Tomorrow in History

2105.1993 – Nano-Genocide in Sol System

On 2105.1993 it was discovered that a race of semi-intelligent single cell organisms called the Nederjungan lived on Iaeptus, the 18th Moon in orbit around Saturn. Unluckily for the Nederjungan Iaeptus was a stop over and refueling point for out-system bound transports. Deep Surface water mining provided the needed reaction mass for the transports. The same underground water reservoirs provided habitats for the Nederjungan. Like so many other times, Humanity was unwittingly destroying the Nederjungan’s habitat by draining the reservoirs.

The existence of life on Iaeptus came as quite the shock. Previous searches had failed to penetrate deeply enough and reveal the Nederjungan’s precense, nor had any known mechansim or evidence pointing towards their existence been revealed. We now know that several hundred thousand years in the past a meteor plunged deep into Iaeptus’ neighbor Hyperion. Iaeptus was showered with dust and debris from Hyperion. It is thought that amino acids came to Iaeptus this way, but science is not positive if they originated on Hyperion or the meteor.

Either way the basic building blocks were there and nature took over and the Nederjungan came into existence. Their presence was undiscovered until a young boy named Thad Smith accidentally intercepted their communication signals during an ultra low band radio wave experiment for a Boy Scout badge. He showed his father, who was a researcher in IBA&TT’s moon labs, the unexpected signals and the two of them were able to devise a primitive communication array.

Today the Nederjungan are one of many known nano-species. They have replaced nano-robots in many industrial and medical uses as their higher intelligence makes it easier for supervisors to direct their actions.  Iaeptus and many other moons have been set aside as home worlds closed to outside development under the Galactic Council Directive 111.32.

The discovery of nano-species  showed us that the Galaxy still has a lot of surprises left for it’s inhabitants. Lets hope we do not destroy more in our ignorance.