First Interstellar

by D. W. Patterson

  FIRST INTERSTELLAR

  D.W. PATTERSON

  Copyright © 2017 D.W. Patterson

  All rights reserved.

  1st Edition

  6th Printing - December, 2020

  Cover – Copyright © 2020 Future Chron Publishing

  Cover Image - © Rik Trottier - Dreamstime ID 47595954

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. For information please contact – futurechronpub(at)gmail(dot)com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  FIRST INTERSTELLAR

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  AFTERWORD

  Next In The Future Chron Universe:

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Sign up for D.W. Patterson's Mailing List

  FIRST INTERSTELLAR

  1

  Piloting the test flight wasn't his first choice but it might be his last just because the explosive bolts that should have detached the ship from the light sail's tether weren't working.

  Probably the least controversial components of the entire mission and they won't work, thought Ajax. The bolts have been used in space over and over again with never a failure until now.

  Ajax Starlifter Jackson shook is head.

  “Winston, old fellow, it looks like we've got trouble,” said Ajax in his fake accent which he sometimes used when nervous.

  “Sir, perhaps its time for review, should I look up the tether and connection specifications for you?”

  “No thanks Winston I'm afraid we are well outside of specification now.”

  The acceleration light sail, also called the forward sail, was twenty kilometers across and would eventually be scaled up to forty kilometers for the Centauri mission. It was supposed to detach from the tether that held it to the ship at the appropriate time and reflect the powerful laser beam back to a deceleration sail, called the aft sail, newly deployed behind the ship. The deceleration sail for this test was ten kilometers across. The complexities of deploying a packed light sail would limit the size of the final aft sail also.

  “Winston if I can't get that sail to detach we are going to need a rescue. You know that will mean extra expense. And extra expense is something we can hardly afford.”

  “How unfortunate sir, I'm so sorry.”

  Then, for some reason, Ajax's thoughts went to an old Mercury program astronaut named Grissom, an astronaut in the ancient United States space program on Earth almost four hundred years before. Grissom had been accused of blowing the hatch on his space capsule and causing it to sink into the ocean although there was no proof that he was responsible for the failed hatch.

  Maybe I will be blamed for just the opposite, not firing the tether bolts. Didn't Grissom later die while still working in the space program? Not a good omen.

  “Oh well it doesn't matter what posterity thinks if I'm dead.”

  “Excuse me sir?”

  “Nothing, I was just daydreaming.”

  The mission plan didn't seem like such a good plan now. As a matter of fact, Ajax didn't think being a test pilot was such a good idea now. How did he ever allow himself to be maneuvered into such a situation?

  Because the project was in need of new investment, others in the company made the argument that new investors could be attracted if the project was deemed fail-safe. And if the project was fail-safe then anybody could fly the mission. Who better than the head of the Corporation with no specific flight training to prove such safety to investors?

  That was the argument, the stupid argument.

  His mind was racing. He couldn't think straight. He had never been in such a situation.

  I'm an engineer, a designer, an idea guy, I'm not a test pilot. How am I going to get us out of this? Whatever I do, it's important that it look like a simple rearrangement of mission elements and not a panic-stricken stab in the dark.

  That thought made him smile and settled his nerves somewhat, he started to think.

  Except for the attitude rockets, small rockets that oriented the ship, there wasn't much that could be done to slow it down.

  “Winston, run the numbers on the attitude rockets, would they be enough to slow us down and reverse our velocity?”

  A moment passed.

  “No sir I'm afraid there is not enough thrust in the combined rockets to materially affect our velocity.”

  Attitude rockets out what else can I do?

  I can't go out to manhandle the tether release because I don't have an extravehicular suit, just an emergency decompression suit. And Winston couldn't make the trip in his shape.

  He thought some more.

  But I can still deploy the aft sail. That will slow the acceleration of the ship while under beam power, but the ship will still accelerate because of the greater area of the forward sail. Unless I can figure out some way to cause a greater deceleration than acceleration it won't do any good to deploy the aft sail.

  Then it occurred to him that he was not dealing with passive light sails. The sails were actually quite alive with Em directed sail bots. (Ems were a form of artificial intelligence created by imprinting a human brain and loading it into a computer. The interesting thing about Ems is that the original Em could be reproduced (called budding) as many times as necessary. The original Em and the budded off-spring became a sort of family that sought out jobs such as sail management to maintain their computer-based infrastructure).

  The Em directed sail-bots could fold, deploy or repair the sail and direct the nanotube pivots to reflect or deflect the laser beam even at wide angles. If needed the pivots could even allow the beam to pass through without reflection.

  “Winston do you think you could create a program that would reposition just enough of the nanotube pivots so that the thrust from the forward sail would vector us in a loop and head us back towards the sun?”

