NationStates Jolt Archive

(The amalgamation of ModernTech and Future Tech in a single nation)
((I hate adding more OOC notes to this, but an update-this is to get properly involved with...a much larger problem found...))


It sat in its cradle, underground, lit only with the dim strip lighting lining the ceiling. A sleek creature, its nose curved from a point, leading back across the hull, flowing seamlessly to its pair of outrider ‘wings.’ Lights winked on and off across it’s grey-mottled skin, fire-flies against the twilight of the cavern. Its tail tapered off like its nose, ending with the mouths of four large engines. It was no creature of the earth, but one of the ocean or the sky, even a layman could see it, eying her streamlined form. Gouts of steam and coolant hissed from various ports across the amalgamation of ship and cradle, the breath of the ship exhaling.

The cradle held its inert form much as a mother holds her babe; a child developing inside the womb of the mountain. Its black arms stretched up around the ship, restraining her from any movement. Each arm was covered in smaller out-branching networks of manipulators, interlinking with the craft. At the end of each holding arm was a full size boom and crane assembly, hosting supplies and equipment to the dorsal sections of the ship. Extending from the cradle and ship itself were multitudes of umbilicals and access-tubes, linking the craft to the solid rock of the cavern and various types of support equipment. Above the cradle, carved into the stone of the cavern, was the control center, the brain of the entire operation, always watching, directing.

The horde of vehicles tending to the craft was gathered around the base of the Cradle. Even small aircraft would flit about the enormous cavern, delivering workers and supplies to the surface of the vessel, hovering about it as the cleaner fish gather around larger fish looking for their care. It was to this scene of birth that the General, Vance Reginald Kaerion, entered the cavern from the lowest level ground access point. The ship towered above him, dwarfing anything he had ever seen before.

The escorting Lieutenant beamed, and waved an arm towards the ship, presenting it fully to The General. “Sir, may I be proud to show you, the Kestrel Star Ship, Tempest. They’re making final preparations now; we have a flitter ready to take you to the primary gangway.”

Vance merely nodded and followed the LT to the waiting flitter; a micro-aircraft built for the cavern environment that was the home to the construction operation, capable of hovering onto a dime without so much as disturbing the feather next to it. The designs for the equipment in it had been taken, much like the Tempest itself, from the remains of the crashed vessels Morogeth & Bastion.

The interior of the flitter was dead silent as the General watched the lithe shape of the Tempest flow by his window, lost in his view of its angular beauty. The flitter passed the network of lines supplying external power, fuel, coolant and air to the vast ship, and soon settled down upon a pad carved into the cavern wall. The General was ushered to the boarding tube adjoining to the platform, and lead to the airlock which also served as a ground-side boarding way.

Inside, he was greeted by an honor guard in six suits of The Order’s precious STARMOR and a Captain in full dress. Saluting, he greeted the General. “Welcome aboard the ship that’s going to take us back home, General!”

End Part I

The interior of the Tempest was warm beige and dark blue, the colors contrasting in a relaxing way. Instead of the standard metal decking found common on ships like the Bastion, the deck was covered in a dark, smooth carpet, which dampened the sound of parties moving up and down the halls considerably. Despite the effort put in to give the ship the warmest, most open environment possible, every inch of space was utilized in some form.

The Command, Control and Communication Center, known to the crew as the C-Quad, was no exception to this rule. Every inch of wall space was utilized for displays; the most central of which, the Primary tactical screen, extended even onto the ceiling. Crew stations dotted the back half of the chamber, while the center was taken up by the Holo-tank, the three-dimensional situational view system for the captain to observe on a scale less-grand than the massive Primary Tacscreen.

Upon The General’s entry of the C-Quad, a guard by the hatch called the Quad to attention. In normal operations, the crew would remain at their stations continuing their duties uninterrupted. In this case, however, the bridge crew stood up in a rigid attention, trying their best to keep their smiles from showing.

Captain Wotejenck strode to General Kaerion, grinning ear-to-ear for the crew, grasping the General’s hand in a firm shake; Kestrels, Naval or otherwise, did not salute indoors. “Welcome aboard the Tempest, Sir! We’re prepping for launch now, and we’ll be ready inside of ten minutes.”

