[B][CENTER]WORKING IDEA ADAPTED FROM A SHORT STORY OF MINE.[/CENTER][/B]

[U][CENTER]The Gates of Eden[/CENTER][/U]

What I have here is an idea for a science fiction thread based off a short story of mine that has the same title. This however, is not my short story... I have already written that. What I intend this to be is a collaborative effort, not only in the arena of character development but also concerning plot development and world creation. 

For this recruitment thread I will post a series of bullet points and source material that will detail the broad brushstrokes of the story. From there it will be open to people who want to take a collaborative part in this world in order to create an OOC thread that contains all the information for character creation and world details. Once I have anywhere from 4 (min) to 10 (max) people interested I will create the OOC, once a body of info, to include characters, has been developed in the OOC I will turn it over to the thread. Any people that are interested please feel free to let me know here and voice your ideas.

[hider=Broad Brushstrokes][CENTER]BROAD BRUSHSTROKES.[/CENTER]

1.The starting time frame will be sometime in the early 2400's. The balkanization of the United States of America, China, and Russia over a period of fifty years leads to constant war between 2030 and 2240… including World Wars three and four. Widespread famine and water shortages caused by war and environmental factors between 2185 and 2235 kill billions and the worldwide economic and network crashes of 2192 and 2194, respectively, plunged the world into a technological darkness for six years. These events were all the incidents of human driven factors that lead to widespread chaos and death during the last 300 years. Mother Nature wasn’t innocent or sitting on the sidelines for the past three centuries though; the Charlton 861 Comet Impact, fungal plague and polar pox epidemics, cataclysmic natural disasters that rendered most of the Pacific Ring uninhabitable including Australia, Indochina, and Japan, and the sudden sea level rise between 2265 and 2270, which destroyed most coastal areas, all killed untold billions and destroyed nations. By 2100 the world population had hit 10.5 billion as expected. A century later, after the feces was really beginning to hit the rotary wind pushing device, world population was estimated to be closer to 6 billion,and at the beginning of 2299 the latest population numbers from the PCC (more on them to come) were quoted to be roughly 2.5 billion people worldwide and falling. 

2. As often happens during human history, crisis, war, and disaster drive innovation and a combination of scientists and engineers from the Northern China Free State, the Mongolian Protectorate, and the Russo-Siberian Nation came together at the third and largest Hadron Collider in the world, located in the Gobi Desert, and after decades of research (and some shady funding from a fledgling PCC) into particle physics, Higgs fields, space-time, relativity, worm hole, and black hole physics the researchers create the ability to “suspend” space-time within a confined area or what comes to be called a "gate". They discover the ability to link the original suspension or gate with a specifically keyed and linked gate elsewhere. This creates a method of travel and transportation where one can step through a gate in San Francisco and a heartbeat later step out of a linked gate in Moscow; point "A" to point "B" travel now becomes instantaneous no matter the distance.

3. The world is revolutionized and brought to relative peace and tranquility by this "gating" development. Economic constraints like shipping costs, preservation, storage, and shelf-life are eliminated. Emergency response by agencies and nations is brought down to seconds anywhere on the globe and food and water become more equally distribute to humanity. World governments become subservient to the Planetary Conservation Commission (PCC) which controls this technology. The PCC allows chosen governments and officials to speak, react, respond, and deploy instantly if it meets the interests of the PCC. People can move freely across the world with no probative travel costs, people can now seek medical help, vacation time, better economic markets, new citizenship, education and so on in an instant. Organizations and controls develop, under the omnibus power of the PCC, over gating but it basically unites the world, for all intents and purposes, under the PCC whose first order of business is expansion. Through PCC funding a state of the art research facility is established on the moon by sending manned spacecraft up to build gates on the lunar surface. Those gates are then connected to points on the Earth; travel to the moon is now as easy as walking out your front door. The same concept is applied to the Mars colonies, Europa, and Titan research stations. Humanity comes together, pooling resources, and becomes space bound again. Large wars become a thing of the past though separatist groups and shadow organizations still operate. 

