Weather patterns were changing rapidly. Worldrenowned scientists were saying that our nightmares of climate change were already happening, and they were happening much faster than they had expected or predicted.
And then their own climate scientists at NASA also started to corroborate the disturbing news. Some of their most respected climatologists in NASA who were some of the first to call the attention of the public to climate change decades ago were now making more alarming discoveries and shocking statements. Just off the coast of Antarctica, a newly important feedback mechanism had been identified which suggested that sea levels were going to increase 20 times faster than was predicted previously.
Their announcement which followed was grim, cold, and lacked any string of hope. “Our conclusion is that it would be practically impossible for our beloved Planet Earth to avoid the multi-meter rise in sea levels worldwide,” they had stated on a live television broadcast that was viewed all over the world. “The devastation that would be caused by the economic consequences and social disruption of such increases in sea levels on such a large scale would be tremendous and unprecedented. It would not be too difficult to visualize that conflicts and strife would arise from forced migrations, and the collapse of the economies of the world would make the world difficult and maybe impossible to govern; the fabric of civilization would be threatened.”
And more data to support their doomsday theory continued to pour in from sources all over the globe. There were predictions from new scientific studies which showed that an increase in global temperatures by just three degrees Celsius would be catastrophic for increases in sea levels.
In that year 2050, the water temperatures which had been recorded in the North Pacific had never before been as high. But that was not all. They also noticed that its effect was felt over very large areas and over very long durations of time, and was already having a profound and shocking impact on marine life. Marine life had begun to move south. They were simply adapting to the warming oceans in real time. An instance of this fact was the sighting of great white sharks which were breeding near California’s Monterey Bay. At such a location, it was the farthest south that such an activity by the sharks had been known to take place. Another was when a blue marlin was caught close to the Catalina Island in winter, almost 5,000 miles south of its usual range.
The wind changes over the North Pacific had resulted in what oceanographers and meteorologists refer to as a “blob.” This blob was an anomalous patch of warm water that was between Baja, California, Alaska, and Hawaii, which was harmful and dangerous to the marine ecosystem. The plankton, which is the basis of the food chain of the ocean, was reported to be vanishing rapidly as a result of the “blob.” This had caused the numerous species which are dependent on it to either migrate or have their numbers reduced drastically.
Kristen shook her head. It was as if she was trying to shake away the memories of the news and reports that had been coming in at a fast pace in those early years.
But you do not shake away reality, she thought to herself. How could she shake away the fact that in those early years the news was all quite surprising and shocking in some situations?
But twenty years later, it was a whole different story altogether
The scientists were calling it the death of the world. First came the heatwaves again. Where only two countries had been involved, now entire continents experienced the scourge firsthand, simultaneously. People had initially been dying in the tens or hundreds, now they were dying in tens of thousands.
And then the forest fires. Where dry forests were known to be going up in flames and burning uncontrollably, dense, green, and lush vegetation in rainforests all over the world were burning up even during rainy seasons.
People going to beaches could not swim in the waters because the oceans had become so hot that they were getting scalded and burnt.
Sunbathing, which used to be a popular pastime for a lot of people, had to be officially banned in a lot of countries and was soon deemed illegal.
Nobody was going to blame any government for taking such a measure. People were virtually being roasted whenever they decided to sunbathe.
Food shortages and scarcity had begun to rise. It became impossible to effectively cultivate food and cash crops simply because the weather and the soil were no longer supporting seeds. Naturally, droughts set in. This now triggered massive protests worldwide. Governments tried their best to control their citizens. But how can a government enforce control when its own law enforcement personnel were hungry as well, and even joining the movements?
And still the forecasts were that things were going to get worse. This was NASA’s own gloomy predictions. And there was a good reason for this.
NASA was not concerned with the ocean temperatures rising, the food shortages, the mass protests, and all other dangerous signals. For them, these were simply symptoms. The major problem was even more disastrous. The Earth was losing its position amongst the planets. It was getting closer to the Sun. And as a result of its closeness to the Sun, all these changes in the climates, oceans, and land were noticeable.
When the data began to be analysed, a lot of people were sceptical and claimed that it was impossible. How could the Earth lose its position? How could the Earth fall into the Sun? But day by day, the fact became a reality that everyone was able to observe and see the changes with their own naked eyes.
The predictions were that perhaps in seven years’ time, Earth would be no more. Earth would have fallen into the Sun, been consumed by the Sun, been destroyed by its own Sun.
There was only one option: they had to evacuate Earth and find another place to live. But how possible was that going to be? Where else were they going to find another planet that could support life and the survival of the entire human race, or what would be remaining?
Those were questions which the world leaders had pondered. But the fact remained that the more they continued to bicker, ponder, and quarrel, they were only going to be postponing the inevitable. They had to agree and adopt a resolution to join forces and search for a new planet. This resolution had culminated in the NASA-coordinated and led Atlantis Mission.
Their mandate was simple: find another planet as soon as possible so that the human race could be preserved.
