Corvus Prime: Escalation

by C. Cougar Sanborn

  'Nice to see you again Doctor,' said Straus.

  'Nice to be back. It was an honor to be selected, …and you can just call me Jack.'

  Straus nodded and Darla continued, by saying, 'We also have Dr. Freidrick Schmitt of the European Space Agency, Dr. Naoko Mashima of the Japan Space Agency, Dr. Cai Soong of the China National Space Administration, and Dr. Rani Chandra of the Indian Space Research Organization.

  'Welcome to all of you. I'm Commodore Mick Strausser. I'll be heading up our little expedition. I would like to say that you were all selected because I could pronounce your names, but that's just a fortunate coincidence.'

  There were a few laughs, and everyone smiled and nodded. Once the room quieted down, Straus continued.

  'Actually however, we're about to embark on a historic venture, and it only seemed right to have representatives from around the globe to represent all of humanity. You were chosen for your outstanding work in your fields. You'll all be reporting to Dr. Strausser here, and she'll get you set up in your labs.'

  'Ok. Darla, what have we got?'

  'I was able to get the ship logs from the Corvan's. It has details of the route they took and where they stopped to refuel, and where the Drones caught up with them,' said Darla.

  'Great. So what's our first stop?'

  'Tau Ceti... about twelve lightyears.'

  'What do we know about that system?'

  'It has a sun very similar to our own. The Corvan sensor data shows that it has five planets, but only one of those is in the habitable zone. There was no outward signs of intelligent life. The system also has a large debris disk, however the DEP concentrations are only about 20% of what we have.'

  'Well, at twelve lightyears, we'll have plenty of fuel to run out there, check it out and get home without having to refuel.'

  'Exactly.'

  'All right then. That should do nicely for a shakedown cruise. Was there anything else?'

  Straus looked around the table, and after seeing no one raise their hand, he said, 'Very well. That'll do for now. Dismissed.'

  It was less than a week later when everyone was attending the launch ceremony for the new ship. It was christened the Discovery, named after both Captain James Cook's ship used to explore the Pacific in the 1700's, and the space shuttle that carried the Hubble Space telescope into orbit which was used to study Tau Ceti.

  Admiral McKay's wife, Marion, pushed the button that activated the mechanism to smash the ceremonial bottle of champagne across the bow. It produced a modest spray of glass and ice, and everyone cheered.

  The next day Straus and Darla escorted Coop and his crew onto the Discovery. Straus dropped them off in her lab, and he continued on to the bridge with a Nat Geo cameraman in tow.

  The newly designed bridge now included a central chair for him to sit in that gave him a view of each of the duty stations. Straus had to admit that it did remind him a bit of the bridge from that TV starship, but he was careful not to mention that to Bernie.

  'Mr. Burke, make ready to get underway. Mr. McGuinness lay in a course for Tau Ceti. Lt. Bell put me on ship wide intercom.'

  Bell pressed a few buttons on her console and nodded to Straus who then said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to embark on the greatest exploration that humanity has ever faced... going beyond our home system and taking our first step into the universe beyond. Our mission is twofold; continue to eliminate the Drone threat, and to explore beyond what we know. Today is a shakedown cruise to Tau Ceti. Tomorrow we continue to push outward. This is just the beginning.'

  The End

  Coming up next: Corvus Prime: Vindication