The story so far

I’m writing an anthology, a series of interconnected short stories(The first, rough drafts of which I’ve included links to throughout this post) spanning thousands of years. When completed and compiled, they’ll be presented in reverse chronological order, starting in the distant future and ending in 2019.

Time Remaining is a fictional blog authored by a character who goes by the pseudonym “Caldo.” Selections from his blog will connect the stories together.

The premise is this:

Everyone on earth has received the following text:

That’s it; no further explanation. Some people believe it was sent by aliens, some people don’t. Humanity turns on itself as paranoid hysteria spreads like wildfire on both sides. Society begins to crumble, or at least it does from the viewpoint of Caldo. We see everything through his eyes.

Eccentric tech mogul Richard Kryuss (pronounced ‘Kree-us’) has been developing the technology to make recreational spaceflight a reality. Now, as a firm believer in the alien threat, his priorities shift and his “space cruise” program is abandoned in favor of the construction of a generational starship that will transport the last remnants of mankind to a world he calls “the promised land.”

The ship does eventually come across a habitable planet, centuries later, but there’s some dispute amongst the colonists over whether or not it’s the true promised land, home of the “Creators” that the prophet Kryuss received visions from. They call it Galenia.

A new human civilization with little info about its own origins flourishes on this new world, developing its own unique sense of identity and culture over the next several millennia.

When it’s discovered that all of the plants and trees that were brought from Earth and transplanted to the rich, fertile soil of Galenia, as well as the ones planted from seeds in the ship’s stores, contain within their DNA a complete record of human history, the course of this civilization changes dramatically and it becomes much more Earth-like. Kryuss originally developed this “organic data storage” method with the intention of creating an alternate, biological internet, one that would be unregulated and free for all to use…with purchase of a device patented and manufactured by Krytech, of course.

Many thousands of years later, Galenians enslave an alien species with the ability to fold space, allowing mankind to travel back to Earth. The species is essentially an intelligent slime with a “hive mind.” It is one creature, spread far and wide across the galaxy. Galenians incorporate nanotechnology into the use of this being, boosting its abilities.

They aren’t going to be aware that they’re exploiting a sentient life form until much later.

What’s to come, and what else has happened in between? Will man eventually re-take Earth from the Nammu? Will it achieve a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship with the (as yet unnamed)slime being? Will we finally achieve the utopia we’ve longed for since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden?

I don’t know. We’ll see.

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