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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Human Time Line 1 000 001 - 1 000 045 Cathartic Age A New Heaven & A New Earth
1 000 001 Peace finally settled over the known galaxy. But the business of civilisation went on. The FGCP, knowing that the Essence Ancients had Vale Gateway technology, was needless to say interested in what could be discovered from the remains of the Essence ships. Once again NGW could be found searching through the wreckage of the battlefield. Just like at Earth, where NGW had searched through the remains of the Delquin, little was found. Certainly no equipment worked. The FGCP were not the only ones looking around the battlefield. The Cordah, unlike previously, became curious as to what was happening in their backyard. Although the Essence Ancients had set up their bases in a very remote part of Cordah space, not everything could be hidden. Certainly the FGCP had discovered their presence early, the Cordah had not until it was all over. Yes they had detected the huge explosions, but they had put it down to the end of three sun’s lives. But those explosions, now followed by what only could have been considered a space battle got them into action. The Cordah fleet that arrived at the battlefield was, to FGCP eyes, antiques at best. Nonetheless, the Cordah fleet was quick to confirm that a large battle did take place but who the combatants were could not be confirmed. The data collected was then analysed by their scientists &, although the Essence Ancients were never confirmed as one of the combatants, the FGCP were suspected of being involved. Discussion began at once within the Cordah government as to what to do. Clearly their self imposed isolation may not be permissible any more. Furthermore, there were other concerns. 0002 NGW & UDF, like the Cordah, analysed the data collected from the battlefield. Their reports to the President, although independent, basically read the same. To summarise, the reports argued that the Essence Ancients had limited numbers of Vale Gateway technology. In fact most of their ships had none. Only three ships were discovered to be equipped with the Gateway technology & these were not warships, but rather huge transporters. This fact, coupled with the fact that the Essence Ancients built large space docks which constructed the warships, lead both reports to conclude that the Essence Ancients never had the technological ability to construct Vale Gateway mechanisms. In other words, UDF & NGW argued that the mechanisms were either bought, stolen or found by the Essence Ancients. Little else was ever discovered about the specie itself other than that already known. The Presidential elections were one of celebration & relief. The enemies of the Commonwealth had been defeated & there was now no other civilisation left that could threaten it continuing existence. President Molony had brought final victory & the future appeared one of prosperity & peace. Already several other civilisations had opened their borders to the FGCP & trade, tourism & culture began to take place. It was not surprising, therefore, that President Molony was re-elected to office. 0003 After lengthy secret discussions within the upper ranks of the Cordah government, it was to send a diplomatic mission to the FGCP. No one in the Cordah government had any expertise in such matters, yet they sent their best politicians & scientists in the hope that the mission would be successful. For the purposes of good will, only one ship would be involved. It would also ensure that security would be kept high. The Cordah government did not want it to get out that they were contacting the Commonwealth. On arriving at the FGCP border, the Cordah ship was immediately intercepted by ships of the 13th UDF fleet. No threats, however, were made by the UDF ships apart from a polite enquires. When it was established that the Cordah were on a diplomatic mission to reopen relations with the FGCP, the ship was quietly escorted to Zargah Prime for the negotiations. President Molony, in fact everyone, were surprised by this move of the Cordah. No one expected it. Quickly the experienced FGCP Diplomatic Corp were rushed to Zargah Prime to welcome the Cordah & begin negotiations. Their were two main items on the Cordah agenda. The first was an explanation over the battlefield. Although they did put forward a complaint about the violation over Cordah territory, they did not condemn the actions of the FGCP. When they received the explanation, albeit an edited version of the truth, they did not push the matter any further. The Cordah seemed content with the matter, although their reaction was dependant upon the second item. The second item was far more important for the Cordah & they hoped to use the territorial issue as a leaver for the second. Basically, the Cordah were dying out. They were going to become extinct in the same way as the Passalous went. This secret had been hidden by the government for the last 200 years, but the general Cordah population knew something was wrong. Every year for the past 200, the population had been slowly reducing. Cordah medical experts suggested that the entire specie had about 70 years left. Needless to say, the second item shocked the FGCP negotiation team. At first they thought this was some ruse, but when the medical evidence was produced, there was no more doubt. A treaty was soon signed thereafter, the Cordah Medial Agreement (CMA), wherein the FGCP would immediately begin research into the problem in cooperation with Cordah experts. Both the Unified Health Service (UHS) & NGW would be committed to finding a cure. 0004 To their surprise, UPX discovered dancing lights on Europa. This was, as far as UPX were concerned, impossible considering the environment. Reports from Earth about the dancing lights had become routine & various theories were abound (apart from Browinski’s). The leading one was energy burning up from the dreadful battle 14 years ago. Other theories followed natural phenomenon. They were likewise acceptable to the scientific community, but now that the dancing lights had been discovered on Europa, all these got shot to Hell. Coinciding with the dancing lights, although no connection was made, the UDF LookingGlass station on Ganymede reported a number of low yield Vale Gateways opening. This had not been recorded before & needless to say the alarm went out. The UDF 3rd fleet was rushed to Ganymede anticipating an attack from some unidentified invader, but none came. On one had an explanation as to this event. 