Voyage From Yesteryear - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

The story begins in the early 21st century, just as an as-of-yet unnamed automated space probe is about to be sent from Earth to find habitable exoplanets. When it appears that an apocalyptic conflict is approaching, the probe's mission is changed from one of exploration to one of extrasolar space colonization, in the hope of preserving human civilization. As the technology does not yet exist to successfully convert the probe into a generation or sleeper ship, it is instead modified for embryo space colonization.

The probe's data banks are programmed with the DNA sequences of several hundred humans, and as much of humanity's knowledge as possible. It is equipped with artificial wombs capable of using this data to gestate human babies. Finally, it is crewed with robots programmed not only to maintain the ship, but also raise the babies to adulthood. To signify its new purpose, the probe is dubbed the Kuan-Yin, the bodhisattva of childbirth.

Soon after the probe is launched, a major global war breaks out, but it is not as devastating as anticipated. It only takes several decades for the survivors to rebuild civilization, but as a repressive, authoritarian shadow of its former self. This is the civilization that receives a message from Alpha Centauri, signaling the success of the Kuan-Yin's mission. An Earth-like planet has been found in the system, and the Kuan-Yin has successfully raised its first generation of human children. They have dubbed the planet Chiron, after the mythological centaur.

On Earth, the old international hostilities which led to war are still evident, and so the three major power blocs — North America, Asia, and Europe — each send a generation ship to Alpha Centauri to reclaim the colony there. The starship from North America, the Mayflower II, arrives first after a 20-year voyage, however its attempts to open a political dialogue with the inhabitants of Chiron fails when it becomes apparent that Chironian society has developed as an adhocracy.

Since the availability of power from fusion reactors and cheap automated labor has enabled them to develop a post-scarcity economy, they do not use money as a means of exchange, nor do they recognize material possessions as symbols of status. Instead, competence and talent are considered symbolic of one's social standing – resources that cannot be counterfeited or hoarded, and must be put to use if they are to be acknowledged. As a result, the competitive drive that fuels capitalist financial systems has filled the colony with the products of decades of incredible artistic and technical talent, and there are no widespread hierarchies. No one person or group of people can know everything, so no one person or group of people is expected to speak for all. They have no centralized authorities; some would say they have no government at all.

The government of the Mayflower II utilizes various methods used throughout human history in its attempts to exert control over the Chironians; bureaucratic legislature, a capitalist financial system, and proselytizing religion. However, they are frustrated by failure at every turn: as a people that have never been exposed to Earth's coercive authorities, the Chironians lack the social conditioning to even comprehend the attempts at subversion. Soon many of the crew from the Mayflower II are abandoning their increasingly futile positions in the invading hierarchy in favor of adopting the more rewarding Chironian lifestyle. Amid widespread speculation that a violent conflict will soon break out, some of the people who arrived on the Mayflower II realize that the Chironians do not intend to harm the majority of the ship's occupants, but rather use a form of satyagraha (Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent noncompliance) to integrate the peaceful travelers into their society and isolate the small number who present a real threat.

It is an outstanding success. Eventually a military coup is staged aboard the Mayflower II, and the leader of the coup launches the Mayflower II’s "battle module", an independently-functioning, heavily-armed warship, and threatens to attack the Chironian population unless they submit to his authority. The Chironian's enemies isolated at last, he and his fellow authoritarians are killed when a direct attack with a high-energy antimatter particle beam weapon destroys the battle module. The remaining members of the Mayflower II’s government vote to dissolve their government and absorb peacefully into Chironian society.

In the week after the dissolution of Mayflower II’s government, the laser communications beam from Earth which has kept the Mayflower II apprised of events back home (with a 4.5 year-delay as the information travels at light speed) is lost as the result of yet another catastrophic war. The story skips forward five years and ends with the Chironians — who have by now assimilated not only the North Americans but also the crews of the Asian and European starships — recommissioning the refitted Mayflower II (renamed as the Henry B. Congreve after the man behind the Kuan-Yin’s mission) which will return to Earth to rebuild it (the journey is estimated to take about 8 years following the installation of an antimatter drive which the Chironians have perfected), thus fulfilling the Kuan-Yin's mission of preserving human civilization.