The Collective Read online

  The Collective

  Introduction

  200 years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, the Western Republic is preparing to launch an exploration spacecraft to Epsilon Eridani. The Columbia (named in honor of the Apollo 11 command module) is the first of a new class of space ship using Gravity propulsion. The sheer mass required for the Gravity Generators results in a ship of massive proportions. The propulsion functions by “pushing against” or “pulling at” near or distant gravity sources. These gravity concentrators are mounted around the Gravity Generators on the exterior of the ship in all directions forming a sphere. The result is something similar looking to the Death Star from Star Wars only instead of one large depression there are many smaller depressions over the entire surface. The Gravity Generators also form a gravity bubble around the ship, in essence forming a small singularity, warping local space and separating the ship from the local gravity. In effect the ship exerts near zero mass. The crew resides inside the shell, protected from cosmic radiation by the gravity bubble and living in a normal gravity environment. The gravity propulsion is only used outside the solar system and ion drive is used to move the ship in-system but since the ship exerts near zero local mass the ion drives can realize tremendous acceleration and about .75 C (.75 the speed of light).

  The political environment of earth in 2169 has altered greatly from that of the time of Apollo 11. The early 21st century saw total economic collapse of many governments and the religious wars around 2030 resulted in social and economic realignment on a global scale. The remnants of the western democracies formed the Western Republic, the socialist regions formed the Peoples Confederation, and the Islamic Theocracies formed the Caliphate. The Western Republic was economically the strongest and funded the expedition to begin manned exploration and colonization of the solar neighbors. Epsilon Eridani is not the absolute closest (at 10.5 light years) but holds the most promising planet for colonization in near space. The 5th planet in the system, code named Eden for the expedition, appears to be a near perfect twin to Earth in astronomical studies. Additionally, no electromagnetic signals have been detected from the region and so it is assumed holds no technology. A perfect planet for colonization by a population tired from years of conflict. No open wars but a very tense relationship with military often on high alert and small “incidents” are common.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Contents

  Disaster

  Chapter 1 – Columbia

  Chapter 2 - Onward

  Chapter 3 – Escape

  Chapter 4 – Nightmares

  Chapter 5 - Approach

  Chapter 6 – Contact

  Chapter 7 – Orbit

  Chapter 8 – Eagle

  Chapter 9 – Friends

  Chapter 10 – Enemies

  Chapter 11 – Conflict

  Chapter 12 – Adventure

  Disaster

  “Captain, Payload Bravo Alpha 6204394 on approach at outer marker.” Master Sargent Parker made the declaration sound as though this was a routine operation that had been done thousands of times. In truth this was the first time that an asteroid of this size had been redirected from the asteroid belt toward Lunar Earth orbit and focused gravity capture was used to park it near the orbital fabrication plants. Smaller asteroids were routine but not as economical. With the accelerated build schedules larger rocks were needed to feed the hungry crushers.

  “Acknowledged Ops. Initiate capture and let’s bring her in nice and easy.” Captain Gonzales, commander of the Orbital Station Atlas, was more than a little bit nervous about having the responsibility of bringing in an asteroid the size that wiped out the dinosaurs but trusted the Sargent’s years of experience and her abilities that belied her youthful beauty. Looking at the main display the rock was in the center of the approach vector and correct velocity as well. Everyone had been at the top of their game on this one. Tensions were high but everything so far had been perfect.

  “Yes Sir. Capture initiated. Beginning braking sequence.” The Sargent announced.

  The main screen displayed the status of a positive capture. Looking at the velocity though something was wrong. The incoming velocity was correct but now instead of slowing the speed was increasing.

  “Ops, report! Why is that rock not slowing?” the Captain demanded.

  “Checking Sir. The generators report half capacity repulse as entered. Increasing repulse to 3/4 capacity,” Parker replied. Her hands flew over the control console and the hum of the power units increased as they were pushed harder.

  This is an order of magnitude greater repulse energy than should be needed but still the deadly asteroid was not slowing. In fact, it was accelerating even more. The display read “Repulse” but the velocity changes of the rock seemed like the generators were focused in attract mode. Impossible; what’s wrong with this rock?

  “Ops, it’s still not slowing. Increase to full!” Gonzales ordered.

  “Acknowledged Sir!” Years of training still holding despite the situation going to hell by the second, Parker entered the commands and the generators responded with enough power to stop a rock 3 times that size. Yet it kept coming …. FASTER!

  Alarm claxons sounded as the systems detected the increasingly dangerous velocity and trajectory. The main display updated the status. This rock was going to rip through the heart of the fabrication yards. Thousands would be killed. Was some other force at play? How was the asteroid increasing in forward speed? Something had to be wrong with the systems. Time for drastic action.

  “Ops! Cut repulse to zero!” Gonzales ordered.

  “Sir, What?” the Sargent replied in stunned confusion. Discipline was one thing but they had to stop this thing. More power is needed not less.

  “Sargent you have your orders! Cut repulse to zero! NOW!”

  That overcame the confusion. Whether she understood, or not, that was direct enough to get her moving again. “Yes Sir, Repulse zero now!”