4. An ambitious project (even with 2400 tech) to send people to a “nearby” habitable Goldilocks exoplanet, designated Gliese 581 g, is put into the works by the PCC using the resources of the world... which it now has access and control over. A crew is selected from highly qualified volunteers (the characters). These crew members are the experts in their respective fields, highly educated, fit and healthy enough for space travel and frontier lifestyles. Most are highly educated, doctors and/or engineers in their fields and on top of their educations and life experiences have been trained for 5 years by the PCC focusing on Gliese and their mission. These people are sent in the world’s most advanced ship to Gliese 581 g in order to establish a gate to Earth. Humanity has (supposedly) worked out how to travel at about half the speed of light and the trip would take about 40 years, so it is a good thing they have figured out the science of homeostatic extra solar travel suspension or “hyper sleep”. The story starts with the character awakening before their arrival on Gilese. 

5. The story will really begin when the characters arrive on Gliese 581 g, code named Gliese Prime. Some NPC’s that the characters have connections to will die during hyper sleep because it’s not as perfect as the PCC mentioned and I would like that to establish some initial trauma, conflict, and emotion if at all possible. The mission moves on though, a base camp is established, explorations are made, and a gate is built by the characters, all while coping with a new world and extreme isolation from the rest of humanity. I imagine this could provide for an interesting story even before the gate is open. Eventually the gate on Gliese Prime is opened and linked to the Earth gate; a team (probably NPC’s again, unless a PC wants to die or return very hurt and possibly "contaminated") will go through the gate and will not return. Characters will be faced with a plethora of choices... investigation, gate closure, so on and so forth. In my short story they go through and discover that the Earth as they knew it is dead. A major conflict has obliterated all living humans (or has it?). If the characters press on and don't die on Earth they will find that their trip to Gliese was closer to 100 years and not 40 and that PCC was not the very “truthful” in their contractual obligations to the characters. 

6. At this point the player characters are pretty much free to execute whatever their interests or conditions dictate. They could theoretically pop back to Gliese Prime from the wasted Earth and back again freely and without much effort. Each world will have its own sets of trials and tribulations all contained within very visually different landscapes but both locations will be a survival story in the making. Characters will be faced with the choices of staying on Gliese, returning to Earth, trying to uncover what happened on Earth, supply runs between the worlds, which could cause emotional, psychological, or physiological trauma and may provide inter-character conflict. Eventually, characters could find the other operable gates on Earth that lead to other sites that still exist all over Earth and beyond. These gates link to various other sites and environments like a Lunar facility, Martian laboratory, Europa research station, Titan shipyard, and other unknown sites that characters will be unaware of. 

7. Characters will also likely encounter what caused the demise of Earth. This will be a very dangerous, lethal, and unpleasant thing. Characters will have opportunities aplenty here and could try to investigate what the cause of human extinction is and may need to keep that force from accessing the Gliese Gate and ending their existence. Also players will need to consider the mental effects the characters will be subject to upon the realization that they are the last of humanity that they know of, or at least part of a very small population that is left. 

8. If this thread lasts long enough another significant event in the storyline is the unexpected arrival of another ship like the one that the characters came to Gliese on. What or who this ship carries will be a mystery as will the reason for its arrival because the original crew were told they would be the only crew sent.[/hider]
[hider=The Timeline WIP][CENTER]TIMELINE.[/CENTER]
What follows is a chronicling of the significant events that shaped the Earth between the years 2020 and 2400.

[B][U]Spring 2020:[/B][/U] The past two decades since the turn of the millennium have been unstable times. Economic down turns, market crashes, terror attacks, perpetual regional conflicts, and threats of pandemic outbreaks put the world on a precarious edge.

[B][U]April 2021:[/B][/U] The U.S. deploys the 2nd (Marine Expeditionary Unit) MEU and elements of several Special MAGTFs (Marine Air Ground Task Forces) to central Africa to try and stabilize ethic, religious, national, and tribal conflicts in the region. Since 2013 Chinese interests have been present in Africa investing in mineral and fossil fuel development. Chinese and American relations grow more strained.

