Tomorrow in History

7123:5645 – Saint Hoolian’s Day first celebrated

7123:5645 – Saint Hoolian’s Day first celebration was a grandiose affair. Created by King Hoolian himself to celebrate the 50th year of his reign, the celebration turned into a three week event. To keep his World from suffering too greatly economically, every third day was given off to all citizens. This day was marked by gift giving from the King himself who rode through the city streets in a plas-steel chariot gilded in platinum and studded with gems.

His presents were varied and extravegant to the extreme. Gold coins containing a hologram emiter were scattered to the crowds. Once picked up a DNA scanner registered the reciever, matched their name against the central database and presented their gift that was already pre-programmed. Most the gifts were simple sums of money. Other gifts ranged from seats at concerts or the Triallian Opera to commisons in the military, government jobs, even the Barony of the North Beach. The Barony was collected by a 13 year old girl named Cidney Jarovich, later to be known as Baroness North Beach, the Warrior Queen of Debian VII. In addition, the coins were programmed to only allow a person one gift, but despite that some more valuable coins were still horded and bought or sold for heafty sums.

During the evening, immense parties were put on all over the world. Every city played host to one, and some citizens traveled over 100 kilometers to attend. The food consisted of delicacies from all over the Galaxy and is said to cost 1/10th of the GWP alone. The World Guard was on hand to keep the peace, but amazingly only had to respond three times. Once turned out to be a false alarm to find a missing child (the child had fallen asleep on a park bench,) another to help with a broken leg, and the third time to stop an accidental fire.

Saint Hoolian’s day continues to be celebrated, two thousand years after it’s creator’s death in another spectacle that merits an episode by itself. The gold coins are still passed around and gifts vary from the mudane to fantastic depending on the wealth of the giver. The tradition has spread to many other worlds, but has been shortened to one week in most places. Important infrastructure and security works are no longer given the entire time off, but most other citizens do.

In the immortal words of King Hoolian “Be Happy!”

2954.7743 – Nano-Zombie Plague

2954.7743 – Ryian Corporation Level Two Research and Developement Lab – Theta Draconis III near the Helaspont Nebula., Nano-Zombie Plague.

The Nano-Zombie Plague as it is now known has gone down as one of the Galaxies greatest scientific follies and examples of Military mismanagement. Threatened with a large funding cut, Ryian Corp approached the Theta Draconis Fleet with a proposal of nanobot augmented soldiers. Their proposal was quite ambitious promising a 230% average strength boost, 175% speed increase, 300% endurance along with a host of abilities such as quick healing, low-light vision and even a neural interface for remote commands. This proposal glossed over the fact that Ryian Corp did not even have the plans for a prototype nanobot, much less one that was capable of these claims.

Theta Draconis Fleet Command jumped at the possibilities of a so-called super solider and quickly funded the project. Critics have pointed out that there was a lack of oversight and investigation into the funding process, especially in regards to any kind of timelines and mileposts. Military supporters point out that sometimes funding needs to be poured into “Black” projects without oversight or the “Enemy” would be able to surpass them in technology.

Instead the Ryian Corporation’s lax project controls and lack of safety procedures heavily contributed to it’s ultimate failure and disaster. Coupled with Fleet Command’s lack of oversight, the disaster loomed closer then anyone thought.

As can be pieced together in the mop-up report, at roughly 1:30 pm local time one of the researchers named Dr. Gidoen left the newest batch of nano-samples, NF-233 on the a quantum recorder. NF-233 was already an anomalous sample. Previous lab tests had shown a unexpected high replication rate. In addition the gobbit (a small rodent native to Tau Ceti Seven,) test subject’s brain activity ceased with in 15 sections of activation, and the gobbits began exhibiting severe cases of cannibalism. This problem had been removed by sample NF-238, but Dr. Gidoen was heading up a team to re-examine some of NF-233 properties for reintegration into the main sample line.

Unluckily for Dr. Gidoen a momentary power flicker in the nano shields on the quantum recorder allowed several of the microscopic robots to escape and start executing their primary function. It’s estimated that 45 sections later she reentered the room and immediately was infected by sample NF-233. 2nd Technician Rimmer found her and succumbed to NF-233, but he left the way open for their animated corpses to begin feeding and infecting others.

Accounts differ as to the rate of spread and order. But what is clear is that 90% of the facility’s personnel had been infected by the close of the day. Several survivors escaped the building which did not have nano deactivation fields, only to be taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. This spread NF-233 into the general population and escalated from there. Within 10 standard days over 5 million beings of many races were infected.

Wide spread panics led to a declaration of martial law. Public buildings became armed fortresses and the Nano-Zombies as they were now called were destroyed in large numbers. Before the cause was known, bodies were burned in great piles to attempt to get rid of them. Unluckily the insect like intelligence of NF-233 made the Nano-Zombies swarm to the nearest concentration of living beings. Within a standard month it is estimated that less 2% of Theta Draconis III’s population were left alive and uninfected. Most were in rural areas, isolated islands, and survivalist outposts.
The orbiting habitat colonies survived, but only due to a accident that completly destroyed the space elevator and closed off all ground to orbit travel. There is some suspicion that the Military had a hand in this, although they claim the loss of over 4000 of their own troops on the elevator at the time would make this impossible.

With increasing pressure from the Galactic Council’s Security Bureau, the government in exile eventually authorized the use of proto-neutrionium bombs after repeated hacks into the nano-bots failed. This eradicated almost all life on the planet and most of NF-233. The resulting global EMP field gave technicians enough time to slightly alter the nano-bots original programming and put them into a dormant state.

Today Theta Draconis III remains a quarantined and mutated wild life preserve orbited by colonies. Occasional heavily armed scientific missions visit the planet to monitor the remains of the nano-bots. Their original programing has finally been modified to reduce their reproduction rate, and remove the cannibalism factor. Further modifications may make it possible for the planet to be habitable again someday.

With over 7 billion beings dead this disaster modified the view on nanotechnology and laws regarding it’s use across the entire galaxy. Even to this day it is still highly regulated and controlled to prevent such disasters, despite the fact that it is used in just about every industry.