The End of Number Six

“Something, something, Vault 6”

Happy New Year, everybody. Unless you use a system other than the Gregorian calendar typical of the United States and most of the rest of the world. In that case, happy regular day. Thanks for reading.

I’m actually out of town right now, and prepared this post in advance of my absence. I’ve been told that I have to keep my posts as regular as possible, so this one is coming to you from the past. From December 27th, specifically. But that doesn’t really matter. What matters is if you’re reading this as it was published, I’m in Los Angeles and didn’t bring my laptop. So here’s some material for this week and an early sample of my writing.

Instead of writing a post like I normally would, I’ve decided to upload an old short story that I wrote years ago. In fact, this was one of my first short stories, so take it with a grain of salt; it may not be very good since I wrote it in 8th grade. But, it won first place for NIU’s teen Sci-Fi writing contest that year, and I’m pretty grateful for that. It put me in touch with some very kind, helpful people. I want to post it here to both share with you, start an archive of my work (a “vault”), and have some basic sense of copyright protection. Even though this post will probably do jack squat in a court of law.

So, anyway, here’s the unedited, apparently award-winning edition of my first science fiction story. I even included the bibliography I had to make for the contest. Oh, and one last thing; special thanks to Destany Hahn for making the featured artwork for this story.

“The End of Number Six,” by Andy Sima (2012)

The space ship had been gone for one-hundred years following its launch in the spring of 2055.  Although the scientific community had accepted the methods of travel used by the ship, the effects of the travel had not been accepted.  No one realized that space-time did not like to be fooled around with, no matter how much it lacked a sentient mind.  Even though traveling through a ‘warp drive’ was physically possible and completely reasonable, time itself was not so reasonable.  It did not want to cooperate, and apparently wreaked it revenge upon the crew of The Pillar of Spring.

“Time is a touchy thing,” Captain Starr explained to his crewmembers.  “Apparently, even though we didn’t break any laws of physics, something unforeseen came our way.  Although we have only been away from Earth for what seems like a year to us, it has been much longer for everyone else.  Time is, as Einstein said long ago, relative.  Wherever we ended up, however we got there, something changed.  So prepare yourselves.  We’re returning to Earth in the year 2155.”

This went through the crew in a wave.  There were murmurs of “One-hundred years later?”  “But… how?  What did we do?” and “My family!  My friends!”  No one truly understood why this was happening; only that it was.  After a few minutes, the crew gathered themselves and trudged to the porthole on the side of their ship.  Earth came into view.

It did not matter what the mission was.  It was worthless to them now.  They remembered vaguely that they had slipped into warp drive somewhere between Earth and Mars, and that they reached the Andromeda Galaxy in about a week of travel.  They landed on some planets, looked for life (or anything interesting), and moved on.  After a few months of searching, they hopped into the warp drive and blasted back to Earth.  It was not until they appeared within our solar system that the true time-warping effects of their space travel came into play.

The ship slowly descended towards Earth, and the crew gasped as they looked upon it.  Most of the planet was a brownish-yellow color, like an endless desert.  The oceans were a dark, polluted blue, and seas submerged about half of the continent of North America.  There was no sign of life.

The ship’s radio engineer switched through various frequencies.  “Nothing,” he said to the quiet crew.  They had not expected to hear anything.

As the ship spiraled through the upper atmosphere, someone mentioned, “We can only see this half of Earth.  What about the other half?”

Captain Starr sighed.  “You heard Charles, didn’t you?”  Charles was the radio engineer.  “There’s nothing giving off frequencies.”

It was a bit of time before the massive ship spiraled down to the surface of the planet, eventually landing somewhere in North America.  A scientist named Isaac quickly ran some tests on the atmosphere, and finding it to be capable of supporting human life, allowed the crew to leave the ship.

The surface was so barren of life it felt alien to the crew.  “Welcome home,” someone muttered.  “One-hundred years later,” someone else spoke.

The hard, packed soil was a very light, sandy color.  It was not sand, though.  A geologist, Walter, quickly studied a sample in an electronic sampler.  “Less than ten percent moisture.  About fifty percent organic matter.  A lot died here, and recently.  But you won’t be getting any forests anytime soon.  It’s rather polluted, and pretty acidic.  Almost no nutrients”

The crew was quiet before someone finally spoke up.  “What happened here?” she spoke the question that was one everyone’s mind.

“It’s obvious,” Walter said.  “You saw the oceans.  They have risen way above normal sea level.  It’s clear what happened here.”

The crew was silent, expecting an answer.  “Well, what happened?  You’re the genius, aren’t you?” someone spoke sarcastically as they waited for an answer from the nervous geologist.

“Well, I… I… It’s too early to make conclusions,” Walter stuttered.  “We should try to find a city or a town and find some human life.”

