Prologue
By: Matthew Woodall
Tags: Science, Exitum, Science Fiction, Fiction, Series

“Good evening, citizens of the world. I speak to you tonight not as the President of the United States, but as the spokesperson for these world leaders.”

The President paused while the cameras swept over the faces of the world leaders behind and beside her. The UN General Secretary sat at her right, while the leader of the European Union sat at her left. Beside them were the leaders of every major country around the world — along with many minor ones.

As the camera focused back on the President, she tucked a strand of her deep brown hair behind her ear before taking a breath.

“We have met together in person for this past week in order to discuss the situation that we find ourselves in as a global community. What you are about to hear is the result of those meetings, and this statement has been signed by each and every person you see with me today.”

The media had been abuzz about hundreds of world leaders and their top aides meeting in a secluded resort in the hills of Malaysia. Armed police and international security forces had roamed the city for a month before the meeting, trying to ensure the safety of everyone. While they couldn’t be seen or heard inside the meeting room, an invisible barrier had been placed around the area. An international group of Peacekeepers provided the “boots on the ground” supported by a vast army of land- and air-based drones, carrier groups from Russia, the UK, Japan, and the US. Watching over all of it were several satellites and international monitoring teams to ensure that the same information was available to everyone.

It was a measure of how seriously the world was taking this issue that former enemies were now embedded in each others’ most secure facilities in an attempt to ensure the safe conclusion of this meeting.

“The warnings about our changing climate have been sounding for decades and we ignored them,” she continued. “We said that it was too expensive, that it would hurt the economy and cost jobs, and we were wrong. For years, people passed the problem on to the next generation, assuming that a new technology or some other advance would save us. We are now acutely aware that we have passed the buck once too often.”

The president’s voice continued as images began to play across the screens behind her and in place of her image in broadcasts. “Despite our best efforts, we have seen cities drown, flood prevention structures destroyed by massive tides, and entire cities wiped off the map during major storms.”

Behind her, images of flooded cities around the world flashed across the screens. Miami’s famous art deco buildings sitting along streets that looked more like canals. Images of the ill-fated evacuation of New Orleans when the levee system finally collapsed. A massive streak of debris across the former site of the Philippine capital, Luzon — destroyed a few years ago in a record-setting typhoon. The city of Vladivostok sitting forever entombed in a casing of ice after ice storms that lasted over a month.

These images were commonplace for people across the globe. They had grown accustomed to seeing them in their newsfeeds and in the endless news cycles that continued to plague the world. Despite being desensitized to the individual images, seeing them strung together brought the totality of climate change into start focus for everyone watching.

Everywhere around the world, things slowly began to grind to a halt as more people tuned into the President’s broadcast. In an unprecedented move, it was being simultaneously broadcast over every single available method — including breaking into shows on the once-indomitable streaming services.

As word slowly filtered through the world, more and more people tuned in around the world. People who had been fast asleep were awoken by insistent calls from those who were awake.

In San Juan, Puerto Rico — the United States’ 51st State — labourers put down their tools and heavy equipment fell silent. The city was trying to rebuild itself after being devastated by two Category 5 hurricanes this year. A decade ago there would have been dozens of agencies on the ground trying to help, but the relentless pace of disasters in the past decade had thoroughly depleted the disaster relief and response resources of organizations around the world.

The President’s ochre-coloured eyes looked somber as she continued.

“It has become apparent that we have grievously injured our world, and that we no longer have time to change our course — we must put the brakes on before we collide with the end of humanity. There is no road left for us, if we don’t stop now then we face the extinction of every person on earth.”

She paused. “This may sound like hyperbole, but we have been assured by scientists around the world that we are out of options. They have shown us the research, walked us through it step by step, and clearly explained it all. All of those documents, every piece of research, every position paper, every video, every slide deck, every single piece of evidence for climate change that has helped inform this decision is now available to every single person on earth.”

“This information, the work that went into making this decision, and every other piece of information about climate change — public and private — are being published to the web as I speak.”

Thanks to the latest 6G technology, the rush of info-bots that flooded the nets in search of the information to gather it for thousands of scientists and billions of private citizens didn’t interrupt the broadcast. After being declared an essential service in 2022, the World Wide Web had finally started to resemble a global web with connections and nodes all over the world.

“If we are to ensure the survival of our species beyond the next generation or two, then we must think bigger than our biggest dreams. What we are about to propose is perhaps bigger than anyone except science fiction writers have dared to dream.”

“Collectively,” she gestured at the people around her “we have chosen to undertake a mission to restore our world. While we can never return to the legendary garden of Eden, we can bring our world back into balance and make it a place where people can thrive again.”

“In order to do that,” she continued, “we need to relieve some of the stress on our systems here on Earth. While we haven’t been all together on this world since Oct. 31, 2000 what we are proposing now is far beyond the relatively small number of people who are on board the International Space Station, or at Station Luna.”

She paused and looked directly at the camera as if addressing everyone on earth individually at the same time.

“In 2042, we will launch the first settlement expedition to Mars. This won’t be a survey or exploratory expedition. This will be composed of people from all walks of life who will create a sustainable colony on Mars.”

“As soon as this address is over, millions of people around the world will find themselves focusing on new priorities. Effective immediately, any resource that is necessary to achieve this will become the property of the Mars Coalition — a collective of countries, companies, and individuals who will work to achieve the goal of establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars.”

“Twelve years from now, we will work to relieve the pressure on this planet by creating habitable space on another planet. We won’t all be going, but we hope that enough of us will be able to go that we can create some breathing room here on Earth.”

The President looked up and smiled gently. “I’m sure you all have questions, lots of questions. I don’t know the answers to all of them, but we have thousands of experts who do know the answers, or have theories, or will invent the answers. Every part of this will be documented and shared openly around the world. There will be no secrets in this process, but there will be a lot of hard work.”

She paused and looked down at her folded hands on the podium in front of her. “In the past, my predecessors would have ended this speech with some variation of ‘God Bless America’ but I don’t think that’s appropriate here. If you believe in a Creator or deity of some type, then you must know that we have squandered whatever blessing they have given us. We can no longer look to some distant deity for salvation. Our salvation lies within us and the people around us. The only way we get through this is by working together and by sharing the sacrifice.”

“A decade ago, we wouldn’t have been able to be in the same room, much less working together on a plan as ambitious and audacious as this one. Lots has changed in the past decade, and much more will change in the decade to come. Together, we can do this. Together, we have to do this. Together, we will survive. Thank you.”

As the leaders behind her began to rise and applaud, billions of people began to talk about what they had just heard. However, life continued on as usual for a very small number of people. Four of those were in a small room in a local hospital in Southwestern Ontario. In complete and utter disregard for the amazing social and technological challenge being put forward, this room was the site of one of the oldest human activities.

Shortly after the President made her statement, the doctor handed a squalling newborn to the woman on the bed.

“Congratulations, it’s a boy.”