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Barnardsed

Words and music copyright ©2001 by Blake Hodgetts

It didn’t seem true
    It seemed like something you’d see in a play.
They gave us the news
    Using words we thought we’d never hear anyone say.
And the months flew past,
The preparations went so fast,
We all did what we had to do…
It didn’t matter who
Got hurt, but who would live or die,
Though looking back I wish that I
Were dead,
’Cause of what the scientists said.

There’s no mistake;
    At first we hoped that somehow they’d be wrong,
A lucky break,
    But I guess we’d have known anyway before long.
And the plans were made–
Though doom awaited those who stayed,
A chosen few would carry on
The genes and works of those who’d gone
Before, and so the ships were built
And filled, and to the stars full tilt
They sped…
’Cause that’s what the scientists said.

With weeks to go,
    They called me up and said I’d made their list.
I told them no;
    Without my wife and daughter I couldn’t exist.
“Space is short,” they said;
“There’s no room for an extra head.
We need your expertise aboard,
But we just can’t afford
To take more than just you alone–”
And at that point I cut the phone
Off dead…
To hell with what the scientists said.

Today I wake
    To find I’m half a million miles out,
A throbbing ache
    In my head is the answer to my anguished shout.
Now I understand
That their word was my command.
The supernova wouldn’t wait,
So in their hands they took my fate,
And now my lover and my girl
Will wait alone until their world
Glows red…
’Cause of what the scientists said,
What the scientists said.