by Aer-ki Jyr
The elevator opened and she walked out ahead of him into an open courtyard up around which rose 12 square-shaped rings centered on a water fountain that shot up half that height then fell back down into a pool that covered part of the floor, around which were various benches and potted plants.
“Your quarters are on the 7th floor,” she explained, leading him over to a set of stairs. “There is a small elevator on the opposite side if you need to use it, but it’s better if you get used to taking the stairs. One part of the acclimatization process is getting potential colonists in better physical shape, which is why we have four staircases as opposed to one elevator.”
“Will there be physical training?” Gary asked, a bit worried.
“Yes, but don’t worry. Each person starts at their current ability level and works their way up. There are no group sessions you have to survive. Your personal trainer will take you through all that later, but I can promise you that men twice your age have gone through the process without trouble.”
“Pride successfully piqued,” Gary congratulated her.
“Motivation comes in all forms,” she said with a smile as they climbed the stairs up to his level. When they got up the seven flights he was winded, but tried not to show it as the woman didn’t look like she’d so much as twitched a muscle in exertion.
“Here we are,” she said, unlocking a room two doors down to the left via a keypad, “number 724.”
“Thank you,” he said as she motioned for him to go inside first. The ‘quarters’ were small, but elegantly designed, giving him a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen/living room with a large video screen covering most of one wall.
“I’ll let you get settled then contact you later via the intercom, which you can access through the screen controls here,” she said, reaching down and touching a small glass table in front of a couch, on top of which was a built-in remote. “There are instruction manuals and walkthroughs available through the green button, but most people just like to start pressing buttons and figure things out the old fashioned way.”
“I’ll be one of those,” Gary confirmed.
“You can set your door combination on the inside panel there,” she said, pointing back at the doorjamb. “Current code is ‘newb.’ En-E-Doubleyou-Bee.”
“How fitting.”
“Yes, someone clearly has a sense of humor,” she said, motioning towards the kitchen nook. “We aren’t set up for cooking in here, but there are a few ready to eat snacks and drinks that we make available that you can store and prepare, as well as getting fresh water whenever you like. One of the biggest concerns people have is with the tap water, but I can assure you it’s cleaner than the bottled products you’re used to buying. Star Force does everything with quality in mind.”
“So I’ve heard,” Gary said, experimenting with the faucet. “When is my training to being?”
“We give you a bit of leeway there. Can be tomorrow or the end of the week. Later than that we’ll come find you and get your butt in gear. Appointments can be made and reviewed via the terminal with your handlers, myself included, or you can register yourself in courses. Some are mandatory, others are not, and some are linear, meaning you have to take them in the order we prescribe. You can sift through it now or wait till I come back later to walk you through it. Oh, one last thing,” she said, walking over and toggling the screen on.
“Here’s a map…and here’s the cafeteria. I imagine you’re probably getting hungry by now.”
“Yes, thank you. Do I need some type of debit card to purchase meals?”
“Nope…eat what you want, it’s all free. Just don’t bring back any unpackaged items up here.”
“Free food,” Gary said, surprised and impressed. “Now there’s a novel idea, especially with the planet’s food shortages.”
“We take care of our own,” she said with a smirk as she headed to the door. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Just one thing,” Gary said as she was halfway out the door. “I didn’t get your name.”
“My apologies. I have so many of these conversations that sometimes I forget what I’ve said and what I haven’t. My name is Kiana.”
“Nice to meet you, Kiana, and thank you.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Brooks. Have a pleasant day.”
With that she left him on his own, trodding off to pick up the next new arrival and get her situated. Gary walked around his quarters, taking stock of what was where before sitting down on his couch and beginning to flip through the information Star Force made available to all the colonial recruits…and as usual, they’d provided an insane amount.
“If I’m going to get a prime colony slot, I better start doing my homework,” he told himself, knowing that all the Star Force-run colonies had differing requirements. After having seen various news reports on the colonization efforts he’d decided that his goal was to make it into one of the Star Force Clans that were colonizing the outer zone of the star system. Largely unpopulated and remote, it was the frontier for Humanity…and what better place was there to find some breathing room than the edge of civilization itself.
10
December 2, 2232
“ETA 12 minutes,” Roger reported as he piloted a small shuttle away from the starport in Venus orbit, heading for the massive ship floating further out that would be his home for the next several months. Behind him in the shuttle was the last of the crew being transferred over to the Farscape, the first of Star Force’s jumpship fleet.
“Copy that, Captain. We’ll be ready to depart on your arrival.”
Roger flicked off the comm and goosed his flight line as the shuttle thrusted, picking up more speed and a bit of angle, then drifted out away from the station. Even at this range the Farscape was easily visible on the viewscreens, massing in at more than twice one of their command ships and four times as long. The ship was a mix of an armored nosecone, cargo compartments, and engines…lots and lots of engines. Her maiden voyage had been a run out to Mordor and back, which the crew and ship had handled well, but the first interstellar trip was going to be handled by no less than an Archon.
