‘Yes, some of us were aware of that happening, and not all of us were quite so selfish,’ I said, feeling ashamed of our greed and consumerism in the early twenty-first century. ‘Many of us tried to do more, by donating to sponsor children and to charities working to improve access to water in other lands.’
‘And what proportion of your personal income, did you use for that purpose, Mr. Mackay?’
He was right. Hazel and I gave a few hundred pounds a year out of our joint incomes of more than a hundred thousand. Less than one per cent. I felt ashamed.
‘Yes,’ I said, sheepishly, ‘it wasn’t very much.’
‘On the scale of giving prevalent at the time, you were generous, but in our view, you were only marginally less greedy and selfish than the majority who gave only pennies. Many were not blind to our species’ needs, but most were.’
‘I see what you mean,’ said Jennifer.
‘The upshot was that so many resources were wasted that when they finally did run out there was absolute meltdown. Wars, riots, pestilence, and starvation were the scourge of the Earth between 2750 and 5000 AD. The remaining sparse world population came to its collective senses and was forced to try to live in an environmentally friendly manner.’
‘But that’s only a few thousand years, not the millions or billions you’re telling us of,’ I said.
‘There have been many millions of distinct periods since the year 5000, but it was only when the sun began to change that humankind awoke to the reality of their impending extinction. We are going to become extinct because our ancestors behaved stupidly between 1950 and 2750. That was the crucial time. A time of plenty. A time for exploration, not self-indulgence.’
‘How do you mean?’ asked John. ‘What should we have been doing?’
‘You should have been raising everyone’s living standards and investing into an expansion into the universe.’
‘What, going to the stars?’ I asked.
‘There were attempts to reach the stars in the twenty-fifth century, but people on Earth, still blind to their foolishness, clamoured for an end to the waste of resources on space travel. Strangely, even in the twentieth century they often argued that money should not be spent on space travel while there was still so much to do on Earth. Yet when interstellar travel was abandoned, the resources were still not poured into helping the poor, but were, instead, used to buy more luxuries, holidays, or gadgets for the people of already rich nations.’
‘Yes, even in our time people said we shouldn’t be going back to the moon while there was still so much inequality on Earth.’
‘That is exactly the problem. If Columbus had been told not to explore the Atlantic until homeless people were removed from the streets of Madrid, you would never have found America and there would still have been rough-sleepers in the capital of Spain.’
‘So, what happened?’ asked John, sceptically.
‘The solar system had no planet capable of supporting human life, other than the Earth, although primitive life was found on numerous moons of the gas giants later in the twenty-first century. Those worlds, however, were of no use for colonisation. Mankind needed to explore the stars, but interstellar travel was incredibly expensive and desperately slow. It would take hundreds of years to get from Earth to the nearest potentially habitable planets. There was to be no “financial return” so the investment was abandoned. Short-term greed was leading to long-term disaster. The inexorable drive for growth was creating the nature of the disaster we now face.’
‘Were any interstellar journeys undertaken?’ Jennifer asked.
‘Oh, yes. We know there is a colony on Grace, a planet orbiting Wolf 1061. It was in communication with us and we have fifty-eight ships en route to it.’
‘So, you are evacuating? Are they taking matter-transfer vortices with them?’
‘We hadn’t invented it before many had departed, but we have communicated the vortex technology to them and Grace. Later ships have the technology on board.’
‘Has Grace built the vortex. Can you not then travel there?’ Jennifer asked.
‘We were hoping to hear back from Grace that they would receive people through a vortex, but we fear their population is large and their planet poor. They probably see us as a potential problem and by procrastinating, the problem will go away when the Earth dies. We have heard nothing back from them since they received the vortex technology. While a few thousand refugees on ships might be helped, millions upon millions through a vortex seems to have resulted in communications being cut. Can we blame them? They are humans, after all.’
‘You think they’d just leave you to die?’ I asked.
‘Well, there’s been no response to date. Each ship carries just a few hundred individuals so we hope they will still be welcomed. In any event, the Earth will be swallowed long before the first ship with a vortex on board arrives at Wolf 1061. We have other ships heading to other potentially habitable planets, but it is a tiny proportion of our population. New exobiological and exogeological information means that we might have condemned most of those brave colonists to death.’
‘How?’ Jennifer asked.
‘We now know that fewer than one in a hundred apparently suitable exoplanets will support human life for one reason or another.’
‘But you didn’t know when they launched?’
‘No, Mrs. Ivory, but we do now. Their deaths are unlikely to be quick or painless. They will starve or die from radiation poisoning.’
‘So why didn’t more missions take place in our time?’
‘With fuel and metals running out, the interstellar adventure was abandoned. The world turned in upon itself, believing the reach for the stars to be an impossible dream.’
‘And the Wolf expedition. Didn’t its success encourage more?’
‘The Wolf expedition took four hundred years. By the time they arrived, the wasteful epoch was over and their communications fell upon deaf ears.’
‘We’d stopped listening?’
