Starswift (chapter 4)

(*1)
'What other secrets did this mission hold? Intelligent life detected at GJ273. Weapons of mass destruction brought aboard at the last minute. What else were they not telling the crew?' Jr. Lieutenant Hoyt thought to himself as he rode in the lift making his way to the command deck and bridge of the Starswift.

The silent soft thrum of the elevator lulled Zach deeper into the conspiracy reeling through his mind at the tacit revelation of intelligent life being detected at Luyten-b. The image of the green and beige planet rotating into the shadow of night revealing a tight symmetrical cluster of bright lights played over and again in his head. Undeniably artificial and absolutely not human in origen. The system was only 12 light years from Earth and right in our own backyard. Were the signals detected hostile? Was that why they brought the Lucian and her positronic weaponry? Were we planning on exterminating the beings on Luyten-b and claiming the planet for ourselves? And why send the Starswift to investigate on her way back from Kepler. Why not some other ship coming from Earth? Scientists had known for half a century that the star system harboured a planet empirically in the habitable zone.

The Mach's Pride would be particularly useful in the investigation of the anomaly. Perhaps that's why they ensured a vessel like the Mach, which was capable of a wide array of stealth and camouflage, was included for this mission.

Breaking Zach of his anxious thoughts the lift paused at Deck 3. The young lieutenant watched as the Chief Engineer and Head Science Officer both stepped into the lift. The men barely noticing the lieutenant as they bantered back and forth about the new experimental drive.

Zach stood back quietly and listened as the clean cut, elegantly formal looking Science Officer chuckled and stroked his silvery black, neatly trimmed beard in contemplation. "Yes. That sounds like quite a problem."

"I'm telling you Yeung the algorithms for this new jump drive are the most complex mess I've ever seen. Took me two years just to develop the software to calculate the navigational requirements." Chief Engineer O'Kieran said animatedly flailing his arms for effect. " The data for the decoupled space just keeps fractalising over and over logarithmically. When I chart it all out it begins to look like the neurons of the brain. Just this tangled web of math."

The Head Science Officer of Starswift grinned at the animations of the heavy set engineer. "Sounds a lot like my time trying to prove a working model of Digital Quantum Loop Gravity. Never did get the blasted thing solved. Just a endless kaleidoscope of multi coloured quanta pixels forming data filaments and connections that seemed to feedback onto themselves. "

O'Kieran emphatically shook his head up and down in understanding. "Oi! It gets so impossible to picture. I just have to trust that the computer and the mathematical algorithms know what they're calculating. Makes it worse that the calculations have no basis relative to the outside universe. I'm glad this first jump is just to Proxima. 16 minutes is a lot of calculations. Its actually scary to think about being decoupled from space time for the 38 hour jump duration to Kepler."

"Well I'm just thrilled to be attached to this mission as the science officer. I've been following your Mach Decoupling theory since your MITER days back in the Northern Territories. All the guys in Lancaster were rooting for you and taking bets. You know we tried the spacial decoupling thing too. At the time we couldn't get the calculations right for the angular momentum of the Hubble Lookback Radius. And the material science wasn't there yet for the superconductors. We hit a wall pretty early on." The science officer said as the lift began to open up onto the command deck foyer.

"I didn't know you were in Lancaster. Who were you with? I knew a couple guys over at China Lake and Edwards. Good times back then." O'Keiran said brightly.

"Yeah a DARPA project over at the Helendale EM Facility developing the first quantum radar systems." Yeung said wistfully. "Well today's your day Tom! A big day in Earth history if all goes right!" The science officer patted Tom on the shoulder as they both exited the lift.

Zach found it surreal to be standing next to the famous Korean quantum physicist Hakyeung "yeung" Chun. A brilliant man and eloquent speaker, he was best known for his many books on the subject of science that made physics understandable to the layman. He was a go to guy for the media whenever they did a segment on science or space.

He had a broad smile and a self assured demeanour. Zach was surprised to discover over a shared table in the mess hall one day that the man found himself lacking and too linear in thinking. Said it was his greatest fault. In efforts to grow beyond himself or maybe due to a midlife crisis or something he frequently took lessons in subjects awkward to him, such as dancing, cooking and martial arts. It was fascinating to see a man as great as he was who thought so little of himself.

