2031, 11th July
3:08 AM, New York City
It was an average New York night. The streets were full, and everyone was moving, as expected of the city that never sleeps. Jerry was one such person. He was watching TV in his high-rise apartment when he decided to go get a can of Pepsi. However, on his way, he noticed something odd in the sky - a purple star. He went to the window to get a better look. He felt odd. At first, he thought it might be a plane, but planes with purple lights? No, that couldn't be. The sky was pitch black in New York due to light pollution, so the only stars visible were planes. "But… Why is it getting brighter?" he thought to himself. Despite the curiosity, he decided to ignore the mysterious star and returned to the couch with his Pepsi.
A few minutes later, he noticed that it was unusually bright in his house. He got up and looked around. It was as if his house was in a fish tank, with purple light forming bends and patterns on the walls. He felt very odd, wondering what was happening. He looked out of his window again, and the star was now even brighter, forcing him to look away due to the intensity of the light. The illumination in his house kept getting brighter and brighter. He panicked and rushed to his bathroom, closing the door behind him. Through the crack under the door, the light outside continued to intensify until suddenly, a flash occurred.
Jerry was temporarily blinded, but the light eventually faded, and the intense brightness was gone. He cautiously stepped out of the bathroom and looked out the window; the star was gone, leaving behind a small beam of purple light slowly moving forward in the sky. The ground below was a chaotic scene - cars crashed, people lying on the ground, dazed and confused. He felt fear, wondering what caused it, and knew he would remember this for the rest of his life.
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Later on, the event was named "The Purple Star" by the public. Subsequent analysis of the event concluded that it was not caused by any known natural phenomenon. The beam produced by the event was an interstellar jet with the power to easily destroy the Earth. The event originated from the star system Luyten 726-8, which had 1 sun-like star and 1 red dwarf star, located 10.7 light years away. Oddly enough, the star system itself remained unaffected by the event. The occurrence produced massively powerful gravitational waves, more than had ever been detected before. Analysis of the waves showed signs of negative mass, also known as exotic matter, being in use. This theoretical substance would allow humanity to open wormholes and travel the stars.
After this event occurred, the nations of Earth formed a group called the ESPO (Emergency Space Progress Organization). Their goals were to bring Earth into the space age and gain the ability to prevent such events from destroying them. As a result of the event, the public gained a new focus on space progress, helping the ESPO form and work on its projects. Bring earth into forward.
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2073/April/12
USA, Oregon
It was the year 2073, and Earth was a much better place. This era was often called the golden age of space technology. The ESPO had developed and made skyhooks, a very effective way to travel to space. Created by making very long and sturdy ropes, on the ends of very heavy weights, that are then rotated. These hooks fly into the atmosphere, pick up a spacecraft, and fling it out into space. However, only 2 are currently operational, one around Earth's equator, and one around the moon. Humans revisited the moon just 10 years ago, and moon bases are just beginning to prosper.
Colin Drennen is a rather normal person. He was a xenolinguist, which is a rather useless profession he must admit, especially without any xenos known of. He has devoted his time to studying how to communicate with alien species with vastly different cultures, languages, or even methods of communication. Much to the dismay of his mother, he spent most of his time in college studying and learning such things. He hopes to join the first mission to an alien planet, but he's not very hopeful. He started to pursue such things after hearing of the Purple Star Event when he was young. There are many theories on what caused it, and he likes to believe it's caused by aliens. Nowadays, he spends most of his time on the internet, studying, and coming up with unique ways to speak with aliens, while being a translator for many languages on the side. His profession by trade is actually a translator, sadly, but he loves to think of himself as a xenolinguist.
As he walks to his computer with one of his favorite drinks, a milkshake. He gets to his laptop, an HP Exorlot. He is quite happy with the computer's performance and ability. He opens it up and checks out the comments on his paper he published recently about potential ways to communicate with species that use electromagnetic waves instead of sound to communicate, as well as how to make human society more friendly for them. I read some of the comments.
ShitLoader49: This is a shit paper, why are you even studying this! You should just make up stories and write sci-fi, your skills would at least be of use there!
Carnacker_2: The paper does quite accurately what it says it's studying, and it is a bit intriguing to think about, however, this paper is entirely useless for earth. So, in my opinion, you should not even bother to submit it; it will definitely not get into any journals.
Splat: Ha, why you studying aliens when they don't even exist!
I think, "More lesser-minded fools," as I read the comments. Don't they see this may be useful eventually? sigh I move on from their idiotic comments and check my email. Nope, nothing except some junk like "Want to get more performances for your little man" and other bullshit. Don't even know where they got my email from. I decide to open up YouTube and watch some videos. Besides, I have some time before I go to work at my job.
As I get ready for my job, I walk to the door and head to the subway. Look, I need the money! It's hard to survive in a world of AI as a translator. I hope my paper can get me some decent bucks at least. As I work on a Karen's sandwich, my friend named Aron comes over and asks, "So how did the paper go? Everyone hate it like usual, Mr. Xenolinguist?" I say, "meh, yeah basically." He says, "Should have expected it, ya know, no one cares for such theoretical stuff!" I say, "Yeah yeah, keep critiquing." The phone rings in the back. "Ha, whatever, I need to deal with this," Aron says.
After work, I get home and watch some movies. One of my favorites is Avatar. That second one they made, Way of Water, is ok, but nothing like the original; it is basically a copy of the original's plot. The original holds up pretty well for the year 2073. Anyway, I'm not sure what to think about my job. I love thinking about all these aliens and how to communicate with them, and I love to see their cultures and beliefs as well; they just seem so interesting to me, these theoreticals. However, I just hate the fact I was born in the wrong era.