Background information
History
During the 21st century, the world became increasingly overpopulated and polluted. By 2093, the world's air had degraded to such a level that all human life of average economic capacity was contained in sealed domes, and airlocks were necessary when entering and exiting cars (cars were still used to travel between dome 'buildings') so as not to get even a whiff of the Earth's air. Ecosystems was on the ancient history syllabus at schools, and all remaining animal and plant life was kept alive only for tourists in airtight zoos and as genetic samples in libraries. All food was genetically processed, all air and water was extensively filtered. The little human life surviving outside the domes now was on the brink of extinction. Our dream of sustaining life on the moon had been turned into a horrifying reality here on Earth as we desperately struggled to survive on a planet critical beyond repair. Scientists had definite and credible predictions that it was a matter of decades before Humanity suffocated itself and the world around it to death.
In 2147, The remaining governments in existence (only those with enough money to keep their population alive) decided that the Earth was officially unfit to continue supporting life as we knew it, and formed a daring, possibly suicidal evacuation plan for the entire human population. This was not easy, as the environmentally friendly technology promised for centuries by scientists never came, mainly because the world was not prepared to fund its implementation and upkeep. So Humans continued to pollute the Earth, and the Earth just got worse and worse. Now, with technology little better than that of the early 21st century, scientists of all types used whatever little means and resources they had to design something - anything - that would save humanity. Evacuating the planet was the only solution.
No time was wasted, and in as little as 8 years, a super rocket ship had been built which was capable of supporting half the current human population - as well as animal and plant specimens - in space for 700 years. Scientists estimated that this would be more than enough time for them to reach Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbour that stood even the slightest chance of having an Earth-type world in it. The ship was actually a couple of hundred rocket ships joined together to form one giant spiky-cone-topped cylinder, and it was able to be piloted either as one ship or be split into hundreds of rocket ships which could each be piloted manually. The only problem was getting it off the ground.
Plan of rocketship
As I said, technology had not improved, and rocket ships got off the ground then no better than they do today - with a lot of smoke. If a rocket ship this size took off, the amount of pollution it would create would be so great that no life could survive on Earth, not even in sealed domes. The state of the Earth would be little better, if not worse, than that of a post-nuclear holocaust world. So when this ship - called Earnest, because much earnest was needed to get it underway - took off, it would leave behind it only the cost of the survival of Humanity - the end of the Earth.
So the smartest, healthiest, most socially acceptable, wealthiest and most powerful quarter of the Earth's population (only a quarter because this number would increase when they multiplied) was chosen to be the seed of Humanity, which would hopefully once again blossom. To cut a long story short, in 2155 the ship took off and left behind a dead Earth, a seed headed for what it hoped was a field full of rich soil.
By what could only be seen as a miracle, they made it to Alpha Centauri without declining physically, mentally or socially as a race. The rocket ships themselves were also working perfectly. They found one planet which could sustain human life, but not as they knew it. And here, in the year of our lord 2879, recorded history ends.
The Planet Earnest
Named after the ship which fatally landed on it, this planet is one of the strangest Humanity has ever seen. Its core is made entirely of a solid material known as Xontrite-A, which repels all matter excepting its cousin, Xontrite-B. Xontrite-B has the same properties of Xontrite-A, except, of course, that it is attracted to Xontrite-A and not itself. Gaseous Xontrite-B makes up 80% of Earnest's atmosphere, along with 9% Nitrogen, 6% Carbon Dioxide, 2% Oxygen and 3% various noble gases. All non-Xontrite elements in Earnest's atmosphere are repelled towards the middle of the planet. So Earnest's atmosphere has the same elements as Earth's own - and in the same ratio - only they only make up 1/5 of the atmosphere, as the rest is Xontrite-B, which is itself an inert noble gas. Thus Earnest's atmosphere is perfect for sustaining Human life.
There are 3 main differences between Earth and Earnest:
- Earnest is at least 200 times bigger than Earth.
- Although Alpha Centauri is much larger than our own sun, Earnest is still too far away to be anywhere near as warm as Earth.
- The highly unusual gravitational forces on Earnest results in the following layers from the planets exosphere to its crust:
It should also be noted that due to the gravitational circumstances, life is able to exist on both sides of Earnest's crust (i.e. it exists on the side facing the core as well as the side facing the atmosphere and the cosmos), but travel between the outer and inner faces of the crust is impossible, as a layer of Aluminium lies in the middle. Unlike on Earth, where we are pulled towards the crust by the magnetic force that lies under it, on Earnest the gravitational feeling is one of being squashed against the crust by repelling forces from both above and below. For this reason both the landforms and the lifeforms on the crust of Earnest are relatively flat.
