Hope Against Hope
Freya felt the cool wind caress her as she opened her window. Looking out into her world, she still marveled at the invisible dome which kept the city of Lunas a livable, breathable habitat for humankind. She still marveled at how the dome radiated the illusion of lush lands beyond the dome; they all knew that in reality, beyond that dome lie the cratered wastelands of Mars.
When she thought of that, she felt so fragile, as if the dome could crack and they could all die, and they wouldn’t even know it. The air would be sucked out so quickly, even though there were safeguards to prevent the cracking of the dome. It was less than a million to one. She was more likely to die in her car tomorrow, driving across the gravity controlled roads of Lunas, but it was the cracking of that dome that gave her nightmares.
Feeling uncertainty fill her, she reached across her bed for her cellphone. She wanted to see Aerie, her girlfriend, so much that it hurt, but Aerie was a scientist and had traveled to Shangri, the other city-dome on Mars for a conference and wouldn’t be back for a week. She saw her phone light up in the darkness with a loving message from Aerie and hugged the phone to her.
“Somehow, you always seem to know when I need you,” she whispered to the wind, “You always know when I’m filled with uncertainty and fear. Aerie... I would go to the ends of the world for you...”
Comforted, she lie back upon her bed, and under the cool breeze pumped into Lunas by the climate control system, she slept peacefully.
~
When she woke, the sunlight poured into her window. She got up and dressed, and went to the window to close it when she saw the red hue of Mars staring at her. Groping for her remote control on the dresser, she switched on the television, seeing her wall come to life.
On every station she saw it repeated with frightened horror; the dome, cracked and broken. Words came to her... artificial pressure... gravity control... Shangri destroyed... Lunas being checked for cracks... voluntary evacuation to Earth beginning... no survivors...
“No!” she cried, picking up her phone. She quickly dialed Aerie’s number, but she only received an automated message saying that the phone number she had dialed was unavailable.
Dazed and broken, she wandered out into the street. Could Aerie, the love of her life, truly be dead? It had only been the night before when she had received that loving message from her partner of eight years. It was only last month when Aerie had said that soon they would get around to arranging their wedding, as soon as the conference was over...
People were crying in the street, looking up at the dome that seemed so fragile around them now. Many had taken to their cars, driving to the spaceport to begin evacuating to Earth. Freya didn’t know what to do. There was nothing left for her on Earth without Aerie. She had come here because it was Aerie’s dream to push forward into the stars. Aerie had felt that scientists on Earth had learned all they would be able to, and that the new frontier of Mars would open up new possibilities for science. She had designed the domes, and it had been her dream that had created the colonies.
As Freya looked around her, she didn’t see the optimism that had brought her here. She saw only fear, despair and failure. She saw people running to abandon Mars and rush back to Earth, back to safety. She saw a hundred years of work disappearing before her eyes. All that Aerie had worked for was dust, and this dome would be empty in a matter of days, with only a few scientists left, the curious who wanted to know what had gone so wrong. They would come back, some day, but perhaps not for another hundred years. They would go back to Earth and repeat the same old experiments, wanting a new place to learn from, but not daring to risk public opinion by proposing a new colony on Mars. The human race would stagnate. All that Aerie had done would be...
“All for nothing...” Freya heard somebody say. “All this has been for nothing!”
She wandered the streets, dazed and confused, crushed and helpless. She saw the men on street corners proclaiming the Second Coming of Christ, others crying that this was their fate for defying God and leaving the planet that he had created for them. Freya ignored them, wandering hopelessly amongst the ever-emptying streets before her.
As she reached the edge of the dome, twilight fell. She looked out across the surface of Mars. As she looked, the scientists brought back the illusion of endless bountiful plains, then let it flicker and fade as they realized there could be no peace. The illusion had been broken, and nothing could bring it back. It was easier for them to search for cracks against the dark contrast of the real Martian landscape.
Freya got as close as she could to the edge of the dome, to where the security gap began, and looked out over the barrier. She was looking to the horizon, where Shangri had been only last night. She saw it then, more real then any newscast could make it, the shattered dome sitting exposed to the lifelessness of Mars, every light extinguished, every life cut short.
She didn’t know how she made it back to her quarters, but when she was aware again, she was lying on her bed, curled up in a ball, the newscast delivering its up-to-the-minute report.
“Lunas is to be abandoned, and the search for life in Shangri discontinued,” the newscast said, in a suitably grave tone, “Every citizen of Lunas is to be evacuated back to Earth, following an analysis of the dome by scientists. Each citizen is to report to their local town hall, to receive a number. This number will determine the order in which they are evacuated.”
