#sci0fi

          The Chinese had been quick to reach the other side of the asteroid belt.  Space races and challenges only a hundred years ago had led to many private efforts to do the same, but none of them had availed quite the success the Chinese had pilfered.  Once you left the comfort of Earth’s atmosphere, travel became quite difficult for humans. It was many times worse than it had been in the early 1700’s. It took weeks or months to reach a destination, sometimes more than a year. Transportation was very primitive then, just as the Apollo rockets when reaching the moon was priority.  It took six months just to get to mars.  One would’ve had to work hard or sleep to avoid the psychosis brought on by the isolation of the trip.  Those 130 pilgrims had done it though.  They were legends today, praised for their bravery and stamina.  They had established a colony, a rich, beautiful and diverse one in which commerce and trade thrived.  As populations in the system grew, more minds contributed to the success of the society. The very thing that brought them there drove them to leave.  Space travel: humanities dream.  We always wondered what was out there.  Chinese government had provided the funding and the minds to make the Mars baby-step, and they continued to push for new technologies in the fields of physics and transportation.  

          After many years of work on Mars in the lesser gravity and severely reduced atmosphere, researchers and scientists had come up with Chimera physics technology. This enabled them to push the envelope on propulsion technology to the point that inter-system travel became a possibility.  They built massive machines, great rotating monstrosities meant to manipulate and tease the point-energy from the fabric of space.  We held classical equations for many years, but no one could figure out how to manipulate them physically until the mars trip.  

          And so, with the advancing technology came more excursions into outer reaches of the solar system. At first it was solely for explorative reasons, but then bright minds fabricated ideas for continued commerce, trade, produce, and economy that led to the increase of humanity as a whole.  As it was, there was a great need for energy, and they discovered ways to fill that need.  Mars was much closer to the asteroid belt, and thanks to it’s lower gravity, it allowed escape from its gravitational clutches much easier.  Trips out to the asteroid belt were proved fruitful.  They found just what they were looking for. There were icy bodies imbued with all sorts of rare minerals and elements what hadn’t even been discovered.  There were metallic bodies that were cored out, their innards used in the construction of great star ships.  There were also many other rocky bodies, but they were of no used anyone.  In fact, there were corporations whose sole purpose was to defend the factories and outposts from obliteration by these rocks. .

LASERMAN