Planet Wise

Written for https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/reenas-xploration-challenge-387/

Mary flicked over the battered pages of her travel journal, hoping to find a less worrying detail.

Planet zero, where the air was breathable, was a pipe dream only the rich could afford. Some could pick the ideal period for a holiday. They spent billions just to experience one day without fear.

Instead, she used her training course to share in experimental new speeds, aimed at giving E.A.R.T.H another chance at survival.

Laws forbidding citizens to modify fixed moments; When your body faded, your family line ceased. Yet she had to resort to drastic measures to protect the future.

Planet, to planet, to planet and their ship found nothing but barren earth. Alive! Was it enough? Few remembered seeing a sunrise. Pure streams of pink enveloped the surface in a perfect glow. Her grandmother’s tales of swimming in the sea inspired her to join the league of time travellers.

If they could prevent the final collapse of the ozone layer, perhaps these images could alter.

‘You ready?’ her teacher asked.

‘Yes.’

‘You cannot see your grandmother, or you risk her fading.’

‘I understand,’ she said, carrying a plastic bottle of water. A way of using sustainable that can biodegrade into dust, which left underground, would create nutrients. In this ground, trees would grow within months, with little need for rainfall.

She stepped into the booth, ready for her one way trip.