MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Dear reader, let us suppose, for the sake of this story, that Gaia, mother nature, is not a Greek Goddess, but a mortal, a modern woman, who is nurturing, resourceful and inventive.

Gaia had accomplished so much. She remembered everything that had happened in the beginning, it had all come her in a burst of light. She would make something, create a planet and name it Earth. With thoughts and ideas spilling over in her mind, she began to outline the setting and the plot like a writer beginning a new manuscript.

It began to be real now she had it written down. Research became her daily routine, and she found if she was very careful, she could make something out of Chaos, a confused and shapeless mass in the universe. Her imagination soured as she made the five-atmosphere layers first: the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. In her excitement, she added the necessary gasses: neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, water vapor, etc., etc.

Water covered much of the planet initially, and she hated to see it empty of life, so she added more characters, Invertebrate: Mollusca, amphibians. She was delighted when evolution soon took over, although she was wary at first, something new, not tried and unexplored. In this story, although the outline was set, it was not as easy as she first thought to write the plot and she felt that there were not enough meaningful characters to make it interesting, and she certainly had not thought of an ending.

Soon characters seemed to appear on their own. Fish. When the waters receded, some began to take to the land to become reptiles. Reptiles emerged next as birds. Everything evolved according to its genesis. Gaia spent eons trying to think of everything to make Earth perfect, raising mountains out of the sea, scooping out valleys and making fertile fields. Beauty all around. The trees, the hills, sea, and sky, mountains and beaches were all perfect. She then introduced the four footed beasts and insects who had their own areas, and they too learned through the eons to adapt their metamorphosis and evolution.

It was only later that it dawned on her that maybe she wasn’t capable of managing such a vast planet. Who would take care of it to keep it running smoothly?

At first, like any woman, she decided of course she could take care of everything, after all it was her own invention, but as with most women, logic stepped in. She decided, reluctantly, it was necessary to hire appropriate gods from the organization who were experts in one field or another to oversee everything. She asked Polaris, the North Star to be in charge of keeping the axis of Earth in its correct position, Neptune to control the seas and the fish. There were gods for everything, and most of them really appreciated her ideas and were very happy to be in charge of one aspect of Earth or another, keeping it running like clockwork gave them something to do. A special committee was formed to meet every three months to make sure all the duties were being carried out. It was a joy for Gaia to know that they were all behind her plan. Now, she had her setting for the story, although the plot was a little weak. Something was missing. More characters maybe. Shouldn’t there be another sort of animal, a mammal who could think and rationalize, be more like her, resourceful and inventive, productive? Was she taking a risk? She asked herself this over and over until she decided she was being too cautious. Taking a deep breath she made the decision to add another mammal, Humans. They would be beautiful to look at, one variety for each continent and its unique climate. They would be honest, inventive, courageous and outgoing. All the things a mortal should be and other animals were not.

She waiting with bated breath to see what she had introduced to this perfect planet, and was happy to know thatprocreation with humans worked out well because it was based on the same methodology as other mammals on the Earth. What she didn’t expect was that with logical thought, the inventive, resourceful gift she had bestowed upon them, the human species believed they could outsmart her. How dare they, when she had given them so much. They didn't follow the way of creation and all her plans just living off the Earth and all its bounty she’d provided for them. Oh no! Humans decided they could manage the way things grew on the planet, such as genetically modified organisms, which altered the genetic engineering of everything Gaia had first introduced. As the years went by, human families didn't grow their own food anymore; they relied on others to take care of them and their supplies. They were becoming the laziest animal on the planet, polluting the atmosphere after discovering fossil fuels, those long-dead trees that had turned into coal. By burning this natural product, they ruined the layers of atmosphere that kept the planet earth from overheating around the globe. Even the seas were getting warmer and filled with refuse. That worried Gaia. Her waters were vital to her, and when they were overrun by oil and the beaches destroyed, she began to get very angry. It seemed that all the world was being taken over by this one species of animal.

She decided to call a meeting with the gods to see if there could be a solution to the disaster that was happening on Earth, because of humans. It would mean owning up to her mistake and that was not easy for her. She’d always been the one to step forward with solutions for every problem, and she knew she had always been admired for her strategies and her inventions, but then again, this time it wasn’t really her fault that things had got out of control before she caught on there was trouble. Oh dear, perhaps it was time to admit she had make a mistake. Yes, it was no good crying about spilled milk. Time to fess up?

