The truth of panic is that most people don’t run for their lives, they walk. Or, more accurately, they shuffle quickly toward the goal. They know that the world around them is about to change drastically, and yet they move as quick as a grandma getting her heart rate up with a power walk. You can’t blame them, there wasn’t a spewing volcano threatening them for the last hour. Poseidon’s wrath was not opening his jaw to consume the world in a tidal wave. The earth was not shivering earthquakes, nor were the heavens weeping acidic tears. No, the world was ending at the end of a gun.
Humanity had no role and did not commit suicide. Instead, a giant laser beam from galaxies away was focused, accidentally, on earth.
Alien wars have always been messy affairs, which worlds being constant collateral damage. Often, this isn’t given much consideration, as life forms on so few planets. Intelligent life on an extreme minority of those.
As Josh shuffled his way to from the hostile to the designated zone, he wondered about that intelligence. Most of the smart people should have already left by now. It was probably foolish to wait so long. Human scientists had confirmed the alien business interest was correct. Earth would be destroyed. They differed on time, but not on result. Josh nodded to a small family packing up a picnic lunch on their way to the portal. He suspected that the family was trying to inject some form of normalcy for their children.
Others in the crowds, looked to be staying. Perhaps they were waiting for a day or two more, getting the absolute last moments of earth possible. Josh couldn’t blame them, he had spent the week enjoying as many earthly pleasures as possible. The world was half empty by this time, which made a lot of services tricky.
Airlines had been shutdown, though small pilots were still shuttling people non-stop. That didn’t bug Josh, as he was within walking distance of a portal. A lot of humanity had naturally clumped towards the portals, just in case a last-minute run had to be done.
As Josh watched two cars crash in a fender bender ahead of him, he shook his head. Those cars would never be fixed, ever. The world was ending, and that meant insurance companies as well.
Josh started pondering about the alien company. If they were a business, was there also alien insurance out there? How big would they build policies? Could you insure a world? Or does a giant laser wiping out your home plant count as a pre-existing condition.
Josh continued to walk to the large building in the center of town. Originally, he had planned to spend every last minute he could. But his curiosity for the unknown finally outweighted his wonderlust for this area. True, he could rent a bike and go as far as his heart wanted. That would be, at most 50-100 miles, which when you compared that to light years away, seemed extremely close.
Every morning, for the last week, felt like a slow morning panic. The afternoon always calmed down and laughter could be heard on the streets after sunset. No one much cared about outdoor night drinking, after all, the world was ending.
This morning, Josh knew he wouldn’t see the night’s party. This morning, he was going to take the biggest leap of his life. He was going to sign the alien contract and get off the planet.
The line outside the black round ship was calm. People smiled and talked about rumors they had heard. Everyone knew somone’s uncle who had come back from the portal, and told them what it was like. The problem was that no one seemed to have a direct relative who returned. Josh recognized these rumors for what they truly were, nerves.
“They heard it was like an jungle with giant insects and all the aliens were blue.” a woman in front of Josh said. The man next to her shook his head, “No, no, no. It’s a sky based society. It’s the only logical conclusion.” Josh heard the woman argue, as the line slowly moved forward.
Josh looked back at where he was standing just a few minutes ago. He looked at that spot on the ground. He would never stand in that spot again. He felt like he was being ejected out of the planet, in slow motion.
Every once in a while, a person left the ship. They were the ones who heard the contract and decided to leave. Perhaps they would come back again tomorrow? Josh wondered.
The woman and the man disappeared into the office inside the alien ship. Josh looked around their shoulders to see what the alien really looked like. Sure, pictures of them had been shown on nearly every major news channel non-stop for weeks. Still, a part of him doubted all of this. He saw the pure white blob with a black swirling around before the door closed. The blobs inside the black resembled a smiling face.
Josh sucked in a breath as the door opened seconds after it had closed. Josh looked around for the man and woman, but didn’t seem them. The white blob creature standing on the other side of the desk looked at him smiling.
Josh thought it must have been a magic trick at first, but realized that it was like the news had related: time delation. Who knew how long the young couple had been in the office?
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Josh walked into the office and kept his eyes on the corner. Like a dresser, tucked away in a room, forgotten until needed, was an inter-dimensional portal system. It shimmered blue and silver on the surface, as if it were two liquids that didn’t mix. Josh kept watching the portal, until he heard a voice come out in front of him.
“Hello there human. Would you like to have a seat please?”