‘Earth had entered the first survival epoch. Reduced population, no technology, a struggle to survive. There are no records from the time and it is believed to have lasted nearly a billion years.’
‘A billion? One thousand million years?’
‘Yes, but mankind was still the dominant hunter-gatherer and survived, little changed. The next epoch can only be categorised as primitive, little better than survival, but more organised. Primitive and survival epochs followed each other until we developed with our new mental abilities.’
‘The ability to move things remotely and read minds?’ asked John.
‘Yes, telekinesis and telepathy. Our improved intelligence allowed us to find new ways to build and develop technology, by manipulating atoms. We could turn simple elements into steel and other valuable commodities. Once more we had fuels and metals to explore. Soon enough to send a few lucky people to Grace, but not soon enough to enact our new grand plan to save humanity and expand into the galaxy.’
‘What is the grand plan? Is that where twenty-first century Earth comes in?’
‘I’ll show you. Come with me but be prepared for a shock. I think you will be amazed by what you are about to see, but it will also demonstrate why we feel so sad about the colonists en route to other worlds.’
20 Tretchgler
We left the lounge area, having eaten our fill. Schletz led us along various corridors and we entered a small, circular, metal room without any windows. It reminded me of the elevator in the administration building and the question Ski had failed to answer about the Earth numerals.
‘The numbers being in our numerals in that elevator earlier is explained, then,’ I said.
‘Of course,’ said John.
‘Amazing they retained most of their characteristics over billions of years though,’ said Jennifer.
‘Stand still in the centre of the room,’ said Schletz.
The actual centre had a tall, four-inch diameter, cylindrical metal plinth, atop wh
ich was a small electronic instrument. I was surprised to see it vanish.
‘Where did that go?’
‘Our destination is rather dangerous. I have sent a piece of equipment ahead to ensure it is safe for us to travel.’
‘Are we in danger?’ I asked as the instrument returned to its original location.
A pale blue light was flashing within it. Schletz examined a display.
‘No. It is safe for us to travel. I needed to check that our destination still existed. It does and we will leave now.’
‘How do you mean “still existed”?’
‘There is a small risk the destination could have been destroyed. If we tried to travel to a receiver which no longer existed, we would all die.’
‘That is not very reassuring, Schletz,’ said Jennifer.
‘We’ll be safe enough for a short while. Be prepared to be weightless when we arrive.’
‘What!?’ exclaimed John.
Before Schletz could answer, we were surrounded by the swirling mist of the vortex, but this time there was no change in the colours we could see. Our arrival in the new location was to an identical steel cylinder. On the wall in front of us was, in distorted but clearly legible numerals, the number 193.
Ropes were attached to several places around the room and I grabbed one and pulled upon it, promptly smashing myself against the wall.
‘Take care,’ said Schletz. ‘Make small movements. If anyone feels unwell there are bags in the container beside the door.
John pulled himself down from the ceiling and held onto a rope. I put a couple of bags into my pocket. I felt okay, but uncomfortable enough to be prepared.
The door opened. We followed Schletz as he pulled himself along a featureless metallic corridor using a rope handrail. A low hum and vibration could be heard and felt. We were inside some kind of transport. Judging by the microgravity, I guessed we were in a spacecraft.
We reached the end of the passage, buttons were pressed by our host, and a door slid to one side. We entered what was quite obviously the deck of a spaceship. It was a stark metal room with two seats facing front with consoles and controls. Another seat faced left, also with a console. There were windows ahead of us, but they were blocked by metal sheeting.
I remember thinking that this could easily have been the cockpit of a jumbo jet, but slightly more spacious. Nevertheless, the four of us made it very crowded.
Schletz pushed off towards the right pilot’s seat and pressed a button. Shutters slid back from in front of the windows and we were stunned by the vista which opened up before us.
‘The shutters are to protect the windows,’ Schletz said.
An amazing scene which could have graced the cover of any space opera paperback became visible.
‘Unbelievable,’ said Jennifer.
‘Where are we?’ I asked as I tried to appreciate that the view was real.
‘This is a system which we believed held a habitable planet, the small planet on the left, we call it Tretchgler.’
To the right, a segment of a huge gas-giant dominated the view, reminiscent of Jupiter, but more orange and red. Tretchgler was what must be a moon of the gas-giant, presumably, but with an Earth-like atmosphere and swirling clouds. We could see land masses and oceans. It looked as similar to twenty-first century Earth as you could ever desire. A perfect world. It made me feel more homesick than I already was for our green and pleasant world.
‘Beautiful,’ I said.
‘But worthless,’ said Schletz. ‘We believed the moon of this gas giant might support life, but when the ship arrived and we checked the environment, we discovered that Tretchgler receives so much radiation from the gas giant, that it can never support life as we know it.’
‘So, a wasted journey?’ asked John.
‘Yes, but what is important here is the technology. This vessel has been travelling for almost four hundred years. We visited it regularly to ensure it was performing properly. Can you imagine our disappointment when, a few weeks ago, we detected the radiation?’
