Mystery From The Stars - Prologue

[Texashawk (OP)]

Well, I lost my game of American Dream (again) and I was tired of having to start over again. Plus, I had some real-life issues to take care of.

Now that 5.42 is out, I'm going to bite the bullet and stick with it as long as I can to write a new (different) story. Hope y'all like!

FYI, you can now comment in the discussion thread. Keeps things flowing better, to me.

[Texashawk (OP)]

CHAPTER 1: MESSAGE FROM THE DEEP

8.5.2015
TERRA PRIME STATION, EARTH

Earth Administrator Sang Vanegas looked out from the small portal in his office high above Earth, on the Terra Prime station. Below his feet, 160 miles beneath him, the Earth gently whirled on its cosmic axis, serene and silent from space. Even through the reinforced plastic, Vanegas could make out the high cirrus clouds being carried along the jet streams in the atmosphere. The sun was about forty degrees port and ten degrees off the azimuth of the station, creating a gorgeous early morning effect on the Atlantic Ocean below.

This could all be gone at any moment. We have wasted so much time...

Shaken from his thoughts by a sonic tapping, Vanegas tapped lightly on the gently pulsing 'incoming message' icon on his desk vidscreen. The pleasant face of his Chief Science Officer, Ahmad Phegley, filled the screen. "Good morning, Ahmad, what can I do for you?" Vanegas inquired.

"Morning, sir," Phegley replied. "I have news regarding the Skylight artifact. Important news."

Phegley was not known for small talk, or idle statements. "Proceed."

"Yes. Well, we've managed to decode almost eighty percent of the logs contained within the artifact, and we've captured blueprints and schematics for some incredible technologies that are, frankly, far beyond our current capacity to reproduce. Just the production line retooling needed would take decades."

And it doesn't help that most of those lines lie in ruins, Vanegas mused. "Well, we always knew our production capabilities would be curtailed by the Final War. We'll just have to do what we can. Is there anything more about the Retribution?"

Phegley grimaced. "No. We still can not pin down a date within better than a fifty-year window. The events described could happen tomorrow, or towards the latter half of the century... or if our compucryptology keys are wrong... who knows."

"Ok," Vanegas said, "so your big news is... no news?"

"Not at all, sir!" Phegley's eyebrows raised into a supine arch at the adminstrator's tone. "Besides the eighty percent decoding success, we've also managed to discover what we believe is the key to faster-than-light travel - gravitational singularity acceleration technology!"

Vanegas gave a blank stare. "Eh... what? English, doctor."

Phegley gave a small, nervous laugh. "Of course, sir. Well, put plainly... hmmm... how shall I frame it for a non-transitive mind... ah. Imagine that you were running a race, and in your lane there were walls designed to keep you in and everyone else out. Nobody could see you or hear you, and you would be completely cut off from the outside world. Also imagine that you were running the race at about an eighty degree angle downward, and there was no wind or anything to slow you down. So gravity is pushing you faster and faster towards the finish line, and since there's no friction, there's no slowing you down, so you run faster and faster until you reach the speed of light. So you're done, right? No!

"As the moment you reach the speed of light, you're still inside these walls, and the walls are moving faster and faster as well. Since you are moving relative to the walls, you can move exponentially faster within the walls as long as the walls were moving faster as well. It's like walking inside a bus in motion - you may be moving at a few miles per hour, but the bus might be moving at forty - so your absolute speed is forty-two miles per hour, while your relative speed is two. As long as the bus moves at the speed of light, you can move even faster within the bus since it's within a singularity! Get it?"

"Sort of." Vanegas's head hurt. "The point is, we can move beyond the solar system at a practical speed in theory."

"In theory," Phegley agreed. "It's time to make a decision, Administrator. The Earth Technology Coalition has completed or nearly completed a staggering amount of prototypes for starships in the last three years, and we believe we have enough work completed to design and build our first Bohr class survey ship. Here are the preliminary parameters:

Bohr class Geological Survey Vessel    2,050 tons     91 Crew     191.5 BP      TCS 41  TH 100  EM 0
2439 km/s     Armour 1-14     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/25/0/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 33%    IFR: 0.5%    Maint Capacity 58 MSP    Max Repair 100 MSP    Est Time: 1.36 Years

Pratt & Whitney Commercial Nuclear Pulse Engine I (1)    Power 100    Fuel Use 10%    Signature 100    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres    Range 43.9 billion km   (208 days at full power)

Sony EM Sensor Array EMS/S5 (1)     Sensitivity 25     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  25m km
Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Vanegas took a deep breath. "I don't understand a lot of what you boys and gals do down there, but I sure do appreciate it. Make it happen. Retool the Deutche Wurke space yard to create this ship. And tell the Germans... good luck."

