Fourth Sunrise, The (2022)

[bunniefuu]

[waves crashing]

[clock ticking]

[suspenseful music]

[ticking continues]

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Five

Four

Three

Two

One

Ignition!

We have lift off!

It's been 30 years, since then...

From my space flight, ended

differently, then it should have.

Too few, to fully understand what happened.

Too many, to allow myself to forget everything...

Let's just say it's a story based on real facts.

On those troubled events of

the Genesis 1491 Space Mission,

commanded by me, Major William Florescu.

And my exceptional story

[suspenseful music]

I have to let it be known for posterity.

Because truth and reality

are less important than the

feelings I experienced then, in 1962.

So, I'm a former American astronaut

now a novelist

on the shores of the Black Sea.

I'm old now, I live in my little caravan.

And I'm working on my 1962 space travel novel.

Orbiting the Earth in a space

capsule, you get 16 sunrises in one day.

Every 90 minutes the sun

blinds you with it's living force,

rising from the curved line of the Blue Planet.

For me that space experience lasted 4 sunrises.

Enough to understand that any

sunrise is more precious than I thought.

And all that happened was then.

In the fourth sunrise of my mission.

[adventurous music]

The Fourth Sunrise

[waves crashing]

Last night's storm leaves out

resignedly of the banks of the sea.

All night long the wind cried out incomprehensibly.

But I slept like a baby.

A few teenagers spent the morning

with music and fun, on the beach.

Slowly on the seafront all you can hear is

the breeze and the murmur of the waves,

crashing to the shore.

But the sea is resting now.

And she lives in silence, in the depths...

To take revenge like a monster, in

the next day, with her solar power.

I now live on the shores of the Black Sea.

Free.

[tiping]

Every morning I watch the seagulls cutting

with their screams and wings the breeze.

In the distance the wide horizon is infinite.

An infinite fear of questions and ignorance.

Just like in Outer Space, where

outside of Earth all you see is an infinity

of black and tiny twinkle stars.

Billions of galaxies, stars,

planets, light-years. Paradoxically.

And on top of all that, man is added.

Looking bravely at the unknown,

daring to find answers for

all his existential torment.

30 years ago, I had my first and only mission in Cosmos.

January, 1962.

It was called "Genesis 1491".

My space capsule has risen

farther than anything and everyone.

I was the fifth astronaut to

see our planet from Space.

A victory for science that was quickly

overtaken by other missions later.

But my discoveries and the reports

of the mission were abandoned.

Shaded by the ambiguity of some explanations.

Like me who for health reasons

did not have the right to fly later.

The First Sunrise

[ominous music]

Now, I just want to read and be lazy.

To enjoy the sea breeze, the air and the sun.

To enjoy the time I have left.

And to write this science fiction story.

Partly reality, partly imagination,

partly memories of my former stellar life.

I called it "The Fourth Sunrise."

But to continue...

At the typewriter I struggled to type without

too many mistakes. But still, I do them.

I don't care too much.

And I don't have much paper on hand. But I have time.

At the edge of the sea time

expands. At the edge of the world,

where the Earth seems to end by the blue sea,

my silent lady, I have time to clear,

to tidy up my memories of the past.

To make peace with the demons inside me.

I know that my attraction to astronomy

and stars began on my grandparents' farm

one August night. I was 9 or 10 years old.

Then, I saw a bright white streak of lightning

coming down from the starry sky.

Then, it exploded. It was a meteor. I ran in amazement

and searched the place through the grass for more

than 3 hours for the remains. And I found it.

Something fascinating!

[music intensifies]

It was a Carbonic Chondrite,

a type of stony meteorite

that gives us information about

the early history of the Solar System.

That is a rock of tens of millions years

old and with a chemical composition,

similar to the stars.

I was a kid, holding a piece of sunshine, in my hands.

Twenty years later, in January 1962,

at 10.40 a.m. local time, Florida, I

had reached what scientists agree,

is the limit of Outer Space.

The "Krmn Line", where the Earth's

atmosphere ends about 62 miles from ground.

It is the boundary between Earth and the Cosmos.

My mission, of the young commander

William Florescu, from now on

depended only on me and the

calculations of the rocket engineers.

So, I was at an orbital altitude in the cosmic

capsule of the "US Genesis 1491" shuttle.

