Alone (from Prosthetic Amalgams II)

(since writing this last year there has been talk and science journal articles discussing this possibility)

Alone

(from Prosthetic Amalgams II)

by

Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2015 Kenny A. Chaffin

We built the dishes and listened. We scanned the skies seeking others, not knowing if we were alone or if we could even know. We launched probes, built silver orbiting machines to watch, to seek, to search from above an atmosphere growing more deadly with each passing day.

We studied fossils, physics, and chemistry to learn how life came to our lonely watery planet. We studied the universe for clues, for answers. We created computers, robots, and AIs and upon realizing our fate set them free. Others were yet to be. We would never meet. We had arrived too soon.

The Spark of Life (from Prosthetic Amalgams)

The Spark of Life

(from Prosthetic Amalgams)

by

Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2014 Kenny A. Chaffin

            After days of surveying, sampling, testing, analyzing and finding nothing Sam took the shuttle down for direct observations, not expecting to see anything new. He stepped out of the airlock into the fresh air he knew was breathable and filled his lungs. It was almost like an elixir compared to the recycled, reprocessed air of the ship. It had a sharp somewhat cinnamon-like aroma. He scanned the barren wasteland around him and shook his head in disgust before spitting into the dirt. “What a piece of shit planet.”  He turned, climbed into the shuttle and boosted back to the ship. As he did the static microbes in the soil flashed into overdrive, taking what they wanted from his DNA, using the liquid and nutrients to fuel their nascent metabolism.

            Scenario I

After a few million years the planet was covered with Sams all stomping around, bumping into each other, spitting and proclaiming, “What a piece of shit.”

            Scenario II

A billion years later the planet resembled nothing more so than a giant turd.

            Scenario III

A few billion years later intelligent life had developed, space had been conquered and they were spreading it thick throughout the galaxy.