I looked up into the sky, where the last spaceships from earth were. Nothing but tiny specks and blurs of their drives can be seen with naked eye, but that didn't make it any less melancholic. They are gone, and with them an era of hardship, stress and confusion.

They USA and other western nations had built a space elevator. Slowly they built entire indistries out there, in zero-gravity or on the moon. With those they built myriads of ships, and... left. Because the climate crisis had destroyed too much pand before being stopped and "life in space is better". More adventurous. I doubt it, but whatever. They invited everyone they wanted to go aboard for a new life in the void, on other planets or that new construction site of a dyson ring. And told the rest they're free to whatever they left behind. The elevator was still standing, but as of now, a ticket up or down was unobtainable for anyone not a diplomat, billionaire or miracle worker sciencist.

Most dictator-led countries on earth are collapsing. Not from revolutions but simply lack of people to support them, as most mistreated did it like the mad spacers and just left. After all, there's enough free space now.

The newfounded governments on the old spacer territories are a bit dicey, but they seem to have learned from both the spacers and their own origins. Sure as hell the spacers still have had their hands in play when they were formed, but I think that's for the better.

And here I stand, left with the legacy of earth. And the chance to help in a new era of earth's history to leave my mark. Smiling, but feeling tears of sadness rolling down my checks regardless. For I knew every human had made a choice. The spacers gave up their past, and we gave up the stars.