The Company was the biggest and the best, if anyone could start a colony around another star, they could. Also, ten
years room and board was better than any other company was offering. He signed up, but he knew ten years would
be impossible to endure, if not for Zuri. And five years distance from Earth was not nearly far enough, but he settled
for it.
United Space Industries was the first to conquer space. They saw the void as a place to grow unchecked and
unhampered by political restraint. They redefined the meaning of automation the way information was redefined by
the computer. The new definition was the Space Spider.
Like their name implied, they spun webs in space. The body was a laser fusion reactor connected to appendages that
secreted crystal steel frames. Or the poly-plastic streams that they wrapped the framework in, forming great cocoons.
The space spiders could synthesis any compound in various states. One spider, for example, could lay a conduit and
the wires that fill it.
U.S. I. developed breeder spiders. Those were sent to the asteroid belt and used the material there to build huge
spiders. The kind they needed to manufacture metropolises. To U.S.I. bigger was best in the void. The Company
topped the Fortune 500 with their Space Spider in 2023, before he was born. They have been growing ever since.
Zack knew why. It's because business has a much simpler language than politics, religion, or even science. To a
company like U.S. I. there were only debits and credits. U.S. I. took jobs that increased profits and cut out loses.
| PEGASUS: A JOURNEY TO NEW EDEN |
The start of another twelve hour day was nothing to look forward to, thought Zack.
The sign on the work station greeted him as usual, ‘Welcome To The Twenty first
Century’. The shuttle ride was quiet and boring as always from U.S.I. Colony 5.
As he passes by the U.S. Space Defense Station, Zack thinks, “what a waste of
time. An hour in flight time, half hour to suit up, and now they have him doing
antennae work. Nearly ten hours of checking circuits that a computer could check
in one hour.” As far as the Company was concerned his time was cheaper then
computer time. After all they didn't pay him. At least he would see Zuri on this trip.
She was working a split. One of the beauties of being a free worker is none of the
straight twelve hours work days. Zack almost envied her position with the
Company. Even though her ties were nearly the same as his, the Company didn't
own her, as it did him for the next seven years.
Welcome to the Twenty First Century, what a Joke. All the hopes and dreams of
Utopia that people had, evaded them still, some fifty years passed its start. People
had traded their freedom, religion, and self esteem for a promise of a glorious
future. But the future appeared like looking at the sun through black glass. Not as
bright as one would want, but if you look long enough you'd surely go blind. Just
like Zack had gone blind to his situation. All that mattered now was marrying Zuri
and settling the colony. And why not, he thought, that meant his freedom, the end
of his contract with United Space Industries.
The sign on the work station greeted him as usual, ‘Welcome To The Twenty first
Century’. The shuttle ride was quiet and boring as always from U.S.I. Colony 5.
As he passes by the U.S. Space Defense Station, Zack thinks, “what a waste of
time. An hour in flight time, half hour to suit up, and now they have him doing
antennae work. Nearly ten hours of checking circuits that a computer could check
in one hour.” As far as the Company was concerned his time was cheaper then
computer time. After all they didn't pay him. At least he would see Zuri on this trip.
She was working a split. One of the beauties of being a free worker is none of the
straight twelve hours work days. Zack almost envied her position with the
Company. Even though her ties were nearly the same as his, the Company didn't
own her, as it did him for the next seven years.
Welcome to the Twenty First Century, what a Joke. All the hopes and dreams of
Utopia that people had, evaded them still, some fifty years passed its start. People
had traded their freedom, religion, and self esteem for a promise of a glorious
future. But the future appeared like looking at the sun through black glass. Not as
bright as one would want, but if you look long enough you'd surely go blind. Just
like Zack had gone blind to his situation. All that mattered now was marrying Zuri
and settling the colony. And why not, he thought, that meant his freedom, the end
of his contract with United Space Industries.
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