2330

  Alexander was born in the city of Athens. His world appeared normal to him and to

  the people around him, but to humans before Osiris, it would feel like a prison. It had

  been nearly sixty years since the administration of COD, and society’s population

  had managed to decline. With nearly zero newborns and quite a few suicides, Alex

  grew up in a world where everything moved slowly, where what was once considered

  depression seemed normal. At the age of five, he began to show the first signs of his

  natural leadership abilities.

  Since having a child was a very rare event, he and the

  very few children were mentored by the best possible teachers in the most ideal

  environments. His development began to show a lot of promise, and his interest in

  the cosmos seemed to be growing, the more answers he was getting. Although he

  was very easily distracted and more often than not caught daydreaming while

  studying, he managed at the age of sixteen to join the scientific community of

  astrophysicists and cosmologists.

  “There are still satellites with telescopes and other instruments floating in

  space. I insist, repairing those satellites should be one of our top priorities” said Alex

  to Martina, one of his supervisors.

  “How will spending all those resources to repair a few satellites, none of

  which are meant to monitor Earth’s climate, going to help us now? Even if we detect

  another Osiris coming, there is nothing we can do now either way,” answered

  Martina.

  Alex composed himself. He took a deep breath and thought, You have

  practiced that. Speak slowly and pass the message. He let a couple of seconds go

  by, and then he explained.

  “There are no miracles that can happen now to fix the

  environment fast. But there are still areas we can learn from. Science is hitting dead

  ends in all directions. We need astrophysics to be tested so our hypothesis can take

  the right track. This has always been the case. All science works as one.”

  Martina remained silent. She placed her hand on the side of her head and

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  said, “What you say is not wrong. Make the calculations for a launch bay that can be

  reused, and then we will talk again. We can’t use single-use launch pads. We know

  the missions will be plenty.”

  “Of course not,” replied Alex. “I will need a couple of people to help me with

  the calculations.”

  Martina smiled at him. “You can request a small team, and if it is not overly

  ambitious, I will make sure you get approval.”

  Launching and landing rockets often meant that a new launch site had to be

  built. An area with extra-thin ice that could be removed, revealing the stable soil

  underneath was found. A few kilometers off the dome city of Abuja, a new launch

  base was beginning to be built. After the first couple of satellites were repaired, Alex

  began using them in idle times without the proper documentation. He thought, It’s a

  waste of time. It takes me more time to fill out forms and wait for approval than to

  actually use them.

  2332

  Jain was born in the dome city of Tehran. She had a hard time with other kids around

  her. Her competitive nature and incredible mind meant that she topped everything

  she set her mind to. From gymnastics to mathematics, she would excel at everything.

  Her tutors began paying special attention to her and giving her increasingly difficult

  tasks in every field, in an effort to test her limits. That caused the few kids around her

  to distance themselves from her. That did not seem to bother her for too long, since

  the society she was in seemed to follow a distancing pattern either way. She grew up

  independent, and that made it hard for her to work with others. The few friends she

  had around her would worry. She was too young to be suffering from apostasies, but

  it seemed like she did. She would only be fine when she worked on something hard.

  She began working for a while on the Earth Revitalization Program or ERP. In her

  work there, she met people from all over the fields of science, and she ended up in a

  leading role.

  One day, while gathering data from the satellites, she noticed that their log

  had entries during times where the systems should be idle. Someone is using the

  satellites during their idle time, she thought. It looks like the keys are from one of the

  admins. She curiously searched deeper to see who and what were they used for.

  “Who is Alex? Could this be the Alex?” She called for a meeting with the user named

  Alex to question him about the authority under which he was using the equipment,

  along with the nature of data he was collecting. She was quite sure this was

  someone using the name of Director Alex to avoid questions.