Re: Story thread - chronicles
REVELATION
On 28 February 2402, Olutunde Akerujah, the scientist who discovered the potential use of warp points as fast transit routes between star systems, was awarded the Nobel Prize, as well as receiving the Federation Star, the highest civilian award that could be given by the World Senate. Science Command was stunned by the information it had gathered over the Last two years. Discovery and Endeavour had transmitted to Earth huge amounts of information, and collating and reviewing such windfalls, together with analysing the samples brought back from the other star systems, was a Herculean task in itself. In addition, the outworld colonies were establishing their own research and university facilities in order to investigate the scientific revelations their new homes would yield.
On 1 March 2402, the first Federation Stellar Summit was held in London. The purpose of the summit was to discuss the previous two years of expansion, and to agree the Federation's objectives for the next two years. The Federation now covered 5 star systems, and had colonies on 6 earth-like planets. It was expected that Discovery and Endeavour would reach the new supply bases established on Avalon and Asgard by November 2402 and those ships would be entering into the unexplored warp points by the end of the year. Given recent experience, it was most likely that the star systems on the other side of those warp points would contain more habitable planets.
Federation Command was concerned about the rate of expansion. The primary problem was the question of distance. Whilst the warp point network allowed instantaneous transit between star systems, starships still needed to travel across the stellar space between warp points, and even with the fastest ion engines Science Command could currently design, this still meant that a ship could take 4 months to traverse one star system. The colonies newly established on Hermes, Asgard and Avalon took almost 9 months to reach at full boost, and Federation Command realised that there were limitations on Earth exercising effective control over these systems. The further problem was that over a billion people on Earth had signed up to be colonists for the new systems. The promises of new lives on brave new worlds had appealed to the brightest and best of humanity, and Federation Command was eager to avoid any mass exodus to the new systems. However, this had to be countered with the environmental damage caused to Earth. Whilst Earth's atmosphere had been stabilized, it was obvious to Science Command that the planet could not comfortably support more than 4.8 billion people. The restrictions on births had been lifted by the discovery of the new colony worlds, and with so much new living space available, humanity was responding by reproducing at the highest rates known in centuries.
Federation Command was also concerned about the serious depletion of resources the recent rapid expansion into space had caused. The bulk of the gross global product had been injected into the production of spaceyards, colony and transport ships, and it was obvious to the economists that until such time as the colonies could start producing resources themselves, Earth would need to establish mining colonies to bolster its own resources. It could not continue to deplete stocks at the rate it had been.
Finally, the "Asgard Enigma" had to be discussed. Someone had once lived on Asgard, they had been technologically superior to the Federation, they had obviously been warlike, yet something or someone had destroyed every settlement on that world. The military committee of Federation Command were terrified by this prospect, and were lobbying the World Senate heavily to consolidate Federation territory, until such time as a large battlefleet had been constructed and trained.
The result of the Stellar Summit was a two year plan for the Federation. Exploration of the new warp points in Alpha Centauri and Tau Ceti would continue, but the Federation would not expand any further than its existing frontiers. The colony worlds needed to be populated, and new transport vessels would be built to carry large numbers of colonists to those worlds. In addition, new Nova class colony ships would be built on the Hephaestus and the Vulcan, and these would be used to establish mining colonies on unhospitable worlds. The economy would be given priority before any further expansion was made. Whilst military research would continue, the World Senate considered that the military were scaremongering over the "Asgard Enigma", and no further military production was planned other than the 6 light cruisers currently undergoing shake down trials in Earth orbit.
The Discovery boosted into orbit around Avalon on 11 November 2402. The Endeavour reached Asgard on 17 November 2402. After their 9 month voyages, the crews needed some rest and recuperation, as well as the chance for some sight seeing. It was decided that each vessel would depart from orbit on 1 December 2402.
In the meantime, Earth had continued implementing the 2 year plan. In addition to the Kyushu, two further transport ships had been built and commissioned. The Tierra Del Fuego and the Hainan had each embarked 200 million colonists, and were currently on route for the Asgard and Avalon systems. The Kyushu, which had been busy ferrying colonists to Mars, had embarked a further 170 million colonists and was on route to Tanith.
