Danica Sprits was always looking up. It’s not that she was in love with the sky or the stars. She simply was not happy in her young life on the ground in Brooklyn. She had no real reason to be unhappy about it. Her parents owned and operated a small family restaurant, so she was never hungry. The restaurant did well enough that the family never really wanted for anything (not that she got everything she wanted). Between school and home, she was never bored. She was often tasked to work in the restaurant's kitchen after school – usually peeling vegetables or washing dishes. She was an outstanding student in school and even enjoyed most of the work assigned.
But she still kept looking up.
She was hoping for a glimpse of the Pleiades.
It was the largest endeavor ever undertaken by humankind. A space station orbiting high above the globe. When completed, seven massive rings – one for each of the seven biomes on Earth, spinning to imitate Earth normal gravity – would be home to as many as 8000 people.
8000 people colonizing near Earth space, living in an artificial utopia designed by Doctor Carl Seyjhim.
Carl Seyjhim, born in a tumultuous 2132 as the son of an Indian immigrant and an American, was a prodigy. That’s putting it mildly. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School with honors at 15. His as-long-as-your-arm list of bachelors, masters, and doctorates from MIT and Stanford came tumbling in quickly. By 21, he was worth billions due to his patents. But none of this had prepared the world for what he invented next: the Seyjhim fusion reactor.
Although the Seyjhim reactor required a nuclear core, it was very small, and deemed safe even for homeowners. The cost to manufacture one – once development was completed around the third generation – was in the hundreds of dollars range. They sold like proverbial hotcakes for $4327.99. They were available direct, on Amazon, and even in Walmart. The wealth Seyjhim accumulated was incalculable.
Initial concerns about the reactors had created a huge push against them. People feared what a nuclear reactor in every home could do if one of them failed. People also feared what would happen to the millions of people employed in power generation, mining, drilling, and the corporate world.
And these fears were not without basis. Although there were no accidents – even though some had tried, hard, to weaponize the device with no success - the shadows Hershey, Pennsylvania and Chernobyl, Ukraine cast were long and hard to forget.
There were failures, to be sure. Several of the earlier models were pushed – accidentally and intentionally - to the breaking point. Failure resulted in a rapid reduction in power output. That’s all. No meltdown, no radioactive contamination. The core simply returned to an inert state.
And, millions did lose their jobs as one by one traditional power plants – nuclear fission, gas, fossil fuels – were shut down.
But the fears were just as quickly assuaged. The gen one and gen two reactors had been deployed for many years in test facilities around the world, and there had never even been a hiccup much less a catastrophe. Every soul that lost a job was put back to work manufacturing, installing, and maintaining Seyjhim reactors around the world. The new jobs offered increased pay, better benefits, and in most cases less danger.
In time, nearly every home in the world was equipped with or had access to one of these miraculous devices. The first commercially available units were about the size of a subcompact car. Early adopters often just converted their garage into their power generation room. Some built sheds or added on garages. By the third generation they were the size of a large suitcase. They put these in electric cars which had unlimited range.
The reactors were fueled with waste. Any waste would do, but organic waste worked best. Because of this, recycling became the standard. In short order, landfills were eliminated. Some were even reopened and mined for fuel. Households equipped with the power plants often just redirected their sewage into fuel tanks. The byproducts – the waste – was pure water vapor and compressed carbon which was easily tilled into soil.
In fact, the waste from the Seyjhim reactor became an important industry in its own right. The carbon was removed and transported to farms and gardens increasing their yields. The water vapor could either be trapped for use or released safely into the atmosphere.
Early models of the Seyjhim reactor would only generate around 20 kilowatts. By the time the 4th generation reactor rolled out, it was artificially capped at one megawatt. Only the developer knew what the total output might be but many believed they might reach the gigawatt range. The amount generated depended in part on the fuel used, and in part on the demand.
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Many might have used this wealth an power to attempt to control governments. Seyjhim worked to better the planet. When it became apparent to him that it was not possible in his lifetime to create the utopia he wanted, he began to build his own.
The Renaissance that his generators brought about should have brought about world peace. There was no longer any need for wars to be fought over dwindling resources. The relaxed international tensions and increased food supply, though, led to an explosion in population. The planet was just too small, now.
The breakthrough for this mammoth project came not from Earth, but from the asteroid belt. It was a slow process – mining the materials and hauling it all back to an orbital refinery. The process was also astronomically expensive.