Zach followed the duo down the command deck's busy main corridor. The smooth light grey moulded wall panelings with recessed lighting smartly accented the powdery blue carpeting and silvery white trim found throughout the Starswift. The combination offered a soothing juxtaposition to the anticipation rising inside him.

Returning salutes from two armed marines in formal dress uniforms, he continued on through to the magnificent Quarterdeck of the ship. Located just aft of the bridge, it was the administrative centre of the command deck. Serving as the official place for VIP reception and onboard ceremonies, the Quarterdeck symbolised the heart and soul the of the Starswift. Passageways lead athwart to the many offices of the senior officers and their staff. Just to starboard sat the foyer to the Captain's Ready Room and Bridge Situation Room.

In the centre of the large open space under spotlights stood a gleaming eight foot polished metal miniature of the Starswift. Her streamlined silhouette poised on a thin pedestal as if soaring through the air. In reverence lining the Quarterdeck walls, images of the Starswift's forebarer's from ancient times onward reminded the ships passengers of humanities endeavour's to reach the stars.

Triumphantly, along the forward bulkhead, the ships plaque and insignia colours sat just outside the bridge entrance. It was of a stylised sleek swan against the diamond shaped constellation of Cygnus. So chosen to signify the cluster of space Kepler 22 was located in.
(*2)
Tucked in between Draco and Lyra, Cygnus was the initial focus of the Kepler telescope and its search for exoplanetary bodies. And Kepler found an abundance of them. That region of space was bountiful and full of potential for human colonisation. A hopeful nursery for the growth and continuation of mankind. Our local cluster of systems was comparatively lacking in earth like edens in which to expand to. If mankind were to live amongst the stars it would need to set it sights and ambitions far beyond places like Tau Ceti and Ross128.

Cygnus was likened to the discovery of the Americas and New World back in the 15th century on Earth. With the new jump drive of the Starswift, the potential for exploration and colonisation of the distant region was an actual possibility. The drive was conservatively estimated to be 4,500 times faster than the engineered vacuum metrics of the current C Drive. The leap in navigation was like the transition from sailing ships to supersonic jet aircraft for the crossing of earths oceans.

Zach thought the plan for Kepler 22 was bold and ambitious. Kepler was to be the gateway system to Cygnus and the colonies beyond. A supply depot for materials and enough water to sustain humanity regardless of how many bases and systems we developed out there. If everything worked right with this test jump, new colonisation and construction ships would be built around the design and set flight for the planet in earnest.

Several proposals for grande orbital and in-system space stations were in the final stages of drafting. Planners envisioned large way stations at the edge of the Kepler system serving as fuel, supply and transit depots. Communication and deep space sensor arrays. A ring of orbital stations cast like a net around the planet its self ferrying water and materials to and from the surface. Housing and colonial command infrastructure set upon K22b's tiny moon. In all, the Kepler expedition a colossal and monumental undertaking.

Half shrouded in clouds and deep bluish green, Kepler 22b was a water world slightly over twice the size of Earth. Only five percent of the planet had land masses in the form of small island archipelagos around its equator connected by what appeared to be shallow coral encrusted seas. The rest was thought to be unimaginably deep abyssal ocean.

The key to this all was whether or not this new spacial decoupling drive worked or not.

Passing beyond the Conn bulkhead the bridge was glaringly lit up, causing Zach to wince slightly. The demeanour here was different from even the foyer just a few yards away snapping Hoyt immediately out of his drifting internal dialogue and directly into the moment at hand.

Crew hustled about their stations doing preflight checks and superluminal jump diagnostics in preparation for the eminent test in just a half hour. Within the semi ring of crew stations and consoles that surrounded the Captain and XO's command dias sat Lieutenant Matthews at the piloting helm for the Starswift. She glanced up at Zach smiling and then resumed her conversation with the Third Officer of the bridge who happened to be in charge of navigation.

Just behind her console was an empty seat with touchscreens and holographic display interfaces lit up waiting for him. As Matthews Second, his duty was to serve as her copilot when not at the Mach's Pride.

