Gaea

Eva watched through the personal viewing screen in front of her as the Gaea-bound tourist shuttle she was on took off from a small Helios hangar bay. The shuttle itself wasn’t too large, perhaps about twice the size of the lifeboat she had piloted not too long ago.

Although it wasn’t quite as cramped, it held about the same amount of people - 12 passengers, a pilot and a copilot. Each of the passengers had a personal viewing screen at their disposal, which displayed live feeds of space around them as they traveled.

They all exited the hangar bay rather gently and went out to open space with very little fuss. All felt their little shuttle detach itself from the megastation’s gravitational pull as it traveled further and further away.

Not that they manually traveled to Gaea - at their speed it would have taken months. Instead, they went towards a large pleasure barge waiting patiently out just beyond Helios’ orbit. There, all manner of shuttles and smaller craft lingered around the barge as their navigational circuits linked up.

Light energy lattices connected each of the ships to the barge in preparation for their combined teleport to Gaea.

Eva watched as the shuttle’s pilot and copilot communicated with the barge’s crew and confirmed that they were hitching along for the ride. She saw on her personal screen as their own energy link lit up between them and the barge, which glowed brighter as it strengthened.

Then, roughly 15 seconds later after numerous teleport announcements, every ship linked to the barge flashed with bright white intensity as their teleport modules fired off.

Space warped around their shuttle, as though they were sucked into some kind of miniscule hole. And then after another bright flash of light, space warped back into position. Except now, instead of flying around Helios, they were now stationed high above Gaea.

They came into its space near one of its many teleport beacons just outside of its orbit.

There, numerous other tourist ships flashed into space under the watchful eye of a small fleet of Federation defensive warships.

The barge itself lumbered off out of the beacon’s teleportation zone while its many hitchhikers peeled off towards their own destinations. Eva’s shuttle being one of them.

Their shuttle pointed itself down to the planet and began its slow descent down to its surface. Her screen showed Gaea’s curved horizon grow and flatten the closer they approached.

Eva marveled at the beauty of the planet itself, though she noted it had far less blues and greens than her Old Earth. In fact, it had become almost practically covered by sprawling cities all across its surface.

Cities had grown to become many times larger than before, where each one had become a hundred thousand square kilometers large on average. At least, according to her DI.

It showed her images of Tokyo, which had encroached on every square kilometer in Japan. More than that, it even began to take over parts of the ocean around it. Shanghai’s footprint swept out in every direction, all the way past what used to be Nanjin. It spread itself out across the sea.

She did her best to try to locate New York City from upper orbit, and could hardly spot it. Her DI had to point out that Manhattan had spread outwards and absorbed everything that existed between Pittsburgh and Hartford. And it took had claimed much of the Atlantic Ocean around its shores.

And as the cities’ populations ballooned, so too did the suburbs and rural areas, everywhere. In fact, every populous zone had become larger by fivefold. Almost everywhere was inhabited.

Humans’ eventual encroachment and dominance over nature appeared to be inevitable in this new galaxy. After all, consumption had always been humanity’s greatest addiction. And they certainly didn’t shy away from that envelopment.

Eva noted that whatever wilderness that remained on Gaea had become treasures that were exceedingly rare and highly protected.

Or greedily privatized.

“What’s the Earth’s… uh, I mean Gaea’s population?” she asked her DI quietly.

Gaea has reached a population count of over forty billion people, it replied. Well over 73% of that number reside in the major cities across the globe.

Eva couldn’t help but think about how arrogant humans had become yet again. They had access to vast amounts of space, and yet they still decided to take over every square meter of their own home planet. She was hoping to see scenic vistas as the tourist ad proclaimed, but she quickly realized that all she was going to experience was more and more city.

Which there was nothing wrong with - cities had their own charms. But if everything was a city, then nothing was all that special any longer. She wondered if there even was a difference between them at this point, if the charms of cities like San Francisco were different from the beauty of Mexico City.

She certainly hoped that nothing became homogenized.

It didn’t take long for their shuttle to descend further down towards Gaea. Its nose glowed with red-hot intensity as the atmosphere burned up around them during re-entry. But not a single passenger inside even remotely felt the heat - they were heavily insulated from any of that.

Not only that, but the ride itself was incredibly smooth. Despite the speed of their descent and the buffeting of the wind around the shuttle, all felt little more than a few shakes and shivers.

Soon after, the shuttle came down to their ultimate destination - Washington DC. Or at least, the city that used to be DC. This too had become a large sprawl, though nothing anywhere close to New York City’s size.

They touched down at one of the few secure hangar bays at a star harbor, where the shuttle itself depressurized and equalized its inner atmosphere with the planet’s atmosphere. Then its rear ramp and airlock opened up and allowed everyone out.

Eva stepped out and took a good lungful of Gaea air… then coughed.

Like the poor section of Helios, she found there were hints of smog and urine in the air. It simply felt a bit dusty and dirty, which was a massive disappointment, considering how much humanity had advanced.

With a deep sigh, she went out past the main harbor terminals and towards the arrival hopper lanes. There, she climbed into one of the personal unmanned hoppers provided by the tourist company.

She connected to its operational intelligence through her DI and scrolled through the numerous tourist destinations listed in its databank. Though she was certainly interested in many of them, she instead plugged in a specific set of coordinates.

