Posted by: Sematary
« on: December 10, 2013, 01:10:29 AM »
July 2050
Operations Center, Department of Survey, Naval Headquarters, Earth
“GSV Darwin, this is Operations Center. Do you copy?” Ensign Vicky Eaton said into the intercom. Communications had recently had a major breakthrough when jump point theory was proven correct earlier this year, and the Republic of Earth Navy was field testing a new communications method which used small jump engine like devices to transmit messages. So although the GSV Darwin had just reported finishing surveys of the last dwarf planet deep into the Oort Cloud it would only take a minute or two for them to receive the message.
Aboard the Darwin, Captain Cornelius Schneider was gazing down at the gray lifeless rock below him. Eris orbited the sun at a distance of 14.5 billion kilometers and had no minerals worthwhile on its roughly 17 million square kilometer surface. It was peaceful though, being 96.9 AU from the sun, it was reduced to one of the two brightest stars in the sky, at this distance Sirius was a top contender for brightest star. It was just him and his one hundred and ten crewmembers orbiting the ninth largest object in the solar system. “Operations Center, this is GSV Darwin, we copy.”
A wave of relief came over Ensign Eaton, she hated the long waits between messages. Though with the old system it would have been much longer, almost 13 hours, and actually it would have been longer since Eris was currently on almost the completely opposite side of the Sun from Earth right now. “With the completion of your primary duties in the Sol System, your new orders are to move to Neptune and begin surveying moons and other natural satellites. The Irving and Jagger, which makes up Geology Task Group #2 have surveyed the moons out through Saturn and are now working on Uranus’ moons. After you have finished you will start surveying the asteroids and comets of the Oort Cloud. Operations Center over and out.”
Wolf 359 Jump Point
Commander Alexander Nappo looked at the giant structure floating in space in front of his ship. Every now and then electricity sparked along it, and he imagined the crackle and the smell of ozone his brain told him there should be. Of course there was no sound since sound doesn’t travel in a vacuum and no smell of ozone because there was no oxygen to turn into O3. But then again sometimes science took away the romance of things, or at least that’s what passed through Alex’s mind. This was a nerve wracking time for him, though he imagined that in just a few years this will probably no big deal and he was one of two commanding officers who were making it no big deal. Commander Alexander Nappo was in command of what was about to become the third ship to ever jump solar systems, and at 71,300 tons the Amerigo Vespucci outweighed the Enterprise and the Valiant by almost 24 times making it the largest ship to ever jump in human history.
Jump Gates were like giant jump engines that would shoot ships through the jump point as if the ship had a jump engine of its own. The Amerigo Vespucci was one of two ships that created jump gates and each ship only had space for four gates. While the Wolf 359 Jump Gate was not the first one constructed, the Coontz had finished the Alpha Centauri gate five days ago, it would be the first one to see use. In preparation for this event Alex had read the reports of both the Enterprise and the Valient’s logs regarding jumps several times and he had made it mandatory that his crew of two hundred and sixty nine do the same at least once.
And then came the moment where Alex could not delay any longer. It was time to make the jump. “All stations report go for jump.” He ordered with all the command he could muster. On the display screen in front of him one by one each station turned green, reporting that they were ready for the jump. Not that they had very much to get ready for, only the engine crew, bridge crew, maintenance crews, and the crew of the two CIWS were at stations right now. After inputting the commands he pressed the button to begin powering up the jump gate and he saw the electricity start flowing along and through the gate with increasing frequency before arcing out and hitting his ship. Then he had the most bizarre feeling in his life as everything seemed to be pulled sideways and then like a rubber band everything was snapped back into place.
“All good. A normal jump has taken place. We are successfully in Wolf 359. Message sent using residual energy from jump to Naval Command. We are go for construction on this side.”
August 2050
Naval Command, Earth
Vice Admiral Vern Mucher was sitting at his desk with a large view of the North Sea behind him when the two commanders were ushered in. This month would be a truncated staff meeting because most of the staff were not needed. Today he would only be meeting with Commander Brian Hoston and Commander Yvonne Dreger, Head of Operations and Logistics respectively. He finished reading a report as they stood at attention for a minute before finally sitting down at the chairs in front of his desk. “Since August is almost over and in two months your departments are the only ones who have had anything of note to do, this month’s staff meeting will consist of just the three of us. Commander Hoston, begin.”
Brian cleared his throat and began, “Sir, as you know the Amerigo Vespucci became the first vessel to travel through a jump gate and after a delay of ten minutes we received word that they had successfully jumped and would be beginning on creating the jump gate on the other side. We have had one update from them and they have had no problems. This second update was possible because the Gravity Task Groups 1 and 2 were sent to Wolf 359 to begin gravitational surveys of that system. Hopefully something is found because that system is currently considered a dead system with no use. The task groups were reassigned now because there is no use of them in Sol since they have completed the gravitational survey of Sol and had sufficient shore leave and their fuel reserves are large enough that they will not reach 50% before the gate on the Wolf 359 side is completed. The only other thing to note on pertaining to Naval Operations is the Coontz is still continuing on to the Sirius jump point. It has been in transit for over a month now and is still a little over a week away.”
“Thank you Commander. Now Commander Dreger, what do you have to report?”
“The construction of the MEADS 100 anti missile missiles has finished, and we have a stockpile of 2,000 of them. We have about 750 of 2,000 RIM-100 anti ship missiles and the ordnance factories that were producing the MEADS are now producing RIMs, which has taken a year off the estimated finish date. The RIM-100s should finish in mid 2051. We imagine these stockpiles will not be enough if we start a war with another race but by that point we may be at a different generation of missiles so I have ordered that the stockpiles do not get too big at the moment.”
Vern nodded as he thought about what his two staff members said. “Good thinking Commander Dreger. Though with how slow we seem to be making the RIM-100s, I fear that a stockpile of 2,000 might be depleted faster than it could be replaced in case of war. We will see when that day comes. I can not imagine that humans and the Bilos are the only two races out there. I also can not imagine that all will be as cordial as the Bilos either. How many RIM-100s can the Lexington Task Group hold in one go?”
At that question Yvonne looks through some of the papers she has and does some quick math before answering, “I believe about 422, sir.”
“So with one resupply the Lexington Task Group will go through just over 1/5th of our stockpile. That doesn’t even include the Earth Orbital Defense. By the time the RIM-100 production is complete I want either a revised stockpile level or plans for a new generation of missiles.”