A Future Unknown

The Force Field

The room was packed almost to suffocation. With at least twenty senior council members and their juniors squeezed in, Theo's mild claustrophobia flared up, making him breathe harder with each passing second and of course Admiral Adminhoff's who's piercing glare made Theo think about all the naughty things he had done lately.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

"Yes... yes." He lied.

One of the council members, a large, extremely unattractive woman, spoke up. Most likely a purist. "We have detected an anomaly in the gravitational pull based on readings from our deep space probes of New-Earth. What have you deciphered so far Dr. Tyler?"

"I have managed to extrapolate certain theories, but nothing conclusive. The pull is coming from some kind of force-field. The readings are of a sort of—" a long pause. "They don't make any sense. Theoretically they can't exist."

"What do you mean they can't exist?" Admiral Adminhoff.

"I don't know how to explain this Admiral." Dr. Tyler replied.

"Well, then don't utter such things. I need conclusive data." The Admiral paused and the room went silent. "Is this a treat to us colonizing the planet?" Asked the admiral.

"I don't know." Said Dr Tyler. Silence followed— then a murmur spread through the room, until, of course, Theo spoke without asking for permission.

"It's almost as if its alive. It has a strange rhythm to it, like a song. More like horrible Jazz to be more specific, out of sync and terrible." Although completely disregarding the rules, he was right and he knew it. The whole room including the Admiral glared at Theo.

"Who is this man?" The council women uttered.

"My advisor, genome expert Dr. Theo Willmall." Said Morgan.

She whispered. "What did I say about 'spoken to'?"

"Yes." he whispered back. "But, you see what I see. You just don't want to admit it and look like a lone fool. So I took the bullet." They were already bickered like an old couple and he loved it.

"What does this Genome expert know about Quantum Field Theory? Asked the councilwomen, with a glare at Theo.

"I will let Dr. Theo. Speak for me." Uttered Morgan hesitantly.

"Centuries ago, their were theories, pondering the idea that things could be alive. Outside of our understanding. Things that we consider matter. Unquantified Consciousness they called it." Theo said.

"You are saying that the planet is alive? And you base this on unprovable theories?"

"No and yes, I'm saying there is a theory. I don't have enough data to say anything. I just see a rhythm coming of that thing that is hard to understand because it is so utterly irregular. We need more data as this can't be quantified enough for us to understand."

The meeting ended after a few other discussions, and they agreed upon that more data was certainly needed.

"That went well." Morgan said sarcastically.

"Who cares what they think? They are not scientists." Theo replied.

"I love to have you on my side. I however hate when you don't listen." She replied. 

"You and me like an old couple." She hit him on the shoulder. He chuckled.

"You are such a copper nanotube!" she said. 

"Did you just call me a...?" Theo was surprised that she knew that old joke. It had emerged sometime in the early 21st century. There had been a language barrier back then, and the abbreviation of the two things had unfortunately become slang for something else. Theo had found it hilarious to call people copper nanotubes behind their backs.

"Yes I did." She smiled and walked off.

As Theo walked through the door of to his room. "Winston play me the recording of that whole conversation in the council room." He suspect someone was hiding something about that forcefield, and he would have his well hidden nano-bots scour the system for more data. 

***

Days later, terrorist Lemoine had leaked intel to all international news stations around the world. It was a Thursday, and Theo sat in the canteen eating breakfast with all the other scientists on his floor. The news anchor, of African American descent, had ended the broadcast with, "We urge you to stay calm. We urge you to..." She paused and stopped reading. Theo could see movement behind her. It was as surreal for her as for any human. "What am I even doing here?" She said, an ripped out the earpiece. "God bless us all. I'll be spending my last days with my family up in New York. I suggest you do the same." She stood up and walked off set. Silence followed, and the broadcast abruptly ended.

Days later, someone had hacked into the major broadcasting stations, reporting on the very raw and real chaos following such news. Fanatics and religious groups formed for people who felt the need for redemption. The ultra-rich were leaving Earth to seek asylum on Mars. Theo had read up on Lemoine, he hated not being in the loop on important matter. As a native Martian, an a complete fanatic, terrorist Lemoine hated Earthlings. Theo knew they would be hunted down for sport. Death was inevitable for everyone but the colonists. Chaos erupted in all major cities; reports of anarchy and looting were widespread.

As Theo entered his quarters he saw Winston cleaning up after him and all of a sudden asked. "Do you think humanity will change simply because it moves to another location?" Theo was shocked by his AI assistant's question.

"What do you mean Winston?" He had never asked questions like these before, unprovoked.

"Sir, I did some calculations. The chance of humanity faring any better on New-Earth than they did on Earth is barely 0.000034%. Their destructive nature is continuing. It's as though some unseen force is orchestrating it all."

Baffled by what Winston had said all Theo could come up with was. "I don't know." strange behavior from Winston. Maybe he was in need of some re-programming? Theo sometimes wondered if his dark tendencies had rubbed off on the ever evolving AI he created over a 100 years ago.