The surface of Earnest is mainly frozen nitrogen, which is lethal to even human touch, but there are also various metals, non-metals and oils. There is no water on Earnest, so this must be gotten through the advanced process known as electro-moleculetic metamorphosis, which converts nitrogen into water. This was not discovered until 2572.
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Ship's log, UESS (United Earth Space Ship) Earnest
Date: 76.2901/34.852/2879, 326.529
After many centuries of travelling through the cosmos, we have arrived at Alpha Centauri. The star itself is much hotter than our own Sun, and almost destroyed us with its heat shields. I need not mention the many discomforts we have endured to live to this day, as they are too numerous to recall. The entire population is overjoyed to have finally arrived at Earnest - as we called it - the only (even if barely) planet apart from Earth with the capability to support human life. Of course, conditions will be far harsher than they ever were back home on that fabled, long-forgotten dream world we all pray to rebuild some day. As if that will ever be possible.
Senior personnel have completed their evaluation of the situation, and have presented their calculations to me. In order to penetrate Earnest's atmosphere we will need to achieve a tremendous speed, as a repellant-based electromagnetic field surrounds the planet. If we get through at all, we will be badly damaged and at risk of immediate death. All I can do is hope for the best and pray we did not destroy our homeworld in vain.
Date: 17.7257/37.903/2879, 197.142
This will be my final log. We have crash-landed most horrifically and are damaged far beyond repair. Many were killed and injured. It seems that this planet has a double-sided crust which is outstandingly thin, and that we hit the surface at its thinnest. The ship rammed right through 3 metres of frozen nitrogen, then through a thin sheet of aluminium before penetrating a further 2 metres through the nitrogen and barely protruding out of the inner face of the planet's crust.
We are trapped on the strange double-sided surface of this planet, with much machinery damaged and a bleak future ahead of us. The nitrogen is lethal even to human touch, so survival is not probable. In my opinion, it's back to the stone age from here on for sure. This time, we may never again advance beyond it. To any of my descendants who will read this: Just remember never to give up, and to take good care of this planet. Don't stuff up again.
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My Story
Hello, you people of the future. My name is Che Doe Bar Nikolas (Chedie for short), and this is the first story I have ever written. Well, my tutors made me write a few for my assessments, but they're not half as good as this one. I chose to write this story, because if I don't, it's possible no one else will. I have to write it now - today - in case something happens to me tomorrow. I believe in doing things straight away, because of my terribly dire vision of the future. I am eight, and unlike most eight-year-olds, I don't expect to live very long. I often think all my friends are blind when they talk about growing up, because less than half of them ever will.
This story is about the place I live in, Mississippi. Mississippi is actually a part of Earnest, but few people ever venture far from their own province these days. In the olden days, hundreds of years ago, people travelled through all 50 provinces, even those which are furthest away, like Alaska and Hawaii. They used to use big flying machines called aeroplanes. These days, there aren't any aeroplanes left. They lasted a long time, and by the time they broke there was no one left who knew how to repair them. They should have taught the next generation, or at least written it down, but they forgot. Well, in the future no one's going to forget how we live now. And you know why? Because it's all written down here. I'm going to be the first person ever to write down our history.
My Mother and Father are the B'muin (Chief Couple) of Mississippi, and they work in the Parliamènt in Buenos Aires, which is the capital city and also the place we live. They have L'muin (Sub-chiefs) working with them, but they aren't as powerful as my parents. Some people say the L'muin of water are always more powerful than the B'muin, but I don't believe them. My Mother has the authority of every other L'muin wife put together and more, and my Father has the compassion and valiance of every other B'muin husband put together. And more. My parents are formidable enough to do their job, but when they have conferences with B'muin in other provinces, they tell me those places are under the thumbs of the water industry. I believe them, for one simple reason.
The water L'muin, unless governed by a firm hand, can easily turn corrupt and force the people to obey them. If the people don't obey, they die of thirst. No one else knows how to turn the deadly ice into water, and if the water industry turned corrupt no one would live besides them. Countless times, in all the provinces including our own, the water L'muin have threatened to cut all water supplies from the people, unless a high demand is met. Countless times, the people have refused and all but the water workers died of thirst. This is why all the provinces are so small. So many times their population has been reduced to less than 5% of what it was. Obviously, because of this everyone wants to be a water worker.
