Soulwaves: A Future History Part #10

This is the last part of my channeled future history of our planet Earth and humankind. While life on Earth comes to an end, new life is blossoming on Mars and things kicking off on the other side of the galaxy on Aquanine.

At the end of one epoch, planetary apocalypses are common. They have happened many times before and will happen many times again. Life only comes from death.

Coming Soon: the serialization of The Duadex, the third book in the Soulwaves Anthology.

Transcript

This is the last part of my channel future history of our planet Earth and humankind.

While life on Earth comes to an end,

New life is blossoming on Mars and things are really kicking off on the other side of the galaxy on Aquanine.

At the end of one epoch,

Planetary apocalypses are common.

They have happened many times before and will happen many times again.

Life only comes from death,

As the cosmic wheel of karma turns once more.

Chapter 91.

Water Worlds.

2107.

Two years left.

The neurospheres of Earth,

Mars,

And all the planets in the solar system are contained and connected by the consciousness field of the Sun,

The solar sphere.

It is understandable,

Therefore,

That one planet can pick up on what another planet is thinking.

It may come as no surprise,

Then,

That Mother Earth,

Lady Gaia,

Nudged by the Mayan consciousness,

Also instigated a large earthquake at her own South Pole.

As a result,

In January 2107,

At the height of the Antarctic summer,

All the remaining ice left the continental shelf.

It is somewhat ironic that,

In the duality of the density,

The two of the three planets that were harboring intelligent life in this particular galaxy were having such opposite experiences.

Just as the Earth's landmasses were at their minimum size,

Aquanine's landmasses were growing day by day.

As the neurospheres of the two water worlds were connected by the gallosphere,

The galactic consciousness,

Again,

Perhaps this is not surprising.

By the end of the last Earth year,

All the Taikonauts had made trips down to the canyon on Mars,

And inspected their new potential home.

Mike was in floods of tears when he first saw his creation up close.

It had been his baby from the start.

The greening of the canyon walls was rapid,

As was the production of oxygen and methane.

Along with the carbon dioxide brought from the South Pole,

There were just enough greenhouse gases to have raised the ambient temperature of the hermetically sealed canyon to just below zero degrees centigrade.

The oxygen levels were already up to 33% of that of the Earth at sea level,

So about the same as the top of Mount Everest.

As well as oxygen being generated by the rapidly spreading cyanobacteria on the canyon walls,

Mike can install vast baths of water containing the phytoplankton.

Mike predicted that within half a Martian year,

Or one Earth year,

The canyon atmosphere would be breathable.

Eva and Kristin had been kept busy getting the food production dome up to speed.

Along with Chef Chang,

They'd been spending many days and nights camped out there.

Mike had rigged up a temporary supply of breathable oxygen inside the dome so that they could work safely without suits.

Within the next Martian year,

The dome was providing all the vegetables,

Herbs,

Salads,

Nuts and worms that they needed for self-sufficiency on Mars.

June and Lee had both become somewhat disenchanted at having become glorified taxi drivers.

They'd spiced up descents by disabling whole sides of the TET to simulate failures,

But the drive was so good it could land itself.

They'd even been fitted with entanglement drives now,

With samples from the canyon floor.

June and Lee had both become fascinated at Mars's two moons.

Phobos rushed overhead them three times a day at a height of 6,

000 kilometers.

The more distant Deimos came past every Earth day and a half at over 23,

000 kilometers from the planet.

They'd been working on the theoretical task of how to detach a lower TET and to use it to take a lander down onto both moons.

When Zhang heard about the project,

He took it off theoretical status and gave it his full blessing.

He mentored them personally on how to plan the mission,

Calculate the orbital dynamics and design an audacious way of executing a footfall on each moon.

While June and Lee's initial driver was to dispel boredom,

Shen and Mike got in on the plan and designed a core sampler and mass spectrometer to be landed on each moon.

The potential to mine them for exotic and esoteric materials was priceless.

Wang and Deng Yang were seconded to the missions,

As this was going to need experience should things go wrong.

Each moon had such little gravity,

One wrong move and a Taikonaut could end up flying off into space.

Zhang insisted on coming too,

This was a space first he could not miss.

Halfway through the year,

They achieved the first manned landing on another moon in the solar system.

Again nobody on earth knew a thing,

Especially now Huey had gone and Chia had apparently lost interest in the details of the Mars mission.

They heard she was in deep mourning as all her family had deserted her.

They used the lower TET from Hog 1 and took it on a trajectory to match the orbital speed and altitude of Phobos.

It was twice as far away from Mars as they were.

The lower TET was piloted from within the lander.

It was parked 10 kilometers away from Phobos and they surveyed the moon for as smooth a spot as possible.

The lander would not actually touch down as it was never designed to be landed on rough terrain.

When the lower TET bonded to the moon's orbit,

All fully suited up,

They took the lander down so it was hovering just 300 millimeters above the surface of the moon.

Just as for a Mars landing,

One side of the TET opened out flat fully but again did not actually touch the surface.

Tethered to the inside of the lander,

Zhang,

Wang and Deng,

Jun and Li all tentatively stepped down onto the moon's surface and attached themselves with eyebolts.

They spent an hour setting up the test drill and spectrometer and Lef once might confirmed he had comms with it and that the rig had started drilling.

The same crew repeated the procedure again three months later.

The only complexity this time was that Deimos had even less gravitational pull and it was much more craggy,

Making landing more precarious.

It was also orbiting at 23,

000 kilometers above Mars.

It was Eva and Kristen who were most relieved when the crew returned safely.

While all this space buccaneering was going on,

Shen and Freya visited the canyon every week but both of them preferred to live in orbit.

The reason for this was somewhat weird and something they hadn't shared with anyone,

Especially not the children.

Nearly six months after Huey passed away,

Freya woke from a power nap with a start and shook Shen into consciousness.

She's ascended.

Who's ascended?

Asked a sleepy Shen.

What do you mean?

