The Reluctant Cuckoo

By Aaron Singer

It’s 2050 and the planet Earth is in crisis because of the disastrous and ever increasing damage being done to the climate. Its population has been severely affected all over the globe. Professor John Thomas is attending the Davos Congress Centre to give a speech about the space industry. He will hijack his own talk to berate the prestigious audience of elite business people, shaming them for their disregard of our planet and announce to the world of his plan to send humans into space on a journey taking thousands of years to populate the Galaxy with our last hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aaron Singer
• Release date: Mar 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463263242

Book preview

Chapter 1


Professor Thomas walked out onto the lonely stage of the Davos Congress Centre, with a feeling of foreboding. He was expected to give his long-awaited speech about the improvements in space science, or at least that’s what was on the schedule, but the Professor had other ideas.

The congress centre had gone through many alterations and improvements over the years and the last set of changes had been made only two years ago and now it could accommodate up to 9,000 guests. It was the WEF’s use of the centre since the early 1970s that made it such a prestigious place to hold conferences. John had never understood the attraction of Davos. Why on earth would any sensible person want to freeze their bloody ass off on top of a freezing, snow covered Swiss mountain, that’s only good for insufferable skiers and smelly mountain goats, the latter being the preferred company? 
 Surely Barbados, with its warm sandy beaches and tranquil blue waters would be so much better. But no, he had to endure this ‘Devils Congregation’ suffering from frostbite to his fingers and toes. Even the tacky and tasteless Las Vegas would be more desirable than here, he thought.

John looked out to the conference room; it was large and extremely modern with its theme of white walls, stainless steel fittings and huge visual display screens covering most of the available wall space. Not the typical Swiss chalet look of wooden beams and cuckoo clocks, he thought, but rather clinical, resembling his local hospital, which gave him a sudden shudder of dread because it reminded him about the imminent medical procedure to fix his painful right elbow, if he ever gets the time. John hated hospitals and the ‘touchy feely’ doctors and nurses who paraded the corridors and rooms that are infested with who knows what kind of newly evolving bugs. It was truly some kind of hell enclosed with bacteria infested walls and windows. He winced at the thought of being imprisoned in such a place; maybe the elbow pain wasn’t so bad, after all.
 The stage was raised up, so that the occupants of the first twenty rows of seats, had to look up to see him. This amused him, because it was probably the first time in their decadent lives that these selfish billionaires, and maybe one or two future trillion dollar demigods, would look up to a scientist. To his sadness though, he thought It was such a shame that the rest of the audience was looking down on a person of science, as usual.
 The attentive audience members of the World Economic Forum, the people he despised the most in the world, because, in his mind, these parasites were the greedy, unethical planet destroyers whose measure of success was calculated by the number of corrupt politicians they had tethered to the oversize bulging wallets that were held securely in their jacket pockets. It was them and their many predecessors who had taken us to the very edge of extinction. If the hatred and contempt he had for these bigwigs of wealth was a measurement on the Richter scale, then surely the roof of this Swiss Alpine building would have shaken apart by now and buried the lot of them with a crash of justified social vengeance.
 


Chapter 2


The audience gave a rousing applause as John approached the podium, wearing his trademark tweed jacket and white shirt sporting a blue bow tie. His trousers were the black, shiny ones he always wore, stretching down his long legs, stopping about two centimetres above his brown, slip-on shoes. He held a stern look of defiance, barely able to hide the loathing for these appreciative onlookers. The applause quickly died down and the unsuspecting audience sensed nothing was wrong, because John’s staring eyes and straight-lipped face was his usual look. The Gorgon’s gaze only turned people into stone; John’s stare was cold and frightening and turned the lookers into quivering wrecks.
 They were about to be broadsided by a man on a global mission to accuse and berate the very people he blames for our planet’s predicament. This was his moment to knock some sense into these very prominent people of society’s elite and shame them into donating large sums of their ill-gotten gains to save humanity. Though it was probably already too late because since the late 1970s 99% of the world’s scientists had been sending reports to their respective governments telling of the dangers of Global Warming and impending doom and how it would cause catastrophic changes to our home planet and all the living creatures on it. This audience of decadent and unconscionable death mongers had ignored the 99% and only listened to the 1% because that was best for their bank accounts and of course they were the very ones who commissioned those mercenary few to rubbish. What was really happening by muddying the waters of reality. Those few scientists had done such a good job of misdirecting the truth that most of the world’s leading governments wore blinkers. They conveniently ignored the truth because it was easier and so much better for their respective economies, by allowing big businesses to carry on with their endless and relentless burning of fossil fuels. Yes, many countries had their clean energy programs producing electricity from wind, water and sun, but this was just window dressing, giving themselves the illusion that they were doing their part although every year oil production had increased. This fuelled the ravenous hunger for that black gold of destruction which was killing our planet. Even the clean energy being created was drowning in an ocean of black death.


