10-1-2008
20:10 Hours ship-board time (Eastern Standard on Earth)
Private Observation Dome
Jesse is sitting back in a executive-looking chair, with what appears to be a relatively recent laptop, looking up at the stars, closing his eyes as those same stars bring back some memories.
-Oh Dad, if only you had lived to see this day. You were, for lack of a better word, proud of me when I took this step. If only-
Jesse's thoughts drift back to the day his father passed away.
Flashback
7-5-2006
10:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Harbor Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
Jesse rushes into a hospital room to find his mother, Aaron, and Amelia.
All are sitting next to a bed containing his father, who appears to be asleep.
He looks into his mother's eyes and asks, "I got your call mom, or rather message, what's going on"
Jesse's mother looks back at him and says with a sadness, "Your father.
doesn't have much time left. There was an accident he was involved in while on his way home. Some of the things he keeps in the back of his van came forward, and while most of it missed, one item got him in the head and another in the neck. Enough damage was done that"
At this point, Aaron continues. "He only has a matter of time to live.
When I got here, a couple of days. Now..." At this he hesitates. "...A matter of hours, maybe less"
Jesse closes his eyes for a moment, then asks in a somewhat unsteady voice,
"Do you know what caused this"
Aaron nods. "Unfortunately." At this he grabs a previously unseen newspaper and shows it to Jesse. "It made the front page"
Jesse reads the paper. As he continues, his temper appears to surface on his face. "Are you telling me that the reason dad's here is because the city refused to fix the numerous potholes and other street problems on the major streets leading downtown? You do realize what this means"
Jesse's mother then speaks up. "That the city government is at least indirectly responsible for this..." With that she indicates the sleeping form of his father, which stirs a moment later, and opens his eyes to face Jesse.
"I need to talk to you... alone," his father asks.
Jesse nods. "Mom, if you would..." She nods, and takes Amelia and Aaron out of the room. He rejoins his father in a nearby chair. "What is it, dad"
he asks.
"I am soon to leave this world. I believe I told you what to do with me when I pass on." Jesse nods sadly, remembering the few times over the last 15 years that he was told. "See to it. Most of my VHS and DVD collection will be yours as well, along with a couple of heirlooms." Jesse's dad coughs a bit.
"I feel it's almost time... take some of me to... space..." He stares into space just as he manages to get those words out.
Jesse shakes his father up. "Dad? DAD"
Jesse's mother and Aaron rush into the room, just to see the expression and forming tears. "Mom, Aaron, get the nurse, someone..."
End Flashback
And that is how I knew he was gone. 10:33 in the morning,- Jesse thinks typing in his memories on his laptop. -In any case, my family won that lawsuit against the city for shoddy street repair, and now mom never has to worry about taxes ever again for her lifetime-
Tears fall from Jesse's face for a couple of minutes before he taps some commands into his laptop, triggering it's music program, and a very faimilar musical score plays, while he looks out into space wondering what will happen to him next, now that he's on his way.
Jesse punches in a couple of calculations and watches as his laptop opens up a miniature solar system with a bright green dot indicating the calculated spot and related information at the bottom of the window.
Position as of 20:10 Hours 10-1-2008-
-Distance traveled to date: 1,369,172,700 miles from Earth-
-Time in flight: 8 hours, 10 minutes-
-Approximately 322,000,000 miles from projected orbit of Uranus-
Jesse smiles a bit. -So, we've crossed over half the solar system already.
Then again most of it is pretty much crunched astronomically speaking from Jupiter on in, with the other four planets spread out like on a sheet-
The airlock-like door to the observation dome opens, to reveal Cecilia.
She quietly walks up to Jesse and puts a hand to his shoulder.
Jesse jumps a bit as he feels the hand, and then he turns around and sees who had touched him. "CeeCee, what're you doing here"
Cecilia replies with, "Wanted to know how my boyfriend was doing"
Jesse freezes for a moment before responding with, "Nothing, really. Just making a few notes into my personal journal." With the mention of that, he taps his laptop. "Also remembering things I have written since I found out about this..." With that, he waves his right hand all over the place. "Some of it is rather painful, and personal. I wanted to be alone for a while"
He smiles somewhat. "In any case, you'd be glad to know we've gone about a third of the way towards our FTL-engagement point"
Cecilia nods, somewhat slowly. "I see. Well, if you are still up to it,
we can watch some of those DVD's you have sitting in your personal archive.
