Sunday, July 29, 2007

The Frozen Earth 1

Humanity's quest for knowledge and power devastated Earth's surface, and those that could fled to the ocean depths. Others were forced to survive in what remained of habitable land, and then, after many generations passed, ocean and surface dwellers meet anew.


Read The Frozen Earth 1






Disclaimer: Nothing much to disclaim. I got stuck on the fourth part so it is yet unfinished, but I hope to correct that one day.



The Frozen Earth
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson




It began with just one single thing. In the evolution of science and research man had managed to split the atom and all its parts into so many tiny particles that eventually, perhaps by coincidence, it seemed that the very core of life itself had been discovered.

It was a great breakthrough and media greedily gobbled up the news and blasted it far and wide. The areas within which this force could be useful once harnessed would be endless for humanity... even if many protested the manipulation of something so inherently sacred. People said that the scientists had fallen prey to vanity and delusions of grandeur, daring to play God, and many marched in the streets protesting loudly with all their might. It didn’t help. It was said that the experiment would be safe, and the laboratory where the event took place was located far away from any towns, leaving humanity to follow the course of events through the stationary cameras placed inside the lab by news teams.

What happened was a simple mistake. A mistake as small and innocent as can be, but it was enough. It took not three whole seconds for the reaction to come, and once it began it spread with such an unfathomable velocity that it appeared as if what happened had occurred simultaneously.

The entire continent where the laboratory had been located was completely wiped out. All liquids vaporized and lifted to the skies, instants before everything was turned into ashes and hurled up to create a thick heavy cloud of black dust that enveloped the Earth. All that was left was a smoking, barren crater that would never again support any kind of life.

When this had happened the forces at play hurled outwards like a giant shockwave towards the rest of the planet. It created giant tidal waves that swallowed all landmass along coasts and pulled entire island nations down into the ocean. The winds levelled cities and forests, and even caused mountains to crumble in on themselves. Once the destruction finally abated more than two thirds of all mankind had died in the devastation, alongside uncountable natural resources, plants and animal life. Paralyzed with shock the survivors struggled out of the ruins and tried to understand what had happened. But the cataclysmic disaster did not end there.

What plant life that had managed to survive the shockwave began to wither and die, followed by the animals that fed upon it. The weather quickly turned drastically colder as the sun could no longer penetrate the thick cloud of ash to warm the Earth, and then the black snow began to fall. And it continued to fall for a very long time. When roughly a month had passed and the black snowfall still did not abate, scientists among the survivors came to the conclusion that it would be impossible for mankind to survive this way. Earth was rapidly heading towards another ice age, and worse, the radiation that saturated everything would soon poison the surviving shreds of humanity beyond recovery if they remained on land for much longer.

Since mankind had lost any hope to make its escape among the stars in the destruction of the shockwave, salvation instead was sought for in the depths of the sea. Companies had previously attempted with great success to create work colonies on the bottom of the sea, where various metals were extracted and processed, and also where large heavywater reactors created energy for cities on the surface. Although several of these colonies had been destroyed, several others had remained largely intact as the effects of the catastrophe had not penetrated further down than the upper levels of the oceans. For the same reasons the cold and the radiation would not penetrate to the bottom of the sea as much, and after a brief period of consideration it was decided that the survivors would seek refuge in the colonies on the bottom of the sea until such time as the surface world was once again safe to be populated.

The reconstruction and expansion of the colonies began at once, so that they would be large enough to house all those who would dwell there. As soon as it was at all possible the remnants of mankind moved down to squeeze into these colonies until their continuing underwater construction had provided cities under the sea in which for the survivors to live for generations to come.

But this only applied to the survivors of large cities and wealthier areas. Those that in their confusion had drifted along the new coastlines or those that were hidden away in wilder or poorer areas were left behind on the surface. These forgotten people naturally drifted towards the coast in the same manner as the animals did as the ice began covering more and more of the land, and they learned how to survive there.

Without access to the technology that mankind had been so dependant upon, these surface people were forced to return to a way of life that was more reminiscent of the hunter/gatherer society their ancestors had once developed. People gathered into small groups for survival, carving out a living off the animals they learned to kill, and took shelter from the cold together.