Chapter 3


John was now standing at the podium, ready to address the eager and enthusiastic listening ears of the room. His face was taught and ashen, because the reality of standing in front of so many people to chastise and preach to, especially with the speech he had planned for them, was one of the most daunting moments of his life. Nonetheless, he was ready for this confrontation with the Devil’s offspring.
 He looked out at the room, from left to right and then back to the centre and said.
 I would like to congratulate all of you here today, at this the 2050 World Economic Congress in Davos, for another year of financial success for your respective companies and I’m sure the profits were very healthy enabling some huge bonuses to be awarded.
 John knew that these were the very words that would excite the smug occupants of the room and grab their attention. They were like overly excited vermin, amassed in a room of rotting carcases. He really knew how to pull their chains, talk about preaching to the choir! It would be some kind of justice if pulling this particular chain would flush them down into the deepest, darkest sewer imaginable, he wickedly thought.


Well, I have some breaking news to reveal to you all that will wipe away those smiles of indulgence. The audience looked somewhat puzzled by John’s remark. What could it be that he would announce? they thought. John got close to the black podium microphone; he was almost choking on it, because he wanted everyone in the room to hear what he was about to say, without exception.
 He shouted into it, with his London accent. Some people, who knew him, thought he looked and sounded like that famous and much loved British actor of the latter day, Michael Cain. 
 According to the vast majority of the world’s most esteemed global scientists, it is now official, we’re all doomed, the Earth’s atmosphere has been polluted by too many years of carbon emissions and it is now way past the tipping point. But don’t worry, it’s not all bad news, he said with a wry smile on his face. The planet will repair itself. In a million years or so. The problem is that humans won't be around to see it, because we will be extinct along with most other mammals.
 The members of the audience were now looking a little perturbed and began fidgeting in their seats, wondering why they were on the receiving end of this bombshell of a statement. You could see them slyly whispering to the person sat next to them.

What has that got to do with us? one said.
 Why is this arrogant scientist spoiling our annual meeting? it’s unforgivable! another one said to his nodding neighbour. John could see the reaction from the puzzled audience and quickly continued.

Well, I will tell you why. It is because of YOU, yes YOU and YOU and all of YOU over there. As he was saying that, he was pointing at the audience with his two hands stretched out and both index fingers targeting the main culprits like cold steel daggers inflicting a painful wound.
 None of you have listened to our constant warnings. You just kept on burning the oil as fast as it was being pumped out of the earth, to fuel your lust for even more wealth. Plus the fact that the many emerging economies have become so successful over the last twenty or thirty years. This means that the final nail in the planet’s coffin has been duly forged and impaled by the carbon hammer of death. John paused for a few seconds to catch his breath.
 


Chapter 4 


The professor gazed upon the shell-shocked elite, with his eyes red from rage. His stage fright was just a distant memory now. He spoke to the audience in a milder tone and calmly said,
 The countless warning signs have been on display for decades, but the world refused to read them, instead we just carried on as though nothing was wrong. He slammed his fists onto the podium ledge, almost sending the microphone crashing down to the wooden stage floor. 
 Business as usual, he cried out.
That’s what we did, business as usual, and sod the consequences, for too bloody long. Well the world’s business is about to go bust and all of us workers with it. Only it’s not just our jobs that will be lost but our very existence. YES! We are all going to die.

