⌚ Approximately 10 minutes to read
⚠ Content Warning: death of parents, loneliness, isolation, survival in harsh conditions, grieving, and mining accidents.
Morgan woke up to the sound of his alarm, signaling the start of another long day. He rubbed his eyes and sat up on the small cot that served as his bed. There was a larger, more comfortable bed in the ecodome, but it had belonged to his parents and it still didn’t seem right to sleep in it. Besides, his parents’ room was still full of their things. He hadn’t had the mental fortitude to go through and put things away, yet.
He glanced around the dimly lit room. The walls were worn and there was a small pile of dirty clothes in the corner. Otherwise, the room was pretty sparse. A dresser stood against one wall with a picture of Morgan — 10 years ago… Could it have been so long ago, now? — with his first real find, a large chunk of gold ore. Opposite that stood a shelf with AR goggles, earbuds, a few print books, and various trophies collected during his lonely childhood on Asteroid #23749, nothing of any value but sentiment.
He yawned and stood up, stretching his arms and legs before walking over to the small sink in the corner of the room.
“Lights,” Morgan said through a second yawn. Sam, the AI which had traveled in the ship here with his parents so long ago and then been uploaded to the ecodome dwelling they had lived in since, lit the small room with soft overhead lighting.
“Good morning, Morgan.”
“Hey, Sam.” Morgan tried to sound enthusiastic, but lately, it was difficult to feel much other than loneliness.
Still, Sam had been Morgan’s only friend for most of his life. Perhaps it was strange to think of an AI that way, but other than his parents and the few people he’d met the times he’d shuttled into Epiphany — the largest asteroid in the belt, with a city of the same name covering most of its surface — Morgan had never met another lifeform to call friend.
The sink was old and rusty from years of use and neglect, but it was the only thing he had to wash himself with. He splashed some water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror. His dark hair was messy and his brown eyes looked tired. He sighed and grabbed his work clothes, getting dressed and quickly wiping some old wax from his earbuds before popping them in his ears.
He left his small home and walked outside, and, despite the low gravity, he felt the weight of his responsibilities settling on his shoulders. The asteroid was a desolate place and survival here was tenuous. It had taken his parents every waking hour of the day and every tiny speck of gold they could mine to keep the place filled with oxygen and enough crops to eat to keep them from starving. Repairs to the ecodome and upkeep of the home were usually rushed if there was time for them at all.
Sometimes, the rocky ground and the huge crater that surrounded his home made it feel more like a prison than a home. Nevertheless, Morgan took a deep breath and started his day.
First, he checked on his crops, making sure they were getting enough water and sunlight. He had to grow his own food since there was no other way to get any. He tried not to think about how little protein vitamin powder he had left, how much he missed fresh meats and dairy, and how much he relied on the meager harvest from his small garden. With his parents gone, he didn’t dare shuttle to the city. There would be no one to guard the homestead against claim jumpers, or worse… It would take quite a find for him to be able to afford a courier drone pick up and drop off, though. A once in a decade ore vein, if he was lucky.
“Ouch!” A droplet of blood welled up on Morgan’s thumb, where he had pricked it on a thorn in his carelessness.
“Morgan, are you in need of assistance?” Sam sounded concerned as her voice came through to him over the earbuds.
“No, I’m fine. Just being an idiot and not paying attention to what I am doing.” Morgan sucked on his thumb, looking over the garden to see if there was anything else needing tending to. Deciding that it was as good as it would get for now, he plucked the ripest fruit he could find and ate it on the way to the edge of the ecodome.
Placing the pit on a large rock to plant later, Morgan donned his helmet, suit, and oxygen tank and stepped into the airlock. After the familiar whoosh of the air flooding back into the ecodome — every particle counts, his mom used to say — Morgan stepped out and put on some music in his earbuds before making his way into the rickety elevator and down into the mine shaft.
Morgan sometimes preferred faster beats as he spent hours digging and searching for precious stones, but today he decided on a slower playlist his mother had liked. As he dug, there was a brief moment of hope when he saw something shine in the circle cast by his helmet light, but it proved only to be a wet streak on the rock. He hoped it was runoff from the garden or septic system and not evidence of a leak in the greater plumbing system.
“Sam?” Communication with the AI was sometimes difficult at this depth, but Morgan thought it was worth a shot. Her reply was a bit garbled but understandable. “Please run a diagnostic on the plumbing system and let me know how everything looks when I get back topside.”
“On it,” Sam said.
Morgan continued digging, finding a small gemstone. He explored the area, hoping to find more, but to no avail. He had been mining for nearly ten hours when he finally gave up, sighed in disappointment, and headed back to his home at the bottom of the crater.
As he stepped out of the elevator and made his way back inside, Sam reported that there was no evidence of a leak in the plumbing. Morgan turned off the music, trying to decide what to listen to as he prepared dinner. He took off his helmet and wiped a few lingering tears from his face. Had they been from the frustrations of mining all day with nothing to show for it? Was the music and memory of his parents still effecting his mood? Probably a bit of both he decided.
“Are you still mourning your parents, Morgan?” Sam asked through the earbuds. She had taken an interest in Morgan’s grieving process since the death of his parents and seemed to want to help him in whatever way she could.
“Yeah,” he said. It felt good to open up about it and have someone to talk to.
“What are you thinking about?”
Morgan wasn’t sure at first, but as he contemplated the question, the scene replayed in his mind’s eye.
“Remember the day that we went up to the edge of the crater and had a picnic?”
“I do,” Sam said. “It was a good day.”
“Mom put on the playlist. You know, the one with the old Earth music and the saxophones? And then after we set up the minidome and ate dad took me out and we looked at the stars.”
“Indeed. And he told you about the constellations, their names in Greek, and about Plato. Your father was always a deep thinker.”
“Yeah.” The tears were back, but Morgan made no move to wipe them away. “What was it he said about shadows on the wall?”
“Would you like me to play you a recording of what your father said?” Sam asked.
Morgan thought about it. “Yeah.” He sniffed and wiped his nose on his arm before adding, “Please.”
After a moment, his father’s voice came through the earbuds.
“Plato said once that some people are like captives, sitting in a dark cave. Behind them is a light and they can see the shadows of what is really going on, playing out on the cave wall.
“I’ve always thought that the stars are like reverse shadows on the wall. Instead of keeping us ignorant of what’s really going on, the lights in the sky force us to keep asking for more, imagining more, wanting more…”
Morgan sat in silence for a while, thinking about what his father had said.
“What did he mean, Sam?”
“Your father?”
“No. Plato.”
After a moment, Sam replied, “Plato’s analogy of the cave is a metaphorical story that describes the difference between appearances and reality. In the story, prisoners are chained up in a cave and can only see the shadows of objects cast on the wall in front of them. They believe the shadows to be real and have no knowledge of the true nature of the objects.
“Eventually, one prisoner gains their freedom and is able to see the real objects, but when they return to the cave to share their knowledge, the other prisoners do not believe them and think they are crazy. The analogy suggests that humans are like the prisoners in the cave, and that the physical world we see around us is like the shadows on the wall. The true reality is hidden from them, and we can only gain knowledge of it through philosophy and education.”
Morgan thought about this as he made his way through the garden, picking some vegetables for dinner.
Aetherloft 
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