The colonies of Saturn (small story)

The Colonies of Saturn

It was the year 2119. Earth was as always rotating around its own axis in 24
hours. In the past century the humans living on earth had many discoveries
and managed to shape the earth more within the boundaries of their imagination.
Rockets that accessed space were almost unheard of and what they used was a
few space elevators to transport material to geostationary orbit and from
there to the Moon and Mars. Research bases on the moon and in Lagrange point
orbits blossomed and the 0G industry was flourishing. Earth had slightly more
clouds than it had 100 years ago but that was because breakthroughs in
desalination made deserts such as the sahara and the arabian desert into
forests which evaporated water. It was chosen to plant forest in these
regions because the earth had accumulated a lot of carbon dioxide from the
days of fossil burning (which was done to gain energy). The newly planted
forests took a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere and new ecosystems were
born. Human energy needs were mostly satisfied by wind power and
photovoltaics which covered whole stony deserts in areas where no plants
could grow. When it was cloudy satellites that were huge arrays of solar cells
would beam microwaves through the clouds to receptors on earth. Earth was a
modern society, machines produced most things that humans needed and human
interest lied in communicating with a far-away intelligent alien species that
was found 50 years prior. Many good ideas were exchanged between the two
civilizations (actually just one exchange happened due to the distance
between the two planets) but it was clear that interstellar travel was still
out of reach of both civilizations. To both civilizations it was evident that
a star not far away from both civilizations was about to go supernova and
estimates predicted that there was about 1000 years left. It was predicted
that the initial explosion would cause gamma ray bursts strong enough to
penetrate the planets shields and effectively kill all living things. That
is why humans on earth prepared shelters deep under ground to seek when the
first light signals indicated the moment. Some joked that it was the return
of the caveman but everyone knew full well that going deep below ground would
save them from the rays. Even on the moon they were digging further down
and they discovered all kinds of precious metals such as gold and platinum
even uranium was found which allowed fission reactors to be built for spacecraft
exploring the outer planets. On earth there was little use for nuclear
power other than the indirect power from the sun it was a decision made roughly
25 years ago for some odd reason. As easy as it all sounds access to space
was not a pita. Elevator cables would rip and would need to be replaced and
getting to space was still restricted to a few good men and women, there were
about 2,000 in space at any given time. They mostly did research or kept
equipment functioning such as the large telescope arrays on the far side of the
moon. About 50 were working in and around mars making preparations for a
self-sustainable colony. Then one day one person on the moon discovered
anti-gravity and the subsequent loads that could be carried from earth to orbit
were putting an end to the space elevators. However a space freighter could
only lift to about 100,000 kilometers high above earth before the
anti-gravitation had no more effect. So people designated Geostationary
Earth Orbit as the hub for transport beyond earth. At roughly the same time
(actually a few years later) fusion nuclear energy was finally achieved to a
level where the energy gained could be used. Fission was finally deemed as a
energy of history. Deep space missions were now possible and giant space ships
were built that would go to Saturn. Jupiter was closer but the radiation there
made it too inhospitable to get close to (robots still explored it). Airplanes
flew in Titans atmosphere and oxygen and water was gained from melting the
endless reserves of the other icy moons of saturn. It was clear to everyone
that people would live on the moons of saturn they would mine, trade have a
war or two and would evolve as the colonies of saturn.

....and of course they tried to be better
friends with our alien friends than us.