From Before The Downfall

She waited her turn and looked around at everyone in the crowded hall. Tables littered with bits and bobs were scattered throughout the space, over which experts chatted with patrons about their treasures. Even more owners waited to determine if what they believed to be priceless was instead worthless. A child wailed and screamed somewhere nearby, setting everyone’s nerves on edge during what had already been a long day waiting in lines to get to the check-in desk, then waiting in another line to get into the exposition hall, and then waiting in yet another line to get to a table with an expert. She truly hoped that the trinket she had would be worth all of this hassle. If anyone would know how much money she could gain from this thing it would be the “Ancient Technology Expert'' at the Athenaeum of Antiquery, the finest antique exposition around. Or so the slogan had said on a banner overhead. Finally, the patron in front of her left, after tossing their own priceless artifact into a trash can that was beginning to overflow. 

“Can you tell me how much this is worth?” she said as a means of introduction as she carefully unwrapped the newspaper surrounding the box. It cracked apart revealing just how long ago this had been packed up. She flattened the newspaper on the table as little flakes fell to the floor like confetti. 

“Hmm. Most likely. Let me see what you have brought and I may be able to help you assess the value it brings,” they replied monotonously, watching as she carefully pulled the object out of its box and placed it on the table. The expert’s eyes widened as they beheld the artifact. They were hesitant about touching it and instead pulled a magnifier out of a pocket and peered closer at it. 

“My word.” They breathed almost, but not quite, displaying some emotion.

It was a small rectangular object of black glass with a metallic back. It was about 6 inches by 3 inches with buttons along each longer side and various ports along the bottom of the shorter edges. The corners were rounded and showed some wear and tear. The glass front was shattered in places as if it had fallen onto a hard surface some time ago.

“I have never seen one of these with my own eyes. They are very rare. This is the Samsnug X33. The last cellular phone made before the Downfall. How did you ever come across such a rare antique?”

“Well. My grandfather just passed away a few months ago.” 

“My condolences.” 

“Thank you,” she replied with the ease of repetition. “In his Last Will and Testament he left his home to me. While I was moving my stuff in I decided to poke around in places that I hadn’t explored before when I was in my youth. In the attic, in one corner behind some old wardrobes and suitcases, I found a box. I guess it had been there a while cause it had a lot of dust on it.  See, this house has been in our family for many many generations. Rumors in our family said we’ve lived there since before the Downfall but I don’t know how much I believe that. So, that house has had a lot of time to accumulate a lot of boxes of trash and junk. Anyway, I dug through this box and found a lot of old stuff. Some tablets, wireless headphones, Guugle Glasses. Seems like my many great grand-something was a hoarder of old things. I threw a lot of it out but at the bottom I found this and I figured why not see how much I could make from it. Might help me pay off some school loans.”

The expert nodded, still peering through their monocle unwilling to touch the device. 

“How much do you know about the Downfall?” they asked. 

She shrugged. “I think I remember a bit from history class.” 

“Well, here’s a little history lesson then. These little handheld communicators, or cell phones as they were known back then, were used by all of humanity. It was their primary means of communication as well as their entertainment. It started off innocuous with voice based messaging happening instantaneously between people. This instant messaging then transitioned into text-based messaging which then evolved to pictographs. The people used them to communicate with one another. This occurred on an individual level, with one person speaking with one person and as a sort of mass communication with individuals speaking with communities as a whole. Eventually, individual based messaging, one person to one person, became old-fashioned as humanity became more immersed in mass-based communication.” 

The expert finally picked up the X33 turning it this way and that, and watched as the light reflected off of the shattered touch screen front. They pushed a few buttons and seemed to deflate slightly when there was no response from the device. They continued their impromptu lesson. 

“Entertainment from the device, too, went through multiple rounds of evolution. Beginning with sound based entertainment, songs and spoken word, then to longer visual and auditory forms called videos. But as human’s attention spans became shorter and shorter the entertainment moved to match, becoming short clips of video. This gave people easy access to sources for fighting boredom. Unfortunately, as humanity became more and more engrossed in this entertainment and mass communication, personal relationships were neglected leading to a severe decline in reproduction. A large amount of unreliable information led to a distrust of each other and their ruling governments which further deteriorated the sense of unity. This led to a population that was on the edge of collapse.”

The expert picked up the box that the curio came in and examined it as well, setting aside a small booklet written in an ancient language long forgotten. They pulled a packaging insert out as if looking for something and seemed slightly discouraged to find nothing inside but a dried up sticker. As they put the box back together they kept talking, as if forgetting they were talking aloud. 

“Luckily, a few intrepid groups were intelligent enough to foresee the eventual disaster. These people called themselves the Unplugged but are better known as homo sapien martian or Martians. This group saw the disrespect that humanity had not only for themselves but for the planet, as well. They had determined that there was no hope for the future. So they built spaceships capable of traveling reliably back and forth from their home planet, Earth, to the adjacent planet, Mars. It is unknown how, but most modern-day scientists believe they used ancient primitive technology to restart Mars’ inner core. This in turn led to a habitable atmosphere and terraforming. Shipments of a life-saving liquid as well as nutrients sustained the Martians until the planet’s restarted atmosphere was able to create its own. From this new home they watched as the bulk of homo sapien eventually succumbed to its own incompetence and thus the Downfall of humanity.”

She yawned as the expert droned on and on. It had been a very long day. She tried to ignore the annoying pop-ups and various notifications that flashed along the edges of her vision. She had never been good at history and this was very much trying her short attention span. Her eyes started to roam to the notifications and she resisted the urge to open her new game, Space Invaders 3000. The expert seemed to come back to reality and notice her growing boredom.

“This,” the expert gestured at the X33, “Is one of the last remaining pieces from just before the Downfall.” 

“That was very interesting. But might I ask how much it’s worth?” 

The Ancient Technology Expert’s eyes lost focus and she could see tiny numbers flash and fly over their corneas as their Eye-Techs ran the calculations. A notification flashed insistently at the edge of her vision as a friend wondered where she was. She closed it with a quick double blink before returning her attention to the expert as the numbers stopped flying by their irises. 

“About 3-5 Million Cinches,” they answered deadpan. 

She sighed, disappointed. “That’s unfortunate. That will barely even cover my first semester of school. I guess I’ll just pack it back up and store it for another 5,000 years.” She sheepishly reached forward and wrapped her tentacle around the cell phone, careful to keep her claws retracted. She put it back in its manufacturer’s box and bid the expert farewell as they settled back onto their hind legs and retracted their head. She had to dodge many various teeth, tentacles, and gelatinous trails before finally reaching the exit port and into her StarCruiser Nebula. She wrapped both front tentacles around the handles, gunned the engines, and shot away back home to the Pegasus Quadrant.