by OMAR FINK
Yet another voice spoke from the edge of the group, “My coffee shop uses only the best ingredients, and the safest materials. We publish everything we do, and anybody can see all the details. If you don’t like what you see, go get your coffee somewhere else. Most of our customers like how we do things better than our competition. If you decided to add a bunch of regulations, we’ll have to change how we do things. Is that really what you want? What do you think you stand to gain from doing that?”
Billy listened for a while longer, then found a seat in a quiet corner near a fountain and water cascade. He tapped his ear, “Record message for Zorba Omega. Hello Zorba, this is Billy with my latest report from Hab-34, near Mars. This city is amazing. There is a variety of village businesses starting up all the time here. The people here demonstrate a strong belief in self-determination and self-reliance. They want to run their own lives, and seem capable of doing that. They are starting new ‘village shop’ businesses all the time in many business genres. Probably one of the first needs that becomes apparent as folks settle in, is more variety in the food. The city cafeterias offer a reasonable level of menu items and decent quality, but like most cafeterias, after a while it becomes monotonous. Coffee and pastry shops seem to have come first because there are so many of them. But now you can find all kinds of specialty foods from all ethnic backgrounds. Some fail, but more spring up even faster and the good ones last. There is no shortage of excellent food here now, and it comes in almost any form.”
He paused for a few seconds, then continued, “There are clothing design and printing shops where you can get your body shape scanned, and then use software to design clothing. Many kinds of fabrics in any color are available. Style templates make the design simple to customize. Once the design is finalized, the clothing is manufactured on an additive printing machine and exchanged for credit. The entire process takes less than an hour with most of the time consumed by detail choices by the customer. Simple clothing can be ordered on the mesh from any location so these shops cater to special designs and fabrics. It should go without saying that software design is a huge and growing business sector. Most other businesses here rely on software at some point in their processes. Food and clothing printing, environmental background and decoration, robotic device interaction and control, all the automation built into the infrastructure of the city: the list goes on and on. The software here is quite advanced compared to what we were used back on Earth. Most of the coding is done by machine, but the system analysis and design work often benefits from human creativity, and that means the need for jobs, and even entire businesses are created.”
Billy thought for second, then added, “The people here have collectively created financial unions that provide micro-loans and small investment opportunities, like localized venture capital funds. They all put in what extra credit they have, and use the pool to make loans and invest in local businesses. It’s a win-win proposition for everybody. Pretty sweet. I like living here. The people are good, simple, and live righteously. Oh, there’s a growing religious cult-like group that follows the old Greek Orphic traditions. They seem to believe in a divine soul and a cycle of spiritual rebirth. They like to sing and dance and enjoy life. There’s some kind of connection to Pythagoras, but you probably know more about that than I do, considering your Greek background.”
He paused, then concluded with, “Well, that’s about it for now. Let me know if there’s anything specific you need me to look at and as usual I’ll file another report when I have more to report.”
+6 years, 3 months, HABITAT-34, NEAR MARS ORBIT AU 1.5
Lee Martin leaned in closer to Marco Lagorio as he pointed out some numbers on a monitor screen. Marco said, “Around four hundred space elevator cables have been finished, and they are lifting over twenty-five million people per month. All the cables combined have lifted over three hundred million people up into space so far. Of course that is a drop in the bucket when you consider we must reach a total of over eight billion within the next four years. This is a problem because we aren’t building or lifting fast enough to reach the deadline. At this point, we don’t know if we’ll be able to overcome the shortage.” He turned to frown at Lee, and she scowled back at him.
Marco turned back to the monitor, “However, my job is to oversee the design aspects of the ring habitats. While I’m not involved every day in production, I do work closely with that team, and I have their numbers too. We’re completing about four habs per month. We have just over eighty habs finished this month, and they have a total capacity of at least four hundred million people and more if we wanted to crowd people together a little.” Now he turned to Lee and smiled, and she returned his smile.
Marco held a hand out in the air like it was supporting something, “So my job is going well. We can house all the people the elevators can lift into space, and as you can see from living here, our population seems to enjoy living in these habitats.” He smiled at Lee again.
Lee asked, “You don’t actually do the interior decorating work do you?”
Marco waved his hand like he was erasing something, “Oh no, I just do the space engineering part. Sometimes I work with the architectural team, and we do from time to time get involved with some of the interior decorators but for the most part, they are distinct to each habitat, resulting in every hab having its own flavor.”
Lee nodded, “So you do the macro level engineering then the architectural team designs the layout of the living quarters and walls and avenues and so on, then the interior decorators design the software that creates the displays on the walls and other surfaces.”
Marco nodded back, “That is correct. And while my work is fairly dry and involves a lot of mathematics, the architects get to do more creative stuff. Then the software teams are a combination of artists and magicians. I’m always amazed at what they produce.” He smiled and spread out both hands to show his acclaim.
