Interplanetary Love Story--really long--ed. 2 (578 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 3 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Naery (View user info) at 2005-03-01 23:48:47 EST
Darien had always been a problem child. His teachers were never able to keep him in line, his parents were never able to understand why he did and said the things he did, and his friends always wondered about him. Darien never cared. He was what he was and that was all the he would ever be. As far as he was concerned, the rest of the world knew where to shove it. Darien's problem was his mind. He was a genius, pure and simple, with all of the problems that came along with genius. Darien's morality was somewhat skewed from what was considered normal. He considered himself a good person, but his definition of "good" was never quite in line with what everyone else agreed it was supposed to be.
When Darien was 4 years old, he was reading newspapers and demanding to know why world leaders were making such shoddy decisions. When a small war broke out in the Middle East, Darien's response was this: "See, told ya'!" His parents lovingly called him "precocious." Darien's mind was like a sponge. He could speak 2 foreign languages fluently and with only a slight accent by the time he was 14. He never studied these languages formally; he watched movies and looked at books. He knew more about engines and motors than any three local mechanics; again, just by looking at them for a while. Darien was not a tinker, though. He did not have a room cluttered with projects like some of his friends from Mensa. Darien was orderly. He was clean. He always washed his dishes immediately after using them, and never left things out of place in his room. He wasn't obsessive about it, he just thought it was efficient to keep things orderly. Darien was nothing if not efficient.
Darien was lazy. In fact, "lazy" does not begin to describe the lack of motivation on Darien's part. When Darien was 12 years old, his father asked him to mow the front and back lawn, a chore that usually took his father two hours. Darien was not interested in working for two hours. So Darien spent the next six hours "improving" the lawnmower so it would take less time to mow the grass. When he was done with his modifications, he was able to mow the grass in just over 45 minutes. Darien, and his father, were both very happy about that, but his father couldn't understand why Darien was willing to spend 6 hours looking at and fooling around with the lawnmower until the early part of the evening when he could have had the job done five hours earlier. For Darien, though, it was entertainment for six hours and then work for less than one. Darien's father told him he'd have to mow the lawn again when it got up to a certain height. Again, Darien wasn't interested in mowing the lawn, an act that actually required effort, so Darien spent the next 5 days with a chemistry set and samples of grass. After that time, he was able to "teach" the grass not to grow any higher than his father wanted it to grow. It took about 4 weeks for that "lesson" to sink in. Darien mowed the grass for one month and then never had to do it again. Darien was not interested in doing the work, only in making things change so that the work never had to be done.
When he was 15, Darien told his parents that he was bored with school and did not wish to attend any longer. His parents were adamant that he finish High School, receive a diploma, then go to college. Again, Darien's laziness kicked in and he decided to finish High School, but to begin college at the same time. His parents were thrilled. Darien graduated High School and University at the same time. He received a Diploma from Robert Service High School and a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Upon graduation, his parents told Darien that he needed to "decide what [he] want[s] to do with [his] life." Darien was 17. Darien told them that he wanted to continue studying, that nothing else seemed as fun. Darien's father, a strong, Church-going, God-fearing Catholic, told him he needed to find a field of study that would allow him to get a good job so he'd be able to support a family. Darien chose Aerospace Engineering. His parents were less than thrilled. It was a young field and there was lots of promise for the distant future but nothing in the immediate. If only they had more faith in their son.
Darien entered a Masters program at the age of 17, received a Masters Degree at the age of 18 and proceeded to pursue a Doctorate, which he received at the age of 19. Darien was much sought after. His teachers and advisors at the University all begged him to stay and help with their research, but Darien was intent on getting a good-paying job that would require little or no effort on his part. He succeeded. One month before he graduated with a Doctorate, he was approached by the US Government and asked if he would like to join an elite team of NASA scientists. The pay was good, the hours were great, and the benefits were amazing. Darien readily agreed. At the age of 20, he was given a team of scientists to watch over and lead. Darien began to have dreams of Mars. He wanted his team to be the first to make Mars livable. For the first time in his life, Darien had a passion. With that passion came a wellspring of motivation. Darien began to focus all of his energies on his research and experiments. His already loose friendships quickly dissolved and his parents were all but shut out of his life. He continued to send them money, parts of his sizable paycheck, but he was no longer as close to them as he once was. Slowly, his passion for colonizing Mars consumed him.
On his 22nd birthday, he announced that he had done it. He had discovered a new way to make metal and plastic. This new technique would allow humans to live on Mars. After a hastily done cost analysis, his superiors agreed; it was cheap, durable, easy. They began to implement the plan immediately. Darien was sent to Mars with a team of specially trained scientist/construction workers and they began to build. In one month's time, there was the first viable bio-dome built. Darien was not quite happy with it though. He spent the next two months living on Mars, fixing all the specifications of his bio-dome, optimizing its efficiency. When he was done, he secretly patented all the techniques and materials he'd used to do so. The government was furious, but unable to do anything about it. What was done, was done. But NASA did fire him.
Darien was not necessarily unhappy about this. He quickly approached Boeing and laid out his plan for creating Mars shuttles. Boeing was thrilled, but hesitant. After all, what was the market like? Darien, with customary efficiency, began to find out. He was living in Arizona but began making phone calls around the country to various lawyers, real estate agents and construction companies. One phone call was to a young woman named Mi'Khalein. She answered the phone and they began to talk shop. Darien found her charming and intelligent. He was surprised to find out that she was so young. He was interested in dealing with her, and she was likewise interested in dealing with him. They arranged a meeting. Darien wanted to know how he could market his plans to colonize Mars, and Mi'Khalein seemed like just the person to ask. He flew to Texas to meet her.
Needless to say, they really hit it off.
User Reviews
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-03-02 07:10:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
WHAT!!!
OKAY!!!
YEAH!!!!
(my lil' jon impression)
Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-03-02 06:59:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'll +2 it.
Submitted by Rawrg (user info) at 2005-03-02 06:21:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment