Halfkinds: Survival and Superiority (Volume 1 - Contact)

  Chapter 11 - Iris Lawton - Origin

  November 16, 3040 10:55 PM

  We walk in the darkness and remain quiet as we follow Maddie's lead. I think about why we're on the run in the first place.

  Our mother didn't teach us much when we were younger, but she made sure we learned two things: history and why we were different. I'm not sure if the others paid attention, or if they had any fascination about animal history, but I sure did.

  We are half human, half something else. In the eyes of the leaders of the world, we shouldn't exist. They can't decide what we are - abominations, the next step of evolution, or a new species.

  All of the animals have something to fear about us, but as I think about it, I suppose the humans have the most to lose. They have co-existed with intelligent species for some time, dividing land and power among themselves. And I think we represent the threat of a new power, one that would ruin what little balance exists. I suppose that's why whoever is in charge needs to kill us. They fear that we would join the fight for power and there's no more room for sharing.

  There was a time when nothing was shared, when the one and only ruler of the Earth were the humans.

  In the early twenty third century, humans had reached the pinnacle of their development. They had doubled their lifespan. The technological advances of teleportation and terraforming were going into full swing. Artificial resources were being perfected, lowering starvation, crime, and poverty on a global scale. Cities were becoming larger and more decadent. They flourished in ways they only dreamed of a few hundred years before that.

  More importantly, they had achieved something that had eluded them for a long time - a lasting peace. Humans had united on a worldwide front. Political arguing and threats of war were non-existent. Countries worked together more than ever before, seeing each other not as people of different colors and customs, but as one in the same: a member of the human race. A universal language had formed and it broke down any barriers that existed. They were no longer a species divided among nations, but a species unified under one front.

  And thus, many of the arms were disassembled. All their weapons of mass destruction were put out of commission. They used to have fears that a nuclear war would end the world, but there was no need to worry about that anymore. The minutes to midnight were gone.

  Yet, they still had problems. Earth was becoming more and more toxic by the pollution that ravaged it. Thus they made powerful initiatives to clean up their planet, spending all their assets on this goal.

  With a flurry of resources and manpower, humans were able to restore much of the environment that they had destroyed within a few decades. Technological advances reduced the waste that previous generations built up. Non-pollutant energy sources were the only forms of power. Lost habitats were regrown thanks to advanced aging techniques. The ozone layer was strengthened thanks to chemical experiments that fortified it. Since they didn't have their conflicts to distract them, humans could focus on cleaning up the mess they made.

  By the mid twenty third century, the planet had blossomed back to its environmental prime, owing its bloom to the ingenuity of human beings. It was these methods that allowed the humans to terraform the Moon much quicker than they had estimated, and it was these methods that restored the Earth to its peak condition. Mother Nature was easy to fix because it lacked its own will. The creatures they shared the Earth with were a different story.

  More animals were on the endangered list than ever before. Whole groups of species, not just specific breeds or subsets, were on the verge of disappearing from the Earth. Gorillas, rhinos, crocodiles, and lions were a few on the short list that faced extinction if the humans did not act fast.

  This was unacceptable to them. They had conquered their environmental issue, it was now time for them to take on the task of getting these animals off the endangered list.

  There was a problem, though - the creatures weren't breeding. Gorillas, rhinos, crocodiles, lions, and a bevy of other endangered animals didn't know how few of them were left. How could they? Thus, they had no reason to procreate at a rapid pace.

  Scientists, biologists, and zoologists tried everything to get these animals to breed. They tried artificial pheromones that supposedly increased their reproductive drive, but it was unsuccessful. They tried studying mating patterns and applied all their understanding of different animal customs in hopes that they would repopulate their kind, but that also failed. They even tried cloning techniques, but experts recognized it was a behavioral issue and that cloning would only be a crutch if the drive wasn't there to procreate.

  There were many theories as to why these endangered species were breeding less and less. Some say that years and years of being exposed to the pollutants in the air caused shifts in hormonal development, thus reducing their drive to copulate. Others say that since the world around them changed so much, from the advances of humans, they were overwhelmed and didn't reproduce. Some think they just gave up their fight to exist.

  Whatever the case, both the humans and the animals were on the edge. Then a breakthrough initiative was made by the powers that be. In most circles, it was believed that the problem was a behavioral issue, so what if you change the way animals behave with a boost of intelligence? When a creature is aware of the danger they are in, they react. The problem was that these endangered species didn't know they were in danger, but if you made them understand their situation, they would proactively do something. A bit of intelligence would give the animals this drive. Let the animals know they needed to make offspring or it could be the end of their kind.

