The year is 2030 and the earth is dying.

Logan Foxxman looked out the glass walls of the office one last time, dying for a way out. The Gambetti Space and Aeronautics (GSA) was a massive glass-walled building, with a pyramid-shaped structure made of pure lead glass. Transparent from the inside, translucent looking in.

The GSA was pretty much an equivalent of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), built and founded ten years before by Giovanni Gambetti, a 36-year-old trust-fund baby with a superhero complex.

His reason? The coronavirus pandemic was "totally a wake-up call, totally nuts, and we're all gonna die very soon". Those were his exact words at the press conference where he announced his plans that year.

The Italian was 46 years old now, still in love with the word "totally" and the sound of his own voice, but he was not wrong.

The architecture of the GSA was impressive, as well as its interior, but not so much its board members.

At the moment, thirty of the organization's employees were assembled in the boardroom for a meeting, discussing the state of the infamous Inter-Galactic GG-20 for the umpteenth time.

As the Chief Scientist at GSA, Logan found himself coming to this particular office more times than he cared to admit. One of the perks of being the boss in the scientific part of the agency.

He liked the boardroom… when it wasn't filled with clueless egomaniacs who happen to be filthy rich. All fifteen seats on the right side of the room were filled with members of the executive board. There was Alison Coleman; the CFO, Ryan Palmer; the COO and the rest.

Miss Coleman was decked in Armani from head to toe. With more Botox injections in her face than makeup, she sat next to Palmer; ram-rod straight and head held high. She had an air of unnecessary arrogance that they all seemed to share. Somehow, her eyes glistened with a surprising amount of interest today. That was certainly a first.

The COO, on the other hand, smelled of money. Literally. Logan could get a whiff of Ryan Palmer's, no doubt, expensive cologne even from where he stood at the far end of the room.

Palmer too had that same air around him. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to get this meeting over with. Logan could definitely relate.

The CEO's secretary was Nicole Reid. She was the only employee who'd actually seen Mr. Gambetti face-to-face. The most Logan had ever gotten was a very brief conference call sometime last year, and he was more than okay with that. One less ass to kiss up to.

If Logan did not know any better, he would say they all looked bored. Of course, there was a seat at the head of the table for the CEO of the company if Mr. Giovanni Gambetti ever bothered to show up.

On the left side of the long glass table separating them were half the aeronautical team – his colleagues. Today they wore suits, instead of the usual shirt-and-slacks-underneath-a-white-lab-coat combo.

One seat – his – was the only one empty, because it was the job of Chief Scientist to present research reports whenever the big bosses came around. The Inter-Galactic GG-20 has already gone through several necessary testings, both technical and scientific, but the board was milking the publicity its anticipation was generating for as long as they could.

The rocket was ready for launch, yet the executives kept claiming that deliberating over the same damn thing numerous times was the next step. They did not show it, but Logan was sure his colleagues were just as tired of this merry-go-round as he was. Nevertheless, Logan turned away from the array of tall buildings overlooking the outside of the boardroom with yet another fake smile. At this point, his face might just break apart before the end of the meeting.

"Good morning, everyone. I am Logan Foxxman, the Chief Scientist of the Gambetti Space and Aeronautics. The GSA. I coordinate and supervise the aeronautical team for the Inter-Galactic GG-20."

For the past ten years, Logan's team had worked on building what they called the Inter-Galactic GG-20.

'20', because the project commenced in the year 2020; and 'GG', because the CEO of GSA was nothing if not the star of every show. GG stood for Giovanni Gambetti.

The Inter-Galactic GG-20 was an ambitious skyrocket. Innovation News – the most prestigious and critically acclaimed newspaper house in the whole of America – once described as "truly ahead of its time".

Giovanni Gambetti and his billion-dollar family have been all over the news for years because of it, even more so in the last five. Everyone wanted to know everything there was to know about the multi-million aeronautical project that was supposed to save the Earth by finding another habitable planet for humans. The Earth was dying after all.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The creation was a beauty. Like most rockets, it was built to deliver very high thrust (a modern heavy space booster with a takeoff thrust of 3,800 kilonewtons (850,000 pounds). Every movable object was liable to gravity, hence the need to have such a high amount of thrust, so the rocket can adequately push against the force of gravity and launch upward.

The propulsion system was kept in a ready-to-fire state. The structural frame of the Inter-Galactic GG-20 was similar to the fuselage of an airplane. The frame, made from very strong but lightweight materials, like titanium or aluminum, usually employed long 'stringers' which run from the top to the bottom which are connected to "hoops" which run around the circumference.

