Starship X-15

by Alan VanMeter

  “Increasing velocity through time-space in three, two, one…”

  At first I feel lighter, and instantly way hotter. The air blowing on me and into my lungs is very cold again. It helps. Suddenly I feel much more weight to my body, and I get cold quick, then the air is warm again.

  “Panel two closed, increasing velocity.” The inter-com says.

  The next two panels closing just increase the extreme discomfort from the hot and cold variation. I’m not the only one groaning, I can’t be.

  “All Star Command personnel prepare for trans-dimensional shifting in T minus ten, nine, eight…

  Oh god I know this is going to hurt…

  It sure does! The gravity gets so light, and I think for sure my body is on fire! The air is almost frozen as I suck it down to cool me, and all over my body I feel the sharp tingle of pain, or hot pain subdued by cooling…maybe… oh crap!

  “We are now in quantum trans-dimensional flight. Please relax and let the temperature stabilize. We will be trans-dimensional for thirty two minutes interior cabin time. No personnel are allowed to exit their seats. This is a very quick flight folks, just bear with it.” The Captain announces.

  I feel lighter than on earth, or even on NET Nine, and my temperature is constant now, though warm. My thoughts go to my beautiful Alicia. Six months! I already miss her. My mom comes to mind too, and Aunt Laura. I feel bad, but I couldn’t stay there a minute longer. I wonder if I will live through this. I hope so, and I hope that I can make a difference. Where am I right now? I must be far from our own solar system. The whole flight takes thirty two minutes… Epsilon Eridanus is ten plus light years from earth, so that means that the outside of this ship will see ten plus years go by in that thirty two minutes of our time. Bloody hell! I wish I was English sometimes. That is Arthur C. Clarke’s fault though, damn I love his work. He was the best. I hope I live up to this beautiful new dream. I will be the best I can be, and boldly so!

  Too soon it seems the Captain’s voice again warns us all.

  “Standby for re-entry into the third temporal dimension. In sixty seconds.”

  They told us this would be a repeat of the same pain, but in reverse as before. It sure is. The process feels like being burnt to a crisp, and then frozen quickly as if to blanch yourself, stopping the cooking process; thankfully. Followed by extreme cold with warm air for us. This process is of course repeated until the stabilization panels are fully open.

  We are allowed to get disconnected from the hoses by the attendants, and to get up and see where we are through the large view ports that have been opened. It is a very orange star that shines here. Like a permanent sunset color on Earth. We are moving towards a shining planet and it doesn’t seem too distant.

  “We will dock with NET Ten orbiting Epsilon Eridanus dash two. A new name will be determined for the colony as soon as they decide what it will be.” One of the attendants announces to us.

  Everyone is almost beyond giddy. Sure it hurt getting here, but damn it seems well worth it.

  “I am going to map and explore the whole planet first thing… that’s what I do.” I hear a middle aged man boasting. “If there is anything worth finding, I’ll be the one who does.”

  “Are you at least going to map the way for the rest of us then?” I ask with a loud voice.

  He looks for me and sees me, then smiles. “But of course I will my lady. Treasure is worthless if it isn’t shared.”

  The crowd cheers, “Aye!”

  I realize right then that we are indeed the new age of sea dogs, and I hope we can behave.

  Within a couple of hours I am shuttled to NET Ten. It is much smaller than NET Nine, being only two hundred meters diameter, and six hundred plus meters in circumference. Yet it can easily accommodate the five hundred new colonists, along with myself. I am segregated into the scientific group, which is smaller than the other groups of professional fields. An attendant takes us to register, and then to our quarters. It is explained that we must complete the indoctrination procedure for living down on Epsilon Eridanus two, before we are allowed on planet. There are rules which must be obeyed, with a death penalty punishment for failure to comply. That makes me very nervous, so I must pay attention.

