There is Nothing Out There

There is Nothing Out There…

By Mordecai J Banda



It was inevitable; everyone knew it to be true. No matter what contradictive and/or pessimistic views expressed, no matter how long the delays, sooner or later, man would build ships that would be able to transverse the time-space continuum in a single warp jump, and bridge the infinite distance between galaxies. It was simply a matter of time.

200 years after 2010, the unofficial starting point for The Future, man had accomplished it. Nothing could adequately describe the war of words, theorems and experiments that infested the 200 years; nothing could adequately describe the political turmoil and the shift of power in terms of technological discovery. It had been something akin to a wrestling match, with the world’s countries thrashing about in a single ring and engaging in an endless tide of flipping tables and near world-war provoking confrontations between each other. In the end, they shared discoveries. Everything fit perfectly into the puzzle, and thus, warp technology was created.

There were too many scientists responsible for the eventual creation of the drive, and thus every nation had their own name to give the technology, and as confusing it was, there was an ocean of joy and accomplishment. Nobody healthy of the ages four to eighty slept that day. The media coverage was nuclear. Reporters swore on their broadcasts, some even got drunk.

After the first month things settled down enough for discussions to be cordial. The EU and AU decided to run things through only the top heads, and keep everything as low-key as possible. They didn’t want any performance influenced by media or praise. Enough had gotten to everyone’s heads already: It was time for business, and besides, their test jumps had been done with ‘drones’. One had disappeared, and no human had yet been sent off. It would be a tedious year, and there was no need of saying it: There would be casualties.

It was 2230 when ‘jumping’ was practical enough to trickle into a few ofthe commercial sections of the global market and exploration was a definite reality. The years had been full of energy, with the human race juiced with the adrenaline of achievement: Mars had just finished its 200 year terra-forming on schedule, and the population of 150 scientists and 50 civilians seemed well.

When it was time, people could barely hold back the tears. The starship Foundation lifted off in a glory of fire. In orbit, it would go through a stabilization process, adjust trajectories and after a one week mark, leave the galaxy.

Foundation wasn’t the only ship that left. Pillar and Pluto left on their separate voyages. Their missions would last 2 months, 8 months and 2 years respectively. In case of anything, there were two emergency jump-capable drone ships on each of the three craft that would return to Earth whenever necessary.

More ships were sent out. Space exploration had begun and the final infinite frontier was before the human race.

The first ships returned with exhausted pilots and strained hulls, but the world was ecstatic. All ships survived, and there were photographs of planets and stars. The photo’s depicted god-like scenes. Astrologers stared at the photos for days on end.

No life had been found.

People smiled bravely and said, “It’s only a matter of time. What did they say about Invisibility? What did they say about The Nexus? What did they say about room temperature superconductors? There is a planet out there, just like Earth.”

2240, Out of Eighty missions, ten ended in catastrophe, with their craft either obliterated or most likely sent into a limbo of endless warps. The tragedy stung, but not as much as the news: There was still no life.

Years passed on, and age seemed to seep into the very fabric of the human race, there was a universal dread…

2300

There was no life.

2800

Nothing.

3000

Only bodies in space, only planets with the right formulas but the wrong colors. There was nothing but dust and echoes. There was no life, just the cruel canvas of stars and planets and colors, not even a measly bacterium. The world wept.