Distant Earths (a multiverse setting)

Another document from the random notes in a dump folder. I don't think I ever had a story for this. I was just interested in the idea of exploring a Multiverse where the differences in alternate timelines were not just obvious things like "what if the Nazi's won WWII". Instead, what if the divergent points in history were so far in the past that the development of the planet, even the solar system, was radically different, creating truly alien worlds that were actually all still Earth.

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2145 A.D. – Dimensional-crossing experimentation is discovered, and believed to be a much more “practical” means of expanding humanity off of Earth, since Faster Than Light technology never developed. Tenuous explorations using probes sent to several alternate universes confirm that habitable versions of Earth do exist, but the typical view of Multiverse Theory involving Infinite Timelines doesn’t seem to hold up. In no other version of Earth thus far found is there any form of humanity, save a couple of worlds where they no longer exist. In fact, most versions of Earth are not even hospitable to Earthly life.

If the more traditional idea of alternate timelines are at play, where all worlds known a branched off from a prime world where all worlds share a common history, then the divergences occur at wildly different eras, which change Earth into what may as well be entirely different planets in these alternate worlds.

The Earths found initially are colloquially called:

Dino-Earth – Presumably, the Extinction Event that killed the dinosaurs never happened, or the evolution of life occurred millions of years later than on Earth Prime. and as such, mammals never had the chance to develop beyond the synapsid phase. The most intelligent creatures on the planet appear to be a species of Grand Velociraptor, a five-foot tall variant of our real-world velociraptor, which demonstrate intelligence on the level of a dolphin or gorilla, and the Hexapus, a six-armed cephalopod living in the shallow waters of a “submerged continent”, which regularly use simple tools, but otherwise appear no more intelligent than Earthly octopi.

Frozen-Earth – This version of Earth is almost completely frozen over, with only a thin “slush band” around the equator of icy-cold liquid water rife with icebergs. The only life found are forms of ice algae, tube worms, a type of star fish, and simple microscopic organisms. It is unknown if this version of Earth is in the midst of a relatively new Ice Age, or if it has been trapped in one for millions of years.

Venus-Earth – This version of Earth has the same lethal environment as the planet Venus, with a crushing toxic atmosphere of lead-melting heat. Even the toughest probes are easily compromised under these conditions, leading to a lack of proper exploration. Speculation is that this version of Earth suffered the same runaway greenhouse gas fate as Venus, or that this might in fact be this universe’s Venus, and that planet formed in place of Earth, or replaced it. Probes are so far unable to escape the brutal atmosphere fast enough to observe the situation above the clouds to study these theories further.

Barren-Earth/Mars-Earth – A dry desert world with only the barest of atmospheres. Explorations of the surface show the raised lands of a super continent in the process of breaking apart, with its components resembling theoretical forms of our own Earth’s ancient super continents. Readings indicate the planet is geologically dead and lacks a magnetosphere, indicating that this version of Earth’s iron core cooled and stopped spinning, leading to its atmosphere and oceans being stripped and boiled away by the solar wind. Interestingly, there is also no moon, which may have had a hand in the early halt of plate tectonics.

Marine-Earth – A hot, but livable world where no ice caps exist, and continental land forms never quite rose up to break the surface of the oceans. The largest confirmed mass of dry land is a chain of sizable islands not much bigger in total area than New Zealand, located near the south pole. All other islands are little more than the peaks of underwater mountains forming rocky outcroppings rising only a few dozen feet above the surface; even these are regularly subsumed by tidal waves, preventing any real land-bound life from getting a foothold, much less allowing the islands to habitable.

So far, the only land-based life forms found are primitive plants and several amphibious species of arthropod. However, beneath the waves, this world is positively seething with life, the vast oceans holding populations of Earthly sea-life many times greater than found on Earth. Aside from familiar species of fish, arthropods, cephalopods, etc, there are still pockets of remnant species of ancient sea-dwellers like troglodytes, as well as a whole genus of water-breathing reptiles. Likewise, plant-life in the ocean is massively more wide-spread. This is thought to be due to the overall relatively shallow depth of most of the world’s oceans, being only half a mile deep on average, lacking continents and the plethora of island and trench formations that lend our world its greater depths.

No sapient life is thought to exist, with octopi appearing to be the most intelligent creatures, though no more so than on our Earth. A species of dolphin like aquatic reptiles seems almost as intelligent as dolphins, but are incredibly skittish and hard to pin-down.

Lost-Hominid-Earth – The only other Earth where it appears humans may have existed. Ancient stone and fossilized wooden ruins found in the Mediterranean region hint that homo sapiens, or something close enough to them, were beginning to develop on a world that is nearly identical to our own Earth. However, for unknown reasons, the species died out before it could advance further than the most basic of tool making and construction. Scouring the entire planet, there does not seem to have been the sort of wide-spread early migrations that led to different peoples appearing in different parts of the globe. The most advanced tool appears to have been a stone axe, a sharp rock tied to a stick using vines.

There are no remains of any language or even basic art, no hints of fire making, agriculture, or the domestication of animals. This leads some to speculate if this species was truly sapient, or if they were simply slightly more intelligent beasts that had just barely managed to figure out the crudest of tool-making skills. Only a few scant and scattered fossils remain of the people, as no form of funeral rituals appear to have been observed. Bodies may have been simply tossed into the wilderness or buried in shallow graves that were then eaten by wild animals. Tiny fossils of bone fragments found in the region hint at a hominid life form, but not enough pieces of even a single skeleton remain to give a clear picture of what this species was like.

