The Total Future

Year 2200 A.D, The age of oil and gas was finally gone. In the 200 years since the beginning of the new millennium much had come to pass and changed.

The change began in 2050 when electricity started playing a very dominant role on Earth.On a global trend there were more electric vehicles than ever before and the number of substitutes using electricity to gas had sharply increased. Homes started using more electric homeware, Gas ovens were replaced with fully electric ovens. Schools started using electronic boards, electronic holograms to enhance learning experiences, Restaurants did a full facelift to their cooking schedules, cooking units to accommodate for electrically supplied cooking. Offices, both government and private, changed about almost every aspect of their working areas to ensure zero gas emissions including the use of air conditioners that used gas to keep the cooling element in. These were replaced with airconditioners which, by many miles were not only less energy consuming but also used electricity as a coolant.

But oil and gas consumption was still steady even though the percentage rise in its use reduced notably. Nuclear power was also still available due to large reserves of plutonium and uranium metals still available on Earth. Although only few nations considered the use of nuclear power due to the lack of knowledge on the risks associated and the otherwise mainstream assumption that nuclear power was still unsafe after the notable incidents of Chernobyl in the EuroAsian Federation (Then known solely as Russia before the inclusion of member states) and the nuclear accident in the Far East Asian Federation (Then known solely as China before the inclusion of member states). But wherever nuclear power was available to be used there was ambition. Where there was ambition there was the need to trive, to be power hungry and so those who could afford large investments and afford taking the risks at hand started a reliance on nuclear power. Initially it all began ona small scale but overtime there were not one but the plants continued to expand in ones,twos,thres and eventually 10s. Each nuclear plant had an individual efficiency rate but their capacity was far above that of what their electric counterparts (due to the use of an unstable core of uranium in a controlled environment) had to offer in terms of yield per kilometre of ground and per hour of generation. So for some nations the investment was justified this way but for many their votes swayed in favour of other ways to generate energylike the wind,solar and hydro methods.

Motor sport races around the world were being held more fiercely than ever. More jets were flying the skies than ever before that traffic control towers in most countries were overwhelmed and had to initiate tighter control protocols.

Few questioned the sudden surge in the motorsport world and in the aviation industry because almost all knew the answer. there was just so much more oil disposable for use.

But as is the natural law of things, when something is used widely and frequently, not to mention excessively the scope to develop better ways and methods of conducting the task at hand increases.

So as a result Motorsports took an even greater leap in developments. Although since the beginning of the millennium electric cars had been seen on the track and a number of hybrids too the development had been slow paced with the comforting idea that oil was still around. But now with the sudden surge in motorsport events key manufacturers now eyed another energy source not just to prolong the survivability of Motorsports but to also allow it to thrive in this new environment. So developments began extensively to create pure electric vehicles in excess of speeds over 300 Mph because after all Motorsports only grew more exciting with more powerful vehicles on the track and more power meant more speed.

In aviation developers began looking at the current shape of the aircrafts and compared them to their next best energy source, which was undoubtedly electricity, whether they had a choice or not. Amidst much skepticism on the top boards of the aviation industry an alliance came together to create a joint R & D effort to create not just any electric aircraft (like in the past which used manned and unmanned prototypes to the field)but one that would be reliable as any other commercial aircraft would, for the duty of transport of passengers and goods on a large scale and on a long distance basis.

All this pointed to one thing. The demand for electricity would soon spiral over and above what energy experts predicted well before the timeline and by then there should have been enough supply for that exaggerated demand.

So around the world the solar panels started being set up aggresively. the demand for them had never been as wild as before. Hardware suppliers became full to their books. Windy areas were seen busy with construction of several large towers to accomodate windmills and every lake or river within the area started to feature a turbine that ran where the water ran. We could almost say that the energy rush was well on its way. Just almost. It is noteworthy too that the nuclear power race just wasnt over as many had thought because around the globe nuclear power sparked new interest, and new ventures and new uses were found in them. Some of these stirred up the evil of old ages associated with nuclear power. Amidst all these nuclear power became the second dominant energy to be used in the world and also started to play a dominant role in other events. Some of which were not of its own accord but used intentionally to harness the potential of nuclear and increase it s competitive edge against its nearest competitor, naturally derived energy sources. Some experts deemed it abuse as the power was still very unstable and had to be used with utmost caution. Other experts deemed the fear of nuclear as an old one and that it had no place in the new age.

