Starswift

'Interstellar travel isn't how people think it is. Its not like some peaceful scene out of Star Trek where the ships captain kicks back and sips earl grey while the stars placidly scroll across the viewport.' Ensign Zachary Hoyt remembered the words of his academy instructor reflectively through the rattling and groaning of the bulkheads and decking surrounding him. Anxiously he watched the rest of the senior crew as they attended to their stations on the bridge. Their movements a frenetic concert of choreographed commands executed with near inhuman precision.

Tensing up as the ships rattling escalated, the young ensign fought to keep his light stylus steady as he used it to tap a sequence of commands on to his console in front of him. The command deck on board starships is a noisy place. Especially during superluminal travel. Even though it was toned in the muted red of dimmed lights, it was still the most intense environment he had ever seen. The slate grey paint contrasted the glow of the crew stations, ablaze like incandescent islands amidst the darkness of the bridge. The greenhorn crew members eyes were wide and alert. The veterans with over 100 jumps or so, cool and calculating in their movements. Everybody deadly serious for this was the most dangerous part of any superluminal jaunt. The final few minutes before reaching their projected insertion point and the quantum renormalization process inherent in it.

Real warp drive is perilous and puckering. The ship shakes and vibrates terrifyingly so. Like airplane turbulence turned up to eleven. At any moment if the computer handling the drive field miscalculates you go splatt and convert into superluminal confetti blazing gammas across deep space. From back home on earth you look like a mini supernova. A mysterious bright flash in the night sky seen by some kid in his backyard as all souls aboard perish in an instant.

He remembered his first shot out to Jupiter and back. Took only seconds. He was astounded. But flights like that were common place now. And the Starswift had gotten her fill of them over the last month. The young ensign figured he'd just about seen every part of the solar system at this point. Two days ago was their last certification run. A zip over to Ganymede. Docked with the Low G Nanosphere Farm. Picked up some freight. Dropped it and ten tons of graphene off at the Callisto Orbital Metamaterials Factory and then back to Earth. All basic tasks for the shakedown tour until all systems were certified.

He tried to forget that with each shot inherent risks could spell swift annihilation for all aboard, and thoughts of potential drive failure was something Zach couldn't afford to think about at the moment. This was his first time at a station on the bridge since he was assigned to the Starswift a month ago. He'd initially been assigned to a sub station two decks down for the last few shake down flights throughout the solar system. However, a senior crew member took ill yesterday and he was temporarily promoted to a bridge position. A surprising turn. He jumped at the chance to prove himself.

"Two minutes till we drop!" The executive officer shouted from his position standing next to the captain. Centred within a ring of consoles and bridge crew the captain and his three senior most officers stood, each closest to their respective teams and associated stations. All, save for the captain, held onto overhead hand straps wincing as the ship bounced and rocked against some particularly bad turbulence.

It had been five decades since man had broken the light barrier fostering fledgling colonization and exploration of the nearest star systems. It's a lot like olden times when sailors would brave crossing the oceans in fragile galleons in search of fortune. Its just 29 days to Proxima Centauri at current top speeds, approximatel 50 times the speed of light. That sounds fast but its merely warp 2.5 in Star Trek lore. For safety the average journeys last closer to 50 days at 30 times light speed. To exasperate the issue is that there's nothing to see or do at Proxima. Once a hopeful prospect, its one planet Proxima B, although within a habitable zone, turned out to be tidally locked. Its atmosphere having been stripped away by the red dwarf it orbits long ago. The twin suns of Alpha Centauri the next closest system turned out to be a fruitless dry hole too. Despite early 21 century speculation for the better.

None the less, man kind continues to actively chart and mine many of the closest stars within reach. All the way out to the binary system Luyten and with Tau Ceti scheduled to follow soon in another few years.

Endeavours to Epsilon Eridani had paid off. The stars extensive debris disc comprised of smashed planets was a bonanza in precious materials. Prospecting firms were eagerly developing plans for the systems exploitation. Some say it's the biggest economic boom since people started to harvest atmospheric diamonds from Neptune.