Vance looked over the Captain’s shoulder at the Primary Tacscreen and noted that the mass of support vehicles previously outside had all retreated from the behemoth coming to life. Even the flitters were trickling away now, only the final brave few remaining to finish last-minute operations. “Looks good, Captain. Don’t mind me, I’ll be a fly on the wall.” In a louder voice, Vance added, “Carry on.”

Immediately, the crew returned to their stations, working away at their consoles making the final preparations for the launch. Grinning further, the captain turned back towards the center of the Quad, bellowing commands to the crew. Vance could feel a vibration shudder through the deck as the ship’s fusion reactor came online, could hear the power humming through the metal veins of the ship as its systems switched from external to internal power.

On the view screen, Vance could see the umbilicals beginning to pull away from the hull, back into the arms of the cradle. A jagged rent streaked across the ceiling of the cavern, pouring light down into it. The mountain which housed the Project split open, revealing to open air the Cradle and the Tempest for the first time.

Bringing his attention back to the Quad, Vance listened finally to the countdown from the Captain. At one minute, a deep rumble shuddered through the ship, the massive engines coming online. At thirty seconds, the final umbilicals detached from the hull and returned to the Cradle arms, protected from the savagery of the ship’s launching power. At fifteen seconds, all but the forward, center and rear Cradle arms pulled away from the ship, releasing it from their iron grasp.

Seven..six….five …the engines’ roar grew stronger, and the ship began to vibrate, straining against the grip of the last four stabilizing arms. Three….two…one...…The engines roared to full power, and the final four Cradle arms released their grasp of the Tempest.

Launch!

The sleek vessel rose under its own power, slowly at first, but gaining speed against the gravity trying to hold it back. Vance’s teeth began to rattle as the ever increasing power shook the ship, but he didn’t feel the massive amounts of acceleration which accompanied it. Looking with raised eyebrows at the Lieutenant whom was escorting him, he received an answer.

“We were able to salvage some forms of the Inertial Dampeners from the ruin of the Bastion, and then we improved upon it some. Works quite well, for being designed from the remains of debris of a wrecked starship, wouldn’t you say?”

Vance merely grunted his approval, his eyes locking back on the primary screen. The atmosphere was growing darker and darker still…until finally….

Black. Stars.

Space.

End Part II

Vance leaned back and forth on the balls of his feet, testing the gravity aboard the ship. Looking over at the Lieutenant, he couldn’t hide his grin as he jumped lightly twice. “Perfect. The Inertial Dampener’s doing, I take it?”

The LT nodded. “Yes sir, the dampeners operate as inertial sumps, and part of that gathered energy is used to create an artificial gravity field. Of course, when we’re not moving, the dampeners aren’t taking or generating much power, so the system runs quite well off the fusion reactors as well.”

Vance turned to the Captain, who had stepped back a moment, admiring the perfect view through the main screen. “Captain, the itinerary I reviewed said if all was well, we were going to perform a limited Trial of the Tempest. Is it deemed safe within your judgement?”

Captain Wotejenck checked the status display produced for him by his own command chair’s console, and then nodded, a wide smile on his face. “Yes, General. Everything is reading out green.” He nodded to the pilot at the flight station. “Lieutenant, take her out past the moon, to the waypoint I’m setting for you.” Rising from his chair, he stepped to the Holo-tank and tapped his pen at a point just past the moon in the display. A blue icon sprang to life in that spot, and an identical point appeared on the pilot’s control console and an arrow pointing towards the waypoint appeared on the edge of the primary view screen.

The LT stepped closer to Vance. “The C-3 interface here in the Quad is the most intuitive we could design. A simple, easy to use 3-D system, fully interactive with the user, backed up by a standard 2-D screen design made to fold out from the Command Chair and the Tactical Console.” As the officer explained the system, Vance watched the Captain tap his pen on a bright object suspended in the tank. At the current settings, the primary screen zoomed in, best as it could, on the object and displayed the data it had collected on the object thus far in a sidebar. Swiping the pen across the target sent the view back to the default view, as programmed by the Captain.

Looking back towards the pilot, Vance suddenly realized he couldn’t see the officer anymore. In his place, a milky-white eggshell had covered up the pilot’s station, isolating him from the Quad. Noticing where The General was looking, the LT continued his narrative.

