AN: This is my first story, please be gentle. Its not long I know and honestly the writing might not be very good. This idea just came to me while I was thinking and I just had to write something down. Please enjoy, or don't. I probably wont commit to this, or at all so I don't know. If it turns out good I'll see what happens
Interplanetary Void between Earth and Mars
15 June 2134
Lead Scientist Dan Tomlinson ran his hands down his white lab coat, trying straighten non-existent creases to stop his hands from shaking. His graying hair at the temples and square glasses passed him off as a perfect generic male scientist. He was standing in the bridge of a small 30 meter science vessel provided by a combined project of the United North American States, the European Union, and the Chinese People's Federation in hopes of achieving faster-than-light travel. This was easily the tenth test of this FTL system in what is being widely known as the "FTL wild goose chase research". He had high hopes; working on this for the past 30 years of his 50, he could feel it in his gut. It didn't help that there was also the chance of the ship literally blowing up in his face, and that this ship looked like a literal flying rectangle. The chance of failure was high, but the future of humanity dep- "Sir?"
Jumping out of his skin, Dan whirled, as best he could, around to find one of his subordinates, a young asian woman of about 28, beauty tainted by the acne scars on her cheeks, hair looking like it was upside down, standing with a clipboard in her hand. Her English was great, and honestly she was an amazing help. He had his skepticism when the Chinese Federation appointed her to the project during one of the committee meetings 5 years ago. He had thought she was too young, a novice that would just get in the way, however she fast proved herself over the 5 years he has been working with her.
"Yeah, what do you need Bo?" She seemed to collect herself for a second. "I just wanted to let you know that the all the lights are green, and we are ready to test in 5 minutes. We just have to wait for the drive to spool up." Thanking her, she turned around and floated back to the computer she was working off of. The momentary peace allowing Dan to think. He turned, more like twisted, back to the direction he was facing, which was looking towards the large window in the front. The Milky Way was a bright band across the window with what seemed like thousands of stars.
Dan couldn't help but appreciate the seemingly primordial nature of the galaxy. He was well aware of all dangers the galaxy could give. If there wasn't sentient life out there in the universe waiting to destroy humanity, then our self-destructive nature, the planet giving out before we could fix it, or a random asteroid that got unlucky knocked off in the direction of Earth, were just enough to do the Human race in. He shouldn't be a pessimist though, he has been miserable since they put him on the research vessel without any artificial gravity, because apparently Centrifugal Artificial Gravity was not important on what could be easily blown up by a mishap. This lead to Dan and all of the scientists just floating there, being held in place by their feet hooked to iron bars.
Dan saw that there were only so much time left on the clock, he called out to his Helmsman Jay Palmer, the only non-scientist on the ship. He was 32 with the personality of a child. Dan honestly hated working with him, but he was good and that's all that mattered,"Palmer, face this ship towards Uranus." Palmer gave a thumbs up and an "Aye", and started manipulating values in the computer he was seated at. Dan took a deep breath to calm his nerves and wiped all emotion off his face. He would go down in history, his inner megalomaniac demanded it. Calling out behind him, "Bo whenever you're ready you may activate." Bo, whose fingers seemingly flew across the keyboard spoke up,"Aye, activate Warp Drive on my discretion" Bo gave a small pause, and pressed a single button, "The warp drive will activate in 5….4….3….2….1"
Everything seemed to stay still, in fact, Dan thought it didn't work and a wave of depression ran through his entire body. But space seemed to magnify and the ship groaned under the strange force. Not one second later Uranus, on its side with rings and all was but a small dot in the speckled sky, given plenty of room for error, in fact they were still a few million kilometers away. The absolute elation that was felt was indescribable by Dan. Everyone was clapping and cheering, some were crying and others just floated there in Zero-G shuddering with relief. After the celebrations, Dan, with a watery smile and his inner Megalomaniac cheering, called out, "Palmer, point us home, and Bo charge the Warp Drive, we're hero's today, and the galaxy will remember us for a long time."
10 Minutes later after all checks and charges were finished, the science vessel seemed to shrink at the front but widen at the back, then disappeared.