She lay awake for many nights wondering if there was something that might change the situation on Earth before grovelling to the committee and telling them she was sorry it didn’t all work out. Could the human race be culled like other animals. Who were the predators? How to cull the human race? Or, better yet, why not get rid of the lot? She laughed at herself at that thought, no not the lot, at least to begin with. It was definitely true though, there were too many humans on Earth, but with a little persuasion, maybe these humans could stem their need to copulate all the time. Although, maybe that would not stop them destroying their environment. Discussion was needed.

Gaia asked the members of the committee and all the higher gods, the ministers, and the lesser gods to meet at their usual meeting place. She expected a full house so she asked Iris, the Goddess of communication to be the speaker of the house like the English parliament. Iris was to keep order as much as she could, although usually the enthusiastic leaders of one committee or another were so eager to say their piece, she had to ask for quiet or order every few minutes. Gaia wrote down the order of the meeting, questions to ask, without writing it down she would be lost and she’d never be able to keep the meeting on track, although she knew no one would follow protocol anyway. There would be gods with robustly expressed opinions, approvals or disapproval and banter.

Gaia was ready for her short introduction. Everyone was paying attention when her words echoed around the whole room, “Friends, committee members, Gods and Goddesses,” she said standing. “We are here today to fix a problem, to change the ways of humans so that they respect Earth.”

Murmurings filled the space like a soft wind. Only one brave woman’s voice from the back of the room sang out. “Why?’

“Why?” Gaia took a breath. For a minute the air was sucked out of the room. She stood up. “You ask me why? Why? Who are you and where have you been for the last fifty years? Can you not see what they are doing to my Earth.”

A woman in the floral dress stood tall and held her head high, “I am Eirene, Goddess of house and home. I don’t see the point of changing a population that has developed so many wonderful things.” She hesitated, “designed every amenity for easier living.” She sat down quickly.

Gaia took her glasses off and laid them on the table. “Eirene, of course I knew you would think that way. Easier living, you say, but at what cost to the planet.”

She turned to let her eyes roam around the whole room. Everyone seemed to speak at once, and the speaker of the house spoke up for silence. Iris called out to a slender, trim lady wearing a well-cut beige suit and blue striped blouse.

“Thank you,” the woman said as she stood and arranged the jacket of her suit. “I’d like to mention that there are a lot of humans who really try hard to keep their diet healthy and exercise in their daily lives. As the Goddess of good health I agree that there are too many people with high blood pressure, and so many who are obese, but I feel that vegetarians are finding more foods they can eat, and there are a lot more restrictions now on what goes into processed food. The labels, at least in the developed countries of the world, show the ingredients used on canned and packaged goods. There will always be humans who live to eat almost anything as long as their stomachs are full, but like me, some eat to live because it’s a healthier life style.”

Gaia had not listened to the woman. She was not interested in how wonderful things were for humans, and she raised her voice. “I had no idea this species would destroy the whole planet with their sloppy methods of getting rid of waste, poisoning the air, our rivers. For instance, look at the pollution from industry that is not necessary, and the chemicals for making easier healthy living, ha!”

Asclepius, stood up. Medicine was his forte. His voice boomed across the room, “These human beings have preserved humanity, cured diseases, and medicine is being approved for cancer. Production of medicine and the biproducts can be messy but I believe there’s a new drug for dementia, that’s good news. I do my best to make sure that the medical profession is well organized at all times.”

Someone shouted, “You have to be joking.”

Gaia said quietly, “I didn’t mean for humans to live so long. In the olden days there wasn’t so many treatments for this and that. It was better to die at a reasonable age after a good life…like other animals….” Her voice trailed off.

“Oh Sure,” a man’s voice interrupted, “And that would be progress. Is that is what you want, Gaia?”

Athena the goddess of culture and organization, logic solving problems stood up and the speaker nodded that she could continue. “I don’t think you can change humans and the way they live now, Gaia.”

