The End is the Beginning

“It will be fun,” Command said.

“He’s an expert,” Command said.

“You wouldn’t want to retire before seeing Earth now, would you?” Command said.

In all my years doing recon, I was never once brought up for an Earth mission. I should have known better. The last cadet to come down to this dismal wasteland never returned to home base.

A squelching plop echoed behind me as Captain Clarke once again vomited profusely into a clump of rubble. The orchestral cacophony had been plaguing me since we landed three days ago. I was now so familiar with the sound of this drunken fool taking sick I could even hum along.

Cough, cough, gag, yak, plop, cough, cough. Occasionally for some spice he would add in a hiccup here or there. Apparently, the esteemed Captain had been hoarding Earthling Whisky for a couple hundred decades and knew exactly where to land our vessel to ‘rediscover’ it.

“Oh Louisa, I canna believe it, a store of spirits! Lucky o’ me to dig, ‘ere, yah?”

Lucky.

Right.

The details of our mission were to come back to Earth and catalog the progress of the Earthlings left behind. By Earthen time it had been about two centuries since the time of man ended in the Great Ruining. The time when the greedy species who inhabited this planet had finally destroyed it when they began killing each other with nuclear weaponry.

Honestly, how small were their brains?

Some of the lucky ones escaped, fleeing to other planets, but the species is all but extinct now. The last recon mission had estimated only a few hundred of the Earthlings remained. They were monstrous and ghastly. Deformed from living off a planet of waste and radiation. They had yet to revive the planet they destroyed, and their success rate in repopulation was miniscule.

But I could not attest to any of that because my navigator was a raging drunk. All I knew was we landed along some mountainous wreckage that was more stone and ruins than an actual formation of the ground. I managed to get out of Captain Clarke that this chunk of forest and rubble was once the Pine Barrens.

Whatever that means.

To be quite honest, I was immediately disappointed. The storied desert wasteland was more sandy dirt and trees. And a briny tang clung in the air that had nothing to do with the piles of vomit.

I turned to the grizzled blob of disgusting flesh wearing Captain fatigues. He was reaching down into the hole yet again producing a new amber bottle. Snatching it away from him, I chucked it back into the hole. Where it shattered with an echoing crash, fumes of spirits billowing up from the debris.

A long ear-splitting moan erupted from the good Captain.

“You’ve got to pull it together man,” I snapped pulling out my flask. Which contained nothing but fresh water. I promptly turned the container upside down over Captain who spluttered and choked.

“Louisa,” He moaned rolling over to tuck his face into the dirt.

“This has gone on long enough. We’ve been here for days and haven’t left this spot. The faster we get our jobs done the sooner we can go home.” I peered back into the hole, where a dozen more, now Whisky soaked, full bottles lay. “I’ll even let you take them with us and won’t tell Command you’ve indulged.”

Command was extremely strict about these things. Indulgences were for specific days only, Freedom Day or the like.

“Fine,” Captain Clarke moaned getting unsteadily to his feet. “But ‘or the record, I dunna think ye are ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“The truth.”

I rolled my eyes as he headed back to our vessel. The Captain was known to have a flair for the dramatic. Pulling off my heavy fatigue jacket I shoved it into my rucksack. Pulling the sweat soaked tee shirt beneath away from skin. No point in standing on ceremony with this guy. No one here to see if I altered uniform regulations.

This was my last mission, and I would be able to hang up my suit and have a life of my own. I hoped my permanent residence would be Mercury, they had the best food rations. But the Mercurians were so…well…mercurial.

And it all depended on where Command decided I retired too anyway. I was lucky after Initiation to have been selected for the Intergalactic Missions Team. It was one of the few divisions of Service that gave you the ability to have some autonomy.

The telltale ping and clang of dropped pots echoed from the open doorway to the vessel. This man was determined to have whatever creatures remained on this planet come find us. Prior to leaving for Earth, I had memorized all the Recon Sheets. Discussing when the Nuclear War ended, the fragments of the land that were left behind were uninhabitable and few. Those that survived lived beneath the surface, where an entire network of villages and cities emerged. Until their inevitable collapse.

But on more recent missions it was described the air had become pure enough to breathe. Water and greenery now cleansed and consumable, but only in small batches. Perhaps that’s why Captain Clarke picked here of all places to land-because this was one of the more habitable areas.

Who am I kidding? He landed here for the booze. It’s just luck that we could breathe freely without the aid of protective gear.

Captain Clarke stumbled out of the vessel, straightening himself up as he still walked a bit wonky. At least it looked like he attempted to clean himself. His Captain fatigues were now puke-stain free.

