"Welcome, and thank you all for accepting the invitation." Aron appeared in front of the group of people who were still wondering where they were and how they got there. They had no idea of what was going on at all.The moment they noticed Aron's appearance in the room with them, they were so surprised that some of them even jumped out of their seats."Sorry about that," Aron said moments after Nova teleported them back to their chair. At the same time, she was generating a calming effect in their virtual minds."Was that magic?" "How'd we get here?" "Where is this place?" "Why can I walk?" "Where's my wife?" The moment they calmed down, they started shooting question after question at Aron, who remained quiet throughout the interrogation. Nova tracked the questions being asked and organized them in descending order of importance for Aron to answer when the people in front of him ran out of questions to ask. Soon, they realized that Aron hadn't said anything in response and fell
Two weeks later.Aron was standing in the middle of Avalon Island with Rina, Felix, Sarah, his parents, and Alexander in a glass building that was strong enough to face a bomb head on and receive only a few scratches.The new presidents were also in attendance, but only in VR. They couldn't attend in person yet, as they were still inside the pods receiving their genetic enhancements and treatments, which wouldn't end until a few days later. It had only been three days since they'd started receiving the enhancements; it had taken a full week and a half to settle their grievances as Aron had promised.As the people in the room watched through the wall, a sound started coming through the speakers. "T minus ten minutes. All systems are currently go and weather conditions are favorable for liftoff. Please remain in a safe viewing area.""Wow," Henry said as he gazed at the massive rocket on the other side of the wall.A few kilometers away from the room, a massive rocket was at rest on a l
The launch wasn't secret at all, since it was being broadcasted live for anyone interested in watching it. At the moment, that consisted of a few rocket science fans who tuned in, but most of the watchers were the Edenian citizens themselves. They were absolutely thrilled to watch their first domestically made launch take place. A good example of how huge the interest to the launch was for the citizens of the country was that the launch was being broadcast through nearly all of the domestic news channels, which all had a higher viewership than their usual average for that specific time.Although they hadn't been planning on keeping it a secret, they still hadn't planned to announce it, but that idea was squashed as the news of them applying for more than fifty orbital spots was leaked by someone from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).They'd had to apply, because first, it was required to be given a specific band of frequencies that weren't yet used in those orbits. Tha
News of the successful series of launches had spread everywhere. And after more than two weeks straight of successful launches, they had finally come to an end. There were now fifty satellites in various orbits, from low earth orbit all the way to high earth geosynchronous orbit, and all of them were dedicated to serving Aron's growing conglomerate..Together with the news, Nova kicked things up into a higher gear and started promoting the upcoming product launch all over Pangea. The data they had already collected from users of the app ensured that the advertising blitz was as laser targeted as she could make it. And even though people were only seeing ads they were interested in, it still spread out to catch any their lists might have missed, as people—and interaction bots—were all talking about what they had seen. Fans of GAIA Tech were already excited and had marked their calendars; the launch event was set for a week after the launches finished.Togeth
February 15th.As evening neared in Eden, one of the largest indoor auditoriums in the country was filled to the brim. The entire venue was sold out and people had already arrived, filling every available seat despite the launch event still being a few hours away.Outside the auditorium, but still inside the building, people were walking around and talking to each other. For anyone interested in the international tech industry, they would realize that most of the people there were famous names in the tech industry, showing the level of the event that was about to take place.As for the influencers, no one that had received the invitation even thought of declining to attend. But it wasn't just an invitation they had received; everyone that had received one had also been given a business-class ticket on whichever day they would like to arrive in Eden. Room and board were included as well, up until the day after the launch event concluded. That in itself showed tha
"Now on to the screen," Aron said as the screens behind him focused on the phone's screen. Unlike the most recent iPhone, or any of the Android and Google phones on the market, the bezel around the screen was so unbelievably thin that it was practically invisible.(Ed note: I had to look bezel up, too. In this context, it's "a groove or flange designed to hold a beveled edge, as of a gem." Basically, it's the border between the screen and frame of a computer or a phone monitor.)"The Zeus One's screen will revolutionize the way you see the screen, thanks to our quantum dot technology. It allows for unparalleled brightness and contrast, which means you'll get perfect visibility under any light. Unlike regular pixels, quantum dots can display any color natively, instead of as a blend of red, green, and blue. Also, thanks to our quantum dot technology, the screen resolution will be three times as detailed as the best display screen that exists, no matter the size."If you want to see wha
"Now let's welcome the president of GAIA Technologies, Sarah O'Connor to introduce our other products," Aron said when the applause died down, then smiled at his friend as they passed each other.Sarah arrived at her position, but had to wait before she started speaking since they were still clapping. When the applause died down, she started speaking. "With the Zeus One being our first product from the smartphone line, I'd like to introduce the first product from our computer line: the Olympus."She stopped speaking and, like Aron's introduction of the phone, the screens behind her started playing a video that introduced the device before ending with an image of the laptop and desktop versions. They both had a sleek, majestic, and clean look."They, too, are powered by another of our proprietary chips—the O1, which is ten times faster than any other desktop or laptop CPU on the market." As she said that, the benchmark results were shown on the screens behind her, evoking slight gasps
A week after the GAIA Tech presentation in Eden, Aron was laying in a beach chair on a gorgeous white sandy beach in Hawaii, with Rina laying on the chair next to him working on her own suntan. When he had told her he was headed to Hawaii for their next presentation, she'd offered to show him around the islands, as he'd never been there before. Besides, he was still due to meet with her father, and now that GAIA Tech had gained some traction and cachet in the global marketplace, it was high time to keep that promise.Meanwhile, Ryan Walker, the newly minted president of Asclepius Biotechnology, Inc., was settling things for an upcoming medical conference hosted by him. He had rented out the entire Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki as the venue for the conference, and invited all of the top names in the biotech industry, as well as some representatives from Big Pharma, and even some TV hosts like Dr. Oz, who was famous for pushing products to a wide audience.Meanwhile, over the past week, t