Bloen [ Part II ]
Born in Space
I kept hearing about it all my life, the first man to be born in space. You see when the asteroid hit the planet, my mother was in labor. The island’s machines launched instantly when the asteroid hit. First, explosions separated the island from the planet along the sea bed. Then the gyro-gravity machines came online to stabilize life on the island.
That is to say, the island was shot into space, flipping for several hours before the thrust-engines regulated its trajectory. But all-in-all they had pulled it off. That is not to say though, that there were no casualties. Accidents happened in that brief moment after impact and before the gyro-gravity machines came online. In that moment I was born, and in that moment my father had died.
They labeled him a hero, they supported my mother and our small family until I was sixteen years old. It was then that I joined the scouts. For our community, this was a temporary solution. We wanted to find a planet that is suitable for life, and inhabit it. But that was not an easy task, and so for a while we went searching for desert planets with useful resources. We’d hover our island ship over the planet and send in our scouts in their suit-ships. The scouts—armed with military training and a scientific background—would then analyze the planet and conclude what type of resources can be extracted from it.
To become a scout, one must first reach the age of sixteen. Then, one must present the studies that they have accomplished in their first sixteen years of life. Based on these and other variables which include an intelligence test, a personality test and several physical and psychological exercises, the commanding generals then make a decision whether to allow one in or not. It wasn't easy to get in but I had been preparing for it ever since I was eight years old.
My presentation was a theory; I had studied a certain crystal that was found on one of the planets, I came across it one day at the science center. I have found that the crystal can be manipulated using light. The crystal was naturally opaque, but it became transparent when hit by concentrated light beams from one side. From that I drew a mock-up of a secondary dome that would shield us from view, but for whatever part we wish to use as a window. After going through the tests, all five thousand applicants —including myself— waited for days. We started receiving emails on our devices, one after the other. And out of five thousand applicants only three-hundred and fifty-eight were accepted.
We spent the next four years hopping between studies to expand our initial researches and military-grade training. And over the course of these four years, we learned a special skill. At first they trained us to use a parachute, jumping off the highest peak on the island. After that, we started wearing special flight suits that helped us glide through the air. By the fourth year though, we had started training on using the space suits, and those were marvelous.
At first, many could not manage them. A lot of the recruits got reassigned to other factions under the military, but the scouts had to be the best of the lot, and for good reason. It took me a dangerous while to get a grip on it myself. It did not come naturally to me, at first, but when I started feeling its flow as it became more and more predictable I could manage to control it. A hundred and twenty-three more were severed from the scouts. The remaining two-hundred and thirty-five —including myself— became the year’s graduates of the Scouts Academy. The idea behind the scouts in general was represented in a line printed on our degrees.
“Successful Military-Scientists. — year 2358”
After graduation we got assigned to different teams. My team was responsible for retrieving and seeking crystals from different planets. Of course, we each got assigned based on what our initial research was about. My friend Anix, with whom I've hung out ever since we both applied for the scouts, was assigned to a different team. Anix’s research was mainly about electro-magnetic radiation. Which also was somehow a part of my research since I was using a form of electromagnetic radiation to alter the state of the crystal atoms. He was the only person to ever ignore the fact that I was the first person to be born in space. When I was applying for the scouts, he came over and struck a conversation with me on how they were making us wait that long knowing that we could be using that time for something useful, or productive. Which got us to talking about our researches and fields of studies. With his research, he had helped me prove that electro-magnetic radiation has a quantum effect on the crystal at the atomic-level. At the same time, he had expanded his studies by proving that he was capable of freezing light and storing it inside the crystal.
Be it as it may, being assigned to different teams meant that we will be seeing less of each other. But that did not stop us from continuing our friendship. We have, however, become closer with members of our teams. One mission after the other, we learned to rely on the functioning of the team and to believe in it. This had made us grow bonds with different people, and these bonds only made us stronger.
For years we floated in space, from one planet to the other. All the while, we had one purpose. We had to find a habitable planet, a second earth. If our community was to survive and prevail, we had to find a new home.
Perhaps it was our overwhelming anxiety from wanting a home so bad that had led us to the troubles we came to face…
