The years of chaos. Regional wars, the collapse of the United Nations. Societal break-down. Crime, starvation, desperation. A Third World War. Nuclear explosions, environmental disasters, tens of millions dead. The United States ceases to exist. All political authority vanishes. Humanity teetering on the edge of the Second Dark Age.

February 5 - 17:00 GMT
February 5th, 2154 dawned slowly. The Pretoria set up sensors to record the events, and the imagery sent by commercial satellites on this fateful day. Pretoria also easily hacked into military networks: Sky Net, NATO, the SI states, Eastern Block and the South Alliance.

On 1700 hours, Greenwich Time, all the events come together like a crescendo. The imagery and video was shown on most view screens and monitors around the ship. Everyone stopped what they were doing to take a look.

War was declared, all world powers had nuclear weapons. All five powers unleashed a nuclear Armageddon. 1700 nuclear missiles were fired. Over half of the missiles were shot down before they reached their target.

Military frequency, originating from the coast of Namibia
"Chaos is mankind's natural state," a tall man with loud voice began, "We have observed this. We will correct this. Throughout the ages, Man has proven over and over that 'rules are meant to be broken'. Not anymore. Your Law Enforcement officials have proven to be useless, and inefficient. No longer! Our plan? A city of gleaming glass and steel. A city of peace and serenity. A city... that is on it's way here. All we need is your help, to make Alpha City a reality. Vote no on the re-election of the NDP. This is Governer Hideaki Sena here! Don't be stupid! Vote no on prop 6125!"

The ground started rummbling. Everyone was standing around confused, not quite noticing a huge shockwave approaching. It hit them a few seconds later, the transmission turned to static.

flipped to a new channel"
"..... Humans must be the only creatures able to despise their own kind." replied another reporter, this one a young woman with an Australian accent. She was in tears as she muttered to the studio camera, "Why .... "

flipped to a new channel
The advent of hydrogen algae farms which now produce non-polluting fuel has brought oil prices to under ten cents a barrel. Smoking in any public place is now a misdemeanor. Health Control Toilet Systems allow consumers to inexpensively run urine and other tests in the privacy of their own bathroom.

3 hours later.
A new TV channel. The channel is the CBC, transmitted from Calgary, Canada
"Impact of N-Two warheads verified in Las Vegas thirty minutes ago. The radiating heat of the upper level has cooled down. Surface heat receding. High-pressure steam discharges have also subsided."

flipped to a new channel, audio only
"MY GOD. WHAT HAVE WE DONE ?" a lone voice asked.

flipped to a new channel
An orbital satelite's camera zoomed in, it showed countless corpes, buildings blown apart and a few survivors, most of them badly hurt and dying in great detail and resolution.

Alice started gagging, "I can't look! I... I can't watch anymore!"

"TURN IT OFF NOW." Stryker said with urgency.

April 4, 2063
RESURRECTION CITY - Nearly midnight

Townspeople running along the Main Street. A sense of urgency -- something's going on. Suddenly something in the night sky catches their attention. A bright light is moving down towards the city. Just a hundred meters beyond the city limits a massive alien space ship was settling down onto the ground. Dust flying everywhere. The townspeople squinting into the wind, trying to make out what's happening. Everyone is shocked and amazed at what they're seeing.

The Vulcan ship settled, engines whining down... dust settling. A mechanical whirr and a hiss of air. A hatch opened on the Vulcan ship. The townspeople behind them react with shock and fear... a few people take a step back. Zefram Cochrane stopped a few meters away from the ship as the hatch opened. Light streams out into the night air and three hooded, robed figures emerge. They stand across from Cochrane -- a moment frozen in time in old photographs and paintings.

The lead vulcan pulled his hood back, revealing the familiar slanted eyebrows and pointed ears. He stepped forward to greet Cochrane... raised his hand as if to wave. Cochrane raised his hand automatically, as if to wave in return.

But then the Vulcan split his fingers, "Live Long and Prosper."

Zefram Cochrane tried to emulate the Vulcan hand-sign...but cannot quite do the awkward finger-split. "Um... thanks"

The Vulcan cocked an eyebrow at him. The very first Alien-Human relationship is underway.

April 7, 2063
Aleris, a recent graduate from the Vulcan Science Academy was preparing to launch a shuttlecraft. He was accompanied by a human woman, Iman Abdulmajid.

"Pre Flight complete" Aleris told her.

"I am ready" Iman said.

With that, the bulky dark red shuttle took off.

During the first orbit on the bombed out planet Earth, Aleris was scanning the entire surface for human lifesigns, the first sweep took 27 minutes. Five orbits later Aleris now had a complete scan of human survivors, "683 162 humans counted."

"There used to be 8.5 Billion humans" Iman said. She took out a bottle, she unscrewed the cap and poured the blood over her view port, used her hand to spread the red liquid over the tiny window, "Well done Humanity"