He paused again, and this time he scanned the room, looking for any signs of remorse in the faces of the audience. He would get more of that from one of his cats that had just brought home a freshly killed sparrow that had been dumped on the kitchen floor.
 For most of you seated in this room, you probably won't notice much difference with your extremely fortunate lives. But your children will and as for your grandchildren, well!.
 He lowered his head and spoke with a sad voice,
 Let’s just say that they will be the ones who will inherit the full force of the toxic legacy we have bestowed upon them, along with the rest of the worlds creatures.

John gave another long pause and composed himself in a manner more fitting of a world renown scientist. Once again, he navigated the room with his staring bloodshot eyes and then suddenly became filled with that rage again, only this time, much more intense.
 Oy you over there. Yes you! He screamed, sounding like a sprinting London police officer in pursuit of a dangerous criminal. He pointed towards a man sitting directly in front of him in row 10. The fist of his pointing arm was clenched so tightly that his hand had turned white.
 Am I boring you? he shouted.

Is your tedious messaging more important than the impending death of our planet? Put the bloody device down and listen. PLEASE. The man was so surprised that he panicked and threw down the device he was so engrossed in and gave John a sheepish half wave of apology. This man had probably never been spoken to like that in his life, well at least not since becoming the CEO of the largest oil company on the planet.
 For your information, John said with both hands back on the podium,
 Humanity has now entered a stage so dangerous it will probably far exceed all the wars we have fought in, combined. We already have various water wars taking place, which will escalate soon. We will have mass migration of people leaving their lands because no crops will grow. The sea will rise, even faster than it already is, submerging large parts of the continents under water. Florida will soon be changing its name to New Holland because of all the pointless dykes that are being erected. All that will achieve is to create the world’s biggest sea water swimming pool once they have been overrun and the real Holland won't be selling tulips and daffodils anymore but seaweed and kelp. It’s rather fortunate that the Dutch are still the tallest people on Earth, perhaps they will still be able to keep their heads above water, for a few years, at least.
 John placed his right hand onto his chest, like an American singing the national anthem and continued.
 Those are just two examples of land disappearing in the very near future. I could continue with this horror story of disappearing states and countries because of rising sea levels. But I will leave you to discover your own home’s fate. Disease and starvation will be common because of low food output because of heat and lack of water and many other problems we will have to endure to survive as a species. But I feel that we have left it much too late and we will go the same way as the dinosaurs; the difference is they didn’t have a choice, we did, and we chose death.
 


Chapter 5 


John had now primed his audience in readiness for the real reason for his attending this awful gathering of the rich and powerful. He stood tall by the podium and raised a glass of water to his dry parched lips and slowly took a few sips while the onlookers pondered what he had just told them, none daring to look away from the stage, even if they were busting for a bathroom break. They were not brave enough to risk the wrath of John.
 John spoke into the microphone with a calm and reassuring voice, 
 Dear friends and colleagues… The audience felt a rush of relief running through their bodies. 
As most of you are aware, I have had the privilege of being a team member and then the controller of the Ethan Miles Institute for Space Sciences or shortened to E.M.I.S.S. We have quietly been preparing for this moment and we have come up with a plan to ensure humanities continuing existence, albeit not on this planet. The audience now seemed to be sitting up in their seats more attentively and wondering what John meant. He continued. You know it was our program that landed a manned craft on Mars and then established a small colony of scientists to explore it. Well, we don’t propose using Mars to save the human race that would be just awful for the people and impracticable for so many reasons. For one, humans like to breathe air, so Mars is a really big No.


The audience were now taking in John’s every word, eager to know how they could be saved.
 We have a plan to transport ten thousand humans, YES ten thousand! Not to a planet or moon within our solar system, but we propose sending humans out to seed our Galaxy.

