by Ryan Frieda
Captain Steele noted that it was not a fading drop in gravity as you go further away from the galaxy, like how it was on a planet, but a sudden one. He said that it may be because the galaxy is rotating at an angle, that the angle creates gravity waves that are like the waves of an ocean- uneven and changing. He also said that time travels slower where gravity is stronger. You add that to the stress from the galaxy rotating and the fact that time will go much faster once you leave the galaxy because there is no gravity and it will end up causing even more havoc not to mention the gravity waves from the galaxy. On top of that, when a massive object with lots of mass is rotating it can “drag along” the space time continuum in an effect known as “frame dragging”. This frame dragging can cause a change in the orientation of a rotational axis of a rotating body as well as changes in space time, which is used to measure distance, volume, curvature, angle, future and past.
In short, vast speed differences, large and sudden changes in large gravitational forces, uneven and drastic differences in the way time is counted, changes in the exact size and shape of the ship and how the materials of the ship are arranged due to frame dragging, and even being in both the past, present, and future at the exact same time will tear the ship apart. To have any one of these events, let alone all of them, to happen to a single object at any given moment will break many of the laws of physics.
Captain Steele even made a comment about how that exact process may be how wormholes are made. Jamie even called him out for being full of crap but thinking about it now she can't help but wonder if there was some truth to what he said.
Jamie stopping thinking about the past and continued moving the ship in the direction of the Overlapping Galaxies making sure to mark any anomalies on the way for later exploration for any ships that may come back through.
“And this is the AI we are putting in the ship,” General Vaas said.
“Does it work correctly?” Asked another voice.
“That's what were about to find out,” General Vaas answered.
General Vaas took a rectangular box containing a small holochip and put it into a small slot in the AI core of the ship.
“AI, can you hear me?” General Vaas asked.
“Yes,” the AI said, “What are my orders?”
“I am here to see what you can show us in this ship. Can you open life sign monitoring of all beings on this ship?” General Vaas asked.
“Done. What else is needed?”
The AI had opened a holographic display of all the life signs, both advanced and basic life signs, of all the individuals on the ship much to the amazement of the Counsel.
“Go ahead counsel, ask a question of it in your native language and try to confuse it,” General Vaas said.
All six members of the counsel asked various things and it answered all of them in record time.
“As you can see this AI is very powerful and is fit for the ship,” General Vaas stated, “You see Counsel, this ship that we are building is well stocked and prepared for the mission.”
“It is still in the building stage General Vaas. How do you know it will make it past the Galactic Edge?” Head Consular Nabrou-k asked.
“That is one of the many reasons for this AI. This AI is designed to fly the ship, monitor all external and internal data and conditions, process trillions of processes at once and is designed to be able to detect any and all anomalies, send faster than light messages, and is of course designed with all plausible life form detections and communications to detect any creatures upon entry of the galaxy and to make peaceful contact with them. This AI, along with Captain Steele will be able to do it. Their ability together makes it so that if its possible to complete the mission they will find a way.”
“You really think that the NGC 3314 galaxy has what we need General Vaas?”
“Yes. Mankind has been interested in the appearance of the overlapping galaxies long before we first met the galactic community. We have been studying it for some time as it was a perfect example of examining space dust because of the location of one galaxy being in front of the other. Because of this we watched it closely. After some time we realized that it was really one galaxy that appeared like two galaxies. This caused even more study as the galaxies were not tearing each other apart as they should have, leading us to think differently about the creation of a galaxy. It didn't make sense that there could be two galaxies in such perfect unison without interacting with each other. We are positive that it is indeed two galaxies that have somehow become one. We are also positive that the galaxy has what we need to survive because we have studied it for such a long time.”
“But how can you be so sure?” Secondary Counselor Ggleem Zmex asked.
“It is about the age of this galaxy and-”
“And if there is life in that galaxy?” Interjected Head Counselor Nabrou-k.
“This AI should be able to detect it and be able to communicate with it. Also, we have been sending FTL communications to it for years and been using all kinds of instruments on it for hundreds of years to determine what is in the galaxy and we have found no anomalies that could indicate intelligent life to the point of space flight between solar systems,” General Vaas replied.
“Are you sure a soldier is the best fit for the mission?” Head Counselor Nabrou-k asked.
“You have seen Captain Steele's record. An extremely dedicated soldier with lots of brains as well as brawn. He's not just a typical grunt who follows orders. He is a grunt who thinks at a level sometimes higher than our commanders. Besides he has been training for years for extreme high risk missions and is the best mankind has to offer. He has undergone scientific training as well as hostile environment combat training for any life threatening situations that would come up. He has some of the best military training in the galaxy even before he started training for this mission.”
“That's what concerns me. That a man with military training would be the primary choice for scientific mission,” Head Counselor Nabrou-k said.
