Adam Elevator Space Base | 62,137 miles above sea level | 2779 AD
Bruce
sighed while waiting at the cargo bay for the elevator's arrival. He
had been following the same schedule for last 10 years – collecting the
cargo sent by his associates on Earth which usually included new test
equipments and some belongings sent by his family and friends living
below. A taut carbon nanotube composite ribbon
was anchored to the platform. It continued a few thousand miles above
into the space and finally hooked into a trapped asteroid which acted as
a counterweight. He could sense the dampened vibrations of the
approaching elevator. He was feeling a bit upset today as on this
fateful day, five years back, his dear friend Luke had vanished
mysteriously.
Tycho Crater | 100 miles from SpaceX Colony, Moon | 2774 AD
Luke
drove his rover through the Lunar highlands covered with regolith, a
mixture of fine dust and rocky debris, and reached the source of the
strange signal he detected today. He slid down the gentle slope of the
crater and started leaping towards its centre. After walking a few miles
the dusty terrain started turning smooth and shiny like an ice-floor.
He inserted his probe and started examining the floor closely. It turned
out to be a super-cooled liquid glass.
“What is this glass lake doing in this crater?” He wondered.
He turned his head upwards and gazed at his home planet. It was looking serene and beautiful.
Suddenly a thought clicked in his mind.
He
took his receiver and plugged it into his suit. He told Lina, the
computer built into his spacesuit, to analyse the signal with respect to
Vasin-Shcherbakov Equations.
After a few seconds.
“Luke.
This signal encodes the current satellite image of Earth with an
extraordinary resolution of one mile on Earth to one mile on the data
transmitted.”
Luke
was shocked- “How on Earth is this possible! This crater contains the
most gigantic telescope, constantly keeping an eye on us and we never
knew. How did we miss it? I must head to the colony and tell Bruce about
this.”
As
Luke started drifting swiftly towards the rover, he felt a strange
presence, as if he was not alone. A dusty breeze blew through his
airtight suit. He was shocked at the thought of something penetrating
his suit.
The next moment his power-suit turned off.
He tripped.
Turned his head.
Saw a faint silver figure floating in air and never woke up.
The giant lunar telescope was not the first alien technology mankind ever came across. Something similar happened 800 years ago.
Groom Lake | Southern Nevada, U.S. | 1949 AD
The
lake was shrinking season after season. Old Timothy Adams was having a
dip in the lake when suddenly he felt something big under his feet. He
informed the sheriff and soon they pulled out that saucer shaped object.
Rumours of this strange object spread and this area was cordoned off
quickly. They named it Area 51, a secretive military air force base.
After
a few years, disruptive technologies started pouring out in US- Fibre
optics, LASERs, Kevlar, Titanium fighter planes, Transistors (the birth
of computers)– and some of these totally changed our world. Some
technologies took centuries to reverse engineer, like the hydroxyGEN–
which could split water vapour in air and provide us both Hydrogen fuel
and pure Oxygen.
It
still remains a well kept secret that the technologies we boast off
today, had their origin in that one saucer which landed on Earth maybe
centuries ago.
SpaceX Moon Colony | Maria Levita, Moon | 2779 AD
It
was a peaceful lunar settlement, flocked with twenty families as a part
of the SpaceX lunar experiment. The colony was a closed ecological
system where all nutrients were recycled. It was self-sustainable
requiring no Earthly support.
Bruce
entered his house. Sam was eagerly waiting for his dad. He was wearing a
strange skimpy suit covering his entire body except his head.
“Hey son, look what grandpa sent you.”
It was a slimy fish with orange scales. Swimming to and fro in the container. It looked beautiful.
“Dad, it belongs to which species?”
“I have no clue Sam. Try asking Ela.”
Sam moved his hand and positioned his palm facing the fish.
“Ela, tell me all details you find on this fish.”- He said it on his microphone.
