Epilogue

IT IS SPRING now. We’ve weathered almost one year on Kepler-186f.

We have seen no sign of the cannibals since winter. Their camp is a graveyard, of which we have all steered clear.

Gat speaks now of excursions to the surface. His people still hesitate. So long have they viewed the world below with horror, I think nothing will change that outlook overnight. But especially among the young, curiosity is already winning out.

Caspersen plans to return to the mountain, where our portion of the Genesis sits, to retrieve our pods. Matt, of course, is going with her. We already have more volunteers than we’ll need, for dozens of Gat’s people have volunteered their services to our crew.

The idea is particularly popular with the scientists, who desire retrieving the rest of their equipment. Drs. Wu and Kimutai will be returning with Caspersen’s expedition, and so will most of the engineers and geologists.

The professor has been very vocal in his demands that other people make the trip. The success of his computer endeavors rests upon the safe return of equipment from the ship. But he cannot go himself. Though his leg is healed, he doesn’t walk well on it and may never do so again. So he will remain behind and work on what he can in the meanwhile.

But he will not be the only one staying. Kayleigh is a month into her fertility treatment, and I’ll be staying with her. I’m not needed on the journey. But I am needed here, by her now, and if all works out as we hope, our child, eventually.

I’ll be waiting for the crew when they return, for whatever presents itself next.

It has been some time in coming, but I have finally made peace with this new life. There are still days when I reflect with horror on the sheer number of lives lost in our short time here. How different from our original designs, how far astray from our best-laid plans, we have gone.

We are lucky to be alive and to have maintained our humanity despite the cost.

I truly believe we have. We have seen horrors; we have faced monstrous choices and worse odds. We have weathered them together and remained strong. Kayleigh and Quess, and the generations who have survived so long in the trees, remind me of this daily.

I know, now, whatever comes, we will face it together. Not only myself and Kayleigh, and soon our child. Not only our crew but all of us, this forgotten remnant of humanity.

I am not without doubt. I wonder how we, from Earth, will raise our first generation of children who have never seen it. I wonder how much we should tell and how much should be lost to history. I wonder what we will find beyond the forest.

This world is vast and waiting to be explored. Now, three thousand years after the USS-Genesis II landed, we are finally free to do exactly that, to find our way on this planet. Vast oceans and great green continents are waiting.

I know we will find them. We will move beyond the forest and the mountains that have so far made up the bulk of human experience on Kepler-186f.

Though I wonder what waits, I no longer fear. For I know whatever we find, we will find together.