The Search for FTL

by Ted Iverson

  Mission to the Stars

  Book One:

  The Search for FTL

  Ted Iverson

  First edition: Copyright… iUniverse, Inc. 2009

  Second edition: Copyright… Ted Iverson 2013

  Third edition: Copyright… Ted Iverson 2018

  All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are the products of the author’s imagination or have been fictionalized.

  Novels by Ted Iverson

  Mission to the Stars series

  Book One... The Search for FTL

  Book Two... Hostile Takeover

  Book Three... Arbitration

  First Endeavors: short stories

  Without the ongoing support of my family and friends, this edition would not be possible. Special thanks to my wife, Joanne, who allows me to chase the dream.

  My wish to make my first novel the best it could be would also not have been possible without my editor, Lisa Roettger of Watchword Editing. Lisa, collaborating with you on this edition has been a great learning experience. I am looking forward to our future endeavors!

  As always, thank you, Shawn, for your formatting prowess. And thanks to Prianka for the great cover work.

  Katrina, I will be forever grateful for your hours of hard work and dedication on previous releases. Good friends are hard to come by.

  “We live in an extraordinary age! We are set irrevocably, I believe, on a path that will take us to the stars.”

  CARL SAGAN

  This book was written for all those who dream and believe that we will someday reach that path.

  Prologue

  The StarDancer cut through the vastness of space as easily as a Tall Ship cuts through calm ocean waters. Its speed and magnetic pulses left the stars and space surrounding it swirling in a multitude of colors. Jeff Bindl turned toward his wife, Jennifer, strapped into the copilot’s seat next to him.

  “Beautiful sound, isn’t it?”

  He was referring to the magna drives’ rotations humming in concert with each other, as if they were performing a beautiful concerto.

  “Every time!” she beamed.

  Jennifer enacted a series of intricate moves on the holopanel in front of them: pushing buttons and touching keypads. With every touch, the panel gave a slow plasma ripple, as if it were water. To Jeff, each movement his wife made harmonized with the drives. “Approaching mark point.”

  This being the first manned flight at faster-than-light speed, Jeff wanted to be especially careful that everything was done right. He reached down and pulled out a laminated checklist detailing all that needed to be done before reaching FTL speed.His heart raced as he confidently called out the checks.

  “Forward and rear obstruction sensors?”

  “Online,” Jennifer excitedly replied.

  “Nav map system?”

  “Online.”

  “Magnetic field sensors?”

  “Online.”

  “Field locations?”

  “Locked.”

  “Plasmat and conventional engines?”

  “All engines go.”

  “Magna drives one through three?”

  “Operating.”

  The checks continued. Finally Jeff called out, “Engage auto magna drives on my mark.”

  Drawing a deep breath, Jennifer reached down with her left hand and flicked a toggle switch. Slowly she moved her hand behind it and gently rested two fingers on a set of plasma buttons. A moment later she heard her husband’s voice for the last time.

  “Mark!” he barked out.

  She pressed the buttons simultaneously.

  The energy shield protecting the ship fluctuated, then failed. Alarms began echoing throughout the cabin. As she rapidly tried to diagnose the problem, Jennifer threw a horrified glance at her husband, which he never saw. Nothing she was doing seemed to work. In that moment, she knew it was too late.

  As the ship accelerated, the circular magna drives faltered and shifted from their rhythmic circular motion to the up and down motion of pistons in conventional engines. The StarDancer hesitated, and the swirling colors that had engulfed the ship dissipated instantly. The ship began skipping, as if it were a stone tossed across a placid lake. The ship’s front section twisted in ways it was not designed to handle, while the rear of the ship stayed level and unmoving, as if in a different dimension.

  Jeff had no time to react, only to think This is wrong on every level. His head was spinning; he couldn’t even move to see if Jennifer was still there beside him.

  She wasn’t. A hole about four feet in diameter had opened in the bulkhead to her right. In an instant she had vanished into the vast vacuum of space.

  With the ship still bucking, twisting, turning, and rapidly disintegrating around him, Jeff slipped into an altered state. Hallucinating, he saw his wife’s engaging smile; she was clutching a yellow rose. Was that the one he had given her on their first date? He saw Alec at nine years old, lying on a grassy hill next to him. Blinking, he envisioned his wife on a hospital bed holding their newly-born twin sons, Ty and Orion. With an internal blink, he saw the birth of his youngest, Zach. Then the visions were gone.

  He came back to consciousness for a brief moment. Still strapped in his pilot’s seat, he fought the blackness enveloping him. He knew his life was ending. Their failed mission would now be in the hands of their four sons. Could they continue? Would they want to continue? In his final moments he prayed that they would. Then he saw nothing.

  It was done. No great ball of fire burst from the rupturing fuel and cryogenic tanks. No white-hot flames engulfed the shattered cockpit. Just silence and a trail of debris: frozen fluids and vapor spreading over a half a light year long.