[B][U]Fall 2021 thru Winter 2025:[/B][/U] Russia cements a long anticipated alliance with Iran and several northern African countries. Russia builds up several Mediterranean bases to secure its interests in the region. European nations observing the Russian, American, and Chinese buildup in Africa begin to rebuild contacts with the southern region of Africa. 

[B][U]April 22nd 2024:[/B][/U] In a blitz-like attack North Korea overruns the armistice line and conquers all of South Korea. U.S. forces mount a controlled retreat of as many South Korean Nationals as possible. China threatens war if the U.S. retaliates. 

[B][U]April 22nd 2026:[/B][/U] Dr. Kenashi of the Indian National Medical Center in Mumbai and Dr. Yamatetsu of the Yamatetsu Corporation develop the first cybernetic limb to replace a test subjects arm. Cybernetics or "Cyberware" comes onto the world stage. 

[B][U]Spring 2030:[/B][/U] A explosion rips through a Chinese base in central Africa, speculation flies as to the cause. Everything from terrorism, African nationalists, U.S. drone strike, EU black op, and Russian assassination attempts are listed as the cause. Military forces mobilize in the region.

[B][U]August 3rd 2030:[/B][/U] A firefight breaks out between U.S. Army troops surrounding an African gold mine and African nationalists. A Chinese Quick Reaction Force (QRF) deploys to suppress the nationalists. The firefight escalates as Chinese and U.S. troops begin firing on each other with the nationalist caught between the two forces. 13 Americans and 22 Chinese military personnel die. China declares war on the U.S. and the U.S. reciprocates. In response Russia unexpectedly falls in with the U.S. bringing northern Africa into the mix, the EU also sides with the U.S. World War III begins. 

[B][U]May 12th 2035:[/B][/U] The Third World War is going well for the African Allied Alliance (the U.S., Russian, African Nationalists, and the EU). The Axis of Chinese/Asian Nations (China, India, Japan, the unified Korea, and all of Indochina) holds their initial ground in Africa and Eurasia well but cannot advance against the African Alliance. However, in another unexpected move Central and South America enter the war on the Chinese side. A military force from Central and South America backed by Chinese commandos move north and attack the U.S. Southern border. Canada aids the U.S. and the third World War reaches the American continents. 
 
[B][U]Winter 2040:[/B][/U] 10 years into the Third World War the lines stabilize. ACA (Axis of Chinese /Asian Nations) forces push into North America all the way to the Texas Oklahoma border to the north, the Georgia Appalachians to the east, and just shy of Hoover Dam to the west. Russian forces from Siberia overrun the North Korean forces and take the Peninsula, EU and Russian forces hold the Chinese at the Caucasus Mountain line, while in Africa the AAA (Allied African Alliance) was pushed from the south by ACA forces but a U.S. and African led counterattack stabilizes the lines deep in the Congo jungle. Switzerland, Australia, and Romania remain the only neutral forces.

[B][U]September 18th 2056:[/B][/U] World War III has continued to rage back and forth across the globe, by now most nuclear threats have been eliminated during one campaign or another over the past 26 years. The war is a conventional meat grinder that is laying waste to entire nations and killing hundreds of millions.

[B][U]0001 Zulu time, September 19th 2056:[/B][/U] The Nuclear Night Attacks occur across the globe at precisely 0001 Zulu time. One hundred 100Kt nuclear devices detonate in the world’s 100 largest cities. 
[url=http://www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm]Cities hit[/url]
No organization, force, or nation claims responsibility. The world is thrown in disarray and casualties will eventually be totaled at over 500 million, with twice as many dying of secondary effects of the blasts. What is left of the national governments agree to meet in Switzerland to negotiate a peace and investigate the attacks.

[B][U]September 30th 2056:[/B][/U] After constant fighting for 26 years and the horrible effects of the Nuclear Night Attacks, a ceasefire agreement is reached by the AAA and the ACA. It is said that the war would have gone on for another 25 years if the Nuclear Night Attacks had not happened.

