee was steaming on the slightly slanted rooftop atop the car, warming the air below my neck. I unhitched the door, and slid the necktie nearly to the top of my collar.

Dropping down, I carefully hit the seat cushion, remembering the mug on the roof. Easily edging the mug into my hand, and lowering it to my lips, I took a second to forget the day ahead while staring blankly through the glass windshield.

I swung my feet into the car, resting them on the cold pedals. Immediately, from force of habit, I depressed the clutch and moved the transmission into reverse. With a quick slam, the door tightly sealed, leaving the air unperturbed and quiet. A turn of the key in the ignition, and the coupe began its idle purr. I sipped my drink, placing it in the cup holder, careful to cover it with a hand before I turned in my seat, looking over my right shoulder, scanning through the side, then rear window.

The mirrors looked so vivid; the panorama circling me seemed to be inviting me to get moving through the brisk air. I babied the gas and slowly clutched my way out of the flat driveway over onto the grey concrete road, slowly turning to parallel it. I gave a glance around and gave the car some gas and let the tires grip the ground and pull me forward down the road.

I rolled down the window and let some cool air rush around me. The car was slowly waking up along with me. We pulled onto the highway, and pushed more throttle through the tailpipe. A crisp bell sounded behind me from the student’s college near my residence. I was on my way to work.

I worked at the University as in the Geosciences department. The staff was organized efficiently, with a chain of command that started at the top at a personal level but left us all with a feeling of equal status.

I was early as I like to arrive to work in the morning, allowing time to read a few notes then lean back and reason with myself about the amount of sleep I had the night before. While I taught the students about the discipline of sustainable nature and upholding a strong environment, I was also involved in controlling missions of shuttles to various locations as we rocketed through space to different areas where they would mine for key substance for our colony.

The job involved some people skills for which I used to determine competence of potential crew, along with some rough statistics to plan for the materials and fuel to be consumed. My choice in work was something that I only considered to be a momentary occupation, and I did have other aspirations of a more involved life in other areas of interest.

I was going to lecture at a class later, looking for prospects for future missions when we returned to the inner earth solar system. But the lecture would be on our arrival which would happen in the next few days. It was an interesting story to explain our arrival. We had been alone in the galaxy for almost a millennia, recording our sights and encounters with strange phenomena and our advancement in technology over the ages.

Our planet had survived on its own, self sustained, with liveliness and love for survival. We prided ourselves on the brink of technology and indulged in a moderated but extravagant lifestyle, reusing all which we needed to use.

Our existence may seem strange to the Earth bound folk. We are product of generations of human interaction, and our planet was manufactured from various parts of the galaxy, made to travel through space for a scientifically predicted period of time.

We moved through the universe under our own power, interestingly enough, our ancestors had dared to enter the famed black holes which held undetermined results, but were thought to transport the vessel at breakneck speeds across the galaxy.

The experiment planet Mercury was intended to float through various black holes in order to travel at speeds sometimes exceeding the speed of light away from the original location. The result was an immensely long trip through the universe, back to planet earth, where the lack of speed leaves time at a standstill, leaving our advanced race about to enter your world about ten years after we were created. The families of the inhabitants of this scientist colony were about to meet their great, great and further great grandchildren in this very moment. The project they had sent on its way ten years prior was now back, successful.

Before my job, at a young age, our whole society was notified that the trip was nearly over, and we would be back at our point of departure, Earth. I had been studying the process our colony faced in its entrance into the Milky Way. Those studies lead to my interest in the physics’ of the universe as we grew closer to our home.

The universe was like a time portal in which an object must always exist. If the universe is seen as an infinitely large and dark void, one can never reach the end. It is constantly expanding and turning around us.

However, as it turns around you, there are black holes which seem to be an infinitely long and skinny tube into passages like rips that come out into new space seemingly infinitely far away. The black holes reposition you somewhere light-years away instantly as half remains on one side and the other passes through.

The theory behind this theory of travel leaves the issue of time at a standstill as one section of the universe travels more quickly than the other, thereby slowing the clock in one area as the other races ahead. We had raced ahead a thousand years in ten Earth years.

I gave my lecture that day, going off on tangents that I found relevant to the subject as we grew ever nearer to home, already with Earth in view.

The interesting property about the space in which we find ourselves is that it constantly expands, while the matter attracts and would seem to grow ever closer if not for the big bang.

The gravity of objects seems to have a roll in repositioning the matter, clumping all planets and stars close to each other. Although there seems to be no reason for this force we see no active reason for the universe to want to expand either.

However, the universe is expanding, and matter is indeed attracting itself. Perhaps these movements are necessary in a galaxy which contains moving or live matter. Perhaps this act of gravity is matter’s attempt to not loose track of its infinitely small pieces in an infinite universe. None the less, gravity plays a roll in transporting matter. I ended the statement saying that perhaps it was a good thing that gravity brought us back home.

