The Last Straw

...of Kaine and the end of the world...
An original short story set in the future of this universe by riprjak

The twenty second century started well, but things went rapidly downhill a few years in. That has been the trend of things these past few centuries. The middle east war of the twenty first century and the first world war in the twentieth. Although there werent quite as many surprises this time, just the one; we weren't alone in the universe.

I say that without emphasis, which tends to belittle the significance of that event. We weren't alone, and those others, a large and unthinkably old federation of star faring races, had decided that Homo Sapiens were not a Good Thing. Our unbridled agression, territorialism and inability to compromise were cited in their own deliberations; deliberations which began over two centuries ago in the mid twentieth century. They were horrified by the second world war, no other species had exhibited such overt evil in their understood history of the universe. No species that actually survived discovery of nuclear weapons that is. Odd that it was just that anomoly that kept us alive those two extra centuries; our capacity for great good and great evil, our ability to produce beautiful works of art and music and our incredible variety of culture. But in the end, the unrestrained nuclear exchange between the arabs and the israelis in the twenty first century and the biocide of proxima IV were the straws that broke the interstellar camels back. Speaking of surprises, no one at the beginning of the twenty first century had any idea how many nuclear weapons were spread across the middle east and northern africa. Course, by 2010 it didnt really matter as the entire region, from Kashmir to Morocco, from Sudan all the way up to Poland, were uninhabitable and depopulated. The rampant violence from Neo-Nazis and Hindu extremists against jews and muslims which followed ensured that by the time the South Pacific Alliance restored order to the world, there werent that many extremists of any kind left in the world. The reconstituted UN, which became the world government, was a vastly different organisation than that which prospered in the late twentieth century, yet failed to survive to see its own centenary.

The South Pacific Alliance; Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Japan and China (not particularly south either of those last two) and an assortment of smaller island states. Except for Japan and China, mostly lightweights in the Twentieth Century. With US and European forces stretched thin trying to pacify the middle east and Africa; these countries saw it coming. Careful preparation allowed them to capture nuclear sites across the EU, former soviet union and USA within a day. Fortunately the resistance that would have recaptured these sites shortly thereafter disintegrated with the central portion of the planet on that fateful day in April, 2010; when Nuclear War finally happened.

The American people finally utilised their right to bear arms and sided with the South Pacific Alliance; overthrowing the Bush Government. Something they probably should have done when that administration acted to remove the term limit for presidents 2002. Guess it was hard for them to throw off centuries of Apathy when it came to selecting their government. The Europeans resisted briefly, but the New Reich, as the EU had styled itself, collapsed when their best soldiers, the SAS, silently sided with their South Pacific Counterparts and assasinated the entire EU council in a brand new Sunday, bloody Sunday; handing Rulership to the British and Danish Royal Families. Only these two groups had steadfastly and continually resisted the New Reich, and were due to be executed for their troubles.

It was the Ghurkas and Sikhs who eventually pacified India and South East Asia. The irony was that these two cultures of powerful warriors with proud military history, resorted to the tactics of Mahatma Ghandi to win. By allowing themselves to be killed and maimed in the thousands without resisiting or flinching in the face of violence, they won the hearts and minds of the region. A region which rapidly flourished as an intellectual centre; as it had done so many centuries earlier.

By 2150 we had established the outer colonies and mining stations in the asteroid belt and the first deep colony craft was being prepared. Then by 2280, little more than a century later, we had peaked at hundreds of colonies, a growing generation in excess of 8 billion young men and women. Now in 2281, the last 3 billion humans are back in the solar system patiently awaiting our annihilation.

It...

"Excuse me!" came a voice from the massive auditorium below Kaine, "but I think we are bloody well aware of recent history; is it possible you have a fucking point to get to or are we wasting some of our last few weeks listening to you avoid making it??"

Kaine blinked under the hot, bright lights and squinted out at the crowd filling the Auditorium on Europa. He had a portion of his speech dedicated to how, after one of Microsoft's interstellar mining craft had burned the biosphere; ALL life; off of Proxima IV to get at the selenium and iridium the planet was rich in, the Interstellar Federation had finally moved to eradicate Homo Sapiens. After only one military victory in the slaughter that followed, the Human race was now huddled back in Sol's system awaiting the destruction that was bare weeks away. Already 5 billion humans had been slaughtered and all of the extrasolar colonies and craft had been destroyed. Now, according to the early warning system, there were over two billion craft heading to the solar system from all directions. The human race would not have been able to conceive that it was possible for that many military vehicles to exist before now. The last fleet, eight thousand space vehicles from fighters to the last remaining dreadnaught, Kaine's ship WGS Belisarius (named for a Byzantium general considered one of the most gifted military leaders in history). This fleet was now deployed around Terra, except for the Belisarius and her compliment of fighters and corvettes; about 200 ships in all. The Belisarius was under the ice on Europa with the remainder of the World Government and scientific community. The hope was that with the ice reconstituded on the surface, these few may survive the inevetable destruction.

