Mar 29 2006
Interstellar
We have already achieved space travel. Or at least a small portion of our potential for pace travel. We’ve gone a few miles into the atmosphere, hell we’ve even made a puddle jump to the moon. That is all nothing compared to what we could be doing as a united world. After the moon landing NASA hasn’t really done anything. Sure we’ve sent out drones and what not, but we don’t even have any form of interstellar space travel. We can’t expect intelligent life to come to us. We have to go to it.
A one government world would bring our brightest minds together, all of our space stations would work together to build new technological wonders. If this were to happen within just fifty years we could be out of our solar system and looking for new planets. But for this to happen we have to discourage privatization. We cant allow corporations to rule our world. No more competition or war, we have to work together. Heres my story, my view of what we could achieve.
By 2010 one country takes over the world. Of course this wont go lightly, there will be resistance but thats inevitable. America, China, or even England in coalition with America are prime candidates. There will be a world war in which many will die, and we’ll do a pretty good job of screwing up the earth, which will lead to a space program. This program will take control of the government, for simplicity we’ll call it OSE the Organization for Space Expansion. Seeing as this is a government organization, military personnel and their families will be the first on any ships built for interstellar travel. In 2020 the OSE expanded the Marine Corp to include their own force. The Organization for Space Expansion Marine Corp.
Briefing Hall Aboard the OSE Lewis
“Congratulations men! You have been chosen to be the front line defense in your worlds space exploration. On the off chance we experience contact with a violent species you will defend the craft and its personnel. You may be wondering why your M8 automatic rifles were confiscated from you. Well men, the OSE has some new toys for you!” The Officer pulled out a sleek compact rifle that resembled a Bulgarian P90.
“Sir is that the FNP90?” John Alpha asked.
“That is a negative Marine. This piece of work is the CP-1. Case less Projectile Automatic Rifle Model 1. Designed by Colt, the CP-1 fires, in a sense, metal marbles approximately five centimeters in diameter. It is propelled by high pressure carbon dioxide, the projectile will travel at two thousand meters per second. The CP-1 will fire 1500 rounds a minute that will be fed through a one hundred round clip, and because it is propelled by carbon dioxide it never overheats. All of you machine gunners out there will appreciate this, have a look at our CP-12.” This gun resembled the CP-1 but was slightly larger with a box clip that held 1200 rounds. “This beauty is an almost exact duplicate of its rifle counterpart but with a larger propellant intake and ammo box.”
“When do we get to target practice with these things?” Another soldier asked.
“The CPs will be issued an hour from now, until then you will report to you quarters and wait for take off.”
“AYE SIR” roared through the hall. The soldiers stood and exited the hall.
“So what do you think of the new CPs?” Gary, a fellow OSE Marine asked John.
“They are a step up from the M8s, I like the design, hopefully we wont have to use it. I wonder what the fighters look like.” For those of you who are not familiar with the military, what John means by fighter is a jet, something like the F-16 fighter jets we use today. In fact the OSESF (Space Fighters) resemble the F-16 but instead of standard wings that spread outward, the wings come from the cockpit to the tail and do not extend more than a foot from the fuselage. With the SF-3 being a space fighter its propellant is carbon dioxide, a bountiful gas which is in constant supply. Of course the OSE thought ahead and made an Atmosphere capable counterpart, the SF-3AC. Physically identical to the SF-3 except for the engines which run on slush hydrogen. Slush hydrogen was chosen as the fuel for the new fighters for two reasons. Its combustibility and it bountifulness.
The take off of the twin space ships christened OSE Lewis and Clark was celebrated around the world. People stood in the streets from New York to Hong Kong as the ships made their warm up lap around the world before taking off, This was the last time these brave pioneers would see their home planet for years.
Bridge of the OSE Clark
“Ensign Lovell engage hyperspace engines!” Captain Kevin Bravo, gave his legendary order. This was the first time in history that an occupied ship would engage its hyper engines, the first time that a human being would end up on the other side of the Oort Cloud just outside the solar system.
“Aye sir! Engaging Hyperspace! Long live us.” At that moment a bright light erupted in front of the twin ships, and the Lewis and Clark slipped away to the other side of the solar system.
John’s Quarters Aboard the Lewis
“Aaagh wow, I was not expecting that!”
“Aye, John, same here.”
The PA system boomed to life, “Congratulations Men and Women of the OSE Lewis and Clark! We are now Just outside of the Oort Cloud and I’m told everyone is in one piece. Today we have made history, tomorrow lets find some habitable planets.”
“So…lets get a look from the bridge.” Gary clicked on a monitor and typed in /bridgecam/garyalpha/pvt/rifleman/. A picture flickered on the monitor, vast blackness peppered with white dots. “Hey this just looks like home!”
“No, look Theres another Oort cloud! And Planets!”
“Where?” John stepped in front of Gary and clicked on the area of interest. “Holy Shit! That must be our first stop.”
The PA system exploded to life again, “As many of you have probably noticed, there is a system aft of our position. Let me make it official……tomorrow we are making a small hyperspace jump to that area where we will send our our recon drones out to test the atmosphere for compatibility with life. If we find it is capable of sustaining life we will first send a data stream back to Earth, then we will land where you OSE marines will recon the area for life forms. All further information will be given after the jump during briefing. Goodbye and good luck.”
June 3, 2020
The Lewis and Clark disappeared into another burst of light. On the other side of the jump the Lewis and Clark appeared silently drifting through space towards the unnamed system. The OSE Lewis settled into orbit around the two suns in the center of the solar system. Beneath the hull of the ship two hatches the size of manholes opens and two squid like drones blasted out.
