PROLOGUE
When they had gone out into space, men had assumed they would find other life and countless inhabited planets throughout the galaxy. They had also assumed technology would be developed allowing faster-than-light travel where vast distances would be traversed in one miraculous “hyperspace” jump.
Neither of these assumptions proved true.
Yet the pressure to find alternative resources to the rapidly depleting minerals and ores mined on the inner planets, along with the rebellions over forced sterilization and early euthanization, had let to the formation of the Agency for Galactic Exploration and Colonization. It took AGEC 620 years of exploration before the first inhabitable planet was found. The second was discovered within a few decades, fueling the eager expectation of a myriad of lush colonies populating the galaxy. Both of these planets, Alpha Prime and Alpha Minor, could be reached in a little over 100 years, and so the first colonies were formed and supplied using a series of massive space freighters sent out at 10 year intervals. The crews that started the journey died en route, with their children completing the voyage in their old age. It was the best that could be achieved, given the speeds of travel that were attainable.
Then, five hundred years later, the third and last of the inhabitable planets was discovered. This was Calista, which could be reached in 150 years using a direct path, but due to the cost of maintaining the supply lines, the planet was routed last after Alpha Prime and Minor. All told, it took 300 years for a ship to reach Calista, eight generations of crew having lived and died.
Life was routine, but not uneventful aboard the freighters. Accidents took lives, men and women fell in love and sometimes rebellions were quelled. Though rare, the rebellions were the result of a governmental structure that was mostly a sham, because the real power lie with the flight crew and AGEC representatives. Although the initial departure generation was in compliance with this arrangement, it was not unthinkable for subsequent generations to take the idea of self determination too far and actually believe they had some meaningful say in their destinies.
At their very best they were still freighters. During the life of a crew, the chance of seeing Earth, or one of the colonies, fell to those fortunate few originating their mission from a planet or born into a generation that would see landfall. Most generations lived and died in space. For them, the most momentous occasions were the passing of the ships, which happened at ten year intervals. Because sound and video contact were electromagnetic in nature (light proved too susceptible to dispersion and distortion in the faint, narrow bandwidth suitable for communication) contact between the ships was always delayed, with the delay collapsing as the ships drew closer and closer. The Passing of the Ships was usually a joyous time, but less than satisfying because the relative speed of the ships was doubled, making the few months surrounding the passing extremely hectic and busy, with shuttles and barges moving back and forth exchanging goods and a special select few crew members. The actual time that the ships made visual contact was about 36 hours, with the close proximity exaggerated in their sense of alarm by the tradition of the flight crews maintaining the shipping channels 2 kilometers apart. Due to the immense size of the ships, the event could be terrifying to the younger children.
At the very front of a ship was the gargantuan deflection head, essentially a solid wedge of iron with interior electrical windings that could be activated to create a massive electromagnetic field designed to repel incoming objects. Direct hits to the deflector head were extremely rare, as the tending tugs were always days out ahead, blasting away stray debris or pushing larger asteroids aside. But on the very rare occasion an impact did happen, the entire crew had to follow emergency drills and enter a nearby drift harness, because the induction of the coils in the deflection head caused all ship systems to fail and reset, a ten-minute cycle that felt like an eternity while floating in a harness. Sometimes the electromagnetic field would have no effect on the object, and a collision resulted. Interestingly, in the entire history of the freighters, no frontal collision resulted in catastrophe. More damaging, but exceedingly rare, were tangential or side impacts. These would tear through the outer three protective hulls and penetrate into the biosphere, blowing out a section of the ship in a horrible accident. Amazingly, in the 6,000 years of freighter service, no ship was ever lost, not even during the Branson Uprising, when suicidal crew members on freighter 1101-A detonated drive engine as an act of terrorism. No ship had ever been lost. Until now.
Neither of these assumptions proved true.
Yet the pressure to find alternative resources to the rapidly depleting minerals and ores mined on the inner planets, along with the rebellions over forced sterilization and early euthanization, had let to the formation of the Agency for Galactic Exploration and Colonization. It took AGEC 620 years of exploration before the first inhabitable planet was found. The second was discovered within a few decades, fueling the eager expectation of a myriad of lush colonies populating the galaxy. Both of these planets, Alpha Prime and Alpha Minor, could be reached in a little over 100 years, and so the first colonies were formed and supplied using a series of massive space freighters sent out at 10 year intervals. The crews that started the journey died en route, with their children completing the voyage in their old age. It was the best that could be achieved, given the speeds of travel that were attainable.
Then, five hundred years later, the third and last of the inhabitable planets was discovered. This was Calista, which could be reached in 150 years using a direct path, but due to the cost of maintaining the supply lines, the planet was routed last after Alpha Prime and Minor. All told, it took 300 years for a ship to reach Calista, eight generations of crew having lived and died.
Life was routine, but not uneventful aboard the freighters. Accidents took lives, men and women fell in love and sometimes rebellions were quelled. Though rare, the rebellions were the result of a governmental structure that was mostly a sham, because the real power lie with the flight crew and AGEC representatives. Although the initial departure generation was in compliance with this arrangement, it was not unthinkable for subsequent generations to take the idea of self determination too far and actually believe they had some meaningful say in their destinies.
At their very best they were still freighters. During the life of a crew, the chance of seeing Earth, or one of the colonies, fell to those fortunate few originating their mission from a planet or born into a generation that would see landfall. Most generations lived and died in space. For them, the most momentous occasions were the passing of the ships, which happened at ten year intervals. Because sound and video contact were electromagnetic in nature (light proved too susceptible to dispersion and distortion in the faint, narrow bandwidth suitable for communication) contact between the ships was always delayed, with the delay collapsing as the ships drew closer and closer. The Passing of the Ships was usually a joyous time, but less than satisfying because the relative speed of the ships was doubled, making the few months surrounding the passing extremely hectic and busy, with shuttles and barges moving back and forth exchanging goods and a special select few crew members. The actual time that the ships made visual contact was about 36 hours, with the close proximity exaggerated in their sense of alarm by the tradition of the flight crews maintaining the shipping channels 2 kilometers apart. Due to the immense size of the ships, the event could be terrifying to the younger children.
At the very front of a ship was the gargantuan deflection head, essentially a solid wedge of iron with interior electrical windings that could be activated to create a massive electromagnetic field designed to repel incoming objects. Direct hits to the deflector head were extremely rare, as the tending tugs were always days out ahead, blasting away stray debris or pushing larger asteroids aside. But on the very rare occasion an impact did happen, the entire crew had to follow emergency drills and enter a nearby drift harness, because the induction of the coils in the deflection head caused all ship systems to fail and reset, a ten-minute cycle that felt like an eternity while floating in a harness. Sometimes the electromagnetic field would have no effect on the object, and a collision resulted. Interestingly, in the entire history of the freighters, no frontal collision resulted in catastrophe. More damaging, but exceedingly rare, were tangential or side impacts. These would tear through the outer three protective hulls and penetrate into the biosphere, blowing out a section of the ship in a horrible accident. Amazingly, in the 6,000 years of freighter service, no ship was ever lost, not even during the Branson Uprising, when suicidal crew members on freighter 1101-A detonated drive engine as an act of terrorism. No ship had ever been lost. Until now.
posted by Darrell at 10:13 AM
<< Home