New idea (well, old idea)! Just thought I would try it out. I might get back to the other fanfiction, but it won't be for a little while, have some personal things to finish before I could possibly finish anymore chapters. I just thought about this a lot and found it in a folder from a while ago, so some quick edits made it into a working first draft for a chapter. Definitely needs some further work later down the line if I ever find the time.
Jaune Arc felt defeated after his failure to get into Beacon Academy. It was a crushing blow, he wanted to become a hero in the name of his family, but at the same time, his more academic leaning side kept thinking that it was never a good idea to steal his grandfather's weapons and try and get into an academy which would never accept him. After all, his sister got accepted no problem, because their parents trained her! What people didn't know about Jaune was that he was academically gifted, as in one of, if not the smartest person on Remanent. However, no one knew as Jaune tried to fit in and make friends by trying to be normal, but for some reason that never worked. He was very much friendless, despite all his efforts, and his "strangers are just friends you haven't met yet" mentality.
Jaune kept thinking of his backup plan, and decided it was time to implement it. What people didn't know, was Jaune's masterpiece, which he has been developing throughout his life. He found a material, not made of dust, and with unknown chemical properties. This material had spiral molecules and could only be found by looking at UV absorption patterns. Jaune attempted to look up any scientific articles over the Cross Continental Transmit System and couldn't find anything at all. This material, Jaune dubbed dilithium, was unlike anything on Remanent, as he discovered properties not exhibited by Dust. Jaune theorized this was a material would work outside of the atmosphere. Jaune also found other compounds different from dust. Jaune could not believe that humanity hadn't found or created these compounds, and internally criticized the overuse of Dust in all technologies. He decided to keep his findings to himself and shape a new theory that would revolutionize the world with one of his newly found materials, a concept called Warp Theory.
Warp Theory was relatively simple, an ability to travel at speeds exceeding that of light. It would revolutionize everything. If people could escape Remanent, then the Grimm would be of little issue. After studying the Grand Unified Theory, and reading such items as the Art of War, Jaune wrote a program in his youth and discovered the Grimm had slight coordination in reported attacks. This discerned that there was one central figure within the Grimm's ranks that targeted specific places and objectives to forward goals. Jaune didn't know what those goals were, but he decided the best way to solve this would be to give his data, anonymously to the Atlas military scientists. But when they didn't respond, he knew they were trying to cover up and avoid mass panic amongst the common people.
Jaune investigated several abandoned Atlas military silos through the black market and dark connections on the Cross Continental Transport System, a perfect launch site for his theorized prototype warp vessel. Through various anonymous patents to the Atlas military, he had the funding for a team of people to build a town around one of these silos in Vale from the Great War. After a year of work, and specialized Faunus labor from Menagarie, who were very well paid compared to other companies, Jaune was ready for his first experimental trial. He decided that even though he didn't like flying because of his motion sickness, he would be the pilot. His co-pilot and fellow scientist, Maggie Nikos, was a part of his team after "running away" from home. Maggie Nikos was the older twin sister of a famous arena fighter, Pyrrha Nikos. She was always overshone by her younger sister, even though she had much to offer in physics and computational chemistry. She looked exactly like Pyrrha apparently but wore glasses and kept her hair shorter, just below her shoulders, to try and get away from her younger sister's image. Jaune discovered her companionship about a year before applying to Beacon on an online forum on particle physics, and the two hit it off. As soon as Jaune explained his theory, Maggie hopped aboard, the two had a very close bond, and they were close friends.
Over the last year, he founded a town with a slightly thriving economy, a wayward site for Hunters, nomads, and some… slightly questionable aspects of society.
Jaune, hated his intelligence at times, so sometimes got drunk to remove stray thoughts from his head, and one night while drinking with Maggie, something happened which would change his perspective forever.
"Maggie, are you sure what we're doing is right? I shouldn't have these doubts about my…" Maggie shot Jaune a slight glare, "our theory."
"We've reviewed all of our calculations five times over, we're going to be fine." Said Maggie, as she moved her shoulder length hair out of her face.
She gestured toward Jaune and beckoned him out of the open walled inn. It was playing some classical rock in the background, a favorite amongst patrons.
"Come on" Maggie said, again gesturing toward the open doorway.
"Good night Eddie," Jaune said as he walked out of the bar in his heavy fur coat. He turned toward a Faunus worker, "Go home" as he walked out of the squat aluminum building.
Maggie scoffed, and looked him in the eye, "You're going to regret this tomorrow."
Jaune turned toward her, giving her an intense look, "Well, what I think you should have learned about me by now is that I don't have regrets." He looked her in the eye, getting closer to her face, before he chickened out and looked toward the bar, "Come on, Maggie, one more round."
Maggie grabbed him by the coat, and started dragging him away from the bar, "Jaune, you've had enough. I'm not going up in the Phoenix with a drunken pilot."
Jaune grinned at her slightly, "But I sure as hell am not going up there sober!"
Maggie looked up squinting at a faint light in the distant sky, "What is that?" She started pointing toward the sky to show Jaune.
Jaune, squinting toward the sky, grinned, "That is the constellation Ozma."
Maggie glared at him, "No that!" And she emphasized the faint light in the sky.
Several explosions started ringing out across the settlement, green light reigning down upon the people of the remote town. Maggie and Jaune dove for cover and saw the carnage around them. Maggie screamed out, "Is it Atlas?!"
Jaune asked, "After all these years they decide to come back?!"
Maggie looked panicked, "We've got to get to the Phoenix!" She bolted toward the silo off a hundred meters away.
