The Potential Cultural Impact of Extraterrestrial Contact
An Indeterminate Time in Earth's Not-so-distant Future
The Colorado Colossal Collider, or "C3" as the media so lovingly called it, was a marvel of American engineering. It was a symbol of Humanity's desire to learn about the universe and how it worked, built in a new age of enlightenment and understanding of just how small they were. Peoples of many different cultures were determined to find the answers that had plagued their existence since the beginning of recorded history, and political heads across the globe were riding to their stations of power on promises to bring humanity to the stars. In their pride and determination to live up to their own legacy and restore themselves as the technological powerhouse of the world, America's leaders all but gave the keys to the Treasury to the greatest minds available to them. The result: The Colorado Colossal Collider, the biggest Atom Smasher in history.
C3 was a 30 mile long circular tunnel buried a hundred meters under the Colorado plains. It accelerated millions of particles around, in opposite directions, to close to the speed of light before allowing them to collide at certain points. It was made for the purpose of one thing, to break the Light barrier, the speed limit of the universe, and prove that traveling to the stars would not need to take decades. So far they had been unsuccessful in this endeavor, but with how much closer they got every single test, the enterprising young men and women in charge were sure that within the next few years, regular travel to Mars and beyond would become a reality.
As the Scientists in the control room ten miles away from the main facility prepared for their next test, there was a peculiar excitement in the air, as if all of them were given a premonition that this time would be it. This test would change everything.
"Men," said the head scientist as he opened the cover of the activation controls.
"And Women." Piped up one of the female staff members.
"And Women." The head scientist agreed with a nod as some of his colleges laughed. "This is it." He placed his master key into the console, then typed in a password before preparing to turn the small piece of metal to begin the test. "Last call to make your bets." He pointed over to a dry erase board with three dozen names separated into four categories: Nothing Happens, Something Happens, Light Speed Breaks, and Kaboom! Most of the names were under "Something happens" But there were a good few that had put there name under "Light Speed Breaks" and one had put there name under "Kaboom!"
When no one approached the board, the head Scientist smiled and turned the key.
"Here we go."
Meanwhile at the Equestrian Center for Teleportation Research and Experimentation
Several Unicorns were gathered around a large wooden crate, taller than three ponies stacked atop each other, loaded with an assortment of random objects, ranging from potted plants to various different types of rocks to a pie some pony bought on their way over. Each unicorn had a gem incrusted ring around their horn that glowed with energy as they increased the capacity of their wearer's magical power.
"Everypony charged up?" Asked the mare leading the group of six other ponies plus herself as she too positioned herself in the circle around the box. The others nodded to her and she turned her attention back to the crate. "Alright. First test of the Unicorn Assister Rings in use of Mass Teleportation. Commence."
The seven ponies' horns began to glow different colours as their auras began to take hold of the crate. The spell they were casting was an Envoy-less Teleportation spell, an advanced magic used to transport an object from one location to another without the caster actually traveling with the object. The spell was used by express delivery services for only the richest in Equestria, but it usually required at least five unicorns to teleport even the lightest of packages. A container as large and as heavy as the one the Unicorns were trying to teleport at the moment would normally take almost thirty unicorns to teleport, and all of them would have collapsed from exhaustion after doing so.
The goal of their experiment today was to see if the new Assister rings developed in Canterlot, which could almost triple a unicorn's magic, could help make the process a little more efficient, and bring the availability of the service to the average pony on the street.
Everything seemed to be proceeding well as the unicorns synchronized their magic and prepared to send the box from their labs in Baltimare, to a target location in the middle of Manehatten Park. The crate lifted up and began to shimmer with light.
"On my mark everypony." The lead mare said. "Three... Two... One... CAST!"
There was an explosion of light that made most of the ponies flinch away, and then suddenly the box was disappearing... only not in the way they expected.
The box was supposed to simply vanish in the light, but instead they watched in shock as the box appeared to get sucked into a pin prick of light, like a jello cake through a straw. Within seconds, the box was gone, and after a moment more the light was gone as well. The group stood there in silence for a moment before they slowly turned their heads toward the lead unicorn, who promptly rushed over to one of their new experimental communication devises and called up the proxy lab they'd set up in Manehatten.
"Hello? Professor Head Case? We just sent the package. Has it- what? Yes, the rings worked. We're just not sure the spell did."
C3 Control Center
All eyes were on the monitors as detectors in the Accelerator recorded the speed the particles were traveling at. A few people started to hold their breath when they passed the previous milestone, others began chewing on their finger nails, the head scientist even started humming the theme to 2001 A Space Odyssey. No one moved, and even the one guy who made the bet that the whole thing would blow up like an atom bomb was on the balls of his feet as he and the others watched with astonishment as the numbers on the screen slowly but surely climbed ever higher and ever closer to Light Speed.
Then, all at once, everyone's hair stood on end, as if the entire room was filled with static electricity. Then the monitors, and the data that they were displaying, started to glitch out. Everyone started to turn to one another with looks of confusion or worry, just before the ground beneath their feet began to vibrate.
"Earthquake!" One shouted as he ducked for the nearest desk.
"No, The damn thing blew its lid! You guys owe me five hundred bucks!"
The vibrating stopped, but before any money could exchange hands, the power went out, leaving everyone in the dark. There was a lot of concerned muttering before the head scientist shouted out.