But that was only the beginning. The beginning of greater things to come. the beginning of an age of technology unseen, unimagined on the face of the Earth. But there were also the side effects. things that would soon develop to anomalies if not controlled or treated.

In 2150 the announcement came. There were only just a billion barrels of crude oil left for the entire world.

Surprisingly few feared it. No one was surprised. Life went on as usual but on an altogether different scale. The entire world was now a behemoth of energy. The very living definition of a powerhouse.

Deep seas were now seen with large 30 foot turbine like structures that turned wheels with the waves created and every slight turn was sent off through an undersea fully insulated powerline which went all the way back to the mainland and the central powergrid. Rivers, Waterfalls all had similar structures now converted to power stations with full time crew manning them all day. Deserts once empty now had large solar panels stretching all the way from one end to the other for hundreds of miles on end to take advantage of the scorching sun. Windmills took on the revolutionary approach of using every possible wind available and so a single structure accommodated at least sixteen 10 foot turbine fans to take in every possible wind direction and to fit in the maximum number of fans. Roads were now carpeted with solar panels which were insulated with fiberglass carpet so that wherever the sun came its energy could be absorbed readily. Parking lots featured a charging dock for vehicles in each parking slot connected directly to solar panels from the road.

People thought this was enough. But the human mind is such that we crave for more and more. We are naturally never satisfied with what we've got.

And then it was officially in the year 2200 that Earth became a fully electrically dependent planet using the power of nuclear and natural derived forces to generate electricity. Oil and gas were now history and their history would be remembered, the technology which they bought with them revered and to be marked as one milestone passed in the history of mankind.

But what became solutions then would start to become problems soon, So experts started looking skywards into space to see if they could harness more energy and this time not from Earth alone because almost 80% of the Earth's natural energy producers/harnesses were being utilized for global electricity generation alone.

The experts believed that the sky after all, wasn't the limit. Outer space had a vast potential and its potential had to be explored in every aspect. Despite many explorations occurring before the millenium and bringing fresh perspective every time the explorers returned, this time the motive was different. This time the experts wanted something concrete. Something that would tell them that outer space was going to be their biggest energy source yet.

They were eventually right in that aspect though outer space became their biggest energy source in more ways than they had expected.

In March 2200 battery powered space drones counting 24 in all were sent out from the GCSA (Global Coalition Space Administration) headquarters (based in the European Federation) to land at several key designated points on the moon and begin observing energy readings on the free flowing space area among all the planets and their surrounding vicinity. All the drones were equipped with the first of age prototype long range sensors that could take in and instantly analyze energy feasible for use on Earth or energy that would need to be refined(like oil) in several stages before finally being harnessed on the central power grids. Experts chose to use the moon as a vantage point because required data was more nearer in terms of distance and had a much better chance at being accurate.

According to plans set up by the GCSA the drones would return in 6 months using an auto evac programme embedded in their systems and there was more than enough energy stored in their powercells which had a total charged capacity of 2000 Mw equivalent to powering on average, 600 plus private homes for a whole year.

In the months passing the control stations back on Earth kept track of the data being recorded by the sensors. The incidence of flying meteors and asteroids were starting to become more frequent and their proximity of passing near the moon became nearer and nearer. Few staff in the control stations looked at this data with concern, the safe assumption being that their drones were attracting the anomalous space matter because of their sensory activity but the majority of staff were not worried. it was thought as being the normal state of outer space. What they didn't realize was that their drones sensory reading was stronger than they had anticipated and its long distance of probing was sending out wave after wave of sensory distortion through the space matter in order to get energy readings from extremely long distances. But nobody knew about this. Nobody found this out until an event happened 6 months later in September 2200 just 48 hours after the drones returned from the moon.