Jaune tried to get up, but then quickly fell in another explosion nearby, "To hell with the Phoenix…" Jaune muttered laying on the ground to disoriented to do anything.
Jaune decided to go back to the bar after all the explosions stopped and decided to get another drink, to drown his sorrows, and his possible loss. A few hours later a woman entered through the front entrance and was talking to Eddie, who gestured toward me in a conversation Jaune couldn't overhear.
Jaune was so out of it, he was staring off into the distance, taking a sip of beer. "Aren't you a little young to be drinking that?" Jaune looked toward her, and then looked toward the distance again, not in the mood to talk with anyone. The woman sighed and then went away for a couple of minutes, she brought back six shots, and Jaune looked up, eyebrow raised.
"You look like you need it." Jaune shrugged and downed one of the tequila shots, not even questioning it at this point, he was just down in the dumps. He went back to staring toward the bunker, a look of sadness on his face. She downed a shot soon after, trying to keep up with Jaune.
"I sense that you're trying to hold back feelings of sorrow." She bluntly stated. Looking at him pityingly, he raised an eyebrow, took another shot, raised it, and downed it. He then turned toward the Jukebox within reach of the table, and hit it in a specific part, which started playing some classic rock.
Jaune took another shot, and looked at the woman across from him, "My Mother has a saying, 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'" He looked up at her, "And I guess right now, I could really use one, the names Jaune Arc, the name's short, sweet, and rolls off tongue, ladies love it."
The woman's eyes widened slightly, as if she was meeting a celebrity. Jaune's eyes narrowed at that, these were the same looks that Maggie would receive if she were introduced by her last name. She rose an eyebrow and shook his outstretched hand, "Does that line work?"
Jaune looked her in the eye, "It depends, I've made one-person blush, does that count? And I don't have your name, Miss?..."
"Tusso Itaiter, my team and I are from Vacuo and we came to help this village after the attack." Tusso finished, taking the final shot.
Jaune's eyes narrowed, "I'm afraid I don't believe you; we've been monitoring all the Kingdoms for any activity to see if they know about this project, which they don't. You're lying." Jaune chuckled, "You need a better cover story, because I have been seeing a lot of strangers around tonight."
Jaune got up, and started dancing to the classic rock, and Tusso would never admit this to anyone, but Jaune Arc was a rather good dancer.
"Tusso!..." A deeper voice called out, Tusso looked tired after trying to interrogate me over drinks, "Tusso! Tusso!"
The stranger with slightly fluffy bear ears and a beard looked down and a faint, "No! No, don't turn it off…"
The classic rock stopped abruptly, as the power lead was yanked out of the socket. Jaune threw a beer bottle toward the juke box, and the new man ducked slightly. Jaune looked at Tusso, "Who is this jerk?" he paused, "And who told him he could turn off my music?"
Tusso looked a little tired, probably having to deal with Jaune all night, "Alex Frakes…" she pointed at the bear faunus, "Jaune Arc."
Jaune looked at the newly dubbed Alex, "Is he a friend of yours?"
"Yes" answered Tusso, looking toward Alex, who had slightly large eyes, like Tusso did before.
"Husband?" Asked Jaune, an eyebrows raised.
"No." said Tusso, a little to quickly.
"Good," Jaune said with false bravado, and picked up another shot Eddie left at the table, "Now this Deena,"
"Tusso," she said, attempting to correct Jaune.
"This… is the good stuff. Finest tequila from Menagerie."
"Doctor Jaune…" Alex started off, looking profoundly serious toward Jaune.
Jaune paused, looking at him confused, "I'm not a doctor." And turned toward Tusso, "To the Phoenix, may she rest in peace." And both Tusso and Jaune knocked back yet another tequila shot."
"Okay, that wasn't so good." Said Jaune as he made a face after drinking that shot.
Jaune wandered off to the Jukebox and tried finding out what was wrong with it.
"Alex, I think we have to tell him the truth." Tusso said, as she was struggling to stay awake.
Alex didn't look so pleased, frowning slightly, "If we tell the truth of the timeline…"
"Timeline!" Tusso abruptly said, "This no time to argue about time…" she paused slightly, "We don't have the time!... Now what was I saying?..." She slurred slightly.
Alex chuckled lightly, "You're drunk."
"I am not!" exclaimed Tusso, hitting him across his shoulder.
"You are." He snickered back.
"Look." Tusso said, pausing before her next phrase, "He wouldn't even talk to me unless I had a drink with him. And then it took three shots of something called tequila just to find out he was the one we're looking for… and I didn't expect him to be so young!" she paused slightly and sighed, pointing a finger at Alex's chest repeatedly, "So don't go criticizing my counselling techniques!" She paused, "It's a primitive culture. I'm just trying to blend in!"
"You're blending all right." Alex quipped back to Tusso who shot him a slight glare.
"I've already told him our cover story. He refuted it immediately." She said, looking him in the eye to express the seriousness of this conversation.
"Yes, we're running out of time. He's quite a lot younger than I expected, but if we tell him the truth do you think he'll be able to handle it?" Alex asked, curiosity in his eyes.
"If you're looking for my professional opinion as ship's Counselor… he's nuts!" She exclaims, trying to hold up her head with her hand in a desperate attempt to stay awake.
"I'll be sure to note that in my log."
Jaune found the problem and plugged the jukebox back in, and started dancing to the music again, Tusso passed out on the table top while Alex looked at Jaune in a disconcerting fashion. Alex nudged Tusso awake and the both approached Jaune.
"Jaune… can we talk to you about something important?" Alex started, as he looked toward the wayward teenage genius.