So that the human race could have hope. So that the human race could have salvation.
Kristen sighed. Today was day 1,472. It had been four years since they had left Earth in the year 2093. Out of seven years, they had spent four years roaming and searching through space. If they failed to find a compatible planet in three years’ time, Earth would be gone by the year 2100.
Year 2100 was just three years away. The fears and uncertainty were already mounting. Nobody on that mission could imagine what was happening on Earth ever since they’d left four years ago. They were only hoping and praying that it was okay.
But was it? In all the previous broadcasts that they had received from Earth, courtesy of Director Edwards, they had never been shown any images of Earth. It was always Director Edwards and nothing else in the background. They could not even tell if he was making his broadcasts from his office or from somewhere else. But he had to be doing so from somewhere within NASA because Kristen could not imagine where else the kind of sophisticated facilities comparable to NASA’s were available with which an interplanetary relay and broadcast could be successfully and clearly made without any disruption or hitches.
No, Kristen was shaking her head.
NASA must still be intact.
And so also would be the Earth that they had left so many years ago. But what if the situation was worse than they could imagine? Her discerning mind that had been trained for most of her adult life and career in scientific deductions and reasoning could not help but ponder over so many things.
She remembered the state the planet had been in when they were departing for this mission. They had to put off their launch seven times. Not because they were not ready, but becau
se of the deteriorating conditions of the atmosphere and the climate.
Even when they took off and had gotten into space, they had all stared in shock at the image of Earth. The face of Earth that was facing the sun was red and brown, as if it was on fire. Only a few patches of blue could be seen, which signified the reduction in surface water. For them to be able to see such reduced patterns of blue could only mean one thing: the oceans were evaporating at an alarming rate.
During that last moment before they proceeded with their space jump from the outer corridors of Earth’s atmosphere, there had been a deafening silence as each crew member had looked back at Earth, or what remained of Earth.
They knew they had to succeed on this mission. They simply had to discover another home for the sake of those left at home.
Their families, their loved ones, their friends. Success was the only option. Failure was not even considered.
And then they had space jumped. A space jump was simply a process by which a spacefaring vessel would use the speed of light to cover enormous distances within fractions of a second. This enabled astronauts like the crew of the Atlantis to travel through vast amounts of distances which would ordinarily take several days, weeks, months, or years, within seconds or minutes. The mechanics of a space jump relied on advanced mechanics and physics and in some situations resulted in identifying and traveling through parallel black holes. It was an advanced technique that made space travel more efficient and reliable.
"Lynda, Enter NASA's coordinates. Everyone, prepare for the next space jump." Kristen ordered. *** By the time Atlantis had come out of the space jump, they found that they were close to Planet Tiangrit.
“Tiangrit?” Kristen exclaimed. “How can this space jump takes us straight to Tiangrit?”
“That was what the shuttle’s navigational systems directed us to,” Mahmud replied.
Kristen stood up. “But did we not get the readings right? What parameters did you input?”
“The exact parameters that you specified, Captain. You can confirm them yourself,” Mahmud stated. Kristen had brought out her tablet and walked over to the monitor. She compared the readings that were on her tablet with those that Mahmud called up on the screen.
After a while, she looked at him with a look of bewilderment in her eyes. “They are correct,” she stated. “How can they be correct?”
“Sorry, Captain,” Mahmud stated. “Did you just wonder how the parameters could be correct?” “No, no, no. That is not what I meant. I mean, how can these be the correct parameters? Mission control could have made a mistake.”
“Did they?” Lynda had asked. “NASA Space Mission Command making a mistake when giving parameters and coordinates for a shuttle?”
“I doubt it,” Mahmud offered.
“There could always be a first time,” Kristen stated as she looked at the big ball of red rock in front of them.
“So, what are we going to do?” Mahmud asked. Kristen was thinking and she spoke out her thoughts. “If we choose not to go to Tiangrit, it would be a direct disobedience to Mission Command because those were their coordinates, even if we think they were wrong.”
“That is a likelihood, considering the way things were when we departed Earth,” Lynda stated. “All the confusion and chaos could make anyone punch the wrong thing at such a time.”
“Or maybe they did get new evidence of the possibility of life on Tiangrit,” Mahmud said. “Life on Tiangrit?” Kristen had repeated. “But we have always known there could never be life on Tiangrit. Just look at it. There is no atmosphere, for goodness’ sake. And the soil. That is red soil, not clay. It is red, completely red.”
“Kind of reminds me of spilt blood,” Lynda remarked.
“Like the remnants of a battlefield,” Mahmud stated. “Anyway, we all understand what I am driving at,” Kristen continued. “It would be a direct disobedience to NASA not to follow their parameters. We will go in as directed. Even if we chose not to go, where else could we begin to search? And when they eventually audit our logs and see that we did not keep to the prescheduled parameters, that would be another ballgame altogether. I am sure that none of us wants to face a disciplinary panel because we ‘felt’ that we had the wrong parameters.”
