Grow your own Earth!

Here's a SF short story of mine, hope you enjoy it.

Dormitory 736 Block C
Alpha Module,
Pleiades University,
Sirius Orbiter 4



My dear Professor Toopha,

Many thanks for you recent correspondence; I am well, thank you, and so is my symbiant. I hope this finds you and yours in good health too.

As you will see from my enclosed holograph crystal; the project you gave me is reaching a major point in its evolution. However, I feel it only fair to warn you that things are not going as well as I had hoped.

Although the image that you are looking at now seems to portray the Earth in my study-room as being in a stable condition it is far from being so.

As you well know the Pre-Cambrian era went very well and the cooling down process and the forming of the oceans was spectacular, I stayed up overnight just to watch the incredible fire-work display.
The Palaeozoic week was pretty boring and that’s why I didn’t send you footage of that particular period, the only thing I found of interest was when the fish left the water and became land animals.

My favourite was definitely the Mesozoic era, especially the dinosaurs. I was really impressed with them; the birth of the small mammals interested me too but I had no idea at the time the importance of what I was witnessing.

I feel at this point that I should apologise on behalf of my friend Pleeba Delmot. That evening we had both been out partying and when he was incapable of finding his own dorm I foolishly allowed him to stay at mine.
It was only the next morning I found out that he had poked his tentacle into the globe and had caused the vast climate change which lead to the extinction of so many species. It’s rather a pity as I am sure that the dinosaurs had real potential. Please accept his apologies; he was under the influence and not aware of what he was doing.

Finally, as you know from the footage I’ve already sent, we are in the Cenozoic era and I can’t help but wonder if Pleeba’s tentacle has caused more trouble than we first imagined. Let me tell you why.

Around the Cretaceous period of the Cenozoic era, just about the time of, shall we say “Pleeba’s Event”; I noticed a new species emerge. We named them mammals. Normally I don’t think these little creatures would have lasted all that long. Most just provided a nourishing snack for the smaller species of carnivorous dinosaur; but the “Event” took place and the dinosaurs just couldn’t adapt to the climate change. But believe it or not Professor, the little mammals did!

During the Tertiary period of this era they evolved in leaps and bounds. That was about a week ago for us, millions of years for the little planet.
One particular species, the primates, became quite ingenious. Even with the handicap of only an opposable thumb instead of tentacles they soon started to use tools; this was something that no other creature had done before. Now, here is where it begins to get scary.

Within a matter of days, these primates had begun to develop quite an intelligence; I was amazed. Their technology even made me have to install dampening fields around the globe as their emissions were beginning to disrupt my music system next door!
Finally, they even attempted to leave the globe itself and therefore I had to vector into the system a mass hypnotic state to make them believe that they are really living within a genuine universe. Now they think that their machines have even left the planet to explore their solar system and more. Many of these beings, that we named Man by the way, imagine that some of them have actually visited a small, nearby satellite which they have named the Moon!

However, I fear by the time you read this, the project will be over. I thought the dinosaurs were violent but these little biped humans are incredibly vicious.
Not only do they kill, and I don’t mean just for consumption or preservation, the lower species with no regard whatsoever, but they also slaughter themselves on the slightest whim!
For example; they have this thing called War; which I first mistakenly took for some kind of sport, but it is far from it. They have wiped out billions and billions of their kind with this strange act. But that is not all; they do not seem to be content with destroying themselves and every other living creature on the globe. They have now invented thermo-nuclear devices and the planet is absolutely littered with them. It seems they are now attempting to destroy the globe itself!

I tell you my dear Professor, this is the best project you have given me yet; I only wish it was not reaching the end so soon. This has been one of the most enjoyable months I have spent here in Pleiades University. I had hoped that you would get back in time to see the little planet in my study-room before it is too late; but I fear within the next few hours the creatures called Man will succeed and destroy both themselves and the fragile world before you return.

With this in mind I beg you to procure another “Grow your own Earth” kit from the University Supplier as I would dearly like to see what happens when the dinosaurs evolve alongside the mammals.
However, this time I think I will keep Pleeba well away from my study!

Your most humble student,

Kloompa Teabod