“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.” - Stephen Hawking
Princess Twilight stood on the balcony of her castle and looked through her telescope, feeling like something was amiss. “Spike? Spike?” she called out. “Could you bring me star chart 3A-17?”
“Sure thing, Twilight.” was his response followed by the familiar sounds of shuffling paper. A minute later, a young dragon appeared at the door with a roll of parchment in his claws. “Here you go.”
“Thank you, Spike. Now, let’s see….” Twilight stared at the paper for a few seconds then looked back through her telescope. “No, no, no. This can’t be right… Spike, take a letter to Princess Luna!”
“To Princess Luna? Not Princess Celestia?”
“Yes, Spike.” Twilight said, nodding.
After clearing her throat, she began.
“Dear Princess Luna,
I fear I might be mistaken, but I thought that you had placed the fifth star in the Alpha Quadrant in the upper left corner of the sector, and not in the middle. Have you changed your mind? Shall I remap the star charts for you?
Your Faithful Stargazer,
Twilight”
The little purple and green dragon sealed the letter with wax and sent it in a bright burst of green flame. Not a moment later, Spike’s cheeks puffed up and he let out another burst of flames in a large burp. “Already? Must be a slow night.” he mumbled, as Twilight grasped the parchment in her aura. She broke the wax seal and read the letter. It said one thing very plainly:
“Dear Twilight,
I only place four stars in the alpha quadrant.
Diarch of the Night,
Princess Luna”
-----------------------------------------------Aboard the I.C.S. Maria-----------------------------------------
“Admiral Malcolm!” The Captain stood at attention as he began his report, “We will be within a stable solar orbit in the next 24 hours! Sir!”
“At ease captain. It is good to see our ancestors’ journey finally coming to fruition. This is a cause for rejoicing, not rigid ceremony.” The voice that replied was worn and tired; but it held a trembling anticipation. The three-hundred million humans aboard the Interstellar Colony Ship, “Maria”, as well as the rest of the fleet, had entrusted this momentous task to his bloodline eons ago. 20 megaannus* prior they had set out, the first of the human colony ship, destined for a planet that was then dubbed Kepler-452b. Their mission: to secure a future for the human race among the stars at all costs. Their journey spanned well over three-million generations. But none had forgotten. No, they never forgot. As they remembered the last transmission from Earth, still played every year in solemn remembrance, they pressed on.
The final goodbyes of their home world had been a sad message, as it reported that less than 100,000 members of humanity that remained alive wouldn't make it. The Earth was dead, but they were not. Those of the first colonization fleet would never forget, and so they strove onwards into the stars to make a new life for their race. They had built colonial ships while on the move as the population grew; what was once 3 million people had bloomed to over 100 times that. They had built a military as the threats from space, being the cold, cruel mistress that she is, presented them with too many obstacles.
What was once a single massive ship had become a fleet of 60 ships each the size of a continent or bigger. Each one was armed with mass driver bombardment systems meant to take out entire asteroid fields and chunks of long since desolate planetary debris. Each ship housed no less that 5 million men and women ready and willing to lay down their own lives for the sake of those that their home ship housed.
Inter-ship travel had become common. Now that all ships had united under one banner after a brutal war between three factions that had reduced the population to a mere 50 million. Now, as a united people once more, the journey was coming to a close. But the struggle was just beginning. Admiral Jace Harvey Malcolm knew all too well that things would not be easy for his people after making planetfall. He knew that setting up a new civilization would be tough.
If only he had known the half of it…
*million years