Vol 1 Prologue (1/2)
Prologue
0001
(20:00 GMT has passed How is everyone spending this htof a new The era nae of Christ, will end in four hours
Ever since hues and stood on their oo feet, they have learned how to cross vast oceans and fly in in the liy to explore the final frontier: outer space Now, hue where we leave mother Earth, as the door to the neorld 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 continent: space Fro into space are not just astronauts and technicians They are trailblazers ill reht the fire of civilization in space They are spacenoids, chosen residents of outer space
This new age needs a new calendar Four hours froin the ceree for the momentous ceremony that will be forever marked in history is the Prime Minister’s residence, ‘Laplace’ A place that will act as the bridge to outer space - set on an orbiting plane around the Earth, no other location could be e
Under the eager and watchful eyes of the athered at ‘Laplace’ Everyone in the world is waiting for e Everyone has different feelings, froing to the old age that has lasted ardless, everyone is a witness to this historicand tuht noill be privileged itnessing the beginning of a new age So why don’t we enjoy this e? Let us se!
Goodbye, Anno Domini
hello, Universal Century--!)
The Earth was right below them The reddish-brown land contrasted with the sea that looked like blue sky covered with clouds
Looking down from 200 kilometers above, it was h there were an ath skies looking down on the earth As one continued to look, one ain the false impression that one could land
”Even so, the sight of the ever-changing landscape causes h the upper atinable speed — one orbit every 90 minutes When I look forward, I can see the profile of the planet covering the at around, I see that there’s only the strong and overpowering light of Earth taking away the shi+ne of the stars around, and everything around is a vacuuh to call it pitch-darkness, but rather, an endless darkness that sucks away all the light”
”It see this, Syah he was already tired of looking through the littlein the worker shi+p, it was co outside the shi+p and looking through the helht, he could co outside the earth
Being separated fro continuously outside the earth… it was extre He could feel his blood, bones, cells becoe that had never occurred before The sweat that formed becaravity let out a terrified sound
Syam looked at the emptiness in front of him Amidst the darkness that erased all the stars, there was one lu out white light as if it were about to explode — no, its core was actually exploding continuously, and the radiation heat in space was reaching 120 degrees Celsius and scorching the surface of his spacesuit It was co at the sun from beneath the aty source that gave off harsh white light, an object that sends fear into hu the luht didn’t look as if it were reduced
”I’ll go crazy if I stay in such a place This isn’t a place huht In the distant past, those eager astronauts, who now in hindsight could be said to have been reckless, flew out of the atmosphere and were each moved by the blue color of the Earth, a precious experience that had the power to override their values However, they were the elites, specially chosen, and given the highest level of education They were the ed in hu and writing Even if someone like him entered outer space, there wouldn’t be any benefits for him Basically, for a 17 year old who didn’t know the names of the continents or their locations, or where his hoe slab that was ridiculously big
Frontiers? What kind of joke was that? This is a garbage field A place to du rapidly; a rubbish dump without borders
(What kind of world will this outer space be, this place where huin, let’s review this for everyone once again Today, our special guest is the top scholar in astronomy, Alexis Gretsky…)
The voice of the audio broadcaster continued to echo eh the thick spacesuit with no way out Syam touched the materials of the structure with the soles of his feet
As he checked the safety tension of the chain, he moved the soles of his feet to flip the rees around and upside down, itin space, where there was no concept of up and down Syarab the material of the lattice-shaped structure, and looked at its front side There was a ular concave shape, for reflective surface
Thousands of these concave mirrors formed a flat circular disk, 500m in diameter, that had been in low Earth orbit for quite a few years In the center there was a round hole about 100 the disk look like one of those optical recording discs used in the past Syanetise of the disk as he looked up The donut-shaped structure that appeared in his eyes was about the sah the center of the hole, he could see a round-shaped body, the saround
The two large disks that used the concave surface to reflect the sunlight and were shi+ning 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 froravity that was 1/6 of Earth's, about the equivalent to that of the ravity It’s said that for a 500, one rotation in less than 30 seconds would be required to create the saravity 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 clirimaced 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 shi+p Your lifesigns are messed up!”
