Short Sci-Fi Story - Sky People (ENGLISH)

The Indian girl who reached me on Linkedin stated that a businessman named Hugh Grosvenor Jr wanted to meet me in London. We started texting with the girl.

-What will our meeting be about?

-He wants to consult with you about the sky people.

-Wouldn't it be possible for him to come to Istanbul?

-Such a thing is not possible.

-My medical condition is not suitable for long journeys. Let me not give you a clear answer for now. I'il evaluate the subject and let you know in a few days.

-Yeah, I thought I was.…

-You seem so surprised, may I ask why?

-I'm guessing you'd be offered a very generous offer, and I thought you'd be happy to welcome the news.

-I don't know Hugh Grosvenor Jr. Is he famous?

-Yeah, he's one of England's most successful business people. He is considered to be one of the fathers of artificial intelligence.

-I'd be honored to meet him. You can report to Mr. Grosvenor that I will visit him in London.

I didn't go to London using the hyper tunnel because the thought of being under the ground didn't make me feel good. A three-hour plane ride was a preferable option. Still, as soon as I stepped on the plane, my heart was pounding. I was dizzy. I barely pushed myself into my seat. At least I didn't faint, I'd probably love it if I went into the hyper tunnel. I'd like to take a selfie with one of the richest men in the world, Mr. Grosnevor, and send it to my mother. Although I had my own place in the intellectual environment by writing seven books about sky people, nobody in my family appreciated me, especially my mother. As one of the country's well-known authors, I barely feed my stomach with the money I earn. What a brilliant student I was once, if I was a faculty member at a university, at least I'd be a professor by now my mother argued.

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Fortunately, there were people in the world who valued information like Mr. Grosvenor. It would be nice if these wise people were in Istanbul and I didn't have to travel. As soon as the wheels of the plane were hit by the London Heathrow Airport, I took everything I had eat and drink. Because I knew myself well, I had my bag in my hand, hoping that I'd give the environment less discomfort.

Mr. Grosvenor, who met me at the door of his office, was a man with red hair with sharp facial lines. He looked too tired not to be expected of a billionaire, with purple circles under his eyes. “Thank you for accepting my invitation,” he said. “Thank you for taking care of my work,” I replied. “I have a problem that I need to solve urgently: my son is sick, he is dying. I haven't been able to solve my son's illness. I'm running out of time. Despite my generous donations, the clinics that specialize in the subject can't cure his problem." He projected his son's picture on the wall of the office. Junior Grosnevor, a 10-to 11-year-old child, was a copy of his father.

-I'm sorry.

-It's meaningless to be sad. We have to solve the problem.

-I can't make the connection.

-What do you think is the only key that unlocks every door in the world?

-Intelligence, of course.

-Bravo, if the doctors and researchers I've supported for years with generous donations were more intelligent, they would have taken care of my son's illness.

-It will take a long time to educate any of the sky people about this disease, and they are not interested in practical matters.

-Computers can be trained very quickly, but they're not creative.

-With the help of sky people, you want to find a cure for your son's illness through a new artificial intelligence developed. You expect me to help you convince one or more of the sky people.

-Yeah, we're going to orbit with you tomorrow and visit Petra.

-My health doesn't allow me to travel long distances. I can only help you with remote access.

-The whole plan was based on going to Petra with you.

-I pass out when I push myself too hard on the trip.

-I knew your situation, we're ready, don't worry.

I had not even been half an hour since we met, and I had been able to drink some colorful liquids from Mr. Grosvenor's doctor's hand, which I didn't know what it was. The doctor told me how he prepared each of the active ingredients contained in liquids, like a cooking program server, and how to get benefits from them. As the doctor's narrative progressed, I learned that there were a large number of substances in the liquids used in the treatment of psychotic disorders that I happily roused because they were presented in small shot glasses. I was wondering how all the drugs I drank would have an effect on me.

