The Distant Future chpt 1

A Chapter by rifleman10

Constructive criticism on the first chapter of The Distant Future will be greatly appreciated.

Chapter 1 Humanity Grew Right

“Earth was abandoned roughly 35,000 years ago. Shawn, can you remind the scatter brains in this class why this was?” “Yes of course professor, Earth was for the most part abandoned around 7,000 AD”. That’s very good Mr. Lotus, now can you explain why?” “Of course miss, the world was starting an ice age, raising water levels and limiting habitable zones for human life”. “Excellent Shawn, now with today being…….”. Shawn’s mind started to wander again as his excitement for this class to end rises. Still nearly an hour on the review of procedures and general information Shawn had known for years. This class was a part of a ten week course discussing the history of earth and upon its completion the class was scheduled to travel to earth. Once there the class would be responsible to do archaeological research and run tests on the soil, water, and atmosphere of Earth.

As exciting as this was to his many less experienced classmates Shawn explored many planets before, including earth when he first turned eighteen. So why do I even bother with these routine space programs he thought to himself, perhaps because he wanted other eyes and minds to accompany him, or perhaps to satisfy his basic social needs. The 42nd millennium was like many other times through the history of the universe for a true explorer, and Shawn was no exception. The desire to learn and explore often took him far from relatable dinner conversations.

An interest in Earth is common among many in human society these days and although classes of individuals visit earth every few months to sight see, study and do research. This team gets to visit Hong Kong, once the largest human city for thousands of years. This particular fact is why Shawn chose this class; Hong Kong was the home to over twenty billion people in the late days before humanities exodus of earth. Each class like this studies a different place on Earth and Hong Kong has not been visited for over two years. Shawn was an average guy who loved to learn among nearly countless other contemporary life forms just trying to find their way through the human experience of the year 42,713.

Shawn did have a few nice advantages over many of his peers though as well, he had a deceased relative in a disguised government position and because there were so few important jobs in comparison to the endless population of the age, it was a great honour. His family is what’s known as a privileged family. This is due most recently to his grandfather 10 generations back holding political worth in extraterritorial relations. Beyond that the recent history was classified and not much more could be discovered about his great grandfather Jason Lotus. Despite Shawn’s curiosity those outside of the current government didn't have much access to knowledge regarding politics or government used technologies.

With everything the government does without asking for anything in return from the public sector citizens, you’d hardly ever find someone complaining about the government. In some rare cases people have gotten so wound up about secrecy and rights the government contacts them, and try’s to have an honest sit down with them, or so the story goes.

If they cannot be convinced they are given an ultimatum, live with it or go work on a private sector world. Shawn viewed himself as a patriot, he for the most part loved this crazy world he live in; I just wish I could find someone to share it with he thought to himself.

Shawn raises his head to listen for a moment to discover the class is going over first contact procedure and takes this as a sign to step back into his thoughts. Thanks to my Great Grandfather our family sits in the privileged class which grants our family a few benefits beyond the average citizens. For one our family has its own Space ship which was mine to use for the time being and was waiting at a nearby docking station, along with a sophisticated droid capable of flying, translating, mechanical repair and acting as my personal assistant whenever I need one.

With this in mind as soon as this class lets out I plan to make my way to earth prior to the rest of the class for a little unhindered exploration. If anything interesting is going on in current day Hong Kong, I want to find out what. Shawn zoned back into the lecture, the professor is just going over how to interact with the class’s assigned ship and droid. Again something that was instilled in his head through repetition he thought. The droid stands only four feet tall and has a human like shape with clearly visible mechanical fixtures, most obvious being a large touch screen where the droids chest should be. Its entire frame is a shiny silver colour making it easy to see from a distance. This droid is a standard Government Issue protocol droid, it’s constructed like the one back on my ship to do tasks that human generally wouldn't want to or be able to do. As it speaks the voice is deep yet kind and thank the havens the voice can be changed to give all droids some individuality.

