Just before the exodus from Sol, specimens of DNA were gathered for transportation to humanity's new home. Specimens ranging from the ancient Oak tree, to the plants that produced wasabi, one of the most powerful edible spices known to mankind. DNA copies of all primary species of organism, ranging from the microscopic amoeba to the gargantuan elephant were stored.
Raw materials had been stored for the construction of a new home. These same raw materials would also form the first of the culturing machines used to introduce native Earth organisms to the relatively harsh environment of humanity's new residence.
There were no exceptions. Unlike the fabled story of Noah's Ark, no animals or plants were cryogenically frozen as humans were. They were unceremoniously translated into genetic data, their nitrogenous bases and their pentagonal sugars stored for synthesis at a later date.
All except for one special apple aboard the sleeper ship, Bretonia. This apple was a landmark for the people of the British nation but by no means the last apple on Earth.
However, it was the last of its kind. The last which was left to grow entirely on its own, on an ancient island just off the coast of the British Isle. A sacred island, engraved in the culture of the citizens born into the British nation. An island, whose discovery dates back to the medieval period of chivalry, honour and fairness.
An island, named Avalon.
The apple was stored in a special chamber on the sleeper ship Bretonia. Enough armour to withstand a direct hit from a 50 megaton fusion warhead or a 6000 Terrawatt energy strike. The interior of the chamber housed the apple, which was cryogenically frozen to the same state as the other humans on board the exodus vehicle.
Upon landing on a suitable planet, christened New London, the rebuild of Bretonian society began. Year after year, the needs of an ever increasing population began to grow. Many species of organism found the conditions unfavorable planetside, but most adapted. Few species died out, such was the resistance of life to death, as it has always been. Before long, these organisms began to mingle with those already present on the planet. A mixed blessing, it turned out to be.
Meanwhile, the apple was sealed, still in its chamber, deep inside the hastily erected royal household.
As the Bretonians, taking their name after their sleeper ship, reached to the stars, they quickly forgot about the apple and all that it signified within society. There was simply no time. Bretonia had to strengthen itself for first contact with the other houses. The rapid expansion of Bretonian space-based industries resulted. Culture was simply left in the dust as it became clear that the priorities were industrial and agricultural development.
For 600 years, the apple was all but forgotten. The chamber was never moved, nor checked, as the temporary royal quarters evolved into ruins as the royal household moved into more permanent residence.
Though the apple was the only living organism stored on the sleeper ship Bretonia, it also brought British relics along with it. Art from all over the world had been transported on the Bretonia, to Sirius; such was the collection that the British had built up before the beginning of the endless war.
Among one of these, was a large and relatively recently discovered broadsword. The blade itself was around one meter, twenty centimeters long, with a further thirty centimeters being added from the handle to the hilt. On one side of the blade, the words ‘take me up’ were inscribed. On the other, the words ‘cast me away’ were engraved. The hilt and handle appears to be completely silver, whilst a large hollow runs through the centre of the blade.
Upon the escape of the sleeper ships from Jupiter’s moon, Titan, the blade was stored with many other exhibits in a dedicated chamber at the rear of the ship.
During the period of the exodus, small failures in the hastily designed sleeper ship came to light. Whilst in hyperspace, the compartment holding the relics depressurized and blew apart. As the relics exited the hyperspace bubble, and hence suddenly regained their mass relative to the rest of the universe, both the laws of quantum physics and relativity were broken. A mass, or many, traveling at the speed of light was impossible without a hyperspace bubble (that is, a synthetic sub-dimension).
What happened to the relics was not observed; suffice to say that they kept on course with the Bretonia. As the Bretonia made a slight course change to the edge of the New London system to begin scanning, the relics stayed on course and eventually slammed into Planet New London. The impact was discovered and said to be a natural phenomenon to be examined at a later date.
When the Bretonia made planetfall near the impact zone, a small expedition happened upon the remenants. Small pieces of Egyptian, Roman and Medieval relics survived… well, survived enough to be recognized as part of that era. Only the sword and another relic remained completely intact.
