Immortals, as we all know, were those humans that pushed the limits beyond where most people stopped. With standard rejuvenation treatments, you can set the physiological clock back to your early 20′s. Basically allowing anyone to live as long as they have access to the treatments. Every hundred years or so you can get rejuvenated back to your 20′s. Sounds great on paper but let me say the logistics have been a nightmare. The population has been on a non-stop growth fest ever since. Luckily there’s plenty of room in the solar system to expand but some think we’ll grow beyond that easily one day.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. The Immortals figured out a way to modify their bodies in such a way they didn’t need treatments anymore. No one has figured this out since they did it, 160 years ago. And as soon as they did they destroyed the technique. At least they claim they did. No one really cares that much about it of course. Two reasons for this. First, with rejuv treatments you can basically live forever anyway. Second, 90% of the immortals are insane.

The 10% that aren’t are revered in the system. They are damn near indestructible. I say near as one just died today. The other 90% live a simple life in a quarantined part of the Serengeti. Absolutely no contact with non-immortals allowed. Whenever they are around any other Sentient they exhibit extreme violent behavior. They think it’s because of the extreme treatment they undertook. Still, wasn’t totally their fault, so they were locked away. They look to be quite happy on the vNet dedicated to them anyway.

Those that don’t have the violent behavior freely move about Sentient space. Alton, the immortal that died today, lived in Australia, his native home. He was traveling to the outer system for some reason or another. His ship hit a violent micro-meteor storm, the EM shield went down. He was just inside the dead zone of Jupiter’s massive radiation fields. The fields fried his computer, he couldn’t get the auxiliary online quick enough. His engines mis-fired at full throttle and he plunged down into Jupiter’s atmosphere. All rather surprising really. A bizarre set of unlikely circumstances all rolled into one.

Everyone is a bit shook up about it. Frankly, I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because nothing is set in stone anymore. The immortals are, were, I don’t know, the only constant in life. They would always be here. And yes, even though we are all technically the same, we really aren’t. We don’t heal like they do, we can die from diseases and a host of other things. Rejuv treatments just deal with aging not everything that can kill ya.

At any rate. School closed early, the kids went out to mourn. To them it’s especially hard. The Immortals are like gods to them in a sense. Of course they aren’t. Technically they are just another member of the Sentient Accords like everyone else. They have no more rights than any of us. Still, they are somehow special. Alton is only the third Immortal to die in 160 years. A sad milestone that has been reached.