Our genes are decaying. We’ve become allergic to everything, even sunlight. A result of generations of superluminal travel. We were never designed to go so fast or go so far. As we journeyed for a new home, each jump tore away at the fabric of our bodies. Now, in our final resting place, we live our lives sealed in sterilized colonies. We cannot eat or drink. We cannot go outside or touch another person. We can barely sleep. Just organic batteries, plugged with nutrients and cocktails of drugs to keep our organs somewhat functional. The pain is so severe that most of us have our nervous systems permanently disabled. We are alive, but not living. We have survived the implausible odds thrown at us by the universe. We have found a place to slowly resolve back into unthinking matter. We could continue, if we wanted. Artificial procreation, as the real thing is far too dangerous now. But would our children suffer the same conditions as us? Likely. So perhaps we went through all that just to find our end. Either way, let me advise you on this, whoever might one day understand these words: look after your mother planet, it is the only one you have.
Paddy Dobson
18th March 2021