  The displayed showed gravity repulse zero, but what would the rock do now? If there was no other force involved then momentum would remain stable. Come on, update! Seconds ticked by and the velocity and trajectory remained unchanged. It had to be the systems, but how? Sirens wailed and com channels were filled with alarmed demands for updates but there was no time to acknowledge them. Is it too fast and too close to even stop now if we figured it out? Drastic but have to try…..

  “Ops! Full gravity focus attract, NOW!!” No time to allow any question she must act quickly.

  “S Sir?” a moment’s hesitation and then the Sargent sprang into action. “Yes Sir!” what the hell, they had to try something. “Full attract now!”

  Over the wail of the sirens the scream of the gravity generators could barely be heard as they sprung to full power. The asteroid should now be accelerating rapidly. What does the plot show? In a second, it only seemed like an hour, the trajectory and velocity started changing. It was SLOWING! Was it slowing enough though?

  “Captain! The station is moving!” Parker exclaimed. The Captain had been watching the asteroid plot intently and had not noticed the new alarm that indicated the station was losing the battle and now moving with the rock. Also the plot showed that disaster was not averted. The asteroid would still rip the shops and quarters apart. We can’t let that happen! The thought that sprung to mind was even more drastic but we cannot let those people die.

  “Acknowledged! Ops, rear gravity focus ATTRACT on Earth full power!” he shouted to be heard over the noise.

  “Attract Sir?” the confusion in the Sargent’s voice was obvious.

  “Attract! YES! Something’s wrong with our systems so ATTRACT EARTH NOW!” he commanded.

  “Yes Sir!” Confused or not, hands flew over
the gravity control consoles to carry out her superior’s command. Why not, he was right about the rock. As the second focus was brought online the extra strain on the systems was obvious but the station movement stopped and the asteroid was slowing more.

  The Captain saw the updates to the plot. The projections were changing rapidly and he was having trouble keeping up but it looked like the crazy plan was working! The collision alarms silenced themselves. Forward momentum stopped 0.4 miles from the plant.

  “Ops all stop!”

  “Yes Sir, all stop.” An exhausted Sargent Parker completed the commands to drop all gravity capture.

  “Signal the yard to tether that rock and park it. I can’t take the chance of parking it ourselves.” Gonzales ordered.

  “OH GOD NO!!” Captain Gonzales spun to see what caused the almost scream from his usually unflappable Operations Sargent. “Sir, reports from Earth command. Earthquakes are reported all over the Asian continent. Initial estimates are over 10 on the Richter Scale. It can’t be, can it?” the Sargent exclaimed as she dropped in her seat.

  The Captain said in barely a whisper “It can’t be. Did I save thousands but kill millions?” as he sat and stared at the Main Screen…………

  Index

  Chapter 1 – Columbia

  “Jeff, I know I’ve said this before but I still can’t believe we are going to deep space in a gigantic golf ball.” Glory Bria Callaghan mused while staring out the transport’s viewport at what was to be her home for the next 10 years.

  “Home” was the Western Republic’s soon-to-be-operational starship Columbia. This, the first Gravity Drive starship, would depart for deep space exploration tomorrow. The gravity generators function by focusing on a gravity source and either attracting or repulsing against that gravity source. At this time the physics of the science required concentrators placed 1200 feet from the gravity generators and in every direction for maneuverability. This results in a ‘ball’ fully a half mile in diameter covered with depressions over the surface much like a golf ball. The generators required a small space at the core with a largely empty space between the core and the shell. The inside of the shell housed the crew, operations, warehouses, and shuttle docks.

  “I have to admit you are correct, Glo.” Major General Jefferson Fitsimmons chuckled to himself as he viewed the scene for himself. “You and your fascination with ancient history. Although I did look up golf after our last trip up together and I would say a Death Star sized golf ball does describe Columbia quite well.” The Commander of the Columbia looked over at his First Officer with a broad smile to see her reaction.

  “General, I cannot believe you actually found a Star Wars reference.” Glory looked at him with shocked amazement. “Well now you have to actually watch the old movies to see what 20th century entertainment thought of our marvel.”

  “Well I think we might just have some time between here and Epsilon Eridani. First things first though, let’s make our exterior inspection and then see to final departure checklist. Colonel if you would continue?” Jeff said to Glory.

  “Yes Sir.” Glory then turned to the shuttle pilot. “Lieutenant, please proceed on command inspection route.”

  “Yes Ma’am.” First Lieutenant Hiroshi Sato responded and maneuvered the shuttle into the routine inspection route he had flown the command crew on several times before as the hand-off from the construction to commissioning was completed. The maneuvering by the pilot was not apparent by any physical movements, as the Lieutenant’s helmet was also a functioning neurological sensor array. By sensing the thought patterns of the pilot, the navigations system translated the intentions of the pilot into navigation adjustments of the shuttle.

  The General still had to remind himself that this was a seasoned pilot and not some school kid flying him around but knew the Lieutenant was very capable. His youthful appearance a result of him, and Glory, being recipients of the latest generation genetic correction and therapies starting even before they were born. They just didn’t seem to age. As the shuttle began the fly-by he was still in awe of the sheer size of the ship. Huge just didn’t begin to describe it. In fact, the exterior inspection took over an hour to complete.

