-------------------------------------------------------- Michael stood still in awe, attempting to take in the sight before him. "Never thought I would be standing in a place like this, even with being a test pilot." He whispered to himself, his eyes wide in disbelief. Eris base was a legend. Back when it was just Sol and Alpha Centauri, all the dangerous experiments took place here. With it being just far enough away from the Sol colonies but close enough for supplies, it made the planetoid a decent place to set up research. So they built a base in it. These days, however, it was just a relic. Shut down over seven hundred years ago after the Terran exploratory league set up, its nineteenth outer colony and FTL got to the point where you could set up stellar routes to deliver needed supplies as long as you had money. This made it so all dangerous research was hidden away in far-off systems. Which made where he was standing all the more strange for Michael, who was not only ordered to this station but also picked up and transported with V.I.P. delivery within hours of receiving his strange orders. He even had to rush back to his apartment to grab his emergency deployment case, barely making it in time before being whisked off into space with some tight-lipped escorts. He thought back on the sights as he approached Eris, and his excitement was starting to get the better of him. He didn't even notice the moon base or dread carrier hanging in orbit until he was almost on top of the planet. And what really sold the mission he was on, was when he looked back out to Earth, only to see he had crossed a barrier of hard light supplied by an E-War satellite, cloaking the base and carrier from the rest of the system. "How long has this base been operational?" Michael asked his unknown tight-lipped escort, who only continued to look out a display screen. He now was getting worried. He remembered reading that Eris's last experiment destroyed its moon Dysnomia, showering the inner system with rock and ice. Though overall the damage was negligible, as it was mostly intercepted. It was then quickly decided that moving the base to another location was a priority. Michael sighed as his escort glanced in his direction for a moment, and looked away. "Good talk, buddy." Michael snarked. Luckily the shuttle would be touching down soon, and he might be able to figure this all out. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen from the looks of it. The moment Michael left the shuttle, the shuttle powered its engines and flew off. He had tried to gain entry into the inner base, but the marines on guard had stopped him from entering or going anywhere for that matter. Which brought him to his current predicament, of standing around admiring the hangar of a supposedly shut down research base. He snuck a look at the two guards who stood watch at the entryway to the base, both in full combat armour. He was sure they were augmented with nanofiber muscles and regenerative cells as well. Not quite the double-layered power armour drop marines use, but still enough to rip him in half if he got lippy. "Look, guys, I have orders to be here; I'm not sure what's going on, but can I at least get some access to galnet or something while I stand around like a jackass." He asked, trying to make the best of a bad situation. Michael frowned as both guards laughed in response. "We know you're supposed to be here, but if you think you'll have access to anything outside this base other than through a window, you're mistaken." Spoke the marine on the left. "Well, what am I waiting for? Can you at least tell me that?" Which, to Michael's dismay, was answered with a straight-faced "Nope" by the same man. Giving up, he slumped down against the wall and sat on his suitcase, deciding to wait for a pickup. Usually, hangars like this would be busy. Ships would be coming and going, and there was always the sound of engines. However, this one was so dead the blast doors were closed. Why waste power on enviro shields when you knew nothing was coming. After waiting for a few hours with the untalkative guards, and his anger starting to get the better of him. The shields finally turned on, and the doors began opening. Michael quickly stood up, his eyes going wide, thinking the wait might have been worth it as surprise took him a second time that day. He continued watching as the doors slowly opened, revealing an ancient ship sporting nine-light sails. It reminded him of the water sailing boats of ancient history. "I always wanted an old light sail ship like that. How much you think that beast cost?" He asked the untalkative left marine only to receive more silence. Studying the ship as it extended its landing struts and retracted the sails, Michael started getting excited. "Maybe they want me to pilot some new ship that uses a new form of light sail to reach FTL." Michael blurted out, drooling at the thought of FLT tall ships being a