“This mission is primarily scientific and exploratory. No human has been in space for over 100 years at once. We simple don't live past 170 very often. This trip is going to take well over 150 years and who knows what awaits him out there? The stress he undergoes can only be survived by a dedicated soldier. Besides no one has left the galactic edge. Nothing has even survived past the edge and reported back. Who knows what awaits out there in the void? Who better prepared to face the possible horrors of intergalactic space than one who has been facing horrors their entire life?” General Vaas asked.
“And the probability of him surviving more than 10 hours after leaving the edge is next to none! You are spending all this money and sending mankind's best out there to suicide,” Tertiary Counselor Lerpr-utz said.
“With all due respect, mankind is use to suicide missions. War after war and experiment after experiment has shown this. There is a reason we always step up to take on dangerous tasks that most races don't want to do. It runs through out blood,” General Vaas said.
“I'm not sure about this General Vaas. While it may be true that your kind is use to suicidal tasks and dangerous exploits this one seems a bit drastic, even for humanity. Even some of your own race thinks its a bad idea,” Head Counsaler Nabrou-k said.
“Mankind has never been able to make up its mind as a whole on one single thing. This is the exactly that,” Secondary Counselor Zmex said.
“I'm sure if you met Captain Steele your doubts would be put at ease,” General Vaas said.
“Where is the Captain?” asked Secondary Counselor Zmex.
“He is currently training to complete complex scientific and physical objectives with his team in a zero gravity environment on an asteroid some where out in space,” General Vaas stated.
“You haven't picked him as Captain of this ship yet?” Head Counselor Nabrou-k asked.
“Not exactly. His scores are the highest and he has the highest probability of succeeding in the training, but there
is always the chance he could fail. Mankind's best doesn't stop training until the mission is accomplished.”
“Yes, mankind is by far the most complex organism in this galaxy, maybe anywhere. You just don't stop until you've either killed yourself or become better. The saying 'A human doctor is the only suitable doctor for a human' is true. How much I do not wish for mankind's die hard determination and extreme ideas to be upon my people can never be stated enough. If there is one race that can do it, it is without a doubt mankind. I do hope you don't kill your recruits in the process General,” Head Counselor Nabrou-k stated.
“These men will fight until they go home no matter what. If all die, one will still be alive. I have a gut feeling that Captain Steele will be the one,” General Vaas said as he removed the AI's holochip from the AI core.
“Let's hope your right on that General.”
Jamie kept the ship traveling at FTL speeds. Her holographic form floating above the floor of the ship. She wandered around the ship a lot. She was recently understanding why Captain John Steele felt so alone out here. She could feel it herself and she was just an artificial intelligence. She wasn't really used to feeling strong emotions yet the weight of the darkness and being alone weighed heavily on her. She may have programs that helped her understand strong emotions but she didn't truly understand the impact of them until now.
“Now I know why John always wanted to leave the ship,” Jamie told herself, “It's unbearable.”
She hovered to Captain John Steele's bunk and stared at it a long time. She tried to forget what he looked like but she could not because of her programming. They had been together for decades and now he's gone. She was starting to seriously doubt Earth's Government's plan to only have one human on this mission. She knew the reasons, and knew it was the best option but it was not fail proof. She was not suppose to run the mission by herself.
Jamie went to the cargo deck and activated one of the many droids that were going to be used by Captain Steele to help construct the Instant Teleportation Device. She activated it and wanted to see if it had any personality matrixes. Maybe she could help reduce her feeling of loneliness if it did. She searched the programming on the droid and it did not. She tinkered with it for a while wondering if she could create a subprogram in herself and modify the droids code to allow it to have a personality.
After several attempts and several hours of modifying the droid's code she was unable to create a program to do so. She made some notes and was going to try something else when the scanner went off. She disappeared then reappeared in the bridge to check it out.
“John, we have-”
Jamie stopped herself. It was the first anomaly she had had by herself. It was odd not to have Captain Steele here to talk to and have him reply with his normal sarcastic remarks.
Jamie took the ship in for a closer look. After drawing the ship closer to the object she found a planet that was in the shape of a circle with a hole it. It was the shape of a doughnut. She thought it might be another construct like the object Captain Steele was on then realized it was less like a ring and more like a large doughnut. There was large amounts of surface on each side. This meant it was clearly a planet. The planet also had 6 sets of rings. The first four rings looped inside the doughnut and around to the outside on the North, East, South, and West sides. Then the last two were looped around the outside of the planet like normal rings at an “X” shape. The planet was orbiting a large amount of poorly lit gas.
Jamie analyzed the gas and saw that it was a proto-nebula. She came to the conclusion that it had been created since she and Captain Steele left the Milky Way. That would be why there is absolutely no recording of a nebula out here in their information computers.
Jamie scanned the planet for any additional anomalies and found none. She then send a droid down to the planet to check out the planet. The droid went down shortly after entering the atmosphere and became unresponsive. She sent another droid down there to recover it. She watched the video feed from the droid. She watched as the droid moved in closer to the planet with the light of the nebula giving off an eery glow to the planet.
