Isn't it amazing how something can happen that will completely change the
way humanity views the world but life for the average man will continue
just as normal?
I'm talking about the Second Sun, of course.
If you're not over twenty, you never lived in a world without it, so it's
hard to imagine the profound difference that day made in our lives.
Everyone, every Human on Earth, was going through their lives just like
normal when, without any warning, the sky lit up. A few minutes later the
brightness faded and the Sun had a little brother.
Everything went nuts for a while. Most religious types were convinced the
world was ending. Unfortunately, the more fanatical ones seemed willing to
help others along with them. Scientists were busy trying to explain how
Jupiter could suddenly collapse and become a star. Ruthless individuals
used the confusion to their own advantage. The global economy fell to the
floor, and almost through it, as the world's markets went nuts.
The next day that new star was still there and everyone was still alive.
Day by day, people got on with their lives. For the average Joe, there
just wasn't a lot of difference, other than it being twice as bright as
the full Moon at night. Taxes were still due, you still had to pay your
bills, and no one liked the lawyers and politicians.
But the confusion caused change in many ways. For a bit there, it looked
like the United Nations might actually be united. We almost ended up with
a real, global, government. And yet, at the same time, we almost ended up
in a full-scale world war. It's hard to tell which one started the other.
In the end, though, things were just as messed up and fractured as they
were before.
The space program sure got a boost, though. There was more radiation out
there, which meant that satellites had to be replaced. The shuttles had
to be fixed so the new sats could be lifted without killing the crews.
Down here on Earth, all that radiation made the auroras, the Northern
Lights, dance a lot further south. And the opposite on the other side of
the Equator. There was a lot of concern about radiation poisoning for
everyone, but Jupiter was far enough away that the scientists figured as
long as people were a bit more careful it'd be OK.
They weren't, quite, right with that. We all know what happened...
Metahumans started showing up. Not for years, though. And not all at
once. So the scientists aren't even sure if they were, in fact, caused by
the Jupiter Event or if they were just more noticed after all the
confusion. My own bet is a mixture of both. It doesn't seem likely,
after all, that people that were already around would suddenly get
metapowers, does it? Granted, there are not many of them, but just enough
to throw a wrench in the whole 'birth mutation' thing.
Plus, there were the /lights/. Everyone's seen pictures of them taken with
the HST. Those bits of light wandering back and forth between Jupiter's
moons. Guess they're planets now, huh? Sure, we've all heard the
scientists say they're bits of rock and ice and stuff made from the matter
blown off Jupiter's surface when it ignited and are now like miniature
comets. But, and you talk to anyone, they just /feel/ like they're more
than that. I don't know if they're aliens like some people say, I don't
know if we have neighbors, but they're more than chunks of boiling ice,
I'm sure of that.
My grandparents talk about the attack at Perl Harbor, "the day that will
live on in infamy." For my parents, it's the assassination of John F.
Kennedy, "the shot heard around the world." For me, it was the ignition
of Jupiter, "when Humanity questioned everything." Chances are it'll be
something different for you... and something else for your own kids.
Yet life is mostly like normal, I guess, without too much difference from
what was going on before. We still have our countries, we still have our
wars. We have our cops and we have our robbers. There's some good
people, some bad people, and the indifferent people outnumber both of them
thousands to one.
Just seems that now the people that make the differences do it in a big
way.
Mr. James McCaid, responding to a question asked by
a student in his social-studies class, shortly
before his unfortunate meta-related death.
a student in his social-studies class, shortly
before his unfortunate meta-related death.
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