KSGU:Volume 1 Prologue

Prologue

0001

(It’s past 20:00 GMT. How is everyone going to spend this memorable New Year’s Eve? For tonight marks the end of an old age, and the beginning of another. The era named after the most famous person in history, the Age of Christ, shall end in four hours.

Ever since humans stumbled from out of the dark ages and stood on their own two feet, they have learned how to cross vast oceans, fly in in the limitless sky, and have obtained the technology to explore the final frontier: outer space. Now, humans shall enter an age where we leave mother Earth, as the door to the new world is opened in front of us all!

Just as our ancestors ventured to new continents in search of opportunity and freedom and lit the fire of civilization across the Earth, we too bear the responsibility of kindling the flame of civilization in our new continents: space. From now on, those flying into space are not just astronauts and technicians, they are trailblazers who will remain in space, settle in space, and light the fire of civilization in space. They are called Spacenoids, chosen residents of outer space.

This new age needs a new calendar. Four hours from now, at 00:00 GMT, the Earth Federation government will start the ceremony of an age change. The stage of the momentous ceremony that will be forever marked in history is at the Prime Minister’s residence, ‘Laplace.’ A place that shall act as the bridge to outer space that is set on an orbiting plane around the Earth, no location is more appropriate for the declaration of the space age.

Under the eager and watchful eyes of the media, the United Nations representatives have gathered at ‘Laplace.’ Everyone in the world is waiting for midnight to arrive, on New Year’s Eve, the eve to a new age. Everyone has different thoughts, from those anxious and full of expectations, to those still clinging to the old age that has lasted more than two thousand years. Regardless, everyone is a witness of this historic moment. In the long and tumultuous history of humanity, only we, who are alive right now, shall be privileged with witnessing the beginning of the new age. So why don’t we enjoy this moment, and be thankful as we say goodbye to the old age? Let us smile and accept the arrival of the new age!

Goodbye, Anno Domini.

Hello, Universal Century--!)

The Earth was right below them. The reddish-brown surface accompanied the sea surface that looked like blue skies covered with clouds.

Looking down 200 kilometers from above, it was more like a landscape than a planet. It didn’t feel like there was an atmosphere, but more like a plane in the high skies looking down on the earth. As one would continue to look, there may be the false impression that they may land.

"Even so, the look of the ever-changing landscape caused me to understand that I’m moving about in the atmosphere at an unimaginable speed—1 rotation every 90 minutes. Once I look forward, I can see the profile of the planet covering the atmosphere, forming a gradual gradient. Looking over, I saw that there’s only a strong and overpowering light of the Earth taking away the shine of the stars around, and everything around was a vacuum. It’s not enough to call it pitch-darkness, but rather, an endless darkness that sucked away all the light."

"It seemed that I’m in outer space." Suddenly realizing this, Syam felt a chill riding on his back. Even though he was already tired of looking through the little window in the worker ship, it was a little completely different to be wearing only a spacesuit, working outside the ship and looking through the helmet visor. As there wasn’t anything to block his sight, he could comprehend all the more that his body was floating outside the earth.

Being separated from the gravity of the earth and the sensation of floating continuously outside the earth…it was extremely terrifying. He could feel the blood, bones, cells becoming hot because of this abnormal change that had never happened before. The sweat that formed became icy-cold chills, and the throat that was exposed in zero gravity state let out a terrified sound.

Syam looked at the emptiness in front of him, and amidst the darkness that erased all the stars, there was a lump of star letting out a sharp glow. It was the sun letting out white light like it was about to explode—no, its core was actually exploding continuously, and the radiation heat in the air reaches 120 degrees Celsius that was scorching the surface of his spacesuit. It was completely different from looking at the sun from under the atmosphere. Over here, the sun would only be an energy source that gives off white light, an object that sends fears into humans. Even when the visor and the light filter reduced the luminosity, that sharp and powerful light didn’t look like it would be reduced.

"I’ll go crazy if I stay in such a place. This isn’t a place humans should come to." Syam thought. In the distant past, those eager astronauts, who can be said to be reckless now in hindsight, flew out of the atmosphere and were each moved by the blue color of the Earth, and a precious experience that override their values. However, they were the elites, specially chosen, given the highest level of education and the forwards in human society, different from those who had problems reading and writing. Even if someone like him entered outer space, there wouldn’t be any benefits for him. Basically, for a 17 year old person who didn’t know the names of the continents and their locations, and where his hometown was, the Earth below his feet was merely a large slab that was ridiculously big.

Frontiers? What kind of joke is that? This is a garbage field. A place to dump humans who are multiplying rapidly, a rubbish dump without borders.

(What kind of world will this outer space that’s going to be a place where humans live be like? As the Universal Century is about to begin, let’s review this through for everyone again. Today, our special guest is the top scholar in astronomy, Alexis Gretsky…)

The voice of the audio broadcaster continued to echo emptily as they mixed with his breathing, moving through this thick spacesuit with no way out. Syam used the soles of his feet to touch the materials of the structure.

As he checked the safety tension of the chain, he moved the soles of his feet to flip the material to the other side. Though he spun 180 degrees around upside down, it was nothing in this outer space that didn’t have any concept of up and down. Syam used the hand that’s wearing the thick glove and grab the material of the lattice-shaped structure and saw its front side. There was a mirror right in front of him, about 3m wide in a rectangular concave shape, forming a dazzling mirror surface.

The thousands of concave mirror formed a flat circular disk that was 500m in diameter that had orbited in a low position around the Earth for quite a few years. The round core had a hole that was about 100m wide, and what was behind the hole was an empty darkness, making the disk look like those optical recording discs used in the past. Syam used the magnetism of his soles and let his feet land on the edge of the disk as he looked up. The donut-shaped structure that appeared in his eyes was about the size of this mirror field, and through the center of the hole, he could see a round-shaped body with the same shape as this mirror, with the Earth floating in the background.

The two large disks that used the concave surface to reflect the sunlight and were shining brightly had a donut ring in the middle, 300m away from them. That was the Low Earth Orbital Station ‘Laplace’. The two layers, one on top and one below, reflected the sunlight, providing light and energy to what is accurately called a Stanford ring. The residential area continued to rotate once every 75 seconds, creating gravity inside from the centrifugal force. Though this would only create gravity that was 1/6 of Earth's, about the equivalent to that of the moon, it would be much better than zero gravity. It’s said that for a 500m in diameter ring, one rotation in less than 30 seconds would be required to create the same amount of gravity as the Earth had, and it would cause the people inside to feel nauseous.

"Those high-ranking government officials were either too curious or idiots to use such a place as the Prime Minister’s Residence, and I’m even more of an idiot to sneak around beside the station and climb around getting sick." Syam tightened his face and grimaced. At this moment, his partner’s voice came from the wireless communicator (Oi, ‘Shepherd’, don’t move away from your position too much!)

“My job’s done.”

“Then get back onto the ship. Your lifesigns are messed up!”

His partner, a man who was viewed as the captain because of his seniority in age and whose authority was just second to the ‘worker head’, said. There wouldn’t be any sense of distance caused by air in vacuum, so he could see the shape of the object. The double layered ring structure that was divided into the outside and inside structure, the central spoke elevator that extend out from the central rotary axis, the joints of the structure and the texture; everything was so detailed that it was like a miniature model right in front of him.

Syam watched the outside ring that had glass stuck all over its interior to absorb light. As of the Greenwich Meridian Time, it should be night time, thus the light that’s reflected off the mirror wasn’t shone into the residential area. However, the interior lights came out from the glass panels, letting any observers know that someone was resting inside.

Over there, the final preparations for the changing of calendars ceremony 4 hours later were under way. From 23:45 on, the Prime Minister would give his speech, all the national representatives of the countries in the United Nations who were attending would be received, and adjustments for midnight for the ceremony would be done…facing what would be the biggest activity in human history, perhaps the officials should be extremely busy. Syam and the rest were called here to prepare this. The content of the work was to make a small correction to the mirror control program that was to be used for the ceremony.

However, this wasn’t an easy procedure that could be done from the controls at the control room. It was necessary to link directly to the hundreds of independent control panels inside the mirrors and install the correction angle program. This could be said to manual labor. It's said that nobody considered just using a single large mirror instead of an array of mirrors, and merely change the angle of the mirror at will. "I don’t know about the angle of the mirror, and I don’t have to know. We’re just the limbs, and other people are in charge of being the brain." Syam thought. The person who gave Syam and the others membership cards from the Motor company and sent them to ‘Laplace’; the person who said that a reward would be provided to them once the job was done; the person who was pretending that nothing happened as he waited for ‘that’ moment, and that it was unlikely for them to meet him.

