by James Rosone
**********
Into the Stars
Book One of the Rise of the Republic Series
By
James Rosone
**********
Illustration © Tom Edwards
Tom EdwardsDesign.com
Manuscript Copyright Notice
©2020, James Rosone and Miranda Watson, in conjunction with Front Line Publishing, Inc. Except as provided by the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One: A New Era
Chapter Two: Piracy Problems
Chapter Three: A Secret Mission
Chapter Four: Ballad of the Infantry
Chapter Five: Power Problems
Chapter Six: Decisions
Chapter Seven: Almost Human
Chapter Eight: Nefarious Intentions
Chapter Nine: Lunar Assault
Chapter Ten: A Pirate’s Life
Chapter Eleven: A New Adventure
Chapter Twelve: Killing Time
Chapter Thirteen: Planet Fall
Chapter Fourteen: New Leadership
Chapter Fifteen: First Contact
Chapter Sixteen: Unexpected Surprises
Chapter Seventeen: Surprises
Chapter Eighteen: Reverse Engineering
Chapter Nineteen: Colonization Highway
Chapter Twenty: Homecoming
Chapter Twenty-One: Fire in the Hole
Chapter Twenty-Two: Punch in the Face
Chapter Twenty-Three: Terminators
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Belt
Chapter Twenty-Five: Decision Point
From the Authors
Causes We Believe In
Abbreviation Key
Prologue
2050 A.D.
Following the end of World War III, most of the world lay in ruins. Nearly two billion people had died either in the conflict or as a result of the famine and global depression that had ensued in its wake.
With most of Asia and North America destroyed and their people starving, new governments came to power. The Asian Alliance took hold of what was left of Greater China, India, Japan, the Koreas, and the rest of Southeast Asia. The United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean formed the Republic. When the European Union merged with the Russian Federation to form the Greater European Union or GEU, the United Kingdom broke ranks and instead joined the Republic.
The Middle East became part of the GEU, making it the strongest trading and military bloc following the war. The African Union came to power shortly thereafter, aligning themselves with the Asian Alliance.
Sensing a potential new Cold War emerging, the political leaders agreed to a treaty aimed at uniting humanity with the shared goal of forming a colony on Mars. This treaty, which would bind all nations together for fifty years to share technology, resources, and territory in space, became known as the Space Exploration Treaty or SET. It was the first significant piece of global law written to govern the conduct of humans in space, and it led to a new reign of global peace.
Chapter One
A New Era
2075 A.D.
Mars Orbital Station
Commander Miles Hunt turned his head slightly toward Dr. Katherine Johnson. “If this works, Doctor, it’ll change the power dynamics of Sol.”
Dr. Johnson smiled as she stared at the monitor, eyes darting from one system to another. “If this works, Commander, it’ll change the future of mankind. It will open up the entire galaxy to us.”
Hunt smiled at the implication but didn’t say anything further. Like everyone else, he was a spectator right now. Whatever happened next, it was out of his hands.
“Aries Four, ready to begin,” crackled a voice over the secured coms network. A video image of the synthetic humanoid who’d be flying the craft was displayed on one of the monitors. Commander Hunt noted again how realistic the features were on this advanced robot. With the exception of its facial features, which were devoid of the emotions that would be etched on a human face, one would never be able to tell the robot wasn’t made of flesh and bone.
The tension in the room was thick. Everyone was on edge, unsure whether this fourth test would be successful. The mission control operator turned to look at Dr. Johnson as if asking for permission. She nodded.
Leaning in next to Commander Hunt, Vice Admiral Chester Bailey whispered, “If this test fails, the Senate may pull the plug on further funding. You’re confident it’ll work?”
Hunt turned his face slightly toward the admiral, who was the program manager for the entire Faster-Than-Light Program. He whispered back, “It won’t fail, sir. It worked when we tested the unmanned drone a month ago. It’ll work now.”
Despite the previous success, Hunt did feel anxious. A lot was riding on this test. While Vice Admiral Bailey was the overall program manager, Hunt had been the project lead at DARPA for the FTL program out of the Mars facility. He’d spent the better part of six years on this project, and he’d fought tooth and nail to get it the funding it needed.
“It had better work,” Bailey retorted in a quiet but stinging voice. “My ass is on the line.” The vice admiral resumed his gaze at the monitors.
“Aries Four, Mission Control. You are a go for the mission. Good luck.”
The brass from Space Command and several crucial senators from the Appropriations Committee stood there like everyone else, watching the video feed of the test craft. Commander Hunt could hear some hushed whispers among the crowd; some people expressed skepticism, some optimism. All of them were anxious to see if it would really work. Decades of research and more than four trillion dollars had been spent on the Aries project. After three spectacular failures, the project was running on borrowed time.
The radio crackled to life again. “Engines activated. Moving to test position now.”
