“Well that is a sobering thought. I have heard that in order to reduce the population to 2.5 billion we may have to have some people leave Earth and go live on other planets like Mars. Something you have been a proponent of.” James was curious about how the Mars colony proposal played into all of this.
“So, we will have some new laws that will help reduce the population in the next 40 years but it may not be enough. In that case some will have to leave Earth and live in colonies on other plants like Mars. We have already been working on a project to create colonies on Mars by 2030. This fits the timeline. Becoming a multi-planetary species reduces the strain on resources on this planet and also guarantees our survival in case something catastrophic happens to Earth.”
“Interesting thoughts. This was a very enlightening interview. A lot of big changes to come and we hope you will keep us informed. Thank you for your time. If we can take some solace from all this is that Earth’s best and brightest like you are on the case. Thanks again.” James ended the interview on that note.
The more young and progressive fractions were in favor of the proposal due to their environmentally conscious ideologies. Even a threat like Omega could not unite the left and right on this topic. Nationalists were very much against it. They were pushing their governments to take arms and fight Omega. Believers in Judeo-Christian faith were having a hard time with the idea of a false prophet like Omega. There was no mention of such a creature in the holy text so it all came down to judgement. He didn’t fit the mold of a prophet or messiah so his violent behavior made him align better with demonic actions.
“He wants to kill five billion people. Make us leave our land. This land was given to us by the lord. No alien or demon can take it away from us.” Pastor Paul spoke on a news panel on one of the cable news networks.
“Paul. Just stop with the exaggeration. This is a dangerous game you are playing and it will get a lot of innocent people killed. He wants the population to be reduced in the next 40 years so don’t make it sound like he is proposing genocide. Might I remind you that the land you are talking about was stolen from the natives by committing genocide? I am sure the lord doesn’t approve of that behavior so let’s just keep him out of this debate. Most of us came from Europe and he is asking us to go back. I know it will be a difficult move but, in the end, it is the right move for us and the planet. This will revive the ecosystem and heal the planet. Future generations will look back at this and remember it as the time we stopped the sixth extinction.” Helm was back on the network to argue with his favorite opponent Pastor Paul.
“Pastor Paul, why are you against this proposal?” News show host asked.
“Because Lord made the planet for us. Not for someone like Omega to rule and tell us where we can live and where we can’t. My friend just casually mentioned that the population needs to be reduced by five billion in just over 40 years. How can that happen without committing genocide?” Pasto Paul replied.
“Well your Lord lived in the middle east. If I remember my Bible there is no mention of spreading to other continents. It seems like Omega is just asking us to go back to that piece of land and leave the rest of the continents for God’s other creatures.” Helm was well versed in Biblical text due to his Catholic school upbringing.
“That’s a good tongue-and-cheek response but see how he conveniently skipped over the question about five billion people.” Pastor Paul wasn’t going to let Helm skip over that detail.
“Omega has a one-child-max policy. We can take it further and put a global ban on having children, any children, for the next 20 or so years. That would get us most of the way there. Under the new world order a lot of people will be put to death for defying his rules. Having a good understanding of human nature that will result in a significant reduction in population. If we still have more than 2.5 billion left, the rest can be sent to colonize other planets. We have been working on projects to colonize other planets and are expecting to be completed way before that date.” Helm explained.
“So now you want to take away our God given right to have children? And what if someone does get pregnant? Do you want us to sign on to killing them as well? You know we will never give up our ‘Pro-life’ stance. We are not letting Omega or anyone kill all these unborn babies,” Pastor Paul spoke passionately.
“What is with obsession with unborn children? I will never understand that. The world would be a much better place if you cared half as much about all the suffering of children after they are born. All you care about is forcing women to carry babies to term against their will as if they are slaves. How can that be God’s will? If you really think about it you are really working for the devil...” Clint was cut off
“That’s crazy talk.” Pastor Paul jumped in.
“Please let him finish his thoughts. You will have time to respond.” The host gave Clint the opportunity to finish his thoughts.
“As I was saying that forcing children to be born is really helping the Devil. If you truly believe that a fetus has a soul then it is also true that this unborn soul is pure and has not committed any sin. Devil can’t get his hands on that soul until and unless it is born into this world. If you truly believe in God’s will then you have to believe that God wants the mother to sacrifice that pure soul. Unless you are saying that God’s will is not a thing and you know better than your Lord himself? That would be pure arrogance on your part. This pure soul would go straight to heaven to serve in God’s kingdom because Devil could never get to it and make it commit a sin. However, forcing this child to be born and live amongst us gives Devil the opportunity to corrupt the soul and take it to hell instead. You are taking these pure souls away from God and giving them to the Devil. Life is finite and death is inevitable but it is truly sin that determines what happens to the soul in after life.” Clint schooled Pastor Paul on theology.
