The Eden Project
An elderly council sat facing an ornate table, their ages indiscernible in the soft light of a distant sun, nothing but minute markings allowing for each member to identify their rank to one another as the futuristic dystopia distorted the ideals of knights of old and their place within the kingdom. A holographic image glides millimetres above the floor mimicking a human form, making eye contact with some and staring through others.
‘What we need’, pausing for breath and coughs, allowing a noticeable ripple of incandescent glare undulate though his being ‘is a long term plan’ ‘ This planet, this rock can no longer provide the sustenance the way it used to, there’s barely two sticks we can rub together to make fire’. With this remark he drew a long-stemmed laser lighter from his decorated belt-line and lit a six inch Zimbabwean cigar. ‘it has become a husk of its former self, we have built up and outward, down and inward now bringing it to the brink of ruin, not through destruction from some hidden enemy threat but through creation, the fate of the planet seems entirely inevitable’.
A hand rises in the low illumination of the room, slowly at first but then jabbing at the air with such a force that the figure appears to be being attacked by some unseen floating foe. ‘What if’ postulated the figure ‘we finish planning and executing the Lazarus experiment? The one last attempt that could save our race?’
The many eyes of the counsel lit up as if remembering some dark forgotten secret. None except for the eldest would ever have known about it. Like most of the masses in that period of the planet’s history, they were too concerned about pandering to the latest celebrity fad whilst hard-working scientists were fabricating ways of saving them all. ‘No, the Lazarus experiment was just an attempt to abandon our responsibilities rather than live up to them, we need not to survive but to revive what we have lost’. Each member looked around anxiously attempting to assess each others approval. Pointless as most of them hadn’t seen each other for decades but instinct still reigned in times of doubt.
In the decrepitude, their eyesight was the first sense to wane. ‘Alright, now the start of the plan is easy, no one will want to leave unless they truly have to so this will be a step into the unknown with a white stick’ ‘to use an antiquated term, we need to go up to defcom 3, forcing the race to leave this world rather than just suggest it’.
‘I knew this time would come’ said another voice streaking out from the gloom ‘we had prepared for it, a long time ago but thought we would never have to use it. Negotiations to stop war and promote peace had all but eradicated the need for it but I’m sure it will still work’. A thin finger twisted with the agony of arthritis pushed down slowly on a small button that revealed a less than intricate control panel ‘this is linked to the world’s news-casting network and soon all will be boarding all kinds of manner of interstellar ships ready to take off if this situation occurred, finally ridding the planet of our influence’.
‘Can we justify those that will be lost?’ said another. ‘The colonies’ continued the holographic representation of an extremely annoyed being ‘can easily take up more than their fair share of this world’s population. Venus, Mars, and Jupiter all have excellent immigration systems and I’m sure their newly uprooted inhabitants will be reaping the benefit soon enough’ With that sardonic quip the hologram faded leaving the group in half-light to initiate the great change, otherwise now to be known as the great revival, at no small cost to their people.
A fetid expulsion of air crept across the main chamber as deliberation hit the face of one of the ancients, Szin, the first to be named as one of the council. He pondered, ever since they had relocated to the outer limits of the solar system beyond the declassified husk of Pluto to their most recent planetary discovery nicknamed the tenth rock, the true leaders seem never to return to their home planet, the upper echelons wilfully ignore it until desperation hits and they send someone to give the order and act as if we are here to do whatever they want. His thoughts spread to the others but hit the mental equivalent of a brick wall, all telepathy between the council had first been banned and then implants were surgically placed to prevent transgressors, another way of censoring speech and now thought. That motion was passed with very little resistance and little emphasis as most members woke up to find themselves stripped of their abilities.
As hundreds of thousands of ships littered the landscape as far as the eye can see, seemingly no one questioning the mass exodus with which they were now faced. The race had evolved to such an extent, very few possessed material goods instead living lives of silent servitude and procreation. The promised pure white vision of the future had been destroyed by generations upon generations of irrational and selfish behaviour that led to the current predicament, enforced population control, restricted inter-breeding limited to one child that improved the environment but encouraged children to be spoilt by attention.