"Fine day Ma'am. What would you like me to start with?" Zach asked as he approached the helm control stations.

"Yes Sir, Feeling bright and hopeful today. Start with prepping the C Drive shutdown for the gravity transfer." Matthews spoke over her shoulder, still busy tracing a series of navigational vectors with the help of the Navigation Officer on a holographic chart of local star systems floating in front of them.

Settling into his seat Zach started to go through his pre flight checklist tapping away with his light stylus at the screen. With each tap new data and instructions generated in his holographic display. Happy with a series of commands entered he took his fingers to the words floating in front if him and swiped them away confirming his intentions to begin the shutdown sequence for the artificial gravity and corresponding C Drive.

Artificial gravity was tied directly to the warp propulsion mechanism as an artifact of the drive field. In this case the artificial gravity provided by the inertial bias gradient of the altered vacuum metrics would be replaced by the new jump drive.

"Helm how's our wave guide cavity?" The captain said running through the standard pre superluminal ignition sequence.

" Polar discontinuities on Fresnel. Have a solid Huygens. Cavity intact and nominal." The Jr. lieutenant confirmed.

"Excellent! Chief O'Keiran, I'll hand over the artificial gravity change and Decoupling Drive ignition to you in a second Sir. " The Captain said gesturing at him like he was shooting a pistol.

"Junior, make a ship wide announcement that we're transferring the gravity momentarily." He said referring to Hoyt in his Texan drawl.

"Yes Sir making announcement." Zach concurred. "Attention all crew and personnel. This is the Conn. Prepare for artificial gravity transfer. Secure all personnel. Repeat artificial gravity transfer will commence eminently. Stand by." This would be the first time the C Dive had been completely shut down since the Starswift's commissioning.

"O'Keiran transferring authority over to you. Let's see what your drive can do. The Conn is yours. Good luck." The Captain announced shaking the engineers hand and taking a step back from the dias.

Chief Engineer Thomas O'Keiran, the inventor of the Mach Decoupling Drive stood up and walked onto the centre command dias to begin overseeing the new jump drive initiation sequence. Casually he turned towards Lieutenant Matthews and gave her a confident smile. "OK spin up the superconductors to .8 of the required angular momentum and hold"

"Yes Sir, superconductors spun up to pre ignition velocities and holding. Matching resonance to the cavity and inducing Aharonov Bohm coupling." Matthews said while rapidly tapping commands onto her holographic interface.

"Good. Matthews, tell me when we have a successful Josephson Junction. Hoyt! Prepare to notify the good people of this ship we are commencing the onboard gravity switch over. Everybody make sure you are strapped in, clipped on and secured." The chief said while clipping the short leash attached to his waist belt to a nearby metal handle and grabbing one of the hand straps that hung from the ceiling.

"Josephson established" The helm confirmed.

"Thank you Matthews. Your turn Hoyt. Switch over to the jump drive at will." The Engineer nodded at the Jr. lieutenant.

Zach took a deep breath and touched the ships intercom. "Attention all personnel commencing artificial gravity transfer in ten seconds. Brace and secure." And with that Zach gave the final command into the ships computers with the tap of his light stylus effectively shutting off all onboard gravity.

In an instant Zach felt his stomach drop as if in free fall. A slight queasiness took hold as his harness straps prevented him from floating more than a few inches from his seat. The hair of the women on deck stood up and fanned outward floating in the zero gravity.

"OK bleed the drive field in a little...gently if you can. Let's get the new gravity in effect." O'Keiran said as his feet slowly drifted a few inches off the floor. Zach noticed that for once the ever present lucky plant Tom brought on every flight was nowhere to be seen and imagined it floating haplessly around the Engineer's quarters.

Gradually over the next few seconds Zach could feel his body grow heavier and eventually come back into contact with his seat. "Gravity transfer complete Sir."

"That wasn't so bad. Matthews spin up the superconductors to the pre set for decoupling. Notify Earth we are beginning the test jump. Prepare to drop communications. Once we're decoupled we'll have no means of contact with the outside universe."

"Message outbound. Earth sends their luck and that they'll hear from us in roughly 16 minutes once were through to Proxima." The Comm station announced.

