The Empire: Called back to Earth

Captain Chun walked with Doug to the hatch door. The first thing Doug saw was a sprawling wasteland of crumbling skyscrapers; a giant junk pile. One knew they were on Earth when you see that sight. Beijing, like most, if fact all of the major cities on Earth, were now literally decaying junk piles. Doug had no idea how many people still resided within the confines of the city. Before the mass migration to new worlds, Beijing probably had a population of a hundred million or more. He reckoned there might be a hundred thousand people that still lived -- make that exist -- within what would be the city.

Back in the twentieth and twenty-first century, Beijing had been a modern, thriving metropolis. The capitol of the then country of China. According to Lily, when the Corporate Socialist Industrial Complex finally took complete control of Earth in the twenty-second century, and established ’Plutocratic’ rule, those in charge -- the ’Oligarchy’ -- took over what Lily called the People’s Congress Building adjacent to an area she called Tiananmen Square, located somewhere in central Beijing, and used it as the corporate headquarters for the Asia continent. When Robby returned with his armada of battle cruisers, one of the battle cruisers demolish the building leaving only a heap of rubble.

There were different stories. One story was that Robby, when he had arrived with his armada of battle cruisers, he had issued an ultimatum to the ’Oligarchy.’ Surrender or else. The second story: He had issued no ultimatum. He had simply issued an order to the armada of battle cruisers to obliterate all the corporate headquarters of the ‘Oligarchy’ around the world, thus terminating those inside.

Whichever story one choose to believe, Robby had kept his promise to mother Amanda who lay dying in a cold slave shanty. Amanda made her son promise two things: One, he would not reveal the location of the vault. Two, he would strive to castoff the yoke of tyranny that enslaved humanity.

To this day no one knows what or where the mysterious vault is. And he kept his promise to his dying mother and liberated the populace of Earth that had been enslaved for over a thousand years. But the greedy corporate overlords had virtually destroyed planet Earth with their industrial pollution. Had hyperdrive technology not been developed, humanity may have ceased to exist.

This was not the first time Doug had been in or transited through Beijing. If memory served, he had been through Beijing either ten or eleven times. Two of the trips he had accompanied Lily Ham when she visited her family and friends in Shenyang Provenance. The same area they would be transiting to this time.

One of the trips, he and Lily had first went to the ancient city of Chengdu. Or would a two thousand plus year old city be considered ‘ancient?’ Most of the major cities on Earth were two thousand plus years old. And like Beijing, that he was now viewing, all were crumbing to the ground.

Doug recalled Lily telling him that back in the twenty first century, there had been a Panda sanctuary located in Chengdu. She seemed to have a passion for the Pandas but had said she had never seen one theorizing they probably had died out. Doug had to smile thinking of the Panda pictures he had in his vistaview unit that he had taken when he and Javelle had visited the zoo on the world of China. Considering how passionate she had been she would appreciate knowing that the Pandas had been saved.

Another time, the airship from Delhi -- a city in what was once known as the country of India -- had a two day layover on its flight to New York City. Yet another time a layover when he was traveling back from the old city of Bangkok. And another time there had been a layover when he was coming back from the city of Kuala Lumpur that was located on the continent of Malaysian. Or maybe Malaysia was a peninsula not a continent. After the Corporate Socialist Industrial Complex had taken over Earth they had renamed everything. Surprisingly they had not renamed all the cities.

Viewing the dilapidating buildings in the distance, Doug said to Captain Chun, “A terrible sight.”

“Yes, an awful sight,” Captain Chun said. “I am glad I no longer live here.”

In one of their many conversations, Captain Chun had told Doug that he had been born in Beijing. He still had some friends that lived in the city but all his family members had migrated to the world of China. I’m the only Reilly World spaceship captain that volunteers to come back to Earth. Without it is mandatory, the other captains will not land on Earth.

“As I before explained, I know I will be here for at least ten days. Is that going to give you enough time to visit the friend you came to see?” Captain Chun asked.

“That should be plenty of time, Captain,” Doug replied. “Two days there, two days to spend there and two days back. Even if we get delayed one or two days, we will be back before the ten days are up.”

“Have you been able to make contact with your friend?” Captain Chun asked.

“No,” Doug replied. “I hope no harm has come to her. Or someone will pay.”

“She must be a very good friend to come all this way?” Captain Chun said.

“A very dear friend, Captain Chun. A very dear friend,” Doug replied.

“You need to be really careful out there in the country,” Captain Chun said. “I understand that there are bandits out in the country side and they will think nothing of terminating you and talking all your processions.”

“We’ll be careful,” Doug said, and opened the bag he was carrying and showed Captain Chun the 9mm and 44mm blasters inside.

“And you have to be very careful and not get lost,” Captain Chun said.

“I’ve accompanied my friend to the region, Shenyang Provenance, where she lives a coupler of times. As I told you, I’m Earth-born like you. Except I was born on the North American continent. And I have been in and through Beijing a number of times,” Doug replied.

Javelle had went ahead to see if he could secure a ground vehicle. Issie and Zenobia were staring at the outline of Beijing, now a crumbling wasteland. The Beijing spaceport was only about two kilometers away.

