← Spaceship Earth: Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Human Nature

It’s hard to believe I was once a stowaway on this ship, and now I’m running the show. Little Harleen Gunslinger, the big boss lady. This really should have been Bailey’s job—it’s what she was groomed for since the beginning. She was more than capable, and I was her right-hand woman for years. I think she felt like she was losing the voice of the people. That they relied too much on the technology of Gaia, something no one knew more about than me. This affected Bailey a lot. And then, when Simon passed, she became more bitter. Bailey was no longer the cheery person we all knew. She slowly started to shut down, shut herself in, withdraw from society, until one day, she just disappeared. No sign of her on the ship. No body found. She was just, gone. It was a mystery, and incredibly sad. My best friend had literally vanished into thin air, without a trace.

Simon passed away a couple of years ago. If he could see me now, I like to think he’d be proud of me.It’s been quiet since then. There is no one to crack loud jokes or cheer up the people when they are down. The optimism that was usually in the air is also missing with his passing. However, this was the least of our worries. Gaia had been touring the universe peacefully. There were no fights or battles. One million people were living together without so much as a skirmish. But soon, the life on Gaia changed its course, and the ship descended into chaos.

I tried to run Gaia. I put my heart and soul into it so that it could live up to the potential Simon had wanted it to. I did a great job, if I do say so myself. It was quite an experience to run Gaia. There were a lot of problems to tackle. I enjoyed thinking of creative solutions to the issues we faced. However, it took me away from engineering, which I came to realize was my passion. It allowed me to think and breathe freely without having to worry about the issues of the next person.

While I used to sit in Simon’s office and go over management problems, my heart was with the Z.P.E. engine I used to ponder how I could enhance it so it could produce better results. My discontent grew to the point where I couldn’t take it any longer. So I resigned from the position and went back to engineering. My successor was appointed. It was Yuri, who is admittedly phenomenal.

She has all the qualities that are required to become a leader. She is better at this than I am. This is evidenced by the fact that it was Yuri who led the team that constructed the second city. “Town” is way too small of a word for what they have become. She did an exceptional job. Truly! This is why I believe she is the right fit. Sadly, this view was not shared by everyone. Instead of going through the proper channel to find a solution, a splinter group took matters into their own hands. This led to the first war on Gaia. It was terrible, to say the least. I do not recall much of my time on Earth since I was so young when I snuck on Gaia, but I know from the historical records and the interviews that Simon’s generation had seen the worst of Earth. It was human nature that had turned it into that unlivable planet.

Greed had caused people to snatch the powers away from one another and plunder Earth. There was barely any vegetation or greenery that was still around by the time Gaia embarked on its maiden voyage. It seems man has, for eons, chosen to fight instead of communicate. This caused devastation back on Earth, and now, it has caused devastation even here.

There was significant harm done to Gaia. The worst part was that the historical records we brought from Earth and put together with our elders were destroyed in the process. Our history, our roots,have all been destroyed because humankind could not contain theirwrath. It’s surprising and disappointing and devastating. How havewe not learned from our mistakes? Why is it in human nature to seek conflict? This never happened when Simon was in charge.

Maybe people stopped remembering this was a ship. Perhaps they got too comfortable. Humans seek power by whatever means necessary and end up getting corrupted by it. We refuse to see the destruction and the chaos it causes because we are too blinded by what it will become. It seems we have left Earth far behind, but we have not managed to leave behind our nature. It comes forward repeatedly to haunt and torment us. It gets to even the best of us. It seems as if this part of our innate tendencies will never be suppressed. Traveling for more than one hundred years and raising generations in a distantbody has not managed to put a stop to this at all. I also know historywill continue to repeat itself unless we learn from it.

The damage done by the first war was far worse than just the his- torical records. We lost our main Z.P.E. engine, my baby. Our spare ones were also almost completely destroyed as well, which would have most certainly killed us all. I still barely remember bullets, which would have been less destructive than the energy weapons we created.

