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MICROFICTION The Forge
Spring 2021
the last bit of life By: Joseph Mauceri
When the last of humanity has been wiped out. When all the animals have succumbed to ruin. When the last bit of bacteria has been completely eradicated. When the sun has scorched the earth clean. The last bit of life within this solar system will not rest within Earth. It will rest on Titan. The moon of Saturn, so stagnant and intriguing. The ice is its rock, where the frigid temperatures freeze ice into stone. Methane is its water, where it rains once every 1000 years. Earth will be devoured by the sun. Titan will begin to warm. The methane will evaporate, going into the atmosphere. The ice will begin to melt, freed from its icy prison. Whether it was brought to
Titan by a comet or laid dormant on the moon all along, life will take root. Single-celled organisms will multiply rapidly, becoming colonies, becoming plants and animals. Perhaps what will come will be like what once lived on Earth. Perhaps it will be something completely different. Will the wolf make a resurgence? For the next few million years, before the sun finally dies, while the largest moon of Saturn becomes a world, the last vestiges of life in the solar system will rest on Titan. Will intelligent life rule the solar system once again? And if so, will they make the same mistakes we did?
Artwork by James Gray
