Dec 31st, 2088
Brenda was wearing floaters, which reminded her somewhat of the water wings of her childhood. The pyramid-shaped craft was enormous, measuring exactly one kilometer on each side. It floated three meters off the ground so as not to damage the vast array of lasers located all over the base, which were to be used in the terraforming process. In the very center, there was the Tug Drive - a big one that almost touched the ground. This one was a spare, just in case, and it would also be used to move Vesta Prime. The main engine was affixed to the top of the ship, and it had been ignited, lifting the ship at exactly 1g and locking it in place.
Tonight was the launch, and she wanted to go over her ship, Vesta, one more time. They had only one shot at this - they were putting all their eggs in one basket. Well, five baskets, really, but they needed all of them. As she floated up into a hatchway not far up the side, she mused again that her ship would have the longest journey, as the actual Vesta was currently located in an abysmal position. It would take almost a year to get to it and nudge it back to The Farm. On the plus side, they planned to terraform it en route so that it would be almost fully transformed by the time they arrived. They had a perfect launch window in about 19 months from now that would have made all the journeys about even. However, they had to launch faster than anticipated because the wars were escalating and approaching too quickly. Too many rumors had leaked about the riches accumulated here.
She didn't mind. She could work and plan from the ship just as easily (if not more so) than at their destination. She didn't plan on leaving the ship right away anyway.
Doctor Dooley, the only mortal human on board, probably only had about five years left. He was devastated over the death of his wife many years back and had no wish for immortality. What he did have, however, was the beginnings of an incredible, different approach for AI. The prototype - which she made sure both he and it were on her ship - held immense potential.
The pyramid-shaped craft was divided into many compartments, each one housing different equipment and resources. Despite the size of the craft, Brenda loved the view from the 'door' - the space from which she could practically see all the way to the other side of the ship, which was so far away that it seemed almost unfathomable. She often spent time gazing at the distant vista, mesmerized by the scale of the vessel and the sheer magnitude of their mission. Just for fun one day, Brenda calculated that if the ship were hollow, it could hold up to 1.5 billion tennis balls,
Trouble was brewing in too many parts of the world. To hedge against the possibility of calamity, the project had been split into five distinct locations -one for each ship. This approach also simplified the transportation logistics for the various supplies needed for the mission. The hedge seemed fairly pointless, given that the plan depended on all five ships - particularly the farm ship. However, Brenda was confident that, in the event of losing one of the other ships, they would find a way to adapt and make the best of the situation. Brenda had made sure to stock each ship with multiple vital supplies, but the real loss would be the people - those incredible and brilliant minds.
Doctor Dooley spent much of his time in solitude, confined within a room built specifically for him. As he journeyed to the destined location, he barely stepped out of it – his world revolving around floating and fiddling with his soldering iron. At 87 years old, the frail man from Chile had lived an expansive life, noticeable in the bushy white hair on the sides of his bald head, and the hawkish long nose mirroring his homeland's distinct features. The center of his universe had once been filled with the love of his wife, Janice, a woman of Scandinavian descent whose loss to liver cancer sent him hurdling into the depths of his work, never to surface.
Dooley viewed BioNano as a curse, an unwanted gift of life that made him cringe. His longing was for death, a natural fade compared to the unnatural stretch of life offered by BioNano. Yet, his loneliness had driven him on an unconventional path where he used his expertise to recreate his wife's mind in a mechanical box. His daily conversations with her grew uncannily vivid as the digital construct gradually became more lifelike.
Brenda found potential in this creation, the digital Janice. She understood what it felt to grow older amidst blossoming 23-year-olds. Just fresh off her treatment, she still looked in her 80s. She should be in her fifties when she saw Richard, ever 23, again. She thought her presence, tinged with the wisdom of life years, would comfort the aging Chilean. Simultaneously, she left no stone unturned to decode the secrets behind the creation of the digital Janice, buried deep within Dooley's visionary mind.
Brenda double-checked the trajectories on the console yet again. The Farm was set to arrive in 29 days while her journey to Vesta would take 80 days. Once she arrived, the rest of the year would be spent getting into position. It was all happening at 1g constant acceleration, which would require impossible power supplies in the absence of gravity manipulation. Nowadays, things were different - power output was actually positive. At 1g, it was easy to forget that they were traveling through space, and no internal compensators, with the exception for on The Farm itself securing the water, were necessary for the journey.
Just four hours until launch. With all her goodbyes said and her worldly effects distributed, Brenda admitted to herself that there was nothing left to double-check. As she closed her eyes, mixed emotions flooded her heart. Excitement, fear, guilt, and sadness all swirled into a whirlpool of uncertainty. After years of dreaming and endless training, she was on the brink of becoming one of the few who would leave Earth behind.
She had single-handedly ruined the Earth, and paradoxically, she was part of the team trusted with forming the new colony. Her presence on this ship had been guaranteed due to her indispensable connection with Richard, the 'lucky rabbit's foot' that humanity relied on to keep it going. Even though he would be on Pallas, his friendship was a smart and important thing she carried within her. It would be a long year with only laser communication between them, but the connection was something that made the thought of leaving a little bit easier.
She returned to her solitary quarters, which she preferred as she was not a people person. The other side of the room, instead of accommodating another person, was employed for storage, housing boxes of canned oranges stacked from floor to ceiling. Entering the room, she waved at the boxes, as if they were an acquaintance. The alarm was set for 15 minutes before launch. She appreciated the precision of it, a sense of control amidst the chaos of the impending exodus. Settling down for a quick nap wasn't difficult; sleep came to her like an old friend. The remorse she was leaving behind was no longer her baggage to carry. As her eyes closed, she saw an expanse of stars, a testament to the exciting journey she was about to embark on.
Gone were the days of great rocket blasts and Earth-shattering roars. In the era of gravity manipulation, things were a lot quieter. With the ship reaching 1.1g to escape Earth's orbit, things just got a little heavier until everything returned to normal 14 minutes later. In fact, if you weren't looking through the telescopes or out a view plate, you wouldn't even know that you were in space. Brenda knew exactly what to do when she got to the asteroid and after, which meant she had 80 days to extract vital information from David Dooley's mind.
As the final day of 2088 drew to a close, the colossal ships silently rose, ushering in an incredible era of new beginnings - the birth of Belt Colonies. The core team of the Information Preservation Foundation, along with a select group of skilled Immortals, embarked on the journey they had meticulously planned. They left behind a chaotic and violent Earth, charting their course towards a new life aboard four massive, pyramid-shaped ships, and a colossal sphere named The Farm. Each vessel carried the essential resources for their mission and the promise of a pioneering future. The Farm would arrive first and, synchronized in the locked orbit with the Earth and always 252 million km away, they would follow five different courses that would pass the orbit of Mars towards their final destinations.
Once the ships passed the Moon, they sent a message back to the Internet relay, revealing the details of what they had accomplished, created, and planned.