In Parliamènt, there are also muin. These people just help all the L'muin do their job, and vote on new laws. Out of the 5-10 thousand families in Mississippi, only 150 are muin in Parliamènt. My tutors tell me that many years ago, when we still had aeroplanes and many other amazing things, there was a Senate in Washington. The muin in the Senate came from all the provinces, and were voted by the people of the province from which they came. The Senate made laws that all provinces had to follow, and made decisions too big for a single province to make. The Senate fell apart after the aeroplanes broke, because after that no one could travel outside their own province. Luckily, the knowledge of how to make receivers was not forgotten, so we can still see and hear the B'muin of other provinces. But we will never be able to meet them in person.
In the Senate's time, all the provinces had the same laws. Since its fall, our laws have changed many times. Some are still the same, but a great many were re-written after some revolution or another occurred. Some laws, such as the Nature Abuse Act, are still kept by all provinces, and probably always will be. The Nature Abuse Act was the first law made in the Senate, but it was observed from the very moment our ancestors came to this world. It is part of our culture - not just Mississippi's, but all of Earnest's. We all had the same culture to start with, but the Nature Abuse Act is almost all we provinces share in common now. It's hard to tell with Ohio, though, because they are still recovering from being dehydrated by the water L'muin 9 years ago, before I was born.
The Nature Abuse Act states that no more than 10% of any plant or animal in an area is to be killed in one year. It also states that we cannot light a fire greater than a bonfire, and that we must freeze our water after we have finished it. If we don't, The Diary states that the world will have too much liquid water and will be drowned. It goes on to list forbidden things, like creating plastics, heating a room, having more than 3 children, littering, and using various drugs. The Diary only briefly mentions the Nature Abuse Act. All it says is that the survival of life on Earnest depends on it being strictly obeyed. Because The Diary is an authority higher than even the law - indeed, it is the basis of our culture - because of this, all provinces strictly obey it, even to this day.
I once learnt that the names of the 50 provinces were once the names of provinces on Earth, the world we lived on many years ago. All important names come from the ancient languages of the Earth, which blended into today's language when we came to Earnest. Our ancestors named hundreds of things, and used a word from a different ancient language for each one. The names of the 50 provinces are an exception, as they all come from the same language.
The Nature Abuse Act is our highest law, but we have many others. Another important one is the Water Use Act, which prohibits the unnecessary use of water. This is also part of our culture, and our parents teach us from our nappy days how to conserve water. The Communism Act prohibits any one person or family from being wealthier than another, and the Health Care Act prohibits the care of anyone who has an incurable disease or condition, as well as anyone who is too sick to work for more than a month.
The Diary is not our Book of Laws, which has nothing but a long and boring list of laws. The Diary is the story of our journey from Earth to Earnest, with many laws and customs in it. Unfortunately, a new copy of The Diary has not been made in thousands of years, and much of it is too old to read. What we do not have written down in The Diary has been partly made up for by what has been carried down orally, but much has been lost forever. In The Diary, there is one mention of a book called The Bible. This, is says, was the blueprint for civilisation on Earth. If this is so, then The Diary is our Bible.
Being the son of B'muin, my tutors teach me much more than ordinary children will ever learn; still, all children are taught verses from The Diary from the day they are born. My favourite verse is "Our children will not treat Earnest the way we treated Earth." Some others are "We will be guests on the new planet and should behave as such", "The cultural and political infections which destroyed Earth will not exist in the future", and "Life will be harsh, but that's the price our ancestors were prepared to pay". These verses are hammered into us until they are our every second thought, and we are taught at what times to remember certain lines. For example, when we are tempted to burn the house of our neighbour because he is abusing us, we must recall the verse: "The only way to prevent a second Global Warming will be to reduce our production of heat to a minimum." The Diary is the most important set of books ever written, and we must treasure it until the end of time.
Well, now I have told you about the Bible and The Law, and I think it's time to tell you about the way we live. For as long as the provinces have existed, we have dug caves into the icy ground with axes. There are very few axes left; in all of Mississippi, there are only three. This doesn't really matter, because there are so many caves already. The Parliamènt owns them all, but it lets every family stay in one in return for paying money each year. This money is used to pay the water workers, who turn the ice into water. In fact, it is used to pay everyone who is employed by the Parliamènt, including the muin. We never walk around with bare skin, even in our caves, but in case we do there are furs and leaves covering the floors, walls and roofs. On one side of the cave, the ice is carved into a ramp that leads up to a hole in the roof. This hole is covered with a conical block of ice, which is wider at the top so it stays in its slot. It is not pointed at the base, but not very wide either. There is a handle on the top so the block can be lifted out, and this is how people enter their caves. They exit by pushing the block up from underneath.