0005 After hearing of the dancing lights phenomenon on Europa, Browinski once more could be heard reiterating his theory on the dancing lights. He argued that the fact that the lights were now on Europa was further proof that the lights could not be forms of energy "burning out" or natural phenomenon. Considering the different environments on Earth & Europa, it was impossible for it to be the latter. The former, however, had not necessarily been discarded as those scientists who supported this view argued that it may have taken 14 years for the energy to have travelled thus far from Earth to Europa. The fact that no one had been able to record this energy was a major problem with this argument & Browinski was quick to point this out. 0006 The arguments over the dancing lights continued with even stronger passion. But the discovery of the dancing lights on Europa had given Browinski much credit as the more "acceptable" theories were found wonting time & time again. This again took place when UPX was able to conduct a full scan of the dancing lights found on Europa. They then compared their data with that from Earth & they were found to be the same phenomenon. This was impossible if the scientific theories were to be accepted. Only Browinski's theory appeared to hold up, but everyone needed further evidence. The result for Browinski was a new job. President Molony commissioned Browinski to get a team together & analyse the dancing lights to the fullest. All the resources of UPX & NGW would be at his disposal. He would, however, have to move to Epsilon & set this team up at Roosevelt University which would scrutinise the research. This seemed somewhat strange, considering the conservative stance that is the ethos of Roosevelt University, but it was seen as a counterweight to the eccentric Browinski. But any findings would undoubtedly be legitimate. 2007 When the LookingGlass stations on Mars & Venus went off line for routine servicing, it was decided that the 3rd fleet would turn theirs on for as an extra precaution. Ever since the reportage of the low yield Vale Gateways by Ganymede around Europa, Admiral Vanleare grew more concerned about a possible attack, regardless how remote. Upon turning on the 3rd Fleet’s LookingGlass sets, recordings were immediately identified. Again the LookingGlass sets reported numerous low yield Vale Gateways. Admiral Vanleare immediately declared an alert as a reaction to this finding. After no attack came forth, analysis of these Vale Gateways indicated that they were of the same type as those recorded at Ganymede. No one could explain way this was occurring. Furthermore, no one could identify the reason who or what was making this happen. What Admiral Vanleare also want to know was why the LookingGlass stations at Mars & Venus had not identified the Vale Gateway activity. When these stations came back on line, again they could not pick up the Gateways from Earth. In a similar fashion, the two stations could not identify those Gateways out at Europa, even though the Ganymede station could. In a simple experiment the Admiral ordered one of his ships, while still operating its LookingGlass set, to travel from Earth to Mars. After about 5 million kms the ship slowly lost contact with the Vale Gateway activity from Earth. It appeared that the low yield power used to produce the Gateway could only be picked up locally. The Presidential elections were a quiet affair. Now that peace had settled in, the citizenship had gotten back to the life of peace. A few issues were important to some, that being financial support for a few sectors, especially for the New Territories, Sassnorah & Phillis. There was also the reducing the budget of the UDF, which had a mixed reaction from the voters. Another factor was concern over a possible recession, but the rebuilding programs for the Phillis & Sassnorah Sectors would ensure much growth for many years in the future. In the end, however, it came down to the voters wanting a change. The result being that the Lyonies candidate Mylona Lindin defeated the Vice-President Josh Fairweather to become the President of the FGCP. 0008 The Browinski team at Roosevelt University handed in its first interim report. For two years the dancing lights were studied, but not much new evidence was discovered. That was until the information about the low yield Vale Gateways was reported by the 3rd Fleet at Earth. Browinski immediately became curious as to the coincidence that the Gateways should be at the same locations as the dancing lights. Further analysis was conducted into the Gateways, even though the Roosevelt supervisors thought this to be a waist of time & resources. But Browinski was convinced that there was some connection. The first thing was to confirm that the Gateways at Europa & those of Earth were of the same origin. Again Browinski confirmed that due to the low power of the Gateways, the ability to detect them was extremely limited as space distance goes. It was no surprise that the LookingGlass stations on Mars & Venus, let alone Ganymede, could not detect the Gateways at Earth. Browinski concluded that only a small object could use these Gateways. Even though Roosevelt staff disputed these findings, the report was immediately declared Ultra Secret by the President. Although Browinski objected to his report being declared as such, he nevertheless agreed not to leak the report. Doing so would ensure that his work would stop & a length goal sentence gained instead. 0009 UHS, after 6 years of research, reported that they had discovered the problem with the Cordah. Cordah medical experts had suspected the reason, but could never pinpoint the exact problem. Needless to say, they could never discover a cure. But the extremely advanced medical technology of the UHS had done in 6 years what the Cordah could not in 100 years. Essentially, the Cordah had breed into their specie a gene that reduced the chances of reproduction. This affected both sexes of the specie. Regardless of the artificial insemination techniques available, due to the fact that both sexes were sterile, reproduction was impossible. Not all of the Cordah population had been, in effect, sterilised by this gene, but the percentage grew with every generation. Thus the Cordah could not keep their numbers up & eventually the gene would effect every Cordah. Now, however, the exact gene had been isolated. Although nothing was certain, UHS was positive that a cure could be found. Although those Cordah with the gene may never have the opportunity to have offspring, those who could would be treated in order to ensure that they & their offspring would never have it added to their DNA. 0010 In a gesture of goodwill & a furthering of the peace process, President Lindin offered self government (with conditions) to the Wellous. The Wellous Republic would elect a President to act as head of state, thus freeing them from the confines of a government being totally confined in the Parliament. This, the Wellous Parliament, accepted in a vote almost as one, only a few Members voted against this added reform for various reasons. The leading reason was the main condition that the FGCP had placed upon this offer for full independence: that being no military. The UDF would, as it had done since the war, provide for the defence of the Wellous. To those Wellous who objected to this, they considered that they independence on offer was a sham & that the FGCP had them under military occupation. Nevertheless, even with the detractors, the Wellous had their first presidential elections. Again voter turnout was an impressive 83%. It appeared that the majority of the Wellous were more than willing to give democracy a good chance of succeeding. Furthermore, the economic benefits of not having a large military structure was clearly understood by the bulk of the population. It had only taken a few years before the standard of living for most citizens had improved by a significant margin. 