No Future

Jerome looked through the viewport as the planet began to come into view. They didn’t think they would ever tire of it. The most striking feature was the baby blue oceans complemented by swirling pink clouds. In spots, this was interrupted by brown blobs at irregular intervals. They pondered which of these would end up home. If a home was to be had.

This planet was one of around 500 guesses into what could support human life. The top results of frantic labor to save the human race. There was a 50 year heads up that the asteroid would come and wipe out all life from the planet. In that time humanity did what it was destined to do. Destroy itself. It wasn’t so bad at first. There was a united effort to ensure that the human race wouldn’t die out. Scientists quickly found the most viable options of  planets that could support human life. The plan was to seed millions of these options with human life. The calculations on which planets could actually support life were rough but with so many tries one was bound to work. There was hope.

But what is hope to the hopeless? Those that must sit back and accept that there is no future for them. The planned effort needed all of humanity to work together. There would no longer be any room for wasted resources or time. There could be no more luxury because everything had to go towards the future. Many people said no to this and some of them had the power to change it. In trying to seize the future for themselves they destroyed it. Jerome’s ship was one of the last to make it before Earth became uninhabitable.

All of this was a month ago from Jerome’s perspective. They had gone into cryosleep for the whole journey. As they were going into the chamber, they wondered if they would dream. But there was nothing. In one breath they were laying down in their pod and the next they were coming out of it. This made them think of the mind. Of what it meant that their soul stopped along with their body. Would death be so quick and simple?

In a few years time they would descend to the beautiful planet below with their kids to begin life anew. In truth none would actually be their kids. It was decided that colonies would descend into a hierarchical society if the astronauts were allowed to have their own kids. So instead they would be raising a bunch of embryos with parents they didn’t know and would never know. They were to be their parent and guardian. Raising them on the ship until they would be able to survive a journey to the planet and the planet itself.

From the research and scans that Jerome did, they learned that the planet could support life but it would be a struggle. The brown blobs contained ground that would not easily support any life. After millions of simulations on the growth of the colony, they would be able to survive if they preserved food to the point right above starvation. If they kept that up while building infrastructure, they would have a sustainable growing community in 100 years.

Jerome had trained for this moment for almost all of their life. Since they were chosen to go on the mission from a young age, it was all that they knew they could want. Now here they were, finally doing what they had been training to do but it felt wrong. Why? Maybe because when Jerome looked at the vials of embryos, they saw themself. What choice did these potential humans have to be here? They were going to be thrown into a life of struggle with less choice then Jerome was ever given. Jerome was going to raise kids that had an uncertain future. Who would have kids with an uncertain future. All so that their kids kids might have a future if everything went perfectly. If humanity could work together long enough to save itself.

Throughout their life, Jerome had been taught about the potential and nobility of humanity. They learned about all the amazing things that humans had done in their relatively short time as a species. So Jerome always believed that humanity could find a way through anything. Even if the planet they arrived at could not support life at all, Jerome would find a way. How could they not? The mind is all the mind truly knows. It cannot truly fathom what a world outside of itself is. So it will concoct scenarios in which it will live on and thrive, even if it took thousands of years.

The chaotic final years of Earth shattered the idea for Jerome that humanity had some noble destiny. Greed and self preservation were innate human traits that would always be there. The only way around it was to suppress it. To make things such that there was no need to want for more. To that end, they were taught the perfect way to build the colony. How to set things up to be fair and equitable. They still believed that they could make it through these times, but what happened when excess returned? When there was so much abundance that someone else’s cup overflowed. Would the fighting return? Would the cycle begin anew?

Jerome pondered all of these questions during this month alone above the looming planet. The conclusion they came to was that building a future where humanity would be able to thrive while not consuming itself would be harder than surviving on this planet. Jerome would not even be able to affect that future because they would long be dead. Maybe they could raise their kids to be mindful of all the lessons history had taught humanity but there was no certainty such lessons would be received. The only thing that Jerome felt was certain is that every human had the potential to destroy others for their own sake. If this potential was not curbed humanity would always destroy itself.

Now Jerome was done thinking. They had decided on what they were going to do. They got in their space suit and pushed out from the ship. They floated off to that giant blue-pink ball. They would run out of air way before they ever reached it and even so, they were on a trajectory to have their body orbit the planet ad infinitum. Jerome would forever be looking at the planet with wonder. Wondering what could have been if they had believed in a future where humanity didn’t destroy itself. If they chose to have hope. If they didn’t decide that there was no future.