“Sure I would be glad to. But before I do, would you mind telling me one thing? Ummm, this thing isn’t going to crash and kill us all is it?”
The passengers all snickered, “No it’s not. The transporters have fail safes on top of more fail safes. There hasn’t been an accident in over 50 years.”
The Stranger breathed out, “OK good. Thank you”, he continued,“Yes of course, I am a time traveler from the future, I have travelled through several cycles of civilization to get here, 6 in fact, each cycle being a somewhat predictable segment of evolution leading ultimately always to atomic disaster. I found each preceeding cycle easier to work with, but have not been able to convince any government thus far of the need space travel, nor have they been intelligent enough to evolve it even when I give them hints. Therefore I have come here to help you. Your world will be destroyed by Nuclear holocaust, according to my calculations in about a week from now to two weeks, I just can’t be sure. In fact you should be destroyed already, I actually don’t know why you are still here.”
“I see. You base your calculations on the Trinitite which you carry yes?”
“Correct.”
“All right, we will run our own analysis on it to confirm. We will arrive at the Grand High Council in about another hour and they will review what you just told us and deal with it accordingly. But I must say I find it highly unlikely for our world to end in nuclear disaster especially considering the fact that we have no unstable atomic elements on the surface of our planet.”
“Well that can’t be. There has to be something you have missed. Is there the possibility that some rogue agency has synthesized radioactive materials and would try to create a weapon?”
“We have certain individuals amongst us who are untrustworthy. However because we deal in an extremely high ethic level it is always strikingly apparent and easy to identify those who would be untrustworthy. It’s not something we worry about. If someone is actually of such a character, we ship them to another colony to live with other people we would deem untrustworthy. Should they choose to reform we bring them back and some of them do. Thus we live in a highly developed society.”
“Hmm, but there’s got to be something! Would this colony want to attack your planet for any reason, perhaps out of spite, and use nuclear weapons in doing so?”
“It’s unlikely. The colony, which is on one of our planets moons, does not develop very much technology and we would be able to detect anything of such a nature long before it ever posed a threat to our planet. We have safety systems to circumvent any attempt at sabotage or attack of any kind.”
The Stranger said,“Well there is an event in the far future you won’t be able to stop no matter how well developed you are. That is actually why I am here. You see your destruction is inevitable I am afraid. It cannot be stopped, disasters averted through time travel still occur, albeit in another manner. This I have learned the hard way. But the future event must be stopped, or there won’t be any future cycles anymore, even if your time line survives that long.”
“So you’re saying that the Fates are sealed and we cannot hope to stop the nuclear incident?”
The Stranger only nodded.
“That is most unfortunate. Our next plan of action is to date your glass and determine how much longer we have, now if I may inquire, did you have a plan of action in mind to save us?”
“Yes and no. I cannot save you from the Nuclear incident no matter what I do, and I believe neither can you. It will happen regardless of how safe you may currently feel or what measures you take. But man will rise again and begin a new cycle. And I am not here to stop that from happening, I am here to prevent the event from occurring that will wipe out our entire species permanently.”
“Hmm. When does this event happen?”
“It will take place approximately 724,000 years in the future and on THIS planet. There is no way to stop it.”
“That is most unfortunate. But if there is no way to stop it then why have you come?”
“While it is true that there is no way to stop it, we can however avoid it. We can not only avoid it but we can also avoid future instances of Nuclear apoclypse. I have been waiting to find a people as brilliant and understanding as yours to be able to accomplish this. I have not been able to do so previously. This time I believe I have found a people that are. I have found you.”
“Is that so?” The passengers all looked at each other, “And just how do you propose to accomplish that?”
“We must introduce the technology of space travel to this planet and relocate. We must find a planet with either a copious atmosphere, such as a habitable gas giant, or terraform a planet to the point of having so much atmosphere, perhaps by the aboriculture of quadrillions of trees so it would be difficult to contaminate with radioactive poisons.”
“Space travel huh? That’s very interesting. But I must confess, we do not have a technology of space travel or astrogation. We would have to develop this technology. You see we are quite happy with the state of our current planet, we are very rich in culture and have never seen any reason to leave it. I’m afraid that is a very tall order.”
The Stranger took another quikc look outside, at the wondrous landscape that sprawled across his view for miles and miles. He didn’t blame them for not wanting to ever relocate. “It must be done. We really have no choice.”
“Can you tell us of the event? Perhaps we can take proactive measures to prevent it from happening?”
“No I’m afraid I can’t. That would be the wrong target. If I had you, or your brilliant people put their valuable time and ability to stopping what is an absolute complete inevitability we would be wasting our tremendous resources on nothing. I can only tell you I barely escaped with my life, and nothing you or your people could ever do, would ever be able to stop it. We CAN however relocate. That is an actuality and that is where we must put our attention.”
