CHAPTER 1
The New World of Earth
In all his eighteen years, Michael had never seen somuch activity from the people of Mars.
All that Michael was told was that the Elders would behere soon arrive and that he needed to provide assistance ifneeded. Michael did as he was told, but he was still not surewhy he had been asked to attend or even what the agenda wasfor this mysterious meeting. By far this was not the first formalmeeting that Michael had attended in the Great Stone Chamberafter all he was an assistant to the regional constable, but itwas the first event that someone had asked that he attend.
Michael knew remarkably little about the history of theGreat Stone Chamber, but what mattered was the creaturesthat had plagued his people for so long could not get in to it.Michael did not know who constructed stone chamber or evenhow long the structure had protected his people. Michael didknow it was dank, musky and fairly dim, but it was safe andthat was better than most places.
Michael by far was the youngest member of the regionalconstable's team and had never seen more than four or fiveElders in one place.
No one including the constable had anything to say aboutthe meeting, or at least no one had anything to say to Michael.
Over last few years, Michael had met at least seven oreight Elders, but the only Elder that Michael knew personallywas his grandfather. Michael's grandfather had asked him toattend this meeting. At this point, Michael just wished that heunderstood the importance of this meeting.
In the last two hours, dozens of Elders had shown upbut from what Michael understood it could be hours beforeall the Elders arrived. Every time more people showed up,the villagers would bring more food or water, and Michaelwould help distribute to the ever growing number of people.Although this helped to pass the time, there was not a lot forMichael to do.
* * *
It was now fourteen hours since Michael had opened theGreat Stone Chamber, and there were now at least a hundredand fifty people in the main setting area. Even though, it couldseat several times that many people, it had been many yearssince the Great Stone Chamber had seen so many people.
The part that confused Michael the most was that no onewas asking any questions especially about the purpose of thismeeting. Michael clearly did not understand what was going,but he was far too embarrassing to ask.
Suddenly everyone in the Great Chamber started shiftingaround to take their place around the old wooden table andwooden benches near the center of the chamber. Momentslater a group of five guards began escorting an extremely oldman into the Great Chamber.
As a child, Michael had heard the stories about thelegendary soothsayer Abraham Yates the oldest of the Eldersand the spiritual leader of the people of Mars.
Michael did not share the psychic or second site abilitiesof most of his people, but suddenly he was overwhelmed by afeeling of fear and significance that he did not yet understand.Although Michael was never sure that the great soothsayerwas even a real person; there, he sat at the head of the tablegetting ready to address the other Elders.
Michael was surprised to see how alert the old man acteddespite his age of at least three hundred years.
Everyone in the great chamber seemed to be mesmerizedby the old man who had not even spoken yet.
Abraham Yates began by saying "Everyone in this roomknew this day would come and now we must decide what isto be done".
Michael could see the anxiety and fear on the faces ofeveryone in the Great Stone Chamber. Michael did not fullycomprehend what was going on, but somehow he knew thatthe old man was telling the truth.
After a long, awkward pause, the matriarch at the otherend of the table asked what about the others are we to abandonthem and leave them to the same fate that we have suffered.
Abraham Yates took a deep breath and then replied that thefate of the others was not up to him or this council. AbrahamYates then added "As far as I can see their fate is quitedoubtful at best, but is not yet written in stone".
The old woman mumbled to herself for a few momentsbefore she asked "Have we lost all our humanity".
Everyone stared in silence at the old couple who did nottake their eyes off of each other.
Several minutes pass before the old woman added "We areobligated to warn our brothers and sisters, and to see if we canhelp them".
Abraham replied "I do not see how we can help, but Iagree we are obligated to at least see where they were". Theold man stood up and look around the great chamber as thoughhe was looking for someone he knew. After a few momentsthe old man asked "Would anyone be willing to make this tripto Earth to see if anything could be done for our brothers andsisters".
The Great Stone Chamber was extremely silent as everyonetried to find the courage to say anything but could not.
The old woman stood up and looked around the room, butyet no one had the courage to volunteer or the resolve to sayanything to the old man who stood waiting for someone toanswer.
Michael did not know why he suddenly stood up and askedif he could be the one to go.
The chamber remained painfully silent as everyone startedstaring at Michael while they waited for Abraham to respond.
