Help Earth

By Hunur Bindra

May 16, 2053. A world is full of high technology and a harmful environment. People are not looking happy and jolly. Kids are looking ill, and 20-year-olds look 40 because of the pollution. There are still no flying cars, but communication technology has improved. For the past decade, space scientists have been working on a mission. In the year 2030, Georgel Linkin, a world-renowned scientist invented an engine that could go 1200 times the speed of light. It was a revolutionary invention. Human space travel could now reach limits never achieved and it opened a lot of possibilities for space-related discoveries. He and a brilliant team of scientists made a telescope far stronger than the successor of Hubble called the Omega telescope. It was called The Ponski Telescope. It could detect planets farther than our galaxy in seconds and had the potential to catch any possible radio transmissions coming from outer space. Linkin was considered the genius of the century by many brilliant people. Unfortunately, the world lost this brilliant mind in 2038, when he died of an explosion from his lab. The explosion had destroyed everything in his lab and left no prints of what he was working on. All they found were some blueprints and a sketch which both looked to be of a giant dome machine that had chambers inside it with people in it. When the image and blueprints were analyzed thoroughly, it was discovered that it was some sort of cryogenic freeze chamber which could potentially be used to freeze humans forever. They would not have to eat or drink, and they also wouldn’t age until they were brought out of the chamber. Once again Georgel gad proved he was one of the greatest minds to ever exist. The brilliant scientists all over the world started working on this, to make this a reality. But on May 16, 2042, 4 years after Georgel had died and left the world with the fact that one of the most desired sci-fi discoveries could be a reality in the near future, a major event happened. The Ponski telescope had picked up a signal but since it was set to listen to way farther than any human technological piece had reached, the signal could only mean one thing. It was something extra-terrestrial. The scientists observing the telescope were in extreme shock. Had they just witnessed the first alien interactions humans ever had? Or was this just an elaborately genius prank? Does that mean that the human race is in danger? They didn’t know. A team of scientists immediately started working on this. They tried to decode this message. They tried to figure out a pattern. They tried everything. The message was decoded successfully, and it didn’t mean anything just a random set of beeps that came from a civilization far away. Potentially not even from this universe. The information in this message was not released in public yet. So, the leader of the science team who had found this wanted humans to go on a USJ (Unpredictable Space Journey). Only one of these had been done yet and that was when Raj Chowdhary and Brady Smith were sent to the edge of our solar system in 2025. A USJ is a journey through space where the astronauts are on their own without any help from the Earth. These astronauts had to survive on their own in the outer reaches of space without any help. Anything could go wrong at any time. It was a huge risk, and it needed the government’s permission. An appeal was sent but it was denied. After years and years of waiting. The appeal was reassigned, and it as discussed among the ministers and the leader of the space organization that heard and decoded the space message was there. He said, “Sir the opportunity is impeccable. We have the chance to take human technology to the next level. If these aliens are advanced in technology, humans can maybe even reach levels high up to type 4 civilization, and right now we are barely even 2. Actually, we have just crossed type 1. It will take us 200 years before we even reach type 2. But these aliens have the capability to send messages to us from millions of lightyears away. We need to do this.” One of the ministers said, “We get your point but how can you ensure that these astronauts you send in space are going to be safe how do you know that this mission could give them a hint that we exist and they, with their advanced technology, will come to earth and take over us. A lot depends on this mission we need confirmation that these aliens are not harmful and looking for planets to take over. We cannot expect them to be safe as we have no idea what they look like. We might not even be able to see them.” This statement was agreed by everyone. They could not predict what was out there. But then he replied, “Sir, I don’t believe in God. But what I do believe in is that we get what we work for. We earn everything and everyone. I believe that there is a higher power that is watching us and waiting for us to make the right decision. It has given us a chance and it’s up to us to now grab it and hit it right out of the park or be cowards and loosed the biggest chance at being one of the higher beings of the universe humanity has ever gotten. A famous Indian prime minister and a fellow Scientist named. “A.P.J. Abdul Kalam” once said “Look at the sky, we are not alone, the whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.”” This was enough to change the mind of everyone and the project was given a green light. A team was assigned to the leader whose name was, Patrick Griffin. His original team and a new set of engineers and scientists were assigned to Patrick. He had the fate of humanity in his hands. They worked on it for several years and in the year 2052 10 years after the signal everything was ready. 11 people were chosen to go on this mission and were told that they could potentially die. Even if they had backups for all the things and backups for all the backups, space is unexpected and they know nothing about it, so anything can happen. Their journey didn’t have an ending.

Next year on October 11, 2053, the spaceship was launched, and it was the biggest moment of Patrick’s life. As soon as he realized that there was a disaster. They had lost communication. It was too early for them to be far enough to have lost communications. Everything was tested and it was clear that they were on their own a bit earlier. Patrick hadn’t lost hope yet, but he was starting to. All he could do was pray that those astronauts were ok. Those astronauts were so deep into space that there were speculations they might return thousands of years later as they might go through a black hole and time travel to the future.