My tutors teach me that the shape of our bodies has changed since we came to Earnest, so I will not assume that you who read this - the people in my future - have the same bodies as me. Well, I am about 10cm tall and 1.8m long. My hands and feet are flat, so they can slide on the ice, and are connected to my body with 5cm long arms and 8cm long legs. We are taller than most animals on Earnest, but it is said that we were once taller so we will probably be shorter still by the time you read this.
Outside every building, there are signs showing the direction of nearby buildings. On the edges of towns, there are signs showing the direction to the nearest town. In the centre of every town is a sign pointing to Parliamènt. We do not use signs very much, unless we travel to very distant towns and do not know our way around. Everyone knows their way around their town and a few nearby towns. The smallest towns have 10 to 15 families, while the larger ones can have as many as 50. Buenos Aires itself has almost 700 families.
As for jobs, a great many of us work as farmers. Farming is one of the most difficult jobs to do, mainly because of the expenses involved. But even after the expenses, it is still the most laborious of all jobs. In order to grow food on this harsh icy land, we must first cover the ice with Hlà'e fur. All the animal furs are thick and prevent liquid ice from touching us, but the fur of the Hlà'e is the only one that protects the soil for a full year. The soil workers, who convert water and wood into soil, are constantly busy, as even the best soil doesn't last forever. These labourers rely on the water workers more directly than anyone else. After the ground has been furred and the soil laid on top, the firewalls must be made. The firewall is simply a low wall of burning wood, which must be fed constantly; should it go out, it would be too cold for the food to grow. The final step is to then plant the seeds in the ground and water them many times each day.
The forestry industry is another important part of our society. The woodcutters live at the edge of the woods, and use the sides of their arms to fell the trees and cut the wood into logs. It was said that many years ago, the woodcutters required a special type of axe to cut the wood. Over time, as the axes became old and frail, they started to use their own arms as axes instead. The sides of a woodcutter's arms are now harder than the wood they cut, and it is said a woodcutter is so tough, he could chop his own arms off without feeling any pain. Many woodcutters are needed, because the firewalls of the fields demand wood all the time.
Mississippi has always had good hunters, and perhaps this is why we are such a comfortable province. The hunters go out in packs every day, usually in search of Hlà'e, which are more abundant than any other fur animal. The fur of the Hlà'e is too precious to use as clothing; it is reserved exclusively for the farmers' fields. However, there are many other animals whose fur is used to protect us from the ever-freezing temperatures of Earnest. The most common are the Derrallina, the Tigerro, the Li-Har and the Szui. When a fur animal is found, half the pack of hunters run ahead to grab it and hold it still. There is a legend of a group of hunters who would sing to the fur animals, and this would make them as frozen as the ice itself. This is only a legend. While the animal is held, the rest of the hunters come with their ice knives and cut off some of the fur. The hunters know exactly how much to cut off, and they have never killed an animal whilst taking its fur. When they let go of the animal, it does not attack them; it is so cold that it runs to the nearby caves made especially for this purpose. The hunters do not butcher any animals in the way The Diary describes. Only the foolish eat the meat of an animal, only those eager to die.
When the hunters return with their furs, they sell all of them except the Hlà'e furs to the fur workers. These families know the ways of the needle, and can stitch the furs into all manner of garments, from leggings to boots to tunics to balaclavas. They cut the furs to fit on the body with expert skill, and they leave not a millimetre of skin exposed. They even fashion garments which fit on children of all sizes. This is one of the hardest skills of all. Because the fur workers take so very long to fashion an outfit for just a single family, the furs of the dead are given to the living in an endless cycle. Apart from the necessity, we also do this because of The Diary verse; "They will recycle their goods at every opportunity".
