As Aron and his friends continued their decision-making process, the people whose lives they were deciding were busily trudging along in their day-to-day lives. All they had were their aspirations, dreams, and the hope of a better (or vengeful) future. That was what forced them to keep moving forward despite their difficult lives.
....
Robert Watson, a British immigrant to America, was one of the people on the list in Aron and his friends' hands. Currently, he was in a conference room with his lawyer. On the opposite side of the table from them was a woman wearing almost comically thick makeup. She was dressed in a leopard-print top that clashed with a wide, hot pink belt, a tight purple skirt that only came halfway down her thighs, flesh-colored stockings, and bright red stiletto heels with a four inch shiny chrome spike. She had bubblegum pink hair styled to the nines cascading over her shoulders, and on the table in front of her was an enormous bag covered in the Lo
Rachael Richardson was a logistics manager at the Amazon headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Currently, she was sitting in her office reviewing some paperwork.Her cell phone rang and a jolt passed down her spine, then she reached in her purse to grab it. Her heart was pounding and her hands shook so bad that, after she got the phone out, she fumbled it and it dropped to the floor. Coincidentally, the phone landed face up and she saw the name of the caller on the display.Her face paled and she scrambled out of her chair, then got on her hands and knees and picked up the phone, hitting the button to answer it as fast as she could."H-hello?" she breathlessly said."The phone rang more than once.""S-s-sorry... I dropped it when I was picking it up."The voice on the other side of the call was silent for some time, then it said, "Don't let it happen again.""I won't," Rachel said, an obvious quiver in her voice."I'll be home at 7:30. I want g
Back in the office, Sarah and Felix had just finished reading through the five profiles Aron had shortlisted from Nova's master list. The rest of the names on the list would also receive job offers, but the five names on the short list were slated to be the presidents of the new subsidiary companies.Robert Watson, a low-level Boeing executive, would be joining Icarus Airlines as the president.Ryan Walker would be heading up Asclepius Biotechnology, where his experience and connections in the world of Big Pharma would come in handy. And, having been a researcher himself, he wouldn't just be an "empty suit" executive, either.Hermes Inc., Aron's new import/export company, was just waiting for the arrival of Rachael Richardson. She should be able to simply slot into the job, having run the logistics department of a giant like Amazon.Elizabeth Oppliger would soon be heading up Helios Energy & Utilities. She didn't know it yet, but she would soon.And Jai Chakrabarti would soon be takin
"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