//------------------------------// // Chapter 26 // Story: Voyage of the Equinox // by Starscribe //------------------------------// "This last month, I tried to figure out why we weren’t in touch with Equestria. I was able to confirm a few things—there’s no jamming signal I can detect coming from anywhere in the system. I left a navigation probe a few thousand kilometers behind us—where we had our engagement with the Prospector. We’re still in perfect contact.” “How do we know the sensors aren’t lying to us?” Applejack asked. “Cozy mighta… done somethin’.” Twilight nodded. “I hardcoded a few modifications into the probe before I sent it. We’re reading the modified signal, not a standard sensor buoy. Antennas are working fine. I did pick up on a little radio static from one of the planets… but we can go over that later. For now, I’ve eliminated a local jamming signal. This leaves us with two possibilities I can think of for why we’re not reading Equestria." She took a deep breath, then forged on. The others were watching her closely—no chance she’d lose them to boredom in a meeting this important. Even if they would never receive help from the homeworld, they had hall hoped to stay in touch with their loved ones. The time they were awake for the mission would be their last chance to talk to anypony with a normal lifespan who was still alive. “We suffered structural damage when we entered the system,” Twilight said, holding up a printout of the Equinox in her magic. The entire forward plane of the ship had been highlighted in red, showing the places most severely affected. There were still entire engineering sections still open to hard vacuum, since Harmony’s Repast hadn’t given them the Titanium, they needed to make hull repairs. “It’s possible we passed through some kind of… structure, on our way into the system. Something permeable to visible light, but… not to radio. It could be blocking signals home.” Spike shook his head once, frowning. “Something big enough to surround a whole system, but not strong enough that we didn’t turn to dust when we smacked into it?” Applejack tapped one hoof on the table. “I agree with Spike. If ya could build that big, then you’d be buldin’ so strong we can’t even imagine. Equinox would’ve been Applesauce.” “If we think so…” Twilight continued. “Then there’s only one other option. About four years ago, for unknown reasons, Equestria stopped transmitting. I’ve reviewed the radio logs… and those that survived confirm we are still sending our regular status reports.” “What are the chances…” Fluttershy began, her voice timid. “Maybe there’s some way to block out Equestria you didn’t think of?” Twilight shrugged. “Might be high. The Signalers use drives that don’t produce heat. They gave us instructions to build devices that don’t make sense. There may be kinds of magic they can create we just couldn’t imagine.” “But we were talking to them before…” Fluttershy went on. “When we get out that far, we’ll talk to them again. Won’t we?” “That’s… one hope,” Twilight said, speaking slowly. “It might happen. But that’s the decision we have to make now. I wanted all of you to be involved, since… now that the repairs are done, we need to choose a direction. I see two possibilities here, but if you’ve got any others, feel free to suggest. “First choice, we could pick one of the planets and head in to investigate, like we planned before. It seems like the probe came from one of the inner planets, so that would be my suggestion. We’re not 100%, but it’s not like we’re making the interstellar voyage back to Equestria yet.” “And what’s the other option?” Spike asked. “What Fluttershy suggested,” she answered. “Assuming we dropped off the line with Equestria the instant we came into the system, we’ve been out of contact for almost five months. I’m sure we’re missing a lot, ad frightening a lot of ponies who only care about our welfare. We could fly out of the system, far enough that we reacquire the signal. Then we leave a sensor buoy to start recording everything Equestria sends, so we can come back here to resume our mission. On our way out again we pick it up, and we haven’t missed anything.” “Those sound like options all right,” Applejack said. “But what’s the time on that second one? I might not be a navigator like you, but ah know… a few things. I know we burn most of our fuel just acceleratin’ enough to break gravity well with a star, yeah? Even flying out that little bit is gonna mean we have to refuel again before we make the return trip. I’ll assume it takes two months, like this time. Plus travel time out to wherever we’re getting the gas, call that two months more. So whatever number you’re about to give us, add four months.” “Then… eighteen months.” Twilight admitted. “We were far from Proximus the last time we got an Equestrian transmission, and we have to fly back in once we’re finished.” “Or we fly into the inner system. Flyin’ down, so far as space goes. How long would that take?” Applejack asked. “Proximus A, four months. Three for Proximus B.” “How is that even a choice?” Spike asked. “Eighteen months before we could do something we could finish right now.” “There are ponies waiting for us,” Fluttershy said. “That’s, um… not the only number that matters. Eighteen months…how long would it be until we could send our first message home?” “Seven months, ish,” Twilight answered. “We can’t be sure exactly how far we have to go. And… of course, we’re assuming the problem is on our end. As hard as it is to think about… maybe Equestria isn’t talking. The stowaway… Cozy Glow, suggested this was planned. Maybe the Listeners did something in Equestria. Maybe the space program… isn’t what it used to be.” “Which is why there’s… one more thing we could do,” Fluttershy squeaked. “We could just go home. Turn around, and… go back. We already made contact. We could… compose a really great message, saying everything about us, send it towards the planet on a probe, and… be done. If we wanted.” Did they? 1. Set course for Proximus A (Rocky, inhospitable world, 4 months) 2. Set course for Proximus B (Metallic, habitable world, 3 months) 3. Leave Proximus to place a probe (18 months round trip) 4. Return home (41 years) (Certainty 150 required)