Prologue
THE RED PLANET stopped being red when environmental engineers filled the atmosphere with smoke from millions of fires. The resulting greenhouse effect warmed Mars. Its polar icecaps melted, creating three large oceans and one supercontinent. This supercontinent was blanketed with small worms genetically programmed for a simultaneous mass extinction, establishing fertility in the Martian soil. Plants and trees engineered to thrive in this new world soon covered the land. All this human created vegetation allowed for the air to be calibrated; Mars was able to support human life.
When this campaign ended, the Martian sky was blue, snow was white and leaves were green. People lived in cities and on farms, came in all sizes and colors, and ate ice-cream on warm Sunday afternoons. Tourism boomed between the two planets as fleets of firesail ships made the trip in under three days.
This terraformation process was repeated on asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. These asteroids became known as space-islands and were colonized using the same techniques as those used on Mars. The Solar System community grew and the flush times saw the Olympic Games, the Worlds’ Cup, the Stanley Cup, and the Worlds’ Series more full of heroes than ever before.
But this rushing era of colonization brought new problems for human populations. The thrust of human expansion ended with a change in the way all life was created. It happened everywhere at once, starting with uncertain observations and nervous whispers:
“Still no flowers ‘round here yet. Spring’s not comin’.”
“Nothing happening in the fields. Nothing. Not even a weed.”
“No, we can’t make an appointment for you. Dr. Cross is fully booked. Try another fertility clinic.”
It went on like this. People asked a lot of questions — politicians got involved — everyone in the Solar System was afraid — leading scientists in all fields abandoned their work to study the problem — and then the crushing news that shook every person to their core:
For some reason, life could no longer be created naturally. Females stopped getting pregnant. Plants no longer produced seeds that would grow. Eggs were unfertilized.
All at once, on Earth, Mars and the Space-Islands, the miracle part of the miracle of life had stopped.
This didn’t mean new life stopped being created. Life continued to be created, minus the miracle. Creating new life became a human responsibility. The beginnings of life were assisted through medicines and machines.
Geneticists became responsible for everything: the nanoscale 3D printing of digitally programmed DNA, the arrangement of that DNA into embryos, the steroid womb where the embryo's growth was turbo-charged in an effort to reach the plateau of life.
People had already been practicing industrial genetic engineering to grow lifeforms for the exact needs of different terraformed colonies. From then on, the techniques first used on Mars were used to grow all new life in manufacturing facilities.
Humans on Earth, Mars and in the Asteroid Belt, all the plants people needed, all the animals a farmer would raise — forests, marine life, everything — it was all created by human hands and minds.
Humanity was torn by its new responsibility to create all life. Countless political squabbles and religious schisms arose from this new reality. People believed humans had been playing God with their genetic manipulation and terraformation. Geneticists were blamed for cutting off the entire human race from creating life through simple contact between two of a species.
Billions of people in the universe were drawn to gods and religious movements of all sorts. None of these groups got along well and their relations deteriorated over the years. Some movements pleaded for God to show itself, some said good riddance and felt bitter for God’s abandonment.
Travel slowed, dialogue stopped, and a united civilization in the Solar System became a quaint
THE RED PLANET stopped being red when environmental engineers filled the atmosphere with smoke from millions of fires. The resulting greenhouse effect warmed Mars. Its polar icecaps melted, creating three large oceans and one supercontinent. This supercontinent was blanketed with small worms genetically programmed for a simultaneous mass extinction, establishing fertility in the Martian soil. Plants and trees engineered to thrive in this new world soon covered the land. All this human created vegetation allowed for the air to be calibrated; Mars was able to support human life.
When this campaign ended, the Martian sky was blue, snow was white and leaves were green. People lived in cities and on farms, came in all sizes and colors, and ate ice-cream on warm Sunday afternoons. Tourism boomed between the two planets as fleets of firesail ships made the trip in under three days.
This terraformation process was repeated on asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. These asteroids became known as space-islands and were colonized using the same techniques as those used on Mars. The Solar System community grew and the flush times saw the Olympic Games, the Worlds’ Cup, the Stanley Cup, and the Worlds’ Series more full of heroes than ever before.
But this rushing era of colonization brought new problems for human populations. The thrust of human expansion ended with a change in the way all life was created. It happened everywhere at once, starting with uncertain observations and nervous whispers:
“Still no flowers ‘round here yet. Spring’s not comin’.”
“Nothing happening in the fields. Nothing. Not even a weed.”
“No, we can’t make an appointment for you. Dr. Cross is fully booked. Try another fertility clinic.”
It went on like this. People asked a lot of questions — politicians got involved — everyone in the Solar System was afraid — leading scientists in all fields abandoned their work to study the problem — and then the crushing news that shook every person to their core:
For some reason, life could no longer be created naturally. Females stopped getting pregnant. Plants no longer produced seeds that would grow. Eggs were unfertilized.
All at once, on Earth, Mars and the Space-Islands, the miracle part of the miracle of life had stopped.
This didn’t mean new life stopped being created. Life continued to be created, minus the miracle. Creating new life became a human responsibility. The beginnings of life were assisted through medicines and machines.
Geneticists became responsible for everything: the nanoscale 3D printing of digitally programmed DNA, the arrangement of that DNA into embryos, the steroid womb where the embryo's growth was turbo-charged in an effort to reach the plateau of life.
People had already been practicing industrial genetic engineering to grow lifeforms for the exact needs of different terraformed colonies. From then on, the techniques first used on Mars were used to grow all new life in manufacturing facilities.
Humans on Earth, Mars and in the Asteroid Belt, all the plants people needed, all the animals a farmer would raise — forests, marine life, everything — it was all created by human hands and minds.
Humanity was torn by its new responsibility to create all life. Countless political squabbles and religious schisms arose from this new reality. People believed humans had been playing God with their genetic manipulation and terraformation. Geneticists were blamed for cutting off the entire human race from creating life through simple contact between two of a species.
Billions of people in the universe were drawn to gods and religious movements of all sorts. None of these groups got along well and their relations deteriorated over the years. Some movements pleaded for God to show itself, some said good riddance and felt bitter for God’s abandonment.
Travel slowed, dialogue stopped, and a united civilization in the Solar System became a quaint
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