Infinity (16 page)

Captain’s Chronicles: Nearing the planet I believed
Arthos to be on, the frequency was adjusted by Infinity. Contact was made. We
discovered that the DNA Infinity had assumed was Arthos, was not his, but that
of Arthos’ son. Arthos had crash landed on the planet and spent his time there
repairing his vessel. During that time, he had married and they had a son. He
was two hundred years old and said that his father left for planet Earth one
hundred and fifty years before. He invited Tristan to accompany him, but he
declined, believing that his place was with his mother.

   
It was great to meet my
uncle,” Said Tristan as they stood on
The Iron Mountains in New Plains Desert on Gerdral II. The planet
had two moons and the surface looked red from the abundance of clay and sand
rock. Being 80 percent water, the planet’s habitable areas were limited to
three mega cities equidistant from each other. Tristan’s mother had been full-blooded
human and had died when he was a hundred and fifty. Even humans lived longer on
this world than they usually did.

   
“Would have liked to have met your mother too,” Cruise said as he said
farewell and said he would return on his way back, if it were at all possible.
Arthos left a great legacy behind. Tristan was the leader of Gerdral II and two
other planets in their solar system.

   
From the technological genes he inherited from his father, he was able
to learn quickly from the materials Arthos left and build his world into a
civilization rather speedily. Before Arthos came, the three societies were at
war with each other and lived barbarically.
 
Arthos taught them space travel and they
colonized the two other planets in their solar system. He visited both worlds
to help them get set up with cyber technology and other modern conveniences. Cruise
admired his brother for taking time off of his main quest to make a family and
help his wife and son’s people.

   
Infinity had evolved even
further. She advanced to teaching herself how to create rips in the fabric of
the universe, closing them up again as they passed through. This shortened the
distance between destinations passing the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way
Galaxy in just a few Earth cycles. Infinity slowed down and came to normal
speed near the planet Jupiter.

   
“I will not make the same
DNA miscalculation again.” Infinity takes Cruise and the crew passed Jupiter.

   
“The last one was not a
miscalculation, Infinity,” replies Cruise. The control room crew is talking in
the background. “I got to meet my nephew.”

   
“That is a happy occasion,”
says Glorainne.

   
“May I remind you,
Glorainne,” adds Cruise. “That you are free to fall in love and get married
anytime you choose to.” The crew laughs, and Caleo flushes.
 

   
“Captain,” says Commander
Raslan Ardvik, “I think she
already has fallen in love.” Now it was Glorainne’s turn to turn red.

   
“Well, what do you think
we’ve been doing on your extended trips down to the surfaces of planets? Says
Hujikom, second in command.

   
“Captain,” says Infinity. “I
have located planet Earth.” The 4-D hologram of the solar system comes up all
around the crew.

   
“Wowee,” remarks Caleo. “Infinity,
you sure have been evolving beautifully.”

   
“Why, thank you, Caleo,” Infinity
replies. “You’ve even taken to calling us by our first names now, uh...except
for the Captain.”

   
“I’ll have to get his
permission for that,” she replied.

   
Infinity zooms in on Earth.
“There she is, Captain. The Blue Planet.”

   
“I can’t believe it,” says Cruise.
“I thought it would take eons to get here.”

   
“It did, Captain,” Infinity
replies. “I am making the necessary connections now, Captain, to make contact
with the surface. Analyzing data now. Processing data and recording. Everything
you want to know about Earth’s past present and future is in my archives now,
Captain.”

   
“Did you say ‘future’ too?”

   
“I did.”

   
“In that case I’ll ask you
to bring it up when we need to know...” replies Cruise. “Can you locate
Arthos?”

   
“I did that ten Earth
seconds ago.”

   
“You’re wonderful.”

   
“Captain, Arthos is
contacting you now,” says Infinity and brings up a 4-D image of Arthos standing
in the middle of the control room.

   
“What’s happening?” asks
Arthos. “I can see you, Cruise and your crew as if I’m on your vessel.”
   

   
“You are in a way, Arthos.
Good to see you. Infinity, the name of my vessel, has been evolving during our
trip here. It’s really amazing the things she is capable of now. By the way, I
met your son, Tristan. He’s a great man.”

   
“Glad to hear, good to see
you too, coming down?” Arthos replies.

   
“Infinity has pinpointed a
location in a place that used to be called Arizona. The place is known as The
Grand Canyon, I believe. It seems to be not far from you.”

   
“I’m in a place called
Nevada. It’s near an awesome lake called Tahoe.” Infinity bring up a 3-D image
of the lake.

   
“I’m seeing it now and the
crew is loving it. I think they’re ready for a vacation.”

   
Infinity landed in a
clearing in the Grand Canyon large enough for her. The crew took turns guarding
the vessel and taking leave. Earthlings were friendly and there was plenty of
good food and drink. Most of the cultures and ethnic treasures had been
preserved as well as historical archives. Infinity had already read and
recorded every book, magazine, newspaper, all the records secret or otherwise,
every data base on the planet including photos, personal information and every single
iota of information that was online whether coded, encrypted or not. She hacked
into all of the government’s top secret files and instantly downloaded them.
She instantly located every criminal web site and their location and
transferred the information to the proper local authorities.

