Mounting evidence from many other private and well-respected independent sources also pointed towards the same doomsday scenario as predicated by the Supreme Beings, but it continued to be overlooked by most world leaders.
The authority of the 12 Principals was being steadily eroded by relentless criticism from dissenting scientists, prominent politicians, delusional economists, wealthy business leaders and everyone else who was against them. They used every means at their disposal to discredit the 12 and to prove that their whole encounter story had been invented for some devious, self-enriching purpose. The world began to care less and less about the Ultimatum and the supposed three-year ‘interim compliance review’ date seemed to drift into obscurity.
Two separate attempts by the Principals to organise a follow-up summit failed, since most of the original dignitaries had become dissidents and simply refused to attend. The Principals estimated that of the 427 dignitaries who had signed the Ultimatum Compliance Treaty, less than 90 remained fully committed to it.
The world economy had drifted in and out of recession during the turbulence of the three-year interim period. Most market segments had taken a pounding while only a few thrived, but the economy’s critical mass had rolled on especially since so many nations had chosen not to comply with the treaty. Some economists lauded non-compliant nations whom they said were to thank for the resilience of the all-important global economy. The ideology of economic growth at any cost prevailed, much to the delight of global markets and stock exchanges.
Edward Payton made repeated appeals to the world’s leadership and citizens to do more, but with little effect. What bothered him above all was nations’ attitudes towards the Ultimatum’s Habitat Defence Zones. Most nations had not made any effort to relocate infrastructure and people out of these zones, or prevent further development, clearing of vegetation and other human activity. Of the few nations that did try, most abandoned their efforts within the first six to 18 months. These areas were then slowly resettled by many of those who had been relocated out of them, or also by new people looking to occupy derelict homes. Human activity increased proportionally to the reoccupation.
Most governments claimed that they did not have the funds or resources to deal with these ‘illegal occupations’, and also could not risk any possible violent incidents. As a scapegoat, they referred to them as ‘ill-advised occupations’ and placed ‘occupation at own risk’ signs wherever these reoccupations were happening. This conveniently relinquished governments of legal responsibility to forcefully evict the occupiers, since their occupation was not officially declared as illegal.
Payton was vociferous against the illegal activities, saying that environmental restoration within these restricted zones was not possible whilst human activity persisted. The shameful reality was that, irrelevant of funds and resources, governments did not have the willpower to deal with the problem. Land was such an emotive issue and the thought of the political maelstrom that would be ignited through forced evictions or preventing reoccupations, was a step too far for them.
He knew that the illegal occupiers were also voters, and if a government was seen to be throwing people off any land, then it could easily become the target of a human rights abuse campaign. This would effectively eliminate their chances of winning another election. It was much easier to steer clear of unwanted controversy and maintain the political status quo.
Similar situations arose for the Non-Interference Access Zones. Most nations failed to prevent new development in these areas. Existing infrastructure was expanded, urban sprawl continued and populations grew.
The only exceptions included seven of the eight nations that had complied with the population management targets. All except the Soviet Union were pressing ahead with their respective attempts to comply with the environmental designation zone requirements. Some were having better degrees of success than others, but generally growing public resistance and waning government conviction began to hamper relocation progress.
Payton lauded all nations that remained committed to the treaty, and no matter how insignificant their progress, he motivated them to remain steadfast in their efforts. He emphasised that every inch of progress made, would lessen the scale of remediation. He went on to promote the seven most compliant nations as ‘bastions of hope’, and appealed to all other nations to follow their bold lead.
Oxford University’s vice-chancellor eventually terminated Payton’s services and even went so far as to offer him funding for any private counselling that he might require. The academic staff were of the mutual opinion that he needed long-term psychological evaluation.
Serena Harpon had witnessed the disintegration of her television empire after being ostracised from the media arena. She had been branded a tree-hugging fraud and was banished from most forms of media. Her global popularity had diminished to a fragment of what it had been prior to the encounter. This was reflected by her dwindling number of followers on social media which had declined by over 85%.
Michelle Dalir had been forced to resign from CNN for her pro-Ultimatum views. The board was convinced that she had caused the news broadcaster’s ratings to slide. She had been unable to secure another position with any of the other ‘Big-10’ worldwide news broadcasters for two full months, until she was recruited by CCTV Enviro-Watch, as one of their lead anchors.
Following in the US President’s footsteps, Veronica Carrera had lasted just eight months before surrendering her presidency and stepping down from power. Brazil had been on the brink of a revolution after she had forced through various Ultimatum reforms. After surviving two failed assassination attempts, she decided that she could not risk a third. Her administration was collectively relieved to see her step down.
