Unus

Thea enjoyed wandering. Not because there was anywhere to go, but she could pass the time as she would on Earth. Just a few short decades ago, she spent her final years on her home planet in one of the few habitable places on earth - the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon.

Her whole life on Earth seemed like a journey, and Thea's home was the road. A journey to Mars seemed like a dream that couldn’t possibly come true. She still didn’t take it seriously, even after it fell into her lap.

When Thea was 43, she had moved to the high desert of Eastern Oregon. She wanted to write, and found an opportunity to focus on her creative work: writing essays about her personal philosophy.

There had always been a need for this, then, and now. Thea’s journey to truth began as a college student. When she first saw the crumbled buildings of the West Bank, she was changed forever. Its impact was visible in her home of San Francisco, which erupted in protest after the invasion of Iraq.

One after, Thea emerged to find herself trapped as a result of the protests that broke out when her country waged war on Iraq. She went into the subway to go home, and no trains were running, because no one was allowed to leave. She emerged from the darkness of the Muni to a jarring scene of police on horseback scuffling with protestors.

Eventually the Police decided to simply box them in, unable to successfully disperse the passionate crowd. The protesters sat in the middle of Market street, unable to fight or leave. An eerie silence hung in the air.

It was the first Iraq war. It was the second intifada. America was hurt, and angry after 9/11. The invisible lines which seemed to divide us began to cut.

Angered, she walked up and down this line of protesters who sat in the middle of the intersection, imploring them to fight. The police stood, immobile, and the protesters sat, unable to flee, and unwilling to fight. No one moved, and the images were seared into her memory forever.

Rather than study Video Games, or watch Movies to prepare herself for her education as a Visual Effects and 3D Animation major, Thea began to research creation myths, and read about spirituality.

Thea began to visit the library, and study religion and Creation Myths. She saw a pattern. First one, then the other. The shape of it drove her mad. What is the form of this universal idea? What exactly does it look like? In her imagination, she pictured the infinite soul of man like the Sun, expressing itself in a myriad of ways, and illuminating all being with it's expansive power.

Thea was searching for universal truth. The world needed a vision for peace.

She never thought that things would change are quickly as they did. But Earth was never the same after the Pandemic.

No one expected a chlorine shortage. Who could predict that a pandemic would increase demand for this supply? A fire at a chlorine plant in the south, and an electrical malfunction at a factory in Oregon, and increase demand while families were at home strained supplies of this chemical which is essential to purifying water.

A series of events cascaded, odd occurrences which seemed trivial at first. Combined with other factors, they led to disruptions which ripped across the globe, and beyond. Climate modelers had to continually update their forecasts with ever changing data. Weather patterns were no longer regular, and the only persistence was chaos.

For a long time, mankind has focused on their differences. Our Gods, Nations, our corporations. The spirit, or any notion of a universal spirit was not something that seemed to be of interest to modern society.

The vision which led her to the mountains of Eastern Oregon led to her survival. She wanted to help. She didn't take the project seriously, having been a strong voice for the preservation of the Earth. Thea recalled her youthful optimism, the hope that drove her to seek out a harsh life off grid.

Instead of uniting mankind, the internet fueled suspicion and strengthened the ego. It was possible to create beautiful versions of yourself. Users were encouraged to post for events, and selfies became a requirement for use of financial transactions, to prevent fraud. Because computer systems were no longer secure, these photographs became identification.

Users were required to verify biometric information to create a secure transaction. Hacking of these networks were hampered by bio-hackers - groups who were creating weapons to create bioweapons capable of targeting their enemies.

Just as we had begun to consider exploring this new planet, it became clear that it was already too late for humanity. Intense forest fires precipitated changes in weather patterns, which fed each other. All notions of humanity reaching a point of breaking. Capitalism and the global supply chain was utterly broken. Then, a hemorrhagic disease which proliferated in wild hares jumped to humans. The large loss of a majority of the earth’s population meant that everyone who was left, had to fend for themselves.

The earth had simply become too hot, too fast. It warmed rivers, poisoned fish, and caused droughts. The water wars began in earnest in the mid 2020’s - when the population of the West could no longer produce food.

Citizens of Mars watched with horror, as the majority of the world’s population perished.

The mood of the nascent colony on Mars shifted from hopeful to ominous. How had we, with all the wealth and knowledge we have, let it come to this?

The red planet, with its eternal twilight beckoned to the richest men on Earth. So it was on Mars Unus, which welcomed the first Colonists in 2031.

A shared essential self, a universal soul was the vision that Thea brought to Mars. A successful entrepreneur, she was also a philosopher. She caught the attention of Unus Colony Sponsor, the second wealthiest man on earth, on the internet. She would comment on the Earth, while he boasted of his rockets, and desire to explore other planets.

Thea did not know what the world was made of, or who God is. But she was determined to find it. She discovered a pattern, and believed in its ability to unite. She desired a perennial truth with all her soul. The sadness of the most maligned countries weighed on her heavily.

This pain she witnessed formed her direction and decisions. After she developed her ideas, she pursued them to no end. She pursued research, the freedom to write and pursue her ideas about the world, and solitude.