Green
rays came out of his palm and started scanning the fish. The rays
stopped and Ela, his personal supercomputer, soon arrived at an answer.
“It
is an Oranghy also known as the "slimehead". It is slimy and has orange
scales, having a typical life expectancy of 150 years. It is found
along the North Atlantic coast. It became extinct 50 years back due to
overfishing.”
Sam
looked at this cute fish and started feeling sorry. Man's inherent
nature to dominate the entire planet never changed. As centuries passed,
species extinction had continued at an alarming rate due to human
activities.
Amazon Desert | Brazil | 2779 AD
What
was once 2.1 million sq miles rainforest was now reduced to a desert
with just a small patch of land covered with trees. Millions of species
residing in those forest were now extinct. An automatic lumberjack came
and started logging the final patch.
The moment the last tree touched ground, 2000 orbs left the Gioni Crater on Mars.
Adam Elevator Earth Base | On a Pacific Isle | 2779 AD
“Stephan,
today around two thousand silver orbs destroyed all major cities around
the globe. A high energy plasma beam emitted from a single orb wiped
out an entire city, leaving behind just a rocky terrain. With all major
government centers gone, the entire planet and its people are thrown
into chaos."- Andy told me.
A
day later, everyone, including me, enlisted in the army, in order to
protect the Adam Earth Base as that was our last resort to escape this
doomsday. It was our last hope.
We took our positions and surrounded the base.
Five
hours later, three elevated figures appeared far away. The humanoids
looked identical, shaped like an ideal human. We started shooting at
them with our laser guns. It was a futile effort.
Their silver suits were made up of technology never seen before-
Nanotech? Biotech?
No.
It
was nowhere near as simple as that. Its material was inserted with an
integral DNA of living organisms. Customized artificial neurons were
working in conjunction with their nervous system. Those metallic suits
responded to their thoughts. It was an amalgam of biotechnology and
mechatronics. They were controlling it perfectly. Our laser beams were
easily blocked by their techno-organic armour which altered itself
automatically to create a shield in order to obstruct the trajectory.
They were close. We were scared.
None
of my shots were even close. I was just another scientist holding a gun
and wearing a power-pack, stupefied by their alien technology. One of
them was now floating in air facing me. I shot at him insanely, to no
result. He extended his hand fully towards me, keeping his arms straight
and locked. His palm a few feet away facing my head. Suddenly he turned
and shot a spherical ball towards Andy. The ball appeared out of
nowhere on his palm. As if lots of molecules on his palm assembled to
form that sphere. As it reached Andy, the sphere disintegrated into the
air. Andy's power-pack failed and then a few moments later Andy dropped
dead.
I
could predict that this superior race had already harnessed
Technovores- Synthetic alloys and unknown biological entities that
invade the system compromising power source and life out of the cells of
the host. The silver Technovore shield was made entirely of nanobots.
It had the ability to disassemble itself into a stream of nanites which
carries a copy of the entire viral personality, and implying that the
whole entity can reconstruct itself from a single unit. It absorbed
technology into itself, adding the abilities of consumed technology into
its physical being. It was a bio-tech warfare, probably the first and
the last mankind would ever see.
The alien turned his head and looked directly into my cold eyes.
SpaceX Moon Colony | Maria Levita, Moon | 2779 AD
Bruce
and Sam started running towards the escape pods kept at the edge of the
colony. But when they reached it was already too late. The five pods
were already carrying eight families. Bruce was holding Sam's hand
standing in despair. They could see the SilverMen on the other side of
the colony shield.
The pods launched.
SilverMen
positioned their palms shooting hundreds of globules into space which
disintegrated on contact with the surface of the pods. Three hundred
feet above the ground those pods annihilated.
Sam
could not bear the sight. He hugged his dad and started crying. Right
now he felt just like the Oranghy – alone, entrapped and helpless.
“Dad, are we going to become extinct?”
This entry was written for IBL 2.0 Coup d'East Team. Do like the original entry - Link
