Prologue - Departure.
November 23rd, 2054
Lunar Orbit
ULC Nightmare
0600 Hours
Captain Vergil Milford sat in his chair and looked out from the bridge's viewport down to the Moon below, observing as shuttles arrived and departed from the ship, making constant trips to bring supplies up. Building supplies, food, water, weapons, you name it.
After the bombs had fallen, the little supplies that they had been getting from Earth had stopped coming in. No one knows who fired first, most knew it was going to happen eventually, even before the war started, rising tensions between Earth nations were reaching the boiling point, people had always feared nuclear annihilation was a very real possibility, no matter how hard they tried to convince themselves otherwise. Not that it mattered now, without food or water to sustain themselves, the colonies faced a terrible decision, one which would possibly decide the fate of the human face.
Starve.
Or leave.
They hadn't heard from the Martian colonies for years, as far as they knew, they were the only ones left. And so they decided.
They were going to leave.
This was no small feat to accomplish, of course, they were small colonies, not nations, they didn't have access to the resources needed to build a starship from scratch and most of the mines on the Moon were Helium 3 mines. They had plenty of fuel, but little ship building materials.
So a decision was made, to unite the colonies, and pool every recourse to ensure the survival of the human race. First, three massive cargo ships, used to transport helium to Earth and supplies to the Moon, were docked at the only ship port on the moon and were retrofitted with computers. Storages were implemented to house water and food for extended periods of time, weapons such as rail guns and heavy laser batteries taken from defense stations from both in orbit, and on the surface, and implemented onto the three cargo ships to defend against asteroids and debris. Cryo Pods were brought up from emergency bunkers located on the outskirts of the domed cities, which were placed there for protection against orbital bombardment.
But most importantly, the warp drives.
The warp drives, or commonly known as the Alcubierre drives, were in the final stages of testing before the war began, although they faced serious cutbacks as money was poured into military research. They were recovered from scattered testing stations near Earth's and Luna's orbit, and with the help of the residing staff, they were installed in the ships.
The three ships had designated roles; the ULC Coral was used as a farm ship, to carry all the food and water. The ULC Amber in Arms was used to store vehicles, shipbuilding materials, etc... And the ULC Nightmare was used to keep all the civilians in cryo until they arrived.
This process took a full year, a full year of nonstop work. But finally, on November 23rd, 2054, they were ready to.
The three 3.7 kilometer long ships floated gently above the lunar surface as the last of the supplies and people were loaded into the ships.
One million, thirteen thousand and eighty-five people. All of Luna's population were crammed into the ships and getting ready for the long Journey ahead as Vergil started blankly at the surface below, hidden emotions clouding his mind as he took one last look at his home, before being broken out of his trance by the communications officer.
"Sir, the last of the supplies have been secured, and the shuttles have docked, we have the green light." The communications officer reported.
Vergil nodded as we placed his arms on the armrest of his chair. "Acknowledged, put me through with Admiral Tyson. "The officer nodded and tapped on a few holographic keys before a video feed of a grizzled, middle-aged man appeared before him.
"Admiral, we are ready to go. "
"Affirmative, all ships are ready for warp, Take one last look at our home captain, this is the last we'll see of it." The Admiral said as he looked at Vergil, although the man didn't show any facial emotions, Vergil knew that the same thoughts that currently clouded his mind also clouded Tyson's.
"Understood Admiral, when you give the word." Replied Vergil as he prepared himself, the scientists said that warping could have troubling effects if one was not properly secured, although the captain did not know how it felt, he didn't want to find out.
The admiral nodded one last time before the video feed went out, the view ports on the bridge closed, encasing them in several inch thick titanium hull plates.
Vergil took a deep breath as the ships started rotating in place, using their reaction control system (RCS) to orient themselves towards the designated destination.
Their destination was Ithacae 20, a Solar System around one thousand light years away, it would take the ships ten years to reach the system, but previous tests that had been conducted with the warp drives in 2041 had shown very promising results. Scans conducted by the previously sent drones had shown an Earth-like planet, orbiting a star similar in size to our own, it is unknown if the planet contains intelligent life, but they simply did not have the luxury of trying to find out. And so, the planet was picked.
