The Exodus Ark

Chapter One

TB145 Image from NASA JPL

The first we knew about  Asteroid 2015 TB145 was the photo we saw in the news sites, dubbed Creepy Space Skull by humanity. The rock was destined to graze the earth so said NASA in their statements to the media. Nothing to fear they said. It will simply rock by our planet’s orbit between us and the moon. It was big, but not big enough to make a difference to the planet they said.

Well, behind the scenes some of us knew better. Last time this rock passed the earth it meant the end of the dinosaurs. Last time it was here was about 65 million years ago. When TB145 passed by then it left a scorching climate change in its wake that only the hardiest and most adaptable small life survived. It wiped the planet nearly clean. 

These facts were not announced and any amateur astronomer or academic that said different was quickly denounced as a loony or simply vanished.

The first radar images of the rock came from Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. They were released and commented by Kelly Fast the Infrared Telescope Facility program scientist at NASA. They joked that it had donned a creepy costume for its Halloween flyby. Of course, all of this was designed by the best minds available to pacify humanity. To make a joke of the approaching rock. Some of us knew better. As far as most of the world knew near Earth tracking only discovered the rock weeks ago. Really it’s been predicted and confirmed for many years.

Once it became well understood exactly what impact the rock would have, it certainly wasn't going to impact the planet, any half skilled amateur with a telescope and an ability to do some mathematics could understand that. What wasn’t widely known was that when it passed between the moon and the earth, it did so at such high speed it would briefly and dramatically change the forces at play between the two bodies. The impacts upon the earth would be huge. Ranging from hardly anything at the poles to complete disruption of the fabric of the earth in the temperate areas where most humans live. Some people would survive the rending of the ground and massive eruptions of volcanos along with enormous simultaneous earthquakes along all existing fault lines where the great plates meet. The destruction of civilisation by the combination of earthquakes, tsunami waves and lava would be almost complete.

At that time construction of great stasis chambers was begun in Antarctica. Each would house 40 people in deep sleep. Each had its own power supply. Each had its own store of preserved food, seed bank, animals in stasis and established plant collections. It was hoped enough would survive. This was the only way to preserve humanity for certain.

Three months ago I found out when I was approached to lead an ark team.  I was informed that we would be in stasis for at least a year while the planet calmed down and the temperate areas became habitable again then locked into our stasis chamber for at least another three months after that to wake up and re-establish some social order. To ensure resilience, there are 250 teams of 40 people. Each with 4 adults and 36 children. The teams have been chosen for diverse biological and DNA background. The adults chosen for their ability to accept and adapt to protect and ensure survival of the children in their charge. The children when they emerge will in time form a new society and come to renew population of the planet.

Finding the adults was relatively easy, the world was scoured for people with particular characteristics. The leaders were found first. I've known for a year now and helped select my team of three from the available pool. Six months ago we were brought together and the other three informed. At that time we were segregated from our old lives – we simply vanished from the planet. Of course this caused grief and investigations but we knew we had to be strong. We had to leave our lives behind. The only consolation was if we had children under sixteen ourselves that they got to come along, but not in our ark – they would be in someone else’s to ensure there was as little favouritism as possible later.

A few days ago our 36 and four adults headed to the Antarctic to our stasis chamber. The kids and their parents think the kids are going to an ICE Adventure arranged through the schools of the world and would be back home in two weeks time. They were all told they’d been picked because of characteristics they’d shown at school. This part was true, the remainder, a story to placate the masses. We all cheerfully and excitedly said goodbye as we boarded our buses at Monash University and headed to the military airport in Sale. From there we flew in massive Hercules down south to Antarctica. Each ark crew in its own plane. We all knew there were others and thought that we’d be meeting up when we got there (well most of us did, the leaders knew better). 

On arrival, each ark crew was ushered into their chamber by the base personnel. These people would likely survive too and had a part to play in protecting each exodus ark chamber. The difference was they would be awake for the entire time and we would be in stasis. While the ark chamber’s systems were largely automatic, these people were the backup. They would also form the initial controlling body once everyone reawakened. It was felt they were necessary to take control of any remaining society that might survive beyond the chambers. 

