Hopes and Dreams 1

As he walked along the shore the waves splashing at his feet Joe looked up at the sky to see the first stars of the night shining dimly in the twilight. 'I wonder where out there we came from?' he thought sitting down at the waters edge.
It had been millennia ago that his ancestors had settled here on Hope. They had left earth after war and global warming had made the earth uninhabitable. Some traveled in stasis in large cryogenic ships while others who could not afford that luxury traveled in generation ships in search of new planets to call home. Joe had been told that his ancestors had traveled on the Generation cattle ship the Ark. They were farmers as his family still are.
Joe had often wondered what earth was like, yes they were told about it in history at school and in family stories passed down from one generation to the next, but to him it was not the same as really knowing. For as long as he could remember he had dreamed of leaving Hope. He wanted to travel to the other colonies and beyond but his father had aways told him to stop dreaming as his place was on the farm.
He had tried to find out more about earth but most of earths recorded history had been lost in the final war before the evacuation had taken place. He had found a book about the final war that had been written by a soldier who after serving in the war was posted as a weapons officer on a European defence ship.
He would never be able to know for himself what the earth smelt, sounded and looked like before that final war.