"Lifesigns are messed up? What nonsense." Syam cursed in his heart. In this moment, nobody could remain calm. That’s because his gang’s actions would bring about a decisive change to hundreds of people’s fates as they watched the ring…

(The concept of space migration existed in the 20th Century. It was raised by the physicist G.K O’Neill. His point was revised was because he wanted to let outer space be a place suitable for humans to live in. Earlier, the thoughts of migration to outer space was to either modify Venus or Mars into environments similar to Earth's, ideas that could only happen in a Sci-Fi world. Because of this, O’Neill’s idea of using ‘islands’ in the migration of humans, including building on the moon or in the asteroid belt, had a chance of happening using the technology of that time. The basis of the space migration plan of today can be said to be completed by O’Neill.)

Syam didn't know which scholar was talking again as he pulled on his safety cable and let his body fly to the back of the mirror area.

(The idea itself was rather simple. Let a ball or round construct rotate regularly inside, causing the internal structure to create 1 G, the same amount of gravity as on Earth. If you hold a bucket full of water and swing it about hard, the water inside wouldn’t fall out due to centrifugal force, correct? It’s the same principal. The first ball-shaped object is commonly called ‘Island 1’, and it could just barely manage to create 1 G, but the latest, ‘Island 3’, is a giant: 32 kilometers long and 6.4 kilometers in diameter. This large cylinder has forests, rivers, streets, and habitats similar to Earth inside the walls; and the space residents are now living there.”

Like many mirrors, the back of the mirrors were just simple boards. The numerous supporting structures were intertwined with each other in a lattice structure. As Syam returned to the back, several of his colleagues were using handheld terminals and inputting the new program into the control panel.

In the darkness that was completely different from the mirror surface, flashing red warning lights were the only illumination, dimly lighting the area and showing the spacesuits of about 5 of Syam's colleagues. The cables of their spacesuits were all linked to a worker ship that was floating silently above them. The ship was jar-shaped, long, and narrow: 20m long and 30m in diameter, with the thrusters and a solar battery on the rear. Behind it, numerous green and white spaceship lights were roaming.

Those lights belonged to the Federation Spaceship, the Salamis-class security vessel. 70m in length with an uneven surface. The command area was protruding from the frame in front, and there were four jet thrusters on the back. The ship itself had a solar panel that was as large as the ship itself. For a security ship, it really reminded one of a fishbone, and looked really unreliable. But as Syam had been told beforehand, the ship had high-energy laser cannons, and an unmatched combat ability

The Salamis class had lots of modes. There were all sorts of things, from the gatling guns that were built into the center of the ship, to the mounted railgun that was as long as the ship itself. However, the common point between all of them were their controlled satellite radar cannons. The small unmanned cannons had batteries, solar panels and laser-firing guns, and each vessel had 24 of these cannons. When necessary, the cannons could be scattered around the ship to create an iron wall-like defensive zone. Right now, it was under special security mode, and any suspicious craft that approached ‘Laplace’ even if it was cosmic dust in orbit would be destroyed the moment the radar detected it.

According to the information from before, there were 36 Salamis-class vessels, which, in other words, meant that there were 864 satellite lasers. However, it is expected that there would be such a large number, given that the space station need to defended in all 3 dimensions. ‘Laplace’, which had the Prime Minister and the representatives of the United Nations on it, would be the one place that required the most security in the Earth’s atmosphere. This time, the security was due to a threat letter the space Federation army recieved. In fact, Syam felt that no matter how devious the terrorists were, they couldn’t possibly attack from outside.

That’s right, if it was outside—

(Of course, the migrants in outer space would have night. The residential area of ‘Island 3’ has a mirror to absorb sunlight that is as long as the colony itself. As this diagram shows, the inside of the cylinder is divided into six areas. Three areas are lighting windows, and the light that enters here will shine on the other three areas. The windows are made from extremely thick glass that can block any harmful ultraviolet rays or galactic radiation. Right now, there are three residential satellites of ‘Island 3’ built, and there are technicians and settlers bringing their families to live here. But right now, there still aren't any reports of a residential satellite causing an epidemic of settlment. Once we adjust the light, we can recreate the 4 seasons. And we can even make artificial clouds for rainy days. In terms of complete management, this would be even more suited to live in than Earth.)

(Go live there yourself then!)

As the scholar said that, a colleague’s voice came through the wireless communicator. Everyone was using the cable to keep in touch as they listened to the special program before the change of the calendar. Another colleague said, (He’ll go! He’ll keep his own colony on Earth and use it as a villa.)

(Outer space is truly large. However, we know that not every place is suited to build a migrant colony. The space migrant colony requires a construction in a gravity “safe zone” called a Lagrange Point. These are points that where the pull of gravity from the Earth and the moon is equal. There are 5 around the moon's orbit. We call these points L1 through L5. The ‘Island 3’ space colony that I just mentioned is located at the most stable of these points, L5, forming a settlement called Side 1. Right now, there are 10 million people living there, but once migration starts next year, the human population should vastly increase. The residential colonies should be constructed, and it’s expected that there would be 70 or 80 space colonies forming a side that operates as its own government.)

(Assuming that a space colony can take 10 million people, once one side’s population reaches 700 or 800 million, how many sides would the space migration plan need to build?)

(Right now, the plan is to continue to Side 6, but just that would require upwards of 50 years to complete. The expected capacity of all the colonies is around 5 billion people. With the projected population increase over the next 50 years, the estimate is that half of the population will become space migrants.)

Someone whistled and said (Hey, there’s one for every two!), and then someone else said (Then you’re the one being eliminated!)

(Basically, no one will dare reduce the human population, so once the Earth is full they'll just dump the excess people into outer space. Those people like us who got the ‘eliminated life’ stick.”

Then, they were interrupted by the worker head (Stop yapping!), and there was only the voices of the audio broadcaster and the scholar. As he stared at the Salamis class vessel that looked really overwhelming, Syam muttered, “Being eliminated…”

Under the calls of ‘Save the Earth, Save the Rest’, the 50-year plan for humanity to migrate to outer space started. Most of these separatists, anti-government organizations or underground people believed that it was a grand scheme to abandon people in space. But no matter whether it was real or not, it was a fact that people like Syam were ‘eliminated’ and dumped into outer space first. In fact, though there were lots of enterprises that wanted to head into outer space, they were all only attracted by the premium offers, and most of the first residents in outer space were all wanderers—low income people, as the association mentioned.

However, these weren’t the problems. Most of the administration of the ‘organization’ were brazenly calling for people to separate from the Federation government, hailing national spirit and social rights. But these were just useless talk to Syam and the rest. If the Federation government could assure that they could work like this, they would definitely choose to support it, even if they had to head to the space colony ‘Island 3’ that looked like a huge high-pressure metal bottle. The problem was that they never had a choice in the beginning. The Federation’s administration caused countries to be divided as they lost their jobs and hopes. The only option they could choose was to join the ‘organization’, which was the biggest problem.

Syam had been born in a poor small country in the Middle East. In his memories, the Earth Federation government was already established, and the surface of the moon was already known as a mining extraction site called Von Braun. But none of that had anything to do with Syam’s family, as they were always in the highlands, being shepherds. It didn't matter to them whether the projection device on the moon surface mining site was finished or that the resource investigation group went to a planet far away to bring some test results back. It was just another world’s news to Syam and the rest. The most he would hear was the adults complaining that the taxes were heavy and that the government would only remember them when it was time to collect.

And to these voices of discontent, the Federation government merely said that ‘the Earth is already so tired’. Similar to what people in the past called the ‘green revolution’, the government declared that the increase in Earth's population caused damage to the environment, and the pollution from these people was another problem. Finally, if something like a limited nuclear war happened, it would be obvious that it was just a matter of time before Earth reached its limit, and the Earth Federation created lots of enterprises to save the world from this extreme situation. Then, the Federation government started to push for space migration, and declared that this was the one and only plan. Meanwhile, the Federation government used overwhelming military power to suppress any scattered seeds of discord and opposition on the tired Earth.

Though in the past, the Federation had divided great countries in order to to ensure that there wasn’t much difference in the military and economic affairs of each, the people in charge were still the politicians of the old powerhouses. This point made many countries try to leave the Federation, and Syam’s own country was one of them. The country allied with the other Middle Eastern countries as crude oil was depleted, and what they got was divided in half. The land was divided in half under the punishment for rebellion, and the law was rewritten. The old customs of their ancestors were broken, Everyone was required to learn English, and the school curriculum changed.

