Genisys (Sci-Fi short story)

Act 1: Leaving Earth

Bright, artificial light shone on the group of men walking down the long corridor with firm, quick steps. All of them were trying to hide their excitement behind a mask of professional impassivity. After all, they were important members of the NASA science department, and they were expected to keep their composure, even when they had just found out the means to save humanity. Today had to be the brightest day for whole mankind since the moment scientists had found out the world was going to end.

People whispered into each others ears as the men went by, which wasn't surprising at all, because one of those men was called the saviour of mankind. Steve Collins was the head of the scientist team that had made the discovery of the century, the discovery that would allow humanity to leave their dying planet and seek a new home in the stars.

"Dr. Collins!" Those two words were repeated several times in a respectful note as the young, yet brilliant scientist entered the conference room. "Is everyone here?", a middle-aged man asked. He had thick glasses on his nose, messy hair and didn't look like someone used to wear a suit and a tie. "Everyone present", a voice confirmed, and he sighed in relief: "So I can finally tell you our discovery. Some of you already know what it is, but most of you don't." Collins had to admit he was curious. He had been invited in a great hurry because he "deserved to know before the rest of the world" whatever there was to tell, since he and his team were directly related to it. In which way, he didn't know, but he was going to find out soon.

"Let's start. My name is Daniel Cole, and I am the chief astronomer of NASA. First of all: We found a suitable planet!" Many people clapped, some even cheered. Collins was one of those. It felt good to finally be able to let his excitement flow. Although it had been obvious the astronomers would eventually find a suitable planet, it was nonetheless a relief to have that problem finally solved, as time was slowly running out for the inhabitants of Earth.

Daniel Cole pressed a few keys on a laptop, and a screen lit up behind him, showing a star system with 6 planets. From this distance, it was impossible to compare the planets by anything except their size. "Our new planet is the fourth closest to the sun. It's in the habitable zone, the very zone Earth is leaving, and by now the atmosphere should have stabilized into a breathable state."

"Wait a minute", someone said, "Why only should?" Almost everyone, including Collins, looked with disaprovement at the man with an impecable suit and carefully combed brown hair. One could immediately tell he was a polititian, not a scientist. "Do not forget that when we look through a telescope, we look through a time machine. We can only see the distant past. Light may take millions of years to travel from a distant star to our system. In this case, we are talking about approximately 36 million years. In the data we've gathered, the planet has a little too much oxygen, but that was also the case with Earth millions of years ago. However, we have made some calculations, and we're sure the planet is completely habitable by now. It's slightly bigger than Earth, but gravity should be roughly the same, maybe a bit lower. It all depends on the core. Nature and wildlife suggest that the evolution on Genisys – that's how we're calling the planet – has been happening similarly to Earth. Anyway, is your question answered?" The man nodded. "Good. So we can get to the truly amazing part." The man zoomed in. Now, Collins could also see the colour of those planets. The chosen planet was, as he had expected, covered in blue, green and the occasional white of clouds and polar caps. It looked very similar to Earth.

The two planets closest to the sun were of a dark red, without fully solid surfaces. The two planets on the outskirts of the star system were of an icy blue, way too cold to sustain life. But the system's third planet... now, that was weird. It was just as blue and green as Genisys. Collin narrowed his brows, his mind working at almost twice the speed as those around him. The planet was way too close to the sun. It should have been extremely hot down there. So why were there forests? Why was there liquid water?