Lee smiled and nodded, “You said it! The idea that you can walk down an avenue one day and see all kinds of design art and patterns that make it look like a beautiful garden and come back the next day and everything will be different is astounding!”
Marco asked, “Have you played with the decorating available inside your personal quarters?”
Lee dropped her mouth open and exclaimed, “Yes! I can’t believe it. I can make my living space look like a beach at sunset or a magical forest or a mountain top with a view, or just about anything you can imagine. They add new choices and options every week, and I understand if you’re willing to pay extra, you can get unique wallscapes designed to your own specifications.” She closed her mouth, and shook her head back and forth in mock disbelief.
Marco said, “I’m getting thirsty. Why don’t we stroll down to the cafe and get some coffee?”
Lee replied, “Sure.”
A few minutes later, they were walking down a wide avenue punctuated occasionally with sidewalk cafe style tables and chairs and many different kinds of shops. Most entrances were wide and had no doors, often spanning the entire length of the inside venue. There were canopies and arches, and some entrances even gave the appearance of a dark cave beyond. The walls in between the shops displayed a variety of architectural flavors, and included artwork that gave the impression of trees and green plants. There were also artificial plants and every now and then some that seemed to be alive.
Lee pointed out several restaurants that seemed to have interior landscapes on the far inside wall, “This ‘al-fresco’ dining thing has really caught on here.” She thought for a few seconds then added, “Al-fresco does mean ‘outdoor’ dining doesn’t it?’
Marco smiled and replied, “Yes, it does. It is Italian and translated literally means, ‘in the cool air’.”
Lee smirked, “I should have known that was Italian.”
Marco asked, “Have you seen the Riverwalk, Beachcomber, and Yacht Club restaurants?”
Lee said, “No I haven’t. But I can imagine the landscapes they displa
y just because of the names.”
Marco nodded, “Indeed.”
They reached the cafe and sat down at a table on the edge of the avenue and ordered coffee and pastry from the restaurant interface projected on the table. Within a few minutes, it was delivered by a robotic cart. They sat and sipped the coffee and tasted the pastry.
Marco finally broke the silence, “This is such a fantastic lifestyle we have out here. I find it hard to imagine that anyone who has actually experienced it would ever want to return to Earth.” He shook his head.
Lee put her cup down, “Yeah, but you said earlier that less than a billion of us have actually made the trip so far. That leaves most of the more than seven billion still on Earth. They don’t know what they are missing.”
Lee took a bite of her pastry, chewed it up, swallowed, then added, “What really fascinates me is the way human motivation changes out here.”
Marco said, “How do you mean?”
Lee answered, “On Earth, people were mostly motivated by finances, career progression, and social status. Out here, we seem to be much more free from those pressures. I know some of that is the fact that we all seem to be rich compared to our former lives. But at least for me, the pressure of career and social status seems to be also greatly diminished. Do you feel that?”
Marco laughed, “I’m not sure. I’m always busy doing my job, but I love what I do and do it because I love it. And it’s always been that way for me, whether I was on Earth or out here.”
Lee smiled, “Oh yeah, that’s right. I forgot. You are a true space evangelist.”
Marco laughed again, “I see you remember me well.”
Lee replied, “I do remember you. I remember when you told us that the governments of Earth would never find traction out here. You were right. Some of them have tried to re-establish their old states, but now it would seem nearly impossible to me. Their constituent peoples are all scrambled around, and have the ability to move pretty freely, meaning there are no real national boundaries anymore, only a multitude of city-states.”
Marco said, “Yeah, it’s amazing what wealth and freedom will do to people.” He smiled widely.
+6 years, 4 months, HABITAT-22, AU 2.1
Delize said, “In our last session, we covered some basics including: break-falls, rolls, unbendable arm, and keeping a single centered point of balance. You did quite well at those, specially the break-falls.” She smiled at Keel O’Donnell. He smiled back.
She continued, “I assume your experience with the break-falls comes from your Ju-Jitsu training. Today, we’re going to work on a couple of very basic but powerful moves that will become building blocks for more advanced techniques. Hopefully, your previous training will also provide some benefit in this. A basic principle that Aikido and Ju-Jitsu share in common is that of not resisting energy that can harm us, but instead, harmonizing with it and using it in an active defense. Where you are likely to find differences is that Aikido has no real practice of attack moves. It is completely focuses on defending. Your previous training in Ju-Jitsu and Krav Maga most likely had a lot of concentration on attack.”
Keel replied, “That’s true. Krav Maga has a lot of striking motions intended to disable an attacker, so in that sense it adopts the idea that the best defense is a good offense. Ju-Jitsu is more like Aikido, but in the special forces version, there are also plenty of attacking moves.”
