the set-up
The space colony was launched in 2097 by a group of private investors looking to escape from the uber-conservative politicians on earth. As more and more ecological disasters occurred in the early half of the 21st century, earth’s leaders moved to quickly advance their technologies. But, instead of using technology to promote a more ecologically friendly living environment, they chose rather to retreat into a mode of self-protection and create a sterile habitat. It started with simple ideas that quickly grew into mass hysteria. For example, one of the first advances included robotic plant-life since humans were destroying massive sections of natural growth. Entire gardens and arboretums were devoted to these robot species in order to entertain and teach. Soon after, though, more extreme measures were taken. To slow the development of disease, all human contact was banned. By this time, humans were capable of creating offspring completely within a laboratory. Pleasure pills- a supplement that could satisfy all human urges- were made mandatory by federal law.
This space colony collective began with an alternative couple in San Francisco, Simon and Lily. They started with a simple premise: to stop taking pleasure pills and see what happens. What could they learn about themselves and about the human race? Of course, they had to do this in hiding because the government performed frequent tests to make sure that everyone was conforming to regulations. Although they were often on the run, they felt that they were lucky enough to settle down long enough to get pregnant with Liza (the main character and narrator of this story). Pregnant women were outlawed, so the family moved to space aboard a collective shuttle with the other members from San Francisco. It started as a small venture, but the group quickly built a massive habitat in space. They were soon after joined by other groups of underground collectives from around the world. These private investors all added something different to the development, not all of it what Skye and Lily had imagined, but at least they were all free.
main character: liza
At this point in the story (the beginning), Liza is almost eighteen. She has extremely fair skin that is offset by her long, rich brown hair and bright green eyes. She was born and raised entirely on their colony’s space shuttle.
excerpt from liza’s diary:
Year 18, Day 350:
We are nearing my eighteenth birthday; which will be yet another birthday on the space capsule.
Year 18, Day 355:
I found a ton of old music in the storage facility today. Most of it is from the turn of last century. I was told that most popular music on earth was destroyed long ago. It must have been hidden for decades. Perhaps it belonged to old John. This finding has encouraged me to dig deeper through all this stuff. First, though, I’ll have to figure out how to get the music from this machine. I can see already that it won’t be compatible with our download recorders. Here’s what I found:
Gang of 4
Mission to Burma
Bad Wizard
The Police
Les Savy Fav
Art Brut
Year 18, Day 357:
Now that I have shown genuine interest in planet earth, uncle Harold is beginning to tell me more about it. He gave me his old odorific machine today. It is a gadget to record the molecules that make up particular smells and then store them for later replication. Uncle Harold still has smells from the 21st century! These are things that no longer exist on the sterilized earth. So far I have tried “Morning in Paris” and “Summer in Mumbai.” They are difficult to breathe-in and make me feel a bit queasy, so I’m taking my time to go through them all.
The space colony was launched in 2097 by a group of private investors looking to escape from the uber-conservative politicians on earth. As more and more ecological disasters occurred in the early half of the 21st century, earth’s leaders moved to quickly advance their technologies. But, instead of using technology to promote a more ecologically friendly living environment, they chose rather to retreat into a mode of self-protection and create a sterile habitat. It started with simple ideas that quickly grew into mass hysteria. For example, one of the first advances included robotic plant-life since humans were destroying massive sections of natural growth. Entire gardens and arboretums were devoted to these robot species in order to entertain and teach. Soon after, though, more extreme measures were taken. To slow the development of disease, all human contact was banned. By this time, humans were capable of creating offspring completely within a laboratory. Pleasure pills- a supplement that could satisfy all human urges- were made mandatory by federal law.
This space colony collective began with an alternative couple in San Francisco, Simon and Lily. They started with a simple premise: to stop taking pleasure pills and see what happens. What could they learn about themselves and about the human race? Of course, they had to do this in hiding because the government performed frequent tests to make sure that everyone was conforming to regulations. Although they were often on the run, they felt that they were lucky enough to settle down long enough to get pregnant with Liza (the main character and narrator of this story). Pregnant women were outlawed, so the family moved to space aboard a collective shuttle with the other members from San Francisco. It started as a small venture, but the group quickly built a massive habitat in space. They were soon after joined by other groups of underground collectives from around the world. These private investors all added something different to the development, not all of it what Skye and Lily had imagined, but at least they were all free.
main character: liza
At this point in the story (the beginning), Liza is almost eighteen. She has extremely fair skin that is offset by her long, rich brown hair and bright green eyes. She was born and raised entirely on their colony’s space shuttle.
excerpt from liza’s diary:
Year 18, Day 350:
We are nearing my eighteenth birthday; which will be yet another birthday on the space capsule.
Year 18, Day 355:
I found a ton of old music in the storage facility today. Most of it is from the turn of last century. I was told that most popular music on earth was destroyed long ago. It must have been hidden for decades. Perhaps it belonged to old John. This finding has encouraged me to dig deeper through all this stuff. First, though, I’ll have to figure out how to get the music from this machine. I can see already that it won’t be compatible with our download recorders. Here’s what I found:
Gang of 4
Mission to Burma
Bad Wizard
The Police
Les Savy Fav
Art Brut
Year 18, Day 357:
Now that I have shown genuine interest in planet earth, uncle Harold is beginning to tell me more about it. He gave me his old odorific machine today. It is a gadget to record the molecules that make up particular smells and then store them for later replication. Uncle Harold still has smells from the 21st century! These are things that no longer exist on the sterilized earth. So far I have tried “Morning in Paris” and “Summer in Mumbai.” They are difficult to breathe-in and make me feel a bit queasy, so I’m taking my time to go through them all.