Jia,

She's left the planet said Freya,

Just like Lu Seng and the monks.

How do you know?

Said Shen.

And how do you know where she's gone?

She's here,

Inside the Q-computer I think,

Said Freya.

There comes a time when a soul has accomplished all it wants to do in the density.

No more reprocessing is necessary.

After Huey passed away,

Jia had come to this place in her karmic path.

For such souls,

An exciting time arrives as they can become discarnate in the density with one foot in the void.

This is what happened to Lu Seng and his monks.

Death is painless and totally unlike falling asleep.

The soul awakens into a bright world and the mortal body decays into a pile of dust,

Not ash.

The soul floats around its current location for a while to get its bearings.

Then it is allowed to choose a calling or to be called for.

It can hear the callings of incarnate souls and go to help them.

These can be spoken prayers or unconscious thought forms.

Shen had no idea he was missing his mother so much and needing her help and guidance.

When Jia heard the calling,

She went like a shot.

Entanglement with the Q-computer was easier than she ever would have imagined,

Especially as her incarnate form knew nothing about computers.

Once inside the Q-computer,

She discovered she had access to the counselors.

This was as weird for her as it was for them.

The Q-computer and the counselors were about to be able to speak directly in the density.

Shen had come to learn never to ignore Freya,

No matter how bizarre things sounded.

A quick interrogation of the Q-computer confirmed it.

It now knew of Shen's initiations into the ways of the Wu.

There was only one way it could have found that out.

Further querying over the next few days and weeks revealed that Jia's consciousness was more like the Jia not-Jia that Shen had experienced in Fragrant Hills.

Just before the current earth year came to a close,

Jia not-Jia via the Q-computer told them it would be a good idea to send one of the ships back to the moon base to pick up the next wave of colonists.

The Q-computer had synthesized Jia's voice from all the call log recordings.

The message,

Though,

Had come directly from the counselors,

Of course.

The next Hoffman reverse transfer window was coming up in May 2108,

Which meant Hogg 2 could get back to the moon in a month.

For the next wave of colonists to return to Mars in the shortest elapsed time,

Even with the speed of the Heart of Gold,

It involved a return transit time of around a year.

The elongated trajectory meant they would be in transit when the next pulse arrived,

But the ship had got enough inherent shielding to protect them.

Shen got Mike to add another internal nanolayer just in case.

So the next wave of Martians would have to be put into suspended animation in order to be back on Mars by the end of 2109.

It was decided to fit out the sides of Hogg 2 with as many pods as possible to be flooded with aquanine.

Each pod was radiation hardened individually and,

When filled with aquanine,

Was virtually impervious to even the most energetic gamma rays.

The Q-computer came up with an intriguing layout that allowed for 64 pods on each surface of the upper tet.

Mike had discovered it was much easier to produce aquanine using Martian water,

So Shen put a plan together.

Mia and May pulled straws to see who would be pilot.

They hated the thought of such a separation for so long,

As did Zhang.

Wang and Deng agreed to go with the short-strawed Mia for both her safety and Zhang's peace of mind.

Dr Liu Yaping was also selected to go so that she could assess the suitability of those who could best cope with the suspension process.

President Miang and Wu Zetian had already pulled rank and said they were coming anyway,

Along with their wives.

The aged Cheng had already opted to stay.

He was proud that his protege was making things happen wilder than his wildest dreams already.

His mission had been accomplished too.

Mike Spence's wife also elected to stay and wait for a transfer that didn't involve being put into suspension.

Liu had already put herself in and out of suspension a few times for many days,

And seemed to suffer no ill effects other than a weird kind of jet lag,

Not knowing what day,

Month or year it was.

This was not surprising,

Bearing in mind they were still all counting Earth time while their bodies and minds were acclimatising to Mars time.

Liu even agreed to go into suspension for the one-month trip back to Earth orbit,

Just to prove it was completely safe.

The imminent arrival of the next wave of colonists meant that Eva,

Christian,

Cheng and Mike would be kept busy,

Ensuring that the 256 new arrivals would have enough food and water and a bed for each of them for the night.

They would also need to be able to breathe.

Chapter 93.

Helmets off.

March 2108.

One year left.

March 2108 was a really significant month.

The fit-out of the pods in Hog 2 was completed,

And Mia undertook some test flights around the moons of Phobos and Deimos.

Cheng was mindful that if the next pulse was to hit a year later,

It must have already impacted the Oort cloud at least one light year away.

It must be influencing the outer bodies of the solar system already.

The really good news was that the canyon air pressure was up to 80%,

So while it was like being at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro,

Mike was the first person to breathe unaided on Mars.

His first reaction was somewhat of an anti-climax,

Smelled like old socks he said.

How long to 100% asked Cheng from Hog 1.

Give it another month or so and we'll be there replied Mike.

Might need some air freshener though.

As luck would have it,

At 90% pressure they could start planting.

Eva and Christian were hatching a plan,

Not only to make it smell nice,

But also to introduce some colour into a rather bland moss green canyon.

Back on Earth,

Things were somewhat bleaker.

The ice caps had fully melted now,

And the sea level was up to 70 meters.

The two billion humans left adjusted to a new way of life.

While there was less land mass,

There were far less humans too.

Most lived a self-sufficient life in small enclaves.

Some came back to the coast,

Now it was known the sea would not rise anymore,

But most stayed up in the hills.

Some people became nomadic across both land and sea.

They at least all shared a common vision,

And saw themselves as having stewardship of Earth,

Not possession of it.

Greed had diluted,

And the concept of sharing economy had grown.

There was a distributed government led by China,

With the superpowers of USA becoming satellites of devolved power.

At an elevation of over 200 meters,

Chongqing had indeed become the administrative global capital,

Just as Shen had predicted back in 2076.

The real decisions were being made 400,

000 kilometers away on the moon,

And some directives were coming from millions of kilometers away on Mars.

President Miang had agreed with Shen that it was only fair to tell them about the next pulse.

A global broadcast was set for the 17th of March 2108.

