104 Earth Source Solution Offices

Back in 2029, space travel was supposed to be the way into the future, with multiple space missions declared across the world, all destined to our neighbouring planets.

Humankind was fearless while prospects of an endless playground of planets in the universe gave opportunity for starting anew. Populations soared on Earth without interference or regulations. New planets selected and proposed to house our growing families.

Then the discovery was made.

Australian astronauts were first to discover the ‘Earth Source Factor’ when the longest manned space flight was initiated to establish humans on Mars. Mars would be the most monumental feat of humankind since the Moon. The mission’s journey was over two hundred times the distance from Earth to the Moon. It had taken years of advances in science to improve humankind’s technology to reach the correct speeds while still meeting the ability of the astronauts to survive without injury onboard. Stopping mechanism contracts alone were squabbled over by the biggest industries and most intelligent minds of the world.

Finally, after years of planning and testing, the world viewed live feeds of the amazing moment.

Following a successful launch, Marcus Stern looked out through the window of the spacecraft. It was a sleek silver bullet-like object with tremendous mass. He imagined he would look like an ant in the window of the ship. He looked over to his partner in the journey, Liah Haughtan.

Her red, fizzy hair, floated beside him, her golden necklace with a heart-shaped locket drifted up around her chin.

Her dark eyes were locked on the view outside of the small window, with her hands clutched to the right side, Marcus’s to the left.

Leah’s breath was noticeably loud in the silence of space.

Marcus had always been amazed of the sound, of no sound at all. There had always been an ambient noise on earth, a collection of noises from the distance that sounded like nothing, until you experienced the real sound of ‘nothing’ in space.

The sterile environment around him now, somewhat compact, and mostly filled with discomfort, was the price he would pay for the glory of establishing a base on Mars.

The astronauts started working on their trajectory confirmations, information flying instantly from Earth-base to them, back and forth. Days passed slowly as their trip moved along.

Then it happened.

Liah and Marcus awoke out of schedule, just as their ship passed another distance milestone. Systems remained online; no unusual sound to cause the pair to wake.

Marcus hadn’t known why he had woken suddenly, As a man of logic, he began to look for signs of trouble just as he noticed Leah had woken too. They exchanged worried glances as they rushed through every status check their computing systems had. Neither one had experienced a strong sensation from intuition before this moment. They moved from each compartment of the ship, most of its mass contained storage and instruments, just three small levels were occupied by the human life onboard.

The livestream on Earth caught everyone’s attention at home as they rummaged through each compartment, checking every line that could break, every dial exposed, every lose object on the ship.

But nothing.

Just a deep seeded feeling in each of the astronauts, who had previously lived a life of practicality and science.

Then, each astronaut froze where they were. The ship travelled on as Homebase set off alarms, ran the speakers loudly, and every other external action they could take to understand what had happened to Leah and Marcus.

The mission was a failure. The ship moved through space, oxygen plentiful, supplies at their beck and call. The astronauts’ mothers grieved their strange death as the ship moved on course with the astronauts frozen in time, instantly lifeless at the distance of 500, 124km from Earth.

The anomaly was pushed aside as America and Russia raced to be the first on Mars instead. Followed by attempts from China and India.

Tragedy struck time and time again.

Mars mission, Failure.

Venus mission, failure.

Deep space mission, failure.

This was identified as the ‘Earth Source Factor’.

Each wonderfully qualified, intelligent, perfectly performing astronaut after Leah and Marcus suffered the same peril at the same distance in any direction.

It was theorised, and later proven in 2052 through new energy source detector technology, that the Earths core was not just a ball of hot magma and minerals, but a power source to the human soul.

There would be no extensive space travel. No plan B for a habitable planet after Earth, even if it was too late to save it from the damage people had caused environmentally.

Now, in 2380, the population of humans on Earth had created an apocalyptic nightmare. The Earths original crust, and earliest home for most, was buried under layers of rebuilds, more land created by huge vertical pillars holding another man-made crust that was covered with cities of people. The skies were thick with hovering ships where the privileged lived safely in confined areas.

Harvey looked down at the Earth through the window of his family’s ship. From above, it all seemed to Harvey like a large mess of grey rubble.

Surrounding his ship was a littered sea of flying crafts and homes, programmed in a certain sequence to avoid contact with the next. Harveys family was upper-middle class, which was enough security to ensure his family could pay the subscription to live in one of these Starline exclusive ships.

The ship consisted of padded flooring where pillows and sheets covered the area for the family to bunker together. A small interior Foodmac device stood near the entrance-hatch, where food could be prepared when the ration delivery arrived. Ration delivery was also included in the Starline exclusive ship subscription, as well as discounted travel fairs to nearby zones.

Travel pods connected to Starline home ships to collect workers. Each ship powered by advanced static electricity particle drives. Harvey caught his reflection in the window as his eyes darted from one pod to the other.

