The First

They are the first to go up and clean up the mess we left without thinking while causing global warming. This story explores that reputation of the atmosphere cleaners on earth and their opinions.

SPACE: Log 1.36S.5 

        We were The First. The first to go up and clean up the heap of junk that was thrown up like a home run. Up, up, up and away we went, “to infinity and beyond!” we liked to say (something about it made us feel more positive as we thought of the task ahead even though we had been properly trained at NASA). What were we thinking, that it was gonna be easy? That was the last of the thoughts that crossed our minds as we began to ascend into the soul of the earths’ atmosphere. Something else more important came to mind as we began rising up to meet the dump, "could we really just sort all of our problems by using the atmosphere as a trash shoot?" 

         ''Crazy, Dangerous'' by Nate Dogg played on the radio as the fuel fed monster made rise higher. The vessel was brand new but it still had its technical flaws, the communications had some glitches that were being worked on back home. What s****y piece of artwork they put together for us, you know a bunch of governments getting together should better than one working with itself... sheesh... 

Ooh... also, on the governments, they’re losing power by the second. The underlying truth is that there was a perfect virtual cult that started people to change their lifestyle to a symbiotic with nature, going back to the native Americans roots. before really getting into the story we were experienced, I have to tell you about the story of the fate of the earth.  

Everyone knew we’d destroy the world and have to go to space, that much was obvious. What they didn’t know was that the world after Elon Musk would have a holographic Jesus that spoke the bible. The Catholic Church finally went into business with the latest hologram technology. Also, back on the topic of the cult, it was based on the most basic of fundamentals. They did their research and combined the most influential techniques of the biggest players in the game: Buddha, Muhamad, Yahweh, God, Scientology. This god is more popular than Jesus himself (something like John Lennon once said in an interview except everyone went along with it this time without making a big deal of it this time). 

EARTH: Log 1.5E56 

You should have seen the world watch on their TVs as The First went Up like The Challenger just managing not explode. The occasion was the talk of the century, it was the first real attempt to clean the atmosphere of all the global warming, "like putting the chemicals in the clouds to stop the expected rains" (that’s how we had it explained on the breaking news).  

SPACE: Log 2.76S.8 

My father was the one who told me that the chemicals we mess with as medicine only come back to mess with us, an eye for an eye. Mission control instructed us when and where to put the chemicals designed to clean the atmosphere, a tooth for a tooth. Sometimes I think that the human race would be better as individuals functioning with the world in a natural fashion, at least still containing our individuality we can flourish. 

EARTH: Log 2.5E54 

         My brother and me were hanging out and talking about the event that the launch was the other day. We came to the decision that it was the fourth major ascension of any spacecraft only beaten by SpaceX, Apollo 11 and Sputnik.  

SPACE: Log 3.S68.5 

         We had finally reached the point of cleaning we had been waiting for. Chems ready and Atmoscleaners at the attention of the trigger finger, we made our way out of the hunk of metal, climate warriors for change. We had the intentions of the crusaders, the governments' dogs, as we did their duty with diligence, the dirty work for, "the better of humanity..." (as some put it, but you know how we tend to divide rather than come together). 

EARTH: Log 3.4E62 

          The family hit hard times during what seemed to be the millionth great depression. We had our savings of hope bet in favor of ultimately resolving the weather issues. It seemed the scoop was always full of the magazine articles dedicated to the classic casual conversation, "did you see the clouds are today…" 

SPACE: Log 4.S62.9 

         I remember reading Cat's Cradle back in high school. It told of a scientific discovery that could freeze the world, same with Snow Piercer … 

EARTH: Log 4.E538 

The hard times come and gone, the good times start and end, the cycle repeats. The daily updates continue on the news about The First as we continue to have our dinner. The opinions fly around, daily theoretical discussions about what is to come.  

SPACE: Log 5.S59.3 

You know what they say about the first kids to leave the house for college, they make the first mistakes and learn what they did wrong all too late. Well, we had our first problem deep in the atmospheric mess (failing equipment due to design flaws or delivery, but that was anticipated). Though we were trained in the art of cleaning on earth at NASA no one could have told me what we were truly in for, the human mind suffers with time being isolated by your ego in the sky while being in a party of opinions. We live up here with commands disobeyed on the basis of personal and political reasons, imagine what the outcome could be if we lose communications... 

EARTH: Log 5.35E3 

Speaking on communication devices, the watches had officially taken over the cellphones and the landline has been cut. Now seen somewhat as a possibility, Apple predicts that within ten years we will have the first implanted device one the market. The day that it happens we expect the market to jump like you just put the cables in an automobile, something will happen, something big... 

SPACE: Log 6.9S3.8 

Speaking of big topics, we had our first real success with the atmospheric housekeeping today. The theoretical chemistry that was predicted finally behaved as it should as we fixed our Atmoscleaners in the armed setting, about time something went our way... 

