Oceania
Introduction
We left our planet millennia ago.
The sun was threatening to go supernova. It had, since the scientists predicted it in the mid-20th century. The entire human race was in danger of extinction, and the only refuge was in the stars.
We had hoped to reach there. Unfortunately, the technology was too primitive. There was no way a human could have reached the nearest habitable planet without dying less than a year after leaving. And we could not develop robots capable enough to take care of embryos throughout the whole voyage.
So, we developed spaceflight instead. As we raced the ticking clock, our ships went faster and faster. But it was only at the end, barely a decade before the doomsday clock reached midnight that we could reach the stars without dying of starvation or old-age halfway.
There was only time to build the one ship. And so it was built. Packed with all the supplies the crew needed to survive the trip to the nearest habitable planet: Oceania.
On board were our finest specialists, our most gifted scientists, charged to take care of the thousand or so embryos on board. There was nothing else, save the engines propelling the ship on its long journey through space.
And so, the ship left the solar system. Less than a week after, the sun novas, and the Earth is turned into a barren, radioactive wasteland. Cities fall. Forests burn. People die. And yet, the ship plows on through space.
This ship holds the last humans. All of our past, present and future lie upon this ship. Failure will spell the end of mankind.
The crew are determined to succeed. Failure is not an option.
Chapter 1
The moon-base was deserted. All those on the moon had either gone below, in order to watch the takeoff, or were on board to experience it.
As the ship was prepared for takeoff, Michael was inspecting the human embryos. All 1000 of them had been frozen and stored in huge metallic containers, like frozen meat – which they were, actually.
Michael couldn’t really comprehend the reason for the number of embryos on board. Surely they wouldn’t be able to use them all within a reasonable time of the colony starting up. By the time they got through even half of them, there would be a competing number of naturally-born children with them.
But then again, it wasn’t really his place to reason it out. He simply did his job.
As the final alarm blasted through the ship, Michael scrambled to his seat. Being up during takeoff was never a good idea.
“Oi, slowcoach! The ship’s moving in 5 minutes, so get your ass here!” a burly worker shouted to him. Michael wanted to retort, but he wouldn’t see the guy ever again – there was no reason to ruin his entire flight with this encounter.
He dashed to his padded seat and strapped himself in. Just in time – the ship started rumbling just as he finished. Immediately, he felt the g-forces press him into his seat, which could have been explained by any physics student – but his speciality was in genetics and biology. The physics guys were somewhere else. He could ask them later.
After the initial turmoil, the ship proceeded smoothly towards the Oort cloud. Sara was just admiring the view from a window when she felt the ship suddenly buck.
Just as abruptly, it stopped. The PA came online. “No need for worry, ladies and gentlemen… but you may want to look towards Earth.”
She dashed towards the rear-view screen and watched in fascinated horror. Behind the ship, where they would normally see the Earth, floating in tranquillity, was a barren, red-hot radioactive rock. Same went for the inner planets and moons. The outer planets had fared better, but had also been thrown off course into deep space. The sun itself was simply a very bright glow in the vastness of space.
She stared at what used to be the Earth. All the oceans had evaporated, all the forests and grassland burnt to cinders, all the ice melted. For the first time in millions of years, the Earth was completely uncovered. It made for an interesting sight.
The people, though, were all dead. Either by fire, or radiation, or by suffocation from the stripping of the atmosphere. Not a single being was left alive.
It was then that she felt the first true meaning of loneliness. The ship contained the last of their kind – the last humans.
Chapter 2
The ship approached Oceania.
Captain Fields nodded to his first mate. “Looks like a helluva paradise here, compared to Earth. Almost all water, and here she sparkles like a jewel in the midst of space!”
“Yes sir. Looks good, sir.”
He waved the first mate away. “Ah, you simply can’t appreciate this sort of stuff. You’re no better than a computer!”
“I’m sure he simply had something better to do than admire the view, Captain Fields,” the young woman who came up beside him defended. “Not everyone is this free, including me.”
“So what are you doing here, Miss Sara Lowell?”
“I came up here for a break. The genetic formulae are a real killer. Once we touch down, we’ll be hard at work studying the local wildlife. But we’re being made to prepare beforehand, so as to reduce the time taken later.”