"Everyone calm down. Hal, you don't get a cent until we actually see the Collider's condition. David, there's a flashlight in the drawer near where you're sitting, let's get out, drive over there, and find the problem."
Manehatten Park
"What do you mean the spell went wrong? Sucked through a hole? What are you blabbering about filly?"
Professor Head Case was about to go on a rant to the ponies in Baltimare and those with him in Manehatten, when suddenly there was a loud noise behind him, like the sound of magic discharging. He turned to look at the hundred meter wide area they'd cleared and designated as the target zone. In the exact center was a seemingly sourceless orb of light, which was shinning with power to rival that of Celestia's Sun. Head Case and his assistants slowly approached the edge of the roped off area and watched as the wooden crate, crushed and broken along with all of its contents, began to squeeze out of the light. But before the assembled ponies could sigh and write this test off as inconclusive, various metallic debris and wire began to follow their box out of the light. Head Case knew for a fact that none of that sort of thing was in the Box to begin with. Some of the debris began to fall to the ground, but most of it slowly got pulled back into the light as the flow of junk seemed to reverse.
"S-sir?" One of the assistents said. "What's happening?"
"Someone get Princess Celestia on the line." Head Case said simply as he watched the light widen to allow the last of the smashed test subject to get through. "I think we may have a problem."
C3 Main Detector Room
"Told you." Hal the Scientist said. "Pay up."
"It hasn't exploded Hal." The head scientist said as he looked at the meter wide ball of light in the middle of a very large hole in the main detector. "It... Imploded."
"I still want my money."
"Are you sure we should be this close to it?" Piped up the Female Staff member from earlier.
"Geiger Counter says it's clean." David said, holding up a small devise he'd brought with them.
"Yeah, but what about fumes or structural damage or-"
The ball of light began to fluctuate as they stared at it, causing all of them to push back towards the door in fear. Suddenly a large amount of debris started to spill out of the light. Mechanical bits that some of them recognized as parts of the detector, as well as what looked like wood and rubble and...
"Is that a pie?" Hal said as a very crushed looking pie fell down to the bottom of the pile of miscellaneous junk. Then the flow started to reverse and anything still caught in the pull of the light was sucked back into it, leaving a considerable amount behind.
Cautiously, several scientists approached the pile of junk, eyeing the light as if it would suddenly start vacuuming up the heap beneath it, but nothing outside a meter of the light moved an inch toward it. David waved his Geiger Counter over the heap but nothing raised the needle one bit. Hal picked up the remains of the Pie and turned it over and around before chuckling to himself.
"Congrats people." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm "We've made apple pie. Carl Sagan would be proud."
Several weeks Later
The C3's destruction had made headline news all over the world, if only because of what was left behind in the aftermath. People everywhere were terrified of what effect this "Rift" would have, believing that it would grow to swallow up the entire planet. Thankfully however after several days of observation, scientists were positive that the Rift and its area of affect had stopped expanding at about five meters in diameter. That didn't allay everyone's fears though, as the media was also quick to report that things had been coming out of the Rift, which lead many to believe that something harmful could come out as well. While this fear was not going away anytime soon, those in charge of observing the Rift were adamant that the only things that had come out of it were the crate of junk and the infrequent rock or fruit or potted plant. Sadly, no more pie was sent through.
Eventually it was concluded that there were no other reported occurrences of Rifts or the like anywhere else on the planet, meaning all of the stuff coming through was NOT from Earth. So the question became: Where was all this stuff coming from? With much trepidation, the US government green lighted the idea to send a probe through the Rift and see if it would, A. Return, and B. If satellites could detect the location of the GPS they installed inside of it.
When probe was launched, an agonizing hour passed and the people of the world waited, but no trace of the transmitter could be found. At that point, many people began to regard the Rift as a harmless yet uninteresting result of a failed experiment, no longer worth the media attention it was getting. The staff of C3 were heartbroken that billions of taxpayers money had been sucked down the tubes when they were so close to achieving that magic universal speeding ticket. They were ready to pack up and cement the whole thing over, until a week later, when the probe came back, completely intact, with a paper scroll attached to it. The scroll was a letter, apologizing to "Those beyond the Rift" for not immediately sending it back.
The Rift was now the talk of the planet. Not only had the probe returned with all of its instruments and data undamaged, but with evidence that it had come in contact with another sentient being. One that apparently wrote in environmentally safe ink.
It had been hoped by many that the recent technological break throughs and promises of visiting the stars would eventually lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial life, but no one expected that the discovery would be made so soon or in this way. But happen it did, whether or not humanity was ready for it.
Author's Note
I was getting stuck with my other story, "Harmony Arcana." I needed something else to work on and clear this writers block, so while I was watching Neil Degrasse Tyson's "Cosmos" I thought now might be a good time to give this idea a shot.
I actually came up with this idea a while back when I was taking a class on Science Fiction Literature, but I couldn't think of a good solid story to go along with it, so I sort of put it on stand by while I worked on other things. Now however I feel I know what I want to do with it. It won't be a single story, but more a collection of short stories with no real main character or plot, just me toying with ideas as they occur to me.
Any way, hope you like it. Chapter 12 of Harmony Arcana should be out soon. Hopefully.