. . . . .

EARTH CONFEDERATION RECORD
DATAFILE: STARLIGHT/RECORDS/LOGFILE/"RETRIBUTION":DATA BLOCK 1A

NOTE: DATAFILE CRYPTOLOGY INCOMPLETE. PLEASE USE READ-ONLY COPY OF FILE

ACCESS CLASS BLACK
USE OR RELEASE OF THIS DATA IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH

/WE A#E AWAKE#ED.

/IT IS T#ME TO R#TURN TO #UR HOM#WO#LD. THE #### WILL R#COV#R #HE ##### FROM T#E ASHES O# SOL.

/OUR COM#NG WIL# BE HERAL#ED BY STREAKS OF F#RE ARCI#G ACROSS THIS S##CE ABO#E THE PLA##T.

/WE CO#E FOR OU# CHILD#EN.

END DATA BLOCK 1A
////////////////////////

[Texashawk (OP)]

1.1.2016
DEUTCHE WERKE SPACE YARD
KONIGSBURG, FREE GERMAN STATE

"...So today, I stand before you in this new year of our Lord two-thousand and sixteen, to lay the blessing down upon this keel, the Bohr, which may, in its many travels throughout the stars, brush against the hand of God." Pope Pius XIII proclaimed before a crowd estimated at over a million people surrounding the vast Slipway I complex housing the immense tools that would soon create humanity's first starship.

Administrator Sang Vanegas stood as the benediction was nearing its end and smiled. Even an atheist would have reason to be optimistic about the ceremonial laying of the central ventral keel, which would in less than a year become the GEV Bohr, sent on a mission to catalogue and explore the solar system's geologic and mineral concentrations.

And it would be critical to find these minerals, Phegley had reminded him (often). These were not simple iron or aluminum. No, the scientists had discovered years ago, with the new technologies and the vast capabilities they brought came new demands for minerals that could withstand the immense physical, nuclear, and gravitational effects that were placed upon them in their application.

Unfortunately, these 'Newtonian minerals' as his scientists had dubbed them, were not in ample supply on the planet. The vast clouds of radiation that still lingered over parts of the world did not help either, though the areas where they lingered - primarily the northern American continent and Asia - were not considered optimal for surveying anyway.

Vanegas sighed. There was so much work to do, and the vast majority of humanity had no idea that the clock was ticking.

And if Vanegas had his way, they never would.

"Adminstrator? Administrator? Hello."

Vanegas was ripped from his dark thoughts by the sound of Captain Jean Lawrie, considered the top graduate in Earth's Space Leadership Academy. Though she had never been in any branch of the armed services prior to the start of her time at the SLA, her genius with command and her unique background in geology made her a natural top candidate for captaincy of the Bohr.

Plus, Vanegas guiltily observed, it didn't hurt the fledgling academy that she was a young, attractive woman, and thus an instant media darling.

"Captain Lawrie! Hello!" Vanegas warmly shook her extended hand. It was cold to the touch, he observed. "Don't tell me you're going to be hanging around the yards until October, watching every rivet go into the side!"

The captain smiled tightly. "Smart of you to consider that, Adminstrator. But no, I suppose I'll have to spend my time doing less useful things, like assisting with training a crew."

"Well, congratulations again, captain. You deserve the Bohr, and I know you'll do a great job out there. We're really counting on you, you know. This isn't a media mission. We truly need these minerals."

"I know," Captain Lawrie responded. "CSO Phegley told me how important they were."

"Ah... really?" Vanegas choked. "Well, that's interesting. I'd appreciate anything else he told you to be kept strictly confidential."

"Of course, Administrator. I'll be sure to inform you about any... excessive information he may happen to pass along."

"Agreed. So what do you think of this ceremony?"

Lawrie glared at the pope. "Let that fool speak of his God and his blessings. I'll be a lot happier when the Pratt & Whitney boys certify those engines for use, and our life support systems are set for safety redundancy. God can't prevent a fusion overload, methinks."

"Perhaps not, but a little extra blessing never hurt, right?" Vanegas stated.

"I'll see your God," the captain replied icily, "and raise you a competent crew. Period." She walked off, muttering under her breath.

God, Vanegas pleaded under his breath, please don't forsake the innocent many for the ravings of one.