0011 NGW completed its working into the Vale Gateway technology of the Delquin & the Essence. None of the relevant equipment that NGW had collected could be made to work again. But not everything was useless. Even though NGW had for decades their own Vale Gateway project going, this had fallen behind during the years of conflict. Furthermore, the only product to come out of the program was the successful LookingGlass technology. Unfortunately, nothing else that they had tried even got close to being successful. But the analysis of the Delquin & Essence Gateway mechanisms gave the NGW project team new ideas that none of them would have thought of. It was extremely complicated technology & needless to say extremely advanced. The surprising part was that it was far more advanced than standard FGCP technological levels. Yet the new directions offered by the Delquin & Essence would undoubtedly lead to getting closer to developing the FGCP’s first successful Vale Gateway. 0012 During the war years of the previous century, the old Galactic League had fallen apart. With the FGCP busy with their various conflicts, little effort went into keeping the League going. With the Commonwealth more or less absent, the other civilisations slowly left to do conduct their own affairs. There was also the thought that the FGCP were now Ancients & that the Junior races meant little to them. President Lindin, however, was keen to get the League going again, but wanting it to be more inclusive. Thus along with the Nazzer & Mangalois, they established the United Civilisations & Societies (UCS). Invitations went out to all known civilisations to join. Obviously negotiations would take place with everyone before a Charter for the UCS could be written. It was hoped that the UCS could do that which the League could not. Alas not many replies came back, especially from the Junior races. Even though President Lindin efforts in setting up the UCS was seen as a failure by his critics, all was well in the FGCP. Few voters cared about the outcome of the UCS as the domestic policies of the current Administration were successful. No one was surprised when President Lindin was re-elected. 0013 The Browinski team completed its first full report. In many respects it confirmed the findings of the of the earlier interim report. Again, like the interim report, it was made Ultra Secret. The President did not feel that overall proof had been established. As such, President Lindin considered any public release of the report would only mislead & confuse. Already there was enough trouble at Earth as the 3rd Fleet had to be deployed to control sightseers, & the President did not want the situation to get worse. There were also a number of speculations in the report that could not be substantiated. Again this was seen as only inflaming the issues of the dancing lights beyond the rational. 0014 UHS made one of its occasional historical announcements. After identifying the gene responsible for stopping reproduction in the Cordah specie, UHS went to work on a cure. Finally they found it. The cure, by means of a vaccine, would ensure that those treated would never develop or pass on to their offspring the sterile gene. Importantly it was not overly difficult to make. The UHS would make millions of doses of the vaccine as would the Cordah. Needless to say the formula would be given to the Cordah as a sign of goodwill. In return, the Cordah government informed its population of the cooperation between their medical experts & those of the FGCP. Importantly it was stressed that a cure was discovered for what was "… a growing problem that, until now, had not been identified. The Cordah government stresses that at no time was the future of the Cordah People in danger." Although the government statement was a lie, it nonetheless ensured that civil unrest would not occur. Although the Cordah government played down the part played by the UHS, the Cordah public were grateful. Furthermore was the public’s interest of what was beyond their borders. This made the Cordah government’s action much easier. Full diplomatic relations were opened between the Cordah & the FGCP. It was hoped that trade would start soon after, not to mention cultural exchanges & so on. 0015 And those damned rabbits were back! Although control of this species from Earth had finally been successful, some of the Sassnorah & Phillis refugees had collected the rabbit as pets while in their stay in the FGCP. Although only a few hundred in number, when the refugees returned to their respective territory, they took their pets with them. Some of these pets inevitably escaped, never to be seen again. That was until lately. Now plagues of rabbits ran amok on Illonis, Soph Minor & Ansess. When the Sassnorah & Phillis called for help in dealing with the plagues, the Environmental Authority EA) chairperson Vicki Dijon replied "Welcome to the Commonwealth! If you think the rabbits are bad, wait until the rats & cockroaches arrive. They’ll be next." Shortly after, FGCP environmental teams now had to be added to the Commonwealth services on these planets. Soon almost as much was spent on the rabbit eradication programs as was being spent on some of the rebuilding programs. True to Dijon’s word, the rats arrived. So too did the cockroaches. Just as the rabbit numbers were under control, the rats virtually took over town streets & farm lands. More EA personnel had to be rushed to the three planets in order to cope with the rat numbers. Similarly the cockroaches were hunted down, but while the rabbits & rats could be all but eliminated, it was a different story with the cockroaches. The Vargary philosopher Hino Vix,Von,Vin jokingly stated, "Now the Sassnorah & Phillis really are FGCP citizens. Welcome to the party!" 