But, it was quiet out there, little life, certainly nothing intelligent. At least not now. Early expeditions in the outer solar system found ruins roughly 150 million years old. Big ruins. Nobody knows who built them, what they're doing there or where the inhabitants went. But save for the walls they took everything with them. Study of the enigmatic structures yielded little for mankind.

The real goal was visiting our closest Earth like planet Kepler 22b. Scientists are pretty sure she's a wet humid jungle like planet. Some corals and island chains had even been spotted via telescope in her equatorial regions. Mankind's hopeful first real foothold into the expanses of space. Problem is she's 578 light years from earth or about 11 years journey at unsafe speeds with a one in five chance of drive core failure...and death. No ones tried yet.

Decades ago when we were first working the kinks out of the C Drive, folks would vaporise in the optical boom of chenkorev blaze the average of every tenth time they did a superluminal attempt. Running into Inhomogeneous microwave background and vacuum density anomalies at 30 times the speed of light would turn a mole hill into a mountain. The effect is like slamming into concrete if the field management systems don't adapt in time. During the first ten years alone there were 80 percent casualties in the programme until the computers were finally fast enough to keep up . Leading to the whole thing being kept a secret from the public for some time.

Ensign Hoyt looked around at the state of the art vessel and smiled. But today all that might change. See this ship is one of a kind. Its testing a new drive radically different from its predecessors. Safer and exponentially faster. It can partially decouple from space and jump to its location. Something to do with cancelling framedragging that he understood little of. Estimates state just 16 minutes from the edge of the solar system to Proxima. Thats 38 hours to Kepler 22b. Zach felt fortunate to be a part of this historic mission.

A ship wide claxon rang out jarring the ensign from his thoughts.

"One minute thirty seconds!!! Bring us sub luminal at point two C on my mark...... Three....two....one... execute!" The captain shouted over the rattle of the deck platings.

"Aye! Holding at point two!" A crew member next to him concured. A particularly hard jolt slammed through the decking as the Starswift dropped below the speed of light.

"Steady..hold her together. Ensign! Default the parametrics, drop impedance and release the soliton. Get that space back to standard C!" The captain barked.

"Roger that. Maser shutting down...EM modes back to standard local vacuum metrics! " Ensign Zachary confirmed rather proud of himself. He handled that smoothly.

"Excellent work crew. We've arrived at our test launch point. Keep the antennas up at full power and the boundary at relativistic velocities. We're just past the Oort Cloud but some debris could come our way. I want a maintained refractive at that Fresnel!" The Executive Officer issued the usual procedural commands for all superluminal shutdowns.

Acute refractive indexes at the warp fields outer boundary created sharp time gradients that functioned like an effective shielding bubble against light debris. Repelling small objects and carrying larger ones around its edge harmlessly and away from the ship its self. Well mostly harmlessly, accidents are still frequent.

"Somebody bring up the view ports. I'm tired of this red haze." The captain ordered. Happily a boatswain's mate standing near the back of the bridge punched up some commands on his tablet and the room filled with the three dimensional projection of the stars and deep space surrounding them. The sun, barely a speck of light from the distance they were at, hovered overhead amongst a mist of other stars. None of the planets save Saturn and Jupiter were even visible.

Sighs of relief abounded around the crew as they unbuckled from their chairs. At 6'5" and particularly tall Zach's head momentarily plunged into a iridescent nebula as he stood up to stretch.

Zachary always thought the niftiest thing aboard all starships were the viewport projection systems found throughout the vessels. Like submarines, spacecraft have no windows per see. Fancy holographic projections against bulkheads or even freely floating overhead sufficed.

Looking across the deck, in between the shifting about of the bridge crew free of their restraints, Hoyt could see glimpses of the Chief Engineer Thomas O'Kieran as he bent down and picked up the one plant on board the entire ship. His lucky Dracenea plant. It had fallen over at some point during the five minute shot. "There, there Bindi" he said in his characteristic Australian accent as he waddled off cradling the lanky green plant in the crook of his arm.

"Mr. Smee! Your girlfrstays secured in your quarters. The Bridge is not a place for office plants. If I see it up here again, I will personally secure it for you....out the airlock!" The XO shouted after him. The portly Senior Lead Engineer was playfully nicknamed Mr Smee by the crew because.....well, he looked like Mr Smee from the old Captain Hook stories.