The sword had been impaled in a massive boulder, wedged in tightly. As technology in all areas surged ahead, small contingents of people tried to extract the sword. From powerful hydraulics to precision laser cutters, nothing could scratch the sword, nor the rock within which it was embedded. After a few decades, the rock with the sword was forgotten. Plants native to sol covered the rock and hid it from view. The existence of the sword drifted into rumours fueled by the usual exaggeration. But, none of the future generations really believed it had existed at all.
The other relic that survived the impact with Planet New London did so by piercing the ground to a depth of ten meters. This was ignored, as there were so many other anomalies in the area. As with the sword in the stone, as it came to be named in the rumours, the relic wedged under the ground was forgotten.
The relic, however, did have some interesting effects on the environment around it. Most notably, the largest Oak tree on the planet took up its roots directly over the relic. The Oak grew larger, faster and stronger than any other know to man.
Eventually, a team of lumberjacks came to cut it down. Oak wood was rare, and there was plenty, even from this one tree alone, such was its size. The automated felling machines set to work on the tree, but could only pierce the bark. Even then, the usual sap-bleeding did not occur, and the tree repaired itself within a week, and continued to grow.
Baffled by this marvel of organics, Bretonian scientists set to work analyzing the tree. All went well until the time came for a core sample of the tree to be taken. During the drilling of the tree to the core, the drill became stuck in the bark. Efforts to free the drill bit were in vain. For a week, the scientists pondered what to do next, trying all sorts of methods to free the bit. That ended when the part of the drill bit protruding from the tree simply fell off. Where the rest of the drill bit had been, was simply wood again.
As the project lost interest with the media and the corporations behind the funding, the scientists gave in to defeat and left the area. The Oak tree continued to grow larger and stronger as time passed. For the next 600 years, growth proceeded unimpeded by outside influence.
Then, a new tree sprouted besides the massive Oak, in a clearing, between it and the heavily camouflaged location of the sword. An apple tree.
As the doors to the heavily fortified chamber opened, for the first time since the exodus, a piercing light shone on the apple. The temperature inside was cold, but significantly warmer than allowing a state of cryogenic stasis to be achieved. Despite this, the apple had not decomposed in the slightest.
Technicians explored the room, and took it apart from the inside out. Basic alloys, but the finest of the unending war period before the exodus, were plentiful. A relatively simple fusion power source, which was on its last legs, had also been analyzed, as well as a host of other archaic equipment. The centerpiece appeared to be an apple. Even the databanks recording the existence of the chamber had fallen into disrepair, so the apple was simply tossed away like a bag of rags, considered more an oddity than anything else.
Through many different directions and events, including transport by a rubbish collecting vehicle and an accidental kick from a small child playing football with his father, the apple ended up nearer and nearer the Oak tree. Throughout the years it had been traveling, it sustained no damage and no decomposition due to bacterial infestation. It even survived through the backwash of a civilian spacecraft, which propelled it towards its final destination; a clearing in a small forest.
Besides the Oak tree, the apple stayed and did not move. A blackbird, a species thriving on planet New London, approached it and began to peck at it. During its consumption by the curious Blackbird, the seeds fell on to the ground besides the Oak.
The blackbird flew away after having its feast, late into the night. At around this time, there was an explosion in the population of the blackbird, for no apparent reason.
The seeds of the apple took root in that position, in that clearing. Every year from the year that the seedling became a tree, only a single apple had grown. Each year, after no one took the offering, it fell and decomposed on the ground besides the Oak and Apple trees.
A young lady took up the plump juicy apple in her hand, and stared at it a while. She observed a smooth red surface, the mid-day sun shining upon its skin with a golden gleam, tinged with red. The brilliant glow was enough to temporarily blind someone, and the girl instinctively raised her hand to block the light. In her hand, the apple was large and heavy. It had an inviting smell surrounding it, and seemed perfectly edible. But then, as the girl readied herself to take a bite, she remembered that she had found it on the floor.
The dirty, icky, gooey floor ewwwwww.
