Jolly kept tabs on all the crew. It was the AI’s job to make sure that depression didn’t rear its ugly head to incapacitate anyone or take them from their desired path. He’d struggled on the last cruise after they lost spin and food fabrication. As the crew’s rations were cut and then cut again, combined with struggling to operate in zero-g, many of them suffered. One of them even airlocked himself. It wasn’t the first suicide of a deep space explorer, but it was the only one within the last decade. Captain Rand and Master Daksha took it hard, but they refused to quit, believing that the hard lessons wouldn’t be learned if they didn’t carry them forward. The new drive made it possible to keep the crew together and make more timely decisions.
When they lost spin on the last cruise, the exploration ship was deep into the well of the new solar system. They sent the recall notice, which took days to get to the ship and then it took months for the ship to change course, followed by more months as it rebuilt its speed to return to the Cygnus-12. That extra time made the trip nearly unbearable. Through force of will they survived. The information they gathered on that trip was far too valuable to be lost. They returned with it, heroes, but with one less crew member. The captain and Master Daksha considered the mission a success, but their roles in it as complete failures. That was their burden to carry throughout their life’s journey.
Deep space. Where the ship was life. Save the ship, save yourselves, no matter the cost to your own soul.
Master Daksha cast his dark thoughts away and asked Jolly to relay his message to the crew. The AI confirmed that he was ready.
“Esteemed crew of the Deep Space Exploration Vessel Cygnus-12, greetings! We embark today on a journey of great importance, and that’s why we decided not to wait. We’ll learn about our new EM Drive over the next couple weeks, then we’ll head to our launch point outside of our solar system. From there, we’ll activate the interdimensional space engine for a jump of over one thousand light years. We’re heading in the direction of Earth! Our goal is to find a planet capable of supporting life, if not already inhabited, that we can use as an interim stop, maybe even a resupply point.
“Wouldn’t that be something, if we could find a planet that was already inhabited?! We’d be the first to find other life beyond Cygnus, outside of Earth itself. If we are successful and the EM Drive operates as expected, we’ll be able to jump another thousand light years closer, then return while we still have plenty of supplies remaining. That is our mission. We have the highest hopes for success. The SES has wished us well on our journey. The other four active deep space exploration vessels will continue their missions in search of habitable planets closer to Vii. We are a one-of-a-kind spaceship and it is ours to take on a journey of discovery. It is ours to find the way back to Earth.” Master Daksha finished his speech and waited. He wouldn’t know how the people received his words until he talked with them later. Or sooner, he decided as he excused himself from the command deck and decided to head for engineering. The captain stood and clapped, nodding to the Tortoid.
Captain Rand asked Jolly to share his thoughts with the crew, so Jolly tapped the captain into the ship-wide broadcast. “The first thing we need to do is show the SES that the EM Drive works and not just works like it is supposed to, but works in a way that makes the Cygnus-12 the best damn spaceship in the fleet! Prepare the EM Drive for five percent power. The initial acceleration will top out at five Gs. Find your acceleration chairs and belt in. Start the countdown, Jolly,” the captain ordered.
Each area had an acceleration chair, a cushioned couch with seatbelts, leaning against the wall at a thirty degree angle. As the apparent gravity pulled them downward from the sideways spin of the core, the blood would be forced toward their heads and not away. The crew would remain conscious. After the initial acceleration, they’d continue without feeling the force on their bodies. Then they could return to their stations. The captain expected an initial acceleration for thirty minutes, then they’d shut down the EM Drive and coast as they checked the status of all systems, comparing deviations against expected norms. Everything was calculated within a narrow range. Maybe the deviations weren’t bad and that was part of the testing. They had to determine whether abnormalities were bad or not, and then make sure that there was no damage to the engine or its support systems.
The Rabbits on the garden deck found their chairs, snickering to themselves as the ‘cats had nowhere to go, but Hillcats were mostly indifferent to the acceleration unless it was extreme. They were the most adaptable to space and those who liked it least. The three ‘cats crouched where they were, leaning against small trees to keep themselves from sliding toward the aft-facing bulkhead.