As our population grew, Vivian, our head of security on Gaia, insisted we figure out some sort of weapon to help control the crowds should anything arise that got out of hand with the population. I remember hiding in those ducts when I was just a child, listening to Simon and Jerel have heated arguments about weapons. Simon was adamant that there never be guns in Gaia, that it would only lead to bad things.

Vivian, while sweet, was still her father’s daughter, and shared this sentiment. So, she found a loophole in Simon’s law about no guns and was able to create energy weapons from crystals found during a material harvest. Marine noted that some of these crystals could be amazing conductors of energy, and that was all Vivian needed to hear. With my reluctant help, the first energy weapons were created.

Like a ghostly bird chirping in my ear, I could almost hear Simon’s voice saying, “I told you so.” Our history, gone. Our Z.P.E. engines, gone. The lives lost during the war will haunt all of us for some time. The Zero-Point Engine was what powered Gaia. This ship, which now more closely resembled a planet, still needed something to power it, to give it life. And that was our core, our engine.

Without it, we would be dead in the water, so –to speak. I under- took the task of rebuilding one of our backups and building around it so that, in the future, there would never be any conflict that would harm the Z.P.E. It is too important. I buried the original Z.P.E. engine under the surface of the first town built in Gaia, or what was left of it. The engine was still functioning but with no way to harness its energy.

It had become too unstable. I couldn’t jettison it into space, it was too dangerous, so I buried it, in secret. It was so painful for me. I felt as if I was burying my own flesh and blood. I mourned the lossfor weeks to come. I felt as if someone had ripped out a part of me.The wound still stung, but I had to move on. We all did. The fighting went on for many years. It was getting more and more bloody.

It was exactly like it had been on Earth. Human blood had become cheap. It had no value; that much was certain. It had gotten to the point where it was becoming more and more likely that the human race would become extinct. Of the one million people that had existed on this ship in peace and harmony, only a few thousand survived. The vast majority fell victim to the chaos that ensued.

The atrocities committed by these people in the name of power is indescribable. However, the bloodshed did not seem to alarm the people too much. They continued to rain down hell on Gaia. It was only when Fynnegan stood up that the two factions decided to put down their arms. I was introduced to this bombastic fellow through Marine. He was an older man, a little younger than me, who’d worked in communications since he was a child. He’d had enough of the constant bloodshed and had decided to take matters into his own hands. He was part of the original one thousand, so people lis- tened. He later told me that he was terrified that the bloodshed was going to end humanity once and for all. Then this entire voyage and Simon’s legacy would be for nothing.

During a truce, both sides met, and Fynnegan spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began his speech. “Look around you! Look at what all of you have done.” Various monitors highlighted the destruction and chaos around Gaia. “You are on the verge of destroying the project that was supposed to set us free. How many people havedied? How many families are still mourning the deaths of their lovedones? How many are on the verge of killing themselves because theycannot bear the thought of this destruction? Earth was their home, and our ancestors ruined that planet. Gaia is our home, and we areon the verge of destroying it now too. Perhaps it is time to stop thisinsanity before all of humanity becomes extinct.”

One of the people in the meeting—a bitter man—chimed in, “Not humanity, just us, but the people on Earth will find us one day and know what you all have done.” This was when Fynnegan ended the war: “No, my friend, that won’t happen. Earth won’t find us, because Earth died, over a hundred years ago.” Disbelief and chaos erupted in the meeting.

No one on either side wanted to believe him. Why would they? He played them the message that I thought only Simon and I had heard, a message we had carried all these years. Fynnegan was in communications, searching for other life in the universe.

