The Mountain That Stood Against The Sun Part Two

                  

They continued to turn a mountain into ashes and shatters, then moved to another and so they did for all the time. But one day, they became tired and bored as their purpose was always the same and not big enough to fit their ambitions.

The enthusiasts, their numbers being more and more diminished, remained always behind the moving mass of people in search for new mountains, struggling to survive among the debris and the ruins of the abandoned towns, continuously searching for the smallest piece of green nature and hoping to revive whatever living species had died. Their desperate labor produced no remarkable results.

One day, the crowd found the purpose they were longing for. Their sophisticated telescopes spotted a far distant glimmer of light in the Universe and the scientists assisted by their devices, performed complicated calculations. Soon  they reported the amazing results of their assiduous research. The barely visible – through lenses – glimmer of light was a planet, that according to  the conclusions, based on the exact distance from what was considered to be its sun, the composition of its own solar system, the distances between the component planets of the system, the moons orbiting around itself and their predicted distance and rotation, a planet that must be the exact copy of this one they were living on. They called it The New Home but commonly was named, just as simple as The Planet. Based on the same conclusions, the living conditions should have been the same as the ones down on Earth. Some spectators, excited by the promises, came out stating that chances are very high that  The Planet offers far better living conditions compared to this one. For that they have no argument but the idea spread incredibly fast among the citizens and ended being declared as undeniable truth. 

Based on the reflections of light captured by  the lenses, reproduced and magnified on a virtual map, the presence of some mountains was predicted. That map showed reproductions of those mountains and it was obvious they cannot be surpassed on their greatness by the ones present down here. 

But the same researchers that brought the big news to the public, stepped back saying that these are still preliminary results and most of the conclusions were just virtual projections but no empirical proof could be laid on  the table yet. Thus they advised for caution. This was interpreted by the crowd as a sign of tiredness and fear, and a quick organized vote decided that the first conclusions should be taken in consideration.

As these results produced a big enthusiasm among the crowd, they also voted that is in the town’s interest to act with all the efforts for reaching that far away planet. Scientists talked about sending unmanned recognizing missions, they came up with elaborated plans and detailed time frames to bring the project to completion but the distance in time couldn’t satisfy the crowd who found these precautionary  steps to be unnecessary therefore they should be avoided. Instead they decided to build an immense space ship that will onboard the whole town to travel to The Planet and colonize it.

They exploited all the mountains they needed, and the ship was built in far less time than initially foreseen, the crowd consistently pressured the engineers to find shortcuts, to eliminate necessary testings and to eliminate certain sections or parts which had been voted as not being necessary. The ship was immense and the whole structure of the town was actually copied at the real scale, even the sky with the precise and specific path of the sun throughout the day was recreated with the help of an immense screen and huge ball charged with electricity. Huge dance halls, shopping centers and fancy restaurants were added. 

The crew members were difficult to be found as no inhabitant of the town was to take on such a humble duty. For that they made a big hole in the wall they raised, long time ago, in the desert to stop the foreigners  protruding the borders  into the town. Behind the wall, they found  foreigners willing to work for the promise that they will be part of the colony (even though their status will not be changed), and from them they chose the ones fitting the purpose. Through the  hole they have been carried into the town. With the crew  large enough to cover all the duties, still thinking  the town should be protected from intruders, and despite the projected  departure which included no plans for a return, they covered back the hole.

The main challenge turned out to be the onboarding of the people on the ship. A complicated system of electing the ones that will be part of the first batch to board was created, and many battles have been fought to complete that list. A war was about to begin just because everybody wanted to be part of the first group, no matter that the following one was scheduled on that same day, only a few minutes after  the first one. Not to say that they were meant to occupy similar conditions in the luxurious cabins, even the views from their rooms designed to be identical with the help of multiple reflecting mirrors that will project the exact same image to everybody. 

One morning the boarding has started and the first batch occupied their assigned spaces with cheers and joy. The second batch followed as pushed by an invisible wave, but  their cheerfulness was abruptly interrupted when they found part of their spaces taken by supplies brought by the members of the first group, carefully and nicely stacked against the walls. It is to be said that  a weight limit was set but no volume limit was enforced. The extra supplies taking on the space consisted of immense stacks of toilet paper. It has been part of the town history, a lesson that had been passed by from a generation to another, a lesson saying that in difficult times, one needs good supplies of mega toilet rolls. They have been asked to renounce of some of it but a vote immediately decided that it was unacceptable and the engineers were asked to remove some of the fuel tanks  projected to be carried as  a reserve in case of unpredictable deviations from the calculated track. The engineers tried to argue against this decision but a vote couldn’t have been turned around by any means. Another vote established there is no reason to fear the risk of encountering asteroids or other unforeseeable traps that the space could have had as the calculated possibilities were very low, and anyways just theoretical. The same happened with the necessary protective equipment, space suits, helmets, portable oxygen tanks and masks that were loaded in the ship in the eventuality that  the atmosphere of The Planet will not have the necessary  gas composition for humans to breath. This possibility was also voted as inexistent, therefore all this equipment had been abandoned on the ground. 

The amount of food and drinks per capita loaded was calculated to exceed by a few times the maximum quantity a person might need, but the vote decided that abandoning even a small part  is too great of a risk, not to talk about the probability that the enthusiasts could find it and feed on it. 

When everybody was aboard, the lights were turned on in the big dance halls, the restaurants put their elaborated meals on the tables and the crowd started their farewell party as the ship turned on its engines and, in a big explosion of flames and fumes, lifted forever from the ground leaving behind a humungous cloud of smoke and dust. 

The poor enthusiasts  left down on Earth stared at the ship speeding up to the stars for a few seconds before that same smoke and dust veiled the view. 

As the ship reached the outer space the partying crowd was on the edge of supreme happiness. Drinks and food were partially consumed then abandoned. Whatever ended  not being consumed was quickly disposed, through a complicated systems of valves, in the empty space above the terrestrial atmosphere. Long stripes of used toilet tissue marked the course of the ship, white traces on the black immensity of the space.

As they passed the Moon, some of the participants at the gargantuan party could see, through the thick glass of round shaped windows, the lunar strange beauty, a celestial sphere illuminated by a  whitish pale light, its deserted surface covered by a creepy looking powder. 

Behind the lone satellite, The Earth, a bright blue spot, grew smaller and smaller. The ship’s engines, roaring at full speed, kept pushing it further away in the nothingness of the infinite Universe. Few of the crowd, while still looking through the thick glass,  had a strange feeling of sorrow, rapidly overtaken by the loud announcement that the main dish was being served at the tables. 

The ship was following its path into the infinite, accords of fine music were penetrating its thick structure, resonating in the empty space, sound waving in circles reaching no ears to be enchanted.

Down there, on the bright blue, now invisible, dot in the Universe, the winds blowed dust and shatters away to pile them in places, oceans evaporated their waters and rain and snow fell on the ground washing away the ashes. Here and there, seeds sprouted, green buds reached for the sun though the thick cinders. Solitary enthusiasts were finding them and stopping from their wanders, they cared for them. A silence that could have never been heard before had covered the Earth soon after the epic takeoff of the star ship. In that silence, the wind and the river sounded with more clarity. 

Forms of life enjoyed the warmth of sun and thrived among the shatters and debris of the town. The stars were shining on the sky at night, the sun was shining at day, waiting for a mountain to shadow its light, no promise of a distant paradise had to be pledged again. The Paradise was in the course of being reborn, down here on Earth where it belongs.