Brilliant: Book One of the StarCruiser Brilliant Series

by Rick Lakin

  “Don’t lose eye contact with the mission scientists,” Jack said.

  “Aye, sir.”

  Anthen climbed to the top of the promontory that overlooked the ancient lakebed.

  “Jack, I see something in the next valley over,” Anthen said. “It’s not natural. It looks like a large hangar. I'm going to walk down and get a closer look.”

  “Anthen, let’s get everyone aboard and do a flyover.”

  “It looks like it's a thousand years old. There's no one around.”

  “NASA, we may be making a quick getaway,” Jack said. “Prepare to return to Brilliant.”

  “Acknowledge,” the lead NASA scientist said.

  Anthen walked around the large building. “It's made of a metal composite that I haven't seen.” He saw an opening. “Jack, there's a ship in here. There are lights. Jack, we need to get out of here….” The last thing he saw was the flash of a stun gun in the hands of an humanoid.

  “Anthen, return to the Brilliant.”

  No response.

  “NASA, return to the ship immediately. First Lieutenant, report when all the scientists are aboard.”

  “Sensor Alert. Unknown spacecraft launching from the surface,” the Artificial Navigation Interface said. Ani was aboard Brilliant for her first mission. “There are two life signs aboard. One has an Earth DNA signature. It is Anthen, sir.”

  “All scientists aboard, Captain,” Maiara reported.

  “Ani, raise ship and pursue the bogey.”

  Sand scattered on the ground, and Brilliant rose from the desert surface.

  “Sir, we are clear of the atmosphere. Gravity Drive engaged at point-five c,” Ani said.

  “Can we catch them?”

  “No, Captain, they are traveling at point-eight light-speed. That's above our maximum speed. They are now beyond our long-range sensors.”

  “Damn.”

  Anthen woke up aboard an alien ship. He was in an open enclosure surrounded by a force field. A bearded humanoid observed him from outside the field. “I'm Predex Kalea Komdor of the Hoclarth Patrol Ship Maldex.”

  “You speak English?” Anthen said.

  “You hear in your language. Your enclosure has a translator. You see, Earthman, we have been monitoring your system for a long time, we recorded your radio emissions since you achieved that technology, and we decoded your language. Our scientists predicted that you wouldn't achieve faster than light travel for another two hundred of your years. Our scientists are curious. You are coming with me so that we can find out how you advanced so fast.”

  “Will I be able to return to my ship?”

  “That won't be possible. You have seen our technology. You are now a part of the Hoclarth Alliance,” Kalea said.

  Gallagher Family home - 2050

  As they sat at their weekly family dinner, Sheila held the infant Jennifer. Grandpa Sean filled in as much as possible for Jennifer’s father, and Grandma Ciara was always there to support her daughter. A year after graduation, Sheila Gallagher was an unmarried widow and a single working mother at GGG. But, she was just going through the motions as she dealt with the grief and anger of loss.

  “Before this happened, you had your acceptance at Stanford Law,” Ciara said. “We feel you need to get away from the business and clear your mind.”

  Her father continued, “Your mother and I will take care of your tuition, childcare, and living expenses. We expect you to bring our granddaughter home often, but we agree that you need to get away from the valley for a while.”

  Sheila replied, “Who will handle my clients?”

  Her brother, Sean, spoke, “C’mon sis, we can handle things without you. And when you come back, you can form the Legal Services division we've always planned.”

  Sheila smiled for the first time in quite a while. “It does seem to be the right way to start over.”

  Sheila’s Office – May 27, 2067

  Jennifer came into her mom’s office and stood next to Sheila. “Did you find out anything more about that explosion?” Sheila asked.

  “The FAA says that the sonic boom was from fighter jets out of Edwards,” Jennifer explained. “The firemen said a gas explosion destroyed the house. Mom, none of that is true.”

  “How do you know?”

  “It was the Nesbitt home.”

  “You mean the family with the twins and the cat that you love?”

