Author’s Note: If viewing on a phone or tablet, this story is best read in landscape mode as that will make the images included easier to see.
Definitions:
Alpha Centauri - is a triple star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It consists of three stars: Rigil Kentaurus (α Centauri A), Toliman (α Centauri B), and Proxima Centauri (α Centauri C).
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun at 4.2465 light-years.
Proxima Centauri has two known exoplanets and one candidate exoplanet: Proxima Centauri b, Proxima Centauri d and the disputed Proxima Centauri c.
Proxima Centauri b orbits the star at a distance of roughly 0.05 AU (Astronomical Units) (7.5 million km) with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days. Its estimated mass is at least 1.07 times that of Earth.
Proxima Centauri b orbits within Proxima Centauri's habitable zone—the range where temperatures are right for liquid water to exist on its surface—but, because Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and a flare star, the planet's habitability is highly uncertain.
Some time in the not so distant future….
Proxima Centauri b’s long range astronomical detection systems picked up a projectile hurtling towards them at light speed.
The scientists there could not tell what it was exactly due to the distance, but its origin was intelligent based on its rate of travel and trajectory. It was coming from a planet they were very familiar with, 01110110, or earth as we call it.
As it was going to take over four years, traveling at light speed, to reach them, they added it to their monitoring system, and would intercept it when it got close enough.
They knew of our earth, as they had been receiving radio and television transmissions for over one hundred years.
The first one that was strong enough to reach them was the television transmission of Adolf Hitler's speech at the opening of the 1936 Olympic games in Germany on August 1, 1936.
Proxima Centauri b’s scientific community was never as excited as they were waiting for this package from 01110110.
About one year earlier…. On earth..
Earth’s long range astronomical detection systems picked up a group of large meteors heading directly towards us. They were traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour.
They would impact and destroy earth in less than a year. There was nothing the earthlings could do.
Timmy Jenkins and his family lived at the end of 1st Street, on the grounds of a large junkyard they owned.
Most people avoided them. He was always building odd things that never seemed to amount to anything.
He built, what he called the "Capsule of Humanity", out of the best scrap parts from the junk space pods he had in his junkyard.
He called for a village meeting and asked his fellow villagers: “Who wants to live forever?”
He told them he intended on jettisoning his “capsule of humanity” well before the earth was destroyed by the incoming meteors. He would send the capsule towards Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to earth.
He gathered sperm and egg samples from all of his village inhabitants who were interested.
He also drew breast milk from the lactating women.
He stored them in all cryogenic freezing units.
He marked their storage spaces with the following symbols.
O
He bought 8 artificial wombs.
He labeled them W O M B
He downloaded the contents of his brain, and many other villagers, to memory cards. He labeled these B R A I N along with the person’s name.
He then stored them, and the related head attachment, all his design by the way, to be used for transfer to new brains later, in a separate compartment.
He also included a library of important human artifacts, books, etc, that Timmy hoped some future humans created from his work, or even reanimated in the best case scenario, would be able to use to rebuild a human population.
With 41 days to spare the capsule of humanity was jettisoned from Timmy Jenkin's junkyard.
He knew that it was a long shot that his capsule would be found.
He laser etched the following instructions on the stainless steel hull of his junkyard capsule, in the hopes that some alien race would understand what he wanted them to do:
41 days later, the earth, and its inhabitants ceased to exist.
4 ½ years later.
The space shield of Proxima Centauri b intercepted Timmy Jenkin’s junkyard capsule.
41 days later all radio and television transmissions from 01110110 stopped. The entire population of Proxima Centauri b held a full day of mourning as they now realized why such a capsule, with the seeds of human life, was sent to them.
They dubbed the junkyard capsule, the New Ark, after the earthling bible stories.
Their top scientists eventually figured out what Timmy wanted them to do.
Within two years, they were able to successfully gestate one human female.
They synthesized more breast milk and the human female lived on that for many years.
When she had developed enough, it was time to attempt the brain download.
25 years to the day his junkyard capsule was launched, Timmy Jenkins awoke in the body of a fifteen year old female on Proxima Centauri b.
He looked a lot like what his next door neighbor’s daughter looked like before the earth was destroyed in the Armageddon.
Eventually 80 of his fellow villagers’ brains were downloaded into new bodies, including his wife and children.
This was just enough genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding.
They were given a remote, uninhabited space and supplies to regrow their race by the Proxima Centauri b inhabitants.
They were fruitful and multiplied.