  Naturally, this caused a load of controversy among humans. People were worried it would lead to the downfall of their kind. Humans got to where they were because of their intelligence, if you give it to other animals what would stop them from becoming the rulers of the world? From the way things are today, their fears were justified.

  Others didn't know if such an outrageous plan was necessary. If these animals couldn't do it on their own, maybe it was nature's way of letting them go. Was destroying the balance worth it if extinction was part of the plan anyway?

  Yet, a typical human trait was confidence and, at the time, they had an over-abundance of it. They had cured most diseases, brought peace among themselves, and restored the environment to its former glory. They believed what they were doing was good and their accomplishments backed up their claim. Leading animals to extinction was not something they were going to allow.

  They also thought they had things under control. Their intention was not to make animals super intelligent, but intelligent enough for their cause. They would still be primitive in nature, still rely on their survival instincts, and would lack any true knowledge, or so they hypothesized.

  The leaders assured the world there would be no threat to humanity. Never in a million years did the humans see an Earth where animals would be speaking their language, engaging in their government, and be seen as their equals.

  Riding on their earlier success, they overlooked any possible risks and went forward with the plan. It took some time to unlock the properties of intelligence boosting, but after twenty years or so of research, they were ready to begin testing. By the year 2285, The Ark Project began its mission to slightly raise the intelligence of endangered species and have them repopulate the Earth.

  The first Ark Project was dedicated for testing only, picking animals that were in no real threat of dying. They chose five groups of species, four of them, dogs, cats, pigs, and cows, were domesticated animals. These animals were chosen because they already had above average intelligence and were easy to obtain. The other species they tested was a chimp. Though not as tamed as the others, their mental acumen was something that was sought after.

  The first Ark Project was intensive with many tests and developments. And throughout all the trials they conducted, the people on the Ark Project noticed that progress was being made.
Animals were being brought in by the thousands. The dogs and cats responded and learned commands much faster than their untested counterparts. The same went for the other animals as well.

  The animals showed no sign of super intelligence at first. They adapted and figured things out impressively, but they weren't even close to being as smart as the dumbest humans on Earth. The results were still remarkable, though. Scientists studied these animals and put their brains to the test. Eventually, they were able to train animals to do advanced things, including breeding.

  The project was considered a success and plans were being made to conduct phase two, which would be exposure to endangered species. This time, they would select nine groups of animals deemed to be at risk for extinction. Different breeds of wolves, gorillas, lions, eagles, rhinos, crocodiles, bears, elephants, and tigers were brought in for intelligence boosting.

  Meanwhile, the animals of phase one were done with their clinicals and would be released back to their natural environments. This was the beginning of the downfall for the humans. They were so busy with phase two that they failed to thoroughly monitor the phase one tests subjects. If they did, they would have seen that these animals were still growing smarter and smarter as time passed. In a matter of years, they became as smart as humans, right under their noses.

  But for their part, the phase one animals were quite tight-lipped about their newfound mental capabilities. They had become aware enough to know the destructive nature of mankind and kept their abilities under wraps. They knew they would be killed if they showed a slight hint of their super intelligence. Thus, they formed a secret society of phase one animals and gave the outward appearance of ignorance to hide what they really were. The intelligent groups also reproduced, increasing their numbers and spreading their intelligence to the next generations.

  Fifteen years later, towards the beginning of the twenty fourth century, phase two had completed. The nine endangered species were much smarter than they originally were. They were still held under captivity, so scientists could monitor the rate of their repopulation, but things were improving. The procreation rate within the small subgroup of animals they held was slowly increasing.

  Just like the phase one animals, the phase two animals also grew smarter than the humans had anticipated. Just like the phase one animals, they kept this all cloak-and-dagger for the same reasons. And like the phase one animals, the formed their own secret society.

  One hundred years later, by 2400, the animals of phase two had swelled to a numerous mass. The Ark Project was considered a success and it was ready to move into phase three, reintroducing these animals to their natural habitats so that they could thrive and return things to the way they were. By 2420, phase two animals were living on their own in special, adapted habitats

  The secret society of phase one animals covertly communicated with the secret society of phase two animals for the next twenty years, sharing information between the species. It was primitive by all means, with eagles relaying information between groups. But by 2440, there were super intelligent animals pretending to be savage, living among humans.

  For the dogs, cats, and chimps, maintaining this secrecy was easy. They were treated by their human counterparts well and had no reason to shed light on their gifts. For the cows and pigs, it was harder. They were still a source of food for the humans, and there were many times when they wanted to rebel. But they stayed tough. When the cattle watched them go into the slaughterhouses, they kept their act for the sake of keeping appearances. They waited for the day of rebellion, and with plans being formulated between the phase one and two animals, that day would come soon.

