The gift: Friday Special

Hello! Time for another Friday Special. Today we are debuting the start of a story we started a long time ago. It has gone through several iterations but this is supposed to be the beginning and give hints towards the future. This is a stand alone part of the series and is basically a prologue so enjoy.

It was dark, the only light emanated from the holographic interface that displayed the then known galaxy’s of the Universe. Two figures sat and watched from opposing sides each other untrusting but knew their duty. They had to come to a decision which would greatly affect the course of a planets life and possibly the Universe. Where would their next venture take them? Was the single question they set to answer as they did every couple of standard space years. Their job was immense but not impossible, they only had to agree. Each figure had several planets chosen as candidates for their gift. I was a sign of their good will and possibly ill intentions but with life in the universe being so spread apart they have to do anything and everything in their power to cultivate it for the Greater Good.

“Olivia search for planet Z0512.” One of the figures said and instantly the hologram zoomed through space past galaxies to land on a lone planet orbiting a small white dwarf star. “How about this one?” the figure began to speak again, “ It could use some technologic rehabilitation to stop the wars that ravage it.”

“An interesting pick,” the other figure said, its voice sounded slightly electronic, “what’s the motivation to bring a war torn civilization into our society?”

“Well as you can see from data their numbers have been dwindling for centuries and could be on the brink of extinction in several centuries.” The being paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully, “We could do some good by saving them.”

“That’s very altruistic of you, but many species follow similar trends, a good sixty percent end up blasting themselves back to the paleolithic era only to start again. I’m saying this to you since you’ve been recently promoted to directorship, not to antagonize Zeta.”

“I understand, we have been at this for some time now. We have already shot down some of our best ideas.” The first figure relented, “I figured you would not approve primitive lifeforms that would rather kill each other than work on more noble pursuits.” He sighed and said, “Olivia please mark off Z0512 from our list.” He peered across the table to his equal, “What is your next suggestion?”

“Naturally I want to suggest a Mega Corp planet, I have a few you might consider. Olivia, can you bring up M7132?” The hologram shifted and spun traveling across millions of lightyears within half a second to the adjacent arm. “M7132 now collectively called Franzia by its citizens has recently entered into a resource crisis, but instead of entering into a state of resource wars they have unified as a means to preserve and advance their energy production.”

“Hmm…” the Zeta corp representative thought for a moment as he looked through the data from the scouting scans of the world. Finally he spoke, “seems like a good choice altruistic and they seem to be fairly level headed. However there are a couple of small problems. Our gift does use a lot of resources and even with an accelerated track we would not be able to help them without exposing ourselves and bringing in outside resources and that star looks like it could implode at any moment. Which could end the project before it even begins.”

“I see…. Olivia can you bring up the projected decline of M7132?”

A series of charts and graphs aligned themselves over the hologram there was one for fossil fuels, another for hydrogen and oxygen, rate of environmental damage; a medical chart for the planet, with each and every graph declining to zero within the next one hundred and sixty-eight years.

“A shame,” the Mega director said, “I seem to have had my mind set too politically. You raise a fair point.”

“I have a concession for you if you are interested.” The being grinned at the other sitting across from him .

“You have my curiosity.”

“Your corporation can send a smaller gift to accelerate the populus to the point past scarcity fairly easily with some of your previous experiments in subliminal suggestion technology. I have no problem with your intervention but leave us out. We are here for the big project.”

“The big project? I’m afraid I wasn’t briefed in this, I thought this was a routine Gift giving ceremony.”

“Recently the Zeta corporation board has been wanting bigger returns on their Gifts. We want to concentrate our efforts on one world with great possibilities. It is a sort of experiment instead of our usual Gift.”

“I’m intrigued, a scientific endeavor on top of a scientific endeavor I take it. Do you have any particular planets in mind?”

“Glad you asked. Olivia could you please bring up the recently discovered planet?” The hologram zoomed past replicating light speed in its rendering. It slowed on a small cluster of planets orbiting a not so special star. The Mega director had taken the bait he had laid out. This was the moment of truth and what his recent directorship was riding on.

The Mega director gazed upon the planet’s projection. “Hmm, an unmarked planet. Do we have any data on it?”

“Olivia where are we on the data analysis from the probe?”

“I am sorry but I can only show partial renders of the data,” a voice emanated from the room around them. “I could show what I currently have.”

“Please do Olivia.” The raw data slowly engulfed the table. Pictures of wildlife and and societies from a distance in space started going through a slide show. Chemical compositions of the soil and geography data were put in virtual piles. The Zeta director spoke up again as the other director started looking through the data for any glimmers of hope, “I had a chance to look over some of the preliminary data just before this meeting, I had hoped I wouldn’t have to come to showing you such an unprepared subject.” He paused again to make sure the other looked at him as he spoke his next words, “Although it seems that there are a great variety of creatures on the planet the primary one seems to have divided itself in arbitrary land disputes and borders, this is a clue to them having aggressive tendencies. However It seems that they have also been able to work together for the Greater Good and could be pushed to behave in a more respectable manner with our intervention.”

“Much like the older days! Has Zeta begun establishing stations there yet?”

“No we wanted to wait and see what you thought first. Certainly jumping in before all relatable data has been analysed before starting our experiment. We would also like your consent and any ideas you have on the matter, of course. You must understand my cautiousness this will be a large endeavor that will be different from anything we have tried before.”

“I propose a joint endeavor with Mega and Zeta both establishing stations throughout the planet itself. I will initiate an orbital analysis of the planet. It will be the first MZ for the first time in over three centuries. Olivia, can you designate the planet an ID?”

“MZ15 -” Olivia began saying only to be cut off by the director.

“No, lets make this something special. Lets call it what the locals call it, do you know what it is known by Director?”

