Mitheral
"Growf!"
It had been just over ten years since civilization had finally succumbed to the stupidity of Man. In a state of what had to have been sheer madness - an unwillingness to let either side of the conflict win out, the superpowers of the Earth had unleashed nuclear Armageddon.
Dr Duncan Moran had seen the end coming. Hell, lots of people had. But at least there had been something he could DO about it. He had spent years working for the US government on defensive systems. But he had never allowed his best work to fall into their hands. And he couldn’t save an entire world from itself. So he had concentrated on saving a small minority.
One of his secret projects had been the construction of a penal colony on the Moon. It had been far from complete in 2028. But he had been stockpiling supplies, building not one, but two Doomsday Vaults, filled with seeds, and ovum to restart civilization. He had collected the sum of human knowledge and duplicated it as best he was able. He hadn’t been entirely alone in the task. Alone he simply hadn’t had the wealth or time.
He had already built his first starship. But it would never have been able to carry enough humans to the stars. It took 10 years to complete the Lunar Colony enough to awake the 7500 people who remained behind to continue the work. It took those years to build the USS Athena, the mothership that would carry the Human Archive to a distant planet named Avalon.
The propulsion was simply not powerful enough to propel a massive superstructure like a generation ship beyond perhaps 10% speed of light with any degree of safety. But he was able to warp the ship even at those speeds to effectively travel at a bit over 110 times the speed of light objectively, reducing a 1400 LY trip to just over 12.7 years.
Duncan decided to join the interstellar mission as a regular passenger, not telling the survivors of their true mission. It was his plan to give them time to deal with the fate of the Earth.
++++++++++++++++
Awakening
June 21, 2038 Monday
Duncan, Diane and Trinity waited in their respective rooms for cryosleep chambers to start the automated process of awakening their occupants. Trinity’s task was to respond immediately in the event of a malfunction. But the tubes had functioned beautifully. One of the advantages of a cryosemifluid rather than a pure liquid, had been to reduce long term effects of suspension.
It wasn’t long before people were being given instructions of where to gather for their first briefing. Duncan monitored everyone’s movements and medical statistics. So far, so good. There were people upset. Noone knew who was in charge. For the moment, the bunker was in charge, issuing pre-recorded instructions to follow lit strips to a briefing room where everyone would be briefed at once.
About 500 people ended up crowded into a theater large enough to seat three times as many at least. Once everyone was seated the screen lit up and a woman’s face appeared.
“Greetings. I am Dr Isabelle Miller. If you are watching this then the Earth as you knew is no more. Nuclear War has rendered survival on our world untenable. That said, it will be a minimum of another 12.7 years before you will be able to leave your survival habitat. There were 500 slots available, plus a few for critical skills. You will find that I am not among you. Simply put, I was too old.
“We put considerable effort into making it possible for you to survive and even have families. In fact, this will be a necessity as by the time you are able to leave your habitat, childbearing will become riskier.
“According to sources assuming a 50/50 mix of the sexes:
At 500 individuals
Couples could remain monogamous but mating pairs must be approved by a genetics board to ensure genetic diversity and limit in-breeding.
At 50 individuals
Each individual must have as many babies with different partners as possible over their lifetime. A genetics board must approve all matings. Couples may pair, but each couple could only conceive one child. Individuals that had paired would still have to mate outside their relationship until the size of the population grew larger and more diverse (probably not possible for several generations).
“We have left the decision on this matter up to you. Most of you were single. That was a basis for many of your selections. But unless you want your pairings determined by a medical board, you will need to be flexible in your choices of partners. You will enter a whole new world when you leave your habitat.
“You will find that you have all been assigned rooms. You can always move around. Assignments were only made as a matter of convenience as we realized you would all still be coping. In each room there is a terminal. You will find your job assignments. These too may be changed.
“You will be the ones who choose how you are governed. There are Security Personnel already assigned. (LOL, no weapons though.) Most job assignments are simply survival based. You should create your own activities. You will find the facilities vast. You will find numerous briefings. I left some for the women to view about health matters for women. We did our best to store the sum total of human knowledge and entertainment in your archives. There are online courses, entertainment centers, gymnasiums, ATV courses and ATV’s, parks, and so much more.
“I wish you all the best.” The screen went dark. The overhead lighting brightened.
++++++++++
“Luckiest guy ever. Good luck, bad luck. I have it all. So … what now? The ATV’s sounded like fun.” Duncan did not sound like he wanted to look at his job assignment.
Trinity spoke up. “We could have a party.”
“Party?!” Diane asked, a little shocked.
Trinity nodded. “A wake - for those who didn’t make it.”
Duncan nodded. “Not a bad idea. Of course, I doubt there is any alcohol. And I doubt beer making was considered a mission critical skill.” The other two laughed a little. “But it is still not a bad idea. Maybe not right this instant. It’s a little too soon. But yeah.”
A slavic accented woman’s voice piped up. “I think it is great idea. So when do we start all this procreatin’?” The woman looked like Paige Hathaway as a brunette, but 6’5” tall. She looked like She Hulk - minus the green skin. With her muscled relaxed she looked soft and demure, hard not to stare at. But every now and then a muscle would flex. “Katsya Vorovna.” She reached over and pinched Duncan’s butt. “Good muscle tone there.” Duncan turned beet red. “But you might want to do something about that blood pressure.” Katsya didn’t stick around. She was already dealing with loss and not wasting any time on it.
