In 2092, nearly a century after computers began gracing the desks of every household, planet Earth launched four probes. The event was heralded as a chance to find out what was at the four "corners of the universe" and finally determine whether or not we were alone in it. We had travelled out into the depths of our own solar system, but found no one but ourselves to question our superiority. Theorists haggled over ideas that areas found on some of the planets were more than just natural formations, but even Mars had proven less than ideal for providing concrete proof.
Cubase SX free download keygenWe'd developed faster-than-light technology, which some idiot had dubbed "The Space Beyond" and it had stuck. It seemed that once a vehicle got past the speed of light by a certain amount it hit a pocket that it moved through quickly, only hindered by the gravitational pull of the planets nearby. So long as the vehicle didn't get too close to anything with a gravitational pull, it could go as far as you liked with very little fuel. If pulled out of TSP, it would have to fight the gravity, pull itself back up to speed, and keep going. Tests had been done, but the animals sent out into TSP had come back violently crazy. Religious theorists had suggested we'd found Eutopia and that the animals were pissed as hell to have been yanked back out of it. Rumors had it that the Catholic church sent a small ship of priests to disprove the theory, but that the ship had never come back.
So the probes were manned with AI instead. Learning computers, programmed in this case with specific commands. They were to go as far as their primary fuel would allow, then dump everything they'd seen into the return carrier they'd been equipped with, and use the secondary fuel to both self-destruct and launch the carrier back to home. Trajectories around known stars and planets had been calculated, keeping the probes as far away from them when possible and slingshotting them around when it wasn't, to maximize the fuel. Then, in a large, celebratory display, they were launched. It was expected to take a while - maybe even a couple of centuries - before we would even spot the carrier's return. Most of humanity forgot about it, except for the scientists waiting to interpret the data.
They were surprised when it only took 78 years. In 2160, the first carrier returned. Most of the message it held seemed to be gibberish. Some of it seemed to be quotes from passages from great writers long dead, but in bits and pieces. None of it had been text that the AI had been exposed to. In the end, the only real message they could be sure about was the one that repeated over and over in the text.
"They are coming," it said. "They see you now and they are coming."
It wasn't long before the message leaked out. People were scared. Some suggested that the message wasn't menacing in nature, but most didn't believe it. There was no indication of when or from where they were coming. And, not to mention, who the hell "they" even were. The governments put the people at ease, however, assuring them that they were taking all measures. Probes were sent, new space stations were built further out, and advance warning systems were added. An interplanetary military was created to help protect the planets from possible dangers. If "they" were coming, we'd be ready.
Then, two years later, the second carrier returned. One year later, the third and fourth came back almost a month apart.
And they all carried the exact same warning. Different texts flavored the gibberish, one AI seemed to have preferred music lyrics over Shakespeare, for example, but always the same repeated message:
"They are coming. They see you now and they are coming."
Humanity had been warned. And it scared the crap out of them.
Some people dug in, prepping bomb shelters and stocking up on weapons in preparation to defend mother Earth and her sister planets. Others, however, built ships. Huge colony ships that fled the solar system in an attempt to hide from the unknown evils that were coming. Over the next century, more than fifty new colonies reported back as finding homes. More than twice that didn't, however. Some just didn't want to have anyone know where they were, for fear of being found. Others just vanished, some presumed to have gone off into TSB. Humanity tumbled out across the universe like seeds thrown to the wind.
Posted by RaynDragon at October 27, 2007 04:56 PM