The Summit Beyond Our Galaxy - An Apple Loving Individual space opera

Chapter 1 - All In A Day's Work

Chapter 1 – All In A Day's Work

Wednesday, May 1, 2176
Kanzen City, Korolev Crater, Mars
7:32 PM (Houston, TX local time)

It was a beautiful evening in Kanzen City, one of the first cities by human beings, colonizing Mars. Just another week came to an end, for Jerry Sullivan. The day which started at 6:30 AM, ended at 7:30 PM and he had just clocked out from work. "Alrighty, then!" he exclaimed. "Ready to go home and enjoy my weekend." Jerry collected his gear and got ready, to head home for his long weekend. As he got out of the office, he saw the huge dome surrounding the whole city, along with the buildings and the citizens. When NASA and SpaceX first sent and landed a group of astronauts on Mars, about a hundred and fifty years ago; they also ventured into other scientific endeavors, such as creating the first Martian human colonies, growing food and vegetation on Mars, developing the first steps to terraform the planet, and gradually produce and increase the concentration of oxygen, in the Martian atmosphere.

The purpose was to work in an effort to allow humanity to one day breathe on Mars, and one day leave the planet Earth. Since then, interstellar travel started to become a common trend, near the start of the twenty-second century. On the other hand, the planet Earth as people knew it more than one hundred and fifty years ago, ceased to be the same. Most of the urban areas in developed countries were abandoned and replaced by automation and robots. The world had piled up tons of garbage and junk over the last six decades alone. Many of the citizens spent most of their time, in virtual reality or working barely thirty-three hours a week, which mainly consisted of three, eleven-hour work days, from Monday to Wednesday; while more than half the world's population abandoned Earth, in favor of living on the Moon or on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Some people also created gigantic residential satellites and space stations that revolved around Mars, to accommodate more of Earth's evacuated population.

In 2176, most of Earth was globalized, and factors of life, such as food, water, energy, Internet, clothing, and many other things people needed to survive was almost free, with people being able to buy all these products and services, for negligible costs. Kanzen City was founded in 2143, located about twelve miles near the southwestern edge of the Korolev Crater on Mars, as one of the first few cities created by mankind, with the help of nanotechnology, and all those cities endorsed green, zero-energy, zero-carbon, zero-environmental-footprint, and zero-waste human settlements. Kanzen city was a circle with a diameter of forty-seven miles, surrounded by a huge glazed, transparent dome, also created via nanotechnology. The dome was just over a mile high, with the city having tall skyscrapers and autonomous flying vehicles. Whatever lifestyle was abandoned on Earth, was continued on Mars.

Born in Houston, Texas on Friday, February 28, 2149; the young, energetic, productive, motivated and hardworking individual was the son of Connor Sullivan, a retired NASA astronaut and maintenance technician. Jerry had attended the University of Houston – Clear Lake entirely online, having acquired a bachelor's degree, in Management Information Systems and a double master's, in Physics and Engineering Management; he moved to Kanzen City in 2172, after acquiring the job as a maintenance technician, at the city power and infrastructure grid. He was content with his life, as he was able to enjoy his work and life balance just like many of his generation. Another good factor of his time was that poverty had been largely eradicated all over the galaxy, wherever mankind resided. And whenever Jerry looked at the Martian surface outside the dome through the livestream on his computer monitor, he was impressed to see growing greenery and lakes gradually forming. The sky also was a mix of mostly red, with a gradual bluish color appearing, with some dense clouds and moisture, as a progressive result of the terraforming process.

Jerry smiled as he witnessed this forming beauty. "If this improves over the next thirty years," said Jerry. "all of us could breathe on the Martian surface without oxygen masks." He sat in his apartment on a couch and turned on the holovision, to see the world and space news. He did miss Houston at times, but also, he was not planning to leave his job and well-off lifestyle anytime soon. He took a deep breath and sighed. "I hope to meet a friend, whom I can spend the rest of my life with!" said Jerry. He did feel lonesome indeed and hoped to meet the girl of his dreams one day. Jerry was committed to a girl he met eight years back, however back then it did not work for him and he lost quite a lot of hope to find a good girl for some time. Later on, he did mature and realize it just was not meant to be. Out of the eleven point six billion people living in the Milky Galaxy, he knew someone would be made for him.

As he continued to watch the news, he then checked his tablet and saw an advertisement on a travelling website. He saw something that made him smile and relieve him from his headache. "Bullseye!" he said. "I know what I want to do!" He then went on the company website for the firm he worked at, and for the first time in fifteen months, he placed a vacation request on the employee portal, demanding three weeks off. He then took out his holo-phone (the future successor to a smartphone) a small sphere from his pocket, which began to float in the air. "Priya, what are the travel options to Phobos?" said Jerry. With that, the sphere emitted light and a hologram of a young woman appeared. "Hi, Jerry!" said the hologram. "Good to see you again, the cheapest fare is on Thursday, May 9, 2176 at 4:00 PM, at Houston local time!" Priya was a sentient, super artificial intelligence program that emulated human emotions and, in a way had a life of its own. It appeared as a young girl from India but spoke with a distinct British accent. Although, it was not the only accent it could use. Priya was designed to speak almost any language, using any accent. "Excellent!" said Jerry. "And I put my vacation request from Wednesday, May 8th to Thursday, May 30th." "Sir, you've been working quite hard lately and you really do deserve a break!" said Priya.

Jerry smiled at Priya, as Priya smiled back. "Thanks, Priya!" said Jerry. "No problem, whatsoever!" said Priya. Priya then disappeared and the sphere went back into Jerry's pocket. "I really do need a vacation, and hopefully things will get better for me one day!" He then sat down with a sigh, he knew things would get better for him eventually, as he was still young. However, he was looking forward to next week, so he could enjoy his three-week vacation. He then looked out his apartment window, to gaze at the city skyline, smiling as he did.

His holo-phone began to vibrate, and he took it out to read a text message. It was a message from his friend Rudy. Jerry then proceeded to unlock his device and read the message, and the screen displayed his inbox, and he tapped the message to open it.

Rudy: Sup, Jerry! Thx again, 4 covering my shift last week! Any plans this weekend? 😃

Jerry: No prob, man! 😃 And nah fam, nothing planned as of now! 😊

Rudy: Well, Laura is expecting anytime soon! And we're throwing a baby shower 4 her, Friday evening! 🙂 Was hoping u'd come!

Jerry: 🙂 Sure man! Y not? TFTI! I'll c y'all there! I just booked a trip for myself next week to Phobos, but I'll come 4 sure! 😃

Rudy: Oh, alrighty then! TTYL! 😃 C ya Friday at 5:30p!

Jerry: Goodnight, man! 🙂