The year was 2097, a year that many would prefer to forget as it was the year when the most chaotic and destructive war known to man came to its climax. Both sides of the war suffered devastating losses and the world was left barren. Only a select few places remained such as the breathtaking Amazon but, even in spite of these places, mankind’s hope for survival seemed slim and bleak unless drastic changes took place.
Humanity, standing on its seemingly helpless last legs, decided to cease all conflicts and try and settle the matter at hand.
Every country poured all their remaining resources into finding a way to make humanity strive once again and this lasted for 100 years.
The world seemed to be at peace once again as many creative ideas surfaced in order to retain peace, however, this peace would be short lived.
As a century flew by, countries waged war again but this time it was far more lethal because it was chemical warfare. The war raged on for 20 years and, by the time it was over, a mere 5 percent of the population was left standing. Even the planet’s most resilient places couldn’t survive the impact of the war and the survivors were forced to find underground shelter, which was a place called Last Hope.
The name sounded cliché if you may but it was without a doubt the last place on Earth where living was somewhat possible because if anyone tried going outside, even for just a few seconds, they would find themselves experiencing a death that you wouldn’t wish upon the worst of your enemies.
It was year 2317 and the leaders of the Last Hope were 3 old men and a young woman with a pale face. The woman was resilient, intelligent and was capable of identifying the entirety of your character in a single glance.
Her name was Alicia and she was trying to convince the 3 other men for an audience with a guy called Hektor, a guy whose face would remind you of Wolverine but his body said something else entirely.
“Grand Elderly Trio, all I’m asking is you give me and Hektor a chance to speak to you about our proposition” Alicia questioned hopefully.
The Trio looked at each other and one of them, the one with the small but seemingly overweight physique, stated, “Well, Alicia if you have something to say it is best to say it now before we go and start breakfast”
The trio started laughing after this and Alicia, who seemed somewhat annoyed by the shenanigans, puckered her lips and went out of the room to get Hektor.
Hektor entered the room and, while his face displayed a great deal of elegance, his body couldn’t keep up.
The trio looked at Hektor and said, “So Hektor, what do you have that’s so important that you would decide to disrupt breakfast to show it” the oldest of the Trio said, clearly annoyed by the entire façade.
The bald one, not hesitating to hide his clear discomfort, also made a somewhat rude remark as, “Hektor, if what you show us makes me and the other Grand Elders sleepy and bored you might need to do a dance for us to entertain us while we do breakfast”.
“Grand Elderly Trio of The last hope it is not that I want to keep you from your breakfast it is just that time is of the essence and I am sure after this you will never have to worry about missing a meal ever again and can very well be better off than you are now” Hektor said with a huge grin.
The Trio looked at Hektor as he was some sort of madman spouting nonsense and being expected to be praised for his hollow and meaningless words.
The second of the trio the bald one, now showing more intrigue than before, asked in a rather sarcastic tone, “So Hektor, you’re implying that you’re about to show us something so good that it’ll redefine what we consider a quality life nowadays?”.
Hektor, unbothered by all the sarcasm, glared at Alicia.
“Gentlemen, enough with your taunts and let us get down to business. We shall now begin the presentation of what I refer to as ‘The Reboot’ “.
Hektor had everything ready and gave the assistant the thumps up to start the presentation.
“Ladies and gentlemen, today I shall show you the true Last Hope for humanity!” Hektor Said.
The lights in the room turned off and everyone was staring at the screen that Hektor’s assistant hastily prepared.
At first, the screen was nothing but pure white but this eventually faded into a view of space. Suddenly, a planet that seemed familiar came into view. Upon this planet’s arrival, Hektor started talking with a newfound confidence.
“This is the World of Terra, a world somewhat similar to earth and also very different in a lot of ways and, no, this is not another world in another solar system nor is it an artificial planet, it is in fact a world that was made with the Gaia Program that is wired to the Terra Reactor of our very own Last Hope!”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Wait! The trio all barked.
“What is this nonsense about it being wired to the Terra Reactor?!”
Upon hearing this, Hektor paused the video and looked at the trio with a stern expression and said.
“It is as I said it is indeed wired to the Terra Reactor and it was done by me and Alicia without your consent but, regardless of what your decision is today, you cannot remove the Gaia Program as it is the very same program that manages and runs the entire underground framework”.
The Trio, infuriating by this act, wanted to call the guards to arrest Hektor but, before they could give out the order, Alicia was able to stop them with a few eloquent words.
As the Trio raged on, Alicia said in a calm but stern tone, “Gentlemen, it is true we did this without you knowing about it but rest assured it was done with intention of helping preserve our way of life and humanity itself from extinction so please listen and watch the video until the end and then what ever decision you make it up to you but mind you that this is perhaps the only way for us to actually continue living well that is if you consider what we have now a real way of living”.
