[archived] the ship i

This is an older version of The Ship, I have since revised the story. You may read the updated version of The Ship: Part 1 here.

Lets try something creative today.

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There isn’t anything out here. I mean, obviously there’s a lot out here but none of it’s useful for what we’re looking for. The last of the Elders who lived on Earth are dying out. We’ve been on this ship for so long, generations of us have never breathed real air or felt the warmth of the sun, our Elders like to talk about. Even in their time though, Earth was dying.

The Elders always said there was a time you could be outside on Earth and exist. They have pictures of people with no protective gear on, just standing in the grass, bare feet and all. I’ve never seen grass… well not real grass anyway.

When the Earther’s realized the sun was dying, they started to build the Ship. They knew of course of many planets outside of Earth that could possibly sustain us, but we’ve been met with disappointment each time. We’ve run out of the known universe and have no idea what else is out there. I’ve read journals from ancient humans, wondering about life outside of Earth.  They always said there must be because otherwise, it seems so lonely to be on a rock in a vacuum and be the only somewhat intelligent thing in all of space. I’d rather be lonely on a rock than the Ship because at least then, you had a home. A place you belonged. Now we are just refugees of time.

The makers of the Ship knew it could take generations to find a new home. They didn’t want the remaining humans to get distraught or lose hope and so they created the Simulation to mimic the Earth from it’s glory days, to mask the structure of the otherwise dull appearance of the ship. You could choose to live in the Simulation or outside of it in reality.

Old humans used to dream about the days of seeing all the beauty in space but now, we just dream about the beauty of Earth. I wish they knew what an amazing gift it was. Nothing would’ve stopped the sun, but they ruined it. Even now that it’s a cold, dead rock, it’s covered in the remains of their consumption and disregard. They called it “garbage” or “trash” then. We don’t know the meaning of that concept on the Ship. Everything here is reused in one way or another.

I hate feeling so trapped. On Earth, you could always go somewhere that you’d never been before. It just wasn’t possible to see everything in one lifetime. On a Ship, there’s only so many places to go. I think we’ll go insane if we aren’t already.

Sam says I’m too obsessed with Earth. He doesn’t understand how you ache for something you’ve never even seen in real life. I tried to explain to him, that we aren’t designed for Space. I told him one day we’d even forget we came from Earth. There’s children growing up in the Simulation and don’t even realize that isn’t what our existence is. I guess the new thought is that children should experience the joys of an Earth-like childhood in order to avoid childhood depression at the reality of the emptiness we have on the Ship. Personally, when I found out about the Simulation as a teenager, it destroyed me. I had all these memories of a life that never actually happened outside of my own head.

I told Sam that’s why we can’t have children. We don’t agree on this in the least. Sam says he chose to ignore reality but I don’t know how you can. I guess he doesn’t understand me and never really did. I think he has affairs in the Simulation. Lately he’s been spending more and more time in the Simulation than he does with me. To be entirely honest, I don’t even care. Sam’s an idiot.

I don’t know why I agreed to unionize with him. Even when we were younger, I knew we weren’t truly compatible no matter what the Oracle said.  I met him in the Simulation but I told him I needed to meet him in reality too. I told him that’s where I wanted to live our lives. I don’t know if he didn’t believe me or maybe he thought I was joking about living our whole lives in reality but 10 years later we hardly speak to each other at all anymore. He’d rather be in the Simulation and I stopped caring a long time ago. We fulfill our union requirements of cohabitation and contributions but we might as well live in separate units entirely.

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I didn’t have a specific topic in mind today, so I opted for some creative writing. I don’t do much creative writing anymore so this was a fun little exercise. I might expand on this story more, in the future. Until tomorrow, friends!

Edit: I’ve expanded on it! Part II