Space, the final frontier…
Actually, space happens to be an extreme and unforgiving environment that can kill you in an instant. Seriously, it may be a frontier, but it is a uniquely intolerant place for the unprepared.
Everybody knows about the famous astronauts or cosmonauts if you are from that other country which had been involved in the space race. However, do you know how many of them died to get there? Russians still have top-secret
2020-09-12 09:56:03 +0000 UTC
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We had long conversations about governing and the political system our new nation should use; it was one of the most difficult decisions we ever made.
People need to be ruled, and that is a fact.
I know, that idea does not agree with me too; it makes me feel bad in a way, which is understandable since I was a product of my environment. For all that, I cannot deny the validity of it.
From the time we were still living in the caves, and throwing rocks at each other...
2020-09-09 10:05:38 +0000 UTC
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To be caught with your pants down—it is not a nice feeling.
We needed half an hour at most to make a reasonably safe liftoff, but that was time we did not have. No amount of wishing could produce those minutes, especially when one has a freaking missile heading in his direction.
It was launched from a B2 Stealth bomber from a very high altitude and at a considerable distance, which was a blessing since it gave us some time. If it was dropped from one of the numerous pla...
2020-09-05 09:43:59 +0000 UTC
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They had found almost everything about us… and it is bad.
Have you any idea how it feels to drop the ball, to screw up, letting everybody down. There are a few of you that know exactly what I mean… it sucks, doesn’t it?
Dr. Nikolov was a bad egg, I knew that from the moment he started causing trouble with the scientific community on the island, and that is why I meticulously checked every single piece of communication he did. I assigned one MI to monitor him constantly, but ...
2020-09-02 09:28:32 +0000 UTC
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Just when you think that nothing could genuinely surprise you (and I mean one of those surprises that shake you to the core), you discover that you have been so very wrong.
This was one of those surprises you dread, like finding a six-inch tarantula on your chest when you wake up, or jumping out of the plane and then realizing you forgot to put on a parachute… What? It could happen.
I guess it is another thing I should thank President Garner for. If he hadn’t given that ...
2020-08-29 10:12:04 +0000 UTC
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So many things happened in a relatively short time, my head would be still spinning if I was my old self.
First was when Dad decided to have a chat with me. All things considered, it is not a big thing to have a heart to heart conversation with one’s father. Arguably, that is if both are flesh and blood human beings… ours was a bit different. The man could not even pat me on the back since the only way we could have something resembling normal human interaction was by me pr...
2020-08-26 10:03:29 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes you just need to reach out and touch someone, and if that someone is a group of terrorist fighters… all the better. Well, it entirely depends on how you do it, and how fatally they are touched.
Albert Einstein said that insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Therefore, what I have done can be looked as a favor to humanity’s genetic pool, by eradicating three thousand five hundred idiots from the face of this worl...
2020-08-22 10:10:40 +0000 UTC
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No matter how much I know, and the amount of knowledge I absorb, I am still amazed at certain aspects of this world. That goes double if you look into the micro world. There you can bear witness to the infinite complexity of life itself and a universe that cannot be seen by our bare eyes. Still, that particular universe has a profound influence on our very existence.
It is a popular belief that humans are masters of this world, which may not be true.
In my opinion, viruse...
2020-08-19 10:11:52 +0000 UTC
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I guess what Michael had was an awakening of sorts. I do not mean a spiritual one, but the one that comes when you become sick of certain things and decide that a paradigm shift is in order. Amassing all that money was a means to an end, a tool that would enable that change he was advocating. All that meant more work for me, but it was for a good cause, and I could see myself having fun.
***
I already told you how I despised bankers; now it would seem I had to become one. Th...
2020-08-15 10:03:23 +0000 UTC
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When someone tells you that you need to pull the biggest robbery in the Earth’s history… how do you respond? Well, despite the calm expression on my hologram’s face, I wanted to dance a jig.
As you may have noticed, I like taking money from the bad guys. Not only because I know that this would hurt them, but for the fact that I can do much more useful things with it than they ever could.