  “Yes sir. I can create a reflection ring with the forward sail which will be enough to cause the ship to slowly turn, eventually heading back to base. It will be tricky but not impossible, it will be similar to a sailing ship tacking in the breeze. I calculate it will add eight days to the original mission profile of twenty days.”

  “Okay, make sure that when the ship comes around the front sail is completely pivoted so it creates no thrust. Then the back sail will start to slow us.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Ajax smiled.

  I might get hungry but I won't die out here.

  Just then a call came in from base. It was Ajax's sister Lindsey.

  "Starway One this is Capcom, we read a delay in deceleration phase, over."

  "Roger base, could you hold a moment please." Ajax hoped his voice didn't sound as shaky as he felt.

  Ajax initiated the deployment. The sail was given a small push opposite to the direction of travel and would unfurl once it had reached the end of its one-kilometer tether. Sail-bots resembling mechanical spiders would swarm the sail until it was fully deployed. It would then be given a slight rotation by its edge elements. This would set the sail.

  "Base, aft sail deployed."

  "R
oger Starway One."

  It was just a few seconds before Ajax noticed a change in acceleration on the ship's readouts. The change was too small for him to physically notice.

  "Base this is Starway One. I advise you of a small glitch."

  Ajax went on to tell his control team about the tether problem. He also described his solution and waited.

  Winston was just about finished and ready to upload the program to the sail's Em bots when base called.

  "Starway One, we want you to know that we concur, we will keep the beam aimed, good luck."

  "Roger base."

  Okay if this works we'll be back on track.

  He nodded to Winston. Winston began the upload.

  Watching the forward monitor Ajax didn't see any immediate change. And then he could see some stars blinking through the pivots. As he watched the blinking spread all across the sail with more and more stars shining through. After a few minutes, Winston reported that their heading was changing.

  Ajax began to relax.

  2

  Ajax Starlifter Jackson was short for a Jackson. His dark brown eyes seemed to shine, his attitude was generally upbeat and even though he was the boss he was liked by the people working for him.

  Ajax was conferring with Winston back at base.

  “Once the large Fresnel lens is built beyond the farthest relay station we will be able to continuously accelerate and decelerate just as if the Starway were complete. Now Winston if we use the beam relay stations and Fresnel lens to accelerate at one g for the first half of the mission and then decelerate at zero-point eight g for the last half of the mission into the Centauri System, what will be the mission time?”

  Winston, an artificial narrow intelligence (a more limited form of artificial intelligence than the Ems) mounted on a uni-ball driven frame, quickly calculated.

  “Approximately six-point two years Earth-time and three-point eight-seven years ship time.”

  “I agree with your calculations,” said Horace Mann, Head Engineer for the Starway Corporation who had just entered the room.

  “Glad to hear it,” said Ajax.

  “At least I will once that relatively light but large eight-hundred-kilometer diameter Fresnel lens is complete at the far end. That will allow us to focus the beam from there all the way to the Centauri System not only for acceleration and deceleration of the forward and aft sails but also for sweeping the Starway clear of debris and charged particles. That should reduce the gamma-ray and x-ray background to a safe level and the magnetic field generators on board will guide the remaining particles, primarily charged cosmic ray particles, safely around the ship.

  “Just imagine a lens like the ones at the relay stations except for a two million times larger surface area.”

  Horace shook his head.

  Mann had been a Starway engineer when the previous owners had gone bankrupt. When Ajax bought the assets, the beam relay stations mostly, and changed its name from Star-Way to Starway Corporation Mann had looked him up and volunteered his services.

  There was never a discussion of compensation between the two men. Horace stayed in the corporate dorms and ate in the corporate cafeteria. He took his clothing from the company store charging it to his account but since he had no income his account was never paid. When this was pointed out to Ajax he simply said that Horace could take whatever corporate assets he needed to do his job and provide for his welfare. That usually ended the discussion. He had become Ajax's closest confidant, as close as Lindsey or Winston.

  “Oh,” said Mann. “About your idea of spreading the relay stations from seventy AU to one-hundred AU that we began to implement last year. Because of the distance, the last of the relay stations should be receiving their instructions about now. The lenses, like most things, were over-engineered and should only need to be reprogrammed to accommodate the change. In fact, one of your ancestors, Mia Jackson, was a consummate builder. The beam relay stations (BRS) she built, BRS 1320 to BRS 1500 often surpassed specifications, they could easily be re-spaced.”

  “Yeah, and look what she got for it,” said Ajax bitterly.

  “The Corporation was looking for a scapegoat Ajax, your ancestor happened to be convenient, that's all.”

  “She was accused of misusing funds though. It destroyed her career and her life. She died not long after that and since then no Jackson's were welcome on company property.”