[Texashawk (OP)]

EARTH DATABASE NET
SEARCH SUBJECT: FINAL WAR
ACCESSING....
15,235,926 RELEVANT DATA BLOCKS WITH FINAL WAR
DISPLAYING IN ORDER OF ACCESS STATISTICS

///

The war was never supposed to happen.

Of course, World War I started with an ill-timed assassination, and one would have thought humanity would have learned its lesson.

But nobody ever thought the United States would be so stupid. I mean, having the Prime Minister of England killed during a Parliament session? In broad daylight? And then letting themselves be shot off the roof, thus establishing them as a CIA deep cover agent?

Madness.

Of course, the US didn't mean for that to happen. To this day, I can't believe they would ever do something so rogue. And don't you tell me harsh EU trade sanctions against the US were sufficient to cause this. That the US would take such action against England, a new and forceful member to the EU, is unthinkable.

Isn't it?

At any rate, whether you believed the President or not, that the man was a rogue agent gone mad, and that the US offered their deepest condolences, both financial and rhetorical, the matter seemed settled, albeit tense.

Until the Queen was assassinated a month later, by a second 'rogue' CIA agent.

And until Wikileaks published the full operational details of Operation Red Crown, a full roster of planned assassinations against the majority of key members of Britain's royal family and Parliament, somehow swiped from Langley's super secure computer file vault and presented to a disbelieving world.

On December 9th, 2011, at 3:18 AM, after rhetoric around the globe had been raised to unthinkable levels, the first ten Trident ICBMs were launched from the HMS Vengeance stationed in the North Atlantic, and the world we thought we knew would be changed forever.

-"A Memoir of the Madness":former USN Adm.(Ret) John Fogulsong, first recorded 2013

///

NEXT DATABLOCK...

[Texashawk (OP)]

1.2.2016
TERRA PRIME STATION, EARTH

Adminstrator Venegas, comfortable in his blindingly white suit and space black thin tie, stared at the vidscreen at his director of special projects, Rear Admiral Shaun Martucci. As always, Admiral Martucci, with his shock of red hair and freckles complementing his usual nervous energy, looked like he could power a small corvette with his fidgeting alone.

"Sir," Marticci said, "Project FOURIER is ready to proceed. We have completed a prototype for discovering gravitational anomalies throughout the solar system. Everything you wished in the design is here: endurance for up to 2 years of fuel, a capital class EM sensor suite, our latest ThermalCloak star drive that masks the heat signature by 50%, and top-of-the line armor to survive any contact with... whatever we find out there. Here are the technical specifications:

Fourier class Deep Space Survey Ship    3,100 tons     286 Crew     454 BP      TCS 62  TH 80  EM 0
2580 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/25/1/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 76%    IFR: 1.1%    Maint Capacity 92 MSP    Max Repair 100 MSP    Est Time: 1.1 Years

Pratt & Whitney Military Jump Drive MJD-80     Max Ship Size 4000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
GM Military ThermalCloak 50 StarDrive (4)    Power 40    Fuel Use 100%    Signature 20    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 145.1 billion km   (651 days at full power)

Sony EM Sensor Array EMS/S5 (1)     Sensitivity 25     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  25m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

"Hmmm," the Adminstrator mused. "Impressive. Still..." He drummed his manicured fingers on the glass desk surrounding his chair. A nervous admiral followed his fingers' motion. "The maintenance seems to be a little low for a ship that is expected to survey for years."

"Perhaps, sir. We are limited by the space that we have due to the massive space needed for the jump engine. But we can look at updating that in a future design, perhaps..."

"All right, Admiral. See to it that the the Fourier is constructed in absolute secrecy."

The admiral grinned. "That's why we're using the Litton-Ingalls Antarctic works. Too damn cold down there for people to be nosing about. The Fourier will be completed in seventeen months, assuming no incidents or overruns."

"Excellent. Make sure that it does not take longer, Admiral. The world is depending on the Fourier finding an escape hatch from... well. Enough for you to know that this ship is the most important thing that humanity has ever built."

The admiral licked his lips. "No pressure, sir. But we'll make that ship right and ready next May, you have my word."

"Your word is fine. But, Admiral...?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Know that any leaks of this project or its intent will end with the leak being plugged... permanently."

[Texashawk (OP)]

1.12.2016
TERRA PRIME STATION, EARTH

"Titan? TITAN?? Are you f***ing KIDDING me?"

The Administrator raised a thin eyebrow at Titan Administrator Alberto Fuoco's outburst. "Administrator, please keep your decorum while on this station."

