Destination Sub-SPACE: The Prologue I

A work of original fiction by Hawk/Subspacesearcher

The world had just welcomed in the year 2021.  The past decade had rewritten what life was all about.  The global economy had been reduced to a shadow, and the countries that remained had reorganized in a base and casual effort to just sustain themselves.  Essentially, cooperation, unity, and common purpose were no more.  With each person, family, city, and country focused on not going backward...the world had found a gray balance, an empty, passionless, peaceful state, that seemed to point toward tomorrow.   It was a New World Attitude.

Advancements in technology had been significant enough to correct the environmental challenges of earlier days.  New agricultural processes had significantly erased hunger and famine in the developed regions of the planet.  With very little challenging the civilized portion of the human race, the world had stumbled on The Gray Years.  These were years without enlightenment, without motivation, the status quo becoming more like serenity.  Personal success was measured by avoiding stress and living comfortably...which everyone did.  Third world populations had mostly vanished, since First World countries had seen no need to keep them around.  They had starved or been killed off by disease, or had killed each other off...or who knows what.  All that mattered was, things were comfy and cozy for those that still lived, and that was enough for most everyone.

"Most"  is not a synonym for "All", however.  There were those who's decadence and greed were not satisfied by the New World Attitude, and they found ample opportunity to accumulate wealth.  A very small population of Aristocrat-like celebrities amassed large fortunes through media, technology, and resource exploitation.  This new "Class" had very little interest in The Gray Years, and turned their attentions to more selfish pursuits...creating their own self sustaining SPACES...their own little world's within the world...their own Utopia's...in accordance with their own fanciful images of perfection.  Where they could live their lives like Gods.

These "SPACES" were actually Eco-cities, to use a term from days gone by.  Floating cities that could sustain themselves completely.  No emissions, no fossil fuels, completely recharging and self sufficient.  Through wind, solar, hydro, and cyber power...these human-made islands were capable of supporting populations into the tens of thousands...with little or no need for interaction with the rest of the world.

Enter Janna.  Queen of the silver screen, Princess of the Internet highway, Baroness of world economics.  She had taken advantage of every opportunity The Gray Years had presented, cashing in on every business venture and every bureaucratic loophole...and had amassed a fortune unfathomable to the common man.  Several of her Aristocratic peers had already purchased and launched their own SPACES, but  Janna was not going to be left behind...in fact, she was going to rewrite the whole concept on her terms.  She contracted an available SPACE of the latest and greatest fashion, recruited a team of qualified leaders, experts and administrators, and within a year had her own SPACE floating several hundred miles off the coast of southern California.  It was named Sub-SPACE, and it was not to be your ordinary off shore utopia.

This is where our yarn begins to ravel :-)