Maybe the fifth Harry Potter movie? 1"
Jesse smiles a bit. "Sure, if you'd like. I'd rather enjoyed seeing things come to a climax, especially near the end." He closes the laptop, which automatically powers it down after a moment. Afterwards, he places it in a previously unseen carrying case. "Let's go"
Jesse then slings his laptop carrying case's strap over his shoulder, and holds Cecilia's right hand with his left. Together, they both leave the observation dome, with only a small clang of the door to indicate their passing.
10-2-2008
11:00 hours ship-board time
Main Bridge
Aaron is sitting in the command chair, acting as the captain of the watch,
checking over systems. He nods, and hits the ship-wide intercom button. "All hands, this is the Exec. Begin final check for the jump into bend-wave drive.
FTL in sixty minutes. That is all." He flicks the button to shut the intercom off.
Upon the finish of the announcement, activity on the bridge starts to increase, with a couple of engineers running about to various stations, to check their assigned places.
The sensor officer then looks at his screen. He double-checks his readings before he announces, "Sir, possible contacts coming in from behind us, closing at 40 PSL 2"
Aaron gets up from the command chair. "Are you sure"
The sensor officer shakes his head a bit. "Not completely, sir. The contacts just came up on our screen. It can't be natural, not at that rate of speed. Could be ships, could be a message probe for all we know. You know they prefer us to use that instead of our FTL comm, at least while we are in the system"
Aaron nods a bit. "True, too true. Any idea how long until we can confirm whatever it is"
The sensor officer says, "I would say we'll know in about ten minutes,
given how fast the contact is approaching"
Aaron nods. "Very well." He announces to the bridge crew, "All hands, man defensive stations. Prepare for possible contacts." He turns in his wife's direction. "Amelia, get my brother up here. He'll want to know about this"
Amelia nods, and speaks into the master comm console, "Captain Jesse,
report to the bridge."
Jesse's Quarters
10:56 hours ship-board time
Jesse is busy working on some last-minute paperwork when a series of beeps is heard. Stopping his work for a moment, he hits the receive button. What he reads is disturbing, indeed.
Date: 10-2-2008 5:50 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)-
-To: Captain Jesse Stephenson 3-
-Captain, we would have sent this message a lot sooner, but terrorist-
-remnant forces have struck our FTL comm tower. By the time you have received-
-this message, elements of these forces could well be on the way to intercept-
-and destroy your ship. We have reason to believe that there are at least-
-three kamikaze shuttles filled with explosives, possibly nuclear devices-
-heading your way-
-We have reason to believe that these remnants wish to keep our solar-
-system in a state of fear, so that they could force us to destroy them, and-
-by extension ourselves. We also do not know when they will attempt to-
-intercept you, but have calculated they will attempt to engage you within-
-one hour before you are scheduled to engage FTL-
-Your mission is to get yourself and your passengers to the Armstrong star-
-system alive. You are hereby authorized to engage the bend-wave FTL drive-
-if no other options are open or left-
-Good luck, Captain. May you live to see us again.-
Jesse frowns as he can barely make out the long-distance e-mail he just received. -Things have suddenly gotten more serious than I thought-
As he goes over the message for the fourth time, he hears Amelia's voice.
"Captain Jesse, report to the bridge"
Jesse sighs. -And so it begins.- He rushes off and heads for the bridge in a hurry.
Cecilia runs up next to him. "Why are you in a hurry? You're not due on the bridge for 45 minutes"
Jesse replies without looking back at Cecilia, "Something's up on the bridge, and I have a very bad feeling about it. If you're going to come along,
hurry up, we'll be there in a couple minutes"
Cecilia remains quiet as she catches to to Jesse. Together, they make it to the doors that lead to the main bridge.
The doors to the bridge open, and someone says, "Captain on the bridge"
Most of the crew give him a quick salute, which he returns as they go back to their stations. Aaron walks up to him from the command chair.
"We've picked up a signal on our FTL sensors, coming in pretty fast. We don't know what it is"
Jesse says in a calm voice, "But I am afraid I do, Aaron. A radio e-mail message just arrived for me just before you called me up here." He then says in a loud voice, "Prepare for immediate FTL activation." He looks at Aaron.
"Sound general quarters"
Aaron looks at him with an raised eyebrow. "You sure on this? What if they're friendly"
Jesse gives his brother a calculated look. "Can you honestly believe that mass space travel beyond what we're sitting in has developed that much? We only have a handful of spaceborne ships, at best. We really haven't got a thing that can pull more than 30 PSL yet except for space probes. So, unless you happen to know who could've designed something faster with or without some form of inertial damping, please tell me"
Aaron sighs a bit, shrugging a bit. "Very well." Aaron turns around and walks up to the comm console where Amelia is sitting. He hits the master PA button. "All hands, this is the exec. General Quarters. I say again general quarters. All crew, man your battlestations"
A sound similar to those used on wet navy ships sounds, and everyone scrambles to their stations. Jesse in the meantime takes his command chair,
while Cecilia takes her own on Jesse's left and Aaron on his right.