Josh looked at the white blob. The voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere. Josh turned toward the desk and saw a speaker sitting there. He also looked around the room and saw other low tech speakers, plugged into the walls. It was such a stark contrast, the cheap speakers mixed with technology that was literally out of this world.
“I am sorry, I haven’t been here before. This is my first time.” Josh responded to th white blob as he sat down.
“Understandable. 87.43% of all humans that entered my office within a light rotation have been stunned by the portal.” The white blob grew out toward the portal, as if it was an arm guestering.The blob reformed into one chunk in the room and continued.
“I assume your information sources have kept you clarified on the upcoming fate of this mineral planet?”
Josh nodded.
“That is a satisfactory requirement met. Have they informed you of our role and requirements?” The black in the white blob moved from the outline of a face, insto a question mark.
“I think so. They are saying you are offering a contract in exchange for passage?” Josh replied.
“Again, satisfactory. Yes, in exchange for a gold coin debt, we will allow this.” The black liquid in the white blob turned back from a question mark to a smiling face.
Josh froze, a cold chill running down his back. This was the part that didn’t make any sense to him. The planet was doomed, why did aliens care about gold? In addition, the news made it sound like it wasn’t exactly gold that they wanted?
“Can you clarify the gold requirement for me, please?” Josh asked.
“Yes. We look to cover our costs in this business trip. In addition, we not only paid for transportations, but we also bought a training world. This was quite expensive.” The blob’s face turned into money symbols, and the back again.
“I didn’t bring any gold with me.” Josh said truthfully.
“Not a concern, you will earn the gold on the training planet.” The blob pleasantly smiled.
“What if I am not able to earn the money?” Josh asked.
“The contract we have specified has a clause in that case. We write off the expense from our account, including transportation back to earth.” The blob replied.
“Wait, I though the Earth was going to be destroid?” Josh asked.
“Yes, in that case, you would be transported back to where Earth should be. Our calculations run said there is a low liklihood humans will evolve anatomy to survive in space in that time. That will help humans towards the satisfactory result of bolstering our budget sheets.”
“How is this different than slavery?” Josh asked, under his breath a bit louder than he anticipated.
“We will not give you freedom requirements through the portal. Your societal ramifications will be up to you, not us. All we care about is the transfer of coin to pay for expenses.”
“Is that all you want, is money?” Josh asked, looking for a hook in this plate of filet minon.
“Excellent question. Currently only 33.23% of humans today have asked that. The answer is no. Our ultimate goal is to train human society, then hire them.”
“Hire them?” Josh asked.
“Yes, there is a terrible labor shortage out there, though I doubt humanity is concerend about that. Consider this like a re-education or college program. We will help train the skills you need to survive the universe. In exchange, humans will have a preference to work with us, helping us achieve an edge in the market.”
“Ok. ok. I can’t believe I am doing this, but I am ready to sign.” Josh said, “I’ve read a massive amount about this on the internet, and just needed to hear some things straight from you.”
“Logical and admiradble. In order to sign, please step throught portal. Your body will be assimilated into our data banks and brought to the training world.” The blob said.
Josh sucked in a breath and got out of his chair. He walked several steps, when the floor underneath him lurched. The portal flickered several times.
“What’s going on?” Josh asked.
The black in the blob faded out, but a voice came over the speaker, “We’ve lifted off.”
“What?! The laser isn’t going to be here for two more days.” Josh argued with the white swaying blob near the desk.
“Correct, but our calculations were run as if all humanity lined up in order and took turns. We had capacity to save aproximatly 110% of your existing population. However, humanity appears to have rushed more towards the end, causing power to spike. We have very little element 498 to power the portals.”
“What about the other humans? The ones that still haven’t crossed?” Josh asked.
“Not to worry.” The blob replied. “Other ships will remain open until they run low. Humans can enter into portals there.”
“How many ships are left?” Josh asked.
The white blob was silent for awhile. “My apologies, sorry for the delay, this appears to have been the last ship.”
The portal began to flicker again. Josh threw himself through empty air. The portal was off. It then flicked back on for a few seconds, then off again.
“How much of humanity made it?” Josh asked himself as he looked at the portal waiting for the right moment to try jumping again.
The portal flickered on and the white blob replied to his question. “2 billion, which will give you plenty of space to explore on our training planet.”
Josh didn’t want the portal to go out forever, trapping him flying through space with a white blob. He jumped through the portal, and was ripped into his most basic elements. The alien computer took his body calculations, brain synapse simulation, and soul signatures. The components that were Josh were sent through countless light years, on an inter-dimensional communication, toward his new home.