Disclaimer - I don't own Star Wars in any manner. I just own this story.
The latest instalment in my little saga which began with Expulsion and went into Galactic Vigilante.
Synopsis - The Jedi, aware of the dangers of the sub-hyperspace flight, have sent a small delegation to Corellia to meet with their former member, Anakin Skywalker to enlist his help in stopping the flight...but tragedy is not far off.
Enjoy, and I hope you're all safe.
The Test Ship.
Anakin Skywalker had always loved piloting, but never in his wildest dreams and he expected he would ever pilot a ship capable of travelling faster than light without using hyperspace technology. He exhaled slowly, feeling his stomach ache nervously as he wrapped his hands around the control yokes of the column, his practiced gaze taking in the status of the monitors and gauges.
Thanks to his experience of piloting ships which had become instinctive, and almost as second nature as walking, Anakin had little trouble understanding the controls even with the extra training he'd received, on top of the lectures and meetings he and Shanna had participated in, with many CEC officials and scientists who'd been pushing the project through for the last few years to get this far, meetings which had been advised on by the test pilot crews to help develop the project.
Currently, the ship was orbiting one of the moons of the solar system while Anakin, Shanna, and the field scientists onboard the ship monitored the drive.
Anakin stretched and tried to get comfortable, but it was very difficult. He and the rest of the test ship crew were decked out in spacesuits. It was a precaution as well as a tradition practiced by every space-faring culture in the galaxy who had even a gram of common sense between their ears. If there was one thing history had shown about interstellar travel, it was space was hazardous.
Not only was it dangerous, with a vacuum no-body could survive in unless their biology was capable of surviving in both space and in the atmospheres of a planet. There was also the risk of cosmic radiation scientists had discovered long ago, but they had no idea if the different types of cosmic radiation would tear open the cells of the body, blasting them and causing types of cancer unknown to science.
When the first interstellar pioneers began to venture beyond the confines of the solar systems, the dangers and the hazards of the zero-gravity environment was bad enough, but many were killed when hyperspace travel was discovered and expanded on until interstellar flight became a reality.
CEC had no idea what kind of radiation the test pilots would come across, even with the simulated flights and the probes which had been fitted with the FTL engine in order to see what would work and what wouldn't, with each test shaping every single step of the project until the inevitable test, but there was a lot of debate about what the crew would experience. While Anakin and Shanna and the scientists on the test ship were excited and enthusiastic about the flight since it would change everything if it worked, and they would go down in galactic history if they could develop a means of travelling at high speeds without worrying about the usual dangers which came from hyperspatial travel, they all knew this mission also came with a dark side.
They had no idea what the effects this type of drive would have on living tissue. Not yet. But CEC had no intention of letting its test crew go out there with a test ship carrying a new Faster than Light drive without taking precautions.
And these were the latest spacesuits as well. CEC had spared no expense at all in designing them to be both comfortable and yet very very tough, using the experience of thousands of years of scientific awareness of the dangers of space travel, and with the latest scientific knowledge of the sub-hyperspace drive, but there was still so much they didn't know about the effects.
Anakin knew CEC could take every precaution, but something could still go badly wrong.
"CEC to Test ship. You have a green light to start the test flight. We are reading your ship's status, have you cleared it?"
"Understood, and yes," Anakin said into the comlink before he turned to Shanna with a smile before he turned back to the communication system. "Well, they've given us the green light…All systems are ready, we've performed last-minute checks," he added for CEC's benefit.
"Good luck."
Anakin switched off the comlink before he turned to Shanna. "Ready to make history?" he asked with a grin.
"Always am," Shanna grinned brightly at him while her hands danced across her panel with the skill of a master-musician.
"I can't believe it, we're doing this…we're actually doing this," one of the scientists, Galileo Lance said, his voice sounding as if he were a second away from dancing up on and down on the deck plating.
"Don't get too excited," Anakin warned, not even glancing over his shoulder to look at the scientist. "We've got a long way to go just yet."
