International Biological Space Station (IBSS) was the largest space station revolving around earth in year 2055. At least that is what Radha 38 was told by Captains of IBSS over last few years. It was hard for Radha to understand the concept of large because she had not seen anything else other than IBSS. She did look at earth and countless other planets but nothing was sufficient to fully grasp just how large IBSS was compared to other things in the universe.

In year 2020 a virus named COVID19 had hit the world killing few millions and nearly halting the wheels of the world. India was especially impacted. In year 2021 some of the largest corporations in the world fed up of various government regulations on testing of medicines decided to launch a spacecraft into space and conduct medical research in space on viruses. The bright side was that if anything goes wrong the nuclear devices in the spacecraft would blow it up to smithereens.

This space station was a big hit. What started as a virus research station quickly grew into a large space station conducting all sort of research including vertical farming, human cloning and DNA modifications. It was then more and more countries joined the project and the space station grew. In year 2029 another company managed to solve the energy problem for humanity. A carbon drive it was called. Carbon drive was a specially arranged carbon atoms which when exposed to sunlight would rapidly absorb the sunlight and arrange themselves in particular order, in the process storing suns energy. When subjected to small electric current these atoms would then break up and give out the energy. These carbon drives were around 1000 times more efficient than solar panels and could also act as a battery. This made life on space too easy. In year 2035, they managed to create artificial gravity on IBSS by rapidly rotating a section of the spacecraft.

One of top secret project on IBSS was however being conducted by Indian scientists. It was a project of biological immortality. Can we tweak our DNA such that we never die or get old ? Radha was experiment number 38 in this process. She was not born out of mating of two humans. She was created from a single human stem sell from an unknown individual just like experiments before her. She watch hatched in a special artificial embroyo and she was born on IBSS.

Radha 38 was a successful experiment. At least that is what the entire crew of IBSS had told her. She was special. But she did not feel that special now as she was all alone on IBSS as it drifted through space.

Beyond Universe