Calamity

J: It’s agony.

B: I know.

J: What do you mean you know?

B: I know.

J: How could you know? You weren’t there.

B: Even though I wasn’t there, I’ve had to let go as well.

J: I shouldn’t have let go. He was my friend. He was my brother.

B: You had to.

J: No I didn’t.

B: Yes you did.

J: No...

B: It’s ok. It’s not your fault. You did everything you could to save him.

J: He was a fool! He always put himself at risk.

B: Yes, but he was never selfish.

J: No he wasn’t.

B: If he didn’t sacrifice himself, you both would have died.

J: Then we should have died together.

B: That would have been a true catastrophe. He was a hero.

J: But where did it get him? Where did it get us? Now we will never know what was inside.

B: You are also a hero.

J: What are you talking about? We failed! I failed! It was all for naught!

B: You still think the whole mission was a failure? This is about the survival of mankind. He knew what he was getting into when he began this journey many years ago. I’m certain he would have done the same thing if given the chance. He has awarded you another purpose. He ceased his story so you could write another chapter in your chronicle. In our chronicle. In the chronicle of man.

J: We were out there for seventeen years. And all we have to show for it is a corpse floating in space.

B: John, are we not standing on the surface of a planet in the Andromeda galaxy? We have just begun our search...