The payload system, however, always depended on a rocket's mission, which in this case, was planetary exploration. The Inter-Galactic GG-20 was a guided ballistic missile modified to launch into Earth orbit and onto the surface of the moon.

In short, the Inter-Galactic GG-20 was a groundbreaking brilliance. The team of aeronautical engineers, scientists, and legal minds have worked tirelessly for the better part of the decade to create it. Half of the members at this table just did not get it. They never would. All the executive board was interested in was getting profits and publicity for Mr. Gambetti under the guise of “saving the Earth".

Logan sighed. "Welcome to the tenth official status report meeting for the long-awaited launch of the Inter-Galactic GG-20 – the third one this year alone."

His faux smile still in place, Logan made sure to enunciate the word "third" as tightly as he could. It was only the 9th of January, and he'd already given the report three separate times.

As a scientist, Logan read countless research papers daily. The last one he came across about the Earth's current condition was a devastating read. Citing more than 150 studies, the research team argued that there are three crises — which are poised only to escalate in the coming decades — that could jeopardize the entire human race. According to it, Earth has lost an estimated 50% of its terrestrial plants and roughly 20% of its animal biodiversity since the start of agriculture.

If current trends do not stop, about one million of Earth's seven to ten million plant and animal species could face extinction in the near future, disrupting a huge amount of biodiversity of ecosystems on the planet. This will, inherently, lead to countless more natural disasters. By the year 2050, climate change would have displaced up to a billion people around the world!

The world population will likely be an estimated 9.9 billion by then anyway. So… we were screwed. Humanity was screwed.

The Earth was dying and Logan was stuck here kissing the asses of the 1% of the 1%, trying to convince them that giving humanity a better fighting chance was not a waste of their money.

"The Earth is dying," he said upon a sigh. "Humanity is racing toward a future of inevitable mass extinctions, constant climate-induced crises, and health disruptions, to mention but a few. The only way to prevent all of these is to start taking environmental threats seriously.”

Logan took a drink of his bottle water before continuing. “The enormous loss of biodiversity that we are currently facing would also destroy every major ecosystem on the planet. With fewer insects to pollinate plants, fewer plants to filter the air, water and soil, and fewer forests to protect human settlements from floods and other natural disasters, survival is not guaranteed anymore.

"Meanwhile, those same phenomena that cause natural disasters are all predicted to become stronger and more frequent due to global climate change. These disasters, coupled with climate-induced droughts and sea-level rise, could mean one billion people would become climate refugees by the year 2050, forcing mass migrations that further endanger human lives and disrupt society. Overpopulation will not make anything easier."

Logan gestured to the projected smartboard as he spoke. Right now, it showed a picture of environmental enthusiasts picking up debris from the floor. "However, there is only so much cleaning and recycling that humans can do. At the end of the day, will it be enough?"

He could see Alison Coleman squint at the smartboard from where she was seated. At least someone seemed interested. "No! It simply cannot be enough. By 2050, all hope would nearly be lost. The Earth would literally be overpopulated!

"This booming growth will exacerbate societal problems like food insecurity, housing insecurity, joblessness, overcrowding and inequality. Larger populations also increase the chances of pandemics. As humans encroach ever farther into wild spaces, the risk of uncovering deadly new zoonotic diseases — like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — becomes ever greater, according to a study published in September 2020 in the journal World Development. While we can see and feel the effects of global warming on a daily basis — like record-setting heat across the world and increasingly active hurricane seasons, for instance — the worst is yet to come. We need a more practical solution. Hence the invention of the Inter-Galactic GG-20."

His voice went up an octave as he continued. "The Inter-Galactic GG-20 is a high-powered skyrocket specially built for space and planetary exploration."

Logan talked about its features, parts, the materials used in its making. He talked about its use, capabilities and the team that made it. He talked on and on about the Inter-Galactic GG-20 till he felt like he might morph into one any second.

A few questions popped up throughout the report – the answers of which should already go without saying – but nobody said the executive board members were geniuses. By the time he was halfway through, the right side of the room still looked bored out of their minds. Even Miss Coleman.

Suddenly, a loud murmuring emanated from the doorway, grabbing everyone's attention away from him. Had it not been for that, they might have heard his heavy sigh. Logan looked too. The noise increased, creating a hush around the boardroom as they all tried to figure out what the problem was.

Then like the star of some imaginary movie, a tall blond man came waltzing in wearing a baseball hat, sweatshirt, and joggers. An instant frown settled on Logan's features.

Well, what do you know? The trust-fund man-child finally showed up.