Abraham looked across the great hall until he found thesingle voice that had the courage to speak. Abraham thenasked Michael "What if anything do you know of the peoplewe call the others", and after a few moments the old manasked "what do you think you can do for them".
Michael responded "Until this moment, I was not evensure that the others really existed". After a few moments,Michael added that his great-grandfather use to tell him storiesabout these people and how they gave up everything to warnus of what was to come, but clearly there was nothing oneperson could do to help them.
As Michael waited for the old man to anything, he thought"I am younger than anyone I know" therefore, I am the mostexpendable". Michael also wanted to see the others for himselfo again he replied "I would like to go if that is OK".
Abraham looked at Michael for almost a minute and thenimmediately expressed "No one was expendable, and I need amoment to think about this". Abraham had foreseen this dayfor a long time, but did not expect Michael to be so young.
The old man looked toward the old woman who onceagain, but if she made any effort to influence Abraham oneway or the other Michael could not tell.
The chamber remained silent as Abraham stared across thetable for several minutes, and then announced "The decisionhad been made". Abraham told Michael "The council agreed,this was his destiny".
* * *
Once everyone had left the great chamber, the old manexplained "There will be many things that you will notunderstand, but that would change in time".
Abraham told Michael "You will need to learn everythingabout these people so that you can teach others". Abrahampaused for a moment, and then added "We need to know suchthings as where they are with their technology and how thesepeople are politically divided".
Abraham came closer to Michael and put his hands onMichael's shoulder. In unassuming voice, Abraham toldMichael "I wished there was more I knew about the others,but I honestly could not even surmised what you might expectto find there".
* * *
Although Michael had prepared for this trip for months,he was not accustom to being on his own and found so manypeople distracting.
It had been many years since anyone from Mars had beento Earth and few people had any advice for Michael.
Michael was given a long list of items that the Elderswanted information about, but as of yet he was still not surewhere to start. Although Michael did not understand the wordtechnology when he agreed to go on this trip, he quicklylearned that almost everything in this strange culture wasbased on circuit boards and signals.
Michael found himself in the center of a relativelydeveloped country where he learned that the people of Earthbelieved that the year was 2025.
Michael found that most countries at this time werefacing bankruptcy or other political problems because of theirdependency on a naturally occurring substance called crudeoil.
The United States and Russia had started sharing theirtechnology to develop a reliable alternative energy source to useinstead of this crude oil. The modest goal for this partnershipwas only to find a way to reduce their fossil fuel consumptionby as little as five percent over the next ten years.
Associations such as the Organization of PetroleumExporting Countries controlled most of the world's supplyof crude oil, and they had no problem manipulating theproduction of this substance to their advantage.
Over the last decade, both the United States and Russiahad doubled their consumption of this fossil fuel, which hadtripled in price because of its short supply.
Although Russia was a leading oil producer two yearsbefore the partnership, most of the world's financial expertshad calculated that Russia only had about five years left beforethey defaulted on their loans.
Russia's failing economy forced the United States in toa partnership that they might not otherwise entered into, butthey did not understand what would become of their nuclearweapons and massive military surplus. This anxiety and fearpartially helped establish the partnership between the twonations.
Although the United States faced a politically dividedcountry at home and enormous financial problems abroad,they still managed to salvage some political and economicpower in which to lead this new partnership.
Michael believed this partnership was probably more outof basic need to survive or desperation rather than peace orgoodwill.
If thoughts of going bankrupt were not enough to drive bothcountries to some alternate source of fuel, it seemed like everysix months or so an oil rig would blow up, or a tanker shipwould sink to the bottom of the ocean causing considerabledamage to the environment. The toxic oil spills would create aneconomy downfall for everyone involved which in turn woulddrive the price of oil up to an all-time high.
The oil rich extremist countries of the world soondiscovered that the emerging markets of the world were farmore profitable than supplying oil to the United States andEurope. Because their profit was relatively unaffected by thispartnership, the oil rich countries did not care what minorimprovement the United States and Russia made in alternativepower sources.
* * *
A few years before Michael arrived this partnership todevelop an alternative energy sources was nothing morethan a better way to make batteries. The partnership quicklydeveloped a process that could produce energy generatingpower cells.
Within just a few short months, these power cells werestarting to demonstrate the potential to become a trulyaffordable renewable source of energy for both the UnitedStates and Russia. Within a few short years, every governmentoffice building and factory in the United States and Russia haddozens of these power cells running everything from smallappliances to computer servers.
