Note

This is a draft of the first chapter of a new book I’m writing (space exploration / nomad MC / mystery). I’ll keep publishing drafts of chapters here, but not all (naturally). Feel free to provide any feed

He took the syringe and examined the contents. Although he had no clue what the substance will do to his body and mind, he trusted it completely…

Ding! Ding! Ding! Mark’s alarm clock never failed to surprise with his perfectly calibrated wake-up times computed by a patent-pending AI algorithm.

It was 5:17 AM on a chilly Saturday morning in November and Mark felt as refreshed as ever! It was finally the day he was looking forward to since he was a little boy: the day he would start working on Ground Station One.

He jumped out of bed, it was pitch black – but it was not unusual for him to keep his blinds closed all day long – darkness offered him safety and provided him what he needed to be focused. A glimpse at the digital clock on his desk acknowledged the date: 02/11/2025 and brought a big reassuring smile to his face. After brushing his teeth and taking a cup of freshly brewed coffee from the kitchen counter, he sat down on his comfy chair and fired up his MacBook: shivers went down his spine.

“SpaceX announces the final timeline estimate of the RTS mission: in less than one year, anybody can launch their projects to outer space at a fraction of the cost thanks to the novel Rideshare To Space program. The first launch is set to take place on the first of November 2026. Thousands of space enthusiasts are anxiously waiting for the official ticket sale on the company’s website…”

Music to his ears- he left the live stream of the event open overnight so that he would be greeted by the great news first thing in the morning. Of course, he would not be one of the people refreshing SpaceX’s website every second until the tickets are available – he created not one, but 5 different scripts that are set up to purchase a ticket for him one second after they’re live.

The phone rang, but not the one he expected:

“Hello?”

“Mark Reynolds?”

“Who’s this?”

“It’s George Antonio, the landlord. Sorry, Mark, I changed my phone plan… this 5G stuff – you need to see the speeds!”

Mark used 5G 5 years ago when he found one of the first devices supporting it on the Dark Web. George was always talking much… way too much.

“I’ll look into it, George! I transferred my last month’s rent 3 days ago, you should’ve received it – any problems?”

“No worries, Mark, I got the transfer yesterday, all good. I just wanted to tell you that the new guy that will live there, Tom, works at the phone company, he hooked me up with this new plan, will be there tomorrow at 9, please make sure you leave the keys in the postal box.”

“Sure, George, thank you!”

“Alright, Mark, wish you all the best!”

Mike’s small single-bedroom apartment was nearly empty by now. His newly purchased RV arrived one week earlier than expected, so he had more than enough time to move his things and set everything up in Sojourner, named after the first rover sent to Mars by NASA in 1997.

Time was of the essence if Mark wanted to finish his project in time, so he quickly checked the status of his ticket scraping scripts.

2025/11/02 05:43:33.488 – obtaining authentication header…

2025/11/02 05:43:35.215 – header obtained!

2025/11:02 05:43:35.504 – attempting to purchase ticket…

2025:11/02 05:47:11.212 – ticket purchase failed: purchasing blocked due to unavailability of the vendor. Retrying in 500ms….

Why would SpaceX start the sale so early in the morning? He must be patient – but it’s harder than he imagined.

It was time for him to get going: he packed the toothbrush from the tiny bathroom, along with the toothpaste and his mouthwash into a sealable plastic bag and carefully placed them in the opened suitcase on the floor. 

“That’s probably it…”

He went to the kitchen and made sure all electronics are closed, gulped the coffee out of the glass cup – he’s going to miss that cup once on the road – placed it in the dishwasher, put on his sneakers, and took a deep breath.

“That’s it, tiny apartment: we had great times together, but now it’s time for me to move on.”

Just when he was ready to close the lid of his laptop, the black terminal window started scrolling:

2025/11/02 06:28:11.235 – attempting to purchase ticket…

2025/11/02 06:28:11.481 – [!!!] ticket purchase complete! Reference #: RTS52801A88J. Have a nice ride to space!

2025/11/02 06:28:11.491 – Sending shut-down command to slave scripts…

2025/11/02 06:28:11.700 – Shut down confirmed 4/4!

2025/11/02 06:28:11.921 – Shutting down…

“Finally!”

His phone screen lit up in the dark room, shedding a bright blue light on the white, dark ceiling. The email notification was the proof that he was now a proud owner of a Rideshare To Space ticket, reference RTS52801A88J. His dreams were about to become a reality. He took his iPhone and stuffed it into his jeans, along with the charger cable from the wall. Next was his laptop: he carefully closed the lid and placed it in the triple-layered carrying bag, along with the charger and the USB adapter.