Finally Professor Amirroria Vincent dismisses the class. Shawn eagerly makes his way out of his seat, down the stairs of the lecture hall and out the door. As Shawn steps out of the class he hears the professor from back at the doorway yell “So I guess will meet you in Hong Kong then?” “Yes” Shawn replied. Shawn makes his way away from the group in the open corridor and outside of the institute of continual archaeological study. As Shawn steps outside he’s filled with the familiar sight of the urbanized centre of human society, the great planet of Zeus. Zeus is home to more than 100 billion humans. This part of the city is only a few thousand years old and is at the peak of known human architectural technology and unequalled beauty. Among every building there is vegetation and art in the form of a paintings, holograms, statues or carved vegetation. Many people have been known to spend their entire life’s just appreciating the endless man made beauty that was Zeus’s highly evolved architectural layouts. Everywhere you looked is something worth seeing.

After taking in some of the beauty that always finds a way to grab Shawn’s interest, he remembers this beauty is not going anywhere and returns his focus on getting to his ship. Shawn hits a yellow button on his Network Access Point or NAP on his wrist and says out loud “Can I please have a personal transport”. The planets automated public transit system responds with “yes of course Mr. Lotus, give it a few seconds” in a gentle female voice and sure enough within 30 seconds Shawn looks up to see a Slipship making its way down from the sky, slowing quickly as it descends on the surface. Shawn jumps in the ship and shouts the coordinates of his ship “82.62 North, 89.24 West 60th floor please’. Instantly a seatbelt flies across his lap and the small one person hover craft jumps into the air, this particular slipship is nothing more than a small white chair surrounded by a hard carbon based shell.

Using a centralized public transit system the government’s leading engineers decided that making all landing surfaces on the planet magnetic would allow for slip ships using highly complex mathematical physics to seemingly fly through the air with bullet like speeds and unhindered precision for a small vessel in an extremely complex urban landscape. Although with Slipships you need a little bit of faith in the most advance physics of the time and mental calmness as the vessel travels nearly the speed of light directly at buildings and then can turn 90 degrees without slowing down. Shawn arrives at his ship after a few seconds; the Slipship opens and Shawn quickly steps out in a slight daze.

Despite using Slipships for most of his life, a ride on a Slipship almost always was accompanied by the sheer awe at the technology that came at no cost or discomfort. The moment Shawn was clear of the vessel the Slipship rises again and is gone with nothing more that the wind rusting Shawn’s hair and clothes from its departure. Shawn then looks up from the ground and there standing in front of him was his ship. The space ship is a circular shape with a diameter of fifteen meters and roughly three meters in height. The ship’s golden yellow with black legs which extended from the undercarriage and there is also a large front window for observation.

Shawn then walks past his ship to the ledge behind to look at the massive complex of the building that holds him. He walks to the edge of the landing pad; there is a large opening in the middle of the building and hundreds of floors on each size of this large urban valley. There are hundreds of ships in the valley in varying sizes, some Human, some from other species and even a vessel Shawn had never seen before. Perhaps this unknown ship was a new alien species making its acquaintance with humanity or perhaps private sector humans are here to show off something new. This was even less common than aliens as private sector humans rarely had business on public worlds and even more uncommon was the idea of them showing off a new style of space craft. He stood there for a moment taking in the appearance of this new ship. The ship was on the far side of the valley maybe forty floors below. It had what appeared to a partially biological exterior, but from the distance it was difficult to tell and within a few seconds it disappeared behind a holographic screen that closed over the ships docking pad. With that he decided it was time to go, he stepped a few feet back from the edge of the landing pad. Turned around and preceded to under the middle of his spaceship where he was quickly meet by the ships gravitational lift.

The gravitational beam lifts Shawn up and as he is raised into the main chamber of his vessel, the familiar voice of his droid companion reaches his ears. “Good afternoon sir, may I assist you in any way?” “Yes Charles I would like you to start the journey to Hong Kong on Earth, if we hurry we should get there a short time before the rest of my peers arrive for some preliminary exploration”. “Yes of course Shawn, I will get started right away”. With that Shawn took a look around the ship, the observation window is where the control centre for the vessel could be found. On the back of the vessel were three small rooms, two bedrooms and a bathroom. The second bedroom was standard on a vessel of this class, but Shawn rarely used it for anything as he rarely had a travelling companion. Without including Charles of course who would simply go into a sleep standby in the control room when he wasn't being used. The ship quickly lifts off the ground and heads in the direction of the nearest jump gate.