Preparations - Edited 11-8-2018

We gathered at the unveiling ceremony for the Arks. It wasn’t exactly a secret, though it also wasn’t mentioned. The news outlets had recently run a story on the giant ships constructed in the shipyards above Luna. It didn’t take long for private observatories to note that there were similar facilities in orbit around Mars, Venus, and in the asteroid belt that separated the inner from the outer solar system.

Selected from various branches of the military, some of us due to intelligence, others due to skill and ability. The Marines that were selected were chosen by fire team, not by squad or platoon, though there was often a lot of overlap. When my platoon was selected, I was also extended an offer. Marines or Navy. If I transferred to the Navy, I would no longer be a Second Lieutenant, but a Lieutenant. A full jump in grade. I would also have to, obviously, re-rate. After all, the Navy didn’t have Combat Engineers.

“During the trip, while you are in Cryo, your brains will still be active and functional. This trick was discovered by the Russian Coalition to help the asteroid miners. For them, they were given entertainment sims. They get to play out a role in an epic story, saving the princess or being the action hero. Those sims are functional for them. For you, we have a different program.” Admiral Johansen was giving the assembly a well-rehearsed speech.

“It will help you learn the ship's functions as well as teach you the new skills you will need for a future in the stars. Most important, is that it will keep your brain alive during the long stretches of hibernation. Each Ark is staffed by roughly fifteen thousand military personnel and will have between ten and twenty thousand civilian passengers.”

“The Civilians will be in a cryo state like what the Miners are experiencing as they make their trips out to the asteroids. The two simulations will not overlap. Many of you will already have a passing familiarity with the Virt-P’s. For those of you who don’t, these pods use the designs from the Terran Academy. The Martians and Venusians have similar technology, so deciding on the design was simple. These pods now integrate a cryogenic function for forced hibernation. You will be brought out of Cryo every six months for a physical. “

This information, for the most part, wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard before. We had received our orders, reported for duty, and been tested and reviewed for our security clearances. While on the Le Grange base, people had, of course, been talking. A piece third-hour news reported here, an unsubstantiated rumor there, we all knew there was something big happening, and that all the planets and colonies in Sol had decided to work together on this. Scuttlebutt had it that we would be starting the first extra-solar colony, and we selected military were to be the guardians for the civilians.

That last bit seemed to be the kicker for us being an extra-solar colony. None of the military selected had any family left, with the rare exception of full military families. I listened to the droning of the Admiral. No new info, yet, and I was dying to hear new info. That we would have the Virtual Pods was a nice, though, reminiscent touch. I had done the entirety of my academy time in one.

“With these new enhancements to the Virt-P’s, we will be able to keep us alive and sane for the entire 67 years of travel.” 67 years? Where were we going?

I had been learning about the new engines that were installed on the Arks. Theoretically, the new engines could propel us up to 99.9997% c. That would be… I did the calculations in my head, but the numbers seemed impossible. Almost an 11,000 light year trip?

The Admiral finished his speech, and I was accosted by a notification coming in on my neural implant to report to training. Another wonderful day of learning my duties the days I was supposed to be in CIC. I had taken similar classes less than three years ago when I graduated OCS, but the AMTs (Marine Assault Transports) are fundamentally different from a “standard” Navy ship. The Arks were nowhere near standard.

I followed the notifications to the training room. The class was more than full. By my count, there would be enough of us to staff an Ark three times over. More interesting was that there were enough fresh faces that I knew I hadn’t seen my current classmates in any of the previous courses I had been through in the last two months. I could tell this thanks to the wonders of eidetic memory. Some would call it cheating, but as the Headmaster was fond of saying “It’s not cheating if you were born with it.”

I half listened as the class instructor droned on about managing the power output on the Thorium reactors, and I decided to double check the calculations on the 67-year journey. Sure enough, if we were able to accelerate to that degree, we would be looking forward to 10,500 light years. Based on the calculations that would give us a relative time dilation of 66 years and change.

My Neural “blipped” an alert to me. Time to head to my next class. The only problem I had so far with this set of orders was the number of courses I had to deal with daily. Thorium Generator Management, Drone Maintenance for Maintenance and Repair Bots, Drone Control Systems, the list went on and on. Today was the exception for my 14-hour work day of classes, but that was only because of the three-hour briefing that was an “all hands” for us being shipped out.