The mouth of the Zeta director widened as he spoke, “This little blue planet is called Earth.”

Birth once again

Today is a little late post but I hope you enjoy it. It was interesting prompt today to write based on a picture from the top of /r/imaginarycharacters on reddit. I ended up choosing this picture: 

This is Valor by dCTb on Deviantart , http://dctb.deviantart.com/art/Valor-454507975 she has many more pictures in the Annie Mei Project so please go and visit her. Thank you so much dCTb for your artwork. 

            It was my second birth; the first was a long time ago. I don’t remember much from before it. All I remember is the accident; it plagues me to no end. Especially when all I have is time to think; floating in space there isn’t much to do. Just lay here and wait for my retribution. I was exiled deemed unfit for society, my new life is in the hand of the black nothingness of space. My only option is to wait for some sort of pity from fate. If and when I make it out I will start new again like a third birth, one where I can do the right things I learned my lesson having only time to think. I messed up once and I wont ever again.

            Beep Beep **Warning** Beep Beep

            “What is going on?” I start to pound on the glass of the small pod they put me on as freight set in. “What’s wrong?” I couldn’t move much in this metal coffin I couldn’t do anything.

            Entry into unknown atmosphere Brace for Impact

            The pod began to shake from the atmosphere around it. In my head the calculations for how long I had ran automatically. I had maybe two minutes left, and I had to time this just right. My grey space suit began to glow red as all my functions came online. I could see my eyes glow green in the glass in front of me. The pearls in my hair warmed around me the energy they had flowed through out my new body. My body was made of a mix of biological computers and advanced robotics. I am the culmination of years of secret underground research. I could have done amazing things and I still can.

            Impact in thirty seconds. I didn’t know what the outside world is like but It was my only chance of surviving. My helmet goes on for better or worse it should protect the energy cells in my red hair and my face. I took ahold of the emergency eject, one shot. 10 9 8 I took a large breath 7 6 5 4 pulled on the tab. Instantly the window flew open and the rocket propelled me out with great force.. It sent me out at an angle. At the apex I dropped out of the platform and started my decent. Pulling my legs in I start to flip over and over. My black jacket began to flap in the wind around me dragging down my descent only slightly; it is my only remnant from the old world.

            I land on my feet facing the crash of the pod that was once my death sentence. Dust and was still rushing past me it lifted my read hair and jacket. I couldn’t believe I was free. I had been in that pod for far too long. Annie Mei was free. Now, what is my first move? I scanned the area as the dust settled. Even with my advanced sensors I couldn’t find any signs of life.  With out thinking about it probability tables of the world I landed on actually having life. It was low but the oxygen and the vegetation did give a little hope but I need to make sure I could have any chance of getting off this planet.

            Walking over to the pod I checked the wreckage. There had to be some surviving parts of the computer that could help me. The scan of the wreckage proved fruitful with some of the parts to a signal being in tact. With out knowing much about technology I found myself creating a distress signal that I could carry with me that might have a ship come and find me wherever I went. Now all I had to do was walk and find some remnants of civilization. So I turned and walked toward the only vegetation near by.

Immortal

“Hello and welcome to world nightly news, I am your host Chris Barker.“ The same old shit he always did. “Today we have a special interest story, the woman who was immune to the cure for aging. Here is Rebecca Nielson.”

“Thanks for having me Chris.” It was a lie of course. I’m not immune. I just didn’t want it, but it surprised me I was alone in this decision.

“How does it feel knowing you will die?” he brazenly said to me, like it was something he was so unfamiliar with anymore. It is the same thing everywhere I go now.

“Chris the looming shadow of death is a very human thing to have. You think just because you never age and won’t die because of it, means you can’t die?” I said calmly making the truth known, the cure only made you stop aging.  “Everyone here in the audience can still die. It sounds horrible to say this, it makes me sound so depressing, but the reality is you can still be hurt.” I say and reach over and pinch him.

“Ow! Why did you do that?” he says retracting from me scared like I am some inhuman monster, unlike anything he has ever seen. They are scared of me, scared of the truth.

“To prove a point, pain is still a very real thing. Bullets, knives, anything can still hurt you and kill you. Murder and suicide are the only answers to wanting to leave this world. “ The words fell from my mouth but they only were received by deaf ears. “What happens when you get tired of living? A 100 years from now you will be alive and I will be dead, yes but what will you do with the eons you have left?” I ask the hard questions that they don’t think about. I stared at the camera recording every word flowing from my mouth.

“What do you mean by that?” he says, like he didn’t even put a second of thought into it. No one considered the repercussions of  such a decision.

“There are consequences for everything, they are not always evident from the start but they are there. What happens when you get tired of your life? What happens when you get tired of your wife?” I ask the questions they didn’t.  “Everything will become mundane.  You will search and search for new experiences until there isn’t anymore. Soon enough we are going to have to figure out a way to start life over again with out the Cycle of Life and death. We are going to need to erase your memories if you don’t want take your own life. Don’t worry about me, I will continue being human and will live a full happy life and die naturally at peace. Worry about yourselves.” For a moment I thought It was sinking in for everyone, there was horror crossing their faces.

            Chris laughed to dissipate the tension. “You are pretty young so you still have a long life ahead of you, maybe medicine will figure out a way to fix your immunity to the aging cure. Do you think you will take it then?” he asked imploringly hoping for the answer to put him and everyone else at ease.

            The answer wasn’t going to do that. “No, I am happy the way I am. The human condition will live on through me until I die, you will become something else. I am the only human who can reproduce technically so maybe we will see a diverging of species. One where evolution still acts and another where they are static living forever.” I could see the producer behind  the camera make the slitting the through movement to get me to stop.

            “Well thank you Rebecca for that, and glad to have you on the show. With that we will be back right after this commercial break.”