“A capital idea,” Captain Starr said.  “Let’s get to it.  Navigator Christopher, plot us a course to Chicago.”

“Right away, sir,” the navigator spoke.  They were all eager to get away from that empty desert and hopefully reach civilization.

The crew raced back into the ship and quickly blasted off.  It only took them a few hours to make their way to Chicago, but what they found was not a happy sight.

The city lay in ruins.  Great stone buildings had crumbled to rubble and dust.  Chunks of metal framework lined the streets, side by side with abandoned cars.  The crew landed just on the edge of the rubble.  A spire of the once great Willis Tower sat haphazardly atop the tallest pile of debris.  There was no life anywhere in sight.

“It’s… empty,” someone said.  It was completely true; nothing moved at all.  There was no life anywhere among the ruins.  Not even a cockroach hopped about.  Trash littered the streets among ruined cars and cracked gargoyles.

The crew walked silently, reverently, through the great disaster.  Bits of paper blew about the road.  It was a testament to the apparent destruction of Earth.  One crewmember, Jane, picked up a newspaper.

“Disaster of Worldwide Proportions Hits Japan, China,” she read.  She paused for a moment, and said, “There’s nothing that says anything about what kind of disaster it was.  It could have been anything by the descriptions here, though.  But nothing we haven’t already observed.  Minimal life.  Risen seas.  Polluted soil.  Ruined atmosphere.  Destroyed cities.”

The Chicago River flowed sluggishly nearby.  It bubbled with pollution, and gave off an evil stench.  The Second City was no longer a wonder of modern engineering or technology.  It was just a polluted hunk of concrete and steel.

“It’s a little Bradbury-esque, don’t you think?” a man, Beatty, spoke up.  “I mean, the world’s been destroyed, and here we come plodding along afterwards.  It feels like Fahrenheit 451 or ‘There Will Come Soft Rains,’ doesn’t it?  And it’s clear enough how the city was destroyed.  Oh, wouldn’t Bradbury be proud to hear it?”

“Really?  Do you actually have an answer this time, unlike Walter over there?” someone said, annoyed.

“Yes, I have developed an idea of my own, and I have evidence to prove it,” Beatty said.  The crew waited eagerly to hear his answer.  “Nuclear war,” he said.

“That’s preposterous!”  A young woman, Marie, spoke up suddenly.  “How could a nuclear war have destroyed Earth to this point?”

“Easy,” Beatty spoke with the confidence of a man who knew what he was saying.  “Two countries locked in war.  One fires a missile and the other retaliates.  Nearby countries, hit with radiation and the initial blast, take sides and fight back.  It all goes downhill from there.  The whole world is divided up, firing nuclear missiles on each other until one country or the other is destroyed.  It doesn’t matter in the end, though.  The explosions of the bombs kick so much radioactive dirt into the atmosphere that by the time it all settles, the Earth is radiated beyond human repair.  By the time that happens, though, humanity would’ve died out.  The simple radiation from the blast would’ve killed or caused disease in humans.  There wouldn’t be enough left to maintain the human species.  Farmlands would become radiated, waterways and air, too.  Plants don’t grow, and animals die.  The Earth slowly heats up, even after we’re gone.  Eventually, it reaches the state we’re at now.  It’ll be like this for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.  We’ve killed ourselves through nuclear warfare, just as Bradbury predicted.  And what’s more, that would explain the pollution and ruined cities,” Beatty finished his narrative.

“That doesn’t explain, though, why there isn’t still an impossibly high amount of radiation in the atmosphere or the soil.  If civilization was destroyed by nuclear warfare, don’t you think the ruins of bombed cities would still be radioactive, even if only slightly?” Marie said.  She pulled out a pocket Geiger counter and scanned it over the broken chunks of stone.  The device made no noise except for the normal beeps and clicks.  “See?” she said.  “No radiation.  There’s no way a nuclear war destroyed Earth.”

“But can’t you just imagine?” Beatty said, struggling to remain at the top.  “The world locked in war, nukes going off left and right!  Civilization destroyed, humans extinct!  It would be the end of the world!”

“Yes, but while Bradbury was a great science-fiction writer, what he lacked in scientific fact he made up for in fiction.  If I were you, I wouldn’t believe everything you read, Beatty,” Captain Starr pointed out.  Beatty looked disappointed.

“Well, then what did happen?” someone questioned again.

“Let me bring my theory to the table,” said a man named Alfred.  “I have a theory that is sounder than nuclear war.”

“Let’s hear it.  Save all questions until the end,” Captain Starr said quickly, to quiet the group.

