The God Generation: The Best Have Yet to be Born

By Christopher Krull

On the planet of Euchenor, it’s believed that a future generation known as The God Generation will save the planet. This belief system, called Deep Think, relies on a presently non-existent technology that will have the power to bring everything from the past back to life. The day-to-day happenings of Euchenorians revolve around Deep Think and all work done on Euchenor is meant to enable those of the future to create their redeeming technology. Two anthropologists and devout Deep Thinkers, Whaton Lewit and Ioma Isvray depart Euchenor for Antiope, an unexplored world whose ancient inhabitants mysteriously disappeared. Once on Antiope, Whaton finds peace by accepting his future and living for the present moment. After discovering that the ancient Antiopians fled to the beginning of the universe where time began, Ioma becomes obsessed with the Antiopian religion and cultivates a following that defies Deep Think. Meanwhile back on Euchenor, a message from the future is deciphered casting doubt on the technological progress assured by Deep Think. This new doubt results in a mass exodus to Antiope. Those who remain true to Euchenor fear the new way of life on Antiope and seek to destroy the planet and all who threaten The God Generation they believe will save everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Krull
• Release date: Jul 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310689710

Christopher Krull

Writer living in Seattle.

Book preview

I. Planetary Standing Effects

Chapter One

The University of Euchenor’s gigantic mother ship research vessel slugged through black space as it exited the near orbit of its home planet. Once a safe distance of one light year from Euchenor, it created several hundred synthetic black holes in its close proximity and through each one launched a team comprised of academics, researchers, and students. One of these ships, the Almayer, carried two professors and two graduate students to an unexplored planet named Antiope. The professors who would lead the mission, Whaton Lewit and Ioma Isvray, had taken on hole sleep inside the Almayer after having been briefed on the dangers of synthetic black hole travel before departure.

The long-term effects of synthetic black hole travel were not yet understood but, as with much technology of the past, little care was given for this fact when tremendous benefits were reaped. Leading theories on synthetic black hole travel posited that, just as specific elements can only occur on certain planets and under certain conditions, the same is true for living beings—therefore inserting someone into a completely novel set of conditions could result in thoughts or behaviors developing that would not otherwise have existed. Many thought this to be unnatural. University of Euchenor philosophers agreed, theorizing that sending someone through a synthetic black hole fundamentally changed them. What this change entailed was impossible to know. In some instances, Euchenorians came back from synthetic black hole excursions younger than they had left. Others returned much older.

When this effect was first realized, adesigner black hole industry began. Large ships full of Euchenorians were sent through black holes with the promise of restoring their youth. It turned out, however, that it was not possible to predict how someone would experience time at the end of any given black hole in relation to how those remaining on the home planet Euchenor would. After several mishaps involving prominent Euchenorians returning from trips through black holes having aged horribly, a Commission on Synthetic Black Holes was established to regulate the creation of synthetic black holes. Part of this regulation included categorizing every synthetic black hole and its effects on travelers. To date, the commission had identified over one million black holes and no two had the same effect. The commission’s exhaustive recordings of the sometimes-subtle effects of black holes led to the simplistic but unequivocally true 2nd Law of Synthetic Black Hole Travel. This law simply stated that what goes into a black hole will not be what comes out on the other side.

The Almayer and its crew traveled through SBH771 during the Euchenorian 12th month of 4742. The ship reached its destination, the inner space of the planet called Antiope, experiencing moderate time turbulence and the two professors began the automated process of awakening from their lifeless slumber.

Assistant Professor Whaton Lewit came out of hole sleep first. He gained his senses quickly and his eyes adjusted to the well-lit metallic cabin of the Almayer, now doubly illuminated by the sun Antiope orbited.

Sync time with ELT.

The Almayer’s central computer clicked to life at Whaton’s request.

One Euchenorian Long Time year plus or minus three Euchenorian Long Time years, Assistant Professor Whaton, the computer replied.