“Clint that is blasphemy. We are good Christina folk. We are spreading Lord’s message. You insinuating that we are helping the Devil, which is just crazy talk. We are saving lives and that is God’s will.” Pastor Paul didn’t have a very good comeback. Helm took a lot of please in stumping Pastor Paul on theology.
Meanwhile in Phoenix Arizona there was a group of heavily armed animal rights activists waiting inside an unmarked van a mile from a dolphin park. It was early in the morning and they were waiting for the staff to arrive hours before the park would actually be open to the public. Animal rights groups had been up in arms over keeping dolphins in swimming pools in AZ heat. Several dolphins had already died at the park in the last couple of years.
It was 7:00 AM in the morning as the van pulled up to the employee entrance. One of the men from the van walked up to an employee about to enter the facility to ask a question. As the employee stopped to answer the activist put a gun to his head and asked him to let all the armed men and women into the facility. As soon as they got in they started shooting up everyone at the facility starting with the armed guards. It was over within minutes and the floors of the park were covered blood from the dead employees on the ground.
The police had surrounded the facility and asked the armed vigilantes to surrender and walk out. They had prepared for this moment and played a prerecorded message on the park’s speaker system in response.
“We are operating under the new global laws implemented by Omega. Under the new laws, individuals working at this facility were subject to the death penalty and their punishments have been carried out. Law also requires that the government relocate these dolphins to a sanctuary immediately. We don’t wish to harm anyone else and would like to come out and surrender. As per the new laws we have not committed any crime and would like to walk away without being arrested. Arresting us would defy the laws set by Omega and anyone involved will have to answer directly to him. We are walking out without any weapons. Do not shoot!”
As they emerged from the facility with their hands up the police were not sure what to do. It was not too far from the facility where they had lost a l
ot of good men by getting in Omega’s way. The police department in Phoenix was not ready for another visit from Omega especially if this time his rage would be directed at them. No one was ready to move forward and arrest these vigilantes. They just stood by their cars pointing their guns at them as they walked over to their van. With everything that was going on in the world none of the cops were willing to get involved and risk their lives over something that should have never been allowed in the city. The vigilantes got in their vans and left the scene as ambulances, media, and marine life rescues rushed in to the scene. Human rights vigilantes had picked the right city for their first attack and it sent a clear message around the world to all others keeping wild animals in captivity. More such incidents would quickly follow as police departments around the world did not have a clear direction from their governments on what laws to enforce.
Chapter 12
America having the biggest economy and the largest military was leading the charge against Omega’s proposal. They were trying to create a coalition with other countries called the “Alliance” to fight back. They stood to lose the most under the proposal for the new world. There were some nations that did not want to sign on to Omega’s this proposal but they weren’t military superpowers like America. They feared Omega far more than their place in the proposed world order. Even though they were secretly rooting for an alliance to destroy Omega they weren’t openly willing to join the Alliance.
There were plenty of other nations that were willing to join the Alliance. Most of the large nations in North America and South America joined the alliance. Smaller poor nations went the other way as they looked at it as an opportunity to provide a better life for their citizens in Eurasia. Same decisions were made by African nations. Only South Africa was willing to join the Alliance.
Australia wanted to resist Omega’s proposal but it was not an easy choice for them. Being so far from America and rest of the Alliance nations they would be isolated and couldn’t hold up against an attack from Omega on their own. It would be easy pickings. Countries that were supporting the proposal would be more than happy to eliminate opposing nations to make it easier on them to meet the population goals. At the end of the day human survival instincts always trumps their humanity. It was a lot easier to commit genocide of others if that meant more of your kind could survive. That was something every nation had to consider when making a choice to go up against Omega. They were not only going against Omega but against all the nations who were supporting the proposal. Omega’s proposal also included a mandatory requirement to reduce the global human population from 7.3 billion down to 2.5 billion in 40 years. The proposal did not provide a roadmap to achieve the goal. He could care less how humans got there as long as they did. The fear was that if the Alliance lost the war it would lead to total genocide of their citizens.
Eurasian nations were not keen on the idea of giving up land to the refugees from the other continents. That arrangement would lead to constant wars over land. Humans had fought over land throughout history so squeezing all these cultures on the same piece of land would guarantee conflict. Some European and Asian nations were supporting the Alliance because they didn’t think the proposal would ever work and they were morally and religiously opposed to the idea of letting Omega rule the world. Supporters of Omega’s proposal were hoping that after Alliance member nations in Eurasia lose the war their land can be used for refuge placements. This would ease the pressure of giving up too much of their land to refugees. This really brought out the true human nature to the forefront. Looking back at history, humans had always acted this way towards each other while still convincing themselves that they are a civilized and cultured civilization. Now they just didn’t have to pretend or shy away from their true nature. Their true nature that made them the dominant species on Earth that is until the arrival of Omega.
Meeting of the Alliance members was held at the United Nations headquarters in New York. There was only one item on the agenda.