Jaune stopped dancing, and looked toward Alex, "Ummm if you get me another beer, then sure we can talk." Alex sighed, and went up to Eddie and bought a bottle for Jaune and then climbed over a chair to sit down, while Jaune pulled his out and sat, taking a sip of beer.
"So what's so important to talk about with little old me?" Jaune asked, eyebrows raised slightly.
"We have a slight situation on our hands, and you didn't believe Tusso's cover story." Alex looked toward Jaune.
"Well, let's just say I have my sources in every kingdom through… maybe some illicit means." Jaune finished, "So what's the truth? Who do you work for?"
"Well, I'm Commander Frakes, first officer of the USS Beacon. And believe it or not Doc… Jaune, we're from the future, and came here after a huge battle over Remnant." Alex finished, looking back in Jaune's direction.
Jaune's eyes widened, "You're serious?"
"This huge battle involved cybernetic humanoids called the Borg, who want to assimilate all lifeforms in the galaxy and right now they came back in time to enslave the human race before the United Federation of Planets is formed."
Jaune laughed boisterously, "How much alcohol have I had to drink? I can't believe this…"
"I'm dead serious, let me find one of my crewmates to prove it to you. My ship is in orbit right now. Your friend, Maggie? She's also up there getting treated by our doctors." Jaune straightened his back slightly.
"If you have hurt her…" Alex gestured, and jokingly said, "We come in peace! She's going to be fine." Alex finished, and he looked over his shoulder, spotting another stranger. "Max!", Jaune turned around and saw a darker skinned man come over to the table.
"Jaune, you don't happen to have a telescope, do you?" Jaune looked at the Commander and pointed outside, and several hundred meters away was a tall telescope structure, pointing up to the night sky intact.
"Max, make sure to get a clear shot of the Beacon on that telescope for Jaune here." Alex said, as Max rushed over to the telescope, with a small box like object with flashing lights scanning for their spaceship.
Jaune and Alex woke Tusso up and started walking toward the telescope. Jaune looked toward Alex, "Let me make sure that I understand you correctly, ...Commander." Jaune paused, not liking the officers dubbed rank, "A group of cybernetic creatures from the future have travelled back through time to enslave the human race, and you're here to stop them." Jaune finished, still gripping his half-finished beer.
"That's right." Alex said, deadly serious.
"Hot damn! You're heroic." Jaune chuckled, "My grandfather would have loved you that's for sure… and I thought Grimm were the problem." Jaune continued to laugh.
"Well, we're gonna prove it to you right now." Alex finished as he gestured toward the telescope.
The engineer dubbed Max Reade, looking into the telescope said, "There she is, she's beautiful! All right, take a look."
Jaune raised an eyebrow, and then swaggered over to the telescope looking back at the small gathering going "ooo" while gesturing his hands in a mock scary fashion.
"Well, well, well. What have we got here?" Jaune looked through the telescope and paused, seeing a small, but definite spaceship through the lens. He took his eye of the lens and looked again.
Jaune started chuckling and went toward the lens while laughing, "Now that's a good trick," and he chuckled again, looking at the outer lens of the telescope, not finding anything there, "How did you do that?"
Max smugly replied, "It's your telescope."
Jaune looked much more serious than before, and Tusso looked toward Jaune, "That's our ship. the Beacon."
Jaune looked up, "And Maggie's up there right now? Being treated for radiation poisoning?"
Tusso replied, "That's right."
Jaune immediately replied, "Can I talk to her, make sure she's alright?"
"We've lost contact with the Beacon at this time, we don't know why yet." Alex finished, looking up at the general direction of the ship.
"So what is it you want me to do?" Jaune asked, looking quite serious for once.
"Simple. Conduct your warp flight tomorrow morning just as you planned." Said Alex, as Jaune narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Why tomorrow morning? What's so important about it?" asked Jaune, his eyes still narrowed.
Alex sighed, "Because at eleven o'clock an alien ship Alex begin passing through this solar system on a sweep."
"Alien?!" Jaune asked, his eyes grew really wide, in disbelief, "You mean extra-remrestrials, like RT phone home? Or alien versus predator?! More bad guys?" Jaune asked, and then mumbled, "Like we need anymore trouble than we've got already…"
"Good guys," Tusso stated, looking back at Alex then Jaune. "They're on a survey mission. They have no interest in Remanent… It's too… Primitive." She finished, flinching slightly at the indirect insult.
"Oh!" Jaune exclaimed
Alex gripped Jaune by the shoulder to get his attention, "Jaune, tomorrow morning when they detect the warp signature from your ship and realize that Humans and Faunus have discovered how to travel faster than light, the decide to alter their course and make first contact with Remanent, right here."
"Here?" Jaune asked in disbelief, at the slightly deteriorated state of the town after the Borg attack.
"Well sir…" Jaune glared at Max and quickly filled in "Jaune, please, you're all older than me."
"Well Jaune, it's actually over there," and Max gestured to an opening right near the bar.
Alex continued talking to Jaune, who was in a slight stupor of disbelief "It's one of the pivotal moments in our humanity's history, Jaune. You get to make first contact with an alien race, and after you do, everything begins to change."
"Your theories on warp drive allow fleets of starships to be built and mankind to start exploring the Galaxy." Said Max, sounding in slight awe at what Jaune accomplished.
"It unites humanity and Faunus in a way no one every thought possible when they realize they're not alone in the universe. Poverty, disease, war, racism, Grimm. They'll all be gone within the next forty years." Tusso said, hoping that she was conveying how important this warp drive test would be historically. Jaune's eyes widened as the list of things that would disappear within his lifetime grew, he could scarcely believe this was the case after one test flight.