  The night air was crisp and cool; not a cloud hung in the sky. The stars were shining as brightly as they ever had as a young boy gazed with wonder through a telescope. Then he moved his head away from the eyepiece and just stared at the clear night sky. He and his father had done this many times before, but tonight the boy was even more inquisitive than usual. “Dad, tell me again how we can travel up there,” he said, his small arm motioning toward the heavens, his head never moving.

  Seated on the small slope, his father watched and smiled, and for a moment he pondered the past. So much had happened. Coming out of his daydream, he said, “Well, son, come over and sit down.” He patted the soft green grass beside him and motioned the boy over. The young boy excitedly skipped over to his father and took a seat close to him.

  Together they lay back on the slight incline of the hill and looked up at the distant stars. The wind began blowing softly, bending the long blades of grass. His father closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. Then, opening his eyes as he exhaled, he began, “Do you remember me explaining to you that when you look up to the stars what you are seeing is the past?”

  “Yeah, Dad. The light from the star has to travel from there to here, so the light we see happened thousands, maybe millions, of years ago. Right?”

  The boy’s father smiled at the answer. Then the smile disappeared and was replaced with a distant, solemn look. He began the story: “This, son, is a story about the past and future. In the days before star travel, that is, in the days before it was conceivable to cross the endless expanse to journey to even our closest neighbor in the heavens, there were those who didn’t know it was impossible…”

  ALEC

  Twenty
-eight-year-old Alec Bindl was a tall, muscular young man who resided in Chicago. The oldest of the four sons, he had always taken a different path than his brothers. He was as headstrong as his father and his father’s father; stubbornness, it seemed was in his blood. He had never backed away from a confrontation, not when he was in grade school, not in high school, and not even when his parents were on the other side of the disagreement. His father had wanted him to join the family business, but Alec’s heart had always been set on law enforcement. Even so, he felt a small trace of guilt for not joining Space Tech. But his quick rise through the ranks of his job proved he’d made the right career choice. Now, even if he’d wanted to clear the air with his parents, it was too late. They were gone.

  It was one p.m. and Alec was seated aboard the corporate shuttle that had been sent to pick him up. He closed his eyes and remembered the call from Aunt Peggy. The news had first reached him five hours ago, but he could still feel the numbness wash over him as he thought of the conversation.

  “Alec, it’s Aunt Peggy. I…I don’t know where to start.” She was sobbing almost uncontrollably. “I have terrible news for you. There’s been a horrible accident involving your parents. They were attempting to reach FTL speed when their ship was lost. Alec, they’re gone. Your mom and dad are dead. I’m so sorry.” Her crying continued.

  His hand ruffled through his short brown hair, and his eyes teared. Then his hand fell, and he just sat there stunned. The rest of the conversation was lost in a haze. He only vaguely remembered his aunt telling him she would stay with them at his parents’ home, and him telling her that he should be the one to call his brothers; it was his responsibility. Aunt Peggy had agreed, except she would tell Ty because he was home from college for the weekend. Alec had found himself simply nodding in agreement.

  Now, as he sat in the shuttle, feelings of guilt rose from not being part of the family business. At the same time, his suspicions were aroused. Instinctively, he felt things were not right. What had happened up there? He knew that he’d have to find out every last detail, even if it meant never going back to his home and to the work he loved.

  ORION

  Concentrating on schoolwork had been priority one for Orion. Partying and fun weren’t going to get him his degree or the position in Space Tech that he’d always dreamed of. Staying at school over the weekend in order to study was par for the course for him—even this weekend when his brother abruptly left for home.

  He was so close to graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that he could taste it. Ever since he was little, he’d wanted to work for Space Tech and had wanted to run the research and development department on the Orbital Lab and Luna Base. He knew he wouldn’t just jump right into the job; he’d have to put in years of actual on-the-job training, but he was finally going to begin that training.

  His five-foot nine-inch frame rose from the bed. He stretched, then shook his head to clear away the night’s sleep. His hair was tousled from sleep, making him look like a shaggy dog. He made his way out onto the balcony of his apartment to watch the sun rise, squinting his blue eyes at the sun’s brightness.

  He wondered why Ty had made the decision to head home this weekend. Ty had told him that he couldn’t explain it and had then just rushed out the door, pack in hand. Was it some premonition or gut feeling? Ty had had those before and, for the most part, they seemed to be right on the money. But premonition of what? Orion pushed the thought out of his head and headed back into the apartment for some breakfast.

  As Orion ate, he glanced at the clock. 8:45? On a Saturday? What in the world am I doing up?

  Breakfast finished, Orion decided to log onto the holonet. As he did so, he marveled at all the advances in technology. The holonet was just like the old internet except now there was no screen; instead images were projected up through a small hole in a pad, and were shown in holograms, 3D images that could be turned to be examined from any direction.

  “Okay, let’s see what’s happening back home,” he said aloud.

  Home was Rockford, a city in northern Illinois. It had once been a struggling industrial, blue-collar town. That was before his grandfather had decided that he shouldn’t abandon his hometown. Instead of abandoning it, he chose to make it Space Tech’s home, bringing scores of jobs, not just at the complex, but at every level of the city. After the corporate headquarters had been completed, Space Tech was allowed to integrate its spaceport with the Chicago Rockford International Airport. This was the beginning of the city’s rebirth.

