Earth
Names: EarthTerra
First appears in Book 1: We Are Legion, chapter 13 (Bob – August 17, 2133 – En Route)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: We Are Legion
- Ch 13Earth slides toward full-scale war, with the USE and FAITH loosely aligned against Brazil and China.
- Ch 13Guppy detects EMPs and flashes on Earth indicating groundside nuclear detonations, leaving Bob feeling he is on his own.
- Ch 21Earth shows high radiation at many sites from nuclear war, and appears devastated.
- Ch 24If the four Brazilian-guided asteroids struck Earth, not even bacteria would survive.
- Ch 24Earth was ravaged by massive nuclear exchanges and dozens of asteroid strikes, and may be sliding into nuclear winter.
- Ch 24No radio or reactor signatures are detected on Earth; any survivors have likely gone into hiding.
- Ch 26Butterworth estimates Earth's surviving population at under twenty million and says recovery will take five to ten thousand years.
- Ch 31An orbital survey finds about forty human enclaves on Earth totalling fifteen million people, down from twelve billion.
- Ch 33About half of Earth's fifteen million survivors live in New Zealand, Madagascar and Florianópolis, Brazil.
- Ch 33Earth's climate is degrading; projections show it fully encased in glaciers within fifty to a hundred years.
- Ch 43Earth's climate continues to deteriorate, possibly accelerating, raising the risk of starvation.
- Ch 52The second farm should give Earth a food surplus for about three years before falling production bites again.
Book 2: For We Are Many
- Ch 7Post-war Earth is sliding into an ice age; only fifteen million humans remain and about thirty thousand have left the planet.
- Ch 14Over half of Earth's thirty-five remaining enclaves depend partly on food from the Bobs' orbital farms.
Book 3: All These Worlds
- Ch 51Earth's last viable large-scale farming operation has failed, leaving humanity completely dependent on the Bobs for food.
- Ch 57Earth has just under fourteen million people but only eight million stasis pods: three million built at Sol and five from the Bellerophon.
- Ch 62Sixteen people die during the first pickup of about a million, from trampling, medical issues and police confrontations.
- Ch 74Earth, now looking like a snowball, is left to recover on its own for a few millennia.
- Ch 75Earth is in full snowball mode, with glaciers closing in on the equator.
Book 4: Heaven’s River
- Ch 2Humanity on Earth killed off 99.9% of itself in a nuclear winter; Bob has just returned from a final pilgrimage there.
- Ch 55Earth's Ice Age has been halted; glaciers are retreating and an interglacial is expected in about a hundred years.
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 41Two hundred years after being nuked into an ice age, over half of Earth is ice-free and the climate is back to interglacial.
Connections
- part ofSol
- includesL4 and L5 points
- includesFlorianópolis
- related toEpsilon Indieleven light years from Earth
- containsMaldives
- inSol
- includesCuba
- containsLas Vegas
- led byCharlesEarth reclamation project
- related toRoanokefifty light-years from Earth
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 13Nuclear war on Earth
Guppy detects EMPs and flashes confirming nuclear detonations on Earth.
- Book 1 · Ch 21Asteroids aimed at Earth
Homer and Riker realize four Brazilian probes are guiding asteroids to strike Earth one day apart, targeting China.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Battle at the asteroids
After hiding behind Earth, Riker and Homer attack the last two Brazilian ships under Captain Araújo; Homer is disabled, but Riker destroys both ships.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Diverting the asteroids
Riker's roamers hot-wire the asteroid-moving SURGE drives to thrust them away from Earth, unsure if it is too late.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Assessing a ruined Earth
Riker briefs Homer on Earth's devastation by nukes and asteroid strikes; they plan to search for survivors using exploration scouts.
- Book 1 · Ch 24Asteroids miss Earth
The last of the four diverted asteroids slides safely past Earth, and moments later the Bobs receive an unexpected hail.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Contact with Colonel Butterworth
Colonel George Butterworth of the USE hails Riker after the asteroids are averted, beginning cautious negotiations between the Bobs and Earth's survivors.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Plan to leave Earth
Butterworth explains how the war escalated and asks Riker to help build two USE colony ships to evacuate humans; Riker agrees.
- Book 1 · Ch 29Priorities dispute with Butterworth
Riker and Colonel Butterworth argue over searching for other survivors; Riker decides to build more Bobs first and search in parallel.
- Book 1 · Ch 31Survey of Earth's survivors
Riker and Arthur survey Earth from polar orbit and find about forty enclaves with fifteen million surviving people.
- Book 1 · Ch 31Hostile first contact with enclaves
Arthur's attempts to deliver communicators to the enclaves meet with shot-down drones, smashed devices and verbal abuse.
- Book 1 · Ch 33Chaotic first United Nations session
Riker convenes delegates from Earth's enclaves; the session dissolves into shouting until he cuts the microphones, then later lets the assembly set its own rules.
- Book 1 · Ch 41Destinations announced
Riker announces Romulus and Vulcan as emigration destinations; delegates erupt with complaints about sharing planets.
- Book 1 · Ch 43All-Bobs meeting on Earth's future
Riker, Homer, Charles and Arthur conclude they cannot evacuate fifteen million people and find no plan to keep them alive without delaying the ships.
- Book 2 · Ch 7UN debates Poseidon
After Mulder's report on Poseidon, the UN debates whether to send a colony ship there; Representative Sharma argues for settling a third system.
- Book 3 · Ch 57Evacuation triage
Will decides to evacuate the largest enclaves first, knowing nearly half of Earth's people will be left behind.
- Book 3 · Ch 62Bellerophon evacuates Earth
Herschel lowers the Bellerophon into Earth's atmosphere; a thousand transports load enclaves into its bays over ten stops, with sixteen deaths at the first.
- Book 3 · Ch 66Bellerophon flees Earth
Herschel lifts the loaded Bellerophon off Earth and dodges a series of Others' zaps thanks to SCUT warnings, then runs from the battle.
- Book 3 · Ch 70Refugees return home
The Bellerophon unloads its waking refugees back to Earth while those in stasis stay podded until the remaining pods are built.
- Book 3 · Ch 75Bob heads for the stars
Declaring the Bobs Homo sideria, Bob says goodbye to Bill and Will, switches off his android, and leaves aboard the Heaven-1B to explore.
- Book 4 · Ch 55Bill visits Charles
Taking a break from assessing Starfleet damage, Bill visits Charles, discusses Starfleet's origins and Earth's recovery, and Charles reassures him that cooperation runs in cycles.