The Big Shift. (A futuristic adventure story, introduction)

Three otherwise unrelated factors led to 'The Big Shift', as it came to be known.

The first was caused by a piece of space rock about the size of a grain of sand.

The tiny particle had travelled for milllions of years across the dark reaches of space.. perhaps since the beginning of time itself.

Its velocity, relative to the communications satellite orbiting planet earth was around two hundred thousand miles per hour. Despite its relatively small size, it struck with the force of a tonne of TNT, causing the satellite to explode into a million tiny pieces, some of which had the same effect on nearby satellites.

A chain reaction quickly ensued and it was not long before there was so much space junk orbiting the unusual blue planet that a physical barrier was effectively created, preventing any further satellite launches or space exploration.

That was how the Space Age came to an end. It also meant that all but terrestrial forms of communication became impossible. GPS also became a thing of the past.

..... . . . . ..... ....... .. .. ....... ...... .. ........ .

The second factor was climate change.

It got to the point where it could no longer be ignored or denied. Heatwaves in the winter. Back to back hurricanes. Flooding, fires, droughts. All manner of extreme weather. The days of predictable seasons also became a thing of the past, only to be found in old storybooks.

Unrest and protest became a global constant. People gathered in unprecedented numbers in cities across the world, demanding that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

..... . ....... ..... .... ........ . . . . . ....... ..... ...

The third factor was Quantum Computers.

Coupled with rapidly evolving Artificial Intelligence, the long predicted 'Singularity' - the point at which machine intelligence overtakes and becomes indistinguishable from human intelligence, happened much sooner than expected and took everyone by surprise...

.. . . . .... ... ...... ... ........ ..... ... ..... ... ...... .. ..