Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars

by Matthew Opdyke

  In the meantime, many wonderful projects had been converted from Pathway Tech to public tech. A couple of projects that were continuously updated and upgraded under Yesha’s tenure as Pathway President had a very beautiful tone to them; as with Pathway, since its inception, animals no longer had to be used for testing, at least without their consent. Eliza was working on legislation to create large incentives for laboratories to use highly accurate computer simulated genomes, DNA, and cellular models of every animal known to humanity for research models. She was also working on legislation to incentivize the use of clean meats, allowing meatpacking plants to convert to large clean meat labs with tax breaks for doing so. Finally, Eliza had put together legislation that enhanced children’s school programs designed to reduce the focus of wealth and power through fear and brutality in favor of well-being through projects and innovation.

  Pathway’s neuroscience teams had been making discoveries in leaps and bounds, and Eliza saw that her legislative proposals and these capabilities if enacted, could help to curb the escalation of violence rampant due to society’s latest popular emphasis on “over-masculinity” versus actually being well-rounded, compassionate, reserved, thoughtful, and considerate. A young man could still be tough, highly skilled and in a field of their choice, and contribute to the success of the human civilization, without the need for verbal abuse and toxicity, which was quite an epidemic.

  Yesha had led the efforts to emphasize shared views on how society could see through to more hope, and then provide proof of said claims and platitudes through innovation and action. On the day of Eliza’s and Yesha’s public announcement for their bid to run as a presidential and vice presidential team, Yesha had stated, “There is more strength in gentleness, more bravery in kindness, and more intellect and promise in studies and innovations founded from intent for well-being, an increase in the quality of life and the tenants espoused by the UP’s Universal Ethics, founded by none other than my esteemed running mate, Eliza Williams, than by any others means.

  “Brutality has never been strength, it has always been myopia and cowardice, it has never led to lasting success and never will, it has always been a failure to raise the bar for humanity, and it has never given us the seeds of hope, because brutality is akin to uncontrolled chaos and as a result it is a failure to give humanity a legacy worthy of preserving. I’ve been throughout the world and in many places with many wonderful people with untold potential, and through my journeys, I have seen too many living souls suffering due to the lack of nurture and of care. Gentleness will need to take the place of injustice. As I stand humbly before you with Eliza, today, I assure you, our declaration of POTUS and VP Candidacy is merely the beginning of a better world and way of life, because we care and there is a Universe full of abundance if we care enough.”

  In order to capitalize on their unique brand, the UP had announced Eliza’s running mate at the same time as she announced her candidacy. Everyone in Pathway had known who that was going to be. Yesha had been scheduled to step down as Pathway’s President, and Erin Carter, who had been groomed for almost a decade for this, would become the President until the IMC took off on its journey through the stars. Preliminary appointments had been made by Eliza, Yesha, Vesha, James, and by the rest of the leadership of Pathway and then voted on with unanimous approval throughout the tech cities of the solar system. IMC direction would become official, once Eliza took office as POTUS, for the leadership of the twelve zonal commands throughout the observable Universe, relative to Earth, as well as the leader of the overall mission, who, as presumed, once the IMC had delivered all twelve zonal commanders to their principle galaxies to begin their separate missions, would journey beyond the CMB as Zone-13 and establish headquarters in the nearest galaxy from the point that she had left the CMB, relative to Earth.

  Everything would, of course, be amenable to change as new personnel arrived or new options became available when it came to the crews and command staff of each command spacecraft. No one was jealous about who would be on each of the original command spacecraft missions or who would be in command, because they knew that eventually, anyone who wanted to would be able to be a part of the study, observation, and building, colonization, and innovation efforts throughout the many planets of the many galaxies throughout the Universe. There were more places to colonize than there were people on Earth, and as such there would always be plenty of room for growth. Positions of leadership throughout the various galaxies would be available as earned and desired.

  Joanne had essentially been tapped by Eliza, Erin, and Yesha to be Erin’s right-hand in Pathway leadership and as such, because of jump gate and Virtual Universe conveyances and capabilities, she continued her musical career and sleuthing for a time, while working on the Correctional Matrix, Sky Taylor, and other projects as well. In many ways, her music contributed in a great way toward the healing of the minds of humanity, and it served in a very non-planned way as a wonderful format for presenting Pathway and engaging in UP recruiting.

  Interestingly, each of the recruits had contributed in untold ways toward the progression of Pathway as well, and their stories were inspiring and unique and could take up the large and broad shelves of so many gigantic libraries. There could be a library that reached the Moon and back and it still wouldn’t be enough space to cover the wealth of stories, adventures, experiences, and noble contributions made by each member of Pathway. As it was, Pathway citizens confirmed both Erin’s and Joanne’s appointments unanimously in every step of the way toward the future of this noble organization and its honorable goals with their votes in the Virtual Universe.

  Erin and Joanne would both have their hands full, in the Virtual and real world, especially when it came to some of their more austere projects, projects that Pathway was working on, to include the assignments which involved Sky Taylor. Vesha or Amber would have been wonderful choices for these duties, as would have Najem or Jasmine or James, but Vesha, Amber, Najem, and Jasmine were busy with the vast amounts of research and final drafts for the gargantuan journey through space, and James was busy with tech city governance, while Vesha helped him out as time allowed.

