Out There1

The earth was dying. Slowly becoming uninhabitable. There had been warnings, great screaming warnings that too many ignored. For almost a thousand years the climate and weather had been increasing in intensity. Great storms that grew to cover entire country at once. Earthquakes that could level entire continents. And tsunamis that took out anything that managed to survive. Extreme temperatures in either direction made only select areas tolerable. Those that survived the extreme conditions were forced to struggle to find food and shelter. From six billion people, a small fraction survived initially though many later perished from hunger. All crops had been destroyed, and temperatures made it difficult to grow any more. As with the humans, most animals and livestock had perished. The surviving humans ate what plants and animals that had survived and then were left with nothing. Left to scavenge through the devastation for stray cans and the like that may have remained intact.

But there was hope. One group had heeded the warnings the earth had displayed early in the 21st century. Enough to make a difference. Though they had no knowledge of the extent of the damage, they worked continuously to find a solution over hundreds of years; to save the earth and the last remaining humans.

Experts in space exploration were sent to find a hospital planet. They ranged in all directions, they searched, most never to return. 

In the likely possibility that no planet was found, engineers worked deep underground to create a space station, so at least some humans could be saved. A self sustaining station was as difficult a task as finding a planet with life. Generations of engineers worked to create this. They struggled to balance size, to try accommodate as many humans as possible made it impossible to actually get it up into space. Many smaller stations were created that could be launched but would not hold enough people or supplies to survive long.

It wasn't until the year 2970, after 800 years of research and trial, that a brilliant engineer by the name of Rupert Spear discovered a design that would have that balance. Technically four stations joined into one after launching, each launched separately in two pieces, eight in total, and all joined together to create one station. Cyclindrically shaped with smaller cyclinders connecting perpendicularly. Each would be self sustaining. Spear allowed for the many smaller stations to attach to the top and bottom of the main cyclinders; many would act as transport from the earth once all was completed. 

For thirty years they worked continuously to completed the station pieces and launch them. The day the last piece was launched, they recieved transmission from one of the probes. It had taken the probe 19 years, but it had found a small galaxy that had similar atmospheric conditions as that of earth and contained life!

Renewed hope spread through the underground facility and they began to gather the remaining survivors for the first  launches into space. Survivors came from all over the world, straggling into the facility, hardly believing that what they'd been told was true. They would be saved; they would go into space to a new planet.

It took four years to gather survivors onto the station as well as supplies and technology. In the year 3004 the last people left the devastated earth, never to return, with hopes of a new life and a better future.