Let's see what's out there

Posted on Monday 4 October 2021 @ 13:23 by Lieutenant Nir’anyar & Captain Melody Jones

Mission: First Contact
Location: Experimental warp craft
971 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:


Bob sat in the cockpit looking over the various readouts and displays. The ride had gotten a lot smoother since they had left the atmosphere and now they were getting ready to bring the faster than light drive online. The scientists down on the planet had come up with this crazy new idea and it had fallen on them to test it. Also, they had been given the task to see if they could find anyone else out there. Ha! Fat chance! Everyone knew they were the only intelligent species in the galaxy.

Bob felt confident, if a bit sceptical. The space program had only been going 50 years now and they had gone from sending unmanned probes into low orbit, to sending manned craft, establishing a space station in low orbit, sending a craft to their moon and now this. He felt like they were rushing things but the new administration had poured a ton of resources into this and they wanted a payoff. A big one.
He turned to his co-pilot. "You know there's a good chance this thing either isn't going to work and we'll just sit here or, we'll end up being blown to bits." He sighed. "And if this doesn't work, they're going to blame us."

Taron buckled his harness belt, his own excitement starting to churn and give him the tingles in his stomach. He tossled his longer blond hair before pulling it back to fasten it in a makeshift small ponytail to keep it out of his eyes during the flight but he couldn't help but throw a lopsided grin at his commanding officer for this flight before he pitched in.
"Commander, come on man... This is going to work and we will prove that there is more out there than the sceptics and the government would have us think. Loosen up old man!"

Bob turned to his younger, eager co-pilot. "Look we better get this right. If the stabilization field doesn't match our acceleration curve we're going to be plenty loose as our bones will be liquified. Are you ready? I'm going to bring the faster than light drive online now. You'd think they would have come up with a cool name for it." He muttered as he started flipping switches and a low hum filled the cabin.

"And I thought I was the young impressionable one..." Taron chuckled, his own excitment building at the prospect of what was to come.
"Coolant intake valve is primed and the magnetic containment is optimal... We are ready to engage the... Star Drive!" he offered, once again with a lopsided smile at his commander.

"OK we've got green lights across the board here." Bob flipped the comm switch "Mission control, we are about to light this candle. We'll see you in a couple of months."
The reply from mission control was short and to the point. "Good luck!"

Here goes nothing Bob thought to himself as he flipped pressed the final button and the craft began to accelerate. "Here we go.... The drive field is forming..... looks good. We'll break the light speed barrier in 5...4....3...2....1...." The stars suddenly stretched into long streaks of light.

"Oh my... The simulations didn't quite do it justice...." He said as he looked in awe out of the window.

Taron was in the same state of awe and amazement at the sight. The streaked stars plentiful in number, more than he could have imagined.
"We just changed the world!"

"Well...." Bob said as he let out the breath he had been holding. "We're still alive. We should reach the outermost planet in our star system in 8 minutes.... mark."

"And now we wait and hope it works long enough to get us home!"
The younger man went to work fine tuning the pitch and yaw of the small experimental craft, he was a pilot by trade but he had learned to adapt and pick up new skills and was a passable engineer after all of his training of late. "We are getting a seven percent vibration in the transflux stabilizer... It's within estimated safety tolerance but dropping out of the FTL Corridor may be a bit choppy!"

"Only seven percent? I can work with that. Well according to these readings, the outer planet of the next star system is about 10 days away so we might be able to smooth out the ride before we have to slow down. We should also work out a sleep schedule. I don't entirely trust the autopilot, I'd still rather one of us was at the controls just in case. Do you want to take the first sleep cycle or shall I?"

"You go sleep old man!" The younger man jested as he released his safety harness allowing him an easier range of movement around the cockpit. "I'll see if I can tweak the stabilizer while you sleep. See if I can get it down to five percent!"

The older man reluctantly removed his harness and started toward the sleeping compartment near the rear. “Ok. Give me 6 hours then we’ll swap. Call me if anything happens and you also better look over the instructions for the planetary analysis system. The last thing we want is to go back and tell them we found planet with life on for it to turn out to be a barren sand heap.”

"Go sleep old man before you fall over!"
The younger man teased having already called up the operating system for the planetary analysis gear. It would have made it easier if the systems had all been networked but by the time she ship was ready to launch it was too late to integrate the newly developed technology. "I'll come get you in a few hours... go!"

OFF

Pilot Bob G’Har
NPC Jones

Co-pilot Taron De'larn
NPC Nir'Anyar