“I believe this was cause by a super-volcano eruption!” Alfred exclaimed dramatically.  He paused for a moment of silence, during which he expected gasps, but getting none, continued anyway.  “If the super-volcano sitting underneath Yellowstone National Park were to explode, it would be a catastrophic global event!  Not only would the majority of the western United States be covered in ash, preventing the growth of any crops and preventing transportation, the finer particles thrown into the air would cover the globe, effectively causing a volcanic winter, lowering global temperature by several degrees.  This, combined with the sudden downfall of the world’s most powerful nation (the United States, that is), would spell doom for the world!  Civilization would collapse into chaos, and eventually humanity would destroy itself in a quest for dwindling resources due to lack of growth.  It makes the most sense, logically!  It would simply be the end.”

The group was quiet before someone responded.  This woman, Helen, was skeptic about the whole idea.

“A single volcanic eruption couldn’t wipe out humanity, even with the aftermath of it.  It’d still be the biggest disaster of all human history, but it’d only kill about one-seventh of our population.  Besides, a super-volcano in Yellowstone wouldn’t explain a ruined Chicago or the newspaper clipping about the disaster in Japan and China.”

“But you see, that is where you are wrong!”  Alfred said.  “There is not just one super-volcano throughout this planet.  There could have easily been a string of eruptions, maybe even starting in the Eastern Hemisphere!”

“That still wouldn’t explain the cities,” Helen countered.  “Most of them, or at least, some of them, should still be standing.  However, as we’ve observed, nothing is.  There are no radio frequencies anywhere.”

Some of the crewmembers spoke in protest against Alfred, some spoke with him.  Already there was a rift beginning to develop between the few humans left.  Captain Starr had to do something, and soon.

“Hold on now!” he called over the chatter of the group.  “Let’s try thinking of other possibilities.  Anyone else?”

There was a moment of silence before Isaac the meteorologist spoke up.  “I have an idea.  This, personally, seems to be the most logical solution.”

A few crewmembers tried to interrupt, saying they had heard enough and wanted to explore the planet to see if there was any life left.  Captain Starr quickly told them to settle down.  He let Isaac continue.

“You see, our entire civilization was built on a faulty fuel source,” Isaac started.  “We’d been using coal and oil for centuries, and we’d been polluting the atmosphere, speeding up the Earth’s natural warming process at an abnormal rate.  It only seems natural that this is all caused by global warming.”

Someone groaned about how global warming was a myth.  Not for the first time, though, someone had a legitimate answer to counter the doubts.

“That’s where you’re wrong.  Global Warming (although a natural process that the Earth is still going through) is, or, at any rate, was being sped up to an unnatural rate by humans and our greenhouse gases that trapped heat and radiated it back to Earth, slowly causing temperatures to rise worldwide.  However, by the time we had left Earth, we humans had been working to reverse our effects.  Alas, it appears we weren’t fast enough.  I can deduce that so much pollution was put into the atmosphere than nearly all of the United States became desert, and food production worldwide slowed to the point of starvation.  On top of that, the ice caps melted, causing sea levels to raise worldwide, destroying land.  The Earth, too far gone to save, ended up destroying that last bit of humanity with vengeful storms of evaporated water.  Because we warmed the earth up too much, we killed ourselves.  This theory would explain why there is so much desert, so little water, so little life, and the destroyed cities.  It makes perfect sense.

Everyone looked around at the ruined city and the desert surrounding the dismal destruction.  It did seem to be the most logical solution, and if what Isaac said was true, it would be long past their lifetime before Earth righted itself again, if that ever happened.  Captain Starr smiled.  Soon enough he could tell the crew his own thoughts on the matter.

Someone, however, still had doubts.  “Would it even be possible for Earth to descend this far in a period of one hundred years, or maybe even less?”

Isaac faltered.  “Well, no, not in one-hundred years, but our civilization has been leading up to this for generations…”

Someone yelled, “Get your facts straight!”

Another yelled, “Get your facts straight!  This was obviously a meteor’s work!”

“That’s impossible!  A meteor would have the same effect as a super-volcano, and we already shot that down!”

“Then what did happen?”

“I think it was a disease!”

“I think it was aliens!”

“I think it was zombies!”

“SHUT UP!” the entire crew, except Captain Starr, yelled at the man who suggested zombies.

The entire crew spiraled into insanity.  Arguments broke out among the best of friends, all trying to decide who was right and who was wrong.  It was all about trying to figure out what had happened to their precious human race.

Arguments nearly turned to fistfights, even among these highly educated individuals.  Captain Starr watched, disgusted at it all.  How had his crew become this?  They were arguing over an enigma that had no answer, and probably never would.  Somehow, Captain Starr knew there was no one left on this sorry planet.  He knew that humanity had had its run, and whatever had caused the end of it was over.

Captain Starr could not take any more quarreling.  He had to have his say, too.