Jesse says loudly, "Someone tell me what's coming at us"
The sensor man then says, "I have some details but not much as yet,
captain. Looks like three ships about the size of one of our shuttles." A shrill alarm sounds. "Oh god, they're armed with nuclear warheads. But they don't have..." The sensor officer checks the readings again. "Sir, they're going to kamikaze us in two minutes"
Jesse curses under his breath. -They must've been a lot closer than I figured.- "Engage FTL, fast mode. Get us out of here"
The person at the helm rapidly taps something, while the chief engineer and several of his assistants including James rush to engage the FTL engines.
"FTL in 95 seconds"
The sensor man says, "Sir, I think they picked up our FTL powering up.
They've gone faster. 42... 45... 50 PSL. They appear to be redlining"
-Of course, they would be. They're on a one-way mission,- Jesse thinks.
"How much time do we got"
James says, "40 seconds to FTL"
The sensor man says, "Kamikaze in 45, enemy detonation just as we jump"
Jesse turns to James. "Will it affect our bend-wave jump?" he asks.
James shrugs. "No way to tell for sure. This drive has never been tested on something this large. The effects of an explosion or explosions are unknown as they never had been engaged before now, much less in combat." James looks at the engineering display. "FTL in ten seconds"
Jesse smirks a bit as he holds out his hand in a manner similar to a certain starship captain. "Engage"
Those who see him roll their eyes as they recognize the hand gesture their captain just main. Aaron looks annoyed, while Cecilia just smiles a bit.
Outside, four strips (two each on the dorsal top and ventral bottom)
glow red, then yellow, followed by green, blue, and finally indigo. The space in front of the Charm City wavers a bit as the ship moves in.
Just before the ship makes contact, the enemy shuttles detonate.
This has an effect on the space in front of the Charm City as it starts turning various colors. It is too late to disengage as the colony ship proceeds to go into the distortion.
On the bridge, there is shaking present as they enter FTL.
The sensor man says, "Enemy shuttles detonated"
James looks at the engineering display in alarm. "They detonated too close. There's too much energy in the bend-wave. We can't break off, the program is locked in"
-Must have been the nukes,- Jesse thinks as the ship shakes. -They must have been at least a couple of megatons for it to affect us like this-
Jesse bangs his PA button. "All hands! Brace for impact"
A multi-colored array of lights show on the viewing screen as the ship hits the distortion.
From the outside of the ship, it appears that the Charm City runs into the distortion, then stretches until they disappear in a multi-colored flash.
On Earth, the FTL sensors are being restored. They are brought back up and running just as the Charm City enters FTL. The control room in Houston is in a state of shock as they see the display.
The control officer sighs. "What happened to them"
The sensor officer checks the consoles. "Unknown. They entered bend-wave FTL drive, but"
The control officer gives the sensor officer a look. "But what"
An engineer standing on the side says, "They may well have been thrown into another dimension"
The control officer looks at the engineer. "Say that again? In something I can understand"
The engineer gives the control officer a weird look. "It's just a theory,
one of several, but a couple of my boys seem to think that if too much energy is introduced while a object with bend-wave is trying to engage it's drive, it could distort space and time enough to throw the ship out of our reality"
The control officer says, "Can they make their way back"
The engineer shrugs. "That, I don't know. They might, if they figure it out. Some of my best engineers and assistants are with them. We can only hope they make it back to our own dimension"
The control officer sits down. "God help them then."
1 This is merely a guess as to which movie would be the latest in the Harry Potter series, given the fact that there might be all seven books written by this point in time, and the fact that the movies are punched out relatively fast.
2 PSL, or percent speed of light. Some sci-fi shows like Andromeda use this term to mean this, and is by no means their property, and will likely be used in the future for sublight travel should the scientific community get off their butts and invent practical sublight travel.
3 Picked this particular last name to honor my late grandfather who had died January 20, 2004. This is the closest thing I could come to honoring his memory.
My apologies for making this one a long wait. This proved to be a bit of a difficult chapter to write, since it involved a death of a relative that was related to two of the main characters.
Next chapter: No Need For First Contact
A possible spot on the crew of the Charm City (well in name at least) to the person or persons who can guess where the ship wound up!