Fandomweekly Challenge 82 - Leaving home

[m_findlow]

Title: Leaving home
Fandom: Original
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG.
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 82 - Countdown at fandomweekly
Summary: Kensley and Scott's days on Earth are numbered and the thought of leaving is hard to contemplate.

Kensley chewed his lip as he held the ornament in his hand. It had been destined for the box marked "charity" but now he wasn't so sure. It had been a frivolous purchase on their whirlwind trip of a honeymoon, more a joke than a serious acquisition. Just another of life's innocuous little moments. He knew he couldn't take it with them. All the same, he slipped it inside another marked "storage" before his less sentimental other half made a snap judgement on it. Packing was exhausting work. Small wonder they'd never moved before.

They'd had the better part of a year to make all the necessary arrangements but still, here they were, agonising over what to put in the few boxes that would accompany them. They rarely ever argued seriously about anything, but there'd been a few heated debates about what was coming and what was staying. Scott liked things neat and orderly, bordering on minimalistic, as beget an engineer's mindset. Kensley preferred things tidy yet cluttered, but in a homely, deliberate way. A house represented a life together and all the trappings that went with it. Having to pare it down to less than a quarter of what they currently had was almost like having a limb amputated. They'd collected artwork from all around the world, adorning the walls and hallways. Art held an emotional significance that journalised their life story. It had been all Kensley could do to convince his husband that what they didn't take with them could stay in storage. Who knew, he'd said optimistically, perhaps in a few years they'd be able to make bigger, better stations that had more generous accommodations. He knew that was a lie of course. Bigger and better was what had driven their planet to the brink of destruction. Everyone had to be prepared to make do with less. They needed to set an example for everyone who followed.

'No more packing tonight,' he declared, slumping down on the sofa, staring idly at the mass of boxes. Scott's fingers intertwined with his as he came to rest on the leather sofa next to Kensley. At least that one piece of effortlessly comfortable furniture would be joining them. 'Are you nervous?'

'Me?' It seemed a strange question to ask. He might have expected Scott to ask him if he felt sad or apprehensive. He wasn't sure what he had to feel nervous about. 'This is your life's work, Scotty. I should be asking you if you're nervous.'

He knew Scott wouldn't be. Everything had been considered, thought through, planned and executed down to the very last detail. Twenty years was a short time to bring something from concept to reality. To have succeeded in getting international buy in and cooperation to build something so advanced and so complex was staggering.

It was in no small part down to Kensley's own involvement. Scott had a brilliant mind, but conveying complex ideas to politicians was a skill that his twenty five year old self hadn't had. Kensley on the other hand, always the creative mind in their partnership, had taught him how and when to mix emotive language into technical detail. Kensley understood politics and was a master of the written word. Scott didn't need his wisdom anymore, having now mastered diplomacy, but it didn't stop him from always asking Kensley what he thought.

A year on from final approval for the first man made habitation ship and now people would be ready to join it. A year of ferrying supplies and cultivating sustainable hydroponic food sources ready to feed sixty million people, before finally swelling to two billion people was nothing short of epic. Those that had already been living up there to get everything operational were the real pioneers. When he and Scott stepped aboard, it wouldn't be new and shiny anymore. The floors would be scuffed from the footfalls of a few hundred workers, the commissary plates and cups with the odd chip in their sides and the air filters would no longer smell of metal and hydraulic fluids, but carry the gentle scent of a hundred perfumes from its inhabitants. In short, it would already feel lived in, and that was important. The idea of a sterile place did make him feel anxious. He was an outdoors person and perhaps that was what worried his husband the most.

How would Kensley cope in space? He didn't know the answer himself. All he knew was that wherever Scott went, he would go too. They'd spent years hopping the globe to make this project a reality They'd made their grand contribution to the survival of the human race and the salvation of planet Earth from its crushing population. Now it was time for their reward of the quiet life together they'd perhaps only fleetingly envisioned when they'd been young men just finding their way, and each other, in life. He didn't think it would happen like that. Scott would be forever looking for ways to improve things. Kensley would still have a mountain of policy papers to write, perhaps even more so now that there would be no borders between former nations aboard the vessel. And that was to say nothing of the media who would be constantly looking for holes to poke in his husband's grand design. Saving humanity was only worth one news cycle.

Scott stroked the back of Kensley's hand with his thumb. 'You didn't answer the question.'

There was so much he would miss about living on Earth. He hadn't even realised it until now, when it was too late to pause and just take it all in. All the time they'd had knowing this was coming, slipping through his fingers like grains of sand. Coming back wasn't really an option. That was the price paid for the future generations that would never even step foot on Earth.

He squeezed Scott's hand. 'I know you built it perfect. What would I have to be nervous about?'