Finding Voyager

This is my submission for the The Halls of Pandemonium day 10 submission from Bradley Ramsey, as per the picture below.

Although I can submit things on this challenge/prompt up to 1st June, I’m struggling for time, with other pieces too and am already aware that I’ll likely miss a couple of days, so this submission, is quite possibly the worst thing I have written on Substack (I won’t have time to write it as a catch-up piece). I would usually have scrapped it, but need a Day 10.

If you wish to read some quality responses to the prompt and to cleanse your palate after reading this, I can direct you to my link above for the prompts, and take a look at those from Verdant Butterfly, Ian Taniels | HouseOfChapters, Bradley Hurt and others.

A strange day indeed
in this corner of the planet.
It had been a pleasant day.
The sky, pink and orange.

The quiet hum of tourist shuttles
gently passing, before
we were awoken by a loud crash
into our hub doors.

A mass of black smoke
temporarily covered
both of our suns
we all slithered outside to look.

Is it a flaming rock?
A star come to rest amongst us?
Are we under attack?
Not likely.

We haven't known war for years,
we know the sounds though.
This wasn't it.
A singular sound.

Still strange enough
to bring the elders.
They must feel it important.
We go years without seeing them.

It's outside of my hub,
so they question me.
I repeat the little I know,
direct them to the object.

It's twisted, long and metal,
stained and burned.
The elders say not from the impact alone.
It has been travelling some time.

Likely centuries.

They feel it with tentacles for some time,
reading out a name that can be made out
'Voyager'.
They then shake their heads.

"We will need the metallic ones".

A short time later,
two robotic forms teleport
to the hub, approach the device
and start scanning.

They say little, though
I hear the word 'primitive'.
They pull it apart.
A mass of metal, wires and buttons

spilled on the floor,
ruptured electrical innards,
silent but for an odd
crackle and pop.

A strange gold disc sits amongst it.

A Metallic One mentions
it is a recording.
Attaches something from
its chest to the disc.

Sounds are then heard.

Thunder, rain, winds.
Types of weather
only seen here,
once or twice a decade.

Strange squeals,
high-pitched,
animalistic.
Then laughter.

Voices. Someone called
Kurt Waldheim (even the Elders knew little of him).
Music, some with no words one piece
telling of a Johnny B. Goode.

Images also feature there.

Different creatures.
Wonderful landscapes
People playing.
They have two arms and two legs.

An elder stood,
rubbing a tentacle over its brow
a fleeting look of recognition
passes over him.

"Earth, I believe",
says an elder.

“We have some information
in the historical archive”
we know of this place.
Of what it was”.

“Yes, I said. I think our
children know of it”.
I volunteered.
“They studied it a couple of years back”.

“We do indeed study it,
in the learning pods
on the overflow facility on
the breeding moon”.

He looked at me,
I burnt with embarrassment.
He knew we could only afford
the overflow facility.

The other elder slid over to
robotic Metal One.
Tapped him and said
a few words.

The disc did something strange,
he then beamed the images
up above us for all to see,
they were strangely vibrant.

“Some of these things,
though ancient, are things
we have never experienced.
The don’t exist, here”.

He directed the robot
to cycle through the images,
and detailed them,
as he did so.

“Mountains, similar to
our coblorock formations,
rivers, with a liquid substance
known as water, would flow”

I raised my hand, like a child,
spoke anyway, unprompted.

“Water was like a lifeforce
for those that lived there”.

I smiled.
The elder glared, then asked:

“and what were they called,
they who lived there”?

My grin faded,
shoulders slumped.
I tried to remember what Sylo had said.
Then shook my head.

The elder made a ”humph” sound.

“Humans!” he announced
as more images cycled.
Wonderous creatures immersed
In water appeared.

Different types of mountains,
spewing wonderous
orange/red flame,
covering the land below.

Tables laden with objects,
Humans shoving them
into holes on their faces.
Sustenance.

The elder resumed
as the images continued.

“We teach the story of humanity
as a warning”.
The other elder joined,
continuing.

“This discovery will help,
but supports much of what
we already know.
Real examples are always welcome, though.

“The inhabitants of Earth
were a strange set.
In latter times, they would
teach, but not practice the lessons themselves.

Children often taught to share,
not to harm, whilst those that spoke this
were selfish, and gloried in killing
and the machines that aided it.

Those that had power
largely made decisions based on
what benefited them.
The masses always suffered.

From the birth of the planet,
right through to its end,
arguments over who held divine powers
childlike over who is right.

More killing on all sides
In the name of their chosen saviours.

They poured much into scientific pursuits.
Learning how their planet worked,
how what was around them functioned.
Then ignored it all.

Surprised when it was apparent,
that their own finite, fiery star
would burn them all to ashes.
Long before its own demise.

Long before they imagined.

They are a lesson that no matter
the countless bounties you have.
The knowledge and power you gain,
that misuse and ignorance

can lead to swift downfall”.

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