Freya held up the remote and turned off the TV. She didn’t want to be evacuated. She didn’t want to throw away the new life that she and Aerie had fought so hard for, to return to Earth and abandon the unique culture of the Mars colonies. Out in the colonies, open-mindedness prevailed, the old ways of thinking eschewed by those who were willing to give up everything they knew and step into the vast unknown of space, a place where Earth was a vague memory, that the here and now mattered.
As she stood and looked down at the streets, she wondered if any of them felt the same way she did now that their lives were in danger. They were willing to sign up on Earth for a grand adventure, but as soon as things got dangerous, they abandoned everything in droves, wanting to flee to the safety of their mother world.
She knew that she did not want to go back. Even if she was the last living inhabitant of Mars, she wanted to stay. She didn’t want to give up hope for the people of Shangri, as the others had done in their rush to save their own skins. She wanted to find Aerie, even if her love had left this world forever, just to hold her in her arms one more time.
Tears came to her eyes and she wiped them away, knowing she could not feel sorry for herself any longer. She had to do something, something other then run away, as all the others were doing.
She knew that exploration teams sometimes went out onto the surface of Mars to check the outside of the dome. Aerie had once shown her the building where the exploration teams worked, and Freya remembered the space suits lined up, just waiting for scientists to put them on. She had felt the grand unknown of the wastelands calling her then, and she felt it now.
Scrambling off the bed, she searched through the boxes of belongings under the bed. Aerie had lived with her for several years, and it was Aerie’s things she now looked through, searching for one of the many identification cards that Aerie used to enter the various science buildings for her work. Her hands grasped the cord of one, and she pulled it out, looking at Aerie’s photo.
“Aerie,” she whispered, “I know this is a suicide mission, but I can’t just give up on you and run away like everybody else. I’m coming for you, Aerie. I have to know your fate, my love.”
She slipped the cord over her head, the card dangling on the end of it. She didn’t look much like Aerie, but she hoped in the chaos of recent days, nobody would care to check the identification of everybody who entered the building.
~
Freya felt relief as the doors of the Exploratory Commission opened at the presence of Aerie’s ID card. She felt at ease as she walked the corridors in one of Aerie’s lab coats, feeling Aerie’s presence in the material she had once worn.
Following the signs, she took an elevator to the basement. Many scientists were milling about, engaged in their duties so calmly that one could almost forget the city was in a state of emergency.
“Yes, everything is proceeding as planned,” one scientist said to another in the elevator, “It’s almost sad how willing they are to leave the place they called their home.”
“Wouldn’t you, if faced with such a danger?” the other, younger scientist said, “It’s not just about you, but your family, your friends... Isn’t it logical to protect your life and the lives of the people you care about? To safeguard your genetic offspring?”
“I suppose...” the older scientist said, “I don’t have a family, so I suppose I didn’t take that factor into consideration.”
Freya heard their conversation, but her mind was on acquiring a space suit and enough oxygen to travel the five miles to Shangri. Once she was there, she supposed she would be able to loot some more from the various science labs in the city, if there was any left after what had happened.
She left the elevator long after all the other scientists had departed. Deep underground, the darkness of the lower levels of the building surrounded her and she felt doubt.
“What am I doing here?” she whispered to herself, “This is insane, a suicide mission. Why am I doing this? Why am I undertaking a task with no logical conclusion? Aerie’s dead. There were no survivors from Shangri. But somehow, I just can’t give it up. I can’t give her up. I can’t give up the dream of mankind being able to live on other planets. I can’t just run away, my tail between my legs! But I know that this means my death... I’ll never make it back again, once I leave the safety of the dome.”
The answer came to her in a flash of clarity. Hope. She hoped, somewhere deep in the illogical realms of her heart, that Aerie was still alive, waiting for rescue in one of the last pressurized rooms in Shangri. It seemed to her that everybody had been too quick to throw away the hope of finding survivors, too easily giving up the search. She needed closure, she needed hope to be destroyed. Then she could die in peace, at least knowing that they had tried out here, that they hadn’t just fled at the first sign of danger.
She donned the space suit. She had been out on the surface of Mars only once, on a science expedition with Aerie. It was a barren wasteland with strange gravity, but it had been an interesting experience. Now she was going to repeat that expedition with a purpose.
Freya took the large oxygen tanks. She remembered Aerie telling her that these tanks would last for five hours, which would give her enough time to reach Shangri and look around, try to find some clues as to her love’s fate.
