Nu Beginnings
It
happened so long ago that even I am hard pressed to remember. The world was dying, Earth had finally given
all she had to offer. What was left was
a raped and barren rock. The seas, once
thought to have an endless bounty, lay barren and red with pollution. The beast that roamed the land and flew the
skies were nothing more than coded DNA files locked away in a government
bunker.
All that
was left of the glory of Earth was a huddling mass of doomed humanity.
But
mankind was not going to give up easily.
They were not going to quietly depart like the dinosaurs had done so
many millions of years before. They had
a plan. The Earth could not be rescued,
it was much too far gone. However,
scientists had discovered a new world, a world circling a star much like our
own. A world that would support us, as
Earth had, for millions of years to come.
So we
left the only Home we had ever know.
Humanity was to be loaded onto what became called the Ark II. Not all of us, of course. At that time the Earth’s buckling crust was
infected with nearly 24 billion people.
The ship that had taken lifetimes to construct could only give safe
passage to 800 million. Those who were
chosen to be save came from the strongest, bravest, smartest, and yes -the
richest.
The
rest? They were callously left on a
doomed world to perish. Which is
probably what happened to them, not that we ever looked back long enough to
truly know. In all likelihood the Earth
is now a ghost planet orbited by the remains of a broken moon.
Life,
however, pressed on. The children that
the Earth had painfully given birth to moved to a new home. It was a long journey and even with all of
man’s technology it still took ten years to reach our destination. Not all of us survived, but those who did
lived to see a new Dawn of Man and a new Golden Age. That is how we came to be living on the eighth planet that
circles what was once known as Alpha Centari, and is now known simply as the
Sun.
Man
settled on this new world and began to create the life he’d once known. DNA builders were used to recode and
recreate the wildlife, beasts of burden, and plants, that had once populated
the Earth. The seas of Nuearth were
stocked, the lands filled, and the skies felt the beating of avian wings. Life was returning to the way it had been
hundreds upon thousands of years ago when man lived in relative harmony with nature.
However
there was a surprise waiting for the people of Earth. It had never occurred to anyone that something might already live
on this new world. The aliens did not
come and pound on the Earthling’s doors demanding rent. No, they were of a different breed.
The
aliens (or should I say ‘natives’?) had not been evolving as long as we
had. They were still microscopic:
bacteria, plankton, amoebas, and most importantly -viruses. It was the viruses that were to be the
undoing of mankind. They were the ones
that divided us into the “races” that we now know. One by one, little by little we became infected and we started to
change.
The
diseases usually only appeared in the children of the infected. Since humans now have a life span that can
reach three hundred years (yes, there was a time when we only live 70 maybe 80)
it took a while before we even noticed these changes. The infected children passed their new defective DNA on to their
children, and then to their children’s children, and then to the next... So on and so forth for thousands of
years.
In the
beginning we saw these people as simply corrupted humans, like a sickness. Now each of these diseases has spawned a new
race. Races that are proud, races that
have history -so much so that they have all forgotten their origins, or have
chosen to deny them.
Some of
us had amazing resistance to the genetic changes that took place once infected
and only changed slightly. Others
became unrecognizable as having human ancestors at all. Of course there were also those left unaffected. Their descendants are now known simply as
Human, a divided race that considers itself more pure than any of the others
without even knowing why.
The ones
that now call themselves the Elves were inflicted by a virus that did little to
them physically, but made great changes to them mentally. The virus attacked their central nervous
system, however instead of crippling it like most diseases would do it enhanced
it. The alien viruses seem to take
great interest in the survival of their hosts and helped the various races
adapt to their surroundings.
The Elves
are now quicker than their Human counterparts, although they now lack the brute
strength that Humans can develop. So
they have become creatures of skill.
They also became somewhat sensitive to light and sound, and therefore
they developed superior senses. Which
has been a blessing and a curse, for it can easily be used against them.
This
virus attacked more people than any other.
So now after thousands of generations there are about equal numbers of
Humans and Elves. Which has led to the
two races being in constant combat for the title of ‘Master Race’, while the
rest of us just try to scratch a living out of this new soil.
As you
know there is practically a countless number of races and sub-races, and these
races have hated and distrusted one another since their conception. Not that this is much different from life on
Earth. Even as one species we fought
bitterly. Back then we only had things
like skin colour and religion to fight and degrade one another over.
The
humans were not the only to be infected.
The animals fell to the viruses as well, and it changed them just as
quickly. Other animals have simply
evolved over the eons to adapt to their new surroundings. The results, however, are still the same:
things that used to only be fairy tale now roam the country side in great
number.
If you
are wondering why all of us haven’t simply been infected by all the different
viruses by now and mutated into mixture, the answer lies in the viruses
themselves. It would seem that once the
virus infects it protects its own from other viruses. So now the free viruses no longer exist, so they can no longer
infect the pure Humans. They only live
in the DNA of the descendants of their victims. Or at least that’s my theory, I’ve had a long time to think about
it.
So it has
been, generation after generation.
Earth and its ways have long since been forgotten. The old Gods have been replaced by new Gods,
who are just as deaf to the cries of their disciples. Technology still exists, but only an elite few understand it and
more and more people fear it. Most of
what science had discovered is now lost again.
We have traded in our guns and nuclear bombs for swords and arrows once
more, and in many ways I think that it may have been more of a step forward
than back.
All in
all life goes on.
I can
tell you all this in confidence, even though I see that you scoff. I can tell you this, because I was
there. There was another virus, a very
rare, yet extremely potent one. It
attacked me so violently that a fever still burns in the back of my mind. It has twisted and tortured my body and it
has given me a life so long that I wonder sometimes if it shall ever end. It has turned me into a creature of legend,
a creature of myth. Although small in
number my children now rule the skies of their territories. However I, and I alone, am the soul survivor
of Earth. I believe that I am the
oldest creature in the Universe.
I am the
oldest Dragon!