Graffiti: Art, Ego or Vandalism by Danny Buck
Asked to weigh-in on this topic, many imaginative pieces were written. DANNY did so by taking us forward to the year 5026 A.D. to a place we humans had apparently already been. Fascinating.
Graffiti: Art, Ego or Vandalism
“Yes, I copy Houston.” radio click
This is over three thousand years into the future, in the year 5026 A.D. Humans have invented technology which enables extrasolar travel. This is the first manned mission to another planet outside of the solar system ever. The mission’s name is Project Bifrost.
“Randall, we might’ve done it. We have now arrived on Kepler-452b, approximately 800 light years away from earth. We did it, boys. It’s done!”- James
Clapping from the Nasa physicists as they successfully succeed in the Bifrost Mission.
The astronauts roam the planet and remove their helmets because of its atmospheric similarity to Earth.
As the astronauts are collecting rock samples, they begin to explore caves to test samples of the underground water and the mineral content to examine the geological history of the planet… when they discover something gut wrenching.
“Oh my god, Randall, is that graffiti?”-James says in horror.
“Jesus Christ.”-Randall replies
The astronauts scramble back to the communication system to relay the message that they’ve encountered something unseen before. But as they leave the cave, they encounter something far worse.
“There are fossil bones embedded in that sediment, James.”-Randall says
They dig, chip, and scratch to make sure to carefully extract the remains of whatever animal this is, not too far off from animal bones they’ve seen from life on Earth.
“Houston, we have a problem. We’ve found fossils on this planet as predicted, but we’ve also found graffiti from the inside of the cave?!”- James says
Randall and James examine the bones and find mineral deposits in bones which imply that these are not just silicon-based bones as they’ve presumed from the rest of the discovered life, but these bones are made of calcium. The terror causes them to collapse to their knees and think about the implications of this discovery.
“So this life is carbon based, with similar elemental proportions to that of earth with similar DNA. We’ve also found sequences in the genome that can only be found in members of the genus homo. It’s entirely possible that these are human bone remnants from ancestors or cousins to humans long ago.”- James and Randall communicate
James and Randall descend further into the cave to gather more evidence of their hypothesis. A splash of water echoes through the cave, the eerie-ness almost freezes the air to be as cold as ice.
“I think we should go farther in.”-Randall says
As they’re exploring the cave they encounter a latch on the floor which is so indescribable and incomprehensible that their scientific minds cannot muster an explanation for how this could be possible. Thoughts race back and forth; Is it the government? Is it aliens? Is it manmade? Am I insane?
Randall trembles as he musters up the courage to say what he’s thinking as his curiosity overwhelms his fear.
“We should open it.”-He says
As he begins to peel open the latch, it makes a creaking, rusty sound like the heavy doors in an old warehouse. They find something; something that may be like James or Randall, but the line between man and…whatever the hell that thing is, it’s quite blurry. They close the latch as they realize that there can’t possibly be hope. Humans might not be native to Earth. Something higher… smarter… brought us here a very long time ago.
Danny Buck
2/16/24