Rocketing toward the first planet the drones broke through the atmosphere of what was now called P1SS1AC(Planet one of Solar System one of Alpha Centuri). The drones, Leo and Mike, named after Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo, crashed down to the surface boring a hole through the crust almost two hundred feet deep. Leo and Mike began their crawl to the surface, while activating their atmospheric sensors.
“Captain Bravo we have incoming data on the planet,” Ensign Lovell announced, “Its……Habitable!” Lovell broke into tears of joy. The bridge remained silent in aw, then a loud cheer broke out from the crew.
* * *
The PA broke the silence that the infantry quarters had held since they heard the hatch doors open, “Men and Women of this expedition, I never dreamt I would make this announcement,” There was a short pause that made the soldiers nervous, “The planet P1SS1AC is habitable.”
“Jesus Christ! We’re being deployed!” John screamed.
“What? Why?”
“Weren’t you paying attention? If theres a habitable planet they send us down to check it out!”
Teams on both ships started scrambling to gear up. Everyone wanted to be the first on a new planet, and a lot of them would get to be. During their briefing they were informed that teams Alpha 1 and 2 land division would be deployed with Bravos air force. Fifteen minutes later everyone on both ships were in the briefing halls. “Alphas 1 and 2 report to the armory and then to the Personnel Carriers.” was all that was said. John and the rest of one and two swarmed the armory, then ran full speed to the carriers. John jumped into the carrier and rushed to his seat, CP-1 at the ready.
* * *
P1SS1AC looked somewhat like Earth, at least a part of it years ago, it was all jungle and what wasn’t jungle was desert. There didn’t seem to be any oceans on the surface but the vegetation was getting water from somewhere. “This is amazing. Who would have imagined?” Gary was silenced by the SF-3AC flying overhead.
“How is this all here but no life? Theres got to be something.” Jake Alpha spun in paranoid circles, swinging his CP erratically.
“Calm down Jake, Earth was like this at one point too. Nothing but micro-organisms, and vegetation. I’m not sayin’ theres nothing here but we probably wont see anything.”
A SF-3AC started circling overhead, “Alpha 1, we’ve got something over about a hundred yards west of you, it could be a pile of rocks but be ready, theres some reported movement.”
“Roger that, hey Jake maybe you will see something” John started out towards the object. “We’re coming up on the object now, no signs of- HOLY SHIT!” a small reptile like creature crawled from a cave. “We need bio teams down here now!” The creature codenamed AP(Adam’s Pet) after the biblical Adam and Eve. AP resembled and iguana with rabbit ears and chicken legs, the bio team had a field day with AP back aboard the Clark, one scientist reportedly had a heart attack when AP was brought into his lab without warning.
Briefing Halls of OSEs Lewis and Clark
In the briefing halls aboard Lewis and Clark everyone from the science department to the engineers was there, this was big. “We have covered all of P1SS1AC, its atmosphere is inhabitable, and there are no forms of intelligent or overly dangerous life. We have decided to set up a headquarters here while we scan the other three planets. Half of the Clark’s science department will stay and half of the Lewis’ military will stay with them. The construction teams have already started on the building, in a few days you’ll be right at home. Now go get some sleep.”
June 14, 2020
The headquarters on P1SS1AC was in place and code named Jefferson, the crew of Jefferson took on the last name Charlie.
The Lewis and Clark puddle jumped to the next planet in the solar system, and the next, and the next and so on. On all the other planets the atmosphere was uninhabitable, covered in noxious gases, they even lost Leo and Mike on entry to P3SS1AC. The gases on the planet were combustible and the heat from the entry caused an explosion.
After days of no luck from the other planets, the ships gave up and returned to Jefferson. Throughout the night Jefferson, Lewis and Clark sent supplies back and forth.
June 20, 2020
The week consisted of celebration and data streams back to Earth. Some technician wanted to get a private message back to Earth and damn near crashed the Clark’s navigation program doing it, needless to say he was held in Jefferson and fined a months salary as punishment.
Other than drunk soldiers and tired scientists, the brass was preparing for another hyperspace jump to the next system.
* * *
“I hear we’re jumping out of here. Next system on the list has to be checked out.” John was cleaning his gear paying special attention to his CP-1.
“Yea, we go there for two weeks, check out the planets and check back. Apparently if theres intelligent life the Clark is supposed to jump back here and pick up the scientists.” Gary was right with him cleaning his CP.
Sadly this was the only inhabitable planet the pioneers would see for the next few years.
They jumped from planet to planet, system to system, never finding anything, nothing but super heated rocks and poisonous gas planets.
December 19, 2029
When the Lewis and Clark fell out of hyperspace they were not planing on seeing anything at all, they planned on being outside the solar system just inside an asteroid field. Instead as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace they were pulled right back in by an unknown source. “All hands to battle stations NOW NOW NOW!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!” then the PA cut out.
The twin ships fell from hyperspace orbiting a planet dubbed P1SS31AC. “Where are we Ensign Lovell?” Captain Kevin Bravo struck the keyboard furiously checking diagnostics on both ships. “I want Clark’s fighters scrambled now! Do not fire unless fired upon!”
“Fire? Why?” Lovell asked.
The captain brought a picture of the planet beneath them, it was blue, covered in water, but something else too. Metal? The “landmasses” were made of metal. “Thats why.”
