Letters To Humanity

Annie's Letter

Dear my beloved descendants (if I have any) or whatever remains of humanity,

 I am writing this letter as someone living in the year 2050 to tell you how this war began. As they say, "History is always written by the winners", so I will not be surprised if somethings are left out in the official retelling. As I write this letter, I am currently in hiding as I am one of the last few remaining pure humans left in existence because we are currently being hunted down by what I call the "Mutated Ones"and I'm not sure I may survive to tell the story in person. This dystopian situation began in the year 2025 when NASA officially launched its previously announced plans to send people to an asteroid. After the successful completion of that mission with said people returning a year later with no immediately identifiable side-effects the next thing on their agenda was to prepare for the journey to Mars. We as a species were united (to my knowledge) in our amazement at how far we have come since we started this space-faring journey. 

My family and I watched from the living room TV of the hotel we were staying at, the official take-off to Mars. On that specific day I would never forget June 21st, 2035. I remember that day quite vividly as my family and I had decided to spend the summer holidays in what was then Orlando, USA. It was a kind of family reunion as we hadn't seen each other in a while. After exploring, we decided to watch the live recording of the take-off to Mars. At that time, it was an amazing thing to behold, seemingly the pinnacle of everything humanity has been striving for unknowing of what it was heralding.

With the spacecraft having been launched, everyone went back to what they were doing. It seemed like business as usual until two years later in the year 2037 when it was announced that NASA had received word from their colleagues on Mars, that they had begun to build a settlement, but more supplies and personnel were required. A lesser-known fact was that NASA had begun to partner with Space-X as the Mars project was becoming too big for one organization to handle. In the year 2040 more personnel were sent to Mars while some from the original trip returned. I know this is because I was one of said personnel. According to the people in charge at that time, my outstanding work in the field of biochemistry and environmental engineering had been recognized and they need a scientist to help them in discovering a way to grow food on Mars. Despite my shock and confusion, I agreed to sign a contract with them (NASA and SpaceX). Within two months I was prepped and sent to the red planet where I would be working on for the foreseeable future. The astronauts that returned also showed no immediately detectable side effects, so once again the mission was celebrated as a success and a huge step forward for humanity. At that time, we had not known that the astronauts that had gone to Mars and the asteroid had become carriers of some sort of bacteria or virus that we had never seen before and therefore couldn't quite prepare for.

 Upon my arrival on the red planet, I was introduced to the group of fellow scientists that I would be working with. My then colleague and I set to work on comparing the soil samples that were collected from Mars with the soil samples we brought from Earth to see if there was any way to make the soil samples from Mars able to grow anything. After numerous failures, I decided to personally observe the Martian samples underneath a microscope, from which I noticed some sort of bacteria I couldn't place despite the numerous research I carried out. I would be dishonest to say, I played no role in the current disaster. In the name of science, disregarding my instincts, conscience and morals I conducted experiments with the then newly discovered Mars bacteria. After obtaining a sample of the bacteria from the Martian soil, I tested it on the soil samples from Earth. There had been no obvious/visible side effects, though under the microscope I noticed some changes in the soil composition. I then conducted some white mice trials to see where the visible side effects began. At first, the animals seemed to be okay with no immediate side effects but after introducing a somewhat stable mixture made up of mostly uranium235 and plutonium-239 some very unnatural side effects began to occur. Some of the mice seemingly died and came back to life, some mutated in varyingly strange ways and the rest just stayed dead. Extreme mutations were noted down, some of which were: wing growth, appearance of multiple eyes, growth of extra limbs and seemingly extra organs as well as other less extreme mutations. After observing what had occurred, I was immediately horrified by the situation. I told my bosses what had occurred thinking that they too would be horrified and call for the project to be cancelled but they only seemed pleased. According to them, this could be a way for humans to evolve enough to survive on Mars. They wanted to immediately proceed with human trials, though I tried my best to counsel and advise against such things I could only delay it. I had thoughts of destroying my previously beloved research and running away but I knew that if I didn't do it someone else would and they may not be as morally conscious as I am and even if I did run away, I wouldn't have been able to get back to earth without being caught. There was no escape for me.