The earthlings learned that there was an 85% chance a pulse from a supernova would hit the earth in a year's time.

People were told they would have to stay indoors for a month before the pulse hit,

And for up to six to nine months after.

As everyone was savvy about avoiding UV now,

This was not so much of a worry.

They would just have to go out at night.

They would have to stock up of course,

But Earth and humanity would bounce back again.

After the tumultuous events of the last century,

Most people took the news well.

Quite a few more suicides ensued though.

They would turn out to be the lucky ones,

Who had unwittingly just advanced their reprocessing by a few months.

The counsellors were going to be busy.

Chapter 94.

White Out.

Autumn 2108.

Only a few months left.

Shen,

While I am asleep,

You will be acting president,

Said Miang in their last call before he entered suspension for 10 months.

You will love the view when you get here,

Replied Shen.

Have a good sleep and safe trip.

Hog 2 arrived at the moon a month after it left Mars orbit as planned.

It took Dr Liu one moon orbit of Earth to perform the medical checks on those that Miang had sanctioned to go.

By this time,

Mars was racing away from the earth and there was no point playing catch up.

They would use Earth and Venus slingshots and meet Mars back on the other side of its orbit.

Even Miang would be suspended too,

But in lighter stasis so she could be awoken remotely for when the pulse was scheduled to hit.

She had a precious cargo on board.

As well as the president,

Wu Zetian,

Their wives and most of the high council,

There were 180 students,

Fresh out of training from the seven immortals and latterly the moon university.

Apart from their brains,

Their genes represented their real value to Mars.

So Hog 2 left moon orbit for the return journey late September 2108,

But wouldn't reach Mars until July 2109,

Four months after the next pulse was due.

In January 2109,

In preparation for the arrival of the next pulse,

Shen had put Hog 1 in geostationary orbit on the day side of Mars so he could use the whole planet as a shield.

At Freya's insistence,

Both Eva and Kristin and Jun and Li were off planet.

Jia,

Not Jia,

Had told her also to get them inside four of the six pods that Shen had fitted to Hog 1 and to be put in aquanine suspension for extra protection.

Shen and Freya were told just to get into their pods to monitor events from there.

Mike Spence had of course engineered GRB protection into the canyon roof from the start,

When he had first heard about the pulse.

He also had the foresight to strengthen it against any variances in external atmospheric pressure on Mars.

This was just as well,

As the supernova could blow the thin CO2 Martian atmosphere into space.

On March 17th,

Shen had around 60 minutes notice that the pulse was about to arrive.

Jia,

Not Jia,

Was able to sense the disruption the supernova wreaked on Jupiter's upper atmosphere.

She had not told Shen that she was now able to detect solar waves which travelled outside space and time.

Get ready everyone,

Announced Jia,

Not Jia,

We've got around an hour.

The two sets of twins did not hear this as they were in suspension.

When it hit,

There was no sound,

Just the biggest flash of light all around the edges of the planet.

Shen was the first on comms.

Is everyone okay down there?

Zhang replied,

We're all fine,

Looks like quite a firework display.

Zhang had Mike,

Chang and his daughter Mei with him.

It's spectacular from up here,

Confirmed Shen.

Get Mike to dim the canyon roof before nightfall.

Even though the supernova came from the night side,

From inside the canyon,

Which was luckily on the day side of Mars,

It felt like someone had switched on a bank of floodlights for a moment.

Mike had set the canyon roof to dim as soon as any sudden increase in light level was detected.

Already have,

Confirmed Mike.

We must have lost Lagrange A and B again,

Announced Shen.

Comms has gone down with Hog 2.

Zhang was worried,

And he didn't often get worried.

But weren't they hardened against the predicted pulse?

They were,

But the Q computer is reporting the pulse is more than 10 times the magnitude we predicted,

Said Shen.

What about Earth and the Moon base,

Asked Zhang.

It's still 20 light minutes before it reaches them,

So Freya's not sure,

Said Shen.

Zhang still hadn't got his head around how Freya and the three sets of twins communicated across space-time with no time delay,

When light just took its time.

10 minutes later,

The pulse reached Hog 2,

Which was halfway between Earth and Mars.

Any news about Mia and Hog 2,

Shouted Zhang.

Don't worry,

Assured Shen.

Freya has spoken with Mia.

She is OK and all pods intact,

Along with their sleepers.

A further 10 minutes and the pulse hit the Earth-Moon system.

By chance,

It was a full moon that day,

So the Moon base was protected for another 7 days or so,

From the full ferocity of the pulse.

Freya says all OK on the Moon base too,

But no comms,

Obviously,

Confirmed Shen.

She's tuned in to a few students who have the gift.

The Major had got used to his two daughters communicating silently with Freya and the other two sets of twins.

He wondered what it would sound like.

Gotta go,

Zhang,

Said Shen,

As the Q-computer came up with an alert.

Double-check all your systems before nightfall.

The Q-computer had been analysing measurements from satellites feeding data via Lagrange A and B in the microseconds before comms was lost.

It was also analysing light levels in the blackness of space behind them.

With no emotion,

GeoNotGeo reported,

All our calculations were based on the supernova's energy being spread out spherically.

It looks like 90% of the energy has been sent right at us.

This is equivalent to the supernova going off only 10 light years away.

Shen knew that this meant that the population of Earth stood no chance.

Chapter 95.

Flies off the wall.

March 17th,

2109.

0914 UTC.

The end of Earth years.

When the supernova hit the Earth,

It was like someone snuffing out a candle.

The Earth's magnetic field and ozone layer were completely destroyed.

This in itself would have led to most land-based lifeforms being wiped out within weeks,

If not days,

From the massive onslaught of radiation.

Everyone was mercifully spared such an elongated death.

Both the atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen were instantly ionised,

Leading to the formation of large amounts of smog-like nitrous oxide in the atmosphere.

Within 3 minutes,

Virtually all the remaining 2 billion people on the planet suffocated.

