Red Entaries

2 Ninety-second Street

One day later.

Driving towards Lunar Life Corp, a four minute drive east from Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York City region, Brooklyn; also called by Solar City. It was 5:36 a.m. as the dark heavens covered the sun and the city was lit like a thousand stars. Joanna Brown was speeding under its bright complexity in an unmarked FBI vehicle. Her hover-car shifted through urban streets, stopping when she could, noticing how lights contrasted the city skyline. When she was about to leave Staten Island; high-rise solar paneled buildings littered with owned vacancies vanished—crossing the one thousand two hundred ninety-eight meter bridge. She sorted her thoughts passing over the dark blue, especially as hundreds of beaming vehicles slowed her approach.

She saw a flashing streak through the dark atmosphere. A space-jet,Joanna thought. Only a few of such caliber were built in design to reach a asteroid in a short time. These space-jets exported precious minerals while many other versions were solar orbiters or transmogrifying robots transforming the International Space Station to become the Hollowed Eagle, the first freighter of the Olympian Space Fleet.

The Hollowed Eagle's exciting— but at times dreadful—once a month two day journey for the Moon landed in a meteor shower, but eventually brought about a colony of successfully sustained human life. The other four freighters yet in the works were for the colonization of Mars, Mercury, and a orbital Venus space station while they dig a colony into the saffron crust of the gas giant Jupiter's moon. These soon to be built freighters would not just be a storehouse for the needs of settlers but also saved terran workers from the breakouts of earthly contagion, glacial flooding, and space junk. Designed with self sufficient machinery and applicable as a first class space station, these prototype vessels would come with a supercomputer for self maintenance and guardian to the precious sentient beings aboard.

The International Space Station had its own glory age before evolving by necessity to become the legendary space freighter, where its need for mass import-exports were most valuable. This once orbital city the size of five city squared blocks exuberated immense amounts of solar energy, which also at times supported colony elevators ridden for tourist activities.

Before the sky was torched into a light blue Joanna wouldn't reach her destination quickly as planned. Traffic was tight until she neared the bridge's arch. As before, vehicles were picnicking in their own leisure time, or was it the slow gray pick-up some waved at?

When traffic opened up, Joanna came under the high-rise beams with breezy winds shortened over her windshield. Not forgiving a crowded tollbooth, she was pleased to clear the east-side suspended pillar. Then soon reaching the highway, it left a short time between her destination. At 6:25 am it would be daybreak, which gave Joanna plenty of time. She wasn't the kind of person to be late. As Joanna drove in the uniform of traffic lights, the evergreen trees grew into the background, two Brooklyn parks on either side as she sped through. Now a short way down was Dahlgren Plaza Road a block and a half from her target. She crossed an intersection and over glimpsed to her right on Ninety-second Street where a mob protested.

The fiery protesters camped there many nights, Joanna thought. The protesters are on strike against Lunar Life Corp and have signs up that say they lost their jobs to machines and they won't stop until they have their jobs back.

Chaos stirred about the news of First Reach's colony, when Earth developed a marvelous citadel beyond known capabilities. Some though tit was robot craft, especially the many protesters that lost their jobs. In this heavily financed project homeless citizens gave rise to government protests. Machine kind superseded work opportunities.Unskilled labor forces were forced to re-educate and learn to repair the refurbished robots who replaced them which gave rise to more illegal activity. Many of the most vile criminals found a home in Shanghai: A utopia, not where the land was fruitful with good morals and kind gestures, but fallen in the underground shadows and ill manners, the kind of land where crime was second hand and law found no order but chaos programmed everything was free. This clandestine Mob eluded authorities for more than a decade, and still does. Hoodlums from Shanghai were traffickers at most, but also apart of an extensive syndicate dealing in blackmail. Only one in two hundred who climbed the ladders of criminal activity would become elites, these were the high ranked most vile affiliates. The casinos,bars and brothels were chained with illegal activity as far as the border. Citizens would hire the Mob for scare tactics and assassination hits. In return they received more than just compensation, but a stake in the blackmailing operation as well. It was all amid the high rise solar paneled buildings and white picket fences of rural suburbs. A safe haven it was quite not indeed.