Seeds for Time

The collapse of ecological systems had been occurring for decades, mostly unnoticed by the general population of the industrial Homo sapiens. The scientist and specialist who began to sound the alarm were not heard above the roar of unrestrained worldwide capitalism. Economies expected to keep growing. The goals for every next quarter became even more demanding than the last. The overshoot of resources and the doctrines of consumption, year after year, had opened the door for the collapse.

Not only was the natural environment collapsing, the systems of the modern, technologically advanced humans were beginning to break apart, in concert. Every world system that affected the lives of people, whether they be modern or primitive, became tipping dominoes. Politicians promised, if elected, they would help navigate the economy back to safer waters. But they lied, for after they were elected the sea stayed troubled and the waters kept rising.

When the nuclear war began, the collapse became abruptly evident to all. It was not a war between nations of military might. The first shots of this last war were fired by nature, itself. A hurricane of unprecedented power had struck a major coastal city and caused irreparable damage to a nuclear power facility. Critical status was reached and the melt down began.

Millions of industrial humans had relied on the electricity supplied by the power plant. The humanitarian efforts were interrupted and then abandoned as the radiation levels rose rapidly in the suffering zone. Several hundred thousand human lives were lost. Three months later, another tropical storm laid waste another coastal nuclear power facility. Due to the attempts to respond to the many climate events occurring within months of each other, rescue resources became exhausted.

Migrations into overpopulated regions began pushing the collapse into all the nations of the world. Conflicts, large and small, broke out from the efforts of the ruling class to stay on top. But the power pyramid had shifted. The haves and the have nots found that they were all standing in the same line. Basic life resources became the currency of the day, water, food and a safe place to sleep. Social order commenced to break down.

The struggle for survival resources led to raids on some of the world’s seed vaults. The storage vaults held collections of food crop seeds for safekeeping. The vaults were an insurance for the future, a prayer for the continuation of the human species, in the event of a catastrophe.

The refugees were starving and went to great lengths to secure sustenance for their gangs, tribes and families. Many seed banks that were not raided, succumbed to the climate crisis and fell into ruin. The warming Earth became less cooperative, and crops failed worldwide. Famine ruled the land. Desolation spread across the planet like a disease. The Earth was becoming barren.

The last institutions that managed to continue during the full blown worldwide collapse were either of the military or science sectors. Such agencies had a long range plan for survival. In truth, they might survive the world governments and the general population by a few years, but eventually, everyone knew, this was their last circus, their last rodeo, humanity’s last dance. We finally did it. We, the Homo sapiens, the wise man? We had already sealed our own fate a long time ago. The six mass extinction was underway and this time, Homo sapiens are on the list.

One scientific agency revisited a technology that had been abandoned since the early 1950s. After the Second World War, American and German scientist had conducted experiments in time travel. Involving the earliest applications of quantum physics and while the computer age was being birthed, access to the universal time stream was achieved. The research became shelved when the first few attempts resulted in grotesque fatalities.

The Project’s quantum computers were able to identify the mistakes of the past. The very first time travel test proved successful. Black project resources were directed towards this effort. There must be a way for humankind to use this technology to save its own future.

The laws that govern time travel are presently still being discovered and understood, though there is no more time for additional research. The first bewildering observation was that travel into the future beyond the present time, seems to be forbidden by the very nature of the universe. It could be their limited understanding of temporal physics or their technology was not yet advanced enough. But there was no practical reason to journey into the future. There will not be any humans there, and most probably, any type of living beings.

The second observation concerned the traveler, themselves. Only those with a certain biological chemistry can make a time trip successfully and without harm. The quantum computers narrowed this issue down to a certain structure of chromosomes. Of the hundreds of scientist working on “The Project,” less than one percent of them possessed such chemistry. Of the less than one percent, only three of them were willing to volunteer and become travelers.

The last conference call which hosted personnel from each lab, had opened with a discussion of the ethics and the purpose of any time trip missions. Can we change things in the past to keep us from turning the Earth into a dying planet? Computers models said, “No.” Can we leave messages at different places in past times to avert the climate catastrophe? Again the computer said, “No.”

The input of scenarios into the computer was interrupted by a request from a botanist, who was stationed at the Antarctica lab. He wished to address the entire Project team. “Please pardon my boldness, but I wish to be honest and direct in offering my suggestion for our mission’s purpose?” All acknowledge that they would hear him out, as he was one of the few brave volunteer travelers.

The botanist continued, “All of us joined this team because we all know, this is our species last chance to do something helpful, to do something right. To save something of the Earth for the future of the planet, itself.”

“We all know what is coming, but still we joined the project. Why? Here’s why I joined, image this scene with me. All humans have expired, and the last snail is crawling across the ground, seeking refuge from the damning elements. It is the last living thing on the planet, seeking to save itself.”

“If I can do something right now, to give that snail even one more day, shouldn’t I? Isn’t all life precious? Isn’t this why we all joined, am I right?” A few team members nodded their heads.

“The Earth has provided our species a place and a life for millions of years. The Earth was not made for us, rather the Earth has made us. We are indebted to the Earth, and to all of the species our kind have cursed to extinction. We have taken so much for too long. Now it is time that we give something back.”

With misty eyes the botanist lowered his voice, “We all know that our species is going extinct. We are already across the threshold now. We cannot save humanity or even each other, but we can save the most precious species of life that the Earth produces, the flora, the plants and trees! We can save them by preserving their seeds, in the hope that someday this world will again be able to sustain life. And with the Earth’s soil becoming barren, we will have to gather our seeds from the past.”

The Director from the New Zealand lab commented, “But what you suggest has so many variables involved, there is no way to be certain that our efforts would succeed.”

“True, but just as someday there will be no one here to remember us, there will also be no one to know if we succeeded.” The botanist answered, “But if we do not try, if we do not allow the possibility, we are ensuring that the Earth will die. She is dying now! My proposal is a long shot, I’ll agree. But by attempting it, we give the future a chance.”

The quantum computer agreed. There was a fifteen percent chance of success for Raj's proposal. That was enough for him