Clearly he’d come across this message instead, which he was now playing. “Simon, this is Elder Iskandar, the last surviving mem- ber of the Council of Seven. There is no coming back;there is no going forward. You and your crew will be all that is left of humanity. The famine is too great, and the skies are browned by air that we can barely breathe. They launched their arsenals, we followed, and there is nowhere on Earth that will be safe from the fallout. By the time this message reaches…” The message cuts off.The anger and chaos that filled this room was gone. The silence of the truth set in. They knew what they heard to be accurate. There had been rumors for years, but this truth hurt so much more. Fynnegan told them, “There is an old Earth saying: ‘Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ It seems that is what we are going to do. We must be smarter than this, better than this. If we can put our differences aside, you will see that we are all in this together… That we are all family. Communication over conflict. Look at all we have done, all we have made.”He was slowly getting through to the people, a feat not easy to achieve. I had to give him credit. He managed to achieve something most people on my crew had been unable to do for years. He even got the opposing sides together in one room without resulting in bloodshed. I was very grateful to have a member of my generation be the voice of reason.As I recall the event, I am also struck by a sudden sadness. It was not only humanity that had been almost wiped out because of that war. Marine had also ceased to exist that night.

She, a bio-holographic AI, was the true heart of Gaia, but the Z.P.E. engine powered her. She was one of a kind and an incredible life-form. Simon made her, and never made another, nor shared the technology with us. Marine was his, and his alone. Marine was very aware of all things happening on the ship but was not allowed to interfere in the human’s decisions. It was one of her only governing laws, programmed by Simon. If this was man’s fate, she would have to allow it. Before she could react, an unknown assailant destroyed the Z.P.E. engine powering her, killing not only her but a few crew members that were working with her. But before she completely shut down, Marine did an incredible thing right before she disappeared from our lives. As she powered down, she activated the Gunslinger protocol, which produced the bio-AI hologram of Simon Gunslinger!However, because of the war and damage to systems, Simon’s memories were incomplete. He did not remember much of his past. The only thing he remembered was the journey of Gaia. He had no recollection of Earth or the things he had seen. He was not even aware of the fact that Gaia was his idea.

So there are essential elements in history that are missing as a result of the war. Who knows if we would be able to recover and preserve them?Perhaps our children will cease to remember the reason we were floating in space in the first place. Before disappearing from our lives completely, Marine and Simon looked at each other. The look they shared was a tender one, as if two best friends were seeing each other for the first time in a long time, and for only a couple of seconds. There was a sad look on their faces, as if they knew this was the ultimate goodbye. As I watched the scene, I was filled with even more sadness and regret than when I said goodbye to the Z.P.E. . Marine was another loss that I would mourn for some time.

* * *

We are in the lab, and I am working on the Z.P.E. machine. Simon’s AI is with me. I reach for some tools, and I notice that there is a strange spherical object on the shelf. It was the pure black of a void—as if it devoured light—and smooth to the touch.. I look around for an opening and see that there is a small hole on the ball’s surface.

“Oumuamua,” says Simon’s AI. “We have seen this before.”

I look over at Simon, confused.

“Where have we seen it?”

The Simon AI is silent. I go back to studying the object, feeling confident that Simon is mistaken. The object I am holding is like nothing I have ever seen before. I doubt this is from our Earth. I wonder what it is and how it has managed to slip into this room. I want to go find Bailey and ask her what this object is–a reflex of mine–but I stop myself. She is gone.

Simon follows me as we head down the halltoward my quarters“Hey, Simon,” I call out. “Where have we seen this?”

I hold out the object, and he takes it from me. His hands examine it thoroughly. He caresses it like an old pet.

“I have no idea?”

He holds it up to the light and examines it some more.«No light reflects off it,” I say.

“Oumuamua,” Simon says. “We have seen this before.”

“You’ve said that already. Are you still updating?” I take the object back from Simon.

“Helloooooo,” something whispers, in an accent neither of us has ever heard before.

I jump, and Simon looks on inquisitively. The object falls out of my hand and lands with a loud thud on the floor.

“Did you hear that?!” I say with shock in my voice.

“Did it come from the object?” I ask.

