Monday, June 27, 2011

A Starscaper's Tale (Minstrel Mondays)

About the time I wrote the poem "Patented DNA," I threw together this other little freestyle piece, about the more distant future.  Again, it tells a tale of science fictional proportions, but it's not quite as eloquent as some of my other stuff.  Have a look, and see what you think...  Can you see the story in your mind's eye?


A Starscaper flew on
Ten millennia from now,
The last starship built back home.
The Earth had long since fallen
To many cosmic conquests.
Yet ten centuries past tomorrow,
American souls soldiered on.

Reaching a fertile orb
Sixty-seven light years away,
The children of men who refused to be slaves
Went out to found a new nation.
They'd journeyed so long.
Ten centuries ago,
They'd barely known the touch
Of their home planet's moon.
Now they'd gone beyond
A thousand worlds like their own.
So many alien lands
Of frightful creations, deadly aliens,
And bacteria that ate through ships' hulls.

Captain Richard E. Sloan,
Aboard Starscapers born and raised,
Led a charge to chart a new home.
Old when he first touched the surface
Of the only planet he'd ever know.
He sought to found a colony
His folks could call their own,
But they were not alone.

Another race, so strange, yet alike,
Muscular as horses, yet smooth like silk,
Skins glittered in prismatic colors,
Still their eyes were akin to ours.
Alien hearts grew warm when men came around
Who shared superior technology.

Ambitious dreams and schemes
Even the aliens could conceive
To build a space fleet,
To fight enemies unseen.
The Prismatons were eager to help
When it promised to benefit their children so.

Good tidings held strong for twenty long years
Until enemies came from the sky.
The Bizahn cruisers covered the horizon,
Seeking the blood of mankind's survivors.
The lizard-like things,
Bones protruding through their skins,
Leapt out of their landing craft
With a hiss designed to frighten
Seasoned soldiers who'd survived
Many a deadly fight.
The poison of fangs killed fast,
Yet the humans with their alien hosts
Stood side by side to die.

The worst blow came
Captain Sloan was maimed,
With a single Bizahn bite he was slain.
And a million stars cried
When the old Captain died,
For his fate foretold a future so bare.
No man could survive here
Where Bizahn hunted planet-side
The order was given to flee
Back to the stars.
Somewhere else man would try
To once more thrive.

Before the last boarding call,
The aliens bid them farewell
And thanked them for their technology.
In a thousand years, they might
Join mankind in the firefight
To raise civilized beings back
To their proper place.
On the galactic scene
It was only an instant away.

With a sparkle of light,
The Starscaper flew into eternal night,
Leaving another world poisoned with knowledge.
I could be properly said
They'd been scientifically dead,
Until man's touch brought their minds to life.

Creative insight:
Humanity's gift to star-children
Forever fighting against the night.

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