“The control station for the pilot is a fully immersive environmental pod. What the pilot is seeing right now is all the space around the ship, exactly as the ship is in it. He can control the ship with the two joysticks and pedals inside there, as well as with a backup keyboard system. Furthermore, in the case of emergency, his console will operate as his view display. He can hear everything occurring in the quad just fine as well, since the system doesn’t block audio. He won’t miss a command from the captain at all.”

Vance nodded, impressed. “Any other stations have little surprises like this?”

”Yes sir, the Tactical-EW station and the Weapons station also have similar systems set up. Of course, Weapons is more of a direction center than an actual trigger. Weapons are split up into several groupings; first is missiles, which the Weapons Officer actually does control. Everything else is split up into Firing Sectors, as designated by weapon class. The Weapons Officer feeds the targeting priority data to each Sector Control according to the class of weapons ordered to fire, how long, and sometimes, even down to the individual weapon. In the case of a failure along the way, full weapon control is released down to the Sector Control stations, which unlocks the weapons for full independent fire. In the case of loss of a Sector Control Node, the weapons effected are automatically released for independent fire by their crews, as well.”

Vance whistled, growing more impressed by the minute. “Redundancy a major part of the package, I see.”

”Yes, General, that’s part of what took systems integration so long-the Brains back in R&D thought up every single possibility they could. We’ve even built in a Bacterium Detection system, complete with containment and sterilization gear.”

Vance barked a laugh and actually gave the Lieutenant a strong slap on the back. “Good job, indeed!” He looked back at the display and discovered the ship had already made it to the waypoint, and was awaiting the next set of orders. Vance nodded towards the Captain, who then gave his next command.

“Engineering, bring the Fold Drive online, run it up slow, just to see how it’s reacting to being in space again.” A gentle thrum echoed throughout the spacecraft, growing in intensity as the Drive came up to power. With a wave of his pen, the Captain zoomed the tank view out to half a light-year and dropped a waypoint on the map. “Helm, plot course to waypoint, designated two, engage Fold on my mark.”

Checking an indicator for some telltale, the captain returned to his seat and belted in, turning on the ship-wide communications system. “All hands, prepare for Fold, one minute!” he said. Vance looked around for a moment to find a chair, and the Lieutenant flipped a pair of seats out of the bulkhead.

”Over here, General. We anticipated the need to arrange extra seating in the Quad, and Design decided to implement fold-out jumpseats into the bulkheads, save on ship-space.”
They both strapped in, the countdown to Fold almost completed.

“Helm, fold in three! Two! One! ENGAGE FOLD!”

The Fold Drive’s engines whined up to full power, their cries echoing throughout the ship. For the barest of moments, nothing happened as the Drive built up the final charges, before engine discharge.

And then the universe bent in half.

End Part III

End Part III


The workings of the Fold Drive are rather simplistic, when viewed at a glance. Upon activation of the drive, the system makes a ‘cut’ in the fabric of space-time, and ‘folds’ the universe between the point of departure and the destination, bringing both points together. The engines then push the ship through the cut, which is being held open by the power of the Fold Drive, and out onto the other side, the destination point. Upon arrival in the new point, the engines shut back down, the universe returns to its normal state, and the space-time cut closes back up, as if nothing ever happened. All of this takes approximately seven seconds, nearly instantly allowing a ship to cross a galaxy.

The trade-offs, of course, happen to be the enormous energy cost per jump, expanded exponentially by the distance traveled, as well as the strain placed upon the Fold Drive at longer distances. A ship whose drive shuts down mid-fold ceases to exist, swept along as an ethereal Flying Dutchman, forever lost to re-entering the timestream. And then of course, are the physical costs upon a crew. The effect of slipping from one side of the universe to the other is physically draining, increasing with the size of the jump, as well as slightly painful. Truly large jumps could leave the crew in excruciating pain, and a cross-galaxy jump can leave the crew incapacitated or dead. Because of this, to get from point to point, a ship would have to do a series of multiple jumps, with a short break between each to charge the engines.

The first time someone ever jumps, however, is always the worst for them, no matter the distance. Of the entire crew, only a handful had ever jumped, all of them original Kestrels. When the Tempest made it’s first jump, it only lasted a handful of seconds, subjective time, but for the majority of the crew, it was an eternity.