EARTH: Log 6.8E26 

The earth by this point had made action figures out of The First, within two years of them starting the cleaning we had a pop culture surrounding them with movies and holographic boardgames. I think that the ideas that George Lucas put up were so fundamental as to how we see some humans as heroes that Hasbro couldn’t help but make something great to put out about those men sent to do our cleaning. 

They also came out with the latest and greatest update for the Apple watch, a holographic messenger inspired by the Star Wars scene with Princess Leah and R2D2. The product now on the market from VNTANA and other international companies, it was the highest grossing Christmas sellout item in the history of mankind. But the issue is the same as with every new product, there’s always too many incompatible versions around to make it really usable.   

SPACE: Log 7.9S5.6 

To the people below we were heroes, or that’s as NASA put it for us. But for us already ascended angels we already knew this would change nothing about the outcome of the earth. The truth is humans have a tendency to way overdo things before they realize the crops that they will reap in the future harvests sewn. 

The ETA of the job at hand was 60 years being that it had been reduced by half down on earth through the minds of great modern-day chemists. The worst part is they say that cleaning will have to be done on a regular basis by humans unless we send up something like a team of mobile air freshener-like devices to do the work for us. It’s predicted that there will be a restarting contamination effect due to humans not able to learn from history, let’s hope for the best and keep watching. 

Had we not destroyed the natural environments of the earth for money, we could have preserved the world. The problem was that everyone was watching the news instead of looking out their own front door to see what was happening, I guess that if you miss the elephant in the room then it’s your fault really. 

EARTH: Log 7.895E 

I looked into the screening process for the job of atmospheric cleaner out of curiosity and found some articles that were quite interesting. They say that if you go to NASA’s site you can find an application for the complex vetting system they put in place to keep people qualified (it was a coveted job to the public among the science nerds after the action figures came out). 

SPACE: Log 8.2S8.4 

We just found out that a team member passed the screening for the job schitzy (which should have been impossible based on the process they have to go through, it goes nice and slow like the US military enlistment processing). He had been the quiet one up until now, now he’s wearing slowly but surely off into the paranoia from long hours of stress and space work being secluded. You know they should have preprepared for the deterioration of the mind over long periods of time away from society, I guess the simulations we had to go through couldn’t predict this outlier of an outcome. 

We finally found a term to describe the state of mental deterioration, destate, short and sweet. Every day his destate gets worse and worse, every second passes like an hour up here in this space craft trying to care for a person who can’t keep the puzzle pieces of his mind glued together the moch poch of normal neuro pathways. 

EARTH: Log 8.E356 

The earth was slowly getting more unstable, too hot, next day too cold, no one can agree, radical groups claiming conspiracy theories are all the reality. The nature cult has doubled in size and has begun its ascension into the cloud with the intent of tripling the member count, the US consumerism culture had a profound impact throughout the recent human history on religious endeavors. Marketing advancements made it almost impossible to open an app without your friendly advertisement lying in wait dormant until you begin the flow chart of code. 

SPACE: Log 9.6S4.8 

Situation is code red as the maniac rampages (he never seems to sleep at all). We’re not sure what will happen in the near future as he continues to disobey direct orders from superior positions. He has officially started believing that all the conspiracy theories are true... 

We finally got communication time with the entire world, a news special on 60 minutes to give an update on the improvement we had been working towards back on earth. Over the last year in the atmosphere, it got harder and harder to control our little problem at hand. The problem was that the problem was a human, not a machine. 

EARTH: Log 9.5E63 

The long-awaited TV program was due to come on today on 60 minutes, an interview with the heroes in space, it was the update we had all been waiting on.  

The governments had started to build some years earlier a temperature sensitive heating or cooling device to keep up the best they could with the weather changes. Before that time my damn electricity bill was through the roof... 

SPACE: Log 10.868.S 

They finally gave the problem child of the flight a greenlight on using one of the evacuation crafts to descend back to earth, but he believed he was ready and able to continue to mission. We had to take a day or two to convince him that he should abort his position, as the replacement would be arriving in what he went down in. The reusable space craft was finally perfected over the past 100 years, so the switch was made and, in a day or two we should receive our next recruit for OA (operation atmosphere). Time only will when they finish the technology to take away the necessity of a human to do the job fully... 

EARTH: Log 10.567E 

Things continue to contaminate and be destroyed as fast as we can purify (not to mention the earth is getting too expensive to live on). The original price for the temperature sensitivity devices has doubled and tripled and less money is being given out for the essential social education sectors every year, the governments are encouraging more and more people to leave earth and if we continue like this nobody will be here.  

The latest news is that they're building a space station for layovers on the way to Mars, the planet finally became inhabitable. The only issue with the plan is that the elder population is not going to be able to complete the trip and pass in transit if they don't include a functioning affordable cryonic package. The question that the governments are putting up now is whether to include cryonics into the present-day Healthcare plans equivalent to Medicare...