When the fleet of huge alien spaceships
arrived in the solar system, the most surprising thing was that they
ignored Earth for years, and focused on Mars.
For years scientists on Earth watched
the spaceships with excitement, using high-powered telescopes. Some of the alien spaceships kept
traveling back and forth between Mars and the moons of Jupiter. Some
of the spaceships released smaller shuttle craft, and those craft
then landed on Mars, later to return to the spaceships from which
they had come. There was one network of traffic back and forth
between Jupiter's moons and Mars, and another network of traffic back
and forth between the surface of Mars and the spaceships orbiting
Mars. Then scientists on Earth noticed that the spaceships were
building giant mirrors in orbit around Mars.
A few years later the scientists
noticed that the surface of Mars started to change dramatically.
Much of Mars' frozen carbon dioxide started to melt. Scientists
speculated that the giant mirrors were being used to beam solar
energy at Mars, and that this was why the frozen carbon dioxide was
melting. The melting of the frozen carbon dioxide produced a rise in
the temperature of Mars, due to the same greenhouse effect that was
happening on Earth to warm its temperatures.
When the latest United States space
probe landed on Mars, it found that the surface was much warmer than
it had been when previous space probes had landed. A few years
later, scientists detected that liquid water had appeared on the
surface of Mars.
The President of the United States
called a meeting at the White House to discuss what was going on.
“What the hell are they up to?”
asked the President.
“Apparently they are trying to
terraform Mars,” said the President's chief science adviser. “They
are trying to gradually make Mars more and more earth-like, to give
it a higher temperature and surface water. They seem to be bringing
various elements from the moons of Jupiter to Mars. The next step
will probably be to introduce plant life. Once that gets going, the
plants will release a lot of oxygen that will make the planet pretty
much like ours.”
“Why do you think they want to do
this?” asked the President. “Do you think they want to live on
Mars?”
“I think we should assume the worst,”
said General Jenkins, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “During
World War II, do you remember what happened before D-Day? The United
States spent years building up its forces in England, in preparation
for an invasion of France. These aliens are probably doing something
similar. They're probably using Mars as a great big staging area, as
a place where they will build up their forces, to prepare for an
invasion of Earth.”
“So we'll build up our forces to get
ready for a fight,” said the President.
The alien activity on Mars intensified,
and eventually astronomers noticed the first green specks on their
photographs of Mars. Gradually more and more of the surface of Mars
become the green color of vegetation and the blue color of liquid
water. Anxiety about the intentions of the aliens grew even greater.
Then finally one day a large fleet of
spaceships began traveling from Mars towards Earth. The spaceships
went into orbit around Earth. Landing craft emerged from these
spaceships, and the craft landed on the surface of Earth. From those
landing crafts emerged robots, which began working on some form of
construction.
“We need to destroy those things,”
urged General Jenkins.
“All in good time,” said the
President. “But let's wait a while to see what they're working
on.”
After a few weeks it became clear what
the alien robots were working on. They were building space elevators,
gigantic devices for rapidly moving cargo or people from the surface
of the Earth to an orbit in space, or the inverse. Once a space
elevator was built, people could go from Earth into space without
using a rocket, and could also come back from space to Earth without
using any spacecraft.
“This confirms my suspicions,” said
General Jenkins darkly. “They're building these space elevators so
they can rapidly move an army from space to the surface of our
planet. Once they're done with that, their invasion should begin. We
have to destroy those space elevators.”
The President authorized an attack, and
the US Air Force got busy assembling aircraft to be used for the
bombings. But then an alien spacecraft landed in New York, in front
of the United Nations building.
After three extraterrestrials emerged
from the alien spacecraft, they were approached by the US ambassador
to the UN.
“We know all about your plans for
conquering us,” said the ambassador. “We will fight you with all
our might.”
Then the largest of the
extraterrestrials spoke.
“You are wrong,” he said in a
strange, deep voice. “We are not here to destroy you. We are here
to save you.”
Inside the UN Building the three aliens
told the full story of why they had come from a distant star. Their
race had discreetly visited the Earth years ago, and had found
scientific proof that Earth was doomed to an ecological catastrophe
that would make it unlivable. There was a huge amount of frozen
methane in the Arctic and the tundras of Siberia. Global warming
on Earth would cause that methane to melt. Being a greenhouse gas
twenty times more dangerous than carbon dioxide, the methane would
cause a super-acceleration of global warming, which would raise the
planet's temperature to a level that would make the planet
uninhabitable.
“We have been terraforming Mars so
there could be a planet that your race could escape to,” explained
the extraterrestrials, “after the temperatures on your planet grow
too high.”
“And what about the space elevators?”
asked the ambassador.
“They are not for bringing our people
down to your planet,” said the extraterrestrial. “The space
elevators are for bringing your people into space, so that we can
take them to the newly habitable planet Mars.”
The news of the alien announcement
spread around the globe. Commentators lamented that mankind had got
itself into such a mess. Why had so many people continued to pursue
high-consumption lifestyles with a high carbon footprint, long after
the scientists had sounded the warning bells? If only people had
lived more simply, with less waste and extravagance, the coming
disaster could have been avoided.
For a while many did not believe the
aliens. But soon the frozen methane in Siberia and the Arctic started
to melt, causing temperatures around the world to skyrocket. It was
just as the aliens had predicted. The governments of Earth embraced
the alien plan for migrating humans to Mars.
Then the first people starting using
the space elevators to go into orbit, where they would board the
alien ships to go to Mars. But the space elevators did not have the
capacity to take all those who needed to go. The US government
estimated that only one tenth of Earth's population could be
saved before the planet got too hot to support life.
A lottery system was set up to
determine who would be allowed to go to safety on the new Mars, and
who would have to stay and die on the quickly warming Earth.
After getting the bad news that they
would have to stay on Earth, a group of very wealthy industrialists
decided to form a lobbying group that might change this result. They
hired Daniel Black, the most expensive and well-connected lobbyist in
Washington D.C. With a suitcase of cash and a bag of gold, Black was
able to gain a meeting with Peter Baker, an official at the White
House.
Baker listened to Black's slick
lobbying presentation on behalf of his wealthy clients.
“Well, I see the group of people you
represent are very, very special,” said Baker. “I checked out
twenty of them. Lots of big factory owners, and some incredibly
successful people. Globe-trotting billionaires with huge, sprawling
mansions, big fleets of cars, huge yachts, and private jets. Shades
of Jay Gatsby and William Randolph Hearst.”
“They're just the type of
super-successful people we'll need on Mars,” said Black. “So I'm
sure you'll agree that we need to make a special exception to allow
my clients to be part of the humans taken to Mars. What a waste to
let them die when Earth gets too hot.”
“No way,” said Baker coldly. “The
people you work for each put thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere, by wastefully pursuing extravagant high-consumption
lifestyles. They've already helped to ruin one planet, and I'm not
going to help them get their hands on another one. Tell your
billionaire buddies: you've made your bed, now lie in it. Or should I
say: fry in it.”
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