[Nostalgia For Infinity]

2263

All of a sudden things changed. The heavens lost something. In a blink of a eye the entire panorama vanished, then just as quickly appeared again, but diminished!
Observers searched for our neighbours. No Luna, Mars vanished without a trace. Even the Sun was different, gone was warm cheery Sol, in its place was a sullen Red Giant.
It didn't take long to discover that everything had changed. Where there had been untold billions of galaxies, there was now none. Just 250 stars clumped closely together. That was the new universe
The entire world went into mourning. The offworld colony on Luna was lost forever, 5013 of the planets best and brightest cut off, with no hope of resupply. Various Orbiting Pleasure Parks and Miners were gone as well. Not even the satellite network was left untouched. Child mortality rates skyrocketed as there were no longer tracking systems in place to keep track off their whereabouts, or indeed stop runaway gravtrains from plowing through them. A Division of US troops participating in survival training in deepest Sahara got lost and were never seen again. Critics rejoiced though, at the cessation of SkyFox's programming. No doubt Old Man Murdoch was spinning in his grave.
There were benefits however. Paranoia of the unknown banded the world together like never before. Woodrow Wilson's dream of a League of Nations came to fruitation. The few countries that refused to join were ruthlessly harassed, embargoed and assaulted until they fell in line with the worlds will. The process took a mere 27 years. By 2290 the world was united.
Soon later a core principle of this new Cosmos was discovered. Dr Drussin of the French Astronomical Institute in Lyon happened to detect gravitic emissions from the edge of the system. Further analysis discovered that the disturbance lead somewhere. In time the anomaly would be explored. First there was an entire system to exploit however.
The home system, now universally known as Castor, after a rigged vote, contained 9 worlds, and 4 satellites. A tiny asteroid field was located at the further reach of the system, and a cosmic cloud provided a colourful sight in the sky.
Four of the planets were gas giants (GG). Research in the late 20th/21st century had disapproved the theory that Gas planets formed far away from the Sun. However Fiery Castor's system was more similar to Sol than expected. The only surprise was how far away Earth was. If the sun had been a normal Class G, Earth would have been a Frozen snowball with a diminishing atmosphere. The benefits of having a Red Giant as a Star became apparent.
Two of the planets were Icy cored, and the other 3 were rocky. Like the Home system these worlds were uninhabitable, however the planets seemed to be considerably richer in minerals.
The next 110 years were spent rebuilding the satellite network and trying to exploit the Earth in a more responsible fashion. There were many setbacks. A secret experiment went wrong, exotic Alien technology went haywire and converted the Antarctic ice to Argon. An entire continent was rendered uninhabitable, extensive decontamination programs were required to keep the sea pure. In time these problems were solved however.
By 2400 Earth was fully exploited. A impressive space yard had been built. All that was left was for spaceships to be built, to conquer the system. Four Corporations competed to win the contract for a set of ships.1 of them would end up disappointed!

[ February 23, 2004, 21:10: Message edited by: Nostalgia For Infinity ]