Why Haven’t the Humans Transformed? (2/3) (Patreon)

Our couriers and scouts were quick to arrive on scene to testify to the veracity of these claims. Many amongst our ranks had simply believed these claims to be that of a hoaxer, or perhaps a particularly gifted hacker from a dying humanity who wished to claim aid in a manner that would truly catch our attention. Whatever the case was, none of us were truly ready to witness what we saw as we glimpsed at the travesty that was Sol.

The sun was dying. Or so, that’s what we thought at first. Giant discs were erected around equidistant orbits around the sun, all seemingly gathering energy, or harvesting it to supply the rest of the solar system that the humans were more well and able to show us with open arms.

They greeted our ships with some of their own. Ships that were vastly more conservative, but clearly capable. They all seemed uniform, which was a rarity amongst our pact as each member species required drastically different environments to accommodate them. It was with this that most of our interspecies ships were large and cumbersome, and so we resorted to the creation of thousands upon thousands of different variants of the same class, for the sake of some logistical soundness, but even that was a drain on our fragile economy.

As we entered the system we noticed a distinct lack of an outer belt of asteroids around their home system. Inquiring about this, it seemed as if the humans had mined almost every single last one down to the core, and what was left was turned into space habitats in order to house the ever growing human industry. Indeed, as we entered the system proper, we were greeted to sights so grand, and so bizarre that some doubt what it was they were witness to. Entire moons had been turned into industrial apparatuses, lines upon lines of what we thought were chains, were in fact ships that continually funneled fuel, resources, and finished goods to and fro each celestial body in the system.

The whole solar system was a factory, a factory that kept their prize jewel afloat, and then some.

And as we saw a live vid feed of the human representative, we didn’t see an image of a spacer or some derivative of humanity, but the same, pink-skinned, fur-crowned primate that we’d met all those years ago. This was impossible. Yet here he was, in the flesh.

We were next taken to Earth and what the human affectionately called ‘the crown of Sol’. And indeed, it was a crown by every sense of the word.

Earth, with its massive life support systems had indeed survived… but not only that, it had thrived. The planet now stretched beyond its original confines, large space elevators more akin to megastructures in and of themselves bound the planet to several concentric rings that bounded the planet arranged in the arbitrary shape of an atomic structure, with the Earth as its nucleus.

“The Earth, and her superstructures, now house a total of 100 billion humans.” The self-proclaimed tour guide announced nonchalantly. “As you can see, we have mastered our former climate control woes, and the climate of our homeworld is now entirely dictated by our whims, to be whatever we demand it to be, whenever we demand it.”

“But the power consumption-” One of our representatives asked.

“Is quite a daunting prospect indeed, however, we manage. Our solar collectors, our fusion reactors, all aid in the continued and uninterrupted power supply of the Crown of Sol, but that’s nothing compared to the solar industries to begin with… regardless, I’d like to turn your attention to Mars if that’s quite alright with you?”

Mars… that dead red rock that we had passed on our way to Earth millenia ago. We hadn’t even considered it as a potential candidate for life given how barren it was. That was, until we saw it.

A planet of verdant green, surrounded by oceans of deep blue, complete with superstructures clearly even more heavy duty and advanced than Earth’s… but how… this wasn’t possible, this couldn’t possibly be Mars. Not when Mars was dead.

“Terraformation.” The tour guide continued. “It took a while, but after a long while of melting Mars’ latent water deposits, as well as introducing a few water-filled asteroids to it via some carefully coordinated… de-orbits. We managed to fill her with oceans, and the rest of the process was a gradual process of turning the land fertile, seeding it with Earth’s native flora and fauna, and, well, what you see is obvious is it not? The planet is now conducive to human life. Unmodified human life for that matter.”

Nothing we were seeing here made any sense. They spent ludicrous amounts of industrial resources to terraform a planet… when they should’ve already been focusing outwards towards the stars, towards more habitable ventures, towards the simple process of conforming themselves to more hospitable worlds. Yet here they were, turning barren rock into lush gardens. All such a waste…

It wouldn’t be long before they ran themselves into the ground. It wouldn’t be long before this entire scheme, this entire system crashes down on itself.

That was what we thought, even as we left the system with our proverbial tails tucked between our legs. Until, the humans messaged us again, this time, in person, and on a faster than light capable vessel. This time, with an invitation, not just to Sol, but an entirely new swath of space they had claimed for themselves.