  Over another hundred years, by 2540, the repopulation effort was finally deemed a success. The phase two animals were taken off the endangered species list, the goal of rapid repopulation came to fruition. The humans believed their work had saved these animals, but they were right in ways far beyond their scope.

  During those hundred or so years, the animals created an underground army. The phase one and two generations had development teams that were veiled and secretly researched human technology. They learned how to modify human weapons for their own use. Hiding was easy enough, especially thanks to the air support the eagles offered. There are some places humans can't get to because they are human. And thus, the stockpiling happened. Weapons were being created in unknown locations, preparation for an all-out assault to gain freedom.

  The plan was simple - create enough damage and fear that it would force the humans to negotiate with the phase one and two animals, now known among themselves as the Ark Rebels. The terms were reasonable, each group of animals wanted their own land so that they could cultivate societies, no longer in secret.

  A hundred years is a long time to plot and plan for an attack and there was one more thing the Ark Rebels had on their side - the element of surprise. Humans were still prospering in their peace and spent few resources on arms divisions. They only had their local law enforcement to rely on. They would be unprepared. Humans still had the numbers, but the lack of anticipation would help even the odds.

  So, on January 1st, 2541, when the humans were celebrating and at their most vulnerable, the Ark Rebels and their army of super intelligent animals struck. They planned spread assaults across major cities around the world. Gorillas, lions, and chimps ransacked Southern Africa as humans scrambled in the confusion. The same went for the wolves and bears of North America, Australia, and Europe. In Asia, the rampage was spearheaded by the tigers, with crocodiles and elephants providing ground support. Eagles still provided communications, and the animals also created low grade messenger devices. Since the dogs, cats, cows, and pigs had agents everywhere, they aided their brothers in all parts of the world.

  These rebels fought valiantly, plundering smaller cities and keeping their stance in the bigger ones. They were ruthless and killed humans left and right. It was the only way they could make a statement.

  Thirty days of fighting raged on and the humans were still dumbfounded at what had happened. Overnight, the world they knew changed and a threat they didn't see coming invaded their homes. It took them a week to realize how things came to be, that the Ark Project was responsible for all the carnage. But within two weeks, they rallied their troops to bring things to a stalemate. By the fourth week, both sides realized the struggle was at a draw, so the humans wanted to talk to the rebellion's leaders to map out a negotiation.

  When the leaders stated their terms, humans balked at the idea. Despite all their changes and all the good they had done, they still retained their one trait that made them human: greed. Humans are never good at sharing, and giving up their land and power was ridiculous to them. Throughout their entire existence, they had been the ones who ruled Earth and, in one short month, their reign was being threatened. They refused to give in to such threats.

  They were still dominant. The Ark Rebels had caught the humans in a weak moment, at a time they least expected. They weren't fully armed or prepared for the battle, but the rebels knew it would only be a matter of weeks before the humans would be ready to fight. It only took a month to bring things to a tie. Even with all the repopulation and preparation, the rebels could not engage in a full war with humans because they would lose the numbers battle. There were too many of them to fend off and in a few months, the rebels' efforts would be lost.

  But the Ark Rebels had an ace up their sleeve: weapons of mass destruction. Humans had deconstructed their WMD cache centuries ago, but the rebels had learned the technology and developed it over the past hundred years. They researched human documents and schematics. It wasn't a nuclear or atomic bomb, but it was enough to get the job done.

  With their efforts dying and negotiations crumbling, it was time for the rebellion to act. They gave one last plea to the humans, warning them of the consequences if they did not agree to their terms. The humans arrogantly brushed off their threats. They were now
winning the war and thought the rebellion could do nothing but watch their effort die. WMD's hadn't even come into the humans' minds. They greatly underestimated their foe.

  On March 2nd, 2541, the rebellion launched a bomb at the coast of western China. Over a million humans lost their lives that day. This day was forever known as the Event.

  After that, the humans had the choice of walking down one of two paths. The first was to reinstate the nuclear program and continue an all-out war that would lead to the destruction of the planet. The second was to negotiate terms with the animals. They chose the latter.

  The rebellion got what they wanted, their own place to live. It took a few years to figure and settle the territories, but in the end each group of animals got what they wanted. The pigs got parts of Australia, the wolves got parts of Northern Canada, the lions and gorillas got parts of South Africa, and so on. Most of these places were areas already uninhabited by humans, except for a few.