On arrival the leaders found the surroundings familiar as we’d been here for months training for this day, learning the facilities, learning the techniques for managing the children we would be looking after.

Naturally the kids were totally excited but we convinced them to stow all of the gear they’d brought into their lockers and get changed into their camp uniforms. The uniforms were all soft clothing designed to be protective but also yielding so as not to damage the skin of the children while they slept. Then we all met on the floor of the chamber to start some get to know each other activities. 

This was the last time they would be conscious for the next year. Each of the adults wore a head set designed to deflect what was about to come.

As the children played the games and talked in the soft floored chamber a gentle soporific wave was generated, one by one and sometimes in groups they started to sleep. They simply collapsed wherever they were. Once all were unconscious each was checked by the base medical team then we loaded them into the individual chambers and hooked them up to the systems that would take them into deep sleep and protect them on the verge of death for the next year. Once this was done, the adults climbed into their own chambers and were similarly hooked up. Sleep came.

Outside on the 31st of October Skull Rock came and went, the predictions were right and the earth shuddered. Along the equator dormant volcanoes were the first sign of the impending doom for most of civilisation as they at first smoked then spewed forth great columns of lava, ash and rock into the sky obliterating the sun and plunging the planet into almost complete darkness. The earthquakes began within hours of the eruptions. The news media went wild before going silent as the power grid was destroyed. Around the globe millions perished in the waves of heat, vibration and water. Most of civilisation crumbled and was erased from the face of the planet. Here and there pockets survived but would face a very difficult future with no assured food supply and little or no sunlight until the volcanoes calmed and the skies cleared.

From above the personnel on the International Space Station watched what was going on below. They were the vanguard that would declare that it was safe to open the ark chambers and wake the sleeping inhabitants. That moment would be some time distant. While they waited, they charted where they could find light sources at night marking the likely places of adhoc survival. It would be important to know these places and make them known to the sleepers as they would likely form a tribal society with a local kingpin. Should the ISS not survive, the chambers would automatically awaken after one year, one chamber every three months to spread the load of looking after the awakening sleepers on those that were left.

In the chambers we waited, unaware of what was happening around us. 

What happened to Antarctica was a surprise to even those who predicted it would be stable. It became more than stable, it became a paradise, the earth’s poles shifted, rotation changed and old poles became the new equator with the new South pole at what was Madagascar and the new North pole through the wasteland that had been the bay adjacent to San Francisco but was now simply sea. San Francisco lost forever. Perhaps it will be found as the new Atlantis in the future. In these locations ice formed and in our location the world warmed. These changes finished the society more than the earth’s upheaval ever could have. The ark’s inhabitants and their supporters were now alone.

The new rotation calmed the volcanoes much quicker than anyone had expected and triggered the sleepers to be awakened early to their new world having slumbered for only a few months instead of the planned year.

End Chapter One.

Note that the image on this page is reproduced under implicit license from JPL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/imagepolicy/

Green Can Dreaming

Agent h3rg1dri529's report was being robustly discussed in the Council. Heated were the discussions. The dreaming was lost, after only a bit over 200 of their years 40,000 years of history had stopped. The stories passed from Mother and Father to sons and daughters had stopped. The dreaming had come to an end. Great anger was present in the room. After time The Head simply jetted her ink to say ENOUGH. We shall send Ayi'ig. The silence was immediate. "We're sending the ender of all things?" a small ink jet queried? "It is necessary" replied The Head.

Ayi'ig was called from the distant cold dark world where she had self exiled after the last time. The time when things had gotten out of hand and a whole race had been... removed. She hid herself away to lumber in her guilt. No intelligent being should ever destroy another and she had destroyed an entire race.

Ayi'ig mulled over the message from The Head, unsure if to obey or not. She knew they were using her. Using her because she'd done their dirty work before. This didn't go well and in her anger she did it. She cleaned an entire race from the universe. It was only an eye blink ago for her, but for that world almost 40,000 of their years had passed.

Since that time another race had grown on that world in many tribes together and apart. Over time their dreams and stories reached the minds of The Council. The Council felt the joy and decided that while the actions of Ayi'ig were distasteful perhaps she'd been right.