He threw one last glance over the apartment and deeply inhaled the cool morning air mixed with the fragrance of freshly brewed coffee from earlier.

“It’s time to go!”

With the bag in one hand and the suitcase in another, he exited the apartment and locked the door, leaving the key in the postal box as instructed by George, his ex-landlord. He took the elevator 5 floors down, to the underground parking area of the building – Sojourner was patiently waiting for him, shining white like the morning star amongst his neighbor’s black sedans.

Sojourner was big, perhaps on par with his apartment – no wonder it cost him a third of his life’s savings. 11 meters long and 3 meters high, the vehicle rocked all options the manufacturer had to offer: from leather seats to a fully equipped kitchen and luxurious bathroom. More important for Mark, the electronics of the car were really well designed, with a huge internal battery that should give him around 10 days of uninterrupted power without the engine or the generator running.

It was the perfect vehicle for his grand plan: he would spend the next 3 to 4 years traveling the world in pursuit of his dream.

He opened the driver’s door and he was immediately greeted by warm, yellow lights, slowly fading in from hidden places in the ceiling. He went into the back and placed the suitcase in the drawer already filled with his old T-shirts and jeans. He pulled the laptop out of the case and fired it up only to check SpaceX’s Twitter account.

“Folks, all RTS tickets have been sold – our team has started the preparation for the 42 lucky engineers that will have the chance to launch their creation into space”

Happy about what he read, he closed back the lid and jumped on the driver’s seat. Next stop: the mountains! He spent 2 months researching the best place to camp during the time he worked on Lumineer. He looked for a place not very far from a big city, but remote enough so that the signal interference would be minimal. He found an abandoned RV park about 80km away from his hometown, surrounded by mountains on one side and a big lake on the other, thus providing his beloved fresh mountain air and the proximity to familiar surroundings.

He touched the dashboard with his NFC key and the gasoline engine started to roar. Immediately, the dashboard lit up with the previously configured list of telemetry he was most interested in the fuel level, battery level, real-time power consumption, fuel consumption estimate when idle, and the directions to the given destination. He looked back one last time and started his drive to the camp.

Because he spent 1 year planning everything out, he was already stocked with his favorite food: instant noodles, enough Coke to last him at least 2 months, frozen veggies, beef and chicken, and a dozen of emergency MREs he ordered online. However, he still felt like celebrating, so he parked Sojourner in a McDonald’s parking lot and bought his favorite Big Mac menu with Coke and fries. He thought it would make sense to eat in so that he wouldn’t have to smell the fries during his drive.

Once done, he went back to the RV and proceeded onwards to Lake Akai, his home for the years to come. As expected, the park was empty, with only a self-pay terminal and some electricity and water stations to connect Sojourner to. He purchased 6 months’ worth of credits, parked his RV in the farthest corner of the lot, and stopped the engine. After connecting the cables to the terminal, he started to feel the chilly mountain air of the morning. It was 10:30 AM, but November in the area felt like full-on winter with temperatures as low as -18 degrees Celsius midday.

He went back inside, started the RV’s idle program that provided power to the outlets, and set the inside temperature to 24 degrees Celsius. Vents are almost silent, that’s good for his focus.

He changed his clothes to his space-themed pajamas, sat on the sofa in the forward part of the RV’s liveable space, plugged in his laptop, and fired up the Excel sheet he had worked so hard on during the past year.

While he knew the contents of the file very well, he wanted to double-check the Parts sheet. Here, he highlighted with green the rows representing the parts that have arrived and are waiting for him in the big storage cabinet in the back of Sojourner. The spreadsheet gave away a vast number of vividly colored cells, each one describing a part of the rover he was about to start building.

He made sure he was equipped with what he needed, so he decided to embrace the celebratory spirit of the day by brewing another coffee and watching Netflix all afternoon. The familiar smell of coffee filled the warm vehicle and fogged the clear windows looking upon the cold spiked horizon. As the sun went down, he popped open a bottle of his favorite bourbon whiskey, poured himself a glass, got in his blue robe,  exited the RV, and glanced at the starry sky. Drinking the cold air and sipping the whiskey, he pulled a small case out of the robe’s pockets: it was his vaping device. Bitter nuts and sweet honey vapors mixed with the onset mountain fog as his mind drifted for the rest of the glass.