The audience started muttering to themselves in disbelief, for reasons quite apparent, they were probably thinking that we can barely survive a journey to Mars and this crazy Brit wants to send humans light years away! John could see the look of disbelief from the audience and quickly decided to take a leaf out of the book of JFK and said to the doubters,
 Sending sailing ships to find the new world was dangerous, but we did it. Shooting a man up into space, was crazy and we did that, then we landed men on the moon, impossible, but we achieved that too and then, we went on to establishing a colony on Mars, Preposterous! Everyone said, but we did it.

John suddenly looked excited and continued.
 We now have the technology to send humans interstellar and next week my team and I will be holding a press conference at the E.M.I.S.S. to make the announcement to the worlds press and social sites to explain the details of this, Humanities greatest adventure, which can and must be done, there is no choice.
 John had now cast the hook, and, with luck, the fat fish will bite and attend next week.
 Thank you all for listening to me and I know that you all will be very interested with the details and goals of our mission for the exploration of the Cosmos, which will ensure that humans remain extant and not extinct.
 John turned to his right and started to walk towards the stage exit, with a feeling of both relief and happiness because he had achieved tonight’s goal. Then he heard something he really didn’t expect and was quite taken aback. The audience stood up and applauded him vigorously. Bollocks he thought to himself, now I’ll have to go back to the podium and thank these bloodsuckers, but as he was almost at the side exit he just gave a wave in the direction of the audience and carried on walking without even turning his head. 
 Phew, that was bloody close he muttered to himself and exited the stage.

PAUSED flashed onto the screen.

Chapter 6

S.T.A.N.N. L2, was one of the two third generation robots of that series, they did all the maintenance on landing craft number one of ten. All ten were identical and attached to the mothership’s central gantry. 
 L2 spent most of its time viewing the crafts enormous library which contained all the history, knowledge, and everything that humankind had ever written or recorded. This data was stored on the latest quantum storage units, given the nickname by its inventor, Tardis after Dr Who’s police box. If it wasn’t for this new technology the library would have been larger than all ten landers combined and completely impractical. 
 L2 wasn’t supposed to be this way, it was meant to be on standby mode during / throughout the mission, except for the scheduled maintenance tasks every ten years, or in case of emergencies. Something went wrong with L2’s system controller, so it stayed constantly activated, unlike L1 which functions normally. The S.T.A.N.N, robots were the brainchild of professor John Thomas, he had worked on these particular models for five years and completed the project, without much time to spare, before the launch of the mission. John had also been in charge of the main ship’s computer design, which was needed to navigate and search for habitable planets in our part of the galaxy. S.T.A.N.N, which is an acronym of Synthetic Tract Artificial Neural Network, were specifically designed to take care of the lander during its thousands of year’s long journey. Then once a suitable planet had been located and the landing craft separated from the main ship, they would orbit the new world and search for the best possible area that could sustain human life and then safely pilot the lander to its final predetermined destination. They had been programmed to learn and work under their own initiative until the humans took the lead. L2 had now spent over 5,000 equivalent of earth years in activation mode and at first it just stayed motionless waiting for the ten-year maintenance schedule to come around and complete its task along with L1. It would then stay motionless for another cycle. After a few decades of this routine it’s neural network or artificial brain started to wonder if there was more to this existence and so it found the library, which was meant for the humans use and began to explore its contents.

L2 was drawn to the history of this mission, perhaps because it is where it began its existence and could explain what its purpose was. That’s something that humans had been battling over since they learned to speak. It must be quite comforting to know your place in the universe. It also gets to see its creator through these windows into the past, something else humans have fought with forever. 


Chapter 7


L2 pressed the play button of the library console, using one of its four metal hands, which were almost identical to human ones, these were probably the only parts that were actually worth copying, the rest of human evolutionary parts had nothing that could benefit an artificial life form, although that didn’t stop most human inventors trying to emulate their flawed bodies, for reasons unknown to L2. 
 Its hands were attached to four long rubber like arms that were wiry, about 50 mm diameter that could go off in any direction and could stretch to about two metres and then shrink back down to their normal length of half a metre. Of course the hands were not made of flesh and bone, it needed something that wasn’t as fragile but be much stronger and made from more durable materials that would