320 acres. This was the land that she lived on when it all began. The Oregon Land Act was devised to encourage settlement. We built our country, nation, freedom, by taking it away from others. She lived there on that mountain before she became fully aware of what her presence there meant.

What his business didn’t plan for, was the culture they left behind. The humanity, spontaneous expressions of spirit, joy, art, and culture that were the first victims of the collapse of the environment.

Thea squeezed the small metal heart, looked at it. What it held was vital, but what it represented was hard to express. And it weighed heavily. Not just the ideas it held, but what it meant to Thea.

Like so many times before, tears welled in her eyes. She fought them back. It was easy to control her emotions with the solitude afforded to her. With purpose, there is no time to mourn.

They say that with love, all pain turns to medicine.

Like the changes on Earth, life on Mars changes rather quickly.

Thea first asked big questions forty years before, as a grief stricken college student who witnessed the destruction of the west bank, and realized her country's role.

At 43, she began a role she applied to as a joke. They hired her, and next thing she knew, she was training to join the first permanent Colony on Mars.

At 53, she was on the first team of Scientists and Experts departed for the Red Planet, along with 100 carefully selected Pioneers. No one with Addiction, Physical Ailments, Mental Health issues, or any conditions requiring medical health would arise.

They made an exception for Thea, who had conquered Mental Health, and survived some of the harshest physical and emotional trials. Despite it, she was cheerful, unpretentious, and always had a desire to help. This philosopher and self made entrepreneur was the perfect ambassador for the existing Mission Control.

Once she explained her philosophy, they trusted her vision. This universal good, this holistic vision, was a guiding vision which was missing on Earth, and it guided all of her decisions up the moment when she crawled into the sterile surroundings of Forward, the elegant craft that would travel to Mars, and dock into the Sky Station, a satellite base that supported the first group of 100.

Though excellent with technology, graphics, and even public speaking, it was Thea's personality that set her apart. Thea wanted to help everyone, was warm, empathetic, and took the time to genuinely connect with everyone she met. She dedicated her life to her philosophy. And believed in it enough to aim high.

Thea had pre-formed ideas. Questions led by the deep feelings aroused in her when she realized the sufferings mankind inflicts on one another for the sake of a word, or a physical place, or even a name, of a God, or a country.

Her career led her to the Nation's first Space Agency, a private enterprise. The second space race began in earnest in 2035 with the establishment of the Unus: Mars Colony 1, amidst deteriorating conditions on Earth.

Able to always see one step ahead, she pursued her philosophy. It filled a broken world with hope, and it gave her life purpose, richness, and meaning. It was the work she did ever since she witnessed the suffering of the world.

She made it her life's goal to find the source of the universal. This, the Truth, could be a tool for unity. Thea struggled to find its form. She knew it was simple. Fundamental. In Flux. This amorphous shape was more than what the leading Scientists, and Modern Mathematics could describe. But she knew this system like the back of her hand. It drove her nearly mad trying to describe it, until she realized its shape didn't matter. Its purpose did. It was this purpose, this vision that Thea gave to the Unus colony. Excluding Scientists with Mental Illness would have deprived Mars of her Vision.

The group of Trustees, made of tycoons who invested in space tourism, saw value in Thea’s vision for a holistic future. With all of its technological prowess, mankind was still primitive in its values. If something wasn't done, the same fate who befall Mars. We would destroy one another there, as we did to our home Planet, and one another.

With Earth support systems failing, plans were made for the Colony to preserve Human Civilization. Thea’s life work, her writings were stored on a heart shaped device that she carried with her everywhere.

She couldn't let Mankind go to another planet without giving her opinion. Her vision for a good life on Earth, could be a good life anywhere.

The questions still roiled as she wandered the empty halls, like she explored the unpaved hills of Grant county with this purpose.

Thea happened to be wandering when the explosion occurred. She found herself trapped in the Greendome. Each section of the Colony had a Pod where the Colonists could protect themselves in the event of a disaster. Nine months had passed since she had crawled into one, dizzy from the lack of air. After an explosion, the decaying surfaces of the Domes we trusted to protect Unus was gone. Wth critical systems down the Colony lost oxygen, and many perished. The Mars atmosphere experienced something it hadn't in eons: Oxygen. The thick atmosphere made it impossible for any to escape. Like greenhouse gases, these patches of oxygen accumulated.

For the first time, Mars experienced wind. As on earth, these climatic shifts happened easily. The pods, designed to help sustain colonists in the event of complete system failure, had one failsafe mechanism.

Thea could barely move her arms, legs. She was unsure of where she was, a feeling she experienced many times on Earth during her travels. She just felt so, so heavy. She wanted to fly, soar above the fear that weighed heavily on the hearts of man. Her shivering hands squeezed the locket in her left pocket, which she had been holding as she repeated the Zen mantra she learned at the age of 20.

"May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering."

Her mind focused with purpose, and the images came rushing back. She took a deep breath of fresh air, and opened her eyes, as if awakening from a dream.