‘Are we safe?’ asked Jennifer.
‘Yes, we will only be here a few minutes. Do you see how the technology works, though?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You sent a ship out and travelled through your vortex to reach it.’
‘Correct, but the key is that it must contain a vortex receiver, in order for us to visit it.’
‘Yes, obviously,’ I said.
‘We have two on board in case one developed a fault.’
‘Sounds a good idea. Wouldn’t want to be stuck here,’ said John.
‘This is only a short distance from Earth. We have now managed to track down many thousands of potentially habitable planets, but they vary from a few hundred light years to thousands of light years away. Journey times will be in the order of many thousands of years, perhaps millions in some cases and fewer than two per cent of the resultant planets will be suitable. This will be the last one to reach its destination before the Earth is destroyed. This was our last hope for salvation without having to resort to the twenty-first century project.
‘So?’ asked Jennifer.
‘There is insufficient time left before Earth is destroyed to reach any more of our target planets. We have lost our battle against the universe.’
‘I see,’ I said as the beauty of their grand plan dawned upon me, ‘you need ships containing vortices to have been sent thousands of years ago. You need the twenty-first century to develop them, hence we need to know how the vortex works.’
‘You have grasped it.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said John.
‘If we knew where to find these planets, we could send ships to them with vortices on board. When they arrive, the population walks through them to their new world. The human race is saved,’ I said.
‘Correct. Now you see why we told you our project was to save your world and ours. It could also prevent the billions of years during which mankind survived as little more than animals. The survival and primitive epochs need never have occurred. You will die, we will never have existed.’
We began to realise that this was not only the salvation of our descendants, but also the opportunity for intelligent life, intelligent human life, to spread throughout, first the galaxy, then the universe.
‘But why not just go back to the last primitive period and help them develop the technology as they come out of their dark period?’ I asked.
‘That is a physical problem with the time-vortex. It is relativistic in concept and there is a physical limit to how far back we must travel. Anything less than five billion years is impossible. It is a similar barrier to that of the speed of light in a vacuum.
‘Imagine we could travel back a few years, or weeks or minutes. The world would quickly become chaotic. Sadly, the limit of five billion years is unbreakable or we could have gone back to the beginning of the modern era and developed the travel-vortex then and saved ourselves.’
‘This planet is beautiful,’ said Jennifer, ‘and you say it is completely useless. It looks so perfect.’
‘There is a great deal of life on its surface, but we could never survive the radiation. They have evolved to bear it.’
A beeping noise came from a gadget strapped to Schletz’ arm. ‘Sorry, we should leave, we are nearing the safe limit.’
We closed the shutters and the door and headed back to the vortex.
‘So, what will happen to this ship?’ I asked.
‘It is gradually becoming radioactive itself and, in a few years, we will no longer be able to visit. It will still remain and we have left information on board for the creatures of this planet to find if ever they develop spaceflight.’
‘Have you found many alien species?’ asked John.
‘Life is not rare in the universe, but, so far, we have found no other intelligent creatures. They must exist, but our paths have never crossed.’
The vortex returned us to the dying Earth. I was still full of questions.
<
br /> 21 Here or There, There or Here?
We returned to the lounge area and sat in a circle.
‘Schletz, it still doesn’t make any sense,’ I said.
‘How do you mean, Mr. Mackay?’
‘If you succeed it will mean that we will go on to develop interstellar travel fairly quickly. Resources will no longer be a problem because they can be brought back to Earth from other planets and solar system moons. The survival and primitive epochs will be less likely to occur,’ I explained.
‘But we can’t live on solar system moons or planets, Mr Mackay,’ said Schletz.
‘No,’ I said, becoming exasperated, ‘but we can mine them for the minerals and ores we require. Once those systems are in place and connected to Earth by vortices, it will change everything.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘So, you won’t exist anyway!’ said Jennifer.
‘I fear that to be so,’ said Schletz, ‘but others believe there will still be survival and primitive epochs and we will develop anyway.’
‘Why didn’t you bring metals and other materials you need from places like the moons of Jupiter?’ I asked.
‘Because we’d discovered how to make whatever we need from granite and sandstone. That doesn’t help us gain the time we need to reach habitable worlds though.’
‘Jennifer’s right,’ I said. ‘The future cannot possibly be as it is now. You might just as well return us to Earth and let us help you spread the idea of the vortex. Why don’t your people come with us? I’m sure Earth would find a place for you, especially if we are about to expand into the universe.’
‘It will take many centuries to reach most of the planets we have identified as possibly habitable. The world in your time is already overcrowded,’ Schletz said sadly.
‘How does the vortex work, anyway?’ I asked.
‘I’m no expert,’ Schletz said, ‘but it is all to do with sub-atomic particles existing in two places at the same time. The vortex is a quantum machine which causes you to exist at the position of origination and position of destination simultaneously. Then one is switched off before the other and you are located at the new destination.’
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