The first test of the Alcubierre drive had been conducted fifteen years ago, and it had ended when the ship and the pilot had blown up just as the warp bubble had begun to generate. No one had been sure why the ship had exploded or what had gone wrong. A year later, scientists had determined that the craft had failed to generate an energy-density field lower than that of the vacuum needed for the warp bubble to work—that was also the last human-operated test.
In the second test, six years later, Aries Two had successfully created the warp bubble but had detonated fractions of a second before it should have jumped. After years of studying the failed experiment, scientists still couldn’t fully determine what had happened. Despite the failure, the test had proven that a warp bubble could be created, and the program was allowed to continue.
The third test, just three years ago, initially appeared to be a wild success—that was, until Aries Three dropped out of its warp bubble. It summarily blew up moments later, when the release of forward-facing particles destroyed the observation ship and equipment nearby and the mass of particles in its wake caught up to the craft, washing over it like a crashing wave and utterly destroying it. Fortunately, that had proved to be an easy problem to solve.
“Aries Four has now reached the test position. Running through the final system checks now,” announced the synthetic humanoid test pilot, his voice devoid of emotion. “I’m activating the Alcubierre drive.”
A moment later, the emotionless creature stated, “Engaging the Alcubierre drive now.”
The group of scientists, politicians, and military leaders observed with keen eyes as Aries Four generated its warp bubble. Fo
r a moment, it looked like a bluish sparkly distortion of color against the blackness of space around it. Then it disappeared.
Moments later, the ship reappeared at its destination, near Venus. They’d chosen that location in case there was an accident, since there wasn’t anything vital nearby that could get damaged if the ship blew up.
The entire room held their breath, waiting to see if Dr. Katherine Johnson and her team had finally solved the last technical challenge to making FLT travel a reality.
This is all just a dog and pony show, Commander Hunt reminded himself. What he knew that few in the room were aware of was that Dr. Johnson had successfully tested the FTL drive on an unmanned ship a month ago. This test was really just to ensure additional funding.
Time seemed to pause as they awaited confirmation from the observation crew on the other end that the ship had arrived and this new technology officially worked. A few seconds went by, then a minute, and still nothing. The short time delay in the video feed and communications caused everyone to keep their fingers crossed. Then, after a couple of additional messages passed between the Mars Orbital Station and the observers on the other end, the radio from the test craft crackled to life.
“This is Aries Four. All systems are still green. I’m showing no red lights and the ship detects no problems. Everything seems to be operating within normal parameters,” announced the synthetic humanoid pilot.
The room broke out in cheers. People hugged each other and exchanged high fives and jovial handshakes. Mankind had just entered a new era—the era of deep space travel.
Admiral Bailey shook Commander Hunt’s hand and drew him in closer so he could speak without the others hearing. “You did it, Miles,” he said. “I’m proud of you. I won’t forget this.”
*******
From Reuters:
After twenty years of research and trillions of dollars invested, Dr. Katherine Johnson’s team of researchers successfully tested the Alcubierre drive today. The test craft, Aries Four, traveled from the Mars orbital research station to a point in open space near Venus, 108.2 million kilometers away. It took the test craft a mere four minutes to cover that distance.
The successful test of the faster-than-light drive, or FTL, means that humanity will now be able to explore deep space and beyond our solar system for the first time. Already, numerous governments are entering formal talks about assembling exploration teams to travel to Alpha Centauri and many other star systems thought to contain habitable planets similar to Earth.
From The BBC Online:
The Greater European Union has officially approved the technology transfer of the recently invented neurolink implant to the Republic in exchange for the Alcubierre drive technology. The President of the Republic said in a televised interview this morning that his country intends to honor the Space Exploration Treaty obligations. He also stated that the Republic will make the FTL technology available to those nations that are signatories to the treaty and work to ensure humanity shares in this success.
The head of the Asian Alliance has likewise announced that they would share their recent breakthrough technology in inertial dampening and artificial gravity, discoveries made by using the Chengdu Super AI last year. Many scientists and engineers believe these technologies are just as critical as FTL to future space travel and humanity’s expansion into the stars.
Some analysts remain concerned about a potential new Cold War in space. However, the consensus is that their concerns have been alleviated by the willingness of the world governments to share this technology with each other. As it stands today, humanity now enters a brave new frontier of space exploration, united together in their quest to colonize the stars.
Chapter Two
Piracy Problems
CMS Dolly
Mars Belt Sector
The M-337 mining drone stabilized its position near the giant asteroid, releasing a couple of short puffs of gas. As the drone completed a final adjustment, the operator on the ship activated its cutting laser one last time, slicing into the chunk of ice to cut it free from the floating rock.
“Careful, Hank. That’s a big piece of ice,” Joshee said.
Is it just me, or does his Indian accent come out more when he’s stressed? Hank asked himself.
He kept his eyes on the monitor. “Get the grappler ready,” he ordered. “I’ve almost got it free.” A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face. Hank’s left hand moved up to brush the perspiration away, only to slap the face shield of his helmet.
