Elnath
Elnath picked up another old, corroded implement. He could almost smell the dust and rust on it through his gas mask. Turning it over a few times, he let it fall back onto the pile before reaching down to dig through the pile some more in hopes of finding something meaningful.
Mark stepped through the bulkhead and sighted Elnath, once again, searching in the depths of the wreck.
“You were trapped in stasis on a ship just like this one for thousands of years and you’re still having trouble pulling yourself away?”
“This is a colony ship, if there’s going to be any remains of people or culture it’s going to be here.”
Elnath found another promising looking pile of old junk and walked over to sift through it as well. Mark followed.
“We have a lot of preserved cultural artifacts in museums already, you know. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, don’t feel obligated.”
Elnath handwaved it. “Museum pieces. I’m looking for something more meaningful, something I can hold onto.”
“What do you mean by ‘more meaningful?’”
He stopped and thought for a second before returning to shifting.
“I want something that can remind me what life was like a few thousand years ago. It’s hard to see the world you spent most your life in suddenly disappear. I feel like I’ve lost my sense of who I am by being pulled out of it.”
They sat in the dusty old cooridor silently save for the scrapes and clunks of Elnath looking for something to anchor himself to the old world.
“You know, unless you find another person down here, I don’t think you’ll ever find something that can put you back in contact with the past like that. The only thing we have now is a few of the stories, a few etchings.”
Elnath carried on silently.
“Are you wasting the time you still have trying to bring back the past?”
Elnath rolled those words around in his mind.
“Have you ever considered telling me some of those stories from ancient times?”
Elnath leaned back away from the pile and thought a while. Finally, he stood up.
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right. Say we get some drinks?”
Mark nodded and the two made their way to the exit together.
“I’m still having trouble getting used to the things you people drink, you know. You can’t find bourbon these days, it makes me feel like a bit of an living artifact myself.”