Seeds for Time

As the months and years cycle forward, the glacier melts and leaves the mummy and its gift exposed and unprotected. The body of the mummy is now broken, with some portions lying apart from the whole. The bones of the mummy’s arms though, are still clinging tightly to the metal case.

The ionized radiation from the failure of the industrial human’s four hundred and thirty-nine nuclear power plants has swept across the planet. Any remaining living species have now succumb to the invisible poison. The radiation has reached the stratosphere and has begun the process of dissolving the ozone layer. The deadly radiation from the planet’s host star assist in bathing the planet with its invisible poison as well.

The technology of the former dominate species, still circle the Earth in high orbit, just outside of the now failing atmosphere. Satellites of all sizes and purposes were launched into orbit for decades, by the industrial Homo sapiens. There are now no living human beings on the Earth. With no one to monitor or maintenance that technology, the satellites are beginning to depart from their orbit and are crashing into the Earth.

On a hot Sunday morning, in a time when there is no one to date it, the mummy still holds its prized container. Its empty eye sockets gaze skyward but it cannot see the fiery streak in the sky that is falling towards it. The mummy’s dried and brittle ears cannot hear the whistling scream. The satellite crashes in close proximity to the mummy and explodes with a cloud of rock and dirt. The mummy is completely covered, buried at last. The impact crater declares the mummy’s grave a monument. Very near the edge of the crater is a small hill, the final resting place of Raj Patel.

The radiated winds have invaded every continent and body of water. The winds will continue do so for the next few thousand years or more. The atmosphere has thinned and the cold of outer space begins to cool the planet, finally. The Earth is a barren rock that rotates around an insignificant star, near the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.

The Earth is compelled to continue its journey through the cosmos. The lifeless rock repeats the patterns it had always known, but there is no life to take notice of the patterns. The planet cools and then freezes. It warms and finds balance for a while. The patterns continue, as they have for billions of years. Changing, freezing, melting, and waiting for something new to begin.

Epochs of time have transpired. The recent warming of the planet and the melting of ice has allowed for bodies of water to develop. Seasons are returning to the Earth with the melting and freezing of the waters, assisting in the mixing of the ingredients of life. And just as the Earth had done billions of years before, microalgae begins to grow in bodies of water large and small. Each new growth releases more waste as minuscule gases. The Earth slowly begins to develop an atmosphere again.

The slow production rates of oxygen will continue as the Earth travels around her star. The fragrance of the air has awakened her. She has not known oxygen for several million years now. She has the time to wait. While she waits, continents drift and travel, moving in small increments every few thousand years. The Earth surface moves, stretches and changes. Something new is in the air, she can smell it.

On a vast continent that has been creeping towards the planet’s equator for the last few million years, the ground begins to shake, as plates within the Earth move and shift. A small rock hill resting just above a crater, trembles and vibrates with the moving ground. Rocks roll down the small hill, bits of earth and dirt fall away. An object is exposed just beneath the thin soil of the hill. The surface of the object reflects the sun. It is a shining reflection at the top of a hill, in a wasteland, that no one will ever see.

Four full seasons return to the Earth, during a mild warming period. The rains return. The spring rains bring monsoons. The object on the hill is experiencing heavy rains, which are tearing away at the hill and exposing even more of the ancient object buried there.

It is an object from another time, crafted by a species which has been extinct for millions of years. Its structure is smooth with straight lines, and it seems out of place here in this barren waste land. It is a relic from a species that saw itself superior to nature, but nature bats last and has won the game.

The seasons continue to shift towards a balance the world has not known for millions of years. The hill, atop of the crater, displays its ancient object even more. The spring rains and winter winds have fully exposed the relic. It sits there, as if it is waiting for an event to occur.

The tectonic plates within the Earth move again, this time effecting the vast continent where the hill sets beside a crater, displaying its ancient relic. The area around the hill rises and becomes a small mountain, creating a flat and wide valley below. The object has slid from the rocky hill and is perched near a cliff’s edge above the flat valley.

The seasonal rains return. The water from higher up on the mountain begins to flow down towards the valley. Streams are forming and flow around the ancient square object. The stream thickens and gains strength. The ancient relic begins to move following the current of the stream. It is being shoved and carried towards the cliff’s edge.

The object is pushed over the side of the cliff and is in free fall to the next flattened surface. The relic hits the ground only to bounce up and out, and gravity sends it down to its next encounter with the slope of the mountain.

The next impact causes the ancient box to break open. The contents inside are flying out and bouncing and crashing against the mountain as well. Over and over the old container bounces and flips, finding its way to the valley’s floor, spreading its contents down the mountain and into the valley. The rain washes everything down.

The container lies on the valley floor, near the foot of the mountain. It is folded open with its flat surface facing skyward. One side of the container is as smooth and straight as it was when it was first constructed. The other side is smooth as well but has two fossilized pieces of bone attached.

The dry season comes, and then the winter. In spring again the monsoons return and flood the valley. Later, during the summer heat, green plants begin to appear in patches across the valley floor, and color and life return to the Earth.

The planet continues to orbit her star, and the season come and go. Life in the valley is present and seems to spread out more as each cycle passes. Ancient seeds from a forgotten era have taken root in this world of a new dawn. Each season creates more seeds for the next cycle, and a forest begins to form in the valley.

On a Sunday morning, in a time without calendars, the rising sun shines upon the dew covered flora of the forest. Between two pecan trees, a flower grows. Its petals are bright pink, its center yellowish orange and raised in a cone pattern. A fluttering movement approaches the flower. It is a small winged insect. The insect is drawn to the flower’s pollen, seeking nutrients.

In a valley, beneath a newly formed mountain, a forest thrives and grows. Life has again staked a claim to exist upon the Earth. A song is moving through the air, though there is no one present to hear it. It is a song of celebration, a song of new life. It is a song of gratefulness sung by the Earth, herself.

The few small creatures that inhabit the forest will never know of the sacrifice of a lone individual from a now extinct species. They will never know of the one who gave his life in a labor of love for the future of life on the planet, nor will any future species of fauna and flora. Raj Patel’s name is now forgotten and will never be spoken of again on the Earth, but his efforts to gather seeds for all time shall endure throughout the ages.