“Where did you go?” Jamie asked.
Jamie searched the entire area looking for the droid. She continued to watch the camera feed and after being unable to find it she sent the next one droid to the surface. She scanned for the lost droid and found nothing. She watched as the droid came closer to the surface and noticed that the planet had multiple ecosystems. There was one that was clearly a desert and another appeared to have snow. Whatever this object was it would have had been around for millions of years to have such defined ecosystems.
Jamie pushed the droid into the planet's atmosphere. She was amazed to find that the planet's atmosphere was doughnut shaped too. The atmosphere of the planet was in the shape of a doughnut and there was even a hole in the atmosphere where there was a hole in the planet. It was a most peculiar anomaly. After the droid entered the atmosphere the droid's visual feed got cut. Jamie sent the signal to bring it back up out of the atmosphere. As soon as she sent the order to the droid all response from the droid stopped.
Jamie flew the ship in for a closer look to see if maybe there were life forms stopping the droids. She was still too far out to notice any life forms. She scanned for them and did not get any back on the sensors. She decided to fly the ship to the center of the hole of the planet where the was no atmosphere and try to get a better look at planet. She could clearly see oceans, jungles, deserts, mountains, and even an area that had extremely active volcanic activity. There was one whole side of the planet that was just one ocean.
Jamie thought she saw a light come from the planet's surface temporarily. She thought it was too much like spot light to be a freak occurrence. She used the ships massive lights to signal back and waited. After waiting close to 30 minutes she started to fly the ship out of the planet's orbit when two quick flashes came from the planet's surface. She quickly did the same and waited.
Once again she waited 30 minutes before starting to leave. After 30 minutes of inactivity she left and headed to the side of the planet where the nebula was not lighting and flashed the ship's lights again. After 30 minutes she left and headed to another area of the planet and flashed her lights again. This time she got an immediate response. She quickly repeated the pattern back and waited. She didn't get a response back. Whatever was causing the flashes to come from the planet's surface mean that there clearly was life down there and that they were trying to communicate with her.
Jamie quickly called for one more droid. She quickly checked it over for any problems and sent it down the the planet's surface. She watched the camera feeds and ran scans around the droid the entire time. She flashed the ship's lights at the planet again and quickly got another quick flash. She sent the droid into the atmosphere and the droid quickly died and stopped responding.
Jamie watched from the ship and the droid didn't even fall to the surface on fire. The droid just disappeared. There was clearly some kind of barrier preventing her equipment from working once it entered the atmosphere. Maybe atmospheric pressure? Chemical makeup of the atmosphere? She was still trying to comprehend the light patterns. What were they trying to say? She has every language algorithm possible. She should be able to make some kind sense of the lights but she couldn't. She knew they were communicating but wasn't sure what they were saying. She thought about flying the ship down into the atmosphere but decided that that could destroy the ship like it did the droids.
After not getting a response Jamie flew to another part of the planet and activated the ship's lights. She did this well over 20 more times over all the different ecosystems. There was no longer any response. No longer being able to do anything she made a note in the computer's logs and went on her way.
Chapter 12
Remnants
“Jamie, Captain Steele's AI, Date 4059, month 7, week 1, Log 3303.”
“I have come across a planet that is very very unique. The pla
net is well advanced, with many many many different ecosystems. It was also orbiting a proto-nebula. Jungles, deserts, oceans and many more. The planet is round like an 'O' only the planet is not as well rounded on each side of it. Each side has a very large amount of mass on it. There are numerous sets of rings on the planet as well. There were many peculiar things on this planet. You can see the log for more information.
“The most peculiar thing, perhaps, about this planet is that it had life forms that where able to communicate via large lights. I sent several droids down the to the surface and the droids stopped responding. It is unknown as to why they failed. The scans failed to show what the problem could have been.
“I am still unsure of how the new nebula was formed. I checked the database to see if there was a possibility that a new nebula could have formed while we were on our way here and there was no way it could have. We might have come across a situation that hints a new way that nebulae are created even though we are not sure exactly how or what happened.
“I am still heading in the direction of the Overlapping Galaxies. I am five years behind schedule but am slowly making up the time. I should, however, reach the Overlapping Galaxies on time and complete the mission.
“I recently was able to decrypt some of the files Captain Steele found on the floating object several decades ago. It seems that they had a much more demanding culture than anywhere in our galaxy. I also was able to find some new schematics for a new type of energy for travel. This energy uses cosmic dust to produce vast amounts of energy. The cosmic dust is collected into a vat and once a vat is filled it is destroyed using a laser to freeze the dust. The dust upon being frozen is destroyed with a thermonuclear explosion causing the dust to change form from a solid to a plasma. The dust goes through all four main states of matter and unleashes its energy. The energy 'lashes' out and propels the user at speeds faster than light. It can cause a medium sized ship, a frigate, to travel at well over 25 times the speed of light.