“That’ll be around 10 minute’s time. Go warn the rest of your colleagues so that they don’t accidentally slice off their thumb rather than an alien’s.”
“Ha ha, very funny. I will, though.” With that, she headed back down.
Michael was busy preparing the next sample of jelly. Once they touched down, they would use the jelly as a breeding ground for whatever microorganisms they found – assuming, of course, that there were any, at all.
And also assuming he got the blasted stuff to cooperate. It was currently more interested in sticking to the plate – and his hand.
“Stupid jelly! Not as if we’ll probably make much use of it,” he grumbled.
Sara came down. “What’s the matter? There should be plenty of fascinating organisms to study. It could set the stage for a whole new chain of life!”
“Yeah, I’m more interested in anything bigger than this. Have they spotted anything larger than an amoeba?”
Sara called up a map. “According to this, nothing other than fish. The whole planet is barren on the surface, and they’re still trying to figure out why. It could be that this planet hasn’t evolved anything of significance yet.”
“Or it could be that a volcano decimated all the land animals. You know the dinosaurs?”
“Technically, that was a meteor. But you’ve got a point, if they had actually discovered any trauma on the surface, which they haven’t. So, no.”
“It could simply be a breed of extra-dangerous virus that kills everything on land. So we’re dead meat.”
“I look forward to seeing its effects on you. Go strap down, the ship’s landing soon.” With that, she headed for the front.
Michael pulled off the dish and threw away the gloves. He still didn’t think much of the place.
Chapter 3
The ship gently touched down on the surface. Michael was the first one off the ship. After a few months of travelling, he was desperate to set foot on solid ground again.
The first thing that struck him was the heat. It was hotter than a tropical rainforest, and about as humid as one. He almost immediately began sweating profusely.
The ground was simply rock – not a plant on the island. It started feeling like a desert island, completely with being surrounded by saltwater. He waded into the sea, and it appeared to be filled with what looked like fish, with minor variations here and there.
It felt almost exactly like Earth. But however he looked, there were no shores on the horizon. He didn’t spot any from space, either. But, more disturbingly, there was absolutely nothing alive and above the waves either. It was as though the water was a line, above which nothing survived. Until now.
He turned around and began to help unload the cargo. With any luck, he would find out the reason soon enough.
The sun was beating down on Oceania. Tempers were running high, especially since there was limited land space on the tiny island they had landed on.
Captain Fields was studying some charts made from space of the planet when an astrologer came running up. “Sir! Sir! I have bad news.”
“What can be worse than this god-forsaken planet?!” Fields growled back.
“The heat here is nothing, sir. We have just found out that the planet is currently on the far side of its orbit. In around 3 Earth-years, the planet will be at its closest to its star.”
“What is the estimated effect?” Fields asked worriedly.
“Around 90 degrees Celsius on the surface, at our most optimistic measurements.”
“What do you mean, on the surface?”
“Underwater, at a depth of around 5 kilometres, the water temperature will reach no higher than 20 degrees Celsius.”
Fields immediately called an architect over. “Can you all construct a habitat 5 kilometres underwater in 3 years?”
“No sir, a hundred feet is unprecedented. The deepest construction in water was only a quarter of that, and that’s in Earth waters. We daren’t go deeper than 5 kilometres here, and certainly not in 3 years.”
Fields cursed. “Dammit! Is there nothing we can do?”
“Actually, sir, the ship’s body will survive the heat, but it will cook anything inside. Our only option is to take off immediately and land on a safer planet.”
“We expended all our fuel getting here. There’s no getting off again without a proper facility, and that’s at least a decade away,” Fields sighed. “Well, I guess we’re cooked – literally.”
“Actually, sir, there is another method.”
“What is it?” Fields turned to look at the speaker, who turned out to be Sara Lowell.
“Though we may not survive, I am sure that we may be able to modify the embryos, so that they may survive in water as easily as a fish. The problem, of course, is the extinction of the human race, since these creatures will no longer be considered human…”
“It’s worth a shot. At the very least, our efforts would not have been for nothing…”
Chapter 4
Michael was busy working on a project when Sara walked in.
He didn’t bother to look up even when she stood right in front of him. “What on Earth are you doing that’s more important than the embryos?”
