Muted

Chapter 1 – The Yeetyard

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

But don’t believe them. They lie!

I remember my screams.

I hear each Newie scream for days when they arrive in my Section of the Yeetyard.

And sometimes, just to mess with the Newies, I scream with them.

Frank Morales

Yeetyard exists because of Frank Morales's left shoelace.

People have talked about global warming for the last 100 years. Dozens of movies were made, but nothing changed. Governments talked and passed laws that actually did nothing. Actors and Influencers postulated and harangued the masses but did nothing of consequence. Nobel Prizes were given, but nothing changed. Taxes were raised “for the planet,” but still nothing changed.

Then, some sixty years after the human genome was fully mapped, Earth’s atmosphere had become so degraded that it no longer kept out space dust, debris, and other extra-terrestrial contaminants, including non-earth bacteria (NEBs).

At first, the change was beautiful. Everyone saw more frequent meteor showers. Stars were brighter and more stars appeared. And the Aurora Borealis filled the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Then, in 2097, a NEB caused a hemophilia pandemic that killed 35 million people. 15 years later a different NEB created a genetic mutation that rendered 8 million people blind. The G20 failed to cooperate for the common good during those two pandemics. The masses took notice and a new sociopolitical movement named “One World, One People” was born.

In 2118 One World, One People had grown large enough to affect politics on a global scale. In that year, One World successfully organized a global vote to “save the planet and our children.” The people of the world chose to give up national sovereignty in favor of the United Nations as the sole, global governing body. All national governments were under UN control as extensions of the UN. Everyone celebrated the triumph of the common person and this new single government that would balance all competing national interests for the good of the people, the good of the planet, and for the sake of the future generations.

Following the celebrations, the UN was reorganized to be more representative and inclusive of world peoples. One World operatives filled a majority of the UN council and agencies. The UN council promised access, transparency, to focus on saving humanity from the new non-earth threats, and to reverse global warming.

The UN immediately took control of all world organizations. To advance science and public health over profit, the UN combined the International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, NASA and all other public scientific and medical organizations into a single, new “World Aeronautics, Space and Health Administration” or WASHA. WASHA’s primary function was to monitor non-earth biological threats and develop protective countermeasures against future pandemics.

On March 11, 2123, Dr. Frank Morales, a xeno-microbiologist, and his partner, Dr. Nancy Chen, were working in a WASHA lab in Denver, Colorado on a broad-spectrum RNA vaccine against non-earth bacteria. At 10:05 a.m. Frank’s left shoelace came untied.

At 10:13 a.m. Frank stood to carry a rack of test tubes from his workbench to a bio-safety cabinet for the next experiments. The test tubes contained six RNA splice samples. The splices combined four telomere pairs from unidentified DNA found in ice crystals taken from the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula in 2087 with two telomere pairs of amphibian-like DNA from ice and rock samples from Haley's Comet’s tail in 2113.

Frank stepped on his untied shoelace and tripped. He dropped the test tube rack.

As he fell, Frank’s leg grazed the corner of a steel lab table. The test tubes shattered on the tile floor. Frank's outstretched hands hit the floor among the glass shards hard. Frank grunted as the momentum of the fall rippled up his arms to his shoulders. Frank slowly stood up. He checked his gloves and positive pressure personnel suit for rips, tears, or punctures.

“Are you OK Frank?” Dr. Chen said.

“Everything looks fine that I can see. But would you check me Nancy?” Frank said.

Nancy walked Frank over to the decontamination area and had him turn slowly under the bright light. She looked him over and had him raise his arms. Lastly Nancy had Frank slowly rotate his gloved hands under a magnifier light.

“I don’t see anything, and your suit seems to be keeping pressure. But, I do see a crease in your leg there.” Nancy pointed to a point midway down his left thigh, the same place he bumped the table.

Frank looked at the crease. “I better check it for a leak.” Frank sprayed the thigh of his suit with a soap and water solution and then connected a port in the abdomen to a clean air hose. “I feel like I’m checking my bicycle tires for a leak.” He chuckled and the air hose overinflated his PPPS. No bubbles. “Looks like I’m OK.” Frank said.