Kaine had a different idea, that was why he was sweating and standing in front of tens of thousands of his fellow Humans; he hated crowds, always had done. As the Commodore of the World Government Fleet, he had commanded millions by telepresence, this was an order of magnitude more difficult for the quiet intellectual. However, he was certain he had a solution to the Human Races impending problem, was certain he had seen what so many others had missed.

Kaine composed himself, he had after all, faced the greatest enemy any human had ever faced and won the battle. Of course, if it wasn't for his grandfathers collection of twentieth century science fiction, he probably never would have had either of his greatest ideas.

"I apologise, please, allow me to skip to the matter at hand" He said, followed by a nervous mutter of assent amongst the crowd; no one was coping well with the pressure.

"As you are aware, I am the only Captain in World Government service to have engaged the enemy and survived" Kaine was Commodore of the human fleet and an Admiral, but still considered the rank of ship's Captain to override this fact "I did this by cheating, following a tactic I had once seen in an old science fiction program, I simply mined a large asteroid belt and lured the enemy through it. I had fought a running retreat however, losing six dreadnaughts and over sixteen thousand other spacecraft in that battle." Kaine paused to compose himself, he hated himself for letting that many people die, hated himself more for what he had planned, but he knew it was the only way, he took a deep breath, "I know the enemy and we cannot defeat them."

"One of their fighter craft is more than a match for one of our destroyers, a moot point as we have no destroyers left, merely corvettes, fighters and my Belisaruis. As you all know we now have BILLIONS of craft, many larger than fighters, on their way. However, I believe the human race can survive, nay, prosper and avoid this conflict all together." The room erupted in jeers and angry shouts, everyone thought Kaine was toying with them.

"People, SILENCE, please" The voice of command, once learned, is never forgotten, "when you look at where we went wrong, modern scholars point to the twentieth and twentyfirst century. I however, believe the problem occured much earlier."

"How the fuck would you know, soldier boy" jeered a voice in the crowd.

Kaine smiled, this was more like it, this was what he had expected and planned for. He read on, "I was not always a soldier. I was originally a Mechanical Engineer, like my father and grandfather before me. But I felt uneasy in my profession and returned to study. For those who dont know, I hold a degree in engineering and PHDs in Non Linear Mathematics, Temporal Physics and History; it was following the third PHD that I was recruited, as my specialty was military history."

"As such, I consider that I am emminently qualified to comment on History and where humanity missed it's metaphorical boat." He smiled, he was about to make 80% of the surviving human race very angry and he found perverse joy in the yanking other's chains.

"That problem was, simply, christianity" He grinned as the entire crowd erupted in angry screams, his monitor showed the ageing pope sadly nodding; he hadn't expected that. Kaine hit the damper field and everyone was yanked into their seats and immobilised, "Thank you". He grinned again, nervous more than happy.

"In the last century BC, the majority of human cities had plumbing, organised education and labour and, critically, government at some level by assent; although despotism was rife at the upper levels of government. We had in the guise of various cultures civilised the majority of the planet and only minor wars and border skirmishes were fought."

"Then came the rise of christianity and darkness followed. There was the first holocaust, ending with the battle of Masada, one of few defeats in history in which those defeated are better remembered than the victor. Then, of course, the dark ages. Following the destruction of the great library at Alexandrina and the black plague, the world plunged into darkness and ignorance, a plunge supported, nay, actively accelerated, by the christians and their violent supression of free thought and science."

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem which can be solved. If we allow humanity to develop further under the meritocracy of the Roman Republic, limit or completely remove the influence of christianity, prevent the original Diaspora of the Jews and preserve the recorded history of the first five thousand years of human history. If we do all of these things, we at least have a chance of avoiding the horrors that followed. We do risk creating a history in which Islam and the various religions which sprung from it are not created; however I doubt this, as the rise of Islam was not a response to the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire but to pre-Islam arabic polytheism in my opinion."

His audience was stunned, and would be silent even if it wasnt for the field of force holding them still.

"All that remains is to travel back in time, and conceal the fact that we have." He grinned a final time, an evil, feral grin, "For this too I have solutions."