Over the next month, there were two additional briefings, though, they were much shorter. We learned that we would be headed to a Sol-like solar system, which had three planets in the habitable zone. The worlds were going to be named after the Sumerian pantheon, with the three in the habitable zone being named after the Sumerian deities – Nammu, An and Ki.

We also learned exactly how many Arks were coming with us. Twenty. Each Ark would have close to fifteen thousand military personnel and almost double that of civilian passengers. There were more assurances that there would not be any cross over into our simulations.

Today we were even given our billets. I was assigned to Ark-5. Our classes were segmented by ship from then on; our instructors were replaced by the ship AI. The primary AI of each ship was someone who was an “Immortal” in history. The fleets research AI were named after ancient gods and goddesses of wisdom, and the AI that would be handling our sims were named for gods and goddesses of chance, choice, fate, and games. Ark-5 had Rasputin, Hera, and Yama.

One month later, the last of the civilians had been selected and screened. I was then introduced to my new fire team. Technically I was re-introduced to the old platoon I had overseen, which meant that there was some basic ribbing over the change in my uniform. I knew the team, though, and soon we were back to our old habits. Of course, some members of the old platoon hadn’t passed their screenings and personnel was shuffled around. There would be some patrols while the civilians were secured, as well as during DC (damage control) drills. There were a few mixed platoons throughout the fleet, thanks to everyone who had been shuffled around to fill in the ranks.

The month and a half it would take us to get Out-System, beyond the outer Oort Cloud, was to be used getting ourselves familiar with our duty rotations. For every six months in relative time, that is time as we perceived it while traveling near the speed of light, we would be “in the game” all but two weeks. This was when we learned about the time dilation piece in more detail.

We would perceive time more slowly while we were in cryo. The additional brain power, as well as the processing power from our neural implants, would be used to subsidize the ship AI controllers. There was only so much space we could use for processing, and with as many of us plugged in as there would be, the AI needed a little help. So, they would slow down or “In Game” time so that 6 months relative was again dilated, even more, to feel like two weeks.

This additional dilation and use of “supplemental firmware” would help synchronize everyone. The fourteen days outside of game would be synchronized so that it would be one of our “off duty” days in the game. Roughly 24 relative hours equaled one in-game hour.

We were cycled in, without cryo so we could understand what that really meant. You could tell someone, and that person could have a feel for it, logically, but to grasp that difference, you needed to experience it. So, we cycled through while the civilians were placed into their pods.

It was strange. No, “strange” doesn’t cover it. It was disconcerting. The ship layout was simplified but recognizable. Instead of the central deck as well as the eight up and eight down to include everything, there were three decks in total. Instead of having hangars for patrol craft as well as hangars for cargo craft on port and spin-ward, front and aft, there were only two, total. Same with our Thorium power plants. Just one power generation plant instead of ten. One medical bay instead of one per deck, and so on.

I was just starting my duty rotation as we passed the Oort cloud.

Preparations - original

“During the trip, while you are on ice, you will be fully plugged in. The immersion pods will keep your brain alive for the six months, relative, that you are asleep.”

The pre-launch lectures were annoying, but more than likely necessary for those that haven’t gone through their training. At least the auditorium seats were comfortable. We had been selected for Ark 5 and had survived training, psych profiling, and background checks. Each time we went through another training segment we’d lose more of our 35,000 “potential” crew, hopefully ending up with more than our 10,000 minimum crew complement. Beside our Ark, there were another 19 leaving on this 10,700 year “actual” voyage. When we are awakened for our first “tour”, most of the people we knew on Earth, Mars, Venus, or anywhere else in our solar system will be dead. Special relativity is a bitch.

“Many of you have been in a VirtP’s already, so you should be familiar with the interface, for those of you who have not, pay attention…”

I was starting to zone out. Most of us alive have been in a Virtual Pod, or a VirtP. At a minimum it has been for education. For the wealthy that will be joining us, it was mostly for playing games. They could still afford to hire a real person for their education. I was “fortunate” enough to have a Virt Tutor through my entire life. The Tutors were advanced Virtual Intelligences (Vis’) which was a good thing. Machines doesn’t let you slack off, and because it was a virtual education space, they could customize your education. I finished my primary and secondary education at a quicker rate than expected thanks to a combination of my eidetic memory and the tutor assigned to me.