  It is all about the prime directive, or the Sacred Edict of the Donox Legacy. We shall not interfere with developing species, which means many animals, and even plants, as they are essential to the developing species on the new world. Propagation of certain of our own plant species brought from earth, is allowed, but absolutely no animals from Earth are allowed. Not even bacteria, as we were all irradiated before we left. Now I understand why the vegetarian diet is enforced in Star Command. Because all we can take with us are vegetables. It is that prime directive. It sure makes sense to me, but I hope humans can accept it in the future. I realize that I didn’t even have any meat when I was so shortly back on Earth, who knows if it was for the last time.

  My Commanding Officer sends for me as soon as I unpack. I eagerly follow the orderly to the HQ section of the station. The CO is a man in his mid-thirties I would guess. Handsome and in good shape it looks like. I stand at rigid attention until he tells me to be at ease and to have a seat. He is seated at his desk, busy reading something on his PDS tablet.

  Next he looks at my hands. “You didn’t bring your PDS? The orderly was supposed to tell you to.”

  “No, I apologize sir.”

  “Not your fault Lieutenant Stanley, besides you can get all the down-loads from my assistants up front any time during normal business hours. It’s not a big deal. Oh, welcome to NET Ten. May I see your orders please?”

  I quickly pull the data chip from my uniform pocket and hand it to him. He plugs it into his computer, and verifies the orders.

  “You will initiate, and head the new Stellar Cartography Department here Lieutenant. We will be deploying an orbital observatory within a few weeks, and that will be your new department’s priority project. Until then you will recruit your Cartography team, keep it minimal, because there are too many other things that need to be done, so we can only spare a few bodies. Once you have been indoctrinated, you are free to travel to the colony just established planet side. You can access any personnel records here. NET Ten’s outer hull is just freshly completed, but only about half of the interior sections are complete. Stay out of the construction areas please. There are a lot of personnel aboard right now, but they will be thinning out as the colonists go on down. If you have any questions feel free, or you can usually find me here.” He grins at me and raises his brows expectantly.

  “I take it the project scope and specifications are in the down-loads?”

  “Correct.”

  “Well then, I guess I just need to get my PDS and go from there sir.”

  “Excellent, unless there is anything else, get to it Lieutenant.”

  “Aye, aye sir.” I go back to my quarters for my stupid PDS.

  The rest of the first day I spend in my quarters studying the task I have been given. I will need to recruit an Astronomer, a Cartographer, and an Expediter. My PDS time has been auto set to station/ colony time, and I see it is now after business hours, so all I can do now is make a schedule of project priorities. Though it will help me stay organized.

  After a while I’m still not hungry, thanks to the crazy flight through time, so I elect to hit the sack. Tomorrow is another day, and it will be the first time I have ever woken up to different sun rising. I am over ten light years from Earth, what a trip!

  As soon as the HQ offices are open in the morning I am bugging the clerk for access to the personnel files. He sets me up at a desk with a terminal station and logs me on. I start with the query of people with an Astronomical degree. There are only three, two women and a man.

  “Excuse me Ensign, but how do I get a hold of these people?” I get his attention again.

  “Who do you have there, let’s see.” He gazes at the screen. “This lady here is a no go. See that ‘C’ listed right ther
e.” His finger points to it.

  “Yeah.”

  “That means she is assigned to a critical mission, no way you can get her. This fellow has an ‘I’ meaning he’s assigned to an important mission, but he’s worth a try. Now this gal here doesn’t have a designator, and that means that she is available. In fact she just arrived with the new batch of colonists.”

  “Okay, how do I get in touch with them?”

  “Just let me know which ones you want, and I’ll either have them brought to you, or I’ll set up a meeting for you to go interview them.”

  “Alright, great. Thanks.”

  “Sure thing Lieutenant.”

  After a half an hour I have my list of candidates, and I give them to the Ensign.

  “Whichever way is easiest on Star Command for the interviews is best.”

  “You got it.” He grins.