  Orion tapped the keys on the holopad, and the Star Topology newspaper popped up. He’d been browsing for about fifteen minutes when a call came in on the holopad. He tapped a button on it, never taking an eye off the image of the newspaper hovering in front of him.

  “Orion...,” a shaky voice spoke. “Orion, it’s…it’s Alec.”

  The agony in the voice had Orion instantly whipping his head toward the image. He saw the disheveled image of his older brother. His heart stopped momentarily, and his stomach dropped. “Alec, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”

  “Aunt Peggy just called. Mom and Dad… they’re gone.” Tears streamed down Alec’s face and his head drooped, as if he couldn’t face Orion. “They’re gone, an accident of some sort. Don’t know all the details, but they’re… they’re dead.”

  “They’ve sent a shuttle for me. I’ll be home by mid-afternoon. Sent one for you too; you’ll be picked up by a hover pretty soon and it’ll take you to the spaceport. I… I gotta go; see you soon.”

  With that, the image disappeared, and Orion’s blank face stared into thin air. His body shook uncontrollably, but he managed to stand and head into the bedroom to gather some belongings. As he passed a photo of his parents, he began to weep.

  TY

  Ty was the second of the middle brothers and was Orion’s fraternal twin. He was the more outgoing of the two: able to speak to crowds with eloquence and ease. Ty’s dream was to follow his father’s footsteps and move into Space Tech’s top position. A strange feeling had brought Ty home to Rockford that weekend and had left a pit in his stomach that had lasted the whole trip. He arrived late and slipped quietly into the house and up to his room, where he fell quickly into an unsettled sleep.

  Early the next morning, he awoke to see Aunt Peggy’s grim face and red eyes. “Ty, wake up, son.”

  Ty struggled to sit up. His short, sandy hair stood on end, and sleep had formed in the corners of his eyes. Ty rubbed it out with a fist and looked up at her. He could tell she’d been crying for some time. Her shaky voice made his heart start pounding rapidly.

  “Ty, I know you got in late, but I need to talk to you about something.” She cleared her throat as best she could. Her tears began again, and Ty now knew whatever she had to say wasn’t going to be good news.

  “You and Orion were aware of your parents’ FTL project, right?” Ty nodded, then reached for his glasses. “Well, they launched yesterday,” she managed to get out.

  He was shocked at the news, then elated. Then he realized there was more to what she had to say. “They won’t be coming home, Ty. They’re dead. The ship just... disappeared. We think it disintegrated, but we just don’t have all the facts yet.” Tears streamed down her face, and her hand attempted to stop the flow and wipe them dry.

  “Dead?” The word was spoken, but certainly couldn’t have come from him.

  “No, Aunt Peggy, you must be wrong. Dad would’ve told me they were going up. He would’ve told me they were…” His voice trailed off into sobs.

  ZACH

  It was early on Saturday morning, and Zach lay on his bunk, arms folded behind his head. The artificial gravity drives nearby were humming softly. Most people wouldn’t have even noticed them, but Zach Bindl wasn’t just anyone. He was the son of the lab’s creators, and he was tuned in to the nuances of every part, every noise.

  At eighteen, he was the youngest of the four Bindl brothers and was just getting ready to graduate high s
chool. Zach was proud to be attending school on Space Tech’s Orbital Lab. It was what he’d wanted to do for as long as he could remember, and the Lab was where he wanted to be.

  Zach was the wild one of the boys. There was the time when, at age seven, he’d stowed away on the first plasmat flight to the Orbital Lab. And nobody could forget the time he’d “borrowed” a hover from Space Tech’s testing facility. His parents hadn’t been happy about that one either. But that was his nature, and most had come to accept it.

  A frown ran across his face as he realized this weekend would be one of his last on the Lab before he graduated and had to take the flight back to Earth and college. What would college mean for him? At eighteen, he wasn’t far behind his father, in that he was already a notable inventor. A good number of Space Tech’s innovations were now either his or were something he had helped design. A fact the entire family was proud of.

  Today, Zach was going to continue working on one of his inventions: tech goggles, an-off-the-wall idea he’d had after watching some ancient spy film.

  His thoughts were disturbed by the familiar crackle of his wall com.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  “Zach, Captain Powers here. Could you please meet me in my quarters immediately? You’ll need to bring a packed duffle.”

  “Yes, sir, right away. Give me about ten minutes.”

  He could tell that the captain’s voice wasn’t quite right.

  He hopped out of his rack thinking, Packed duffle, that’s never a good phrase.

  Zach threw some belongings into his bag, ran a comb through his spiked hair, and walked to the hatch. He placed his hand into a depression in the wall and into what looked like a bluish-green gel. It engulfed his hand. When he removed his hand, the substance appeared to drip off slowly, leaving his hand completely dry. Then the hatch slid open. Momentarily forgetting his unease, Zach thought again that the VGID, the Virtual Gel Identification Device was impressive. He headed down the narrow corridor toward the captain’s quarters.