  “Yeah, Dandy Lion.”

  Sheila reached out and took hold of Jennifer’s shoulder, “Wait, you were there?”

  “I was feeding Dandy a treat. I heard the first sonic boom, looked northwest and I saw a decelerating spacecraft. Then, the second boom and a fireball was coming toward us. I grabbed Dandy and ran.”

  “You should've called me immediately," Sheila said. "Thank God you're safe. You saved Dandy. You're very brave but, goodness, Jen, you could've been killed.”

  “I'm safe, and I can take care of myself, if you trust me.”

  “This discussion isn’t about the cat. Spill.”

  “I got the letter.”

  “Tovar?” Sheila asked.

  Jennifer nodded.

  “You aren’t that good at sneaking around. You lied to me.”

  Jennifer lowered her eyes. “I wasn’t sure I would get in.”

  “I told you that you couldn’t apply for that internship. I told you I'd get you an internship in our CGI department.”

  “I got in at Tovar. This is my destiny. I can handle it. I can be successful if you let me.”

  “No, you can’t go.”

  “Mom, you know this is my dream. You know I've been preparing for this since I was five.”

  “That studio is dangerous. People get killed there.”

  “Like my dad?”

  Sheila looked straight at Jennifer. “What do you know about that?”

  “A few years ago, you asked me to look something up on your computer. I found the news story about the actor who was killed at Tovar. I didn’t think anything about it until I saw the date. You were pregnant.”

  “That was just a news story about GGG business.”

  “He was my father, wasn’t he?”

  There was a long pause. “Yes, honey, he was your father. They say he died when a huge crane fell on him. They blamed it on GGG equipment.”

  Jennifer could see the wetness gather in her mother’s eyes. "They say?"

  “The location was in a foreign country. The local officials investigated it and sent photos of the damaged equipment, but….”

  “But what?”

  “They never returned Anthen’s body.”

  “I need to find out what happened. We need to find out.”

  Sheila looked at her daughter. “Your father was killed because he was working at Tovar Studios. I don’t have your vision thing, but I know that you are going to wind up around that damned starship.”

  “There's no guarantee that I'll ever work on the StarCruiser Brilliant movies.”

  “GGG hasn't done business with Tovar for seventeen years.”

  Jennifer stood with her feet apart, and her arms crossed, “This is my life. I need to follow my career. My destiny.”

  “The valley is a lot smaller than you think. People will know that you're my daughter.”

  “I need this. We need this. It'll be closure for you. I believe that StarCruiser Brilliant is my future.”

  “The vision thing?”

  “Yeah.”

  Sheila’s head dropped, and her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You have your driver’s test on Monday. When does the internship start?”

  “I report Tuesday morning.”

  “You will tell me if something looks dangerous. And, you will stay clear of that damn ship.”

  Jennifer’s face was lighting up. “Yes, Mom. Of course.”

  “We'll tell your step-dad when he gets home. Be careful.”

  “Thanks, Mom. I want this.” They hugged.

  StarCruiser Brilliant - October 15, 2027

&n
bsp; It took three hours to fabricate the new relay and install it. The velocity gained from engaging the stardrive had taken them beyond the sun’s most distant planet, Uranus. They resumed their underway positions.

  “Jack, set a course to Earth and engage the gravity drive at point-one light-speed. Hanna, report status as we accelerate.”

  Jack slowly advanced the t-bar that controlled acceleration. “Point-one c, Captain.”

  “Performance is nominal, Captain,” Hanna reported.

  “Point-two c, Pilot.”

  Jack continued to increase speed a bit at a time. “We are now at our maximum of point-four light-speed.”

  “Navigation, set course to approach Earth. We will decelerate inside lunar orbit.”

  The computer voice replied, “Three hours and twenty minutes to lunar orbit.”

  As they made the transit, Hanna asked, “What are we going to find on Earth?”

