“Well that’s pretty obvious: it was the adventure of it. As Dr. George Mallory put it in regards to Mount Everest on old Earth: because it was there. Our ancestors had an opportunity to see the stars and so they did.”

“That’s not true. They left because they had to. The oceans were acidified, the atmosphere was getting too hot for comfortable habitation, populations were out of control, resources of all kinds were starting to run into the scarcity wall – need I go on?”

“You’re such a pessimist, Cyn. Humanity had been looking at Earth’s moon since they could look up to the stars. The desire to leave Earth was always present.”

“That’s true enough, Bright. Yet they left out of necessity. None of those billions of mongrels actually got up off their asses to explore a new solar system – or even a new planet in person – until their backs were up against it. With no choice left the evacuations then started.”

“Come now! The ancient combustion rocket-engine craft were exploring the moon and sent their probes to Mars. More than a hundred years before the evacuations the Deep Black and Yuǎn de Jiàn Tóu probes with the Shen-Fukawa FTL drives were exploring the closest star systems to Earth. Why? Because they could. It was an adventure. The same adventurous spirit which caused ancient Chinese to set sail to distant lands, the American pioneers to conquer their wilderness, and hundreds of early astronauts to reach up to ‘touch the face of God’ as they said.”

“Psh! Nonsense. The evacuations were a necessary act! We’ve been over this! The irradiated landscapes made an impossible task out of feeding so many people, renewable energies proved not to be the magical cure-all to the world’s energy crisis, and regional strife from ineffective governance pitted the best minds of humanity against one another. Those who didn’t kill each other had enough good sense to cooperate long enough to get themselves to safety. With that action the colonies were born.”

“Now who’s not telling the truth, Cyn? If that was the case: why were Rigel and Axis and Wangxia founded? Those were done long before the evacuations. I say it was because of the opportunity to explore. The human heart has always desired this, as my aforementioned examples prove.”

“Bright, you frustrate me… I can’t deny that truth. Perhaps the reason our ancestors left Earth was for multiple reasons, then.”

“I suppose I can agree to that notion. Humanity has rarely ever done anything for one reason alone.”

“Good then that's settled. However, as we sit here in orbit above this long-abandoned, poisonous mud ball I have to wonder: why did we come back?”

Why did we leave Earth?

Why did we let them win?

We tried to be strong, but they chipped away at us everyday.

They created the scars that they could not see.

They laughed, they hit, they excluded.

They whispered, knowing we could hear them.

They stared, knowing we could see them.

They told us that the world would be a better place without us.

We told ourselves that we would be better off dead.

Day after day

We brought ourselves back from the edge.

They pushed us back.

They pushed us over.

When the day ended and we were alone

We still heard them.

Their voices became our voices.

No one likes you.

Weirdo, fatty, ugly, stupid, slut, freak.

Why don't you just kill yourself?

We forgot about the others.

The ones we left behind.

They were the people that loved us.

They lost us forever.

The bastards won.

Not everyone had to leave earth. Masses of humankind said, "Why did we leave earth?" They all asked themselves this question if only in their subconscious minds. The first four hundred of the "Rocket List" involuntarily boarded the vessel. Their thoughts stopped as did their hearts as they were projected beyond gravity.

The prisons were over populated to the point of daily riots. The cost to house and feed the inmates became unsustainable by the land with taxes maxed out so badly that the law abiders literally worked for the heinous criminals to survive.

It was rapidly becoming an unbalanced population between good citizens who were mostly employed and outlaws, the severely mentally disturbed and bums.

The wife of a leader at NASA had been tortured and killed during an all too common home invasion. The offenders claimed insanity.

It was tax time of the year and to him, it was passed time to make a bit of a change. He proposed "The Cell," a landfill on the moon, to Congress. It was a place for convicted prisoners to be placed, DOA.

The cost was minimal compared to the years of supporting locked up dangerously dysfunctional humans. Offenders would be placed on the "Rocket List" should sentencing be greater than five years. They could be removed from the list if their trial exonerated them. There were no more "Australias" left on earth.

No longer did people become police officers. Theft, violence, mass shootings and chaos in The United States were getting way out of hand. People had no choice; it was "us" or "them" that would die.

"The Cell" law was passed in 2040.

Now I am positive that there are a few constitutional violations in this write but one never knows if the Rocket List is in our uncertain future..