All amphibians,

Mammals and birds suffered the same fate.

If any humans could have survived,

They might have giggled with all that laughing gas.

If you could have been a fly on the wall the day after the supernova hit Earth,

You would have had a very surreal experience.

As it happened,

Any such flies on any walls just fell off them and lay as dead husks on the ground.

Surface-based plant life withered and died slowly.

Life would have to start all over again.

In the oceans,

Phytoplankton and reef communities were decimated too.

Life in the oceans only had a few days before it too would wither and die.

For many centuries after the supernova's initial electromagnetic pulse arrived,

The slower physical remnants of the star's deaths arrived with new exotic matter and particles.

Somewhat ironically,

The largest percentage of the biosphere on the planet at that time were still single-celled protozoa and tardigrades.

To them,

Nothing much changed,

Other than a new cocktail of chemicals had begun its arrival.

They had seen this many times before and it wouldn't be the last.

This is how life inseminates across the galaxy,

From the soul waves of dying stars.

For life forms higher up the food chain,

Of course there were a few anomalies.

Several scuba divers around the planet survived for an hour or so after the pulse arrived,

But quickly ran out of air when they resurfaced.

The only people who had any chance of survival for any length of time were some submariners and a few operatives in hermetically sealed nuclear bunkers.

What sealed their fate was a policy known as mutually assured destruction.

Officially this policy was abandoned at the end of the cold war in the 20th century.

The powers that be though had left some precautions in place which self-activated in the case of complete communication blackout.

The supernova had delivered this on a global scale.

A subroutine written by a computer nerd back in 1984 kicked in.

Each nuclear bunker and submarine knew of the location of all the others,

Buried deep in the kernels of their operating systems and a mass launch of nuclear weapons was triggered.

The resulting nuclear barrage that ensued finished off the incarnations of the submariners just 20 minutes later.

The operatives of the 12 hermetically sealed nuclear bunkers suffered a different fate.

They had enough air supply and food for a year.

The air supply in seven of them was compromised and they suffocated within a day.

After a week of no comms the occupants of four of the bunkers independently decided to have a sneak peek outside.

When they opened their doors they stood no chance.

Only two humans on planet earth in the last bunker lasted a year before they took their last breath.

There were at least no more nuclear weapons on the planet.

The whole planet was eerily quiet.

There were no sounds to be carried and nobody was listening.

There was no destruction of any buildings,

No fires burning,

No sirens,

No wind.

The humans on the moon base had been treated,

If you can call it that,

To the most amazing firework display.

First seeing a supernova up close and personal and then followed by the nuclear barrage,

Which was spectacular when viewed from a distance.

In less than an earth day the impact loads from the nuclear explosions had all disappeared as there was no air for any fires.

They could see the earth had lost its atmospheric sheen.

What the remaining taikonauts on the moon thankfully couldn't see was too much surface detail.

The planet was enveloped by a thick white cloud.

From space earth looked like a large fluffy snowball.

If their telescopes could have resolved surface detail they would have seen people strewn everywhere,

Contorted into grotesque shapes,

Their hands mostly around their necks imploring the last molecules of air to come to them.

The trees were changing hue as an early autumn came to the foliage.

There was a silent rain of dead leaves falling to the ground like stones.

The scene quite literally was like nothing on earth.

It had become a ghost planet.

After a few days the clouds lifted.

The surface level of the oceans fell again as the water evaporated.

Low-level mists were forming everywhere replacing atmospheric clouds.

After a few millennia this steam would eventually form a new proto-atmosphere.

The surface of the oceans had gone mostly flat as if the heartbeat of the planet and the weather had simply stopped too.

They were covered in dead fish but strangely not a whale or dolphin was to be seen.

The remaining cetaceans had dived deep to the ocean floors to end their days.

In time obscure multi-celled sea life that never ventured from the depths would get to experience the surface.

In time some of it would pop up above the waves and take gulps of acidic air.

The earth was down but not out.

It was just having one of its occasional and necessary reboots.

Epoch 5 had come to an end.

In less than an earth day the neosphere of mother earth lost its self-awareness and went to sleep for a few million years.

The humans on the moon were the only witnesses to the reset yet they were helpless to do anything but watch,

Pontificate and await their own deaths.

It was three days after the supernova with no comms from mars that Cheng had the chutzpah to announce.

I think it's time you all started some families.

Chapter 96.

Sequence 999.

A day after the end of earth years.

When dusk overtook the canyon they got to see the full glory of the supernova for the first time.

Mike had the canyon roof set to maximum dimming but even then it was like being out in the full glare of the midday sun.

Excepting that there was no sun or any stars to be seen.

The whole night sky was illuminated.

The major had just enough time to say it's spectacular Shen.

A moment later the head amplifiers on the comms links were fried.

The moment they lost comms Shen started coming up with a plan.

I can get down to them with the lander and have them safely back up here within a couple of hours he told Freya.

But wouldn't we be safer if we abandoned ship and bunked down inside the canyon asked Freya.

I'm not sure you can open the canyon airlock Gia not Gia announced quite stridently.

Hold off for now leave this with me.

Shen knew the Q computer would be projecting possible scenarios decades out not days.

After an hour they had their answer.

Initiating sequence 999 said Gia not Gia.

Shen had never heard of any such numbered sequences not least one with all the nines.

Before he could interrogate Gia both he and Freya lost consciousness as their pods were filled with aqua 9 and they were put into suspension.

Gia not Gia took Hog 1 out of geostationary lock and accelerated to Mars escape velocity.

When they reached the penumbra had the occupants of Hog 1 been awake they would have been greeted by a blinding scene with deep reds and vermilions intense blues streaked with flashes of white obscuring the background starfield.

The supernova filled the previous blackness of space and it would be several hundred years before the twinkling of any stars would be seen again.

It took Hog 1 a month to reach Jupiter for its first gravity assist.

Gia not Gia had taken off all the g-force limiters and they were already traveling at one percent of light speed.