[B][U]Fall of 2056 through the summer 2100:[/B][/U] A period of world history known as the Reconstruction. It is during this time that the first roots of the PCC begin to take hold. A weakened but still solvent United Nations creates the Planetary Conservation Commission. The PCC begins as a panel of world leaders charged with enabling the adequate and “fair” distribution of resources in an effort to aid reconstruction. Also during this time a wave of nationalism and religious zealotry sweeps the world. Governments are taken over by radical conservative groups that advocate isolationism, assimilation, fanatical faith, State power, and unquestioning loyalty.

[B][U]June 2071:[/B][/U] During reconstruction the surviving corporations of the world unite, merge, and become one and the same with government. Coupled with the waves of ultra religious nationalism, the Parliaments and Congresses of the world become interchangeable with church and military backed corporate boards and councils. The PCC is first thing all these disparate rebuilding nations and councils agree on. A council made up of corporate board members, military logisticians, political figures, and church leaders is put in place to allocate the remaining world resources.

[B][U]2098:[/B][/U] The PCC gains more power and authority, under the strictest of State power and control reconstruction continues at a phenomenal pace. Crimes against liberty are overlooked as the fruits of the modern world are slowly returned by the PCC.

[B][U]Spring 2100:[/B][/U] Anti-PCC forces are blamed for an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in South America. The PCC quarantines the entire continent, mining and patrolling the waters around South America and sealing off the borders with walls and no-fly zones. Anti-PCC spokespeople claim that the PCC attacked the entire continent with biological weapons in order to destroy an Anti-PCC headquarters in the Amazon. This is discounted by the State media and the PCC version of events is accepted by most of the world. 

[B][U]Summer 2100:[/B][/U] The Global War on Anarchy begins, fueled by the South America quarantine. The PCC, distorting the definition of anarchy and stoking peoples fear into support, engage in a worldwide war against opposition forces. Dissent and opposition is crushed without remorse. 

[B][U]2100-2150:[/B][/U] PCC elements throughout the world's governments unify against Anti-State forces. Despite all their efforts anti-PCC forces are ground into dust, painted as terrorists and insurgents, and history is re-written to vilify their efforts. The world falls more and more under the PCC’s control.

[B][U]2160-2170:[/B][/U] With anti-PCC elements all but eliminated the Commission approves the release of a tidal wave of technology. Advanced cybernetics and bioware, holographic projection technology, nano-tech, advanced manufacturing processes, personal area network advances, and hundreds of other long held secret technologies are released onto the PCC controlled markets. This new decade of advancement is called the “roaring sixties”.

[B][U]Summer 2185:[/B][/U] A five year heat wave, unprecedented in all of history strikes the globe; it will last three years. Coupled with the devastation of World War III, The Nuclear Night Attacks, The Global War on Anarchy, and all the smaller conflicts that occurred in the intervening years this heat wave destroys national food and water reserves. Panic, riots, and unrest explode but are ruthlessly put down by PCC Peace Keepers and ultra nationalistic security forces.
[/hider]
[hider=New Nations of the World WIP][CENTER]NATIONS.[/CENTER]
[B][U]The Northern League[/B][/U]
The Northern league came into being during the year 2056, five years after the Third World War ended. It began and was named after the Italian Party for Independence of North Italy, Lombardy or 'Padania'. The general platform of this Italian separatist party was that the north was simply better than the south; the party claimed that the south was a drain on the resources produced by the north. After the victories of nationalists’ movements throughout Europe, especially in France, a new 'clique' within the EU, composed of Northern Italy, France, Germany, Austria and the Benelux began to form. Driven by the rising economic woes and infrastructure devastation of World War III this new League began insisting that they had a 'Special Status' as the economic motor of Europe, the very driving force that saw the European nations through WW III. When southern Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece all defaulted on their debts incurred during the war, the new Northern League decided that rather than throwing these bankrupt countries out of the EU, that the Northern League would withdraw its support from and leave the EU. This action left the other EU countries with the burden of sorting out economic and post WW III issues on their own and some historians claim it was one of the events leading to WW IV. Within a short number of years after the split the northern countries confederated and eventually federated under the Northern League, a rich but extremely closed society placing extreme value on assimilation, nationalism and loyalty. This new Northern League solidified gains made by the AAA and EU forces in Africa during the third World War and became a big force in the reconstruction and development of Africa. With the rise of the PCC in the twenty-three hundreds, the Northern League (NL) was forced to be more open in its politics and policies but while League, in theory, went back to a more open society, no one named Mohammed or even born outside the League would ever be able to gain citizenship within the NL.[/hider]
[hider=Stories from the future WIP][CENTER]STORIES FROM THE FUTURE.[/CENTER]
[B]November 18th, 2399 CE
The Planetary Conservation Commission’s (PCC) Large Hadron Collider 3 (LHC III)…
Primary Facilities Control (PFC) Station Alpha, located in the Gobi Desert, straddling the border between Mongolia and the Northern Chinese Free State.[/B]