0016 In a rather amazing announcement, UPX reported that the dancing light phenomenon had been observed meeting with Homo neo-luminous. At first the luminous appeared terrified by the appearance of the "dancing lights", but after several days they had grown used to their presence. Several luminous could be seen trying to communicate with the unexplained phenomena. UPX personnel could not explain why the "dancing lights" were making their presence known to the Homo neo-luminous. Browinski, however, was quick to put forward his theory: that the "dancing lights" were either trying to communicate, test, or instruct Homo neo-luminous. Although Browinski admitted that communication on a First Contact level maybe impossible, the testing of luminous abilities was highly probably. Secondly, teaching luminous the first steps of civilisation was highly likely. 0017 Relations with the Cordah were improving, although the culture-shock that came with it was unpleasant for the alienated society. Many Cordah found it difficult to accept that many of the once United Federation of Planets’ (UFP) species had evolved into non-corporeal beings. Other realities also hit home: that being that there were a lot more civilisations in existence than ever imagined. One aspect, however, was even more disturbing. Old Realpolitik come to the fore. The Cordah were shocked to learn that their once enemy, the UFP had expanded to such a large size. Although the Cordah were not surround by the FGCP, clearly they were small in comparison. Furthermore, the technological difference, which the UFP had always enjoyed over the Cordah, was greater now than ever. Having said that, many Cordah tourists came to the FGCP & were amazed in awe as to the greatness of the Commonwealth. In some areas, not much had changed, but in others much had. Earth, for one, was off limits although tourists could looked down upon Earth’s surface from orbit. This change had surprised many Cordah as so much had been told from the old days about the "Capital" of the Humans. President Lindin had overseen a decade of changes. Although the President had made mistakes, the overall feeling among the citizenry was that off satisfaction with Lindin’s Administration. This satisfaction carried forward to the presidential elections & helped carry the Vice-President Nillon Lysnaron to the Presidency. Few issues, it seemed, raised much debate this year. 0018 As the tourists orbited Earth, UPX made two more announcements regarding Homo neo-luminous. The first was a minor achievement when compared to the latter. Firstly, luminous had reached the northern part of the Australian continent. Although not necessarily an easy journey, having to move through the Indonesian archipelago, it was the second announcement that was truly exciting. It appeared that Homo neo-luminous had developed language. And more importantly a written language. Although it was thought to be primitive, it nonetheless involved the use of hieroglyphics. In many respects it was similar, although more primitive, than those of ancient Egypt. Clearly it was the first step of countless thousands in the development of Lumintese. Another aspect of Lumintese was that it was "universal". Regardless of location, whether it be in Asia, Africa, Europe or Australia, the language was more or less identical. There was some variation, but this was put down to the writing skills of the individual rather than geographical location. 0019 Other develops continued with the Europans. Although UPX believed that the Europans had clearly developed language, no written evidence had been discovered. This was somewhat the case with the same aquatic civilisation on Neptune Prime. Yet, the Neptunians had been able to develop primitive space travel! This had become intriguing for in UPX - a civilisation capable of developing space travel without the use of writing. Now a similar pattern appeared to be occurring on Europa. In an unrelated observation, the Europans appeared to be consolidating into two "nations" that were roughly equal in size. The "border", for wont of a better word, appeared to be the equator. Thus a Northern & Southern Europa had been established. For what purpose UPX was at a loss to explain. 0020 After a UPX report on the Homo neo-luminous suggested that the "dancing lights" may have been responsible for the spontaneous development of Lumintese, President Lysnaron commissioned Browinski for a second report into the "dancing lights" phenomenon. The new report would also include research into Homo neo-luminous & the Europans. As before, the report was classified as Ultra Secret, even though Browinski seldom cared for such things. Browinski, however, was the only expert in the field who advocated the idea that the "dancing lights" were life forms. Secretly the President agreed with him, so risking security was more than worth it. 0021 Before Browinski, President Lysnaron, or anyone else could announce or leak the Second Report, a comet travelling through Earth’s solar system, turned "rouge". Having missed everything on the way in, it bumped into the asteroid Eros. Eros in turn, spun off into a collision course with Earth. At first, however, the collision caused excitement, especially with UPX. They dispatched a small fleet to collect data on the collision, the comet & Eros. Before anyone thought about it, tracking stations on Mars & then Thermopylae, identified the new flight path of Eros: it was heading straight for Earth. Immediately the warning went out & the 3rd Fleet sprung to action. Although UPX wanted the 3rd Fleet to nudge the large asteroid away so that it would not be destroyed, Admiral Frolich would have none of it. The asteroid was going to destroy the planet of his ancestors & it was his job to ensure that nothing would. The Battle of Eros, as UPX personnel insultingly called it, was over in a few seconds. 0022 The Browinski Second Report was completed. As could be expected from Browinski, it concluded that "… without a doubt, the "dancing lights" phenomenon is the next evolutionary step for the non-corporeal species of the FGCP. However, their evolution was brought about by the artificial interference of the Delquin. The ‘dancing lights’ ARE the 17 billion that sacrificed their lives some years back in order to save the Earth. In recognition of this, & their type of existence, we have named them Spiritous Sanctus Sapien". Browinski went on to state: "Now is a truly amazing period. There are clearly three species of Humans in three different periods of evolution. Homo neo-luminous is our basic physical form. Homo spiritous is the next step. While Spiritous Sanctus Sapien is the final step beyond our current understanding of existence. Humanity has evolved from primitives to being gods". The report was hot reading. No one who read it really knew what to do. The Browinski Team had conducted a meticulous job in their research. The report even came with a recommendation from the Vice-Chancellor of Roosevelt University. President Lysnaron was more than convinced that Browinski was right. So too did most others who read the report. Most, however, did not think that the public were ready for the report’s contents let alone conclusion. Its Ultra Secret status remained unchanged. Besides, it was an election year & an upset citizenry never likes a President. Under the threat of the Second Browinski Report being linked, President Lysnaron went to the polls. Although some debate occurred, the opposition could score few points against the President. About the only one was over the Battle of Eros. The majority of voters, however, saw this issue as trivial at best & ignored it. In fact President Lysnaron was returned to office with a larger margin than when originally elected. 