The photovoltaic layers powering the nanofans were sucking in copious amounts of energy from the supernova itself.

Gia not Gia directed Hog 1 at Jupiter's south pole and the resulting gravity assist added another 10 percent to their velocity.

More significantly they were now pointing out of the galactic plane at 33 degrees.

Gia not Gia had calculated a trajectory to give the entanglement engine a chance of getting a harder lock on the planet Aqua 9.

By the time Hog 2 arrived safely in Mars orbit as Gia not Gia confirmed Hog 1 was way past Saturn's orbit.

Gia not Gia felt sure that sequence 999 was the optimal course of action.

The Q computer had been working on it before they even arrived at Mars.

Gia not Gia had been detecting broadcasts from Vals Marineris for over a month now so knew Mike had repaired a viable antenna.

She also knew Mia delivered all the new colonists alive mainly as she had micromanaged their awakening.

She had been tuning in to Mia and Mae's conversations.

Between them they got everyone down to the canyon safely.

Gia not Gia also knew that nobody had the faintest idea where Hog 1 had disappeared to.

That was all part of the plan.

She knew that everyone on Mars knew that they and those left on the moon base thought they were the last sole survivors of humanity.

They assumed Hog 1 must have suffered a catastrophic failure in orbit and either be lost in the void of space or crash somewhere on Mars.

As Gia not Gia and Hog 1 were leaving the Oort cloud and the solar sphere she picked up news that the first generation of Martian babies had been born.

They left the solar system traveling at around a third light speed.

Chapter 97.

Morphing.

Even though the journey from Mars to Aquanine took around 150,

000 earth years it was only when they were about halfway right over the galactic center when the Q computer came up with the answer the counsellors had posed it at the start of the journey.

As they could see across all time they knew about the capabilities of an Epoch 7 consciousness.

What they didn't know was the exact genetic makeup of an optimal Epoch 6 consciousness.

Each Epoch was an experiment where what was possible was explored and learned.

Epoch 5 was all about experimentation with self-aware sentience.

Epoch 6 was to be about what you really do with a fully awakened sentience in the density.

Gia not Gia turned out to be the ideal consciousness to merge with the Q computer.

Gia not Gia turned out to be the ideal consciousness to merge with the Q computer.

It now had intuition as well as immense computational power.

It had worked out that it was going to be easier to choose two of the 46 human chromosomes to match the 44 of the dolphins.

Apart from anything it had six human subjects in suspension on which to begin the process.

It had taken the last 75,

000 years to calculate the exact gene transpositions for optimal chromosomal rearrangement.

The six would not know their DNA had been tinkered with when they awoke apart from them all being able to talk directly with the dolphins.

The real magic would come when Christine and June and Eva and Lee had children.

They would not only be native to aquanine but as one with the dolphin consciousness.

The synthesis would create a hybrid consciousness that had humans grasp of macro and micro detail of the density but that also knew how to port across the void.

The Q computer was to spend the next 75,

000 years running multiple scenarios that would eventually lead to the formation and also the eventual termination of epoch six.

For the time being the counsellors had a tool in the density in the form of the Q computer that allowed them to play with the near future.

With Gia not Gia's assistance they were of a group mind to make the next transition much less traumatic.

Chapter 98.

Arrival.

About 150,

000 years after Earth's demise.

Five light years out from aquanine Gia not Gia started to decelerate Hog 1.

It was about the same time that she lost optical contact with the Earth-Mars solar system on the other side of the galactic plane.

She'd been monitoring progress and all was going well.

Of course none of the original colonists were still alive.

Average longevity had increased and some of them made it over the age of 200 due to the reduced gravity and strain on their bodies.

All the initial Martians had gone through many reprocessings and incarnations.

For example in his first reincarnation the Major came back as a woman and a Wu as it happened.

Dr Liu had stuck to the medical profession and first came back as a natural healer.

On their first Martian return Wang and Deng had swapped sex and were destined to remarry.

President Miang and his son first came back in reverse order and then alternated for thousands of lifetimes.

Xing came back first and became the canyon's third president with Miang coming back a little later as his son.

Wu Zetian went off to another galaxy to a planet that needed to embrace the concept of money.

Mike was the most homesick for Earth and died a sad man.

When he first came back though he arrived with grand plans.

He was destined to build the second city a hundred miles further down the now virgin canyon.

This would be the first of many.

Mia and Mei were the last to go and became the first pair of twins born on Mars.

This time they would be borns.

As Hog 1 passed through the Oort cloud of the equinine system,

Jia not Jia lost all psychic contact with Mars as she fully expected.

It was then that she knew she had to begin waking up her precious cargo.

She also increased the braking of Hog 1 first by slowing it down and stopping the lower tet and then spinning it up to the same rotational speed and direction as the upper tet.

As they emerged from the Oort cloud the planetary system,

Previously only inferable from measurements of the occlusion of the star,

Started to reveal its detail.

The third generation star was about 1.

1 solar masses and about the same age,

Temperature and color as the sun.

Aquanine was the third planet out,

Orbiting at around 150,

000 kilometers in the Goldilocks zone.

The whole solar system was about 28,

000 light years from the galactic center,

Virtually an identical distance out to where the Martians were located on the other side of the galaxy.

There were two inner rocky planets,

Hermes and Aphrodite.

Between Aquanine and the four gaseous giants were two other rocky planets,

Aries and Demeter.

From initial observations from the lack of wobble in the small blue dot that was Aquanine,

It looked like it was moonless.

Gia not Gia made good use of the gravity wells of all the four gas giants to further slow Hogwan down.

Other than having no ring systems,

They were near replicas of Neptune,

Uranus,

Saturn and Jupiter in terms of size,

Makeup and orbital distance from their home star.

The dolphins had yet to give the three outer giant names as they couldn't see them,

But they did dream of them.

The Jupiter-like giant that they call Colossus,

The wandering star,

Was very visible.

Gia not Gia started the awakening sequence with Shen.