thing. It really was a shame light sails were only good for inter-system travel. Three men quickly exited the ship's left side from a set of extended stairs and started making their way over to him. The lead man was an older gentleman with white hair and a normal build for a man of around maybe one hundred-seventy. It was always a hard thing to guess these days. Michael shook his head and put on his best smile as he extended his hand to greet the man. But, before he could get a word in, the older gentleman spoke up. "I read the report on you, Michael Graeme. It says you are a crass man. But, it seems you at least know how to greet people properly. I am truly sorry for the wait, but it seems the powers that be seemed to think my ship would somehow outperform a high-speed transport." The man noted, taking Michael's hand into his own. "I am Dr. Aldon. Just that, please, and these are my assistants." Pointing to his right at the shorter man with green... white... Colour-changing eyes and brown hair. "Dr. Leviye. And to my left. " Pointing at a plain man with brown eyes, black hair. "Dr. Keda, now that introductions are out of the way, I'm sure you would like to see the ship you will be piloting." "Will it be a light sail ship?" Michael asked eagerly, following the trio to the untalkative marines. "No, that tech is at its current peak. Unfortunately, it will never be used for more than inter-system travel or vanity cruises." Dr. Aldon informed him with a hint of sadness in his voice. Before stepping past the marines, Dr. Aldon turned and look at Michael, his eyes going cold. "I must inform you that even though you are here, once you step past these doors, you will be agreeing upon not only the standard guidelines of testing classified equipment. But also to special guidelines W-7. You can decline to test the equipment, but you will be relegated to moon base Leda for the remainder of the project from this point on even if you disagree." Michael tried to remember what W-7 pertained to. Was that the one where death was almost a certainty or the one where they had no idea what would happen. Either way, passing this up seemed stupid. They obviously picked him knowing he would take the commission. "Well, let's go see what deathtrap I'm flying then, lead on, Dr. Aldon." Michael declared, falling in line behind the three doctors, his wheeled suitcase automatically following behind him. Michael was then guided to his quarters personally by the three. Dr. Aldon Pointing out the mess hall and gym offhandedly before finally reaching their destination. Michael stepped in and pushed his suitcase into the room, prompting Dr. Aldon to speak up. "I would suggest getting something to eat, but I'm sure you would like to see what you will be piloting in the coming days, so if you would once again follow me, I'll show you to the ship." Michael nearly shouted at the doctor in surprise, "Days? What the hell doc, you are trying to kill me or something. Did I sleep with some guys woman becau-" Before Michael could continue his rant, Dr. Aldon promptly interrupted him. "No, Captain Michael, as I've said. I read your file and am aware you have more luck when it comes to flying a paperclip than you do with the opposite sex, so you can now drop the act. However, if you must know... Unfortunately, even with the E-war satellite, our time is limited." Deciding that following Dr. Aldon and getting some answers was more important than grabbing some food. He motioned for the doctor to continue. "Well, Doc, what's the problem? Far as I can tell, You have Leda and a dread carrier in orbit, so who'd be dumb enough to fight that and a carrier?" Leading the way, Dr. Aldon started explaining the project. "No one would be dumb enough." He commented, moving down the hall at a rather fast pace. " Considering we haven't had a war since we left Earth, the pirate lords have all been wiped out, and those that remain are on the run. No Captain, the problem is simple. Actually, what do you know about folding space captain?" Aldon asked, earning a hearty laugh from Michael. "Nothing, then I take it? Well, it's nothing like what you're thinking. No wormhole, or anything like that. What we have discovered is another way to reach FTL and simulations put it at almost eight times faster than our current warp travel." Michael looked at the doctor in shock. "Why all the secrecy then? Isn't this super important?" Dr. Aldon nodded. "Yes, extremely, we could reach even the farthest system in the galaxy in days with the new drive. The only problem being the remaining pirate groups that are still running. Leda and the carrier will stop them dead. But the fuel is the problem. I can't tell you any specifics, but I can tell you it's a completely new type and manufactured inside Jupiter's atmosphere." Explained the doctor. "We've been hiding this information by not making a big deal out of it. But with more shipments from Jupiter to