“Is that so? Well, then we have faith in you and your data. We have already run some analysis of your clothing and body and determined that you have undergone a temporal shift. We will work together from here on. In a short while we will be at the capital and using your glass we will determine exactly how much time we have left and act accordingly.”
The Stranger breathed a sigh of relief. “Phew! How refreshing it is to deal with a people who actually listen. You have no idea how fulfilling that is.”
“It is our pleasure to serve, as you may have served us.”
“All right, now if you don’t mind I’m just going to relax here for a bit.”
“Of course, make yourself comfortable.” The Captain smiled as he watched the Stranger doze off into sleep.
* * *
An hour later the vehicle came to an abrupt yet smooth halt. The Stranger awoke to the sensation of stillness which had overtaken the vehicle. The door flipped up again and he peered out. Wow! The Palace of the High Council was almost more of a fragment of a planet than it was a manmade structure. Perfect glossy reflective golden walls were interlaced with a multicolored floriculture that was illuminated by starlight, again using all the colors of the rainbow. It was almost impossible to tell where manmade structures ended through the clouds and heaven began. The Stranger felt as if he was in the center of the entire universe, completely enveloped within its immensity, engulfed, like an ant swallowed by the sea. He felt almost embarrassed to even be here. Did he deserve to be in a place like this? Through those doors may very well be God himself.
A pleasant female aid, dressed in regal attire, took him by the hand and lead him onward, it was a good thing she did too, otherwise he would have just stood there and gawked for the next several hours. “Right this way sir.”
“How do you…”, the Stranger stuttered, “How do you make everything of gold? How can there be so much gold on one planet?”
“Hahaha! We have developed the technology of converting simple chemical elements to more complex forms. It is a very valuable technology because this conversio
n process gives off a tremendous amount of energy and is how we power our planet. But you should be aware that our buildings are only coated with a stainless gold. They are not made of gold,” she smiled, “We use gold because it was surveyed out to be the color everyone enjoyed the most. But we will take that as a compliment, thank you.”
He walked on bug-eyed the whole way.
Finally they came upon the Grand Council. Rather than talk, they just let him stand there as several scientists gently took the glass from him and sent it forward for precision analysis.
It came back only after several minutes. An aide, consulted with the Emperor and moved aside. In a commanding voice, despite it seeming to be impossible, resonated through the endlessly large hall with a power that could not be denied. The owner of that voice had to be God, thought the Stranger, “The glass has been surveyed. It is in fact from the future. We are in danger. Order battle stations and set the entire planet at Alert AA-1. Take all measures against Nuclear attack possible at once!”
The Stranger felt as if, with a voice like that in command, all would be fine. He could just sit back and watch.
Another aide ran up to his throne and provided his Majesty with more data.
Sirens began. He came out of it for a moment, “What’s going on?”
Piercing his very soul, the Emperor spoke to him directly, “I’ve just been informed we are under attack. The green glass was miscalculated just by a miniscule fraction. It would appear we only have one day left before holocaust.”
“Whoa! One day!”, the Stranger instantly became fully aware, “What is the nature of the attack?”
An aide whispered more data to the Emperor.
The booming voice spoke again, reaching across the infinite, “There are six foreign objects headed towards the planet. It would appear each one may be headed for a separate continent. They are in space right now, using our telemetry data, impact is in 25 hours from now. So you were correct.”
The Stranger didn’t hesitate. He ran right up to the Emperor, bypassing his mass of aides and entourage to talk to him quickly and deliberately, “Listen to me carefully sir! We can stop these six missiles from destroying the planet, we have to either destroy in space or all head underground and live beneath that surface for a very long time, either way, we can postpone our deaths. BUT, once we have done that, another catastrophe will befall this planet, THAT one cannot, I repeat, CANNOT be stopped. Our next actions are twofold.” The emperor, twice as tall as the Stranger and dressed in magnificent robes halted him from continuing to talk with a hand.
“Halt!”, he opened a portion of his lapel, “We will let you be our guide. Speak directly into my lapel, you voice will carry throughout the planet. Anything you say will be as law. We have tremendous resources available, order us as you see fit.”
The Stranger would normally have been nervous speaking to an entire planet, but knowing what was at stake, he was actually calm. He voice boomed through the hall and severed the clouds which seemed to constitute the heavens.
“People of this planet, your actions are clear. We need to One, use all our resources and weapons to intercept the missiles in space before they come too close and poison our atmosphere with radioactive gasses. This needs to be done at once! This will postpone our destruction, but it will not prevent it. Secondly, we now need to use all our resources, all our abilities, all our manpower, EVERYTHING WE HAVE to not only develop space travel as a technology and to build AS MANY SHIPS as possible with AS MANY PASSENGERS as possible WITHIN 48 HOURS. Then we need to leave to colonize another planet which I will direct you to. We need to band together as a people. We can do it. There is not much time. All mankind rests on your shoulders now. Please! Do everything you can and we will survive. You will be working through the night. You are a great people and I am proud of everything you will accomplish in the next 48 hours. …Oh and while I have you here on the line, let me just say one more thing. For Gods sakes, don’t ever stop cooking like you do, for Gods sakes man!”