"But unless you make that warp flight tomorrow morning before eleven fifteen, none of it Alex happen." Alex finished the groups effort to explain the astronomical proportions of this test flight to Jaune.
"And you people, you're all explorers, ... on some kind of star trek?" Jaune asked, still in absolute disbelief that this was all happening.
"Look, Do… Jaune." Max paused slightly before continuing, "I know this is a lot for you to take in, but we're running out of time here."
"We need your help, what do you say?" Alex Frakes held out his hand for a handshake, a symbol that seems to have lasted centuries.
"Why not?" Jaune grinned and grabbed the hand in a firm handshake.
"Right, we've got engineering repair crews fixing the Phoenix up as we speak, you should probably get a little rest doctor, sober up a bit for tomorrow." Alex talked to Jaune, who started trudging to his shack near the telescope.
In the morning, Jaune's alarm blared at 5:30am, the sun was starting to shine through his curtains. He got up, and started going about his daily routine, and by 6:00am, was up and about, but slightly sluggish due to the hangover from last night.
"Jaune, you don't look so good, we need you in top form today, so I'm about to do something that you wouldn't expect. Your familiar with Aura, right?" Jaune's eyes widened slightly,
"And asked what does that have to do with anything?" Jaune asked, his eyes glaring at the commander, "Do they have anything against people without auras in the future?"
"Not at all, not many people have their auras unlocked in the future, as it loses its properties as soon as you leave the atmosphere. I don't want to say much more than that now." Alex finished, and Jaune sighed.
"Fine, do it. Like you said, I need to be in peak form today… I should've asked Maggie to do it a while ago…" Jaune finished, still looking slightly unsure about what was going to happen.
Alex grabbed put his thumb on his forehead and put his other hand on Jaune's chest, "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul and by my shoulder protect thee."
There was a bright flash of gold and white aura flowing around the area, and some people had to avert their eyes in the early morning sun.
"Wow! I feel great, best hangover cure ever!" Jaune said, feeling a flood of energy flow through his entire being. "Cheers Alex!"
Jaune got to work, and memorized his flight log before being approached by Max whom Jaune met the night before.
"Jaune!" Max said as he approached Jaune, who was looking at the silo entrance for damage.
"Yeah?" Asked Jaune as he turned toward Max, who held up a futuristic looking pad for him to look at.
"Would you mind taking a look at this?" Max asked, holding up the pad for Jaune to take a look.
"Yeah," said Jaune, who looked down at the pad.
"I've tried to reconstruct the intermix chamber from what I remember at school. Tell me if I got it right." Max said, a slight bit of smugness entering his tone.
"School?! You learned about this in school?" Jaune asked, disbelief in his voice yet again at how influential a historical figure he becomes.
"Oh yeah," Max said, getting slightly excited, "Basic Warp Design is a required course at the Academy. The first chapter is called… Jaune Arc and Margaret Nikos."
"Well," Jaune took another glance at it, "It looks like you got it right.", looking slightly nervous.
"Commander," a new face approached the Max and Jaune, he smiled awkwardly at Jaune, "This is what we're thinking of using to replace the damaged warp plasma conduit."
Max's eyes zoomed in while Jaune looked on in disbelief. "Yeah… Yeah that's good, but you need to reinforce this copper tubing with a nano-polymer." Jaune was looking in disbelief at the technology available.
"Doctor Jaune." The unnamed crewman said, his eyes wide in wonderment, "I know this sounds silly, but can I shake your hand?" Jaune cautiously brought out his hand, looking a little wary, "Thank you, Doctor! I can't tell you what an honour it is to work with you on this project!" The crewman said while vigorously shaking Jaune's hand. Jaune was reminded of initial reactions of Maggie whenever she met Pyrrha's fans.
"Brom!" said Max, trying to get the attention of the crewman.
"I never imagined I'd be meeting the man who invented the warp drive, and so many technologies that help us in the modern wor…" Brom kept mumbling while shaking Jaune's hand vigorously.
"BROM!" Max repeated with a little more force to get his attention.
The man dubbed "Brom" was embarrassed and started walking away. "I'm sorry… Right. … Thanks…" he said walking away quickly.
"Do they have to keep doing this?" Jaune mumbled, thoroughly annoyed at the hero worship, but a dark corner of him appreciated it.
"It's just a little hero worship, Doc… Jaune." Max said, and he looked a little hesitant, "To tell you the truth I can't say I blame them. We all grew up hearing about what you did." He paused, "Or what you're about to do. You know I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I went to Jaune Arc Academy of Sciences." He finished, as he started walking toward the silo cover.
"Really?" Asked Jaune in disbelief, slightly worried at where this is going.
"You know? I wish I had a picture of this." Georgi said, moving to the middle of the silo cover.
"What?" Asked Jaune, scared of the answer he predicted he would receive.
"Oh, well, you see, in the future this whole area becomes a historical monument. You're standing almost on the exact spot where you and Maggie's statues are going to be." Said Max, starting to gesture.
Jaune looked blankly at Max, looking on in disbelief, he managed to utter a "statues?" in an almost scared tone of voice.
"Yeah!" Max said excitedly, telling the historical figure about what is to come, "It's marble, about thirty meters tall, and you're looking up at the sky, toward the stars. Your hand sort of…" and Max gestured, with a hand raised above in the air, as if catching raindrops. "… reaching to the future."
Jaune looked on in disbelief, and decided he needed space. "I gotta take a leak!"
"Leak? I'm not detecting any leak…" Max said, looking at the silo entrance.
"… Don't you people from the twenty-fourth century ever pee?" Asked Jaune, just wanting to get out of here.
