Memoir

Far away, if you look into the black velvet sky, you will see a brilliant jewel. It was once a home for mankind, though now it’s only in fairytales that you’ll hear about from the “Earthborn.” Maybe that’s why it feels so distant yet so close, all of mankind waiting to reclaim a home that they’ve never been to. 

In the year 2120, Earth had since moved its population across space colonies, fleeing from the devastating war that wiped out 70% of its population, nearly destroying the planet in the process. People were horrified by the indescribable destruction humans brought to Earth and had no choice but to stop the war, and unify as one nation, to attempt to save the Earth. 

They kept in their hearts the promise to return to their home on ‘The Promised Day.’ 

In the far-left corner of the spaceship, there was a tall, wide, white room in which a sixteen-year-old named Akari organised unusual objects in her possession. She was a space-native human, created in mass-produced artificial wombs alongside thousands of others in a perfect replica of the human womb to fix the loss of population during the war, an attempt at new hope to humanity. However, for many EarthBorns, those of the human race who had been born down on the very planet their race had destroyed, they struggled to accept the new space-natives born on the ships they now resided on. After all, how could they be human when they have no parents? When they had never set a foot on Earth? When they had been raised in a way so alien to normal human society? Surely that must make them “alien” themselves, fake, a mere shell of a real human. 

Akari despised the discrimination she faced every day, despised how she felt like an outcast in the very place she had been born and raised, the only place she had ever known. If she wasn’t accepted here, then it felt like she didn’t belong anywhere. She wondered what could be so special about Earth. She would watch the EarthBorns look longingly out the windows down at the planet below, and hope that one day she would feel as connected to a place as they did. That she would understand the meaning of home, of a place where she didn’t have to feel lonely. A place where she wouldn’t have to experience discrimination, a place where she would be welcomed into a life where she could simply be herself. 

That was the very reason she found such sanctuary in Memoir, a mysterious program where you could live and walk a mile in another person’s shoes, where you could see through their eyes, could experience their emotions as well as their smells, tastes and sounds. The program had been used on the spaceship for as long as it had been commissioned, which was before the war had even erupted. It was built originally as another home for mankind and had been used to great effect once the war had broken out. And yet it had never quite felt like a home to any of them, regardless of that being its desired use. It was just a place that they stayed because they had nowhere else to go, their planet now being unlivable. While the program was designed to help people better understand themselves, to stop making the same mistakes over and over again out of ignorance, it became a crutch for people to lean on, a drug-like space for them all to escape from the hellish reality they were forced to live. For the Earthborns it became a place to live in a fabricated memory of the past, to relive the moments and experiences they missed so dearly. And as for space-natives, it became a false paradise where they could be human without discrimination or nastiness. It became a dream of a life they could one day live. 

Every time Akari entered Memoir, she found herself living the life of a different person. But today she was a girl called Lisa, a daughter of a small family on Earth, the place called London, England at Christmas time who were travelling to Cornwall to visit their family for the celebrations. As she walked into the home, she felt the joy of her family welcoming her with warm smiles, her nostrils teased by the smell of her mum’s scones from the homely kitchen. She felt a sense of peace upon seeing her family and a home full of memories, each room holding its own significance for her – birthday parties, summer BBQs, evenings curled up on the sofa. A warmth spread throughout her body as she felt that, at that moment, she was home. The smells, the smiles, the colours of a home well-loved, it was nothing like Akari had ever experienced before. 

After her experience in Memoir was over Akari then headed to her bedroom and began to create a small object in memory of the experience. She crafted a small scone with a handwritten label of “Lisa at London” written on it, placed it carefully on a shelf and stepped back to see her handiwork. In front of her were hundreds of similar objects of all different shapes and sizes against the white wall. Each object had been a story she lived through in Memoir and she believed that one day her collection would help define who she is and help her understand what it truly is to be human. 

A few years later, not a single person was at Memoir, all of them gathered in the main dock of the ship excitedly gazing at the black void sky. For it was here after a century of waiting: ‘The Promised Day’. It had arrived. They watched with energetic apprehension as gigantic spaceships slowly approached their ship, preparing to take them all back home. A century before, it had been mankind’s dream to conquer and explore space, to live across the galaxy anywhere other than earth. But now, for their descendants, the greatest wish was to return to their planet, all longing for a home that had been long missed, chasing a past that would never quite be grasped between fingers again. 

Akira was still in her room packing her luggage, handling all the objects she had collected over the years. She felt a surge of emotion flow through her body as she looked at her collection. As she took down each object, she was reminded of her experience in Memoir, of the notion of home that she had created for herself over the years. The idea of ‘home’ had changed so much for her over the years. At first, she thought of it as purely a physical space, but then over time realised it could be simply a memory, a food, a dream or a comfort. Perhaps there was no grand, lone answer for what home was, just in the same way there was no one way to be human. And then it dawned on her, regardless of anyone else in her life, she was exactly how she was meant to be. Space-native or otherwise. 

As she finished packing, she started to walk towards the dock and looked down at the city she lived in. She had never felt attached to this lonely place. Had even grown to hate it. But she realised that she had grown here, had started the first chapters of her life. Had built herself dreams of a life that she wanted for herself, places she wanted to go, people she wished she could be. This is what a home is, she thought. A place of importance, somewhere to remember. And, just like the Earthborns had, she was going to leave her home behind until it was only a small dot seen from space.

Home is where the heart is, it’s truly as simple as that.