For a pregnant woman, she looked intimidating. “Simply trying to create a new drug. Nothing very important.”
“It should, or I’ll get Fields to toss you in the brig. Now what is it?” She sat down heavily.
“It’s supposed to be able to modify the human body from the inside-out. It consists of a virus that modifies the genetic code of the cell into something else. I was just thinking of using it to help the adult population survive.”
“Very far-sighted, but what if it doesn’t work?”
“I don’t know, but it could be lethal. That’s why I’m willing to be the first subject,” Michael replied. He looked at her closely. “What’s with getting pregnant at this time?”
“An experiment. I’m wondering if a normal gestation will have any effect on the embryos. I’m banking on a bit more intelligence than otherwise.”
“And you’ll be around to teach him to put that intelligence to good use. Right,” he said sceptically.
“I have thought about that, and that’s why I was looking for you. I heard about your drug, and was wondering if you could do something for me.”
“If it’s taking part in the experiment, forget it. I’m not risking anyone else.”
“On the contrary, I was hoping that you would take it. If you survive, will you take care of him for me?”
“Who?”
“I decided to call him Echent. It doesn’t fit the normal rules for names, but everything is new here.”
Michael held her hand. “If we all survive, then yes, I will take care of your child for you.”
“Then I’ll rest in peace.”
It was around the middle of their second year on Oceania, and the place was starting to become unbearably hot. Many had already died from heatstroke, and only the hardiest survived.
Sara Lowell carried a young toddler in her arms. Unlike most toddlers, however, this toddler was not human. It looked like a cross between a human and a dolphin, with gills, small lungs, a dolphin-like tail, slightly-human legs and arms that were extraordinarily like fins, though they retained full dexterity. In fact, the overall impression was that of an anthropomorphic dolphin with gills, and the most human-like part it had was its brain.
“I can’t believe this creature is going to succeed us,” a technician commented.
“Neither can I. But at least it will. This one came from my own womb, and we had to have a caesarean to get it out.”
“Imagine, a mother to a dolphin,” the tech chuckled.
“Perhaps it will do what we humans have not – protect its environment.”
Michael came out of the lab building. “Are you sure you do not want to use the drug? At the very least, you’ll be with your baby either way.”
“No, it’s too risky. Anyway, I can’t abandon my friends here. I’ll rather stay and die with them.”
She released the dolphin-morph into the sea. It splashed about for a while, and finally receded into the waves.
“Go, my baby. Be the first of your kind… Echent.”
Michael stood by himself at the edge of the water. He knew that if he did not go under, he would die very soon. Already, the rest of the colony had perished, and he was the last one left. There was nothing to lose.
He had left a metal plaque in the ship, where he had laid Sara’s body:
SARA LOWELL MOTHER OF ECHENT LOWELL
He waded out into the hot water and grasped the needle tightly. He took a deep breath. This was it. This was the time.
Then he plunged the needle into his arm and injected every single drop of the drug into his body.
The change took place mercifully fast. He grew a tail, and his arms grew fins. His back sprouted a dorsal fin and a blowhole, and his face flattened into a dolphin’s snout. Gills opened on either side of his neck, and his skin took on the texture of a dolphin’s skin.
When it was over, Michael had turned into one of them, those who would be known as the Ennui.
Chapter 5
Under the water, there were mysterious creatures of all kinds.
There were fish, of all different sizes and colours, swimming in the ocean. There were large crustaceans scuttling along the seabed. There were exotic underwater plants, which struggled to survive with the limited sunlight that penetrated down only one every six years.
Then, of course, there were a unique type of mammal, looking remarkably like Earth’s dolphins. Except that these were not just ordinary dolphins.
With a lunge, one of these creatures accelerated into a school of fish, and caught one in its jaws. With a crunch, the unlucky fish was swallowed whole.
“Echent, don’t hog the fish,” the other creature behind messaged to the one eating. Though of course, they were using a complex system of clicks, whistles and squeals to communicate.
“Plenty of fish for all, Kelbusk,” Echent replied. “It’s not as if fish were rare.”
“Still, do exercise self-control. We need to feed the tribe, and the other Ennui would not be pleased if we chased off a prime source of food.”
