Flight of the Phoenix
By FurFur
Fara Phoenix looked out at the stars and dreamed, losing herself for a moment in the vastness of space. Each one of those pinpricks of light were dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of light years away. Modern propulsion had put many of them in range, but the furthest ones, the ones thousands of light years away, were still unreachable without decades of spaceflight. After today, we'll be one step closer to getting there.
The cockpit of her small, experimental ship blooped and bleeped with the sounds of status indicators, and flashed with the lights of her control boards. From the outside the ship looked deceptively simple, even quaint. A long, missile shaped fuselage with two smaller, rocket shaped nacelles attached by way of metal pylons. It looked, to put it simply, like something out of a sci fi show doing a time travel episode. A time travel episode to the distant past, when Cornerians were taking their first baby steps out into space. And that, of course, had been Fara's idea, reflecting her love of quirky TV shows, and a belief expressed to her by her husband that scientific advancement should always bear in mind the achievements of the past.
The Interdimensional Warp Gate Ship, referred to simply as a Gate Ship or, more casually, the Rocket, was an experimental prototype. It would probably not see mass production in her lifetime, but then life could be full of surprises. I'm barely thirty. In a hundred years, given my generation's life expectancy? Hmm. I'll be old, but I won't be dead. Heck, I'll have twenty more birthdays. Easy.
Based on the technology of the Interdimensional Warp Gate, which orbited Corneria and was the first of its kind, the Rocket, which Fara had named Out of Bounds, was a demonstration ship. If all went according to plan, the Out of Bounds would open up a warp gate through an interdimensional realm, slip through, and reappear exactly one hundred light years distant from its point of origin. Total travel time around seven seconds. Once there, Fara would snap a few pictures, then turn around and get back to Corneria the same way. Doing this would require an astronomical amount of power, and upon her return she would have burned through the Out of Bounds entire matter/antimatter mix. She would have to be retrieved by a Federation vessel. But, it would prove that a Gate Drive was possible, and in the future, it would even be practical.
"Orbital Control, this is Out of Bounds, all systems are go, waiting on your word."
Fara's hands tightened on the controls. In order to open a Warp Gate she would have to reach a sublight velocity considered to be critically beyond most ships hull tolerances. She would also have to execute an aileron roll the instant the Gate opened, a maneuver which, when used with her G-diffusers, would create an energy nullifying barrier that would prevent the exotic particles the Gate would be emitting from melting her ship into slag. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been necessary, with modern shields capable of handling the radiation, but the Out of Bounds would be sacrificing shield strength for power reserves in order to reach critical velocity and open the Gate.
"This is control, you are all systems checked and cleared to launch at your discretion. Good luck ma'am."
"Acknowledged Control." Fara glanced at the pair of photos mounted on her primary control board. One showed Bonny, in full dress uniform, receiving his captain's pips. She'd been so proud of him that day. In the other photo she could see her parents, looking at her with the pride and love they'd shown in her since her birth. She could only imagine what they were feeling back in the control room right now, staring at the boards and the screens, trying not to bite their own tails off with worry. It had been a hell of a battle getting them to agree to let her do this. Fara had done plenty of test piloting in addition to starship design, but this was something entirely new. Both her parents had wanted someone else to do it, but Fara had argued that, having been a key player in designing the ship, she was far and away the most qualified candidate. They had had no choice but to agree. I'll make it home safe guys, don't you worry.
"This is Fara Phoenix, transmitting on all channels." Just as planned. There were a lot more people than just the control officers at Space Dynamics watching. Her flight was being transmitted on every channel across Lylat. There were even people watching on Cerinia, Harcothia, and all the other civilized systems. Good thing I like an audience, she thought to herself with a sly smile. "I'd say something profound but you would know that it was scripted. So I'll just say this...back in a minute."
Clicking off the transmitter Fara flipped the switches to the Gate Drive, the vibrations of the nacelles humming in her ears as they traveled across the pylons. Tapping a series of controls she brought the main sublight drives online, feeding power to them directly from the matter/antimatter engine. The ship kicked into motion. Hard. Fara's hands gripped the flight stick firmly, though not too tight, she knew better than to hold it in a deathgrip. She glanced at the readout monitoring her speed and couldn't help but laugh. "Oohh ho beat that McCloud!"
In a matter of mere seconds she had beaten the Arwing speed record set by Fox McCloud. A record that no single person craft had ever managed to come close to. Until now. Fara didn't let her triumph distract her though. Despite the Out of Bounds utilizing overpowered G-diffusers she could already feel the force of the acceleration. A red light started to flash above her. She looked up and saw that the Relativity Compensator was having a hard time keeping up with their speed. To be expected. No ship went this fast. Ever. "Woooo hoooo!"
Fara, pressed against her seat, could feel the raw, unfiltered exhilaration that came with spaceflight. With the knowledge that she was doing something her, admittedly, distant ancestors would never have thought possible. The fact that she was now approaching light speed also might have had something to do with it. She'd lost count of the number of speeding tickets she had gotten over the years. Speed, for her, could be almost as addictive as a proscribed substance.
