“No, this project has been very compartmentalized. Only people directly involved with the project are allowed to know of it, as you know,” Admiral Ellis said.
“Well, since he’s in charge of her construction, I guess we better introduce him to her,” Lieutenant Commander Lambert smiled.
“Hank, as the project manager, I want you involved in every process of her construction. You need to learn every inch of this ship,” Admiral Ellis said. “Where she’s going, we need to make sure the job is done right.”
“Well, from the size of her, I’m guessing she’s meant to explore the outer solar system. I don’t guess there are many repair facilities out there,” Hank said.
Admiral Ellis said nothing and Lieutenant Commander Lambert grinned as he said, “This ship is designed to go a little bit farther than that.”
Hank frowned. “Even with a fusion power plant, it would take at least six months to reach out to the orbit of Neptune. If you’re talking about the Oort Cloud, that will take years for a round trip. She’s big, but I don’t think even this ship can carry enough consumables for that trip without re-supply. Unless, that is, she’s much faster than anything we’ve built to date.”
“She’s quite a bit faster than even the Olympus class can manage,” explained Lieutenant Commander Lambert proudly.
“How much faster?” asked Hank.
“Captain Jenkins,” said Admiral Ellis, “The Constellation is the first ship that we’ve built that will be able to exceed the speed of light. We found the plans and technology for building the faster than light, or FTL drive, in the data archives that Odysseus had on the planet Elpis. According to the specifications of the Barbakath designers, and verified by our own experts, the Constellation should be able to reach speeds between eighty to one hundred times the speed of light.”
“Uh, back up there. Unless I’m mistaken, it’s impossible for an object with mass to exceed the speed of light,” said Hank.
“That’s correct,” agreed Lieutenant Commander Lambert. “However, this design is using a concept conceived back at the end of the last century. We just didn’t know of a way to build it.”
“Are you talking about an Alcubierre Warp Drive?” asked Hank. “Unless I’ve forgotten my physics classes completely, that concept would require immense amounts of energy. Even the new fusion power plants don’t produce that much power.”
“You’re right about the amount of power needed,” agreed Lieutenant Commander Lambert, “unless the actual field effect can be produced by the use of exotic particles with negative energy or mass.”
“You mean like Tachyons?” asked Hank.
“No. Do you understand how the gravity plates work?” asked Lieutenant Commander Lambert.
“Well, to the best of my understanding, and I’m a pilot and not a physicist, the plates are actually graviton generators. By changing the amount of power to the plates, you can effectively make the plates mirror gravitons from a large mass such as a planet. Also, for an application like these deck plates we’re standing on, they can emit gravitons that in effect mimic those produced by a large mass.”
“In layman’s terms that’s a good way of explaining it,” said Lieutenant Commander Lambert. “But, to make an object with mass mirror or reflect gravitons, the gravitons spin has to be reversed. The math gets sort of complicated, but that’s roughly how it works. Now, it’s known that large masses actually bend or warp space time around them and that is what causes the formation of gravitons. The gravity plate simulates this and produces gravitons to simulate gravity. Or, if you want to repel or reflect gravity, anti-gravitons are produced. Thus, a plate that produces one gravity to an observer standing on it is actually simulating the space time effect of a whole planet’s mass. If you take a series of plates correctly arranged in a geometrical pattern, and apply enough power, you end up with what is going to move this ship faster than light. The power required is well within the envelop of what our new fusion cores can produce. The special rings of gravity plates can produce a space time disruption in front of the ship while another set of plates on the rear of a ship could twist space time back the other way. This produces a bubble in space time, or a warp bubble.”
“You’re right that a ship with mass cannot exceed the speed of light in relationship to its surroundings, but there is no limit except the amount of power available as to how fast a warp bubble can be formed in front of and collapsed behind the ship,” explained Lieutenant Commander Lambert. Thus, in relationship to the physical universe, the ship is moving at the sub-light speed that it was when the bubble was produced. When the FTL drive is activated, the ship simply vanishes from the physical universe in that warp bubble and is propelled with the bubble to its destination. Time will continue to pass normally for any occupants of the warp bubble. With our fusion core power plants, we can reasonably expect this ship to be able to reach a warp speed of almost one hundred times the speed of light. With a better power source, faster speeds could even be possible.”