   
The president of the New
United States was having a cow when he heard that the most top-secret data in
the country had been hacked. However, when the CIA and FBI reported that they
suddenly received hoards of data on wanted criminals, terrorists and their
location, he suspected that Arthos had something to do with it.

   
Arthos had already been
working with the presidents over the years that he’d been there. He explained
to President Cartwright the cause of the breach was his brother’s vessel.

   
“After almost a million years
of history and space exploration, I would not have expected less,” said the
president, who seemed to be a very open minded leader. “You told me that your
brother would be here someday. Other presidents in the past looked forward to
that day, but I’m proud and happy to be the one. This is a historical day and I
declare it a holiday.”

   
The presidents of Earth had
learned to rule in righteousness. That was why Arthos had stayed so long to
help them. There were no more horrible dictators that waged war on their
neighbors to get and steal what they wanted. Earth had evolved into a peaceful
planet where all of the inhabitants cared for each other. Everyone had plenty,
and there was no need for poverty or homelessness. Almost eighty percent of the
Earth’s population where farmers and ranchers, gardeners, foresters, woodland
keepers, land conservers, tree surgeons, flower growers, or some type of plant
or animal husbandry expert.

There
were, however, still some criminals and terrorists not happy with the peace and
plenty who still tried to get more than they needed or deserved.

   
The population of twenty
billion people was equally distributed upon the face of the earth. There was no
population explosion, but still a degree of mass poverty and hunger. There were
no nation against nation or religious wars, but there were still pirates and gangs
of criminals who roamed remote areas or hid in large cities.

 
 
The major religions of Earth had been
brought together to live in peace and tolerance of each other. Christianity,
Judaism, and Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism and all of the other religions of the
Earth united not as one religion, but in understanding and at peace with each
other. Evangelization had ceased. No one was attempting to convert someone of
another religion or faith to theirs. Faith and religion was a cultural thing
and everyone respected that. If someone desired to change religions there was
no backlash or persecution. Everyone seemed happy and content believing what
they chose to believe and life went on.

   
America, or the New United
States of America, now included all of North, Central and South America.
California and Baja California was gone, having been washed into the sea by the
Great Earthquake of 5690 AD. Florida was also gone, having been flooded in
16570. New York City had been buried in the war of the year 30,897 AD. Half of
Texas was gone due to the Super Hurricanes of 49,876 and 50,000 AD. The greater
part of Japan fell into the sea in 187,654 AD. There was no more Caribbean
Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, nor were there any of the South Pacific Sea islands
left. All had been drowned or consumed by tsunamis. Europe and Russia; China
also had suffered great losses of landmass due to war, blight, and natural
disasters.

Deserts
had grown, but people learned to live in them as nomads and gypsies. Advanced
technology and science had contributed to creating large oases that eased the
arid conditions in these parts of the world. They were such a success, however,
that a great many of them were turned into resorts and vacation spots.

The North
Pole had melted due to multiple Nuclear Weapons being detonated over her, which
was responsible for the flooding of much of the upper Northern Hemisphere. The
Earth had survived ten ice ages, twelve droughts with famine, seven floods from
tsunamis caused by asteroids hitting the Earth. Antarctica and Greenland were
now thriving Temperate Zone paradises. The axis of the Earth had shifted. War,
disaster and erosion had reduced most of the highest mountains of the Earth to
small mountain ranges where much of the population could enjoy skiing,
snowboarding, snow surfing and snow-sailing.
 

   
Much of Europe was different
too. The British Isles were gone, except for small islands that were once part
of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, now called the English Isles. The
continent of Australia was smaller, most of New Zealand was washed away and
Tasmania was no more. Indo-China had receded; Indonesia, Malaysia and the
Philippine Islands had been reduced to small wide spread uninhabited islands
which were now sanctuaries for birds and other animals.

   
Volcanoes in the sea had
spawned an array of new islands in the Pacific, and the overall shape of the
continents had been overhauled.

   
Cruise viewed the 4-D map Infinity
drew up and took the tour of the Earth of the past.

   
“All this can be restored,” Cruise
told Arthos, who turned to the president.

   
“How can it be restored?
It’s impossible,” Said the president. “It would take another million years, if
we had the technology that is; and we do not.”

   
“If you want it restored, it
can be,” replied Cruise. Even Arthos tried to convince him it was not possible
or ethical.

   
“If the leaders of the Earth
want it all restored there is a way,” insisted Cruise. He commenced to show
Arthos and the president, his aides and other government officials the ancient
maps Infinity drew up from the archives.

   
“It did look beautiful,
didn’t it?” Said the prime minister of the Union of European Republics. “But
can it really be done? What’s to say it won’t be undone in the future?”

   
“Ladies and gentlemen,
leaders of this world,” spoke Cruise. “I am Prince Cruise Daxu from the Twelve
Galaxies Cluster far far away from here. My brother Arthos has already lived among
you for nearly two hundred years. Since he first ventured out to look for Earth
it has been more than six hundred years. Yes we live that long. Our mothers
were human, originating from Earth. This is why we have returned to the land of
our ancestors; to learn and to help.

   
“This is only the beginning
of the exploration of the universe. Let us use our technology to restore Earth
to its original shape and form. We promise you it shall be restored in a safe
and clean way profitable for everyone.”