Encyclopaedia of the Galactic Echo, Page 2

A Brief History

  The following is a description of significant events from the early 21st century to the present day in the late 23rd century.

  In the early part of the 21st century, the world was a very fragmented place – of course, the ‘world’ as we know it today, includes the Earth, where humans and all life evolved, to more recently over the past centuries, to the Moon, and then Mars, and latterly into spacestations orbiting the celestial objects. Back then, the world was just the Earth. Wealth was held by a number of countries, the richest being USA, Japan, China, and various countries of Europe. One of the biggest problems, which to some extent still exist today in the 23rd century, was that the majority of wealth across the world was held by a small percentage of privileged people, and the world's resources were held by these rich countries. Many wars were fought between different countries, indeed when one reads the history of the world from medieval times, the world has seen many battles for all sorts of reasons. From the second world war in the middle-20th century, essentially due to the German Nazi regime seeking absolute power, to various battles in the middle-east of the world, fighting over the dwindling resource of oil, which powered the richest countries insatiable desire for fuel. Other fossil fuels were used to power the various machinery of the time, including gas and coal, but oil was the dominating energy source, as it powered the engines for transport vehicles, be they sea-faring ships, aeroplanes or cars.

  This burning of oil was one of the biggest problems that the world faced – oil powered the power stations, and essentially drove the world economy. At that time, the nations that were the richest countries on Earth used oil as the main power source, thereby keeping their wealth and the price of oil high, until the inevitable happened… oil began to run out, and so the developed nations had no option but to finally start developing alternative fuels, which of course are now widespread, i.e. nuclear and solar power. Up until that point, it became clear that the wealthy nations had certain vested interests in keeping oil as a major power source, as it generated their wealth. They undertook all sorts of tactics such as holding back with developing solar and nuclear power until it became inevitable that they would have to adapt or would face major energy power problems.

  A further problem with burning oil as a power source was that doing so released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which warmed the planet. Again, the oil-producing nations used highly questionable tactics during this time, choosing to divert the blame for ‘global warming’, even stating that it wasn't happening as a result of human activity, until the evidence was clear and beyond doubt. However, it is quite clear why they did this when the motives for doing so are revealed. These countries relied on oil for their economy, so they had vested interests for the world to keep using it in large quantities. However, over time, the oil reserves were at such a low point that it was becoming so scarce that the price was very high and the alternative power systems, solar and nuclear, became the main power source, which of course is the situation we have today.

  At that time, around the early part of the 21st century up to around 2020, there was the transition towards wide-scale use of the alternative power sources, and global terrorism became a huge threat to the developed world, resulting in many people being killed. Followers of certain groups, using the cover of respectable religions to recruit people to undertake these acts, used certain extreme measures such as suicide missions, which caused many people to be killed along with the terrorist. The ultimate goals for these terrorist groups were to get people to follow in their ideologies, many of them highly questionable, such as wanting countries to run under extreme rule of a highly oppressive regime, so basic human rights were denied to many people.

  The global warming effect was at its peak around the years of 2020-30, with many extreme weather events, including hurricanes, earthquakes and, as a result of the ice caps melting, flooding, causing millions of people across the planet losing their homes and livelihoods and many perished in these disasters. The effects were mostly felt in the poorest parts of the world, and the archives show that the world population at that time actually reduced, because of these terrible disasters and there was unprecedented unrest across the planet. With the distribution of wealth between the richest and poorest people becoming ever wider, there were widespread riots and conflicts. Previously, wars occurred across the world, in isolated areas, but this time conflict was all over the planet, as the all the nations of the world slowly recognised that something needed to be done.

  Despite the unrest of the time, there were huge breakthroughs in science and medicine. The most significant of which took place on October 5th, 2037, when Russian astronaut Sergy Abramov became the first human to set foot on Mars, 68 years after Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. Abramov’s immortal words, “Well, it’s red, dusty, barren, but one day might just be called home," were uttered, thereby continuing the tradition started when Neil Armstrong uttered, “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as he set foot on the Moon.

  Onto the next few decades, the developed nations of the world started to invest heavily into renewable energy systems, with solar power and nuclear power stations emerging across the globe, so the primary reason for the unrest disappeared. As a result this investment in renewable (or at that time, termed ‘alternative’) energy, not one nation had a monopoly over the power supply of the world. With oil and gas, the previous main power energy, the unrest came from the nations having this natural resource and effectively holding the world to ransom. Now, as all the nations of Earth were able to be responsible for their own energy, they didn’t need to fix prices for other countries, so the main reason for wars ended.