Coming out of the jump, save for General Kaerion, Captain Wotjenck and Lieutenant Farth, the pilot, the entire crew of the Quad was doubled over, catching their breath, pain evident on their faces. The Captain nodded to Vance, who crossed to him and took the offered headset.

“Attention Crew, this is General Kaerion. You have all made your first jump, with the exception of the Original Kestrels on this maiden voyage. Now you understand the rigorous physical training you were all put through. The first jump is always the worst, but you’ll be fine in a few minutes. I would like to congratulate you all for your successful jump, and the success this ship is turning to be. Your dedicated work has done something we never thought possible ten years ago, when I and my Kestrels first came to The Order. Thank you, and keep up the work. We’ll jump again in an hour, and head back home. General Kaerion, out.”

Handing the headset back to the Captain, he crossed back to the lieutenant, who was sitting up again. “Well, what did you think of your first jump, El-Tee?”

The Lieutenant smiled weakly at the General. “Felt as if someone had lit all my nerves on fire, and left me there forever. At the same time, I think someone was twisting my guts around my neck while kicking me in the face.”

Vance barked a laugh, and gave the Lieutenant a hearty pat on the back. “Better than my first time, then! They said I screamed for almost ten minutes, and wouldn’t stand up for another five. I don’t know myself, because I came to in the medbay just before another jump. Its nowhere near as bad the second time, and after the third, they all mostly feel like someone’s poking you with a bunch of needles.”

”Ever wonder, sir, what the crews of those “Flying Dutchmen” you told me about feel?”

Vance looked down for a moment, frowning in thought. “Well….No one’s come back to tell us exactly how it is, but, there are a few theories on it. You notice how the pain ebbs for a moment, somewhere in the middle of it all?” The Lieutenant nodded lightly.

”That’s after we passed through the timestream, and we’re in Null-Space. Flying Dutchmen tend to disappear midway through-the strain of punching through to the other side is what kills the engines. I hear stories, though, of ships mid-jump passing by one, and hearing a screaming from them. I suppose the space between the two sides of the timestream in a Fold-Zone happens to get smaller, and they get stuck in the stream as well…Unfortunately, they cant seem to slip back into it. Maybe someday, someone’ll figure out how to pull a ship back into the timestream fully, allowing them to escape.” Vance shrugged. “Who knows?”

“Have you ever seen a Flying Dutchman?”

“Once.”

End Part IV

(Tag... verry verry intresting )

(Sorry, its a real short one today. Weekend and all.)


General Kaerion looked at the Primary screen, silent for a moment, thinking back to his second Fold. The first one had been bad, but the second was worse, in its own way. Vance shuddered, the unpleasant memory returning after so many years.

“…….It was after I came to from the results of my first Fold. I was in the medbay, and I had requested an outside view, so they brought me a screen, so I could watch, thinking it might help me through the Fold. So, I sat in bed, watching the stars…and as we began the Fold, the pain started again. Was nowhere near as bad, so I kept my eyes open and watched the view.”

“Somewhere midway through, it only lasted for a handful of seconds, the Dutchman appeared. You could see through the black, white and mostly blue clouds which you could see mid-fold, and in them….was something. Another ship. It got close, real close. I could see through it, though…see the clouds on the other side. See the lightning of Null-Space. But I could also see the people in it. And when it got close, I could hear their voices in my head. They were pleading for us to take them out, bring them home….I think…they even attempted a docking. The collar just slipped through our ship, as if they didn’t exist…and the person they were sending through fell away, into Null-Space….but didn’t die…because nothing truly exists in Null-Space.”

Vance shuddered and shook his head. “Thought I was hallucinating, I was, because of the pain and the first Fold. It wasn’t until a few years later when I compared notes with a handful of other people that I learned the Dutchmen were real. Maybe someday we can figure out how to drag them back from the depths of Null-Space…but…I don’t want to have to be the one to try.”

The General watched the floor for a moment, his hands clenching and unclenching. Then he stood up, and crossed to the Captain. “Well, Captain, I do believe that so far, things are looking quite successful. Are we prepared for a short weapons test?”

”Indeed we are, General. We’ll deploy the drones shortly.”

End Part V

OOC (And a bumpy to bring it up to the top again, now that I've made appropriate changes to bring in line with..the future.))