In an alarming short period of time radiation wreaked havoc upon the landscape, mutating it and all in it. In the span of only a handful of generations the animals had changed by the radiation and the climate, until they barely bore any resemblance to their origins at all. The same was true for plant life, forced to evolve into something different to survive both the radiation and the lack of sunlight. Humans changed as well, in order to better survive this harsh life. They grew shorter in stature and more muscular, more compact with stronger limbs and more hair to endure the harsh cold and the great physical trials they were constantly put through. Their skin grew ashen pale from the lack of sun and from the cold, as the blood vessels in the skin gradually came to be located further in under the now thick and slightly leathery skin. Eyes became larger and darker and their eyesight keener, better suited to the everlasting night that was theirs. Women carried their babies longer before birth so that the children were born larger and stronger than before, giving them a slightly better chance at surviving those precarious first years in their harsh world.

In this society that evolved monetary means had of course long ago lost any meaning or value. Those that might have paper of whatever kind had in the beginning of this new life used it to create fires to survive the cold, and these descendants of the survivors had no memory and no need for such things. They hunted and gathered what they needed, and would trade goods between tribes in those rare cases that tribes interacted and there was an object one lacked.
Unlike their ancestors, these tribes developed a matriarchal rule, since the basic outlook on life was that children were a tribe’s greatest asset, and since the women carried the children, they were seen as natural leaders. The lifespan of the surface dwellers was also drastically altered, shortened greatly by the difficult life they led, which in turn meant that those that had survived to old age were greatly respected and well cared for even though they could no longer hunt nor contribute much in terms of work for the tribe’s survival. Knowledge was respected, and it fell upon the elders to teach the young of their own experiences in life, and carry the tales of old onto a new generation.

After a number of generations the black clouds began to lighten, and the perpetual night finally was chased away by the weakest touch of dusk. The surface dwellers had to once again learn how to live with light, even as weak as this, especially as after a hundred years this weak dusk became strong enough to be noticeable during the summer days. The surface dwellers adapted, and life continued.

At this point in time the ocean dwellers began to send up probes and vessels to the surface to gather materials for their research and to determine how long it would take until the surface world would once more be habitable to them. Their scientists were working on means by which to speed up the process, and for this samples were greatly needed.

The meeting between surface dwellers and the citizens of the sea was a bloody one; both sides convinced that the others were monsters or demons, by that time so different from one another that neither would recognise the other as human beings. Every time the ocean dwellers would come ashore to gather materials the surface dwellers would attack in fear of the foreign creatures, and every time the ocean dwellers would go ashore they first strived to cleanse the area from the violent beasts so that their scientist crew could collect their samples. Sometimes they even sought out the surface dwellers in the purpose of taking their children away to the bottom of the sea for studies, just another sample among many.

In the cities at the bottom of the ocean humanity appeared to have escaped the mutations created by the powerful radiation on the surface, and to begin with the colonies flourished. Everyone worked hard to build the underwater cities that would house, feed and support all of them, and still have room for the increase in population that would be inevitable. The old mining facilities and heavywater reactors provided all the raw materials and the energy needed for all of them, and great greenhouses were created to grow their food. These greenhouses also became sanctuaries where people could go to dream of days on the surface, of plants and grass and blue skies. The artificial almost-sunlight of the colonies gave them all a perpetual day, protecting them against the unending darkness that pressed in upon them by the blackness of the ocean outside their golden city domes, and never did the people at the bottom of the sea experience complete darkness in their lives.

Since they were always surrounded by artificial light, people slowly, unnoticed, began loosing their night vision, and as the great air processing plants created completely pure processed air, indeed everything they came in contact with, their food, clothes and objects, was sterilised, their immune defence was affected. It passed by unnoticed, everyone seemed instead to be remarkably healthy as no-one ever got a cold or flu, or any other disease of that kind. It was not until several generations later when people suddenly took ill without showing signs of any known disease that the complete lack of an immune defence was discovered. Samples from the surface were needed in order to gather a bacterial flora that could over time restore the deficiency in those that had it. Generations under the artificial sunlight also affected the colouring of hair and skin, giving all the bottom dwellers slightly olive skin tone due to the even and perpetual light, and a lack of pigmentation in hair making them almost uniformly blonde.

