Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars

by Matthew Opdyke

  Chapter 57: UAS Space Force, Section 1

  Database Moon Archive, Celestial-Sol Date: 2027 January 24. President of the United States, Eliza A. Williams summarizes a discussion with her US Vice President, Yesha Alevtina, where they talk about the need for more clarity on the UAS Space Force and the UAS Intergalactic Mission Contingencies. Eliza delivers the second State of the United Allied States. We also board the IMC Command Spacecraft and explore it. These memories are a collaboration derived from various members of UP and Pathway Leadership, as recorded within the Virtual Universe and interfaced within the Pathway Melrose Campus. Input by: Erin Carter, President of Pathway, 2022-2029.

  “Do you want to go on a jog for old time’s sake?” Yesha had teleported to a private walkway not too far from Boston, from the Oval Office. It would have been a normally cold winter, but with use of their Twelve Database Moons, they were able to stabilize the weather such that all of Earth essentially experienced springtime for twenty-four months out of the year. However, also as requested, many enjoyed fall, so on the third quarter of each year autumn colors filled the trees. There were some locations that received snow or hot summers on request, and while those seasons were not setup by default, any tech city could change their weather patterns following unanimous voting and subsequent requests from UAS delegates. For Yesha, it was currently springtime.

  With Yesha’s new upgrades, she no longer needed her smart-suit, and had instead swapped into her jogging holo-ensemble. For this particular occasion, she had chosen to instantaneously superimpose her clothes for jogging from her professional Vice-Presidential wardrobe. Many of her clothing outfits were quite impressive, all of which she had purchased in the Virtual Universe from a halo-ensemble designer, named Holly Caleb. Yesha appreciated how the mesh of each wardrobe layout accentuated her physique and how the color variations in the accents and embroidery of it brought out the tones in her light tan skin, the highlights in her raven black hair, as well as the fact that this designer was so adept at design that she had linked with just the right neurologically compartmentalized and accessible regions of her mind that Yesha had provided to her so as to provide lossless makeup facial overlays that complemented everything else about her. Her dark eyeshadow lengthened eyelashes, et al seemed to add even more spunk, power, confidence, and an exotic and attractive charm, to her already dynamic personality.

  Yesha wanted to walk, jog, and simply talk with Eliza outside the constant contact and buzz of Washington DC, which had been upgraded and improved completely on the day of Eliza’s first State of the Union speech. Mostly, in any new or reformed city or town and their resplendent countryside, there was so much beauty to soak in. The typical redundancy lay in the functional and operational aspects, as related to safety, security, and publicly available infrastructure. Although, many aesthetic aspects of Public Infrastructure were susceptible to advanced neurologically-cooperative design. As such, every location throughout the World was its own unique and enjoyable experience. From city to city and town to town, there was an exceptionality and awe that was a joy to behold, whether on the moons of Jupiter, the western regions of Australia, or what used to be cities that were parched by the Sahara Desert. The Sahara Desert was no more, and, in its place, there were forests, jungles, cities, and towns, all full of abundance and beauty, and each of them with resort getaways that were all the rage.

  When it had come to all of Eliza’s work, the work of decades could take place in a matter of minutes within the Virtual Universe, from city design to interplanetary planning and refurbishment. She had pulled every stop to increase the quality of life throughout the United Allied States, but one thing she too had relearned from Sky on occasion was that sometimes it was good to simply step out, go for a real-life breather, ask a few questions, and enjoy the beauty of everything around her. Sky had also emphasized that shared moments doing the same could be just as, if not more, rewarding. With Eliza there, her best friend, her inspiration, her pride and joy, these moments would undoubtedly always be every bit the more thrilling, exciting, and enjoyable.