At 10:37 a.m. Frank and Nancy got back to work.

Distracted by his fall, Frank forgot to change his gloves, and despite their thorough examination, Frank and Nancy missed a single glass shard stuck to the palm of Frank’s left glove. The shard was covered with a droplet of the fluid from the one test tube sample. As the day progressed, the shard worked its way through the nitrile layer of Frank’s glove. Exposed to the air inside Frank’s suit, the droplet evaporated, the RNA sample aerosolized and contaminated Frank’s suit.

At 6:30 p.m. Frank and Nancy completed their assigned experiments. By that time Frank had inhaled the contaminated air in his suit twice as long as the minimum exposure required for the RNA to enter his lungs and attach to the tissues.

Frank woke the next day with flu symptoms. He felt like he had been hit by a train. His head was pounding, his throat and lungs burned, his eyes wept, and his ears felt fuzzy and would not clear.

Frank went straight to the WASHA medical clinic at his lab where his condition continued to deteriorate while he waited to be seen. Frank’s tear ducts began oozing a pale pink liquid. Then he stopped breathing. The waiting room nurse hit an alarm. Frank was rushed to an exam room where he was sedated, intubated and then put in a hyperbaric quarantine room.

For two days WASHA specialists ran every test and tried every medical intervention. Frank did not respond to any treatment. As nothing had any effect and no test provided any usable data, the third day the doctors stopped to observe what was happening. Though the machines and tests indicated that Frank was dying. But he didn’t. If WASHA had had access to the simple RNA test they developed two years later, they would have discovered that the RNA sample had recombined with Frank's DNA and was in the process of changing his base genome.

Thirteen days later Frank woke.

WASHA kept Frank quarantined for another two weeks. They poked, prodded, and tested to make sure he was not infectious. They discovered that the RNA was not transmissible from person to person. In fact, they couldn’t find any trace of the RNA.

The doctors moved him out of quarantine, but kept testing.

One month later, WASHA determined that Frank’s body had not mutated. The RNA had triggered an evolutionary response in Frank’s DNA, expanding the variables in his genetic code by creating non-earth nucleic acid analogues and allowing different sugar molecules to bind with Frank’s natural DNA polymerases. The change resulted in a stable xeno nucleic acid (XNA) biological form–a previously theoretical state. Frank’s DNA had evolved into XNA. The new genetic information imported from the rNA sample resulted in changes to Frank’s lungs, eyes, blood, metabolic system, auditory system, and all the exterior membranes and skin of his body evolved. He became a new humanoid organism.

Changes included:

• Frank's skin retained the human characteristics of hair, sweating, elasticity, and tactile sense. It looked the same but was highly resistant to abrasion, cuts or piercing.
• Frank's eyes developed a second, transparent, amphibian-style membrane that covered the eyeball when exposed to liquid, gas, radiation, heat, cold, etc.
• Frank’s cardiovascular system (lungs, blood, cells) could use any of eight gasses (single or mixed): hydrogen, oxygen, and the six noble gasses (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon).
• Frank’s ears became highly sensitive to vibration. He could hear any sound produced by vibration, including conversations two rooms away.

Other than his new “superpowers,” Frank did not feel different. His mind was the same and he thought of himself as much the same person. Frank looked mostly the same physically, he talked, ate and drank, and interacted with his peers normally. He was happy to contribute to the ongoing research, he was a scientist after all. But Frank soon realized that his colleagues now considered him more experiment than scientist. Behind his back, they referred to him as “the Subject.” Only Nancy treated him the same as before his accident.

Quite upset about his colleague’s treatment, Frank withdrew his consent to any further experimentation, but WASHA compelled his cooperation. Frank was prohibited from leaving the WASHA research facility. WASHA kept him under constant guard. They monitored all his communication and interactions, and strictly censored all information related to Frank.

For the next three years the UN and WASHA kept Frank a prisoner in the lab and withheld all information about his accident. During that period, Frank was kept mostly sedated as WASHA continued to experiment on him. WASHA produced miraculous breakthrough after breakthrough based on his XNA.

