A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
Terra, Earth… it had been the home of the Alteran Empire for over a million years and as such it had shone as a beacon of light for endless eons.
Now it was to be the last bastion of hope from the coming darkness as one by one, the planets of the Milky Way Galaxy had fallen, succumbing to an incurable plague. The Great Alliance had fractured and as the Eldest of all known races, the Alteran's had taken it upon themselves to preserve what remained of the Alliance.
The Asgard were already a technologically advanced civilization, who had taken to the stars as fish take to water. Though limited in their reach, they thrived in space, and with the help of Alteran hyper drives an evacuation fleet was dispatched. Flung into the void between galaxies, beyond the reach of the Alteran final solution. It would be a long and dangerous journey, even with the help of the city-ship Celestria, yet it was their only hope for survival.
The Nox were an ancient civilizaiton that rivalled that of the Alterans. The Nox, it seemed, had forsaken technology in favour of developing their own powers. Having mastered powers that the Alterans were only now discovering in their own race, the Nox hid themselves from the plague, shielding their home from any who would venture there by ship or stargate.
Last but not least were the Furlings, the youngest member of the great alliance. The Furlings had only just proven themselves when the plague ravaged the galaxy. With little time on their hands, the Alterans could not hope to construct an intergalactic evacuation fleet, nor could they spare any of their own vessels, that were already filled with Alteran evacuees.
The Alteran council would not stand idly by and watch an entire civilization pass into oblivion. It was in this moment that the largest single feat of technology would be commissioned.
It was a gateway, a gateway large enough to transport entire city-ships across the void to a place where they would be safe.
The construction of the gateway required the entire resources of the Sol star system. Every scrap of Trinium, Naquidah and Neutronium had been mined to create this gateway, and now it was finally complete.
LOCATION:Earth Orbit
SHIP:Alteran Destroyer Orion 5
Darren, sat in his command chair and watched intently as the Construction Platform disengaged from the Gateway. For four years, every resource in the star system had been diverted to its construction. Darren closed his eyes and felt the warm embrace of the ship as his mind entered the main computer. Though conscious in both realms, he preferred to fully immerse himself in the artificial realm of cyberspace, and through this realm he looked upon the Gateway with greater understanding.
For a moment Darren's mind began to wander, though it was pulled back into the physical realm when a voice assaulted his ears.
'Construction Platform has reached a safe distance Sir, we are ready to proceed' the voice stated in an emotionless monotonic voice. It belonged to that of his first officer Alexandria De'Lacour O'nasus, a rather beautiful and stern woman who stood at an overbearing 6'2 with long shoulder length flowing red hair and deep set piercing blue eyes that changed colour with her mood. Their current light blue conveyed a rush of anticipation, something her outward persona would never betray.
Darren opened his eyes, his command chair automatically took this as a sign to disconnect from the cyber-realm and revert from its inclined position to allow Darren to view the primary view screen. 'Do we have council authorization codes?' he asked as the ancient command chair swivelled to face the main view screen. His eyes darted from his chair to the screen and noted the stark contrast in the technologies. The command chair was truly ancient technology from the founding of the Alliance Millions of years ago. The ship starkly contrasted it, sporting smooth white polished surfaces and glass panels next to the grey ancient throne looking device. He understood its significance as a tool, but never quite understood why the council members refused to modernize it.
'Yes' Alexandria replied, her face remained stoic yet her eyes turned a deeper shade of blue, the equivalent for her of a fevered smile. 'We received the authorization codes the moment the Construction Platform disengaged from the gateway'
Darren smiled back 'Well it look's likes the council's a little eager for results too' he spoke while standing and moving toward the centrepiece of the command deck. Embedded in the heart of the deck covering a good portion of the bridge, was the "pit". It was a holographic display medium set just below the primary view screen that could be used to display the contents of an entire solar system in real time three-dimensional space.
He stopped for a second, then turned to face his science officer, a very fragile looking man by the name of Ethos 'Power up all sensors to maximum' he ordered before turning towards his Tactical officer, a much more intimidating man by the name of Rancor 'Launch two dozen drones, have them on patrol just in case something comes through' finally he faced his first officer Alexandria 'Activate the gate!'
The crew took to the Captain's orders, their hands danced across their consoles in response to his wishes, while the captain retook his seat. He had ordered the deployment of drones for more than defence, he in fact wanted to view the gateway from every angle as it activated.
'Sir, the gate is powering up' Alexandria barked as one hundred red ports, embedded across the ring at equal intervals, began to glow bright red. The captain knew what was happening, but he also wanted to feel it.
Darren closed his eyes, the chair relenting to his wishes entered a reclined position and all around him stars appeared. He felt like he was floating outside the ship, watching what was happening from every angle. He could sense what the ship sensed, feel the power of 100 zero point modules lend their power to the creation of the inter-dimensional rift. It was an experience he knew the rest of the great council would be feeling at this very moment.
Darren watched in wonder as the power of the gateway became apparent, and a pinprick in the fabric of the universe appeared. As more energy flowed into the hole, it began to expand exponentially. Within seconds it had expanded to the limits of the ring, and only then a bright blue glow could be seen on what was obviously an inner ring concealed within the outer. The inner ring, made of pure Naquidah, was recycling the energy from the hole back into the generators allowing for perpetual energy in motion. The zero point modules were all depleted now, but they were only needed to spark the gateway, it would take many years before the energy dissipated to the point where the gate would shut down.
'The gateway has been established' Ethos reported 'Initial scans indicate that the vortex is stable. Preliminary long range scans indicate a star system comprised of 8 planets and 47 moons, none appear to be habitable'
'Habitability matters very little seeing as the Olympus will be the first manned vessel to enter the vortex!' Darren smiled, he was listening to his crew while still in cyberspace. He looked down at the planet before him and he could already see the tell-tale signs of a city-ship launch. He watched as the clouds parted to allow the colossus sized vessel to slip out of the atmosphere and into space. Yes, the council is very eager Darren thought to himself.
'We have orders from the council Sir, we cannot get high resolution scans through the vortex, it appears to be scattering the beams, the council wants you to reconfigure a drone for long range telemetry' Alexandria reported.
Darren looked back upon his ship and concentrated on one of the drones. In a few seconds the drone changed colour from bright yellow to a faint blue, and with that change Darren's perception entered the blue drone as it charged into the vortex.
It took a few seconds for him to orientate himself, but he was back in control, the drone's transmitter appeared to fair much better than the long-range sensors. Darren began to actively scan everything in the system, and as he did so, a holographic map of the star system appeared in the pit before the main viewer.