"Yuh huh" the engineer muttered dismissively back as he sauntered off. He was irreplaceable aboard this vessel. If he walked then the rest of the crew might as well pack their bags and head for the nearest port looking for a new line of work. He was the absolute finest in the fleet and in comparison the executive officers threats were hallow and feeble. This ship wouldn't fly without him. And everyone knew it. He even worked side by side with the shipboard physicists when a good brainstorming was necessary. A man of little ego he was a jovial soul and his attention was coveted by just about everyone aboard. "Mr. Smee" spent much of his time with the Jr. Crew, happy to pass along his knowledge to those seeking. Many on board looked up to him like some sort of ships ambassador.

Zach got up to excuse himself when the captains voice echoed through out the vessel. Everyone momentarily paused and listened attentively.

" Attention all crew this is your captain speaking. In exactly twenty four hours we will conduct the first experiment of its kind in the history of mankind. Potentially a new epoch of space flight is before us. Earth is watching. We've all trained hard for this mission and we all know what to do. I want all senior command and officers at their stations in sixteen hours. Leadership starts with you. It is currently three hundred Zulu time. You all are at leave until ninteen hundred hours. Use your time wisely."

"Ensign Hoyt a word with you in my office." The Executive Officer called out just as Zach was exiting through the bulkhead of the Conn. He waited as the First Officer caught up with him and then followed as he lead the Ensign down the congested corridor to his private office. The office was lit in cool blue and soft white colors, a wall to wall image behind the XOs desk of a verdent forest with a small stream snaking through it dominated the room. In the corner of the scene it read 'Home." On his desk sat a picture of himself and teenage son posing proudly at the end of a dock by some pond holding up a fish.

Closing the door behind him, the officer turned to face him with a look on his face like he was just about to deliver bad news. There was a pregnant pause and with a heavy sigh he finally spoke "Ensign Hoyt. Liutenant Matthews has returned to health and will be resuming her position on the bridge. You're effectively relieved of your temporary assignment here. Thank you for stepping up. "

Zachary lowered his head disheartened by the news. "Listen...I'm not grass cutting you son. I've read your review. Your numbers are good. I want you to pilot the Machs Pride. She's our lead scientific expedition ship down in hanger two. This is a promotion....and a big responsibility. With her you'll be the tip of the spear when we get to Kepler after our test jump to Proxima. I want you to report to flight ops on deck twelve at 19 hundred for a briefing with the rest of the expeditionary executive staff. When you're not at her helm I want you here on the bridge assisting lieutenant Matthews as her second . Congratulations kid." The XO extended his arm and patted the promoted now Jr. Lieutenant on the shoulder and gave one of his easy going South Carolina smiles.

A little stunned Hoyt extended his hand and the officer excepted shaking it back. "Thank you sir." He said barely repressing the joy skyrocketing inside him.

"Dismissed. Get some 'tucker' I believe they call it in Oz?" The officer advised, accommodating Zach's rural Queensland upbringings.

" Yes Sir, they do" the ensign replied and made for the hatch out.

"Oh. And Hoyt. Don't be late for that briefing in flight ops. Master Chief Vasquez runs things down there and she doesn't take any shit. " the executive head of command warned.

"Under advisement Sir. And thank you again." Hoyt said as he hit the hatch release popping open the door. Lieutenant Matthews stood outside the door in the corridor waiting her turn with the XO. She smiled knowingly.

"Congratulations Lieutenant. You deserve the promotion". Matthews said in her usual calm and smoothly confidant voice.

Slightly bashful the young ensign grinned back. " Well, I did have the best teacher around." Referring to Matthews as he headed off down the corridor.

She simply shook her head and silently smiled before heading inside.

---

So this is the beginning of a new scifi series I'm writing. Future chapters will follow the crew of the Starswift as she travels to the farthest reaches of the universe, witnessing the unexpected and unknown.

Also, for the technophiles I'll probably get a little into the physics behind the superluminal drive for those interested as the chapters progress. Tried to come up with a "warp drive" concept that was grounded in science and fairly original.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Best,

Steemydave

All images supplied by Pixabay.com