March, 2022
The Indian geo-survey of the Procyon system is complete. Once again the results are disappointing, with only a few minor resource deposits scattered around the system.
Late in the month the USSR completes its gravitic survey of the solar system. At the instigation of the Indians there are a series of high level meetings between Russia and India to discuss the situation. Once it becomes clear that the Soviets have completed their survey the Indians tell them, in general terms, about what they have found beyond the six outer warp points they have probed. They also explain the reasons why they have refrained from probing the three innermost warp points, and press the USSR for an agreement to avoid activity around the innermost warp points until both nations agree that it is time to reveal the existence of interstellar technology. The Russians remain noncommittal on the subject.
The first Russian jump ship is scheduled to be launched in November of this year.
May, 2022
An Indian jump ship probes the newly discovered jump point in the Procyon system, discovering a dim, planet-less brown dwarf system.
October, 2022
The Indian grav survey of the Gliese 818 system is complete. Two additional warp points were discovered.
The Indian government has been in a difficult position. Its original plan was to release technical information on jump drives to the other nations once it had discovered a suitable colonization site in another system. The other nations would immediately begin developing the technology, of course, but the lead time the Indians had would ensure that they would have an unassailable lead in at least one other system, hopefully the most valuable system adjacent to earth. Unfortunately, that hadn’t worked out. The most Earth-like planets had turned out to either be bereft of resources, or at best mediocre mining sites. There was some excitement about the preliminary results of the survey in the Gliese 818 system, but there were no suitable colonization sites, which was what India was really interested in.
To make things worse, the Russians have been completely unwilling to agree to stay away from the innermost warp points, leaving Indian officials to fear that they intend to transit through the three closest warp points as soon as possible. Indian intelligence officers fear that such a maneuver would almost certainly alert the other nations to the fact that something was going on. Once the other nations became alert to the fact that something was going on, it would become completely impossible to continue to operate. Worse, exposure would completely negate the advantages of voluntarily disclosing the technology.
Finally, the steadily increasing tensions among the other nations related to the dwindling resources on Earth are becoming an increasingly pressing problem. Indian military analysts are becoming convinced that a major conflict is inevitable within the next five years is inevitable.
Three of the six systems probed to date had been surveyed, and the Indians had hoped that they would have enough time to survey all six systems, but it was becoming increasingly clear that they wouldn’t get enough time. The USSR, in its hurry to gain an advantage, would blow the secret wide open.
November, 2022
The USSR launches its first two jump ships. Each ship departs from Earth in the company of a pair of destroyers at 2,000 kps. Shortly after leaving orbit the ships decreased their speed to 1,500, and then accelerated to 2,200 kps. Then, one hour after leaving orbit the ships stopped completely, dropping off everyone’s scanners only to pop back up twenty minutes later.
With six navies running exercises in the inner system space around Earth was crowded, and after a short time everyone stopped paying much attention to the two small squadrons. Certainly no one was paying attention when the first group disappeared off the thermal detectors ten hours after leaving orbit, or when the second group disappeared thirty two hours later.
November 8, 2022
See “The Voyage of the Kara” in a separate post
November 9, 2022
Thirty six hours after the Kara and the 2nd Group transited out of the Solar System, the 1st Survey Group jumped into a binary system composed of two tiny, dim, red stars, two planets, and eighteen moons, none of which appeared to be of any particular interest. After spending a short period of time in the system the commander of the task group ordered his ships to jump out and head to the next warp point.
Sixty hours later, while the 2nd Group was still transiting across the Moskva outer system, the 1st Group transited into the third, and last, of the solar system’s inner warp points. The new system was something completely different. The system primary was a K6-V with three planets and forty five moons. Three of the planets and moons were potential colony sites, but the exciting thing was that this system was embedded within a dense nebula, making it quite scenic. While the off-duty crew marveled at the view, the 1st Survey Group set out for the inner system to check out the habitable planets.
November 22, 2022
With the Russians engaging in what the Indians believe to be risky behavior, the Indian government finally makes up its mind. The Indian President recalls the survey ships, a preliminary step towards revealing the secret of interstellar travel. The military has been insistent that prior to any announcement all Indian ships must return to Earth orbit, under the protection of the fleet and ground bases, where they would not fall prey to the ships of other nations attempting to gain advantage by seizing them.
January 17, 2023
The Ganga achieves Earth orbit today – the last Indian survey ship to return home. Now that the Ganga is back the Indian government is clear to make its long awaited announcement.
The first step begins when the President calls in the ambassadors from the Alliance, the Reich, and Japan. Africa is not invited to the conference. Once the Ambassadors are assembled, the President, flanked by her chief advisors, hands out information packets to each group, and then, once they’ve settled in, begins to speak. The President takes them through the entire story, from their original discovery in the comet to their aborted survey of Gliese-818. A few details are omitted, of course, such as the manner in which India came to know that an Ancient facility was in the comet to begin with, or that the Soviets had already been told. When the Ambassadors noted that the Soviets and the Africans weren’t invited to the party, the President informed them that Africa would not receive any information from the Indian government under any circumstances. As for the USSR, the President said only that they were briefed separately, as befitting the close relationship between the Republic and the USSR.