Echent went about his task, catching fish with his hands – carefully – and putting them in a fibrous ‘bag’. He still remembered the last time he grabbed an electric eel. The hand had taken two cycles to recover.
By the time he had finished, Kelbusk was waiting impatiently for him. “Come on, we haven’t got all day,” he whistled.
Just then, Echent spotted something sparking above the water. “Kelbusk, there’s something on top of the water…”
“With any luck, it’ll be gone next season, and so should we.”
After getting the fish back to the tribe, Echent was still thinking about the spark above the water. Thus, he snuck off to revisit the site.
He had always been slightly smarter and faster than the other Ennui. He was the best hunter within the tribe, as well as the most sensitive to danger. He was arguably the most important in the tribe, after the tribe elder, Mi’chel. And yet, people noticed that they always looked slightly different from the rest. It was as though they did not really belong.
It was because of all this that he also turned out to be the most curious and eager to explore among the whole tribe, and thus it was he who decided to take a look at this mysterious object, which appealed to his sense of curiosity.
What he found was truly beyond his imagination.
It was a huge metal object, streamlined and lying on the ground. It had transparent windows set up in its front, and an open mouth that descended to the ground. The overall effect was, to him, truly god-like.
He dived back down to the tribe. He had to tell them about the discovery. And the first person he approached was, naturally, the tribe elder, Mi’chel.
Mi’chel was brooding in one corner, sitting on a rock. When he saw Echent, he looked up and clicked, “What is it?”
“You ought to see this, Mi’chel. It’s really amazing!” Echent excitedly replied. Quickly, he explained what he had seen.
Mi’chel thought it over. “Okay, we will take a look at this. It’s time you knew anyway…”
“Knew what?”
“Never mind. Just don’t tell the others just yet. We don’t know what this thing does, so we should play it safe,” Mi’chel waved him off.
“So when should we go?” Echent asked.
“The moment the sun rises, we set off.”
Chapter 6
Mi’chel knew perfectly well what the thing was and what it did. He had, after all, visited it every Oceanic year, when the surface had cooled, to reminiscence over the past, back when he was still fully human, back when he was called Michael…
He had taken care of the little colony of Ennui since the day he himself had joined them. He had taught them a new language, had taught them how to hunt for themselves, how to escape from predators, how to survive.
In particular, he had taken especial care of Echent, as per Sara’s dying wish. He had sacrificed his humanity to carry out that promise, and now, it was time to reveal his heritage to him.
But his ultimate dream was for them to eventually return to Earth, if nothing else. At the very least, they should have the chance to view the birth-planet of humanity, and commemorate their ancestral homes, such that humanity will truly live on, in spirit if not in body.
And part of that dream relied on Echent rediscovering his true linage, which was why he was bringing Echent to the ship in the first place.
As they approached the giant object, Echent recognized the metallic gleam of the surface as the sun beat down upon it, reflecting light onto the surface of the water.
They surfaced, and Echent experienced the full effect of Oceania’s gravity upon him for the first time. He stumbled onto his knees, and marvelled at the texture of the grass beneath them.
Beside him, Mi’chel, strangely enough, stood up as easily as though he had spent his whole life doing so. A thought flashed across Echent’s mind: Was it possible that Mi’chel had, in fact, done it before? None of the other Ennui knew where Mi’chel had come from, and he himself had refused to say.
He shook his head. That was impossible. None of them had ever come up before, or had seen Mi’chel done so. No, he was just skilled enough and strong enough to walk upon the land without falling.
The thought lingered in his mind, however.
After Echent had gotten used to the sensation of walking, they headed into the mysterious object, through a mouth in its sides. Echent marvelled at the inner beauty and yet soullessness of the ship. It was like the inside of a great metallic whale, and more complicated than what he could imagine.
They walked through the different rooms of the ship. Echent saw many unusual and unfamiliar items. For instance, there was a small room off the side which held a variety of objects that Mi’chel gave a quick look-over before moving on. In the next rooms were squarish, metallic boxes which had a dark surface on one side. Mi’chel touched a button on the side, and the surface lit up with many different characters, of which Echent could not understand.