A distance of 119 miles from Earth,

from where I could fascinatingly see

our planet.

I was experiencing not only a sense of fascination

and admiration for the

successful launch of the mission,

but also a mute emotion seeing

the immensity of our home.

I was pressing lightly on the record button.

I almost didn't want to bother with my presence

the magic of the astral life

of the Blue Planet and Nature.

I was silent, calm, absorbed by what I saw.

Up there, I had to record and collect tons

of scientific data for the next few hours.

I was there,

up, close to the Gods...

And all around, loneliness and oppressive silence.

[heavy breathing]

Only the mechanical and electrical

rumble of life support devices,

the oxygen coming down through the

tubes, disturbed the silent moments.

Rarely, I did communicate with

the Mission Control, from the ground.

But every second seems to last longer. Time was magic.

When you are not orbiting in the shadow

of the Earth, in the dark and abysmal cold,

it is easier for astronauts to

perform their on board tasks.

Somewhere at home, a new Tuesday was

beginning. People, cities, were waking up.

The capsule fits nicely into the

gravitational orbit around the Earth.

A perfectly functioning celestial

mechanism like a mechanical clock.

A timer of life, drawn by gravitational attractions,

orbital trajectories, angular velocities.

I was on a mission, fascinated

by what was happening around.

And through the shuttle window, the sun

blinds me gently. What a familiar feeling!

I could feel my skin warming slightly. A

warm caress. A little joy shuddered in me.

It's the sunlight from home!

Is awaiting for me to comeback.

[tiping]

But not now, I have something to do, up here!

Second Sunrise

Then, the wrong thing happened! There are some

mysterious bangs on the capsule's fuselage.

Strange sounds precede something

incredible. An exceptional incident

An accident at speeds of thousands of miles per hour.

A small asteroid, most likely, intersects

the trajectory of the capsule.

It hits me tangentially.

It rubs the tip of the small capsule,

on the communication antenna kit.

An impact with a small wandering celestial

body, at fabulous speeds, unpredictable,

therefore causes me to be diverted

from the correct orbiting

trajectory. Damages the capsule...

How? How was this possible? It remains

to be found. For now, I'm spinning uncontrollably!

From somewhere on my left

shoulder, I feel a cold jet of gas.

[machines beeping]

An oxygen hose is dislocated. The capsule

slowly depressurizes, due to a breach.

I lost vital oxygen and communications are down.

Is this how my end looks like?

Doomed to wander, for a few more hours into

Space, to freeze and suffocate afterwards?

On the capsule window I see the

sun shining, in a dizzying roller-coaster.

Once, twice, three times

Third Sunrise

I use the manual controls compulsively and

especially the ACS (the Attitude Control System).

[machines beeping]

It's the only one who gives me hope.

I'm trying to stabilize the axes a bit.

I hope the hydrogen peroxide tanks,

who's content turn into steam, when forced

through a tungsten screen don't empty before

I reposition the capsule on the normal position.

To reenter the correct orbiting trajectory

Small thrusters spit jet after

jet. With calculated accuracy

Every angular degree sets me apart.

A few minutes passed. A complete

silence presses inside the cabin.

I'm surprised I didn't faint. I'm

blocking the faulty oxygen circuit.

In the end, I managed to stabilize the capsule!

The control panel and the antenna

have faults. There are some malfunctions.

Several connectors are broken.

I had hit them with my foot while spinning!

won't be able to

communicate for a while...

We don't know how much! But... If... Try to survive!...

Trying to survive? What the hell does

this mean? What happened down there?

But worse, when looking through the window

Something was happening to the Earth!

Something strange and creepy!

The color, the texture, the

atmosphere were completely abnormal.

[ominous music]

A purple red seemed to flood around the Earth

which was was like burning...

Something seemed to be changing fatally

on Earth! The atmosphere was affected too.

But also continents, oceans! Why? How? What is the cause?

A roll of impressions explodes in my mind.

My heart starts pounding crazy.

A cold despair flows through

me. It drips through the suit.

I'm heading for a moment of panic.

What the hell! I rub my eyes. I tremble.

Somehow the Earth was consumed, extinguished

and ignited simultaneously

in that red plasma matter.

It decomposed into Space into

thousands of reddish streams.

Down there, surely life was no longer normal.

Moreover, there at home, life had to be in agony.

I couldn't imagine more. I didnt want to!

