The Arrival of Spacenet

It is the 26th year of the Resource War. Inside a room on a space station orbiting the planet Earth are Nathan and Timothy, a network engineer and surveyor, trying to connect to an unknown internet network. As Timothy programs commands to connect to that network, he thanks Nathan for bringing him to that space station to test his experiment after being introduced to Noah and Nathaniel's family, who are now in charge of their Future Human Race Prosperity and Subsistence Project.

When Timothy manages to establish the connection, he types a few more commands to try to open the network. He then presses the Enter button on his computer and manages to open a curious web page that shows the word Spacenet in large letters at the top of it, followed by the top 10 Universal Intelligence Classification of Alien Races and a menu with buttons that guide to information about the different alien races that exist in the universe. Upon observing this, Nathan and Timothy celebrate this new goal by high-fiving each other with their hands. Timothy then asks Nathan to gather everyone in the main hall of the space station to present this possible new achievement for humanity. Nathan leaves the room and runs while Timothy investigates the new network.

All the residents of the space station are inside the main hall chatting while waiting for Timothy. Among them is Nathan sitting in the chair in front of a table talking to a gray-haired girl who is his best friend, and granddaughter of the late Noah. Shortly after, Timothy enters the main hall and walks to a desk that is located behind a tube attached to a wall. Timothy connects his computer to that tube using a wireless HDMI connection, so that the tube projects a hologram of the screen, showing the Spacenet page. Timothy makes sure that the hologram looks good, and begins his presentation about his recent discovery.

—A few months ago, when I was on an expedition in the center of Antarctica studying the new terrain released by the melting of glaciers, my computer detected a strange signal that I had not seen before— he goes to the next slide of the presentation, where a curious web page can be seen—. This web page appeared in the browser, which showed a large title with the name Spacenet, a classification of, apparently, the most intelligent alien races in the universe; and a menu with several buttons that directed to information about those extraterrestrial races. There was even information about our race. After the expedition, I tried to connect to that network again several times and in different ways, until a few minutes ago I found the way.

Timothy goes to another slide in which the name of an internet network can be seen, and tells everyone present in the main hall to connect to it. Everyone, using image scanning technology integrated into each one's smartwatches, analyzes the slide to enter the Spacenet in a matter of milliseconds. Everyone is amazed to see the web page displayed on the holographic screens of their smartwatches.

—To connect to this network, use a signal called Sun-Li, which uses sunlight to wirelessly connect to the Internet— Timothy continues to explain—. However, this connection is not perfect.

Suddenly, a person in the room loses the signal, and a warning appears asking them to wait eight minutes to reestablish the connection.

—Sunlight takes approximately eight minutes to reach our planet, which sometimes causes disconnections in which they have to wait that long for the signal to return— Timothy says—. Another alternative to connect was to store energy from the sun in a Dyson sphere, but with our current technology it would take years to build it. But with this we will be able to continue investigating even more details about the universe. Who knows, even achieve our first contact with an extraterrestrial being.

Thanks to the Spacenet connection in that space station, humanity soon learned about the existence of other intelligent beings outside of planet Earth. It was an unprecedented event. Timothy continued to research and program the Sun-Li signal to improve the connection to the Spacenet, until he managed to contact someone via text message who seemed to be an alien.

Days later, Timothy calls everyone back to the main hall of the space station to do something that humanity has longed for for many years: face-to-face contact with an extraterrestrial being. Timothy turns on the holographic screen, instantly displaying a video call with the face of a strange being with red skin, semicircular green eyes placed diagonally and a row of small curved appendages replacing the part where his mouth should be.

—It's a pleasure to meet you, Earthlings— says the alien, communicating through a human language that everyone on the station can understand—. I am Takmag, a being from an alien race called Molav. I am contacting you from the main headquarters of the Universal Union of Alien Races, an organization that seeks the peace, prosperity and survival of every alien race existing in this vast universe. We have wanted to contact you for a long time, but due to your poor technology we were unable to do so until now. It is incredible that you were able to connect to the Spacenet without using a Dyson sphere.

—However, we have a limited connection— mentions one of those present in the main hall.

—I know. So, as you say, let's get straight to the point. I've read text messages that Timothy has passed on to me about how you are going through a very serious situation on your planet— says Takmag.