Delize said, “In real life violent conflict, you may find some of those moves useful. But Aikido goes far beyond just being a self-defense martial art. It’s a philosophy of understanding the flow of energy around us and harmonizing with it to reduce any ability of that energy to harm us. This is important because it takes on some interesting aspects in the areas of emotions, and even spirituality. It is designed to become an operational philosophy for everyday life, not just one useful in physical conflict.”
Keel smiled at her, “I like harmonizing with your energy. Can we make love when the sparring is over?”
Delize responded, “Keep your mind on what you’re doing now, or you’ll be finding yourself mostly on your back.”
Keel said, “That’s okay. If you want to be on top, it’s okay with me.”
Delize smiled, “Silly boy. The one who correctly harmonizes energies gets to choose where they end up.”
She paused, then continued, “By the way, I think I’ve come up your nickname.”
Keel said, “Pray tell.”
Delize said, “Kilo.”
+6 years, 5 months, HABITAT-22, AU 2.1
Nabith Mehra was showing Delize Naidu and Keel O’Donnell around the Astro Navigation Center on Habitat-22. He explained, “I thought you two might appreciate seeing some of the work we’re doing here. Quite a bit is due to your valuable input and advice. I owe you some thanks and appreciation.” He turned toward them, and bowed slightly from the waist and pressed both hands together like praying. They both nodded back to him, then turned to glance at each other.
Nabith pointed at a large display screen on the wall that was filled with a ring composed of hundreds of thousands of small dots. He said, “This is our real time display of asteroid tracking. Remember our discussions of your needs for navigation tracking? This is one of the results. Every sensor node in our network is constantly collecting updated information on the trajectories of every object we observe, and our database organizes and saves all the data. When any local node needs fresh data, they can request it and update their local data table to work with only objects that they have concern with. In most cases, they update their local data every hour. Any high speed object can be flagged as becoming local data in sectors they will be in at future times.”
Nabith stopped and smiled, “One of the reasons for creating all of this was simply the need for a prospecting registry database for the miners. They’re still working on the rules and laws about prospecting but none of that does any good if you can’t record a claim and allow other prospectors to access the data. It seemed obvious to combine your need for navigation with needs of the mining prospectors.”
Delize glanced over at Keel who looked back at her and smiled. Nabith turned to face Delize and Keel and said seriously, “One of the most interesting things I’ve been working on is a set of tools to analyze changes in orbital trajectories, and future permutations from them. Every time a mining operation changes the path of some rock, there may be future consequences from that. Just the absence of a rock where one used to be can have an effect through the lack of gravitational influence. On several occasions, rocks that became a threat to some habitat have been pushed aside without adequate change analysis to make sure a new threat has not been created. Are you following me so far?” Both Delize and Keel nodded in unison.
Nabith continued, “Now that we have these new tools, I went back into past data and took a look at how the passing of the comet train six years ago changed things. When it arrived, it came in off the ecliptic plane, and didn’t pass through the asteroid belt. But when it left, the trajectory was different and it did pass through the thickest part of the belt, and that changed a lot of things. There have been ripple effects since then, and I’m still running calculations and projections to define them.”
+6 years, 7 months, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Gitane Levesque spoke directly to the camera, “This is Gitane Levesque with some breaking news. The group known as ‘the Resistance’ has claimed credit for recent attacks against ground installations that feed into the HU elevators. They launched mortar attacks against schools and health care facilities in several locations around the world, killing more than sixty people and wounding over two hundred more. It was widely suspected that the Resistance was behind these attacks but until now, no direct attribution had been made.”
Gitane turned to look at another camera but it was not live, leaving the live shot with his face turned away. Then he turned back as the camera switched and again his face was turned away. Finally, he found the right camera and turned to face it. He said
, “The resisters, registers, I mean Resistance, continue to insist that HU is executing a coup, yes a coup d’etat, s'il vous plaît. What? Anglais? Oh, English. Of course. They are taking over. They are overthrowing the world. The comet is a fraud, a fake, a lie. That is what they say.”
The television view cut abruptly to a commercial. Gitane reached under the desk in front of him and raised a bottle of wine, and took a long swig from it.
A producer walked over to Gitane and said, “Are you okay?”
Gitane put the bottle down hard on the desk and replied, “I’m fine.”
The producer said, “You’ve been drinking too much, and it’s affecting your performance on the air. This is not good.”
Gitane said, “Don’t worry. It’s all good.” He got out of his chair and wandered back off the set.
+6 years, 7 months, LACKLAND AFB, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, USA
When former Air Force General Bill Decker walked into the Network Warfare Command Center, there had been muffled cries of surprise, most staff rose to their feet and gave him a soft round of applause which he quickly hushed. But now, he sat in a observation chair in the dark room, watching the action on the wall of monitor screens.