I didn't have to wait long to feel the effects of the drugs. First, I felt a wave of power rising from my spinal cord to my shoulders. Then, accompanied by a slight tinnitus, my vision became sharpened. A few minutes later, my mind began to engage in crazy daytime dreams. I asked the doctor to show me a place to lie down. I fell asleep on the stretcher in the infirmary, making a soft transition from day to night dreams.

The next morning, Mr. Grosvenor and I were in a vigorous and restful state. The drugs I took the other day made me nervous and made my mind sharp like a knife. “Can I get information on our schedule today and my duties?” I asked him. “Soon we will fly to Virgin Galactic's space port in New Mexico, USA, on my private jet. A space shuttle will take us to Petra.” “Petra doesn't accept visitors as far as I know.” ”They didn't turn anyone out the door until now." "No one has ever been on their doorstep without permission. You have an original way of thinking”. ”I take this as a compliment."

As soon as we left London to fly to the United States, Mr. Grosnevor kept asking me about the sky people. It was obvious that he didn't want to waste a minute of the trip.

“First of all, let me draw you a general framework. As you know, we call individuals with extraordinary mental abilities as sky people. Sky people can have features such as communicating through telepathy, imitating someone else's personality, making prophecies, detecting minor changes in emotions. Of course, some members of sky people doesn't have any of these features. Three years ago, all of the sky people moved to Petra, which was founded near the top of the Shanghai space elevator.” Mr. Grosvenor intervened and asked, “Didn't anyone object to this forced migration?” . “Sky people need each other to socialize. Interacting with ordinary people doesn't satisfy them. Even if there was such an objection, it was not reflected to the public. As you know, there are nineteen sky people in total and all of them have been transferred to Petra.” “Who selects sky people, what kind of choice are they subjected to?”. “The first choice was made by the Future Foundation. They have not received any new members yet, the oldest of the elected members was 37 years old. The selection was based on G, the common denominator of multiple intelligence types and the ability to perform extraordinary work requiring superior creativity.” Mr. Grosvenor approached the information with the appetite of the lion who wanted to smash his prey and bring it down to the stomach as soon as possible. “You have spoken of telepathy, prophecy, imitation of self, perception of tone differences in emotions, how are these things happening?” he asked me. “Just as through our neocortex, we have abstract thinking and conceptualization skills that animals do not possess, sky people can have extraordinary features as a byproduct of their higher mental capacities.” "How did they reach that mental capacity?”. “There are various narrations in this regard; In China, in the 2020s, a program created containing elements such as the artificial fertilization of eggs and sperms from distinguished individuals, the regulation of gene sequences in the early embrio stage, supporting the formation of grey matter in the brain during pregnancy with chemicals. In addition, gifted young people who are candidates for celestial people are being passed special trainings in sky academy"

When the wheels of the jet touched the runway of the New Mexico space port dedicated to private planes, I emptied the liquid in my stomach onto the mahogany lined coffee table in front of me. Mr. Grosnevor asked the hostess to clean up. I said, “I'm sorry to contaminate your jet, I didn't take precautions because I thought the drugs were working.” "The drugs were to convince you to travel, " said Mr. Grosnevor. “We see that they're not working, can I go home now?”.“People are paying half a million dollars in their pockets for the journey we're about to leave,” Mr. Grosnevor said in a determined statement on his face. “I can't come with you, I can die,” I said. “I would do anything to heal my son. Please don't make me take any other precautions.” It was understood that Mr. Grosnevor was very determined to take me away.

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I was trembling as if I had malaria while I was holding up to the elevator to get to the space shuttle. I turned around and looked at myself in the mirror. My shoulders fell down, my face was white like paper, and I clung tightly to the railing of the elevator. We went straight from the elevator to the shuttle's passenger lounge. There were two large seats in the hall that were placed at ninety degrees angle with each other. I was so glad I could throw myself in one of the seats before I fainted. Mr. Grosnevor didn't seem very interested in me. He was transmitting some information I didn't know about on the tablet in front of him through his head cap. In half an hour, the rocket beneath us exploded with a huge noise and we began to be pushed upwards with a very strong acceleration. The last thing I remember about the takeoff was that I felt like I was queasy, and then I fainted. When I woke up, I said to Mr. Grosnevor, “I wish we'd gone in a space elevator, at least there wasn't a blast from the rocket and a tremor”. "The elevator is in maintenance", said Mr. Grosvenor.

