Beyond The Deep and Time

Erm... Not really the best stories out there compared to some of the others but I'll post this just for the heck of it.
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Chapter 1

Earth had always been a wonderful planet. A haven actually, for life to exist among many lifeless and listless worlds around it for many generations. From the appearance of microscopic cells to the larger, more powerful and more cunning creatures that served as predators and preys, the planet that humans were now dwelling on had undergone significant changes for the past several centuries. For some, they believed that the revolution of life on Earth was there to create chances for something bigger. Opportunities, to advance the human race. Destinies, to construct a society, a chain of new orders, for the better good of the entire seven billion people on the soil of the blue planet. For others, they deemed the change of life on Earth was to throw mankind into an abyss, too deep and too precarious in a way, that they would destroy themselves before they could adapt to the new environment. This ideology had been debated by countless officials, philosophers, and scientists. For years, it had never been solved due to one factor:

No one could predict the future, no matter how advanced technologies had become.

Human could only make theories based on data, stats, and other essential materials. Unfortunately, things could change in a single fraction of a second. Fate could be twisted, producing a whole new road for others to travel upon whether if it was a good path, smooth and solid; or if it was a bad path, rough and fragile. That very second there, could decide the outcome of life on Earth. No one believed in "fate", however, because everyone was so used to the automatic lifestyle provided by prototype super computers and artificial intelligent chips. With a single command, food could be replicated, magnetic vehicles would wait for you outside the front doors, roads could mechanically bring you to your destinations without you ever having to walk, and mini communication devices could allow you to connect to the rest of the world twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week around the clock. Environmental machines could control the temperatures and moistures in the air to a comfortable level within apartment houses inside several mega domes on Earth. Even artificial three-dimensional images such as oceans and space could be projected around the walls of the building to give you that extra thrilling atmospheric feel.

It was good. Life was good. Many thought so as well, until several political parties had decided that they want independence. The world that they were living in was governed by one large empire: The New-Age Party. New-Age Party was formed by leaders around the globe at the end of twenty-first century, when civil chaos occurred due to the creation and the launch of Galaxy Missile Station at the year 2085, which was now floating in space three hundred and four miles away from the Earth's atmosphere. The Galaxy Missile Station, GMS for short, was used primary for instant defenses against debris from the Kuiper Belt settling between Jupiter and Mars. Sadly, GMS not only could protect Earth from possible asteroid crashes, it could also attack any places on the planet easily with two million nuclear warheads.

Riots and protests raged for several more years, until powerful countries, such as United States and China, merged together, made an alliance to bring down the insurrection and, supported the GMS plan. When people thought everything was under control already, a few leaders of the New-Age Party had decided that they could not gain any privileges for the decision-making processes. In a way, power was distributed among ten global managers and everyone was equal regarding to the control of the world. The head of New-Age Party was assassinated on 2090 and the Party was disbanded. Battles clashed between two sides that were shaped when the empire was split in half. Soon, minor disputes transformed into an all-out nuclear war.

At twelve a.m, March 1st, year 2097, two hundred refined nuclear missiles slammed onto the crust of the Earth. Gigantic fireballs, dazzling white at the core areas and terrible red at the shell of the blasts, smothered buildings, civilians, transportation, and streets. The entire planet thundered and quaked as if it was going to explode under the immense destruction and stress. Nuclear fallout followed shortly after and winters descended upon the surviving humans whom were left strangled in the mingling darkness. Filled with ruins and dusts, an entire civilization, gone, under a second after pressing the button. Over four billion lives were perished.

For the upcoming centuries, humans struggled to survive. The relationship between one and another was brought closer by the tragedy. Everyone worked hard to rebuild their old lives and everyone was trying their hardest to overcome arduous obstacles. After decades of hardship, Earth was slowly being restored to its original look. Nevertheless, scars could be seen on the skin of the planet, forcing people to remember the foolish mistake that their ancestors had once made.