Lance was one of the scientists who had worked on the FTL project. He was an astrophysicist, and he had joined the original team who had been working on the drive, adding his own expertise to the project. Anakin knew just enough of the project to know Galileo was an expert of energy sources, which was a benefit to this project, which was a true power hog since the dark energy needed for sub-hyperspace travel required such high amounts of energy, but Anakin didn't know what kind of solution Lance had come by.
He just hoped the scientist had come up with a solution for the power requirements of the sub-hyperspace faster than light travel, but he wondered if it would work. At the same time, he was curious about the ship itself.
"I know, Skywalker," Lance's voice had lost some of its initial enthusiasm, although it was still there in his voice. "But at the same time…I just can't believe our work is about to take the next step."
"I know," Anakin took his hands off of the control yokes for a moment to look at the scientist reassuringly at the other man. "I am looking forward to taking that step myself. But let's take it easy, yeah, so there's no mistake?"
Lance thought for a moment, and then he nodded with a bright smile on his face. Pleased, Anakin turned back and retook the yokes of the control column before he checked the system.
"Bringing the FTL drive online," Shanna began her checklist.
Anakin tapped into the navigational computer the course. "Navigational course is set. We're going to go out of the solar system, but not too far out so if anything happens we won't be far away for help to arrive quickly. We won't be going too far in Galactic terms, but we will be going as far FTL so then we will know this isn't a fluke, and we'll see just how far we can travel in a short amount of time."
"Good move," Shanna commented, knowing from her own experiences long before Anakin had ever come along into her life test ships were always the most vulnerable as were those running shakedown cruises. There was always the possibility of something stalling and stranding them in the middle of nowhere.
"Dark energy level?" Anakin said after the last minute checks were completed and they had reached the launch stage.
"Building," Shanna replied. "Currently on 40%, rising."
"Good. Sensor suite?"
Lance checked. "All circuits ready. Primary, secondary and tertiary sensors standing by."
"Inertial dampeners?"
"Primed."
"Back up?"
"Transponders?"
"Broadcasting our position. Emergency crews are taking position according to CEC transmissions."
"Current Dark Energy level?"
"Almost 70%."
"Escape capsule?" Anakin asked, knowing that Lance would likely not be happy about the mention of that. The cockpit and the backroom where the other members of the test scientific team where the entire place had been stuffed full of instruments and scanning equipment, complete with a small, compact, but very powerful transmitter to keep in communication with Corellia also doubled as an escape capsule in case anything went wrong.
CEC engineers had spent months and months building on their expertise with the many experiments with the sub-hyperspace FTL drive to make this test flight a success. However, if anything went wrong, the crew could escape by use of the escape capsule. The entire cabin Anakin, Shanna, Lance, and the others were packed inside could be jettisoned if anything went wrong, blasted into space with a powerful set of chemical rockets and thrusters, while emergency transmitters broadcasted an SOS.
"Rocket release system ready. Chemical and hydraulic checks completed."
"Good. Back-up hyperdrive?"
"Standing by."
Lance looked around. "Surely we don't need that?" he questioned.
Anakin was too distracted to properly give the scientist his complete attention. "It's only a precaution, doctor. We're experimenting with a new FTL drive. We don't know how long it will last, or if it will be a one-shot propulsion method. How would we get back if the rescue teams and the ships monitoring us can't find us?"
Anakin had long since known the best way to befuddle scientists was to hit them with blunt logic as hard as you physically could. So many scientists had come to frustrate and irritate him because they believed, just because he was a test pilot, he knew nothing about physics or mathematics, only for them to be shaken by what he did know.
Lance was surprised, but Anakin tuned him out as he kept going.
"I think we're ready, Anakin," Shanna interrupted.
Anakin turned his complete attention to the stars ahead. For a moment he just paused, admiring their beauty, knowing out there lay great mysteries. He had always dreamt of visiting worlds and stars since he was a boy, and while he had visited dozens of worlds during his life, he wished that one day, he could visit worlds beyond charted space.
"Anakin?"
