Blue Marcos looked back at Blue Wallace. “Ready?”
Wallace gave an eager nod. Marcos frowned and turned to the airlock. The door was opened, they stepped inside, the door was closed, and they waited for the pressure to equalize.
“We’re on the outskirts of a nebula, so if our comms cut-out, don’t panic. You’ve been well-trained. Just follow my lead.”
Wallace gave a stalwart nod.
As predicted, the door opened and communications instantly died. Marcos stepped into the darkness, and Wallace followed close behind.
As soon as they’d left the ship, Wallace could tell something was very, very wrong. Rather than floating through the void, he stumbled out onto solid land. The surprise caused him to nearly lose his balance, but Marcos caught him before he fell. The surprises only continued when Marcos removed his helmet, then indicated for Wallace to do the same.
Wallace’s mind spun, but finally after taking a deep breath, he deactivated the magnetic clasps.
“It’s fine. You can breathe out here.” Marcos said. “We can’t risk someone tapping into our frequency and listening.”
Wallace exhaled a bit, then tried inhaling. Fresh air entered his lungs.
Marcos turned on a tiny penlight and began walking into the distance.
“What… How?”” Wallace asked in shock. “I thought-“
“-You thought we were on a ship.” Marcos said glumly. “You are. You were. Well… It’s complicated. Right now, we’re in a cave.”
“But what about all these stars?”
“LEDs. The viewports are currently closed due to ‘stellar activity’, but when they’re open there needs to be stars.”
“But the ship’s telescope?”
“It’s just pre-loaded with old images of space.”
“But… Why? I thought we were heading to Yundo-5.”
With this, Marcos stopped in front of a section of wall and pushed against it. The slab of stone slid forward and a beam of light pierced the darkness.
“We were.” Marcos said, stepping into the blindingly bright doorway. “And I think we made it.”
Wallace followed, and gasped as he stepped from the cave. He moved his hand to shield his eyes from the planet’s harsh star, but despite this he could only see a painful white glare.
“This should help.” Marcos said. Wallace felt something slip past his ears, then realized a pair of shield-glasses had been placed on his face. He looked around at the world, still agonizingly bright, but able to see the landscape’s details.
The world looked barren. Hills of cracked stone surrounded them in all directions, and save for the hollow wind carrying small puffs of dust across the planet, nothing moved.
“Wha’…Is this…” Wallace sputtered. He looked to Marcos for some indication as to what was happening.
Marcos gave a sad shrug. “Remember the tests you had to pass in order to get the ‘space-walking’ job? Remember how we tested you for psychological aspects, and didn’t really focus much on technical aptitudes? We needed to make sure you could handle the truth.”
Wallace collected himself. “And what is the truth?”
“The truth is that we haven’t been in space for centuries. Maybe we never were.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, our generational ship either landed on Yundo-5 long ago, or possibly, it never left Earth.”
“You mean…” Wallace trailed off. Suddenly the lands no longer looked barren, but instead appeared dead. “Oh my god…”
“That’s why we gave you those tests.” Marcos said. “We needed to make sure you could handle it, no matter what ‘it’ is. Did we crash-land on Yundo-5 long ago? Did life on Earth go extinct, and those of us on the ship are the last terrestrial survivors?” He shrugged again. “Hard to say.”
“Can’t we leave the ship? Come out here and colonize things?”
“Check your radiation scanner.”
Wallace did as instructed.
“Whoa.” He exclaimed.
“It’s why we can’t leave the underground. It’s why we need to stay in the ship.”
“But if the ship’s in a cave, that means we never left Earth.” Wallace said.
“Could be. Or it could be that the ship was navigated to an ancient lava tube and banked inside of it. It could be that previous space-walkers piled the earth and rock around the ship in order to better resist the radiation. It might be that we crashed into the planet and the displaced regolith fell back around the ship and eventually hardened.”
“So there’s nothing we can do?”
“We can wait.” Marcos said. “If this is Earth and life died off in a horrible nuclear war, then radiation levels should only take a few thousand years to return to safe levels. If not, if our mission was a success and the planet is perpetually radiated… Well.” He turned back toward the cave. “Come on. We can’t stay out here very long. I just wanted to show you what you’ll be dealing with.”
Wallace took one last look at the world before turning to follow his mentor. He imagined the world populated with thriving cities and a booming biosphere. Was his imagination yearning for a long-lost past and a potential future, or was it a fantasy that could never be?