The Trio fell silent after these and all looked at Hektor and waved their hands at him opting him to continue with the presentation.
The video started to play again and now it was showing the scenery inside the world and its lush green forests and crystal blue oceans and animals that ran about everywhere, it was a scene not even the Trio have seen personally for as the world on the outside has been desolate for such a long time that what they were seeing now caused all of them go all teary eyed with sadness of how things have turned out for their beloved Mother Earth.
The scene now changed to a large city full of houses and a huge castle in the middle that looked like a giant lying down with arms crossed and, where the head should be located, was a tall tower with a single gigantic diamond at the tip which was as bright as the sun and was something that might actually be mistaken for the actual sun if you weren’t paying attention
This scene was indeed majestic but there was still something off about it. The Trio squinted their eyes in order to figure out the oddity but to no success.
“This is the World of Terra and this is Lands of Beginnings and it is a wonderful place but it is also uninhabited so you might as well refer it to a ghost town of sorts.”
The entire scene faded into a pitch black darkness but, after a while, light erupted once more as a bed now showed and, in this bed, lied a young man who laid their in a seemingly peaceful slumber.
Then Hektor showed up in the video and started to explain what was happening.
This is a Crypto Bed Prototype and with this we can preserve a human for as long as the Terra Reactor is working and it is designed to keep the body frozen and under zero gravity as to not risk the body deteriorating and then comes the tricky part, which is how to keep the brain alive or so to say and this is where the Gaia System comes to play as it will take the humans consciousness and have it directly enter the World of Terra and live its life there as a citizen of The Land of Beginnings and some of you might wonder what would happen with ones memories and what would happen if the person in the world dies?
Well for one the identities of the first generation is already set and everyone in our register is accounted for and although everything is indeed set that is only for the actual start after that it will be up to each individual how things play out and if you ask what happens if there is somebody born in the world then it is simple, this world has a set number of inhabitants and when there is life there is death but that doesn’t mean this will always be the case for as we will be leaving people behind to act as World Moderators to maintain things on the outside and they along with their offspring are given the chance to also enter the world as long as there are people left to manage things and everything is with a failsafe so things won’t go wrong and although they are indeed called world moderators they cannot actually influence the world and are only assigned to keep things stable on the outside and maintain everything as best they can until the day..
Hektor paused and said.
“The day we can once again step foot outside our beloved Mother Earth!”
Hektor gestured to the assistant to cut the feed and spoke.
“Grand Elderly Trio!, I know you have your doubts as to what it is we are intending to do and might very well be against this because of the idea of losing yourself to this world but there is always an exemption to the rule and it is this”.
Hektor asked the assistant to leave and looked at Alicia so she can explain the details.
“The world we are creating needs to be governed and maintained to be sure our race survives this and it is also crucial that we of the Chosen Circle do our utmost to teach and make sure the people of that world learn to live and cherish nature so we do not have another repetition of what has happened to our beloved Earth so you and a few others such as Hektor and myself will oversee The world of Terra and make it so everyone is kept in line and make it so that each person that is inside will have a close tie to nature and make it so that when the time comes for us to come back to our beloved Earth we shall be very different from the Humans of the past and look after it with care, we have a rough estimate of how long it will take for our world to once again be inhabitable but as you know the world of Terra works differently when it comes to the perception of time so 100 years in there is 1000 years here on the outside and we of the Chosen Circle will remain as ourselves and be sure to be there when the time comes for humanity to once again walk the Earth”.
The Grand Elderly Trio, after what felt like an eternity of silence, spoke out.
“Alicia, if what you say is true and it will give our race a chance at another life then we are all for it but why are you so confident that the people will actually desire to return to Earth after all the chaos and turmoil the planet went through?”
Alicia smiled and said, “Ever hear the weird saying wanting to find ones root or simply being homesick of the feeling of wanting to go home, well humans no matter where they are will always think of home and thus the people who will be in the world of Terra will all have lived many different lives but will once regain the memories of this life when the time comes.”
The Grand Elderly Trio all smiled and asked when the process would start.
Alicia looked to Hektor and he said this.
“The preparation has actually been underway for quite some time and the Crypto Bed is close to completion. It’ll be around ten years before we can ask the people to join us on this quest”.
The eldest of the Trio stood up with actual hope in his eyes after such a long time and said, “If this is what is needed then I advise you to make haste as we cannot delay the chance to give humanity a prosperous and tranquil life once again”!.
Hektor smiled at these words and said out loud.
“Humanity will now embark on a journey to attain a fresh start!”