Kaine pointed to the display behind him and a schematic of the solar system came into view. "As you can see, I have moved all Daedalus defence satellites inside Mercuries Orbit and built a gate to the Tigris wormhole, which should allow us to travel back to approximately 120 BC. The crew of the Belisarius have all recieved anagathic treatment and, as such, we should all live for 400 or so more years, give or take differences our current ages."

Kaine disabled the forcefield restraining them and the majority of the stunned audience sat, horrified at what they were beginning to understand. The others mumbled quietly.

"So, in essence I intend to mine the Solar System and precipitate a massive supernova event; wiping out the incoming fleet, crippling the Federation and blinding all sensors capable of detecting temporal displacement in a 600 light year radius. Given immediate approval of the Government we can execute and be in place with time to spare before the Federation arrives."

"Whilst we have never conducted more than limited experiments in wormhole based temporal displacement, our modelling shows that the Belisarius, properly modified, will survive the passage in the same way our Achilles fast couriers have previously. Naturally there is a chance we are wrong, approximately 4% according to the best simulations we have conducted to date. Questions?" He concluded abruptly.

From the sudden babble, he selected the President; "When can you start modifying the Belisarius?"

"Already completed, Madam President." Kaine replied. "I coupled the modifications with the repairs as they will not impair Belisarius' combat effectiveness. Should you decide not to allow this, we can still participate in the final evacuation".

"How can you consider destroying the Solar System?" demanded another, Melanie Brown of the conservation society.

"Because if someone is going to destroy our home, it will bloody well be us. Even if we dont travel back in time, it will be required to mask the exodus of the Belisarius when the Federation arrives." Kaine fixed his expression, "Besides, they will learn not to fuck with the human race, even posthumously. We will bleed the Federation more than they have ever bled; they will understand they should not pass judgement without offering an opportunity for defence if it is the last thing I... sorry, we, do"

Oddly after that fierce outburst, the room became silent. Slowly, murmuring rose as the government began to debate the proposal in the virtual houses of parliament. Kaine relaxed and exhaled, he was almost done. If he was very lucky, he might even be able to sleep without chemical assistance again before he dies.

Kaine raised his personal shield and the noise from the room was sliced off. He stood in quiet contemplation for nearly an hour.

"Commodore Kaine" came the voice of Central, the AI which oversaw World Government and acted as Speaker of the Parliament. "Your plan has been approved by a unanimous vote with one ammendment" Kain cringed, he saw this coming, "you must take all surviving members of government with you."

"Central, please issue authorisation" Kaine requested, following protocol.

"Commodore Kaine, you are hereby granted irrevocable licence to execute your plan codename Pheonix, as downloaded at 0100UTC 22/10/2281 and summarised in the speech completed 1100UTC 22/10/2281 incorporating ammendment A4772CU2281" replied Central.

Kaine keyed his public channel rather than drop his shield "Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your wise choice in support of a future for the human race. You have acted as I expected you would and I will now retire to rest before I complete final preparations"

As soon as Kaine uttered the phrase "You have acted as I expected you would" rather than the safety phrase "I am pleased with your wise judgement" a soldier at the back of the Auditorium, a seargent according to his uniform, acted. He released a small sphere and its safety arm spiralled slowly through the air. As soon as the grenade hit the floor, every human in the room not protected by a personal shield, that is everyone except the honour guard and Commodore Kaine, dropped dead. Humans always were good at killing other humans.

The seargent had disarmed himself and knelt down with his hands on his head well before Central's automated centurions arrived to arrest him. As ranking, indeed only, member of the Government surviving until elections could be held, Kaine passed judgement. "Incarcerate him on the Belisarius to face court martial when current crisis has been dealt with". "Your Will, Mr. President" responded the AI. For such a smart computer, the AI was a child in many ways, it certainly couldn't fathom the machiavellian depths of a mind like Kaine's.

Almost 3 weeks later the Belisarius was in battle mode a few light seconds from the Tigris worm hole. In battle mode, Central AI was locked out of the Belisarius, so Seargent Kennealey was at his normal post, not two steps behind Kaine; Kaine wouldn't have trusted himself to execute the order to assasinate the entire government without hesitation.

In a piece of universal irony, the Federation fleet arrived on 11/11/2281, making a mockery of the armistice of two and some centuries earlier. Kaine executed his plan and the human race ended. So did almost all of the federation fleet and several hundred billion assorted alien lives.

Meanwhile the Belisarius was somewhen, being torn through superspace down the history of a massive wormhole. Things never could be simple, Kaine mused as he knelt on the floor throwing up the morning's meal all over the bridge with the rest of his crew, and time travel certainly was an interesting exercise in pain...