He had dark blonde hair, always soft to the touch, and always painful to style in any particular way before it fell into its own decided place. He had dark green eyes with a fleckered pattern, they had a soft golden ring burnt around the centre. His pupils were often large and relaxed as he took most of life’s stressors with a grain of salt. Even if millions of people died of starvation, sunlight deficiencies, and murder in the apocalyptic chaos below.

Harvey had always been heavily encouraged to focus on science as he grew up, not realities tragedy. The world was now not only full of competition but overflowing. He had even been strategically pushed by his parents from grade one to grade two, with little evidence for the need, just to secure him a better outcome as a ‘young achiever’ when he would graduate later in life.

He was given every shortcut and opportunity his parents could provide. His intelligence seemingly plucked from and nurtured by them at every turn in order to succeed. There was no option for Harvey to fail.

The entrance-hatch beeped loudly as Harvey’s work pod arrived.

He clenched his fists and told himself that ‘this was the day’ a breakthrough would be made. ‘This was the day’ he found a solution for humanity and his parents.

He rushed to the entrance-hatch and reached into the small opening to the right of it, where his hand fit perfectly inside an inbuilt device. A sharp pain shot through his wrist as the scheduled needle injected him with the Colostop formula.

Overcrowding had produced so much human waste that scientific solutions were necessary. Food was moderated to absorb instantly, and only provide exactly the nutrients your career demanded. The Colostop injection halted all bowel movements.

With confirmation of Harveys Colostop shot the door lock opened to take him to work.

The travel pod soared through its pre-planned flight path seamlessly. Although it was travelling over 300km p/h, it felt slow to Harvey as the distance to his workstation was vast compared to others. He had worked hard to gain access to the offices near the core.

The pod plummeted down past the layers of other housing ships, lowering in class as it descended closer to the earth’s surface, then through one of the passageways that cut through the multiple city layers covering the earth. Each layer darker than the next as the sunlight was choked from the coverage above. Death was in the air by the third layer, while hundreds lay below. The pods lights flickered on as the darkness consumed it.

Finally, the ship descended into the channel that burrowed down inside of the Earths surface. His lab was located only a few kilometres from the earths core, using the same equipment they had planned to use on studying the suns atmosphere.

The pods hatch hissed open as it docked onto the workstation.

It was one of 104 ‘Earth Source Solution offices’ dedicated to research into a solution for the energy source constraints. The only chance to travel further in the universe and leave Earths deteriorating state behind.

Harvey entered the office with high hopes.

“This will be the day!” He announced to the room full of scientists, each too busy, bustling around the desks that lined the office.

Desktop computers, laptops, and tablets were strewn around.

Arguing and deep discussion all around him.

Harvey loved the buzz, and even with everyone around, he knew he had to be the one to find the solution.

Ken ducked quickly into Harveys way.

“Ken.” Harvey murmured, not wanting to lead himself into a conversation.

Ken had been from a family similar to his, attended the same schools, received the same opportunities and still always three steps behind Harvey in grades, looks, and social development.

“Harvey! I’m so glad to see you”.

For some reason Ken had always followed him around, hoping to make friends, regardless of always being the last person Harvey wanted to be pinned to.

Ken then moved unusually close to Harvey, “listen, I can’t trust anyone else. I need to show you something I’ve been working on”.

Harvey raised his eyebrows, recoiling slightly from the proximity of Ken to his own face, but intrigued in the sudden request.

The men strolled casually toward the back of the building where Ken’s laptop sat. With a few taps of the keyboard Ken pulled up his research as he shielded the view from others.

Harvey leant in, seeing a technical graphic video with labels and calculations.

“Is that the-“

Ken cut Harvey off and whispered, “The moon.”

Harvey scoffed, “why are you analysing an artificial core on the moon?”

Ken took hold of the laptop and tapped quickly until the graphic zoomed out into a larger view.

He pointed excitedly. “Nobody can find a way to extend the cores reach from Earth, but what if we could duplicate it on the Moon-“

“This is possible!?” Harvey whispered heavily.

Ken pointed as he zoomed further out, calculations showing opportunity to join and extend both energy fields to the edge of Mars.

Harvey grinned and shut the laptop, picking it up and signalling for Ken to follow him to the entrance-hatch.

“Where are we going?” Ken asked, his face alight.

“The top” Harvey smiled back.

The hatch door released and Harvey climbed in, reaching his hand out to Ken. Ken grabbed his hand, feeling the sense of brotherhood he had craved from Harvey all of the years he followed his footsteps.

Ken began to climb through, only to be met by the release of Harveys hand and a kick to the throat.

Spluttering, Ken fell backwards onto the office floor as the valve shut heavily.

He sat in shock for a moment on the floor, until a cold feeling under his sleeve became prevalent. He pulled his arm up to inspect the sleeve, where a small device blinked.

Boom.

Harvey flew upward in the Starlink pod. He held Ken’s laptop securely as the rumble of crunching metal and crushing layers exploded below him. He tapped on the computer of the ship with a smile, sequencing his next destination, one of 103 ‘Earth Source Solution offices’ on Earth.