  Towards the end of the 21st century, the third world became more wealthy and its people began to enjoy more of the lifestyle that the ‘first world’ people had enjoyed for centuries, but only after the United Nations had prosecuted many officials for bribery and corruption, which had resulted in only the privileged elite holding onto the majority of the world's wealth. With more people living prosperous lives, the gap between the richest and poorest people began to reduce, as the world entered a period of stability. However, the world population was increasing, which put more pressure on food production, and that became the next major problem for the governments of the world. After the upheaval of the ‘energy wars’, as they became known, the world entered a new threat, the ‘food wars’, where nations struggled against an increasing demand for food. This was exacerbated by the advancements in medicine research, which saw humans living to ever longer lives – by the end of the 21st century, it was normal for people to live beyond 150 years. The price of general foods increased, so that the wealth gap between the richest and poorest people increased again. These ‘food wars’ resulted in a number of conflicts across the planet, causing many people to lose their lives. However, the United Nations stepped in, forcing the most powerful nations on Earth to sign up to treaties to ensure that the food industry would operate with international laws in place to ensure that the poorest people in Earth would not be disadvantaged and unable to have access to basic food and water resources.

  It was at around the end of the 21st century that oil was essentially ‘written off’ as a energy fuel. Oil reserves were held around the world, but it was not in sufficient quantity to make it a viable fuel. It was only being used on a small scale, mainly by people wanting to use old machines that used oil, such as vintage machinery.

  At around the same time, technology and science moved to a new level, with the most significant developments being in the explosion in space travel becoming the next boom industry. This laid the foundations for the first bases on the Moon, and terraforming on Mars, for the planned habitation of the planet. Plans to do the same to Venus were shelved, as it was deemed too hostile to ever support life in a sustainable way, therefore Mars became the natural choice for the second planet for human habitation. On November 21st, 2090, the first ever spacestation in Earth orbit was officially opened for no
rmal human habitation, named Primus (Latin for ‘first’). Prior to this there were many spacestations orbiting Earth, but these were for scientists and researchers. Primus was purely a spacestation for people to live in, as a normal day-to-day existence, which was ground-breaking at the time. This spacestation featured space for 100 people and an artificial gravity system. It is still in operation today.

  Back on Earth, worldwide legislation made it a disadvantage for families to have more than one child, to tackle the population explosion problem, which was enforced across the globe as it became increasingly normal for the people of Earth to rule more as one entity, rather than multiple populations to have separate laws defined by their separate countries. This proved successful, as the growth rate of the entire population of humans slowed to just 1% per year at the beginning of the 22nd century.

  There was massive growth at the start of the new century in artificial spacestations, and by the third decade of the 21st century the first of what are now known as a ‘Type 5’ spacestation was built, the Isaac Newton, which still orbits Earth at the present day. At the time of its inception, it was the biggest ever spacestation ever created, and indeed this spacestation is still being constantly extended, now over 15 kilometres long, and having a total population of over a million people. It remains the biggest spacestation in existence at the present day.

  By the middle of the 22nd century, spaceship technology progressed at an incredible rate, with the record set of a speed of 1 million miles per hour for a remotely controlled craft, and onwards to 2170, the most complex engineering project the world has ever witnessed saw the successful completion of the terraforming project on Mars, with the planet being made officially safe for humans to inhabit. The first humans arrived to live there on December 12th, 2167. At around the same time, the Moon became habitable, with the system of the secure ‘domes’ being employed. It had been decided that a terraforming project used on Mars would not work on the Moon, so domes were created instead, where the population would be protected from the harsh lunar environment from an immensely strong artificial covering over the population areas.

  Progress continued into personal spaceships, and by the end of the 22nd century craft were generally large ‘buses’ which would transport people to and from the Moon and Mars from Earth, as the human population began arguably the most exciting chapter in its history. People could feasibly live entirely on another object other than Earth, and indeed some people living on Mars and the Moon are known to have never visited Earth, where all known life first evolved. Personal spaceships for individuals, however, would take another half a century to become a reality - if people had ‘private spaceships’, it would generally mean they would own a large craft which meant this option was only open to the richest people in the world, or would be owned by large corporations. The big breakthrough in spaceship technology came with the installation of solar and nuclear powerplants into them to produce the raw fuel for the engine, so effectively the ships worked by making fuel 'on the fly' rather than a solid fuel system which had been the norm up to then.