  “Sure. I’ll be there in just a second,” replied Eliza. After her first year as President, people had begun to return from their trips worldwide. Although they were given four years of sabbatical, of their own cognition, each citizen had decided to return home and be a part of the preparation for the great journey to get humanity out and into the distant regions of space. She knew that would happen, and Eliza appreciated the fact that now her dedication was shared worldwide. There was much to be done, plans to be made, and crews for the Joint Space Commands to be filled. Many people were now more than qualified to fill any position on any of the UAS Spacecraft, and people had volunteered and put in for the IMC lottery, from locations all over the World. Training was an often-shared virtue, things were running smooth, and every nation, territory, and island region had been healed and beautified.

  Eliza closed her links with her various cabinet members, thanked Amber Blythe for her support that day as press secretary, went over the IMC plans one more time with Vesha Celeste, gave her the wave of the hand of approval, at least notionally through her neural link, to one-hundred-percent the thirteen large command spacecraft and their latest upgrades. She had also commissioned Vesha and James to build the Presidential Command Spacecraft, very similar in every way to the spacious command spacecraft that would navigate the Universe, in a very short period of time, and with all of the trimmings and fixings of high-quality travel. With Eliza, redundancy in the good things, as well as safety, protection, and brilliant minds, collaborating to make it all happen, were always applauded and welcomed.

  Eliza teleported to the region just north of Boston, where she and Yesha shared a private running pathway, waved to Yesha, and changed into her workout clothes, designed by Kerperna Walowski, from the Azores, also a holo-ensemble designer. Yesha and Eliza had very similar tastes, but they used different designers, just to ensure that they weren’t accidentally wearing the same clothes at any given time. Uniqueness was celebrated, but there was also nothing wrong with shared days looking like twins. Still, they embraced the resplendent spice of life found in robust amounts of late. For this occasion, Eliza’s blonde hair was instantaneously pulled back in a pony-tail with its pink highlighted tips, her athletic thighs and arms were on display, as was her very ample cleavage, and she was wearing shoes merely for the look. Everything about her oozed both sensuality and presidential authority, all in one, and she was never one to disappoint.

  “Wow! You look like something else, Eliza! If I were James, I’d be scooping you up and running away right about now!”

  Eliza smiled. “You look pretty delicious yourself. What is this, a fantasy world? Well, if it is, it’s courtesy of everyone in it who made it happen. We could not have had these forests now growing in places once gutted of their trees, and jungles likewise now filled with trees and animals of every sort without the work of humanity’s many friends. The tech cities raised within the many desert-like and desolate areas of the world are now surrounded with and meshed into newly-grown forests, lakes, sandy beaches, and jungles, with enviable quickness, quality, aesthetic and purpose, courtesy of Sky, her daughters, and the many other individuals she visited and upgraded personally. I am impressed with how she turned out, Yesha. You, Amber, and quite a few others did a lot to make her evolution a success. Remember, following her first year, the countless missions? Wow, she is something else, someone else, and well-driven. I am glad she is a UAS citizen, she deserves it. I worked with her the year before our first State of the Union, and she secretly helped to make sure every forest and jungle is now teeming with trees, bushes, fruits, flowers, herbs, spices, morels, and vegetation of every sort, with access to sunlit walking paths available for strolls, just like ours, to visit each other and creatures of every kind and take in the ambiance.”

  Yesha looked at Eliza, and together they began their conversational jog. “Eliza, what you did, there was an enriching and unique sense of colla
borative minds in the creativity of every detail of every city’s infrastructure. It’s amazing how your genius helped to pull that off. Some of what you did, I had no idea about. Every structure and substructure is now clean and beautiful both inside and out, no trash, no ads, no telephone poles, no clutter, just beauty, meaningfulness, creative architecture, forests and jungles, lakes and rivers, hills, valleys, mountains, and purpose. What would have been very wide streets before for vehicles, between each edifice, are now wide areas between buildings with large, tall, and flowered evergreen trees, ground vegetation of every sort, and artistic walkways above and below the skyline. City grids are lined up in such a way so as to be sure that full Sun and partial shade trees lay congruent to the amount of Sun needed for plenty of rich and healthy vegetation.