After extracting new resources from the ground and refitting major factories that had subsisted the atomic detonations, new technologies were built and old ones were discarded. At the year of 2275, humans were far more technological enhanced than the previous eras. Nearby stars were discovered and studied upon thoroughly, by using Deep Probes that shaped like a sphere with antennas protruding from the laminated platinum bodies, which were then covered beneath tiny shield generators. Knowledge on space gradually broadened and more people were studying in that area due to interests; textbooks were edited and charts were redrawn. However, after years and years of observing the same planets and galaxies over and over, the passion to advance even further into the future had started to degrade. In the end, the human race was on the verge of becoming extinct, where everything was like they were used to be hundreds of years ago. People were heading toward the Stone Age due to the fact that it was nearly impossible to keep up with the level of technologies that they had without creating new tools to balance out the flow of life.

Due to this reason, a team of extraordinary scientists had decided to invent something where others have dreamt so much about: Warp Drive. Regrettably, the laws of physic were still too strong in foundation for the team to bend or manipulate completely. One failure after another, they were getting discouraged. Just before all hope was lost, one man had thought of something uncanny and rather daring. Yet, if it worked, then a whole new world could be opened up for mankind to delve into...

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Payton Lane whistled as he poured some rich, black coffee into a stainless cup on the counter. Sweet aroma rose into the cool air in a stream of feathery white. His black hair was blown in a way that it looked like piercing spikes towering into the sky. It wasn't long, but it wasn't short either. It also matched his childish face, even if he was thirty-two years old already. He scanned around the kitchen with dark blue eyes, searching for his personal laptop that was stashed somewhere among many rows of steel cabinets. He walked around the circular room a few times, and then decided to find his computer in the living room. It was six in the morning. At seven, he needed to leave the house.

"Lights on, setting to four," he said to the household A.I.

In the living room, flat-screen television with eight fine-tuned speakers dominated half of the space. Soft, glowing lights up in the white ceiling cast a fuzzy luminosity onto the furniture and the floor. Payton scratched his head as he navigated around the black couches, looking around, seeking for his laptop. At last, he found the computer at the bottom of a table made up of glistening crystal materials that was placed in the center of the room. Adjusting his name tag on the upper left chest and smoothing out his silver laboratory outfit, Payton grinned foolishly to himself in the mirror.

"Payton, your vehicle is now waiting for you outside," the A.I commented as its external sensors detected heat signatures coming out of the car's exhaust engines. "You also have a call waiting for you. It's from Liam Ope, the assistant in the World Alliance. Do you want me to accept the call?"

After the War in 2097, Earth formed another political realm. However, same as before, it got split into two halves instead of becoming one in unity. As usual, the major conflict was about the existence of GMS. Some wanted to burn it into crispy pieces on the planet's atmosphere; others wanted it to continue its service to humankind. The World Alliance sponsored the future, upgraded GMS that would have Deep Probes to seek out new threats, while the opposition, Freedom Party, tried every possible way to stop the WA.

"Send it through the living room channel," Payton sighed as he sat on the couch and stared at the hologram before him.

The room went dark and an image of a man in his forties with a baldy head materialized within hundreds of flashing lasers from the projector up in the ceiling. He was wearing a dark navy suit, a name tag on his left chest, with light blue tie completing the overall uniform. His light-grey eyes gazed at the scientist from his office down at Metro. Tall buildings could be seen through the massive window behind him, as he folded his hands together on the crystal table in verdant color, and cleared his throat.


"Payton! How are you doing lately? Haven't seen you for a while." Liam smiled slightly as he greeted his old friend. His expression then sobered considerably. "Listen... The funding to the Descend Project has gone wrong for the past forty-eight hours. The Freedom Party has somehow convinced our investors that the Project is wrong and will go wrong later on. I've spoken to the head of the Union Company, where the largest sum of money comes from, unfortunately, the guy said FP was right and they could not afford to take any risks!"

Payton felt his throat tightened up. Tilting his head a little, he leaned forward. "What do you mean... 'they cannot afford to take any risks'? I thought we've already explained to them that this new development will successfully be completed and it'll open up a whole new way to travel into space! Hell, we've even shown everybody the sketches! The plans! And even the new ship that we are going to be building in a few months!"