She headed into the airlock, where the depressurization began. Swallowing hard, she resolved to face the unknown, for Aerie’s sake.
~
“Somebody is in the depressurization chamber!” came a cry from a scientist in the facility’s main control room, “ID number 200319... Aerie Savisa!”
“That’s impossible!” the team leader said, “Aerie’s the one in charge of this whole effort. She’s in Shangri! Is she coming in or out?”
“Out, sir,” the scientist said.
“Somebody may have taken her ID card,” another scientist suggested. “Should we go after the subject?”
“We can’t,” the team leader said, “The atmospheric conditions out there are too dangerous right now. There’s a dust storm blowing up. I don’t know who’s crazy enough to go out there, but they’re not going to last very long. Why would somebody do something so insane?”
“Perhaps they have nothing to lose,” somebody suggested, “Those are the most daring people of all.”
~
The elevator slowly made its way to the surface. Freya wasn’t prepared for the sight she saw when she reached the surface, though. A dust storm had blown up, making visibility poor. Freya felt despair rise in her gut. You can still go back, a voice in her mind told her, but she hadn’t come this far for nothing.
“Aerie,” she said, “Show me the way.”
~
Freya walked as fast as the lesser gravity would allow her. She bounced across the surface, carving her way through the red dust, trying to keep a straight line. Her heart knew the way to Shangri, she hoped. She kept away the doubt by thinking of Aerie, all the good times they had shared.
She remembered meeting Aerie. Freya had applied for a job at the Space Department as an assistant, and Aerie was the interviewer. She remembered the nerves she had felt as she had entered the silver tower, its spire pointing a hole in the clouds. She felt the power of it, and felt small and insignificant.
“I’m here to see Ms. Savisa for an interview,” Freya said, clipping on the badge that said VISITOR in bold lettering. It only intensified her feeling of being out of place.
“Ms. Savisa is at the top of the tower,” the secretary said. “Take the elevator to the top floor, then take the steps up. She’ll probably be on the observation deck.”
Freya felt her nerves intensify as she stood in the elevator. What kind of person conducted an interview on an observation deck?
As the doors slid open, she saw an office in front of her with the name “Aerie Savisa” on a formal plate on the door. She knocked, and received no answer. Seeing a sign on the wall directing visitors to the observation deck, she shrugged and climbed the stairway.
When she reached the top, she opened the doors and headed out onto the deck. She felt the thinner air barely filling her lungs, and wondered how high up she was. Leaning over the railing was a young woman, her long, brown hair flowing in the wind.
“Ms... Savisa?” Freya said nervously, thinking she must be mistaken. This couldn’t be the woman who was leading the science world’s effort to populate Mars, could it?
She almost gasped as the woman spun. She saw the most beautiful face she had ever seen, illuminated by a radiant smile. In those deep brown eyes she saw hope, vision and wonder like she had never seen in the eyes of any human being before.
“You can call me Aerie,” she said, “Come here.”
Freya timidly walked across the observation deck, both frightened and awed. She reached the railing and looked over.
“Wow,” she said. Freya could see clouds for miles, their fluffy softness making her feel like she could jump from this tower and be safely caught, though she knew that was an illusion.
“Some call this the Tower of Babel,” Aerie said, “They say it’s arrogant to build a tower that reaches into the heavens. But for me, it’s a symbol of mankind’s achievement. From here, it’s only a step away into the stars.” She reached her arms up, as if by doing so she could touch space itself.
“They say you want to build a colony on Mars,” Freya said, finding herself more at ease with this strange and captivating woman, “Is that true?”
“Indeed,” Aerie said, “I want mankind to spread out into the stars, to build a million new worlds and cultures, to survive, even when this world is gone. There’s so much out there, and we know so little. We have the technology to survive on hostile planets, so we should try.”
“I would go,” Freya said, feeling captivated by Aerie’s dream, “I would love to be part of a new world.”
“Then we’ll go,” Aerie said, “Welcome to the team.”
~
Freya smiled as she remembered the first time she had met Aerie. She supposed she had fallen in love with her at first sight. Aerie’s hopes and dreams infected her with an optimism and hope that she had never had before. Now... Aerie was gone, and all hope was gone with her.
No, not all hope. There was still a flickering flame, a candle lit in hope that Aerie was still alive. That’s why she was out here. That’s why she would go to Shangri, to find the one she loved, the one who had given her something to believe in.
That’s why she wouldn’t run away.