A klaxon sounded in the cockpit. Not an alarm, just a warning. She was now close enough to relativistic velocity that she could begin what she was really out here for. "Computer, initiate maneuver program Flight of the Phoenix. Activate Gate Drive."
The computer trilled in acknowledgement. If Fara could have, she would have done the aileron roll herself. But, much as it pained her to admit it, no organic being possessed the level of precision that was needed. If she did it herself it was statistically guaranteed that she would start the maneuver at the wrong time, or make some other mistake that would send her off to the Ascended Realm. Least I got to name the program, she thought to herself.
Fara grinned as she felt the ship begin to spin. It started gently at first, working up to the intensity needed to create the nullifying field. Ahead of her the stars were melding together, becoming an intense, bright light. The view screens polarized themselves in response. Then, in a flash of white, the view shifted to a throbbing, sickly yellow field of...nothing. Interdimensional space wasn't empty, but Fara sure as hell had no idea what was in it. She'd read that, apparently, what the sentient mind saw in the realm wasn't actually a true image, but rather a mental projection, a translation into something the eyes could comprehend. Barely. Rumor had it that the few naturally occurring Warp Gates that were dotted around Lylat contained strange, alien structures in geometric shapes, but considering no one had used the naturally occurring gates in more than a century due to their unstable nature, most people assumed it was just an old spacer tale. What Fara did know was that it made her nauseous. A not uncommon reaction to Gate travel. Reaching into the pocket of her flight suit she pulled out a tiny bag and pulled out a cube of crystallized ginger. The bag had a note that read, With Love, your terrified mother. Popping the ginger into her mouth Fara felt the burn take the edge off her nausea. "Love you too mom."
Then, with no fanfare, no explosion of color like when she had entered it, she was out. The stars had changed. In the distance she could see a pulsar, and the faint glow of a nebula. "Son of a bitch. Computer. Distance from Lylat?" The readout appeared on her main console. 100 light years. Exactly. A massive grin split across her muzzle. "It worked. It fuck worked!" Looking out at the stars one more time she said, "Computer, snap those photos. Including a selfie for mom and dad and Bonny. Use the holoprojector camera for that." The computer gave its usual trill, and Fara leaned forward to start plotting the course back home.
Exactly sixty-five seconds after departing the Lylat System, the Out of Bounds arrived home, popping into existence not ten centimeters from where it had started its journey. Fara looked out the viewport and saw a fleet of ships. And, at the center, steaming toward her with its tractor beam projector glowing as it enveloped the Rocket in its reassuring tensor fields, was the Corneria's Pride. Bonny's ship. Fara's comm board started to flash. Tapping it she said, "Honey? I'm home."
A chuckle, more of relief than humor, filtered through the speakers. "Fara? It's dad. Welcome home."
"It worked daddy. It worked!" Fara gushed the moment she heard her father's voice. "We did it. We did it!"
A throat cleared on the other end. "Who was the one who designed the overpowered G-diffuser you used to pull off that ridiculously showy maneuver?"
Fara laughed. "Hi mom!"
"Welcome back dear. Did the ginger help?"
Looking at the now empty packet, Fara replied, "Big time. Um, we're not on system wide, are we?"
"No. Don't worry. I pulled a few strings to be able to welcome you back privately first," her father explained.
"Is Bonny there? I hear Brahmin mouth breathing."
"I had hoped a bit of travel might help improve your manners," a clipped, upper class Grantham accent said. "But I suppose you are beyond helping. Welcome home dear."
"Thank you snookums," Fara said, knowing she was embarrassing him on the bridge of his ship, and not caring in the slightest. She was about to add something salacious when a thought occurred to her. "The galaxy is waiting for me to say something, isn't it?"
"Maybe a little," her father said, the smile in his voice loud and clear. "I'm switching you over now. Try to say something profound. Or at least without profanities?"
"I'll try." Fara took a deep breath and, checking to see if she was transmitting, said, "Sixty-five seconds there and back everyone. Sorry I'm late."
A/N: And there you have it, the Star Fox equivalent of the Moon landing. This was just an idea I had in the middle of the night, and it drew inspiration heavily from the movie Star Trek: First Contact, which has a scene of similar importance and tone. This was also a good opportunity to do some character development for Fara, who is one of my all time favs.
The visuals for the Interdimensional warp space were taken from Star Fox 64 and are as accurate as possible. Pretty spot on actually, if I do say so myself. There were also a couple of technologies I invented, most notably the Relativity Compensator which eliminates those pesky time dilation issues you get when traveling close to lightspeed. As for how it works...it works just fine. Thanks for asking ;)
That does it for this one though. I might have another random one shot or two up my sleeve at some point, we'll see. Work continues on The First Generation. But for now I'll sign off. Until next time...
-fuRfuRFUFurFuuuurFUuUUuRRr