The Future Of Planet Earth – #MyFriendAlexa #WRITEPHOTO
Johnson Crusoe looked at the dark patches of clouds in the sky. The golden rays of the planet’s Sun spread their fingers around the clouds making the sky shine with a fiery orange hue. Johnson had arrived on this planet three days back. He had set off from Earth in the spaceship Voyager XV on a mission to explore the farthest corners of space and find new habitable planets for homo sapiens to colonize.
But just before landing, the spaceship had been severely damaged, and he had blacked out. ‘What had gone wrong?’ wondered Johnson. The design of this kind of spaceship had been declared the finest that had ever been built. The spaceship had the capacity to travel 20 times faster than light. In fact, this was the first time a spaceship with the TFTL (Travel Faster Than Light) technology had ever been built.
But somehow the spaceship had been damaged and he had found himself in this godforsaken place. The spaceship had landed safely only because of his act of switching on the autopilot just before passing out. He woke up three hours after landing, dazed and feeling very ill. He had stayed inside the spaceship for three full days, slowly nurturing himself back to good health.
He had ventured outside the spaceship very hesitantly. To his surprise, he had found the planet habitable. He was able to discard his spacesuit and walk around freely. And the Sun in the horizon looked just like the one on Earth. But what surprised him was the absolute desolation all around. It looked like a nightmare place of death where no man or beast would like to live. The flies buzzing around were huge.
As he stood looking at the sky, there was a small noise and a creature with a horrible looking face peeped at him from a nearby bush. The creature was not wearing any clothing and had long hair. The creature looked like it had stepped right out of a herd of wild animals. Suddenly to his utter wonderment, Johnson realized the creature was actually a naked woman with a disfigured face. At first, Johnson got alarmed wondering if the creature would attack him. But as soon as she saw him, she ran away quickly.
‘Hey, just a second.’ Johnson said running behind her. But she had too much of a head start on him and he could not find her anywhere. He turned back towards his spaceship and suddenly he noticed something that had not caught his attention earlier. ‘Could those be trees I am seeing?’ Johnson asked himself. He ran across and took a closer look and he realized that what he was looking at were indeed trees. But these trees looked different. They were lifeless and their leaves were coloured black. They were not the usual kind of trees with the cheerful green leaves he was so used to.’
Puzzled he headed back to his spaceship and went over to the pilot’s cabin to check his location. To his surprise, the legend ‘EARTH, Kennedy Space Centre, USA’ was written in large letters on the location finder’s screen. Kennedy Space Centre was the space station from where Johnson had taken off. But what surprised Johnson the most was the date specified in the location finder’s screen. Printed on the screen was ‘Date: July 6th, 2319 AD’. Johnson had taken off on his journey of space exploration just three days back on July 3rd, and the year had been 2119 AD.
A suspicion began to form in Johnson’s mind. He walked up to the navigation controls. One look at the controls and his suspicion became a certainty. Those scientists at the Kennedy Space Research Centre had activated the spaceship’s time matching machine but had forgotten to activate the distance travelling machine. With the result, he had travelled forward in time without covering any distance at all from the earth.
‘So, this is what the Kennedy Space Centre will be reduced to in 200 years. And the species Homo Sapiens would get reduced to its most primitive form. At least I have learned what our planet’s future is like,’ reflected Johnson. ‘Well, there was nothing he could do about it. He would just have to wait till someone travelled 200 years in time and discovered him. And then he would have to drum it into their heads to stop fighting all those wars and stop damaging the ecological balance of planet earth. Till then he would have to do what his ancestor Robinson Crusoe had done! Tame these primitive people around him and live with them. And he knew how to pick a leaf out of his ancestor’s book.’
With that Johnson Crusoe headed to the Voyager XV’s library compartment and pulled out a book. The title of the book was Robinson Crusoe By Daniel Defoe.
Author’s Note: This post is written as part of Sue Vincent’s Thursday Prompt – #WRITEPHOTO
I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa campaign
That’s such an interesting post. I was totally glued to it. Sharing it forward .
An excellent story, Jai…and the advice is good, even though I doubt those in power will be listening…
This was such an interesting idea. And scary too because so near the truth.
That’s such a beautiful post – a wonderful story with a strong message. the way you have weaved the message in the story is quite commendable. enjoyed reading your post 🙂
Quite an imaginative story this, loved it to the last line. Loved reading it.
Thanks, Atul, Glad you enjoyed the story. It was written a long time back.
Quite an imaginative story this, loved it to the last line. Loved reading this piece.
Thanks, Atul, Glad you enjoyed the story. It was written a long time back.
A good story. Loved reading it. Keep writing good posts