  “Look, there’s Blair the Buzzard. She likes flying around here but is rather disappointed that she can no longer feed upon the death and decay. Still, she’s made good friends of the mice down below, all helping to tend to the forest and the vegetation. Did you see her tree house?”

  “I did, she is quite a creative bird!” Eliza was happy to be with Yesha, especially in moments like these. The air was clear, the Sun was getting ready to eclipse the Earth from their vantage point, and the clouds were a beautiful array of pinks, purples, and peaches. “It seems she met Burt the Buzzard a couple of months ago, and they may have a couple of little buzzards on the way. Her home looks like the terrain a bit, and it captures the colors of every sunset or sunrise adding a bit of creativity to its look every day.”

  Yesha tapped into Eliza’s mind. They hadn’t shared every detail with each other when it came to private lives for quite some time, because sometimes it was nice to simply chat about them. Before Yesha could dig too deep, Eliza started up again with a smile, “Wow, yes, I can see that now. I’m typically jogging around lunchtime, so the colors of her tree house are usually green, blue, and the colors of the blossoms in the evergreens out here at that time of day.” Eliza paused, and began to take on a more serious and business-like tone, despite their outing for relaxation.

  “I wanted to chat about the Intergalactic Mission Contingency Commands, the Intergalactic Mission Contingency, Command Spacecraft, and the entire vernacular. What do you think about the current rank structure and leadership positions? We are starting a big huge sprawl through outer space after all, and it seems it would be worth it to maybe consider coining a set of official terms—something that considers the United Allied States, for example. What do you think?”

  “You know, I have been thinking of introducing the IMC as head of the UAS Space Force in our next State of the UAS. The spacecraft traveling throughout the twelve zones carry about twelve contingencies of support spacecraft each for a total of 196 support spacecraft, so I can see maybe calling the largest spacecraft, in long form, the UAS IMC Command Spacecraft, and then giving them a Zonal reference. Imagine, UAS IMC Command Spacecraft, Zone-12, for example. Furthermore, I get the sense that granting each spacecraft a robust and sentient AI and then allowing them to choose a name might be more than an original idea, but it will make sense from the standpoint that we’ll be working as a team and they will have proper buy-in. Basically, each command spacecraft will likely choose the name of a favored constellation in their zone.

  “As far as leadership is concerned, there will be three leaders, the Commander, the Vice Commander, and two HBCIs. Rank structure will be somewhat similar to that of the Air Force and the Army, beginning with the IMC Commander, Vesha Celeste, as a Five-Star General, Erin Carter as a Four-Star General, and all other crew members will fill various roles necessary for a space-faring contingency and subordinate in rank, from Three-Star to One-Star General. General Anastasia Renae and Lieutenant General Evan Bauer will be in charge of zone twelve or will be recognized as the Commander and Vice Commander of UAS IMC Command Spacecraft, Zone-12. Vesha and Erin will be in charge of every zone, with a major focus on their own zone, once they leave the CMB. I do have plans for something interesting before the IMC takes off on its journeys, and I will keep you informed in due time. Each zonal command will only need support for so long. After they have enough colonies setup and running full-bore out in the various galaxies out there, they’ll have all of the personnel and resources they’ll need to continue on in their areas.”

  Yesha thought about what Eliza had shared, “I can see that. I’m sure no matter where we go, there will be a lot to learn and challenges galore, so I am sure they’ll let us know if they need anything. It’ll be nice to jump gate to the various UAS Command Spacecraft and visit the different zones. It sounds as if you have a sound plan put together.”

  They jogged, hadn’t realized time was flying by, but so were they. They had started north of Boston, and now they were just north of New York City. Eliza looked to Yesha and said, “I’ll patch to you more details for your sleep download and neural processing later on. Do you want to hit up Broadway? I’m sure they’ve got a show that’s soon to start. I’d love to see one.”

