NationStates Jolt Archive

“All systems good. We are ready for launch.”

“Roger that, Photon I. You are clear for launch.”

“Launching in thirty seconds, Control.”

The dark red ship began to decelerate. She was the test bed for an experimental FTL drive that would likely be the first of it’s kind. The theory was simple. A very dense and powerful I-Field would be generated, and then would be used to amplify the power of arcane crystals spread throughout the ship. When the ship reached a high enough speed, the ship would tear a rift in the fabric of the prime material plane, creating a portal to the astral plane. Once on the astral plane, the ship would travel to a location near it’s destination, and do the process again, this time opening a portal to the prime again. As there is no time on the astral plane, the trip would be near instantaneous, allowing the ship to travel thousands of light-years in seconds. Effectively, it would be a giant Dimension Door spell.

“Deceleration complete. Activating I-Field.”

“All systems are green on this end, Photon I. Continue the test.”

“Roger that, Control. Activating ion thrusters.”

The Tachyon Class ship hurtled foreword from it’s dead stop, accelerating quickly. Suddenly, the ship began to shudder violently, and the ship came to a dead stop. The crew looked at the instrument panel. One of the LEDs was blinking an angry red, indicating a problem with the I-Field. Right above it, a screen showed that the I-Field was gone.

“Oh fuc----”

The ship shuddered one last time, and the left engine ruptured in a giant yellow ball of death and destruction. In less than a second, the ship was consumed in flames, fragments spread about the cosmos. It was plain and simple to the people in the control room as the cameras monitoring the test recovered from the bright flash. There would be no crew to recover. All four people on board were dust.

Leaked footage (http://imagehost.biz/ims/pictes/84085.gif)

By the next week, the wreckage was recovered and analyzed. The problem, it seems, was a flawed crystal. During the test, it cracked, then shattered. The resulting shockwave sent shards of crystal shooting through the engine compartment, disabling two I-Field generators and puncturing a reactor.

Fortunately, the problem was not present on the Photon II. The ship was inspected over and over, until the day of the second test, two weeks after the first.

“How does it look from your end, Photon II?”

“All green. You?”

“All systems reading green over here. Proceed with the test.”

“Roger. Decelerating now.”

As with the previous ship, the [I]Photon II decelerated to a stop and charged it’s I-Field. The field was barely visible, with a distorted view of Earth reflecting off in random areas.

“I-Field up. Everything is green. Launching now.”

The ship accelerated quickly. This time much faster than the first. In less than a second the ship tore a hole in the fabric of the prime material plane and entered the portal in a flash of light. The first stage of the test was a success.

When the flash died down, the crew of four could tell that they weren’t in space. Outside the view ports, there was an endless sea of what looked like a silvery sky. Large tube shaped clouds coiled off into the distance. Whirlpools of color appeared here and there, spinning like tossed coins. Occasionally a bit of planar flotsam and jetsam floated by the ship, but for most of the trip, there was nothing but the silvery sky in all directions.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ship’s navigational computers indicated that they were at their destination. All that was needed was the jump back onto the prime.

As before, the ship decelerated, produced an I-Field, and accelerated quickly. The portal between the planes opened again, and they shot through it in a flash of light. When the light went away, they were in a Jovian orbit. The pilot cut the ion thrusters and the I-Field, switching to the traditional thermonuclear rockets. Spotting a camera ship, the pilot pulled a hard U-turn and pulled up along side. They immediately radioed back to Earth, but the response came more than an hour later.

Although they had achieved FTL, reaching Jupiter in seconds, they would need to look into a way to transmit data faster than light as well.

Released footage (http://imagehost.biz/ims/pictes/84086.gif)