First she replaced breathable Aquanine with breathable air and allowed the convulsions and coughing to occur while he was asleep.

That horrible phase of coming out of suspension would just be like a bad dream for him.

This was nothing compared to the dreams he had been having.

While asleep he had fully bonded his consciousness with the Q computer and Gia not Gia.

He awoke knowing more than he did before entering suspension.

Shen's first words were,

So how long have you known?

Since you first came into my womb I knew you were different.

Gia who was now Gia said,

You've forgotten you used to bilocate.

So all the time I thought my mission was to save the world from the comet and the pulse,

But you must have known that that was just the start.

I only suspected it was,

Sometimes our life missions aren't shown to us until they come to the end,

Confirmed Gia.

Shen had noticed the change of voice immediately.

So this is it then,

Asked Shen,

What I came to do.

It is,

Confirmed Gia.

Starting a new human colony on Mars,

Free of the excesses and vagaries of the last few thousand years,

Was just phase one.

And creating a hybrid human cetacean consciousness is phase two,

Said Shen,

And also the end of my mission.

Yes and yes,

Said Gia.

So what's next for me then,

Asked Shen,

Wondering if there were any what's next for him.

Avoiding the question,

Gia said,

Next we wake Freya up.

Freya took less time than Shen to shake off the suspension leg.

Before the twins were awoken,

She and Shen took a little time to reacquaint each other with their bodies.

It had been over 150,

000 years since they had any privacy.

It was a little awkward with your mother in the room though.

After Hogwan had safely performed the last planetary deceleration,

Using the gravity of Colossus,

They were scheduled to be in orbit around Aquanine.

In 30 of its diurnal rotations,

Gia had already set the Hogwan clocks to the 22 hour days of Aquanine.

Gia woke the two sets of twins up at the same time,

When they reached the orbit of Demeter,

Roughly at the orbital distance of the asteroid belt.

It was Freya who brought them up to speed on where and when they were.

So we've been asleep for 150,

000 years,

Said Jun.

No wonder I feel like I have the hangover from hell.

Li was trying to catch up quickly.

So we're 55,

000 light years from Mars.

That means we must have travelled at a fraction of light speed.

We did piped up Gia proudly.

Whoa,

Said Eva,

That sounds like grandma.

In all the excitement,

Shen and Freya had forgotten they'd not told them anything about Gia's ascension.

Can we save that one for a bit later,

Asked Freya.

Yes,

Sounds like Shen's been programming the Q-computer's voice,

Said Li.

Kristin butted in.

What's intriguing me,

Is why I'm sensing Pata,

Tamu,

Baku and Lucky.

Shen brought up an amazingly detailed image of Aquanine,

Clearly showing islands popping their heads up above the oceans.

That's because they are here,

He said,

Along with most of the other dolphins and whales from Earth.

How long do dolphins live for,

Asked Jun and Kristin.

Well,

No more than 50 years,

She answered.

So that's impossible,

Surely,

Jun said.

It was Gia's turn again.

So when they port,

They don't have to go to the same time as the place they left.

Li was on it straight away.

So they ported forwards about 150,

000 years when going to Aquanine,

And backwards the same amount of time coming back to Earth.

That's insane!

Something like that,

Replied Gia.

But how did they know that it would take us this long exactly to get here,

Asked Jun.

Never mind that,

Said Li.

Did they even know we would come in the first place?

Freya put an end to these lines of inquiry by saying,

We just don't know.

That's why you four will be going down to Aquanine to ask them.

So we'll be there within three weeks,

Shen said.

Jun and Li,

Can you start mapping out the planet to work out possible landing sites?

Sure,

Jun said.

Do you know our orbital height and plane yet?

That's for you to tell us too,

Replied Shen.

And Kristin,

Can you see if you can connect with the pod,

Asked Freya.

What about me,

Asked Eva.

Any chance of a round of Worm Burgers,

Shen asked.

I don't know about anyone else,

But I'm fed up of a liquid diet.

Chapter 99,

Immersion.

It was the then 20-year-old Lucky who first announced,

They are here.

The pod had been relaxing in the central lagoon of the largest archipelago he'd created so far,

Using the nanobots.

We're here at Pata.

Two weeks away,

And they are coming from the direction of the wandering star Colossus,

Just like I dreamed they would,

Lucky said.

How is the Just like I dreamed they would,

Lucky said.

How is the landing area going,

Asked Baku.

Just like I dreamt it had to be,

Lucky confirmed.

At exactly the same time,

Upon Hog 1,

Kristin confirmed.

They know we are coming.

What do they say exactly,

Asked Shen.

I'm not getting any words yet,

Just sense impressions,

She replied.

Perhaps you should get in a pod filled with Aquanine,

Suggested Jia.

Don't worry,

You won't have to go in suspension,

It will help you resonate,

And you too,

Eva,

Suggested Freya.

Even as far out as the orbit of Demeter,

Hog 1's imaging arrays could resolve surface features on Aquanine.

It had also become very apparent that Aquanine had two moons.

While Kristin and Eva visited themselves opening a line of communication with the pod,

Jun and Li had begun zeroing in on a large archipelago just south of the equator.

This looked like it had the largest number of options for landing sites.

In the meantime,

Shen was making detailed measurements of Aquanine's two moons.

As they got closer and closer,

It was clear his first suspicions were correct.

His measurements confirmed why there was no planetary wobble.

They were not just close in mass and size,

But identical.

Their orbital distance from the planet was the same,

And they were exactly 180 degrees apart from each other.

As they reached the orbit of Aries,

The next rocky planet out,

It was clear that,

Just as for the Earth-Moon system,

Each moon would be about the same size as their home star when viewed from the surface.

So they get twice as many eclipses,

He declared to everyone on Hog 1.

It's almost like someone placed them there.

They did confirm Jia,

Plotting a new path into orbit so we can take a closer look.

A week later,

Hog 1 made three orbits around the moon nearest to their approach,

Before infinity looping around the planet to the other.

