ARC

“Today none of us remembers what it was like to live on our mother planet. The last person to have walked the Earth died one thousand nine hundred and fifteen years ago, eighty five years after our Ancestral Rescue Capsule (ARC) was launched in 2056”, said the teacher. “Now! Who can tell me that person’s name?”

The students’ eyes commenced their evasive maneuvers. It wasn’t because they didn’t know the answer but because trying to impress a teacher was usually frowned upon. It was safer to simply let the teacher decide who should answer.

She pointed at Erin.

“How about you, Erin?”

“His name was Frederic Brown…”

“Very good!”

Erin shrugged off a few ominous gazes from her peers. She knew none of them would dare to mess with the president’s daughter. A steady chime signaled it was time to relocate into the 'rotator'.

The rotating modules of the ARC served as gravity simulators. It was mandatory to use them at least 3 hours a day to prevent muscle and bone atrophy. Without them, generations of people would have devolved into boneless chickens long ago! Living in space takes a toll on living organisms. It was important for the Central Government of the ARC to make sure humans held on to their original form until another Earth-like home was found. Neglecting to adhere to the regulations could result in permanent exile and forced labor.

There were still some who managed to wiggle out. The In-betweens, the Spineless, the Clams or the Abominations, as they were sometimes called, were believed to be hiding within the internal structures of the craft. Nobody could tell for sure if they actually existed but if they did, their existence would stand against the humanity’s most cherished motto:


To remain as we are.


To arrive as we were.

To be human is to stay human.

XX century design for the Pioneer 10 spacecraft plaque by Carl Sagan became the ARC's official emblem. Man and woman depicted on it became a template for all humans living on the ARC and it was a template everyone was expected to fit into.

***

Now it was Erin’s turn. She has been working to improve her upper body strength in order to pass the test and qualify for her Maturity Ceremony. Ten pushups was the minimum requirement but they had to be done with rotation module sped up to match the gravity of 1.5 G which would feel like doing push ups with a backpack half one's own weight.

“All the way down to the floor. All the way up until you can’t go any higher…”, the supervisor reminded her with a jaded tone of voice.

She made it to eight flawlessly. Last two were always the hardest. It probably had something to do with mental fortitude or rather the lack thereof. Erin went all the way down. Her face red and sweaty. It always helped to think about something infuriating to get through all the strength challenges.

“One more!”

 The last one was very shaky but she managed to push all the way up.

“Well done, Miss O’Toole!”, said the supervisor and checked the appropriate box.

***

“How was your edu-segment today?”, asked the president.

“It was optimal, father!”, Erin replied. “I just passed the strength test.”

“That sounds satisfactory”, said the president and reached for his protein capsule.

“You are going to make a fine engineer, my offspring”.

“I hope so…”, replied Erin without confidence.

“What’s the matter”, the president detected Erin’s hesitation.

“Nothing… It's just... I’ve been thinking about some other options. I’ve always wanted to write and debate… Ah, never mind…”

“There aren’t any other options if we want to contribute to humanity in the best possible way!”, said the president. “Bio-engineering and genetic sciences are the most valuable professions at the moment. They help us remain as we are…”

“…and arrive as we were!”, Erin finished with pretend grandiosity her father failed to detect.

“Exactly! Genetic preservation is all we have left in our fight against devolving. You do know how extremely different our conditions have been on the ARC since we left Earth! Even with the rotation modules and most advanced simulations, we still wouldn’t be able to maintain our…”

“I know, sir… I know!”, Erin said. “But what about the In-betweens?”

“The Spineless? What about them?”, asked the president.

“If they exist, it would prove that humans can adapt to life in space without the need to go through all the requirements, tests, modifications… Who knows if we ever find another Earth-like…”

“If they exist”, the president interrupted abruptly, “the only thing they would prove is the ultimate failure of humanity! I will hear no more on this subject! Time to enter your sleep capsule, my offspring! To remain as we are...”

Erin left without reciting the rest of the Directive back.

She went to sleep angry. Her father had no idea the thought of his stubborn bigotry helped her complete her strength test earlier today.

***

Erin was laying down with her eyes wide open. She was looking at the Andromeda Galaxy in the distance when a faint noise within the walls of her enclosure startled her. She turned on her wrist light and approached the source of the sound.

“Who’s in there?”, she asked.

The sound suddenly stopped as if someone just realized they were discovered.

It didn’t reappear until Erin finally fell asleep.

***

The library was contained within the hard drive no larger than a head of a baby. To tap into the entire knowledge of humanity, all it took was to connect to it with any legally approved wrist device. Erin entered the key words: “Human Adaptation in Space”. She needed answers beyond what she was told during her edu-segments.

She opened the first search result.

Familiarizing with this content may lead to investigation and some penalties may apply. Please reaffirm your knowledge of the ARC Directive before proceeding. To remain as we are. To arrive as we were. To be human is to stay human!


Such warnings were attached to all the controversial material that questioned the ARC Directive in any way.

Do you want to continue?


Erin pressed Yes and took a mandatory quiz but all she could find was just more information about the importance of maintaining the human earthly form and a few warnings against opening up to adaptations in space.

She needed another source…

***

“Please, don’t be alarmed. We need your help…”, a voice came from behind the air duct panel, the spot of the mysterious noise Erin could hear the night before. She removed the panel quietly. Now her wrist light shone on a strange, nearly translucent face of a nearly shapeless humanoid being.

“Are you… one of the In-betweens? Was that you making noise the other night?”, she asked.

“Is that what you call us?”, the being asked.

“Yes, that and… the Spineless or the Clams…”

“Seems fair…”, said the being, “My name is Glenn Sladek. I lead our scientific team. We are Adaptationists and we are a living proof that there is a way for humans to adapt to the harsh conditions of space.”