~
“Aerie,” Freya said. She was in her memories again, seeing Aerie as she was, radiant and beautiful and so full of life.
“Hmm?” Aerie said. She was kneeling on the observation deck, plans for the twin domes of Mars spread around her. Freya had been her general assistant for months, and her feelings for Aerie had only grown stronger. She had never given voice to those feelings, afraid that if she spoke what her heart felt, she would lose Aerie, and with her all the hope and optimism that had filled her heart. No, better to be close by as a friend and assistant then risk losing everything forever.
“I brought you dinner,” Freya said, “The sun will go down soon. You should come inside.” She placed the dinner tray down on the white deck, “Everybody else has gone home.”
“They have families, lives, other dreams,” Aerie said, “My dream is right here. If I go home, I’ll only think about it. If I go to sleep, I’ll only dream about it. So I might as well be here, doing something about it.”
“I just... I don’t want you to get sick, Aerie,” Freya said, “You haven’t slept in days. I want to go to Mars with you too, but there’s always tomorrow!”
As she spoke, the wind came and caught one of the plans, lifting it high into the air. Aerie was on her feet instantly, rushing towards the barrier, ready to dive for the piece of paper. As she went to jump, Freya wrapped her arms around her, holding her back. The piece of paper flew out of reach.
“What did you do that for?” Aerie said.
Freya gestured at the barrier and the open space below them. If Aerie had jumped, she would have easily overcome the barrier and fallen to her death.
“Oh,” she said, realizing, “Oh goodness, I’m so sorry.”
Freya was aware of her arms wrapped tightly around Aerie. She could feel the strong heartbeat in Aerie’s slender form, and the curve of her breasts in the tight uniform she was wearing. She felt the warmth of life and optimism flowing out from Aerie, and was captivated by her sweet scent.
She never expected Aerie to turn in her arms and kiss her, but in one movement she did, her lips meeting Freya’s, her hands caressing Freya’s back. She pulled away and Freya stood, stunned, motionless.
“I’m sorry,” Aerie said, pulling away, “I didn’t mean to...”
“Don’t say that,” Freya said, “For goodness’ sake, don’t say that it was a mistake. I’ve loved you since the day I met you, and even if you don’t feel the same way about me, I’m happy just to be around you. I’m happy every time I see you smile. You fill me with optimism and hope when I felt only darkness before. I feel like I’ve been reborn since I met you.” Tears flowed down her face, released by the intense emotions filling her heart.
“You are my grounding,” Aerie said, “I become lost in my dreams, but you are there, reminding me that there are practical things that need to be taken care of. That if I let myself become lost, I will fall from this tower or become sick and everything I’ve dreamed of will turn to dust. You don’t know how important that is to me.”
Freya felt Aerie’s lips on hers again, and knew that right now, she never cared if she touched the ground again.
~
Where is that grounding now? Freya wondered, as she made her way through the dust storm. She was embarking on the most insane adventure of her life, and she knew no other than Aerie could inspire such irrationality in her. She had to go, she had to know what had become of her beloved Aerie, who was more essential to her then even the air she was breathing now. Without Aerie, her wings were clipped, she became an earthbound, serious, depressed individual with nothing to hold onto. She wondered how she had become so dependent on another human being, but how could she help it when their love was so sweet? She couldn’t throw it away, not even for her own future survival. Aerie was the sun in a darkened world to Freya, and she could not rest until she knew what had become of her.
~
Desperation filled her as two hours passed, then a third. She knew that she had passed the point of no return. There was only forward now, and only the flickering flame in her heart to grasp onto.
~
“The first dome is complete!” Aerie danced around on the observation deck as Freya came up to see her. Five years had passed, and their love had only blossomed in those years.
“So we’re really going,” Freya said, smiling widely.
“Indeed. The first shuttle leaves next week, and you and I will be aboard!” Aerie said, “I think I’m going to pack, sell our house... oh, there’s so much to do!” Aerie sped away, leaving Freya alone on the observation deck.
Freya looked down at the world below, unobscured by clouds. This was the world she had lived in all her life, the only place she knew. Once they left for Mars, would they ever return to the place she knew as ‘home’? Or would Mars replace the memory of the rolling hills, the little cottage they shared, the spire of the Space Department that they had made all their dreams in?
Her family was dead, killed in an accident several years ago. The aunt who had raised her had also passed away. She had no brothers or sisters, no reason to stay, and yet she felt sorrow at leaving. Yet Aerie was going, so she would go, because Aerie was worth giving it all up for.