The spaceship was hurtling through space and the astronauts inside were not panicking as they knew it wouldn’t help. Soon they disappeared into the vast space.

2 years later in 2055, the team of scientists who were working on the cryogenic freeze chambers left unfinished by Georgel Linkin, were finished and had the product ready. When this news was cast worldwide, people went crazy. They were calling it the sci-fi era. All these things which were once thought to be fiction were now a reality.

On April 12, 2055, On Twitter, one guy whose username was “BANANAKILLER_ *@”, tweeted something that would soon change the whole world literally. He tweeted, “I don’t know much about this cryogenic freeze chamber, but I think I have a crazy idea. As we know the Earth is dying, so what if we gave it time to heal. What if all humanity was to go in this cryogenic freeze chamber and not wake up for like a thousand years? This would give the earth the time to heal and then we can rebuild and enjoy the earth as a new planet. It’s like a new world button for a game.”

This tweet took the whole world by storm. The world’s most brilliant minds and famous personalities were all supporting this tweet. It was trending all over the world in less than 1 hour. #SleepForEarth. The person behind this tweet was an 18-year-old kid named Ash Bindra from Canada. He was called on many shows and interviewed. He explained that the idea came randomly as he was sitting at home. He saw the tweet and it just clicked.

When the news reached the authorities, they were stumped. The whole world supported this, but it was not easy to do. They needed to know whether we should do it or not. Letters were sent out to the leaders of all the countries for them to sign if agreeing. Yes, it is all in motion. The leaders sat down with their ministers discussing this. Choices were made and many disagreed.

But this didn’t stop them. All the countries who agreed were ordered to choose a set of engineers to build a dome in every state in the country to hold all the citizens and all the structural diagrams and blueprints were sent. With the future’s advanced technologies, it didn’t take them more than 11 years to make all the domes in all the states of all the countries. But 5 months before the construction was complete there was a warning. The doomsday clock located in berlin was now at an all-time close at 1.31 seconds. The earth could end any day now. This now forced a lot of people to reconsider the decision to not go in the cryogenic freeze chambers in their cities. Billions of people changed their decision and agreed to participate. But this decision had to be unanimous. On October 19, 2066, Ash Bindra got up on stage and he had a couple of words to say to the public. He said, “So, everyone is pretty scared aren’t ya? (Nervous laughter). I know a thing or two about nervousness. Trust me I have had a lot of stuff happen to me. I became worldwide famous at the age of 18. I had no idea what to do with my life. I didn’t know what I would be or who I would want to become. But I knew one thing, it was up to me to save this world. Now you might be like “What were you going to do at the age of 18? You couldn’t possibly change the world.” But as you can see, I am here standing on this stage. Now, why did I tell you this story? Well today, I was pissed. And this anger inside of me was from the day all of you denied. Do you know why you are still here? It’s because this planet was there for you. Humans have always destroyed this planet. Wars, conflicts, nuclear bombs. For personal gain, we have polluted earth so much we cannot even imagine how toxic it is to breathe without nostril enhancers. This planet has held humanity like a child on its back for the past 4.5 billion years. Can you imagine? 4.5 billion? There is not a single thing we humans have done for the earth to save it. Just imagine, your mother has taken care of you since you were born. She never let anything harm you from the outside. She fed you and gave you a home. She made your life what it is today and never asked for anything in return but just to not change her for what she is. But you didn’t listen, you went on and shaped her like you wanted her to be. You harmed her for your own benefit and when she was down and needed your help you denied it. SHE DIDN’T ASKED YOU TO DO ANYTHING BUT TO LEAVE HER ALONE FOR SOME TIME WITHOUT YOU GETTING ANY HARM SAFE AND SOUND IN A SPACESHIP AND WHAT DID YOU DO? DENY? Humanity was supposed to be earth’s greatest accomplishment and you have become its greatest toxin. The earth is your mother and all she is asking for is a little bit of time and you won’t even have to wait it will be like a blink of an eye for you. So, please I beg you today, help Earth. Everybody at their houses, if you are listening to this, go out and shout, “Help Earth” I want to see everyone do this. Thank you Earth for doing so much for us, now it’s our turn.” As soon as he finished, he saw people around the stage were coming out of their houses and chanting, “Help Earth”. Ash was extremely happy. He had tears coming out of his eyes. They needed this speech. People around the world were signing up. People were judged for not signing up and there was eventually no one left. They were all about to leave earth for 6000 years and let it all heal.

The day of the reckoning had come, Patrick had decided to stay on earth as he wanted to pay for killing those astronauts. So, he never signed up. Everyone around the world got in the domes and they took a pill and went into the cryo-pod. Each person was assigned a random set of numbers that would tell where they came from in case they got lost in space. All the domes were then launched in space and Patrick stayed on the ground. He lived alone for the next 2 months then got eaten by a bear who had come out on the streets as all the humans were gone (not so happy ending for him, I guess.).

The earth finally had time to heal. It was happy and content. She finally rested.

By Hunur Bindra