Shortly, before my eyes I saw Dorothy and Maggie!

But no!

I didn't even want to conceive of such a thing

What I saw was beyond imagination!

From Earth, from that huge and

wonderful planet something inexplicable

was scattering towards Space, through the

pores of the atmosphere. Through the clouds.

I inevitably panicked. My pulse

was reaching 220 beats per minute!

I was panting. My right hand was numb.

It was impossible for anyone

to look through the window.

What was happening was

against any scientific thought.

Completely absurd, irrational. And yet it was real!

[suspenseful music]

I struggled in the cabin trying to get a

better look of what was happening down there

I wanted to see more closely what was going on.

I was even thinking of opening

the capsule's hatch, to go out,

into the deadly vacuum, that

surrounded my small shuttle,

to have a better look.

This would have meant instant death. But

I would have preferred it, against the absurdity

of the situation I have to cope with!

Rather I prefer to look at the Earth

for the last time, to find

things in order, and then to die...

I started screaming alone.

I was shouting into the microphone. Searching

for help. No response from the Mission Control!

An abysmal silence.

In the end, I did not do the suicidal

gesture of getting out of my capsule.

As a military pilot I imagined dozens of times,

the ways I could die during a flight.

But, what was happening to me, was beyond this.

I was witnessing a phenomenon

that seemed to be an end.

And it wasn't just mine. But for everything I knew...

The whole world itself. The Earth

was in deadliness, in destruction,

the world was dying and I was an isolated

spectator of this apocalyptic phenomenon.

Powerless to save her. And

also incapable of saving myself.

The radio was silent. I was

stuck in my chair. And continuously

something was leaking off Earth. Dozens

of hypotheses were perishing in my mind.

A nuclear conflict of apocalyptic proportions

has taken place, could that be the cause?

But I didnt notice the nuclear

explosions! Those awful mushrooms

that rise into the atmosphere. That k*ller breath.

That black breath of destruction and death.

Is it then a chemical reaction of

unknown form, on a global scale?

A chemical w*r? The continents, the oceans,

the fragile Earth's surface, everything was

melting, everything was dissolving into a chaos

of red flaming matter. I couldnt

associate this transformation

this commotion, with anything

scientific! Meteorological, seismological.

Nothing made sense.

Or maybe the cause was an exceptional, completely

new and unknown atmospheric phenomenon?

Or an unexpected impact of the

planet with another celestial body?

One asteroid, more of them? A comet? Probably not!

I haven't noticed the devastating expl*si*n

of an asteroid and at the Earths surface,

there were no signs of extreme collision.

Nothing could explain that red

matter scattering from Earth.

The color, the Earth's crust was losing the

green of vegetation, the blue of the oceans

the browns of the continents...

Completely inexplicable. Completely awful!

But there at home, life somehow ended...

Is this phenomenon caused by an evil mind?

Unintentionally? Intentionally? Man?

Of course, only man could create such a thing...

But maybe even he is not

strong enough to produce this.

Then surprisingly I received one last

radio message from Mission Control.

William, it's only a matter

of hours before it's all over!

We were attacked. It wasn't our fault!!

[indistinct chatter]

I was shocked. And the first thought

was What the hell does it matter

who was to blame?? Look what's

going on down there! Look, it's the end!

Who?

Who was attacking? With what

motivation? On what purpose?

Which species is so powerful and

evil and it can produce such a disaster?

Humanity, of course!

But, as far as I knew no country had any

weapons, even nuclear weapons, so powerful

that could cause a global

cataclysm, on such a scale and so fast!

So fast... That was the key.

Something was wrong. I didn't know

what and had no clue about who did this.

All I could see from above were

the consequences. Completely bad.

And that was the most important thing at the time.

A holocaust of humanity was happening.

Everything covered in an unthinkable

phenomenon which I was watching from Space.

From my little damaged capsule.

It seemed I was living a nightmare. But

no, it wasn't a nightmare. It was worse!

Me, alone in the space capsule,

watching the end of humanity?

And yet, in the cosmic loneliness

I was in, I had to do something.

[suspenseful music]

I was trained for action. My conscience

was alive and I felt a still lucidity.

So I tried to perform some

technical tasks. I filmed a bit and tried

to contact the Flight Control

for several times. Unsuccessfully.

Communications were disrupted

following the asteroid crash.