"Oh!" Max paused, "Leak, I get it… That's actually pretty funny." Max said, as Jaune parted with an "Excuse me."
Jaune fled into the woods, pulling out a flask and taking a quick drink. His mind flooded with possibilities for the future.
Jaune about thirty minutes later was still wandering the news, before he heard a branch snap. Startled, he saw two crewman chasing after him, and he started running.
They started yelling, and stopped him from running forward, "Doctor!" "Sir!"
Jaune tried running the other way and came face to face with Alex and Max. "Still looking for the bathroom?" Max quipped.
"I'm not going back!" Jaune said frantically.
"Look, Jaune, we can't do this without you!" Max said desperately, and in a slightly angry voice.
You stay away from me! I don't want to be a statue like my Grandfather!" And Jaune started running away.
"We don't have time for this" And the Commander pulled out a phaser and shot Jaune in the back, stunning him. Alex then turned toward a sheepish looking Max, "You told him about the statue?" In disbelief.
They brought Jaune back to the hangar, and at 9:45am, Jaune woke up and everyone sent him toward the pre-flight checks on the Phoenix. After all, he and Maggie knew the most about this ship.
Jaune was sitting in the cockpit, a preflight binder in front of him as he was going through the motions. He quickly took a pill for motion sickness to help him in the next hour. Alex Frakes entered the cockpit, "Only got an hour to go Jaune. How are you feeling?"
Jaune looked over to him, "I've got a four-alarm hangover from either the whiskey or your laser beam, … or both, but I'm ready to make history!" Jaune laughed heartily after that.
Both heard a voice from their headsets, "Itaiter to Commander Frakes".
"Frakes here" Alex said, his headset up to his ear.
"We're ready to open the launch door." Tusso said, conducting business as usual with such a historic event.
As the door opened, the shattered moon appeared through the cockpit windows.
"Well would you look at that!" Alex said, as he looked through the cockpit windows, a smile gracing his face.
Jaune turned around after grabbing his face, the light hurt, "What? Is there not a shattered moon in the twenty-fourth century?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"We do, but it looks a lot different, there are over fifty million people living on the moon in my time. You can see Tycho City, New Vale, even Lake Nikos on a day like this."
"Aha…" said Jaune, a little chuffed for his closest companion.
"And you know Jaune…" Alex started, as he started to laugh.
Jaune groaned, "Please! Don't tell me it's all thanks to me. I've heard enough about the great Jaune Arc. I don't know who writes your history books, or where you get your information from, but you people have some pretty weird ideas about me! You look at me as if I'm some sort of Saint! Or Visionary… or something." Said Jaune as he mumbled the last part.
"I don't think you're a saint, Jaune, but you did have a vision…" and Alex chuckled yet again, "And now we're sitting in it."
"You wanna know what my vision is? Lien signs! Money! I didn't build this ship to usher in a new era for humanity. The only reason I want to go to the stars is to escape the godforsaken Grimm… I don't even like to fly! I take trains! I built this ship so that I could retire to some tropical island filled with… Who am I kidding, I just want to be with the girl I love… That's Jaune Arc. That's his vision. The other guy you keep talking about, this historical figure. I never met him. I can't imagine I ever will Alex." Jaune finished, quite proud of his little speech.
Alex smirked at him, "Someone once said, 'Don't try to be a great man. Just be a man, and let history make it's own judgements.'" Alex looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.
"That sounds like some rhetorical nonsense. Who the hell said that?" Jaune asked.
"You did, approximately ten years from now." Alex smirked at Jaune's ducked head reaction. "You've got fifty-eight minutes, Jaune. You better get on with that checklist."
Jaune went on with his work, and was soon joined by Commander Frakes and Max.
"ATR Settings." Jaune prompted, flipping a bunch of dials in the cockpit.
"Active" Max responded.
"Main bus." Jaune asked, looking back toward Commander Frakes.
"Ready" said Alex, who was grabbing onto one of the bulkheads.
"Initiate pre-ignition sequence." Jaune said into his headset, double checking all of the dials, switches, and buttons.
"Control to Phoenix. The final launch sequence checks are complete. Good luck." Tusso said in a professional voice.
Alex turned toward Max and looked toward Jaune, "Everybody ready to make some history?" he asked
"Always am." Max responded grinning.
Jaune had a blank look on his face, "I think I forgot something" he said quietly, trying to remember.
"What?" asked Alex, looking slightly concerned.
"I don't know, it's probably nothing." Responded Jaune, as he turned toward the window of the cockpit in the front seat.
"Begin ignition sequence." Said Alex into the headset for Tusso.
"Twenty…" said Tusso as she started the countdown.
"Oh bollocks!" said Jaune, as he snapped his fingers in slight panic.
"Nineteen…"
"Now I remember!" said Jaune as he started looking around the front of the cockpit.
"Eighteen…"
"What?" asked Alex in slight panic.
"Seventeen…"
"Where is it?!" asked Jaune as he was flustering about, checking his pockets.
"What?" asked Max, who also looked panic.
"Sixteen…"
"We can't lift off without it." Jaune said, looking in his pockets with a sense of urgency.
"Fifteen…"
"Max, we've gotta abort!" yelled Alex, who started flipping some switches, in preparation.
"Fourteen…"
"No! No, wait I've found it!" said Jaune, as he pulled out a blue disk from his front breast pocket.
"Thirteen… Twelve… Eleven… Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven…"
"Let's rock n' roll!" said Jaune as he pressed the play button at the front of the ship.
"Six"
"I like to dream! Yes! Yes right between the sound machine! On a cloud a sound I drift into the night! Any place it goes is right!" Came out of a speaker at liftoff, which was somehow heard over a rocket launching into orbit from the cockpit.
