by Tilemahos Efthimiadis

… electrostatic discharges

Warm air rises and cool air descends, creating a storm. Inside a cloud small ice particles collide, transferring electrons and separating electrical charges. The positive charges venture to the top of the cloud, and negative ones to the bottom, creating an electric field that strengthens with each collision.

When the air is sufficiently charged, a little channel of electricity travels towards the ground. At the same time, charges rise from the Earth to meet it. When they connect, electricity rushes back to the cloud, causing a bright flash of lightning and the sound of thunder as the air expands quickly. Both engulf the forest.

Seeking a shorter path to the ground, the lightning had gone through the forest’s tallest tree. The intense heat instantaneously vaporised the water and sap within, destroyed most of its branches, and created cracks along its trunk.

Nearby, the men had stopped fighting, frozen in shock and fear.

As the tree burned on the inside, a steady glow began to form. Smoke would start to rise carrying the stinging smell of burning wood. But the odours did not reach the cavemen as they were running back to their respective shelters, on opposite sides of the forest.

The caves served as temporary homes as their dwellers would travel from place to place seeking food. Here, the dense forest between the hills was rich in prey. Initially unaware of each other’s existence, they eventually crossed paths. They avoided confrontation but the woodland was too small for both, and too rich in resources to be yielded to the other.

They merely wanted to scare each other away, but blood would need to be spilled. Rocks and sharp-pointed sticks were collected, without elaborate speeches or war declarations. Structured language did not yet exist but would have been unnecessary as this was about food, not protocol or glory.

The men converged in the forest, close to the tallest tree. Grunts and rocks were hurled, leaving bruises. Suddenly, the skies darkened and a strong wind ripped through the woods, whistling among the trees. This made them nervous, but the battle continued.

The core of the thunderstorm arrived above the forest, and the lightning strike descended from the sky striking the tall tree. The flash of light and the loud crack were the brightest and loudest the men had experienced, causing them to scatter and retreat.

By sundown the caves were abandoned as the tribes left in opposite directions, never to meet again.

That night some dreamt of all powerful beings, others about conquering nature. The more imaginative wanted to fly to the clouds to find the creators of the bright flash. The world had become bigger. Life was more than just survival.

#

… celestial mechanics

The greyish rock orbits the much larger blue sphere covered in white streaks which itself wanders around the blazing fiery ball. Occasionally, the rock gets in the middle casting its shadow on the marble below, or dips behind it shielded from sunlight.

From his castle on the marble, the Ruler of the west observed that the fiery ball and the rock were the same size in the sky. He could not know that the former is about 400 times bigger than the latter, but also 400 times further away, hence the illusion. Nor would he care as sky gazing served only as a distraction from the bleak news. His men had suffered yet another major defeat.

Five years ago, the King in the east demanded vast swaths of land and annual tributes, accompanied by the not-so-subtle reminders of his vast army. The western ruler could not abide by these demands, not out of principle or expectation of military success, but because he was unpopular. His people would revolt ending his reign, and there was nowhere to flee. The future held sure defeat. In the meantime, it could only be war.

Surprisingly, his military established and defended a formidable defensive line, albeit at an enormous cost of life and resources. Pleas for compromise were dismissed by the majority. Any concession to the aggressors would be a betrayal of the fallen.

Continuing a war was also a relatively easy decision for rulers and kings as they stayed away from battlefields and rarely lost loved ones in battle. They relied on their military commanders who did watch the battlefields, but from a safe distance from the front lines. Soldiers served as pawns on a chessboard which would gradually turn red. Victory was declared when the other side painted more of the board with their blood.

At the front, the men prepared for the battle to come after dusk. Armies usually clashed at dawn, but tonight’s full moon would provide enough visibility to kill after the fiery ball had departed.

The Ruler’s forces prepared defensive positions. The King’s were restless for their attack, especially as they revered a full moon. With such a good omen, they might finally break the enemy’s lines and march all the way to the Ruler’s castle. Their Commander also enjoyed the occasional night raid, embracing the chaos. This was no longer chess, but a game of chance where ferocity and luck were decisive factors.

The sun dropped behind the mountain and a glorious full moon rose illuminating the fields below. The attack commenced but just as the King’s men reached the defenders, the rock’s light started to fade. A dark shadow crept over it.

As the rock moved behind the blue marble, the men fixated on the sky, nothing else stirred. Only a faint voice was heard from the East’s base camp where the Commander was swearing at his Colonels to tell their Majors to command their Captains to instruct their Lieutenants to tell the men to continue the attack.

At the front, a soldier screamed that the vanishing moon was a sign to stop the bloodshed. His warning was repeated by others who wanted to spread this obvious truth, or as an excuse to avoid further risk of injury or death. The attackers turned heel and headed back to camp.