  Territories had and still have names, like the Wolf's Den for example, but the geographical designation that humans gave the land still applies. Thus, the Wolf's Den is still known as Northern Canada to most people, though sometimes the terms get mixed around. It depends on who is talking. A human is more likely to call it Northern Canada while a wolf would call it the Wolf's Den. The city names are the same, which leads to more confusion on what we call certain cities or territories. But most animals usually know what you're talking about regardless of which nomenclature you use.

  Also as part of the terms, the rebellion was forced to disarm any remaining WMD's they might have had. There are rumors that there's a secret stash somewhere on both sides, in case it needed to be done again. But that's only a rumor.

  Initially, the animals lived in relative seclusion from humans, so the United Species Alliance was formed to keep diplomacy between all species. After the Event, bad blood brewed for decades between the humans and their non-human counterparts. Luckily, no major wars raged on, only minor skirmishes would appear at the borders of the territories. Humans still owned most of the land on Earth. Yet, people resented their new neighbors. Many of the humans who were forced to move out of their homes remained bitter and angry.

  However, as a few centuries passed by, things started to die down, and human-animal relations started to improve. Cats and dogs have integrated within human society, with some cities being designated as cat towns or dog cities. The other animals have frostier relations with humans, but for the most part they are civil with each other.

  Separatist groups within certain species tried to replicate the Ark Project's research. In 2803, lions tried to recreate the process on some of their feline brothers, like cheetahs, when conflicts rose between them and the gorillas. They needed more allies, so they tried to create their own. And pigs tried to do the same on frogs. But the Ark Project could not be replicated successfully, thus the result of the lions and pigs trials led to intelligent cheetahs and frogs, but not super intelligent ones. They're smarter than the average wild animal, but slower than a human.

  When the other members of the United Species Alliance discovered this, they quickly sent a strike team to put an end to these operations. Since then, any attempts at boosting intelligence leads to the harshest of punishments. In fact, any genetic engineering is forbidden.

  The world has been this way for more than four hundred years and sometimes I find it hard to imagine what life must have been like for humans. They used to eat cows and pigs, which is ludicrous nowadays and would lead to jail time. Chicken and fish are the most acceptable meats to eat.

  I sometimes think about how strange a balance it was back then versus now. For example, cats used to be the humans' pets, loyal companions that were cherished by them. And when the rebellion happened, mother said cats and dogs were the most resistant to engage in the carnage that the gorillas, pigs, cows and wolves were pushing for. Unlike them, they had no real reason to hate humans. They weren't their sport, nor were they mass produced solely to be eaten. They simply went along with the plan because they didn't want to be their pets forever, but that didn't mean they hated humans. Even today, cats, dogs, and humans have probably the strongest relationship among species. They were given their own territory in Europe, yet as time passed, cats and dogs slowly integrated back into human land. I guess the bond between humans and their domesticated pets doesn't change, even in the most dire circumstances.

  The relationships humans have with other species aren't as pleasant. Most of the other animals hate humans, due to the thousands of years of abuse. I'd hate them, too, if I were them.

  Humans don't have to worry, though. From what I read on the infospace and according to Mother, humans still are in control in the world. They outnumber all the intelligent animals combined.

  But it must irk them knowing they have competition when hundreds of centuries ago they had none. It probably burns them more because it's their fault it happened. Maybe that's why the world is after us. All animals, humans, cats, dogs, all of them, probably would do anything to prevent another uprising like that and I guess they think we have the ability to do so.

  The true irony of it all is that in their quest for altruism, Pandora's Box was opened. Ever since the rebellion and the Event, humans have never been able to attain the level of peace they once did. They didn't have to worry about each other, but they had new enemies. The arms companies quickly went back into business when the paranoia first spread and now it's regressed back to pre-peace times. Poverty is back, as is the political game between species. During the time of peace, humans never had to negotiate with each other, politics was handled on a philanthropic level. But that can never exist now with so much animosity and fear in the world.

  Humans could have achieved so much if they didn't have the animal uprising as a distraction. They were at the pinnacle of their technological developments, but after the Event, things slowed down. There were too many threats, too many things that veered them off the accomplishments they were so close to having. Before the Event, there was a boom in breakthroughs, but now, it's hard to come by anything amazing. There isn't time for it. With so much conflict and tension on the Earth, the only thing there's time for is violence and fear. Those things never lead to anything great.

  These are lessons that mother left us with her death, the explanation of why we are hunted. Back then, the animals who rebelled were the freaks that were pushed against the wall. It seems like the world thinks we're the next ones to start the fire and they want to put it out before it spreads.

  No matter what you think, destruction has always been the easiest answer, and now my siblings and I have to hide in a musty casino because of it. Mother was right, it's a cruel world indeed.