The world would now be looking to them for best practice implementation models that had allowed the Chinese to so effectively comply with the Ultimatum. Where China had for so long been viewed as the global villain, they would now be seen as the global hero.
1:00 p.m. Earth: Jameson Country Manor
As agreed, the Principals had used their sat-phones to stay in close contact throughout the remediation period. Soon after the withdrawal of the hemispheres, the 12 had teleconferenced to debrief and discuss their views. Jameson was hugely relieved that all of them, their immediate families, and closest loved ones were safe. Their teleconference had been kept to just 20 minutes, so as to minimise time away from their grief-stricken family members.
One hour had passed since the hemispheres had left the Earth. Jameson’s husband was in a state of despair over the loss of life and devastation of irreplaceable American landmarks. Many of his colleagues and friends had fallen victim to the remediation and he was struggling to come to terms with it.
Harold spoke, “It is despicable that these extra-terrestrial beings carried out this so-called remediation. Just look at the death and destruction that they’ve brought upon humanity and the world.”
Sally responded, “It is terrible, I agree. But even worse, is the fact that the world chose to ignore the Ultimatum knowing full well what the consequence would be. According to the Supreme Beings, this remediation will give humanity a second opportunity for long-term survival. I know for a fact that this was carried out as a matter of last resort. It was us, humans, who refused to embrace the true principles of sustainability … and because of this, mitigating action was taken against us. It is fully justifiable in their eyes, since it was done in the best interest of perpetuating all life on Earth.”
She was now thinking out loud, “Liken the Supreme Beings’ quandary to that of America’s at the end of the Second World War. We gave Japan an ultimatum to either end their war effort and surrender, or face serious consequences. When they refused to comply, the United States was left with no alternative but to use its newly developed weapons of mass destruction. The Ultimatum given to humanity by the Supreme Beings and the subsequent remediation carried out in response to our non-compliance, is no different. In 1945 we viewed Japan as the greatest threat facing the world’s security. Right now, in 2035, these Supreme Beings view humanity as the greatest threat facing the world’s wellbeing. It is an awful truth.”
What she was saying was doing little to soothe her husband’s grief and anger. The paradox was a very real one and he personally believed that the use of nuclear weapons in World War Two was completely justified, which added to his mixed emotions. His forefathers had fought against the Japanese and survived, probably only as a result of the nuclear weapons being used. He might not exist at all if the decision to use the ultimate weapon had been delayed or withheld, due to the impossible moral dilemma.
Harold thought through her point of view. He could see that his wife was not the same person she had been three years ago, before the first encounter. Her perspectives and priorities had evolved in so many areas of her life. Where she had always valued human life above all else, she now valued the environment above all else. She believed that humans should conform to the environment rather than the other way around. She saw everything in a new light now, and he believed that she was a better person for it.
Sally spoke further, trying to express her emotions, “I have truly examined my fundamental beliefs and cannot dispute that what we have done to this planet’s environment, and to all other living organisms, is despicable. It is, in itself, tantamount to genocide. We have no excuse for our behaviour and it needs to be stopped.
“I only hope that the people of this world have the ability to acknowledge this stark reality and wake up to the fact that our destructive behaviour needs to be brought to an end … before we are brought to an end.”
2:00 p.m. Observatory: Third Encounter
In the Observatory’s Council Chamber, Empress Aeryssia and her Chancellors sat waiting for the Principal delegation to join them. Commander Trennor had given the instruction 10 minutes earlier for the Principals to be hyperglided on board for the post-remediation encounter, and they were expected to arrive imminently in the hyperglidonian room.
A minute later, the void in the Council Chamber wall opened and the 12 Principals emerged in single file, again led by the Chinese President. The Federal Alliance members rose from their seats. It was immediately obvious that the last 29 hours had taken a dreadful toll on the Principals. Their faces were grave and drawn after having lived through the traumatising events that had unfolded back on Earth. They approached the conference table with trepidation, exchanged greetings and took their now familiar seats. The six Supreme Beings followed.
The Principals sat in silence waiting to be addressed by one of the Federal Alliance members.
The Empress was the first to speak, “I would like to open by offering our deepest sympathies to you and all your fellow human beings on Earth. We understand that the remediation will have had a monumental impact on your global society, but it is imperative for you to know that it will be stronger in the long term for it. Right now, however, your planet’s environment is still at risk, and there is much work that needs to be done to ensure that your world and the human species prevail long into the future.
“We can inform you that since the remediation was carried out, the production of carbon dioxide emissions has been cut by 42%, methane emissions by 47% and nitrous oxide emissions by 52%. Considering just how close Earth is to breaching its environmental tipping point, we could not have delayed this remediation any longer, or reduced its scale.
She continued, “Temporary reprieve would only have accelerated the environmental deterioration, making it all the more difficult to avoid the onset of environmental collapse. I remind you that humanity would not survive a global collapse and that, considering your level of technological advancement, your medium to long-term survival prospects in space would also be non-existent.