<b>Inbound Tidings.</b>

12 pm, 8th September 2200. The GCSA headquarters was working full swing. The drones had landed on the morning of September 6th and the whole world had been watching. GCSA had become a humming hive of media outside the high security entrance and as guard personnel grimly stood by not letting them anymore near than the entrance itself news anchors were trying to get every piece of footage possible on the drones from outside itself and report it to the rest of the world. Top commanding officers from GCSA had been contacted, called out, even pleaded on to give a word on the goings on with the drones but nothing had been said. It was just another one of those so called "classified" moments as one indignant reporter put it. But that had been two days ago. Today there were still few media personnel loitering around the entrance but there wasnt a crowd and the humming had died down. The world was waiting patiently for the data bought back from the drones to be announced.

Analysts, scientists, energy specialists were now all gathered in the GCSA operations centre and hard at work on the results. The drones had come back each with a million terrabytes of data. A total of 24 million TB to be analysed and evaluated. It would take days to months and there would be frequent shuttling of data to and from the EIEO (Energy Intelligence and Evaluation Organization) based in the Far Western Federation(Then solely known as USA,before including member states).

The staff were working fast and the top officials were demanding results from the data as soon as they could, some were nearly impossible to accomodate. One chief had actually wanted everything completed within 30 days of the drones landing but others had vetoed against it and given near reasonable timelines. Little did they know that their answers would come sooner than they wanted, In the most unexpected way. They were soon to know that they were not the only race living in the galaxy that Earth existed.

At approximately 12.30 pm in the afternoon one of the staff from the GCSA observatory section, (the part that monitors intergalactic movement from Earth itself), slammed through the entrance of the Operations centre, rushed to the section where 4 colonels were overseeing the analysis operation and said,"Sir, you got to get a load of this!"

Colonel Emerick Slavic, a GCSA mid level official of Eurasian origin got up and briskly asked," Ok Gabe, What have you got this time?"

Gabriel Da Silva, an employee of South Western European origin who had just completed a year working at GCSA replied hastily,"There's 8 objects of anomalous space matter heading our direction fast. From our observation report that came out they have been made out to be asteroids made up of a mania of metal compounds. But please come see this!! They appear to be extremely large in size and diameter!!

The three other colonels turned their heads at Gabriel.

"WHAT??"

"8 objects coming at us fast??"

"At what speed??"

"How far away??"

Slavic turned to the other three colonels and said grimly,"I'll handle this" and he took off from the operations centre with Gabriel.

The radar screens showed 8 dotted blimps moving quite slowly on the screen but this was a misleading fact because the radar was a long range specialized outer -space probing instrument using similar tracking technology on the drones but of a lesser strength.This lesser strength was calculated at a minimum of 20,000 miles which was a good 80% of the size of Earth itself. What this meant to Slavic was that the space objects were less than 20,000 miles away from Earth and their speed calculated on the radar was at 2000 Mph. The other disturbing fact was that they were already well into the middle of the radar screen.

Slavic made his calculations quickly. This meant there was just approximately only a little less than five hours to alert everyone in and outside GCSA of the incoming potential threat. Again he looked back at the screen. The objects were slowly distancing out from one another. They were changing their trajectory. Slavic changed a setting on the radar and a minute later the distance of the objects from each other appeared as 50 miles apart and climbing. Another setting on the radar was changed and this time the blimps on the screen included a moving label with the objects. All of the objects were confirmed as meteoroids ranging from 5 to 15 miles in diameter. Slavic suddenly staggered on his feet and almost lost balance near the radar controls.

His thoughts had run to the solar arrays laid out for miles on the East African Desert and then a worse thought loomed up to his mind. The 6 nuclear reactors cum powerplants in the Middle Eastern desert wedged right in the middle of the MEF( Middle Eastern Federation -The dominant state then known as Saudi Arabia before member states were included) were not far away. The East African and middle eastern desert were only 800 to 900 miles apart and these meteorites had already spread out in excess of 100 miles each from each other. This was certainly a catastrophe beyond disaster comprehensible at least in the history of Earth so far known.

For all Slavic knew, they had under five hours to alert the globe and get the relevant groups to the highest possible safety.