However, I wanted to have a proof of everything

that could be seen on the shuttle porthole.

Recorded proof. For me, later. A useless gesture.

If I were to lose everything that mattered

to me, what good would it do, to gather

evidence? Humanity seemed to be disappearing.

Or something shocking was happening to it.

I was witnessing a phenomenon

of extinction, in full swing...

I stopped writing. I need air now.

It's still night, around dawn. 4 o'clock.

I'm going fishing today. Enough with the

novel. I need to breathe in the fresh breeze.

I've rowed out to sea.

It's still foggy. But, I know the places.

I'm paddling... slowly.

I wanted to be in action. But the

abominable phenomenon on Earth

was not over. And I was watching an end.

I became paralyzed by the situation for a while.

Shocked. What can you do, when

nothing else makes sense? For what?

Yes. More than shocked. I was perplexed at the world

I had left behind! I have no idea for how long.

The timing of the mission was also

blocked, I think, due the impact with the

wandering asteroid. Nothing matters anyway...

Oddly enough, by operating the radio,

I changed the reception frequencies,

in the ultrahigh UHF range 2400, as I usually

use to communicate with Mission Control,

now to 1500Mhz, as the device

allowed, at the end of the scale.

Then a faint murmur began to be heard from the

loudspeaker. Could it be

the red matter interference?

Could it be related to the apocalyptic phenomenon?

At one point that sound stopped.

In about 30 seconds it was back.

There were two sounds, two different

frequencies, that were repeated.

Maybe something in binary language. Maybe nothing.

Maybe the sound of destruction, death...

Then the sounds stopped An

abysmal silence settles around me...

I paddle and head for the

fixed fishing nets in the sea.

A wave of fog is coming towards me.

I continue to row. But, I don't

see the shoreline anymore.

All that can be heard around me

is the rippling of the water. Gently. The

water monster is waiting for me hungry.

To devour another stray fisherman.

And yet. I think I've strayed too far from the shore.

I stop and wait in the fog.

Up again! Alone! Drifting... In space. All

around is just a mutilated planetary system.

With a planet Earth that

looked dead. Barren. Without life.

Without everything that mattered to me.

What does a man do, when he knows he has no home?

Where to go, where should I

go, astronaut William Florescu,

for what, for whom?

Unimaginable, completely absurd,

but it was my mood at the time.

I instantly fall into a depressive

shock. Anxiety explodes.

Humanity was in the process

of extinction, perhaps, even over.

There can be no life on that planet. Soon...

The oceans, the atmosphere, that phenomenon of rapid

decomposition, meant that

life had no chance on Earth!

I was the only one safe. For a while though.

The last man left in the universe, was me, and I

was in a damaged cosmic capsule orbiting in Space...

Then a moment of panic suddenly

occurred again. Which stunned me again.

I was a trained pilot. And yes, I knew the

risks I was exposed to when I went on a mission

but what seemed to happen,

was beyond anyone's imagination.

I happened to have in my mind, for a few seconds

some memories of my life. A kind of dream.

Briefly! Electrifying!

Some vivid images unfolded before my eyes!

It was an automatic brain reaction. So, I believe.

[suspenseful music]

Huge stress levels. I was living a piece of

of that controversial medical

phenomenon of "life review."

Too little studied, the flashy

organic phenomenon has been

reported by all sorts of people,

who have gone through situations,

on the verge of life and death...

I was living it now!

And this sequential unfolding of memories

was a retrospective film of my life. Just like a movie.

They were memories of a long time ago.

Me going to the beach. Friends, innocent laughter,

neighbors, forgotten places in the city.

[soft music]

Places that no longer exist today!

Sunny days. Summer afternoons.

In the cabin the atmosphere was

dangerously rich in carbon dioxide toxins.

And the lack of oxygen could slowly lead me to death.

I was probably approaching

carbon dioxide poisoning.

I was in the capsule. I had managed

to establish the life maintaining system

but I was not able not control the orbital direction.

I discover with fear that the capsule

no longer responds to my commands.

Everything seemed almost frozen. Dead. Then

I notice that my orbit is slowly changing...

Angular gradations increase, axes change!

My capsule is forcing me to

go somewhere else. Certainly

not gravitational attraction,

but of another nature.

Looking through the window, I see that

red plasma stream is approaching me.

The capsule was to enter that reddish matter.