“The truth is that these extensive and seemingly harsh remedial intervention measures were absolutely necessary. The wide-ranging transformation of net carbon dioxide producing areas into carbon dioxide absorbing areas, will result in a noticeable short-term improvement in the health of your planet’s atmosphere. We have placed you firmly back on the road toward atmospheric restoration, climate stabilisation and the re-establishment of your planet’s environmental equilibrium. Hopefully the sustainability imperative will be accepted by all of humanity, and every human being will strive to stay on this road to recovery.
“We must remind you that this was only the first of our five stipulated interim compliance review visits. The second is scheduled for this date, exactly three years from now. During this interim period you will need to comply with a new Ultimatum. Its conditions have undergone various revisions, and its targets have been adjusted to take the remediation into account. Be aware, however, that in the interest of minimising the number of cohabitating species’ extinctions, we have brought the projected environmental equilibrium date forward. This means that despite the revisions, your adjusted targets offer you little respite from your original compliance responsibilities.
The Empress then handed over to Commander Trennor.
He addressed the Principals, “I now want to summarise the extent of remediation that was carried out on your planet.”
The Commander proceeded to run through the Titan’s final Remediation Report. The figures shown in the Remediation Summary Table stunned the Principals – the reduction numbers and percentages within each remediation category were almost impossible to fathom. Equally startling were the respective human environmental impact reduction figures.
Trennor called up a world map titled: ‘Overall human, livestock and infrastructure removal distribution’. It showed where the 4,33 billion human beings, 3,94 billion livestock, and myriad of infrastructure had been removed from the planet.
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p; North, Central and South America had been hard hit with its combined human population being reduced from 1,6 billion to just 900 million people. Forty percent of their most populated and polluting cities had undergone transformation and no longer existed. The United States’ population alone had been reduced from 400 million to just 200 million, a 50% reduction.
Europe’s human population was reduced from 1 billion to 600 million people with hundreds of cities and thousands of towns being transformed. The percentage reductions varied significantly from country to country depending on their population compliance levels.
The remediation in Africa had been devastating with 1,2 billion people from the original 2,2 billion population being removed. This was due to vast portions of the continent’s people refusing to relocate out of the Habitat Defence Zones. All of them were now gone. Payton sympathised with Africa’s plight. The continent had only just begun to recover from the horrific tragedies experienced during the previous decade. These included The Great Nile War*1 and the Kariba Catastrophe*2, which together had claimed well in excess of 40 million lives and displaced an estimated 100 million others.
[*1 The Great Nile War was fought in Africa between 2026 and 2029 over water resources. Overconsumption of White Nile water by East African Nations bordering Lake Victoria, including Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, as well as Blue Nile water flow restrictions resulting from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, caused downstream Nile river nations The Sudan and Egypt to experience extreme water shortages. The Nile River was the lifeline of these nations and the water shortages resulted in widespread crop failures, which placed food and water security at risk.
A decade of Nile water-sharing negotiations mediated by the African Union eventually broke down in 2026, resulting in the Egyptian Air Force bombing the Nalubaale, Kiira and Bujagali hydroelectric power stations at the source of the White Nile (Jinja, Uganda), as well as 1 500 agricultural pump stations around the shores of Lake Victoria. The Sudanese Air Force joined the bombing raid, destroying the Renaissance Dam wall. The resulting floods claimed the lives of 1 million people downstream in The Sudan. East African nations responded militarily and all-out war ensued including the bombing of the Aswan dam wall, which led to another flood claiming 2 million lives in Egypt. In 2029 after an estimated 5 million military casualties and 25 million casualties of flooding, disease, thirst and famine, a ceasefire agreement was signed effectively ending what became known as The Great Nile War.
*2 The Kariba Catastrophe of 2031, claimed an estimated 10 million lives when Lake Kariba, the largest manmade dam in the world by volume (180 cubic kilometres of water), suffered a catastrophic dam wall collapse. Downstream, the Zambezi River experienced a flash flood which washed away both the Cahora Bassa dam wall and the newly completed Sena dam wall. The flood water raged through Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique towards the Indian Ocean destroying everything in its path and killing millions. A combined 300 cubic kilometres of water (equivalent to eight Yangzi Three Gorges Dams or 72 500 Hoover Dams) eventually hit the Zambezi Delta, resulting in a tidal wave that killed tens of thousands more on the surrounding, heavily inhabited coastlines of neighbouring islands, nations and also Madagascar. Debris washed up on shores as far away as India and Indonesia.]
Australia and the Pacific Islands had experienced a population correction from 70 million to 40 million people. Australia had lost four of its seven major cities and three quarters of its fossil fuelled power plants. The nation had been relieved of 19 million people, with just 15 million remaining.
Asia had experienced a population reduction from 5,3 billion to 3,4 billion people. The remediation in India had been especially brutal, due to its total failure to comply with the population and emission reduction requirements. This had resulted in over 70% of the population being removed, equating to 1,3 billion lives. Over 30 of their biggest cities had been transformed into natural landscapes. A number of fossil fuelled industries had also been transformed by smaller isolated hemispheres. The only remaining power plants were nuclear units, renewable units and coal-fired units that had been fitted with carbon sequestration modules.