Then, on April 22, 2126, the World News Network interviewed Dr. Chen about the latest WASHA breakthrough–a medication that allowed pilots to avoid high altitude hypoxia without supplemental oxygen. During the interview Dr. Chen disclosed Frank’s evolutionary change and ongoing confinement.

WASHA censors cut the video stream. Dr. Chen disappeared. The world erupted in protest.

Raws, Regulars and Primes

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly.

One World organized accountability protests against WASHA and the UN in every major city. The protests spread virally across every nation in a matter of days with the people calling for Frank’s release and justice.

Within two days, the UN declared a scandal, ordered an investigation and removed all of WASHA’s governing members. To appease One World and stop the protests, the UN split WASHA into two successor entities: WASA–the World Agency for Science Advancement; and WOMRA–the World Medical Research Authority.

The UN declared Frank Morales a “Hero of Humanity” and “freed” him from WASHA’s lab.

The UN made Frank appear on several news and talk shows. Frank followed the script, thanking One World, the UN and the people for his release. He expressed his hope, despite WASHA’s abusive treatment, that the medical discoveries related to his XNA would help everyone.

Two weeks later WOMRA announced an RNA vaccine (based on Frank’s DNA) that would immunize the world population against all known NEBs and against the other negative health effects of continued global warming. Nothing was disclosed about the 13 day coma or the XNA result.

Most citizens embraced “Frank’s” Vaccine. But others raised alarm that the science behind Frank’s Vaccine had not been subjected to peer review or additional testing to confirm the claims made by WOMRA. A vigorous debate circled the globe and quickly divided the planet into “for” and “against.”

When the first several hundred thousand people who “got the new stick” experienced Frank’s evolution, many world leaders, medical scientists and citizens expressed concern and called for more testing and disclosure of the full effects of Frank’s Vaccine before more people were vaccinated. Instead of pausing the vaccination campaign, the UN and One World declared the vaccine “safe” and accelerated pro-vaccine messaging.

The UN first enlisted a cadre of WOMRA doctors and scientists to extol the virtues of Frank’s Vaccine and minimize the risks and potential side effects. Then One World paid certain high-profit Influencers and people who had already received the vaccine to talk about their experiences and their better life after the vaccine. Finally, “converted” anti-vaxxers talked about how wrong and selfish they were. Each message made the appeal to get the vaccine to save humanity and the planet.

Despite the PR campaign, a growing number of people opposed Frank’s Vaccine and demanded greater scientific study. These anti-vaxxers became known as “Raws” and were called out as extreme, head-in-the-sand, deviants who threatened the viability of life on earth because they refused to “get the new stick.” Those who embraced the vaccine thought of themselves as regular, intelligent folks and called themselves “Regulars.” The

Publicly, the UN and One World asked everyone to get along and continually called for peace and understanding. But in the absolute secrecy of the back corridors of wealth and power, those who controlled One World and by extension, the UN, dug through the WASHA research to see how else human DNA could evolve. They discovered RNA sequences that doubled life expectancy, created pheromone glands, expanded mental acuity, and, of course, infinite libido. They created RNA cocktails and then called themselves “Primes” because they made themselves better than the rest of the populace. When whispers of the Primes seeped into the masses, the Primes excised the whisperers.

Global conflict regarding Frank’s Vaccine continued to increase over the next year. The Primes secretly influenced the Regulars who pursued and punished Raws. Raws responded to the pressure by pushing back and calling out the loss of personal freedom and body autonomy. Mob protest and justice threatened the fragile world balance One World and the UN had established.

WOMRA set a deadline for all remaining un-vaccinated people to receive Frank’s Vaccine. However, the date came and went with millions of Raws remaining un-vaccinated. The Raws railed against the One World global-think and global conflict and anger increased.

It was then that WASA announced an alarming and catastrophic increase in the rate of global warming.

Negative Emotional Valence, Global Warming, and the Harmony Accord of 2128

In 2004, Randall Collins, a sociologist published a paper in the Princeton University Press entitled Interaction Ritual Chains. In his paper, Collins expanded on “interaction rituals,” which had been conceptualized by Erving Goffman sometime prior to 1967. Collins theory that interaction rituals produce emotional energy. A small group of sociologists and geologists picked up on the idea of Interactive Ritual Theory (IRT), and the next year, more as a joke, designed an experiment to determine whether global warming was not actually due to the popular “greenhouse gas” theory, but rather was the direct effect of society’s negative valenced emotional energy on the Earth.