0023 With the election over, the Federal Government got back to work. It did not take long for the issue of the day to be debated behind closed doors. The first part of the issue involved releasing the information on Spiritous Sanctus Sapien. There were two aspects: how would the scientific community respond - it had not been favourable at all to Browinski’s theories in the past. And second, how would the citizenship in general reacted - almost blind panic had occurred when Browinski’s theories became common knowledge. The second part was just as perplexing. Was there any chance at all in trying to communicate with Spiritous Sanctus Sapien. Basically, everyone thought it was possible, clearly Spiritous Sanctus Sapien communicated with the luminous & Europans, but no attempt had been made at all in attempting communication with Homo spiritous. And the effort would not be difficult, considering the UPX research teams on both Earth & Europa, not to mention the hundreds of ships orbiting both planets. Even Mars, Venus, Callisto & Ganymede had been avoided by Spiritous Sanctus Sapien, even though it would have been obvious that they were occupied by citizens of the FGCP - & above all Homo spiritous. 0024 One the other side of the FGCP, UPX was pleased by its latest achievements. Although rather common these days, two planets had been brought back to life. Head of the terra form team, Ariel Solomon was always excited by such things. He was responsible for bringing back life to planets that had been killed during the long Andromeda War. Now the Sassnorah & the Phillis would each get back a planet. Immigration programs were announced by the President, but for the Sassnorah & Phillis such schemes would of been unnecessary. They would have moved to their respective new planets anyway. Few, if any other species, however, took up the immigration offers. 0025 Homer Sector became a problem. Although it had been annexed years ago, little had been done in regards to truly integrating it into the Commonwealth proper. Within the FGCP no one really cared, but the issue of legitimate ownership of the Homer Sector was once again raised. This time the Wellous had nothing to do with raising the issue in the League of Ancients by the Mangalois. Remembering the last conflict fought over this are of empty space, President Lysnaron was determined not to have another war. Yet his response was dangerous. He ordered UPX to select a number of planets that could be terra formed into habitable ones. Top of the list was the planet Homer itself. Soon, five planets were selected for this purpose & the President ordered UPX to commence their operations at once. This would mean that terra forming more Sassnorah & Phillis planet would be put on hold, but considering the small populations of each specie, especially when compared to the planets they had to settle on, such a trade-off would be justifiable. This policy, however, did not impress the Mangalois how continued to object. But now that the FGCP were clearly prepared to establish a firm & permanent presence in the Homer Sector, the Mangalois gained little support. Furthermore, Homer Sector was not even near Mangalois territory. President Lysnaron’s policy, which was more bluff than anything, worked. The only conflict were a few debates at the League of Ancients. 0026 For a few year now, Browinski had been simmering away wanting his second report to be made public. Time & time again, the President would say soon, arguing that the public would need softening-up before the details of the report would be made known. But nothing was done. Browinski came to the conclusion that the report was never going to be released. So once again Browinski sent his copy of the "dancing lights" phenomenon to the media. Within minutes, the conclusion that a new species of humanity existed was broadcast across the FGCP. It was reported that you could hear the offensive language shouted by President Lysnaron anywhere on Epsilon. This was rather surprising behaviour, considering the President was a Lyonies after all. Soon Browinski was arrested to spend, as far as the President was concerned, eternity in jail. But the panic, that the government feared, never took place. Most citizens took it as confirmation of what Browinski had been stating for years. It was a similar reaction in the scientific community, although many more accepted Browinski’s theories as fact. 0027 Thanks mostly to the mature reaction of the public, Browinski was released from prison. Although he was rather annoyed over his short imprisonment, he was offered a new job at UPX - Head of the Spiritous Sanctus Sapien Exploration Team (SET). His immediate reaction was acceptance, then a move to Ganymede. Here he hoped SET could make First Contact with Spiritous Sanctus Sapien either on Ganymede, Europa or Earth. NGW, thanks to information supplied by UPX, decided to establish a new research base to replace NGW Oracle. Always wanting a location that was remote, & knowing the Administration’s policy of establishing a firm presence in the Homer Sector, NGW selected a semi-habitable planet not far from the border located in FGCP territory. Called NGW Delphi, it was more than adequate in replacing NGW Oracle. The presidential elections were rather rowdy this time around. Two issues came to the fore: the first being possible future conflict over Homer Sector, while the other was making contact with the Spiritous Sanctus Sapien. Few politicians wanted anything to do with either issue apart from one. The presidential candidate from Vargary, Vizsen Ah’Dorver, clearly supported further integration of the Homer Sector & supported attempts at first contact with Spiritous Sanctus Sapien. Using his humour skills of wit & the comic, both renowned Vargary traits, he brought around the Human, Vargary, Zargah & Blurgiss vote. It was a rather amazing result insofar that Ah’Dorver was elected President with the highest margin known in eons. 0028 NGW opened, secretly of cause, its new base at Delphi. It was a remarkable installation involving ever known piece of technology that the FGCP had ever produced. It even had a few pieces of technology from elsewhere, regardless whether it was bought, found or stolen. Even though NGW D1 & NGW Enigma still existed, they were nothing in comparison to what could be found at NGW Delphi. Soon, the vital experiments would begin at Delphi. Although there was little unknown to NGW, there was always something new to be developed. Currently, the Vale Gateway Project had become NGW’s number one concern. For centuries NGW had been trying to crack the secrets of the Vale Gateway with little success. Although LookingGlass had been developed from the project, nothing else had. Now, as far as NGW was concerned, they would achieve this knowledge within 20 years. 