[2/2]

Morgan sat a mug of steaming coffee on the counter before me, and milk swirled across its frothy surface in billowing spirals as the two mixed. I contemplated the man’s story for a moment as I watched the tiny galaxy in my cup twirl in the darkness.

“It was asteroids for us, I think,” I said, remembering the weeks before leaving the planet for the last time, recalling the situation which had compelled with such urgency humanity to send its emissaries into the stars. A close encounter with a rogue planet… clouds of rocky bodies flung into the inner solar system… the fate of the world had become uncertain, so a fleet of ships had been dispatched to carry a colony of Earthlings to a suitable exoplanet. Those final days had been filled with fear, yes, but also with unity, perhaps for the first time in our history. Not war, nor peace, not political will, nor business sense, no alliance nor rivalry, but only the most basic, most human drive for survival had brought about this final act to save our species, to send vessels into the great dark, seeds cast afield in the hopes of taking root once more. I could never know the fate of the mission beyond that of my own ship, though it’s possible my arrival in this place told me all I needed to know.

I took a sip of the coffee, letting its warmth fill me, the earthy aroma taking me back to the forests, the grasslands, the seashores… in its depths I saw flowing rivers and crashing oceans, billowing clouds and glistening auroras… I stood from my seat and crossed the cafe, poring over the bookcases until I spotted what I had gone in search of. I withdrew a small volume, bound in delicate blue cloth. Returning to the bar, I took a deep breath and opened the tome, revealing images of my homeworld. However ordinary the scenes in the book may have seemed in my former life, each one felt like a precious treasure to me in this place.

“Earth is- Earth was beautiful. And fragile. Our people weren’t easy on it. But it gave us all that we could ever have wanted or needed. Upon it we built many beautiful and powerful things, but none so beautiful nor powerful as the world itself… We were a small planet in a distant corner of the universe. I don’t know if any of it can compare to the rest of what is, or was, out there… but being there, it felt like everything.”

The others smiled back at me.

“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”