  “History says that there were wars and starvation after the war in 2025. The nuclear conflict is over, but there are still cities that are uninhabitable due to contamination. There is still excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and global warming is still accelerating. Economic globalization has ground to a halt. Even the countries that were not targeted with nuclear weapons have suffered economic collapse. Complex systems like the Internet, global commerce, food and energy production, and, of course, the national governments no longer exist,” Navvy said. “The greatest tragedy is that the expansion of human knowledge has come to a halt. Major universities cannot exist without the complex systems that existed before the wars.”

  “So, we get some parts and supplies and then find our way back home?” Jack said.

  “Not quite. Einstein was half right. Time travel forward is not possible. We are stuck in this timeline two hundred years before our time. Hopefully, we find a new life on a hospitable planet, but the chances are not in our favor. Jack, you have the ship. I will be in my ready room,” Navvy said.

  Three hours later, the three were back at their bridge stations.

  “Alert, the ship will be inside lunar orbit in five minutes,” the computer voice said.

  “Pilot, decrease to one-percent light-speed. Hanna, monitor communications. Let’s see what they're talking about.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Hanna said. Hanna’s head jerked up in surprise. “Navvy, I am receiving communications traffic originating on the moon. You need to hear this.”

  “Audio on.”

  “Houston, this is Armstrong Colony. We were just passed by a decelerating vehicle bound for Earth. We measured its maximum speed more than one-tenth of light speed.”

  “Armstrong, Houston, we are tracking it as well. I hope they're friendly. “

  “That’s not possible,” Navvy said. “On this date, Earth is supposed to be headed for the stone age. Engage the deceptors. That will prevent any further detection.”

  “Houston, the bogey has disappeared. How do we log this one?”

  “Armstrong, Houston, we lost him, too. Log it like the others. They will let us know they're here when they want to. Let’s hope their first contact is friendly.”

  “Navvy, we didn’t return to the moon for another 125 years,” Jack said.

  “It’s possible we traveled back two hundred years to an alternate timeline,” Navvy said. “And it looks like we are not the only ones visiting Earth.”

  “It’s getting curiouser and curiouser,” Hanna said.

  “Einstein proposed quantum entanglement in 1935, but it wasn’t until 2198 that Pedaranko theorized that sustained faster-than-light travel near a heavy body could land a ship in an alternate dimension,” Navvy said.

  “I guess that we should write a letter to the Academy and ask them to congratulate the Russian and let him know that we proved his theory,” Hanna said.

  “Pilot, put us in a low-Earth orbit at 150 miles covering sixty degrees latitude north and south,” Navvy ordered.

  “Decelerating to 17,000 miles per hour,” Jack said. “In orbit. Perigee 125 miles.”

  “Very well, Pilot. We have enough food for a day. Let’s see if we can find a drive-through,” Navvy said. “Secure from powered flight. Everyone on science consoles. We are on a different timeline. Let’s find out why. Jack, monitor the environment. Hanna, monitor broadcast networks. Look for landing spots where we can keep a low profile. I'll try to hook into the Internet.”

  They sat at the port and starboard science stations. “Standard network news chatter. Lots of talking over each other and accusing each other of fake news,” Hanna reported. “There is no discussion of energy shortages or talk of war. Same as our networks at home.”

  Jack said, “No radiation in the atmosphere. There were no recent nuclear explosions. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not as high as it was in our 2227. The amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere is about a third of the peak from our timeline. Navvy, is it possible that they found an alternative energy source?”

  “They have data networks originating from satellite. I'm googling information,” Navvy said.

  “Nav, their entire transportation system is electrical. Electrical production seems to originate from neighborhood facilities about the size of convenience stores. There is no carbon coming from these facilities.”

  The three continued to explore their new home. About an hour later: “Bingo,” Navvy said. “I have the timeline diversion. I compared our two timelines, and it is incredibly fascinating, but there is a single event in 1997 that diverted their timeline from ours. A nuclear engineer with a doctorate named John Mitchell Scott made a single decision that caused the new timeline.”

