Council of Galactic Concern

A Writer's Digest February Flash Fiction Challenge Response

Prompt: the day the world was supposed to end

The right reverend Jerry Graham Smaak was certain. More than certain. Absolutely, 1000%, unwaveringly convinced. The time had come. The world would end tomorrow.

Climate change was still a hoax, of course, but the earth had become a desert wasteland. Fresh water lakes, rivers, and farmlands had dried up. Survivalist stores ran out of air purifying masks and oxygen tanks. Animals all died off long ago. Power grids failed. People had turned to cannibalism to survive. The inedible remains dumped in the oceans.

The Council of Galactic Concerns met. Representatives of all planetary civilizations debated whether they should intervene in the situation on Earth.

“We have given them chance after chance for millennia. They do not learn,” said the Coordinator of Flawless Systems Operations.

The Universal Harmony Arranger agreed. “Whether it is power-hungry politics …”

“… land-raping commercialism …” said another.

“… foolish childish DEI hating religions …” added a third.

“…  perpetual disdain for nature …” unnecessarily pointed out a fourth.

“ … the beings there have traded their souls for temporary convenience, comfort and illusions of safety and freedom,” finished the Arranger.

“They are a drain on the interstellar community. There is no need for them anymore,” concluded the Elected Cosmic Common Sense Observer.

“But, must we end them?” asked the Macrocosmic Physics Logistician. “Can we simply send a time warp ribbon, take them back to a point in history when they were interested in working together in harmony?”

“And exactly when was that?” several of the Council members voiced.

The Council sighed in unison. The decision was obvious. Let tomorrow come just the way humans expected. With one alteration, Gaia’s representative insisted on. Humans must be ended so that the Earth Herself could breathe, recover, and be restored to the Galactic Community.