“Okay Ms. Vandemeer you’re live in five, four, three…” the rest of the cameraman’s countdown was silent, expressed to the waiting journalist by the diminishing digits on the cameraman’s outstretched hand and the visual countdown that ticked down on the feedback holo next to the hovering camera platform that the cameraman operated. When the countdown reached zero the camera platform, suspended in mid-air by small electro-mass generators, focused its multiple image & sound capturing devices on the reporter, while arm-like projection booms operated additional cameras for wide angle, background rolls, and trideo holographic projection.
“Good day, this is Emily Vandemeer with the Planetary Conservation Commission’s News Agency broadcasting from the now famous LHC III’s PFC Alpha in the Gobi desert. Ever since the dissolution of the People’s Republic of China more than two hundred years ago the newly ascendant Northern China Free State, or the CFS for short, has been a Mecca for scientific discovery despite the ravages that have gripped humanity…”

Across the world nearly seventy percent of humanity watched the broadcast with baited breath. The past 400 years had been some of humanities worst. The balkanization of the United States of America, China, and Russia over a period of fifty years lead to constant war between 2056 and 2240… including World Wars three and four. Widespread famine and water shortages caused by war and environmental factors between 2185 and 2235 killed billions and the world wide economic and network crashes of 2192 and 2194, respectively, plunged the world into technological darkness for six years and were all human driven events that lead to widespread chaos and death during the last 300 years. Mother Nature wasn’t innocent or sitting on the sidelines for the past three centuries either; the Charlton 861 Comet Impact, fungal plague and polar pox epidemics, cataclysmic natural disasters that rendered most of the Pacific Ring uninhabitable including Australia, Indochina, and Japan, and sea level rise which destroyed most coastal areas, all killed untold billions and destroyed nations. By 2100 the world population had hit 10.5 billion. A century later, after the feces was really beginning to hit the fan, world population was estimated to be closer to 6 billion, just a week ago at the beginning of November 2399 Ms. Vandemeer reported that the PCC planned on releasing the latest population numbers when the year 2400 rolled around. Optimistic reports quoted the commission’s findings to be roughly 2.5 billion people and falling, worldwide. Humanity needed a pick-me-up and tonight seventy percent of what was left of that humanity tuned in to Ms. Vandemeer’s broadcast in hopes for that pick-me-up. 

“… and yet again the CFS in cooperation with the Mongolian Protectorate, the Russo-Siberian Nation, and the PCC has delivered. Scientists here at PFC Alpha Station refer to their recent discovery as Space Time Actualization Gating or S.T.A.G for short. I am joined by S.T.A.G project lead… Doctor Motya Bratva, a native of the Siberian Free Nation, and professor Emeritus of the world renowned Siberia-Free China Physics Laboratory and University; Doctor Bratva, can you explain the results of the S.T.A.G project in layman’s terms for our viewers?”

Doctor Bratva was a small man, aged and liver spotted, and worn heavily by the years that had passed. His threadbare lab coat looked as if it were going to consume him and what hair remained attached to his mostly bald pate was as thin and transparent looking as monofilament. Despite all this apparent frailty and age when he was ushered in front of the camera platform by Ms. Vandemeer the world could see that his eyes shone with a clarity and vision that spoke of an unparalleled mental acuity. In a thick Russo-Chinese accent Doctor Bratva began his address to the world.