  The New Hope is headed back to NET Nine tomorrow, I heard that there is another ship of the same class named the Manifest Destiny that will arrive two days after the New Hope heads home. On average there are two ships per week from home, but sometimes just one. All communications between the stars is done the old fashioned way, by mail delivery. I am making a video message to Alicia, and need to get it mailed by the last call for out-going mail tonight. I will also have to send weekly status reports back to the Cart-smith team, to Doctor Clark. I hope he is doing well. His vouching for me really seems to have not only saved my bacon, but has given me this glorious opportunity also. Next time I see him I should thank him in the way he would like the best. Not a sexy idea to me, but he is a very nice older man.

  My first interview is the next morning, damn that Ensign in the personnel office is on the ball. It is the woman with a minor in Astronomy, at the bachelor level, the one who just arrived. Her name is Calli Davenport, and she is fairly young, and attractive by her pictures. The meeting is set up in one of the HQ section’s conference rooms, and when she comes in I see the pictures didn’t lie. She’s a very pretty brunette, short and petite.

  “Please have a seat Ensign Davenport. I’m Lieutenant JG Stanley. I’m initiating a project involved with Stellar Cartography, and I’m looking to put a team together. I see you have your minor in Astronomy, is it a field you have interest in?”

  “Yes, I wanted to major in it, but my parents talked me out of it in favor of Accounting, so I could earn a living.” She shakes her head.

  “Well, I really need someone to take a vested interest in mapping this sector of space. Someone who can take over the whole project when I am re-assigned in six months. Is that some that you can do, and if so is it something you would like to do?”

  “Yes, on both counts Lieutenant!” She beams a very lovely smile.

  “Excellent, welcome to Project Cart-smith. It is classified, but then again, what isn’t here?” We both get a laugh out of that.

  Next I have to go down to the colony to interview a man for the Cartography position. I recognize his picture, he was the man on the New Hope who was boasting about finding treasure. I’m not sure about him, but we’ll see.

  With my pressure suit on, I go to the hub to board the shuttle to the colony. It is nice that we can look out the view ports as we descend. The planet is very much reddish in color, except a band of green life and some small blue areas of water around the equator. Ice covers most of the rest of the planet.

  It takes just a few minutes and we land at the space port. The shuttle taxies into a hangar, and we all disembark into a very orange mid-day sun outside. I’m glad to take the helmet off, and the air tastes dry. I don’t see any clouds in the sky out the hangar door either.

  “This way please.” the flight attendant calls to me.

  We are led to a locker room, and told to store our suits and helmets in a particular storage room.

  In the terminal I find out the last flight to NET Ten is at twenty one hundred hours. I make a note in my PDS, just in case I forget. Now I have to find the Department of Natural Resources. Ah, an information desk, Bingo. The man there tells me to take a cab outside, and they will get me there.

  The cabs are like regular cars, but all electric. It’s nice and far less noisy. I hail the next one.

  “Good day. Where to Lieutenant?”

  “What do you use for money, because I just realized I don’t have any, I’m sorry.”

  “No need Miss, there is no money in Star Command. Since every single colonist here is fleet personnel, no one uses it.” He grins at me. “It’s the great experiment.”

  “Oh, excellent! I need to go to the Department of Natural Resources please.”

  “Will do.” He drives off.

  “So, how many colonists live here now?”

  “Four thousand five hundred give or take. It changes all the time it seems, by about a thousand a week.”

  “Seems like a lot of buildings have been built already.” I notice it’s more like a small metropolis than a town.

  “They keep building too, as fast as they can get the materials. The plan is to have enough quarters and industry for a hundred thousand people to move here, and then we will grow naturally from there.”

  “How will that many people be fed?”

  “That is one of our main priorities actually, and a good part of our resources are spent in agriculture of all kinds.”

  “But not ranching.”

  “Not ranching. Everyone had to agree to a vegetarian life style while we live here. We can go back to Earth to visit in the future, and eat all the meat we want there, but not here.”

