Flash Fiction: Old Moon

“All we need is a new ship.”

Tevan rolled himself onto one elbow and looked at Helia with raised eyebrow.

“All we need?”

She smiled back at him. “And a crew.”

Tevan sighed and lay back down, cradling his aching head on interlaced fingers. He stared up at the Earth hanging in the inky black above them.

The tides of space had washed their broken ship up on old Moon. The third dome they tried still had a working atmosphere so they had cycled themselves in, cleaned up and checked the place out. It still had power and working maintenance, hence the food and the mown lawn; it just didn’t have any people. Or a working shuttle.

There were working communications, in-system, but no one was talking. No one was listening. Earth, Moon, Sol system, were as abandoned as law dictated.

Tevan frowned, “it’s green.”

“OK. And this episode of nursery colours was brought to you by...?”

“The Earth,” he carried on, ignoring Helia’s sarcasm, “it’s green.”

“Yes, green and blue with fluffy white clouds and... oh.”

“It looks like Earth. The Earth you see on the history casts, not the grey, stained, dead thing they show on the news.”

Helia’s voice was a breathy whisper, all traces of humour gone, “It’s alive.”

They lay in silence, staring upwards. Helia reached out and held Tevan’s hand.

After a while, Teven said, “And we’re stuck here. We can’t get there, and we can’t tell anyone.”

Helia shifted over and curled against him. He looked down in surprise, it was the closest they had been in months.

“At least we got to see it,” she said.

He kissed the top of her head, “yeah.”

“I mean, what are the chances of our busted stardrive spitting us out here?”

“Astronomical.” He smiled.

Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow, “Really?”

“What, you’re the only one allowed to make jokes?” He hugged her and looked back at the Earth.

“Seriously though,” he said, “the odds are incredible. It’s a miracle we ended up anywhere near a star system at all, let alone the Earth. And travel here is prohibited, stardrive navigation is locked out from even setting this place as a destination.”

Tevan’s head jerked as he saw something flash in the corner of his eye.

“Look.”

Helia turned to where he was pointing.

Space flickered. A drop of fire hit the oil of the dark sky and rippled outwards. Then a ship burst through. From the flickering blue iridescence around the rear of the hull their stardrive was clearly damaged.

“Another one?” Helia asked.

Then everywhere above them began to erupt with a firework display of silent, coruscating explosions. Damaged starships were thrust into existence across the sky. They saw thrusters flicker into life as the ships began to guide themselves toward the Earth or the Moon.

“She’s calling us home,” Helia murmured.

“She? Who?”

“Mother Earth. She’s gathering her wayward children; she’s giving us a second chance.”