When World's Collide

Earth. A special bit of space dust that became a habitable planet. Through the millenia species have come and gone and the world itself has changed more times then can be imagined. All of it nature's will. One species though, humans, fought the fate that nature would give such a parasite. They survived again and again. Through natural disasters and plague, they continued to consume. As if destroying their only home wasn't enough, they even lived to destroy each other.

The warnings were bountiful. Scientists, Scholars and even Earth itself cried out that everything needed to change. Like the pestilence they were, however, humans pushed on. Drought spread. Species disappeared. Fires took away the forests. Amongst it all, humans killed each other; often for the saddest of things - a phone, a purse, a religion or a simple skin color. It seemed that what nature couldn't do they would do themselves.

It was 2052 when a second chance was offered. For millenia humans had looked to the skies and wondered if they were alone. There had been hints, glimpses of the possibility that they weren't throughout history. In the twelfth hour of Earth's fate, their answer came. The first ship made contact from the outskirts of the solar system. It wasn't imbedded in some scratchy code of beeps and static like in so much fiction. Instead their message was a very clear communique to the International Space Station in orbit. In their message, they said they chose the station as neutral ground.They wished to visit the planet and offered to aid in the issues plaguing Earth. As a sign of good will, they even provided a better means to communicate directly. An unmanned vessel arrived a week after. Their gifted craft provided an advanced uplink to Earth, as well as, to the visiting ship still inbound.

Humans were in a frenzy. There was fear and excitement. The world seemed to stop. Wars that had been raging for decades now saw enemies crowded together around televisions, phones and laptops waiting for news of what would happen next. Aliens had finally decided to come to Earth and the unknown was the common bond.

The Ammake, as they introduced them selves, were there to set up a trade station. In exchange they offered technology and aid to save the Earth itself. For without our planet and the people on it, their trade station would eventually fail. Talks progressed. A second vessel arrived with another communication device at the doors of the United Nations building in Geneva. For the first time in over a month the world got to see who they were. Humanlike in appearance, they were leanly built and pale skinned. Dark hair crowned their heads, and like humans the styles varied widely. There were only four fingers to each hand and they had pronounced canine teeth that drew the eye when they talked. It was their eyes though that seemed to draw the most attention. A range of golds and greys surrounded by black, they resembled those of reptiles.

Some people joked about it while others fell to conspiracy theories because, for decades, there were urban legends of reptile people infiltrating human society. Now it seemed they were just as real as aliens. Protests that had been mild were given new fuel when the internet exploded with pictures and rantings. The governments that gathered for the talks saw the potential for economy and technology and feared the protests would chase off this new opportunity. Military law was implemented in several countries. Governments tried to calm the storm; this was an advanced race that could probably eliminate every human from Earth but they had come peacefully.

For years after the first emissary arrived control seemed to reign. Medical and environmental advancements began to make the world healthy again. The Ammake seemed genuinely concerned with diplomacy and workers' conditions. Artisans were sought after more then mass production enriching once poor countries. These beings, that looked so much like us showed what we could be. They were capable warriors but preferred peaceful negotiation. Their society was equal for male and female. Only the order of birth and class lineage mattered. They integrated so well that it almost wasn't a surprise when the first relationship hit the news - globally. A professor's aide on staff with the UN and a guard to one of the Ammake emissaries were thrust into the spotlight. Even their wedding was televised.

The extremists frothed at the mouth.

Months of discord and slander against these new mixed relationships rose to a fever pitch. Religious zealots and conspiracy extremists alike baited the most base amongst them. Everything from an affront to God to breeding out the human race was fodder to the fire. In May of 2058 the uprising began. Terrorists bombed public venues and interspecies couples were attacked. The Ammake had given the governments of Earth a chance to quell their people. For weeks they waited. The final straw broke when a UN sponsored school, attended by human and Ammake children, was set ablaze with both teachers and students forcibly trapped inside.

It only took four days for the Ammake military forces to end the terror. The ignorance and brutality of human nature forever changed Earth's position in the grand scheme of things. By the end of 2058, Earth became and adjunct planet under the rule of the Ammake Empire. Where governments had been permitted to run things as they saw fit before now each country was sent beneath an Archon delegate. Like regents of old, the Archon were the second highest rank if aristocracy in the Empire. Beneath them they would set forth a council within their countries, a parliament of sorts. From that two delegates would join each Archon at the newly indoctrined Assembly.

Countries and people that thought to fight back quickly found that all those movies about invasion had some truth to them. Humans, even with our gifted advancements in technology, were fools to try and attack. Meanwhile, countries that accepted the new governing bodies and laws realized that little else changed. Life could go on as it had before.

And it did.

By 2076 Earth was thriving in trade and interstellar tourism. The environment was vastly restoring itself. Forests and species were rebounding. Cities were no longer the fountains of garbage and pollution they had once been. Countries merged and some separated taking the changes as a sign to start fresh. In the United States several of the states in the west led by California, Washington and Colorado succeeded from the Union. Six in total combined to form the United Republic of Sierra Mount.

The global landscape had completely changed and for some it would really just be the beginning.