They stood on that same observation deck at dusk, on their last night on Earth.
“Will you miss this world?” Freya asked.
“I don’t know,” Aerie said, “If I do, I can always visit.”
“It’s a six month journey, even with our technology,” Freya said, “I don’t suppose we’ll be able to just visit.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Aerie said, “I never really thought about it that way. Yet if we don’t take leaps into the unknown, humankind will never go anywhere. We’ll probably miss home, but we can deal with that, right? After we’ve been on Mars for a while, we’d probably miss Mars if we came back!”
“That’s true,” Freya said, “What is home anyway, but familiar territory?”
~
Familiar territory... I suppose Mars is ‘home’ now, Freya thought. She had spent her last three years here, and while she missed some features of Earth, such as many foods that were unavailable on Mars, there were many things about Mars that she would miss if she returned to Earth. It had been just as Aerie had said.
You are my home, Aerie, she realized, and continued on into the wastes.
~
Freya’s exhaustion wore her down, and she felt hopelessness fill her as she realized she was probably lost. How had she hoped to know the way in such a dust storm, anyway? She would die out here, and Aerie would never know how far Freya had gone to try and find her.
As despair overcame her and she collapsed into tears, the dust storm seemed to calm. She looked up and saw Shangri in the distance, not broken and battered, but whole and complete. How could it be? Was it a cruel illusion, placed over the dome by the governing council that Aerie had said must be democratically chosen by the people? Or was it truth, had Shangri survived? Had the shattered dome she had seen from inside Lunas been the illusion after all?
She rushed forward, spurred on by new hope.
~
“Yes, it seems we’ve received a report from Lunas that a single humanoid went out into the wastes... I suppose some people would rather die than leave Mars.” the scientist said.
“What have I done?” the team leader cried, “I’ve sank into the lowest form of science... the type where information is more important then human life.”
“We never anticipated that this would happen,” the scientist said, “We assumed everybody would evacuate as planned. The computer simulations predicted that less human lives would be lost this way, if the meteor were to hit Lunas.”
“We didn’t account for free will,” Aerie said. She shook her long, brown hair, “Out there, in the wastes, is a lonely human being waiting to die. Somebody who loves this planet so much that they’re not willing to give it up... No...”
She zoomed in on the figure on the computer screen and caught a glimpse of the face beneath the helmet, “I have to go out there immediately!”
“It’s too dangerous!” one of the scientists said, “If the meteor hits while you’re out there, the shock wave would kill you! Even if you survived, the radiation would be...”
“I don’t care!” she said, “That’s Freya out there, I know it!”
She rushed down from her observation post as the scientists fell into disarray. Science meant nothing to her in that moment. Freya was out there, defying all that she was, diving into the irrational embrace of death... for her? For her dream?
She donned a space suit as scientists tried to stop her, yelling out to her in the hallways, “You’ll be trapped if the radiation barrier goes up while you’re out there!” She waved them off, heading into the airlock and locking them out. The airlock opened out onto the surface of Mars, and she hopped out as she saw the scientists watching her, their faces and hands pressed against the windows.
~
Freya saw a figure coming towards her. She knew her oxygen level was low and wondered if these were the thoughts of a dying brain. Still, she rushed towards the figure, knowing that if this was a dream, at least she would feel that she wouldn’t be dying alone.
They met in the space that had been between them, and Freya saw Aerie’s face through the helmet. Freya had attached no radio and couldn’t communicate, but she was so shocked she was sure that she wouldn’t be able to utter a word even if she had. A thousand questions were running through her head. How? Was it all a dream? Aerie was alive!
Aerie grabbed her arms and pulled, as though she was in a desperate hurry. She pointed to the dome and started to run. Freya ran with her, knowing that if Aerie was running, it must be important. They hopped as fast as they could across the rocky surface. Freya heard a buzzing sound coming from the dome, and Aerie’s face widened in horror and she hastened her pace, desperately heading for the airlock.
They dived into the airlock, Aerie pressing the button to pressurize the lock. The inner door opened, and they moved into the other room.
They looked out of the observation windows just in time to see a greenish barrier come up around the dome. Looking through it, Freya saw a meteor crash down upon the distant dome of Lunas in the distance, and the explosion following it. They stood in shocked silence, then Aerie tore off her helmet, reaching for Freya’s. Freya gasped for air.
“What just happened?” Freya said, “How are you alive? How is Shangri still here? Am I dead? What’s going on?” She dived into Aerie’s arms, “You’re still alive... Thank goodness you’re still alive!”
