The Human Regulation
A Possible End to the Human-Earth Alliance?
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the Earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28 (The New International Version)
Acknowledgement to the first rains that softened the Earth’s crust to bring about the phenomenon of ‘petrichor’. May the air forever bless us after the rains.
First men had understood to establish a symbiosis with Earth. They had understood the source from which their sustenance stemmed and the Earth had watched. With bated breath the Earth had watched first men evolve, too shifting and morphing in congruence, fascinated by these beings who had learned her language. Earth had also acquainted herself with the men who dwelled on her landforms, and been kind to them.
Earth had continued to watch, first men slowly begin to speak of kin and kind, shifting and morphing still, unrestrained and wild. Earth had known not to involve herself in the squabbles this talk had brought, as her mountains and seas would provide boundaries. But man’s wisdom had led to further talk of kingdoms and empires, thrones and glory. Oh! That Earth had known man would take her forests and carve war fleets, open her crust and extricate iron and steel for blades. When Earth had tasted her first drop of man’s blood, the salt had been wrong in it. But man had forced her to debauch, where she had found that her crust thirsted even after the rains.
Civilizations come and gone, man’s onslaught on Earth only worsened. Deterred from the normalcy of conservation and posterity, one would think the complete devastation of Earth was man’s sole intention. Aggressive farming, mining, deforestation, sea filling, flagrant pollution, what has man not done to pervade Earth’s domain? From the melting ice in the North Pole, to the periodic flooding in the southern hemisphere, Earth has had her fill of man.
Unrelenting, Earth had fought back, with destructive earthquakes, ruthless hurricanes (letter k used to seem so far away) and tornadoes. Blistering heat waves, increasing sea levels, the promise of the desertification of the Amazon, and it seems Earth had only begun. At the discovery of incurable diseases, Earth laughed in man’s face, relishing in the prospect of the destruction of the refractory human. That Earth should retaliate against her rulers!
Microorganisms, Earth’s little secret, had already begun their attack from the very beginning of man’s existence. Having abounded in the ignorance of first men. Many discoveries later, man’s increased knowledge had seen to it that the ploy of unrelenting skirmishes and sieges on mankind by these microorganisms had been foiled. Partially.
This victory for man had brought about their second Tower of Babel. But, as it would be, man’s increasing wisdom was not all a virtue, intrinsically and otherwise. The creation of edited microorganisms swept a flood of deadly diseases over the banks of man’s idea of security. Ruthlessly, these modifications of Earth’s children, began to pass their seed, dominating her spheres. Even the rains couldn’t impede their surge.
With the pressure of man’s ever increasing population, Earth’s expansion unfortunately could never keep up.
Moreover, such expansions had seen to the mass destruction of man’s livelihood. Inevitably, whispers from the stars soon revealed man’s intent on colonizing Mars, Earth’s Red Sister.
A council was soon held, where Venus voiced her indifference, being a constant spectator at the very start of dawn to Earth’s woes. Mars had expressed extreme discomfort at having Earth’s residues littered across her surface, probing at her crust. But Earth had been surprised at Pluto’s absence, at how her ‘residues’ had convinced her intergalactic family to exclude their cold, melancholy last born.
Earth had quietly listened, when Mercury, Firstborn of the Nine Eight, instructed Red Sister to swallow her disdain and assist in The Human Regulation. All members of the Nine Eight had agreed and even urged Red Sister to practice control when men would land on her crust.
But man had selected the crème de la crème amongst themselves; those who would venture into Red Sister. Which meant that the bulk of human scum and a handful of its benevolent ones would remain on Earth. Utterly dissatisfied, Earth had decided to spend the remainder of the meeting pondering on the news of a very formidable battalion of microorganisms.
A battalion not even the rains would impede.