“EVERYBODY SHUT UP!” Captain Starr screamed at the top of his lungs, after several failed attempts to get their attention by conventional means.

Slowly, the crew quieted down.  Many members gave each other nasty looks, and most of them were red in the face.  However, they turned to look at their beloved captain.

“Do you want to know what I think happened here?” Captain Starr said.  “Do you really want to know?”

The crew remained silent.  Their silence was answer enough.

“I believe there are plenty of possible causes for this.  A gamma ray burst or a magnetic pole shift are two possibilities that you didn’t cover.  Still, that’s not truly what I think.  The thing is, I don’t care what happened here.  We’ll never know what happened, or how.  There will never be a solution that doesn’t have some faults with which to doubt it.  We’ll never be able to come to a conclusion.  It doesn’t matter.  All that matters is that it’s the end of number six,” Captain Starr said.

There was a slight level of confusion among the engineers and average crewmembers, but the scientists among the crew understood to what Captain Starr was referring.

“A few of you seem confused as to what I mean,” Captain Starr said.  “Let me explain.  During the years before we left for space, many scientists argued we were either already in or going into a sixth mass extinction.  Five times before in that past 540 million years, there have been events or periods of time where three-fourths or more of all species have gone extinct.  Moreover, as I said, many scientists would argue we were in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and humans were the cause of it.  However, now that humans, and most of the rest of the world, is gone, I can safely say it is the end of the sixth mass extinction, hence my phrase, ‘The end of number six.’”

There was a moment of silence among the crew.  Then, someone spoke up.

“How do you know that humanity is over, as is the rest of the world?” someone asked.

Captain Starr sighed.  “I don’t.  I just have a feeling.  Will it make you feel better if we take a quick look around the world?”

No one said anything.  It was too depressing a thought.

“Needless to say, this is the beginning of a new era.  A better era.  One without humans.  I propose we leave,” Captain Starr was interrupted.

“We can’t leave!” someone called.  “We must remain here, and carry on humanity!”

“Why?” Captain Starr questioned.  “There’s nothing left here.  Why do you want to stay?  To continue our foolish race that couldn’t even see its own mistakes?  It is a poor idea.  Besides, it’ll be much past our lifetime before we could possibly live here.  Mother Earth gave us a world, and we destroyed it.  It is fitting to leave her to rebuild herself on her own.  We have the means on the ship to last the rest of our lives in comfort.  Perhaps there is a habitable world somewhere out among the stars.  Nevertheless, there is nothing left here except ruins.  The rest of humanity, our history, our knowledge, and anything else important is contained on our ship.  Why stay?”

The crew, once again, was still.  There was truly nothing worth staying for.  Every important piece of knowledge that humanity ever knew was carried on their ship, even books.  Anything left on Earth was far from salvageable.  They could look until they died, but they would find nothing.  If they so desired, some thought, they could continue humanity on the ship, with its farms and water purification, until they found a new world.  Alternatively, the end could come, even for them.

A few bowed their heads and prayed.  One or two fell to their knees and cried.  Most were hushed.  It was time to leave.

One by one, they boarded the ship off that forsaken place of their ancestors.  Captain Starr boarded last.

“Goodbye, Mother Earth.  You have been too good to us.  It is time to go,” Captain Starr said quietly.  If a planet could have cried, it might have.  Or it might not have.  No one will ever know.

The ship’s hatch closed, and blast-off began.  A few lost souls waved goodbye.  One man asked to circle around the planet a last time.  Captain Starr fulfilled his wishes.  Navigator Christopher plotted a course around the world.

It was a gloomy sight.  Yellowed continents turned silently on that great mass.  With a pair of powerful binoculars, destroyed cities could be seen through the angry clouds of storms.  The radio never received a message.

*****

Many, many decades after the crew of The Pillar of Spring left Earth behind, the desertification process ground to a halt and the seas reached equilibrium.  A small, green bud sprouted somewhere in the endless desert.  A bird sang from a concrete cave somewhere in a ruined city.  Mother Earth began to rebuild, one ruin at a time.

Bibliography

• Peckham, Matt.  “NASA Actually Working on Faster-than-Light Warp Drive.” Sept. 2012 URL: http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/nasa-actually-working-on-faster-than-light-warp-drive/
• Copeland, Sebastian.  Antarctica: The Global Warning.  San Rafael, California:  Earth Aware Editions, 2007.
• Jennings, Terry.  Weather and Climate: Changing Climates.  North Mankato, Minnesota:  Smart Apple Media, 2005.
• Light, Michael.  100 Suns.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
• Nardo, Don.  Kidhaven Science Library: Atoms.  San Diego, California:  Gale Group, 2002.
• Breining, Greg.  Super Volcano.  St. Paul, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 2007.