Solar observation satellites were damaged by the electromagnetic radiation and recorded no data on the solar flare. The number of sunspots didn’t decrease, so there was a strong possibility of another similar flare. Although there were demands for more satellites to be sent up as soon as possible, it took five years to lay the groundwork. When a satellite was finally launched, the data it gathered revealed a truth that made mankind tremble. The massive solar flare was not over — in fact it was still very active.
The flare five years ago had not struck the Earth directly but had been of a scale far beyond any previously observed. The sun was now much less stable than before. Strangely enough, the cause of this could not be determined. One proposal for the cause of the super flare involved a celestial body drawing near the sun. The magnetic fields of the sun and that celestial body merged, and the resulting energy caused the flare. For a while, people speculated that a rogue planet or a dwarf star or some other dark celestial body had moved close to the sun, but after thorough observation, this hypothesis was disproved.
Rather, their data revealed a far stranger truth. By looking at the plasma near the sun, it was possible to determine the direction of the magnetic field lines. But the magnetic lines were cut off, as if swallowed by the void. The severed lines wavered like kite strings, tangling together. By the laws of modern physics, this was utterly impossible. Magnetic lines had to start at the north pole and collect at the south pole. The one explanation that matched the observations was a magnetic monopole. The only possibility was that particles with only a north or south pole alignment were situated there at the ends of the sun’s magnetic field lines.
Within the standard paradigms of modern physics, monopoles had only appeared during the initial inflation of the universe. Even if they were to occur now, the universe was expanding, which meant they’d be far and few between. But here they were actually observing them. It seemed appropriate to assume the solar flare was caused by a vast number of monopoles around the sun. In time, the term Monopole Super Flare started to stick.
The possibility that a Monopole Super Flare could strike the Earth directly became critical to the survival of the human race. With the ozone layer destroyed, a second, direct attack would wipe out not just mankind, but all life on Earth. Countermeasures had to be developed immediately.
The ensuing debate was a furious one. Everything from massive plans like blowing up the Yellowstone Supervolcano and protecting the Earth with the resulting aerosol, to smaller plans like distributing free hats, to tricky plans like manipulating the genome to make mankind aquatic — over 761 proposals in all. The plan that was finally put into action was a fusion of genetics and astrophysics.
The core of the plan was to use genetics to create symbiotic bacteria that would offer resistance to radiation and UV rays while using both of those as an energy source. The genes for radiation resistance had been discovered in bacteria at the site of the Chernobyl accident. They had the ability to make multiple copies of themselves and compensate for the radiation damage by taking the common denominator from those multiplied cells. These could also convert radiation itself into energy and use that energy to live.
Ultraviolet ray defenses were found in sea squirts and mantis shrimp living near the equator. UV rays were particularly strong at the equator, so they’d developed cells that could absorb them.
The short wavelength of UV rays had not previously been an effective energy source, but they fixed that by altering the chloroplast genes of plants. By combining these three sets of DNA, they created a new organism, or Novum Organum.
The Novum Organum were symbiotic bacteria, and, like mitochondria and chloroplasts, were able to function as organelles within the cells of higher life forms. In time, the meaning of the term expanded, and Novum Organum was used to refer to the higher life forms that survived symbiotically with the Novum Organum.
Their plan was as follows. They were going to make nests of Novum Organum on a number of asteroids placed in orbit around the Earth. The primary creatures used for this would be spiders that produced thread reinforced with carbon nanotubes, and jellyfish that bloomed from the ground like plants. The jellyfish would grow outwards like tree rings, the insides slowly hardening. The spiders would live inside the jellyfish, which would protect them from the rigors of the vacuum. The spider’s threads, reinforced with carbon nanotube, would descend to the Earth’s surface. Like in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “The Spider’s Thread,” the asteroids would be tied to the Earth.
With these threads as poles, and a number of such threads radiating outwards, supported by the jellyfish, they would create a kind of mid-air ecosystem. The plan believed the symbiosis between the jellyfish and the spiders would replace the ozone layer, blocking the UV rays. This was a rather feeble plan. Leave everything to genetically modified creatures? How pathetic! But what choice did they have? The damage the Monopole Super Flare had done to mankind left budgets tight, and they could not afford large-scale projects like making a giant space shield. Introducing creatures that would reproduce autonomously was their only viable option. Barring, perhaps, the free hat plan.