Whaton sighed. Even the ship’s central computer, with its knowledge that grew exponentially every day, was unsure of the shift in time it had endured. Whaton scratched his face stubble, sticky from the thin, tight-fitting undergarments worn during hole sleep. The computer’s just as lost as I am, he thought and smiled.

Time until touchdown on Antiope?

One hour, Assistant Professor Whaton, replied the computer.

Very well, wake the others.

The Almayer hummed as its internal systems restarted, ensuring they could still perform their essential functions after the time shift. In the main bay Dr. Ioma Isvray was already awake and examining streaming atmospheric data coming in from Antiope. She wiped perspiration from her face and looked out at the orange, sandy planet. Antiope was labeled a Class D research priority meaning there was little chance it had harbored life in the last million years, if ever. Ioma, with her newly awarded Ph.D. in Ancient Galactic Narrative, maintained hope in spite of the odds.

Ioma reviewed Antiopian data as it streamed from a large projection screen. Numbers buzzed and floated around her informing her of nitrogen concentration in the soil, hydrogen in the air, and the amount of asteroid impacts the planet received each solar cycle. The latter digit slowed as it moved through the air in front of her face—a way the Almayer’s central computer demonstrated that it may be something of interest to the young academic. Ioma took note of it knowing asteroids were an indication of how likely life had developed successfully and uninterrupted on the planet.

Ioma took solace in the fact that Antiope was not unique in its stillness. To date, life had not been found in the universe but that didn’t matter to Ioma—she never intended to study anything alive. Considering herself a pure academic and not a gallivanting explorer, she wanted to study life that had been.

Life, at this time and in this dimension, appeared to be unique to Euchenor and a few of the nearby planets Euchenorians had sparsely populated throughout the millennia. In the distant past this was not the case and many dead civilizations had been dug up on missions much like the Almayer’s. Indeed, at one point the universe was alive and diverse but now it was only Euchenor—hence the Euchenorian saying popular among disheartened alien anthropologists on the forefront of the hunt for life:The universe is not infinite, it’s Euchenor.

The Almayer began its final descent onto Antiope as the two remaining crew members came out of their sleep and approached the main deck of the ship where Ioma and Whaton greeted each other with a singular quick glance. Brian walked onto the deck doubled over, still wearing his pale under skin from hole sleep.

My stomach is going up and down still, Brian said. The second graduate assistant on board, Elizabeth, fully dressed and ready in her university mission suit and standing nearly as tall as her student colleague, looked Brian over as he attempted to stand up straight. Elizabeth’s suit was the same as those worn by the doctors, featuring the Euchenorian Crest: a hand reaching forward and, by way of hologram, protruding out and away from the suit. This hand represented Euchenorians of the time who lived solely to enable their future offspring, known as The God Generation, to create a technology that would bring those from the past back from death. This belief was the main tenet of Deep Think: the supreme unflinching faith Euchenorians held in the power of their unborn offspring.

You ate within a day of going through the hole, didn’t you?

Brian groaned.Of course not, my digestive system is sort of slow though…

Whaton stepped between the two, asserting his authority over the graduate assistants.It’s not abnormal for food to instantly rot in your stomach when you go through a black hole time shift, even if you follow all the regulations.

Brian looked at Elizabeth, seeking vindication, but she had already joined Ioma in reviewing landing procedures.

Go back to your room and get changed, Whaton told Brian.You’ll feel better once we get on some ground.

If all had gone according to plan, the surface and atmosphere of Antiope was terraformed decades ago by probes sent in advance of the mission. The probes, known as Seekers, were an old technology but one that was a mystery to modern Euchenorians. Some academics believed the Seekers achieved sentience in recent decades.

In the beginning, Seeker missions were launched through synthetic black holes and controlled from the home planet. When the Seeker located a potentially life-sustaining alien planet, it landed and proceeded to spawn other seekers that would terraform the planet, making it livable for Euchenorian explorers. Once finished, the Seekers would then launch themselves once more and find other planets to begin the process all over again. It didn’t take long for the Seekers to grow exponentially as they expanded out into the vastness of space. Now it was unknown how far into the universe they were and what exactly they had gotten involved with under The 2nd Law of Synthetic Black Hole Travel, which applied to machines as well—the input of a computer mind into one end of the black hole could indeed result in the output of something else.