Amidst this, Syam’s father joined the guerilla forces and was soon arrested and sent to prison. Syam really couldn’t imagine how that silent man whose only good point was his righteousness would be so passionate. But his father died in prison before he could even answer his doubts. Syam was left with his mother and his younger sister, and had to give up on his education to continue his family tradition of shepherding. That’s how he got the nickname ‘Shepherd’.

However, that job didn’t last long either. As the migration to the space colonies entered its final stages, the Federation required a large number of launch sites, and the highlands where Syam and his people were staying at became one. Once the negotiations with the landowners and the resettlement of the people was complete, Syam’s family was given a small compensation and chased away. Syam could only let his mother and little sister stay in the apartment in the city where the air quality was bad and go to work at the launch site. That was Syam’s new life. And 3 years later, once the 6th launch site was completed, the person in charge of manpower told him that he didn’t have any work left, and that they found that his father was a guerilla and they were ordered to fire him.

This reasoning was too far-fetched. After that, Syam heard that the Federation government’s industrial strategy was to let lots of foreigners enter and send off those who had relations to guerillas. This could be said to be eliminating the guerillas and warning the rest of the people, a rather effective strategy. Syam was too lazy to even waste energy getting angry, and he needed money. His mother wasn’t used to living in the city, and was often sick; and money was needed to see a doctor. His sister was reaching puberty, and he needed money to buy unpatched clothing for her; he had to work for bread tomorrow, for soup today.

He started going to an employment agency, going in and out of odd jobs. And this sort of place had brokers from violent organizations and suspicious underground recruiters, and Syam was quickly found by them. He didn’t have any meaningless thought of avenging his father at all, and wasn’t interested in their intents to inspire feelings in him. What interested him was the monetary reward they provided. Syam merely considered for 3 days before agreeing signing up with a recruiter who was pretending to be a religious person. After a simple oath, he undertook the required training in old Moscow, and got in with everyone before entering outer space with his colleagues whose names he didn't even know.

"That’s right, this is a job." Syam muttered. As it’s a job, no matter whether it’s the disgusting feeling of icy cold underwear or the claustrophobic nature of the aluminum and fiberglass spacesuit, he could still take it. This wasn’t because of some ideology or a revolution. He was different from the religious fanatics who swore to carry out suicide attacks. Surviving, finishing the job and getting his payment was everything. He had no choice if he wanted to let his mother and little sister live an ordinary live.

If not for that, who would come to this place? If he had a decent job, if he had money, if he didn’t draw the ‘eliminated in life’ tag…

(But, everyone, remember that even with this, there are 5 billion humans left on Earth. This is the same population as during the 20th century, when people started to take note of the population explosion. This number is still too great to let the Earth recover naturally. The ideal situation is to reduce the population to 2 billion.

Even if a Lagrange Point can have two Sides built in it, the upper limit of Sides will still be ten, and it’s possible to let tens of billions of people live in outer space. However, assuming that the completion of construction requires hundreds of years; nobody knows what the population would be then. It would be overly optimistic to assume that the Earth’s environment had recovered by then. Right now, we can only hope that the wisdom of humanity 100 years later will settle this.

I hope that everyone who opposes the space migration plan can understand this. We, humanity, established this overall authority in the Earth Federation government and had to fulfill this seemingly impossible plan. Let us stop this self-destruction and look 100 years into the future. A common cry is that the space migration plan is the Federation’s plan to abandon…)

The scholar’s voice was suddenly interrupted, and an unnatural music filled the silence. (Eh—even though the topic isn’t over, right now, there’s footage of the change in calendar happening in areas all over the world. First, the image from New York City, still recovering from war…) As he listened to the voice of the broadcaster, Syam tugged at the cable and moved forward.

Was it because the topic of abandoning people wasn't supposed to be mentioned? Even though the Federation government claimed to be democratic, the censorship of information in the media by the government caused the actual report to be held for a long time. (Idiot). A colleague muttered as the voices of the interviews with the residents of New York overlapped.

(Why did he cut it off? Wasn’t he just hailing the Federation?)

(That Queen’s Scholar really spoke too much truth!)

(Worrying about 100 years later? Worry about your tomorrow!)

Laughter of mockery rang throughout the wireless communicator, but it didn’t remain for long. Syam remained silent and headed towards the airlock on the worker ship.

There’s no need to worry about weight in space, but the mass wouldn’t disappear. The moment he touched the airlock, Syam used both hands to support his mass and the spacesuit that had life support inside it. Just as he was about to pull the handle, the blue light of the Earth shone into his eyes through the round plates of the mirror.

In the atmosphere that was divided into day and night, there is a string of light that is hard to tell whether it was red or green. It was an aurora. It seemed that ‘Laplace’ moved above the South Pole. As he looked at this mystically beautiful line, Syam felt a little moved, but he immediately looked away and pulled the handle of the airlock.

There was no need to embrace and feel everything. He should be going back after finishing his work. On hearing the slightly hasty breathing, Syam started to think of his mother and sister and wonder how they were.

(Greetings, citizens of Earth and Space. I’m the Prime Minister of the Earth Federation, Ricardo Marcenas.)

At 23:45 Greenwich Mean Time, the Prime Minister’s speech began as planned. Syam finished getting away, and was in the worker ship cabin leaving the orbit of ‘Laplace’, watching the live telecast on a small screen.

(The end of A.D. is nigh, and we shall enter an unknown territory called Universal Century. During this momentous time, I am glad to have the honor, as the first Prime Minister of the Earth Federation government, to talk to ‘all of humanity’. So allow me to express my gratitude here.

When I was young, the Prime Minister or the President would only talk to the citizens of their own countries. A state is a governing system of the land and the people on it, and ultimately exists to ensure that their own countries were safe. And right now, for us, who have achieved the longstanding desire to unify the world, we have defined the errors in Nationalism. Just as humans can’t exist on their own, we know that countries can’t operate alone. Especially when it comes to an important issue like the Earth in crisis, where no previous nation was able to come up with an effective counter. The population issues that were addressed at the end of the 20th century, like drying up of resources, environmental destruction through pollutions…to address these irreversible problems, we need all of the knowledge that all of us have.)

In the small cabin, there were 14 people watching the screen on the wall. Other than the two pilots in the cockpit, everyone that took part in the work was here. Syam thought that nobody present looked like they were suited to be the Prime Minister of outer space.

The wrinkles on the ‘worker head’s face hid his many years of hard work and manual labor. This man who was viewed as the leader plucked his nostril hairs and he blew it away as they were stuck to his face due in the zero gravity. If this were seen by the astronauts who paved the way for space exploration, they would be already be crying at the fact that even people like him could enter Outer Space in the Universal Century.

(Not a ‘Me’ that belongs to any country or tribe, but a ‘me’ that belongs to humanity. If we don’t have this objective view, we wouldn’t be able to have today. The past 50 years, since we began this grand scheme, have not been smooth sailing for the Earth Federation government or the human migration to space plan. In fact, we had to go through much in order to break apart countries, races, religions…all these obstacles to a united humanity.

But right now, we have this new living habitat, the space colonies. The migration shall begin officially, and many people living in space colonies will be the norm in future generations. This glorious result of humanity uniting together, is to save the Earth from us crushing it.)

In the residential area of ‘Laplace’, at a circular podium, Prime Minister Marcenas was using his normal, steady expression that was usually shown on television as he faced the camera. The people sitting in front of the podium were the representatives of the Federation countries. The screen showed them looking serious. Syam looked at the screen and wondered about the outcome his gang’s work would cause.

The concave lens that formed ‘Laplace’ would follow a non-designated action according to the program Syam and the others installed. What should have happened at midnight was reflecting sunlight onto the Earth’s surface, showing the words ‘Goodbye AD, Hello, UC’ in the atmosphere.

(If Anno Domini was really the infancy of humanity, then the Universal Century shall be the next state. We’re not lowering the population through birth control, but chose to open more space for the population to move. A baby that climbs out of the cradle must continue to grow. In the process of fulfilling the plan to migrate to space, we’re proving to the entire world that we can co-exist for one goal. Then, what’s next?

Universal Century. In ordinary terms it means ‘A Century for everyone’. The age of outer space should be written as ‘Universe Century’, but we deliberately used the word ‘Universal’, which means ‘for all’, as the name for the new century.)

In fact, the process activated before midnight. Under the thousands of concave mirrors, the mirrors that had the program installed started to change directions and focus the light on a certain residential area of ‘Laplace’.

