Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Space Exports

Dr. Karl Bergstrom was still in awe of what they had accomplished on the Moon’s surface these last eight months. The SpaceX transports were making a delivery of supplies every six days, bringing back tons of partially refined Tritium4 and Helium3 Isotopes. The mining operation had increased dramatically as well. With each trip from Earth, the transports would bring additional building materials and personnel. It had taken several months to construct the initial buildings on the lunar surface, but now they were complete. The first two structures were the farms; These buildings were 300 meters in length, 260 meters in width, and 75 meters in height; each one provided nearly 75,000 square meters of warehouse space to grow food for the burgeoning colony. The third building was the same size but divided up into different sections to house the livestock (since the experiment in raising chickens had been going well, they were going to try raising goats as well to provide a source of milk and cheese). The key to establishing a permanent colony on the Moon, was establishing a means of producing a sustainable food sources.

Another building was nearly completed; it would be six stories tall, with two subbasement levels. This one was meant to house the colonist workers, and would include a medical facility, cafeteria, communications room and a recreation room. Once completed, it would have room for up to 300 people. Each building was connected by a series of tunnels that enabled the workers to move between buildings and airlocks without having to suit up and leave the facility to enter another one. Though the structure of these edifices had been completed and sealed, it would still be months before the electrical wiring, heating, cooling, water and recycling systems were completed. Each building also had multiple airlocks, which were used for moving materials in and out of storage areas of the facility.

The various engineers estimated that it would be close to two more months until the remaining housing facilities were completed and the additional personnel could start arriving from Earth. Dr. Bergstrom was enjoying his work on the Moon immensely, but his heart ached to see his family. He had hoped that once the new housing structure was completed, he might be able to arrange for his family to move here to be with him. Unfortunately, the answer he was given was “no.” They simply did not have enough room yet to allow people to bring their families with them. Right now, people assigned to the Pegasus Project were expected to serve a one-year term with a 30-day R&R at the six-month mark.

Dr. Bergstrom had been conducting intensive surveys and soil sampling of the Moon, identifying in detail what minerals and resources were located at different points across the lunar surface. Others in his research group were working on designing several heavy factories that would, in time, refine the materials being mined and fabricate additional building materials needed to expand the colony and build additional spacecraft. The construction crew was already hard at work assembling the foundation for multiple new buildings and an adjoining tram system that would link all of the buildings together. It was a massive undertaking, and would take years to complete. Several of the new housing structures were going to be 40 stories in height. The colony would then be able to house around 12,000 people, and would only grow from there.

Heavy deposits of iron, tungsten, copper, magnesium, aluminum and most importantly, water were found in abundance just below the Moon’s surface. There was also Tritium4 and Helium3 isotopes in heavy concentrations. Most of the minerals were relatively close to the growing colony. The long-term goal was to get the various mining operations up and running and build out the factories, refineries, and fabrication facilities needed to make the colony self-sufficient. Eventually, they would be in a position to start constructing equipment for larger space exploration and colonization ships.

Karl enjoyed his work immensely; he was now the world’s leading geologist and the man leading humanity into the stars in search of new minerals and opportunities for humanity to spread beyond Earth. His position had grown beyond just geological work; he was now among the leadership of the colony and a member of the space exploration committee, which was headed by Dr. Peter Gorka, the President’s Chief Scientist. His ideas and suggestions for how America should explore space and what needed to be done to accomplish those goals were being heeded and implemented.

While he felt like he was making a difference for humanity, he felt his family life was starting to suffer immensely. He had been sequestered to work on the Pegasus Project for nearly six years now, only seeing his family for short bursts on weekends, holidays and their yearly vacation. In that time, he had poured his heart and soul into space exploration and mining. While his wife understood his passion and what he was doing for humanity, his children did not. All they knew was that their daddy worked 80 hours a week and was gone for weeks and sometimes months on end. His living on the Colony for a year was really stretching his relationship with his children. His son was seventeen and a senior in high school. He was a smart kid, and all of his classes were now AP classes that he was completing through a dual enrollment homeschooling program with Liberty University. His daughter was sixteen, and like her brother, was also a bit of a prodigy. Both of his kids were well on their way to attending some of the best universities in the world. His son wanted to go into physics, his daughter wanted to be a doctor. He wanted so much to be there for them while they were going through this pivotal time in their lives, but long-distance fatherhood of teenagers was proving to be quite challenging.

Karl was due to head back to Earth in four months, just in time for his son’s eighteenth birthday and graduation from high school. What his son and wife did not know, is that Karl had been working behind the scenes to get his son an internship with Dr. Gorka’s research assistant, Dr. Nikki Travosky. She was scheduled to take his place at the Colony when his one year assignment was completed. Nikki was a leading physicist and was working on developing the next generation in EmDrive propulsion that would allow humanity to explore well beyond the solar system. He was pulling some connections and leveraging his position on the President’s science team to get his son into the MIT Physics program. Because his son had completed so many college credits through his dual enrollment program, he would go to MIT as a sophomore. His internship with Dr. Travosky would give his son an edge over all other students in the same program. He wanted to surprise his son with all of this when he arrived back home in four months. Of course, his wife would kill him once she found out their son’s internship would place him on the lunar surface at the colony, but what an experience it would give his son. He hoped this would do something to bridge the divide that grown between him and his son.