“ 3 5 5 1 : The Burden Of Earth’s Children. ”
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balance to our favor, then we’ll have to manage our presence on the planet! However, there still were many ancient beliefs about being ‘fruitful and multiply,’ as well as a general atavistic attitude toward human reproductive contraptions, even in the thirty-sixth century. And since such strongly held beliefs would only be defended if they were challenged by Earthen authorities, the governments decided to take a more tactful approach to the issue…the lottery system for the diaspora project. As an ancient saying from Earth went, in so many words, you have to make them want it!
Another detail that came out of the media was about the very governing Colonial Collectives system itself. It was discovered, via vintage records—both virtual and analog—that all three of the Collectives were, in fact, extensions of various Earthen governments! Again, to utilize a venerable metaphor, they were simply a store front for those Earth-based governments, designed to convey the progress of humanity’s endeavors into the outer solar system. To put it even more directly, the colonies on Mars, Europa, and Titan were glorified slaughterhouses of humans from the start! Clandestinely, for nearly fifty years, governments of Earth had a system of politely killing their fellow human beings…several mysterious disappearances here, lots of unsolved murders there. And some of the factories within the colonies on Mars and a few more on Europa (Titan was far too nascent for high industry at this point) had actually been turning out food—ground beef made not from bovine cattle, but from homo sapiens.
That shipment of protein was shuttled back to Earth each time a Colonial ship had gone out to Earth to pick up more immigrants. The ground meat was then distributed to a very hungry planet Earth, with all its billions of starving or near-starving citizens. This perverted system saved billions of Earth notations for the Earthen governments, especially when you factor in shipment costs to and from Earth.
Needless to say, this discovery was a pivotal moment in the downfall of the Colonial Collectives system.
Over time, many Earthen government officials were forced out of office. Many were incarcerated; many more received capital punishment. Yet many more fled to any number of the artificial planetoids within the Sol system. Some were even assassinated by the more fundamentalist types in society. The Colonial Collectives slowly dissolved into mere shadows of what they were. Many people, both on Earth and in the former Collectives, credit the wise, albeit crass, woman on Earth who had stood up to the diaspora program, Majordomo Tenesa Lucindo. She and her first, brave group of immigrants had started what would later be called the Grand Earthen Revolution of 3551.
Unfortunately, what the Revolution did not do was solve the ecological drought that Earth remained under, even many more centuries afterwards. Some scientists suggested that humans on Europa and Mars export some of their respective permafrost to Earth, to be converted into freshwater for humans. But there was no way that would be enough to substitute the once-great oceans and seas of planet Earth. The desalinization process hundreds of years ago had simply bled the planet dry.
Generations later, some scientists, the ones who later became kings and queens of New Humanity, sought ways to continue some elements of the diaspora project. That is, they commenced with the transporting of Earthen citizens from Earth to Mars, Europa, and Titan, in time past known as the Colonial Collective. Yet even more years later, other destinations within the solar system were added, from the other moons of Saturn and Jupiter, to a few of the larger asteroids in the asteroid belt. For these wise scientists had finally convinced all civilizations on Earth that it was well-beyond time for humanity to leave its point of origin. The best humanity could do at that point in history was to pollinate the solar system, but do it wisely. And to learn from our mistakes and deliberate practices and policies that destroyed the children of Earth’s home.
~fin~