Ioma had studied an infamous instance when it was thought that Seekers came out of a black hole with knowledge of themselves on a planet called IC-672. An academic digging mission was sent there, not unlike the one about to begin on Antiope. But when alien anthropologists arrived on IC-672, a thriving community of Seekers was found. The machines had altered their programmed mission to land, procreate, and search for new life. The Seekers on IC-672 gave up on this mission, seeming content to procreate on the planet for decades, to the point where an entire civilization of them developed. The Euchenorian government attempted to contain word of the incident but rumors spread that the probes built cities and developed new knowledge of the universe. As interest concerning the planet grew among the Euchenorian populace, a solar flare from a nearby star sent an electromagnetic pulse through IC-672 effectively dismantling the electronic civilization before its inner workings could be studied. Some artifacts from the planet did exist still. It was known that the machines on IC-672 had constructed a model of the universe showing what looked to be a finite edge. The Seekers also built shelters to hold obsolete versions of themselves. Ioma spent months writing about IC-672, much to her dissertation advisor’s dismay. In the end, she was forced to scrap the project due to lack of evidence of what actually happened on the planet.

The Almayer began its final landing procedures as Ioma peered out onto an ocean of seemingly life-sustaining water.Life, as it turns out, is a subjective term, as Ioma learned when she had to start over after doing half a dissertation on the life that developed from the machines on IC-672. It was known since a Seeker first landed on on Antiope it sustained no life. The entire star system was a complete bust as far as anything traditionally alive was concerned. The Seekers that came to Antiope and similar nearby planets beamed that bit of information back to Euchenor long ago. The blue seas of Antiope may indeed have contained carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and many other essential elements but they did not contain life. Perhaps Antiope did have life at one point, and this was something a Seeker could not beam back, this required the cold gaze of a trained Alien Anthropologist packing diplomas and a grant for an extensive research project.

Antiope was dead. But if it once harbored some alien species, Ioma would find out how they lived, what they believed, and, most importantly, what caused them to disappear from the universe so that Euchenor might avoid a similar fate. Every educated Euchenorian knew their home planet was ancient itself and was testing its statistical fate by hanging around so long in a universe with a deep history of violent change. The Entropy Paradigm made it all too apparent that Euchenor was a prime candidate for theevening out demonstrated in every long-dead civilization alien anthropologists uncovered. Hedges against common world-destroying events such as weather disasters, cosmic disturbances, and in-world threats were already in place on Euchenor. Like the other researchers blasted out by the university mother ship, Ioma was interested in finding destructive forces of the past that had not yet been contemplated. These unknown civilization-ending forces had to be studied and understood so they could be prevented. Ioma looked to her new home of Antiope, proud of the work she would do there, which was absolutely vital for Euchenor to thrive well into the deep future. For, as she had been taught since birth about the beloved God Generation,The best have yet to be born.

Chapter Two

We’ll be landing soon, announced Whaton as the Almayer broke through Antiope’s atmosphere revealing the surface of a planet riddled with mountains dotted with black tops.The Seekers have been here for over ten years and ninety percent of the planet has been terraformed.

Ioma joined Whaton at the large observation bay window of the Almayer, which provided a full view of the landing area.

Home sweet home for the next four months. She smiled.

Beats another semester in the campus library teaching Intro to Alien Anthropology, Whaton replied.

Brian joined Elizabeth, Whaton, and Ioma on the main deck of the Almayer.

Feeling better? asked Elizabeth.

I am, Brian said.I had a dream that was so real though. In it there was a malfunction that caused me to wake up in my hole sleep and I had aged probably sixty years. I couldn’t see what I looked like, only my hands, which were so dry… I’d never felt such a feeling of being let down.