"Is the energy level up to the maximum limit?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder to look at Shanna, embarrassed slightly his attention had been taken away from the job at hand, who was looking at him quizzically, clearly wondering why he hadn't given the go-ahead to go, but she nodded. "It is."
Anakin turned around and blew out a breath. "Engage. Don't forget; we will be building up the speed, see what the ship can take while documenting the results," he said, reminding the two people in the cockpit, although primarily to remind Lance of the fact he was taking this seriously and he wanted to do this properly. "Shanna, tell CEC prelaunch sequence checks have been made."
While Shanna made the call, Anakin shifted around slightly in his spacesuit; while he was grateful he wasn't wearing a bulky thing, the current model he and the others were using was compact, but he wanted to be comfortable nonetheless, and he had discovered that he hadn't seated himself very well in his flight chair.
"CEC has given the green light, Anakin," Shanna reported.
Anakin grinned and took the control yokes. "Engage engine," he said, operating a few controls while the others with him did the same. There was a slow but rising hum of power. "Sub-hyperspace drive in five….four," Anakin paused for a second while he checked the gauges in front of him before he nodded in satisfaction, "Three…..," he paused again while a red aura began to glow around the cabin's reinforced windows, but he ignored it after a few moments. "Two…..one!"
Anakin's hands danced over the controls, and the ship shot forward, the red haze glowing around them. The ship lurched, making Anakin gasp a little in surprise as he went back into his pilot's chair, but he saw from the monitors the inertial dampeners kicked in to stop anyone from shooting forward. Some of the lighting in the cabin flickered for a moment at the unexpected acceleration and the effects of the drive's power-train, but they compensated very quickly.
Anakin looked at the velocity regulator which had been specially prepared for this. The digital needle was creeping closer to Rate one acceleration. Anakin let it rise slowly without touching anything, although he had his hands on the accelerator.
"CEC, we are currently at Rate One acceleration, we have moved out of the solar system now," he said, adding the last part as they moved past the asteroids in the system before he checked the regulator. "We have reached Rate Two now…. moving on slowly to Rate Three," he added while he came to a rapid decision.
Shanna glanced at him for a second before she turned back to her own controls and instruments, knowing Anakin knew what he was doing. The inertial dampeners were strained as the acceleration was stepped up, but they quickly recalibrated to keep up with the speed. No-one said anything, nor were they really surprised; these inertial dampeners were designed for hyperspace velocities, not normal space.
The cockpit shook as the ship accelerated, but there was no sign the speed the ship was travelling at was damaging the structure of the ship. Anakin's prosthetic hand was resting on the accelerator, but he didn't move it. His attention was fixed solely on the monitors ahead of him, and the speedometer readings.
Something hit the cockpit window, leaving a deep but fairly thin scratch.
"What was that?" Lance asked.
Anakin sighed. "It was a particle of space dust," he replied, and glancing over his shoulder he saw the looks of understanding and concern in both Shanna and Lances' faces.
They all knew all designs of spacecraft and space stations suffered from micro-meteor collisions, little particles travelling at high speeds, propelled by the slingshot of the gravitational fields of planets and other bodies in space. Primitive space stations were particularly at risk since older variants lacked the necessary protections and were built with primitive materials for protection.
Starships today were built with superior materials, of course, and came with deflector shields, and the shields of the test ship were up, but they were not designed for this type of speed even if they were doing their best to keep the worst of the space debris out from causing serious harm.
XXX
"Hold, please."
Mavic Chen, vice chairman of Corellian Engineering Corporation, gave the order to once more suspend the recording of the latest in a long line of simulations, and he turned around in his chair. "I was under the mistaken impression the deflectors had been specifically programmed to compensate for that kind of acceleration and particles of space dust," he said, his voice making it clear he wanted a good answer without outright demanding it.
Anakin rubbed his face. "We did when we discovered the problem with the probes, but the computers have been programmed to take the effects of this type of FTL travel into account. And besides, we won't know for certain until we've done the final, real test what will happen when we do accelerate."