"Boatswain dim the lights in prep for the jump." The young man standing at the rear end of the bridge responded to the engineers request and tapped onto his tablet. The bridge ominously sank into its familiar deep red hue. Above the stars like a shower of piercing white and gold sparks stippled the ceiling as dusty balls of icy slush from the Oort cloud drifted gently past. In the centre of it all was the yellow dot of the sun. Minuscule from this distance and barely bigger than any other star. Somewhere out there was a fragile pale blue dot. Earth. The sensation of desolation made Zach feel melancholy as it dawned on him just how far from home and isolated they really were.

The Engineer unhitched his safety strap so that he could freely walk around the dias and address the crew. The decoupled jump would be free from any superluminal turbulence. In actually it would be impossible to even tell that they were travelling at a incomprehensible rate amongst the stars. Once decoupled from space time the Starswift would be blind to the universe and the universe unaware of the Starswift's presence let alone passage. She would simply disappear.

"Ahem." Thomas O'Keiran cleared his throat. "I'd like each and every crew member on the bridge to take a moment to take one last look at the sun and our solar system before we go. For once we do, we will be farther than any human being has ever ventured from home.

Tens of thousands of years ago our ancestors stood by their loved ones and looked up to the stars in awe. The stars were our companions, gods and inspiration. Generation after generation, humanity watched in wonder at the magnificence of the heavens. Dreaming that someday we might travel amongst the stars. Today we fulfill that promise to our ancestors. To each and every soul that came before us. The promise and dream to one day soar amongst our longest companions. Matthews. Decouple us and send us on our way"
The heavens above vanished and the bridge fell silent. As the Starswift drifted silent in the darkness she gave just a hint of a shimmer and then, like a ghost, absolved into nothing. Gone from our universe.... ceasing to exist.

The bridge was eerily quiet as the crew looked around at each other in suspense as the time passed, waiting for the 16 minute jump timer to fully countdown.

Chief Engineer O'Keiran looked over at Lieutenant Matthews and at last nodded. "Drop jump in ten."

"Re-entering space on three...two....one." Matthews counted down and recoupled the Starswift. Like a spectre the the giant vessel materialised and rejoined the universe.

"Ok. Bring up communications and notify Proxima OS-Alpha of our arrival." The captain spoke out calmly as he resumed command of the Starswift.

"Captain. Error in communications. We are unable to rouse Proxima. Attempting again. " The communications officer called across the bridge.

"They're expecting us. Try on priority channels." The XO cocked his head to the side disturbed by the odd report.

"No response Sir. We're not picking up any transponders or signals traffic, but there's supposed to be at least half a dozen vessels out there.... Or should be. Running internal diagnostics now." The 3rd Officer of the Deck said in between issuing rapid fire orders to his communications staff.

"O'Keiran. You're jump drive able to effect our comms?" The Executive Officer looked over at his Engineer.

O'Keiran glanced down at his console for a second before answering. "No... No, other than in our decoupled state the Jump Drive has zero effect on our comms. Sensors are picking up outside data. Things are getting through the drive field...."

A crew member from the science station interjected. "We're getting sensor reports. The readings are way off for Proxima. The UV, phosphorus....Hydrogen. It's all too high."

"Bosun! Bring up displays. Let's see what's going on." The Captain pointed at the young enlisted man standing at the rear of the bridge. In doing so, a mixture of rainbow colours washed over the bridge, prompting several of the crew to stand up from their stations in surprise.

The bridge as a collective gasped in shock at the sight of the ceiling filling with lacy tendrils of interstellar hydrogen glowing in curly wisps of magenta, chartreuse and cyan. The stunning cloud spread out across the room. Suspended in the centre were three ice blue sapphires. Their luminosity piercing through the colourful veil.
(*3)
"That's not Proxima! Navigation where are we!" The Captain demanded as he stormed up to the railing of the command dias and stared up onto the trio of stars.

"Still no contact! Trying all channels again. Self diagnostics showing green. No contacts! My god! There's nobody out there....Sir?" The Communications Officer shouted beginning to panic.

"Navigation...talk to me! Where are we!" The captain demanded again.