(I was born in the old United States of America, spent my infant years in Germany, my youth in France, and my student life in Asia. I married my wife, who’s of Arabic and European descent, and my parents were about the same. Looking back at my ancestors, I find that I have more than 30 bloodlines within me. All the skin colors, all the bloodlines of all the races reside in me. It’s because of this ‘normalcy’ that I was able to attain the unique honor of being the first Prime Minister of the Earth Federation government. I believe that there are many who share such a background. As the technological advancement began officially in the 21st century, and as the uniformity of economies caused the world to unite, the various of bloodlines and skin colors began to mix. The Federation government established a world without country borders, designated a standard language for the entire world. These things, along with the mixing of bloodlines are no longer anything special.

As humans need to reside in outer space, it’s important for all of humanity to unite together. We can’t let this miracle become a special occasion. We must normalize that fact that humanity has united, not rejecting each other, not hating each other, and become one race as we head to a wider universe. The term Universal Century includes our hopes.)

As the station's orbit and the equator were at right angles, ‘Laplace’ wouldn’t orbit behind the Earth, but instead orbit such that the sun always shines on it. A part of the concave mirror that had been adjusted continued to reflect the sunlight, gathering the light and focusing it on a certain point.

(I don’t belong to any religion, but I’m not an atheist. I believe that a healthy representation of the human spirit would be to ascend to a higher plane, to give laws to ourselves, as we set higher bars for ourselves. During the Anno Domini Era, these Holy Scriptures were spread from man to man. Even without mentioning the Ten Commandments of Moses, every religion teaches doctrines on how people should live and face the Earth. These weren’t viewed as human words, but rather as a contract with God.

And now, we’re about to say goodbye to the century of Gods and accept the time of a new contract. This time, it’s not to surpass God, but to communicate with the God inside us, as we move up to a higher plane. The contract of the Universal Century should be born of all of humanity’s consciousness.)

As it was a vacuum, the temperature of the concentrated heat focused by the countless concave mirrors would be an absolute temperature of 5500 degrees, and the numerous light rays that would become heat rays would burn a block of the ‘Laplace’ residential area—the water supply circuit in the environmental controls. Of course, these were invisible light rays. Unless they noticed the focal point of the intense irradiation, even the Salamis-class ships surrounding the area wouldn’t discover it.

(I suppose quite a few people know about the origin of the name of the Prime Minister's Residence ‘Laplace’. This was the name of a physicist in 18th century France. Laplace felt that no matter how big or small, if we completely analyze anything, such as the movement of a particle, we can thoroughly predict its future. This kind of thought was later disproven by Quantum Mechanics. Right now, though, we’ve proven that the future can’t be predicted. And we use this name in the opposite of its meaning and called this Prime Minister's Residence ‘Laplace’, to mean ‘many possibilities in the future’.

Everyone knows that there was quite the controversy over the Prime Minister’s residence being a space station orbiting around the Earth. From a transportation and security viewpoint, this wasn’t really a good choice. However, we are about to advance into the Universal Century, and outer space shall become mankind's new home. As a human being, I feel that there are some differences between Earth and Outer Space that I have to personally experience. Thus I used the authority of the Prime Minister to make this decision. And there is no better stage to change the calendar on the last day of Anno Domini and to start the Universal Century than this space station.)

The half of ‘Laplace’ which was being lit by the sun had a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius. The dark side was a chilling cold of negative 120 degrees Celsius. Thus, the water supply circuit that moves through the residential area controlled the environment and the temperature. And right now, it was like putting a magnifying glass in the middle as the concentrated heat rays were moving through the mirrored areas on the top and the bottom as they continued to burn the water supply circuits.

(Today, there are more than 100 representatives from different countries in the Earth Federation. After some discussion, we shall sign the charter of the Universal Century. This Charter shall be known as the Laplace Charter, and it shall act as a contract between Humanity and the World.

This is based on the agreement from everyone in the Earth Federation government, and no mention of God is in it. We shall not mention Humanity’s original sin. After this, we are to face our final judgment, and then we shall break the deadlock in our hearts. Our destiny will be in our hands.)

The focused rays burned the metal on the surface, causing the water in the supply circuit to boil and become steam. Before the sensors even realized something was wrong, the pipes had already burst from the internal pressure. The pressure inside the residential area immediately shot up, and as oxygen broke free from steam due to the high temperature—

(Right now, we have a vast and endless universe in front of us, one that is filled with all sorts of hidden possibilities, an ever-changing future. No matter how you came to be standing on this entrance, you have no need to bring your past into the new world. We are now starting at the beginning, and there is no need to be troubled about other people writing the scripts in your life. Just use the God in you to look clearly at the future that is about to begin.

Right now, it is 23:59 Greenwich Mean Time. I ask that everyone who is watching this telecast, if possible, please pray silently with me for one moment. Think about Anno Domini, which will soon pass, think about the history of Humanity that everyone made, and offer your blessings.

I hope that the journey of all humanity into outer space shall be stable. I hope that the Universal Century is the age where results succeed. And I believe that, lying dormant in our hearts, the God called possibilities—)

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…00:00. The image of the screen was switched to a view of ‘Laplace’.

Universal Century 0001, January 1st.

Suddenly, static brushed past the screen as a white light was released. The next moment, the structure of ‘Laplace’ silently collapsed.

The delicate artistry of the ring collapsed terribly as it exploded from inside, and a large amount of building materials, walls and glass fragments were scattered all over the place. The concave mirrors of the two disks that were spinning on either side of the donut ring broke, one by one, losing their silver shine. The two mirror surfaces that linked the living quarters to the rotary axis distorted as the crumpled donut and the two dirty broken mirrors became worse than trash as they floated around in vacuum. The scattered debris hit the surrounding patrol ships, and those Salamis-class ships that were unluckily enough to be hit directly showed a light ring of explosion. As the large space station laid in the background, these were all little light spots decorating the area as they covered the collapsed ‘Laplace’ like flowers—

It was a majestic, short, and disappointing scene. The spaceships and space stations, which all had large amounts of air pressure inside, were like metallic balloons. By increasing the air pressure inside so much until it becomes explosive, they would easily burst. Syam had heard of such a phenomenon happening. But as he thought about the destruction of the Prime Minister’s office, which had signified the might of the Federation; as he thought about the space migration plan of humanity; as he thought about how hundreds or even thousands of people were immediately thrown into vacuum, ripped the shreds, becoming frozen corpses before they even felt death; as he thought about how the first step of the Universal Century, the significant event in human history, and also the worst space terrorist attack, an attack so bloody, that it was really hard for him to be satisfied with it…

(We’re bringing the news to you. Just a few minutes ago, the Prime Minister’s residence ‘Laplace’ seemed to have a certain accident. Details are sparse, but it’s said to be a major incident…)

The image was switched to a television studio, where a broadcaster who couldn’t hide his tension and excitement was reporting. Everyone remained silent and watched the screen. Finally, the ‘worker head’ spoke, “We succeeded. Now we can have even more comfortable lives!” His words had a rare joking tone. However, there wasn’t a hint of laughter in his eyes, and beside him, the captain, who would normally follow up such a remark, remained silent.

(The fates of Prime Minister Marcenas and the national representatives are still unknown in this time of crisis…) The voice of the broadcaster rang as the news was reported. For some reason, Syam started to recall the contents of the speech the Prime Minister had just made. Not needing to bring the past life into the new world. Not being troubled by other people writing their own lives. These words that were like foreign objects that exploded and surged in his mind.

"Our destinies are in our hands," the Prime Minister had said. Isn’t the ‘our’ he mentioned referring to us? Not because we were the ‘eliminated ones,’ but because the Prime Minister wanted to convey some important message to us?— As Syam thought this, he remembered that the Prime Minister had became a frozen block too. The next second, Syam forgot about it, and he began wondering whether he could return back to Earth, whether he could claim his reward, all sorts of realistic uncertainties. This was why the worker ship got ready to accelerate a second time, and why the inside of the ship got busy.

To enter the Earth via low orbit, the ship had to maintain a speed of 8 kilometers per second. If it was too slow, the ship would burn up due to gravity and air resistance. On the other hand if the speed were too high, the ship would rise out of orbit. The worker ship had accelerated once already, and it was still higher than ‘Laplace’. However, the ship needed to accelerate to 10 kilometers per second to completely break free from orbit.

The escape plan the ‘organization’ prepared was simple. Once it broke free from low orbit, the ship would move into a geosynchronous satellite orbit, 35,000 kilometers above the Earth, dock with the satellite in that orbit. Once the ship docked, everyone would leave the worker ship, sneak into the facility, blend in with the workers there, and take a shuttle back to Earth.