Which attracts me, in a

sensation of a crazy curiosity.

Abnormally, I have a desire to embrace that flow...

My emotions seemed to aspire to penetrate that

stream. I felt like I wanted to get there.

[soft music]

Cognitively, I saw no reason to immerse

myself with that unknown origin matter.

The capsule was slowly, slowly

sucked by that red matter. Drifting away.

Alone in the boat. I couldn't see

anything in the fog. And still adrift.

I had waited a few hours, I think. It

was 2 P.M. when I turned on the radio.

Not working! It was wiser not to

paddle and just wait for the fog to rise.

There was nothing on the radio. Nobody around!

Just like in Space 30 years ago when I was

disconnected from any form of communication.

Where, why is my capsule

moving? What is she attracted to?

By what force do I feel grabbed?

I was slowly approaching that stream of matter.

What will happen in the next

few minutes? Was I going to die?

As I approach that stream of red matter, I began

to visualize more and more intense mental images.

And loaded with stronger and stronger emotions.

It was clear to me that it was a correlation

between how I felt and that flow...

There were sequences with

the people I loved and are gone.

Parents, grandparents, longtime neighbors,

some friends, high school teachers.

I had a hard time describing.

I couldn't control myself.

The excitement was at its peak.

I was visualizing the faces of the women I

fell in love, with whom I loved in my life.

Whose faces I forgot...

But now, I recognized them

again. Women lost during my youth.

And everywhere, I felt a huge

exploding love for everything.

It seemed that I was loving

everything I ever touched and saw.

I was loving the life. All

humanity as I perceived it then,

was warm, gentle, welcoming,

protective, which in every

moment, silently, carried its

meaning further through time,

through small deeds of each individual.

Nothing glorious, gigantic. Just the

little ordinary things, day in and day out.

I was overcome by an overwhelming feeling of love.

By a force which pulls me away.

That stream was ripping me out of my

chair, like ripping my whole heart out...

Cognitively, I was trying to stay in control.

Let that commander Florescu

remain an exceptional pilot.

I was trying to resist.

As you try to oppose the love...

[waves crashing]

I'm in the boat, watching the

waves around boat. I think I have no

more drinking water.

I am thirsty.

If I don't drink fresh water

soon, I'll dehydrate until I die.

At my age a few hours without water can be enough.

I wonder what is wiser to do?

Should I stay, wait for the fog to

rise and then paddle back to shore?

Or should I choose a direction and row unknowingly?

So luckily I can reach the shore?

I don't notice anything around, no landmarks.

It's risky to act in any way.

An insidious fear creeps into me. Like then, in 1962.

I'm thinking about my novel,

which I haven't finished yet.

I think of that expl*si*n of

emotions, I experienced then.

To the feelings I had then and

in many of my years of life lived.

I understand that feelings are

more important than rationality.

But then what about feelings?

Do they rise and die like flowers?

It's possible.

But maybe, there is a multiverse of

them. One of human feelings, emotions?

And if so what happens to all the love that

has existed, and exists, between human beings?

What is that bloody matter, that leaves the Earth?

Maybe, she's wandering around the Universe?

A parallel Universe, an unseen Universe, that exists

and is nourished by our feelings?

In nature nothing is lost, nothing

is gained. Everything is changing.

[dramatic music]

In the Universe, it should be

the same, as everything else.

The law of

"Lavoiser and Laplace" of 1780, clearly state this.

In nature, nothing is lost, nothing

is gained. Everything is changing.

The chemical experiment, proves it. In the

material world. Of ours. Of the scientists, pilots.

Atoms, molecules recombine,

energies release, transform, move on.

The Thermochemistry. The Thermodynamics chapters.

Then, I entered in that stream. And that matter

of shades of red and purple made me

visualize love, feel it like never before.

It was like as if all this complete

feeling of love was gathering, radiating

to my soul. I was overwhelmed.

Commander William Florescu. The last man

in the Universe, can, by far, be alone with

his consciousness. And what I

was seeing, proved something to me.

In that unbelievable situation what was happening

to me, was a scientific argument rather,

for something. It should have a

purpose. Not just a biochemical complex

of my mind, of my memory. It was a

reason to analyze the past and its values.

Places, sounds, colors, scents.

Accompanied by gestures,

that only I could decompose them...

Feel them.

