Mission to Terra II
Nov 7, 2022 2:30:47 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 7, 2022 2:30:47 GMT -5
Mission to Terra II
by Radrook
by Radrook
The world was just not the same after we found out about other Earths. No, not the earths that were either too hot or too cold, or which alternated between ovens and super freezers due to having extreme elliptical orbits. No, not the Earths that were gravitationally locked to their star, having one side eternally exposed to the star’s searing heat, while the other side remains eternally frozen. Or any of those other so-called Earth-like planets which were five or six times more massive and in which their stronger surface gravity made human habitation virtually impossible or else an unbearable ordeal.
Of course, atheists considered Earth's life-sustaining difference the inevitable consequence of blind chance nurtured by thousands of extremely unlikely happy accidents. But from a religious perspective, earth was perceived as having received special attention from a universal creator, and its human inhabitants, as those whom he considered his children.
From either of these two perspectives, humankind's views were drastically altered when planets that were entirely Earth-like in every important way, began to be finally discovered once mankind gained access to those seemingly impossible to reach distant regions via the invention of warp drive.
Then, suddenly, mankind’s seemingly-privileged position was not so privileged after all. Now perhaps, and just maybe, from an atheistic viewpoint, Earth-like planets came a dime a dozen, and we were just simply the local example of this very common occurrence. Atheists, of course, had hypothesized about this possibility numerous times, and such a discovery only served to confirm their opinion.
However, for those religionists who considered mankind a unique creation, it had been a severe blow. Now, suddenly, the creator might indeed have non-human material creatures in his own image just like man. If so, exactly where was mankind in His hierarchy of importance? Would they find that God had inspired a sacred book for them as well? Had they also needed a Messiah to intercede on their behalf when they had succumbed to sin by giving in to temptation? Or had they been never tempted at all and had remained in the same morally-pristine condition in which they had been created?
Was Earth indeed the only one among myriads of worlds where sin had taken hold, and had undergone a history of bloodshed and social confusion? Or far more disturbing, had humans been the only ones that had experienced centuries of death and illness because they had been the only ones who had voluntarily distanced themselves from God and had paid the terrible price of old age, illness and death? Were humans the only ones who had needed to be lifted from a fallen state while the rest of God's children, in all these other millions of worlds, had been enjoying life to the fullest.
Only a mission to these newly-discovered worlds would answer the question. Meanwhile, they could only wonder as they had never wondered before. Since the first mission was partially intended to resolve such a question, the crew was composed of two atheists and two religionists, a Christian and a Muslim. No one wanted an exploration crew to be biased in their assessments, and it had been agreed that such bias would be inevitable if only representatives of one of these two groups were sent.
It had taken six months to reach the first truly Earth-like planet. The crew had examined it from orbit and found no evidence of any technological civilizations nor primitive ones despite the vast verdant forests that covered most of its landmass. Yet, fruit-laden vegetation was everywhere and pristine rivers flowed serpentine both placidly and thunderously into equally pristine seas.
Yet, despite the meticulous probings, no multicellular animal life could be detected. Finally, after listening to the atheistic explanations, religionist crew members suggested that perhaps such types of planets were in the intermediary stage described in Genesis, before God had brought forth animals in the seas immediately followed by those on land.
Atheists, of course, had casually dismissed it as simply a natural anomaly in which evolution had simply chosen to go down the plant-life path and nothing more. Those religionists who considered the Genesis days as literal 24-hour days suggested they wait around to see if the Creator’s hand would suddenly come into action. Those religionists who considered the creative-days as symbolic, and could extend for thousands of years, thought otherwise.
"How about we stick around a while and wait to see what happens?” Patricia, a young woman of 26, a Christian and exo-geologist, said to the much older, Muslim, Sarah, a crew physician and exobiologist. Being the leaders of the two groups, they had separated themselves from the atheists in order to discuss the matter in private. Meanwhile, the atheist crew members chuckled amongst themselves, and went about the business of hastily collecting soil and plant samples while recording the event visually.
“I think it’s worth at least a twenty-four-hour wait!” Sarah the Muslim responded, “After all, why travel all this way and then leave without making sure? We might just be fortunate enough, or else predestined by the Allah himself, to have gotten here at the exact moment when he wills life to appear.”
“Well, we aren’t sticking around waiting for that sort of nonsense to magically happen!” Erik Jones, the atheist captain, who had been silently eavesdropping on their conversation, said in a hostile, authoritarian tone of voice. He was a big, broad-shouldered, husky man with an arrogant booming voice which usually and unintentionally made his words even more irritating than what they normally would have been.
“There are two other earth-like planets in this star system that need exploration” he continued, “...and only after we visit them will we return to this first one. So if your choice is to stick around and miss out on the other planets while waiting for your little miracle to happen here, then be my guest.“
Hastily, and while being urged to hurry, the religionists gathered the necessary supplies from the ship in order to set up camp, while the atheists hastily prepared the ship for a takeoff. After the perfunctory and sarcastic utterances of good-lucks and shaking of heads, the atheists entered the ship. Sarah and Patricia watched as it became a pinpoint in the planet’s blue sky, and then vanished altogether.
“Do you really think we will see this miracle?” Patricia asked Sarah.
“No harm in waiting!” Sarah said.
That night, a deep sleep came over the six religionists, a profound and dreamless sleep that made them feel as if no time had elapsed at all when they finally woke up. For a very brief moment, all seemed as before, but then suddenly, their ears were infused with the punctuated singing of birds, and all about them, herbivores resembling Earth bovines were placidly grazing. A large feline-like creature and her cubs were nearby, and another beast similar to a brown bear was gathering honey from a beehive. Then in the near distance, they saw them, two naked blue-skinned brown-haired humanoid creatures, male and female, walking slowly, hand-in-hand towards an emerald-grassed, yellow-flowered riverbank. Momentarily, they gazed wide-eyed at one another in deep wonder, then they knelt and thanked their heavenly Father for the great privilege he had bestowed upon them.
Of course, the official record as written by the atheists, made absolutely no mention of the sudden appearance of wildlife, and claimed that it had been there all the time but had merely initially gone undetected. Naturally, atheists back on earth preferred that explanation. In contrast, religionists accepted it as evidence of divine design.
Atheist crew members also tampered with the sequence of events. They had cunningly omitted the part where they had attempted to intervene in the affairs of the two humanoid blue-skinned sentient creatures but had rapidly changed their minds when it began to thunder menacingly, and a hurricane-wind threatened to demolish the ship. So they were forced to leave, according to their report, because of sudden, inclement weather. This last part always made the religionist crew members chuckle.