The scattered debris of ‘Laplace’ were gradually accelerating and starting to orbit higher than their original position. If this kept up, there was a risk that the debris would hit the worker ship. The Federation patrol ships weren’t completely destroyed, and they should be hurriedly securing a space territory. After some pushing, as they weren’t used to zero gravity, Syam and the others finally managed to stabilize themselves in the crude chairs in the cabin. Three days after they had gotten to outer space, the men’s faces became 'moon faces' (as the fluids change in nature under zero gravity, causing their faces to swell). They lined up against the walls, and soon after, the rocket fuel ignition caused the ship to jerk, and everyone was pressed into the chairs by pressure.

The high-power laser that took the place of the spark plug in the laser rocket fuel engine resulted in three times the thrust of previous rockets. Though it was in a ‘safety driving’ mode of an acceleration of 1 kilometer every two minutes, to a body used to zero gravity, the weight of 1G is still tough to handle. Syam closed his eyes and grabbed the edge of the chair.

The acceleration soon stopped. Five hours from now, they would enter their orbit and come into contact with the industrial satellite. "Once we’re there, I’ll be able to return to Earth. How’re my mom and sister? Do I have enough money to see a doctor? Once I get back to the country, we should move away from that cramped rabbit cage of an apartment and move to a more appropriate place! Let’s go buy some land and restart my life as a shepherd. That’s good, I don’t want to stay in outer space. I don’t want to get involved with the ‘organization’. I want to use this money to buy my life that won’t be eliminated—"

At this moment, a terrifying shock shook the body of the ship.

'KLANG!’ With a heavy-sounding dropping sound, the tail of the ship gave an uncomfortable jerk. One could hear that it wasn't from the engine itself. Everyone was already used to the weird noises from unidentified objects or hard things rubbing against each other in outer space, but that sharp sound that hit the ship didn't sound normal. Everyone look at the ceiling of the ship, shouting “Did we get hit by ‘Laplace’s’ debris?!” The 'Worker Head' immediately took the phone inside the cockpit. Syam stared at his unhappy face.

“They're coming, the dead of 'Laplace' are chasing us...!”

The guy viewed as the captain clutched his head and screamed with an abnormal tone, and Syam inadvertently started to shudder too. However, the 'Worker Head' quickly shouted back, “Shut up!”

“It seems that something hit near the engine. The thrust is decreasing. 'Shepherd', go outside to take a look.”

As he said that, the 'Worker Head' put down the phone, and watched Syam’s eyes. The reason why Syam was called was definitely because their eyes just met, but like usual, the 'Worker Head's’ tone wouldn't allow for any refusal. Syam wordlessly undid the buckle on his chair, and headed towards the airlock.

As there was no acceleration, the cabin had returned to zero gravity, but the man viewed as the captain continued to lower his head as if the gravity were higher than ever, and didn't even look up even when Syam entered the airlock.

It is said that before they exited the ship to work outside, astronauts had to reduce the air pressure inside their bodies. Improvements in modern spacesuits removed this hassle though. Syam put on the helmet, took the life support backpack from the wall. A minute later he was ready to open the hatch and go outside.

As the air in the airlock vanished, all the sounds vanished with it, and Syam could only hear his own breathing. After checking that the hook beside the airlock and the cable were tightly secured, Syam floated out of the worker ship and let his body move to the end of the ship.

It wasn't accelerating, but the worker ship wasn't stopped either. Right now, it would be traveling at a speed of 9 kilometers per second, which would allow the ship to break free from low orbit. While undergoing training half a year ago, Syam still wondered whether he would be abandoned outside the ship like this. However, as the humans that were being transported were moving as well, they won't stop unless the met any obstacles or resisting forces. For example, someone jumping outside a plane will fall down due to gravity acting on their body, and would slow down because of air resistance. These forces didn’t exist in outer space, so a human leaving a spaceship that was moving at 9 kilometers per second, would follow the ship at that same speed. Which meant that Syam would feel that he and the ship were sitting still.

Thus, Syam had to use a hand-held booster in order to move in the opposite direction of the worker ship. More accurately, he wasn't 'moving forward' to the end of the ship, but slowing his body down and letting the ship 'move more'. Syam pulled the safety cable to bring his relatively velocity to the ship back to zero, and started to investigate the exhaust pipe on the back of the cylindrical ship.

He immediately found the problem. The fuel pipe attached outside the ship was broken, and chemical fuel was being spilled. He didn’t know whether the pipe had been hit by small asteroids, or by the debris of 'Laplace'. Seeing the leaking fuel that froze as soon as it got outside, Syam remembered the guy they viewed as the captain saying 'they're after us', and he started to feel some goosebumps.

It was common to collide with space dust. Syam used what little knowledge he had from his training to calm his anxiety and notified the ship about the damage. the ‘Worker Head’ answered: (Close the control valve. We can accelerate with what we have left. Hurry up and get back.) Syam cut the frozen fuel pillar on the pipe and threw it far away. If he left it alone, there would be an ice pillar floating and probably ending up in the ship’s exhaust stream. If that happened while the exhaust was firing, there would be a very large explosion.

Syam pulled the safety cable and went back to the airlock. As his back turned away from the Earth and the Sun, he witnessed an incredible sight. He looked at the stars, undulled by the atmosphere, that were like a carpet giving off silver light. He could see no moons, no artificial satellites, just a hunge array of dazzlingly bright stars. He could barely use his naked eyes to look between the stars; it was an abyss the bottom of which even the speed of light couldn’t reach.

"It’s so memorable." This thought flashed through Syam's mind. Just at the moment when he was troubled by this idle thought, the wireless communicator was cut off, and with a sharp flash of light, Syam saw the airlock burst into flames.

The flames expanded for a moment, swallowing the entire worker ship. The moment before he was caught in the shockwave, Syam saw the spacesuit of the pilot flung out from the cockpit, just like many of the burning debris. The hull of the worker ship exploded from inside, and then Syam was blown away by the shockwave of the explosion. The uneven inertia caused his body to spin vertically, and through the visor, he could see the Earth and the stars quickly moving by.

The stars, the sun and the Earth drew dazzling long arcs as they moved up, and Syam was moving further and further away from the scrap metal of the worker ship. “First, I should stop spinning, find something and see if my spacesuit is alright.” His mind flashed through the response scenario he had learnt, but the shockwave had numbed his senses and he couldn’t operate well. Syam could only flail his limbs weakly. “What happened? Why did the worker ship explode? Didn’t I throw the leaking fuel pillar out? There’s nothing else wrong!”

"No, that’s not it. That’s an explosion from within. Something happened inside the ship. Something exploded…what? Other than fuel, we weren’t carrying anything dangerous! Those allies of ours who were in charge of managing stocks checked them. There can’t be any explosions unless something deliberately brought one on—"

His gut suddenly shrank; Syam widened his eyes in fear. Betrayal, explosion, silence. Many words came in his mind as he watched the scene in front of him, and tried to come up with a conclusion. However, he was ultimately swallowed by fear and chaos, and finally, the only words he could remember were the words of that guy, the captain, that were spoken in an abnormal tone ‘they’re here’.

They’re the dead of ‘Laplace’. The thousands of dead that had been alive several minutes ago became countless corpses that caught up with the worker ship, bared their fangs and attacked, taking suitable revenge on the people who killed them. Killing the ‘Worker Head’ and everyone else inside the cabin, and letting Syam, who was coincidentally outside the ship, sink to a gradual death.

The severed safety cable crossed him, and the debris of the worker ship were floating away. The life support in Syam’s suit could only work for 8 hours maximum, and even if a nearby ship got a distress signal, Syam’s chances of being saved within such a short time was gradually approaching zero as he himself was moving at roughly the speed of sound. Would he float to the Earth or into the abyss of Outer Space?

No, before either of those, a part of his mind calmly predicted, he would float into the debris field of ‘Laplace’, diced up by the metal shrapnel that was moving at 8 kilometers per second. And at the same time, fear went through all the hairs on his body, filling the entire spacesuit. Syam cried out: "I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die like this, I don’t want this life where I’m still eliminated in the end!"

"I have to get back home. My mom and my sister, Sarah, are still waiting for me! I don’t want to die I don’t want to die I don’t want to die—" Syam prayed silently and closed his eyes as he heard the siren that rang because of the erratic breathing. As he opened his eyes again, he saw something strange.

As Syam saw the other side of the burning worker ship, a profile of a person appeared. Then another profile appeared, both wearing spacesuits he had never seen before and using thrusters on their backs to move forward. The profiles grew bigger and bigger, and one of the helmet-like heads gave off a red light and pointed what looked suspiciously like a gun at Syam.

Syam subconsciously used both hands to protect his body, but that huge, golem-like spacesuit ignored Syam and continued to move forward. The shield that was installed on the suit’s shoulders, the deep green body and the head was giving of the shine of a single red eye. This wasn’t a spacesuit, it was a large object that wasn’t human. What was unbelievable was that their heights were close to 20m The suits grazed past Syam like ghosts, one after the other. In front of them was the shining blue figure of the Earth and more large golems that accompanied a large cylinder amid countless explosions.