Thanks to the VirtP’s, schooling was a very different concept than in the 24th century and before. I was in a class with over 5,000 students for my first three years. That’s when I started to show promise in mathematics. The following year my class was just over 2500, then about 2000, 1700, 1000, and by the time I finished primary school, I was part of a semi-elite 810 people. As the years of education came and went, the class sizes would fluctuate every trimester as people who we left behind in previous years caught back up, and those that had been struggling to keep up fell back a step.

I finished secondary school in a class of 5. English was my weak subject, but as a native speaker of one of the three major trade languages, I wasn’t worried. The physical sciences and mathematics were my strengths. The same went for the other 4 in my class. We were all graduated at 15.

After school, I “decided” by way of opting out of deferred enlistment, to join the military. Deferred enlistment was the fancy way of saying that our required public service wouldn’t be required until after we graduated from University. The decision was because the orphanage I grew up in was funded by the government, so strings were attached for those of us that never were adopted.

The TSF (Terran Space Force) was an interesting time in my life. The 26 weeks of “boot camp” as it was called consisted of what could be considered a combination 21st century US Marines training and 23rd century Chinese Space Navy training. My aptitude tests scored high enough, so I could choose where I would spend my next 4 years. I chose to be a part of the CBs, or the Construction Brigade so I could help build military grade "defense" platforms. Defense wasn't really needed as there were treaties between all three majority colonized worlds. The unstated truth was that these platforms were really asteroid busters.

My third year in, the Imperial Martian Academy of Astronomy discovered a new “Sol” like solar system with three primordial earth like planets and named the solar system Meso. The three planets were named Enlil, Anu, and Enki, after a trinity in the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon.

Normally this wouldn’t have meant anything, except that some of the theories for Near to Light (NTL) travel seemed to be bearing fruit on the practical level. The first and most efficient of which was from the Peoples Republic of Venusian Free States. Their prototype Neutrino Burst Engines would be capable of reaching a theoretical 99.9998c. If testing showed positive results, that would mean that a trip could take as few as 22 years relative. Something highly survivable by current human life, without extensive genetic modifications. Testing unfortunately showed a much “slower” speed. Only 99.9994c. A combination of mass, solar winds, and galactic dust was playing havoc on the speeds during practical tests. That speed lowered the relative time to 37 years. Just long enough to start creating psychological problems if someone was awake for the entire trip. The final piece of the puzzle came a month later from the Union of Soviet Social Interests, or the ссои.

A joint reseArkh project between I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, Khmelnitskyy National University, National Mining University, and Poltava National Technical University had just finished a 60-year safety study, whose focus was for deep space survival from mining accidents in the Oort Cloud. The goal of the project was to minimize travel time from the seven-year one-way trip. The answer ended up a form of cryo with stimulated cerebral interfacing. Essentially the person entering cryo would be dosed with DMT, then a combination cryo-rig and Virt Pod could be used to have the travelers play a part in a HoloVid, or in a game. The Cryo/VirtP’s would do some fancy mental manipulation where one day actual/relative would be one hour in game. The human brain needed to use the rest of its capacity during cryo to ensure the brain stays alive and "safe" as well as the external VI needing to have things slowed down to manage it all.

“Those of you that have served in any of the militaries will be required to group with your assigned fire teams during the game. Those of you that have been trained for the additional duties will be required to work with your teams in game as well. Remember, you will be pulled out of game every six months so that you can have a physical as well as to attend your duty stations for standard maintenance and monitoring for your two-week shift. You WILL be on for 12 hours each day for these shifts. Any questions?”

We all knew that was rhetorical. Anyone asking questions at this point either didn’t pay attention, or they bought their way on board. That last group was usually smart enough to not ask a question as they knew they could get kicked off the ship.

“Be prepared for drills. Dismissed.”

Today’s briefing finally was over. This same briefing had been done once a week for the last three months. "One more" month of training this was the third time they said this) and we were scheduled to be off. In game, once we started the trip, we would have roughly three years in game. Due to the mass of the Arks, the expected relative time in game would be 83 years. An estimated 166 trips into the game with a two weak duty cycle, or tour. This next month would be mostly validating duty schedules, time in pod estimates, and more “bug fixes” for the assigned Vis.

