The Second Deluge by Garrett P. Serviss 1911 novel, reprinted in 1926 |
The Ekcolir Reality
I have a name for the previous reality: the Ekcolir Reality. One of the distinguishing features of that Reality was heavy use of fossil fuels, global warming and sea level rise. I've previously blogged about the role of flood myths in the origins of the science fiction genre and here I want to put a meta-speculative cap on that.
source |
Central Station was a combination rail station and airport in a future time when Manhattan was completely below sea level due to melting of Antarctic ice. Most of Manhattan was then under the water, protected by impervious hierion-based domes. However, all of Central Park and a dozen other locations, including 20 or so blocks around Central Station were open to the sky, allowing aircars to easily move to and from Manhattan.
Poster by Milo Manara |
Gohrlay's Tale
Regardless of how the years were counted, the year 1999 in the Ekcolir Reality brought the culmination of a mystery that had begun almost 50 years earlier during the recording of the first James Bond movie. In that film, there was a famous scene inside Grand Central Terminal. Digital recording technology came into use early enough in the Ekcolir Reality so that all the James Bond films were made digitally. However, 25 years later, when the first Bond film was converted to a newer digital format, a strange feature of the audio track of the film was detected during an attempt to reduce noise that was present due to echoing. During part of the recording, a strange ultrasonic signal was present.
One mystified sound technician became obsessed with that movie sound track and eventually obtained permission to make continuous video and audio recordings in Grand Central Terminal. From 1987 to 1997 several more recordings were obtained with the same mysterious ultrasonic signal. Finally, in 1997, there was success in matching the source of the unusual audio to a video recording.
Careful analysis showed that two people who walked through the Terminal seemed to be the source of the ultrasonic signal. This intriguing result soon reached the Office of Environmental Affairs in the Executive Branch of the New England government that had been for several years monitoring automated DNA analyzers that scanned public locations such as Grand Central Terminal for deadly microbes like Legionella and Anthrax.
Most development of technology was slightly accelerated in the Ekcolir Reality compared to the world as we know it. For example, the human genome had been fully sequenced in the 1990s of the Ekcolir Reality.
While searching through databases for human gene variants, an N.Y.U. geneticist had discovered several unusual genes in the OEA gene database. Putting 2 and 2 together, it was hypothesized that there might be a sub-population of humans with the ability to produce ultrasound, a sub-population that might be identifiable by genetic analysis.
A statistical model successfully predicted another appearance in Grand Central Terminal of the two people who seemed to be the source of the ultrasonic signal. The head of the OEA, the geneticist and the sound technician made plans to meet in Grand Central Terminal on the day of the next anticipated appearance of the two people who seemed to be ultrasound emitters.
Earth 1999
According to Gohrlay, the director of OEA and the geneticist intercepted the two suspects inside Grand Central Terminal and invited them to participate in a research study. The suspects declined and moved off. The geneticist wore a vacuum device in the hope of capturing stray cells that might be shed by the suspects. The audio technician stayed to the side and recorded the encounter with his audio and video equipment. He also tried to follow the suspects out into the city streets, but quickly lost sight of them.
T1 and T2 |
The discovery of alien DNA on Earth. |
Luri |
Fru'wu |
By 2012, Obama issued a top secret finding that in all likelihood, the Fru'wu had caused a decrease in neutrino emissions by the sun starting in 2007.
Finally, in 2015, Luri arranged for a meeting between T2 and Obama. T2 claimed to be in contact with the Fru'wu and willing to negotiate a protocol for the control of global warming.
Step 1 of the protocol called for sharing of Fru'wu hierion-based technology with any nation that imposed a ban on coal mining and use of coal as a fuel. According to Gohrlay, since no government on Earth had clear and convincing evidence for the existence of the Fru'wu, the decision was made by New England and most other nations to move ahead with the plan proposed by Space Energy Missions while down-playing the role that alien technology played in that plan. Of course, this led to a vigorous industry for creating fringe conspiracy theories about secret alien motivations and a government cover-up.
Eventually, when the supply of cheap hierion-based energy from Mercury was cut off and Earth returned to the use of fossil fuels, many observers of the human predicament felt that an effort had been made by the aliens to drive Earth as rapidly as possible towards catastrophic sea level rise.
Next: a visit to the lost world of Thamber.
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