  “In our timeline, Dr. Scott spent a year studying fusion at Livermore Labs. He then gave up on fusion and moved to Los Alamos National Laboratory. He supervised the maintenance of nuclear weapons until he was killed in the Energy Wars. In this timeline, Dr. Scott stayed with fusion after 1997 and participated in building a large containment fusion power generation reactor that successfully connected to the grid in 2010. Those reactors are incredibly difficult and expensive to build.”

  “The butterfly effect,” Hanna said.

  “Exactly. But, get this. Dr. Scott published a paper proposing a scalable soft containment fusion reactor. The first Scott Reactor went online in 2015. That one was huge and unwieldy, but they have since been scaled down to the point where they fit in a large jetliner,” Navvy said.

  “Just like our timeline, only sooner,” Jack said. “This timeline began a renaissance of carbon-free air travel. In 2025, instead of a nuclear holocaust, Dr. John Mitchell Scott received the Nobel Prize in Physics. His net worth is estimated at ninety-eight billion dollars. The Earth that we have come to has unlimited clean and affordable energy.”

  “What about Brilliant?” Jack asked.

  “I estimate that at the rate of growth in technology, they will build a spacecraft comparable to Brilliant in forty years.”

  “So, what is the plan?” Hanna asked.

  “We find a place to lay low until….”

  “Captain, I just took a picture of something on the ground that you have to see,” Jack said.

  “On Screen.”

  The screen showed a spacecraft in the middle of Southern California’s Imperial Sand Dunes surrounded by many people working. It looked like an early drawing of the Brilliant. “Navvy, they jumped the gun on your forty years.”

  “Pilot, circle back. Let’s enter quietly, drop down, and see that spacecraft.”

  Brilliant slowly entered the atmosphere without breaking the sound barrier. “Keep the sun behind us.”

  “Blind them, aye,” Jack responded.

  “It looks like they are filming a movie,” Jack said. “They see us.”

  “Captain, the ship on the ground is made of wood. It is a movie prop,” Hanna said.

  “I will fire anyone who says, ’Take me to your leader,’” Navvy said. “Put us down about a hundred yards away.”

  “Captain, they are running and
hiding,” Hanna said.

  “The ship is grounded. Lowering the ramp.”

  “I, for one, am famished. It is almost noon. Let’s see if these filmmakers will invite us to lunch.”

  The three time-travelers emerged and walked toward the movie set.

  Four

  Tayla

  Jennifer texted Tayla, “Let’s holo in the steve.” Jennifer settled in steveLearn, her HTVR learning system. The Tactile function in HTVR meant that communications could include touch, like a handshake or even a hug, which Jennifer needed right now.

  “Com request from Tayla,” Sami said.

  “Accept,” Jennifer replied.

  Tayla holoed into the room. It was like Jennifer and Tayla were sitting next to each other.

  “Need a hug?” Tayla could sense when her best friend needed that support.

  “Definitely.” They hugged. They felt the holographic tactile feedback. It was different than a hug, but it was real.

  “Brutal?”

  “Yes. I had to tell mom that I know about my dad.” Tayla was the only other person Jennifer told about the news story. “She doesn’t believe the story that I read, either.”

  “How did that go?”

  “Mom's still hurting, but I promised to be careful,” Jennifer said.

  “Allen is your stepdad and your mom’s partner, but I know you and your mom are still a team.”

  “My mom hates the Brilliant and Tovar but, deep down, I think she understands how much I need to be near my Brilliant.”

  “You start Tuesday,” Tayla shifted the conversation to the future.

  “Tuesday.”

  “Get me David’s autograph.”

  “I'll probably not even get close to him,” Jennifer said.

  “You are close to him every night. His poster is on your ceiling.”

  “God, I do love those blue eyes,” Jennifer said.

  “Make sure you take a selfie of the rest of him for me.” They laughed. “Chrissy called. She and Rena want to play a couple of sets tomorrow.”