Apollo spoke up next in response to Athena, “All societies have their style of culture. The human race, in my opinion, is not lacking culture as we know it, but it is lacking in truth and prophecy. They have little thought to the next step because they are too involved in their own lives to really believe they are ruining the planet. It’s too much to think about, too big an issue. They believe that they really cannot do anything about it because it’s far too complicated to find other means of power and other resources required for modern homes.”

Gaia had a lot of respect for Apollo because he loved justice, and with his past comments she could see that he had a point. It was all very well discussing the pros and cons of what was and what had been, but it still didn’t solve the problem of how to make humans behave, and her patience was running out. “Well, if this is going to be such a problem for some of you, or all of you,” she said, “I’m going to implement a drastic move. I’d like your approval to proceed, but,” she hesitated before she said clearly, “If you don’t find any solutions, then I’ll proceed without your approval.”

An atmosphere of dread seemed to permeate the air as Gaia put her glasses back on, “I will be nominating gods to cause chaos, world-wide, warnings that I hope will set them on the track to heal our planet from more destruction. Fear must be instilled into the human race, we need a deterrent to remind them of their negligence and more importantly to do something about it. So, Minerva,” Gaia pointed to a smartly dressed lady with dark, short hair. “I’d like you to use your wisdom to strategize warfare if necessary. I need to show strength in whatever form seems appropriate to you. If we cannot have a plan to scare humans into action to take care of our rivers, our land, the air we breathe, I will open Pandora’s box, and you know all the evil that is in it. Diseases have been used before to cull the population, but it’s never been enough to change ways has it.”

The uproar of angry voices filled the room. Most gods stood up and some raised their fists in anger. Asclepius stood and said quietly, “Humans will find a vaccine to cure disease, so it would have to be a very severe to kill millions very quickly, and what really would that accomplish? If everyone is against it, Gaia, you cannot do it. It would upset the whole balance of nature that you are in charge of.”

Gaia tried to calm her voice, “Well, it’s the only solution that I can think of, and I want wild fires to rage throughout the planet, Hephaestus, are you ready for that? If you can get together with Prometheus, I think we could make a point here to take care of Earth or else. Yes, famine and drought is already reducing the population which is good, but we need floods, tsunamis after earthquakes, famine. Vulcan, you can take care of the volcanoes. Can’t you?”

Hephaestus didn’t like to use fire as a deterrent. It didn’t really wipe out humans, only the land and wild animals that Gaia seemed to care so much about. He said, “I believe there should be other ways besides torching the planet, for goodness sake. Surely a world organization of humans who feel strongly about global matters could make each country abide by certain rules to cut the carbon and other nasty stuff that's going into the air. If that’s your goal, it might be a good idea don't you think?"

Another angry voice, "Good luck with that. It’s already been tried."

Gaia was getting impatient. “I want pollution taken out of the atmosphere, one way or another. Only humans are causing the problem.”

"Vulcan shouted above the loud voices, "Gaia," he said, "I don't want to argue with you, but you and I started Krakatoa and other volcanoes like Mt. Vesuvius in 1944, Mt. Tambora in 1967 and Mt. St. Helens in 2008. Not to mention the volcanic events in 1883, which were the worst in recorded history. I believe those volcanic eruptions put more pollution into the atmosphere than anything a mortal can do. Isn't that a fact?"

“Yes, that is true,” Gaia nodded, you are right. We are far more powerful than any human, but if you can arrange several large volcanic eruptions at once, I believe this would put an end to the human population. I’ve come to believe they are not worth saving..”

Vulcan was quick to answer. “It will also wipe out the entire planet Earth.”

Silence ensued and Gaia shuddered. Vulcan was an ugly god, born that way, and not his fault, but she had never got along with him, now she realized his words were correct. All her work and dreams would be shattered.”

When the meeting ended, Gaia was exhausted. In her garden of exotic plants and flowers, she breathed in the perfumed air, listened to sweet voices of the many birds, and decided that she was wasting her time trying to change humans and all their ways of living, they were clever, resourceful and inventive, just the way she had designed them to be. They would find the solution to stop the warming oceans that changed the land mass, that would eventually ruin the climate and all the weather patterns.

At that moment, from the deep void of space, an asteroid, sixty miles wide, was hurtling through the blackness.

It’s target, Earth.