The Invitation(55)

“And we Homo sapiens have no part in that future?”

The only purpose of Homo sapiens is to provide an evolutionary platform for the emergence of your successor, Neo homo. Once that is achieved, Homo sapiens will become an evolutionary dead end.”

At this, the Vice President pauses, and momentarily looks away from the alien creature standing only feet away from him. He thinks to himself, is this a dream? How can this be true? If it is true, it means that billions of humans now alive have absolutely no stake, or even the smallest degree of influence, on the future of their own living descendants. This is something to dismal and forbidding to accept. To think that man, and all his achievements are no more than an ‘evolutionary dead end’ is incomprehensible. The future is universally regarded as belonging to man. Every reference to it assumes man’s place in it. Is it believable, or even possible that some other creature will inherit that future? This unpalatable question looms disturbingly in the thoughts of not only the Vice President, but also the uncounted multitudes of those watching and hearing this bizarre conversation unfolding.

Any human in the Western Hemisphere viewing the night sky or watching a television screen is experiencing something far beyond extraordinary. An almost clairvoyant sense of ineffable astonishment experienced simultaneously by so many millions of people imprints itself indelibly on the collective imagination of mankind, as common humanity witnesses a very uncommon occurrence. People are fully aware that these incredible events will likely never occur again in the same way. Yet few of them can possibly know how fundamentally the world would change as a result of what they are witnessing.

For Scott Conner the thought of being the first human to speak intelligibly, and at length with a representative of an alien civilization is not in the forefront of his mind. That would be too overwhelming to think about. He knows he is in effect a surrogate for all of humanity, and his questions must plead for the benefit of mankind. He addresses the Linesian again.

“You tell us first that we’re fated to die, and there’s nothing we can do about it, then you say it’s irrelevant because we have no future anyway. Do you expect us to accept that? Because we won’t. How can we?”

“It’s only through the life and sacrifice of Homo sapiens that the future emergence of Neo homo is possible. Homo sapiens has carried human evolution forward as far as possible. You have played your part. A new human being is waiting, poised to inherit the Earth and claim his evolutionary destiny.”

“Who is Neo homo?”

“He is your replacement, Mr. Conner. Would you like to meet him?”

“I don’t know. Seeing this creature might have the effect of seeming to corroborate what you’re saying, and…I’m not, or rather we’re not ready to accept that, but neither are we afraid of anything you can show us.”

“Then observe, Mr. Conner.”

With this the Linesian gestures skyward to the enormous image stretching across a full quarter of the night sky, and with the same detailed clarity as those images vividly seen the night before, a dramatic picture of the Earth from pole to pole comes into view, with massive ice sheets capping both poles, and dry barren deserts dominating all land masses. The sobering image seems to amplify the power of the Linesian’s words as he continues.

“This then is your world in five thousand years, a world dominated by two extremes, ice and heat, with the scattered remnants of mankind clinging tenuously at their interface. Yet through these inauspicious conditions the genetic seeds of Neo homo will survive to emerge in future human generations. Let’s move forward in time.”

The image begins to change as glacial ice retreats with a concomitant rise in sea level. Then, successive ice ages rapidly surge, and wane. Ocean levels correspondingly fluctuate, and even a slow but detectable shift in the continent’s position is seen as the tectonic plate it rests on slowly moves.

At first, the Earth gradually begins turning green again. Then the planet rapidly becomes verdant with abundant plant growth, and the image of a barren world of harsh extremes changes to one rich with the living vitality of a healthy, vibrant biosphere. The Earth has healed itself, and life once again is flourishing. The image of the continental United States literally blanketed with thick forests even in once arid areas of the southwest, gives a distinct impression that we are looking at a very different world, as our Linesian guide continues.

“It is nearly five million years into the future. Your planet’s ecosphere is once again pristine. The creature that rules this world is Neo homo. This is his image.”