When the shuttle finally arrived at its destination it killed its forward momentum then slid inside an open cargo bay, passing through an energy field that kept the bay’s atmosphere intact though no one was allowed inside until the doors closed behind the craft. Energy fields were still a new technology for Star Force and they weren’t going to take the chance of a hiccup in the matrix sucking everyone on deck out into space. The field was in place to keep the atmosphere inside so that they didn’t have to pressurize and repressurized every time a ship entered or exited.
When the doors closed off the view of Venus the shuttle extended six landing pads and slowly began to drift down to the deck as the hangar control activated the artificial gravity pads in the floor at minimal power. Once contact had been made and the shuttle leveled out they ramped it up to 1 g and gave the all clear signal to Roger.
Double checking for external atmospheric pressure first, Roger unlocked and remotely lowered the rear hatch allowing half a dozen crew members to walk out onto the ship while he went through the standard power down sequence. When he’d finished he grabbed his duffle from a side compartment and walked out and down the boarding ramp, seeing his XO and two other officers waiting for him nearby.
“Commander Kilvan,” he greeted as he made a sharp turn and walked towards the exit with the man who’d otherwise have been the Captain matching his stride.
“Captain,” Kilvan said respectfully. “All final checks are in. We’re as ready to jump as we can make her.”
“Fuel load?”
“We topped off the tanks yesterday.”
“How’s the jumpline look?”
Kilvan glanced back at one of the two officers trailing him.
“All clear, as best we can tell,” the man in charge of navigating the massive ship said.
Roger and the trio stepped into an elevator car just off the hangar, th
en sped off through the ship to the destination sector that the Archon thumbed on the control board. “Have you finished the impact calculations?”
“Yes, twice,” Kilvan said, referring to the debris data accumulated from their two short jumps out and back from Mordor. “It was less than we anticipated, but with a few larger pieces showing up at random.”
“I was worried about that,” Roger conceded. “How’d the shield hold up?”
“It blunted everything,” Kilvan said with pride. “The armor didn’t so much as take a scratch.”
Roger nodded, pleased to hear that caveat. In addition to the armored nosecone that was designed to protect the ship from high speed impacts with small scale debris and dust during transit, the Farscape was also equipped with a hexagonal flat energy shield that preceded the ship during high speed flight. It was designed to repel physical impact, as opposed to energy, with any starlight shifted to gamma rays being absorbed by the armor. The faster the impact velocity against normal light the higher the frequency and intensity would alter, making the mundane deadly, but that wasn’t Roger’s immediate concern.
The risk of physical impact with a rock at multiple times the speed of light was why Star Force had spent the last 20 years sending out probes to the edges of the star system, charting the debris bands that swirled around Sol and establishing no-go zones for jumpship travel. Some of those zones currently blocked the jump lanes to some star systems, but with everything in constant orbital motion the ‘safe’ zones and ‘danger’ zones were always shifting and had to be updated continuously.
Several permanent sensor stations had been built in the high and outer zones to continuously monitor the region around the primary jumplines that went to the Alpha Centauri and Proxima systems. The position of these stations had to be adjusted occasionally, which was why they were equipped with engines, an oddity for space stations. The massive radar beacons continuously scanned for large or medium sized rocks, trying to diminish the risks of transit through the region…though there was no way for them to be able to pick up the small stuff at range, which meant each jump would be a calculated risk.
The Farscape’s armor and shield were designed to minimize that risk, allowing the jumpship to take the small hits while navigation would keep them away from the big ones. Trouble was, the faster a ship traveled the smaller the rocks needed to be to cause damage…and the upcoming jump was going to be by far the fastest in Star Force history.
The ship’s elevator opened onto one of the quarters decks and Roger walked out, duffle slung over his shoulder, intent on stashing his gear before heading up to the bridge.
“I can take care of that for you, Captain?” the fourth officer in their quartet offered.
Not wanting to hold up the show he took the man up on his offer. “Thank you, Edward,” he said, handing him the duffle. The man half dropped it, not expecting it to be so heavy, then belatedly remembered the Archons’ rumored strength.
“I’ll catch up,” he said, hauling Roger’s personal items off to the Captain’s quarters.
Roger and the other two headed back to the elevator and made their way to the bridge.
It was the first time Roger had been on the completed ship, having visited it in dry dock around Venus at several stages of its construction, but before the bridge had finished being fabricated. He knew what the dimensions were, based on the blueprints that he’d helped to design, but the sight of such a large workspace made him pause for a moment as he entered from the side of the circular dome.
The walls formed one smooth perimeter circle, then arced up to a high peak under which a massive hologram of the star system was being generated to scale with the planets having to be highlighted by markers. Several other positions were marked as well, including the Farscape’s current location.
