Dive Into The Beautiful Jupiter
By: Nahid Hossain Jibon
Tags: Mars, Science Fiction, Jupiter, Earth, Corruption

Civilization never stops growing. At first, humans lived in caves. Then they concord the lands and the seas. But they always had a curious look towards the sky. Then humans learned to fly with the help of airplanes. But even that could not contain their hearts. The more they looked deep into the sky, the more they wanted to grasp and feel all of the things inside their hands. From the planets they could see to the stars that emitted light, they wanted to just take a closer look at it. They wanted to praise its beauty not just with a lens between them, but upfront. And this dream of humankind came a bit true when they colonized mars. After sending rockets after rockets filled with men and women and supplies to Mars, within just 30years a million people were walking across that red, once a dead planet.

It is such curiosity and ambition that pushed mankind for prosperity. But prosperity comes at a cost. When the most ambitious feats are achieved when there is nothing that one wants more, the same man mad for excellence either falls into despair or loses control over greed. He wants more and wants everything. No matter that he needs it or not, he must achieve it.

After the United Government announced that all the citizens whether they work or not will receive a monthly allowance of 10,000 Unos everyone went crazy. Some stopped working while others started to pursue their hobbies. Garden fruits and amateur paintings became common on the Enet to buy. Everything was delivered either via drones or robots. People willing to do something earned extra and people not willing to do anything just lived their simple lives without any worries. But not everything went as smoothly as everything. People got everything right at their homes and because of the worsening climate condition, fewer people went to actual social gatherings and preferred Eline interactions.

But humans are social creatures. They can’t go without the touch of others. As more people for one reason or another were getting isolated from society, their mental health started to degrade, they became depressed and suicidal. And as the suicide rate rose, the government started anti-suicide campaigns and programs to reduce the suicide rate. The government made suicide illegal and penalized their family members by curbing their monthly allowance. Everyone was asked to install special AI cameras in their homes that would be able to detect whether a person was suicidal and their chances of committing suicide. The cameras than would alert the police to stop their attempt and give support. But questions were raised as most of the time police were too late to stop them. One incident even sparked a controversy when a police officer in an operation to stop suicide, killed the victim while shooting at her with a stun gun.

As more and more people became suicidal they started to protest against the actions of the UG. “Our freedom, our choice,’’ they said. “Legalize euthanasia and suicide.” “We can choose our own future.” In this chaos and pressure, the new UG government was elected. They supported the minorities’ decision to choose their own fate. So they allowed suicide. And a new era of suicidals began.

Greedy private companies saw this as an opportunity for profit. They launched new drugs to give the suicides' a painless ending process. The drugs would cut off the pain receptors and would give them a surreal experience that lasted about 5minutes. In the meantime, if someone suffocated they won’t sense it, if they bled out they won’t feel it. They would only experience 5minutes of surreal happiness and slowly go into the darkness as they bled out or suffocated. Some companies even sponsored suicide packages where they helped the customers to die in various places and in various ways. Among the packages, most trending was sky dying, where people would jump from planes without parachutes, and at the last 5minutes drugs would be inserted into them letting them die a painless death with the impact. Companies like these while promoting their product also promoted suicide. But the promotion of suicide was illegal. So companies hired AI marketing companies to target suicidal people to choose their package of heavenly death. As a result, people who were suicidal but were in a dilemma were more likely to commit suicide than live their life as they were constantly reminded of the act. As more and more people died companies signed deals with robots and AI manufacturing companies to automate jobs.

Akram and his best friend were environmental activists. They were protesting against the worsening environment of the earth. Lightning strikes became so common on earth that one could die in a lightning strike rather than in a car crash. But Akram’s best friend recently died when a car crashed into his apartment. The driver was asleep, the cooling mechanism failed, magnetic flux was decreasing which led the car to lose altitude and crash on the 13th floor of the building. Akram's friend was just unlucky but Akram was still feeling guilty as he himself recommended that apartment to his friend. He was depressed. He did not go to his regular job as a result he was replaced by an AI. He did not talk to people. And soon suicidal advertisements were flooding his Enet. One night just before he was about to close his eyes, a certain ad picked his curiosity.

A new company, Skybed, started a marketing campaign of committing suicide on other planets which were not colonized such as Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. Among the planets, Jupiter the gas giant were advertised to be the most beautiful experience to fall into. He saw more than 100 people signed up for the dive. Akram decided his fate in his drowsy eyes. He clicked the ad, chose Jupitar, and went to sleep participating in the batch which would be going the next day.

The next day Akram did not wake up in his own bed but in a starship that was zooming past Mars orbit and headed for Jupiter. Akram asked the robot attendees what was happening. They explained that he had chosen today’s date so they acted accordingly. Akram seeing no choice, let the procedure continue. They assured the procedure would be painless and after 10minutes into the dive, the pain killer drug would be injected. Giving him a total of 15 minutes of diving.

Time to dive. The starship entered Jupiter’s orbit. Akram's heart was pounding. If things went wrong the only hope was the 1km cable that was attached to him for the late change of mind. Though his heart seemed about to burst, his eyes remained open out of curiosity. Then Akram jumped out of the ship. Quickly gaining speed suddenly something was not feeling right. The 1km cable seems to be just 100m. Looking back he saw the starship was not waiting for his cancellation. Fear consumed his heart. Upon close inspection he found the suit to be of cheap material which was not enough to handle Jupiter's immense pressure and gravity.

10 minutes had passed. He was inside Jupiter’s thick atmosphere. It was slowly getting dark as the sunlight was being blocked by the gases. The only beautiful scenery was the starship leaving. Now inside Jupiter, it was not beautiful at all. He was more concerned with the pain killer drug which then he found to be missing. They scammed him. The pressure was getting unbearable. Thinking he was going to die a painful death, he closed his eyes.

And with a flash of light, everything stopped. There was no pressure, no gravity, no pain. It seemed it was just a simulation. The company worked with the Mars Government which had an anti-suicide ideology and gave the people who signed up a terrible experience so that they do not commit suicide. They explained everything to him and how the UG officials profited from the suicide companies' donations, how they let the earth slowly die to make money off of sending people to Mars. Akram somehow felt relief. He was thankful to them. But then knowing everything, it was time for him to again protest against the United Government of Earth.