“Aye sir” replied Logan.
Logan immediately gave the orders to the flight crew he had stationed at the hatch to seal it and lock it down. After he had set up the comlink, he gave Inman the signal.
“Before we separate segment three from the rest of the orbiter there are a couple of things you need to know that are going to bring you a little of anxiety. First, we are taking the shuttle with us.”
That announcement caused a little frustration in segment three, but they all realized mission control maintained a small fleet of shuttles.
“This next bit of news is going to be a little more disturbing. Mission control has become very political ever since our charter changed from space travel to research orbiter. The reality is that the orbiter's mission was about to be terminated within the next year or so. To some of you that will come as no surprise and possibly even good news.
What is not known to you is that I, Dr. Bennett, and Dr. Reeder have set out on this exploratory mission without permission. We are in effect commandeering the orbiter. When we move the shell back from your segment, you will again be able to communicate with mission control and things will settle down for you.”
Cerro now understood, he knew why he was not able to communicate with mission control, he now knew he had been the odd man out, kept in the dark and worst of all he was not trusted.
“This is goodbye for now; we will see you soon.” Inman clicked off the comlink and motioned to Logan to order the segment separation procedure to begin.
The separation was uneventful, and soon segment three of the orbiter was once again on its own. To the astonishment of the crew, the other two segments disappeared before their eyes as the shell rolled back. In reality, the separation process took several days, but to the people aboard segment three it was instantaneous.
Bennett and Reeder worked for weeks to stabilize relationships with their colleagues; it was rough going at first. Scientists are loyal, hard working types, so the news that they were a part of a vast conspiracy that just pulled off the greatest heist of all time was unnerving, to say the least. The lure of FTL space exploration, unlimited budget (money was now irrelevant) and more importantly to most of them, no more government reporting and unavoidable meddling created a perfect storm they were all willing to join.
Inman’s work with his men was short and sweet, they had all come to respect Inman as their leader, and any one of them would take a bullet for him, except maybe Cerro.
Cerro was a little tricky to win over, his motives different, he wanted position and power. Inman had to give into Cerro’s power lust to get his support. To keep him at bay Inman gave Cerro permission to command a brand new security force. The new security force would have a responsibility to develop a civilian police department, fire department and weapons security forces. The agreement met Cerro’s need to be important, and in fact, none of these functions currently existed which excited Cerro to the point of accepting his new role.
Segment one and two is not a fitting name for the new ship; she needed a new name, one fitting of a commandeered vessel. Inman initially thought about using a pirate name, but it would just perpetuate the ill feelings some of the crew had. Inman landed on the name Constellation, the name of the second ship built for the US Navy. Of course, the name was fitting for a ship that would lead the way to explore beyond the constellations.
The real work of getting the Constellation ready for deep space travel began three months after the separation, of course to those on the orbiter and Earth no time had passed at all.
Inman wanted to break orbit as soon as it was practical if nothing else it would put the weary crew on notice; “we are heading for the stars.”
Reeder was a little nervous that firing thrusters could cause damage to the vessel. She had to work with Bennett to get the inertial damping system working within the other shell. Even a short burst would propel Connie into bone jarring motion.
Three and a half months after the separation all systems were in place. Inman could now use the antigravity drive (an adaptation of the gravity shell generator) to maneuver the Connie into position to fire the rear thrusters.
“Push us away Logan” commanded Inman.
“Aye sir” Logan responded.
“Nice and easy, we have no idea what to expect” commanded Inman.
The Connie threw everyone around with one big jolt, then it was over, the crew could see the movement away from the orbiter, but there was no feeling of movement as they rapidly created space between them and the orbiter. Another small adjustment of the controls and the ship jolted again.
“Hold on everyone” Inman blasted over the PA system, “sorry for the rough ride, were working out the bugs in the controls. I’ll give you some warning before we attempt another maneuver.”
“Bennett, what was that” came a startled plea from Inman.
“Sorry sir, we just need some real world testing to see how the controls are going to react” replied Bennett.
“We have come to a stop, and we have our course set in, can we kick in the thrusters” Inman queries.
“The thrusters are another system, the maneuvering you just did was with the antigravity system, forward motion will be the thrusters, I recommend the smallest burst possible so we can see how the inertial dampeners work now. As soon as things settle down we can get to work on the maneuvering thruster dampeners” replied Bennett.
“We are going to ignite the thrusters and give them a short burst ladies and gentlemen, please secure your harness to something” Inman instructed.