To their complete surprise, the IRT study found that global anger, and not greenhouse gasses, made the Earth warmer. They were almost embarrassed to publish their study. However, when other geologists, who dismissed the initial study as non-science, attempted to refute the study, their follow-on experiments replicated the original findings. In 2033, IRT-based global warming science was accepted and adopted among the geological scientific community, and the sub-designation of “socio-geologist” was created. Socio-geologists eventually developed sophisticated monitoring equipment and computer models that accurately measured the effect of public emotion on global temperature.

12 months prior to WASA’s global warming alarm, Dr. George Fink, a socio-geologist whose doctoral thesis was the effect of rioting during the COVID pandemic of 2020 on the rate of global warming, obtained a WASA research grant to study the effect of anger regarding Frank’s Vaccine on global temperatures. George’s study found that the combined anger expressed by the Regulars and Raws accelerated global warming by a factor of 2.5x over the 100 year mean. George concluded that Earth would no longer support life, even with Frank’s Vaccine, in 5 years of public anger remained unchecked.

The UN and One World immediately declared anger a threat to the survival of Earth and humanity. “Harmony Zones” were created in each population center. Each Zone provided several free interventions designed to calm the spirit and encourage peace. Every person was encouraged to schedule at least 15 minutes in a Harmony Zone every three days. Very few used the Harmony Zones, even when the UN offered various financial and social Harmony incentives. In reality, the Harmony Zones did more to polarize the conflicting groups.

When the Harmony Zones and social marketing efforts failed, the UN and One World organized a series of ten global warming summits to hammer out a solution. The summits were designed to be safe spaces to encourage inclusive discussion. But the Primes seeded each summit with enough participants to guide the discussion toward global vaccination and giving the UN total control over personal liberties and each person’s body–to save the planet and humanity.

Summit participants drafted a set of global behavior standards intended to immediately and dramatically reduce global anger to save the planet “for us and our children.” To ensure the standard would be followed, the plan abrogated certain civil rights and individual freedoms and included humane enforcement through a reclamation and rehabilitation program. Any citizen of the earth who did not comply with the standard would be helped through harmonious rehabilitation. To address objections related to the loss of personal and body freedom, the draft included a termination provision tied to the successful reversal of global warming, and a projection that global warming would be reversed with in a short five year time frame.

The plan, named "The Harmony Accord," was presented to the global community for review and open discussion before being put to a vote. In the spirit of the proposed Accord, argumentative or aggressive debate was not allowed. So all participants would feel safe and supported in expressing their opinions, anyone participating was required to register and submit their comments in writing before entering into the live debate.

Four weeks later the Accord was ratified by the UN without any changes and the world voted. The Accord passed with a 60% "Yes" vote and became law. Those voting "yes" included all Primes, most of the Regulars and few Raws. Accord supporters celebrated the salvation of the Earth from global warming and the creation of a harmonious world order.

A "Bureau of Peace" (BP) was established to monitor and enforce the Accord, and a “Reclamation Authority” (RA) was created to handle the rehabilitation process.

Many were surprised when the news media reported hundreds of thousands of people detained on charges of illegal anger or negative emotions that violated the Accord. Not reported was the fact that 95% of those detained had voted against the Accord or had expressed a dissenting opinion during the draft discussions. The existing prisons systems could not support the influx, and as Harmony violators mixed with the regular criminal population, prison riots became a daily occurrence.

The RA suggested that a new processing and holding facility be constructed in low earth orbit to alleviate the prison crisis, and so that the negative valence of criminals and Harmony violators could be contained in Space. The RA said an extra benefit would be the reduction of global warming as each individual was removed while being rehabilitated to a state of harmony and happiness. The rehabilitated, harmonious person would then return and add their positive valence to further reduce global warming.

The UN immediately approved construction of the Low Earth Orbit Reclamation and Rehabilitation Facility (LEORR).

