Letter from the Future
Dear past,
I am sending this letter back in time. I shall spare the details of time travel, just let it be known that small inanimate objects can be sent through time. The past, however, cannot be changed; every time-jump is just a loop of sorts. Because of that, this message is somewhat in vain. There is nothing you can do to change the future. I guess I am writing this because I want somebody to know what happened to Earth, it makes me feel less lonely.
~~~
I am one of the last people left standing on Earth. The Blue planet, as it has been fondly called, will be destroyed in just two short years. The Council of Solaris 1 has decided that Earth is more trouble than it is worth.
Oh where did it go wrong? Earth was at an almost complete world peace in the year 2030. We had solved several of the greatest problems. At the top of the list were creating safe nuclear power, and permanently stopping terrorism. Oh of course our Utopia wasn't completely perfect, and some people grumbled. But our greatest thinkers put into action a good format for a Utopian world, and earth was at peace.
I think the problems started anew when we decided to pursue space colonies. The idea itself wasn't a problem, but Dr. Stephen Johnson, the man who spearheaded the effort, decided to promote utter independence from earth. Almost nobody agreed with him to begin with. But after our solar system was completely settled and we started looking at inter-solar travel, the idea grew in popularity.
In the year 2100, when the Pluto fleet, Star Hopper, set out for Proxima Centauri, a council convened between Earth and Mars. It was decided that Earth would no longer hold sway over other planets. Our solar system would be ruled planet to planet.
Many people who had stayed on Earth were somewhat upset. I think they must have been jealous as well. Humans were exploring beyond our solar system while Earthlings seemingly sat at home. To make things more complicated, we were expanding beyond just 'race'. We now had an interplanetary discrepancy to face. The Utopian method Earth had employed, to great affect before, started to crumble.
A murmur of war started somewhere on Earth, and soon there was a cry for vengeance. Why exactly, I'm not sure. Earthlings felt left behind.
Mars, the closest planet, felt Earth's hate first. We had out grown atomic bombs at this point. Bombs of that kind were a sort of child's play. Not because their destructive power had gone down, humans simply had got that much meaner. We used Negative Matter. (Technically not truly "negative", it was thus named because of the black hole like destruction it left behind, or rather didn't leave behind.) The greatest atrocity to ever take place in our solar system happened on April 11, 2107. Earth launched two, eight megaton Negative Matter bombs at Mars. The first bomb sucked over half the planet into oblivion. The second one, hitting only seconds after, left just a ring of dust particles, and just like that, an entire planet disappeared. They had no warning, and nobody was confirmed to have escaped.
The other five planets summoned an emergency council. Earth had amassed several space frigates, rigged for war, and was planning on regaining control of her lost subjects. The other planets declared immediate retaliation.
Fourteen years of fighting ensued. Earth did not want to give up, and the other planets did not have the luxury of backing down. If they did, they would be ruled by a tyrant of a planet. At this point several million people fled Earth. Most were turned away, only 2.3 million were recorded as accepted on the planet Venus. The rest were doomed to wandering space. They had deserted their planet, and no others would take them. Another key thing that happened during this period was the creation of the Council of Solaris 1. So named because we had already started a massive colonization of several other solar systems. Most notably among them, Proxima Centauri.
In the year 2121, Earth was beat into submission. All her natural resources had been spent, and water existed only in sparse locations near the poles. Earth was finished. The Council of Solaris 1 sent most of the inhabitants of Earth to prisons spread throughout the solar system. Only four hundred or so people were left on planet Earth.
The year is currently 2125. The Council of Solaris 1 has condemned Earth to the same fate as Mars. I will be leaving Earth for the final time in just a few days.
Earth's fate is a sad one, but I think it is a just one. Humans are spread out over fourteen solar systems in all now, and we have yet to find any other life. We have grown much bigger and farther then most people ever imagined and yet we are still tiny little blips on the map of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Unfortunately this will be the one and only letter I can send. To put things back in time, you need to place them in the exact physical spot you want them to appear. We will be losing more then just a planet. We will be losing a portal to the past as well.
~Alice Ryans