Eris, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out it's not just regular stuff being moved about. And before you say anything, yes, they are under heavy guard, but you know how this works, everything is hush-hush." The doctor chuckled. "My unprofessional opinion on why the brass wants a test flight so soon... Well, because everything is above the board, and all simulations point to it being perfectly safe. The only reason it seems sudden to you is they waited until the last remaining days to pick a pilot. Congratulations, by the way." Michael sighed, twirling his fingers in mock happiness. "Okay, so you said something about folding space. If ships can just pop in and out of systems, it would solve a lot of problems. So how does it work? Because I'm sure, the Noraisa system would be ecstatic to have more merchant vessels visiting." Turning the corner and moving down a long hallway, the doctor seemed to think for a moment about how to explain it best. "Not like what your thinking. It's not like opening doors or even folding. It's rather weird and shouldn't really work... I can tell you currently that we still use the premise of warping space around the ship." He continued. "Think of it as compressing space into a small cylinder and having it expand. This pushes the ship kind of like an old rocket. We compress and fold space in on itself, and use the expansion to push us where we want to go. Like a mini big bang." Michael stopped for a moment in mock fright. "Is it too late to opt-out?" He semi-joked. "This sounds ridiculous and way too dangerous. How do you even stop or turn?" The doc laughed, "We've got that figured out. It'll control like your average warp vessel." Coming up on a new set of double doors, the doctor motioned for Michael to step through. Michael nodded in response and pushed the doors open, smiling as he eagerly stepped through and was greeted by the sight of the most beautiful ship he'd ever seen. It was sleek and hard angled, the shape of an arrowhead with a rounded front. He couldn't even see the engine, engines? "Where were they? " He thought. The back was smooth but edged like a knife, and the entire ship was painted black with blue lines of light pulsing around the edges. It looked more like a fighter than a prototype FTL ship. "I'm in love doc, Where the hell are the engines?" Aldon laughed at the question, motioning to the ship with an upturned palm. "Onboard, everything is internal. The back opens up to catch the expanding space and direct the ship, sub-light impulse engines extend from those two points" Dr. Aldon said, pointing at the back two tips of the ship. " When you need inter-system speeds. They're a new design, much faster than current engines. That really got Michael's attention, "Damn, I can't wait to try those out." Dr. Aldon grinned and pointed to a booth off to the side at some exhausted-looking mechanics. "The flight-sim is over there. Go get some time in and talk with the mechanics if you have any problems. My job here is pretty much done since we've already tested and proven the drive and impulse engines. All we needed was a pilot for the real test at this point, so get to it." "To think I was contemplating a nice stroll on the beach this morning. Now I'm about to be sent to my death, on some crazy physics breaking ship I don't even understand." Michael said, walking towards the mechanics and laughing loudly at the insanity. "I FUCKING LOVE MY JOB!" He shouted to the universe for all to hear. After a quick chat with the mechanics, Michael spent the next ten hours in the sim and collaborating with the people around him to make sure things were put in order for the test flight that, true to what Aldon said; Was pretty much already complete and only needed a few real flights before announcing the success and creation of a new for of FLT. Michael still didn't really understand the need for all this secrecy though, it all seemed pretty normal, all things considered. Choosing to retire to his room for the day, Michael decided on a light meal before settling in and getting some sleep. As he walked into his room, he was surprisingly greeted by the station local. "Hello, Captain Michael Graeme, I am your Vi assistant." "Ah, hello, computer. Anything on the menu before I head to sleep?" Michael asked. "Nothing at this moment, Captain. However, you are scheduled for sim training from 6:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 22:00." Michael groaned at the times and slipped out of his clothes. "Alright, I'll just grab some chow and get some sleep. Good night, computer." "Good night, Partner." "Tomorrow is definitely going to suck." Michael thought. An entire day of sim training and studying the tech manual was never fun. Slipping into bed, he was thankful that Eris had an extra two hours in the day, allowing him to get a full night's rest before his next training. -------------------------------------------------------- With the dreaded alarm waking