Hank looked at Lieutenant Commander Lambert. “Your serious, this ship is going to be a FTL ship?”
“That’s correct, Captain Jenkins,” Lieutenant Commander Lambert said. “I’m going to be the chief engineer on board her once she is complete.”
“I’ll be damned,” said Hank. “Who’s the lucky bastard that’s going to be her commanding officer?”
Admiral Ellis smiled. “You’re that lucky bastard, Captain Jenkins. Now, I recommend you get busy with your chief engineer here and learn about your ship. The hull is already about forty percent complete, so you have some catching up to do.”
Lieutenant Commander Lambert saluted Hank. “Welcome aboard Captain, Would you like to go see your new command, sir?”
Hank’s grin nearly split his face. “Lead the way Lieutenant Commander Lambert, or do you mind if I call you Cheng?”
Lieutenant Commander Lambert looked confused for a moment. “Cheng? Oh, I get it, the old abbreviation for chief engineer. That works. Let’s go find you a space suit and I’ll introduce you to our lady. With your permission, Admiral?”
Admiral Ellis nodded. “Remember, Captain Jenkins, patience is a virtue. I would have told you sooner when you were causing a fuss about the Olympus, but Space Force command hadn’t given the final seal of approval on my choice of commanding officer at that time.”
“Thank you, Admiral,” Hank said as he saluted. “Cheng, let’s go see what we have here,” he said excitedly. “This may be an interesting assignment after all.”
Chapter 68
February 14th, 2051
Elpis
The expedition crew watched as the shuttle settled toward the ground at the landing zone. There were no flames or deafening noise from the rocket engines on the shuttle as it settled on its landing struts. The anti-gravity plates made it all but weightless. There was nothing but a few puffs of hot gas from its thrusters as it settled to the ground. The struts crunched and sank a little as the anti-gravity field was turned off and the shuttle revealed its true weight to the planet below it.
The hatch opened and a ladder was lowered the meter or so to the ground. Two men in blue jump suits climbed down and walked over to the group.
“I’m Lieutenant Simpson,” said a tall man with an unmistakable Australian accent. “My mate here is Chief Smith. He’s my crew chief.”
“I am Commander Nichols,” said Kristy. “We’ve been expecting you.”
The pilot saluted and looked around. “Beautiful world you have here, Commander.”
“It is indeed a beautiful world, Lieutenant. We’ve been waiting for you to arrive for about four years,” Kristy said with a laugh. “Now that you’re here, I’m officially discharged from the Space Force. I believe that we have five passengers for you as well as a little cargo that’s ready to go home to Earth.”
“Yes Ma’am. Captain Lafontaine, my CO, requests that we load up and get back to the ship so that he may leave orbit as soon as possible. We’ve already dep
loyed the new communication and weather satellites to orbit. I’m also instructed to offer the rest of you one last chance to accept transport to Earth. It may be several years before the next ship arrives.”
At that moment, Freddy and the other Barbakath pups came running down the hill toward the group. They had been too frightened of the strange shuttle to watch the landing up close with the humans. Kristy smiled as she saw the eyes of the pilot and his crew chief grow wide.
“What’s the matter Lieutenant, haven’t you ever seen an alien before?” asked Kristy.
“Not up close, we haven’t,” the pilot admitted. He stood as still as a statue as the pups surrounded him and his crew chief and started fingering their jumpsuits with curiosity.
“They won’t bite,” Brianna laughed. “They’ve never seen another human except for us.”
Brianna went over and gave Beatrice a big hug and kissed her baby. “I’m going to miss you so much,” she said as she began to cry.
Donald shook hands with David and Master Chief. Pausing in front of Kristy, he saluted. “That may be the last salute you’ll ever get,” he said. He then gave her a big hug.
The rest of the party hugged and said their goodbyes. The Barbakath pups just stood around watching, not really understanding what was taking place. The few personal items that Jason, Donald, and Brianna had were loaded in the shuttle as well as several large boxes of specimens that Brianna was taking back to Earth. Master Chief and David hurriedly moved the stacks of supplies that the shuttle had brought down to them. Jason took little Brett and Rebecca and handed them up the ladder to one of the shuttle’s crewmen. He then climbed up to make sure they were secured in seats. Donald climbed into the shuttle and then everyone that was leaving was on board but Brianna. She went over and hugged Freddy and the other pups. “I’m going to miss you all so much.” With tears streaming down her face, she climbed into the shuttle.
