The Blind Eye of God

Chapter Three

Not long after the beginning of the twenty-first century, two major forces that had shaped the modern world could no longer exist in harmony, if it ever truly had. The idea of totalitarian communism had been weighed, measured, and found wanting. The lure of capitalism and it's false promise of freedom and prosperity appealed more to the greedy nature of humanity than any other system thus far, and the corporation became the tool of choice for those seeking power and wealth. Knowing full well the controlling power of faith, when manipulated by those in power, the "conservative" movement in the United States gained overwhelming control of the reigns of power, and soon rivaled China in it's insidious suppression of freedom of thought and expression. As the perfect compliment to it's "moral" approach to government and control of the masses, both the Catholic church and Protestant Denominations were given more and more influence in Government until it soon reached the point where the country could truly be considered a theocracy on par with the worst the Islamic world had to offer.......and any hope of peaceful coexistence soon vanished.
The Bush Administration, and it's even more conservative successors, never dealt directly with the volatile Combination of the North Koreans and nuclear weapons, first off, because resources were already stretched dealing with the mideast, and secondly, because they never really took the danger seriously. This calculation soon came home to roost when nuclear devices, provided with blessings by the North Koreans to Islamic terrorists, made their way into shipping containers that were detonated in the Ports of Los Angeles, Boston, and Houston. This time there was no restraint, no seeking to lay blame on individual extremists, no rooting out of jehadists from the midsts of their Middle Eastern homelands. As the missiles flew and the bombers headed towards the capitals of any and all nations dedicated to Allah, the President of the United States announced that the evil of Islam could no longer be tolerated by the God fearing, Christian peoples of the Earth, and the last crusade began it's final, bloody march.
Much like the crusades of the past, hell on Earth was visited in the name of Jesus. The only choice, when it was convenient, was to renounce Islam, accept Christianity, or die. Almost twenty years later, after a death toll that exceeded all the wars before it, the war finally ended, leaving the planet with one government and a battered ecology that could never recover. The Chinese had wisely stayed neutral, agreeing in the end to join the Christian coalition rather than suffer the ire of any enraged West. India suffered terribly as Pakistan managed to throw a few nukes at New Delhi in it's death throws.
Russia gave up it's dream of returning to empire and accepted the reforms demanded of it by the new world government.
When a few decades of political stability had been finally established, attention was turned to what could be done to ensure the survival of the victors, only this time the denial of the conservative elite could no longer hide the stark truth: the damage to the ecosystem was irreparable, and the clock was ticking.
Then, the fervent prayers of a people weary of waiting for the second coming where answered, in a round about way. A Chinese physicist had an epiphany, and suddenly he found himself as the guest of honor at the United Nations Science Directorate. Describing a convoluted process that was amazing in both it's simplicity and utter violation of many of hard and fast rules of Einstein's Theories of Relativity, he explained to them how one could fold space, force a convergence between two points between just about any two points in the universe, and pass an object thru that hole, thus negating the need to travel faster than the speed of light to explore space. The only caveat was that it took immense precision in timing, calculations, and allot of power to accomplish. However, with the resources of a desperate government behind it, the UNSC soon had so much money and manpower thrown at it they could have wallpapered the International space station with hundred dollar bills and still be behind budget. Of course, a government that needed to keep things under wraps also didn't need heroes, so the physicist, once his theories were completely understood, mysteriously disappeared.
Within ten years, a station was constructed at the L-5 la-grange point between Earth and Moon, and the first jump gate was powered up. Entering the ring at a precise velocity in order to penetrate a hole in the fabric of space that only existed for three seconds, the first test module, a large and ugly robotic contraption that carried it's own jump gate with it, sent back a communications pod, signaling success, and the race to space was on. Unfortunately, it took 37 probes to find a system worth investigating, and it was not till then that the first manned space vessel was constructed, the "Genesis" class scout ships. It was the second ship of this class that introduced LTJG Carlson to the dubious joys of space travel, including the terrible nausea that inflicted humans when they were exposed to the jump gate effects. It also exposed him to the harsh disappointments of finding planet after planet that could not support human life. Sometimes the limited telemetry the advanced probes brought back gave false hope, and it was up to the scouts to determine one way or another if a foothold could be made on a borderline world. As the sensors officer onboard "Revelation", Carlson was responsible for many improvements in probe technology that eventually led to the elimination of the scout class, saving the space service millions of dollars, and moved him up the advancement ladder ahead of many other officers older than him, resulting eventually in him becoming the youngest officer to be granted his own command.
Yet even Carlson, like most of his fellow line officers, were kept in the dark as to just how desperate the situation back on Earth had become. And like most in the service, he was also unaware of just how much influence the church was having over the inner circles of power in the government. As conservative as the government had become, the constitution was still based, on paper at least, on secular principles, and it was a secular oath he had taken, albeit the "so help me God" clause at the end, and his loyalties were about to be put to the ultimate test as the Chaplain pulled out the thick envelope stamped "Top Secret: Eyes only" and handed it to Carlson.