I was so excited to see Petra from the spaceship's passenger monitor. The city in the form of a flattened hemisphere was resembling a gigantic ghost in the dark space. As Mr. Grosvenor predicted, we had no difficulty entering Petra. When we approached the city, we entered a giant hangar with various spacecraft in it through the big door that opened itself. All the work was done by androids in the hangar. Since the artificial gravity in Petra is less than earth, they put magnetic boots on our feet so we could move easily. A white-bodied Android with a long neck resembling the swan accompanied us to the sterilization room. Mr. Grosvenor asked how the sky people spent their days when necessary procedures were being carried out on us. "Sky people are not subject to a compulsory day schedule. They don't try to make money or innovate in a specific area of expertise. It is thought that their expertise on any subject will kill their creativity, and their numbers are too small for such a division of labor. Nobody tells them what to do. As far as I know, they are expected to produce new questions rather than answers”. "They would be very useful in the field of artificial intelligence which is my specialty," Mr. Grosvenor said in a thoughtful voice. After the sterilization procedures were completed, we went to a ground-level by elevator.

Petra's artificial sky resembled an art gallery with colourful clouds of paintings on them. I took my cell phone off and threw my hand over Mr. Grosvenor's shoulder and pulled a selfie with clouds in the background. Mr. Grosvenor has been very disappointed in my behavior, but he didn't make a sound. Moving through the trees, we came to the front of a building built in Renaissance architecture. White-bodied Android has left us saying "Belinda waiting for you upstairs,". Belinda was a pale-skinned woman with the icy blue eyes. Her long blond hair was messy. In spite of the plain clothes and the skinny body, the insightful expression on her beautiful face made her attractive. Silence was not broken for a long time after we entered the room and sat down. Even though Mr. Grosvenor and Belinda did not mention anything at all, their facial expressions were constantly changing. After a while, I realized they were communicating through telepathy. Mr. Grosvenor took out his cell phone and showed Belinda a picture of his son. Belinda's blue eyes were full of tears. It's the first time I've seen a light of hope in Mr. Grosvenor's eyes. Whatever Belinda told him, he pointed outside with his finger. Before we left, I said to Belinda, “thank you for accepting us.” She probably red my mind, nodding her head, said she accepted my thanks. Mr. Grosvenor was in a hurry, he pulled me out of my arm and said, “We have to go now.” As soon as I got out of the building, I said, “I didn't know you had telepathy skills.” “I didn't know either, I've never met a person on this frequency before.” “Will she help?” "I don't know." “Sky people have developed Petra's mainframe computer so much that they have become dysfunctional compared to it. As I understand it, this computer named Aristotle is making decisions now.” ”He can take care of your son's illness." "Yes if we can persuade him."

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The servers where Aristotle's main program code was located were in the building called the sky academy. We passed through a small grove surrounded by flowering gardens and reached the courtyard of the sky academy. Mr. Grosvenor began to speak through telepathy with the sphere flashing hundreds of thousands of colored pixels in the top of the building. Unlike what he did with Belinda, this conversation lasted a long time. I understand from his face that Aristotle refused to help Mr. Grosvenor. At one point of the interview, Mr. Grosvenor sat on the ground. So I imitated him. Mr. Grosvenor should still be trying to convince Aristotle to treat his son. In about ten minutes, he pulled me out of my arm and said, “we can go.” "Will he work on the treatment “ I asked. Mr. Grosvenor then hugged me and said, “Thank you, my friend.” "How did you convince him?” I asked. ” I told him that because of my inventions in the field of artificial intelligence, I could be considered his father.