The Indian Prime Minister had lasted 10 testing months in his position, all the while trying to persuade his administration to ratify constitutional amendments with regards to population management and emissions control. His senior staff eventually spoke out against him, and soon thereafter, fabricated evidence emerged that Prime Minister Naidoo had been involved in an arms deal corruption scandal. Naidoo was forced to resign from office soon thereafter.
The European Union President had not been nominated for re-election when her term came to an end, much to the relief of the entire European Union and its Council. In the months leading up to her retirement as President, seven nations within the Union had threatened to withdraw their allegiance to Brussels after the introduction of various disagreeable reforms. The few reforms that had been implemented were subsequently rescinded on the grounds that they threatened the unity of Europe.
The Arab League Secretary-General was removed from office for his opposition to oil, and his ungodly views regarding contraception which were deemed to be in conflict with the Islamic religion and holy teachings of the Koran. He had appealed his removal, but without success.
The African Union Chairperson remained in power but was limited in his capacity to implement sweeping changes across the African continent. The African Union itself had been ineffectual for two full decades before Jamba Mabunda had taken office. This had long undermined its authority, but his aim was to restore its credibility. It would be a while still though, before it could wield worthwhile influence over Africa’s 54 heads of state.
The ‘terms in office’ of the United Nations Secretary-General and International Monetary Fund Managing Director had also come to an end, with neither being nominated for re-election. They both, however, remained high up in their respective organisations and were well connected to the new leaders.
Former President Jameson’s house arrest conditions were eventually relaxed, but she still felt like a prisoner not having her right to freedom of speech.
The Chinese President was the only head of state who remained in his original position. Fortunately the single party structure of the Chinese Government had allowed for the reforms to be implemented without the risk of being voted out of power.
His nation had been s
ubjected to relentless worldwide rebuke, international trade isolation and economic bullying – but global intimidation aside, China had against all odds, managed to achieve all of their Ultimatum targets. The accomplishment was extraordinary especially when contrasted against the rest of the world’s comparatively pitiful performance. Many nations were worryingly aware that China’s roaring success could very well highlight their own shocking failures.
Ironically, the biggest culprits of non-compliance in terms of accumulative totals, turned out to be the United States, Europe, India and Brazil. After their leadership changes they had continued as though the Ultimatum Compliance Treaty had never existed.
The Principals watched in frustration as the clock relentlessly ticked down to the day that the Supreme Beings would return. Every month, week and day they hoped for a miracle but all they saw on the GCMA’s Environmental Restoration News Channel was escalating levels of non-compliance. Humanity was openly inviting unprecedented tragedy.
In the month leading up to the anticipated return of the Supreme Beings, the Principals bought personal satellite phones and relocated themselves and their immediate families to strategically selected safe zones in terms of the Ultimatum. They all made sure that they could be independently sustained for an indefinite period by means of heavy-duty shelter, renewable power, water tanks, food provisions, communications and personal security. They prepared for the worst assuming that there would be no functioning infrastructure after the remediation. A few million people around the world did the same, while billions did nothing.
The Principals urged their extended family, friends and anyone else that would listen to them, to take similar precaution. Much to their dismay, their warnings of the imminent three-year interim deadline were mostly censored by governments, ridiculed by the media and ignored by the general public. They were accused of instigating panic by recommending organised evacuations of cities that had obviously failed to comply with the Ultimatum. They were all eventually muzzled by the authorities under the pretence of being deemed a risk to national security. As far as the majority of the world was concerned, the day of the ‘hypothetical’ three-year interim compliance review was to be treated like any other normal day.
9. RETURN
|EDT| 6:00 p.m. Stellar System 413: IGT-Station 413 (Sunday, 12 September 2038)
Exactly three years after the Galactic Federation’s previous visit to Earth, IGT Station 413 flickered back to life. The gyratory cyclopacitors began their complex rotating cycles, adjusting their varying velocities to suit the incoming coordinates, and at the same time confirming its own coordinates with the interfacing station, IGT-001. It was like a gigantic key slowly unlocking a loophole in the delicate fabric of space.
A minute later the unlocking cycle was complete. The hollow void within the cylindrical mega-structure blurred with silver luminosity. Then, after a moment of total darkness, there was a blindingly bright blue flash. At that very instant the Galactic Federation’s exploration spacecraft, Observatory, hypershunted out of IGT-413.
Captain Parenton was in the bridge and spoke, “Commander, hypershunt success confirmed.”
“Thank you, Captain,” said Commander Trennor. “Velocity report please.”
The Captain responded, “Commander, the ion drives have the Observatory stable at 50% light speed.”
“Excellent, Captain. Increase our velocity to 95% light speed and plot a course for the stellar system’s largest gaseous planet. Once there, place us into a low altitude orbit – this will be our rendezvous point with the Empress’s spacecraft, Silhouette. When ready, we will proceed directly on to Andorayan Sanctuarium,” said Trennor.
“Affirmative, Commander.”