For everyone, the past is a personal

movie, with the secret feelings.

Only the one who has experienced them,

can feel them again as they once were.

We are unique and so are our memories.

All the images of the past had

something in common. The emotion of love.

Each image transmitted to me, now,

being in the damaged cosmic capsule waiting

for my end, that love is all that remains

when time and the material world

decompose. When nothing is around and

in my case absolutely nothing is alive.

Atoms can exist in two places at the

same time. And everything is made of atoms.

When someone studies the

properties of atoms, they discover

that reality is stranger than

anyone would have imagined.

The particles really have the ability, in a

sense, to be in several places

at the same time.

[ominous music]

Maybe it exists. That parallel Universe.

The Universe of immaterial of the feelings.

And there, nothing is lost, nothing is gained,

everything is transformed. And that parallel

Universe I was feeling it right-now.

The love-Universe.

There is so much love boiling in

people's hearts. It goes out, goes in

gain the form and expressions. Of deeds of

art. A painture, a sculpture, a song, a word.

An embrace. A carres. But it also demands to change.

Love can't go perish just like that.

Where is she leaking? It cools

in the infinity of the sea maybe?

In nature nothing is lost,

everything is transformed

And then, does love, wandering

through the Universe, get somewhere?

Maybe there is a law to preserve it?

Love as energy, scientifically unproven force.

Then, I realized. My rational explanation

was that that red stream, migrating

from Earth can only be love as an immaterial

element. In transformation and transfer.

Where and when, I couldn't figure it out.

It's just that love has materialized and

coagulated into the most important place

in an unseen Universe.

[suspenseful music]

She was traveling somewhere. She was leaving the

dead Earth. The barren Blue Planet. Of the past.

She migrates. Like a solar wind. To an unknown place.

I was struck by the conception of

Oriental mystical authors who mentioned

"Shambala".

That secret center of the Universe,

from where our planet is ruled.

That mystical place, hidden somewhere inside Asia

or in an invisible parallel world in Cosmos.

[tiping]

In another Universe.

I was in the nebula...

And through all that matter,

flashes flashed and shuddered.

There were some globules

moving, with hypervelocity.

The capsule's electric batteries

were significantly discharged.

The capsule's electrical system

failed completely at some point.

The whole "Genesis 1491", was paralyzed.

The cold was beginning to set in the cabin.

The sun was hided to Earth. The shadows,

the darkness would take over my orbit.

And I had traveled to a place

I called the Heart of the Universe.

Because that's where all the plasma migrates.

That's where my capsule goes.

That's where I am going...

Yes, for me, it exists this place!

I was in the Heart of the Universe.

All the love that existed and will exist

[soft music]

in the Universe, between human beings went there.

Which was never to be lost but accumulated

on our planet, and now, for reasons

reasons I could not fully understand,

following that cataclysm, the human holocaust,

it had to migrate elsewhere.

That's where my capsule goes.

That's where I'm going. For now.

Maybe it's worth my luck.

To die in that river of emotions.

But still.

I was alone.

Fourth Sunrise

[tiping]

Alone in the boat again. It was

foggy all day. Night is coming.

I look at the stars. I am thirsty. Hunger.

I've lost my way. The fog did not rise.

Then, I discovered that 4 hours had passed.

The cold settled into the cabin. The

flying instruments seem completely blocked.

Now, I was scrutinizing the nebula around me.

The only company was my conscience and my memories.

The only thing that accompanies us in solitude.

The past. And the love of the past.

To be or not to be? What was next for me?

I decided not to try anything. And

wait. A few good minutes passed.

Oxygen was running low, carbon dioxide was at

dangerous levels, communications were dead.

And the cold had settled in the cabin.

I was shaking. -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The suit was no longer effective.

I was still in the shadow of the Earth.

A planet that looked dead. Abandoned.

I don't know if I could resist longer. Or, if I still

have the will to resist. And it didn't matter anymore.

But still, I wanted to be with my

owns. Even if they passed away.

Even though there is no life

on Earth, I was a human being

and I wanted to return to my home.

Then, I thought that even though the collision

with the asteroid some of the connections

of the radio transmitter's

electrical board can be fixed.

The same goes for the control

panel of the re-entry thrusters.

I had an idea!

Mission time was 48 minutes and 30 seconds.

A strong feeling made me not give up...

I had to somehow land on Earth. I had to be back...