Joshee snickered. “Forgot to put your do-rag on?” he asked jokingly.
Hank shook his head in frustration. “Yeah. I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get suited up.”
“You know, maybe it’s time to invest in a newer ship that doesn’t require us to be in these damn EVA suits when we mine,” Joshee suggested.
Hank ignored the comment. “The ice is free, Joshee. Activate the grappler and let’s get that piece pulled into the hauler.”
“Firing…good hit. Retracting the cable now,” Joshee confirmed. Then he proceeded to give instructions to their synthetic humanoid worker. “Lola, when the ice reaches the loader, size it down with the cutter so it’ll fit in the hauler. Then I need you to bring it back to the ship so it can be unloaded. Repeat the process until you’ve got that entire ice block on the ship.”
“Yes, Grand Lord Exalted,” the humanoid replied in its emotionless tone.
“Holy crap, Joshee. You can’t keep having Lola calling you that. It’s ridiculous,” Hank chided.
Joshee let out a guttural laugh. “Oh, fine, party pooper. I’ll change it when we’re done. I just wanted to see what you’d say to my new title.”
Hank just snorted.
“How long do you think it’ll take her to cut that block down and start bringing it back?” Joshee asked.
“Long enough for you to get those other blocks moved into the refiner. Where is Jorge? He’s falling behind,” Hank asked, annoyed.
Joshee floated across the cargo hold past the open bay doors to the far side of the room. His hands grabbed for the pull bars near the large refiner. “He said something about needing an urgent bio break. Something about my cooking didn’t sit well with him,” Joshee explained. “I’ll get the next set of blocks going until he gets back. Then we can go in and grab some food ourselves.”
Hank chuckled. “I like your cooking, Joshee, but we should let our actual cook do the cooking when we’re in the Belt. Sometimes your stuff is a bit spicy.”
“You all said you wanted it hot.”
“Hot, yes—not Indian hot,” Hank countered. “There’s a distinct difference.”
Joshee used one of the mechanical arms in the bay to grab one of the one-square-meter blocks of ice Lola had brought in earlier in the day. The mechanical arm gripped the block and placed it in one of the large vats anchored along the inner wall of the cargo hold. Each of the six tanks could hold roughly thirty square meters of ice. Over the next few hours, the ice would be superheated and melted down. During that process, the water would be stripped of any minerals of value such as strontium clathrates or other essential isotopes. The remaining liquid would be loaded into storage vats until they returned to the Mars Orbital Station, better known as MOS—at least until BlueOrigin finished their processing facility located halfway between the MOS and the Belt.
It was a bit of a long and tedious process, but ice mining was a very lucrative business. Not a lot of people liked this type of mining, but the ones that went into it typically did well, so long as they were able to find a steady source of ice.
“Come on, Hank. Let’s go eat.” Joshee motioned for them to head back into the pressurized section of the ship.
Hank nodded. “Let me tell the drone to go find the next chunk of ice for us. That way, it’ll be ready for us when we get back from our break.”
Joshee tipped his head in agreement and turned around to make his way toward the airlock at the other end of the cavernous cargo bay
. It was the downside to using the older ship—to operate the control arm, the hauler, or the mining drone, they needed to use the workstations in the cargo hold. The internal part of the ship wasn’t very big. Space was limited, and they didn’t have a separate workstation with the same functions as the ones in the much larger cargo hold.
The ship felt much larger than it was when the bay was sealed and pressurized, but when they had equipment outside the ship, they almost always left the bay doors open. It took a while to pressurize and depressurize the cavernous room, so they only did it when they were going to move to a new location.
When he was done with the drone, Hank turned to follow his friend Joshee. The guy had already reached the airlock and was waiting for him. He had a look on his face like he was about to tell him again that this ship was a hunk of junk and that they should upgrade to a newer ship, but he held his tongue this time.
Maybe he’s right, Hank thought.
“What do you think of the new kid?” Joshee asked as they both floated into the airlock.
Joshee closed the door behind Hank and sealed it while Hank worked to repressurize the compartment they were in so they could gain entry to the rest of the ship.
“He’s green, but I think we can teach him to be a good space miner,” Hank muttered as he tapped on a couple of keys. There was a loud hissing noise as the compartment flooded with oxygen.
The light near the door changed from red to green, and Hank pulled up on the lever, opening the entrance to the corridor that led them further into the ship. The two of them used the pull bars interspersed throughout the hallway to pull and push themselves forward as they traversed their way through the ship. Eventually, they made their way to the cantina, where their cook, Ivan, had just finished preparing some food for the crew of seven.
The cantina also functioned as their dayroom and locker room. Along one of the walls, the crew had a wall locker, where their EVA suits were stored. They also had a TV and a couple of computer terminals. With no gravity on the ship, there wasn’t a need for tables and chairs. People just floated around as they ate their food, watched TV, or played a video game.