The Captain motioned towards his navigation officer who swept his hands across the glide control surface in front of him. The propulsion capacity increase and interim destination information were confirmed with the spacecraft’s Titan master system, which in turn, executed the instructions.
The Ion Displacement Drive kicked in and began accelerating the spacecraft towards 95% light speed.
Commander Trennor then spoke directly to the Titan itself, “Titan, commence download sequence from the planetary surveillance module … let us see what these human beings have been up to during the last three years.”
“Yes, Commander.”
The Titan had already established a direct communication uplink with the PSM, and upon receiving the instruction, commenced with the download of data from the last point of contact three years earlier. It took just seconds for everything to be transferred into the Titan’s database. Sub-link connections had also been established with the planet’s data and communications networks, which were now streaming live to the spacecraft. Collation and analysis of all the data followed instantaneously for packaging, distribution and placement into the Knowledge Catalogue.
Within minutes, a compliance report and separate planetary evaluation report were released by the Titan for the Exploration Council’s review. The content of the two reports was alarming and Trennor’s subliminal fears had now been realised. Andorayan Sanctuarium’s dire situation had deteriorated even further.
11:00 p.m. Observatory: Ultimatum Compliance Review
Five hours later the Observatory coasted into orbit around the stellar system’s largest planet known to the human species as ‘Jupiter’. Its atmosphere raged in turbulent brown and beige circumferential streaks and in one place the torment was so intense that it could be seen as a giant, swirling red super-storm. The sight of the streaked gaseous planet was appreciated by every crew member who witnessed it.
Within an hour, the Silhouette arrived and docked with the Observatory. Empress Aeryssia and the four Chancellors disembarked and were immediately led to the Council Chamber where they were met by Commander Trennor. Within minutes their meeting began and Trennor gave them a high level summary of the compliance and planetary evaluation reports. All six of them were equally disturbed by the extent of non-compliance. Together, they ran through the reports’ content in detail, to ascertain exactly how the situation had unfolded during the last three years. The interpretation of the content was aided by the orbonic projector’s interactive time sequence visual of the Earth, displayed in the centre of the room.
The scene of continued worldwide environmental destruction was utterly devastating. The six swept information from the rotating holographic globe onto their glide surfaces for further detail and analysis. It was apparent that over 80% of the human species had chosen to ignore the Ultimatum. The high degree of non-compliance had caused the rate of environmental deterioration to accelerate, rather than decelerate and stabilise.
As a direct result of this, the Titan confirmed that the planet’s environment remained perilously close to its tipping point. The forecast tipping point date had in fact been pulled forward by two years rather than been pushed back by five years, as would have been the case if the Ultimatum had been complied with … a seven-year swing in the first interim period alone. The planet’s environment was making a valiant effort to hold on despite humankind’s continued assault on its biospherical integrity.
The six looked at the compliance statistics for the Ultimatum’s population management section. They noted the overall failure of the human species to comply with the requirement for stabilisation and gradual reduction of its population. When measured for the interim three-year period, the human population was shown to have grown by over 3% to 10,34 billion – an extra 312 million people – rather than stabilising the population at 10,1 billion and initiating a decline. The nations that had complied had been able to reduce their populations by a total of 41 million people, which showed that the rest of the world had actually added a combined 353 million people.
The Empress commented on the figures in a sullen tone, “This continued population growth is totally unacceptable and we now have no alternative but to carry out selective remedial removal of the species.”
Yusoara spoke, “It is fascinat
ing to see where the greatest population growth areas are. Some of the more developed and educated nations that were expected to be in full compliance with the Ultimatum have failed spectacularly. It is as though they acted in deliberate defiance to our Ultimatum. This is truly extraordinary since it is their own lives that they are putting at risk … their actions make no sense at all.”
Warion commented, “Only eight nations were able to achieve their population targets, and only one nation was able to achieve total compliance across the full spectrum of Ultimatum conditions and targets.”
He continued, “This nation, China, achieved their population target despite a significant influx of Chinese nationals returning home from other parts of the world. The Chinese President has not only shown every other world leader that the Ultimatum was comprehensively achievable, he has also spared his nation from remediation. Interestingly, the environmental benefits of China’s compliance partially offset the world’s combined detriment from their non-compliance. Without their efforts the tipping point date would have been brought forward by three years instead of the actual two years.
“The Chinese people will soon realise the scale of their reprieve for achieving full compliance. The other nations, however, will unfortunately undergo remediation in terms of the Ultimatum.”
The Empress and Chancellors then ran through the other Ultimatum sections with respect to: population recovery of other species and extinction prevention; the restoration of land, ocean and atmosphere; and, general improvements to the environment. The extent of non-compliance in every section was highly concerning to them. Even the absolutely critical atmospheric restoration conditions and targets had been largely disregarded.
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