The countdown continued over the speakers in each space. Briz waited until the last second before racing to his acceleration couch, strapping himself in as the red light stopped flashing and bathed the space in an eerie crimson twilight. I’ll have to change that, Briz said to himself.
The EM Drive came to life without a sound. It generated momentum by bouncing electrons off a special panel near the core section of the ship. The electrons returned down long tubes in the spindle toward the power generation, where they were gathered through a series of angular surfaces that prevented deceleration. The electrons were then re-accelerated forward.
The Cygnus-12 smoothly moved through space, picking up speed quickly. Briz watched the indicators on the panel. Heat build-up was at a minimum and the nuclear power plant at the base of the spindle continued to generate the force that both accelerated and recovered the electrons. Briz marveled at the soundless propulsion taking their spaceship away from the ship construction facility.
‘Jolly, what’s the maximum acceleration the EM Drive can achieve?’ Briz asked over his neural implant.
‘The drive has a governor built in to prevent runaway acceleration, which is calculated at hundreds of g-forces. That would kill every living thing on board, but not before the ship is torn apart. The spindle would accelerate through the core section. I don’t have to explain how bad that would be, especially since the ISE is tied into power generation within the spindle itself. If anyone survived the loss of the spindle, that person wouldn’t survive the cold vacuum of space without power,’ Jolly said without emotion, trying not to sound sensational.
‘Thank you for that, Jolly. I’ll add that to my list, to review and understand the constraints under which the engine must operate.’ Briz stared at a spot on the bulkhead as he communicated with the AI. The Rabbit wondered how he’d ever gotten along without an AI like Jolly in his head.
‘Would you like me to maintain that list for you? We can review it multiple times during the day and set a schedule for resolution. What is the maximum amount of time you are willing to leave a task undone, say, two days?’
Briz’s face took on a beatific look. Ellie wondered what Jolly said to create such a euphoric state. She decided she could use a pick-me-up as well.
‘How are you doing, Cain?’ she asked her husband while also sharing an image of their intertwined naked bodies, sweating from their exertions.
‘I’m surviving. Thanks for that image, it’ll have to hold me over for a while. Thank goodness none of the sewage systems have exploded. I’m kind of vulnerable here on the floor. I’m not trying to kill the mood, especially as, all of a sudden, I can’t wait for the shift to end and to see you back in our quarters.’ He smiled inwardly, trying to share love and happiness. He never knew if his emotions carried through, but he’d keep trying. ‘And you, surviving engineering with our resident genius?’
‘Yes. I think he’s just become one with Jolly. He has this really stupid look on his face. He can’t even hold his ears up, he’s concentrating so hard. I can’t hear anything. I didn’t expect an engine to operate without a sound,’ she told him. They continued talking about the nuances of the ship and shipboard life, as good friends would do, keeping the promise of an evening that Ellie envisioned alive and well in the fore of their minds. Lutheann and Carnes
to scoffed, knowing that they’d have to endure the tryst. The ‘cats started making noise, hoping to deter the young couple.
Cain and Ellie both knew what the ‘cats were doing, so they vowed to make things even more spectacular, just to show their furry companions what the humans were capable of. Carnesto offered to show what he was capable of, which earned him a vicious swat from Lutheann. This is going to be a really long trip, she lamented.
Set Course for Interstellar Space
The first week on board the Cygnus-12 passed in a flash. The ensigns were run ragged. Not only did they have their normal duties in their workspaces, there was a damage control exercise every hour. Cain didn’t remember ever being so tired. When he crawled into the rack, despite the best of intentions, both he and Ellie were asleep almost instantly. The rest of the crew was in the same condition, except for Briz. He was operating on two hours of sleep each night with a one-hour nap during the day. He said he couldn’t afford anything more decadent.
