An Obsidian Sky Read Free Page A

what he was looking for as he grunted and began to
talk.
    ‘In order for
you to understand, you must first know the beginning. The story is
historically long, but it can be told, if you have enough patience.
Most importantly you must suspend your disbeliefs and accept
everything I tell you as fact, even if it seems fiction.’
    He looked at
me sternly. His face told me that he was preparing to unload a
burden that had long been on his shoulders. Suddenly his expression
changed to worry or perhaps grief and he returned to his chair.
    ‘Do you know
what this building was built for?’ I nodded and he smiled a smile
which seemed too say like hell you do .
    ‘The Resource
Wars were a terrible time Mr Engeltine. Humanity had just achieved
its defining moment. We had spread our wings and left this troubled
planet behind in search of greener pastures. We found them of
course, as you will find anything if you look hard enough.’ He
looked knowingly at me and sighed.
    ‘But like all
things George what we found was not what we had looked for. The
colonists set down on worlds that were cruel and harsh.
Nation-making is never an easy task. Many died. For years they had
our support, but the war took that away. We left the colonies to
find their own way, in many cases to wither and die. There are only
six left out of twenty.’
    Interjecting I
exclaimed bitterly: ‘I know all of this. I mean even school
children know this. What does this have to do with me?’
    ‘It has
everything to do with you. This information sets out a chain of
events that will lead me to a discovery and inevitably to you. If
you will not listen, then what is the point in the telling?’
    ‘Fine I’ll
listen, but my patience is wearing thin,’ I replied angrily.
Sighing again Sephra seemed to come to another decision and
continued.
    ‘After the
Resource Wars so little was left habitable. The cradle of
civilisation had become a dying oak, gnarled and beyond repair. The
most powerful nations in the world left their holy cities and took
the lands of those less powerful. The West took Africa, the East
took anything that was left.
    ‘This monument
was built, not to commemorate the war, but to commemorate the
West’s ideology and so it is a temple to consumerism. To put it
simply the war had utterly destroyed both enemy and ally. It was
useless to build a monument to a war that had put an end to
everything. So we built a monument to an ideology. An ideology that
we can no longer enact.’ He sighed again and paused.
    I wanted to
point out the window and say, ‘look at all of this, can’t you see,
the West is thriving.’ Instead I was silent.
    Sephra
continued, ‘I know exactly what you are thinking. I know that if
you look out and onto this city it would seem as though we were
rebuilding, coming back to the time of the United World. But the
truth, the truth is never that simple. In reality the West was only
ever a visitor. We were always supposed to go back. It seems that
nature always had a sense of irony. You see the things that were so
effortless to destroy were also impossible for us to put back. Once
you destroy that much of something it can never be
re-engineered.
    ‘We lost Mr
Engeltine. We lost the war. Now all that we can look forward to is
a future elsewhere. A future, perhaps, in the stars. There is
nothing left for us here. The world has died on us and we can no
longer stay. In two years even Africa will no longer be capable of
supporting life. In just a few days Africa won’t even be able to
support a civilisation. We have done so much to Mother Gaia and now
she wants us no more.’
    Rushing to my
feet I shouted, ‘well what about the colonies, they weren’t even
involved in the wars, why aren’t we starting an evacuation?’ But
Sephra just shook his head slowly and smiled again, that same tired
smile.
    ‘This is where
we arrive at your part in the story.’ He smiled and continued.
    ‘Almost a
century after the wars conclusion we