The Stranger could FEEL the entire planet laughing for a moment. And then they set to work, everyone, everywhere working within an inch of their lives for one goal, one purpose. They were driven, despite perhaps their Fates having been sealed already, the fought on. In the face of impossible odds they had been given the only thing they really needed, hope.
* * *
The final technology for how to bring about viable space travel, using a concerted effort of all the greatest minds working in tandem through computer networking, was accomplished within a matter of 24 minutes. 2 hours later the nuclear missiles headed for them were shot down using a technology involving a concentrated laser, the pulse moving at the speed of light and bursting each warhead while still deep in space, one by one far beyond the point of where they would have affected the planet. Had they not been warned by the Stranger it would have been too late. The next 46 hours were spent building the ships, a task easier said than done. Massive hulls were quickly converted and the engines were quickly tested, with success. As many people were loaded aboard with as much food and life sustainability for as long as possible. It was not possible to put a great many people aboard, due to space considerations as well as food, air etc. It was determined mathematically, that the safest minimum number of people required to form a colony was 80 couples of separate blood to avoid inbreeding. There was still no indication of any further attacks but they trusted the Stranger. 2 ships were launched and they contained the most successful, intelligent and important people of the planet, including the Stranger as their guide. At the 48 hour mark, they had already set on their journey while in orbit around the planet. But suddenly as if from nowhere, a series of detonations covered the planet, how they got there would a question that would never be adequately answered, but as predicted, that cycle ended in holocaust. 6 ships that were in process of being built were also destroyed. It was now time to find a new home.
An aide approached the stranger,” Sir, while we have developed the technology of space travel, however we have not yet mastered astronavigation. Once our speed surpasses that of light, we will no longer be able to navigate by the stars and will lose our bearings. We will not be able to be return home, or find home again. We will have to find a proper planet and colonize as best we can.”
“I understand. We will be better off not returning, I’m sorry this had to happen, but I believe we will now create a new beginning, better than anything we have ever had before. Thank you for letting me know.”
* * *
For months they searched for a planet, or a moon that would agree with their atmosphere, air and had a gravity they could at least learn to endure. The search was becoming hopeless as their supplies would soon run out when one day the Ships Commander, Tavian Holcroft, approached the Stranger.
“Sir, I believe we have found something. It is a mild star between the arms of the galaxy, in the darker region. The system itself is very small and unassuming, perhaps it will be overlooked by the event you spoke of. There are only 9 planets in it and it looks like the third planet could support life.”
“Oh all right, let me have a look.”
The Stranger looked through the advanced scans of the planet and analyzed the data. It was mostly a blue planet, with some green patches. All of the life bearing conditions appeared to be favorable.
“It looks good, it doesn’t seem to have much of an atmosphere however.”
“That is true sir, however we are running out of options. We will only last another 2 months in space with everything we have and we need to make a decision. Some of our scientists have said that it may be possible to develop an advanced form of aboriculture to push the atmosphere out into further distances in space as you suggested, but it is inconclusive at the current moment.”
“Understood, is it currently inhabited by another indigenous and sentient species?”
“Yes, however, they are currently in a barbarism Age. There would be no resistance and the introduction of 80 of our
people and the 80 on the other ship will be neglible to the culture. Additionally, we would be able to accelerate the world into a highly developed society if we use the data from our ships as well as what you took with you from the earlier cycles. We can help everyone there to survive far better.”
“Understood, then inform the other ship commander and set a course. It looks like we found a new home.”
“Aye sir.” The young commander turned about and was about to make his way to the Bridge when he hesitated, “Sir I only have one question.”
“And what’s that Commander?”
“Sir, you spoke of an event that would have wiped out our old planet regardless of what we did. What would’ve happened?”
“Oh that. Yes, there is a race of beings with technology far far beyond anything we had on any of the cycles. They look for new planets every now and then and we would never have been able to stop them. They would have breezed through our defenses and washed all life, every single plant, animal and human out with a sort of antiseptic wash and then terraformed the planet to their liking. We would have had no defense against it. It would take a Galactic Army to have stopped them.”
“Whoa! Who are they? Do you think we will be safe on this new planet?”
“I think so, it is on the outer rim and on a planet that doesn’t a large system or any apparent strategic value. I frankly don’t think they will ever come. If we had gotten out into space earlier as a species we could have potentially developed defenses or been able to flee, but we never did. As far as who they, I actually don’t know that exactly either.”
“Wow! Well once we get situated, are you going to travel back to your time again in the future, 724 thousand years from now?”
“It would be too risky for me to try to jump through that much time while we are still busy trying to rebuild our culture at the same time. I will need to supervise everyone, even though everyone aboard is as capable already as they are. You still need guidance. Besides, I really like to be in the company of my friends, don’t you think Jesper?”
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