“Why did you come to me?”, Erin asked.

“You are the president’s daughter and based on your recent library searches we know you are having doubts about the directive. We are reaching out to you for help.”

“You have access to the library searches? But I’m just a student…”

“You are a brilliant student and we know some day you will be a powerful voice on the ARC. We just want people to understand that finding another Earth-like planet soon is highly unlikely if not impossible and adapting to current conditions is the best way to survive.”

“How did you manage to transform in such a short amount of time? Evolution changes take much longer than just a few hundred years unless it's done artificially!”, Erin asked.

“Radiation we were exposed to near the craft’s fuel reactor sped up our genetic mutations for better or… for worse… The rest was just trial and error of our geneticists in trying to utilize the tardigrade and plant DNA. Many of us made the ultimate sacrifice before we became resilient and self sufficient beings deriving nutrients from light through photosynthesis. We lost our bone and most muscle mass and just with enough strength to move around in zero G we’ve been living within the inner structures of the ARC - the air ducts, cargo holds and restricted areas devoid of oxygen. As you know we've been banished and demonized. for the sake of all life on this craft, we can no longer let the stigma persist!”

Erin lost her ability to speak for a moment.

“You don’t need air to breathe or food?”

“All we need is light… So, will you help us?”

“What can I do?”

***

“You are connected, Mr President”, said the Minister of Communication.

“Excellent!”, replied Mr President and begun his broadcast.

Fellow Humans,


As we are approaching our second millennium in space, let us reflect once more on where from and how far we’ve come. Let this milestone bring the renewal of our hope. Our powerful telescopes detect new sun-like stars every twenty four hour cycle. It’s only a matter of time before we find our new home but with our renewed hopes we must also increase our caution. Despite our best efforts to preserve our Directive, the Adaptationist sentiments persist among us and the movement itself grows stronger. There are some who believe it’s time to abandon our pristine human features and adapt to life in space. There are some who believe it’s time to abandon all hope of ever finding an Earth-like planet to colonize. There are those who believe some humans already achieved space adaptation even though the sightings of the In-betweens are yet to be confirmed. To them I say, you are wrong, you are defeatist, you are no longer human!


Let us remember about our Directive that has kept us alive for so long, ever since we had to leave our home planet behind:

To remain as we are.

To arrive as we were.


To be human is to stay human!

***

Erin looked through the secret files she had downloaded from Glenn. They contained the entire history of the Adaptationist movement. Dissent from the ARC Directive resulted in penalty: labor camps in the craft’s fuel reactors. Many have died. Those who didn’t die, worked but the radiation was taking its toll on the integrity of their cells. A group of prisoners managed to escape, hide away and eventually hack into the networks of ARC containing scientific data from the official genetic research. Soon they had enough resources to work on altering the genes of those who stayed alive to adapt to the conditions in space rather than to maintain pristine human form, as was the aim of the official science team on the ARC. It took many generations for a resilient group of neo-humans like Glenn to emerge but they lived in hiding ever since.

Erin was about to turn eighteen in just two days. Now it was up to her to bring the whole truth to light. She decided to use her speech at the Maturing Ceremony to do so.

***

“Exactly one hundred years ago something very important has happened here. Who can tell me what it was?”, said the teacher and even before she could finish her sentence all students raised their hands, some of which were shapeless and translucent.

“How about… Mark?”

“The Adaptationism was vindicated by president O’Toole thanks to his daughter Erin!”

“Very good! And who can remember what exactly happened? Sasha?”

“Erin O’Toole worked with an Adaptationist ambassador to bring the plight of the 'Spineless' to public attention and end the propagandist misinformation distorting the truth about them. She did it with a very convincing speech at her Maturity Ceremony to which she unexpectedly invited the representatives of the Adaptationist movement including the scientist Glenn Sladek.”

“Could you read Erin’s famous speech for us?”

Sasha opened her text pad and begun.

Erin O’Toole’s speech:

Nature always finds a way… As soon as the first spark of life set everything in motion on young planet Earth, one thing became certain: the constant change was here to stay. Cells multiplied, mutated and formed more complex unique and autonomous organisms. Among those organisms a great competition of change by adaptation begun. Some changes were slow and gradual, others rapid and dramatic. The natural world became the great arena for life’s great experiment of trial and error. Some led to great survival successes, others to ultimate demise and dead ends. Homo sapiens is a product of that very same process. One offshoot of the tree of life containing humanoids kept adapting to its changing surroundings and evolving until one of its tiny branches became… us. But it wasn’t over. We kept changing, improving, evolving or, in some unfortunate instances, regressing backwards. In the end we kept learning, correcting our mistakes and expanding our understanding of the Universe. And when we eventually grew out of our home planet so long ago, we kept going and we kept believing in our survival. Today we look ahead with hope of finding our new home but with that hope we also became immobilized in the amber of denial of our own making. We try to remain as we are, to arrive as we were and we say that to be human is to stay human but we forgot that to be human is to be alive and to be alive means to be subjected to constant changes. There is no way around it. So let me propose a new directive:

To be human is to be alive.

To be alive is to be ever changing.

Change is the only constant.

We might find a new home planet one day but then again we might not. Adapting to our current circumstances is, always has been and always will be the best course of action, the ONLY course of action! Today I’m standing here before you to right the wrongs and to bring the truth to light. Let me introduce myself: I’m Erin O’Toole, the president’s daughter and I’m an Adaptationist. Please meet my dear friend, Glenn Sladek and his team.

Let us talk!

***

Andromeda Galaxy could still be seen from the ARC but even now, after an entire century, it seemed as distant as it did at the time when Erin O’Toole met Glenn Sladek.