Just like in the world of the surface dwellers, the societies in ocean floor colonies had no use for money or any other form of currency. The first generations worked hard to build the cities in which they would live, and sustenance and other necessities of life were parcelled out equally between them. Once the cities had been built to the point that it would take several generations at least before they needed to expand them further the citizens were no longer required to work. Scientists of many kinds controlled the systems that created the food, the air, the water, the light and all necessary medicine, while a group of specialised engineers worked with the machines that handled all other things. People were required to attend a school system, although instead of teachers they were given computer systems that handled the teaching task and that gave each student an education adapted to his or her own learning capacity. It was administered through a relatively small machine put over the student’s head covering eyes, ears and forehead while the individual was still in his or her own home, which led to isolation from other students. A few were then chosen due to their intelligence or capability in other areas to be trained to be either a scientist or an engineer, but the majority of people were left without work.

To begin with the people that had previously slaved away so diligently in the colonies thought it was a utopian system, where everyone got their fair share of all they needed without having to work for a living. They spent their days with family and friends and enjoyed their new freedom. But later generations did not deal with their inactivity quite so well. Those with any kind of artistic talent would dedicate their lives and their time to this, and the cultural life flourished in the colonies. Everyone were very appreciative of art, theatre, music, indeed any kind of social event that could hope to ease the monotony of their existence. But after another few generations had passed, this drive lost power as the general viewpoint was that everything had already been done and in this humdrum existence they had no new ideas could be inspired. The ever-growing listlessness in society became a huge problem, as the suicide rate increased rapidly while all too few children were born.

Children could easily be created in the laboratories by scientists, to then be placed where needed even if the physical need for procreation seemed to fade more and more among the inhabitants of the colonies, but the real problem was that people had lost the will to live. It was reasoned that these massive depressions that spread among so many were caused by the fact that human beings were created for a certain amount of physical and mental activity, and those that did not get enough of these two would spiral down into depression inevitably leading to a desire to end it all in death, so in the hopes of fighting off this lethal affliction two separate domes were built.

One was a giant arena in which all the sports of old were recreated for their environment, in machines that tested people’s strength, speed, endurance, ability to jump high or far, even tested their combat ability. In time real competitions were arranged where people were able to vent long suppressed aggressive tendencies in games that entertained athletes and spectators alike. The second dome was a large arcade, where people plugged themselves into machines that allowed them to experience games of various kinds that created great mental activity and gave the illusion of physical activity as well. They granted adrenalin rushes and a feel of satisfaction if the player reached their goal and won the game, and it was possible to connect to other players and have tournaments in these games as well.

The strategy was a success and the suicide rate dropped drastically after the domes were opened, but consequently people became dependent upon these games, obsessed with them. Many died to begin with because they were constantly connected to the games in the arcade and forgot to eat or drink, until laws were implemented on how much and how often each citizen was allowed to use these games. This escapism became the reason for living for most, and all time not spent in the games was more or less spent waiting for the next opportunity to hook up to a game. Those that in fear of the addictive nature of the arcade games preferred to use the arena and real physical training eventually evolved into the elite troops of the colonies, those that were supplied with extensive combat training and weapons and brought on dangerous forays to the surface for the retrieval of samples.

The samples in question were needed both in hopes of developing means to aid the weakening physical condition of the colonists, especially the immune system, but also because it was necessary to find out how things were on the surface in order to calculate when they might be able to return to populate it once more. They wanted to know if there was a possibility to build domes on the surface as well that might block the dangerous radiation and allow people to live on the surface until the weather and radiation would allow for normal habitation. It proved to be a greater challenge than expected, and after the initial bloody encounters with the surface dwellers the colonist began to flock to the arena to be trained in combat techniques by those already proficient in them. The possibility to become skilled enough to be one of the guards on a mission to the surface was a new incentive that gave life to the colonies, and those in charge were compelled to make more and more foray missions to the surface, just to give people something to strive for, some meaning to their existence and something that did not involve them being lost in a fantasy world.

This would further the conflict between surface dwellers and ocean colonists, where both sides would be fighting for their survival, unable to even recognise the other as human beings, while above them the black clouds would slowly begin to disperse and the sun more and more began to reach down to touch the frozen Earth.


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