  “Sure. I wouldn’t mind that either. Do you suppose Jeremiah Voltaire is in town? Or is he out with his crew?” Yesha thought about her question, accessed the Virtual Universe database, using her neural link, and noticed that every night, at right about this time, Jeremiah would call it a day out there just above Pluto, return to his domicile in New York City, and then head to his restaurant to cook up some delicious food. “Wait, he’s there right now. Let’s get a bite to eat and head to a show. What do you say?”

  “That sounds like a good plan to me.” Like that, Eliza and Yesha doffed the sweat from their auras, smelled of all kinds of floral bliss, changed into their restaurant ensembles, and linked with and headed to go visit with Jeremiah. Together, they chatted for a few hours, ate nice juicy clean meat cheeseburgers filled with all of the trimmings and fixings, to include bacon, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, spiced mustard and ketchup, and much more. Once they drank their tea and consumed their lemon meringue pies they went to a late Broadway show, upon changing into their finest, shared a coffee and then bid Jeremiah adieu. “Jeremiah is quite a charming man, I’d say so myself. What do you think about him, Yesha? I saw your mind going into sparkly magical stars when you saw him.”

  “He is pretty cool. I suppose he’s warmed quite a few hearts. I have no doubt that General Rebecca Knight and he will hit it off quite well when they head out to Zone-06. Want to visit your old digs?”

  “Why not? It sounds like a wonderful idea to me.” Eliza and Yesha teleported to Eliza’s newly updated and upgraded estate home, they sat in an outdoor Jacuzzi together after changing into resplendent bikinis that would have caused any man to blush, not too far from the angelic statuette overlooking the pond with coy fish, and they looked up at the stars. They had Depeche Mode playing in the background and on random-repeat. On this occasion, they sang the lyrics for a song from their Black Celebration album, “But, Not Tonight,” together. Time passed by, they conversed some more, and then Eliza and Yesha climbed out of the Jacuzzi, changed into very shear night negligées that complimented their features, brought out sleeping bags, and laid down.

  Together, for another while, they directed their dreamscape, thinking on and navigating through the many aspects of the new cities and towns throughout the world. Typically, on the first, third, and sixth floors of every high-rise, there were access points to walkways that weaved in and out to allow the inhabitants to enjoy the beauty of the vegetation teeming with wildlife of every sort. People throughout the world had worked with Eliza, and now every level of every building had jump gates and stairways allowing anyone plenty of alternatives for scenery and access to the walkways. Walkways with access from the higher levels lowered down to meet other-levels and even ground-level pathways, and they were all artistically woven into the ambiance where there was access to rivers, ponds, lakes filled with the healthiest of water in every way, beaches, palm, coconut, and many other beautifully-arranged trees of every sort, all bearing nutrient-dense fruits,
nuts, and more. There were flowering trees and evergreens aesthetically arranged and mingled within the forests and jungles, with vegetables, herbs, and other nutrients on the ground as well.

  With the use of jump gates, hyperloops, and teleportation, roadways for vehicles were no longer used or needed throughout cities or towns and had been redeveloped into aesthetic and enriching forests. There were still conveyances for cold fusion-driven exotic vehicles with access to large and beautifully-enclosed parking garages typically located on the fifth and tenth floors, but sweeping to other floors for aesthetics, utility, and safety, with scrubbers constantly churning ever so quietly to purify the sound, the light, and the air in the cities and throughout the atmosphere. Certain larger cities, such as New York, New York, or México City, Mexico, were preserved, but upgraded, beautified, and widened for spaciousness, where the extra spaces were filled with larger rooms, forests, jungles, and much of the same benefits as seen in the other tech cities, to include collaborative infrastructural enhancements, both aesthetic and safe, and with life-enriching purpose and navigation from location to location built for speed, safety, and ease.

  Looking up, observers would not see any of these roads or highways, due to their invisibility and re-navigation technologies, giving them a clear view for photos and the night-time skies, unless their cameras and their special vision were set to see the added features, of course. Re-navigation technology would benefit the occasional flyer, with an added feature of safety.