Some Day in the Future

“And so it came to pass the greatest minds were evacuated from the dying planet” Ms Dawson droned on, spreading her arms to show some sort of divine judgment “It’s as if God himself had given humanity a second chance….”
The details of the Mayflower evacs were of course old story to Peter - years back the tales of humanity escaping annihilation filled Peter with awe and inspiration, but now he was more interested in what Sarah Gellar had done with her hair than a story he’d already heard a thousand times…
“Beautiful” he murmured
“What is beautiful Mr. Davies?” Ms Dawson was livid “The holocaust, the nuclear winter or perhaps the preemptive strikes on the third world countries than wiped out a billionth of the population amuses you…”
Peter always wondered how the old coot had such a great sense of hearing.
“Mr. Davies, the only reason we tell you this is because we have made mistakes in the past, and believe you me if we do the same again the technology today will not permit us to redeem ourselves yet again…”
RRRINGGGG
“Saved by the bell” though Peter as he rushed out of the fluorescent classroom, hoping to pass Sarah a compliment on her hairdo on his way out.
“Assignments tomorrow, the Evacuation of Terra Firma” Ms Dawson screamed out to the dispersing herds. Popping an aspirin she slumped into her chair.
“They’re gonna lose another planet for us” she mumbled to herself as she gazed out, Phobos looked beautiful in the red tinged evening sky.
Peter was born on Earth II in the year 769 T.M, way too young to be a part of the first landings. He had heard the stories of course, of how they were actually from another planet, of how his people had come so close to extinction and of how they had cheated God’s Judgment by terraforming this neighboring planet they now called home. But that was not his life, he lived in a mechanized world full of modern marvels – his life was about getting a passing grade in the ninth standard and summoning the nerve to ask Sarah Gellar to the prom.
That evening he was reading his history books, all about the three centuries of progress, of how they had converted a manufactured world to resemble the old way of life. All this didn’t interest him much these days, after all information is a lot more interesting when you don’t require its knowledge.
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Another sonic boom as an aircraft flew over, Peter retaliated by plugging on the latest single by The Garden of Eden, a quite distorted and loud number called “Heaven’s Dead”. He would’ve gazed out of the window for a bit longer, but the refinery had just reopened after a month long workers’ strike and churned out thrice as much smog these days, as if making up for the time it had spared the atmosphere with its vile concoctions. There was after all a limit for all the pollution a human being could inhale. Peter went through a few more pages of the book, yawing widely as he was forced to look at pictures of old loons who had succeeded in discovering the best ways to exploit the abundant reserves of the planet. Getting bored, he switched on the television, same old news about factories churning out too much waste into the seas, same old views of pro-development coots saying the planet could handle a millennium of radical development before resource conservation had to be considered, and then the environment freaks, screaming that they were making the same mistakes again, all interesting news, Peter switched to sports.
Knock knock….
“Hey Peter, switch to ABC, you might have something for your project there.”
Peter did as he was told, taking time to recall the history project his mom was talking about…
“Geologists today have uncovered a time capsule sort to speak that is sure to give us more insights into our past” The ABC newsman professionally stated as the screen changed to show miners digging up a cylindrical object from an excavated crater.
“This time capsule, discovered in the Krypton Plains, as far as we can tell dates back seven hundred years. Experts believe that it might have been planted by the very first settlers, haps as warnings of a past much shrouded in mystery. In another story….”
Peter turned off the TV, “This is good.” He thought, “Convenient for it to turn up in time for my project.”
These days the web covered stories faster than the networks. Peter was sure that if ABC had got news of the excavation, some site would have all the details of the content. His laptop responded to his touch and his voice saying “Time capsule” was enough to display a 1000+ articles on the subject, luckily enough the very first item was the details on the rare artifact.