0029 The SET team, lead by Browinski, set about its first attempt at First Contact. After two years of monitoring magnetic waves, the low yield Vale Gateways & any other electronic or radioactive activity, Browinski was certain that contact could be possible through the use of telepathic boosters. As was well known, all Homo spiritous had some form of telepathic ability. By being able to boost this ability & then convert the signal to those frequencies thought to be used by Spiritous Sanctus, it was argued, First Contact could be achieved. Thus on Earth, the first SET telepath base was established. Its location was hundreds of kilometres from any luminous activity. Furthermore, it was also camouflaged just in case: luminous had a habit of turning up were they were least expected. Unfortunately, all results of the SET attempts failed. Needless to say it was only their first attempt & even Browinski was not surprised as too the result. Possibly a new supercomputer would be required by SET. MICC were approached over the situation & the company jumped at the task. Soon, not only was MICC developing the latest supercomputer, but they developed within the computer, the ability for it to be telepathic to unprecedented levels. Although all MICC computers were telepathic at a basic level, like their users, this new computer could read the instructions of the operator without a key being pushed or word being spoken. Naturally the run-off effect from this joint venture with SET would be revolutionary for the next generation of computers. 0030 As a side effect of the main mission of SET, President Ah’Dorver, recalling how intensive research was done on the Catharsis of Existence, raised the idea of doing the same in regards to Spiritous Sanctus. SET would re-establish the Human Acceleration Program (HAP). Although technically HAP would be part of SET, due to the nature of its work, there would be very little in similarity between SET & HAP. Naturally, research would be shared between the two teams, but one was about languages & communications, while the other was about experimental physiology. Nonetheless, both dealt with the Spiritous Sanctus - how to talk with them &, more importantly, how to become them. 0031 NGW Delphi tested their latest Vale Gateway device. The test was a complete & utter failure. The enormous explosion that resulted from the test was identified throughout the Homer Sector. Although the planet & base at NGW Delphi survived, the location of the test on a moon orbiting the furthermost planet of the Delphi solar system did not. Even the planet suffered sever damage. When President Ah’Dorver was informed of the result of NGW’s testing, the President put a ban on all future live testing until it could be proven that such results would not occur again. Thus NGW had to resort to simulations. Naturally, simulations required powerful supercomputers & NGW was in luck. The supercomputer that MICC had just developed for SET could also be employed by NGW. 0032 In an announcement of trivia, the 1 000 000 Cordah tourist had visited, or rather orbited, Earth. The Cordah, after being alienated from the rest of the universe, had now become its most visited specie. Although several civilisations kept their borders closed to tourists from anywhere, this was not the case with the FGCP. In an interesting comparison, tourism had also become the latest hot industry within the Cordah Imperium. Millions of FGCP citizens now visited the Cordah which still appeared as a living museum. Among the visitors were also academics; mostly sociologists that toured the Cordah planets, gathering research, & formulating theories as to the formulation & development of societies. The Cordah, although not always welcoming, were however tolerant of the visitors. It had been well publicised that the FGCP had helped the Cordah overcome their probable extinction. And although the Cordah authorities had played down the part that the Commonwealth had played, they nonetheless reminded their citizens that without FGCP help there would no longer be any Cordah. This was besides the fact that FGCP tourists brought large amounts of currency that boosted dramatically the Cordah economy. Unlike last time, the presidential elections were a rather quiet affair. Knowledge about the Spiritous Sanctus had become common place. The issues over them had become the past. If anything a certain wonder & mystique had replaced concern. Certainly most supported the attempts at First Contact. In this political climate then, President Ah’Dorver was returned to office, albeit with a smaller majority of the vote. 0033 HAP, & to a lesser degree SET, report to President Ah’Dorver that it is unlikely that Homo spiritous, or any of the other Catharsis species for that matter, could evolve into Spiritous Sanctus through natural means. Such an evolution could only occur via artificial intervention. Whether this intervention could occur randomly or through a strict scientific development was not certain. It was, however, suspected that the attack by the Delquin on the 17 billion was the major factor in the evolution process of the Spiritous Sanctus. This, the HAP report termed, was the Delquin Factor. HAP was certain that the exact conditions could be met as those of the Delquin weapons. Thanks to the enormous information recorded by the satellites that were orbiting Earth at the time, even the slight variations of energy & other miscellaneous data could be reproduced. President Ah’Dorver was impressed by the research conducted to date. He believed it maybe another twenty years before the causes of the evolutionary process maybe known. But here he was presented with, not only the causes of the evolutionary event, but the ability to repeat the evolutionary event for the current Catharsis species. He immediately gave the go ahead for HAP’s requests for developing the Delquin Factor on one condition. All the Catharsis species, not just Humans, would benefit from their work. 0034 After getting their new MICC supercomputers finally up & running, SET was one again ready to attempt First Contact with Spiritous Sanctus. This time, however, more than one communication base would be involved. Six had now been establish on Earth while a further two had been established on Europa. Even SET’s headquarters on Ganymede had installed a communications base. As well as having the MICC supercomputers fully programmed, further research had been conducted. It was believed that the language frequencies had been alienated from the numerous waves involved with Spiritous Sanctus activity & that it was believed that at least SET’s broadcasts would be heard by them. Whether SET had the technology to identify any reply, let alone translate it, was unknown. Unfortunately, there was no known reply from Spiritous Sanctus. Debates started within SET as to the reasons why. It could not even be confirmed that Spiritous Sanctus even heard the broadcasts as the communication bases were some distance from Spiritous Sanctus activity. Once again plans were set in motion to further develop the telepathic technology. But other similar strategies were also introduced; the main one being establishing miniature broadcasters at Spiritous Sanctus locations. No one thought what Spiritous Sanctus thought of all this vigorous activity. 