2069
Macro-housing in Hong Kong
Eighteen percent of Hong Kong’s land mass was cordoned off for the construction of the City of the Celestial Dynasty, a large urban transformation project designed to house nearly two million people comfortably. The City of the Celestial Dynasty increased Hong Kong’s population density by three times, without decreasing its standard of living. Financed by wealthy entrepreneurs, this project began a trend in the East towards regulated macro-housing projects.
2070
Querzian particles identified; Ultraphotonic flight possible
Querzian particles were identified in porginine samples by research scientists at the New Hebrides Institute of Physics. By 2092, it was determined that querzian particles, imparted with a critical momentum, created pathways allowing objects following in their wake to accelerate to velocities greater than the speed of light. This discovery ultimately served as the principle for ultraphotonic flight[23] in the mid-twenty-second century.
The initial difficulty was attaining and then maintaining the required momentum for large objects, such as spaceships. Laser bombardment, force-field shearing and extra particle fusion all proved unsuccessful. The Anti-Matter Reflector invented in 2108, allowed a small spaceship to attain critical momentum for the first time.
The reflector bounced energy waves back and forth in an anti-matter bed, creating energy which was imparted to the querzian particles by concentrated wave transfer. At the critical momentum, the querzian particles created a “Relativity shattering pathway,”[24] through which large blocks of regular matter could travel at speeds greater than light. By altering the direction in which the querzian particles were emitted from their source,[25] space flight in any direction of three-dimensional space could be facilitated.
The volume of the querzian particle pathway, depended on a device known as the “Catcher Pole.” “Hooking” onto the front of the created pathway, the Catcher Pole manipulated the pathway into a definable size and shape―such as that of a spaceship―whereby all matter and energy contained within the volume could travel faster than light speed.
Speeds equal to one thousand times that of light, would be achieved by the twenty-third century, allowing Humanity to actively explore the stars.
US-China Naval War; The Free Ports Agreement
The Chinese attacked American gunboats in the South China Sea, claiming that the USA was coercing South East Asian nations to boycott Chinese products. The USA denied these charges and backed by the EU nations, defeated the Chinese flotilla off the coast of Malaysia, ending the naval war in two weeks.
The USA seized the opportunity to force China to enter The Free Ports Agreement, procuring China’s commitment to soften its militant approach in the region, by allowing the USA and EU greater access to South East Asian ports. Chinese powerbrokers, including Nationalist leaders Zing Zeching and Li Wan, vehemently opposed the Agreement until 2074, when Zing seized power. Zing’s anti-Western stance increased hostility between the USA and China over the next several years, peaking again when China allied with anti-American Russian forces in the Third World War.[26]
Food wars in India
Food wars tore India’s cities apart, claiming over four million lives during an eight-month period of violence. With the support of a large majority of the Hindu populace, the secular government restored order by resorting to the wholesale slaughter of cattle to feed the nation. Hindu traditionalists vented their anger at this sacrilegious outrage, by siding against their secular regime and allying with the Chinese during the Third World War.
2070 and 2072
Belcarz’s Child; Annihilation of Neanderthal Man
Two significant breakthroughs in the field of Human anthropology occurred in 2070 and 2072 respectively: the discoveries of Belcarz’s Child and the Neanderthal Man Annihilation. In Siberia, Human biologist Jaime Belcarz, discovered the fossil remains of a modern Human child, determined to be approximately 3.4 million years old. This find added 3.3 million years to the existence of modern man, traditionally thought to have occurred only one hundred thousand years ago. In 2084, explorer Pierre Burlliat and anthropologist Yera Yariev, uncovered further Human remains from the same time period as Belcarz’s Child. These discoveries caused anthropologists to question our understanding of Human evolution and reassess the steps and timelines involved in the ascent of Humanity.
A less significant, yet important discovery, by biologist Quin Zhen in western China, occurred in 2072. The remains of a Neanderthal man dating back only twenty thousand years, suggested that this species had survived longer than previously hypothesized. The 2079 discovery of the Anatolian Battlefields, rich in stone weapons as well as the fossils of both modern and Neanderthal man, confirmed speculation that a series of battles for control of the Paleolithic plains might have resulted in the annihilation of Neanderthals.
2071
Space Shuttle VIII Disaster
Since commercial shuttle flights from Earth to the space stations began in 2045, civilian space travel had grown by one thousand percent by 2070. The industry’s unblemished safety record was shattered in 2071, when Space Shuttle VIII exploded enroute from Earth to the Terrania Space Station, killing two hundred and fifty-nine passengers and crew.
The SPA inquiry into the largest space disaster in history, revealed gross incompetence on the part of the spaceline, Ptolemy Travel Flights. Ptolemy’s President, Mervin O’Keach, was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Public pressure forced the SPA to impose greater regulatory control over civilian space travel.