“I have a lot of explaining to do,” Aerie admitted, “I’m so sorry, Freya. I should have included you in what was going on. Instead, I played a psychological trick on you.”
“Please, just tell me what is happening!” Freya said.
“A week ago, we discovered a dangerous meteor heading for Mars, specifically, this area. After many calculations, we determined that it was going to hit Lunas, and if the citizens were not evacuated, everybody would die. We formulated a shield to protect Shangri from the shock wave and radiation, but we couldn’t save Lunas from the meteor’s direct hit.”
“So you lied to all of us?” Freya said.
“People react better to a situation that has already happened,” Aerie said, “If we had told the people that a meteor would hit Lunas, many would be unwilling to abandon their homes because they would cling to the hope that it wouldn’t hit. We simply didn’t have the time to fight against that kind of resistance. So I used your greatest fear - the dome cracking. We decided that if we pretended Shangri had already been destroyed and pretended that everybody had to go to Earth or face their doom, everybody would evacuate and we would bring them here and explain. But to do that, we had to lie to everybody. I had to keep it a secret from even you, on orders from the Governing Council. If the story had leaked, we would have been looking at massive casualties from people who had no trust in us.”
“I thought you were dead...” Freya said, “I thought you were gone from me forever.”
“I’m so sorry,” Aerie said, tears coming to her eyes, “I have used everybody in Lunas as an experiment in human nature, I fear. I have given up the hope and vision that used to guide my quest for science.”
“You saved a lot of lives,” Freya said, “It was a strange way to do it, but I understand why.”
“I never expected you would go out into the wastes. What did you hope to find?” Aerie said.
“I wanted to find you,” Freya said, “I didn’t want to go on without you. I knew that if there was a hope that you were still alive, I had to come and find you. When they said the search had been called off for survivors... I couldn’t take it! I had to know what had happened to the light of my life.”
Aerie’s beeper went off, and she shut it off.
“I put you at risk,” she said, “I’m so sorry. I never knew that you would do something like that...”
“I forgive you,” Freya said, “You’re alive, and that’s all I care about.”
“What’s happened to us?” Aerie asked, “I used to be the dreamer, and you the one who kept my feet on the ground. Now you cling to hope, where I feel none. I perpetrated a lie on so many people. I made you think I was dead... When did this dream start to come with so many burdens?”
Freya wrapped her arms around Aerie, “Aerie,” she whispered, “Don’t shoulder all these burdens alone. Life comes with both light and darkness. Let me help you through this dark time, so that we may both dream again.”
Aerie started to cry, “You’ve always been the one who knows what I need.”
“I feel the same way about you,” Freya said, and they kissed.
~
As they took the elevator up to the science lab, cheers greeted them. Scientists rushed up to shake Aerie’s hand. Freya’s eyes were fixed on the burning shape of Lunas in the distance. She felt fragile, and her heart felt at odds with all the cheering. Half of Aerie’s dream had been destroyed, yet she stood in the midst of all the cheering, shaking the hands of the scientists who had helped her formulate a lie that she felt guilty for.
“Report,” Aerie said beside her.
“We’ve confirmed that all residents of Lunas were safely received here at Shangri,” the scientist said, “Nobody has been unaccounted for, now that Freya has been found.”
Freya felt Aerie’s hand take hers and grip it tightly, “We should start work on building a new dome, then,” she said, “Let the stars know that we’ll never give up reaching for them!”
As the scientists cheered, one turned on a monitor which showed tired, battered, but living residents of Lunas gathered in evacuation shelters. The journalist presenting the report interviewed a refugee.
“I’m grateful,” he said, “Even though it was a lie that the dome cracked, I’m grateful just to be alive.”
In the middle of the celebrations, Freya and Aerie slipped away.
~
The wedding chapel was small, and they stood in their battered clothing, dust and sweat on their foreheads. They bought cheap rings from a vendor on the street, yet the vows they made were true. They kissed passionately at the altar, not afraid to cry as they sealed a lifetime’s promise.
As they walked outside, hand in hand, they looked out over the city of Shangri, the bustling liveliness spread out before them, the dome still glowing green with the radiation barrier.
“Our dream is alive and well,” Freya said, “Take a good look at it.”
Aerie looked out over the city, the people small dots below them, the cars moving on the streets below. As she looked, the dome changed, so the illusion of green fields beyond returned.
“I suppose everything turned out all right after all,” Aerie said, and she turned and smiled at Freya, a sparkle of hope glimmering in her tear-stained eyes.
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