To: Robert Thomson, Chairman of the Committee on Human Survival
From: Dr. Paul Velchiek
Dated: June 15th, 2037
Bob, it's been almost two years since the impact. Two years of tiny machines, semi-biological in nature, swarming in the uncounted trillions from the impact crater, tearing our world apart atom by atom and rebuilding it. Animal, vegetable, mineral, all terrestrial matter that those alien nano-machines encountered, being torn apart and rebuilt as... something else.
Two years of an expanding circle of black matter radiating out from the impact site, creating what looks like a massive oil slick. An oil slick hundreds of miles in diameter and growing at an increasing pace every day. An oil slick that somehow moves and ripples as if it's alive. And that's why we call it the Black Tide.
But I'm sure you know all that. It's your commission that's supposed to be salvaging what's left of humanity and ensuring our survival, after all.
You've tasked the scientific community to come up with a plan to stop the Tide. A noble goal, but one that we become less optimistic about with every passing day.
Nothing we do seems to stop it for very long. We've tried everything... flames, high-voltage electric grids, various chemicals, radiation... Darn it, Bob, even dropping nukes on the blasted thing wasn't as effective as we hoped it would be.
You've also asked the aerospace industry to come up with evacuation ships, in case we need to abandon our planet. You know my opinion on the feasibility of that. We could, at best, "save" a few hundred thousand people. Those people would have the "privilege" of dying in space of starvation or radiation poisoning, rather than dying of starvation on Earth, or being consumed by the Black Tide. After the last several decades of decreasing space budgets, we simply don't have the know-how to build sustainable space stations. Certainly not self-sustainable space stations capable of supporting thousands upon thousands of people.
No. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. We need to leave this world, but not through space travel. I'm asking for Project Harmonics to be reopened. I'm asking not only for my budget to be reinstated, but to be increased. I've heard it said that it's nothing but a pipe dream, but my colleagues and I believe that we've had several very important breakthroughs.
You know the timeline as well as I do. We have, at best, five years before the entire surface of our world is recreated as a gigantic puddle of black sludge. The situation is bleak. You say that we can't afford to waste resources on this? Well, I say that we can't afford not to! If we can get this to work, we can save everyone. Every. Last. One of us. But we need to act now! The technology we need will take months to design and build. We can work on the theoreticals while we're getting the labs constructed, but the longer we delay, the more will die, and the tighter the timeline will be for evacuation.
You've known me for over twenty years, Bob. You know that I wouldn't put my own pride ahead of the entirety of humanity. I honestly and truly believe this is our last, and best, hope. I'm asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to do what's right.
Signed,
Dr. Paul Velchiek
~~*~~
To: Dr. Paul Velchiek
From: Robert Thomson
Dated: July 29th, 2037
I'm putting my neck out here for you, Paul. The men and women on the Commission are a hard-headed bunch, and something like Harmonics is just too far-fetched for them to really understand. Frankly, I don't understand it either, but I trust you.
It took a lot of arguing, it took a lot of pressure, but I finally got your budget approved. Your original budget, I'm afraid. You'll have to make do. I'll do what I can, though, to 'acquire' whatever resources I can from other projects, provided that you understand that I may not always be able to get what you need.
Best of luck, Paul.
Best of luck to us all.
~~*~~
To: Robert Thomson
From: Dr. Paul Velchiek
March 10th, 2038
Well, Bob, you wanted news, and I've got one humdinger for you!
We did it! The first successful test of Project Harmonics! Granted, the emitters blew up, but for a period of time, roughly ten minutes, we saw into an alternate reality! Granted, it was a world that was completely hostile to all life as we know it... It looked like it was comprised mostly of lava fields and gigantic, steaming pits of acid... but that's only one out of an uncounted number of possible alternate worlds! That's why it's called 'Harmonics', after all... we can tune these worlds in like radio stations... The tricky part will be to find one that we can live on and that isn't already occupied. Though, I imagine that "unoccupied" is a little flexible if we can't find any viable alternatives.
I've attached an encrypted file to this note that shows you what we've seen. I'm sure, absolutely 100% sure, that with the right equipment, we can not only view these worlds but actually transport ourselves to them! All we need is resources. Resources that we've been fighting for for months, now. Surely, with this new success, we can at least get some more resources thrown our way? We need to replace those emitters, and we can't skimp on the quality this time.
Also, if we could build multiple labs, we could vastly improve our search speed. It took us almost a month to find 'Lava-world', as my team is calling it. Considering that we may have to go through hundreds, or even thousands of variants before we find a viable world to escape to, we desperately need to speed things up. If it helps, we can build the scanning stations much more cheaply than the actual emitter stations. They just need to look for likely signals, which we can then key into the emitters to check them out for viability. Please tell me that we can do at least that much.