Next, they went through a very unusual room. It was filled with containers and tubes of all sorts, in many different colours. Echent experimentally shook a few, and the liquids – if that was what they were – behaved differently. He was about to open one when Mi’chel grasped his arm and indicated, with a shake of his head, not to.
Echent suspected Mi’chel knew more about this place than he let on, but he decided to let him continue. He was sure Mi’chel would tell him, eventually.
Finally, they reached an extremely cold room with many different containers resting on the wall. There was one container in the centre of the room, with a metallic sheet with characters on it below the container. Shivering slightly, Echent approached this container.
The container itself held the body of a woman. She looked around middle-aged, but besides that, he could not really see, since the inner side of the glass had a layer of condensed moisture on it. Still, she looked oddly familiar, though he could not remember why.
Distractedly, he asked, “Who is she?”
“She’s your mother,” Mi’chel replied
Wondering if he heard him correctly, Echent turned to face him. “Sorry, what did you just say?”
“I said, she is your mother.”
Echent looked at him. “You’re joking…”
“I’m not, Echent. She is the one who gave birth to you. She used to be my colleague, and my friend.”
“But how? I don’t look anything at all like her!
“You were the product of an experiment, a last-ditch hope. The Ennui, including me, were all part of this experiment. You and I, however, are different in that we are at least part-human.”
“But we had always believed we were the first intelligent creatures on this world. You mean to say that there was another race before us?”
“The others were right when they said they were the first of their kind. They were actually grown out of dolphin egg cells with human embryo DNA. You were the only one who came from a human egg cell, donated by your mother, who also raised you to term.”
Echent couldn’t take this all in at once. His whole world had just been turned upside-down, and he needed to think.
“I, on the other hand, am different from all of you,” Mi’chel continued. “I used to be part of this race once. We created you all, as we knew that if we stayed on the surface, we would have been roasted. This way, at least there would be someone left, to survive us. However, this way would have meant the death of all of us.” Mi’chel hung his head. “Refusing to accept death, I secretly worked on a project, that would have allowed me to stay alive, but in this form. I had wanted to save the others, but they… died first.”
Echent tore his gaze away from his mother and into Mi’chel’s eyes. “What do you want with me?”
“Simple. I just want to continue the memory of the human race, even if the physical forms are lost. What matters more is the mental form, which is why you must remember and record every single major event in human history, concluding with the ship’s landing on this planet, as well as a basic understanding of all the subjects.”
“Why can’t you do it yourself? Why do you have to rope me in like this?”
“I can’t do it all in enough time. I would have done it myself, long ago, but I had no means to do so underwater without help. Now my lifespan is more than halfway through, but you have the time to write it all down, somehow, somewhere. And, in the future, one of your species will pilot the ship back home, to Earth.”
After the ship visit, Echent returned back to the tribe, but did not tell anyone else about his and Mi’chel’s talk. He went to Mi’chel regularly for advice and lessons, and as the years went by, he grew into an adult. It was awkward at first, since the only adult Ennui beforehand was Mi’chel, but there were no complications of note.
He and Mi’chel managed to create a form of writing by using different materials, but like Mi’chel had said, it was impractical to do without an extra person to help. It mostly involved weaving seaweed into knots, which was time-consuming and overly complicated without someone else to help with holding the seaweed in their places.
However, they eventually managed to record down all the events that Mi’chel thought were worth remembering. As he said to Echent, human beings had made many good and bad decisions, and there were plenty of lessons to be dredged from history.
Then, one day, Mi’chel called Echent to him. Mi’chel was already getting on in years, but was still relatively fit. As Echent met him, he noticed a slight grey-whitish tinge to Mi’chel’s skin.
“Yes, it turns out the ageing pigment actually goes to the skin, since we have no hair,” Mi’chel said, rather embarrassedly. “I should have thought through this when I started, but it’s only a cosmetic change.”
“The point is, you now know everything I know, and I believe it is time you revealed the truth to the other Ennui. Since you know everything already, you should be able to answer any questions they throw at you. In this sense, you are like my insurance.”
“As to the secrecy, I feel that I should tell you, there are no doubt those who will not be happy I chose you over them, or that you are even special. But I could only concentrate on training one at a time, and it is no one’s fault you are special. Now, though, you are the product of my training, and it is up to you to prove me right. If you are still wrong… well, it’s too late to train another batch.”
