![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Another end-of-the-world scenario:
A team of four astronauts are sent into space to stop a meteor from destroying the planet, and I’m either one of the astronauts or I’m on the ship for some other reason.
The mission fails, and we all have 24 hours to live. Three of the astronauts buy some extra time by abandoning ship in a lifeboat, leaving the fourth to die. Even so, it’s unclear to me whether or not any of us were ever meant to survive the return trip in the first place, regardless of how successful we were.
It doesn't look that way, since we’re headed to Earth at terminal velocity with nothing to slow us down. But at the last minute we pull level onto a hidden track in the mountains – hard impact, but the ship holds together. The track takes us underground, where we are met by a team from Mission Control, who congratulate us on a successful mission, though it’s not the mission we thought we were carrying out.
As it turns out, the whole meteor-destroying-the-Earth thing was a ruse, and our mission part of a cover story for a secret plan to start a new civilization underground – a civilization without any of the “undesirables” that made it impossible for humanity to live in harmony.
As this is a plan concocted by the US government, “undesirables” include gays, Muslims and Communists (and possibly brown people – no one says this explicitly but I find myself noticing I haven't seen a single non-white person since we got back).
As for how they pulled this off, I overhear a television report on how there was a lethal, incurable virus outbreak topside that attacked only Communists. I take this to mean that when the meteor’s impending arrival was announced, the government released home-brewed targeted viruses to weed out the undesirables as the evacuation underground proceeded.
But later, I meet a woman who seduces me in spectacular detail [deleted], and reveals to me during pillow talk that the virus story is a hoax to cover up the fact that the authorities behind this relocation plan rounded up the undesirables and detained them in secret camps, leaving them to die from the meteor catastrophe.
“Assuming there was ever a meteor at all,” I say.
“What?” she responds. “How can there be no meteor?”
“The same way there was no virus,” I tell her. “I was on the ship. Now I know why the mission failed – there was no meteor to destroy. “
“So all the undesirables are still topside?” she asks.
“Possibly,” I say, “though that doesn’t mean they’re still alive.”
And then I woke up.
Notes from the underground,
This is dF
A team of four astronauts are sent into space to stop a meteor from destroying the planet, and I’m either one of the astronauts or I’m on the ship for some other reason.
The mission fails, and we all have 24 hours to live. Three of the astronauts buy some extra time by abandoning ship in a lifeboat, leaving the fourth to die. Even so, it’s unclear to me whether or not any of us were ever meant to survive the return trip in the first place, regardless of how successful we were.
It doesn't look that way, since we’re headed to Earth at terminal velocity with nothing to slow us down. But at the last minute we pull level onto a hidden track in the mountains – hard impact, but the ship holds together. The track takes us underground, where we are met by a team from Mission Control, who congratulate us on a successful mission, though it’s not the mission we thought we were carrying out.
As it turns out, the whole meteor-destroying-the-Earth thing was a ruse, and our mission part of a cover story for a secret plan to start a new civilization underground – a civilization without any of the “undesirables” that made it impossible for humanity to live in harmony.
As this is a plan concocted by the US government, “undesirables” include gays, Muslims and Communists (and possibly brown people – no one says this explicitly but I find myself noticing I haven't seen a single non-white person since we got back).
As for how they pulled this off, I overhear a television report on how there was a lethal, incurable virus outbreak topside that attacked only Communists. I take this to mean that when the meteor’s impending arrival was announced, the government released home-brewed targeted viruses to weed out the undesirables as the evacuation underground proceeded.
But later, I meet a woman who seduces me in spectacular detail [deleted], and reveals to me during pillow talk that the virus story is a hoax to cover up the fact that the authorities behind this relocation plan rounded up the undesirables and detained them in secret camps, leaving them to die from the meteor catastrophe.
“Assuming there was ever a meteor at all,” I say.
“What?” she responds. “How can there be no meteor?”
“The same way there was no virus,” I tell her. “I was on the ship. Now I know why the mission failed – there was no meteor to destroy. “
“So all the undesirables are still topside?” she asks.
“Possibly,” I say, “though that doesn’t mean they’re still alive.”
And then I woke up.
Notes from the underground,
This is dF