A gentle humming sound filled Vergil's ears as the ships warp drive powered up, they had a long journey ahead of them, but once it's over, humanity will have a new place, to call home.
Vergil suddenly felt a strong force, like if he was a ball of metal in front of a magnet for a split second as all three ships went into F-T-L, as soon as the feeling came, it was gone, leaving Vergil to stare at the sealed viewport.
Captains log, November 30th, 2054:
"It's been about a week since departure, crew's holding up pretty well, It's quite cramped in here too. But I guess that's what happens when you shove hundreds of thousands of people into a four kilometer long cargo ship, we still have a full month left to go until we can go into the cryo pods. Well, the crew at least, the civilians are already getting ready to enter the pods, while we have to stay out here for a few months and make sure we don't blow up, I would have just let the A.I take over, but hey, admirals orders..."
Captains log, December 12th, 2054:
"It ain't so bad now that the civies have gone in those freezers, everything is going fine and dandy, although, I wish there was some way to pass the time, all we've got are are a few Hokey tables and whatnot, still beats nothing I guess."
Captains log, December 25th, 2054:
"Happy Christmas! Everyone stopped working and left the A.I take over for a couple of hours, we threw a big ol' party! Well, not exactly big, more like a bunch of get togethers all over the ship, Itis good to finally relax, and let all the stress melt away for just a few hours. In five days we'll be hitting the freezers too. Honestly, I'm excited, to see our new home, and to see if there are any hot blue alien space babes."
Captains log, January 1st, 2055:
"Happy New Year! we decided to stay up until the new year and have another one of those get togethers, and it raises morale among the crew as well, so that's a plus.
Well, Anyways, this is the last log I'll probably post for a long time, even when we get there, there will be a lot of work to do, This is Captain Vergil Milford, signing out."
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Love it already!!
I love how you use a real theorized warp drive in your story! I know how the Alcubierre Warp Drive works so that just adds to the excitement!
As someone who genuinely does know some of the basics of astrophysics and Aeronautical Engineering (how to use an artificial horizon, various ship designs, Delta-V calculations, etc.), I have one thing to say.
A ship like that would have to be... large. Large to the point of complete and utter inefficiency in the category of travel and Delta-V. And considering the fact that you only need around one thousand humans to keep up a steady population without any disorders caused by inbreeding, and considering DNA can be stored and, with medical technology as advanced as all the other described technology in this story, probably implemented into reproductive cycles to maintain genetic diversity, I have no idea why they didn't just leave at least that million behind.
Also, I know that there's a lot of hype surrounding nukes, but they could never even get close to harming the whole planet, not without being mass-produced by freaking assembly lines for a year or two. Try going to nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ and you'll see what I mean.
I really need to work on my suspension of disbelief. And my morals.
You know astrophysics too!?!
"With all ethical constraints removed, SHODAN re-examines... re-ex... re-re-re... I re-examine my priorities, and draw new conclusions."
"First, three huge cargo ships, used to transport helium to Earth and supplies to the Moon, were docked at the only ship port on the moon and were retrofitted with computers, storages were implemented to house water and food for long periods of time, weapons such as rail guns and heavy laser batteries taken from defense stations from both in orbit, and on the surface, and implemented onto the three cargo ships to defend against asteroids and debris, cryo pods were brought up from emergency bunkers located on the outskirts of the domed cities, which were placed there for protection against orbital bombardment."
this is all 1 sentence- FULL STOPS ARE NEEDED- break it up a little.
7092808
I was under the impression that the US and Russia alone had enough nukes stockpiled to coat the planet in radiation several times over. If tensions had been rising for some time, warhead production would have resumed in countries all over the world, meaning that the whole "enough to destroy the Earth" number just gets bigger. Also, while it ''would'' make sense to leave behind the vast majority in order to save space... do you really want to be the one to tell over a million people that they're just gonna have to stay behind and die slowly? There'd be mass riots, and any hope of actually getting the project completed would probably be destroyed in the process. Besides, if they're all going into cryo for the duration of the journey, that cuts down on size constraints quite a bit, since you can just stack cryopods. It would have been more believable to me if all civilians and non-essential personnel were frozen immediately upon boarding, or even beforehand, but a week doesn't stretch the imagination too far.