Earth Anchor

             Earth was anchored.  For a time it had looked as if it was going to spin uncontrollably out to space – well, out of space, out of it’s space if you see what I mean.  Experts had talked of it spiralling with increasing velocity, becoming increasingly compressed until…you get the picture, but now, for the time being, it was anchored.

            It really did look like a proper anchor, a massive structure gouged into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.  The Pacific had been chosen as large enough to accommodate said anchor and likely to do least damage and cause minimal loss of life.  Of course, the tsunami had been the worst ever seen but this was about saving the world, everyone recognised that sacrifices had to be made.

            The strangest thing was that no one knew what the Earth was anchored to.  Negotiations had been hurried; the Earth had been in a bad shape for some time now.  For decades there had been weather extremes and it was no longer unusual for crops to fail and forests to burn year after year, that was just part of the norm, but when the darkness started coming things really got scary. 

It was only occasional at first, without warning the sky would suddenly turn black and in the darkness the ground would tremble, literally the whole world would shudder as the Earth moved off its axis ever so slightly.  As quickly as it came, it went, light returned, and everyone carried on again. 

At first scientists claimed it was a one-off phenomenon, something in the solar system that had caused a bit of a nudge, nothing to be worried about.  When it happened a second time they talked of aftershocks, planetary debris and claimed we might perhaps see a number of minor shudders over the following few months.  They weren’t minor though, the strength and frequency increased.  The scientist’s original theories disintegrated and the people’s anger grew, why had the scientists got their modelling wrong, why hadn’t they seen what was coming?  What were they going to do now, how did they intend to stop it?  But the scientists had no answers.

It was then that the foreigners came to the rescue, landing at Heathrow just like any ordinary flight.  They asked to be taken to Government, they talked, a world leaders’ summit was quickly arranged, the highest-level discussions took place.  It was decided that there was no choice, the Earth must be anchored if it was to avoid being torn from its axis and whilst we knew little of these strange foreigners, they had convinced our leaders that they had the technology and expertise to do it.

Of course, conspiracy theories abounded, how convenient that the foreigners happened to arrive just at the right point.  Wasn’t it obvious that they were the cause of the crisis as well as holding the key to our survival?  Would the cure be worse than the problem?  And what was the cost? Nobody really believed that the foreigners’ motives were truly altruistic, what did they really want?  But it was decided that anchorage was our only option and we trusted them and let them go ahead, and so, here we are, on a very fragile Earth hoping to survive and relying on the kindness of others to get us through.

Alison