Moon-Earth – Earth in this universe appears to be a Moon of a gas-giant that formed inexplicably close to the sun. Moons resembling Venus, Mars, Mercury, Luna (our Moon), and several other unknown worlds also orbit this gas planet, which appears to be this universe’s version of Jupiter.

While this version of Earth retains a partially cloudy atmosphere like our own, no life appears to have developed, possibly due to the combined radiation from Jupiter and the Sun overpowering Earth’s magnetic field, leaving the planet lethally irradiated. Likewise, the planet’s atmosphere has very little oxygen, hinting that vital plant life never developed to generate the oxygen levels needed for animal life to evolve.

Shattered-Earth – Earth and its Moon do not exist in this reality. Instead, a second asteroid belt dominates the space between Venus and Mars, which both have numerous tiny moons thought to be captured asteroids.

Ooze-Earth – Something went horribly array early in the formation of life on this world. The entire planet is covered, on both dry land and floating atop the oceans, with a vast sheet of slime composed of countless bacterial colonies. Banks of what appear to be low smoke or mist wafting across this slime are actually dense clouds of airborne bacteria. Sexual reproduction appears to have never developed, leading only to an omni-present, self-consuming mass of single-celled organisms.

An atmospheric balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide has formed as half the bacteria in the global slime mold produces oxygen, while the other half consumes it. A byproduct of this process is that oxygen composes nearly half the atmosphere, which vastly increases the formation and devastation of wild-fires and atmospheric explosions caused by lightning strikes, which can ignite flammable oily sections of the slime-mold. Country-sized swathes of the slime can be consumed by the flames before guttering out, temporarily allowing existing bacteria colonies to grow themselves larger to refill the gaps.

Humans from our Earth cannot survive in this world. The combined risks of hyperoxia (oxygen toxicity) and immediate multi-bacterial mass-infection means a quick death. Only a completely sealed and self-sufficient portable environment would allow a person to survive here, and even then, some of the bacteria managed to chew through sealing materials in the probes sent to explore, meaning no permanent residency could be established.

Super-Earth – A lifeless world with an acidic ocean and constant storms, the most interesting feature of this world is that it is 50% more massive than our world, and nearly 30% larger in diameter. It also noticeably lacks a Moon. If the theory of Theia is true, wherein a Mars-sized proto-planet slammed into the Earth, causing the formation of the Moon (one of several possible giant-impact events), then perhaps in this reality, the Moon never formed, and instead the Earth simply absorbed Theia, as well as other proto-planets, increasing its overall size.

Triple-Moon-Earth – As the name implies, the major difference of this world is that Earth has three moons: one is clearly identifiable as Luna, but the other two surprisingly appear to be Mars and Mercury, respectively. Mars is twice as far as Luna, while Mercury is four times farther, causing them to experience orbital resonance. Venus, meanwhile, appears to have vanished, or perhaps never existed.

How this happened is anyone’s guess. The prevailing theory is that a rogue planet passing through the solar system disrupted the inner planet’s orbits. Assuming Venus existed, it may have been destroyed, or sent spiraling off into the outer system. Mars, Mercury, and Earth, meanwhile, ended up on a collision course, but by some miracle, all clustered into the Goldilocks Zone, forming a three-moon system with Earth at the center.

Due to tidal forces from the combined influence of the three moons, this Earth has slightly stronger and more frequent tides and storms, and noticeably longer days (32 hours). Nonetheless, the planet is hospitable, and life thrives, though the course of evolution appears to have been delayed. Dinosaurs are gone, but ancient mammals and giant birds dominate the land.

What’s more, Mars in this reality has an ocean and denser atmosphere, due to gravitational forces keeping its geological activity going longer. The atmosphere is still too thin for Earthly life. The one probe that managed to reach the world detected only basic single-celled organisms similar to amebas, but this has been an amazing boon for the scientific community of our Earth to study the possibly of life on other worlds.

Cataclysm-Earth – This world appears to have been extremely similar to our own world, including the rise and development of humanity, save for one critical factor: a Mass Extinction Event appears to have wiped the human species out in our equivalent to the 1920s. A plethora of historical knowledge has been recovered about this world from a wide variety of print records that managed to be preserved in vaults or sealed areas, as well as left over technologies of the time.

The languages are all different; their versions of America and Britain used a Cuneiform-style script, while their version of China used a script more similar to Hebrew. Once decoded, however, records show the history of this world to be shocking similar to our own, albeit with different historical figures, slight variants on the emergence of inventions, a different calendar year (3540 A.D. by their count), the minor details of various wars and country borders. The major difference is the Cataclysm.

The true nature of the Cataclysm is unknown. It would appear as though, all at once, nearly every creature on Earth aside from some microorganisms just died. All that remains are the decomposed corpses and rotting infrastructure of people and animals that perished at least fifty years ago.

Scouting drones indicate higher traces of background radiation than normal, including an unusual, heretofore unknown frequency. It is theorized that an intense burst of radiation, either from this world’s sun or perhaps a pulse from distant, dying star, struck the Earth, inducing a lethal electromagnetic pulse across the planet. This is born out by signs of damage to machinery through intense electrical surges.