The physics of space is widely understood and studied intensely within the world of Mercury although only the select few brightest individuals applied the knowledge. Though the people had been stranded in space for over a thousand years, its people were sharp and intelligent, never letting up diligence in order to preserve their colony for the ages to come.

Still existing at all points, it seemed we had been fated to pass through a series of black holes, passing through the dark clouds, and moving essentially infinitely far away from our previous location any person could hope to travel through space in his lifetime.

It appeared to be a space ship with a magnificent surface shaped into that of an oddly shaped planet. It apparently had its own atmosphere as well, unannounced how it was maintained.

On Earth, in the next few days, to the interest of most, it became clear that there was a large cover-up, about to be revealed, as the government ensured safety and responsibility, saying that they were in fact about to speak with the Capitan and scientists which were in fact living aboard.

The idea of people living in space on other planets had seemed less than real to most people on Earth, but to the people of project Mercury it was a way of life. People of Earth began wondering how these people have been living, and some even looked to the sky, wondering if a visit would be possible.

Though not earthlings, the people aboard the floating world were no doubt human, and were about to encounter the creators of their world as the come in contact with earth for the first time in one thousand years.

There was a green mass floating through the otherwise absolutely dark space around a large sun, many leagues away. This mass seemed to be oddly shaped, full of mountains and valleys, but it appeared to be mostly hollow, like a small cloud around a billowing landmass complete with a fully developed life habitat.

In fact, it was almost as ordinary as a planet, yet it drifted through its own course as it made its way through the small galaxy. It could also be observed that the life aboard this small planet was teaming with activity, maintaining and conserving it as it journeyed through space.

Since many people had become incredibly devoted to their life within the colony it became difficult to understand how they tirelessly fulfilled their obligations. Together with the fact that so much time had passed since the ancestors of these citizens had seen another habitable planet along with the intensive daily activities which each was entitled to, it was a wonder that they saw the beauty of life.

A planet, with its glorious size works to survive because the work becomes enjoyable. The average citizen therefore was so caught up in the pleasure of the immediate situation that he choose to investigate little into the matters of the actual workings of the colony. It was no purposeful cover up, but rather the citizens were too involved in the morality of their lives and the importance of their individual work that notice the unusual image of the planet as a non-organic structure in space. This eluded the every day person’s interest enough to keep it out of their daily lives.

However, one autumn on Earth within eyesight, the giant oasis and cities a half darkened target lined with the trajectory, an arrival became noticeable within the imminent future.

It was these black holes which I had been plotting through calculus and physics since I was a young boy, so I was familiar with how our society worked.

Everyone knew that we were a small planet, struggling to maintain our ecosystem, while maintaining intelligence and moral action. This is what is required to survive in this world with as many intelligent friendly people as we can possibly keep alive.

The every last resource is used and reused, with minimal loss. Of course it is inevitable to us that our society will die out one day. It would be nearly impossible to allow any loss of our products in the process of production. So I figured that the childhood story of our planet Mercury, lost through a series of trajectories, was searching for a specific place in which to rest and refuel before beginning its journey again.

It many people had fantasies of large suns, and beautiful ocean planets up in the stars, but we mostly floated through nothing, swinging through gravity fields and around novas, nearing stars, collecting light to continue. Each turn marked an age or era to us as we watched obstacle in the sky come and go.

This, however was about to change as a large mass full of life was identified across an infinite horizon. It was anticipated by the captain his whole life. It was also anticipated by his previous commander, and the story had been kept through the ages. The captain hardly dared to dream of its sight, worried that it would never come in his lifetime. He was so proud the moment he discovered the news that he began to prepare immediately.

He opened the black box within his own home, and carefully aligned the documents, swaying with anticipation to their contents. The ship would finally get to dock at its destination, hopefully successful in its mission.

The papers were perfectly preserved, and full of engineering and statistical reports. It appeared there was a specific location to dock.

The target name was Earth. It appeared that the station would be circling around earth above its atmosphere, and outside the range of the single moon. Also prepared with the documents was a plan orbit the Earth for a determined amount of time then head further out into space and orbit the sun. The captain dried his eyes, understanding the reason for his mission much more thoroughly. He was going home, to a place that neither he, nor his relatives had ever seen.

I was back at my home, considering what to do before I started my work for the evening. Picking up a book, I decided it was time to get some of my old reading out of the way. Going back to the bookshelf, I picked up my newest physics text along with the old mandatory calculation calibration book.

It was then when I noticed the last chapter of the later book, a subject that I had not delved into, curiously, because I was considered a master in the subject.

The first line read as so:

Do not read prior to April 2020, discuss in lecture.

The year had already passed over the year 2020, so I figured it was justified to take a look within the last chapter of this manual. It could contain critical data for the survival of the colony.

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Creative Writing by: RDK
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copyrighted October 11, 2008 RDK