In the past, when he had accompanied Lily, she had summoned one of the convoys that regularly transited from Beijing to Shenyang Provenance. But for reasons unknown, he had been unable to contact Lily with his vistaview unit. She would not know when he was arriving and he didn’t know how to contact one of the conveys.

There may be a simply explanation. Vistaview service could be terrible at times. But he had begun to worry. Worry that something may have happened to his dear friend. If someone had harmed his friend, well… someone would pay. No brag, just fact.

Issie and Zenobia had already descended to the ground and were standing staring at the ruined city of Beijing in the distance. When Issie and Zenobia saw Doug coming, Issie pointed and asked, “What is that?”

“That, ladies, is one of the decaying cities here on Earth. Before the mass migration to new worlds, there were probably over a hundred million people that lived inside that spiraling wasteland. Most probably never saw the sun rise or set. Never experienced rain on their face. They mostly just existed day to day,” Doug told them.

Zenobia shook her head and just stared. “Unbelievably. Simply unbelievable,” she finally said. “I have read stories about Earth but this is simply unbelievably. And to believe this is the home world where humanity first evolved.”

“Can we go inside the city?” Issie asked.

“Far too dangerous, Issie,” Doug replied. “Most of the people still living there exist from hand to month. And there are probably gangs that would slit your throat for a credit.”

“Will those people ever be able to leave Earth?” Zenobia asked.

“Very few that still live on Earth will ever leave now,” Doug replied. “They either can’t afford to leave or simply do not want to leave.”

“What will happen to them?” Issie asked.

“Earth is very polluted. A lot of hazardous waste dumps that contain toxic chemicals. The pollution from the toxic chemicals kill hundreds, probably thousands, each year. Although there will still be regions unaffected for many years to come, eventually the toxic waste may kill those that are not in a safe region,” Doug explained.”

“Oh, how horrible,” Zenobia explained. “Can’t something be done?”

Doug shook his head no and said, “Earth, in its prime, was home to over twenty billion people. Over the past thousand years, most have emigrated to new worlds. Only a few million people still live on Earth. I don’t know what could be done for them now. I don’t speak for the Empire but I suspect that the Empire has written Earth off. It’s a dying world. Let it die.”

“Sad, so sad,” Zenobia explained. “And to think Earth was the planet where human life evolved.” They stood and stared at the crumbing city of Beijing. After a few moments Zenobia asked Doug, “Is your sister safe where she lives?”

“It’s a mountainous region. Its relatively safe. The region was not polluted and there is no toxic waste dumps nearby. The major hazard is devastating storms. Weather conditions are very erratic at times. Industries dumping millions of tons of toxins into the atmosphere created erratic climate change which in turn caused extreme and devastating storms,” Doug explained.

“Are you planning to visit your sister?” Issie asked.

“She lives on the North American continent. The North American continent is on the other side of the planet. And we will only have something like ten days. I would like to visit her but I don’t think the time differential will permit me time to do so,” Doug replied.

Javelle had been gone now for some time and Doug was wondering what was taking him so long. Had he encountered trouble? But Doug reasoned that Javelle would be able to defend himself.

Doug walked over and opened one of the bags and took out two jackets. He handed one to Zenobia and the other to Issie. “These are blaster proof jackets. It may be a little warm but put them on and ware them at all time.” Like Doug and Javelle, Zenobia and Issie had already changed into cargo pants before exiting the spaceship.

Zenobia started to protest but Doug said, “Please don’t argue. It’s for your protection.”

Doug took the third jacket out and then took the jacket he was wearing off. He put the blaster proof jacket on. Then he reached into the bag he had been carrying and took out the 9mm blaster and the shoulder rig. He placed the shoulder rig and blaster on and then donned the other jacket.

“Why are you carrying a blaster?” Zenobia wanted to know.

“We could encounter trouble on our drive to Shenyang Provenance,” Doug said. “It is best to be prepared.” He left the 44mm blaster in the bag but was going to keep it nearby.

Doug had reasoned that the immediate area was relevantly safe but had been constantly mentally scanning for any sign of danger. Doug immediately detected and recognized Ossie’s brain wave signature when he had exited the spaceship and started walking toward them.

Doug turned to greet Ossie, who was grinning ear to ear. “How are you doing Ossie?” Doug asked.

With his signature smile still in place, Ossie said without preamble, “Captain Chun said I should go with you. There are bandits out there and I can protect you.”

“I’m sure Javelle and I can handle any bandits,” Doug said.

Still smiling, Ossie said, “I’m really just a gentle giant (losing his smile and staring hard at Doug) but considering my size, I can be quite intimidating,” and his signature smile returned.

With his cold hard stare, and his size, Ossie was an intimidating figure of a man. Smiling, Doug said, “Yes, you can be very intimidating, Ossie. But Captain Chun will probably need you here to help him.”

“It was Captain Chun that suggested that I accompany you,” Ossie said. “Captain Chun does not want any harm to befall you.”

Doug opened his mouth to protest and then closed his mouth realizing it was a losing argument. “Okay, but do you have a blaster proof jacket?” Doug asked.

With his bright smile still in place, Ossie unfasten the blue work shirt he was wearing so Doug could see the blaster proof jacket underneath. “Never go anywhere without it,” Ossie said. Then opened the bag he was carrying and Doug saw that he also had a blaster inside.