“So here is what I tell you to do. Go up to the ship, and repair it as much as possible, until it is spaceworthy again. The engineers left plenty of manuals up there, and they, combined with your understanding, should be enough to get you going. I’ll also join you at first, but years are catching on with me.” He grimaced and leaned back on the seaweed bed, taking care of his dorsal fin.
“How does what I have learnt help with repairing the ship?” Echent asked puzzledly.
“Well, you know the basics and can understand what the engineers actually meant. You also can figure out and factor in other conditions that the engineers never intended, like Oceania’s sun, the local biosphere, etcetera. Need I say more?”
Echent hopped around in pain. The fuel tank he had been carrying had fallen on his foot while he was lifting it up. Not knowing any swear words, he simply gritted his teeth and massaged his foot.
“The problem with not having any of the original humans around,” Mi’chel commented, “is not having any of their choicest words to use right now.”
“Instead of making remarks, how about you come and help?” Echent retorted.
Mi’chel got up unsteadily. “I can’t stand the heat, Echent. Simply getting up now is quite an effort, let alone carrying that tank.”
Kelbusk appeared beside them. “If you two are finished, would you mind getting this inside the ship?” he said irritably. He hoisted off the tank to the ship.
“Come to think of it, we do ought to use a language other than this,” Mi’chel said thoughtfully. “Clicking isn’t going to sound very far. Not to mention all the nice words in the English language.”
“English was for the humans. Our vocal cords are different.” Echent reminded him.
Mi’chel staggered on towards the water, Echent supporting him. They reached the water, and Echent jumped in. Mi’chel slid in after him.
“Did you notice Kelbusk didn’t seem too happy with you, just now?” Mi’chel told Echent as they swam down.
Echent gave his tail a strong flick. “Some of the tribe members resent my speciality. Kelbusk simply hates the fact that I never told him.”
“I apologize for that, but it was necessary. I did not consider him trustworthy enough to hold our secret, so I simply did not tell him.”
“That’s what he’s sore about. He says he is very much able to keep a simple secret like ours.”
“Still, you’re going to lead the tribe into space. You can make it up to him. Make him a leader of some kind – he’s capable enough.”
The ship was almost finished. The only thing left was to fill up the water tanks – an easy task, due to the abundance of water. However, the task still took time.
In the midst of all this, Mi’chel fell gravely ill, and it was soon clear he was on his deathbed. One night, he requested to see Echent and Kelbusk alone.
They met him lying on his rock bed. He gave no indication of life until they had settled, and then he began:
“I know you two have been at odds with each other for quite some time, due to Echent keeping my teachings from you, Kelbusk, and I must now clarify this misunderstanding. Echent had not told you as he was under my specific instruction not to tell you, or any other tribe-member, about these lessons. It was because I could not focus on teaching more than 1 pupil at a time. If I had taught you as well, I would not have been able to teach everything before… this. At least, now I have no need to teach anyone. That task is for you, Echent.
As to why I chose Echent, it is because he was actually born from a human mother. His mother and I had a theory that such a being would be slightly more intelligent than otherwise. However, the rest of you have the same capacity for learning, if it does take a bit longer. It remains for Echent to do so. Thus, I hope you two will stop this squabbling and pilot the ship back – Echent knows how to read the manuals, and he should teach you, Kelbusk.
And finally, I have a last request. When I die – and that will been soon – store my body in one of the cyro-containers, and bury me on Earth. That way, my spirit will really have come home.”
Echent flipped a control on the panel, and an affirmative beep answered. “That should be the last system.”
Kelbusk checked a monitor. “The others are seated, and the cyro-container is secure. We should be able to take-off now.”
Echent pulled a lever. “I’m still not comfortable without anyone manipulating the other controls.”
“If I remember right, those were just light-switches and other stuff that would more appropriate at a… disco, isn’t that the word?”
“Right on.” He pushed the button.
The engines suddenly came online, the upthrust stirring up clouds of dust. The ship jerked, then slowly rose up like a magnificent bird.
Then the back-burners activated, and the ship took off into space.
Towards Earth… and towards home.
THE END