In the beginning of the end, there was artificial light - and the people beheld this light, and thought that it was moreover a good thing.
But the people did not generally know that the power that supplied this light was not necessarilly the best thing for people to be using
- although they had certainly found many uses for it, even though no one was even remotely sure how it worked; but this was not widely known.
The name for this power was electricity, and electricity was the name that the people had given unto this power
- and electricity powered machines that made light and heat, and nearly everything that was known to modern civilization.
There were many sources of electricity, and many ways to store it - and the name of a storage container for electricity was called a battery.
The power called electricity was harvested from the wind, and from the sun, and from the sea, and from fire
- but more than these put together, this power was also derived from the atom, which is found within all things of the universe.
The favorite and most used source of power was oil, which is made from trees that died many millions of years hence
- and is found buried deep in the ground, even under the oceans, but usually in the deserts which had once been great forests.
The leaders who controlled the harvesting of this resource became wealthy and greedy - even though the source was surely limited.
The burning of oil was very dangerous; but was much needed to produce heat, locomotion of transportation and many other things
- even though the continued use of oil polluted the atmosphere and raised temperatures worldwide, even in the sea, which killed many things.
Yet another power source was invented, which was very clean, and the name that was given unto this technology was the fuel cell
- but the leaders decided that this was too powerful a source to allow the people to possess, for fear that the people may overpower them.
In those days, the world was divided up into many nations - and the people who lived within them were generally peaceful.
Still, many leaders of nations would make war with each other; setting the people of their nation against the people of another
- or even groups of people within nations against each other, and by using any excuse imaginable, to divide and conquer.
usually by pointing out differences between individuals and groups, to stir up conflict and to cause general discord between the people
- and for many reasons: religious, political, economic; but mostly so the leaders currently in power could stay in power indefinitely.
Long before this time, the world was discovered to be a spherical planet, the third of four solid inner worlds, with one moon, orbiting a single yellow star
- beyond which was an asteroid belt; and beyond that were four outer gas giants: each of them hosting a ring and many moons which orbited around them.
Beyond this was a tiny world, with a single tiny moon, that some scientists condidered asteroids, even though they were spherical and orbited each other.
This totalled nine planets in the solar system, and seven continents on the planet - although most people did not know these simple statistics of their state.
By then, the people of the world numbered six billion - and this number was expected to double within a single generation.
While most people belived that there certainly must be life elsewhere in the vast universe;
the leaders of the people did not acknowledge that there was any life beyond the world; although they often knew far better
- and the people were told by the leaders that most people did not believe such things
- thus, most people thought they were in the minority opinion, and did not want to be ridiculed.
This proved advantageous to the leaders who wanted to explore space secretly, without telling most of the people.
Not all leaders were evil, however - some good people managed to attain political power, but were often overthrown.
The more power a good person was able to achieve, the more vicious their opponents were in their disinformation.
It had become nearly impossible for any person to achieve any influence without being somewhat corruptable
- because corporations ruled the world from behind the scenes, and leaders were often merely their puppets.
The laws of the most prosperous nations required that all people be treated equally
- but any rise to power still required a vast number of followers, which required vast wealth.
Despite being hundreds of times more advanced: technologically, socially, emotionally and intellectually;
many people were nearly as superstitious as their ancient ancestors; and some of them, even moreso
- as they were spoon-fed the politically intentional mistranslations that had controlled the previous generations;
and thus looked more to leaders than their hearts, for their morality and philosophy.
Because the population of the people continued to grow, more power plants were needed.
Because power plants cost money, many taxes were raised - as were utility rates.
Because power plants pollute, no one wanted them to be built near to where they resided
- thus, those who had the most influence were able to prevent them from being built at all.
This was a boon for the corporations of the energy industry, because prices and profits continued to rise.
Then it came to pass that the old power plants began to fail; and millions were left without electricity, until they could be repaired.