Fuoco strained to breathe, took three deep breaths, and started again, after another large gulp of recycled station air. "Sir, please forgive me. But I am a Class IV Administrator, and Titan -" he practically spat the word - "is a reserved colony! It only requires a Class Zero caretaker administrator! Why... why are you sending me to that... that ROCK in space?"

Vanegas smiled, thinly. "Do you feel you are overworthy of such an assignment, Administrator Fuoco?" His eyes glinted dangerously in the light of his vidscreen.

"No... not overworthy, sir. But I feel that... perhaps my experience and talents... um..." Fuoco ran down under the flinty gaze of the Earth administrator.

"When you are done puffing your outsized ego, Administrator, may I explain my line of reasoning?"

"Yes... yes, sir. My apologies."

"First. You are an experienced administrator. Your specialties include shipbuilding logistics, exceptional factory line management, a keen sense of global logistics, and a knack for getting ground units trained and ready, no doubt culled from your years in the US Marines."

"Yes... yes, that's all true. But why not use those skills on a colony more ready for development, such as Mars?"

"Titan is to be a critically important outpost for us... more important than I can reveal at this time, even to you," the senior administrator said, getting up from his chair to talk alongside the chastened Fuoco. "Know that your skills were not chosen by chance, and this is no mistake. I need someone I can trust to be my eyes and ears in the far reaches of the solar system - and Titan is to be the axis of our outer perimeter."

"Outer perimeter? Of what?" Fuoco asked.

"Again, I can not say. For now, all you need to know is that we will be constructing a mighty military complex, hidden in the shadow of Saturn. Your role will become more clear as time passes, but for now I need you to lay the logistical groundwork for a naval outpost of five million volunteers, engineers, militia, and laborers." The Earth administrator walked to his meeting vidscreen, a much larger one recessed into a wall for use in meetings with his senior staff. He pushed a button in the wall, and moved his hands dexterously across the small touchscreen that emerged.

In a moment, a gargantuan complex, tens of miles long, appeared on the screen, spinning at various angles and scales. "Administrator, this is your project - the Titania Planetia shipworks. This must be constructed, along with all logistical necessities that come with such a project, no later than 2021."

The junior administrator's mouth fell open. "But sir... sir... that kind of shipyard could build star dreadnaughts, five at a time! What... what need have we for such size of ships?"

"Ah. That, administrator... that is a question that I can not answer. Not even for you. And it is one I hope I never have to."

[Texashawk (OP)]

8.27.2016
SYSTEM CARGO SHIP TSS FLETCHER, FLETCHER CLASS
DEEP SPACE NEAR TITAN, SATURN

The moons of Saturn were beautiful, Titan Administrator Fuoco had to admit. Even if they were desolate.

The Earth Administrator had 'encouraged' him to come aboard the first Fletcher-class cargo vessel to supervise the hauling of the infrastructure that even now was awaiting the frozen popsicles, ahem, volunteers, that would be building and living on the Titania colony. Surprisingly, the effort did not lack for volunteers, even as vague about the whole enterprise as Fuoco and his colony council had to be. It wouldn't do to say that we need your backbreaking labor to build a massive orbital and ground shipyard complex, so it was instead 'framed', as his culture officer put it, as a 'experiment to the stars'.

It was also a convenient place to send several tens of thousands of lifetime criminals who were still rotting on Earth. Don't like your situation, man? Well, then, we can arrange for you to have less air! And a lot more space! Not surprisingly, Fuoco didn't view the criminals as something that was going to be a problem.

No, the problem, as he saw it, was the minerals. Duranium, to be precise.

Although there were still almost a quarter-million tons of duranium deposits surveyed on the portions of Earth which could still be mined, the good Terran Administrator Vanegas was doing his utmost to run through those deposits in record time. There was simply no way that Earth's supply of duranium, which was used in virtually every new-technology device being created, would stretch to cover all the needs. And those were just the needs that Vanegas was actually bothering to inform him about. Damn that man and his right hand not knowing the left hand...

Sometimes, Fuoco reflected ruefully, being good at logistics could sure make your head hurt.

To mitigate the pain, and to alleviate the boredom he often felt, he took long jogs around the cavernous Cargo Bay #4. It was the closest to his cabin, a relatively luxurious emplacement on the port side of the giant oblong starship. Despite the massive Fletcher's size, at nearly 24,000 metric tons, there were surprisingly few crew aboard.

Well, and how many crew did you need to run a giant storage bowl floating through space, with no weapon or defensive systems to speak of. Hell, the Fletcher didn't even carry a science or a tactical officer among its senior crew, a clear indication of the capabilities of its systems, or lack thereof.

