This world is so dark and grey; the sun shines through a
dark filter and can’t seem to reach the lonely souls scrambling around on the
ground. It provides light without warmth
and you can feel the chill creeping into your bones long before the winter
actually makes its appearance. Even fair
weather days don’t seem to inspire and the people trudge along with half-vacant
expressions. They are lost without their beacon. I’ve watched them for generations on this
colony, pushing their way through the landscape like ants. Roads course through the green, ebbing and
flowing like concrete rivers. New homes
and fields appear on each supply run; Entire communities rising, flourishing,
and then falling into disrepair. Husks
of human ingenuity left behind to fend for themselves against the harsh elements
of this foreign world.
But up here there is one season and the sun patiently
waits. In this portion of the atmosphere
between the planet and outer space, it appears as it wants to all year long;
reaching out to wrap you in blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Protected by the glass on the cockpit, I can almost
remember that feeling of hope most humans experience when they get above the
cloud line. That realization that one’s
place in this life is so small and insignificant in the context of the
universe. But I’ve been here longer
than the idea for their terraformed planet and realize I have more in common
with the universe than the pestilence that crawls along the landscape
below. My people are not constrained by
the element of time and we make patience an art form.
******
“On the eve of one’s last
sunset, when one first goes to ground, there is a transformation that occurs
while you sleep. Between the soil, the
blood, and the sun that has saturated them both for more than a millennia,
there is a unique bond. When we are
forming our new bodies in this nutrient rich culture, the sun ingrains itself
and is encoded to our very DNA. This sun
on this planet will forever hold sway over your habits and the stars
surrounding other worlds will never compare.
Perhaps, when you are older, you will be able to venture as far from
your home as I do, but you will always feel it calling to you.”
Notes:
Vampires cannot be created in space stations – it requires
the soil and the sun of a planet
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