The hopper automatically calculated its route, lifted up into the air for a dozen meters, then sped off towards her destination.

And as she wove halfway up the DC skyline between the numerous buildings, she wowed at the architecture of the city itself. Much had certainly changed since she had last seen it. Whatever grand buildings used to be there, such as the White House and Capitol Hill were long gone.

In their place were new political buildings which dominated the blocks they were on, along with the skylines they inhabited. They certainly maintained similar outlines, such as their domed tops or unique geometric shapes.

Only now they were much larger and taller than before.

“What nations exist on Gaea currently?” she asked her DI.

All ancient nations have long since dissolved, it replied. The Global Upheaval Conflict of 25.202 saw the dissolution of every separate political body, and unified all of them under a single banner. Currently, Gaea has a single political body that acts as a representative for the planet within the Sol Federation. It is comprised of 3,500,000 members from all across the planet, all of whom lobby to protect the interests of Gaea as a whole.

As the hopper cruised through the air, Eva’s DI displayed all kinds of images and video along with numerous essays and data regarding Gaea’s political landscape.

Eva noted that although the old nations were long gone, the planet itself had been sectioned off. Each one was governed semi-independently, with certain members of those governing boards acting as liaisons for the Sol Federation.

Her mind began to become fuzzy as she read up on current political events, a sign that her trait was starting to kick in. It certainly didn’t come as fast as being lectured in a class, but it came nonetheless.

She waved it all away before her thoughts became too cloudy to wade through and instead focused on the sky.

Similar to Helios, it was bright and blue. Sol was high in the sky, shining brightly.

But she was certain that its position wasn’t at all where Sol and Helios was.

“That sun looks really weird,” she said. “Is it even real? Or is it a projection like on Helios?”

Gaea’s entire atmosphere and climate are controlled, her DI noted. This includes all weather patterns and conditions, as well as Sol. The warmth being radiated onto the planet is not coming from Sol itself - most of it is being absorbed by Helios. Instead, the light and heat that the planet is experiencing is a result of a vast ecological system delivered through swarms of invisible nanite clouds enveloping everything.

“Holy hell. Is anything real around here?”

Reality has always been subjective. Now it is customizable as well.

“All for the low low price of a few quadrillions credits, right?” Eva joked.

The cost of maintaining this system is nearly incalculable, her DI replied. More importantly, the cost is hidden by the numerous private ventures that control it.

It then showed her a handful of corporate logos - each one with a controlling percentage of Gaea’s environment. Eva sighed as she pondered the implications of that.

If they decided to shut it all off, they certainly could.

Before she could get truly depressed at the thought, her hopper descended back down toward the ground. It then slid off to the side and parked in a specialized hopper-only zone, then opened up to let her out.

Eva gawked as she looked at the city all around her. Back in her old life, all of this was a relatively remote suburb where she and her grandparents lived. What used to be a neighborhood filled with contemporary style homes was now a massive corporate office building that towered over everything around it.

She grimaced at the sight.

Although she wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, she was certain that this wasn't it. Not that there was going to be the exact same neighborhood or anything like it. But at least some semblance of community. Maybe a large apartment building or something.

She hoped to make some kind of connection to her old life in some small way. Maybe go see whoever now lived here, and maybe even get to know a few.

Instead, she got this monstrosity. And all hopes for making that connection was gone, just like that.

Eva wondered how many old neighborhoods like hers had been wiped away over the countless centuries. How many communities were removed and replaced by something exactly like this looming, soulless building.

An immeasurable amount, her DI noted.

“What a waste,” Eva muttered.

Instead of focusing on the monstrosity in front of her, Eva turned around and looked at the streets surrounding instead. What used to be mostly undeveloped land had been turned into more city, of course. The skyways had all manner of hoppers flying between the buildings as the streets had all kinds of people walking up and down them.

Buildings also filled the numerous blocks, but each had various shops and venues all along the ground floor. There were small restaurants and clothing shops and electronics stores.

“At least some things are still kinda the same,” she said.

She then walked over to a row of restaurants, each one promising mouth-watering cuisines. All were certainly far removed from the old flavors Eva was used to, and espoused all manner of authentic, bold dishes.

It quickly dawned on her that ever since she had woken up in that regeneration pod, she hadn’t once gotten tired or hungry. Sure, she still salivated at seeing and smelling food, but it wasn’t like she herself was needing any of it to re-energize herself.

Eva decided to try out some noodle shop out of pure curiosity. Plus her stomach rumbled loudest at seeing the digitally projected menu out front, and smelling the scents wafting out from within.

But before she could step inside, a guard posted out front held out his hand. He glanced her up and down, and very obviously sneered at her budget outfit.

“This establishment requires patrons to hold a weekly income of 50k credits minimum,” he said derisively. “Please provide proof for access.”

Eva was immediately taken aback - proof of income? Just to eat some noodles? That was madness to her. What kind of society gate kept food?

Her thoughts once again turned to the fact that they had become a Type II civilization. All their energy needs were met. They could make food in abundance without problems. And yet…

You currently have a 10.000 credit weekly income and do not qualify, her DI told her.

“No thanks,” Eva told the guard. “Not that hungry after all.”

Then, she walked away as her stomach grumbled in complaint.