“No, not me,” Mahmud replied.
“Me neither,” Lynda said. “I vote that we go to Tiangrit.” “Don’t worry about taking a vote,” Kristen replied. “It’s where we are going to already.” She glanced at Mahmud. “Set course for the planet Tiangrit immediately.”
“Yes, Captain,” Mahmud replied, and engaged the thrusters and gears. Immediately, the Atlantis mission shuttle dove into the path of the red planet. Soon, they were approaching the planet. As they came closer, Kristen unhooked the microphone by her side.
“Attention all crew members,” Kristen had said. “We are on course for Planet Tiangrit. All crew members should take position and prepare for landing. In the meantime, every one of you should ensure that you put on your multi-lingual vocabulary chips to enable us to interpret and understand any alien or foreign languages and messages we might receive. NASA has explicitly outlined this procedure after this space jump.”
The crew members understood the instructions because they immediately began to settle down in the various seats in the different cubicles and compartments. Kristen opened a panel close to her console and brought out a case. She opened it and brought out a small chip. She placed it behind her right ear.
She looked around and saw that her crew members were also doing the same. With this chip, they would easily be able to understand any languages and messages that might be transmitted to them.
Kristen settled down and checked the monitor reading on her screen.
CHAPTER TWO
Just as they entered Planet Tiangrit orbit, Kristen gasped. Lynda and Mahmud also stood up, a look of surprise and astonishment displayed on their individual faces. Right there in front of them was a fleet of ships floating in space, directly in their path. From the way they stood stationary, it was as though they had been waiting for them to make the manoeuvre and come into their planet’s orbit.
The spaceships had a unique design. They were grey-coloured, with several strange foreign markings on them which could not be deciphered easily. Each of them had several wings and multiple engines. And they were of three different sizes.
The first ones were the size of a sedan. They had six wings, four of which formed the letter X while two formed a straight horizontal line.
The second ones were the size of a truck. These had eight wings, four on each side of the ship. But the wings were arranged in such a manner as to form both a straight horizontal line and to form an X.
The third were the biggest. They were the size of an aircraft carrier and had twelve wings, with six on each side of the ship. There were only four of these largestsized ships, while there were several of the other smaller ones.
The bridge of Kristen’s shuttle was completely silent as her crew members looked at the sight that was in front of them. The look in her crew members’ eyes said it all. The shock, fear, and confusion could be almost felt inside the bridge.
Kristen had to do something. She had to gather everyone’s thoughts and focus. “Mahmud!” she called. “Analyse threat levels immediately.” Mahmud nodded and began to punch away at his monitors.
“Lynda,” Kristen directed. “Synchronize the analysis and relay the feedback to NASA immediately. HQ must be up to date for putting us into this mess.”
“Right away, Captain.” Lynda nodded and commenced work.
“Captain!” Mahmud called. “The threat is real. They are armed and about to engage fire.”
Kristen was thinking, What do we do? We are unarmed! “We do not stand a chance against these people,” she finally confessed.
“But since when did Tiangrit become a populated planet?” Mahmud was asking. “That does not matter,” Lynda replied. “Maybe if they spare us then we can ask them questions, but right now—”
The beeping on the console cut short what Lynda was saying as everyone looked at the monitor. INCOMING MESSAGE flashed on the panel. Kristen immediately pressed a key on her console.
“Identify yourself,” the message came loud and clear over their speakers. “You have entered the borders of Planet Milda. Identify yourself immediately.”
Kristen was glad they had all put on their multilingual vocabulary chips before being accosted by the aliens. It was what enabled them to decipher and understand what the aliens were now saying.
Kristen looked at her crew members in bewilderment. “Planet Milda?” she repeated aloud. Her crew members looked at her with jaws dropped.
“Yes, this is Planet Milda,” the voice continued. “Identify yourself immediately or we will open fire.” “Greetings,” Kristen started. “We come in peace and goodwill, we are from Earth. Planet Earth.” “What planet is that?” the voice asked.
“It’s…Planet Earth. Don’t you know Earth?” Kristen asked with a hint of desperation.
“A planet in the Milky Way,” Mahmud cut in. “Big in size, blue and brown…” “Oh, Planet Nivrus? The one that is burning up and about to die off?” the voice had asked. “Why did you not say so?”
“Planet Nivrus?” Kristen repeated and looked around the bridge. “Yes. You should have identified yourself as soon as I asked,” the voice continued. “Anyway, who are you, and what is your mission on Milda?”
Kristen was shaking her head. “We are from Earth—I mean Nivrus. We are members of the Atlantis Explorer Mission sent by our space programme to look for help. We need help because of our dying planet.”
“Why did you not send for and request an invitational visa? There is no such log of your visit in our records.”
“I am sorry,” Kristen apologized. “I am sure we would have sent one if we knew how to do so. Unfortunately, I am sure that our people were not aware of the necessary protocols that had to be adopted prior to making such trips.”
The End Of The World Page 2