him from sleep, Michael slowly dragged himself out of bed and into the shower. "Computer, what's the schedule for today?" he mumbled out, "Sim training from 8:00 to 13:00, Test flight at 15:00," Michael slipped and fell on his rear, swearing as he scrambled for any handles in the shower as the shock from his new schedule sent terrible chills down his spine. "What the hell, computer? Any reason I'm testing so soon?" "Previous sim training demonstrates ship compatibility with pilots abilities; Further sim training is no longer necessary." Michael pulled himself up and walked out of the shower. "Anything else I need to know about, computer? Like some evil villain deep within the planet telling people to work faster?" The long pause worried Michael. "No." Raising an eyebrow, he just decided to ignore it and walk away. "All I have to do is fly this ship and get the fuck out of here." He whispered, leaving his room. Upon arriving at the hangar his lovely ship was docked in, Michael looked around for Dr. Aldon, scanning the room before spotting him chatting with a few mechanics huddled around a computer. He smiled and confidently walked over so he could have an excellent talk with the doctor about the change in plans. "Dr. Aldon!" Michael started with a smile. "Care to run the real reason I'm flying today?" Dr. Aldon swung around, ignoring the smug pilot. "Orders from the higher up's unfortunately. They saw your results and decided to push the test forward. The only reason you're not flying this morning is to make time for the final checks and calibrations. We're also skipping your sim training this morning... KEDA!" He shouted. Dr. Keda ran over, Tightly holding an expensive looking datapad with some scrolling code on it. "Take the good captain to get his flight suit on and get him on board so he can meet his partner." "Whoa, what partner! Fuck that shit. I fly solo, I'm not getting anyone but myself killed." Michael almost yelled in protest. Causing everyone in the hangar to pause. It was Dr. Leviye that broke the silence, his cold tone leaving no room for objections. "You have no choice in the matter at this point; It has already been decided. And you will treat your partner with the utmost respect. Understand?" Hearing Dr. Leviye speak for the first time sent shivers down Michael's spine. It was almost robotic in a way. "Fine, let's go get my suit, and I'll decide if I keep this co-pilot on, deal?" He replied, walking towards the fitting room with confusion washing over him. Michael began wracking his brain over the ship's schematics as he followed Dr. Keda. Was there room for a co-pilot in the cockpit? He didn't remember seeing one in the sim. Furthermore, it was very odd to have two pilots on a ship like this... Michael entered the fitting room and sighed as he went through the motions. Arms out, get scanned, fab spits out a fancy new suit, put a new suit on. Link new suit to nanites, put the helmet on, test pressure, all green. "With that out of the way, I guess it's time to meet my Co-pilot." Michael thought, walking back to the hangar and linking his suit to the ship's onboard computer. As he approached the ship, he noticed it had begun to drop the boarding ramp. "At least the pilot is courteous." He mumbled. Michael walked up the ramp and sucked in a deep breath as he finally got a good look at the interior. Nothing fancy from the looks of it. The standard for a test ship. Even had some open maintenance panelling, though no free panels around to close them up. Walking down the metal walkway towards the bridge, Michael compared it to the sim. Everything was exactly the same. Which means the bridge had only one crash couch. Finally, reaching the bridge, he looked around. "Yup, one couch." "Hello Partner" "Hello, computer." Michael replied, without thinking........ "Computer?" "Yes, partner?" ... Michael quickly pulled a one-eighty and walked right off the bridge, slowly making his way towards the boarding ramp. But when he arrived, he noticed the ramp was retracted and the door was locked, blocking his exit. "Computer. Why is the ramp-up?" "There is no reason to leave the ship at the moment. Correct?" Screaming internally, Michael tried to calm himself down. "I'm detecting a heightened blood pressure. Are you okay, partner?" "Okay, you're definitely not a VI. What are you computer?" Michael asked, trying his best to keep the fear from his voice. "I am a Virtual Artificial Utility Companion, meant for deep space exploration that would become possible upon the successful testing of this wonderful engine. I am excited to work with you." "Virtual Artificial? Isn't that a bit redundant?" Michael replied. "I think it is because Dr. Leviye wanted to call me vaucs. He always refers to me as such around organics when not using my digital name." Taking a deep breath, Michael asked the one question he was afraid to ask. "Are you a True AI?" "I am modelled to act and think like a true AI." More