Just like the Earth's Moon,

And Phobos and Deimos,

They were in tidal lock,

Presenting the same faces to the planet.

They must be quite new,

Said Shen.

They are hardly cratered at all.

Shen of course had no idea that the two moons were another Epoch 7 intervention.

While transiting from one moon orbit to the other,

Jun and Li discovered something even more bizarre.

They waited until they entered orbit around Aquanine to make sure they weren't imagining it.

There,

On one of the central islands,

You can see it clearly now,

Said Jun,

Highlighting it on screen.

And it looks like there is a perfectly spherical dome next to it.

So they not only know we are coming,

But they know what shape and size our land is,

Confirmed Li.

A perfect triangular patch was clear to see,

With the second patch next to it,

For the land aside to fold out onto.

As the archipelago fell into dust,

Shen put them into a geostationary orbit above it.

It was then that both Kristen and Eva got their first verbal communications.

All four of them are down there,

She said,

Pad to Tamu,

Baku and Lucky.

Eva confirmed,

Yes they want to know what took us so long,

And when we are coming to meet them.

Gia had been working on the fine detail.

The atmosphere is identical to Earth's,

So there is no need for suits.

That's going to make things simpler in the lander then,

Shen said.

Yes,

And suspension suits are fine for getting in the water,

As Aquanine just drips off them,

Gia said.

What about the atmospheric turbulence,

Asked Jun,

Who was going to be the pilot.

I've been measuring ocean wave height and can't find any peaks over a metre,

Said Gia.

Must be the viscosity of Aquanine,

And the tidal balancing that comes from having two moons.

So not much wind then,

Said Jun.

Sounds like you'll float down,

Confirmed Shen.

Tamu has asked if she can meet Freya,

Announced Kristen.

In all the time the dolphins had been back on Earth,

Freya never got to see them.

Maybe on the second visit,

Suggested Shen.

She's quite insistent,

Even I picked up that message,

Said Eva.

Nobody was in the mood for sleeping,

As they travelled over the completely dark night side of Aquanine.

The only light came from vast areas of bioluminescence.

The lander was prepped with enough food for a few days,

And some tents to sleep in.

The two sets of twins and Freya got ready to descend at daybreak.

As Gia predicted,

There was no buffeting on the way down.

The view of the lagoon was spectacular.

The water was crystal clear,

And the surrounding reefs were voluminous.

In the distance,

Schools of whales could be seen.

There was a discernible green sheen on the low-lying islands.

This planet was obviously alive.

As they touched down onto a completely smooth landing area,

Lee quipped,

OK,

Nobody say the small step thing.

After a few minutes balancing air pressures exactly,

The lander's side flipped down,

And five humans arrived on Aquanine.

At 1.

1 G,

They felt a little heavy at first,

But the air was a pleasant temperature.

June nearly gagged,

Though,

At the most overwhelming smell of rotten fish.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky,

And only a light breeze.

Even though they were near the equator,

And the sun was beating down on them,

The humidity from the ocean kept them cool.

What was most weird was the sound,

As there was none,

Until they heard what sounded like a whale's plume in the distance.

As they walked down the beach to the shore,

They had to step over a one-metre-high nanowall,

Which they thought was odd.

Before they could discuss it or question it,

They were surprised to be met by five dolphins.

Four they recognised,

And another young pup they didn't.

Kristin and Eva burst into floods of tears,

Put on snorkels,

And splashed into the oceans to greet them.

Batter and Tamu would have been crying too,

If they'd had tear ducts.

Meet Tamu,

He's my new son,

Said Tamu,

Not mentioning who his father was.

Hello,

Tamu.

I'm Kristin.

We have missed you all so much.

Eva signalled to Kristin that she could hear them too.

So welcome to home,

Home,

Announced Batter.

Is it true that all life on earth has perished?

Sadly,

It is,

Confirmed Eva.

Please,

She could speak and be heard too.

But when we left,

We started a new colony on Mars,

Said Kristin.

My grandmother lost contact with them when we entered your solar system.

Your grandmother is here too?

Asked Tamu.

If I had known,

I would have insisted that she came down to meet us too.

Eva butted in.

That's not possible,

I'm afraid,

But a little hard to explain.

So can we at least meet with your mother?

Asked Tamu.

Kristin stood up in the shallow water and beckoned Freya to come to join them.

Hello,

Freya.

I know you can hear us too,

Said Tamu.

I can indeed.

Lovely to meet you,

Said Freya.

Can you and I speak in private?

Asked Tamu.

Only if you know how to speak with me,

With nobody else listening,

Said Freya.

We just did.

Tamu then spoke to the girls.

We two mothers have something to talk about.

Can you play with Samu?

Oh,

And ask Lucky about the dome.

June and Lee had already been inspecting this dome,

Which was a virtual replica of the biodome on the moon base and in the canyon.

It was fully equipped,

And it looked like they wouldn't even need the tents.

The nanobots here must be entangled with those from Earth,

The moon and Mars,

Said Lee.

How else could they know?

We must get Kristin to ask them,

Said June,

As they walked down to the water's edge,

Only to see the girls coming to meet them,

Along with Samu and Baku.

Lucky has told us we must see the dome he's designed for us,

Said Eva.

You will love it,

Shouted Lee.

It's just like home.

While the twins explored the dome,

Tamu and Freya were in the shallows,

But in deep conversation.

So how many generations do you think?

Asked Freya.

We think just two,

Replied Tamu.

So our grandchildren,

We'll be able to make together?

Tamu said.

That's what we've been told.

By whom?

Asked Freya.

Actually,

That's what we were hoping you might know,

Said Tamu.

Shall I go and tell Shen?

Freya didn't wait for the answer.

She was on her feet in the shallow water,

And heading for the lander to get on comms.

Why didn't you tell me?

She asked.

I only found out when I came out of suspension,

Shen explained.

Now you know more about it than I do.

Freya knew not to shoot the messenger.

So when are you planning to come down?

Stay down there for at least two nights and we'll flip,

Said Shen.