Apart from these large industries, there are also many jobs with fewer workers. The merchants buy food from the farmers, and furs from the fur workers, and sometimes even wood from the woodcutters, although the farmers usually buy direct from them. They sell their goods to everyone who needs them, making a profit from their sales. Families only buy from the merchants when they are too busy to travel for their goods, and even then are reluctant. There are also messengers, who can be called upon at any time to deliver a message to anyone in Mississippi for a price. Teachers and tutors in every big town instruct children in the basic skills of reading and carving into woodblocks, as well as adding and subtracting. Money workers craft the ice into coins, which are kept in a guarded cave in Parliamènt. The Guards are warriors employed by the government to protect certain caves, mainly the Parliamènt itself. There are many other occupations, such as artists, scientists, musicians and writers, but so few people work as these they are hardly worth mentioning. The only other important people in our society are the muin, but I believe I have already explained their job.
Our clothing is a very important aspect of our lives. I don't know what your climate is in your time, but right now it is extremely cold, as it has been since our ancestors arrived on Earnest. It is so cold that as children we have competitions to see who can get the water in their mouth before it freezes. We must constantly be covered in the thickest furs we can find, from head to toe. It is said that many years ago, before our ancestors came to Earnest, there were caves so hot you could remove your furs when you went inside them. This, of course, is only a legend. In all my years alive, I have never taken my furs off except very, very quickly to change into bigger furs when I grow. I always wear my full outfit of balaclava, cap, tunic, leggings, coat, boots, socks, scarf and gloves. If I went too long without even one of these garments, I would surely die of the cold.
As you can imagine, this would make it very difficult when couples are enjoying their most intimate moments. Like most inquisitive children my age, I have asked my parents how this problem is overcome. They explained to me that in their skill, the fur makers have designed adult leggings which have a flap of unstitched fur in the groin region which can be folded back, leaving an open space. I went on further to ask how this section of body does not freeze when left exposed to the elements, and they answered me, explaining that in their intimacy, a couple are so close to each other that their furs are pressed together, thus protecting any small exposed areas. As well as this, the excitement of the moment forces their body temperatures to rise, making them less vulnerable to the cold.
Love, of course, is not the only problem. It is not as important as one that we face every day, excretion. As it is impossible for us to protect our skin while making water or worse, there is no alternative but to provide places where there is warmth. Thus the toilet cave came about. The toilet cave is a small one, and there is at least one in every town. As there are farms with firewalls in most towns, whenever one feels the need to excrete, one must go to the firewall, fetch a smoking log and bring it to the toilet cave. There is room for a log and almost nothing else in the toilet cave. The only noticeable feature of these tiny caves is the deep hole on one side. These holes were dug a long, long time ago, when axes were numerous. It is into this hole that the excrement is released, where it sits and decomposes for many months. There is always a long wait at the toilet caves, as there is only on average one per town. And it is hardly something to get excited about; all that lies at the end of the line is a hole and a foul smell. As the B'muin, we are very privileged to be the only family in Mississippi with a toilet cave of our very own.
I have wondered what I will do when I grow up for some time now. It is the usual customs for a child to continue in whatever occupation his parents have, with the children of muin being the only exception. Muin are voted in to Parliamènt every 15 years, through a system where every family votes for one other family in their town. They carve their vote onto a woodblock, and thousands of woodblocks are collected by messengers at voting time and taken back to Parliamènt, where the votes are counted by the current muin. The 150 families in Mississippi with the most votes become the new muin and the old ones leave. The new muin then vote for the L'muin, who in turn vote for the B'muin. My parents were simple farmers before they were voted B'muin, and will return to being farmers when their time in office expires. However, as their son I am still not expected to follow their occupation, because I was born when they were B'muin, and are considered the son of B'muin, not the son of farmers. You cannot choose to be a muin when you grow older, you are chosen. So until now I have been at a loss for what to do. Now I have made up my mind.
This work of mine is the first recording anyone has ever made of life on Earnest. It seems incredible that not one person before me ever wrote anything similar to this, as if they thought our society would live forever in oral customs and traditions. From what I have learnt so far, I can see that much has been lost because no one bothered to transfer their knowledge into a more permanent form. I will be the first historian on Earnest. I will write down all that I know, which will hopefully be much more than this when I am older. But then again, I have no faith that I will live to my hoary years, so I must complete this first historical record now. I hope that you people of the future who read this gain an understanding of your past, which may be your only hope of surviving in the future. After all, we couldn't have got this far without The Diary, which is a piece of history long before my time. I hope that whatever knowledge you have lost, you will find in the histories. Our past seems much richer than our future; My humble opinion is that humanity reached its peak some time ago and has been falling down the path of old age since. May you uncover the treasures I hope to create on these blocks of wood. From this time on, a new generation of people will emerge - a generation of authors. My final word to you people of my future. Good luck.