—The Earth stopped producing water a quarter of a century ago. Fresh water sources no longer exist on our planet, and salt water is the only thing we have left, which is also running out— says Nathan, who is also inside the main hall—. Takmag understands the situation that humans are going through and recommends a method that could regenerate the water sources and save the planet, terraforming.

—Terraforming is a process in which the properties of a planet are altered to make it habitable for any alien race— explains Takmag—. That method has been used by many alien races, including mine, to adapt to new planets. If we terraform the Earth, you will be able to recover your precious water resource and continue living on your native planet.

Takmag tells them that there are two ways to terraform a planet, the artificial one and the natural one. The artificial one is generated by a gigantic technological device the size of the Moon, which sends a powerful laser beam that burrows into the surface of the planet to be terraformed until it reaches the core, where it begins to alter the properties of the planet. And the natural one is generated by the ability that some alien races have to terraform without the need for a technological device, in which they surround the planet with all that power and then alter its properties. In both cases, humans would have to evacuate the planet for a time until the process is finished, and then return to their planet.

All the humans on the station hear Takmag's proposal. After discussing it for a few minutes, they all agree to terraform the planet Earth. With that said, Takmag suggests that those humans notify those on the planet's surface, while he and Timothy plan the process to negotiate with some alien race to help them carry out the terraforming. However, the humans on the station were not the only ones who heard about that first alien contact.

One of the people present during Takmag's conversation with the humans recorded a video of the entire event and sent it to a human organization that is in charge of supervising and regulating the Resource War and its consequences on the planet. That person explains to everyone the topics that were discussed during the meeting and how the planet could be saved through terraforming. Afterwards, all the people who saw the video began to discuss the content of it.

One of the people present during Takmag's conversation with the humans recorded a video of the entire event and sent it to a human organization that is in charge of supervising and regulating the Resource War and its consequences on the planet. That person explained to everyone the topics that were discussed during the meeting and how the planet could be saved through terraforming. Afterwards, all the people who saw the video began to discuss the content of the video.

One of those people supports the idea of ​​terraforming the planet and mentions that, if the process is effective and the water sources are restored, the Resource War would end and humans would live in peace and harmony again. However, others mention that the aliens who would help humans terraform the planet would take advantage of the evacuation to trick them into adapting it to themselves, to conquer it and leave the human race wandering through space while it slowly dies, or let them return to Earth so that while humans observe their recovered home, the aliens will take care of extinguishing them and thus take over the planet. After the discussion, all the people present in the meeting room take a vote to find out who is for and against terraforming the planet. Of the ten people who saw the video, only four of them voted in favor, the rest were against.

In accordance with the decision taken, the leader of that organization tells the others that, knowing that it would be difficult to convince all human beings not to terraform the planet, they should create a computer virus that prevents humanity from communicating with the extraterrestrials, and in the process restricts the Spacenet signal when it is available to everyone. Frustrated, the person who supported the idea of ​​terraforming from the beginning resigns from the organization and leaves convinced that the rest only want the war to continue and humanity to become extinct.

Days after the meeting, in New South Atlantis, the human who left that organization meets Timothy to talk about the computer virus and the restriction of the use of the Spacenet. Upon hearing this, Timothy begins to devise a plan to prevent these factors from impeding the terraforming and recovery of the planet. In the following days Timothy, with Nathan's help, does his best to get Takmag to share as much of the information they need to negotiate the terraforming process in the shortest possible time, before the virus and the restriction infect the system. In addition, they try to store all the shared information in an external memory so it won't be affected by the computer virus.

They do everything they can to prevent the negotiation from being cancelled, and the humans from being able to recover their planet. However, just at the moment when Timothy and the others were ready to make the negotiation, the virus begins to infect the Spacenet. All the systems connected to that network fail one after another, making communication between humans and the aliens impossible. Shortly after, the Spacenet is released for the entire human race to use, but with a restricted signal which allows the display of data and written and visual information about the alien races living in the universe and the order of each one in the Universal Intelligence Classification of Alien Races, with the detail that communication cannot be established with any of them, not even with the Universal Union of Alien Races.

This seriously harms the human race, significantly lowering its rating in the Universal Intelligence Classification of Alien Races, and leaving it at the mercy of a war that seems to have no end.