The Principals considered the fact that the post-remediation world population of 6 billion was what it had been just 35 years before, in the year 2000 CE. Also shocking to the Principals was that 72% of the world’s megafaunal domesticated animals had been removed – leaving behind just 1,5 billion livestock around the world (equating to 25% of the remaining human population).
Commander Trennor’s presentation lasted half an hour. The Principals were attentive throughout despite their sleep-deprived states. Chancellor Warion then took over from the Commander.
“With respect to the three Environmental Designation Zones: although the designation zone percentages and areas remain unaffected, I must inform you of various other changes that have been instituted. The Habitat Defence Zones will from this day forward be demarcated and protected by means of Selective Exclusion Perimeter Shields (SEPS) that the Galactic Federation will be responsible for implementing. These shields are silo-projected from below ground and sea level, vertically upwards for five kilometres in the exact shape of the zone’s outer perimeter.
“We will define exactly which living organisms are entitled to pass freely back and forth through the shield. Human beings and man-made equipment are prohibited from entering these zones under all circumstances, and the selective exclusion nature of the shield will physically impede entry. Similarly, animals deemed to be at risk outside of the shield will be physically prevented from leaving the zones.”
Warion continued, “Any malicious attempt made by human beings to enter these zones will be viewed as a threat, to which the response will be instant neutralisation. We will be deploying Area Monitoring Drones (AMDs) within each of these zones, which will ensure that this condition is strictly adhered to at all times.
“This exclusion zoning is only a temporary measure put in place for the mutual protection of both human beings and other species. Once human behaviour no longer presents a threat to the environment, these shields will be removed and human beings will once again be entitled to interference-free access in these areas.
“We must also bring your attention to the fact that all the transformed areas are not to be resettled or redeveloped in any way. They have all been categorised as Non-interference Access Zones.”
The Principals acknowledged their full understanding of what they had just heard. These revised Ultimatum conditions were sure to provoke outrage, but it was an unfortunate reality that the majority of human beings could not be trusted to respect the zone perimeters. The Principals understood that the precaution was necessary to restore these areas to their natural states of equilibrium.
2:15 p.m. Earth: Merrinov War Operations and Command Centre
General Drashenko entered the Merrinov War Room to give President Rivensky a progress update. “Comrade President, we have successfully redirected 10 of our 14 surveillance satellites to try and track the spacecraft. All of these satellites are equipped with high definition video and thermal imaging capability. We are tracing the theoretical orbital position of the spacecraft and hope to get some form of visual or thermal confirmation to verify our calculations.”
“Excellent, General. Like I said, use everything at our disposal.”
The General affirmed the comment, then exited and made his way back down to the War Operations and Command Centre. He walked around the Centre obtaining various preparation update reports, and also carefully surveying the plethora of information on the huge screen that surrounded him. He was deeply focused, making sure that every last detail of the nuclear offensive was in order.
Kasparov, who was sitting in front of his computer, respectfully called for the General’s attention. Drashenko walked over and Kasparov spoke, “General, I’m picking up an interesting anomaly from three of our satellites that are currently focused on the computed moving position of the assumed spacecraft. Take a look at this.”
; Various images appeared on the operations screen at the front of the WOCC. They all showed a slightly distorted shape moving through space, with stars in the background blurring as the shape passed by in the foreground. It was as though these stars’ light was being bent through a moving optical lens of some kind. The shape did not resemble anything specific, but its estimated overall dimensions were similar to those of the spacecraft shown at the Global Unification Summit. The fact that this anomaly was tracking the extrapolated orbital path, and was also in the estimated position within that orbital path, cemented their confidence that it must be the spacecraft.
Drashenko slapped Kasparov on the back. “Well done there, Comrade Kasparov. You’ve got it. Now we know for sure where to aim our missiles!”
2:30 p.m. Observatory: Third Encounter
Empress Aeryssia then invited questions from the Principals. Many were raised regarding the revised conditions and targets in the new Ultimatum, while others sought advice on implementation strategy back on Earth. Each of the questions was dealt with to the degree deemed appropriate by the Empress and her Chancellors. True to her word, former President Jameson passed on President West’s requests, to which the responses were as expected: “The Ultimatum shall remain in place and the remediation is irreversible.”
When the question session was closed, Jameson spoke openly, “My whole life, I have been disillusioned about our goals as humankind. Those of development, growth and expansion were all I ever knew and I bought into them. Now I look on them with disdain and wish that everyone else could see the light as we do. But our world leaders are inclined to portray inconvenient truths as elaborate myths and ignore them … particularly if they have potential to compromise their popularity, power or wealth. For Americans these days, it is not a case of survival at any cost, it is a case of lifestyle at any cost. This self-defeating ideal needs to change before anything else.”
Wake-up Call: 2035 Page 46