Mems, Voyage One
spring 2022
The Return
As the suns crest over the horizon, a warm dawn breaks on the distant planet of Sado. It’s the year 3022 and the last remembering human has been awake for hours preparing for his journey back to Earth. It’s a lonely business being the only human on Sado, the isolation will push you to talk to just about anyone or anything for that matter. In this specific case though, the human has taken to recording a journal via his ship’s history log.
Let’s join him…
“Hello, my name is George and I’ve been on Sado for 22 years. I figured I better set the record straight before I leave for my first Voyage back to Earth in case… well, in case I don’t survive. I’ve been exiled on planet Sado with the Mems for 22 years after the Lessmen defeated the humans in the Memory War… Oh right. I am getting ahead of myself.
I’d better start at the beginning…
Let’s see, one thousand years ago, in 2022, Web3 and NFTs took the world by storm. Web3 brought a new, fairer, and more equitable web experience to Earth and NFTs allowed art to flourish in society like never before. This ushered in a beautiful age of deeper understanding, heightened emotional awareness, and enlightenment.
A Golden Age was born on Earth.
The amazing Golden Age lasted for over 800 years on Earth and mankind flourished, but as the generations grew accustomed to their new empowered senses and emotional capabilities they forgot the principles that were the foundation of the Golden Era. They became lazy and bloated on over stimulation. The positive effects of the Golden Age were still prevalent during these years, but it was humanity who was slowly but surely dwindling. Thus began The Decline.
But not everything about the Decline was bad. I was born during the Decline. I had a good life. A great life actually. I married Anne, the love of my life, and had twins: Luke and Issac. I was an engineer and photographer who ran a successful business. Back then, I was a dreamer and Anne was a realist. She kept me grounded when my head was in the clouds. Her favorite quote was by Jack London and it was something like…
“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time…”
— and she was always reminding our family to enjoy the principles of the Golden Age while avoiding the laziness of the Decline.
Then, just before the turn of the century, something happened that turned everything upside down. The Orwell Company had been experimenting with ways to combat the negative effects of the Decline when they created the Lessmen, a form of memory police…. I think. Well, of course Orwell went too far and lost control of the Lessmen who then began extracting all of the memories, or Mems as I call them, of mankind.
The Lessmen exiled the Mems here on Sado.
The Lessmen must have gotten to me as well but only partially. I have most of my memories leading up to the turn of the century but just before the year 3000 things get… hazy. The last thing I remember is really more of a feeling than a memory. I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of fear, pain, and disbelief that what I was experiencing was real. Then darkness. The next thing I know I’m waking up in the Somnium after crash landing with a cargo load full of Mems on Sado.
The Somnium is the ship that brought me here. I guess it’s technical name is ship #11, but I like The Somnium more. It’s a standard Orwellian cargo ship with about everything I need to start a habitat here on Sado. The Somnium also has a brief history log which has helped me fill in some of the holes regarding what happened on Earth after the Lessmen exiled my Mems. I’ve gathered that humanity on Earth is in a sort of limbo… without memories, no one is dying and no one is born.
It’s like the entire planet is paused until someone can bring the Mems back to Earth…
I guess that’s where I come in. I’ve been on Sado for 22 years repairing the Somnium, exploring Sado, learning about the Mems, oh and not aging. Did I mention I haven’t aged a day since landing on Sado? I can’t prove this yet but I believe it is due to the power of the Mems. They seem to have the power to create and sustain life. For instance: Sado was a barren wasteland of a planet before the Mems were sent here but now it is a utopia unlike anything I could have ever imagined.
Every square inch of Sado is covered in color. There’s grass the shades of green I have never seen before, flowers so vibrant and saturated they almost seem to change colors in the suns’s light, trees taller than the largest building on Earth, and water so clear and pure that when the lakes are calm they are almost invisible. Then there is my favorite place on Sado: The Great Valley. This valley is covered in flowers and more varieties of butterflies than one could ever hope to count. The Great Valley is so large that it stretches out in all directions for as far as the eyes can see.
Oh that reminds me, I need to tell you about The Gates. You see at the beginning the Lessmen brought the Mems to Sado one shipload at a time. Even with the ship’s lightspeed capabilities this was a time consuming process. So the Orwell Company built The Gates, one on Earth and one on Sado, as a sort of portal to exile the Mems directly from Earth more efficiently. The Gate here is gigantic, 200 feet tall and 200 feet wide sitting in the middle of The Great Valley. I’ve spent a good deal studying The Gate here on Sado and I can’t find a way to open it from this end. I can only assume that the singular way to open the portal home is from The Gate on Earth.
Home… home is always on my mind. Back on Earth is my family and hopefully some answers to the questions I’ve been asking myself for the past 22 years. Is my family ok? Why did the Lessmen attack us? How did I escape Earth and land on Sado? Why me? I’ve spent all these years searching Sado looking for my Mems, hoping that if I can find them I’ll finally be able to understand my purpose. Unfortunately, I’ve had no luck locating my lost memories from my time on Earth and I can only hope that I’ll find the answers I need during my journey home. Until then my purpose is clear: voyage to Earth and return as many Mems to my fellow humans as possible.
Well, I still have a lot left to do before I launch today so I think that’ll about wrap up this journal entry. Let’s see, what was it… journal entry #8031. Perhaps my last journal entry from Sado… if I’m lucky.
This is George signing off…
The story coninues with — Mems, Voyage One / Part 2 revealed post-mint
Story by Dan Kahn (@dankahn3) & Maxy (@tothemaxy)
