Milind Padki
POETRY
SCIENCE FICTION
● What Frank Saw in the Parking Lot
OTHER
OBITUARY
(remove spaces)
Beam Riders
It was 2086 AD, and as the laser-driven
interstellar flight to the Upsilon Andromedae Planetary System readied
itself for take-off on D-Day, its group of slim, fair-skinned,
shaved-head Brahmin women sat around their holy fire, a yajnya in
true Vedic fashion and chanted in unison:
Behold 70 Vir, a visible God
78 light-years from Earth;
blood brother to Sol,
(though several hundred degrees cooler
and three billion years older.)
Bless us as we set sail to its planet Chandra
Orbiting Vir
Cool enough for water
And complex organic molecules.
Thank you Sol, giver of light and life and energy,
for sustaining us for thousands of years.
Pray intercede on our behalf to Vir, your brother
That he may sustain us as well.
Dave, the ship's official chronicler-journalist, walked up to them, intrigued. Hands joined in a chaste Namaskara, he enquired:
"Do you make up these mantras yourself, ma'am? Sound rather detailed to have originated in antiquity."
Gargi, the leader-woman, responded:
"Well, we have always had them around, we just need to dig a little in the scriptures. They are known to ease the pain of the knowledge that we will never return to earth, and the shock of early take-off. Good for the heart too."
Dave asked, incredulous:
"You mean your culture has always been aware of interstellar flight?"
"But you don't understand, Sir," Gargi's eyes smiled mischievously. "This is how we came to Earth some sixty thousand years ago."
(Elmwood Park, 09/25/05)
Behold 70 Vir, a visible God
78 light-years from Earth;
blood brother to Sol,
(though several hundred degrees cooler
and three billion years older.)
Bless us as we set sail to its planet Chandra
Orbiting Vir
Cool enough for water
And complex organic molecules.
Thank you Sol, giver of light and life and energy,
for sustaining us for thousands of years.
Pray intercede on our behalf to Vir, your brother
That he may sustain us as well.
Dave, the ship's official chronicler-journalist, walked up to them, intrigued. Hands joined in a chaste Namaskara, he enquired:
"Do you make up these mantras yourself, ma'am? Sound rather detailed to have originated in antiquity."
Gargi, the leader-woman, responded:
"Well, we have always had them around, we just need to dig a little in the scriptures. They are known to ease the pain of the knowledge that we will never return to earth, and the shock of early take-off. Good for the heart too."
Dave asked, incredulous:
"You mean your culture has always been aware of interstellar flight?"
"But you don't understand, Sir," Gargi's eyes smiled mischievously. "This is how we came to Earth some sixty thousand years ago."
(Elmwood Park, 09/25/05)