JustAnotherHornyGirl
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2018
- Posts
- 243
13 July 2032, 0717 UTC:
One moment, the space station wasn't there.
The next moment, it was.
Of course, very few people on Earth actually witnessed the sudden appearance of the craft, despite its size. At 600 meters in length and almost 300 meter in diameter, it was almost 6 times the length and more than 4 times the width of the International Space Station. Before the ISS's recent abandonment, it could have been seen at one time or another by most of the Earth's population as it passed overhead in the night sky.
This space station's position, however, was geosynchronous over the Atlantic Ocean, roughly halfway between New York State and the country of Morocco. This meant that the station couldn't be seen from the continents of North America, Europe, or Africa. It could, however, be viewed through high powered binoculars and telescopes from the Azores archipelago, which was 600 miles to its east.
Over the days to come and before restrictions on travel were put in place, hundreds of flights and boats hurried for the autonomously governed possession of Portugal. The Azores was already a tourist destination, of course, but the station's appearance would have an effect unlike anything ever seen before.
Periodic total solar eclipse events had often resulted in thousands, even tens of thousands of people flying to the archipelago for a possibly once-in-a-lifetime experience. But this was something else. The normal residential population of just over 250,000 would swell in less than 48 hours to more than 2 million in less than 48 hours before the government declared an emergency and closed its airport and seaports to all but emergency, governmental, military, and residential travel.
As the news and the first images of the station (from the ground, water, air, and space) were broadcasted around the world, the reactions of people, militaries, and governments were widely varied. Generally speaking, though, they fell into two categories: extreme excitement and extreme panic.
Military and scientific aircraft began filling the air while dozens, possibly hundreds of military and civilian satellites were retasked to look at the visitor. Civilian aircraft were restricted from the area after a near collision, followed by one such tourist flight suffering a mysterious electrical loss and nearly falling into the sea.
The news of the "alien" craft and the effect it was having on Earth's people were the only news anyone was producing, watching, or listening to. It filled the airwaves and internet with speculation about the station, its occupants, and their reasons for visiting Earth from its presumed origin far off in the galaxy.
All the while that the people of Earth were wondering about the station, the craft was transmitting an audio message of peace and goodwill. It was broadcasted in a constant loop in over 7,000 languages. It was a reassuring message to the people of Earth that they had no reason to be concerned: the station's occupants were peaceful and meant no harm to the people below.
(In an amazing show of the aliens' advanced technology, many devices on which the individuals of Earth were listening fixed upon the devices' chosen languages, such that the listener was always able to listen to the message in his or her first language.)
Reassuring as the message was meant to be, the one missing piece of the alien question for many people was simple: what do the aliens look like? Many felt that not knowing this only heightened the possibility that the aliens were not as friendly and benevolent as others hoped.
Finally, after just less than 20 hours, the aliens finally made themselves known. And, it turned out, they weren't alien at all: they were Human.
At a time that had been indicated in the long repeating message, a beautiful young woman appeared on screens across the globe: televisions and computers, small smart phones and gigantic public screens. The message was prerecorded, with the multi-lingual woman using the most commonly spoken language in each of the areas where her image was being broadcasted. It would be learned later that she herself made her greeting in 28 languages.
(Of course, as with the message of the past 20 hours, individual devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, and even home smart televisions played the message in the viewers' own languages if it was different than that of the majority of the population living around them.)
"Greetings," the woman began, a friendly smile on her face. She made apologies for having waited nearly a day to greet the people of Earth. Her smile widened as she continued, "We have been monitoring your news reports, and I wish to answer a question many of you have been asking: what do the aliens look like."
She looked and gestured over her shoulders to her left and right, and nearly three dozen people moved into view to fill the space behind her in an arc. Most wore uniforms as might be expected of a station or space ship's crew, while others wore a more civilian-like wardrobe. The woman in red was the most elegantly gowned of them all, though, each and every one her company was neatly and cleanly dressed.
"In case our appearance doesn't answer your question," she continued, "we are, in fact, Human Beings, from Earth. Only, we are not of your century, the 21st century. This will be hard for many of you to understand and accept, but we and our station come from the 26th century."
She paused a moment, glancing again left and right. The others slowly left the screen as the camera centered on the woman zoomed in a bit more. She explained, "In our time, Earth ... I hate to be so blunt with this horrible news ... but in my time, Earth has been devastated by environmental destruction and wars that were, in great part, resultant of the need for dwindling resources. In our time, the population of Earth is less than 2 billion. The average life span in most of the world is 40 years of age, with many of those years spent in so much pain and agony that many people take their own lives to end their despair. The natural world has suffered as well. Deforestation, global warming, pollution of the air, land, and sea, and -- following a series of nuclear strikes -- the irradiation of that air, land, and sea have left most of the planet uninhabitable."
Her smile had long faded, as one would expect from someone delivering such a message. But now, the edges of her lips lifted again slightly as she said, "But we -- you and I -- can prevent this, and that is why I am here. In my time, Earth -- or what remains of it -- has been unified under one government in an effort to streamline efforts to save it from a final, unavoidable disaster. My great-great-great-grandfather was the first to lead this government. He passed control down through the generations, until finally the crown rests with me, as Head of State ... as Queen of All The Earth."
She hesitated a moment, knowing that across most of the planet below her, people were repeating those words in their head with dismay, disbelief, or outright rejection. She continued, "As Queen of All The Earth, I will be contacting your governmental, military, non-governmental organization, business, environmental, medical, and educational leaders in the days and weeks to come in an effort to learn what they need from me to solve the problems they face and what assistance we can give them.
"I will also be speaking to some of those leaders, in particular governmental and military leaders," she continued with a more serious expression, "regarding how to transition governance of their nations and states to my authority. This will be hard for many leaders and their populations to accept. I understand this. But I have learned from the troubles and events in my own time, that the only way to prevent the disasters of your future, my past, if for a single authority -- me -- to be making the decisions necessary to save Planet Earth from destruction."
She stepped a bit closer to the camera for emphasis, continuing, "I thank you for your attention, and I promise you that your lives will improve very quickly if only you and your leaders abide by the requests I will be making of them and you in the near future."
With one final smile, as if she wasn't asking anything more than a small favor, she ended, "Until we speak again, I wish you peace, prosperity, and good health."
And then on screens across the globe, the message began repeating from the beginning as its preceding message had.
* I chose the year 2032 because it is identical to 2021 in that it is a leap year with the same dates of the year on the same days of the week.
OOC: Not my art. I found it on the internet without proper credits.
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