Chapter 10
A New Beginning

Since the early days when the “gifted” were sketching the first drafts of the mission, they always planned with fault tolerance in mind. This was the reason for having, not one, but two spaceships. Each of them with their own pilots, engineers, workers and tutors. Every piece of equipment was duplicated. In fact, this fault tolerance had already saved the mission once when entering the Oort Cloud. When faced with this dead end, they believed that fault tolerance would save the mission again, even if it couldn’t save their own lives.

Each of the spaceships contained a seed that should be used in such situations. Once planted, this special device would be responsible for artificially inducing the first abiogenic reaction, the process that would create organic life from non-organic matter. Everybody knew about its existence, but it was rarely mentioned since it was associated with the worst possible outcome. The focus was on the main mission. Even so, the procedure had to be clearly passed down to newer generations, and so it was. This final operation was assigned to the last survivor of the settlers.

Resources were scarce, both from the settlers and from the planet. The last survivor was a young settler, the result of the last birth of the third generation. When the situation was sufficiently critical to a point of no return, the lone settler began his journey. The destination was a remote place, carefully calculated by their equipment. Through night and day he walked those infinite plains and valleys. The air wasn’t breathable which was a major obstacle. The sun was shining brighter than ever, or at least so he felt. Walking through this otherworldly hell was no easy task, but there was no other choice. The few remaining rovers didn’t work anymore as there was no fuel. The weight of the seed didn’t help, especially in the new planet’s gravity. Even just his own weight was difficult enough.

The settler eventually arrived at the target site and followed the procedure for planting the seed. This was no “seed” and he didn’t “plant” it, but it certainly was how it felt. It was something that would germinate and give rise to new life. All of it. Their home planet should be on the brink of extinction and he was the last settler. The device he held on his hands could very well be the last hope for life in the whole universe. He engaged the device, planted it and then gazed the horizon one last time before returning to the spaceship. A huge burden was taken away from his heart.

The return trip was easier since he didn’t have to carry the seed anymore. The mission was almost done. After arriving at the spaceship landing site, he cleaned himself and slept. He was exhausted, as he had never been before. The last part of the procedure was not the hardest, but was perhaps the most painful. He now needed to spend the last remnants of fuel to leave the planet and fly into the unknown deep space. The furthest possible. No traces of their presence could be left on the planet. There was no way to predict the negative impact that those traces could have on the process that the seed would trigger. The ship took off and, while the engines started to prepare for cruise speed, he took the chance to take a last look at the planet he was about to leave. The mission was finally coming to an end, even if not with the ideal outcome. The scenery was breathtaking and moving, just like the story of his people.

4 billion years after, the first single-celled organisms began to appear, followed by multicellular organisms and plants. Terrestrial life followed aquatic life. A splendorous diversity of beings was thriving, the fruits of Ome-gae. Eventually the first species of sentient beings emerged, but they were very different from the ancient settlers. They developed language and civilization. They rose up, dominated the world and named themselves as “humans” and their planet as “Earth”.