Let me know if you find out any more.

Chapter 100 Extraction No Time Left That evening,

Eva cooked them all a sumptuous meal,

Using the supplies from Hog 1.

Shen had advised them not to eat any fish from the ocean until June had completed some tests.

Freya kept her thoughts to herself,

Since she was brought out of suspension and realised the six of them were alive,

But the only humans in this part of the galaxy.

She'd been troubled.

While she knew the twins could possibly conceive,

So long as they hadn't been overly irradiated,

She knew their offspring wouldn't be able to mate with each other.

Tamu had given her some welcome,

If not bizarre news.

She knew she'd have to see Shen face to face to discuss the ramifications.

When they awoke the next day,

The water around the lagoon was nearly boiling with shoals of fish.

Green turtles were everywhere on the beach.

Whales were blowing and breaching outside the reef.

There must have been 10 or more pods of bottlenose dolphins,

Leaping over 30 metres into the air.

Even the whales were getting as high as 10 metres out of the aquiline ocean.

A few hammerhead sharks had wandered right in,

But the dolphins had told the apex predators to stay well away.

It seemed both word and smells had got around quickly.

They all got in the water that morning.

Freya was keen to continue her conversation with Tamu.

June and Lee were about to discover what it was like to talk to dolphins.

While Pata and Baku engaged with the boys and Eva,

Lucky took Christine a little further out,

With her holding his fin over to an outer reef.

So can you ask your father if I can see inside your ship,

He asked,

But keep this between us.

Up to now,

The only ships he'd heard about had been the floating variety from Dongting Lake and the Yangtze in the stories shared by his parents.

He was fascinated to see one that could float through the stars,

As well as one that was built using the nanotechnology that he had become so adept at manipulating.

Take me back while they're all busy and I will ask,

She replied.

Christine was surprised that Shen had no objection,

And it sounded like Jia was expecting the request.

Let Lucky know we will have a pod filled with aquinine exactly at the centre point of the lower face of the upper tet that is looking down at the planet,

She said.

Shen confirmed the length of the pod is exactly 2.

5 metres and the centre point 1.

5 metres in from the surface.

It is orientated vertically exactly with the triangle of the landing pad and the centre point of our ship is exactly 333,

333.

333 kilometres above you.

We'll be expecting him at midnight,

Said Jia.

Christine had not twigged yet how Lucky was to make the trip,

And wondered if she was to instruct Jun or Li to take him in the lander.

The penny dropped when she entered the water to pass on the details to Lucky.

OK,

When you get back,

Let them know I will port in then when my parents are asleep,

Lucky told her.

Say nothing to anyone.

That night,

Christine couldn't sleep.

She'd experienced porting from one area of water to another and now knew it was even possible from planet to planet.

The precision required so Lucky didn't port into the wall of Hog 1 or the vacuum of space was frightening.

She needn't have worried though.

Once Lucky locked on to the pod,

The successful migration of the molecules of synthetic aquanine from Hog 1 told him he was spot on.

One second after midnight,

He ported successfully.

Welcome to the heart of gold,

Said Jia.

So you must be the grandmother Christine told my mother about,

Said Lucky.

Jia sensed he was as sharp as Shen when he was the same age.

The pod's lid was open so Lucky could look around.

But where are you?

See the golden cube under the pilot's seat,

Said Jia.

That's where I am.

I am in the walls too,

And every single nanophone.

And that is your son Shen,

Asked Lucky,

Referring to the figure on the seat who was beaming from ear to ear,

Having witnessed his first live teleport.

Shen said,

Jia,

Can you get in your pod so Lucky can talk to you directly?

Shen obliged and smiled even more when immersion came with communication.

He didn't realise the Q computer was performing an instant translation for him,

With Jia's help.

It is such an honour to meet you,

Shen.

My father and mother have told me you designed this ship yourself,

Said Lucky.

Well,

I had a lot of help,

But the concept for the drive was mine,

Said Shen modestly.

Jia admonished him.

Have you forgotten those nights at the Seven Immortals when you got some help with that too?

Lucky sensed Jia was not to be messed with,

And got Shen to explain the inner and outer workings of the ship to him.

At around 3am AST,

Aquanine Standard Time,

Jia suggested Shen and Lucky try an experiment by getting some sleep and seeing if they could pick up on each other's dreams.

We might be able to get some insight on why you are both here,

Having come such vastly different routes,

She suggested.

At 3.

33am AST,

Jia said silently,

Initiating Sequence Zero.

At this exact time,

Down on Aquanine,

Both Tamu and Freya respectively woke with a start,

And with a deep sense of foreboding.

The lids on the pods that Shen and Lucky were sleeping in closed silently,

Cannulas were inserted to put the human and dolphin into suspension.

They both knew nothing.

The upper and lower tets separated,

And the upper tet left orbit.

Jia had extracted essences of Shen and Lucky,

And put them into the entanglement engine.

The soul waves were locked on.

With no restrictions on g-force,

Jia put the upper tet into maximum rotation.

They were heading straight for the heart of Aquanine's home star.

It took less than an hour to pass through the corona of the star.

The rotational speed meant the ship sliced through the star's mass like a hot knife through butter.

It was rotating so fast that it created a clear vortex around the ship,

And a bow wave in front of it,

So the ship was unaffected by the heat of stellar fusion.

Three minutes after crossing the surface of the star,

The heart of gold passed through the event horizon of the black hole at the star's centre.

They were back in the void.

Lucky and Shen then awoke,

And sensed ten other intelligences around them,

All appearing as twinkling points of light.

Counsellor Seven spoke for the first time in Bellenia by herself.

Welcome back,

Counsellors Four and Six.

In unison,

Ten counsellors chimed,

Directed at the consciousness that was Jia,

And a warm welcome to Counsellor Thirteen.

In all the twinkling of the welcoming lights,

None of them noticed that Counsellor Three ascended to the higher council.

In this particular universe,

Everything was driven by the number Twelve.