“Come,” he grunted as he swayed past me toward the trees. He seemed to be taking a path he knew, or else he was plotting to lure me away and kill me. But all things considered, despite our size difference, I could take him.

Heck, even a strong wind could take him.

“Where’s your ruck?”

“Don’t need it.”

I shrugged at his back. I didn’t know how he expected to detail the mission without any supplies. But who am I to argue? That’s a problem between him and Command.

The further into the wood we walked, the steadier Captain Clarke became. As well, the briny tang dancing along the air intensified. It wasn’t exactly an unpleasant smell. It blended with the sap and tang of the pine trees quite nice.

The sharp snap of breaking twigs sounded off to our left. I froze dropping to the ground, pulling out my weapon. We were given explicit instructions to eliminate any creatures we came across and return them to home base to study. One of the many reasons Command told us Earth was barren was because no one ever returned with any specimens.

“Put that ‘way Louisa.” Captain Clarke growled.

“But-”

“Don’t make me tell ye again.”

I had opened my mouth to continue arguing when an Earthling woman stepped out from the tree line in front of us. She was undeniably human smiling to Captain Clarke.

Meanwhile, I was trying to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. Because she looked….

Well, she looked a lot like me. Nothing like the drawn pallid pictures of hairless goo we so often were told humans resembled.

“William! We didn’t think you would be back so soon,” The woman said, fingering a heart shaped locket on her chest. “And who is this?”

“Louisa, meet Sarah.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Louisa.”

My tongue had unstuck itself, but my mouth was held open stupidly. Any number of creatures could have flown in an out as I just stared at the human.

“I don’t understand.”

Sarah frowned. I found myself mimicking her. She turned to Captain Clarke and so did I.

“Why do you always make me explain it to them?”

“Explain what?”

Sarah sighed heavily, and again I imitated her. I don’t know why I was acting like a mime. I just couldn’t believe this was a creature of Earth. She wasn’t alien at all.

“Come with me,” Sarah said waving to me. She turned and walked through the trees, which were now coming fewer and fewer.

“Louisa, do you like your life?”

“What? What kind of question is that?”

“Answer ‘er.” Captain Clarke, or apparently ‘William,’ said, with a poke to my back.

“Tell me, would you have chosen your life if you had other options?” The ground beneath us turned pillowy as the sand thickened and tree fragments lessened. Sarah looked back at me as she continued, “A life predetermined at birth?”

“My life is the same as everyone else’s.”

“That, my dear is where you are wrong.”

I glanced at the Captain who again waved me back to listen to Sarah. She smiled brightly at me.

“You are born, you face Initiation where they decided at the age of four what you will do for the rest of your life. What you eat, where you sleep, what you wear, how you style your hair, when you can retire. Where they then decide where you live, who you marry, how many children you have.”

“So?”

“So, Louisa, so? What if you don’t want to have children. What if the husband they pick for you smells and beats you? What if today you wanted to wear a yellow shirt instead of tan Regulations.”

I remained silent for a beat, “This is so we are taken care of. So, we don’t have to worry-it’s for survival.”

At that both the Captain and Sarah laughed. Sarah grabbed my arm and pulled me a few yards until we stood on a large beach. Waves crashed in the distance, and I gulped.

Hundreds of people swam in the water or laid out in the sand. No one wore standard issue clothing or looked identical. There was laughter and color.

And life.

“This is survival Louisa.” Sarah said gesturing to everyone. “I know they tell you the Earth was destroyed in the Nuclear Wars-and it nearly was. But we persevered. We endured.”

“Why?”

It was all I could say. I didn’t understand anything.

“Because they made a mistake. The founding members of Command took humans from Earth when the wars began. They believed we would destroy ourselves. And to survive they’ve created the system you live in today. A system of oppression. Where everyone is a cog in a machine of heteronomy.”

I stared at her.

“To change would involve admitting they were wrong. That first step seems to be the hardest to make.”

I glanced at Captain Clarke.

“Why would you tell me this?”

“You have a chance at freedom, Louisa.” Sarah said patting me on the shoulder. I shook my head.

“Why would they send me here?”

“They hope you will be killed. They are overwhelmed population wise and believe that Captain Clarke has been killing all the people they send here. Less mouths to feed if two leave and only one returns.”

That’s just ridiculous. Someone must be messing with me.

“Why would they think that?” I glanced at Captain Clarke, who sighed heavily.

“Because that’s what they ordered me to do.”