He had seen this large cylindrical steel bottle with three mirrored wings on TV earlier. These were the basis of the Space Migration plan, the ‘Island 3’ type Space Colonies. But right now, those three rectangular wings were tattered, and the steel surface was covered in ugly burn marks. The whole thing looked just like junk hardware. This structure was humanity’s greatest construct, and even through TV, he could feel the majestic impact of a brand new space colony as it started to touch the Earth’s profile.

The one-eyed giants continued to fire as they escorted the colony, shooting down the resisting ships and the fighter jets. The giants continued to wreak havoc by moving through the colony. The colony was 30 kilometers long and more than 6 kilometers in diameter. As it started to sink into the atmosphere, it began to burn. When Syam realized that the golems were trying to force the colony to hit Earth, he inadvertently shouted: "‘STOP IT!"'

"If that kind of thing hit, the world would be in a mess. Mom’s on Earth! Sarah’s on Earth! Stop it!"

The golems didn’t respond though, and the burning colony turned their bodies fiery red. The peeled mirrored blocks and the colony cylinder became a fireball and turned the clouds into steam as they continued to fall onto the Earth. This was the Final Judgment, Syam thought. To end this world that’s filled with guilt and sin, and leading the people who did good deeds to Heaven for God to judge...is it unavoidable? He remembered the words of a certain someone who said that ‘our destinies are in our hands’. These words blew aside any realistic view, and Syam widened his eyes that he never dared close.

The grey and brown exhaust smoke stained the thin veil of the atmosphere, and the colony became a large meteor that impacted the surface of the Earth. A corner of the Earth’s profile shone like the dawn. As the shine expanded, Syam cried. He was angry at his uselessness, remorseful, depressed about it. He felt lots of emotions that he couldn’t sort out explode in him and rise out as steaming liquid from his eyes. Finally, the light became bigger, and a light that was stronger than the sun appeared. Then, suddenly, everything was calm again.

Syam slowly opened his eyes. The spinning of his body stopped. The siren on his life support function stopped, indicating that his breathing and pulse went back to normal. Through the visor, the profile of the Earth looked still. There wasn’t any colony that fell, and of course he didn’t see the one-eyed golems.

A tear that came from his eye floated in the helmet before being sucked away by the suit’s waste removal mechanism. Was that…a dream? Syam was puzzled for a while. That was an intensely realistic nightmare. He didn’t think that his brain had the ability to create such an illusion. Syam looked around, still seeing remnants of the dream, and found that he was floating in a field of shrapnel.

The debris, ruptured materials, and broken glass, were obviously the remains of ‘Laplace’. The debris scattered in this orbit, and the fragments that had been pushed higher, were flying at the same relative speed as Syam.

The surrounding debris floated around, seemingly stopping. The debris in the vacuum created by Syam’s passing would always orbit a space suit. Thinking blankly, Syam had new doubts in his lonely heart, and then noticed something shining in front of him.

The object reflected the light of the Earth, giving off a bright glow, which made Syam think it was a fragment of the concave mirror block. The portable thruster that could be used for another 10 seconds, and Syam used it now to move towards the shining object.

Unbelievably, he didn’t have any fears of death; the memory of his vision throbbed inside him in an even greater manner. In the boundless universe, two objects that were as small as mustard seeds would move toward each other at the same speed and touch each other. As Syam faced this once in a few billion moment of coincidence, he started to doubt whether his nerves were all numb.

That object continued to spin slowly, and the shiny surface reflected the light of the world. Syam used the portable thruster bit by bit and let his body stop in front of the object.

It was a little cracked, but the object was a hexagonal shape that was 3 meters in diameter and 30 centimeters thick. Syam closed in on the shiny surface as he slowly stretched out his gloved hand.

And the spacesuit that was reflected in the object itself reached its hand out, as both fingers that were moving in opposite directions touched silently—

0096

As he reached out and grabbed the emptiness, Syam Vist woke up.

There was nothing, and there was no sign of himself wearing a spacesuit like in the reflection of the object. As he looked from the bed to the ceiling, he could see the starry sky that didn’t flicker. Of course, these weren’t really stars, but a hologram that was displayed on the domed roof. It was a screen of a starry sky that was meticulously detailed, no different from what his naked eye saw.

He reached out his five fingers toward this fake space as his wrinkled arm grabbed at air—his youthful days were gone. Seeing the back of his age-wrinkled arm, Syam realized that he had merely been dreaming and heaved a sigh of relief. He hadn’t woken from cryo-sleep. If he had, he would feel pain as his body became active, and his body couldn’t take the pain of fluids being injected into the frozen cells…

Suddenly, he sensed the presence of a person. In this space, everything other than the bed was full of stars and couldn’t be distinguished from one another. A man was standing silently at the door. “Is it Cardeas?” Syam asked. The air that shook slightly answered him. He saw the tall and lankly figure of Cardeas Vist walk out from the darkness of the universe and arrive near the bed.

Cardeas was wearing a collared suit and a similar Nehru jacket, the perfect traditional attire of the Vist Foundation. He had a sharp expression under his silver eyebrows, and was more than 60 years old, but it was hard to tell that his body was aging. He wasn’t hiding nor was he flaunting his sense of authority, and the straight and primp posture that could defeat all envy and slander made Syam feel that Cardeas was indeed worthy of being the leader of the Vist Foundation.

Besides finance, steel-making, construction and other basic enterprises, the Vist Foundation showed most of its power through logistics, entertainment, and even department stores. One single expression from Cardeas would move complicated, yet diverse crowds and investments, but he was definitely not the king of hidden plans. Having taken over the mantle many years ago, he was used to people referring to the stench of the underground links the Vist Foundation had as the ‘fortune’, and he was also used to the Foundation’s corrupted coexistence with the Federation government. Right in front of Syam was the face of the relative who looked stronger and stronger every day.

Syam had had many children, and most of them became a part of the underground kingdom of the vast Vist Foundation. However, other than his second son’s son, Cardeas, nobody else was capable enough to inherit Syam’s throne. Throughout history, there were many cases of the first generation starting a enterprise, the second generation building on the enterprise, and the third generation ruining it. However, Cardeas’ rebellious nature when he was young caused him to be open-minded and not be poisoned by the Vist Foundation. As a student, he left home, hid his real name, and joined the Federation’s space army as a fighter jet pilot. Such an experience caused him to be a rare breed amongst a family that was already poisoned by authority. Unlike his father, who was an heir before him, the open-minded Cardeas was envied by his own family as he leap-frogged the heir hierarchy, and could continue to maintain his strength without being bothered by them.

However, the never-before-seen rare breed was merely his exterior. Cardeas himself had a complicated side of delicateness and straightforwardness that could read the hearts of any man. Even Syam, who had lived for a long time, couldn’t tell what this person, the second head who knew everything, including the truth behind his father’s mysterious death, was thinking. However, he would regularly come over to visit Syam, show a cryptic expression and make the old man, who had been sleeping continuously, meaninglessly remember all his past lies. That was the sort of person Cardeas Vist was. Syam was the leader of the Vist family, a family with more than 200 members, including affiliations, but it was an undeniable fact that there was no one but this grandson of his with shom he could share his lies.

Looking down at Syam as he lay on the bed, Cardeas asked “How are you?” His eyes hid a suppressed emotion that couldn’t be explained by being second fiddle and being the second head of the family. Syam touched the bracelet-shaped remote control, engraved with the Vist family crest, and took the bottle of water from the table beside him.

“The assumption that cryogenics can regain my youth was thoroughly denied by my body. There’s no difference at all. I’m so tired.”

Syam felt the cold water enter his wilted body and sighed. Freezing one’s body and using cryosleep to slow the metabolism wasn’t a complete technology. In fact, only a few research facilities and hospitals were undergoingtesting it, and those that volunteered for the process could be said to be lab rats. However, on hearing that cryogenics were finally practical, Syam bought every institute involved, including the research facility.

Syam would use vacations or recuperation as an excuse to gain time when managing the finances of the Foundation's operations, and the long sleep after his retirement allowed him to gain nearly 20 years. But the primary doctor’s diagnosis was that Syam’s body was equivalent to that of a 93-year-old. His wife was already dead, half of his children were already dead, and he alone supported his own body, defying the natural aging of time. This was even more awkward than being interrogated, and anyone would find it unbearable to see an old man so insistent on being alive. But even if he was mocked for this, for the sake of the Vist Foundation, for the curse that laid sealed behind the prosperity, he had to continue living even if he had to lie.