Everyone in the village was looking, in surprised awe, as the missile structure took off without dust power, and started lifting faster and faster, becoming a blip in the distance. Even people in Vale noticed a bright speck flying high into the sky, and they were innately curious about what was happening.
"Can you turn that down a little?!" Asked Alex as they ascend into the sky.
While trying to avoid puking his brains out, Jaune heard a question from Max as they were leaving the stratosphere, without the power of Dust. "Hey! We've got a red light on the second intake valve!"
Jaune looked up at the switch and whacked it a couple of times. He turned toward the man and Faunus, "Ignore it… We'll be fine!" Jaune turned toward the windows, looking forward. "Prepare for first stage shutdown and separation on my mark."
Jaune started counting down, "Three… two… one… Mark!" There was a dull thud as the sides of the missile were blown off, and the nacelles extended outwards and started powering up.
Jaune looked out the window, "Oh wow!" He said, looking at the curvature of the Remnant, and quickly realizing he was the first man in history to be this high in the atmosphere. Numerous explorers throughout history have tried to fly higher in the air, the highest being a hot air balloon several years ago, it made quite the spectacle, as it managed to get to the stratosphere, but couldn't escape it. Jaune slowly had a genuine smile, something that brought him true joy.
Max laughed, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
A few minutes later, primed and ready, Jaune and the commanders started the pre-warp sequence.
"Plasma injectors are on-line. Everything's looking good. I think we're ready." Max said, looking up at the instrument panel.
"They should be out there right now. We better break the warp barrier in the next five minutes if we're going to get their attention!" Alex said, still gripping the bulkhead and looking at different instrument panels.
"Main cells are charged and ready!" Max said, followed by "Let's do this!" from Alex Frakes.
"Engage." Said Jaune, and from the corner of his eyes, saw the two smile at each other.
"Warp field is looking stable," Max said as he glanced at the instruments and figures above, "Structural integrity… is holding."
"Speed, twenty-seven thousand kilometers per second!" said Alex, looking at the instruments in the back. Jaune idly thought that was the fastest anyone in the history of Remanent has ever been, by at least nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine point nine kilometers per second.
Jaune looked at his instrument panel, which now had a shadow. He looked up and saw a massive structure, which he quickly realized was a starship. It had to be nearly one thousand meters long by his early estimates.
"Holy Oum!" said Jaune as he looked in shock at the ship, he didn't know how many people could fit on board, or how many crew it took to man, but it was a very impressive sight.
"Relax, Jaune. I'm sure they're just here to give us a send-off!" Alex laughed as he looked at the Beacon.
Jaune was staring at the ship for thirty seconds, and turned toward the cockpit window, "Punch it!"
"Waahhhh!" Jaune said as they started approaching light speed.
"Thirty seconds to warp threshold… Approaching light-speed!" said Alex as they were hurtling though space.
"We're at critical velocity." Said Jaune as he kept up with the instruments, and the speed they were going.
After five minutes, Alex said, "That should be enough, let's throttle back, take us out of warp."
"It's so small." Jaune exclaimed, looking at the small sphere of Remanent.
"It's about to get a whole lot bigger!" Alex exclaimed, looking happy that history has continued.
After a while the initiated a landing sequence and landed back in the silo for further warp flights. Jaune hopped out of the cockpit, and started walking toward the bar, it's been a long day for the teenager.
"JAUNE!" screamed Maggie Nikos, who jumped into Jaune's arms, and wrapped her legs around his torso and never let go. She then did something unexpected, especially from Jaune, she kissed him full on the lips, and Jaune reciprocated in kind.
Her forehead rested against his, Jaune saw a tear escape from her eye, she whispered, "You did it! You actually did it! I'm so proud of you!" he wiped the stray tear from her left eye, and she looked at him.
"We did it." Jaune said while smiling down and looking her in the eyes. She hugged him for all he was worth, and then he gently put her down.
They walked arm in arm to the bar, "You wouldn't believe the day I had." She said looking up at him slightly, smiling.
"I think I could say the same, let me guess… cybernetic humanoids trying to destroy the human race?" asked Jaune a grin tugging on his lips.
Maggie had a confused look on her face, and then quickly realized, "They told you about it didn't they?"
Jaune quickly said, "I don't know what you're talking about… come on, let's get one quick drink."
They settled with the crew of the Beacon and sat down enjoying a small round of drinks.
Suddenly, a strange light descends from the clouds, and a three-jointed starship lands.
Three humanoid figures step out in robes and hoods, and the first one lifts his hood off his hair, and they see pointy ears as they descend from the spaceship.
"By Oum, they're really from another world." Uttered Jaune, who looked at disbelief, even though he heard about it, it is another thing watching it unfold in front of your very own eyes.
"And they're going to want to meet the duo who designed and flew that warp ship." Said Alex, looking at Maggie and Jaune. Jaune slowly grabbed Maggie's hand and squeezed it, and they proceeded toward the Vulcan team.
The crew of the Beacon started to stray away from the crowd, and Jaune took a final look at them, and nodded. Having already thanked them for their help.
Everyone was gathered around the new visitors, anticipating first contact. A Faunus in the crowd had a scroll pulled up and was discreetly filming this, the most important event in their lifetimes. What they didn't realize, was that this footage was going to be broadcast all across Remanent.
The lead alien stepped forward, and raised his hands, separating his two pinky, and ring finger from his middle and index finger. "Live long, and prosper."
Somehow Maggie raised her hands and copied the gesture, however, Jaune unfortunately couldn't repeat it, so raised his arm up, and met the arm of the Vulcan who shook his hand as well.
