“Notentirely. Sometime in the early twenty-third century, scientists discoveredthat the magnetic poles of the Earth were destabilizing and likely to changepolarity within the next two to three decades.”
“I’veheard about that. I think it normally happens every four hundred thousandyears, something like that?” said Patrick.
Iquickly checked the information on my nanoprobes, thensaid, “Yes, about four hundred and fifty thousand, you’re right. However the polarityswitch in the middle of the twenty-third century happened a lot sooner than expected.The last occurrence was only fifty thousand years ago.”
“Allright. And then?” Rick’s eyes were wide open.
“Soduring this period, the Earth would completely lose its polarity. At somepoint, there would be no North or South Pole anymore.”
“So?”Rick frowned.
“So,the magnetic field protection around the Earth would not exist at that time,”said J before I could answer.
Rick’sshoulders dropped and he shook his head. “I don’t get it.”
“Meneither,” said Peter. “What was the big deal? I mean, you said yourself, thelast switch, before the twenty-third century, happened fifty thousand yearsago. And – mind you my memory is a bit rusty – but I think that wasduring the last ice age. Humans were already here. They must have survivedchanges in magnetic poles before.”
Iagain accessed the data on my nanoprobes. “You are correct. Humans alreadyexisted at that time. And they survived.”
“Sowhat was different about the magnetic change in the twenty-third century?”asked J.
“Thesolar storms. In 2232 scientists studying the solar cycle progression forecastan upcoming period of frequent solar storms that would likely hit Earth. Thiswas the year of the News.”
“Soif these storms happened during the absence of polarity,” said J, “the Earthwould have no protection against the sun’s flares.”
“Precisely,”I said. “And they predicted that these storms would be among the strongest andmost violent the solar system had ever experienced.”
“Thiswould cause the Earth’s global power grid to fail,” said J.
“Notonly that. If a solar storm hit the Earth directly at the same time themagnetic field protection was missing, it would not only cause a shutdown ofall electronic equipment; it would simply burn the Earth. Nothing wouldsurvive.”
Therewas a moment of silence. Everyone must have been imagining how devastating thewhole event was.
“So,people decided to leave Earth?” asked Rick.
“Therewere two options, really,” I continued. “One would be to hide deep under theground. But no one really knew how long the solar storms would last, and onceit was over, if there would be anything left on the surface to enable life tocontinue. The second option was a much greater technological challenge, but alsomore promising. It was to build spaceships and colonize other planets. If theseSeedships didn’t find any planet that they could adapt, the alternative was to returnto Earth after several generations, hoping the planet’s surface was habitable again.”
“Andthey chose ships,” said Simon, who had been quiet throughout the conversation.
“Yes.”
Theywere all in their thoughts again, silent for several moments.
“But,”Simon asked, turning to me, “they wouldn’t have had all the ships needed toevacuate eleven billion people. Right?”
Iknew that sooner or later they would come to this conclusion. I took a momentbefore I answered.
“No,they didn’t. Only a small fraction got to go.” I looked down and continued, “Manyscientists, doctors, engineers, and other highly educated people were chosen, butalso many rich people who paid for the huge technological investment needed atthis time. In this way, they bought their ticket off the planet.”
Ilooked at all of them, wondering how they would react.
“Thatmeans that we,” said Peter in a different tone, “being underground, cryo-preserved,were actually saved in this way, right?”
Inodded. I was happy that no one insisted on the utter unfairness of it all.
“Butwhy didn’t the Descendants come back? The Earth is”—Peter looked aroundwhile talking—“a very livable place. Why didn’t they return?”
“Fromthe information I am aware of, the Earth was considered dead, not viable forany organism. The last images taken before the ships left the solar systemshowed a dead planet. That’s why they never thought to come back.”
“Butthis total annihilation did not happen, otherwise we’d be sitting in sand… or,in fact, we would not be sitting here at all,” said Simon.
“Well,the fact is that all electronic equipment we found so far was dead. That musthave been the EMP. But the solar storm wasn’t long enough or strong enough toeradicate all life,” said J.
Patrickleaned his elbows on his knees, pressing his lips with two fingers. Then hetook a stick and moved the bits of fallen dry leaves until he reached the soilunderneath.
“Okay,let’s say this is the sun… and this is Earth.” He drew two circles half an IP fromeach other. “Now, Earth has an axial tilt of twenty-three degrees. Let’s drawit like that, okay?”
“Yeah,”responded others.
“Inthe moment of no magnetic field protection, when the sun’s flare is greatest,it would reach the planet like this.” He drew arrows from the sun to the Earth.“If this side here is the west side of North America”—he re-drew the linein the circle that faced the sun to make it thicker—“then this part herewould hypothetically be protected, to a certain extent.” He pointed to a circleon the opposite side of the sun. “The southern part of Africa,” he said and nodded,looking at the others. “Could work…”
Theothers looked at the drawing and nodded.
Ilooked at Patrick. “Is this where we are?”
“That’sright. Formally known as South Africa.”
“So,Patrick, if your theory holds, that means that the majority of the rest of theworld is really a desert?” asked J.
“Ifit holds, then, yes.”
“Italso depends on how long the solar storm lasted,” I said. “The Earth takes aday for full rotation, and from the astronomical information available to me,the solar flares of the sun that could reach Earth lasted several hours.”
“Whichmeans only the opposite side of the Earth was burned,” said Frank.
“Ifit was only one solar outbreak,” J added. “Could have been more. Potentially,we could be the only viable part of this planet.”
“Aye,very optimistic. Thank you, J,” said Peter.
Jlaughed out loud. “I thought we were just hypothesizing.”
“Weare,” said Patrick. “We’re not going to find out more until we reach farthernorth and see for ourselves.”
“Howabout reaching the computer facility first?” said Peter. “Let’s get going.”
Everyonelaughed and then slowly stood up.
Simoncollected the plates and cutlery