“What we have done here at the LHC III, in simple terms, is suspend the gravitational effects that make up what is commonly referred to as space-time. Within a contained and highly localized framework we have used the principles of Einstein’s relativity, Peter Higgs’s theories on boson particles, the ATLAS and CMS team’s discoveries of those particles, and the late Becky Sheriff’s theories on gravitational, black hole, event horizon, and worm hole physics to create a…”hole” or gate, if you will, in space time.”
Ms. Vandemeer stood opposite the fragile doctor and smiled like the true professional journalist she was, forcing the face of pleasant understanding forward for the camera even though she truly had no idea what Doctor Bratva was saying. “So Doctor Bratva what does this mean for the average person in the world now, despite the breathtaking scientific breakthrough this represents for your chosen field what does this mean for the viewer at home?” Doctor Bratva smiled up at the taller Ms. Vandemeer much like an elderly grandfather who smiles at a child that fails to understand simple arithmetic.

“What this discovery opens for us, for the World community, is a myriad of theories regarding the utilization of space time as a force to bend and alter. Currently the most promise is shown with the theory of gating. For example if we create a field and suspend space time at one location and do the same at a different location we should then be able to connect the two distortions in space time. In essence we could create gates that could transport people or goods to any location.” Ms. Vandemeer looked taken aback for only the briefest of moments before quickly following up on what was surely the biggest story of her life.

“Are you saying Doctor that we could create a doorway that would shorten the travel times between those two points?” She asked. It was a question that made the doctor chuckle.

“I am saying my dear Ms. Vandemeer that we could eliminate travel times, it would be instantaneous transmission. It is a promising theory right now. I would say that before the next century is over your grandchildren and my great grandchildren will be able to walk through a mechanism or gate in their local city and arrive at a lunar colony less than heartbeat later.”

All around the world a collective sigh was let out. At a basic, instinctual level everyone watching knew nothing would ever be the same.

[Center]***[/Center]
[B]July 1st, 2372 CE
Planetary Conservation Commission (PCC) Lunar Research Facility…
Arrival Dock 3, 0859 Monday morning.[/B]

The arrival dock was more of a lounge than a traditional dock. Along one wall holographic emitters projected an image of the lunar surface that was just outside the highly reinforced walls of the facility, the image so lifelike that no one wouldn’t believe there were not floor to ceiling windows there instead of a wall. Plush couches, chairs, and tables hovered at a comfortable height off the floor, physical legs replaced by electro-mass generators. Potted plants filled the corners and solar simulation panels covered the ceiling, bathing the room in false sunlight. The sterile white walls were bisected by a neon green strip of light the encircled the room, a monitor strip for the artificial intelligence that helped, observe, secure, run, and administer the functions of the lunar facility. A bank of holographic display comlink panels filled the second wall of the square lounge, each a multifaceted employee terminal that logged entry, departure, shift changes, work schedules, tasks trackers, communications, and just about every other imaginable function. The third wall had four airlock doors that lead to the various labs and factories that made up the facility; chemistry, geological, physics, biology, medical, and a handful of other labs were through the farthest left door. Astronavigation, terraforming, homeostasis, propulsion and all other space travel focused labs were reached through the inner left door. The two right doors lead to factory and flight facilities that tested and built the materials, concepts, and theories developed in the formerly mentioned labs. The last wall of the lounge was engulfed by the workings for the three S.T.A.G portals that connected the lunar facility with the PCC’s offices in the Pan-Ameridan capital in Pittsburgh, the world’s largest extra-solar technology factory facility in Chongqing China, and the PCC’s most advanced research labs in Belgrade.
 
Along this wall the central portal began to shift, the inky blue field that was maintained within the metallic machinery of a hexagonal shape began to distort and flex inward. With a sound like the tearing of burlap a man rushed through the portal haphazardly, a terminal next to the portal chiming in a pleasant female voice “Welcome Mr. King your arrival time of 0859 Earth Standard Time has been logged, your next shift begins at 0900 Earth Standard Time, enjoy your shift.”

