Earth: The Future is History (5 page)

Noya: “Skip the details, Filip. We don’t have
all day.”

Filip: “The real problem was that we didn’t
know where to go. Space exploration was effectively shut down
shortly after the beginning of the third world war while all
funding was directed towards the war effort. We knew our own solar
system didn’t hold any promise, extensive research had already been
performed on it before. We needed a planet with conditions close to
Earth’s: gravity, temperature, atmospheric pressure. The last one
was, and still is, one of the more challenging problems; the
atmospheric stabilizers have a very narrow operating margin. So no
planet in our solar system was suitable for colonization, not at
the massive scale we needed. Mars was selected as a contingency;
but moving to Mars and remaining there indefinitely – its low
gravity and its effects on the human body were something to be
avoided, if at all possible.”

Noya: “Okay. Let’s jump ahead to the
invention of the first negative mass engine: the Alcubierre Drive;
better known as a Warp Drive today.”

Filip: “In the summer of 2107, more than
twenty-thousand probes were dispatched to analyze the conditions on
twenty-thousand planets spread across the galaxy. In a proud moment
for mankind, that marked the first field deployment of the
Alcubierre Drive, outside test conditions: a tremendous leap
forward for space travel. NASA – the foremost authority on space
exploration before WW3 – had already proven it would work before it
was permanently closed. We just picked up the research after the
W.A. formed, and with a whole planet of scientists working
together, it only took 6 months to build the first working
prototype. It was imperative we developed it into a working
technology; without it, we would have spent decades or even
centuries moving between solar systems – something that we could
complete in mere moments using the “warp drive”. Fitted with these
engines and quantum communication units, the probes that survived
the transfer to other planets started transmitting data within
seconds of deployment. Nineteen-thousand planets analyzed and only
two candidates were viable. They named the planets Asha (Hindi for
“Hope”) and Jatko (short for “Jatkotoimet”, meaning “The way
forward” in Finnish). Asha was rich in the ore and minerals we
needed, but its atmosphere required years of terraforming. There
was also a problem with the probe, giving some strange readings
just before its communication unit overloaded and we lost contact.
Why it malfunctioned is still unknown. Jatko’s low-depth scans
revealed only small quantities of usable ore and minerals, but its
atmosphere was perfect to sustain human life. It was believed that
the resources we needed could be found deeper underground, deeper
than we could scan from orbit. It seemed like the more promising
candidate between the two planets. On December 29
^th
2107
we sent a research team to further investigate the planet from the
surface. By New Year’s Eve, the harm was already done.”

I’ve been moving
faster than usual, following the cable, hoping it will lead me to
some answers. I haven’t seen anything yet, but as I’m closing to
the center of the Dead Zone, I’m bound to find something soon.

The cable seems to continue through a gap in
the side of the mountain in front of me. As I peek through the
hole, I realize that it’s not too thick and I can continue
following the cable on the other side. But it’s too long to go
around it, so I’ll have to climb over. Another climb… luckily this
is a short one.

The rocks aren’t so cold here, no ice on
them. I climb a lot faster, excited to reach the end of my journey.
In mere moments, I’m on the top, pulling myself up on one side and
standing up to see the far side area in the center of the Dead
Zone. I’m the first of my kind to see it.

With pride and joy and excitement I move
towards the far ledge, eager to see what lies on the other
side.

… ?

What is this? Structures? Here!? Strange
looking buildings, arranged in a disorganized spiral around a
massive, tall center piece; movement; immense machinery spinning,
whirring, digging, transporting huge quantities of rock, processing
it; a dark cloud of black fog rising from the center building,
spreading over the entire area; deafening, constant thumping noise;
strange creatures commanding the machinery, organized together in
square patterns, moving, all carrying weapons. What is this? What
are they doing here? What’s their purpose? This can’t…

My thoughts are interrupted by loud noises
behind me. As I turn around, I see them, these… strange looking
creatures running towards me, generating loud, repetitive noises,
their weapons pointed at me. What do they want? What are they
doing?! Instinctively I grab my rifle, I grip it hard, desperately
trying to aim it and defend myself…

***

Admiral Sterrow: “Colonel Harris,
report!”

