dark mars

transport 0.006324 had gone dark
and kept its counsel

our humble counsel of eight required to solve the case
sixteen billion earthbound souls poured over and tortured over
the doomed voyage
every manifest, document, procedure, telemetry, and transmission
every citizen was entertained with their own detective work
a public feeding, feeding on the dead

earth was in full blossom, with seeds spilling out low earth orbit
colossal metal flowers in the sky, our staging for the jump though the abyss

it was 10,000 strangers, really, just another pod in a stream of transports,
chariot convoy sigma sigma alpha
10,000 humans screaming or hiding, fighting or plotting, dying or living
did they purposefully blind us?
had they gone mad? had they tried to escape our madness?
rough waves splashing in a dark harbor

we pinged them and pinged them
there was no answer
they were too far out for our scouts
there are no answers

thousands of souls
thousands of questions
no answers
culminating in a 155-page document
with this summary:

so says our council
an unspent seed
but not too costly
the next ten transports must still leave on time
unsafe but each a risk that needs to be taken

on the dying earth, seeds are sins
sinfully removing scarce resources

but off the earth, seeds are salvation
rightfully spreading the word and hope of mankind

sic transit gloria mundi