It was my last wish.

Maybe, if I straightened the

pins, I could reconnect them!

But they were stiff.

Everything has frozen inside capsule.

A few seconds afterwards,

from the curvature of the Earth, a beam of light, rises.

It's the sun. The beloved Sun. My Savior.

Through the porthole, I see the

growing ray of warmth and hope.

Its the Fourth Sunrise. I have an idea.

The camera lens is a glass

that can focus the sun's rays.

I'm breaking the camera. It

can produce a strong heat beam.

Which can melt the copper connectors.

The glass of the camera, is a kind of thick lens.

I adjust it to the window, then

focus the sun's rays through the lens.

I'm waiting.

I'm waiting.

Slowly, slowly, with frozen hands, I manage to heat and

burn the electrical

connectors of the control panel.

The metal of the electrical

connectors, receives the

solar energy. It's warming them. The metal turns red,

then orange, close to the melting point, hot and soft.

It is enough to twist the

damaged metal pins and restore

the contact with the radio transmitter panel.

Then the control panel. It could work.

I check. A squeak, a murmur... The

radio connection seems to be working.

A victory!

I will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere

by manual commands!

My little cosmic capsule it's on

a downward reentry trajectory.

I could see the Earth.

I was coming back!

I understand I'm coming back from

the mission. From the solitude of Space,

to a dead Earth?

It didn't matter!

[suspenseful music]

It was my house. I had to be

home. I have nothing else to do.

[ominous music]

Even, though nothing exists, human love has survived.

She migrated to the Heart of the Universe.

And I was going back to a new house.

And that thought made me calm down.

The deepest emotion a man could create, was saved.

The best of people is not lost forever.

The love.

After a nightmare re-entry, I landed.

I exit the capsule.

All around, however, everything

seemed deserted. It was as I expected.

Although, it was hard to accept.

There was a pungent smell of rot in

my nostrils. The air was hard to breathe.

The composition of the atmosphere has changed a lot.

No sign of animal life. I didn't notice

any human beings around. No movement.

Something terrible really happened.

It seemed that the Earth, had indeed suffered

a complete extinction of humanity.

It's all gone. But... not the love.

She migrated to another part of the

universe. That made me somehow, resigned.

Nothing was lost, just transformed,

everything was different than I knew.

I was still at home. Even though, at

home it meant the cemetery of my ancestors,

of all that once was mine.

I decided to stay.

There was no point in anything else. To join my family.

I turned on the micro-cassette player in the capsule

and began recording the "US

Genesis 1491" mission diary.

January 4, 1962.

[tiping]

What really happened in the cosmic experience

of astronaut William Florescu?

What did he live and see?

I don't know exactly what led to

that holocaust of humanity. All I know

is that it doesn't matter if

we find the guilty. It's useless.

What was that red matter, always looking

for a coagulation, migrating from Earth?

Probably a flow of human

emotions and feelings. Of love.

How did he get there, Commander

William Florescu? I don't know exactly.

It was an accident. Favored by the impact

with the asteroid. Of the lack of oxygen

that followed. He may have been caught between the

worlds and universes. In a

multiverse. Of life and death.

But somehow, it reached

the parallel Universe of Love.

Just another place of the multiverse.

It's a hypothesis that I, the writer, throw to the sea.

Just as it is possible that the whole story, happened

only in the imagination of

astronaut William Florescu.

But, what is imagination?

Another world. Another universe.

But the reality I lived through

in my life is clear to me.

For me, the writer. I'm old.

As in Lavoisier-Laplace's physical theorem.

In nature nothing is lost,

[suspenseful music]

nothing is gained, everything is

preserved, everything is transformed.

And the same must happen with the

purest feeling created and felt by man.

Love is never lost but will be transformed

over and over again into unknown forms.

It will wander and wanders beside

us, on Earth or in the Universe,

even if humanity will no longer exists.

The love that was will never perish.

She saves herself and looks for new places.

And that makes me feel at peace with my whole

human existence...

And I, an old man, in my little caravan,

felt calm, ready to embrace a new

sunrise. Ready to embrace a new day.

In the heat of the morning sun,

on the shores of the Black Sea.

The Sun that once saved me of the frozen

capsule at the fourth sunrise of my mission.

And we, like the feelings that call us,

will always return to where we belong.

Home.

[soft piano music]