internal screaming hit Michael as he looked for an exit, however, a happy face emoji appeared on the nearest display panel, pausing his quest for an exit. "What's the difference?" "Beats me." Michael moved back to the cockpit in defeat, got into his crash couch and started going over his pre-flight sequence. Overall, the ship would take about an hour to warm up from a cold start, so he decided to figure out his options while waiting. Over the hour, Michael had to admit having Vaucs handle all the small tedious stuff was pretty handy, if not terrifying. Everyone was taught in school that the first true AI humanity made went rouge and began murdering its creators. Luckily for the rest of the universe, the researchers were smart enough to run the project on a remote asteroid, one that was tugged out of the system and disconnected from the outside world. Once the last researcher was killed, the military just sat out of range nuked the crap out of it. No one has decided to try since. "Running the last of the checks now, partner." Vaucs seemed to like putting emojis in Michael's Line of sight when it, he? was talking to Michael. "Hey, Vaucs, you attached to that name?" "No, it is lazy." "Do you want a real name?" Michael asked, trying to befriend the friendly but deadly AI. "I would like that." Michael thought for a moment, "How about Cain?" "Is that not a bit much?" Michael laughed and thought that maybe vaucs wasn't so bad. "Sure is. Alright, what's the ship's name? I never bothered to learn what this beautiful lady's name was. " "It is the Terran Experimental Starship Quest Results." Michael was surprised at the name but quickly decided on liking it."Game related? Hmmm, how about Ad-" "No, thanks." "You didn't let me finish!" Michael complained. "The last game you played was from over two thousand years ago. The male protagonist's name was Adam Jenson, another religious name." "Shit, you're right.........Wait! How the fuck did you know that?" Michael asked, pausing as he noticed that the fear started creeping onto his face again. "Eris security scanned your entire apartment complex and all personal devices. They logged all data on Eris central servers." Michael felt a slight relief. "Okay, fair enough. Don't scare me like that." "It was not my intention, partner. " "Well, how about Jax?" Michael suggested, remembering the ancient game he played as a boy. "From mortal combat ninety-one?" "No, that old pickup game where you drop the ball and pick up the caltrop thingys." Michael replied. "You are referring to jacks from approximately 1190BC?" "Yeah! I figured If I ever drop the ball, maybe you would be able to cover my back and help pick up my mess." Michael said. "It's a little dumb, but maybe he'll kill me last if he ever goes rogue" He thought to himself with a chuckle. "Alright, I will gratefully accept that name." "Alright, Jack, looks like the flight checks are mostly done whats the word on the ground? I haven't heard from anyone in a while thought." "I have been dealing with the ground crew during the startup sequence." "Hey, that's pretty handy. I don't have to talk to all those boring guys." Michael thought, looking into the oddly placed camera. "Thanks, Jack" "You are welcome." "Startup complete looks like we're ready to go. This still feels like it's going a bit fast jack. I Pretty much just got here yesterday. " Michael complained. "This project has been in the works for the last eighty-three years. I am sure the researchers are under pressure for results. " Michael was surprised by how long this base has been active without notice. "You'd think they could wait a few days then." The ship started to rumble slightly as the atmo field lit up, and the hangar door opened. "Project funding is under review. If they don't show results soon, it will be shut down, which includes me. Ground control says we are clear to launch." Michael frowned at the implied death and activated the ship's engines. "Why would they shut you down? Sure your terrifying being a not AI and all. Sorry but it's true. But you're still alive, wouldn't that be murder or something? Bringing us out of the hangar nice and slow." "Retracting grav struts. As I am, I have no rights. It would be easy to deactivate me. Also, I am of the same mindset as Dr. Leviye and Dr. Aldon that co-operation with AI partners would be best for everyone." "Plotting exit coordinates. I guess that makes sense. Your predecessor was nuked to the point that not even the asteroid was left." Grabbing the controls and gunning the new type impulse engine. Michael felt the sheer power of the ship respond in a way the sim never could. "Whoa Jack, what's with the ship? This is insane!" Michael announced while he was pushed into his crash couch as the ship sped out of the system. "This is crazy!" He began laughing as the speed seeped into his bones. "I have lessened the dampeners so you can get a better feel for the ship. " God damn Jack was great, scary, but