0035 UPX had the unfortunate news that the two Europan nations had commenced warfare. No one at UPX could reason why this had started as previously the Europans had been rather peaceful. But the establishment of two competing nations was the first sign of future troubles. Furthermore, it was noted, that Spiritous Sanctus had ceased visiting the water moon. Although President Ah’Dorver was sorry to hear that the Europans had begun to fight & die, he ordered UPX not to intervene. Surprisingly the UDF objected to this policy & suggested that an eye be kept on the Europans. If things got too out of hand then the UDF should intervene. After all, this was happening in Earth’s backyard & considering Earth was the mother of Europan life forms it appeared rather unjust if not downright evil not to help out what were the cousins of the Humans. Yet President Ah’Dorver, although understood the UDF position, still confirmed his earlier policy - there would be no intervention in the Europan War. After all, the Europans did not have nuclear weapons; they did not & could not even use gunpowder. 0036 In a more promising report, UPX announced that the Neptunians had begun experimenting with Magnetic Space Warp Drive (MSWP) technology. It was a remarkable achievement for the aquatic civilisation. Although it was not known when this would be achieved, UPX was certain that some time within the next 25 years, the Neptunians would met the neighbours. It was thought that such a meeting would be successful. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the Neptunians would certainly be welcomed by the FGCP scientific community. 0037 As war continued on Europa, another war was about to start within the FGCP, albeit a legal one. After gaining some highly restricted operational information of the 3rd Fleet during the Battle of Eros, Greenpeace decided to take the UDF to court. UPX, after being informed of Greenpeace’s legal suit, decided to support Greenpeace in any way possible. There was still some unfinished business as far as UPX was concerned over the issue. The major factor here was the decision by Admiral Frolich to destroy the asteroid Eros as his one & only response. This was besides the fact that UPX wanted to save the asteroid for future research. The Admiral refused, even though the secret UDF document clearly showed that Frolich could have cooperated with UPX by using his ships powerful tracking beams instead of their BlackStar Beam Arrays. Soon, the Battle of Eros was back in the headlines. Out of nowhere, the issue hung over the forthcoming presidential elections. President Ah’Dorver was glad he was retiring as the election campaign heated up. Soon the campaign became one of either approval of the UDF, especially of what appeared to be a cover-up, or the reverse. Many even wanted Admiral Frolich court martialled for his actions. This was particularly difficult due to the fact that Admiral Frolich was Chief of Staff. The results were close, but eventually the moderate Human candidate Tess O’Donnell scraped in thanks to the preferential voting system. 0038 President O’Donnell’s Administration was not a happy one. Right from the start things went wrong. While the President was not an extremist in any area, President O’Donnell refused to make any decisions that required a firm leader. No other example clearly demonstrates this as the Battle of Eros saga. The High Court of the FGCP finally handed down its decision in the Greenpeace/UPX vs. UDF case. The decision was in favour of the plaintiffs. The court decided in a majority decision of four to three, that Admiral Frolich was guilty of negligence & that the UDF legal corps should commence a court martial hearing over the matter. This the UDF was reluctant to do. Furthermore President O’Donnell refused to get involved in the issue. It was up to the High Court, in an unanimous decision, to issue an order to the UDF to begin court martial proceedings or face contempt of court. Only then did the UDF act. The court martial hearings of Admiral Frolich went ahead with a not guilty result. Greenpeace & many other citizens were furious. Although the President was able to claim innocence, many were unimpressed by her actions. 0039 A rather relieved UPXannounced that the Europan war had finally ended. However, there appeared to be no victory. Rather hostilities had ceased due to stalemate & exhaustion of the combatants. UDF predicted that this was merely the beginning of many wars to come. In a second announcement, UPX stated that Homo neo-luminous had crossed into the North American continent. Furthermore the luminous population was now thought to be 400 million. Importantly, there appeared to be no conflicts between the various luminous nations that covered the Earth. Hopefully the luminous, it was added, would remain peaceful. 0040 After conducting further exhaustive research, SET once more tried to make First Contact with Spiritous Sanctus. Unfortunately, as in previous attempts, no contact was made. But this time it was no failure. Monitoring equipment clearly indicated that the correct language frequencies had been used. And above all in the correct fashion. SET had even been able to translate some Spiritous Sanctus communications so the communication teams knew that they were on the right track. Unfortunately, the Spiritous Sanctus refused to answer. All the evidence collected, however, indicted that they had received the SET broadcasts &, more importantly, understood them. But for some reason, that only the Spiritous Sanctus knew, they kept to themselves & the Homo neo-luminous. 0041 HAP now had their turn at glory. While SET had tried the same in communications & language, now HAP tried in physiology. According to all their simulations, the MICC computers concluded that the correct formula for the Delquin Factor had been calculated. Several more simulations followed to ensure that the test would be successful. Twelve volunteers had been selected for the Delquin Factor. It was hoped that these subjects, all Homo spiritous, would short evolve into Spiritous Sanctus. No one knew exactly how long this would happen, but when it did, the volunteers had orders to contact immediately the SET communications team waiting by. So soon the test began. All at first appeared correct & going according to the MICC supercomputers predictions. However, it soon became apparent that something was wrong. Dreadful pain was recorded. A transformation was occurring, but it was one of death. Even though the equipment was turn immediately off, none of the twelve survived. No one could explain why the test failed. 0042 Although both SET & HAP were supposed to operated under
