The Endless Watch UT20

 

YEAR: 52033 HE

SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class

LOCATION: Nojo Memorial Farms and Gardens

IN ATTENDANCE: Sub-Captain Ortner, Private Silverman

 

Drone Surveillance Audio

03:05

     SILV: We’ve had five years of this shit. I can’t take it. I can’t take another watch. I need a break.

     ORT: We’re all feeling it Private.

     SILV: I have been on watch for forty-eight hours. Where is my relief?

     ORT: We have to get the road completed. We have no one left to relieve you.

     SILV: I can barely keep my eyes open.

     ORT: Take thirty Private, I will cover your post

 

03:25

     ORT: Wake up private. Contact to the east of the road.

     SILV: I see them, permission to fire?

     ORT: Fire at will.

 

03:50

     SILV: They running. I got one.

     ORT: Don’t let your guard down. I don’t think it’s over.

     SILV: It will never be over. We’ve been at war ever since Pines went rogue. We are running low on metal. I haven’t had a decent meal in weeks. You can tell me the vitamin shake has all I need. But what I need is a cheeseburger. I will never taste the congealed beef and cheese of a freshly defrosted patty again. What do you miss Captain?

     ORT: Peace. You think its hard keeping watch. Try being captain for five years of war. Look at my beard. It’s grey. Look at my head. There’s nothing left of my hair. I miss cheeseburgers, I miss beer. I miss being able to sleep at night, without worrying about a grey-skin attack, without having to check the integrity of the anti-worm defences every morning. I wish I could go back and stop Pines. But you can’t live in the past. This planet is all we have. We owe it to our children to fight for peace. Even if it takes a thousand years we need peace.

     SILV: Peace with the grey-skins? That’s a fucking dream. They have dedicated their existence to destroying us. Peace with the worm-wranglers. What we need is more ammunition. What we need is access to the nuclear arsenal. With extensive drone surveillance, we could eradicate them completely. 

     ORT: We would eradicate ourselves in the process. We need the planet as much as they do. They live inside the lakes. We need water as much as they do. We can’t nuke the water supply. We need diplomacy. If we could just talk to them, if we could reason with them, we could end this relentless waste of life.

     SILV: A thousand years is a long time to wait for peace.

     ORT: Peace is worth the wait. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE OVERCOAT

Image
  “Tailor of timeless thread Sow me an overcoat fit for the gods From horned rams wool To blunt the teeth of winter Dye it black as the Great White’s eyes So I can slip past the dead Line it with Red Widow’s silk To keep the blood from cooling Make the pockets deep So I can fill them with gold.”   04/02/2011. - Hastings , England.-                 The wind blew in through my back, into my heart, and out through my ribs. It froze my blood, flesh and bones. I had nothing left. My money had splintered into loose change. The post-apocalyptic nightmare called me to come and rest with the ghosts. And yet, there was an immense feeling of clarity at having nothing, and owning nothing, except the rags on my back. My lack of capital was burning round my mind. As the cold ripped into my spine it numbed my despair. What I needed was warmth.        ...
Read more

SMOKE

Image
  I shoved a piece of peanut butter toast into my mouth and left to catch the tube. It was a greasy London morning. I had to interview the butcher. He had information on a suspect. The prison was brick built it smelt of pain and sickness.                                      They took me to the meeting room. Bluestone had killed for money and then for pleasure. The firms didn’t want him anymore. He was too wild to be of any use. He knew the language of blood and butchery better than he knew English.             He held himself as if he were free. The walls of the prison had no effect on him. He could not be broken. The guards feared him. They didn’t like it when he was out of his reinforced solitary cell.                      ...
Read more

The Faceless

Image
  I had to leave. The atmosphere at home was radioactive. I could feel my flesh melt, and my hair fall out. I left at night with no money. I had the clothes on my skin, a raincoat, a lighter, a solitary cigarette, and for some reason, a note pad.                                                 My father told me to write it down, get it out of my head. Write it down. Write what down? Write the babble, the paranoia, the fear, the hatred of the capitalist system, the pain of falling in love with people who needed more than a sense of humor to form a relationship; write it down, and then forget about it. It didn’t work and yet I kept the notepad, empty and pure of thought  Mother was a good woman. I could not be her son. I could not live under the same ro...
Read more