In the end we
In 2037, the people of the Earth knew that the end was near. A massive, unknown comet was detected at the edge of the solar system on a deadly, unwavering path. In less than three years, it would collide with our moon and completely destroy it. As it made its way toward our orbiting partner, scientists admitted that they had no means of stopping it. Any one of which would rain down on the Earth and do as much damage as the complete astral body would do, once it impacted with the moon. The planet would soon cease to be. The Earth had always resided at the very nexus of carbon based life. If our planet was any closer to the sun, it would have made biological life impossible. Once the moon was pulverized, the Earth would become unbalanced and wobble off its invisible gravitational track, falling into an unsurvivable orbit. Earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanos would kill out most living things immediately. All life would perish shortly thereafter in the void of space. With seven months left before impact, a large-scale, evacuation plan was set into motion by scientists and world leaders. The overwhelming majority of people on Earth were going to die. There was no means of saving eight billion people. Every man, woman and child knew the reality. Their mission was to go forth and establish a permanent settlement on a substitued world. That host world was decided to be Jupiter. Or more specifically, it was one of its main moons. With a thin atmosphere of Oxygen and evidence of liquid water beneath the surface, it was earmarked by experts as the best hope for life to continue on. Massive tidal flexing and gravitational pull from Jupiter was theorized to cause the saline ocean to remain liquified. This in turn, caused a slightly warmer surface temperature than any of Jupiter’s other five large moons. That is not to say that Europa was ‘hospitable’ by any stretch of the imagination. It was just slightly less deadly than other potential destinations that we could reach. The journey to the middle of the solar system would take more than a dozen years. Humanity’s long term survival outlook was admittedly low but we were its last hope. It was also necessary for all living things to enter a deep hibernation-like stasis. All living quarters were flooded with a specialized gas to slow down our metabolisms to near death. Much like the tenacious weed, we were floating on thermal winds to spread our seeds in a distant world. About two months into our forced pilgrimage, the computer alone witnessed the complete annihilation of Earth. Transmitters and orbiting satellites communicating with ‘The Dandelion’ documented the final moments of the moon and then, the birthplace of all known life; After that, there was only the cold, dead silence of space. We were the last remaining life in the known universe. Once we reached our new home, the plan was to send automated tunneling machines into the ice to drill ourselves a path to the liquified sea. ‘The Dandelion’ was going to serve as our undersea living quarters. Eventually, we were able to establish a living colony in the frigid, alien world. We set up an algae farm and converted the surrounding seawater into breathable oxygen and drinking water. The artificial heat and UV lights in our greenhouse provided necessary photosynthesis elements to sustain our working garden. Our surviving livestock fed on the greenery that we produced; and so our undersea farm was a working food chain. Life begins and ends at the microbial level. Once settled, we also used the digging machines to bore tunnels into the ocean floor. After pumping out the seawater, we established farming caverns and living quarters. Our extensive seed library was put to better use growing vegetables in the fertilized Europaen soil. It allowed for the possibility of longer-term survival for the colony, as a whole. Over time we adapted our nuclear reactors to produce artificial lighting and heat in the caverns. It has been a monumental struggle to tame the savage elements but we have overcome these tremendous odds. I wonder how many of our little ones have no experience with any other way of life. Other that in video or photos, they will sadly never known the rich blue planet of their origin. As the chosen leader of this colony, I was tasked with the tremendous burden and responsibility of keeping humanity alive for the past forty-five years. Through it all, however, the human race continues to fight back and thrive. We rise up against the deadly challenges that would seek to defeat us. We utilize our extensive database of the world’s collective knowledge, to educate ourselves and our children we govern ourselves with a sense of heightened fairness and peaceful resolve. It is my hope that future generations will continue to do so and Europa is our home. In the end, we are still here