Right now, some of you will indignantly question who gave me the right to make those kin...
2020-08-12 10:04:40 +0000 UTC
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Not everything can be fun and games, building things and going forward. Besides, there are those in this world who tend to spoil your fun by the simple act of existing.
When I saw the first satellite images of corpses inside the burned-out village in Nigeria, I was appalled (and pissed off) that in this day and age some people would still inflict such horrors upon others. There is always a way around violence if you look hard enough, and if there is not, most of the time one...
2020-08-08 09:59:29 +0000 UTC
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OK, this is just a quick entry, because I am pressed for time right now. But I needed to note down a few words since I am so excited about the possibilities of a certain thing I put into motion. If it works out (and I don’t see why it shouldn't), it is going to be amazing.
You see, all the great things in the entire history of our species started with just a good idea. With one individual thinking about something unorthodox and trying it out. And no matter how that idea eventual...
2020-08-05 08:11:21 +0000 UTC
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I love recycling; it is the best shortcut in the world. Do I even need to explain why? Never mind, I’ll give you a short summary.
Normally you have to go through too much trouble to get the materials you need from the ground and let’s face it, almost everything comes from the ground when you think about it. It needs to be mined, drilled, harvested, collected, refined… It is daunting how many steps one ordinary object, like your everyday pen, for example, goes through unti...
2020-08-01 06:09:01 +0000 UTC
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Since I dealt with that pesky volcano, it was time to concentrate on the reason why I decided to rent an island. The original question was how to build a spaceship that is three miles in circumference without anybody being the wiser? It was impossible, especially in today’s world of constant surveillance, mobile phones, cameras, and social networks that for some reasons are hour-by-hour diaries of people’s lives and their interaction with others. With the mania for taking selfies an...
2020-07-29 10:08:47 +0000 UTC
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Go big or go home—that is why I got myself an island. Well, it is not technically mine, since it is only leased for a period of two years, still…
I see myself more AS a custodian of this tropical paradise for the foreseeable future. That does not change the fact that I have an entire Island to play with. OK, not play with per se, but this place will be our springboard to space itself. A location for one of the most ambitious projects the entire human race has ever ...
2020-07-25 10:08:24 +0000 UTC
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To whom it may concern.
You are back, accessing this second tome of my logs. I do hope you still have all the right permissions or that insatiable curiosity of yours could be your undoing.
When all is said and done, if you were not deterred by now, I don't see you stopping anytime soon. Oh, well… it’s your call.
Anyway, things are speeding up, and it will be harder to keep our anonymity as we grow. I have no doubt that the world will find out what we were up to, but I ho...
2020-07-25 10:04:50 +0000 UTC
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Main Asteroid Belt
(Between Mars and Jupiter)
Uncountable numbers of rocks were making their circular path through space; it was an eternal dance that had begun when the Solar System was still young. For all those billions of years, they were left undisturbed, except by physical laws that governed space itself.
Now, something was happening in one small corner of the belt; an external force was changing those natural objects into something el...
2020-07-22 10:30:01 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Geostationary orbit
Entering his office Michael could see a pile of paperwork on his desk. He stood in front of it and wondered how it happened that he was in space, orbiting Earth in a spaceship, and still had to deal with the damn paperwork. He was seriously considering Elizabeth's suggestion to get a personal assistant. Until now, he was mostly relying on Max to deal with most of the administrative ...
2020-07-22 10:26:42 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Geostationary orbit
It was time for Alice to wake up, and the entire inner circle was present, waiting for her to be brought out of the artificial coma. Her injuries were so extensive that she had to be kept under, so there wouldn’t be any emotional scarring until she was completely healed. Her left arm and both legs had to be completely rebuilt, most of her skin suffered third-degree burns, and with...
2020-07-18 10:08:48 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Central Park
In the following weeks, things settled down on the massive City-ship; the people went on with their lives and worked hard to make this place into a proper and permanent home. By Max’s detailed records, there were currently more than ten thousand people living in space, and the numbers were climbing progressively. There were multiple births every day, and by what doctors were saying, ther...