  “Colonel, status update on the ship, please.” Jeff asked Glory as they completed the inspection and began approach to the shuttle docks.

  Instead of keying in commands to a terminal or requesting update from operations on the com, Glory stared into space for a few seconds while her latest generation cybernetics implants, fresh from R&D and as powerful as most computer workstations, queried the ship’s main computer and pulled the current status reports.

  “Yes Sir. All systems green accept Fusion 3 and Gravity 2. Engineering has completed final software updates that CentCom sent up and completed final tests on all but those two. ETA on completion is 2.5 hours. The other systems passed, surprisingly, without incident and so there is high confidence we will be clean, green and go for departure on time.” Glory reported to her Commanding Officer, but while looking at him, the focus was not quite on him as she “saw” the reports in her mind. When Jeff had first encountered Glory and her fully integrated cybernetics it was a bit unsettling when she adopted her “Seer” stare as she was viewing the connection. He had gotten used to this by now and also as Glory continued to integrate with the interface she no longer appeared blind while accessing and was more and more “seeing” that virtual world without losing her sight in the physical world.

  “Thank you Colonel. Please call a meeting of Senior Staff at 1630 in the Command Conference Room.”

  Again Glory stared in the distance for a couple of seconds and then focusing on the General again fully, “Yes Sir, meeting is scheduled and confirmed.”

  General Fitsimmons couldn’t help a small chuckle and just shook his head, smiled, and replied back to Glory, “I wish you would work on your efficiency. That took a full two seconds Colonel.”

  Glory blushed but had to laugh with him and replied, “Sorry Sir but waiting for the ship’s computers to respond just seems to take forever. I’ll get on the IT Department about that ASAP.”

  Jeff and Glory took their places at the conference room table. The senior staff were anticipating the final approval of their mission and final orders. The General cleared his throat and addressed the meeting.

  “I know you are pushed for time with final preparations underway so I’ll make this short. Colonel Callaghan and I just got back from CentCom and we are go for launch tomorrow on schedule. The protests of our mission from some of the other countries has continued to escalate so CentCom has increased our escorts out of orbit and in fact extended that protection out of the Heliosphere. Even though we can outrun anything out there on just Ion drive they do not want to risk any accident. The Atlas disaster is still too fresh in their minds. Also any use of Grav Drive Focus in system is still forbidden. So the net result is it’ll take about two days instead of a little over one if we could run free.”

  The Collective groan was very audible, but everyone understood the reasons. It was all the Republic could do to prevent all-out war with the Republic standing alone. The death toll in Asia was over 34 million and the financial losses were incalculable. In addition to restitution, technology transfer, and above all the absolute prohibition of Gravity Capture in system was strictly forbidden by treaty. Even so, there were still years of war with some countries, and the risk of strikes on the Columbia was a constant threat. So she would have to run at a little more than half speed so that her screen of ships could maintain pace. Putting them at risk, when Columbia could outrun and outmaneuver anything they could throw at her, for the sake of politics did not sit well with the crew.

  General Fitsimmons held up his hand. “I know and I don’t like it any more than the rest of you but the orders are final and they are the right way to handle this. We can’t afford any incidents so we let the screen handle any issues and maneuver out of the way. Once we’re clear of the Heliosphere we’re clear to engage Grav Dri
ves to 2 C for 48 hours and then back to Ion drive at .75 C until we verify operation of all drives. We would have liked full field trials but considering we couldn’t safely leave the Lagrange Point and the ship yard’s protection, we’ll have to make do with the static tests until we actually get to push the systems live. So long as we have no issues then we’ll be cleared to 10 C and so the transit to Epsilon Eridani 5 should be approximately one year. Once we’re at full operational speed Nav will give us final ETA. I want a full crew assembly on the main hangar at 1800 to pass this on to the crew. Departure tomorrow morning at 0900. Colonel Callaghan if you’ll go over the department status updates please.”

  Glory looked to Chief of Engineering Colonel Javier Rodrigues. “Engineering update on the reactor and Grav Drive patches?”

  At 1800 Jeff stepped to the podium in the main hanger. Considering that the eventual use of the Columbia would be for a colony ship with a capacity of 500,000 the current ships’ compliment of 20,000 seems tiny. However, even in the cavernous main hanger 20,000 seemed liked a sea of humanity as the General looked over his crew as they waited for their final orders.

  “The Columbia was named after the Apollo 11 command ship that took the men who would first set foot on the moon.” He began. “Tomorrow marks the 200th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon and stating ‘one small step for a man’. Well on that anniversary we launch on a voyage to Epsilon Eridani 5. I think it safe to say this feat will be a few orders of magnitude greater than that ‘giant leap for mankind’.”

  At that announcement the hanger erupted in cheers. Jeff waited a few minutes for them to settle down and then continued.

  “At 0900 we depart space port along with our screening escorts. We will maintain pace with our escorts until we pass out of the Heliosphere.”