Deep Space New World - 1. DSNW Chapter 1

“I wish to make a toast… To the man who in the year 1610, discovered Jupiter’s major moons, of which the one known as Ganymede is now the Sahndrol home capital in this solar system. A toast to Mr Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei,” my mother announced.

After the formalities were over, everyone enjoyed the social gathering, as we headed for our main destination of Jupiter, and with the sports and recreation facilities, cinema movies, and science lectures, the return cruise to Jupiter went very smoothly, and included the opportunity for all of the guests to spend a few hours at the Callisto Colony on the Jupiter surface, during the 24 hours that the ship was there.

This trip to Jupiter was the first of just four trips to Jupiter each year for the next four years, with most space holiday trips being to Mars, which included orbiting the Moon and Earth a number of times also. I travelled on all of these trips to Jupiter, for the sole purpose of attending a meeting with my Uncle, at his request that I be kept up to date on everything to do with family business.

Each time there, I attended meetings with my uncle and the high council, to discuss a wide variety of matters, which also included issues in regards to the space agencies on Earth, and the problems that they were often causing. One such problem was two certain European and Asian space agencies, who have been working together to try and force the Sahndrol Empire and the URP - United Republic of Planets, to allow more open access to advanced space technology and access to more of the planets in the solar system.

The Earth’s moon has been a permanent lunar base for the European Space agency, for some time now, and it continues to be threatened by the two rogue space agencies from time to time, and it appears that the United Nations seem to be unable to manage the situation, to try and stop these incursions and threats to the European Space Agencies - ESA Lunar base and interrupting the space flights to the space training academy at Mars.

Without providing any advanced technology to the ESA on Earth and the Lunar Base, plans were been finalised to try and deal with this matter once and for all. Although there had been many requests from the ESA for improved shuttles to get from Earth to the Luna Base and to the Mars Space Research and Training Academy, the High Council had continued to reject the approvals because of the continued threat of the technology on the shuttles being captured and used by the rogue space agencies.

When the United Nations tried to pressure the URP to allow for improved transport to be made available to the ESA, the High Council put more restrictions on the United Nations, by reducing the number of seats made available UN officials who wished to take space holidays onboard the Space Cruiser.

Now having just celebrated my 17^th birthday, as Crown Prince of Sahndrol and the United Republic of Planets, I was now been asked to spend a lot more time at Ganymede, instead of on Mars, and although this meant more time away from my parents and brother, I still have Isaac with me as my protector and companion.

The United Republic of Planets now has a total population of half a million people, with there now being a number of additional cities on each of the colony planets, including two new colonies located on the Neptune moons of Proteus and Triton.

Although the majority of the population of URP colonies are from Sahndrol, there is a slow growing increase of people from Earth who are also settling into a new life on a Sahndrol colony in space. The capital city of Ganymede, is now five times bigger than its original size, accommodating a lot more citizens, as well as been the business hub of the Republic, and also includes a new and bigger High Council Administration centre, that is a separate and secure building.

Ganymede also now has a partial atmosphere, although it is too thin for people to walk around outside all the time, it has enough air to be able to breath for short periods of time, for up to an hour, without the need of the protected confines of the city and its processed oxygen supplies.

This also makes it possible now for farmers to grow plants outdoors, in particular a lot of tree groves, which provide the additional oxygen. Similar projects are also happening on the other colony moons and planets, with Mars now having a high level of atmosphere, where people can be outdoors for a few hours at a time, before needing to go indoors to get some fresh air again.

This was especially beneficial for the Space Research and Training Academy, with the training of new cadets from Earth, and on the new Mars colony of Deimos, located on Mars by named after one of its moons. Other changes within the Republic of Planets include the expansion of the space station, which no longer looks like a scorpion, and is about three times its original size, as it continues to orbit around Mars.

Meanwhile, on Earth’s moon, there has been no new construction, and although there was been a slight increase in permanent population, there was not that much happening apart from the regular trips between Earth and the moon, using the two shuttles that the Republic has donated to the ESA.

During one of the High Council meetings that I attended recently, it was discussed whether to offer to build more buildings for the Lunar Base there, and eventually it was decided to make the offer to the ESA and await a response from them, which came just over two weeks later via the URP representative at the United Nations in Bermuda.

The ESA asked that instead of extensions to the existing Lunar base, which would be very welcomed, they would prefer to have additional technology and faster shuttles to be able to get to the Luna base, and to be able to explore further out to space, with the possibility of reaching Mars.

When the High Council received this response, they were not at all happy. “ESA… May I remind you that the existence of the URP and the many Planet colonies constructed, has come about not from any Member of the United Nations Space agencies, but from a private consortium who privately financed and built the Star Voyager, trained its crew and sent them on journey with an unknown outcome.

So far, we have provided you, the European Space Agency of Earth, with an operational Lunar Base and two transport shuttles, which we the High Council of the United Republic of Planets, think is extremely generous, considering that they were designed and constructed by the Sahndrol people.

We will decide when the people of Earth are ready to be able to receive and manage advanced technology, but that will only happen when hostilities are well and truly over and that all space agencies and all nations are working together for permanent peace and harmony.

Earth continues to have conflicts between some nations, and governments are still trying to force superiority of other nations, and until that all ends, there will be no introductions to advanced technology. Will continue to assist with the growth of the Lunar Base on the Earth’s moon.

We will continue to allow young adults to train at the Space Research & Training Academy on Mars. Chancellor, High Council of the United Republic of Planets & His Majesty, the Emperor of Sahndrol.

Just two days after sending this response, the High Council received a reply, saying that the ESA is grateful for what the URP has provided so far, and that they will accept the offer for the construction of additional buildings at the Lunar Base.

I was currently at the SRTA – Space Research & Training Academy on a quarterly inspection, to report to the High council on how everything is going there, and it was late afternoon on my second day there, when one of the senior security officers came up to me in a rather hurried manner.

“Sorry for the intrusion on your work, My Lord, but we have just had a number of eye witness accounts of a space craft landing rather heavily on the Mars surface, and as you know the administrator is off planet at this time, so we thought it best to inform you,” the security officer stated to me.