Satanic Nightjar
,
Noam
Dr Duncan Moran had seen the end coming. Hell, lots of people had. But at least there had been something he could DO about it. He had spent years working for the US government on defensive systems. But he had never allowed his best work to fall into their hands. And he couldn’t save an entire world from itself. So he had concentrated on saving a small minority.
One of his secret projects had been the construction of a penal colony on the Moon. It had been far from complete in 2028. But he had been stockpiling supplies, building not one, but two Doomsday Vaults, filled with seeds, and ovum to restart civilization. He had collected the sum of human knowledge and duplicated it as best he was able. He hadn’t been entirely alone in the task. Alone he simply hadn’t had the wealth or time.
He had already built his first starship. But it would never have been able to carry enough humans to the stars. It took 10 years to complete the Lunar Colony enough to awake the 7500 people who remained behind to continue the work. It took those years to build the USS Athena, the mothership that would carry the Human Archive to a distant planet named Avalon.
The propulsion was simply not powerful enough to propel a massive superstructure like a generation ship beyond perhaps 10% speed of light with any degree of safety. But he was able to warp the ship even at those speeds to effectively travel at a bit over 110 times the speed of light objectively, reducing a 1400 LY trip to just over 12.7 years.
Duncan decided to join the interstellar mission as a regular passenger, not telling the survivors of their true mission. It was his plan to give them time to deal with the fate of the Earth.
++++++++++++++++
Awakening
June 21, 2038 Monday
Duncan, Diane and Trinity waited in their respective rooms for cryosleep chambers to start the automated process of awakening their occupants. Trinity’s task was to respond immediately in the event of a malfunction. But the tubes had functioned beautifully. One of the advantages of a cryosemifluid rather than a pure liquid, had been to reduce long term effects of suspension.
It wasn’t long before people were being given instructions of where to gather for their first briefing. Duncan monitored everyone’s movements and medical statistics. So far, so good. There were people upset. Noone knew who was in charge. For the moment, the bunker was in charge, issuing pre-recorded instructions to follow lit strips to a briefing room where everyone would be briefed at once.
About 500 people ended up crowded into a theater large enough to seat three times as many at least. Once everyone was seated the screen lit up and a woman’s face appeared.
“Greetings. I am Dr Isabelle Miller. If you are watching this then the Earth as you knew is no more. Nuclear War has rendered survival on our world untenable. That said, it will be a minimum of another 12.7 years before you will be able to leave your survival habitat. There were 500 slots available, plus a few for critical skills. You will find that I am not among you. Simply put, I was too old.
“We put considerable effort into making it possible for you to survive and even have families. In fact, this will be a necessity as by the time you are able to leave your habitat, childbearing will become riskier.
“According to sources assuming a 50/50 mix of the sexes:
At 500 individuals
Couples could remain monogamous but mating pairs must be approved by a genetics board to ensure genetic diversity and limit in-breeding.
At 50 individuals
Each individual must have as many babies with different partners as possible over their lifetime. A genetics board must approve all matings. Couples may pair, but each couple could only conceive one child. Individuals that had paired would still have to mate outside their relationship until the size of the population grew larger and more diverse (probably not possible for several generations).
“We have left the decision on this matter up to you. Most of you were single. That was a basis for many of your selections. But unless you want your pairings determined by a medical board, you will need to be flexible in your choices of partners. You will enter a whole new world when you leave your habitat.
“You will find that you have all been assigned rooms. You can always move around. Assignments were only made as a matter of convenience as we realized you would all still be coping. In each room there is a terminal. You will find your job assignments. These too may be changed.
“You will be the ones who choose how you are governed. There are Security Personnel already assigned. (LOL, no weapons though.) Most job assignments are simply survival based. You should create your own activities. You will find the facilities vast. You will find numerous briefings. I left some for the women to view about health matters for women. We did our best to store the sum total of human knowledge and entertainment in your archives. There are online courses, entertainment centers, gymnasiums, ATV courses and ATV’s, parks, and so much more.
“I wish you all the best.” The screen went dark. The overhead lighting brightened.
++++++++++
“Luckiest guy ever. Good luck, bad luck. I have it all. So … what now? The ATV’s sounded like fun.” Duncan did not sound like he wanted to look at his job assignment.
Trinity spoke up. “We could have a party.”
“Party?!” Diane asked, a little shocked.
Trinity nodded. “A wake - for those who didn’t make it.”
Duncan nodded. “Not a bad idea. Of course, I doubt there is any alcohol. And I doubt beer making was considered a mission critical skill.” The other two laughed a little. “But it is still not a bad idea. Maybe not right this instant. It’s a little too soon. But yeah.”
A slavic accented woman’s voice piped up. “I think it is great idea. So when do we start all this procreatin’?” The woman looked like Paige Hathaway as a brunette, but 6’5” tall. She looked like She Hulk - minus the green skin. With her muscled relaxed she looked soft and demure, hard not to stare at. But every now and then a muscle would flex. “Katsya Vorovna.” She reached over and pinched Duncan’s butt. “Good muscle tone there.” Duncan turned beet red. “But you might want to do something about that blood pressure.” Katsya didn’t stick around. She was already dealing with loss and not wasting any time on it.
Satanic Nightjar
,
Noam
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