So year by year material goods aimed at children diminished, as the advertisement said it was ‘to promote higher education values and reduce avariciousness’ but like all conditioning to prevent negative character traits it had the ultimate side effect, it failed to allow development of any traits at all. So after two decades of this treatment they found there was no way to reverse it, concluding that the project had produced a generation apathetic to its fellow inhabitants needs and felt nothing towards anyone nor anything. Not that the government saw this as a problem as it meant that all protests and negative responses to their action had near but vanished, resulting in a population that now in an automaton state so the government hid the experiment away from what prying eyes were left and quashed any rumours of its previous policies even from its own members.
The only information that the council were aware of came from not first hand experience but from out-dated hard copy files kept within the same building they worked and lived in. new information came by the upper elders, so most were unsure if they were having any effect on their jurisdiction or just upholding obsolete laws that could never be broken, forcing their compliance with their age old motto ‘let those without eyes be first to judge’.
The eldest stood, swaying gently in the artificial breeze and stared out across the metropolis, in less than forty-eight hours the planet will be deserted and with that solitary thought a smile spread across his lips.
We all know that if the planet was let to its own devices, it own ways it could repair the damage which we have done. To pulverise all of civilisation with each natural weapon at her disposal until her own bruised ego has been sated and her anger quenched after thousands of years of abuse, mistreatment and punishment for a single solitary mistake.
But as with all dominant races, a grave under-estimation has been made of mother earth, in which she is given, time to think. As with all those that become slaves to a master, it’ll make her question if she should allow the same to happen again, allowing distraction is the perfect partner to contentment.
Now that the alarms sound, the warning knell of an impending destruction fabricated by a government not powered by lust or greed but one that believes their efforts will be enough to save the place of their creation, where genesis took hold and spawned their ancestors. No one can be left behind, otherwise the attempt will appear hollow, each ship capable of space travel, even those that unable to propel themselves are bolted to others just to aid departure.
It’s now time for her to heal her aching wounds, bathe them in her oceans and let the signs of civilisation fade from her face.
‘What we need’, pausing for breath and coughs, allowing a noticeable ripple of incandescent glare undulate though his being ‘is a long term plan’ ‘ This planet, this rock can no longer provide the sustenance the way it used to, there’s barely two sticks we can rub together to make fire’. With this remark he drew a long-stemmed laser lighter from his decorated belt-line and lit a six inch Zimbabwean cigar. ‘it has become a husk of its former self, we have built up and outward, down and inward now bringing it to the brink of ruin, not through destruction from some hidden enemy threat but through creation, the fate of the planet seems entirely inevitable’.
A hand rises in the low illumination of the room, slowly at first but then jabbing at the air with such a force that the figure appears to be being attacked by some unseen floating foe. ‘What if’ postulated the figure ‘we finish planning and executing the Lazarus experiment? The one last attempt that could save our race?’
The many eyes of the counsel lit up as if remembering some dark forgotten secret. None except for the eldest would ever have known about it. Like most of the masses in that period of the planet’s history, they were too concerned about pandering to the latest celebrity fad whilst hard-working scientists were fabricating ways of saving them all. ‘No, the Lazarus experiment was just an attempt to abandon our responsibilities rather than live up to them, we need not to survive but to revive what we have lost’. Each member looked around anxiously attempting to assess each others approval. Pointless as most of them hadn’t seen each other for decades but instinct still reigned in times of doubt.
In the decrepitude, their eyesight was the first sense to wane. ‘Alright, now the start of the plan is easy, no one will want to leave unless they truly have to so this will be a step into the unknown with a white stick’ ‘to use an antiquated term, we need to go up to defcom 3, forcing the race to leave this world rather than just suggest it’.