The Navigational Officer looked desperately at his staff for answers. His second shook his head negatively, rapidly punching at his console. The head of navigation turned towards his XO and Captain with a blank look of fear on his face. His mouth opening and closing wordlessly struggling to speak.

"Jones? Where are we?" The XO said in a calming voice to the Navigation Head.

"Uh..the...the computer doesn't recognise any of the stars...or celestial bodies. The galaxies are foreign too. It can't determine our location. We are beyond our observable known space...the opposite side of the universe." The pallid man stammered. A audible groan travelled across the bridge as a wave of comprehension spread through out the crew.

"That's a massive supernova remnant. Ancient. With a stellar nursery of young stars. The blue ones are either O or B type. Binary. The farther, smaller one maybe a F type. I don't recognise this nebula. I concur. We are not in the Milky Way or any nearby galaxy. " Hakyeung Chun said inspecting the glowing nebula in astonishment.

(*4)
"Thomas what happened? Jump us back!" The Captain ordered.

Thomas O'Keiran pushed back into his seat. His hands trembling. "Sir, we can't. We don't even know what direction to jump and for how long. I need to rework the jump calculations and math just to figure out where we are and how long we need to jump to get back. That's going to take some time. "

"How long? I need to know what to tell the crew." The ships commander pressed.

Standing in the back of the bridge one of the senior physicists, an expert in mathematics, Matteo Kensington took off his glasses and sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Two...three months at best...maybe longer. "

The Captain ran both his hands through his hair grimacing in frustration. "Great. And there's no way we can send word back to any Human outposts?"

"No Sir. We're to far for any signal to travel, even with our quantum entangled comm system. " The communications officer shook his head delivering the grim news.

Mesmerised by the sight of the nebula Zach squinted at the trio of stars and noticed movement. Standing up excitedly he pointed towards the closet two stars. "Do you guys see that!"

"Captain! Contact 20 mikes off the port bow! We have an object approximately five kilometres across. It...Appears alive!" The officer two seats over cried out enlarging the object Zach had noticed for all to see more clearly.

Spinning around to see the life form, the captain ordered. "Yellow alert! Matthews start up the pre ignition sequence to the C Drive. I want us able to back out of here ASAP!"

Capturing the nebulas colours, a semitranslucent feathery bundle of kilometre long tentacles hung down from a billowy umbrella like mantle that spanned out resembling a parachute caught in the solar winds. Beyond it scattered like a school of interstellar plankton were several thousand more drifting in a long chain between the two brightest stars.

The Captain turned back around and addressed the Head Engineer. His words tight and seething through his gritted teeth. " O'Keiran ...let me get this straight.... You're telling me we are lost in space...indefinitely....with no way home?"

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Thank You for reading my latest Starswift chapter. Sorry for taking so long to bring you guys this last chapter. I had it ready to go a week ago but held off posting it until Steemit got back on its feet again from the upgrades and changes. Next chapter is half way written and should be posted by this upcoming weekend.

Hope you enjoyed the ongoing adventures of the Starswift.

If you're interested you can find the rest of the Starswift chapters at the below links.

Starswift Chapters:
Chapter 1 https://steemit.com/fiction/@steemydave/starswift

Chapter 2
https://steemit.com/scifi/@steemydave/starswift-chapter-2

Chapter 3
https://steemit.com/fiction/@steemydave/starswift-chapter-3

Again thank you for reading. I am grateful for each person who takes the time to do so. Feel free to leave comments. I loooove comments and respond to each and every one of them.

Best,

Steemydave

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All liquid rewards for this post go entirely towards @kaelci and I's very expensive Prospective Marriage Visa and are beyond thankful for each and every single one.

Also while you're here please drop by my fiance @kaelci page and check out her fantasy writing. She's really a much better writer than I could ever hope to be.

Pictures provided by pixabay.com unless otherwise noted.

*1- Cygnus constellation provided by danlessmann.com

*2- Cygnus Constellation artwork provided by thesciencepage.com

*3- ESA/Hubble photography of Crab Nebula provided by telescope.org

*4- Stellar Nursery IC-2944 Lambda Centaurus Nebula imaged by the Very Large Array (VLA) provided by Slate.com