As the keeper of ‘Laplace Box’, the curse that was granted to this world and sealed almost a 100 years ago—

“How is it?”

And the moment where it all had to end arrived. Syam used a business-like tone to ask Cardeas, and Cardeas used a similar to answer, “As we planned, it will be executed 3 days from now.”

“I will head to ‘Industrial 7’ directly to meet the collector.”

“You’ll head over yourself?”

“I can’t delegate this job to anyone.”

Cardeas smiled as Syam said that. As he smiled, he showed the daring nature that defined him when he was a pilot. Even in his late age, he still believes in his own body. Syam, who was unable to get up, could not ever remember feeling like that.

“We can finally use it with the ‘UC plan’. Before I hand it over, I would like to try it.”

“The curiosity of an ex-pilot…”

“You can call it desire, but in fact, that is a really good machine.”

The leader of Vist Foundation sounded like he wanted to be a test pilot. "But that’s good," Syam thought wryly.

Cardeas was the one who single-handedly decided on the successor, and on the the plan that solved the difficult issue of passing the ‘Box’ on to a third party. Even though Syam’s own interest was somewhat involved, everything was ready. He could only allow Cardeas to do it.

“The ‘Unicorn’ was created by the ‘UC plan’. We must make the beast of possibilities lead the way to ‘Laplace Box’…”

Syam muttered as he again felt the moral implication behind this. However, he also felt that something like this would always happen when something important occurred. Nothing was planned at the beginning, but coincidences caused things to move about. That’s right. Life was just about being manipulated by fate.

At that time, the 17-year-old Syam would run out of the worker ship, float into the endless vacuum, meet the debris field of ‘Laplace’, obtain the ‘Box’ over there, all because…

Cardeas gave a mystified expression as he saw Syam deep in thought. Syam lifted his eyes and looked at the image of the starry skies that filled the ceiling, and asked, “How’s the investigation on the recipient’s trust?”

“The fact is that this is a deal with Anaheim Electronics. It’s disguised as an underground dealing, but that’s the first step to opening the window. In the current situation now, this was the only viable option.”

Cardeas named what was undoubtedly the largest enterprise of all the businesses in the Vist Foundation. Like its name, Anaheim began as an electronics company in North America, and was now the largest weapons supplier for the Earth Federation army,and the largest corporation in the world. This electronics company had become a leading military enterprise, and also a subsidiary of the Vist Foundation.

Since Anaheim Electronics was involved in the dealing, it could be seen as Vist Foundation being involved. Though the recipient’s guarantee to collect would be the best possible, Cardeas’ tone indicated that he wasn’t sure. On one hand, he had to bring blood relatives of his into the business to stabilize the underground empire even more. On the other hand, he had to keep the reins tight to prevent them from going out of control. As he contemplated the loneliness of someone sitting on a throne, Syam asked, “Is it Alberto?” Cardeas looked away and answered simply, “Yes. That man who could barely earn small change.”

“No matter what, this is a plan that relies on uncertainty. No matter how much we investigate, we can’t possibly lose anything.”

Cardeas hid the shakiness inside him and used a dry and stiff voice to continue. But the way he was hiding his wavering so much showed that he still had a bit of youth in him. Syam didn’t answer, as if he was impatient with his old and feeble body.

“It’s only because we posses ‘Laplace’s Box’ that Vist Foundation even exits. This is entire affair amounts to breaking a 100-year alliance with the Federation. I admit that I made it a thorough secret, but someone should have realized it already. It’s not just the Foundation itself. Even Anaheim Electronics may take action.”

“Ever since Melanie left active duty, Anaheim has become more and more useless. It’s about time to show them how to continue operations without relying on the Federation.”

“This is basically a matter of life and death to them. Martha won’t just sit back and watch, right? We’re basically abusing our authority here!”

This was the expression and voice of a man who knew about developing enough authority and influence to get away with murder. Syam looked back at Cardeas’ eyes, and pictured his second son’s face overlapping Cardeas’. “There’s no need to worry.” He said that not only to Cardeas, but also to himself.

“Until they die, those without power can’t imagine how much duty and responsibility those with power had to bear.”

Syam spoke as he looked up at the starry sky on the ceiling. After a while, Cardeas responded. “You really haven’t changed at all, leader,” his gentle voice had some grimace behind it. The warm voice of his descendant made Syam lose his breath. He asked himself: "Haven’t I changed?"

"Haven’t changed? No, I changed a long time ago. That 17 year old man in my dreams, that young man who thought that he’d tasted all of the world’s bitterness, probably wouldn’t recognize that this old man that’s lying on the bed is who he would become. Living more than100 years is enough to change a person. I don’t know when I lost my initial goal. I set up this system for it, and continued to expand the system endlessly just to survive. 100 years is long enough to let a person’s or organization’s lies grow. The Earth Federation government was like this. The Vist Foundation was like this. Anaheim Electronics was like this. And I also was like this—"

After Syam had been miraculously saved from the explosion of his ship by a civilian ship that was in the area he went back to Earth with the ‘Box’. He didn’t go back to his hometown, and he never saw his mother or sister again. The poor and foolish young terrorist was scattered into space dust with his separatist comrades. If news that he had survived leaked out and messed up a certain person’s script, then his newly-recovered life, and even his mother and sister would be in danger. Syam’s experience with society allowed him to make that prediction with some degree of confidence.

Syam didn’t know whether or not it was due to that person’s script that all people who were related to the terrorists involved in the destruction of the ‘Laplace’ station were quickly investigated. The ‘organization’ and the separatist countries who supported them were all completely annihilated by the Federation Army. The Federation government then immediately reformed as a new government under the slogan of ‘Remembering Laplace’, and started its eradication of anti-government movements. The ‘organization’ that planned and executed the terrorist plot was begun by the liberals who wanted to take over the Marcenas administration. Many books and movies questioned if this was the truth, but the majority of people felt that it was just an uncreative conspiracy theory, and praised the Federation’s enthusiasm in wiping out terrorism.

It’s not that the people were stupid. The stupid ones were the separatists who were facing the start of the Universal Century and still arrogantly calling for people to give up on the administration and wanted civil wars for at least 10 years. People gave up on shapeless ideals and chose reality. It was just a first proof in reality that ‘the majority’s the smart one’. In Universal Century, the Federation government declared that they had ‘erased all terrestrial conflicts in the world’, and clearly established the states in the Earth Federation, causing society to move into Universal Century. What Prime Minister Ricardo Marcenas wanted, humanity ‘saying goodbye to the age of gods’, was, ironically, completed because of his own death.

At that moment, Syam, who had become someone ‘who no longer existed’, used this unique trait to start a business. Even at the beginning of the Universal Century, the underground society of triads and gangsters still existed, and the social, political and economic stages that appeared on the forefront wasn’t that much different from the Anno Domini Era. Syam managed to get his start here. As he got involved with a war of monopolies, he started getting involved with a certain enterprise whose headquarters was located in the North American region.

That enterprise called Anaheim Electronics was merely a normal-sized electronic company, but once it received Syam’s rather beneficial assistance, it started to grow rapidly. That was Syam using the power of the ‘Box’ to force the government to defeat opposing companies who were fighting for supremacy. As Syam continued to maintain his relations with the underground societies, he became an ally of Anaheim Electronics and married the daughter of the Managing Director. The family was old famous nobility from France and was a successful installation for ‘a person who does not exist anymore’ to appear again. And that famous Vist family had a grand old tradition of asking no questions and accepting anyone who had ability, even if the son-in-law that joined them was of unknown origins. Syam used the name of the Vist Foundation to create a public corporation. On the surface, it was a legitammate financial corporation that moved world heritage pieces like art or antiques to space colonies, which were more politically stable than Earth. In actual fact however, it was used to launder the money earned from various enterprises or investments and provides high ranking officials of the Federation government an opportunity to work after retirement. The co-existence between the Federation and the Vist Foundation was born at that moment.

Under the rigid control of the Federation government, the space migration plan was carried out successfully. Before Side 1 of L5 was complete, construction of Side 2 in L4 started, and the building of space colonies continued to develop. The number of ‘Island 3’ colonies soon broke 100, and whether people were willing or not, they were dumped into outer space by the millions. Inadvertently, the number of space migrants grew, in stark contrast to the number of residents on Earth. As livestock and agriculture were able to operate in outer space, the age where economy and production couldn’t operate without outer space arrived. Strict restrictions were soon put in place on people moving on and off of Earth, and space residents almost had no chance of stepping onto Eath again. They adopted an ideology that Earth was a sacred ground. They viewed Earth as a sanctuary, and thought that it should be preserved as the birthplace of humanity. A lamentation of how space residents tried to sever their yearning for the Earth, and their revenge on those who still stayed on Earth.