The defenders did not care about the rock, its colour, phases or eclipses. But they did see the opportunity to attack the enemy during its disorganised retreat. The pawns fell and the fields were bathed in red as the West had finally scored a resounding victory. Meanwhile, the East was consumed by an omen that had transformed from favourable to disastrous.

As morning broke, the Commanders set a truce until further orders arrived from the capitals. News of the rock’s temporary disappearance travelled swiftly, providing a convenient excuse for both sovereigns to end the war without losing face. Neither leader wanted to push their luck on the battlefield, or with the gods, but mostly, with the people. Only the generals were sour as their game was stopped prematurely without a definite winner.

#

… belief

The first months of war had already claimed over a million souls, civilian and military. The combatants were faced with brutal hand-to-hand combat, machine guns, artillery, disease, rats, mud, cold, hunger and plagues.

Optimism blossomed as peace societies and even Pope Benedict XV pleaded for a Christmas truce. However, high command feared soldiers becoming too comfortable with inaction which could lead to a breakdown of discipline. Already, many had lost interest in fighting as trench warfare offered only misery and death, but no progress, militarily or otherwise.

The men sought a miracle, but science said that there were no miracles. Thunder and eclipses were explicable. However, if a new miracle was not available, perhaps an old one could suffice.

Despite orders, soldiers took moments to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Carols were sung and greetings were sent to the enemy, in lieu of grenades and poison gas. The desire to pause, maybe even halt, the war superseded all orders. Across the front more than 100.000 soldiers stopped the hostilities for a couple of days, exchanged wishes and small gifts. Some played football.

The miracle’s relief was short-lived. The top brass was not happy to have defied the Pope only to be upstaged by the common soldier. The brutality resumed post haste. Commanders reestablished their authority by pushing wave after wave into the killing zones.

Future attempts at temporary truces failed. The Great War would be renamed World War One, its sequel to be five times deadlier.

#

… serendipity

With depleted batteries and broken solar panels, the interstellar probe continued traversing the cosmos at 17 kilometres per second, relative to the sun at its origin. Entering the small solar system, it headed straight for the giant gas planet which was called Orath by the populations of its two moons.

The moons communicated and exchanged small cargo, but the extreme radiation between them did not allow physical travel. The rock closest to the gas giant is named Gravitara, dedicated to Orath for its embrace and protection from comets. The other is Solara in celebration of the sun’s brightness and warmth.

The appreciation of different astronomical units sufficed to justify isolation, avoid cultural ‘contamination’, and establish fear-based war economies ruled by powerful plutocracies.

However, due to their irregular orbits, for the first time, the moons would find themselves ‘only’ 400.000 kilometres apart, close enough to destroy each other with interplanetary missiles.

Coincidently, in the run-up to the celestial near miss, the waning plutocracy of Solara had leaned too much into religion to retain power, and the fanatics had taken over the political discourse, calling for the extermination of the “inners” (or “sinners”).

As a deterrent, Gravitara ramped up their missile programme, which led Solara to further extend theirs. A vicious cycle of distrust and an ever-expanding arsenal of civilisation ending instruments. Mutual annihilation seemed unavoidable.

Before the moons reached shooting distance, their satellites detected a mysterious metallic object approaching at breakneck speed. Fearing a pre-emptive strike from the other, both worlds prepared to launch. Fortunately, they realised in time that the object could only have originated from another solar system. Likely a deep space probe, it appeared defunct. Too fast to be captured, deflected, or even properly photographed, it passed between the moons and was swallowed by Orath. Its Golden Record with the images, music, sounds and greetings, never to be played.

Facing an unknown common enemy, the moons expanded together to the stars beyond, to find and destroy the “Infiltrators”.

Thousands of years later, their probes reached the blue marble, a random encounter as the interstellar spaceship was long forgotten. Much has changed since Voyager 1 left Earth. Civilisation restarted several times as devastating wars led societal collapse. Sticks and stones were once again the main tools of combat, as had been predicted by humanity’s greatest mind.

In the forest, the tribes clashed for control of the land but had stopped to witness the unknown object in the sky. The drone only scanned for raw materials and signs of advanced technology, such as radio signals. It ignored the men below as inferior lifeforms were irrelevant. Would you care to find every ant?

The men were startled by the noisy flyer and went their separate ways. At night, they began to crave soaring through the sky. Curiosity and potential were awakened.

And so it began, again.

~

Bio:

Tilemahos Efthimiadis is a research economist specializing in energy security, infrastructure, inflation, and public debt. He also brings expertise to research ethics and scientific integrity … and a hardcore Trekkie.

Philosophy Note:

‘Only a miracle can stop war’ is a common phrase that sparks curiosity: what is a miracle, really? Is it an event so extraordinary that it defies ordinary explanation rooted in religious or mythic tradition? Maybe it could be a more abstract concept, a metaphorical notion that transcends everyday experience? And do societies truly advance, or are we merely accumulating technological improvements while repeating the same mistakes?