These power cells were not cheap to produce, but theywould last for years, which meant in the long run they were farcheaper than oil and there were extremely little environmentalside effects.
The United States and Russia were able to reduce theirconsumption of foreign oil by twenty five percent in justunder three years. China, India and a few other poor countriescontinued to consume oil at a record pace.
* * *
Michael had been on Earth for three years, and by thistime the United States and Russia were once again recoveringeconomically. Together with their allies this partnership wasstarting to see real benefits from this project and other jointventures like this. It was unprecedented how the United Statesand Russia were able to use this new technology to reducetheir consumption of foreign oil.
The oil rich extremist countries of the world used thisreduction in oil consumption as an excuse to decrease theproduction of crude oil, which in turn drove up the price ofoil.
It seemed to Michael the more this partnership workedtogether, the harder the extremist made it for them to benefitfrom their reduced consumption of oil.
To help with this problem, the United States and Russiadeveloped additional cost sharing techniques. These costsharing techniques finally helped them benefit from their jointefforts and gave them a distinct advantage over China and therest of the world.
This partnership and other efforts between the UnitedStates and Russia helped to lead both countries to a recoverythat no one could have predicted.
Michael had done a lot of research on these power cellsand understood the potential of this technology.
This project to engineer power cells initially started withjust a few physicist and researcher working together from theUnited States and Russia with the governments of Canada,Japan and Australia providing small bits of assistance.
The project, as trivial as it originally was quickly sparkedwidespread interest in alternative power production.
* * *
The preliminary cost of these power cells was relativelyhigh, but the result was a component about the size of adesktop computer that could produce enough power to run astandard piece of equipment for years.
The basic concept for theses power cells was a chemicalreaction between a heavy metal and a strong acid that wouldcharge millions of capacitors. The capacitors would then beused to create micro vibrations that could be turned into anelectrical charge.
Although it would take time for a company to recuperatethe cost from this technology, most people were freed up withcrude oil, and they could not buy into this technology fastenough.
The United States and Russia continued to invest in tothis technology which led to better benefits and a strongerrelationship.
Within a few short years, the United States, Russia, Canadaand Japan were using commercially produced power cellswith all kinds of innovations for everything from householdappliances to factory assembly lines.
In less than four years, the partnership had developedseveral prototype power cells that could power a mid-sizeautomobile as well as any commercial combustion engine.
This was more than the extremist countries could handleand they did everything in their ability to stop the commercialproduction of these power cells.
The extremist countries first tried to use each country'slegal system to prevent the production, but when that failedthey tried to get the United Nations to prevent the UnitedStates and Russia from going forward with the production.After this also failed the extremist threaten to halt all shipmentof crude oil to the United States and Russia if sales dropanother fifteen percent claiming that it was not worth theirefforts. At the same time, these actions drove the price of oilfar beyond any previous level ever seen.
For well over a year threats like this slowed down or stopthe production of the new prototype power cells but the UnitedStates and Russia soon got tired of being intimidated.
Both countries sent military forces to the Middle Eastand South America as a deterrent to the extremist so that theywould not be able to go through with their threats.
The extremist countries quickly realized that they werenot prepared to take on either the United States or Russia, andthey certainly were not willing to take on forces from bothcountries at the same time.
To buy time, the oil rich extremist launched a massivepublic relation campaign to convince countries that theywould lose millions of jobs if they did not stop the productionthese power cells. These extremists spent billions on thiscampaign to no avail because people were simply tired ofthe environmental and monetary cost associated crude oil.The unscrupulous public campaign also failed to stop theproduction of the power cells, although it did delay the processfor a while. After about two years, the extremist realized thattheir efforts were in vain and gave up on the public relationcampaign.
As a last ditch effort, the extremist quickly changed totheir dirtiest tactics yet. Instead of only producing enough oilto keep the price up they increase the production of oil untilthey could not give it away, and it was not economical soundfor anyone else to produce oil. The unusually high productionof oil drove the price of gasoline down below fifty year lowsand drove hundreds of businesses in both the United Statesand Russia into bankruptcy.
Once the full production of the new power cells cameabout no one wanted anything to do with the oil except forthe Chinese who continued to buy all they could get. Withcrude oil so cheap, the Chinese certainly did not have a reasonto invest in to power cell technology and were clearly notconcern with the rest of the world's problems.
