Alternate Earth

Earth that was is now long behind us. Though it seemed only yesterday, it has now been 1,000 years since the great tragedy that destroyed our world. Our planet was disintegrating long before we were forced to evacuate. This is a brief history of events that led up to the end or perhaps you might look at it as the beginning.

In the year 2513, the population had overextended itself. All corners of the planet were so overpopulated that land became a precious commodity. Most lived in cramped locations, houses or apartments within overcrowded cities, packed one on top of the other. This led to natural resources being used up at alarming rates. Nature became overtaken by the paved conformity of cities. Fewer and fewer areas remained untouched or uncontaminated. The atmosphere was tainted with pollutants, making it necessary in certain areas to stay indoors whenever possible or wear a breathing apparatus when it was not. Violence became a standard part of life, as life-sustaining supplies became rarer. We took action too late, and though we began to try and clean up the mess we’d made, we soon realized that there wasn’t much to be done save our planet.

Emphasis was placed on programs that gave us other options to help further our survival. Our greatest hope looked to be spreading our population among the stars. Spaceships were created so that we might begin terraforming nearby planets.

Sadly, we never got the chance. Before anything could be done a meteor was discovered on a direct collision course with Earth. Our greatest minds understood that if we stayed no one would survive the impact. A decision was made to keep the population at large in the dark about what was happening, only those at the highest levels were informed about Earth‘s impending doom. A plan was devised to evacuate only those deemed “worthy enough” to be saved. Some felt this was an answer to Earth’s problems, as this catastrophe would effectively thin down the population in a way no one else had ever achieved.

Things were kept on a need to know basis as preparation got underway. But things didn’t go quite as planned. On the very day that the scheme was going to go into effect, the whole story was leaked. No one is quite sure who leaked the information, but one thing is certain the leak led to pandemonium. People began to panic and revolt; military officials were brought in to try and hold the masses back. Though many lost heart when they realized what they were doing was wrong. In the end, many of the highest officials were overthrown, replaced last minute by those that would handle the situation fairly. With only months until impact, a decision was made to vote on things. The world as a whole decided which people were too valuable to lose; the rest was left up to chance. A raffle was held where the call of a number meant that someone had won the most precious thing in the world, their lives.

And so we escaped, forced to leave behind many of our loved ones, as well as the only home world that we’d ever known. One-thousand years has passed since that day, but due to the fact we made the journey in cryo-stasis, it seems like a shorter span of time. In fact, we know nothing of the journey that brought us here. All we’re aware of is that we have arrived, and things are very different than what we expected.