Man is going places

All the way through the written history of man – sorry, ‘Man’ - there were adventures to keep you interested. Everything from the use of the first tools to the discovery of managing fire through to the first flights of the Montgolfier brothers, people had wanted more. During the 20th century the people of planet Earth started to realise that they were running out of living space, and in the first few decades of the 21st century there was an endless number of skirmishes, resulting in the all-out war of the Middle East, which cost Israel half of its people, and wiped out seven countries in the surrounding area. It seems that Israel’s neighbours were stupid enough to think that they would go down without a fight. During 2185, with the planet seriously over crowded, and more and more battles going on all over the place, an unassuming student from South Africa discovered the missing pieces in quantum physics and ion propulsion. The result was the first ever Faster Than Light drive. He announced it to a few close friends, and then within two hours the whole planet knew about it. He was instantly wanted by every TV and radio station across the planet. Three days later he was assassinated by a right-wing Christian group in the United States of America who had decided that since Faster Than Light wasn’t written about in the Bible then it was Blasphemy to even mention it, and utter Heresy to think about making it possible! Of course, having discovered the missing parts of the maths and physics that were necessary, it was another matter entirely to build the device. That took another century, and a lot of heartaches and deaths along the way. Tests and trials had failed, one after the other, until an Israeli scientist realised what the problems were, and refined the formulas. Within a decade they had the first craft assembled in orbit, and the team of four on the craft were looking forward to a quick trip to Jupiter and back, in the same day. No-one was more surprised than they were that it went completely to plan! Millions of miles were covered in minutes. For the rest of the 23rd Century, and into the first 20 years of the 24th it meant that Man had started to conquer the Solar System. It took another two centuries to establish the Solar System Bases (SSBs), as initially all the supplies had to come from Earth. After the hydroponics had been sorted out, and most of the SSBs were semi-independent, Man began to look further out. Since the only identifiable stars that were close were still over four light-years away, this was a bit different to the activities within the Solar System. A few more adventurous types had already gone - they couldn't wait for things to be sorted out on Earth. Working spacecraft became cheap and easy to assemble – families got together and created their own ships, and went on their own exploring journeys. Thousands of families vanished from the planet over just a few years. It was the ultimate explore - even more so than those early pioneer settlers of the USA, all that time ago. None of those early explorers had yet made it back home, to tell of what they may have found, and since the communications signal still had to go at light speed, it would be some time before any messages were heard. But Man being Man, he went soon enough - huge ships, some over a kilometre in length, with 2,000 people on board. The journey to the neighbouring stars was to take a few weeks, instead of centuries, and before long a sphere of settlements had been established around the Solar System. Some of the ships were government funded, but some were private - the big Corporations had the money to create and staff some of the big ships. So too did the Religions. Not that they knew where they were going, or who they were going to find, but they went, with their Religious fervour, to convert anyone who would care to listen, each to spread their Word. For all of this time the push for this was from Earth - massively over-populated, the Governments of Earth used every excuse that they could to get people off-planet. And it worked - the subsidies were quite large, and it did allow for an easing of pressure for those left at home; the planet started to breathe again. And so it was for century after century - they went exploring, and making claims of planetary ownership along the way. In all that time, no intelligence was found - of a type that was akin to that of Earth (self-aware, building, using tools, exploring...). Not a one. There were basic creatures, on a par with the lower-end life forms of this planet, but nothing higher. And still Man persisted. After a while the only explorers that were left were the Religious ones; they had the idea that it would be in the next system, that it will have the planet we are looking for, the people to show the Word of their God to... And it never happened. For the next 4,000 years Man explored, everywhere that he could. And slowly came to the conclusion that Man is the only one. There is nothing else out there. Which is where it all started to fall apart - the Religious followers began to question, and doubt their leaders. Why have we wasted all of our lives doing this work, when we could have settled, and had a good life? So they started to fall apart, and splinter. And disintegrate. Over the next 500 years it all crumbled - having established the Earth territories of thousands of light-years in diameter, the conclusion was that they could not go on. We are alone - if we are alone in all of this space that we have now mapped, we are alone in all of the Universe. And so Man started to die out; Why should we bother...? Each of the planets slowly died out. They had literally lost the will to live. They gave up communicating with others of the group, they abandoned all plans of building any more churches or mosques or temples of all kinds. They stopped having families, and just died out. The last remnants of the Governments on Earth put things in place. They secured everything that they could and put the robotic controls in full command. Then each of them, separately, got into their own space craft and left Earth. They flew in random directions, and after the first few days lost contact with each other. Man was gone. In all of the huge expanse of the Universe he had made his presence felt, and achieved – nothing! Man as a race was extinct and over the next few centuries Nature, on every planet, took its course and removed all traces that Man had ever been there. The weather systems eroded all of the buildings, and the bacteria in the ground and the air attacked everything, reducing it all to dust. Had there been anyone left to see this, they might have remembered the line from one of the earliest Holy Books “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”. Adam was reported to have come from the ground, and Man had now returned to its origin. Nobody was to know that two thousand years later a lone space craft – huge, with over 10,000 people on board – appeared in Earth space. They were not at all Human, but had arrived from another universe, where the technology had been similar to that of this Earth, just bigger and slightly better. But there was no-one left in this Universe to meet them.

