End of the World, Again.

        I dreamed, again, of the end of the world. There was a planetoid approaching, and the world had worked like crazy to prepare for it to arrive. It was predicted to slam into the moon after grazing our atmosphere, and the nature of what we could expect after that was uncertain. Our attempts to nudge the planetoid off its course were only partially successful.

        I found myself part of a “survival team” packing up information and preparing it to be sent into space with the people of the space ark. The plan was for the space ark to move into an orbit where they could keep an eye on earth and eventually return if there was something to return to. If not, they would attempt to keep their biosphere going as long as possible while working to make mars habitable. There were teams also headed out to the asteroids as well. We had also broadcast a distress call into space

        I was with M and S as we finished our “Save this” contribution. A helicopter, heavily armored, flew in with a long line to a pickup hook designed to connect only to the large orange “Save This” box. The box and its contents, documenting our lives and containing things we would want if we should survive, was keyed to an implant. If we didn’t survive, the contents would become public property, to be divided up amongst any survivors, or to be used by the ark inhabitants or their descendents.

        I knew there were hundreds of similar depositories being created all over the world, only select few people were allowed in those areas, any one not properly chipped and identified would be killed on sight. Four of us couples had arranged to put our writing and favorite texts, games, etc into the “Save This” cube. I had placed tree seeds in as well.  Really, there didn’t seem to be much point in anything else. Our lives were documented there, but I didn’t really know that we added anything that our descendents would actually be interested in. Their world was going to be either very much like ours now, or so different that they wouldn’t really have time for nostalgia. Getting plant life going again would be a pretty good thing.

        It seems there were news reports of mass suicides, and several smaller armies had formed and were trying to right ancient wrongs, or to take over fertile ground in potentially stable areas. We had secured about a year’s worth of rations, and seeds for grain and vegetables. I had my rifle and almost 3000 rounds of ammunition, for hunting or protection, we weren’t really sure. Our government had tried to disarm us, to the rifle an ammunition was buried in the back yard under a concrete slab, under the hot tub full of fresh water. I had invented a “Digging Room” and we planned to take refuge in that during the event.

I had built a cylinder with electric powered shovels that were designed to pull debris from the top and deposit it underneath. I remembered testing it and it essentially swam through loose rocky debris. It only had enough power to run for about 3 hours, so we didn’t have a lot of time if we ended up buried. It was also air tight, so we had about 12 hours with the eight of us inside. I had somehow acquired eight rollercoaster seats for furniture and they were in the crew compartment. Everything else we planned to take with us was packed in foam in sealed off sections of the room. I didn’t want any debris flying around if we got banged around. We were only waiting for the search team to allow us to go back inside the house, where I planned to dig up my rifle and pack it away. We had N’s computer hooked up in the digging room and planned, after watching the planetoid’s shock waves ripple through the upper atmosphere, to race to the room and seal ourselves in. We had talked our breeders into staying in the room as soon as contact was reported. Us non-breeders were planning on staying topside for at least part of the show. My real worry was that the debris from the moon slam would cause so much damage to the atmosphere and ocean that the planet would not be habitable, even if we survived.

        We all had our government supplied suicide tablets, just in case. I knew that I would never use mine. I was trying to be optimistic about seeing the fireworks when the planetoid struck the moon. We were on the opposite side of the world from where the atmosphere rub was going to take place. But I figured we’d be feeling the heat from that if the shock wave didn’t kill us outright.

        The video feed of the atmosphere collision was amazing. The planetoid was oblong, and drag caused it to start spinning, making less of a gauge in the atmosphere than was expected. We decided to high-tail it to the digging room when the video blanked as 200 plus MPH winds were being reported around the world.

Ad astra per technica,

FF