Humans on Earth - Sean and Ciara
This is a short story included in my first book “Visions of a Future Earth… and how to realize them” - which you can learn more about here.
An almost imperceptible vibration brought Sean out of his sleep cycle. He opened his eyes, recognizing the wake-up call from his house AI. He sat up in bed and looked down at his partner, Ciara, still sleeping beside him. With a loving smile, he felt his immense unconditional love for her as well as for every being on the planet and beyond.
He got up. It was early dawn, and morning light crowned the forest behind the house in an orange glow. He liked looking through this transparent wall, which is how he instructed the house AI to keep it. Today was a big day. He’d been overseeing Project Blooming Garden for twelve years now, after it was approved by Earth’s Planetary Council. His large group of geneticists and engineers — planetary ecosystems, agricultural, environmental — were putting the final touches on the project of turning the Sahara Desert into a Garden of Eden.
It had taken some time to build the dozens of small, automated fusion-powered desalination plants along the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which had recently been upgraded to use quantum power nodes. Were it not for robotic assistance, many people would have likely died or been injured completing this project, and it would have taken decades to complete.
Two years into the project, there was enough fresh water available to drown the desert and make it fertile. Over time, small, irrigated patches of limited plant life on the Mediterranean coast have become large forests, with savanna-type landscapes growing farther inland. Small areas of land were set aside and developed as agricultural farmland with robotic workforces. These weren’t necessary for food, since the use of replicator technology allowed for abundant and healthy sustenance for everyone, but they would serve as research sites to produce more nutrient-dense crops.
Various animals had moved north from the rest of Africa, expanding to this new living space, and more would follow. After the once separated and mostly poor countries of Africa came together and invested heavily in the idea of the African Union, no effort was spared to heal the African continent and serve humanity in the process.
The value and accomplishment of Project Blooming Garden was not just in the enormous feat of planetary engineering, but in the sustained bonds of the people from all over the planet who worked diligently toward this common goal. This was but one of many environmental initiatives aimed at healing and improving the original human habitat: planet Earth.
Today, they would be participating in a meeting to explore what species of animals to introduce into the new ecosystem of the Sahara to save them from extinction. The delicate new ecosystem had to be refined and immaculately balanced so that it would not interfere with other Earth ecosystems. Nature would eventually take over, but caution was necessary to soften the effects of ecological rebalancing with adjacent regions. Some species would be reanimated from the gene banks where they were preserved many years ago when climate change threatened to destroy Earth's once-robust ecosystems. Other animals would be used to populate the former Gobi Desert and barren lands previously known as the Middle East. Those regions had been transformed earlier, due to the smaller engineering challenges involved. The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, was key to this endeavour. It had been expanded and upgraded over the years to become the Global Seed and Gene Vault, safeguarding also genetic samples of animals on the verge of extinction.
Sean walked into the shower and let the alternating hot and cold water invigorate him. When finished, he used the shower’s water-repelling function to dry his skin. He stepped into his shoes and felt a soft pressure around his feet as the intelligent mechanism of the shoes recognized him. He watched for a few seconds as the nanomaterial of the shoes expanded upwards along his legs, covering his legs, and then his torso and arms in the process, thus becoming his work suit. He looked at his breast insignia of Environmental Engineer First Class and Chief Coordinator of Project Blooming Garden, in service with United Earth’s Planetary Council. The biomimetic nanomaterial hugged his skin and would regulate his body temperature.
Sean went back to the bedroom and, with a tender smile, sat on the bed beside his sleeping beauty. He lovingly touched her cheek. "Wakey, wakey, love. Those animals won’t miraculously appear in the Sahara if we don’t put them there.”
Ciara opened her eyes. With a smile he continued: “My love, we need to hit the trans-portal in half an hour. Did you forget that we work in the Sahara region and not in County Donegal?" Ciara returned his smile. She was one of the geneticists/biologists entrusted with reanimating the animals they intended to introduce into the now lush green hills and plains of the Sahara. "Mm, good morning,” she murmured sleepily. “Have I told you how much I love you?"
Sean laughed out loud. “You can tell me later. We need to hit the trans-portal in half an hour.”
She sat up in bed, motivated to Heart-induced action by her exciting work. It was a good day to be alive and in service to humanity.