The GENESIS project

“Ladies and Gentlemen...we interrupt this program with a News Flash. It seems that the mysterious experimental designer, who goes by the name of Yahweh, a.k.a. 'God', is trying to do it again! He has announced that he will be having another try at creating, in his words “something from nothing”! We go now, live, to our reporter on the spot, Moloch. Over to you, Moloch.” “Thank you, Gabriel. As you say, the mysterious experimental designer, who no-one really knows the identity of, is having another go at his latest experiment. We know that he has tried, and failed, 12 times already, so we are not at all sure what will be happening here.” “We do know that his latest trial is to be called the General Energy Stimulation In Stasis. He has already shortened this, to Genesis, so we are here, waiting to see how today pans out. The cameras are ready, the experimental artist is ready, and so we are all just waiting to see what will happen next.” There was excitement everywhere, with no-one, not even the artist, actually knowing what might happen, such was the level of this experimentation art. The cameras were rolling, the crowds were hushed, and the artist was standing very still, in front of his apparatus. All of it was designed and built by him – he was a brilliant mind, able to handle many different sciences. There had been rumours that the military were interested in some aspects of his work but no-one would either deny or confirm this. He raised his arms upwards, fingers outstretched, pointing to the stars. There was a pause, and then instantly he dropped them and they flew over the many controls in front of him. Nothing happened for a few moments, and then the crowd could see the familiar cloud forming in the middle of the huge room. He looked up briefly, to check that it was working and then his hands flew back to the controls. On and on this went, the artist moving so fast across the controls that he almost vanished as the clouds got darker and darker. All of this was done in silence. No-one spoke, few dared to even breathe, such was the excitement, and then, suddenly, they could see the beginnings of sparks within the cloud. It was happening! Perhaps this time he would make it to the end? The cloud now filled the rest of the chamber – it was a huge chamber but this cloud had grown to fill it. There was little to see, it was all formless and empty, and very, very dark. The sparks now turned to proper lightning and the tiny crashes of weak thunder could definitely be heard. Within minutes it had reached the next phase. The crowd could see that something was forming within the cloud – something solid! Oh, this was so exciting! It took shape, vague at first and then more solid. It was round, like a ball! It was also absolutely plain with no markings on it all – it was black everywhere. The artist decided that it was time to announce his plan. “People, if you will bear with me for a moment I just need to check some things.” He moved from the consoles towards the cloud, and peered into it, trying to see what was there. At one point he prodded it with his finger, and was pleased to see that a watery ripple went out from the point of contact. He turned and went back to the consoles. “People, thank you for your patience. So far, so good.” He played a few more moments on the consoles and then the crowds could definitely see that the cloud was getting clearer – it was as if someone had put a bank of lights up on one side of the dark round thing. Suddenly half of it was clear, while the other half was still in darkness. The artist was totally focussed on what he was doing, and the crowd could see that there were changes within the cloud – some form of solid masses were showing, where before there was only a rippling liquid, like water. Ooh, this was exciting! The cameras zoomed in to the newly formed land and they could see changes taking place. The artist turned to the cameras and announced “Ladies and Gentlemen, this concludes the first part of my work. As it has gone so very well I anticipate that it may take a few more days, after which I will need a rest!” He smiled to the cameras, feeling very well rewarded. “If I am lucky it should be over in just less than a week.”