The Alpha Centauri Expedition

1. Prologue: The Twenty-Fifth Century

Space exploration was the fulfillment of the human instinct to answer humanity's millennia-old question of whether there was intelligent life other than humans outside the Earth.

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Earth, June 2458. Human population: 11.2 billion. The world had not ended. Earth was not destroyed by a nuclear war, a meteor strike, or an alien attack. On the contrary, at that time there was a golden age. There was no more poverty, and prosperity was everywhere. Africa, which was once the center of underdevelopment, was at that time full of prosperity, skyscrapers and beautifully dressed people. Poverty no longer existed in India. All lived in prosperity and splendor. America and Europe, which used to be the center of world glory, were at that time only part of global prosperity. All nations from the North to the South Pole enjoyed prosperity to varying degrees. And who would have thought, at that time the center of advancement lay in a large archipelagic country on the equator called Indonesia.

In 700 years the capital city of Indonesia had changed five times. Batavia in the 17th century, Jakarta in the 20th century, Nusantara in the 21st century, Jayakarta in the 22nd century, and in the 24th century, Atlantis... Yes, don't be surprised, Atlantis! This was a new metropolis that was built in the early 24th century after the discovery of the real ancient city of Atlantis at the bottom of the Sunda Strait in the 23rd century. The rise of Indonesian technology in the 22nd century led to the development of a sensor capable of providing clear visibility deep into the ocean floor. With this technology, the magnificent remnants of ancient Atlantis buried beneath the Krakatoa seabed were unveiled. Professor Arysio Santos' theory in the 20th century about the existence of Atlantis in the Sunda Strait had been proven true. The discovery of Atlantis jolted the Indonesian people's awareness of the greatness of their ancestors. That was the momentum for the awakening of the spirit that triggered the construction of a new capital city which they also named Atlantis.

The capital city of Atlantis was built on the island of Belitung. An island between the three main landmasses of Indonesia: Java, Sumatra, and Kalimantan. The shape of the island of Belitung, which was like a circle in the middle of the sea, resembled the ancient Atlantis described by Plato. Its position was highly strategic, in the middle of a vast sea that connected large islands. In the 24th century, the sea was no longer a barrier. The invention of anti-gravity technology had made the sea like a land that vehicles could pass through. This technology neutralized Earth's gravity so that objects could float just like in outer space. In this century wheeled vehicles no longer existed. Everybody used anti-G vehicles; vehicles with anti-gravity generators that could hover freely. The government had created virtual roads over the sea that served as traffic lanes for anti-G cars, much like land-based highways of the past. The anti-G technology made the oceans no longer separators, but instead shortcuts that united the islands.

The capital city of Atlantis was inaugurated in 2302 and one hundred years later, in the 25th century, Atlantis had become a magnificent metropolis. The city center was in the middle of Belitung island with a population of eleven million. Citizens lived in high-rise apartment buildings one kilometer high. In this era, buildings that tall were not unusual. Skyscrapers a kilometer or more high were dotted across major cities. Technology had allowed humans to build buildings as high as mountains. Humans lived in vertical spaces to reduce overcrowding and allowed parks, trees, and open spaces to fill the city. Awareness of environmental preservation reached its peak at that time.

But that was not the only advantage of living in a skyscraper. Nearly every family in the 25th century had an anti-G car as a personal means of transportation. Each apartment in the skyscrapers had a special balcony to park one or two anti-G cars, allowing the owners to easily travel directly from their residential balconies. The pathways for anti-G cars from the balconies of the apartments were connected to virtual roads made by the government, and anti-G cars must be driven on autopilot, except in an emergency. This arrangement ensured traffic safety for the numerous anti-G cars, which in Atlantis alone in 2458 amounted to over three million. Each anti-G car was like an AI robot, artificial intelligence, could operate autonomously with high accuracy, so accidents rarely happened.

In the 25th century, AI had come to dominate life. Almost all devices used AI so they could work autonomously. Many jobs had been taken over by AI so that humans had more free time for self-improvement, hobbies, or recreation. The pinnacle of AI technology at that time was the creation of androids that closely resembled and behaved like humans. These androids had several levels of intelligence. Type A androids were the ones with the lowest intelligence, and were usually made to do menial jobs in factories and mines. Androids type B were the ones with higher intelligence, equivalent to humans in general. They were used for various roles in the military, industry, hospitals, and other fields. Androids type C had higher intelligence than humans and were used to assist in research and medicine. The most advanced were the type D androids, which possessed super-intelligence and were produced in limited numbers due to their high cost. These androids were used for space missions.

The advancements in technology and civilization in the 25th century had made space exploration a shared big dream among humanity. Space had brought nations together in pursuit of a common goal: the search for new worlds. Countries around the world competed in advancing space technology, enabling long-distance space travel beyond the solar system within a relatively short time frame. With these technologies, nearly every major nation had its own space program. The World Council had declared space as a shared resource, and every nation had the right to engage in space exploration and discovery.

By the 25th century, all planets and moons in the solar system had been explored. Permanent space stations had been built on the grounds of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede, and Saturn's moon Titan. The stations were manned by type D androids, whose job was to carry out observations and research. They were designed to adapt to the extreme conditions existing in those places, as for humans stopping there was only for a mission at a limited time. Humans were still not able to stay too long due to the extreme natural conditions, so the androids took over and represented their presence there.

At that time, setting up colonies in outer space was not the main goal of space exploration. In 300 years, the environment on Earth had been improved and maintained to be excellent for sustaining life. Moreover, civilization, prosperity, and world peace were at their peak. So there was no urgency for humans to leave Earth. Space exploration was the fulfillment of the human instinct to answer humanity's millennia-old question of whether there was intelligent life other than humans outside the Earth. After realizing that humans were the only intelligent beings in the solar system, for more than 200 years humanity had worked together in science and technology to travel through the void of outer space, looking for other worlds among billions of stars.