The Only Journey of Elpis - Extinction

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The Only Journey of Elpis

Extinction

For a long time before the great catastrophe, humans were the dominant species on planet Earth, but after nearly fourteen thousand years of reigning over the other species, this domain came to an end, in the year 3600 of the ancient Gregorian calendar, the world, which had long been formed according to its needs, had become a hostile place to live, and man had come to the brink of extinction.

Estimates made almost a thousand years after the catastrophe, showed that 70% of the population died in the 48 hours after the event and another 29.5% in the following five years, suddenly the human population had been reduced from ten billion to 50 million, five of the seven continents had been completely annihilated, and all surviving humans faced a thousand years of hardship, the product of a plague, which they themselves created before the catastrophe.

But when everything changed and the plague was subdued, there was a new resurgence of humanity, for a little more than four hundred years to begin a second and definitive crisis. The Earth, which for four billion years had been generous with all forms of life, seemed to have lost its hospitality and decided that it was better off alone. Because of a geological phenomenon of unknown origin, first the seas and atmosphere and then the soil itself became toxic to any form of life.

Without a home, humans had to move to colonies in other destinations of the solar system, no more welcoming, but more promising, waiting for a winning number, in the lottery of the search, by means of one hundred and fifty colonizing ships, for a new home elsewhere in the galaxy. During that wait, the three colonies of the solar system fell one by one, and in a final attempt to avoid extinction the last one hundred and thirty thousand survivors of a species that at one time overpopulated a world with fifteen billion individuals, undertook a desperate journey to a world, also unknown, in the nearest star.

Four hundred years after the voyage began and when it was approaching the halfway point, suddenly and for reasons that would never be known, all the life support systems of Elpis, the generational ship where the last living humans were traveling, failed; extinguishing humanity. Their last words, their last thoughts, would never be known, the names of the then one hundred and twenty thousand humans would never be known, their lives, aspirations and dreams would be lost in the emptiness and hostility of space, in a heartbreaking silence.

However, the silence of human extinction would be broken just over four thousand years after fatality touched Elpis, a new humanity would emerge in an unexpected place three hundred and eighty-two light years from where once more than two hundred and one thousand years ago it had first emerged. It would resurface to become a species that would expand throughout the galaxy, populating many worlds, thus ensuring its endurance as a species, at least as long as the universe itself permits.

Original text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, August 2019

Other stories from the The Only Journey of Elpis series

• Richard's Awakening
• Flashbacks
• OLIMPIA
• Elpis
• ASCLEPIO
• Extinction

This story was originally published on my Weku blog.

I hope you have been to your liking, I am attentive to your comments and comments.