The Oort Federation: To the Stars

Kuiper Belt-Ogden Enterprises

KUIPER BELT—OGDEN ENTERPRISESOgden Enterprises was owned by Dr. Daphne O’Bryan (originally from Phoenix Revive Labs) and her friend Kimberly Deveraux. Clinics in virtually every village, town, and city across the planet, and everywhere that humans lived and worked in the Solar System, performed simple electronic uploads that were held in stasis by Ogden in the Kuiper Belt. For a one-time payment that amounted to about one month’s salary anywhere on Earth or elsewhere, anyone could purchase a lifetime right from Ogden to upload to the Kuiper Belt, to be held in stasis, updated from time to time on a personal schedule, and activated upon the individual’s physical death. When activated as an e-person, each upload became a viable, full-fledged citizen of the Oort Federation with all the rights and privileges of every other citizen.

Seeing a huge outflow of tax revenue, countries, and eventually the United Nations, tried to stop or at least tax Ogden’s activities. This proved unsuccessful, and within two years, Ogden became the second wealthiest company in Earth’s history, right behind Phoenix.

Both Daphne and Kimberly had uploaded themselves to active uploads—eDaphne and eKim. The four of them worked and loved together pretty much as one. Dr. Dale Ryan, who had worked with Daphne at Phoenix Revive Labs and now worked at Phoenix, was their frequent companion. The three flesh-and-blood parties shared an elegant loft in downtown Los Angeles. Dale’s upload, eDale, also worked for Phoenix, but was not part of Dale’s intimate group.

“I was just thinking about the attempt by the Geneva police to serve documents on our Geneva clinic,” Kimberly said, her eyes twinkling, as she examined a holodisplay of Earth in Mercator projection showing cities, towns, and villages as a function of the number of uploads performed in each location. By far the largest percentage came from North America and Europe, including Russia, followed by Australia. Virtually every inhabited spot on Earth generated uploads, typically with monthly updates thereafter.

“We solved that problem,” Daphne said with a quiet giggle. “With a handful of hyper-disks, the staff was able to empty the entire complex within five minutes. By the time the police got tired of waiting for the receptionist to return, they found the building totally deserted.” She looked out over the vast expanse of the Ogden Complex. “How many clinics are we operating now?”

Kimberly pulled up another display. “As of an hour ago, we have twenty-thousand-five-hundred-and-seventy-six manned clinics in cities and towns, and we have one-hundred-thousand-three-hundred-forty-three automatic units.” She referred to smaller clinics where incoming clients stepped through a portal to an upload unit in the Ogden Complex spread before them in the Kuiper Belt. “That doesn’t include upload clinics scattered throughout the Solar System,” Kimberly added.

“Can you imagine it?” Daphne said, flipping her red hair away from her face. “We have over twenty-thousand actual employees on Earth and several thousand here in the Kuiper Belt.”

“Money comes in faster than we can spend it,” Kimberly said, crinkling her nose. She pulled up a display, and her blue eyes widened. “According to this, our net worth—yours and mine—is in the hundreds of trillions of phoenixes.” She expressed the amount in phoenixes (Ф), the blockchain digital coin that was nearly universal anywhere in the Solar System except Earth. Even on Earth, however, nations measured the value of their national blockchain currencies against the phoenix.

“Not that long ago,” Daphne said, “I was receiving my doctorate at MIT, and you were a newbie journalist from University of Texas.” She spread her arms wide. “Now, look at us!” She wrapped her arms around Kimberly and kissed her.