Mr. King did not even pause for the A.I.’s standard greeting, nor did he stop at the info terminals to get a read out of what had happened the night before. Instead he continued his headlong rush towards the inner left door of the lounge which would lead to his office. Minutes later Mr. King plunged into a seat at the conference table of one of the homeostasis labs briefing rooms. The rest of the team members were already assembled, comlink activity and conversation buzzed away, notes on data tablets were passed along, and coffee was sipped as everyone waited for the morning meeting to start. Mr. King’s friend from college and coworker Kelley Foster cracked a smile at his abrupt arrival and disheveled appearance. “Quinton King, not like you to be late.” Kelley mused as Mr. Quinton King rummaged through his pockets for small data chip.
“Shut it Kelley, Clockwork logged me in at 0859 so I am on time and his high and mighty Doctor bald headed boozer Bergman isn’t even here yet so I’m in the clear.”
“You know Doc Bergman isn’t all that bad…”

Quinton nearly exploded on Kelley, shouting about how Doctor Bergman was a no talent hack that kissed the right political ass and stole other people’s work, namely Quinton King’s work concerning the finer points of hyper sleep and homeostasis over long periods of space flight. As Quinton railed on about how low the bottom was that Doctor Bergman fed off of the conference room went silent and before long Quinton noticed the silence and the pained look on Kelley’s face. He stopped his rant and sighed heavily before speaking in a flippant tone. “He’s behind me isn’t he?”

Kelley nodded as a heavy hand fell on Mr. King’s shoulder and a voice, just as heavy with authority and poise spoke up from behind him.
“Don’t worry Mr. King; I have news that should cheer you up.” The tall and handsome Doctor Bergman turned to the assembled conference room. “The Eden project has accepted our model of stasis chambers. So due to… all… of our hard work, of which our dear Mr. King here was a part of, the homeostasis capsules and theories we have worked so hard on will be heading out on the Eden project. Now unless there are any new items to bring to the table I need everyone to get to work wrapping up the theoretical models of your work and get ready to push to the production phase. Meeting adjourned.”

A cheer rose up from the assembled engineers and scientists as they began to disperse to their labs. Quinton and Kelley stayed behind for a moment longer as the rest of the team exited because a comlink notification from Doctor Bergman had popped up on both of their info feeds. Quinton rolled his eyes in exasperation as he read the message; he had just been fired by Doctor Bergman via comlink message. Kelley placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry Quinton… I know it’s not right but you fought him so much, it was bound to happen someday.”

Quinton turned to Kelley, a look of resignation written across his face, “Oh well, I mean the market has just got to be wide open for a biomechanical engineer specializing in homeostatic mechanisms… right; by the way, congrats on your promotion.”

Kelley looked at Quinton the surprise clearly evident. “How did you know that my message was about getting promoted to your position?”
“I guessed…” Quinton said “…makes the most sense. Good luck with the implementation.” With that Mr. King left the conference room walked down the hall and into the arrival dock. With one last look around he stepped towards the central portal marked with the Pittsburgh offices address. The A.I. that he had affectionately named Clockwork chimed in.

“Thank you for your ten years, 21 days, 12 hours and 32 minutes of service Mr. King. Be aware that your security RFID will be deactivated once you pass through the S.T.A.G portal and PCC security will meet you on the other side and escort you out after you complete the out processing package. Once through the portal you will not be able to return to the lunar facility until new credentials are obtained. Please ensure you have all your belongings. Have a pleasant day Mr. King.”
With that Mr. King stepped into the inky blue field and heard the typical sound of ripping fabric, the slight touch of static electricity, and the smell of ozone all in the span of time it took him to blink. When he opened his eyes again after blinking he was in the Pittsburgh arrival lounge with two burly security guards patiently awaiting his arrival.[/hider] 
That is the gist of it. Like I said before, I am open to and encourage collaborative world building so if you want to help fill in the holes and play a character at the same time then let me know here and we can get this thing started.

Also even of you do not want to join up feel free to send me a critique or advice via PM (when it works again) if you are so inclined.