_{”A good morning, afternoon and evening to all our listeners out there in the aether. This is your trusty weather station network, doing the best we can to bring you updates on the weather where data is available. From what we can see from the readings over North America, we can expect a fair amount of dryness going forward. Please make sure not to light open flames outside or to…”}

A pinch of fingers adjusted the volume dial down a few notches. There came a snort from opposite the table. “I was listening to that.”

A pair of eyes did a roll. “Oh please, like you can multitask.”

“This book sucks ass. I’d rather listen to the weather than read this.” A slam from a thick, leather-enveloped tome shook the table and a chair creaked its consent to being moved. The radio-silencer scoffed while the volume of the radio slowly began to increase.

“You can’t just–! Do you know how precious this is?”

_{”... the Alps and the rest of central Europe can expect a heatwave coming up, while–”}

“You hear that? Heatwave.”

“Colour me shocked…” A pair of gentle fingers caressed the book and tucked it away in a neatly painted pink and flowery bookshelf. “Devastated, even.”

“How much rainfall did we collect this spring?”

“Enough, I’d assume… Should keep the leafy greens from wilting at least.”

“Good. If I’m not getting my spinach pesto this year, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Mhm…”

---

Excerpt from Hailey F. Mindewaag (2066). The Space Wars and their Consequences (2018-2052). MIT University Press, p. 2.

The Second Space Race (CN: 第二太空竞赛), also known as the Space Wars, could in many ways be described as a tragedy of the commons. Following the successful moon missions of the People’s Republic of China in 2024 and 2025, the United States tripled the budget for manned and unmanned missions to the moon in an effort to catch up to their rivals across the Pacific. International tensions remained strained as disagreements over pre-established rules for the exploration of space were called into question by countries that, at the time of the rules’ inception, had not been part of the negotiations. China led an uneasy coalition of countries including the BRICS countries, the ASEAN countries and Mexico, all of whom objected to the hegemony of the West in space and lunar exploration. The disagreements turned to battlefronts in 2037 when the mission Chandrayaan-5, a manned mission to establish a permanent Indian basecamp on the moon, collided with the remains of an American military satellite from 1982. This event led to the condemning speech by Indian Minister of Extraterrestrial Affairs, Baraahm Shovakah (see page 18), shaming the West for polluting space as they had “polluted everything else on this dying world”.

The reactions were sharp and expected, and the whole affair produced a multitude of international incidents exacerbated by the already strained world economy by the end of the 30s. Sources at this point seem unclear on what exactly triggered the escalation into what we now term the Space Wars, but the NATO discourse claims that there was an intentional realignment of the trajectory of multiple Chinese television satellites to crash into, among other things, the International Space Station, various NATO communication satellites and more. There are roughly as many sources claiming it cannot be done as those that do. The Sino-Indian argument, to the extent that they at all overlap, claims that the TV satellites were intentionally destroyed by NATO military satellites armed with high-frequency lasers and even kinetic weaponry. Again, sources are dubious at best, and we can never truly tell because the only accounts we have to go off of are military press statements and records of which satellites went offline when. These records seem to align with there disappearing a great number of Chinese satellites at one point, but both sides agree on this, so there isn’t much new to be found here.

The result of the Space Wars was that eighteen thousand metric tons of debris, from dust particles to metal frames, were scattered all around the planet’s outer atmosphere. If our closest space was not clogged enough before, it has become so now. It is impossible to shoot up any more satellites for several centuries as a result. What few satellites might remain are highly classified and may not be used by anyone beyond those who know about their existence.

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>>>Waltzespitze Bunker

Beep-Beep-Beep. Slamming off the alarm, Derek got up. His day was boring to say the least. Like almost any young person without special talents in The Continuation, his day consisted of fiddling with numbers in different ways. Making projections or analyizing simulations, he contributed the tiniest of fractions of the government’s plan to flee earth for Mars. Often, in ways that were completely unrelated. This week he was assigned the task of helping to figure out the most efficient flight path for the drone that would be sent out to collect debris from the atmosphere. Last week, it was figuring out which foodstuffs would maximize the matrice of space efficiency, nutrition efficiency, and of course polled-taste for colonizing new worlds. As a momentary lapse of judgement he had worked to help get quinoa selected over other grains that had a higher value in the models made. If anyone found out and reported this, he knew the administrative penalty would keep him a menial number cruncher until he died in shame and ignominy. But it felt like such a naughty little rebellion to know that the first Martians would be munching on his favoured grain in part because of his input. Unless of course, there was another study that was made on this exact same topic later. Almost every year there was some sort of review of what was done prior, some effort of incremental improvement even if most of the time absolutely nothing changed. He just hoped these little audits - if they chose to countermand his work - did not deem it to be intentional sabotage.

Evening was here, and he had his mandatory fitness regimen. That was at least some form of respite, Derek getting some brief amount of chatting with his friends as he achieved the performance goals assigned to him in the gym. Then dinner with his family. They discussed quite inane things they’d spoken of almost verbatim before, figures they had done at work or the latest incremental improvements in the rations. Increments. That was something that seemed to colour the life of everyone in The Continuation regardless of where in it people were. Everything really was getting better, even if ever so slightly. But that meant it was almost the exact same as yesterday. Which wasn’t bad if yesterday was good, right? Still, it got samey.

He raised an eyebrow though as his father spoke of latest data from the outside world. New cities being founded or restored, of migratory peoples moving, and more. It was the most interesting part of his father’s profession as a figure in the Continuation’s Security Apparatus. Briefly he contemplated asking for his father’s security pass, but he knew the man would call him a fool again even if he pleaded with his upcoming birthday. Just a single day on the outside, just a single view of real sunshine, a dream.

The evening came to an end, and Derek looked upon his tablet’s images and videos of the outside wistfully. It was a ritual of sorts, one he continued most days before he went to sleep. Looking at the time it was late, and he got ready for bed. He gathered his garbage and went to the compactor. He was just about to throw away the wrappers for candies before he saw a glint of something plastic at the mouth of the compactor. It… it was his father’s keycard. Gingerly he pulled it out. The piece would expire next week, hence why it was thrown out. A cold sweat overtook the young man. He ought throw it away, he knew.

But he couldn’t. Every time his hand extended to do so, it withdrew right away. No, this was his way outside. This was an artifact, a treasure. Within the week, he would see the true sun.