“ We need to take this nice, and slow Logan” instructed Inman
“Aye sir, I have them set for a microburst” replied Logan.
“Let it rip” commanded Inman.
The ship shuttered slightly, but the ship's response was almost unnoticeable as it propelled the ship forward.
“Go ahead and try it again” Bennett instructed, “give me a larger burst this time, I made a couple of adjustments, let’s see how she responds.”
“You heard the man Logan” commanded Inman.
Aaron Logan instructed the thrusters to burst for five seconds. The sensation was hard to get used to, everyone on the Constellation that had access to a viewer could see they were now moving away from Earth at a very high rate of speed.
“What is our speed Logan” queried Inman.
“Unbelievable Sir, we are approaching 80,000 miles per hour” replied Logan.
“Let’s keep her there, for now, Logan, well done Bennett” Inman responded.
The Connie was well on her way toward the asteroid belt, an important destination where a mineral rich ore would be ripe for the picking. A brilliant young mineralogist Zak Lineman heads the team in charge of finding the best asteroid candidate. Lineman’s team was responsible for locating and verifying the likelihood of finding rich mineral deposits. Once they maneuvered into the range of the asteroid, one of Bennett’s new specially designed shell generators is quickly oscillated at a preset depth to separate a large half circle section containing metals. The load gets transported to the ore processing plant now located in one of the converted segments where minerals and both common and precious metals could then be extracted and separated for use.
Bennett’s team would be in charge of designing and building the shell generators the tradesmen would use to mine and process the ore needed to construct a replacement hull and refurbish Connie’s aging systems.
Building a massive ore processing plant requires large amounts of power and space. A project requiring planning and once implemented, it was Inman’s intent to have the construction of the ore processing facility completed by the time they reached the asteroid belt which was located just inside of Jupiter’s orbit. Nothing ever seems to go as planned; the Connie had structural integrity issues, power issues and Cerro was dealing with in-fighting between teams competing for resources to complete their projects. Everything had to be managed and to make things worse Connie’s age was starting to
show at every turn.
The solution Inman and his team came up with were to ration resources across all non-essential departments. Priority departments we were given free reign while everyone else had to operate with less.
Through all the turmoil, Dr. Reeder’s team continue to work on integrating the warp drives into Connie’s rings which had become somewhat more complex with the existence of the shell generators. Work progressed slowly, tragically, a promising team member is killed in a freak accident that shocked everyone aboard the Connie driving home not only their humanity but also how precious, and frail life is.
A journey which Inman had planned on making very quickly at warp speeds has stretched to years of anxiety and frustration.
It was within this context that Dr. Robertson MD., made a discovery that would alter the course of life for everyone on the Connie.
“Hello everyone,” Inman said as he entered the conference room for the meeting Dr. Robertson had set up with senior members of Connie’s leadership.
“I have had some rather encouraging findings as I have been examining patients since leaving orbit three years ago” Robertson began. Have any of you noticed we are no longer sick, none of our senior crew are experiencing any sickness, in fact, seem to be flourishing.”
“Come to think of it, no” replied Inman.
“I have not seen anyone even coughing or sneezing now that you mention it, I have not had a cold since we departed” replied Reeder.
“Are you saying the shell is protecting us from disease?” queried Cerro.
“No, it’s not protecting us, it is just keeping us from aging” replied Dr. Robertson. “I have been studying the phenomenon for months now, and I have confirmed it, something about the shell has stopped our body’s cells from dying, it has halted the aging process. We do not entirely understand why we age, it is something we have been studying forever” replied Dr. Robertson.
“It most likely has more to do with the fact that time in the shell is almost standing still” offered Bennett. “I might also have something to do with the fact that the shell is all but impenetrable from the outside. It might well be that we are benefiting from the shell is in ways we have not anticipated. Do you have any way of judging how much longer we will live?”
“I have no way of judging precisely, but if I am correct, we are talking about living thousands of years longer. It is possible that as long as we are under the shell that we could live more than ten thousand years. Once we come out of the shell, I expect we will continue to age again.”
“I want to talk this over with my team before we bring everyone in on this. So please keep it under wraps until we have a chance to walk through the implications and what it might mean to our mission.
Thanks, everyone” Inman said to everyone as they walked out. “Bennett, Reeder, please stay with me for a minute. I think this pretty much changes everything. All of a sudden, urgency is no longer an issue. We can take our time, rebuild and rest after three long years.”
