The Story - Resurrection III.

The white spots on the dark side of the second planet resembled a lopsided snowman. Korven observed the view from the base situated at Tara's fourth Lagrangian point. He had also witnessed planets crossing the star's disk, vibrant auroras gracing Tara's sky, and much more.

He shuttled between this base and another floating on the surface of Tara's only ocean. There wasn't much for him to do, aside from observing. At times, the events around him seemed to unfold rapidly, while during other, more extended periods, he simply shut down.

The primary purpose of the ocean base was research, followed by the business interests of various people and entities. The base was shared by numerous minds and societies, reflecting the increased diversity in the wake of the intelligence explosion. Only a few enhanced humans inhabited the base, and Korven was among them.

Adjusting to this new situation proved challenging for him. It reminded him of a time before his enhancements when information wasn't readily available at a moment's thought. His uploaded cortex representation had been initialized after the explosion and stored on Tara. He had never wanted to be an imperfect copy of the original, but it happened as part of his contract with Hefaistos. Due to resource sharing, his consciousness sometimes lagged, making the events around him seem to happen very quickly. The base now had to accommodate a large number of awakened minds. Additionally, reports from other systems arrived only sporadically. Everything appeared like a movie to him, leaving him bored. Yet, his boredom was gradually transforming into a desire for revenge. He wouldn't let this situation end so easily.

The Story - Resurrection II.

He watched as the surrounding structures began to collapse inwards, the dining room vanishing amidst the debris, indistinguishable from the pile of rubble. An entire quarter of the base was engulfed in flames, and numerous drones took to the sky, moving about like flocks of birds.

The base was shaped like a cross, with a spaceport at its center. Each arm of the cross consisted of two long platforms with cranes and other equipment. Upon closer inspection, the distinct shape dissolved, and the entire scene resembled a vast ant colony teeming with countless small drones and irregular, functional structures.

One side of the base was severely damaged, the flames blending with the blood-orange glow of the star as it scattered throughout the atmosphere. The star, appearing twice the size of the Sun in the sky, hung low just above the horizon, its shape distorted by refraction.

That was all he could see on the recording. His last memory before the incident was falling asleep in his room, leaving a 19-hour gap between the event and his recollection. Some other video footage of him was available, but it only showed him walking through corridors. He decided to review it later.

"You were awakened after 68 hours when we managed to contain the effects of the explosion and secure sufficient resources. The attack on the base was one of multiple simultaneous assaults within the system. Other incidents occurred on the second planet and at mining facilities in the outer regions. We've lost almost all connectivity to the Hypernet, with only two small data portals remaining. Additional connections will arrive in the next 8 months via superluminal ships from Strongpoint 9," said a voice, adding, "That's all I can tell you for now."

The voice was his sole source of information since waking up. As it paused, an eerie silence and emptiness enveloped him. There was nothing to see—only emptiness and his thoughts.

Orbital Plots

I wonder about the future of space exploration: how to finance projects beyond Earth's orbit and gain experience in space exploration and colonization?

My answer is: Orbital plots

Creating basic, scalable infrastructure that provides a stable orbit, communication, and energy (and its storage) for tenants could be a solution. Initially, autonomous orbital plots maintained by robots and avatars could later host the first commercial astronauts.

The prospect of more affordable space flights from companies like SpaceX will enable smaller businesses to access orbit, opening up opportunities for a wider range of industries. These platforms can be accessible to various parties without restrictions and available to all nations worldwide.

Orbital plots would be most beneficial for projects that don't require a specific orbit for operation. The main goal is to lower the costs of maintaining private devices in orbit, making them more affordable and independent of proprietary infrastructure and engines. Such devices could also spend a long time in orbit, without dependence on their own resources.

Orbital plots could host existing and future services, such as:

• automated zero-gravity experiments
• remote sensing
• Internet access provision (part of a network, or access points of more such networks)
• zero-gravity factories for alloys, drugs, and transparent aerogels
• microchip factories
• deployment of lab modules from various countries
• hosting space hotel modules from multiple companies at once
• deep space missions refueling
• sensors useful for the detection of NEOs
• small autonomous space telescopes
• space debris removal
• maintenance robots servicing satellites

.. and many more.

Orbital plots could facilitate moving heavy industries to space, as envisioned by Jeff Bezos turning Earth into a protected nature reserve for the benefit of all humanity.

An interesting possibility is converting the ISS into an orbital plot, as NASA plans to hand it over to private companies within the next decade. This could be a starting point for future projects (with support from companies like Amazon).

The experience gained can be applied to constructing larger structures further from Earth, attached to asteroids, hosting multiple private parties, and sending manufactured goods back to our planet.