If ExFor ever ends ...
Final Scene
The war had ended so long ago that no living civilization remembered how close the galaxy had come to silence.
Earth was just another bright world among thousands.
Children studied the Elder War the way people once studied the Roman Empire.
Most historians weren't even certain Joe Bishop had existed.
Some said he was an invention—a myth created to explain humanity's unlikely rise.
Others insisted there had never been a being named Skippy, only an anonymous Elder sentinel.
The old stories blurred together until they became folklore.
Far beyond the galactic plane, an observation station drifted in darkness.
Its corridors were quiet.
A young lieutenant hurried after a figure in an aging pressure suit.
"Sir!"
The suited figure stopped but didn't turn.
"The Council wants confirmation before you leave.
They said... they said the region has been peaceful for over eight hundred years."
A pause.
Then, in a familiar dry voice:
"Well... that's exactly when somebody decides to do something spectacularly stupid."
The lieutenant smiled despite himself.
"You really think someone still needs to stand watch?"
Another pause.
"Kid..."
The figure looked out through the enormous observation window.
"...someone always has to stand watch."
The outer hatch cycled open.
Stars spilled into the chamber like frozen diamonds.
The figure lifted the helmet... but never put it on.
There was no need.
He stepped toward the airlock.
As he passed beneath the lights, the lieutenant finally saw his face.
Not ancient.
Not youthful.
Just... human.
Strong jaw.
Kind eyes.
Lines earned by responsibility rather than age.
A face that somehow felt strangely familiar.
The hatch closed.
The suited figure drifted into the sea of stars.
Only then did the lieutenant notice the old display case beside the airlock.
Inside rested a faded photograph recovered from twenty-first century Earth.
The brass plaque read:
GENERAL JOSEPH BISHOP
United Nations Expeditionary Force
The lieutenant stared.
He looked from the photograph...
...to the disappearing figure outside.
The faces were the same.
Impossible.
The station historian stepped beside him and quietly said,
"People always assume he chose that face because he wanted to honor the General."
The lieutenant nodded.
"Isn't that why?"
The old historian smiled.
"No."
He looked through the glass as the solitary figure became another point of light among the stars.
"I think..."
"...after enough centuries..."
"...he simply forgot there had ever been another one."
The observation room fell silent.
Far away, the lone traveler never looked back.
On the back of the pressure suit, stitched in worn white letters, was a single name.
SKIPPY
And somewhere, carried across the infinite darkness on an open radio channel no one else could hear, came one last amused voice.
"Don't worry, Joe."
"I've got the watch."
