“Accompanying persons are requested to leave a launching pad. The launch will be initiated in thirty minutes by Earth time,” a quiet and methodical voice filled the space. Dozens of people — seeing off their relatives in a new difficult voyage for them — at last looked away from a starship and started moving to a waiting hall. Some smiled hopefully, faces of others were filled with tears. Guards even had to forcefully seize one man, who still didn’t stop beholding this conqueror of space and was waving his hand to a departing brother. The rest departed willingly.
But minutes of farewell is now behind. Last thirty minutes, dividing mother Earth from myriads of other vast space worlds.
“Colony vessel will be launched in five minutes. Pilots of starship — inform us of your readiness.”
“Alpha-one. Ready.”
“Alpha-two. Ready.”
“Alpha-three. Ready.”
“Zeta-one. Ready.”
“Zeta-four. Ready.”
“All systems are green. We are ready for the launch of a colony star vessel “Trailblazer”.”
“We understood you, “Trailblazer”. The launch will be made in one hundred and twenty seconds of Earth time.”
And just an instant later, totally disregarding the discipline, the words broke through, “Good luck to you, guys!”
“Thanks, cosmodrome “Star Way”. We will do everything in our powers.”
Ten seconds to launch. Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five…
It seemed to them this very instant, that those ten seconds lasted for the whole eternity — wonderful and everlasting. It seemed, that just as quiet — always — these short words will beat off their mysterious rhythm, and Earth, Mother Earth, their space home, one of the myriads, will caress their sight with its familiar and dear landscapes. And that this launch pad, and this star vessel, and cosmodrome control tower, looming in a distance will never-ever disappear from the sight. And that the sun will shine just as warmly, and tomorrow, only twenty hours later, this planet will meet its new day. But by that time they will long be gone… And each of them during these short and at the same time, never-ending instants remembered his own life in this star home.
They say, that when one is dying, all his life, all its particles — both bright and dim, all its flights and fallings, — they are all swirling before him. These last instants are extremely short — and at the same time practically endless. They are like the awakened eternal memory, drawing a slice of his past before a man… one of his steps in eternity.
They weren’t dying — they were reborn anew during these instants, and during same instants, their memories were recreating the images of their past before them. They remembered the childhood — how each of them was a beautiful young and still totally helpless child, having come to this world. They remembered, how this very child has finally grown up, learned the world to which he has come, and how he has fallen in love with it. Each of them was traveling his own path — some in a desperate and furious run, some measuredly and easy, some even joyfully jumping. Yet the roads of their destinies once joined together and since then they have been traveling as one. They have formed a unity during all those years — and thus they will work as a single whole.
“We shall make it,” those were the thoughts of everyone.
And thus they came at last — these words. Or, truly, just a single one.
“Launch!”
The ship rushed upwards, furiously speeding up, desperately trying to leave from under terrestrial gravitation. And once again instants of time flow as a series of small eternities, disappearing in something so much greater. And once again a new life — and myriads of births each and every second of a life’s journey. And yet somewhere deep in themselves a woken up gentle melancholy of a native home, left for a while — a home, where they will surely return ten years after when their mission will be fulfilled.
* * *
“Indeed, I’ve heard of that. The first space vessel “Trailblazer” successfully orbited the Earth and from now on they are traveling to a different solar system to build the first colony on a planet, discovered by auto-piloted ships, which significantly meets requirements of our world’s inhabitants. There is an atmosphere, very close in its structure of gases to our home world, there is a comprehensible planetary landscape, there is organics — practically an ideal new home for us.”
“And still our true home is where we are living in every single moment. Haven’t you always been telling me that?”
“Yes, you are certainly right — our home is where we are at present. That’s why our home is the Earth and their new home… their new home is awaiting them.”
“When, according to calculations, should they return back to the Earth?”
“Almost ten years from now, judging by previous measurements. Their journey to a new planet will take four years, one year for establishing and building a colony, and a bit more than four years to travel back home. Well, I mean to one of their homes — back to us.”
“Do you believe that they’ll make it?”
“I have no doubts in that. They are the best ones we were able to find, masters of their kind, who have successfully passed through all conceivable earth trials and training for adaptation in space. But — and that is the most important aspect — they are almost like a uniform monolith, a single whole, that’s why they’ll make it all. And no other option is ever possible.”
“I take it, that now we have little options left, except for to await their arrival. Ten years, right? Just a small fraction of the eternity, isn’t it?”
“And now you are talking my language. How did I manage not to notice such a change in you earlier, I wonder? I must have totally lost my attention by the end of my years, I guess!”
“We all are constantly changing. Someone rises up, somebody falls down. There is no stopping in the Universe, as well as no ending of a life. Those were your words, remember?”
“I do. And now, after even twenty more years of my life, I can add to it, “and men, like the Universe, belong to it”.”
“Now, it, apparently, is totally obvious to the overwhelming majority. But everything could go a wrong way, had they not listen to reason in due time. Do you still remember those years?”
“My youth? Certainly. To tell the truth, it seemed as if the whole planet has gone mad these days. The ever-increasing race of arms; the invention of even more deadly types of weapons, starting from nuclear bombs and ending with a biological weapon, capable to alter a gene pool of whole nations. And all that was going hand in hand with the increase of political tension along with tearing the whole planet into thousands of even smaller slices-states, with the rise of even more of local “saviors” and “prophets”, who saw the rescue of a planet in the domination of their slice over others; along with a pursuit of even more carefree and “problem less”, as they named it, life. But now — when this extremely dangerous stage is left behind, I have no desire to truly remember all these years, and I am really glad that the terrible future, into which this planet was going, hasn’t come.”
“Indeed, everything has changed with new discoveries of a small group of true thinkers and workers.”
“Not only scientists made that possible. Without creative individuals from other fields — beginning from literature and finishing with lots of spiritual movements, it wouldn’t be ever possible. The discovery of human “auras”; the research of man’s emanations, their dependence on the mood and his world-outlook, the discovery of their influence on other live organisms; the religion, which finally accepted these new openings of a handful of warriors, battling the crowds of ignoramuses — all this finally lead the humankind to the understanding of real value of goodness, of kind wishes, values of light aspirations. Gropingly, literally gropingly, in total darkness did men crawl their ways to a greater and wonderful knowledge… Many still wander in a fog of negation, but their numbers are growing short with each passing day. Just like every schoolboy previously knew that mother Earth is round and is rotating around the sun in the solar system, much like that now he starts to learn that great spiritual treasures are hidden within him, capable to transform the life, and he only needs to find a way to that inner land — to find it through own heart. I am truly glad, that it has finally happened.
And now we, creators in the eternity, can breathe with relief, accepting a fresh air in our lungs and smile. The stage has been passed and a new stage is forming just ahead of us — the discovery of endless and boundless reaches of space, as well as its beauty. And “Trailblazer” in that sense is one of the symbols of a new epoch of uprising and a new step in eternity.
We will be awaiting them, yet we will not stay idle. We will grow, we will prosper, we will perfect ourselves. And by the time they return to us, we’ll accept them with open arms.”
“And tell them, “Welcome, oh brothers!”. Yes, we will be waiting.”