The sky was blue in pearl city, the sun illuminating the waters that surround the man made island. Some have said that it is the jewel of the sea, others a peaceful paradise.
White clouds speckled the sky on this day, it is the beginning of summer. The city for Yaakov meant a lot after the last four years. It was built around a university as a kind of prototype city. The earth's population had increased greatly in the last half century and Pearl was one of over a dozen developments made by different governments joining hands for the future of humanity.
Yaakov has been a student here for some time and is at a crossroads in his life. Should he stay longer for further education, or should he move forward into the adventures of life? The Earth is not now what it once was, nor as alone as it once believed itself to be. Yaakov, being twenty years old and having finished his primary education at the age of sixteen, longed for a world of adventure that he has dreamed so much about.
Most of the careers people pick now days exist within the mundane. Since the advancement of artificial intelligence, the worries of everyday life have diminished significantly whether it is healthcare, agriculture, or research and development. And that being coupled with the earth joining the conglomerate of developed species across the cosmos, national defense has mostly turned to external sources.
There is no more war between nations of the Earth. Besides the stray terrorist group or local gang which even their presence has decreased since the turn of the century, 2200, world peace has been established.
But, for people like Yaakov, with a burning passion for truth and excitement, there are plenty of pathways into the wilderness of the realms. And here we sit with Yaakov, contemplating which of his future paths are the most blessed.
"What should I be doing? I'm kind of confused— no. That's not the right way to put it. I'm kind of blind".
Yaakov moves across the small room passed the desk and to the open window to look outside. He's in the second story of the condo looking in towards the center of the island city the skyscrapers where the sky scrapers and university live.
"Every time I look over her it gives me a sense of longing. I can't place it, it's like a see the light reflect of the mirror finish of the buildings, and the openness of the sea, and I just —long. It's like I can sense the world waiting for me to find it, this one and the next."
Yaakov backed away from the window and opened the top drawer of his desk, collecting his phone from between the pens.
"I remember seeing a video where these guys where meeting at the port of a star gate near the intergalactic highway. The stargate recently opened up for common use with the help of the conglomerate."
Yaakov starts swiping through his phone
" I've heard some of the representatives of other species in translation saying that beyond the highways they developed between different civilizations, the cosmos is very unpredictable. There are laws of physics that are still undetermined and every time the conglomerates think they have a breakthrough, a new discovery is made."
Yaakov pulls up a video of Human commentators on the shared information between species.
Commentators: "Even though we are in an advanced age of research and discovery as that compared to a few hundred years ago, it needs to be said that a scientific theory though 99% true once established, is a framework used to aid in comprehension and understanding of the natural laws of the universe. They are always being worked and reworked and new observations being discovered, truly since the shared information act established by the conglomerate, humanity has seen how ignorant we have been in our knowledge of the cosmos. Since we have been opened up to the rest of the galaxy and others beyond, we share the spirit of the ancient philosophers and that of the scientists of the conglomerate in that 'I know that I know not'"
Yaakov shut off the phone screen. "I don't know where to begin" he says. "The first thing I should do is seek counsel."
Yaakov left his bedroom though the door and headed down the narrow hall towards the first floor. Upon reaching the Bottom of the stairwell, he checked the house one last time to make sure the lights were turned off and doors locked. Stepping through the front entrance he closed the door behind him, looked out into the island city, and made his way forward.