Sleep as decadence. The others were learning to do with just under six hours of sleep a day, wondering if they’d ever get a chance to sleep in and recover before they spent every shift sleepwalking.
At the end of the week, Captain Rand called for another celebration. They gathered on the hangar deck in the middle of the afternoon, when they still had enough energy to stand upright.
“Thank you all for coming,” the captain said once everyone was there. The fact that the legacy crew members were all in attendance confirmed to the new additions that they didn’t really have a choice, although the information that the captain would share had to be worthwhile. Why would they ever consider skipping it? This was the right place to be, no matter what. They wanted to hear what the captain had to say.
“The tests on the EM Drive have been nothing short of spectacular! We have fallen just beyond the most optimistic estimates on performance. We are effectively getting double the g-force acceleration without double the stress on the ship’s structure. The five gees you feel each time we step on the gas? Well, that was ten gees in effective acceleration. We’ve been traveling twice as fast as what we’re feeling. If it weren’t for the sensors, and thank you to all the sensor suite operators.” He nodded to them, one by one. “Our internal instruments are registering what we feel, so that’s something we’ll have to resolve, calculate the real acceleration and not just the apparent number. But that’s geeky stuff and beside the point. What it really means is that we can explore a system in half the time we estimated and in less than a twentieth the time if we were to use a shuttle. This is leaps and bounds ahead of all other missions. EM Drives are now being built to retrofit every other deep space exploration ship in the fleet, including all new construction. As we miniaturize the drive, we’ll fit them onto new shuttles as well, drastically cutting transit times within the system.” The group cheered. Briz smiled, happy with how far he’d come in his knowledge of the drive. He’d been talking with Jolly and had a couple ideas to increase the real speed to three or even four times apparent acceleration.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to head for interstellar space at maximum tolerable acceleration. After we’ve banked our dark matter into the ISE, we’ll make the final calculations for a single move of one thousand, two hundred, thirty-five light years. A single jump of one third the way to Earth. Commander Daksha will explain the rest of the mission.” The captain smiled broadly as he waved at the small crowd that represented the entirety of his crew, including the two Rabbits who stood closest to the hatch as they prepared their escape back to the garden deck and the three Hillcats.
Master Daksha swam forward and floated high enough to be seen by all. “We expect to arrive just beyond a star system that records from the Traveler suggest contains a habitable planet. The Traveler passed that system at eighty-one percent the speed of light, so there was no way they could explore it, although their sensor readings are rather extensive. We’ve used those logs to analyze the entire route and systems most likely to contain the kind of planets we’re looking for. This is a little farther than we wanted to jump as it is right on the edge of the safe zone. That being said, three jumps of this length and we will be within spitting distance of Earth. Then our magnificent new EM Drive can take us home. Would you like to be the first members of humanity to return home after nearly five thousand years?”
The crew cheered and shook hands. They hadn’t known that this mission might take them all the way to Earth. They thought they’d explore two systems and return to Vii, typical of a deep space mission.
“We are setting out to make history. The Cygnus-12 and its crew, thirty-seven strong, forty counting the ‘cats.” He nodded his Tortoid head in the direction of the Hillcats standing to the side. Cain, Ellie, and Tandry hadn’t realized that they’d joined them. Tandry immediately joined her ‘cat so she could scratch her ears.
“One Tortoid, one Hawkoid, three ‘cats, three Rabbits, two Wolfoids, two Lizard Men, and twenty-eight humans set out from Cygnus on a journey to an old place, that’s new to us, to let our forebears know that we survived, and that we’ve thrived. Cygnus rises from the ashes of our past to assume its rightful place as a space-faring people.” The Tortoid looked around the hangar deck, stacked with crates of supplies and two small shuttles. The EM Drive changed how they looked at the universe. They could travel wherever they wanted, together. They could arrive in interstellar space, accelerate through the system’s gravity well, and exit the other side without have to undertake the difficult slingshot maneuver around the sun or a large planet, then slowing down for half the journey in order to be recovered by the interstellar spaceship. None of that had to happen anymore. They could explore new solar systems over the course of weeks, not years.
