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Glory Days
27 March 2010 16:32“It was our own fault, you see,” said the queen, “we were given rules and we broke them. The Galactic Council didn’t believe in a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy. We had stringent guidelines for inclusion and like the prideful, stupid race that we are, we broke them.”
Queen Charlotte Decidua was being interviewed on national television as part of a History Channel documentary detailing Earth’s fall from grace. She was the grandchild of the queen that was in power during first contact and later, inclusion into the Galactic Council.
“Those days are still looked on as the apex of humanity’s existence. Faster than light travel, diplomatic, commercial and scientific missions to other planets, and exposure to new cultures. The periodic table grew by sixty elements in as many weeks. We were gods, we thought. Picked because we were special. Boastful and proud. Well, pride goeth before a fall as the bible says.”
Queen Charlotte was walking through London’s exhibits of our time during The Inclusion. Her fingers brushed over the historic photograph of the American president shaking the main appendage of Kroldu Septo, the junior GC Ambassador assigned to Earth.
“That should have been our first sign right there that this was only the first rung. Junior ambassador. We didn’t even rate a full ambassador. It was only later that we found out that our race’s adoption into the Galactic Council was a matter of some debate. There was a ‘there goes the neigbourhood’ feeling amongst some of the more advanced races. We were too impulsive and primitive, it was thought, despite our surprisingly advanced level of technology. Not ready yet. Apparently Kroldu was trying to further his own career by championing us and fighting for our seat at the table.”
The Queen looked up at the replica of Kroldu’s head with its shimmering helmet of balconite from his homeworld. His gill slits glimmered with the iridescence of hummingbird wings. It was a fantastic reproduction of the original that still sits on its spike in a refrigerated display case in the Louvre.
“They really didn’t take anything into account when they shut us out. Anybody that was offworld on a mission or just on vacation was there forever as soon as the council passed the edict. Our planet was thrown into a sub-light doctrine by a vote of 295-1. That one vote was cast by Janet Foulger, the only human on the council as her last act as a representative of our planet. She knew she would never see Earth again unless she wanted to freeze herself and make the three-hundred year sub-light trip from the outer border of our newly deemed zone to Earth. Who knows? She may have done it. Maybe two hundred years from now she’ll show up on our radar.”
The Queen laughed at her own use of the ancient technique of mass detection that we had reverted to in the absence of the alien technology. Most of the hardware the alien races had lent The Earth had vanished or self-destructed when the edict was passed. The bits and pieces that had stayed in one piece were pored over by engineers and then donated to museums like the one the Queen was walking through right now.
The heyday of Earth was on display around her. Photographs of levitating cities that no longer levitated, transporter pads that no longer worked, miracle cures that used technology we hadn’t yet deciphered a century later, and artificial intelligences that sat brooding and silent inside their shells. They still drew power but they no longer talked. For fear that they were somehow gagged yet aware, power had not been cut to them.
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Queen Charlotte Decidua was being interviewed on national television as part of a History Channel documentary detailing Earth’s fall from grace. She was the grandchild of the queen that was in power during first contact and later, inclusion into the Galactic Council.
“Those days are still looked on as the apex of humanity’s existence. Faster than light travel, diplomatic, commercial and scientific missions to other planets, and exposure to new cultures. The periodic table grew by sixty elements in as many weeks. We were gods, we thought. Picked because we were special. Boastful and proud. Well, pride goeth before a fall as the bible says.”
Queen Charlotte was walking through London’s exhibits of our time during The Inclusion. Her fingers brushed over the historic photograph of the American president shaking the main appendage of Kroldu Septo, the junior GC Ambassador assigned to Earth.
“That should have been our first sign right there that this was only the first rung. Junior ambassador. We didn’t even rate a full ambassador. It was only later that we found out that our race’s adoption into the Galactic Council was a matter of some debate. There was a ‘there goes the neigbourhood’ feeling amongst some of the more advanced races. We were too impulsive and primitive, it was thought, despite our surprisingly advanced level of technology. Not ready yet. Apparently Kroldu was trying to further his own career by championing us and fighting for our seat at the table.”
The Queen looked up at the replica of Kroldu’s head with its shimmering helmet of balconite from his homeworld. His gill slits glimmered with the iridescence of hummingbird wings. It was a fantastic reproduction of the original that still sits on its spike in a refrigerated display case in the Louvre.
“They really didn’t take anything into account when they shut us out. Anybody that was offworld on a mission or just on vacation was there forever as soon as the council passed the edict. Our planet was thrown into a sub-light doctrine by a vote of 295-1. That one vote was cast by Janet Foulger, the only human on the council as her last act as a representative of our planet. She knew she would never see Earth again unless she wanted to freeze herself and make the three-hundred year sub-light trip from the outer border of our newly deemed zone to Earth. Who knows? She may have done it. Maybe two hundred years from now she’ll show up on our radar.”
The Queen laughed at her own use of the ancient technique of mass detection that we had reverted to in the absence of the alien technology. Most of the hardware the alien races had lent The Earth had vanished or self-destructed when the edict was passed. The bits and pieces that had stayed in one piece were pored over by engineers and then donated to museums like the one the Queen was walking through right now.
The heyday of Earth was on display around her. Photographs of levitating cities that no longer levitated, transporter pads that no longer worked, miracle cures that used technology we hadn’t yet deciphered a century later, and artificial intelligences that sat brooding and silent inside their shells. They still drew power but they no longer talked. For fear that they were somehow gagged yet aware, power had not been cut to them.
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