The girl looked around, and saw what she was looking for.
Sis! Come over here, I have something to show you!
The summer sun was almost blinding from the shade offered by the edge of the forest. Beams of light shone down into the forest through the thick layers of leaves like arrow shafts, but, while spectacular, offered very little light compared to the uncovered clearing. The clearing itself housed only a large Oak tree, and Apple tree besides it, and an oddly shaped mound on the opposite fringe of the clearing.
Two figures were present on the scene, one lying on the ground in the shade staring up into the canopies of the trees above; the other knelt by the Apple tree, observing something in her hand. As the sun caught the object, it glinted with such intensity that the woman holding it raised her free hand to shield her eyes from the light.
After a few moments the woman holding the apple beckoned the other to observe this spectacle. At first the second woman did not move, too deep in her own thought to notice the call. As the first lady persisted in calling, eventually the second noticed, and without haste made her way towards her sister.
Annie, Annie! Look what I found!; exclaimed the bearer of the apple.
Do you ever let me think in peace? I came out here think, and you’ve come and rui… what’s that Isabell?
It’s the biggest apple I’ve ever seen! And it’s so shiny… I wanted to take a bite, but it was on the floor, so…
Anne swiped the apple away from Isabell, who was half way through her sentence. Isabell looked down at her empty hand and stared a moment, twiddling her fingers a little before responding.
Hey! That’s mine! Give it back!; she pouted, and lunged at the apple.
Anne easily dodged her sister’s lunge and handed her to the ground for good measure, whilst barely paying her any attention. She continued to observe the apple despite her sister lying on the ground, struggling to recover from the hard fall that winded her.
Ouch! Anne, that hurt!; Isabell gasped.
Shut up. Can’t you see I’m thinking, Izzy?
Hmph! Fine then.
Isabell turned away and skipped towards the Oak this time. Anne stayed in place a moment longer, before holding the apple at arms length to observe the reflection of the sun. Though it was bright, Anne didn’t squint or flinch. Her deep green eyes locked on to the large red apple.
Anne chewed contentedly on the delicious apple and for a while, she just stood there eating it down to the core. Isabell only noticed after Anne had taken the second bite, and had proceeded to whine unendingly as Anne swatted her back with her other hand.
This went on for a while, as it was no secret that Anne derived pleasure from passively taunting her sister. Even though Anne was eighteen and Isabell was nineteen, they frequently engaged in childish banter when they were alone together.
The complaints of Isabell as she grappled for the apple in a futile attempt at regaining her possession fell silent as soon as Anne requested it. Though Anne was the younger of the two, she was certainly the commanding spirit and acted the part as well. Thus, her command was obeyed.
Isabell saw a difference this time though. This wasnt the playful banter that she was used to. Anne had rarely seemed so single minded as she was now, turning her head in different directions scanning for something in the forest. It appeared that, after a short while, she had seen what she was looking for, and began heading to the opposite edge of the clearing. With Isabell in tow, the pair cast dark shadows, contrasting with the brightness of the day.
As they entered the opposite end of the forest, they were confronted with an oddly shaped mound. Almost immediately, Anne removed her white gloves and started digging through the earth and grass that covered it, soiling her hands and the cuffs of her pristine white coat. Isabell just looked on in surprise and curiosity as her sister kept digging. Eventually, as nothing had been found, Isabell took her place under the Apple tree in the clearing, leaning against it and simply enjoying the contrast of shade and sunlight.
Hours passed, and the sun began to set. An orange hue of the New London sun cast long shadows, while reflecting from the altocumulus clouds in the atmosphere to create beautiful gradients of orange light. Isabells patience had been worn thin by her sisters digging, which had been going on for about four hours non-stop.
Aha! Found it!; Anne shouted to her sister.
Isabell raised her head from its droop and skipped towards Anne.
Whatve you found sis?; Isabell inquired curiously. It must have been quite important for you to be digging like this all day
Hang on Izzy, let me show you if I can just dislodge it from this rock.; Anne said through gritted teeth as she pulled on something attached to the rock.