The Tortoid realized everyone was looking at him while he daydreamed, so he decided to share.
“This means that we can explore new solar systems in real time. Maybe we will cut our journeys down to a month, take a large crew and explore more. Maybe even visit a few planets. What do you think about stepping foot, paw, or claw onto another world?” People shouted their willingness to volunteer for such a mission. The crew smiled and looked to each other, nodding.
Attitude and motivation. Captain Rand slapped Master Daksha on the shell, grinning. They couldn’t ask for more from the crew, who worked hard to run the EM Drive and the damage control systems through their paces. He felt they were ready. The crew could always learn more, but the problems that came would never be the same. They would always be something new and the crew would have to show resilience and ingenuity to fix the issue and continue the mission.
There was good and then there was good enough. Later, the crew would be good. Presently, they were good enough.
“Enjoy the rest of your afternoon and evening. Return to your shifts tomorrow as per your normal schedule. Jolly is keeping us in a static position away from space debris. Everyone, get to know each other, enjoy yourselves, and tomorrow, the real mission starts,” Daksha ended on a high note. Stinky pulled the coverings from a couple games that had been secreted away within the hangar deck, boxes and bean bags, darts, and various games of chance. Half the crew started setting up the boxes with the holes for the bean bag toss, while the other half went into an adjoining space to bring out the feast that Leaper had stashed.
Cain pulled Ellie close for a long hug and full kiss, then he ran off to help Leaper as Ellie joined Tandry setting up a game of corn hole. The rest of the crew moved through the newcomers, introducing themselves and making the others feel welcome. They broke out by species, until the games began, then everyone melded together as sections took on other sections and the crew became a homogenous mass.
Once the food was gone, the crew drifted away to enjoy their time off. The sudden erratic behavior from the ‘cats, Lutheann and Carnesto, suggested their humans were fully enjoying themselves. They walked out with the next people, heading back to the garden deck where they’d be better able to fight off the emotional tidal wave that was
hed over them.
Captain Rand checked in with Jolly to make sure nothing needed his attention. It didn’t. He stayed behind to clean up, telling everyone else to go. Leaper couldn’t do that. Neither could Pickles, or the last ones out. They made short work of the celebration’s remnants, each shaking hands with the captain and slapping Master Daksha’s shell before excusing themselves.
When the captain and the commander were alone, Rand spoke first. “I like this group, Master Daksha. Thanks for finding them and getting them on board. It makes me think that Space School is too long. They need some base knowledge, but if they are right for the job, then we need to get them here, train them here where they learn what it means to be a deep space explorer, become a real spacer,” the captain stated. The Tortoid bobbed his head, blinking slowly.
“I think we were lucky. It’s not just our genius Rabbit. The dynamic of this group is like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” the Tortoid’s vocalization device was flat, not carrying any emotion, but the captain understood the passion that Daksha felt.
“I think we’re going to have a great mission, and maybe we’ll find something useful, too,” he laughed as he headed toward the command deck. He wanted to personally check a few things before turning in. His quarters were only a few paces from his work station, although he was more than willing to sleep in his chair at his command console. He lived for the ship. The ship was his life.
Activate the ISE
It took five days to clear the gravity well of the Cygnus sun and exit the solar system. The crew didn’t feel the difference as they transited through the outer edge of the heliosphere, the final barrier into interstellar space. The ship’s EM Drive moved the ship through the solar winds without buffeting or extraneous movements. Once beyond their solar system, the ship smoothly turned and activating the EM Drive, worked to decelerate by flying in the opposite direction. When they came to a complete stop, the process of banking the dark matter began. The system was already half-filled, and Jolly estimated it would take a week to reach maximum capacity. It took much longer to fill the first half than the second half as the dark matter helped pull more into itself. Starting from empty, banking the system could take upwards of a month.
Cygnus Rising: Humanity Returns to Space (Cygnus Space Opera Book 1) Page 14