His partner, a man as 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 ht in front of him
Syalass stuck all over its interior to absorb light As of the Greenwich Meridian Tiht that’s reflected off the mirror wasn’t shone into the residential area However, the interior lights ca any observers know that so inside
Over there, the final preparations for the changing of calendars ceremony 4 hours later were under way Froive his speech, all the national representatives of the countries in the United Nations ere attending would be received, and adjust ould 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 as to ram 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 ram This could be said toa single large e the angle of the le of the mirror, and I don’t have to know We’re just the li the brain” Syaave Syam and the others membershi+p cards from the Motor company and sent them to ‘Laplace’; the person who said that a reould be provided to the 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 ’s actions would bring about a decisive change to hundreds of people’s fates as they watched the ring…
(The concept of space ration existed in the 20th Century It was raised by the physicist GK O’Neill His point was revised was because he wanted to let outer space be a place suitable for huration 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 theon thethe technology of that tiration plan of today can be said to be completed by O’Neill)
Syaain as he pulled on his safety cable and let his body fly to the back of the mirror area
(The idea itself was rather siularly inside, causing the internal structure to create 1 G, the saravity 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 coe to create 1 G, but the latest, ‘Island 3’, is a giant: 32 kiloe 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 thestructures were intertwined with each other in a lattice structure As Sya handheld terram into the control panel
In the darkness that was co red warning lights were the only illu the spacesuits of about 5 of Syaues The cables of their spacesuits were all linked to a worker shi+p that was floating silently above the and 30m in diameter, with the thrusters and a solar battery on the rear Behind it, nu
Those lights belonged to the Federation spaceshi+p, the Salath with an uneven surface The co from the frame in front, and there were four jet thrusters on the back The shi+p itself had a solar panel that was as large as the shi+p itself For a security shi+p, it really reminded one of a fishbone, and looked really unreliable But as Syay laser cannons, and an unmatched combat ability
The Salas, frouns that were built into the center of the shi+p, to theas the shi+p itself However, the common point between all of them were their controlled satellite radar cannons The small ununs, and each vessel had 24 of these cannons When necessary, the cannons could be scattered around the shi+p 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 nuiven 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 ht The residential area of ‘Island 3’ has aas the colony itself As this diagram shows, the inside of the cylinder is divided into six areas Three areas are lighting s, and the light that enters here will shi+ne on the other three areas The s are lass that can block any harht now, there are three residential satellites of ‘Island 3’ built, and there are technicians and settlers bringing their faht now, there still aren't any reports of a residential satellite causing an epideht, we can recreate the 4 seasons And we can even make artificial clouds for rainy days In terement, 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 ca the cable to keep in touch as they listened to the special prograue 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 rant 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 h L5 The ‘Island 3’ space colony that I just mentioned is located at thea settleht now, there are 10 ration 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 forovernment)
(assu that a space colony can take 10 million people, once one side’s population reaches 700 or 800 ration 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 estirants)
Someone whistled and said (Hey, there’s one for every two!), and then so 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 Sala, Sya eliminated…”
Under the calls of ‘Save the Earth, Save the Rest’, the 50-year plan for hurate to outer space started Most of these separatists, anti-governround 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 ‘elih 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 probleanization’ were brazenly calling for people to separate fro national spirit and social rights But these were just useless talk to Syaovernment 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 proble 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 overnment was already established, and the surface of theextraction site called Von Braun But none of that had anything to do with Sya shepherds It didn't matter to the 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 Thethat 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’ Sireen revolution’, the government declared that the increase in Earth's population caused dae to the environment, and the pollution fro 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 froovernration, and declared that this was the one and only plan Meanwhile, the Federation govern 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 e 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 laas rewritten The old customs of their ancestors were broken, Everyone was required to learn English, and the school curriculued
Auerilla forces and was soon arrested and sent to prison Syaood point was his righteousness would be so passionate But his father died in prison before he could even answer his doubts Syaer sister, and had to give up on his education to continue his faot the nickname ‘Shepherd’
However, that job didn’t last long either As the es, the Federation required a large nuhlands where Syaotiations with the landowners and the resettleiven a small compensation and chased away Syam could only let his mother and little sister stay in the aparto to work at the launch site That was Syam’s new life And 3 years later, once the 6th launch site was coe 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, Syay was to let lots of foreigners enter and send off those who had relations to guerillas This could be said to be eli the rest of the people, a rather effective strategy Syary, and he neededin the city, and was often sick; andpuberty, and he neededfor her; he had to work for bread tomorrow, for soup today
He started going to an e in and out of odd jobs And this sort of place had brokers froround recruiters, and Syaless 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 Sya up with a recruiter as pretending to be a religious person After a si in an oldouter space with his colleagues whose names he didn't even know
”That’s right, this is a job” Syausting feeling of icy cold underwear or the claustrophobic nature of the alulass spacesuit, he could still take it This wasn’t because of soious fanatics ore to carry out suicide attacks Surviving, finishi+ng the job and getting his pay He had no choice if he wanted to let his mother and little sister live an ordinary life
If not for that, ould come to this place? If he had a decent job, if he had …
(But, everyone, remember that even with this, there are 5 billion hu the 20th century, when people started to take note of the population explosion This nureat 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, assu that the completion of construction requires hundreds of years; nobody knohat the population would be then It would be overly optimistic to assuht noe can only hope that the wisdom of humanity 100 years later will settle this
I hope that everyone who opposes the space ration plan can understand this We, humanity, established this overall authority in the Earth Federation governly impossible plan Let us stop this self-destruction and look 100 years into the future A coration plan is the Federation’s plan to abandon…)
The scholar’s voice was suddenly interrupted, and an unnatural h the topic isn’t over, right now, there’s footage of the change in calendar happening in areas all over the world First, the i from war…) As he listened to the voice of the broadcaster, Syaed at the cable and moved forward
Was it because the topic of abandoning people wasn't supposed to be overnment claimed to be democratic, the censorshi+p of inforovern tiue muttered as the voices of the intervieith 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 hout the wireless co Syam remained silent and headed towards the airlock on the worker shi+p
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 atht, 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 e back after finishi+ng 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 Tian as planned Sya away, and was in the worker shi+p cabin leaving the orbit of ‘Laplace’, watching the live telecast on a small screen
(The end of AD is nigh, and we shall enter an unknown territory called Universal Century During this lad to have the honor, as the first Priovernment, to talk to ‘all of huratitude 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 oe 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, environh pollutions…to address these irreversible problee that all of us have)
In the s the screen on the wall Other than the two pilots in the cockpit, everyone that took part in the as here Syaht 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 as 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 ‘s to humanity If we don’t have this objective vieouldn’t be able to have today The past 50 years, since we began this grand scheovernration to space plan In fact, we had to go through ions…all these obstacles to a united humanity
But right noe have this new living habitat, the space colonies Thein space colonies will be the norlorious result of huether, is to save the Earth fro it)
In the residential area of ‘Laplace’, at a circular podiu his normal, steady expression that was usually shown on television as he faced the ca in front of the podium were the representatives of the Federation countries The screen showed the serious Sya’s ould cause