Jaune gestured toward the bar, and soon pulled up some chairs around a table. The two humans, and three Vulcans were seated while many Faunus and some humans were surrounding them.
Jaune was the first to speak, "Welcome to Remanent, our home." Eddie the bartender came forward with his finest Whiskey, a Mistrali 20 year to show his best, with five glasses.
"To prosperous futures, and new frontiers" Jaune said, raising his glass, followed soon by Maggie and the Vulcans.
The Vulcans tilted their heads in thanks, and soon raised their glasses, they took a sip.
"Thank you for your welcome, what are your names?" asked the lead Vulcan.
Jaune gripped Maggie's hand under the table. "My name is Jaune Arc, and this is Maggie Nikos, and we discovered and implemented our 'warp theory'".
The conversation dragged on for a while, with exchanges made, and promises to return. Maggie and Jaune learned their names, the leader Sparrav, V'Lur, and T'Maivath.
There were numerous discussions about home worlds, which Jaune and everyone listened to with rapt attention. They explained humanities plight against the Grimm, which made the Vulcan's raise their eyebrows. What made them almost have a visible reaction was aura. While they were emotionless, Jaune could tell this concept fascinated them.
Before they returned to their ship, Jaune gifted the lead Vulcan with a database of many topics of Remanent, which they took gratefully and promised to share with their people.
Jaune and Maggie were congratulated by numerous people throughout the village and decided to go home and get some sleep. Maggie was practically falling asleep on Jaune's shoulder, so he picked her up, and brought her to his small lodgings, where he put her on his bed, but as soon as he let go, she grabbed onto him, and she opened one eye, "Stay with me, please? It's been a long day…" and Jaune stripped down and got into a onesie, and he gave Maggie his spare, and they crawled into bed, and cuddled together.
-At Beacon Academy, the Next Morning-
When people woke up today, they had no idea that every fundamental idea they have had about life beyond their planet had been shattered. The Cross Continental Transmit System was overwhelmed with messages about the "First Contact Event".
Team JNPR thought they would have a quiet morning, after all, they were in their second year, and getting ready for combat classes. However, one person pulled out her phone and gasped, Blake was staring at her scroll, gob smacked, a look of absolute shock plastered on her face.
"What's got you all wound up kitty cat?" Asked one of the resident blondes, Yang Xiao-Long, an aspiring huntress. Blake just clicked a few buttons on her screen, and soon all of their scrolls were vibrating. Soon, more people started pulling out their scrolls, and were watching the news footage that came outside of Vale earlier that morning.
Everyone decided to crowd around Blakes scroll, and saw the headline scroll across the bottom of the screen: "First Contact Event: We are not Alone in the Universe". And Yang laughed, "Is this a joke?"
But then, the videos came up of the spaceship descending into the small town, and out came three actual aliens. Everyone's jaws dropped at the footage. Behind Blake, everyone heard two gasps. "Jaune?!" asked Juniper, who was staring at the screen, and in even more shock, Pyrrha Nikos, who uttered "Maggie?!" as they saw the two approach the two aliens.
"There's more information! Shhh Yang! I want to hear this!" Said Ruby as she stared raptly at the screen.
"This is Lisa Lavender, Kingdoms around Remanent reeling from this morning's footage, possibly the most significant event in history. We are reporting that aliens exist, and we are not alone in the universe. This amateur footage captured the "First Contact Event", many Faunus and some humans were gathered around the initial greeting," footage of the bar appeared.
Lisa put a finger to her ear on the screen, "We can report that "First Contact" was initiated due to the efforts of a Jaune Arc and Margaret Nikos," as Lisa said that their portraits appeared on screen, with Jaune having a zoomed in family photo, while Margaret was locked arm in arm with Pyrrha, not looking quite as happy as she did during first contact. Everyone in the group gasped, and looked at Juniper and Pyrrha, who were looking shocked. "These two successfully created and discovered "warp theory" the ability of faster than light travel, without the use of Dust." Lisa paused, and Weiss gasped, Lisa also looked shocked for the moment, and then continued, "This faster than the speed of light test was discovered by the "Vulcans" who then landed in the village to initiate first contact with humanity. After exchanges of good Alexs, promises, and gifts, Jaune Arc provided the Vulcans with a database of Remanent's knowledge and culture, and they promised to return in the very near future for diplomatic talks."
"The Atlas military is overly cautious of this footage and examining it to test it's authenticity. In the next few days, we here at Vale News Headquarters Alex try our best to find and talk to Jaune Arc and Margaret Nikos, to discover what happened. This is Lisa signing off this breaking news report."
Everyone in the cafeteria was silent for a brief moment, trying to take in all the information they were given in that short news segment, and then a cacophony of noise exploded as everyone started discussing the fact they were not alone in the universe.
"So… Juniper, Pyrrha, I guess we have a lot of questions to ask you." Said Weiss, looking at the two partners with slight curiosity in her eyes.
"You guys didn't tell us you had twins!" Said Ruby, who looked excited at the prospect of meeting new people.
Pyrrha rubbed the back of her head, "Margaret was always very shy, and she never really stood out or got the attention she deserved from our parents when they were training me…" Pyrrha looked down a little sad, "Her talents lay in areas outside of our understanding so we were never really close…"
Juniper sighed and put her fingers to her eyes, "Jaune is my twin, and my only brother out of seven siblings." Everyone's eyes widened at that.
"Wait a minute vomit girl, you're telling me you have seven siblings?!" Yang exclaimed, and Juniper nodded.
