I’ve wondered for a very long time what it would be like to be part of the generation of humans who had to leave the earth behind and settle on different planets in another star system. What an exodus that would be! Imagine the work that would have to be put in to ensure that all the living humans, animals & birds are tracked and moved into large spaceships that serve as our home for the duration of the journey that it would take for us to travel from earth to the new planet or planets.
Our current population is 8 billion! We don’t have the technology to transport living beings at the moment. Let’s say that we can manage to get the technology down and can create large spaceships the size of huge metropolitan cities with homes, gardens, can grow food and create water supply for all the creatures living on them. We would have already colonize a few moon including our own and possibly Mars by then and have some experience on moving large groups of people and animals. I think. So now, the ships are built and I suppose we have to do it in waves and it would take several decades before every living creature can be shipped from here and reach the new planets we will call home.
So let’s say it happens in waves with maybe 50 such ships in each wave and each ships have humans with their pets in one section and in segregate sections the birds and animals are housed. Insects and creepy crawlies aren’t brought along. Once they reach the new planet/planets, houses/apartments are built quickly with our new advanced technology so that people can start living there. The bird and animals an let free to live in areas of the wilderness and thrive in the new worlds.
After a small gap of a few weeks, the second wave leaves and so on and forth and it’s finally the last couple of waves that are left and they are getting ready. I imagine myself being a part of this wave and being part of the few million humans left and are ensuring that all my family members are grouped together in one of these massive city ships and that we and our pets are among the million plus in one of those ships. In all these ships we have a mix of the rich and the less rich in them and even the homeless. Imagine being part of the team that helps to gather these people and transport them to the pickup points where they are shuttled to the big ships.
I imagine that as the last few humans are waiting in line to be shuttled the humans who are managing things, look for the few animals that still remain. A few wild animal are round up, some birds and small tree dwelling animals are caught in cages and taken to be transported to the ships and in their enclosed sections of the ships. Finally we have some stray kittens, cats, puppies and dogs to chase and capture and I imagine myself being part of this team. Some humans, thinking that they would be better off without having some animal pets with them, abandoned some of these cats and dogs as well along with the strays.
So in our large hover vehicles the size of huge mobile homes we chase these cats & dogs and gather the kittens and puppies along with the older ones, as they run scared thinking we are out to hurt them. We scoop them up, bring them in and get them cleaned and handed over to those of us who are doing a quick cleaning and medical checkup to make sure that they are free of any dirt and diseases. I personally have handed over a couple of cats and a few dogs, including a couple of puppies. These two sisters were filthy with some dirt on them so I give them to a colleague who is on bath duty. We are stopped on the road running a quick scan to see if we have any more bio signs of animals.
Finding no more bio signs, my team signs off and we contact the large ship we are going to go to and let them know that our areas are animal free. By this time all the dogs & cats are clean and settled in on beds as we head off to the ship. My two pups are cleaned up and they are getting a medical scan from the med tech. She says that they are both free of any maladies and are healthy and clean, so I scoop the both and go to where I sit. I place them on a blanket next to and give them some food and water. Bellies full, they now want rubs and pets and are licking my hands and face. A colleague looks at the 3 of us and says, “Looks like your family has just been increased by 2”
I smile and say “Yes it has” and sit back for the ride to the ship. As we dock, I take them to where my family is staying and introduce the two puppies to the rest of the family and then discuss what we are going to call them. The ship leaves orbit and heads out for the long journey to our new home.
I have thought of this on many, many occasions. The thought has been on millions of people’s minds at one time or the other – what if I didn’t have to sleep and instead could use the 24 hours for whatever it is that I want to do all day. Now I have more hours to do that instead of sleeping for the 6 to 8 hours that most people do.
