The launching of the world's first exploratory colonial spaceship was more than an extenuating circumstance.
The gathered crowd was easily in the millions. People from all over the world had come to witness the historical event, and who could blame them? The effort, the toil, the decades upon decades of research that made the ship possible had bought together nations that had been fighting between themselves for centuries. Seceded states (now nations) eagerly worked side by side with their former US neighbors. Even the Silent War between Russia and Mongolia ceased as they worked together to build the ship. Perhaps it was this comradeship that was the reason Moscow was awarded the title of the home of the Peregrine. The ship was named for Peregrine Falcon, once thought extinct, but bought back into civilization due to the joint efforts of several countries. That was the aim of the Peregrine; to make a new civilization.
The only thing more overwhelming than the sudden waving of flags in the crowd the roar that game from the people gathered. Those boarding the ship had been carefully selected – infact, some people had seats reserved in utero – and now, the small parade wandered up the docking ramp into the body of the ship. There were waves, kisses, hugs, and goodbyes. Older family members watched with a tinge of sadness as the remainder of their relatives boarded, knowing that the likelihood of seeing them again was low. Babies and toddlers watched with wide, wary eyes as this enormous ship ate a crowd of nearly 300 people.
The ship was loaded and ready. The crew and all the materials they would need for their recolonization were secured. Outside, the crowd counted down in a myriad of tongues. Yet, inside the captains' pit, there was an quiet, tense silence. The hand of the woman who was sitting before the controls was shaking. The countdown of the clock and the commands from Ground Control were spoken as they appeared on the screen that spread across for some seven feet.
“Ready, Captain?” Amelia Footliver tilted her head to the chair beside her. Despite her quivering hands, despite her biosuit reading of a heart rate of nearly 150 BPM, the grin behind the screen of her helmet was obvious.
Josiah Laurence was looking nowhere but forward, his eyes set on the countdown clock. He'd heard her, though. “Ready, Captain.”
The tumultuous uproar of the crowd was louder than ground control's announcement of liftoff.
***
The world that the Peregrine left behind is a broken one, but one that seems intent on fixing itself. Wars and conflicts have both divided and joined states, countries, and nations.
The Americas saw perhaps the least damage in the past several centuries; Alaska, Texas, and Florida all seceded. Alaska joined (perhaps partly taken; the history books are skeptical) Canada in 2050. Texas abandoned the States a while after this, siding with Mexico to form the United Nation of Texico in 2065. What remains of Florida – the majority of its peninsula was flooded, but some of it remains – abandoned the US and took Cuba and Puerto Rico along with it in 2082. South America did not take lightly of this, as the United Nation of Florida attempted to expand itself by capturing many of the north eastern countries of South America. While Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana came with ease, Brazil did not come as easily. In 2101, war was beginning. By 2104, South America reclaimed its stolen territories – all but Trinidad and Tobago, which it seemed to announce a lost cause.
After the successful colonization of Mars in 2130 (an event that actually set the beginning stages of the Peregrine into motion), a joint project between Greenland, Iceland, and Tanzania (reasons for the selection of Tanzania for the project are still a bit of a mystery), these countries were both respected and feared. Tanzania was more than willing to share its wealth with its neighboring countries, but the Republic of the Congo did not take lightly to what it considered to be handouts. A shortlived invasion of what had become the Western Tanzanian Federation, or WTF, occurred in 2134, and the Congo not only surrendered, but became the Congo Free State once more.
Meanwhile, an ocean over, Australia found itself in the midst of an unintentional war with Japan when suspicions and tensions grew too tense and too numerous (Japan suspected Australia of attempting to monopolize the trade routes of the North Pacific Ocean). In 2133, a war began between the two. New Zealand and Papua New Guinea were quick to come to Australia's aid, and Japan fell under Australia's fighter blimps, nicknamed Tasmanian Devils after the suspicions that said blimps actually contained Tasmanian Devils. Of all the conflicts, however, this seemed to end the most peacefully. Japan, impressed by the use of technology it was not aware Australia was capable of, began a cheerful friendship with Australia. These two nations were largely responsible for fine tuning the technology of the Peregrine, a project proposed by the Western Tanzinian Federation in 2172.
The most recent conflict was that between Russia and Mongolia. After Russia became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics once again in 2168, neighboring countries became concerned. Mongolia, however, was the only country that made its opinions known. Ending any and all commerce with the USSR, it cut itself off completely, beginning the Silent War of 2175. Back in the USSR, however, it seemed that Mongolia's absence was not noted. It was not until the USSR was declared the country that would house the building of the Peregrine in 2193 that Mongolia abandoned the war, and Soviet Russia welcomed it back as a neighbor with warm, but perhaps begrudging arms.
The fact that nothing but a ship bought these counties together speaks volumes, but what has become of the nations now that the Peregrine is lost...well, no one knows.
