The Chronicles of the Milky Way Galaxy : Gaia

Chapter 4 : Alex and Jain

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

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.