~~*~~
To: Robert Thomson
From: Dr. Paul Velchiek
April 19th, 2038
Bob, as much as I appreciate the Commission's new-found faith in Project Harmonics (though, not as much as I appreciate the additional funding and personnel!), I have to ask... is it really necessary that we have a military observer? Not to mention all these new security measures. It seems a bit crazy to me. Who's going to attack us? Who's going to steal this technology? Honestly, all this... hullabaloo, for lack of a better term, is just making life more difficult. It took me three minutes to get through the checkpoint this morning, and I'm the head of the project!
Please, tell me this has nothing to do with those nut-balls in Houston. We're over a thousand miles away from that! And nobody knows we're here, anyway. The Arks weren't exactly secret, but we here at Harmonics aren't going around advertising our presence.
~~*~~
To: Dr. Paul Velchiek
From: Robert Thomson
April 21st, 2038
Hi Paul. I'm sorry to say it, but yes. The new funding came with those strings attached. The Commission wants the military involved, and that's that. And, yes, the vote on that was unanimous.
I don't think you really understand what's going on with those 'nut-balls'. They aren't just in Houston, Paul. They're all over the US, and the rest of the world. The Earth-First movement is deadly serious about not abandoning our world. They blew up the Ark ships in Houston, because they see evacuation ships as a waste of resources that could be used fighting the Tide, and also the coward's way out. They want to force the world governments into investing all resources into winning back the Earth, not leaving it.
Suffice to say, if they ever did find out about Harmonics, they'd come after you. The security is there for a very good reason. You said when this all started that Harmonics was our best hope, our last hope. The Commission now believes that you're right. And with that comes the realization that you can't be allowed to fail, and you can't be allowed to be stopped by a bunch of short-sighted idiots who don't seem to realize that there's absolutely no long-term way to fight the Tide.
Also, Paul, I'm sending you a thesaurus. Seriously... 'hullabaloo'? You have to stop talking like an old-time professor from the twentieth century, man!
Keep us posted on your progress. And, remember, only use proper, secure channels for communication from now on. We can't let any of those Earth-First lunatics find out where you are or what you're up to.
This so-called "black tide" is really The Smooze, isn't it?
I guess if it starts singing, then we'll know.
good tension you are building
"an explosion equivalent to an explosion "
Redundant statement is redundant.
~Something bad is comin' down! Have you heard the news?
...
Nothing can stop! The Smooze!~
Nice start, tracked and will be reading more.
187395
It better resembles the Beast from Homeworld: Cataclysm.
Something wicked this way comes
Sincerely the Doctor
>To: The Commission on Human Survival
Double space dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/sillyfilly_Pinkie_Pie.png
>oil-slick hundreds of miles in diameter
Miles? a.deviantart.net/avatars/m/i/mingplz.png Imperial is for n0bz! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Pinkie_loool.png
>You've also asked the aerospace industry to come up with evacuation ships
There is no indentation on this paragraph dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia_O_O.png
>And, remember, only use proper, secure channels
[link]
808491
Gray Goo is a fairly standard science fiction trope, actually. (WARNING TVTropes link)
Reminds me of the D-Reaper from the 3rd season of Digimon, Digimon Tamers I believe it was called.. Interesting. Tracking, will read more tomorrow.. just finished one EPIC story here (For Want of a Dawn) and so I can take on a new one. :D
Actually, the first thing I thought of was the Replicators from Stargate SG-1, except that they're replicating carbon-based matter instead of metals.
I'm hooked.
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
WE SHALL FEAsT UPON THIS STORY, AND WE WILL LIKE IT!!!
Holy shit, the same guy who wrote "Why Am I Pinkie Pie?" is thr author of this fanfic. Must be good.
1. end of the world survival research.
2. budget constraints.
3.
1083555 I certainly hope so--that's one of the main reasons I'm reading it.
1275802 Yeah, well, some folks can't live without their bureaucratic security blankets--maybe especially in the face of a catastrophe like this.
Yes, I know it's an old fic but it still has spellling mistakes!
"budget" not "budged"
"off this world" maybe?
1452476
Thanks for the catches
Oh my God, WHY did I not read this earlier? I MUST continue reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111ONE2222@@!
30-Week edit: Oh, my God. WHY did I do that earlier? I MUST not do that!!!!!111ONE
Reading through it a second time, for the heck of it. Great story, although 'As you know' is overdone as a means of exposition. A way of giving the audience information when all parties know it. A bit clumsy, though I have no idea what you'd use to replace it, besides the fact that this fic is already done.
Still, good opening.
This is a grim question, but how many people were killed by the tide?
It's quite refreshing to read sci fi about a world ending disaster and have it not be humanity's fault, for once.
Reading this for the second time. A fun ride.
Lava World? I'd have called it Hell.
