Chapter 3

We learn from every natural disaster. Whether it’s a fire or a flood, we learn something from it so we can respond to the next one better.

-Malcolm Turnbull

John

Walking up to the John F. Kennedy Spaceport wearing his best dress-blues uniform, Commander Henderson got stares of admiration and respect. Proudly displaying his rank and commendations, he showed the world what service means. Boarding his hopper, he couldn’t help but take notice on the lower quality of the vehicle. There was a time where civilian air transportation had the most advanced technology in their planes, their ride was comfortable to a degree, depending on how much the customer paid for their tickets. These flights were always catered towards the passenger. But in modern times, those luxurious rides are reserved for the long rides onboard System Hoppers. John was boarding a simple Station Hopper, only designed to reach orbit to a space station, dock and recharge, then head back to the surface. Station Hoppers were the most basic of transportation that was offered. They had no gravity plating, no inertia dampening systems, not even a graviton generator to produce a weak gravity field. They did not even have any power generators of their own. They carried enough of a charge for one trip, wherever their destination lied they had to recharge for a few hours before heading back. They were small, light and agile and provided no luxuries to the passengers they carried.

John’s flight from New York City was uneventful, taking a quick 10 minutes to make one complete orbit around the planet to help reach escape velocity and get into inner orbit, where the hopper met up with Kennedy Relay Station, in geosynchronous orbit above New York City. There, John enjoyed the comforts of the civilian station with a near unlimited supply of restaurants from cultures all over the Federation and numerous entertainment complexes. After a five-hour layover, he boarded his final flight, a System Hopper. These hoppers were fully capable starships, with the full package of dual fusion generators and ion generators, but still lacked the inertia and gravity subsystems that most military vessels enjoyed.

The flight was three and a half days from Kennedy Relay Station to the Utopia-Planitia Shipyards orbiting Mars. John enjoyed the views of the system as he traversed the void between Earth and Mars. Almost a day and a half of full constant 1g acceleration burn, with five minutes of zero-g while the ship flipped and initiated the 1g decel burn. The view of Luna and Earth gradually getting smaller during the trip never seemed to astound John. He basked in the amazement of traversing from one celestial body to another. Humanity has been space dwelling for many centuries, but John never looked past the monumental feat humans have achieved. One of those feats of pure engineering was there during his flight for him to bask in its beauty. The F.W.S. Independence provided a rare treat to anyone who cared to observe the rare behemoth.

The F.W.S Independence is a top-of-the-line warship. Built for pure destruction, she is the flagship of the Federation Navy, the fist of the Federation. The Independence is a Federation Command Cruiser, or more tastefully called by those who serve, a Juggernaut, the largest, most powerful ship humanity has ever built! Juggernauts are extremely rare, there are only five of them currently in service, with three more being built. With the pure size and mass of the ship, and the insane amount of materials these megalithic sized starships take to build, they are very expensive and time-consuming to construct. The size of these behemoths is awe-inspiring, approximately nine hundred kilometers long, one six hundred kilometers wide, and three hundred kilometers tall. Compared to the crew complement of a Dreadnaught, fifteen thousand, a Command Cruiser houses a compliment of 315 thousand.

Juggernauts have the firepower to match their impressive size. Seventeen thousand outdated rail systems from 50mm to 4000mm planet busters, over 10 thousand missile, torpedo, and cruise missile launchers, and complimenting the kinetic weapon systems around 150 thousand more widely used energy and particle weapon systems. The megalithic Juggernauts supports a small ten wings of fighters. Powering the colossal ship are fifteen MK-VII Fusion Generators, giving her firepower, and shields all the power it needs to survive any battle. Command Cruisers are so vast, they are able to support multiple Hyperdrive Capacitors, not only giving her the quickest cooldown of thirty-four hours per Hyperdrive, but she carriers five actual drive cores with the ability to disconnect the unused cores and capacitors from the system, allowing these beasts to be the only ship in the fleet to use multiple Hyperdrive jumps safely back to back.

Most military strategists have given credit to these beasts for the current Federation-Republic cease fire, which has lasted for almost a few hundred years. Ever since the first Juggernaut, the Independence herself, came off the line 115 years ago, the Russians have never been able to win any battle with these beasts present. The Russian Romanov class Dreadnaught is the largest ship they have built, which outclasses a Federation Dreadnaught by 500 tons. These Dreadnaughts are nothing to be taken lightly in the fleet, and most Federation Captains actually fear going against one of them. As mighty a powerhouse as these Russian warships are, they are fat flies compared to a Juggernaut. The latest rounds of intelligence still report the Republic unable to build anything that would come close as a comparison to the behemoth ships.