“I’m not sure,” Simon says.

I nudge the object with my foot. It lays there motionless.

“We need to get this to the science lab immediately.”

I think to myself, “Maybe it’s from one of the more recent material harvests?” At that moment, Fynnegan walks in. He is happy with what he sees.

“Ah, you’ve found Oumuamua. Slippery little rock, isn’t it?”

“You know what this is?” I’m gobsmacked.

“Oumuamua; we have seen this before,” Simon says again.

“Holy crap!” Fynnegan nearly jumps out of his skin. “Simon?”

I tell Fynnegan about the Gunslinger protocol. That in order for Simon’s consciousness to be uploaded to a bio-AI designed after himself, he needed to do so at the time of his passing. I tell Fynn that he came into the room as this process was happening, and that none of us knew. He wanted it that way.

“It was a surprise to me too, Fynn. But this is Simon, or a version of him, anyway.”

Fynn is still a bit in shock, but continues. “That’s right, Simon. The day Simon, uh, you passed away, I picked up a signal from something that had come across Earth’s path before, many, many years ago, when life still thrived there.”

“We’re listening,” I say.

“Oumuamua was first spotted by Earth’s astronomers back in their year 2017. There wasn’t much they knew about it, except it wasn’t from our solar system, and it had a deliberate path. When Simon asked me to search for life other than our own, I spent my years searching, listening. Eventually, I heard something. I ran to tell Simon, and that was the day he passed. I found Oumuamua again, but this time, we were able to harvest it, and from that harvest, Oumuamua was born. The main rock that was called Oumuamua was just a shell covering this sphere. Once discovered, it couldn’t be broken down and used for material. It couldn’t even be scratched. Then it started disappearing and reappearing in various places on the ship. Not by magic or anything. It would roll away. Just up and leave. If we tried to keep it locked up, it would find a way out. Then, one day, it spoke.”

“Hellooooo,” Oumuamua says.

We all look at the sphere, in awe.

““I think it is learning. Slowly, but learning nonetheless,” I tell them.

I ask Fynnegan to bring Oumuamua back to the lab. “Why this hasn’t been under 24-hour surveillance is beyond me, but I want it watched all day, every day. Is that understood?”

“I will be sure to get a security detail on it,” Fynnegan says as he and Oumuamua walk away. “And Fynnegan, please keep searching, I don’t think we are alone.”

Fynnegan has a huge smile across his face. This is all he has ever cared about, so much so that he has done it throughout his long lifetime.

I tell Simon, “If it escapes again, we will jettison it from the ship. Who knows what it is. We barely survived a war, and we can’t have this thing derailing us anymore.”

I’ve never really had to be that stern before. Sure, I’ve gotten mad–who hasn’t–but this was serious, and my tone even made Simon pause.

“Understood,” Simon says before turning and heading away.

* * *

Takio has rebuilt the cities since they were reduced to rubble in the war. They needed to be restored to house the new population alongside the old one. Against my will, but also out of necessity, he completed building a prison where the war criminals were sen- tenced to spend the rest of their lives.

I am glad to see that things are stabilizing as we move forward. The Z.P.E. engine is now functioning beautifully. The newer version is better and more efficient in its delivery system, so the artificial ecosystem is also blooming. I have done all this with the help of Alaina. She is a dark-skinned transgender woman who is doing very well in this field. I am training her to take over my position when the time comes, just as Douglas once trained me. I believe this is the torch that I need to pass on to the next generation.

Then there is Julian. He is following in the footsteps of his mother. He reminds me of Simon in countless ways. He has that same thirst for knowledge and desire to do something for the people. He wants to explore interstellar space, the way Simon did. I feel Simon’s AI is the perfect mentor for him. Through it, he can explore a number of options that were not previously available. I think Julian is destined to become a formidable leader.

Julian is walking in a freshly restored park when the AI Simon appears in front of him.

“Hey, Julian, can you keep a secret?”

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