Chapter 8

President Sanchez ordered that the project be sealed, never to see the light of day. On September 11, 2056 Project Zero was sealed.

On November 5, 2105, the World Revolution, as it was called, occurred. Many countries were tired of their governments, their leaders or rulers. Many people around the world were starving and couldn't afford proper health care or food. Despite the fact that almost every kind of sickness can be cured, the price of it was at a point where people were placed in an appalling amount of debt, depending on the type of sickness they needed cured. Thanks to technology, limbs can be reconstructed and was available through the rich mainly. Health insurance had no way of covering the astronomical amount that the specialized treatments were asking for.

After the fall of Canada, because of the free healthcare they claimed for their citizens, many people moved there only to realize that the country was could never sustain the sheer numbers that migrated there. Before the country closed its boarders, they collapsed. The migrants started to pour into the United States but were quickly denied. The United States was a Super power that many people have asked for help, even China. After getting rid of all the debt that the United States had with many other countries, it isolated itself. The United States became arrogant because of the wealth it has amassed throughout the years due to the rise in Pharmaceuticals that the government owned.

Countries like Japan, Russia, Korea and some European countries became 2nd World countries. Many countries had problems containing their people from revolt as many countries seemed to no longer care for the people's wellbeing. The United States proceeded to experiment with the samples from Subject Zero before being put away. The rich and powerful wanted immortality, not just a boost in their lifespan. The following year on November 16, 2106, they made a breakthrough and the Americans stepped into immortality.

The Americans offered immortality to other countries but at a horrendous price. That America will be the one and only ruler of the world. Many countries agreed but the disagreeing few didn't retaliate but instead focused on abandoning the planet altogether. Many worlds have been discovered but not many efforts to colonize and terraform the planets have been made. China, Japan and Korea put their top scientists to work on outer space exploration, colonization and terraforming.

In January 1, 2203 the United States were in a state of suspension. The immortality they have gained came at a price, which they have found out too late. The price of their immortality was the cost of their very humanity. To consider "what is human?" would mean a many number of things. We eat, we grow, we reproduce, we age and finally, we die. By the very definition, immortality is the defiance of death. The people who chose to be immortal lost their sense of taste, so food, one of life's simple pleasures, was taken, sickness no longer held them down but they couldn't age and in turn those who were children immortals never grew up. One of the highest prices of being human was the ability to reproduce. By being immortal, people also became sterile. Any who wanted a family could only adopt because even in vitro fertilization did not work as the eggs will quickly perish along with the sperm.

The United States' rich and powerful wanted answers to their problem and sought answers through their scientists. With no way to reverse the process or any sign of a cure for an illness they themselves created, they unsealed Project Zero.

When Project Zero was sealed his location was also changed. The Americans that couldn't afford immortality or the cure for their ailments, also participated in the space exploration, colonization and terraforming project. The American scientists found and smuggled many instruments that the United States stashed away thinking that they may use them to trade or bring something to the space project. Of those instruments was a capsule containing Subject Zero. The capsule was sealed in a Cryogenic chamber powered by nuclear fusion reactor that was designed to power the chamber and keep Subject Zero sealed. Without knowing that Subject Zero was in the chamber, the entire capsule was used as an energy source or battery to the very first interstellar ship that is capable of exploration, colonization and terraforming of new habitable planets. The Ships name was Hope.

The Earth was also nearing its limit as not much was done to preserve it. With the ships completion, many people abandoned the planet. There were many other ships from different countries but Hope was by far the largest. When the Immortals were calm enough to check on the status of the world they realized that without Subject Zero they needed samples of people who were not immortal just to experiment on if they are able to help themselves from their predicament. With the exodus of the mortals, the immortals started their own plans to search for and harvest samples of the humans but in order to do that they needed to build ships of their own. Since they have all the time in the world, they took their time building ships.

The year is 2305. My name is Barnebus Stinson. I am the captain of the merchant ship Phareon from the planet Epsilon of the Andromeda system. Our cargo ship is headed to the Alpha quadrant to deliver provisions and equipment on a nearby mining dwarf planet. Among other things we also have a part of the old mother ship, Hope, energy source. The Phareon may be one of the first merchant ships to be created but we still needed to explore our surroundings after we settled on Epsilon. The energy source is actually quite dangerous so the Phareon is also made of the toughest materials. Since we had time to settle and grow we also had some run-ins with space pirates. There were many pirates but there were also many humans who chose to live and settle on other planets.

Planet Epsilon is the mother planet that we humans, no longer Earthlings, migrated to. For a century, we have lived in peace but because of the humans expanding to other planets it seems that we cannot escape our own nature. There are rulers who want to literally rule the entire planet and others that govern their planet by what the people need and can do for each other like a society but in a planetary scale, which Epsilon is currently under. Many see us as a target because to outsiders we look like pussies but that is far from the truth. While we may love peace it doesn't mean we are not ready for war. Weapons that can protect us and mainly for self- defense. Shields and energy weapons are our biggest achievements while I have noticed that pirates still use normal guns.

I have yet to see many other planets we trade with use our level of technology but if we do trade in weapons we will simply return to how we were and start more fighting. I may not be a doctor but the technology we use can regrow limbs and organs. Because of the medicine that was developed centuries ago, we also don't have to worry about any of the old human viruses and diseases, it's the new undiscovered ones we have to watch out for. Hopefully we have another lucky break in the medical field where we can find cures again but this time everyone will partake instead of extorting each other.

According to the myth, legend or history, whatever it may be, there was a person was called "La Muerte", it's from an old language called Spanish, it means "The Death". Anyway, according to the old texts, this person, if he was a person, was considered an envoy of that thing that pathetic feeble minded people believed in, what was it? Religion. Yeah, religion. "La Muerte" was considered an envoy of "The Devil", haha it still cracks me up when I think about it. It was said that he did not only bring death but he also brought salvation. I don't know if it's true or not but I read and heard from people saying that "La Muerte" was the reason we were able to cure so many of our diseases and ailments. Every time "La Muerte" appeared was to smite the wicked and bring hope to the dying people. I don't believe it though. As a realist, I know that science has taught us many things, but a magic person who kills the wicked and saves the righteous? Bullshit. I still wonder if it is true because many of our scientists are looking for a person, who they say, is the same person from the myth. All I know is, if we do find him, not much good will come out of it.

Even if we find the person that our scientists are looking for, what would he bring to the table? Will he turn water into wine? Turn his hand and food appears? We have a food synthesizer for that. Who knows, I might be wrong and he will be the savior the scientists have been waiting for.