AUG 2020

watchers

PROLOGUE

In anticipation of a first contact made with any extraterrestrial life, the human race has made innumerable attempts, scientifically and imaginary, to exploit time in order to bring the future closer. The notion of Outer Space is still at large an abstraction, however, runs parallel to the livelihoods of earth. How can we possibly detect, understand and ultimately correspond to space, when challenged on our own planet with environmental, biological and political issues?

The stimulation of space exploration itself, is something very close to eternity. The craze and excitement for the unknown led us to escape from reality temporarily. The perpetual anticipation of mysteries edges against our indescribable emotions, pervading even the most trivial daily routines. However, whether a jump to Mars, or a planned transition to another galaxy, we are faced with the questions of our own existence in the universe. The more we learn, the less we may be certain of our accustomed belief system; the further out we are in space, the deeper we can feel rooted, on earth, respectively. To discover, to occupy, to dwell, there is no shortcut for civilization. We are all witnesses of grace and evil in search of lost time.

Ours is a story about this intermediate state of being, the ultimate sense of presence, the perception of time. Ours is the story of watchers[1].

FUNGUS and GUSFUN:
a dual of extraterrestrial embryos.

PHOBOS and DEIMOS:
Martian moons discovered by Asaph Hall and named after the mythological sons of Ares, the Greek counterpart of the Roman god, Mars. Deimos, means dread, is the brother of Phobos, means fear. [2]

CURIOSITY and INSIGHT:
Curiosity Rover and InSight Lander were launched by Nasa, for conducting researches on Mars. [3]


I.

Sol 10086. [wanderer]

Martian sunset. Stillness.

FUNGUS and GUSFUN traveling through spacetime, undetected by known human knowledge at the time of this incident. A later simulation of their dialogue suggested the dual left Mars[4]when it started to dry out. No justification to demonstrate any clear purpose. A dialogue captured in present is a dialogue forever lost in time.

FUNGUS: Phobos and Deimos about to pass each other again.
GUSFUN: Recorded.                               
FUNGUS: Curiosity Successfully Drills "Duluth" on sol 2057[5].
GUSFUN: History.
FUNGUS: Jade is a dying lake.
GUSFUN: Dying lake, the reason we left.
FUNGUS: Curiosity takes photos.
GUSFUN: InSight tells the weather.
FUNGUS: Wonder if today they would come?
GUSFUN: We’ve waited this long.
FUNGUS: We left, we left. [landing on Mars]                                   GUSFUN: They left, they left. [Pointing to Earth]


II. 

Sol 10087. [colony]

Sandstorm.

FUNGUS and GUSFUN each inside of a protective shell, or rather, FUNGUS and GUSFUN each renders a layer of euphonic aerosphere. Spacetime dragged and bent into a light beam.

FUNGUS: Dusty season.
GUSFUN: Dreamy.
FUNGUS: No holiday on Mars.
GUSFUN: No colony.
FUNGUS: Phobos and Deimos?
GUSFUN: Mars?
FUNGUS: True.
GUSFUN: Would have been Chang’e[6].
FUNGUS: Then for sure they are coming?
GUSFUN: Until they detect us.
FUNGUS: Unless they discover us already here.
GUSFUN: We are traversing.
FUNGUS: We are WAITING.
GUSFUN: No one knows.
FUNGUS: No one BELIEVES.
GUSFUN: We are waiting!


III.

Sol 10088. [chambré]

Sol 10088 of waiting, humans not arriving. Within the spectrum of spacetime, FUNGUS and GUSFUN started weighing down into the ground against gravity with diffusion of collected, trapped, collapsed information, stripping away.

FUNGUS: Curiosity never captured us.
GUSFUN: Curiosity successfully drilled holes.
FUNGUS: Curiosity found a drying lake.
GUSFUN: Curiosity can learn to make.
FUNGUS: While we wait.
GUSFUN: Let us wait.
FUNGUS: They know we are waiting.
GUSFUN: They will know.
FUNGUS: We made it clear.
GUSFUN: To our own standards.
FUNGUS: Clearer.
GUSFUN: More clear.
FUNGUS: Crystal clear.
GUSFUN: Like the lake.
FUNGUS: Likely.
GUSFUN: Precisely.


IV.          

Sol 10089. [echo]

FUNGUS and GUSFUN successfully drilled a hole. The performance unappreciated, the traces they left will signify——the diffusion of collected, trapped, collapsed information, stripping away…

FUNGUS: They will soon arrive.
GUSFUN: They will soon realize we’ve been waiting.
FUNGUS: Do we greet?
GUSFUN: We are not the host.
FUNGUS: Do they greet?
GUSFUN: We just wait.
FUNGUS: Waited all this time.
GUSFUN: Waiting is timing.


V.          

Sol 20086. [outlander]

Redness. Thin Air. Dust.

Thoughts of an astronaut:

So that concludes it. I’m officially the first human known standing on Mars. Met with new rovers, samples sealed and sent back, should have enough time for the rest of the missions.

Such strangeness and familiarity. No signs of life, not even ancient bio traces. Only sand, rocks, rusty mountains. Do I feel an unbearable emotion of humanity? The loneliness——oh “I contain multitudes”[7].

I wish we didn’t have to build a thing in here. We call us space travelers, not space builders. We probably wouldn’t have to if there’s already some species here.

Someone please jump out right now!

No, there IS no one. At least no one on Mars. We’ve known that for years. That is a fact. We don’t know when we might be having a first contact. We know time is the limit.

We make marks.

Then we just wait.


——THE END ——

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[1] In Jewish legend, the watchers (Grigori) are “a superior order of angels”, “they are said to look like human beings (except much larger), never sleep, and are forever silent”, James R. Lewis and Evelyn Dorothy Oliver in “Angels A to Z”, Visible Ink Press, 1996. Page 413 and 414. Metaphorically, we consider the characters of our story as watchers.
[2] Source from NASA: link.
[3] Source from NASA: link.
[4] Source from NASA: link.
[5]Source from NASA: link.
[6]Chang’e is a Moon Goddess in Chinese mythology.
[7] Walt Whitman, Song of Myself(51) from Leaves of Grass (: Norton, 1973), read here.