Colonel Harris: “Two shots, sir. The ashan is
dead, situation contained.”

Admiral Sterrow: “Did it get any transmission
out, Colonel?”

Colonel Harris: “Negative sir. The
containment bubble is still in place.”

Admiral Sterrow: “Good job Colonel. Get back
to H.Q.! We need to report back to Earth and advance the invasion
schedule of Asha.”

Colonel Harris: “Yes, sir!”

Alexei, analyzing
the absent looks of all the present councilmen: “Of course it’s not
a coincidence, we triggered an entire race’s rapid evolution! And
just like the mistake we did on Jatko, we did it because we “didn’t
know better”! That’s who’s giving you your orders, Mr. Sterrow.
People who “don’t know” any better. Like small children, they
stumble in the dark, they break things, and all they have to say
after is “Sorry, we won’t do it again”? These are the people
leading Earth and they have no sense of responsibility!”

He turns his attention to Sterrow: “I need
you to realize who you work for, soon, before we reach the
conclusion of this meeting.”

He turns to the War Council again: “Are you
even sure that, considering what they are, they don’t know we’re
coming?”

The councilman next to the President, on his
right, responds: “We constantly monitor them from orbit and there
are no indications that they are aware of our presence, sir. We
have very efficient tech against that. After we analyzed the data
we received just before the first probe’s communication unit
overloaded, we theorized that the ashans were using some sort of
wireless communication between themselves, some sort of telepathy.
We took precautions when we sent the second probe, but we didn’t
consider that the entire planet is connected, so the second probe’s
communication unit overloaded as well. It took more research, but
we are now fairly certain we can shield our tech from them, and
ourselves. And with the help of Captain Herut’s report, we’ve
developed tech to effectively shield entire areas, making them
invisible. That tech has been deployed and tested with the
construction of our unit production facility on Asha.”

Admiral Sterrow: “They still don’t know about
it, so yes, I’m sure they don’t know we’re coming.”

President Locke is quietly observing the
unfolding of this meeting; he is briefly disturbed by someone
entering the room and whispering something unintelligible in his
ear.

Noya takes over
the story: “We effectively wiped out all life on an entire planet
in just one day. In our righteous quest to save our species, we
managed to eradicate countless others. A simple, unforgivable
mistake, contaminated the planet and killed every living thing on
it. A day forever engraved in history as The Jatko Genocide.
Although the name is inaccurate – there were no intelligent life
forms present – it describes the outrage Earth’s population had to
the news. But nothing happened, no one seemed to want
accountability for this event. In the years after, the World
Alliance became increasingly opaque, less informative about their
actions. We can only guess about what decisions were made behind
closed doors.”

Noya: “Filip, how did we manage to kill
everything on an entire planet? And why aren’t we already living
there right now?”

Filip: “It was a virus, one that we brought
with us from home. It rapidly underwent extreme mutations and
within hours it was attacking and infecting every single cell on
Jatko. And as soon as something died, it started a rapid
decomposing process, releasing an unknown, toxic gas in the
atmosphere. This was a planet-wide, extremely fast process. Between
the unknown gas and the new, unknown strain of the virus, it was
decided that the planet was no longer viable for colonization. We
did, however, manage to find some usable ore deposits deep below
the surface. President Archer ordered the start of a mining
operation on Jatko and the dispatch of a second probe to Asha.
Mining operations began the same year and with the output it
provided, scientists estimated Earth’s total collapse point would
be delayed by another hundred years. With this monumental
achievement, Earth seemed no longer imminently doomed and hope was
restored to an entire planet”.

Noya: “As I said in the beginning, history is
a great tool that gives us perspective, a way to look back and
wonder how we could have done things differently. Looking back now,
on this key moment, seeing the unfolding of future events in their
entirety, I cannot help but wonder how things would have turned out
if we made different choices about handling this
accomplishment.”