  Healthcare progressed in leaps and bounds, with what were considered very complex operations now routine, in particular cosmetic surgery proved increasingly popular, with people going for operations to make them look a lot younger than they actually were. In some bizarre lawsuits, some people actually sued their spouses when they finally discovered they were marrying someone who was actually 100 years older than they claimed to be, usually by employing private detectives, which initiated all sorts of legislation to ensure people could find out easier how old someone really was, as there was no way of knowing by looking at them. In particular, brain transplants proved increasingly popular, where people could have their brain placed in a ‘shell body’, an entirely artificially created human body, grown in laboratories. This made transfers possible, for example, so people could be ‘transplanted’ inside a much younger body, or for someone born as a male to be placed into a female body. Entire ethic law was hastily modified to keep up with these astonishing scientific developments, as these possibilities threw up all sorts of legal problems for people. As a result of these breakthroughs, certain medical professionals turned into some of the wealthiest people in the world. At the end of the 22nd century, one of the greatest medical discoveries was made by Shenna Avant, when she found a cure for the common cold, thereby eradicating the oldest medical condition known to man.

  At the turn of the century, with more and more people living in space, a universal currency was introduced, the ‘credit’ which came into being on the very first day of 2200. This coincided with the Earth population feeling as if it was becoming closer, with the people seeing themselves more as people living on Earth, rather than being ‘American’, ‘British’ or ‘Belgian’; they increasingly considered themselves to be one people, although of course their local identity stayed.

  On September 7th, 2232, the official swearing in process of the central government was undertaken on Earth, which recognised that the human population was now spread over the solar system, and that it would be better for them to have a central power base, to govern all humans.

  By the middle of the century, humans could now expect to live over 200 years old, and increasing research was undertaken on personal spaceship travel. On May 1st 2250 a company called Galaxis introduced the first ever ‘production line’ personal spaceship for an individual, the Solar Explorer, and the government introduced new laws for the public to travel in these ships, and a new ‘public highway’ was set up in space. Other companies quickly followed suit, and the spaceship industry was born. It now became possible for a person to be able to travel between Earth and the Moon as a normal daily commute.

  With private spaceships becoming popular, it was inevitable that people would start to take an interest in how fast they could travel, resulting in individuals tuning up their own spaceships, boosting their power to huge levels, sometimes resulting in catastrophic consequences. From this amateur ‘sport’, a racing series was born, Formula X, which very quickly gained huge popularity, as an official body, the Galactic Motorsports Council was founded. A yearly championship was organised, comprising of teams racing over set routes over the course of the year. Another motorsport event, the Solar Marathon, was held in 2284, where teams of spaceships flew to Neptune and back, for a total distance of over 6 billion miles. The event now takes place every four years, having quickly gained almost mythical status as the most physically challenging event for man and machine. In its history, many pilots and crewmen have lost their lives in their pursuit of racing glory, despite many advancements in technology to make the sports safer. Spaceship racing, in Formula X or the Solar Marathon guise, remain the most dangerous activities undertaken by people in the 23rd century.

  In other sports, with populations now living on the Moon and Mars, their unique atmosphere made the population invent new pastimes, with hoverball proving popular on Mars and the Moon, due to their low gravity atmosphere. On Earth, football is still the most popular sport, with a history now spanning over four hundred years.

  And so on to the present day, as a new century approaches… who knows what it might bring?!

  Government

  With a total population across the solar system of in excess of 40 billion people, the job of governing the entire human race is huge and complex. Employing tens of thousands of employees, across multiple departments and areas, the mechanism of government is very large and complicated. As a basic guide, the government is organised as follows:

  Supreme Governor – The highest office of all is of Supreme Governor, currently held by Phillipe Steinway, a Frenchman who came to power in 2297. He holds the balance of power within parliament for all humans.

  Vice-governors – the Earth, Moon and Mars all have their separate leaders, who report directly to the Supreme Governor. The Vice-Governor of the various celestial objects is directly responsible for all government of those areas, including their orbiting spacestations and sp
aceships. Current holders of these posts are Johnathan Bybring (Earth), Obdier Shandon (Moon) and Blue Rayfish (Mars). It is normal for these post holders to have been born on their respective celestial object that they control.

  Government departments – There are ten separate departments of office which are: finance, education, security, transport, social security, health, leisure, environment, population and power. Each celestial object has a minister responsible for each department.

  The ministers are elected every five years in a fixed length parliament to the relevant posts. Every member of the adult population has the right to vote, but can only vote for one celestial object parliament; so for example if someone travels a lot and lives in various areas of the solar system, they must still declare a ‘home’ area, which is the parliament he/she will vote for.