  “But you've changed all that Ajax. You own the company now.”

  “But I won't erase the damage done to the Jackson name until I push the Starway to completion.”

  “You may have to do it yourself then.”

  “What do you mean Horace?”

  “I mean that to get the investment we need to continue you may have to be the one at the controls of the light sail to Centauri.”

  “Look, this last test run taught me one thing if nothing else, I am not a light sail pilot Horace. I almost lost it. I'm an engineer not an adventurer.”

  “You did as good in a bad situation as I've seen. You and Winston here make a fine team. You two brought the ship home with a very clever solution.”

  “Never mind,” said Ajax. “Winston was actually the one that came up with the solution. Anyway, I don't want to think about our money problems now.

  “What I want to talk about is the settlements Horace. How do you think they will react to the repositioning?”

  Horace let the investment topic drop for now and replied, “Most of the settlements were built as cylindrical, spherical or doughnut-shaped space habitats near resources such as the Asteroid Belt and moved to their existing location, so that shouldn't be a problem technically.”

  “You mean we might get resistance from the residents?”

  “No doubt, most people that moved out onto the Starway are pretty independent-minded. They are not easily organized from the top down.”

  “You're telling me,” laughed Ajax. “Ever since I bought into this outfit I've gotten nothing but attitude from the settlers. But it doesn't matter in the long run. I'll work with anybody to make this a success, I don't have much choice.”

  Ajax had made his money on Titan by designing the next generation of fusion rocket engines without the benefit of general AI. His fourth-generation engine could drive a ship at two-tenths the speed of light. The introduction of such ships had cut travel times in half. Ajax sold his design to a development corporation, a sale that included a consulting contract and a small royalty that had made Ajax rich.

  Still in his early thirties, Ajax had even bigger plans. He had decided it was time for mankind to go to the stars. But even with his new fusion rocket traveling at two-tenths the speed of light, it would take over twenty years to reach the Centauri System which was only four light-years away. And the amount of fuel required would be prohibitive.

  So Ajax looked around for a better way to go to the stars. That was when he found out that the Star-Way Corporation was looking to sell its still incomplete pathway to the Centauri System. Ajax made an offer for the beam lasers orbiting the sun and the fifteen-hundred beam relay stations that had already been completed.

  But the purchase had taken so much of his fortune that what was left would have to be carefully rationed to reach his goal and in actuality new investment was needed. That's how Ajax ended up at the helm of Starway One, as a publicity stunt, but he hoped he would not be on Starway Two.

  3

  The concept of the Starway was simple. Build some gigantic lasers near the sun where they could efficiently collect the sun's energy, take that energy to power the giant lasers and focus the light. Then fire a coherent beam of that laser light at a light sail. When the light sail traveled beyond the beam's focus a beam relay station would refocus the beam and push the light sail onward until the next beam relay station picked up the sail and drove it onward. Once halfway to its destination the ship and light sail would turn around and be decelerated by a laser beam from the destination star.

  But the Starway to the C
entauri System wasn't complete and that is why two sails were required instead of one. One to accelerate and one to decelerate by using reflected light from the now detached acceleration sail. To jump-start its completion Ajax was determined that the corporation would fly a ship one way to Centauri. Once in the Centauri System, the crew of the ship would build the lasers and lenses necessary to make the return trip possible. Beam relay stations could then be built from both ends of the Starway hurrying its completion.

  But the failure of the first test could be a serious setback to Ajax's plans. The reason for the failure had to be found and Arn Strombecker, Vice-President of Construction, was responsible for mission review which meant one thing, finding out why the sail's tether didn't detach.

  Strombecker was taller than either Ajax or Mann and somewhat thin. His long fingers seemed made to handle the tools of a mechanic or electronics technician. He was equally capable in both fields of engineering.

  After discussing it with Ajax, Strombecker focused on the explosive bolts and the firing system. He didn't find anything wrong with the firing system. The signal generated in Starway One's control room was getting out to the bolts. So now he had to drill out the bolt heads and check inside.

  It was a dangerous procedure, not for Strombecker but for the drill robot, Jarvis. Jarvis, like Winston, was an Artificial Narrow Intelligence or Annie-based robot (Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) first became available in the early twenty-first century. It developed out of the machine learning technology that was rapidly evolving at the time. Narrow refers to the fact that often this form of intelligence could only do one function well such as speech, facial recognition, etc. Eventually some researchers were able to tie together several ANI functions in a neural matrix which allowed the development of the first truly autonomous bipedal robots. Further development in this area was curtailed later in the century as Ems and then Artificial General Intelligence became the state-of-the-art.).

  “Yes Jarvis I realize that there is an element of risk in drilling a charged bolt. But it is absolutely imperative that we find out why those bolts did not fire.”