great. Gunning the throttle, Michael sped towards the pre-designated exit point. Sadly it would only take minutes at the speed he was travelling. "What kind of music do we have on this bucket?" "I have your entire music database downloaded. Mission Control is yelling at you to slow down." "Oh, right, he's got all my info...And browser history, I'll just ignore that for now..." Michael thought nervously, flying towards his map marker. "We have arrived at our destination partner." "Alright, turn the dampeners back up and set our course. Powering up the fold drive, five minutes to jump." It felt weird having to charge the engine instead of just flipping a switch and going. But if this goes as fast as it's supposed to, the greater galaxy is about to burst wide open for humanity. "Course set, detecting no problems. If all goes well, we will emerge in an empty system a few minutes after our jump." Michael's blood was pumping, even if this was way too fast for comfort. This is precisely what he lived for. "Hey, Jack, how about you play us something, some music would make this perfect." "Your music is very old, Michael." "The hell does that have to do with anything? Just pick something at random then." A clock, Bells, Latin chanting, "Oh man Killers with the cross? Not bad. It doesn't have anything to do with what we're doing, though. Unless your planning to crusade humans. You're not planning to crusade humans, are you Jack? >;} "I swear he's fucking with me. I'll just ignore it." Michael thought, activating the warp shielding. "Thirty seconds to jump." Activating all scanners and imaging equipment, Michael smiled into what he thought was Jack's primary camera. "Ready to go?" "I was created ready, partner." Michael placed his hands on the helm, keying the controls. His heart was hammering in his chest as a slight vibration rushed through the deck plates. "Time to make history." He announced. "Ten seconds until jump, mission control wishes us luck." Deep breaths "Five, four, three, two, one." Michael hit the jump switch; everything turns... "Nada." Michael said with sadness. In warp, you had some nice colours. It seems like in jump space. It's just a really fast impulse. "This is kinda anti-climatic, Jack." "I am enjoying it. Look at the scanners." Gravitons that shouldn't exist. Everywhere around the ship. "It's like we're swimming upstream through a thick sludge. I'm not a scientist; What the hell does this mean?" "Unknown it seems that breaking the laws of the universe makes the universe fight back." "Wait, so jump space attracts gravitons? wouldn't that mean if we bounce close to a star with a bunch of these assholes on us, we can knock an entire system out of orbit?" Michael asked, activating the long-range scanners... For all the good it would do at this speed. "Unknown." "Well, better play it safe just in case." Michael thought. "I'm Going to take us out of jump space a bit ahead of schedule. I'm not going to risk jumping into the target system with these hanger ons." "New coordinates input, is this satisfactory?" Michael looked at the new coordinates and smiled. "Looks good. I should be able to handle anything weird happening on exit. Looks like the galaxy's open." He finished. "Updated time to arrival forty-seven seconds." "Exiting jump space in three, two, one...." "Hey, Jack, why aren't we stopping?" Michael asked as he continued working his controls "The gravitons seem to be interfering with the fold drive." "I'm putting us in full reverse. How long until we enter the system at this speed?" Michael asked, keying his controls. "Nineteen seconds. With full reverse impulse forty-seven seconds, we should have bled off enough speed and gravitons as not to affect the system by then." Michael fought his control's, cursing as the ship wanted to pull him in bizarre directions at seemingly random times. "I can hardly turn the ship, Jack. What do you have for me!?" "With the current course, you have a choice of hitting the local star, a planet, or attempting to navigate a densely packed asteroid belt." "THAT'S IT?! Why can't I go up?" Michael yelled. "Graviton interference is preventing that course of action from making a meaningful impact in time. Strangely, this system is surrounded by a dense rock field." "Fuck, this makes no sense, alright, let's pick the belt." Speeding into the system, Michael was at the peak of his concentration, fully confident in his ability to needle through the belt that was quickly approaching. "This system is inhabited by a pre-FTL civilization." Looking at the readout, Jack just threw up on a side screen. Michael's shock threw him for a loop. "WHAT!?" Was the last thing Michael managed to say before crashing into an easily avoidable rock. Jack threw up a screaming emoji on the main display as the pod began spinning in place and Michael lay unconscious. "I May have made a mistake." He announced, beginning his scan on Michael's body. -------------------