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Artificial Ignorance - Part of the Casual Collection of Catastrophes Volume 2

It was my 143rd birthday, the holo cake still managed to fit all of the candles. I stood in the lounge with my friends and family, my parents came all the way across the ocean to my habitat just to celebrate my birthday. They had to hire a special drone to fly them across, they did live 50 years before the singularity after all. My sister made the joke that they are nearly more nanomachines than person at this point. The act of giving gifts at birthdays phased out a long time ago, since everyone lives so long now, even my grandmother, who lived most of her life before it happened, made it to 203rd birthday! I mean, they cured cancer within the first five years after the singularity. The year is now 127 PS, PS standing for Post Singularity. The oceans have risen and most of the 12 billion people of the earth live on habitats which float on the surface of the ocean. The lunar bases are restricted to qualified professionals ever since the “Grey Lung” epidemic of 120 PS and the few space stations that exist in the junk ring are considered slums. The Martian colony is expanding rapidly, and its waiting list is already taking bookings for the next 300 years. Landers are starting to prepare for human missions to locations outside the asteroid belt. Some of the prospecting bases in the belts are gaining popularity so flights there are becoming more frequent.
We were sitting at the table getting our HSP’s or “Human Sustenance Pellets”, though most people just call them “Peps”, and the doorbell rang. To my surprise when I answered the door my boss was stood there, her work uniform hung crisp to her form.
“Oh, Good Morning Ma’am!” I said stepping aside to let her in.
“Good morning George, is this a bad time?” she asked me, taking off her hat.
“No, of course not ma’am, we were just getting our peps, you can join us if you want?” I replied.
“It’s alright, I won’t be staying long, I just came to give you this in person,” she said handing me a holo puck.
I pulled off the case and switched it on, immediately I was presented with an image of Sir John Maxwell, the head of the company I work for. He addressed me directly,
“George Harrol Manoson, CID 16216295, you have been selected for transfer to the Omega base, congratulations. Your shuttle leaves in three days from habitat 307, supplies will be provided for you, so only bring the minimum. I give you my personal congratulations for your achievements with the company and look forward to your future endeavours. Oh, and one more thing. Happy Birthday.” The messaged fizzled out and I could hardly believe it. My sister came to see if everything was alright, she saw my boss and backed out, they never did see eye to eye.
I thanked my boss and said goodbye before going back to the party. Honestly this was one of the best birthday surprises I ever received.
I stood at the base of the launch pad, flanked by my old assistants, one of which would be getting my old job. My sister was there too, her commander let her have the day off for such an occasion. The camera drones buzzed about frantically, trying to capture every moment. The capacitors started to hum as they began charging for the launch, I hugged my sister goodbye and shook hands with my assistants, then made my way to the lift. There were three others coming with me on the shuttle, I didn’t know them at the time but over the course of the trip I’d learn all about them. Two were high engineers, chosen to help maintain the base. The other was a prime botanist, who was going to take part in the bio-domes there. And then there was me, an executive surgeon, though not like the ones before pre singularity. With the advances in medicine, people can now be healed with a simple nanobot shot, so doctors and other similar professions died out. I am a surgeon for robots and other intelligent machines. Due to certain laws and rules, they cannot perform code changes themselves, nor can they make physical changes either, this includes significant repairs. I watched the event from inside the shuttle before lift off, I did think I looked good in the interview.
The countdown began and the whole craft began to vibrate as power surged into the rails.
10...
9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
4...
And...
Then...
The...
World...
Started...
Turning...
Sideways...

An explosion rocked the vessel, one of the rail supports had been destroyed and the whole assemblage was falling onto its side, but the rails had already charged fully, so when it came to their discharge, instead of launching us into space, the vessel was sent a couple thousand miles across the sea. I woke up with the compartment full of smoke and a hole in the side, leading to some poor sods habitat. I tried to get up, but there was a shard of metal pinning me to my chair, I could feel the clutches of consciousness losing their grip. I faintly remember hearing the sirens of a rescue team in the distance, over the sound of the alarms of the vessel and habitat.

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