The Yeetyard

Space, outer space, is not a true vacuum–it has some pressure and is only mostly empty.

Though LEORR was pitched as humane and temporary, in reality, LEORR is today's Chateu d-If… the place Primes send those who don’t comply.

The people on Earth call us criminals, but we know better–we are simply the Primes’ unwanted refuse. We call LEORR the “Yeetyard” because no one processed in ever goes back. We’ve all been permanently yeeted out into space.

Each cube-shaped LEORR Section holds 216 people. Each person is gravitationally suspended in the center of a 3 cubic meter Space so everyone is roughly 3 meters from everyone else in the Section. There are no walls, floors or ceilings, and no doors or windows. None of that is needed because Frank's Vaccine allows us to survive in the vacuum of Space.

In addition to no physical structure, each Space is a total void–no furniture or other personal property allowed. Nothing we can hold onto or push off from. A dampening field further prevents us from moving out of the middle of our Space. We are close enough to see each other, but far enough apart so we can’t try anything. Thanks to Frank’s Vaccine, we can hear if we look directly at each other and talk, but the sound is faint, so most of us communicate with our own form of sign language.

Oh, and we are naked so we can’t hide any contraband–not that we could get any anyway.

Each Section contains a 6 x 6 x 6 array of Spaces. Sections are arranged in groups of 5,000, with three Sections spaced equally from each other to form a single orbital Ring. LEORR currently has four Rings. I did the math once, at full capacity each Ring can hold more than 3,240,000 castoffs. There is enough room out here, even with the satellites, space junk and space travel lanes that I imagine more Rings can be added when needed. Rings orbit at a speed of around 17,000 miles per hour.

Two multipurpose Canteen structures service each Ring. The Canteens are set at opposite sides of the Ring and orbit at a slightly slower speed than the Rings so that each Section passes through at least one of the Canteens once per day. Each Space takes 30 minutes to pass through a Canteen. During that time the Keepers give us food and water, collect our waste, transfer any communications, remove the dead, and place Newies in their assigned Spaces.

Newies start screaming as soon as they exit the Canteen for the first time.

Newies: Everyone is Regular

Every person sentenced to LEORR undergoes pre-orbit processing. It takes two days to process a Regular and four to process a Raw. Raws take longer because they are given Frank's Vaccine so they survive in Space. Vaccine evolution takes two days.

Every new LEORR resident (Newie) is fully sedated during pre-orbit processing. As soon as they are sentenced, an RA nurse starts a sedation IV-drip and the person is out within minutes. The Newie is kept fully sedated until processing is complete.

On the first day of Regular processing, the Newie is assigned a Ring, Section and Space and then transported via orbital slingshot to one of the two Canteens servicing their assigned Ring. The Ring Keepers then assess the Newie’s condition and load their body into Placers just before their assigned Section transits the Canteen. Just prior to placement into their assigned Space, the Keepers remove the sedative drip. The Placer then ejects the Newie precisely into the center of their assigned Space. A minute later the Newie wakes as their Space exits the Canteen.

Then each Newie starts screaming.

Screaming because they are in orbit more than 400 miles above the Earth.

Screaming because they have no space suit or oxygen, and yet they breathe.

Screaming because no floor, wall, door, window or other structure separates them from the vacuum of space.

Screaming as they realize that they are not freezing to death like in the movies.

Screaming as they realize they are completely naked and surrounded by other naked people watching them scream.

Screaming as they flail their arms and legs but don't go anywhere.

Screaming because they can hear themselves scream.

Screaming when they realize that they can hear some of us screaming back at them.

Yes, sometimes we scream with the Newies.

But mostly we just take bets and watch to see if they transition or die. Transition can take a few hours to several days. I’m lucky. I transitioned within 3 hours of placement in my Space.

The Yeetyard, Ring 2, Section 2179, Space 217 has been my home for the past 4 years, 7 months and 5 days. I was one in one of the first groups to be yeeted.

Why am I here?

Well, that story will take awhile, but I've got the time… and so it seems do you.

My name is Frank Morales. Yes, the one who tripped.