"I know, I know! But right now, the bursary has stopped, completely! I can't even get a good corporation to backup what we have right now. What happens now, is that the Descend Project must be stopped. There is no money. Zero!"

"They can't do that! The FP can't do that! What, we've already got the approval from the High Court and millions, possibly billions of people, support this new project! How can they even convince our contractors to back out right now? Those damn business men know how much they would lose, if they chicken out on our deal!" Payton was infuriated. They were so close to the completion date, only to be brought to a stop by some lousy funding problems.

Liam rubbed his eyes as he shook his head. "Payton. There are over fifty percent of global scientists and astronomers, that think what you are trying to achieve is impossible. You are talking about going through space sectors, in a way, that can cut down the amount of time needed to travel by two-third. Do you know what that means if you are correct? War. That's right. War. War between two equally powerful sides on this planet, because people will bring religions upon us. That's what FP is about! Religion! They will say something like: 'God will forbid humans to do something that is not part of nature', or, 'God will punish all of us if this project continues on'. Hey, we cannot have, a war, right now. Earth is starting to die and if we have nukes flying all over above our heads, the human race will cease to exist."

Payton laid his head backward onto the soft, leather cushion as he closed his eyes. The day was starting so well, with sunlight filtering through the reinforced glass panels around the house, and birds were singing outside on the wooden porch. All of these, though, were gone the moment this dreadful news appeared.

"Payton. Listen to me, buddy. I hate to do this, but even WA can't do anything about this anymore. The shareholders have left. We don't have anymore people to support the Descend Project. I'll be frank to you, my friend. Even I have doubts when you told me that you can devise a way to allow humans to explore space faster and more efficient than before, without ever having the need to use the Deep Probes. We can see the outer edges of galaxies with our own naked eyes. It was just a dream, Payton. A good dream. But one way or another, you have to wake up and face the reality. We, cannot bend the laws of physic."

The scientist stood up and paced around the room. Several times, he crossed the path of the beams and distorted the communication hologram image. "Damn it, Liam. Albert Einstein released his theory of relativity, in a way, that tells us we can travel in time or through time. However, we know that time travel is ultimately impracticable. That's why we have to make a few changes! The theory of a wormhole, is that 'any mass curves space-time'. To make it simpler, if we can find a wormhole or make one, and somehow manipulate it in a way that can allow us to travel in the hyperspace from point A, then we can come out from point B, into a different area of space, that could take us nearly a century or so to get to with normal space flight! Even with laser powered Light Engine, it'll take us years before we can get there! It's like a Twin Paradox. Time will slow down when we are close to light speed. In a sense, the wormhole can serve as the light speed engine. If this project is true, then we can travel anywhere into space, without aging as fast as the people on Earth and without ever having to spend so much time traveling to our destinations."

Liam Ope groaned. He was never good with physic, let alone having Payton giving him lectures about what is right and what is wrong with what they were trying to do. At last, he opened his eyes and stared at the person glimmering in his office. "I don't know any of this stuff, since I'm not a person like you, Payton. I'm just informing you that the flow of cash is gone for now. Unless you can find another way to support your ambition, or dream, whatever you want to call it, the Descend Project will be postponed until future notices. I'm sorry. You might want to talk to your team about this."

"Damn it!" Payton yelled as he wheeled around angrily. "Close the channel and enable the defense grid for the house," he then told the house A.I.

Running out of the door, he got into the car and slammed the door shut. With the seatbelt on, he pressed a few buttons and changed a few setting. He then thumped his right foot onto the accelerator pad and sped away rapidly. The vehicle was like a black snake, slithering into the freeways that were suspended at a high altitude in the dome, and weaved in and out of the traffic swiftly. Light-orange sunlight from outside the shields was reflected off the shiny bodies of the transportation through the hazy sky. Noise roared to the limit, as rush hours began. It was a great contrast in differences, between life in the dome worlds and life outside in the dark-brown, barren lands...

End Chapter 1