"The deflector shields have been built and calibrated to cope with the high speeds, but they're not designed for real-space acceleration despite our best efforts," Shanna added. "With each probe launch and simulation, they're tweaked a little bit more, but we're still a long way from developing a shield set which can block it all out."
Chen shook his head, not liking the fact that was currently being thrown his way. "Unacceptable," he said in his hoarse voice; it was said he smoked a particularly lethal and very strange spice brand which dried his throat out, but no-one was really sure. "When we roll out our first exploration cruisers with this type of engine, expectations for the safety of the crew and passengers will be high. It won't do any good if they get in one and find out their hull can be scratched with particles of space dust."
Anakin and Shanna shared a look. They were not particularly sure if CEC would hold the royalties to this design, especially if the Empire had their way and their attempt to stop the test by making it look like a resounding disaster failed. But the two test pilots were concerned Chen believed this engine was going to work; simulations and test probes were one thing, they were going to be in a much larger vessel, specially designed and specially built for this work, and anything could go wrong.
"There's not an awful lot we can do about that," Lance replied.
"When we launch the test ship, hopefully, we will get a much better idea of the risks with a practical test. It's premature to just go through simulations to see what needs to be done; for all we know the simulation results which the engineers and scientists are using as models to strengthen the hull and the deflector shield output strength are enough to protect us, but we won't know until we get in that ship for the first time," Shanna pointed out, looking at the vice-chairman calmly.
Chen waved his hand irritably. "Yes, I know that," he said, his voice and manner testy while he looked over the entire table, at the array of faces around him. "It's just so many people are watching over this project-."
Anakin was unsympathetic to Chen's plight, which was shared by the top brass of the company. It was their own fault, of course. Ever since the report of the sub-hyperspace drive came out as a PR stunt, a lot of pressure had been dumped onto the shoulders of the people in charge of CEC, and a lot of it came from the Empire.
Anakin knew many people in the higher echelons of the Empire's aristocracy and in the Imperial Navy would not believe faster than light travel was possible in normal space, but Corellian Engineering Corporation had been around for a long time. The company was not one to make empty promises or claims, and many knew it.
Although he didn't have anything to do with that part of the business since he was paid to repair and fly the ships and test them to see if they were spaceworthy or not, Anakin was still more than aware of the stress caused by the Empire. It was felt in every corner of CEC, rippling in every direction; the Empire was demanding their scientific and engineering minds had access to the technology, the research materials, everything.
What had they been thinking when they had made the announcement of what they'd discovered in the first place?
Alright, he could see they'd have had no choice in the matter since they were obligated by law to report any new discovery, but the timing was just off. But Anakin was more concerned for his own skin, really.
Palpatine knew he was the test pilot for this ship.
Admittedly, Anakin had no idea just what the Sith Lord would do with that little tidbit, but he had expected Palpatine to contact him, use their old relationship to twist him to see the Emperor's point of view. Palpatine, unlike Padme, would be able to get past the communications block he'd put up to stop the naive little girl from contacting him when her never-ending messages kept swamping his inbox, but Palpatine hadn't contacted him so far.
Once he had gotten over the slight surprise Palpatine hadn't contacted him at all, Anakin came to the realisation it was not the Emperor's forte.
No.
Palpatine had something else in mind. That worried him even more.
"Right, let's watch the simulation again," Chen said, dragging Anakin out of his thoughts, "I want to see it again, in case I've missed something…"
Anakin restrained himself from groaning in frustration. They had seen the same simulation a dozen times already (actually, he had lost count, he had seen it again and again that it was like time was being looped backwards infinitely, but Chen had stopped and paused it to drop little pep talks which at the end of the day were irrelevant. The idiot must have known the engineers and scientific teams had gone over this same recording with Anakin, Shanna, and the others to make last-minute changes to the ship, making this unnecessary), and it was getting boring.
Rubbing his eyes tiredly and not really caring if Chen saw him or not, Anakin shifted himself in his chair to settle himself down for another round of re-watching the simulation again. This was going to be a long day.