Avescope Memento Mori

Under
Grey-
Clouded
The sky screens over the cemetery had always been grey and
overcast. Jim had asked about that once, when he was a boy,
confused at how programmable screens didn’t change to
reflect Earth’s weather like it did in the rest of the station. The
answer his mother gave was a simple ‘because’. He was old
enough to know that short answers really meant she didn’t
want to talk about it. Especially ‘because’. It was the same
answer she’d given when he asked why Dad had to go down to
the surface. And why he hadn’t come back.
Jim hunched down and let the rose fall from his hand, onto the
grass of Mom’s grave. He touched the air where a headstone
should have been instead of a hologram of her face. The photo
was outdated, too. She was only a cadet when it was taken, the
day she got the draft letter. Jim had just turned sixteen when
she was sent down. He never saw her again.
He looked up, surveying the large dome that housed the
memorial graves of every station personnel lost to the surface.
Dad’s grave sat beside Mom’s, with a space reserved for Jim to
her other side. He sighed.
A hand rested on his shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. “Final
farewells or letting them know you’re going to visit?” Agatha’s
humour always had a dark tone, and she never did learn when it
was inappropriate. Twenty years they’d served together, she his
most competent Captain.
Jim smiled, shaking his head as he stood up. “A bit of both.” He
straightened his uniform jacket and walked down the rows of
graves to the airlock.
The war had been over for a decade but Agatha refused to retire
and settle like most of the Forces had. She’d promised to stay
by Jim’s side until the end, whichever that turned out to be.
Fate was fortunate enough to spare him surface duty. He grew
old, as did she, climbing the ranks that had been left sparse
after the surrender of the surface armies.
Skies
Anike Kersten
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked as they entered
the hangar bay where his shuttle awaited.
“I have to. I still don’t know peace. Not until I make sure my
parents get a proper burial. It’s the least they deserve.”
Agatha scoffed. “Always so honourable. And how, exactly, will
you know it’s their bodies? It’s been, what, forty years about?”
“It’s quite simple.” Jim turned to face her. “I’ll bury them all.
Besides, there are too many of our people lost, haunting the
surface. I’m retired now, but I still have a duty as Admiral.” Jim
rubbed the stubble forming on his jawline. “I’ve seen enough of
war to know what needs to be done to maintain the peace we
fought and died for.”
“Closure is not a duty, sir.”
Jim narrowed his eyes. “Neither is morale?”
Agatha averted her gaze and frowned. “Take care of them,
Captain. That is an order.”