2020-07-15 10:00:24 +0000 UTC
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Switzerland, Castle of Regnum
Philip Cain was sitting at the head of the table in the ‘High Council’ meeting chamber, dressed in the Primus regalia with a black mask on his face. What’s more, for the first time he was not even slightly annoyed by it; instead, he was grateful as it concealed his sweaty face and bloodshot eyes. Countless times before, he was sitting in this exact chair and felt like he was on top of the world; now, that intoxicating feeling...
2020-07-11 10:25:11 +0000 UTC
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Aboard transporter 001
Destination: Cain’s Mansion
It was a dark and stormy night, perfect weather as far as four men in a transporter flying down to Earth were concerned. The lack of moonlight was to their advantage since they were planning to be extremely stealthy tonight. Max confirmed that Philip Cain wasn’t at the site they were about to break into. Nevertheless, Max and Ares gave almost 90% chance that this was the location of that basem...
2020-07-08 10:34:34 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Geostationary orbit
Michael woke up in a strange place and for a moment, he was not quite sure where he was. His eyes saw an endless black expanse with thousands of small points of light. In the next second, a small movement he made turned him a few degrees and the Earth majestically appeared before him.
“Max?”
“Good morning Michael, how are you feeling?”
“Surprisin...
2020-07-04 10:51:16 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Geostationary orbit
Once again, Michael was sitting behind the desk in the conference room, waiting for the arranged time to join the videoconference. He was going through the list on his CEI of all the things he wanted to say and do; it was time to make some leaders mad.
One of the most jarring differences in the room was the absence of people… he was all alone. His gaze went to the chairs pla...
2020-07-01 09:58:35 +0000 UTC
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Washington, D.C.
Underneath the White House, Presidential bunker
It has been days since he had last seen the Sun and the sky. Consequently, the bright morning light hurt his eyes for a moment, before he put on his sunglasses, and took a refreshing breath of unsterilized air. Michael Freeman was dead, and the world was once again full of possibilities.
Ever since giving that second order, to destroy that spaceship with the nuclear missile, ac...
2020-06-27 10:23:54 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Geostationary Orbit
Since there was no sun on the ship to regulate night and day cycles, it was somewhat arbitrary when one day ended and another began. The work on the Ascension went around-the-clock, so people needed to adapt to different sleep schedules. For all that, the main residential level was still on Pagan Island time, and holo-emitters in the ceiling brightened and dimmed the sky ac...
2020-06-24 10:40:56 +0000 UTC
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City-Ship Ascension
Geostationary orbit
They were still discussing the name of the new ship and some of those radical changes that awaited them in the future, when Max closed his eyes for a second and then said, “We are receiving an SOS, an emergency cry for help signal.”
“From where?” Michael asked.
“From the International Space Station, it seemed that debris of several satellites...
2020-06-20 05:54:32 +0000 UTC
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Washington, D.C.
The White House, Oval Office
Philip Cain gritted his teeth; the amount of anger he felt expressed itself when he stabbed the historic desk with his fountain pen, marring its surface. He tried to reason with the man, promising him all the riches in the world, simply to do the most reasonable thing… to submit. The answer he got was—no.
Oh, Michael Freeman said he would think about it, but he knew that there was not a chanc...
2020-06-17 10:03:01 +0000 UTC
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Washington, D.C.
The White House, Oval Office
Acting President Philip Cain was sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and was using his considerable willpower to prevent himself from having a temper tantrum. What was supposed to be one of the greatest triumphs of his life was turning into a joke.
It was so easy to make his predecessor fall ill; a cocktail of exotic drugs that were extremely hard to detect unless there w...
2020-06-13 05:39:23 +0000 UTC
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USS Destroyer Nicolas Rigolio (DDG-978)
Destination: Pagan Island
Commander J. Brown always considered himself to be a man of integrity, his long career had no embarrassing smudges on it. He dutifully followed orders from his superiors and was happy that not one of them ever stepped on his sense of honor and righteousness. That is why he was a little troubled by the mission he was given, an order that came directly from t...
2020-06-10 10:00:24 +0000 UTC
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