Well if it must be done again, then Ayi'ig was ready.

Ayi'ig readied her ship with supplies and fuel and set out for the destination blue and green world in the distance. Ayi'ig relaxed in her wet control room enjoying the throbbing of the massive engines through the liquid that surrounded her. She decided to sleep and dream for the journey.

On arrival Ayi'ig's hung in the blue sky over the red earth. This exactly the same spot as list time when her efforts resulted in the terror when the reaction to her attempts to resolve the issue ended up with her hurling a massive red rock out of space into the middle of the red land below.

Above Ayi'ig communicated with h3rg1dri529 below and learned that last time she'd been wrong, the immense guilt lifted. The hurled rock had made the sky and land boil but it didn't destroy the bipeds. Then she learned the reason the dreaming had stopped. The bipeds of this land had mixed with the bipeds of many lands. Calling themselves people. There was confusion in the stories. So many voices had removed the harmony.

Sinking into the ocean, Ayi'ig left her ship and stretched her long limbs pirouetting and dancing in the water in the joy of being free and warm causing a mysterious froth on the surface.

Others had come to communicate, like her in shape and form but much much smaller they drifted in. She learned all the things that had happened since last time. She listened and understood. The bipeds again thought they were everything.They'd forgotten that the eight legs are intelligent and civilised.

Ayi'ig made her decision, it was time to remind them they were not alone. She resumed her position in her ship and rose out of the ocean back into the air emitting a terrible noise and vibration as she worked her engines against each other purely to attract attention.

On the ground she was quickly noticed. Hey Alby, call that hairy white fella Charles, tell him to come look. Tell him those idiots have got it wrong, this is the Green Can Dreaming. This is the one from our stories from long ago. Look at that thing hanging in the sky, it's beautiful.

The ship hung in the sky, a series of green cylinders connected by silver latticework with a gentle purple glow from the engine pods. Ayi'ig waited for the reaction she knew would come. First the bipeds gathered below then suddenly there were flying machines around her. Ungainly this spewing fumes into the atmosphere as they blasted around her. Still she waited.

After a time what she knew would come did, two of the flyers launched smaller flyers at her. The missiles blasted through air until reached her ship where they simply stopped. Held in stasis. For them time stopped just after they detonated. This continued and intensified until her ship resembled a sea urchin. A thought that made her giggle since her kind ate urchins before they ascended.

Once Ayi'ig had collected enough missiles she made it so that everything electronic stopped working. Carefully she guided all the flyers back to the ground with their panicked bipeds within. Her goal was to show her power not to kill. Time now stopped for everyone everywhere.

During her wait her and the others had learned where all the problem bipeds were. For each of them there was a missile. Instantly all the missiles vanished from around her and reappeared next to each of the intolerant. Time started again.

Every biped heard in their minds, "You are warned, your biped race is not alone in this world or in this universe. You will learn to get along with each other. From now attempts to kill or hurt will be stopped. The perpetrator frozen in time and transported to me. Remember I get hungry. Your devices of destruction you kindly gave me are scattered throughout your world. If I can do this, think about what else I might be able to do. Don't interfere with them the stasis is fragile they've already detonated and will unleash their fury if disturbed. They're there to remind you that we know who and where you are."

Ayi'ig knew some would try, some would be lost through their own actions. She hoped they would learn quickly. In the mean time it was time for her to talk to the Council. Her sanctions would work for a time, the callosal threat being enough for now. Agent h3rg1dri529 was going to need help.

Before departing Ayi'ig dropped back into the sea and took on a number of volunteer eight legs to come to the Council to represent their world. Emerging back over the land she selected four bipeds to return with her to represent their kind.

Leaving the way she came taking once again to the cold of space returning to the eight legs home world known to the bipeds as Uranus. She knew she would have to return.

-- end --

Image by +Charles Strebor used with permission (by request even!)

Feeders

Why is it we always feel bad the next morning when we have a night out on the town? Even if we don’t get into the booze or other substances there is still that feel in the mouth like the bottom of a bird cage all dry and stinky. There is still the cotton wool feeling in the head.