Thanks to my education and military service, I would have not only a fire team to group with, but also a two-week shift split between Bridge Duty and Engineering. In the unlikely event of boarding or first contact, I am also on the docket to be “popped”. That’s what we call a forceful ejection and emergency thaw from the pods. I say “unlikely” because it’s the third century NCE (New Colonial Era) and still there have been no signs of intelligent life outside of Sol.

The NCE started when Mars had its first successful (third actual) colony in 2683 AD. The first two having failed due to the now defunct process of lowest bid gets the contract, leading to dome cracks. Mars, due to there being no magnetic field, still to this day, required domes. 18 NCE the first colony landed on Venus. 104 years later, Venus was terraformed, and the domes opened. Most of the terraforming technologies had been used for the last give hundred years to stop the Earth from having a runaway greenhouse effect, much like with is theorized to have happened to Venus to begin with.

The pattern of training and lectures took six months before we reported to our final duty stations.

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Each Ark was over five kilometers long and just over one and a half kilometer at its widest, shaped not dissimilar to an arrow head. The bridge was central to each craft with thorium generators spaced every ¾ kilometers with a spider web of power cables between them to ensure that every part of the ship is always with power. Cargo drop pods contained terraforming equipment, hangars had several ships for defense as well as asteroid tugs to ensure that metals and ice could be harvested without us having to destroy a planet to get what resources we needed. We even had our gate schematics class IV Fabricators and our builder drones so once we arrived we could build a gate allowing for travel back to Earth… though everyone we know and everything we know will be long changed since leaving.

Final crew compliment on Ark-5 was just under 16,000 with another 4,000 passengers. The combined staffing for all 20 arks was just over 350,000 and 45,000 passengers. A passenger being someone with neither the technical experience nor military experience to have assigned as part of their duties. Many of these were basic trades persons such as stone masons, tailors, and cobblers.

Every six months while doing standard maintenance we will also be checking the status of the gate builds. Between us and the other 19 Arks, we will be dropping a gate every few hundred light years with the first having been deployed near our moon to allow for quicker transit between Earth and Oort cloud for mining purposes.

This is what my duty rotation was shaping up to be: For the six weeks out system, I would be on standby for either engineering or patrol duties – stand-by being “on call” while not on actual duty. During this six-week period I would have three days total on the bridge. One as an engineer, the other two on guard duty. 21 days I would be on duty in one of the Thorium plants, 10 days in the primary engine room, and five days in the secondary engine room. The last sixteen days would be a mix of standard patrol sweeps, security in cargo or docking, and my (and most others) least favorite, getting my physical screenings checks and everything else taken care of for pre-hibernation.

We were all already wired with the neural interfaces, so at least the majority of the pre-cryo was quick. The not so quick part was the pieces that I am sure haven’t changed since the second era – reflex tests. Scoring slightly above average in my reflexes and speed and slightly under average in strength was what I was expecting. I had always been more of a “quick strike” than a heavy weapons specialist. Besides, I was the brains, the grunts would do all the heavy lifting.

Once past the Oort Cloud it was time to start our standard rotations. Six months in cryo/hibernation/in game, then two weeks “awake” and in the physical for standard duty shifts. The down side is that until you have done your two-week shift you didn’t get a chance to be “in game”. So those of us at the tail end would be getting shafted a little bit. Fortunately, with the way that everything is slowed down inside, there wasn’t going to be too much time lost.

The game was set to keep our skills sharp so that after almost 90 years in cryo we would still be able to do our jobs. Technically that is also what the two weeks on duty shifts were for, with the difference being that the day/night cycles once we were planetside in -game would be similar to the planets we were going to be on. Anu, for instance had a slightly longer rotation than Earth at 25 hours, so this would in theory help us prep for those longer days. I was psyched because it would give us an extra hour of sleep for the nights we weren’t on watch. Civilians, on the other hand, would start “getting used to” a 9-hour work shift with a one hour lunch break instead of their “standard” 8 on with a half hour meal break. According to what had been mapped out, Anu was supposed to also have a six-day week to make the calendar work properly at the “standard” 52-week year. There was already talk for us not keep to the Sol standard, but not until we had passed Jupiter.