Since the dawn of human consciousness, we’ve looked to stars and wondered: Why are we here? What are we meant to do? What is our purpose?

Over epochs of time, structures have been built. Temples and pyramids designed to reach upwards towards the heavens, in honor of the unknowable.

Gods were created. Zeus, Annubis, and Odin. Dieties crafted in the image of ourselves as we made sense of our place in an ever expanding cosmos.

The sparkle of stars in the night, the heat of a globe in our sky, the magnificence of the moon.

It wasn’t until the 4th season of the third millennium that the sky cracked open, and knowledge poured forth from the heavens.

When a rift between our waking life and the dream realm was split open. When the spirit of our universe presented itself and energy spewed forth like a surge of heat on a cold, blustery day.

—-

“This movie is totally stoops.”

Derrick flicked the channel remote and leaned back on the couch, taking another huff of paint.

“Everyone knows it’s all bullshit. The gods, the universe, the spirit. Fuck all that noise.”

Allison glanced down at the table and grabbed her pipe.

“Maybe so, but it’s nice to imagine.”

She lit her pipe and took a big pull, holding her breathe deep inside.

“Yea, maybe so, but we really have no idea. We don’t have a damn clue. It’s almost like anything could be real, or nothing.”

Derrick pulled the sock from his face and a circle of paint appeared crusted around his mouth.

“Wanna have a smoke?”

The two kids stood up from the couch and made their way outside.

—-

The day was bright, sun blasted beams in the backyard as birds chirped and engines whirled.

“I just don’t see the point. I don’t get what it’s all for. I mean, we live in a community that operates on its own self interest. It’s all about “me” what can I get, what about “my“ family, “my” promotion, “my” happiness, “my” success. It’s all bullshit…

And then we’ve got all these self help guru fuckers. Spitting out there own ideological sludge. Face your fear. You only live once. Do the thing today your future self would benefit from…

I’m sick of it.

We can’t even log onto the cloud without a total blast of self improvement propaganda.”

Derrick took a big pull from his vape and hated himself even more.

“And fuck these vapes. I’d kill for a god damn cigarette.”

Allison pulled out a pack from her back pocket and handed Derrick a square.

“I got some from the corner market the other day, I’ve been trying to save them.”

Derrick’s eyes lit up and he grabbed the smoke.

“I mean, I’m just saying we’ve evolved into a bunch of self idealized soliptically inclined primates. Trapped in this fuckery of an existence…

I’m tellin ya Allison, whatever progress we think we’re making is a god damn lie. The Ordinance has total control.”

Allison sat back in her chair and breathed out. She looked back towards their dormitory cube and up towards the sunroof of their community.

“At least we have sunlight and air and birds here.”

Derrick flicked his cigarette into the invisa-wall in front of him. A spark of electricity fired, combusting the butt into a cloud of smoke.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but it’s just not enough…I feel like there’s got to be more.”

—-

The council arrived at the station to discuss the rules for the day.

They were going to open the dormitory cubes. And today, they had to decide which communities would be given access.

The Commandant was the first to arrive. It slid into the room as it usually did, trails of slime left in its wake. The creature put a claw to its snout and began to pull data from The Cloud. It absorbed and digested every conversation, experience, and action it’s humans had taken over the last Moon cycle.

The Commandant looked out the glass window towards the planet, numbers and symbols fogging the mirror of its mind.

It would know how they would proceed as soon as the team arrived.