  “I get it. I don’t even miss the stuff now. Too much else to do I guess.”

  He chuckles, “You got that right.”

  As he drops me off he gives me his card, and tells me to call him on my PDS when I’m ready to leave. I go in a large two story building and ask for the Cartography section. It is way down a hall towards the rear of the building. As I’m walking a thought strikes me; why doesn’t the gravity feel different from Earth? It feels the same as it did back home. Just like on both of the NET stations. I’ll have to ask someone.

  I go in the door with the correct sign on it, and I hear a loud booming voice, I recognize it instantly as from the man I am looking for.

  “It will just be for a few hours, and no one else is using the sled right now. I don’t see the issue Commander, this is a no brainer. We are here to map and explore, cataloguing everything. It is our mission!”

  “No, we are mapping with orbital scanning. It’s the most accurate way.” A weaker voice answers back.

  I follow the voice down another hall and lean into an office with an open door. The man with the deep voice, named Eric Swenson, is leaning over the desk obviously trying to intimidate the much smaller man behind the desk.

  “Excuse me, I apologize for the interruption, but I am looking for Eric Swenson.” I look right at him.

  “I am he, and who might you be Lieutenant? Oh I remember you. You were with me on the New Hope…yes.”

  “Hi, I’m Devon Stanley, with the Stellar Cartography Department. I’m trying to put a team together, and we need a Cartographer.”

  The small man behind the desk with a uniform denoting the rank of Lieutenant Commander rises from the chair with his brows raised. “You don’t say. Please use my office… make yourself comfortable. I have some things to do. Take as long as you need. He smiles as he leaves.

  “So what’s this about Stellar Cartography? I’ve never charted stars in my life, sounds preposterous! I’m meant to explore new lands, not chart stars, I can’t say that I’m interested at all.” Eric is gruff.

  “Oh, too bad. I just thought an explorer such as you would like to explore more than just one world.”

  “Come again?”

  “You see we will be charting whole solar systems, including all the worlds in them. I am sure that we will need a Cartographer on the ground at many points, as well as charting a few stars along the way.” I grin at him.

  His smile tells me he’s on the
hook. “Well since you put it that way… hell yeah I’m in. Oh, I have to ask for a transfer though.” He gets up and leans out the door, “Hey boss, can I have a transfer?” he yells.

  “Yes! Oh certainly…yes!” Comes the reply.

  Lastly I need an Expediter; that will be tricky. How the hell do I find someone who can get things done? Wait… I know who would be perfect. The Ensign at HQ on NET Ten. So I take my team back up with me as our new Department will be stationed there.

  I ask the Ensign at HQ, and he laughs at me.

  “Sorry Lieutenant, but I have a ‘C’ by my name, besides the Captain would never let me go.”

  Just then the Captain walks by, back towards his office. “Don’t be so sure of that Ensign.” He booms, and then looks at me, “You can’t have him.” He continues to his office.

  I laugh, the man is a character alright.

  “Look, a fresh Admin Assistant checked in with your group. She is looking for a home, and someone is going to snatch her up. If you sign her on to your team, let me have her for two weeks, and I promise you you’ll have your Expediter.”

  “Deal.” I nod.

  “In the meantime I procured one of the new office areas that were just finished, for your team.”

  “Thanks Ensign, I really appreciate that.”

  “Just let me know if you need anything.” He smiles.

  I know I have to keep Eric busy, and interested, so the next day I have him start on planning an exploration mission to map all the planets and moons in the Epsilon Eridanus system, ones that haven’t been fully charted yet. At the same time I tell him to include taking gravitational measurements at key points that we will determine later.

  Calli and I then go about setting up our office, before we sit down and make a grand-scale project list with the calibration and operation of the projected orbital telescope as priority. Calli is smart, and she really paid attention in her Astronomy classes. She tells me she has also enrolled in the colony college to get her masters with Astronomy as her major. I think she will run this department well, and note such in my weekly progress report.