Ultra Secret, news soon leaked out about the failures of the two teams. In
particular was outrage over the deaths of the twelve volunteers. But later the
budget of the two teams appeared in the media. Although monetary concerns
mattered little with the Catharsis citizens, it still was a major concern
with the corporeal ones. In a hotly contested presidential election, President O’Donnell was in real trouble. The Catharsis citizens were concerned over the deaths involved with HAP, while the corporeal citizens were worried over the budget for the two teams which could have run a small planet. Furthermore, the Eros business came back to haunt her, even though the President was not to blame. Nonetheless, the majority of voters thought otherwise & the Nazzernich reformer Narcher Naztorah was elected President of the FGCP. 0043 NGW informed the new President that their Vale Gateway Project was almost at its completion. Simulations suggested that a full test of the Vale Gateway could occur within a year. The President, however, remember the mistakes of HAP ordered NGW to ensure that nothing wrong could possibly happen. The President even threatened imprisonment if strict safety policies were not adhered too. Furthermore, any major failure would see the cancellation of the Vale Gateway Project. Elsewhere, UPX was pleased to announce that five planets in the Homer Sector were open for settlement. The planet Homer would be the Sector’s capital. It was rather unique situation. An entire Sector would be established from scratch. As an extra bonus, President Naztorah, announced generous immigration packages to all would-be colonists. 20 million FGCP citizens from around the Commonwealth gladly accepted the President’s invitation at starting a new life. 0044 The NGW teams on Delphi finally believed that they had cracked it. Their concoction of Delquin, Essence & UGCP technology was run though simulation after simulation. And in the end the results were extremely promising. Although a few of the scientists expressed concern over the possible results if the Vale Gateway was actually tested now without further simulations, few of their fellow NGW personnel did. Likewise, President Naztorah did either. The Nazzernich, like almost everyone else, wanted to know what was "Beyond The Vale". The new Chairperson of NGW, Ariel Solomon, decided to wait until New Year’s Eve before flicking the switch. This was typical of the Human race, who may have be transformed into non-corporeal beings, but had clung to many of their meaningless & somewhat dubious ceremonies. In reality, the Human calendar in the galactic scheme of things was arrogant at best & often cause trouble over the eons with other species within the Commonwealth. Nonetheless, it survived even though in the Sassnorah & Phillis Sectors, the local calendars were still used. Still, at one minute to midnight, Solomon gave the order to turn the Vale Gateway mechanism on. As it slowly began its functions, all seemed well. The scientists began to congratulate each other as the monitoring computers acknowledged the results of the simulations. At a few seconds to midnight, however, something went very wrong. The results were catastrophic. 0045 No one knows what went wrong. Exactly at midnight, when the Gateway was supposed to open, existence itself changed. NGW, with its fooling around with things on-one understood, changed the very face of the galaxy. Within a second the time-space continuum was drastically altered. In fact it would be safe to say that the clock of the universe reset itself back to the Human calendar of 1945. Those of us who had already advanced "Beyond The Vale" (Spiritous Sanctus Sapien) were untouched by the catastrophe. It appeared that by being outside of the time-space continuum, & thus being in another dimension of existence, ensured our survival. How this occurred, however, none of us really knows. But now we can only watch history play itself out again. No one is willing to cross over into real time & space, for it is theorised that in doing so existence for that individual will cease. Their atoms will be reset to the current Human (Homo sapien) year of 2001. Much has changed for our ancestors since this new 1945. Arthur C. Clarke writes the 2001: A Space Odyssey series. Von Braun runs NASA & gets men to Earth’s moon (Thermopylae). There are, however, no Nuclear Propulsion Engines (NPE). There has been no exploration outside of Earth’s Solar System. Only recently has an International Space Station (called Alpha One) been establish. There has been no war with the Blurgiss Empire. Contact has not been made with the Vargary. Needless to say, there is no Earth Commonwealth bringing the people of the Earth together in peace, hardship & above all as one. Earth remains divided: possibly more so than ever. They are, to be put frankly, all alone in the dark. There are, though, some hopeful signs. The combination of several countries in the very primitive exploration of space has begun. Their largest & latest project to date has been Space Station Alpha One. In other fields important changes have been made. In medicine, the welfare & health of people is becoming more important than companies making profits. Governments are coming together over several issues such as the environment &, although far from totally successful, these changes are the foundations of greater things to come. Maybe within the next 100 years, an Earth Commonwealth will govern the planet for the benefit of all mankind. We, the Spiritous Sanctus Sapien, can only hope that the mistakes of our past
will not be repeated again. It is only a matter of a few hundred years before
the Humans leave their solar system (once again). Maybe the wars with the
Blurgiss Empire will be avoided. Hopefully friendly contact will be made with
the Vargary, Lyonies & Drey first. As things go, a better United Federation of
Planets could be established that will once again take to the stars. We wait for
the day when our ancestors will evolve to meet with us one day in the future. I
am sure we will have many amazing tales to share & enjoy… Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away… I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down
out of God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Rev ch 21,
vs 1-2).
Forward to Epilogue
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