For being one of the most important men in the solar system, he had told Vanegas just before the Fletcher left the Terra Prime orbital station, you sure have me feeling safe, riding in a giant unarmed tug.

But on this, the middle of the second trip for infrastructure - the first wave of 40,000 colonists would not arrive aboard the CS Noah class Henry Hudson for another nine months - there was only time eternal, and a threat of zero.

Just enough time to go insane.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

[Texashawk (OP)]

10.9.2016
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY VESSEL TSS BOHR, BOHR CLASS
NEAR TITAN ORBIT, SATURN

Captain Lawrie was in a foul mood, sitting at her station chair on the bridge, staring at the equator of Titan through the reinforced bridge viewplane. If it wasn't one thing with this damned ship, it was another. Her engineering section was being worked to the point of exhaustion, and more than once the Chief had mentioned, subvocally, how interesting it would be for the Chief Terran Science Officer Phegley to stick his nose inside this so-called 'beautiful' nuclear stardrive. Then, the Chief had chuckled grimly, at least they'd have a night light when they lost all their power.

Personally, Lawrie wouldn't trade the damned thing for two stray cats. At least the cats only ran on milk and fish. These damn engines...

'SYSTEM ALERT' popped up in red and black, like an irritating frenemy that wouldn't go away, on the captain's systems display, or sysplay as the Navvies had taken to calling them. With an audible swear that bounced around the small bridge area, causing her helm officer to glance back with concern, she read the depressing text:

TEMPERATURE IN FUSION CHAMBER EXCEEDS SAFE LIMITS
RUNAWAY REACTION POTENTIAL: 18.2%
DAMPENING PROTOCOLS AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATED

SYSLOG INDICATES RUNAWAY REACTION POTENTIAL HAS REMAINED ABOVE 5.0% SINCE SHIPDATE 8.11.16.
DO YOU WISH TO SHUT DOWN PRIMARY FUSION REACTOR FOR EVALUATION?

As if I could, she thought dryly. Or perhaps we'll just get out and push. And fusion was supposed to be the safe type of engine! Ha. She sighed, and typed 'N' for the third time in two weeks.

"Everything OK, Cap'n?" the young helm officer asked, brow furrowed.

Perhaps another captain would have felt guilty about endangering their crew with a potentially catastrophically faulty system. But the way Lawrie saw it, them's the risks, that gets the glory.

"Yup, Wiggins. Just a observation in the engine. Little out of balance again. But Chief Maxwell's got it under control."

The helm officer did not look reassured. Lawrie was certain that rumors were flying around the ship's ninety-one crew like wildfire. That was OK. Rumors could not be proved, or acted upon without difficulty. But morale was another matter. Which is why it was critical that only the most senior of the need-to-know staff on the Chief's team understood the potential danger. The last thing she needed, hundreds of millions of miles from home, was a mutiny.

Maybe there was a God after all, even out in the blackness of space. And if there was, Lawrie was certain she was chuckling.

10.11.2016

Science Officer Tark Williams was excited. Finally, some readings to analyze!! The geological sensors were slow, but Williams was confident that they, at least, were tuned properly. Like many, he had heard rumors about the faulty furnace at the back of the ship.

He leaned over the sensor sysplay and took in the readings.

PRELIMINARY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SOUNDINGS/BODY TITAN REGION SATURN
FINDINGS FOR ALPHA SAMPLING......
BATCH 001
....DOWNLOADING
ALPHA SAMPLING COMPLETE

MATERIAL FILTER: DURANIUM
EXTRAPOLATED READINGS FOR ALPHA SAMPLING INDICATE POTENTIAL DEPOSITS FOR THIS MATERIAL:
MIN:567940 MT
MAX:1129492 MT
RELATIVE ACCESSIBILITY: 0.8
DEVIATION RANGE: 0.7-1.12

MATERIAL FILTER: CORBOMITE
EXTRAPOLATED READINGS FOR ALPHA SAMPLING INDICATE POTENTIAL DEPOSITS FOR THIS MATERIAL:
MIN:2788388 MT
MAX:4188282 MT
RELATIVE ACCESSIBILITY: 0.1
DEVIATION RANGE: 0.8-1.22

There was more, but Williams took in none of it. He jabbed at the ship intercom panel.

"Captain.... CAPTAIN!... I need you on the bridge now!"

The sleepy, dusky voice of Captain Lawrie snarled over the intercom, "What's happening? Are we under attack?"

"No... Trust me. You gotta see this... I think we just freakin' saved Earth."