In fact, the space resident plan the Federation government pushed forward started to hit a problem by year 0050, after the first phase was completed. Earth originally should have reached the minimum population for the environment to recover, but there were still lots of people staying on Earth and even developing in new areas. The Federation government itself was based on Earth, and only those involved in the government remained on Earth. The space colonies, bound by the one-sided laws of the central government could not express their views, and could only watch the Earth rotate silently. The Federation raised the ‘Laplace Tragedy’ to emphasize the danger of moving the government to outer space, but also froze the migration plans to the space colonies. This hypocritical act was almost admitting silently that they had ‘dumped enough people’, causing great dissatisfaction amongst the space residents. A certain thought appeared in a corner of outer space as if it gathered all the unhappiness.

The politician who raised this thought was Zeon Zum Deikun, and his beliefs were later adopted as the Principality of Zeon. Zeon carefully included the Nationalism of Sides that demanded self-government of space colonies, along with the sanctification of the Earth, becoming an ideal that included space biochemistry of mankind. Those space residents that were disillusioned by the space migration plan were awakened by Zeon’s Principles. The Federation government ignored this moment, but the Zeon movement spread from Side 3, behind the moon, and finally, half a century after the space migration plan began, Side 3 declared its independence.

It was a proud moment of revolution to the now-independent residents of Side 3, but to the Federation government, it was the first real threat they faced since they eliminated the separatists. The Federation government started to increase its suppression of Side 3 and increase the size of their space army. It started to build the latest model of the ‘Salamis’-class space navigation ships, far larger than the ships that guarded ‘Laplace’. In response, Side 3 built up its national defense in case of any aggression. Both sides remained at tense relations until the year 0079 in the Universal Century. Not caring about the implications on economics and internal affairs, the self-proclaimed Principality of Zeon, Side 3, declared war on the Earth Federation, and the grand war began.

Since the war lasted for one year, it later became known as the One Year War. The Federation and Zeon continued to invest in Universal Century technology without restraint and the situation escalated into a war of mass destruction, becoming the most devastating war in human history. After this year of disaster, where more than half the population was wiped out, the Principality of Zeon finally lost the war, and an armistice was signed. The Earth Federation managed to keep its governmental structure. However, the escalating war between Earth and Space under the Principality of Zeon never ended, as there were many other conflicts for another 10 years and more, adding salt to the wounds of Earth before it could recover from the One Year War.

Such large expenditure and wastage caused Anaheim Electronics to gain a stable income through war, and it quickly became the largest enterprise on Earth. They absorbed and took over the military industry of the old Principality of Zeon, and almost single-handedly managed all the development of the Earth Federation’s armaments. They used the excuse of charging each customer independently to work dealings with Anti-Earth Union Group, and did business fairly with both Earth and Space. Since Anaheim Electronics’ resources mostly went to the Moon, people often dubbed them ‘the rulers of the Moon’, and others would even directly call them ‘Merchants of Death’. However, behind Anaheim, there was the shadow of Vist Foundation and the ‘Box’ that allowed for their monopoly and the elimination of any competitors.

The Vist Foundation hid the ‘Box’ for nearly 100 years, and could manipulate the Federation government whenever and however they wanted to. At the start of the Universal Century, the ‘Box’ landed in Syam’s hands at a chance of 1 in a billion. Humanity broke free from the chains of gravity, religions, and race, and should have gotten a Box that represented the New Covenant of the Universal Century, ‘Laplace’s Box’. It sealed a seal that was 100 years long, and still remained with him. The dry and feeble body lay on the bed as Syam sighed.

He once had a chance to open the ‘Box’. He had a chance to immediately let the world collapse from the base on and bring ‘the supposed future’ the Universal Century should have had. Thus, he created the Vist Foundation. And even if he had to rely on cryogenics, he had to survive, to bear what is an overly heavy responsibility and duty for a human. "No, I shouldn’t be thinking about excuses. I just don’t have the courage and strength to open the box. I’m scared of the illusion I saw—the hellish scenes of space colonies falling on Earth. Yet I watched this cruel imagery become reality and only focused my heart and soul on improving the Foundation’s prosperity. I’m just a coward who lost my initial goal after 100 years, a coward who became distrusting of humans and still couldn’t give up on my life and end it all."

The night side of the Earth was moving above them, and there was the thin veil of the atmosphere floating around it. Earth looked like it did 100 years ago, but in fact, countless ‘colony drops’ caused a large amount of dust to scatter, and the Earth’s atmosphere looked as if it were stained. Syam watched the thin veil of the atmosphere and wanted to look at the imprint of this guilt. Guilt that wouldn’t disappear for another thousand years. At this moment, he saw a human-shaped object pass in front of the Earth.

It looked as large as a little thumb, though the human-shaped object that was moving through the stars at high speed wasn’t a human in a spacesuit, but a mobile suit. As Minovsky particles, which allowed for easy jamming of radar and electronic devices, were discovered, a mobile, human-shaped weapon became mainstream in space combat. The one-eyed giants he saw in his vision almost 100 years ago were now a common weapon, manufactured by Anaheim Electonics’ assembly line, replacing tanks and fighter jets, and becoming the main weapon of the Earth Federation.

The first nation to successfully develop mobile suit technology was the Principality of Zeon. It brought an advantage to the Zeon forces just when they were severely disadvantaged. However, as the memories of the One Year War faded, this story was merely a footnote in a corner of a history book. After several years, once this Side 3, once called the Republic of Zeon, gives up its self-independence and returns to the Federation government, people will forget about that time. It’s only to be expected that the space residents’ passion in its demands for self-government and upsurge of classes would fall apart as the Principality of Zeon declined and finally disappeared in this dark and cold outer space.

The time was Universal Century 0096—the fervor for revolution had gone, and in the universe of concepts, even the stars were so cold.

“…It’s time to activate ‘Laplace Box’.”

Feeling a chill all over himself, Syam spoke. “If the space residents lose this chance of independence, the Earth Sphere shall remain shut.”

“But this may bring even more chaos to the world.”

Cardeas responded calmly as he stood beside the bed. His lanky body looked like a pastor who witnessed a death on a patient’s bed, but also like the figure of a death god. Syam smiled,

“It’s better than being in stasis forever and slowly dying. If I can hand ‘Laplace Box’ over to anyone else, my role as guardian will be over. I don’t want to defy nature and watch my grandson die.”

“That’s enough for the person that’s to be entrusted with the box.” After saying that, Syam again confirmed that that person wasn’t himself. No matter if it was him or the Vist Foundation, he could only wait. Though they benefited from the magic of the ‘Box’ and had the power to move the world, they were content to be mere observers, watching everything. Like the meaning of the word itself, they were just watching.

A century had passed since Syam had found the ‘Box’, and there were signs that such observers were being born. Having entered the new environment called Outer Space, humanity gradually gained power that exceeded that of normal people. 100 years ago, the people gathered at ‘Laplace’ expected it earlier than anyone else. The god that resides in us. God’s blessing called possibility was moving through the countless space colonies.

The new humans, called Newtypes by Zeon Zum Deikun; they will definitely be able to open the ‘Box’, ride on the beast of possibilities ‘Unicorn’, and see the contents of the ‘Box’, bringing the prayer of redemption from ‘Laplace’ to now and setting the Universal Century on the right path.

Of course, there’s no evidence to prove these theories, and Syam knew that he was being reckless, but there wasn’t much time left. He had to take action before it was too late to salvage the situation. Before the world completely collapsed, before the god known as possibilities extinguished itself, before this rotting thing that couldn’t endure another frozen sleep…

“Can you forgive me?”

This was just him being opinionated, as Syam finally asked the question that burdened him with the heavy lies he knew about.

“This might bring an end to a world. Is there anyone who can forgive you other than me?”

Cardeas’ answer to this was extremely clear. The lies and the pains were all gone in that instant. Syam was unable to respond to this kinship and looked at Earth displayed on the wall.

"You’re willing to forgive me? You’re forgiving this devil who took action on his own children in order to protect the 100 years of silence the Vist Foundation protects? You’re forgiving this inhuman grandfather who took your father away? You’re forgiving this man whose thoughts may be opinionated and send the world to destruction—"

Earth was about to face dawn from the front. The sun’s glow appeared on the long arc profile, and the white light shone through the atmosphere, causing the blue that was locked under the color of night to recover.

The light shone on Syam’s bed and Cardeas’ body as their two shadows became one. Syam basked in this intense glow that could burn all the remaining lies away. As the scene in front of him blured, Syam again fell into a deep sleep.

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