"Jaune was always the odd one out, he would take care of our little sisters while our Mother and Father trained me and some of my other sister's to become a huntsman… However, one thing I discovered about Jaune was that he was a genius, probably the smartest person in Remanent if I'm honest. I found drafts of this "warp theory" in his room, but brushed it off thinking it was his imagination running wild. I would have never guessed that he could have actually built a prototype and discover faster than light travel."
"Without Dust as well…" muttered Weiss, who just realized the true implications of transport not powered by Dust.
"We should try and call them and try to and find out what's going on." Said Pyrrha as she pulled out her scroll and started typing in her sister's name.
She held up the scroll to her face and after several rings, Margaret picked up, wearing a rabbit onesie and behind her, a wiry blonde man. "Pyrrha? It's been a while…" said Maggie, as she cuddled back into the warmer body behind still not realizing the position she was in, drifting off back to sleep. Until her eyes shot open, "WAIT PYRRHA?!" She yelled out and the blonde man jumped and fell out of bed and pulled out a giant wrench when he jumped up, where he held it in front of him in a protective position.
Pyrrha smiled, "Hello there!" as the girls were watching the blonde man turn in different directions, wrench still in hand.
Maggie looked at the camera and smiled slightly, "How are you doing Pyrrha? It's been a while… how's JNPR… and RWBY? What about your partner… Juniper? I thought you and her were…" Juniper started blushing profusely, while Nora giggled slightly, and the rest of RWBY's eyes widened.
"Yeah… we'll talk about that later…" Pyrrha said, blushing slightly. "I heard some huge news about a… "First Contact" event?" Maggie's eyes and forehead scrunched up in confusion. "You know, with the Vulcans?" Pyrrha added with an inflection at the end of the question.
Maggie's eyes widened, "How did you know about that?! I literally crawled into bed about six hours ago!"
"Yeah, with tall, blonde, and scrawny it looks like…" mumbled Weiss sarcastically.
"Who said that?" came a male voice from the Scroll, and team RWBY and JNPR noticed the blonde man came over and investigated the camera from behind Maggie's shoulder. His eyes widened as he took in the picture of the eight hunters, "Juniper?!"
"Jaune?!" yelled Juniper, "What are you doing with Maggie?"
"Well, you see… it took visitors from two hundred years in the future and the possible annihilation of humanity from a race of cybernetic aliens for me to realize I was in love with Maggie." Said Jaune matter-of-factly like he was currently describing the weather.
There were a couple of "awwws" from Nora and Ruby, and a snicker from Blake and Yang.
The group heard a blushing Maggie say, "I love you too," and saw a quick peck on his lips.
"Fine then don't tell me," mumbled Juniper who crossed her arms with a pout on her face.
"Wait, so you're telling me the Juniper who's dating your twin sister, is actually my twin sister? Why didn't I put two and two together?!" Juniper and Pyrrha blushed heavily. "Well, this just got more complicated! Saphron would get a kick out of this…" and Jaune sort of laughed slightly.
"Wait… can we get back to why we originally called?" Asked Blake, who was genuinely curious about the historical event.
"Wait, what were they calling you about?" asked Jaune who turned toward Maggie, and she turned her head toward his,
"They were asking about last night…" Maggie said, turning her head back toward the screen.
"Last night…" said Jaune, "Wait, how do you guys know about the Vulcans?" asked Jaune as he remembered the earlier conversation while he was holding the wrench.
"Well, it was kind of all over the news, every Kingdom has made a statement already. They had amateur footage of the event." Said Juniper
At the same time both Maggie and Jaune narrowed their eyes and said, "Oscar…"
"Well that wasn't creepy at all." Said Yang, who was smirking at the scroll.
"Just this young teenager we know, we gave him a scroll and he can't get enough of it." Said Maggie, who was turning now trying to make herself comfortable in Jaune's arms as he leaned against the bed frame, she knew this would be a long conversation. She would never admit it to anyone, but the onesie was extremely comfortable.
"Yeah, so Maggie and I went to space yesterday, that was exciting. We got to see the curvature of Remanent, travelled faster than light, and found out we were not alone in the universe." Said Jaune, who enjoyed cuddling with Maggie much more than he thought. Maggie didn't correct him, as they decided in order to preserve the future they should be quiet about her own journey into space.
"Only you would make the most significant event in modern history sound like you were talking about the weather." Said Juniper, as Pyrrha, Ruby, and Yang snickered slightly. Weiss' eye twitched in annoyance, as she wanted to know more about the non-Dust transport.
"How did you travel faster than light without Dust? That's not possible!" said Weiss, slipping back into her heiress habits that everyone thought disappeared.
"Well," said Jaune, "There's actually several materials that you can use as energy without Dust. There's a couple of more…" and he noticed the heiress glare at him, but he didn't know why, so he just shut his mouth.
"We won't get into details but we've been researching and experimenting for the past year and found several materials that can be implemented as energy sources instead of dust, after all…" Maggie grinned like a Cheshire cat, "How do you think we escaped the atmosphere?"
"Why you…" Everyone could tell Weiss was getting annoyed.
Yang decided to change the subject, "Anything else you want to tell us about?"
Weiss huffed and crossed her arms, just like Juniper from earlier.
The group talked for about an hour, and completely forgot to go to combat class. Several hours later after classes teams RWBY and JNPR were called to Ozpin's office.
"I have an assignment for you…" said Ozpin, as he stood at a window with a cup of coffee, staring off in the distance.
And that is it! I hope you enjoyed it, I had it in my head for a couple of days so decided to put it down on paper if you will. I don't own RWBY or Star Trek: First Contact, those are owned by RoosterTeeth and Paramount Pictures respectively.