Directly beneath the floating hologram was an empty space housing the generator on a low pillar. Several meters out from that was the first ring of workstations, with more and more added on at 5 meter intervals giving the entire bridge a wide open feel to it. Some of the outer rings were broken up and had other shapes in their places. The Captain’s chair was located in one of these on the third ring where a square was cut out going all the way back into the fourth ring, giving Roger a small grouping of officers directly around him to handle primary ship functions like navigation, sensors, communications, and weapons…which the jumpship had a few of for good measure.
The rest of the bridge held the workstations for other functions. During the expedition an ongoing survey was going to be conducted, which a group of officers to the right of the Captain’s ‘box’ would be handling. On the far side of the hologram ship’s crew rotations were scheduled, with maintenance orders handled by a station two seats down on the same ring. All across the bridge were the oversight functions for the entire ship, which made it the nerve center for the giant beast, with more than 100 officers on deck at all times.
And thanks to the artificial gravity plating, that deck was actually flat as opposed to the slight curve that Star Force ships had seen in all of their floors. That too made the bridge feel bigger than usual, for while all new ships coming off the line had had artificial gravity for years, they were a small minority within the overall fleet that still largely relied on centrifugal gravity.
Roger wove his way through the rings and walkways until he got to his Captain’s chair but he didn’t sit down, instead preferring to look over the shoulders of the three crewmembers already manning his box. Kilvan took a seat outside in his own little annex while the navigator took his seat in front of Roger’s chair.
“Show me the jumpline.”
One of the officers adjusted the room-spanning hologram and a pulsing golden line was displayed running from Sol straight out to the edge of the system, depressed below the ecliptic plane that divided the ‘northern’ hemisphere of the star system from the ‘southern’ half.
The Proxima jumpline was depressed into the southern hemisphere a good 42 degrees, but the target star system actually lay just a tweak above the galactic plane. That oddity was because the Solar System was actually upside down with the way it rotated, making the north pole of both Earth and Sol pointed into the southern galactic hemisphere. Add into that the fact that the Solar system didn’t lay flat on the galactic plane and was actually skewed about 60 degrees, making it look more upright than flat when compared to the swirl of the galaxy, giving anyone a headache where interstellar navigation was involved.
The jumpline was also nowhere near Venus at present, located a good quarter orbit away, which meant that the Farscape was going to have to travel across the inner zone to get in position to make the jump.
“Get us moving into position, Nav,” Roger ordered, finally sitting down.
“Aye, sir,” the navigation officer said, plotting a course and feeding it to the helmsman, the first leg of which took them further out into Venus orbit to stabilize the mini jump they were about to make. They had to wait nearly two hours to circle around Venus to the point where their trajectories lined up, at which point the Farscape kicked in its gravity drive at low power and pushed off from the planet’s gravity well over the course of several minutes, then began a long coast in towards the Sun.
Eventually the ship used its gravity drive to brake against the star’s gravity well, then kicked in its enormous plasma engines to put it into a low orbit that would bring the ship around to the jump point. It was a convoluted course, but until Star Force developed the technology to isolate one gravity well from another it was what they had to work with…but still far more efficient than using plasma engines alone.
Several days later they finally arrived on the jumpline at the jumppoint they’d chosen, having killed all excess orbital momentum via the plasma engines. Technically they were now falling into the Sun, but at such a great distance that that point was merely semantics. For all intents they were now floating in place, micro-adjusting their position to get exactly on the jumpline, or as close as technological
ly possible.
The trick with choosing jumppoints was that the further you got away from the gravity well the better the angle became for accuracy. Moving one meter to the left close into the star made for more of an angular shift than one meter did out by, say, Pluto did. The downside was that the farther you got away from a star the less gravity there was, meaning less propulsion, so the navigator had the arduous task of picking a point with sufficient accuracy and repulsive thrust, given the ship’s capabilities.
That point for the Farscape was midway between Venus and Mercury’s orbit. Having taken into consideration the presence of all the planets and their gravity wells during the jump that would bounce the ship to and fro as its gravity drives repelled from them as well as any and all gravity pulls within the system. Confident that they were properly aligned, the navigator gave the go ahead to the helmsman, who looked to Roger for final confirmation.
“Is the jumpline clear?” he asked.
“No detectable obstructions,” the sensor officer reported.
“Make the jump,” Roger said, steadying himself. If they didn’t get this right they’d be lost in space, unable to stop for lack of a target gravity well to brake against.
The helmsman powered up the multiple gravity drives in the aft of the ship, making sure their alignment was accurate to balance out the forward mass, otherwise they’d send the ship into a spin as one engine pushed harder than another.
“Jumping in five, four, three, two, one…now,” the man said calmly as nothing happened.
Nothing detectable anyway, given the inertial dampening fields that were a key component of the gravity drives, else the massive acceleration would have driven the engines straight up through the interior and into the nose cone, ripping the ship apart. Everything save the engine cores were encased in one gigantic field with multiple redundancies. That field spread the acceleration out evenly to every molecule within its confines, meaning that Roger’s body couldn’t feel so much as a twitch as the speed indicator on the helmsman’s and navigator’s consoles began counting up rapidly.