The Solar Democratic Republic was over, as was the Durune civilization in
general, and everyone knew it. Now, accepting this reality was a different
matter altogether. Most people agreed to evacuate to Dardius. It was warm,
safe, and reliable, and there was no good reason to stay pass up this
opportunity to lead happy lives. The only reason humanity survived on Durus
this long was because of time powers. Had they never existed, Savitri would
have died within minutes of falling into her portal, and everyone after that
would have probably lived out their lives in Springfield, Kansas, completely
unaware that the rogue planet even existed. Even their regular technology
was based on decades of the development of a society that took powers for
granted. Living in the underground bunkers—or worse, being stuck in the
stasis pods indefinitely—was an irrational way to live, and most people
understood that. The rest, well, they held firm. They believed, almost in a
spiritual sense, that Durus was destined to go on forever, whether that
meant finding a new host star, and spontaneously forming a new atmosphere,
or the replenishment of temporal energy, and reëmergence of time powers.
They just couldn’t surrender to the fact that there was little to nothing
they could do to make life easier on Durus, and that the chances of it
happening on its own were negligibly low. The problem was that the chances
were not at zero, and that was enough to keep the stubborn people going. For
days, they argued their case against the other side. They never tried to
stop anyone from leaving, but they felt entitled to stay if that was what
they wanted. To prevent this from growing out of control, the government, in
one of its last acts while still in charge, created a set of criteria. Only
certain people would be allowed to stay, and all others would have to
evacuate with everyone who had already left. The most notable requirement
was that all remainders—as they were called—would have to be
romantically unattached, and be responsible for no children. In the end, 216
people fit the bill.
Some who had already evacuated changed their minds, and wanted to be
considered for the same treatment, but they were summarily denied.
Transportation through the Nexus was going to be heavily regulated, and that
was out of Durus’ hands either way. There would be periodic travel, however,
and this required a little help. Dardius had no problem leaving their power
source on Durus. They had no shortage of resources, and maintained a strong
enough connection to Earth to keep up with technological advancements. They
had one major condition, though, and it was non-negotiable. A small Dardieti
contingency would be left in the Durus bunkers, and have any veto power when
it came to what happened with their technology, or the connection back to
their home. The remainders had no problem with this, especially since
they would be sleeping in their stasis pods most of the time anyway. They
created a system to keep things running. One remainder would wake up
from stasis every year, and spend the following year looking after all the
others, and tracking the planet’s progress through interstellar space. This
system would last for over two centuries before anyone would have to wake
back up more than once, though they had no idea how much time would pass
before anything interesting happened, so that wasn’t saying much. The
Dardieti contingency would each wake up less often, but do so at strategic
times. They worked with the government to identify remainders who
were at more risk of threatening the system, and would benefit from a little
oversight. Most of those types of people were disqualified from the
beginning, but everyone was a risk, and anything could happen during a year
alone on a dead world. Even though no elected official stayed behind, the
remainders insisted on continuing to call themselves the Solar
Democratic Republic. It would be like this for twelve years, until a
catastrophe leads one remainder down a different path.
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