Arrival

June 19th 1963 saw the dawn of a new age for humanity. We made Contact.

But it wasn't how we expected it. Before we had dreamed of meeting aliens that roamed across the stars in graceful starships, ruling countless worlds, who could teach us the mysteries of the universe. In fact we were hopelessly wrong. The Aash'n are a race of refugees, numbering just a few hundred million, who have been fleeing an ancient an forgotten disaster for thousands of years. Most of them don't even understand how simple machinery works. And, perhaps most tragically of all, we are stuck with them.

We are only the fifth race they have made contact with across an entire galaxy. The four before us have all flatly denied the Aash'n permission to land, or worse, attacked them. But this time the Aash'n could not escape - their ships were in disrepair, their fuel supplies drained. We could either open our world to five hundred million extraterrestrials and play host to them for what could be centuries whilst they repaired their ships - or we could let them die in orbit over our world. We did the only sane thing.

Some would say that the result of Contact has been advantageous. The East and the West no longer fear one another, although the two systems still compete. We cooperate, sharing our knowledge and resources as we slowly piece together the ancient Aash'n technology to allow our extraterrestrial guests to leave. But war is still common. European power has redoubled as it becomes host to the world's most powerful industries. Nuclear weapons still sit in their silos, ready to fire if necessary. And perhaps the greatest tragedy is the sacrifice we made to allow the Aash'n to land; vast areas of sub-Saharan Africa were rendered lifeless following the overfarming required to sustain the visitors, and few can forget the massive tidal wave that rolled around the Mediterranean when an Aash'n vessel overshot its designated landing point in Libya.

Our world has changed, but even nearly half a century after the arrival, we still cannot say whether we have changed for better or for worst.

Human topics

 * History, Post-Contact
 * Braking Day
 * Global Politics
 * List of Nations
 * Project ASCENSION
 * Space Programs
 * Culture
 * Technology
 * Anti-Aash'n movements

Aash'n topics

 * The Aash'n
 * Aash'n African Administrative Zone
 * UN Aash'n Affairs Council
 * Aash'n history
 * Aash'n physiology
 * Aash'n culture
 * Aash'n technology