Filip: “This reminds me about the
“incompetence” I first mentioned. It took the World Alliance from
2105 to 2108, only three short years, to develop a functioning warp
drive, scan thousands of planets and begin mining operations on one
of them. But another twelve years would pass before the completion
and deployment of the second probe to Asha. How is that possible?
What were they focusing on, if not on saving everyone?”

Noya: “It’s called corruption, Filip. A word
that’s been used so many times that it lost its meaning. You hear
it everywhere, every single day, over and over again; and yet you
don’t perceive it for the fundamentally broken mechanism it builds.
And in our current state, there’s not much we can do about it; no
matter how many riots or revolutions we have, no matter how many
times we change our leadership, or in fact who we place there,
corruption will still show its ugly teeth, sooner or later. Because
this is but a symptom of a much, much worse, underlying problem
with humanity!”

Noya smiles with the realization that she’s
moving forward too fast. They must not be told what the real
problem is, but come to that conclusion themselves. “Filip, tell me
about the second probe we sent to Asha.”

Filip: “The probe, the first of its kind,
equipped with a first generation terraforming platform, was
deployed in the spring of 2120. Initially transported to a high
Ashan orbit, it immediately started recording data while gradually,
slowly degrading its orbit to achieve better and better scan
resolutions. This mission was vastly more complex than the probes
we previously sent; we were looking for a lot more data, performing
deeper scans from orbit, gathering weather patterns, learning all
we could about existing life forms before sending a manned mission,
trying to determine what caused the failure in the communication
unit for the previous probe and finally determining the perfect
landing site to start the terraforming process. After a few months
of data gathering, it became clear that the planet was inhabited by
some sort of intelligent life. It appeared to be a somewhat
primitive civilization living in small settlements, with no
apparent signs of advanced technology.”

Noya: “Intelligent alien life finally
discovered! Were it not for the dire situation we were in, this
would have been perceived as the monumental event it was. Instead,
it was met with a bitter-sweet response. We had finally found out
we weren’t the only intelligent civilization in the galaxy… but
this alien civilization was standing on the only planet that could
ensure our survival. The news was more bitter than sweet…”

Filip: “I just wish I knew what they looked
like… W.A. didn’t release any more information about them, after
the initial news.”

Noya: “My guess is that they avoided building
sympathy for the ashans, turning them into an abstract concept so
that when the day came to occupy their planet, it will be easier
for us to cope with the event.”

Young, blonde woman: “Why haven’t we invaded
them yet? We’re dying, we have a planet we can take, so why not
just do it? I think we should go there, wipe them out and start
building a new home!”

Filip: “Really? You would take the decision
to wipe out an entire civilization just like that?”

Young, blonde woman: “Look, it’s us or them.
Simple! What’s there to think about?”

Noya: “Quite a lot, actually. Are you sure
there aren’t any alternatives? The W.A. certainly hoped there are:
over the years, they’ve dispatched tens of thousands more probes to
scout countless other worlds. Unfortunately, none were viable. And
with the passing time, we stopped looking for alternatives. So Asha
and its inhabitants, we came to call ashans, became an obstacle
between us and our survival.”

Noya: “What happened to the probe? Did it
start terraforming?”

Filip: “After mapping the entire planet, we
moved the probe to a low orbit and started preparing it for
landing. Even though most of us were supporting an invasion, our
leaders failed to come to any decisive conclusion. Instead, a
cautious course of action was chosen: we’d land the probe in a
naturally isolated part of the planet and start a partial
terraforming process. The area chosen for landing was surrounded by
high mountains, void of life, effectively isolated for the
primitive ashans, but rich in resources we could use. The
terraforming process would convert only the area within those
mountains to Earth conditions – and keep it that way until a final
decision would be made. We landed the probe in early 2121. Although
we lost contact with the terraforming unit shortly before it
landed, the orbital module dispatched by probe confirmed it landed
safely and started the automated process. Again, it seemed like the
communication unit had overloaded, and again, we still don’t know
why.”