“I agree” replied Reeder. “It changes the way we look at our lives; there is nothing keeping us from developing a whole new way of life. With thousands of years to live, my goal of FTL space travel is now a small part of the goals we can pursue; this means we have to rethink everything.”
“Agreed” added Bennett, “we can advance technology way beyond what we planned. It will be possible to traverse much our galaxy and maybe even Andromeda depending on how well warp technology works for us.”
“Warp!” snapped Reeder, “we now have plenty of time to bring on the Displacement Drives and run them in concert with the warp technology. Do you realize this makes intergalactic travel feasible? Do you have any idea what this means to the human race? We are going to find out what is out there; we can explore beyond what we ever thought possible.”
“What about the population explosion?” queried Inman. “You realize that the seven hundred inhabitants have already grown our population significantly. We need to think this through and get back together soon and put together a compelling vision which will help our fellow crew members generate the same level of enthusiasm as we have.”
“Not sure that is going to be a problem” Bennett shot back, “we are telling everyone that we found the fountain of youth.”
We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community. ~ Haile Selassie
Chapter Three – New Beginnings
F ive years after arriving and mining several M-type asteroids, Connie’s tradespeople have completed their mission. They have built the first mobile space born manufacturing plant. Monstrous in size it rivaled the overall dimensions of the Constellation but with a completely different U-shaped configuration resembling the inside of a stapler (hence the crew affectionately named it the U-Boat or UB.)
The U-Boat is a giant deep space manufacturing facility built to harvest and extrudes giant titanium sheets and steel girders as a fully manned ship equipped with a full crew, brand new shell generators and more importantly all the propulsion systems required to travel with the Connie at warp speeds.
Within the U Boat’s shell, a new spacecraft could be quickly constructed and outfitted robotically using Connie’s retrofitted maintenance robots. The design of the mining platform at the stern of the U-Boat allows operators to feed metal-rich ore into one of the two processing plants.
For Titanium, the ore extracted, purified and sent to sponge production, alloy creation, and finally to forming and shaping or extruding. Shaping puts out 50 foot long by 10 foot wide by one inch thick sheets of titanium the robots then layer into fifty-foot thick construction which composes the exterior hull of ships needed in the future to support the expanding population of the fleet. It is much easier to process iron, and the process runs on a parallel production line.
As materials rolled off the production line, crews of tradesman built a high-density hull for the Connie of titanium panels supported by iron beams supplied, assembled and fitted to the existing structures where possible.
The real issue was with the soft parts like plastics and other precious metals required for the sensitive components. For now, those types of components are available in quantities of two, one from each of the two original segments of the orbiter. Other facilities are in the works now to produce the many products needed to outfit future ships. Before that could happen, engineers were busy trimming down the number of components made of those harder to reproduce materials.
Dr. Bennett and his team worked hard at advancing 3D printing and other technologies designed to separate element rich material into completed products. A more robust version will output both nonorganic and organic materials with hopes of being able to produce parts, plants, and foods rapidly.
Industrial strength versions producing simple parts is already up and running on the UB at the end of the Titanium and Iron lines, and smaller versions are operating on the Connie where they had produced replacement parts for the refurbishment project initiated by Inman upon arrival at the first asteroid before the crew began to mine.
Population growth has been substantial since leaving earth’s orbit, and the growth has everyone excited and anxious at the same time. Population growth brings with it requirements for more resources. Food and the oxygen the foliage produce were not as much of a problem. Water has been extracted from asteroids and stored. The recycling technology on board the Connie, however, was antiquated and inefficient. Inman had engineers working on more effective recycling technologies for both water and waste.
Crew members were all but freaked out over how healthy they felt, especially the older members of the crew. The aches and pains of age were subsiding as exercises and medical procedures to help with aging fixed problems that did not return. The feeling of returning youth being surprisingly hard to deal with just seems to good to be true. Chi
ldren are growing and developing without disease, and the only thing an MD had to do was fix broken bones cuts and bruises. Fortunately, there were only a few serious injuries and no deaths related to the refurbishment of the Connie or the construction of UB.
Departure
The departure date Inman and his team set have arrived. Excitement coupled with apprehension was running strong among crews on both ships as there are many questions no one can answer until after the system tests. Old issues with inertial dampening and smooth antigravity operation, steering and thruster engagement were all worked out. What was not clear was how the warp technology was going to work and even worse, would engaging warp on two ships at the same time keep them in proximity with one another or would they separate, collide or just move through space smoothly.
“Couple the comlinks to UB’s pilot house” commanded Inman “are you ready to engage the coupling Shell Generator?”
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 3