Chapter 1 - What has become of earth and the humans?

After all the neglect, pollution, climate changes, global warming, territorial wars, natural disasters, pandemics and the scarcity of natural resources, earth has finally reached the end of its rope. After everything that has happened, from the highest population ever recorded which was 17.8 billion, only about 10 billion people were able to evacuate out of the almost dead planet.

To summarize what caused the demise of the planet, it was simple HUMANS. The overpopulation, the gross neglect for nature, unscrupulous mining, pollution from industrialization and wars were all from humans after all. People died one by one during all the changes Earth had to go through before what was left did their final evacuation and never looked back. 

It took more than 300 years before the remaining population of the human race was able to balance their population versus what resources they were lucky enough to bring with them before leaving Earth. During the time of evacuations, families were not allowed to give birth to children for at least 50 years or so. Instead of adding to the population, people were encouraged to stay healthy and live as long as possible.

The rules were very strict that women who have had their first period and still have them were forcefully injected birth control medicine to not have any chances for accidental pregnancies. Males who already have at least one child had forced vasectomies and women in the same situation were ligated. Each man and woman can only have one child just to preserve the lineage and this was done with close monitoring and approval from the authorities. Desperate times call for desperate measures as they say.

This rule ran for about a century before it was lifted. At that time, the population has already decreased to less than half, more or less at 4 billion. Finally, people

were allowed to give birth to a certain number of children every year to replace a part of the population that has died either due to sickness or old age. This is to ensure that the resources that were brought back from earth and whatever they have successfully produced so far can sustain as many people for as long as possible. It will also keep the living space comfortable enough for everyone living in the huge spaceship. 

It took another 500 years before the human survivors were able to explore the vast galaxies and encountered the living planet that they named LUA ZELPIS. It came from "LUA" meaning "moon" since it looked like it had a lot of potholes from afar. The second word which contains "ZEL" which means "fervor"and "PIS" meaning "worst" is a word play to signify the humans strong enthusiasm about the planet but at the same time having a realistic expectation that they may not find what they need in it, hence, thinking of the worst scenario.

At first glance from the spaceship, there were bodies of water, a few patches of green and brown and then the rest are obscured with what looks like thick clouds or fog. Though the whole human race were very much excited of finally living on land and getting their own new planet, it took at least a decade to study and confirm that this planet was livable. Lua Zelpis was at least three times bigger than earth. There are so many unknowns and they have to confirm if it really could successfully support life for the long-term.

After the planet was found, another huge decision had to be made by the population. Since they had to confirm that those patches of color really indicate resources that can support life, they had to send an advance party first to scout. They also have to decide which people will take that role.

These scouts have a lot of work in store for them including a high risk of dying from whatever they find in the new planet. They will have to check if there is really a source of water and confirm if the atmosphere has enough oxygen for billions of people, plants and animals and not filled with poisonous gas instead. They also have to check if the soil can grow edible plants and lastly, that the temperature and climate changes between day and night or from season to season will not be deadly to humans. 

After the difficult decision of who to send, a specific group of humans were instructed to move their living spaces from the spaceship to a small area on the Lua Zelpis planet by the year 3850. It was gradual, much like an experiment and these people, the experiment subjects.

The chosen scouts were a mix of people who volunteered and those that were voted out from the whole population. They were composed of the older generation, those above 50 years old. They were tasked to live on the land of the new planet for at least half a year or so to see if they won't get sick or die due to the planet's atmosphere.

After all the experiments that lasted several years, the safety has been established and the food and water resources were finally secured. The next task is the construction of living areas for the rest of the population. This prompted the sending of the next batch of inhabitants that included engineers, architects and building workers. All the needed construction took much time since they have to confirm the feasibility of building in unknown lands and bacause the technology regressed by a lot. Humans had to build every brick of their civilization from scratch and from what materials are available in Lua Zelpis which required a lot of research as well as trial and error. 

After all the basic construction was completed, the rest of the population officially moved out of the huge spaceship and stepped on the land of Lua Zelpis by the year 3900. For the first few centuries, life was simple and each person had to work hard for whatever resource they need like food, shelter, clothing and money. To keep the peace and order, a central government was established which consisted of representatives of the surviving countries from Earth. 

The economy was kickstarted just like how it was done in early earth too. The purchase of items started with the barter system with the limited resources that the human race was able to skrimp through daily hardwork. The rule was simple. A person needs to exchange something of equal value to get something they need from another person and the party has to agree to accept what was being exchanged. The value of something was very subjective but it keeps people's needs met so nobody complained.

Eventually, the economy moved forward and started the use of ingots made from precious metals and pieces of precious stones after mining spots were discovered and the mining job was popularized. It took about half a century before a unified currency that was accepted by the whole planet was established. It was called Zelpian Pesos. 

In terms of the sources of income in this new world, an unusual profession was popularized which is the RUIN RAIDER. It was a well-paid but an extremely dangerous job. The death toll was quite high but many still go for it since it was a "high risk, very high reward" job. This profession was created due to the fact that the Lua Zelpis planet was mysteriously filled with ruins of old civilizations of unknown origins. It literally looked like a dumping ground of discarded buildings and palaces from different eras most likely from other planets while the rest was just impenetrable fog which recedes and advances a bit in irregar intervals and points.

This world has also kept normal professions (some are highly popularized among others) which was dictated by what was needed by the population to survive like farmers, clinical researchers, doctors, nurses, scientists, caregivers, architects, engineers, businessmen and enhanced soldiers, to name a few.

There were also highly specialized jobs available knowing that the human race has been pushing for an increase in population and lifespans. This included the highly needed but uncommon jobs such as medicine testers, seed donors, surrogates, studs and rare mutated humans called Morphoras.

Morphoras are similar to hermaphrodites. They were born from mutations among humans due to the years of medical testing to prolong life, boost fertility and battle deadly illnesses. They can be males or females that produce both sperm cells and eggs cells. This makes them valuable since they both can give birth to children and can impregnate others. Female Morphoras are very rare, only 1 for every 600,000 and are very sought after. For some reason, children born from them are exceptionally intelligent and have strong physiques that are highly resistant to common sickness.

In exchange for a morphora's unique ability, they are given monthly monetary benefits and an offer of a permanent job in research facilities if they want to work there. Most of them hated the fact that they are different though and preferred to live as normal humans since they don't want to be viewed as a test subject or a baby factory all their lives.

It took quite sometime for the ex-earthlings to adjust especially those who were born from rich families who never did any hard-labor their whole lives. In the new planet, there is no room for lazy people. If you don't work, you don't eat. Everybody is technically dirt poor and starting from almost nothing so if you don't do anything, you can only starve and stay in the bottom of the new society.

With all these changes in everybody's life, the only thing that humanity can rely on is the hope for a better life and their tenacity to keep going no matter how hard it is to start from nothing. Hopefully, this planet will be the new paradise that everybody prayed and wished for.