A buoyant Peter was left disappointed with the contents; it seemed the entire capsule contained a single recording, preserved specially with multiple coatings, which had prevented it from damage over the last seven hundred odd years. Nevertheless he played the file; it wasn’t even very colorful, simply a drag recorded audio file and 2 minutes worth of video. The sound crackled distorted at first, but then with clarity and vibrance, he plugged his ear buds in and listened to a distant voice,
“We have done it, saved ourselves from the Armageddon we thought was unavoidable. Many have died, but we, and I say we for the human race, live on. These chronicles must not be lost, for I believe we have undoubtedly overcome the very judgment of God. Let this recording detail the history of our struggles and I pray, it will find its way to safe hands in the future…
It was in the year 2070 (he was obviously referring to the old calendar) that our scientists took the first noticeable steps in the terraforming of a neighboring planet, in those days referred to as Mars. Proof of the existence of primitive anaerobic life-form beneath the surface of the planet and the discovery of frozen water and carbon dioxide in the polar caps made us believe that with a strengthened atmosphere the red planet could develop an earth-like life-supporting system. Thus in 2069 the United Scientific Society for Interplanetary Development was founded and soon work began on the colonization of Mars. Due to environmental concerns the idea of bombarding the surface with nuclear warheads was rejected – instead scientist installed aluminized PET film mirrors around the rock’s orbit to maximize the solar radiations received by the surface. Addition of powerful greenhouse agents and modifying the albedo of the Martian surface with genetically modified organisms similar to the fossils originally discovers in 45 were further catalysts for the melting of the ice caps, thickening the atmosphere, laying the foundation for an ionosphere and starting the greenhouse effect that would naturally take over as more and more of the ice caps were melted. By the mid 24th century scientists contemplated phase II – The introduction of vital gases. The first issue to be tackled was the introduction of a buffer gas to stabilize the atmosphere. Argon, due to its inert properties and greater transport suitability was preferred to Nitrogen as the new Martian buffer gas. Of course filling three fourth of a planet’s atmosphere with a rare gas was by no means easy or cheap, but the billions disbursed ensured that in another 100 years Mars had a dead atmosphere that could now be shaped as humans saw fit. Hydrogen was imported from rich compounds in outer solar system objects and with help from more genetically modified life-forms Mars had developed a life supporting system by the start of the 28th Century.
When cosmonaut Frederick Stevenson took off his helmet and breathed in a transformed Martian atmosphere, we all knew humanity had, despite all the strife, all the nuclear wars, all the butchery pulled out a trump card for their survival in God’s playground.
Large portions of the population had had enough of the human race. Through the unprovoked American strikes on the Middle East, the peace treaties and war cries, the nuclear winters and the global disregard for human rights over the last millennium, people crowded Jerusalem waiting in vain for the second coming. To many the terraforming of Mars was as close to the Kingdom of Heaven they could get. Much as eons ago, settlers had sought to start afresh across the seas, by the turn of the century, thousands had forsaken a war torn motherland to start afresh on a new utopia.
Up to that point of time, the colonization of a sister planet served purely scientific interests, and the thousands who became the first real Martians were content at living in harmony with the artificial nature, they had played with God to create. Inorganic resources from the planet were found quite similar to the old ones wasted years ago. With most of the brilliant minds choosing this new way of life, it wasn’t very difficult to create the sort of utopia many fiction writers had in vain tried to grasp from ages of bloodshed and death. But if this was the rapture, could Armageddon be far? The first traces of the asteroid was detected in early March 2999, it was a month after that people understood the Earth was doomed. There was nothing that we could do to deflect the asteroid off its course. There was no way the polluted and diminished atmosphere could burn the gigantic rock, scientists from across the globe contemplated a solution, but nothing humanity had ever created could save our planet. And so it came to pass the greatest minds still left of Earth and all those who had political power and relations in special offices were evacuated from a doomed planet. Not nearly enough people could be saved, but those of us who were fortunate have landed here. We have changed our fate, or perhaps this is the Kingdom of Heaven we were told that would one day be ours. It is of our creation, but in ways so perfect that I believe not even God had performed better in a million times the time we had. Clear sky, green plains, yes this is what they used to call paradise.”
“Astounding” thought Peter; the very principles were so simple yet this was how it had been done. His laptop made notes as the audio file crackled. “Too bad someone else already discovered this, would’ve been worth so much more than an A”, he thought to himself. Although he couldn’t quite place the mad ramblings about paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven, sure the planet was life-supporting, but the smog, filth, dirt, noise and issues surely wouldn’t have been considered ideals of perfection even seven hundred years ago. Maybe the video had something on it. Already encoded with the latest technology, the old video played perfectly,
Peter watched with awe as green plains and blue skies, more beautiful than he could imagine flashed on the screen. Tall trees, even some sort of beautiful non-human animal life forms, no surely this was not the same world he lived in. There were no other life forms on Earth II, there were trees, but how could it be this perfect, and if this was his world, where was the smog, the aircrafts, the industries?
He felt cheated; surely this was a farce, a hoax planted by some environment nut. No it wouldn’t get him any credit submitting this as his project. Sadly, he mumbled “Delete”.
ZOOOOOOOOOOM
Another aircraft broke the sound barrier, Peter wondered if he might pop Sarah the question next morning.