At any rate, the Novum Organum strategy was put into action. Shortly after, something very strange was discovered. More Super Flares were observed; four years and three months after the Monopole Super Flare, one was spotted at Alpha Centauri; six years later at Barnard’s Star in the Ophiuchus constellation; seven years and six months later at Wolf 359 in Leo; and eight years later at Lalande 21185 in Ursa Major. What did this mean? Alpha Centauri was 4.4 light years from Earth, Barnard’s Star approximately six light years, Wolf 359 approximately 7.8 light years, and Lalande 21185 was approximately 8 light years away. In other words, at the same time as the Monopole Super Flare appeared on our sun, other super flares appeared on the surrounding stars.
When they heard the news, physicists had heart attacks the world over. What these observations demonstrated was nothing less than the demolition of the principle of locality in our universe. In other words, this was a phenomenon that occurred in one location that had immediately influenced events far away without the need to cross the space in between. If this was true, then it contradicted the theory of relativity; it was possible that the order of cause and effect could be reversed.
Physicists slapped each other’s cheeks like madmen. This behavior was rooted in a suspicion that they were, in fact, dreaming, but none of them woke from the dream. As time went on, super flares appeared on Sirius A, Sirius B, BL Ceti, and UV Ceti. People started whispering that every star in the universe had super flared simultaneously. Something was happening in the universe that mankind could not begin to understand. This gave rise to cosmic terrors.
But the real terror came from somewhere lower down. Not from space, but from the sky. The Novum Organum designed to replace the ozone layer multiplied quickly. Too quickly. Explosively. Feeding off the radiation and UV rays from the super active sun, their reproductive rates soared, growing into a forest in the sky. If you squinted, you could see it up above the clouds, like a massive pale grey kite. The jellyfish were the bases for the mid-air ecosystem. The jellyfish grew massive fins and rode the strong winds of the stratosphere, remaining aloft for decades. During their lifetimes, they orbited the Earth any number of times, increasing their numbers via parthenogenesis, and the spiders lived symbiotically with them.
The spiders lowered sturdy threads towards the surface, carrying nutrients up them to the jellyfish. The poles connecting the asteroids had grown like giant trees. From hardened jellyfish, tens of thousands of young jellyfish polyps were born, descending towards the surface like snow. This caused problems for the surface ecosystems. Already weakened by the solar flare, they were now being assaulted by swarms of spiders and jellyfish.
The spiders were carnivores, melting their prey alive in digestive fluids and consuming them. They even targeted mankind. Cities on the equator near the poles were the first to be destroyed. High-rise buildings were perfect for spiders and were wrapped dozens of times over in their webs. Since these webs were reinforced with carbon nanotubes, the webs themselves formed new structures, transforming the city skylines.
The Novum Organum had no natural predators. Humanity, forced by the UV rays to wear hats every time they went outside, could not fight back. As they could cross the stratosphere using massive jellyfish as carriers, natural defenses like mountains and the sea proved useless. With a firm foundation on the equator, the Novum Organum spread north and south. Traditional energy sources for most species depended on plants and photosynthesis, and the only source of energy for that was visible light. But the Novum Organum could derive energy from UV rays and radiation. This meant that Novum Organum could be several times more active than traditional life forms. Their explosive reproduction rates and activity levels helped them spread quickly across the globe. The inferiority of man and other traditional life forms was more obvious than a brushfire.
Paying no heed to these harsh conditions, Maori Niizono threw herself into her efforts to revive Mika Furutsuki. Mankind was facing extinction; she could no longer wait for future technology and would have to resurrect her by her own two hands. The radiation exposure had left her body slowly turning cancerous, but to her, this was unkilling two birds with one stone — she could do trial runs on resurrection technology on herself.
And at last, Mika Furutsuki returned from the realm of the dead. Thirty years had passed since her death. This was also the birth of the Idol that would control the history of the universe.