The star Canopus, situated 310 light years from Earth, has watched our complicated history unfold for millions of years. The year is 14,000 AD and Canopus is now aligned with Earth's Southern Pole Axis. In a different point in time this might have been useful as a navigational tool for humanity, but not at this time. At this point in time, something has gone horribly wrong...

‘Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future.

The too perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, a general dwindling in size, strength, and intelligence.

And like blots upon the landscape, rose the cupolas above the ways to the Underworld. I understood now what all the beauty of the Upperworld people covered. Very pleasant was their day, as pleasant as the day of the cattle in the eld. Like the cattle, they knew of no enemies and provided against no needs. And their end was the same.’

H.G. Wells ~ The Time Machine