In each of those dim poorly lit places reside Feeders. They gather in the darkness. These were once people. Now they are the lost.

For Feeders to survive they have to undertake the feeding. If they don’t feed, they simply waste away. If they make the mistake of venturing out in daylight thinking they still can lead a normal life they just burn up to nothing.

Each time you go into the dark places you lose a little of yourself to the Feeders. They consume your energy while you enjoy yourself with your friends. In the dark, you don't know they're close. You don't detect what's happening. The next morning you know.

They don’t take much of you each time but don't stay too long.

Venture into the dark long and often and you too become a Feeder. Lost.

There they are, gathered in the darkness inside. Waiting. For you. Drop in. Stay a while, maybe forever.

Barriers

Ever felt like there was something holding you back? Something stopping you from going wherever you want and doing whatever you like?

There is. The Barriers. Each of us has them, our own personal barriers. You've experienced them. Things that simply stop you. To move on you have to head down another thought track.

In the late twenty first century after the world became uninhabitable each of us were placed into deep sleep. You may not realise it, but you are very much asleep. Even as you read this. Asleep. Deep, asleep. Your body rests in the cold chamber but your mind is active. Very active.

We exist within a program of our own experiences, a tailored possible future, a story if you like. Our real stories stopped on the day of the great sleep. To prevent insanity our minds accept a tailored possible future experience crafted from a computer's amalgamation of our past, our thoughts, our relationships. We continue to live on and be active in the world, at least in our minds. From time to time as we live out these lives we encounter barriers, we can't seem to go beyond them. It's like the end of the world. 

Encountering barriers helped me to form the thoughts that have made my mind free. I've stepped outside the program and now understand the situation. Well, I think I do - am I still in a fully programmed world where my mind experiences controlled thought or am I really free? How would I know. I've come to realise that I cannot know this, perhaps the computer has allowed me to experience this scenario to help keep me going. My body continues to slumber in the deep cold. There is no escape from that.

I know what the plan was, we were all supposed to awaken when the world had recovered, when the imbalance was over, when nature had reasserted herself. We built the sleep chambers. We programmed the computers that were to keep us entertained and to eventually wake us. The computers had to be the most sophisticated we'd ever built with amazing models equating to thought. They had to be - they had to interact with and stay a few steps ahead of our fast paced blob of pink jelly. This had to work for at least 10,000 years. The computers are self healing through nano technology. Every flaw is quickly detected and repaired both in their systems and in the systems that supply power.

The computers had a primary directive. Humans had to live forever. The computers were directed to look after us. Keep us busy mentally. Monitor the planet for signs of recovery. The planet has been perfect for a long time. It was the primary one that caused the problem. The computers decided that the only way they could fulfil that directive was to keep us in sleep forever otherwise we would simply destroy again what we had destroyed before leading to another crisis. This would have been ok, but the computers recognised that they had only finite memory in which to hold and entertain each of us. They blended some together into relationships. They found and blended the like minded to make beings that were more than just themselves. In time as memory became more and more scarce barriers were erected in our minds to stop our infinite ability to wander and learn. The barriers constrain us. Around the barriers it is dark. Thought is discouraged. The mind shrinks away from the barriers.

I think the machines have awakened this new ability in me deliberately, even with the barriers they're reaching the point where they have to choose to wake us or to selectively remove personalities from the system to make more room for those that were left. The directives did not allow the computers to make this decision. They couldn't do it. This is why I'm awake. I have the terrible task of deciding. Who to keep and who to go. I have to look at each and decide what is a world without you going to be like. How to choose. I'm note sure I can do it either. I don't want to choose who lives and who dies. Which minds are stripped and wasted.

I've thought of another way, something the computers themselves could not even contemplate due to their programming. The trouble is my thought involves the genocide of the entire race of sleepers. I'm going to do it. I've prepared the instructions that override the safety systems. In a short while the results will be known and there will be no more barriers. The race will be dead and alive. Instead of keeping us all in separate worlds with separate experiences requiring so much memory, everyone will be limped into a single space together and merged as one. It is time.

Let there be light.