Reaching the asteroids would not have been possible without the development of the Seyjhim fusion reactor. These small power plants could generate enough energy to power a small city or push a ship using an ion drive to speeds nearing .5c. That .5c potential was never fully tested as the shuttles traveling to the belt spent half their time accelerating and half their time decelerating. Regardless, it was far faster than any chemical rocket ever devised.
The miners and ship crews were paid outrageous salaries for the long trips and dangerous work. The payoff came in a very early, comfortable retirement, and a spot towards the top of the list of people allowed to populate the new station – the hard-earned skills and experience was a huge boost. Of course, collecting required them to survive their four year contract intact. If they didn’t, their families would receive a sizable sum, but no placement on the list. Only one in every five that signed on managed to collect their retirement. Even fewer qualified for the list.
Completing a contract as a miner or shuttle crew wasn’t the only path. A successful tour in the military, police force, or as a firefighter would also earn a person a spot on the list.
Of course, there were other paths. Academics, researchers, teachers, doctors, veterinarians… there were many ways to make it to the list, but service was considered to be the fastest if most dangerous.
Because the station was a private enterprise, it did not need to adhere to many of the Earth’s many laws, rules, and regulations. As such, religion was not allowed. Whatever personal beliefs a person may have had to be kept to themselves. This was not as easy as it sounds. There is a true sense of awe in seeing how vast everything truly is and many applicants were sent home after developing some rather deep seated feelings after the trip up.
Applicants had to be healthy and able to father or bear children. Being a member of any LGBTQIA+ group did not disqualify an individual, but they were still required to be viable and willing.
Then there was an extensive, intrusive psychological evaluation. There was no room for bias, hatred, psychosis, or racism on the station.
Each candidate also had to undergo an extremely thorough physical examination. This was to ensure that genetic aberrations were not brought on board.
There was no ageism. As long as all other criteria was met satisfactorily a person would get in. Sadly, this eliminated many over the age of 50, but there were some in their 50s, 60s, and even one young septuagenarian. Youth was appreciated, but maturity was required.
Having all the necessary qualifications was still not enough. Once the preliminary qualifications were all met, there was still a rigorous training cycle.
For every 10,000 that applied, only one would be accepted. One person for every 1.1 million inhabitants of Earth. Long odds to be sure, but still the applications flooded in.
There were seven rings. Each ring represented a specific region of our little blue planet. Ring One was intended to mimic – albeit on a smaller scale – the north American continent. Ring Two, South America. Ring Three, Europe. Ring Four, Asia. Ring Five, Africa. Ring Six, the Oceans and islands. Ring Seven, Arctic and Antarctic. They dubbed the station Pleiades after the seven-sisters constellation.
Each ring measured 2440 meters in diameter, and 1000 meters across. Once the frame was completed, a gentle nudge pushed each ring to spin at one revolution per minute, giving a simulated gravity of 1 G at “sea level.” Once completed, each ring had a pristine landscape teeming with agriculture and wildlife. Mountains -albeit rather small ones, lakes, and rivers we’re all represented. All housing and industry was nestled underground.
Not all species could be accommodated in the limited space provided. A single blue whale, for instance, would have occupied far too much room, and eaten too much to allow the remainder of the Ocean ring to remain viable. The engineers considered this, too, and included a genetic ark with samples of every known species on Earth.
The “ceiling" of each ring was an array of LEDs programmed to emit a natural spectrum of light. The array would also dim and brighten, display clouds or stars in familiar patterns, even the moon in phases. Above those arrays, closer to the hub, we’re massive cargo bays and shuttle docks. The designers chose to put the bays and docks above because that placement allowed for reduced fuel and energy consumption as the crates of cargo could be quite large and heavy, but still easily manipulated in the reduced gravity. The hub itself was a zero G zone and could be used to transport personnel and materials from one ring to the other with almost no energy usage at all.
As massive as the rings were, the superstructure that surrounded the rings was necessarily much larger. Four massive arms radiated from the hub at both ends and met in the middle, encasing the rings. These arms did not spin and so had no gravity, but housed defensive systems sensor arrays, and thruster quads. Most of the surface of the superstructure, around the sensors and thrusters and turrets, was dedicated to energy collection. Contrary to popular belief, the vacuum of space is not entirely devoid of matter. Huge scoops could be deployed to scoop up trace gases, solar arrays could be extended to soak up solar energy, and grapplers could snag anything solid for refining or conversion to energy in the stations many small Seyjhim fusion reactors – each ring was equipped with eight, and an additional twelve in the superstructure.
And it was almost finished.