2012814 Sounds like my house during a fight.
Dis is going to be good :D
Nothing can stop THE MECHANICAL SMOOZE!
Don't even TRY.
Right. I'm faving this and am going to embark on a journey to read the 233k story! It will be done! Eventually! Not right now though!
Holy shit, this looks awesome!
One thing... Why this grey goo (black goo in this case) apocalypse has not ended yet? Two years? These alien nanobots are insanely inefficient. Unless... they are not self-replicating.
Well, Merlon the Mad said this as a good idea.
one of the top three favs of mine, this is what, the 16th time ive read this story? Love it
1452657 have you tried rubber bands?
Your first few paragraphs of exposition work, but they feel a bit cheap. We need to know what's happening, but you almost told us flat out 'this is what happened'.
Regardless, I shall stick around.
Well, the prof needs to update his vocabulary.
ok I was really not sure as to if I would like this and I may still be on the fence if only because of the pic used for this story I need info on the size of the pony's vs. humans I don't really care for the ones that have us being way to big just need cleared up please...(3 mins later) never mind I stared at the pic till I was able to see what it really look like the floor path the pony was on looked like a keyboard at first witch I was I asked now I see it is not :p (silly me)
Well, this is very well written in my opinion. I like the whole "sending letters to each other" idea for the intro, it really helped me understand what is going on. I shall continue to read this.
An excellent start. I've always enjoyed this kind of "sending messages" thing. The expositionary start was a little jarring but after that you handled yourself well.
"black tide" ... hmm ... black substance that corrupts worlds ... like; Glistening oil ... Phyrexia, Damn you Yawgmoth
I'm rereading this whole story, cause I forgot somethings, and I'd like to be refreshed when I start reading the sequel!
There's some really bad As You Know, Bob during this. Which is even funnier since the guy is actually referred to as Bob! But other than that, great so far.
waited a while to read this, now I can't stop reading it.
Was Chapter Zero rewritten, or did I just forget I read it?
To the guy who the budget department for the end of the world.
Hey, finite resources. Of course you have to manage what you spend.
To the guy who said the black tide was too slow...
I picture nanobots as macromolecules. Maybe multiple megamolecules acting like a multicellular organism.
Killer LEGOs!
They themselves are made of atoms, so I don't see how they can transmute elements.
If they need nickel or hafnium then a shortage of those elements would inhibit their reproduction.
The Black Tide is limited by access to required elements with the unneeded elements settling to the bottom?
That's why they're not sinking to the center of the earth.
The waste layer is acting like a sealant.
I know it's been said many times before, but yes, the Black Tide completely sounds like a reference to Smooze. :)
I'm bored... I'm gonna re-read this for the fifth time now, give or take.
Looks like I never actually finished this so I'll have to read it again. The tension building and exposition here is well done and surprisingly compact. They should have destroyed the Black Tide before it could even start growing. It reminds me of something, probably this.
So, months after it finished, I'm finally getting around to reading this. Just after this little intro, I am immensely intrigued.
However...
That... that has got to be the most idiotic, illogical, and downright stupid reasoning I have ever heard. Granted, yeah, I can see a small sect of humanity believing that, but we're talking small, like the amount of people that would barely warrant a single HAM radio broadcast weekly, let alone enough to actually pull off this kind of attack and be big enough to threaten the security of a secret project like this. I mean, if these are supposed to be our "villains" for the story... I am not optimistic. You really couldn't think of a better reason than, "Oh, we don't want to abandon our world?" What about a group of anarchists who think humanity's time has come? Or some religious group believing this is some kind of End Times, and that Mankind shouldn't run from judgement? Anything would be better than, "We need to save our species! Oh, but not like THAT!"
Eh, sorry. I'll continue reading.
5111086 You would think something like that would be unlikely, but just look at some of the groups out there now. KKk, Westbouro bbaptists, the overkill side of the Feminist movement, there are all sorts of crazies that do things that are senseless and illogical.
Heh, Lunatics.
4663293
And this is why you are awesome and shall continue to be awesome. (\
Me? I am only now getting around to reading this story. On Christmas Day Eve. While the rest of the family is chatting elsewhere in the house. On an Apple OS X, of all things!
http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Armus
It also remembers the caracter armus from star trek tng : Armus manifested as a black viscous liquid that could also assume a vaguely humanoid shape. Tricorder scans could not register the substance Armus was composed of. Armus was also capable of enveloping Humanoids and incorporating them into the liquid, where they would remain conscious while in liquid form. Armus was capable of then inflicting suffering upon its victims while they were in this state. Armus was impervious to phaser fire, and Data theorized that it could, in fact, feed off of phaser energy. Captain Picard assumed that Armus was immortal.
Looks like this is the first FiMfic that I'll have read more than once... still shocked at how long I went before getting that urge...