"I am Diaspra"//(1) Prologue: Part 1 (English Translation)
Hey guys! 😊
I was asked if I can upload an english translation of my novel "I am Diaspra". Well here we go! 😄
Please note that I'm not an english native and it's quite hard for me to translate in in the right way but I hope you will unterstand my writing...^^
I wish you a lot of fun with the story! If you have translation tips for me, feel free to leave me a comment.
Cover Your heavens, Zeus,
With cloud vapor
And try Your strike, as a boy
Beheading thistles,
Against oaken tree and mountain height;
You still must leave me
My Earth standing
And my hut which You did not build,
And my hearth, home's glowing
Fire which You begrudge me.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~
Again and again Goethe's words the first verse of the poem "Prometheus" shot through my head as I stood here looking into the void of space.
Far away on the planet below me the remains of the fire shone covering the entire horizon, but now little more than a slight glow that flickered through the atmosphere as darkness fell.
For a moment I lowered my view and tried to imagine where I could be if I were someone else. Someone ordinary. A human, like the thousand others on board the Immortal. The one thousand survivors of Aeles Heaven, the island of progress, who had the privilege of being brought home with me.
But I quickly rejected this thought. I am different from them and I always will be. But this is not a burden but a gift which I had to realize slowly.
At first I thought I could save this planet. The planet with the wonderful blue veil that until recently shone in the light of the star they called the Sun. But by now I 've realized that he had long since, maybe even from the beginning, since my arrival, been lost.
I turned my back on this wonderful and unreal panorama which disappeared slightly behind the almost invisible energy shield of the immortal and for which I probably would have done everything to see it just once in my life just a few days ago, and took a few steps into the interior of the ship.
The heels of my shoes clicked as I walked up the metal ramp. It was time to leave the past and all the negative thoughts together with the ruins of the world behind me.
Before we could start our journey, I had to close the loading ramp, on which I had spent the last hours with thinking, under the protection of the shield.
Almost mechanically my fingers found the blue shining square behind which the switching mechanism was hidden.
Only when I placed my hand in the right place would the energy cycle be completed and the ramp closed. I hesitated and turned around one last time.
Just one more time... Not for long, just for a fraction of a second...
My gaze glided into the distance again.
Up here there was nearly nothing to see anything of the apocalyptic scenes that took place on the surface of the earth below me. Just the rhythmic pulsation of the reddish light of the fire gave a hint that the paradisiacal appearance was deceptive.
Europe was directly below me, as I could hardly recognize from the remains of the land masses. Africa, which once had the shape of a horse's head no longer existed. The continent was destroyed beyond recognition.
Europe was also badly played along. The British Isles consisted only of some rocks rising from the water. Scandinavia had sunk. Only Italy had almost kept its original outline. Although it was covered in dark clouds.
Vesuvius which erupted less than 24 hours ago continued to spit ash and lava into the sky.
It was easy to spot, even though we were many kilometres above the earth's surface in space. The shining orange lava rivers that made their way from the countryside to the Mediterranean Sea were unmistakable.
But the USA was even worse off. All of North America had disappeared into a lava sea.
The supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park erupted only a short time after Vesuvius. For the first time in hundreds of thousands of years. No one could have foreseen the enormous power that had completely wiped out the continent. A hint of sorrow and guilty conscience flew over me.
This was my home, which lay in ruins down there. The planet that had given me so many beautiful moments during my childhood and adolescence and made me grow up safe and happy. But the sadness vanished as quickly it had come and turned into sheer anger as I recapitulated the events of the last few hours.
It wasn't my fault!
My palm touched the cool metal of the switch. When my fingers found their correct place, the square lit green and an acoustic signal sounded from one of the numerous loudspeakers. "Loading dock is closing. Please stand back."
I complied with the request and now finally left the panorama behind me. Wherever my journey was leading, the time had come. I had to look to the future and no longer live in the past. There was no return.
Astonishingly quietly the ramp was pulled up by the hydraulics and almost silently pushed the heavy metal bolts into the frames provided for them. Even without much knowledge of spaceships, I knew that a human could never have moved them. They were not made of normal steel but, like the rest of the outer skin of the ship, were made of a special mix of platinum and diamond.
A material called Platinum-Adamantem IV which was completely unknown on Earth.
Prologue