  The tech cities were not bound by the laws of any country on Earth; rather instead, they were bound by the laws of Universal Ethics. As such, even though Eliza was the de-facto and voted-on Presidential winner of the solar system, she had her hands full with Earth-born and public humanity, and as such, she would appoint James Cooper, who in-turn would win unanimously as the Tech City President each time it came up for a vote. He was a kind, benevolent, and gifted visionary, and leader, and as such the people had voted unanimously for him each time with their hearts and with their minds when Eliza would appoint him, and the subsequent vote came up. The citizens looked at Eliza as their leader when available, and loved James’ leadership when was filling in. Both were loved, adored, and honored by all of their constituents.

  The first such vote was in 2010, the second was in 2020, and the third would be ten years following the last, with no term limits. The voting was always held openly in the Virtual Universe, and no one was ashamed of speaking their mind since, for the most part, their minds were on open display. Voting was transparent, as were the intentions of each candidate. Eliza would always win, since everyone trusted, loved, and was loyal to her, but she would appoint James each time as President of Solar System Operations, and on both occasions, there hadn’t been a candidate that ran against James, unless James had convinced them to do so. He believed that the people needed a fair choice. At one point he had convinced one of his original crewmembers from YY Corp, or The 97, after it had changed to Pathway Construction, to run. Since he had been the President of the tech cities since 2010, when he had been appointed, he then appointed Anne, the lady with the gruff voice, to be the President, and it was she who he had convinced to run, but she conceded before the vote was had in 2020 and the entire populous had voted for James. James did an excellent job, everything that needed to be done was d
one, and everyone was happy with him, it made sense to them, just as with Eliza, they trusted and were loyal to him, so they always voted him in unanimously, knowing in the back of their minds that Eliza was always truly in charge.

  The projects that Vesha, Amber, Najem, and Jasmine were involved in were detail-heavy, yet to them, they were quite enjoyable. They were working on something that was several orders of magnitude greater in scope than pretty much all of the rest of the projects that Pathway itself was working on combined, to include the governance of the twenty-thousand tech cities, which maintained all of Solar System Operations. Still, once they had finished their research, everything else would become somewhat redundant, automated, and open for adjustments and official agreements between humanity and other civilizations as journeys throughout the Universe ensued.

  As it was, each IMC spacecraft was fully developed, hidden from the public on Earth, undergoing a series of tests for each aspect as necessary, and the testing was coming along quite nicely with occasional upgrades, updates, and some remodeling for utility and aesthetics. The IMC, which was essentially the compendium of spacecraft, both command and support, their leadership, and their missions, was as a whole, mind-bending and impressive, beautiful, and down-right breath-taking.

  Back on Earth, Joanne would be working with Erin on the mission of reaching the hearts and minds of the people who still had no idea that Pathway existed. Together they chose to reach the masses through innovation, conventions, and music. In 2020, many still had no idea that Pathway had an entire civilization of three-billion people and growing with its own mind-blowing reality going on as if it were the norm, and that it existed throughout the rest of the solar system, most of which James maintained. She and Erin would be working with the people of the US and throughout the world. One would think it would be easy to ease humanity into the integrity of civilization capable of sustaining life for the long-haul for a Universe-faring populace, but they were never willing to force the will of anyone. Instead, through persuasion, kindness, exemplary behavior, and power through innovation they would reach the majority.

  Those who did not want to participate in the future of humanity were free to go their merry way, to practice what they believed, to live as they thought was right, and they could do so, so long as they did not take those same freedoms away from anyone else.

  Thinking about the projects they had already begun, and some that she would introduce, she reminisced over the last three and realized how much she loved working with Erin. When she had first met Erin, Erin had just turned fifteen, was gentle yet brazen throughout, and as such she was an inspiring young woman, filled with wisdom beyond her years with a keen sense of history, of civilization, of social sciences, of astrobiology, and so much more. She had spent nine years conducting missions throughout public and private schools to reach the children her age, their families in and throughout the world, and their communities. She had a firm insight on psychology, sociology, cultural values, and from the time that she started as a six-year-old, Pathway had grown from twenty-million to three-billion members, who were completely read-in, and were now working either on Earth or with James on a vast array of missions throughout the solar system.

  When Erin was fifteen, Yesha took her under her wing and she was in effect Yesha’s Vice President of Pathway, and now, three years later, as an eighteen-year-old, she could run a series of industries with her eyes closed. As such, Joanne was there more so to learn from Erin, and become well-versed in each aspect of Pathway herself. Through it all, what she appreciated most was the opportunity to be a close team employee and to become a dear friend.

