Fabienne Gschwind - Star Map

Jay was magically drawn to all things military, reading survival books like other kids reading comic books, and attending martial arts classes at an early age. At sixteen, he applied for the Hades entrance test, but before he could even take the fitness test, he was given a brain scan. The scan revealed that Jay was not at all fit to be a soldier. He allegedly had an inferiority complex and was thought to be reluctant to follow orders, preferring to command himself.

He was also rejected by the police. The muscular man, who looked and moved like a real professional soldier and spent half his life training martial arts to be part of a hit squad, didn't fit the job description of the modern police officer.

But the professional psychologist Jay visited saved his career; she suggested he become a mountain rescuer. After all, there were enough tourists risking their necks in the mountain’s day in and day out. And in such a profession, you need strong and brave people. Jay first trained as a nurse and paramedic, and shortly thereafter flew his first helicopter mountain missions. After two years, he received an invitation to help on a subspace ambulance ship.

Subspace was also accessible to normal people, and adventurous people who couldn't get an adrenaline rush from normal sailing or mountaineering eventually joined subspace races. Of course, there were also countless luxury yachts and private spaceships. Rescue missions were the order of the day. Jay got to sit in the pilot's seat and steer the ambulance for 10 minutes. It was a moment that changed his life. Now he finally knew what he wanted: subspace pilot! He quit his job and continued his training. With the pilot goggles showing him the cartography map and the joystick in his hand, he felt like an adventurer. He seemed to have a natural talent for getting the ambulance ship into the perfect current and quickly targeting the casualty vessel.

At the age of 25, he was named Subspace Pilot of the Year.

Two weeks after receiving the award, his life changed, as did the lives of many others. It was the year 2390 when an alien spacecraft suddenly emerged from subspace at about the same altitude as Mars. It sped past the moon's orbit and splashed into the ocean near the Philippines. Then it surfaced and activated its weapons, a kind of diffuse microwave radiation that boiled the brain matter. The alien ship fired all its weapons, several thousand people died and many more survived with brain damage. After three hydrogen bombs, the attack was finally silenced.

Complete chaos reigned for days, and the mothballed space fleet was hastily brought out. However, for cost reasons, the pilots and officers of the fleet had never flown the combat spaceships but had only worked in a simulation environment.

It must be mentioned here that the simulation environments were as real as possible. The 3D exoskeletons the trainees inaccurately simulated all movements and touches, light brain stimulation contributed to the trainees almost believing it was real, but only almost.

In the meantime, two more alien spaceships had appeared on course for Earth.

Time was of the essence!

The fleet quickly sought the most experienced pilots to man their ships. So, Jay suddenly found himself as chief pilot aboard the flagship. He, who had never been considered for a military career.

He was so happy that even a fight with an alien spaceship did not scare him. He was full of adrenaline and couldn't wait to fight and protect the Earth. The battle did not last long, because the alien ships suddenly accelerated and were in Earth orbit earlier than planned. The battle was a mess.

The aliens activated their weapons, and two destroyer crews died when their brains exploded. Jay's ship was partially hit and half died. Jay himself had suffered a brain hemorrhage, he clung to his chair and in his delusion, he was the captain and had to stop the alien ship. From his point of view, everything was clear, despite the pain, he crawled to the weapons officer's console and wanted to fire the missiles. But the ship refused; someone had hacked it. Then someone attacked him, but Jay was a martial arts expert. With two kicks, he brought the attacker to the ground and kept typing on the console until he could finally fire the missiles. On the screen, he saw the alien spaceship explode into a fireball. Then he passed out.

Only when he awoke from the artificial coma after six months did he learn what had really happened. The alien spaceships had immediately stopped their attack when another destroyer fired at them. Immediately, they dived into subspace and fled.

Jay's action took place only 30 minutes after the attack. On the ship's camera, a wavering Jay could be seen running through the bridge, ordering the other wounded to fire on the alien ship immediately. When no one responded, he manipulated the weapons console, but he aimed not at an alien ship, but at the Phalanx, which was generating power. The young weapons officer recognized this and tried to stop him. Jay broke her neck with a kick. He then managed to override the ship's safety mechanisms and fire the missiles.

In doing so, he cut the power supply to Earth in half.

Prices rose dramatically, there were shortages everywhere, until finally, the replacement fusion plants came online.

Johann Jeremias Shakler was cursed everywhere, only the fleet held back. In fact, a loophole in the software had ensured that Jay gained access in the first place. He wasn't charged with murder either; the weapons officer had suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and, according to pathologists, would have died a few minutes later anyway.

But the height of irony was when it was discovered that the alien weapons were not weapons, but a radio message.

The message was something like this, "We come in peace, we are peaceful explorers. We mean you no harm, we just want to empty our latrines and fill our water tanks."

So, Earth would have been just a cosmic toilet…

And so the Aliens got their nickname: Outhouse-Aliens!

Jonathan was cleared of all blame by the fleet. But that didn't help. He felt that all of humanity hated him. Changing his name didn't help either. Constant vituperative messages filled his phone, and his family turned away and moved away. He tried to kill himself, but not seriously enough. He didn't really want to die! And then he was offered the solution: he hired on at StarMap Ltd. There, a subspace pilot was always welcome, and he was offered the position of "captain," or in this case, ship manager.

This was the opportunity to escape from humanity and its injustice.

When he returned after the first ten-year mission, he felt no need to settle anywhere and immediately signed up for the mission with the Abhysal .

For Milo, there was no particularly tragic story. Milo had a rare disease; in centuries past, it might have been mistakenly classified as savant syndrome. But with modern medicine and the brain scan, much more was now known: Milo's brain was aligned with subspace. He felt all vibrations and impulses. Unfortunately, even modern medicine had no solution at hand to heal him, but this was not necessary. Neither his parents nor the society found it necessary that people should follow a social scheme. He attended a special school, where he received special support. Everything was done so that Milo could live his talent and preferences and have a fullfied life. The most important thing for Milo was subspace. In addition to his ability to sense subspace, he also had a genius-like mathematical and physical talent, and before his twenty years Milo had become a world-renowned subspace expert. Special care robots helped him in his daily life, because he could not do it himself, he also had trouble getting involved with other people. Dealing with many people irritated him, made him angry and unfocused. He preferred to live alone, or within a family structure. Since he was magically attracted to subspace, it had been a natural decision to work at StarMap and dealing with a small crew that was almost like his family was also absolutely ideal for him. His terms of employment were simple: He had to follow the orders of the ship's manager unconditionally and navigate the spaceship with artificial intelligence as safely as possible through subspace. In return, he was allowed to use as much free time for his research as he wanted, and also to access all sensor data. Of course, he was also allowed to publish his discoveries.