You can’t dream in hole sleep, Whaton said dryly.

That’s never been proven quantitatively, actually, Elizabeth replied.

You can’t dream in hole sleep because you’re not asleep like you would be asleep in your bed on Euchenor. Whaton tapped his skull as he spoke to Elizabeth.Your brain goes to sleep too when you go into hole sleep. If it didn’t, you might wake up with a nice young body like the one you have now but the diseased brain of a dual centenarian.

Brian remained quiet.

Maybe it was a memory you had, not a dream? Elizabeth proposed.Memories are already in the brain, maybe a memory is a kind of dream the brain has when the brain’s asleep?

The view from the main bay window of the Almayer grew fuller with the orange landscape of the landing zone on Antiope. All four members of the ship stared at their new home that they were about to collide with.

If it was a memory then when did it happen to me? Brian asked.

Before anyone could reply, the Almayer’s central computer announced one minute until touchdown on the Antiope substrate.

Crew stabilization in five seconds, the Almayer announced.

Everyone stand up straight, said Ioma in a motherly tone.

The Almayer’s interior magnetized upon landing in order to secure anything in the cabin not affixed. All crewmembers’ mission suits contained metal components that made them rigid during landing so they would not be jostled about. As the magnets took hold, the four tensed up in their desired positions so they could rest comfortably as the ship touched down on the sandy planet.

Euchenor was behind the crew and Antiope in front, however the principles of Euchenorian society were never abandoned, even after going through a black hole. Culture was one thing that never violated The 2nd Law of Synthetic Black Hole Travel. Euchenorians went into a black hole proud and aware of their culture and came out the same. Whaton Lewit was no exception. He wanted the mission to succeed for the sake of his race but also for the sake of his business. It was well known that Alien Anthropology was underfunded in the sciences due to the growing belief that life simply did not exist anywhere besides Euchenor.

Whaton knew the mission he had been selected for to Antiope was one of minor importance—if life did really exist on the planet, it had been dead for millennia most likely. The missions that were most sought after, the ones that came with the heavy grants, were missions to planets that had real alien atmospheres—where the surface temperature might render the surface liquid fire or where a visitor might experience fatal amounts of pressure on their skull from merely stepping out onto the terrain. These were the places where it was thought life might exist—albeit a completely new kind of life that had only been imagined. Most Euchenorian academics gave up on finding traditional life some time ago.

Missions to planets with extreme atmospheres were highly sought after by top academics and required massive amounts of funding in order to ensure a crew could endure extreme conditions while searching for forms of life that could redefine the word itself. Academic missions to Euchenorian-like planets such as Antiope were a dying breed. When synthetic black hole travel first became common in academia the opposite had been true. Euchenorian leaders sought out planets similar to their own thinking that life may be more likely to exist on such a planet, but decades of travel to such planets quickly changed this notion and the structure of academia on Euchenor changed with it. Many missions no longer took individuals with the expertise of Whaton and Ioma but rather utilized more advanced Seeker technology that could easily penetrate the deepest frozen alien ocean or hover through the most acidic atmospheric gasses.

The Antiope mission, Ioma, and Whaton were artifacts themselves, and this made every mission that much more important. It was a miracle that they were funded at all. If little came of this mission it would likely be Whaton’s last. Having a Ph.D. in Alien Anthropology without any missions to go on would mean a career spent analyzing output on massive delay from a Seeker one billion light years from Euchenor. If he was lucky, he’d see something neat on a projection monitor but never be able to discover life that had been unknown to Euchenor until he made it known.