‘I knew this time would come’ said another voice streaking out from the gloom ‘we had prepared for it, a long time ago but thought we would never have to use it. Negotiations to stop war and promote peace had all but eradicated the need for it but I’m sure it will still work’. A thin finger twisted with the agony of arthritis pushed down slowly on a small button that revealed a less than intricate control panel ‘this is linked to the world’s news-casting network and soon all will be boarding all kinds of manner of interstellar ships ready to take off if this situation occurred, finally ridding the planet of our influence’.
‘Can we justify those that will be lost?’ said another. ‘The colonies’ continued the holographic representation of an extremely annoyed being ‘can easily take up more than their fair share of this world’s population. Venus, Mars, and Jupiter all have excellent immigration systems and I’m sure their newly uprooted inhabitants will be reaping the benefit soon enough’ With that sardonic quip the hologram faded leaving the group in half-light to initiate the great change, otherwise now to be known as the great revival, at no small cost to their people.
A fetid expulsion of air crept across the main chamber as deliberation hit the face of one of the ancients, Szin, the first to be named as one of the council. He pondered, ever since they had relocated to the outer limits of the solar system beyond the declassified husk of Pluto to their most recent planetary discovery nicknamed the tenth rock, the true leaders seem never to return to their home planet, the upper echelons wilfully ignore it until desperation hits and they send someone to give the order and act as if we are here to do whatever they want. His thoughts spread to the others but hit the mental equivalent of a brick wall, all telepathy between the council had first been banned and then implants were surgically placed to prevent transgressors, another way of censoring speech and now thought. That motion was passed with very little resistance and little emphasis as most members woke up to find themselves stripped of their abilities.
As hundreds of thousands of ships littered the landscape as far as the eye can see, seemingly no one questioning the mass exodus with which they were now faced. The race had evolved to such an extent, very few possessed material goods instead living lives of silent servitude and procreation. The promised pure white vision of the future had been destroyed by generations upon generations of irrational and selfish behaviour that led to the current predicament, enforced population control, restricted inter-breeding limited to one child that improved the environment but encouraged children to be spoilt by attention.
So year by year material goods aimed at children diminished, as the advertisement said it was ‘to promote higher education values and reduce avariciousness’ but like all conditioning to prevent negative character traits it had the ultimate side effect, it failed to allow development of any traits at all. So after two decades of this treatment they found there was no way to reverse it, concluding that the project had produced a generation apathetic to its fellow inhabitants needs and felt nothing towards anyone nor anything. Not that the government saw this as a problem as it meant that all protests and negative responses to their action had near but vanished, resulting in a population that now in an automaton state so the government hid the experiment away from what prying eyes were left and quashed any rumours of its previous policies even from its own members.
The only information that the council were aware of came from not first hand experience but from out-dated hard copy files kept within the same building they worked and lived in. new information came by the upper elders, so most were unsure if they were having any effect on their jurisdiction or just upholding obsolete laws that could never be broken, forcing their compliance with their age old motto ‘let those without eyes be first to judge’.
The eldest stood, swaying gently in the artificial breeze and stared out across the metropolis, in less than forty-eight hours the planet will be deserted and with that solitary thought a smile spread across his lips.
We all know that if the planet was let to its own devices, it own ways it could repair the damage which we have done. To pulverise all of civilisation with each natural weapon at her disposal until her own bruised ego has been sated and her anger quenched after thousands of years of abuse, mistreatment and punishment for a single solitary mistake.
But as with all dominant races, a grave under-estimation has been made of mother earth, in which she is given, time to think. As with all those that become slaves to a master, it’ll make her question if she should allow the same to happen again, allowing distraction is the perfect partner to contentment.
Now that the alarms sound, the warning knell of an impending destruction fabricated by a government not powered by lust or greed but one that believes their efforts will be enough to save the place of their creation, where genesis took hold and spawned their ancestors. No one can be left behind, otherwise the attempt will appear hollow, each ship capable of space travel, even those that unable to propel themselves are bolted to others just to aid departure.
It’s now time for her to heal her aching wounds, bathe them in her oceans and let the signs of civilisation fade from her face.
© Jim Steel 2009