Hephaestus and Vulcan had each built new Nova class colony ships, and these had been used to establish mining colonies on Titan, Pluto and Mercury. Federation Command considered that the home system should be colonised in full, and the new resources flowing from these settlements was helping significantly to bolster Earth's depleted stockpiles. Further Nova class colony ships were under construction at the orbital spaceyards. In addition, researchers on Tanith had identified the wreckage of what appeared to be an alien outpost on Artemis, one of the moons orbiting Tanith. A colony ship had been sent to Artemis to investigate the ruins. This discovery had re-ignited the discussions on the "Asgard Enigma", and the military were protesting hard to re-start production of additional light cruisers.
In June 2402, Federation Command, partly in response to the demands of the military, established a new command, Battlefleet. Originally intended as a place to "park" all the military hotheads in the government, the further discovery of the existence of alien civilisations on Artemis had caused the more cautious members of the World Senate to take more account of the military's warnings. Permission was given for Battlefleet to send the 1st Cruiser Squadron comprising Agamemnon, Ajax and Achilles to Avalon, and for the 2nd Cruiser Squadron comprising Hyperion, Prometheus and Menelaus to boost to Asgard. By the time these ships reached their destinations, Avalon and Asgard would have completed the construction of shipyard facilities, and the plan was to retrofit these vessels with the new augmented phased beam weaponry currently being researched.
On 1 December 2402, Endeavour left orbit around Asgard and headed toward the first unexplored warp point. Endeavour transitted, but reappeared 2 days later. The jump had taken the ship right to the edges of a huge black hole. Whilst the astronomy teams had managed to identify the system as Cygnus X-1, the rest of the crew had been too busy trying to fight the intense gravitational forces and escape back to the warp point to care. Scans had revealed a further warp point on the other side of the black hole, but it was apparent that this warp point was unstable, and was viewed far too risky to send manned vessels through. Cygnus X-1 was written off as a "no-go" system. Two weeks later, Endeavour jumped through the second unexplored warp point in Alpha Centauri. This led to Alkazar, a system containing several mineral rich planets, none of which had breathable air. Worse of all, the system contained no other warp points than the one through which Endeavour had transitted. Endeavour returned to Asgard, and given that Alpha Centauri appeared to be a dead end, the decision was made to boost back to Earth and then onto Avalon, as that seemed to contain only avenues for exploration.
The Discovery meanwhile had jumped through the first warp point in the Tau Ceti system. It hit gold. The system was identified as Sirius, and contained not less than four habitable systems. The news of this was a panacea to the World Senate. The new Nova colony ships being constructed on Earth, Hephaestus and Vulcan were dedicated to colonising Sirius.
The Discovery jumped back to Tau Ceti, and proceeded to transit the second unexplored warp point. It returned 3 days later, badly damaged and streaming atmosphere from rents in its hull. Federation Command was shocked by the news.
On passing through the warp point, the proximity alarms on the ship had gone off, even before the crew had recovered from the jump shock. Discovery was only 50,000 kilometres from a spaceship. Initial scans showed that it was definitely not of Earth origin. It was 60,000 tons larger than Discovery, was of unknown configuration and was closing with Discovery fast, obviously heading toward the warp point. Hailing signals were sent, and something was received back, but the communication staff aboard Discovery could not interpret it. Before they had a chance to even try to, the unknown ship had closed to 40,000 kilometres and proceeded to open fire on Discovery with what appeared to be linear accelerators launching masses of depleted uranium projectiles. Discovery took hits on her engines and only the automated defence software stopped Discovery from being destroyed. Her missile battery went into automatic, and launched a nuclear missile at the alien ship. The first missile hit the alien ship, and Discovery managed to open the range so that it could no longer fire its cannon. A second missile was fired by Discovery, which missed, the alien ship being able to outrun it. The third missile hit, and obviously had done serious damage to the alien vessel, as it veered off and proceeded to head away from Discovery. In the meantime, Discovery's captain had the sense to remember his standing orders, he had met something hostile, and Earth needed to know about it. He ordered Discovery to head back to the warp point.
Discovery returned to Avalon, and an intense discussion as to the alien ship erupted throughout the Federation. They were alien, they were hostile, and Federation Command could only wonder if the Asgard Enigma had been answered?
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