  It was Erin who suggested setting up arts and sports programs in the tech cities similar to many on Earth, yet far more advanced, challenging, and thrilling. For example, on Enceladus, there were three-hundred tech cities, and every other odd year they would have the Winter Olympics or the Summer Olympics, with each tech city providing representation for every category of every sport, with parallel competitions for the men and women who were optimized. A different time and score standard would exist, at least in comparison to those who were optimized versus those who opted to be natural. With standard protective gear, the natural men and women would demonstrate their agility and strength in many ways similar to those on Earth. The optimized, who could essentially score everything to perfection, or had many times more strength, endurance, and ability would additionally be judged based on a factor of artistic finesse, which might include flips, twirls, additional acrobatics, etc., for each of their events. Gravity, atmospheric levels, and quantity, as well as safety gear, etc. were all of what made the Enceladus Tech City Olympics so unique for everyone in Pathway to observe, enjoy, and be proud of.

  Every imaginable sport was represented on Enceladus, for example, from the Enceladus Tech City Bowlers Association to the Enceladus Tech City Football League, Enceladus Tech City Golfers’ Association, the Enceladus Tech City Basketball Association, and Enceladus Tech City Association for Exotic Car Auto Racing and so on. Every conceivable and worldwide sport had a program in one variation or another. The same was very similar in terms of the vastness of the sports programs throughout all one-hundred-fifty populated spheroids, each with anywhere between fifty to three-hundred tech cities apiece. When one spheroid competed against the others, gravity differences would require each optimized player to be well-versed on the subtle nuances, show finesse, and go for the win.

  Joanne, James, Yesha, Eliza, Erin and the others in leadership had agreed this would be healthy, morale-boosting, and enjoyable, so all of this had been set up by 2021. Erin had never thought about fame, money, power, or anything of that sort, and neither had anyone else throughout Pathway’s vast population. They joked about it at times, but they were more interested in helping people to become the best they could be, and in every way.

  Throughout the tech cities and Pathway each individual was intrigued by the vastness of the discoveries they could make, even thru sports, since there were always new things to learn, and they made sure that each person who worked with them was well-compensated in terms of validation and were thus treated with the utmost of respect and dignity.

  One idea that Erin had, for example, when she was sixteen, was rooted in something she had gleaned from Eliza’s mind with regard to the IMC, which was a method to ensure that as a whole, or each of the personnel aboard it, or the full contingency of each spacecraft of the IMC, had sports arenas within them and every sport was represented. There would essentially be IMC competitions as the journeys through space continued. This would help to maximize the flexibility, durability, and agility of the body and the mind, especially when it came to resolve amidst some of the toughest of problems that could be presented.

  On top of that, in the same year, Erin had worked with Joanne, Eliza, James, and Vesha on another capacity of the spacecraft. She brought up the idea of finding that the IMC had accidentally jumped into an area very close to the event horizon of one of many black holes. “What would happen? How could we prepare for and prevent catastrophes like unintended and catastrophic destinations in advance?”

  After doing so, she showed her resolution to the issue. She had set up a device that could create a singularity of opposing polarity to that of an event horizon of a black hole. She showed how if installed they could be default-programed to detect and network in conjunction with any other IMC Spacecraft or ally traveling within the same region of influence to likewise be un-attracted to a black hole’s event horizon, without causing damage to spacecraft, its crew, or its cargo. She did the same for neutron stars, and any other gravitational anomalies, so that they or any of humanity’s friends would never be stuck anywhere they had no desire to be.

  As such, Vesha was amazed. It was at that point, in 2020, that she had thanked Eliza in person for having appointed Erin to be her Vice Commander, of the IMC. Vesha had, after Erin’s demonstration, worked diligently with each of her teams to weave each of Erin’s ideas into every single one
of the system’s G-Drives, Q-Drives, navigational systems, AI mainframes, and into each and every spacecraft, the biopods, and the multi-faceted support-spacecraft in the IMC.

  During their tenures as President and Vice President of Pathway, the projects they would engage upon would astound the average mind and take many libraries to write about. Let it suffice to say, that for the project involving Sky Taylor’s awakening, there was so much more involved than would fit in a small amount of text. Erin and Joanne had kept Yesha at their beck and call, despite her being on the presidential campaign trail with Eliza early on in 2022. Yesha, along with Eliza and James would make themselves available, if ever needed, until Sky was scheduled to be awakened and trained, in late March of 2022, close to Erin’s and Joanne’s birthdays.

  Eliza, Yesha, Vesha, Joanne, James, Amber, and Erin had all been involved in this project, as time allowed, in one way or another for the last three years, and Eliza and Yesha had recently told Joanne that she would work near-exclusively, quietly, and in parallel with Sky throughout her various missions, once she was online. She would work with her, but behind the scenes and within the Virtual Universe, while also working as the Pathway Vice President. Of course, she wouldn’t be iron-cast in her observations as it related to the real world, but only due to the fact that she could catch up on Sky’s daily pursuits in a matter of a few seconds within the Virtual Universe.

  Joanne had contributed to that adjustment within her time-frame working with Vesha, Yesha, James, Erin, and Eliza, and had enabled a personally chosen time-dilation ratio, which could be adjusted to factor a range of seconds or minutes in the real world to days, weeks, months, years, centuries, or even many millennia in the Virtual Universe. This helped in many ways with the development of Sky Taylor and the Correctional Matrix.