History of the Future

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,
so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”
Romans 15:4

A Brief History of Earth’s Future

y the year 2094, the air pollution on Earth had become so great that citizens had to wear breather masks when outside. More and more of the worlds farmland was used for the ever-growing population. Crops were difficult to grow, cattle and game became sick and died, and food became scarce. Crime rose as the resources dwindled.

In November of 2094, astronomers discovered a promising habitable planet 1.3 parsecs from Earth, which would take more than 177,000 years of travel. For the new World Government to preserve humanity and send a colony ship to this new world, they needed a way to either get there a lot faster or to put the passengers into a cold sleep. The World Government gathered thirty-six of the top engineers and scientists from around the world to work on the daunting problem. They studied cold sleep, generational ships, and other means of transportation, such as faster than light, folding space, or creating magnetic wormholes.

Twelve years later, 2106, those scientists had a working cold sleep bed, but the beds were bulky, required consistent monitoring, and no one was sure they would last a 177,000-year journey. More promising, however, was the design of jump engines that could fold space and move a ship a maximum of 250 million kilometers instantly, then the engines would then need to recharge for twenty hours. This meant the 177,000-year trip would now only take 160 to 180 days.

After five years of successful testing, in 2111, the government built a colony ship with jump engines. A call went out to the citizens of Earth to name the new planet. The winning name was Jahrl, which stands for “Jump Accessible Haven for Renewed Life.” Thus, Jahrl became Earth’s first colony.

The colony ship, Alpha, was stocked with seeds, livestock, technology, and everything else the colonists would need to start a new colony. Then on January 5, 2112, a million people from around the world boarded Alpha and launched for Jahrl. Between two return trips an additional two million people went to Jahrl.

Three years later, Nikola Lakosi discovered another earth-like planet, which became the second Earth colony, named Lakosi for its founder.

By 2285, Earth had four thriving colonies, Jahrl, Lakosi, Haven, and Nodar.

In 2328 astronomers discovered an asteroid heading straight for Earth. It was 97.6 kilometers in diameter, which was more than eight times bigger than the one that killed the dinosaurs. The asteroid was named Perses after the Titan god of destruction in Greek mythology.

By 2355, numerous attempts to destroy or move the asteroid had failed. Jovan Levitsky, a self-made multi-billionaire, used his resources to build a larger colony ship, which held five million people. He launched his colony ship, Acharon, on December 29, 2356, for the newest planet that astronomers had found. He named the fifth colony planet Amarise, which in Hebrew means Given by God.

Then on March 5, 2357, Perses hit Earth approximately 100 kilometers off the west coast of Hawaii. The resulting explosion, not only killed all life on Earth instantly, but broke the earth into millions of asteroids orbiting Sol.

Over the next three years, the five colonies came together and formed the Commonwealth of Federated Colonies (CFC). Jahrl was chosen as the government seat as it was the first colony. Each colony would be granted autonomy provided that they didn’t violate their citizen’s rights or contradict CFC laws.

The Ranger Corps formed the following year as the CFC’s police force. The colonies all have a ground force of Rangers. The Rangers also patrol the space between and around each colony.

As each colony had its own orbit that meant they each had their own calendar and clock as well making it difficult for the citizens of CFC to coordinate with Jahrl and the other colonies. Once again, all the colonies came together and voted to have one standard calendar and clock. Some voted to use Earth’s standard, but the majority chose to use a new system as the standard time and begin a new era for humankind.

As Jahrl was the government seat, their local time was used to set up a standard calendar using the idea of Earth’s Julian calendar. A 420-day calendar was established with 42 weeks of 10 days each. Each day has 30 hours of 50 minutes each. The work week was increased to eight days with a two-day weekend.

It was then decided to back date the new calendar to the day of Earth’s destruction. As March 5 is the 64th day of the Earth calendar, the official record states that the Earth was destroyed on March 5, 2357, AD by the old calendar, and on 001.064 AE (after Earth) by the new calendar. By the year 275, the Commonwealth consisted of sixteen colonies and thirteen space stations for either the Rangers or for research.