Whaton wanted to be remembered in Euchenorian society but he hid this selfish desire. On Euchenor, fame was not something highly sought after. Whaton had grown up being taught, as all Euchenorians were, that their race had survived for so long because members of the Euchenorian society did not value personal gain, fame included. The boldest and most respected actions one could take part in were those that benefited Euchenor, such as research into medicine, energy, and education. Alien Anthropology, while not an ignoble pursuit, was one that needed some hedging on Whaton’s part when he explained to his parents he planned to pursue a doctorate in the field. He knew Alien Anthropology had its merits—finding life in other forms, in other portions of the universe, would absolutely be a paradigm shift for Euchenorian culture, a culture that had come so far but still lacked an understanding of its roots and its role in the universe. Finding and documenting other forms of life, as a person in his position had the unique opportunity to do, could be perceived as a pursuit one may take up without the greater good of Euchenor in mind. Whaton indeed wanted to benefit Euchenor but also to do something great of his own. When synthetic black hole travel came to academia, he knew that was where he wanted to be. As far as he was concerned, Euchenor had been fine for millennia and would continue to be fine with or without him on it.

Whaton stood upright, suspended due to his magnetized suit, as the Antiope terrain became crisper in the viewing bay of the Almayer. The orange, rocky surface of the planet looked similar to the mountains on Euchenor; however, according to information from the Seekers, Antiope’s terrain would be much denser and more difficult to penetrate with the delicate precision required of alien anthropology. On board the Almayer were several Class 9 Dredgers equipped with sonar that could shoot back images of anything abnormal beneath the sediment. In the case of Antiope, the planet was estimated to be over ten billion years old and therefore the remains of any ancient civilization could be miles beneath the surface. Once the Dredgers detected something, they would burrow their way down to the abnormality leaving a perfectly symmetrical tunnel for the anthropologists to travel through and investigate.

Once on Antiope, the Dredgers would be deployed and information sent back to the ship. The crew was to remain on the planet during this time to observe any standing effects. The standing effects for a planet simply meant any way the planet affected a crew in ways that could not be measured by traditional quantitative means. Standing effects were among the last important reasons academics like Whaton, Ioma, and their students got to go through synthetic black holes. Seekers and the computer technology controlling them could not register how a planet would affect a Euchenorian. This was important to know because, although the vast majority of planets only resulted in some minor changes in Euchenorian behavior, some had been shown to have standing effects that were detrimental to a mission. However mild most were, standing effects could result in marked changes in the way a person thought and acted and these needed to be recorded for safety. This recording was done through qualitative survey measures conducted by the Almayer’s central computer and would begin shortly after touchdown on the new planet, as standard operating procedure dictated.

Whaton looked to his left at Ioma who also stood in an upright position, fixated on the landing zone. Her head bobbed slightly forward as the first stage landing thrusters engaged, slowing the Almayer. Another lurch signaled the ship was now in contact with the surface of Antiope. A final bump secured the ship in place and the crew of four was released from their magnetic hold.

Whaton smiled as he walked up close to the viewing bay of the Almayer.

We’re here.

Brian joined him at the bay window.

For The God Generation of Euchenor! May they look back on us and bless us with their invention and ingenuity, said Brian cheerfully.

There’s the first Dredger off to make contact with the Seeker, Ioma said, pointing to the six-wheeled machine slowly making its way from its holding compartment within the Almayer. The Dredger sat only inches from the surface of Antiope. Its stocky build allowed it to hug any terrain as it made its way to the location the Seeker had spotted that would be ideal for digging and had a high likelihood of substrate abnormalities.

Take a look at that Dredger, said Ioma, addressing Elizabeth and Brian.It and the others that will follow could be the first wave of a huge discovery for Euchenor.

Why did it stop? asked Elizabeth.

The Dredger, which had begun making a slow and steady pace off to the horizon, had suddenly halted. Ioma and Whaton both walked over to the central control console of the Almayer.

Go ahead, Whaton said, allowing Ioma to take the helm of the computer terminal.

Ioma peered into the data read out for Dredger One. What she got back showed that the machine was completely offline. She recognized no readings from it all, not even its location. She attempted to deploy the others but found them equally unresponsive.

What model Dredgers do we have on this mission?

Class 9, said Whaton, looking over Ioma’s shoulder at the computer.

"That’s recent enough, were they serviced recently?