Excerpt: Never Again

Never Again
Prologue
In the year 2812, eight hundred years after the Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world, the great _________ occurred. It wasn’t war, fire, flood, famine, invasion, aliens or natural disaster that threatened destruction, nor was the earth threatened; no it was HUMANITY itself that was threatened. It was humanity itself that was threatened. The human species as it was neared its end — or so it was thought by those who were not enthralled. The mind altering drug T.H.Y.M.E. had been created and introduced to humanity. It hit the streets early in the 29th century. No one knew where the drug came from, who supplied the dealers, or even which drug company created it.
So horrendous were the effects that none ever claimed its birth. Instantly addictive and with no known cure, T.H.Y.M.E. changed the course of humanity. Although none knew how drastically it would be changed. It’s intriguing name caused it to rapidly travel from the streets to the upper class citizens. In a very short time the drug ravaged the economy of earth. Humanity itself was threatened. Life teetered on the edge of a very dark precipice. Society as a whole was changed. Mars was lost, so were the mercury mines. The Venus colony suddenly refused all newcomers — later it was learned that the citizens had eradicated T.H.Y.M.E. from their populace in a bloody holocaust
In a search for answers, eyes were turned towards the sky and the colonies out there. But T.H.Y.M.E. affected all of humanities colonies. The drug also existed as prevalent as on earth and there among the stars a solution was to be crafted … only those lost to the stars were safe from T.H.Y.M.E.’ s influence, but not for long.

T.H.Y.M.E.
T - Thought
H - Hypersensitive
Y - Yearning
M - Mental
E - Ecstasy

In holographic meeting among all the directors of the ICA (Interplanetary Commerce Associations) discussions occurred, solutions were drafted, and then set aside until finally the members were all tired. The William Brown, Prime Minister of Colony Defense, leaned forward in his chair and queried the council.
The Prime Minister of Colony Defense asked, “So how long before T.H.Y.M.E. spreads to all of the remotely distant colonies?”
The other directors looked at each other none had really thought that the drug would travel that far.
The Prime Minister of Colony Defense continued, “What would we do if THYME should reach the Alexandrian colony. It is the only colony that holds the original species unaltered by genetic enhancements? What would happen if THYME should reach there?”
His fellow ministers looked at each other worriedly and one asked, “What do you propose we should do about it?”
William continued, “You have heard my opinion over and over again. I still have not changed my mind. I don’ t like my idea but I think it is the only way to deter individuals from taking up the practice and keep the rest of the colonies safe. QUARANTINE those who are using the drug.”
“But that would never work,” replied Thaddeus Morton, Chief of Calypso Defense. “Would it?”
“I believe it would but we also need to impose a restriction of human travel to the distant colonies. We can still keep in touch with them via unmanned probes and supply ships but no human traffic.”
“That restriction will not be too difficult to impose; hardly anyone travels to those planets anyways. It is too expensive to pay for cryogenics status, and too long to travel without sleeping your way there. But where will the QUARANTINE be?”
“Earth,” stated William into the stillness that followed it had the ring of finality.
The stillness was broken when, Finny Rand, head of earth defense, replied, “If you draft the rules of the QUARANTINE, I will implement them.”
The solution that was finally accepted that was agreeable to all, but not liked by any. Finny Rand was placed in charge of evacuating earth, not a simple task because it called for the evacuation of only those who were not THYME users.
In a final desperate measure, those not enthralled by T.H.Y.M.E. fled the planet Earth. In their passing they destroyed all space crafting refineries and shops and spaceports. Only two spaceports remained open; one on the planet itself and one on the moon. They were open for one reason and one reason only … QUARANTINE.
Armed satellites were put into obit programmed to destroy anything that left the Earth’ s surface. Earth was QUARANTINED. None were allowed to leave and only those enthralled by T.H.Y.M.E. ever landed there.
Anyone among the colonies found enthralled by T.H.Y.M.E. received a one-way trip by escape pod to Earth. The pods were set to self destruct if they were reactivated after landing.
Before anyone left the planet on the escape vessels, they were tested for T.H.Y.M.E. by machine. One by one each individual entered a room and underwent the T.H.Y.M.E. test. Anyone who had ever used T.H.Y.M.E., went thru a door and down a long dimly lit corridor that ended in a large holding facility resembling a shuttle station waiting room. But the shuttles in that station took the T.H.Y.M.E. users to a specially prepared area; an area where all one’ s wants would be taken care of while one was enthralled.
Those who passed the T.H.Y.M.E. test were ushered down a different corridor and directly onto the shuttles. Families were split up. Sometimes children were left without parents and sometimes parents were left and the children were the only ones who were allowed onto the shuttles. And sometimes, as will be discovered later on in this tale, there were tiny infants who were left because they hadn’ t been born. Many days it took for the evacuation, but there weren’ t very many people actually living on earth itself. Most of the ones who were there had stayed because they couldn’ t afford the fare to migrate to the stars. After two weeks of steady 24 hour round the clock shuttle service and the entire unenthralled population of earth had been transported to the stars.
At the same time that earth was performing her evacuation, the colonies were performing theirs. In the colonies the situation was reversed, those who were enthralled by T.H.Y.M.E. were deported and those who weren’ t remained in designated holding facilities until the robotic sweep teams verified that all Human population had been sorted. Then they were released in the order that they had arrived and life resumed as usual, albeit with a few faces missing and a plethora of new faces. For a few days people were subdued and many were jumpy and nervous but all were grateful for the fact that those enthralled by T.H.Y.M.E. were gone. Some were saddened because they had lost family members and a lot felt guilty for being the ones who had survived.
For almost a month there were no new cased of T.H.Y.M.E. and Humanity breathed a collective sigh of relief. But then there was a case among the Venus colony, the two, and then three. After each case the individual was deported to earth and quarantined. But then the cases kept coming and it seemed almost a daily occurrence when someone would call the authorities because they thought someone was enthralled.
Corporations began to make a petty penny by designing one person pods that were able to find their way to earth from anywhere in the known galaxies. They were programmed to be controlled from the outside rather than the inside. The pods were surprisingly effective and cheep. All the colonies needed them for soon not only was Venus sending T.H.Y.M.E. criminals to earth, but also the moons colonies around Jupiter, then the ice mines on Pluto began having to send workers and soon were threatening to close their doors because so many employees had been lost.