“Are we going to attack Omega or not? The longer we wait more nations will defect to his side. We have to show strength.” British Ambassador Ed Hammond started with that question to the group.
“I agree. We need to act quickly. Surprise might be our best option to take him out,” United States Ambassador Jack McMillan agreed.
“But we need to keep it limited to Turkey. We want to avoid engaging other countries. Cut the head of the snake and the body dies with it.” British Ambassador Ed made him proposal.
“Agreed. All in favor of giving the Generals permission to plan a strike?” Jack asked for a vote. It was unanimously approved. The Alliance military received their marching orders to take out Omega.
Meanwhile Omega and the team were preparing for the inevitable possibility of a war with the Alliance. It had never occurred to Omega to use his ship in battle but with the fear of an all-out World War III everything was on the table. He went into the ship to see if there was anything the ship could do to protect his city from an attack. Omega was not worried about his ability to destroy his enemies. The one thing he couldn’t do was protect the people closest to him while trying to attack his enemies. Even with all his superpowers he couldn’t be everywhere at the same time. His family was his only weakness. Without finding an alternate he would have to stay there and protect the city and depend on his allies to go win the war. That would not be a good strategy.
Going into the ship was always stressful for him. Even though the ship brought him to Earth being inside always made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was a reminder of where he came from and that he was the last hope for a civilization that destroyed itself. With everything going on he had never really taken time to address his own emotions. One day, when this was all over he would have to reconcile his past with his new reality and hopefully figure out a way to be at peace. Today was not that day. Omega was good at compartmentalizing his emotions when going on missions. Maybe he was designed to let the mechanical side of him dominate decision making to improve his chances of survival in battle.
He brought Helm with him on the ship to see if he can help him figure out a way to use to the ship. If the ship was intelligent enough to fly him safely to a planet light years away, it might also have the ability to protect the city from attack. Even though Omega was the only one who could interact with the ship he needed Helm’s scientific mind to help him with how to make the ship protect the city.
“Wow! I had a picture in my head as to what the ship would be on the inside. This blows it all away. This is incredible,” Helm was geeked out. “This ship travelled light years without a pilot to bring you safely to Earth. I can’t even imagine what else this ship can do.”
“I can’t either. That’s why you are here. The ones who built the ship are not here and they didn’t provide an instruction manual,” Omega replied.
“I doubt a ship built by a species so much more advanced than us would use an instructional manual.” Helm thought out loud while looking around the ship “How did you communicate with this ship last time?”
“I didn’t. The ship communicated with me. When I walked inside the first time it knew what to do. It showed me the history of my people. Some other stuff happened but it seemed like that was part of the ship’s programming. We didn’t actually interact.” Omega explained without going into the details of why he was sent to this planet by his kind.
“Have you tried talking to it?” Helm asked and got a confused look from Omega “Based on the autonomous capabilities of this ship and you likely being artificially enhanced my guess would be that you might just be able to talk to the ship,” Helm added.
“You want me to talk to this ship? In English? You do understand that I don’t know how my people communicated. I was raised by humans.” Omega questioned Helm’s thinking.
“This is best I got. Just try it. You learned how to speak our language. Maybe it can too. It can’t hurt can it? Start simple. Just say ‘hi’.” Helm pushed Omega.
“Hi
you… ship... Can you understand me?” Omega asked the ship with a bit of sarcasm.
They waited in silence for a response but nothing happened.
“Well that didn’t work genius. Now what? Should I write a letter next?” Omega questioned Helm’s ability to really help with the ship.
“That will not be necessary Omega,” the ship spoke.
“WOW!! It worked. Who is the genius now?” Helm yelled out loud.
“When did you learn how to speak English?” Omega asked the ship.
“When Omega walked into the ship for the first time,” the ship replied.
“How did you learn our language if Omega never spoke to you before today?” Helm inquired.
“Hello Helm, it is nice to meet a friend of Omega. I downloaded the language from Omega.” The ship explained.
“Cool and kind of creepy. It settles the debate that you are an artificially enhanced being. Explains a lot of your abilities,” Helm added.
“So, were you connected to me my entire childhood?” Omega asked.
“I was not connected to you. I was instructed to let you adapt to your new life with the local species and wait for you to initiate communication. Once you came back and tried to communicate with me, I was allowed to connect with you,” the ship replied.
“Do you have a name? Since you are an intelligent machine it doesn’t seem right to call you a ship,” Helm inquired.
“I am not a machine and I do not have a name. It is a human custom to have names so I should have one,” the ship replied.
“What would you like to be called?” Omega asked.
“Would you like me to pick a human name for myself?” The ship asked.
“Yeah!! That would be cool,” Helm replied.
“I am researching...“ the ship added. “Adam. I would like to be called Adam.”
Hero Falls Kingdom Rises Page 14