As the hatch shut and the pilot activated his propulsion and antigravity systems, Freddy began to wail a lonesome and eerie sound. When the shuttle lifted off and climbed into the sky, Freddy collapsed to the ground and just lay there shuddering. The other pups stood around whining and looking lost. Freddy refused to get up at all. Finally, Master Chief and David had to go and get the small transport. They loaded him into it, and carried him back to the main site. Odysseus informed them that Barbakath pups that lost their Sabba often would refuse to eat. Sometimes they even died from separation anxiety. The remaining humans would have to watch him very closely.
After the remaining expedition members arrived back at the main site, they ate a solemn lunch and divided up to do their daily chores. It was going to be hard getting everything done with three less adults around. With the three human babies they had, there were nine of them again.
Later that evening Kristy got the report from Odysseus that the Olympus was leaving orbit and heading back to Earth. When she informed the others they all went outside to see if they could see the speck of light that the ship would be in the night sky. Unfortunately, the sky was covered by clouds and they could see nothing.
“I guess we’ll have to start getting ready for our new neighbors arrival. The Mayflower will arrive in orbit in about three months. We’ll soon have a bunch of settlers’ just one town over. Earth has agreed to our proposition. We’re all civilians now, and considered private contractors for NASA. We are to maintain control of this site and continue to work with Odysseus on the establishment of a breeding population of the Barbakath. Eventually, Odysseus wishes that we turn the site back over to the Barbakath as caretakers once they have become mature Ranor and have been educated enough to accept the responsibility.”
“There is one thing that Earth wants us to decide among ourselves. Since we no longer are a military expedition, we need to decide who is to be in charge here and let Earth know,” Kristy informed them.
“Oh right, we can do a secret ballot and all that,” said Albert. “That makes sense.”
“Why do we need a boss?” asked David.
“They insist,” said Kristy.
“Why don’t you tally the votes, Donald?” asked Kristy.
“Don’t call me Donald, I hate that name,” stated Master Chief.
“But you aren’t military anymore,” said Albert.
“I don’t care,” Master Chief said. “I’ve been called Master Sargent or Master Chief for as long as I can remember. I admit my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but my birth name doesn’t sound right. If you call me Donald, I probably won’t answer.”
Beatrice bent over and whispered in his ear. “Ok, Bea, you can call me Don, but only in private,” he grinned.
“That’s good to know, somehow saying Master Chief in a moment of passion just doesn’t sound right,” she laughed.
“Why not let Odysseus tally the votes?” asked Sarah. “Everyone just type it in your PA.”
“Good idea,” said Albert. They all followed Sarah’s suggestion and typed in their vote.
“Ok, Odysseus,” David said, when everyone was done. “Give us the results.”
“Well, it seems that Kristy has won the election by a vote of five to one,” Odysseus reported.
“Enough of this foolishness,” Master Chief said. “You’ve led us well this long Kristy. I guess we can give you another term as leader.”
Kristy blushed. “Thanks for the confidence vote everyone.”
“Odysseus, who got the other vote?” asked Sarah.
“I received one vote,” said Odysseus.
They all looked at Kristy and laughed. They stood up and left the small dome to go to their individual huts as the pups came running in from grazing. Freddy was with them, but instead of being the usual ring leader of the pups, he was hanging behind and very subdued. They all said their goodnights and went to their private quarters. They went to sleep, just content to be as they were. They were first permanent human residents of the planet Elpis.
…
This ends Blue Planet Rising. I hope you enjoyed my continuing saga of mankind’s first tentative steps off of our planet Earth and his first contact with another intelligent species. “There for the Taking”, the third book of the “Pebbles in the Sky” series will be released in late 2015 or early 2016.
Please leave me a review of the book and the series to date. If you would like to notified of the releases of future books in this series please send a request to “[email protected].
Blue Planet Rising (Pebbles in the Sky Book 2) Page 42