The Ambassadors, to a man, were stunned. The fact that the Indians had successfully concealed this information for years was simply stunning, but even more overwhelming was the fact that the Indians were handing over the keys to mankind’s expansion into the galaxy. The most overwhelming problem facing all of the nations was the impending resource depletion of the Earth, which, while still an estimated ten to fifteen years off, was considered a looming disaster of unprecedented proportions. After reviewing the materials given to them and asking a few questions, the Ambassadors hurriedly left to communicate with their governments.
Shortly after the Ambassadors left, the President of the Indian Republic, surrounded by her advisors, went onto every channel of the Indian communications network and announced to the Indian people that Indian scientists had discovered a way to travel in between the stars, and that Indian ships had already visited other systems. She went on to explain that, in the interests of the common good, she had released this information to the other nations in the hope that with interstellar space to expand into, the nations of Earth would no longer find a reason to fight each other.
The results of this announcement were profound. The Indian people rejoiced at this concrete proof of their superiority over the other nations of the world, and congratulated themselves on their generosity. The Reich, Alliance, and Japan, all of whom were trying to figure out if this was a trick, realized that with the public announcement all doubt was resolved, and immediately reorganized their research programs to begin deciphering the technical information the Indians had given them.
The Africans immediately protested their exclusion to anyone that would listen. They found remarkably few sympathetic ears, and were left scrambling as they tried to make something of the limited information that the Indians had made public.
Over the next several weeks the tensions between the different nations alternately soared and fell as the leaders of the four nations that had just learned about mankind’s new ability struggled to decide what it really meant. The first thing that occurred to all was that a looming war over resources no longer really made any sense. After all, long before the resources within Earth were exhausted both of the major nations would be able to establish extra-solar resource extraction operations. None of the nations really know what the new technology means, though, so they watch the other nations closely to determine what they are doing and what threat they present.
March, 2023
The Alliance completes its research into basic warp point theory, substantially ahead of the other nations. Their lead is largely due to the genius of Admiral Corey Baldessano, currently head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After the Reich beat the Alliance to magneto-plasma drives, Admiral Baldessano reoriented the Alliance’s research efforts to drive and propulsion matters and greatly increased their efficiency. That efficiency is now paying off as the Alliance begins researching grav survey instruments ahead of the other nations.
April, 2023
The Reich completes its development of basic warp theory and begins research into gravitic science instruments.
In the meantime, the Alliance has completed its research of gravitic science instruments and is now developing the components for a jump drive.
April 22, 2023
The Alliance completes the first phase of its development of a working jump drive. The Alliance planners now have a difficult decision to make. The Alliance intelligence community believes that the Alliance currently has a substantial lead over the other nations, and if everything continues as it has the Alliance will almost certainly be the first to launch a jump ship and transit through the solar system’s warp points (excluding the Indians, of course).
On the other hand, the researchers have proposed using the Alliance’s lead to develop a more efficient jump drive. Based on their current research the jump drives that the Alliance would be able to build after the basic research is completed would be huge and unwieldy, making it difficult for a ship with such a drive to do anything but ferry other ships to and from other systems. If more development work was done, though, the researchers promise that they could reduce the size requirement considerably; meaning that the new jump ship would be a much more capable vessel. After more than a little debate the Navy decides to push the research forward to develop a reduced size drive.
May, 2023
The Reich completes its development of gravitic science instruments, and immediately begins work on jump drive technology.
July, 2023
The Alliance completes R&D on jump drives, and begins proto-typing on a jump drive large enough to get most Alliance ships through a warp point.
Independently, Reich and Alliance researchers put two and two together and determine that the enigmatic Ancient devices discovered on Mars and Venus are jump gates, which when properly assembled and emplaced would allow a ship to use a jump point without a jump engine. Both nations make developing a module to assemble these gates a top priority after developing a jump engine.
Later in the month the Japanese Empire completes research on jump point theory and begins development of gravitic science instruments.
August, 2023
The Alliance completes development work on their new jump drive. The new drive design is plugged into a new survey vessel design, and work begins immediately on converting a shipyard to construct the new ship.
Nearly simultaneously, the Reich completes R&D on their jump drive and begins proto-typing.
November, 2023
The Indians begin to ship infrastructure to Ludhiana, the habitable planet in the Gliese 754 system. The planet only has moderate resources itself, but it is a good site for a colony and so far several other less hospitable planets and moons have been found to contain good quantities of resources at good availability levels.
December, 2023
The Alliance completes development of the Jump Gate Construction Module, and a new class of ship is designed around the module immediately after development is finished. The Alliance Navy decides to divert the General Systems #1 yard to build the new construction ship. This means that three quarters of the Alliance’s yards are now devoted to building non-military ships, the first time that this has happened since trans-newtonian technology was discovered.
Intelligence Report, December 2023
Much has changed over the last year. Tensions between nations are down as each nation focuses on developing interstellar drive capabilities. The growing perception that a devastating resource war looms on the horizon is now receding under the promise of out-system resources. The Reich and the Alliance are only now coming to grips with the fact that they now have the opportunity to establish extra-solar colonies and what that will mean for their military and economic power.
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