Mars was the first planet the Federation had colonized outside of Earth, second celestial body after Luna, and was wildly contested by the Russian Republic. Originally drafted by NASA as a research and development planet for a whole slew of projects, the Russians viewed it as a military threat and had assaulted the planet to claim NASA’s secrets as their own, which prompted the creation of the Federation Navy. The Republic held the planet for fifteen years before the Federation retook their colony and had since fortified it and kept the military bases, and R & D Facilities.

Mars is home to a booming civilization of two and a half billion citizens that support a largely military complex. The planet became an independent nation almost seventy-five years after the Federation had reclaimed the colony, breaking nation loyalty from the United States and declaring themselves truly independent. The Federation resisted petitions from the U.S. to prevent the split, and even stayed out of the minor revolutionary war that took place. The United States did not have a space navy but had the ability to send ground forces to the planet in an attempt to prevent the split. The Martian uprising only lasted a few months, before the United States conceded, and negotiations began to make Mars the first Extra Terrestrial Nation among the United Federation of Nations.

The feeling of weightlessness never got old for John, who enjoyed the sensation like a kid playing on a trampoline. He always took advantage of the rare moments he got to spend in zero-g. While most of the civilian passengers looked at the Navy commander like he was losing his mind, John enjoyed floating around and performing various acrobatics during their five minutes of no gravity. The civilians who routinely travel in space are used to moments with zero-g and even extended periods of time. Most civilian vessels, personal or corporate, do not have any graviton generators, inertia subsystems, or gravity field systems at all. Those ships do not need to nullify the effects of inertia in day to day life, and the power generation required for systems like that are too intense for the civilian-quality fusion reactors. Only military vessels enjoy the luxury of these systems, and John spent the majority of his time onboard military ships that always provided a constant pull to the deck of the ship.

John enjoyed a few more moments of weightlessness as the hopper came to the station and began its docking maneuvers. It hadn’t taken long, the pilots being actually pretty professional in John’s eyes. As he transitioned to the station itself, he had to adjust for the .38-g’s the station was producing with its gravity generators. Utopia-Planitia was a military research shipyard, owned and operated by the Democratic States of Mars, and supported by funding from the Department of the Navy United Federation of Nations. It was a Martian station and the personnel who worked there were in a majority Martian. The station produced gravity equal to that of its planet it orbited. John had to activate the small magnetic plates on his combat boots to overcome his strong muscles in the lesser gravity to prevent him from overpowering his walk, and overcompensating.

The commander was not on the station long before a pair of very well-dressed Marines greeted John just outside the airlock. One of the Marines proudly wore the D.S.M.C, Democratic States Marine Corps, uniform, while his partner displayed the F.N.M.C, Federation Navy Marine Corps, uniform. They both displayed the same rank, Corporal, but the D.S.M.C officer seemed to be issuing the orders. That would be normal procedure during peace time, even unofficial. While the station is funded by the Federation, it still is owned by Mars and donned both the Federation and Martian flags. Onboard a Martian station, the Martian Marines took charge. However, in a combat situation the combat control always went to the senior-most Federation officer, regardless of what nation may have claim to the territory they were currently occupying.

“Sir,” saluted the young Martian Marine, while his companion followed suit. “Sir, I have orders to escort you to briefing room Charlie.”

“Do I have time to hit the head?” John didn’t really have to go, as he just relieved himself on the hopper an hour ago just before docking. He was naturally curious to test the seriousness of the summons.

“Negative, sir. Admiral Briggs needs to see you immediately,” The Federation Marine replied.

“Admiral Briggs? He has no authority here, why he is even here?”

“I’m not sure, sir, I’m just a grunt. They say ‘fetch’ so I just run and fetch.”

“Fair enough.” John didn’t argue with the Marine, he was speaking the truth. He had no reason to expect a corporal would have any information on the inner workings of any military setup.

The trip along the station was relatively short. John observed the workers of the station performing various duties and tasks, completely ignoring the visitor from Earth. He walked past an open window that gazed directly inside one of the enclosed drydocks. He was treated with a view of a battleship-sized starship still under construction. No information was given, John had accurately guessed the ship was a brand-new class of Battleship still awaiting its testing phase. On the other side of the corridor that connected the two primary dry docks, the windows were shut, only displaying the logo for the ship project that is currently occupying it. The shape of the ship had a slightly vaguely familiar look to it. John read the seal; F.W.S WarpStar SDDE-01.

At the end of the corridor and just to his left read Conference room C, which military personnel kindly dubbed, Charlie. It was directly adjacent to the sealed drydock, and by John’s best guess he was about to enter a briefing on the ship WarpStar, which he would be serving on.

“Sir!” the Marines just stated as they stood their post, just outside the door. John was not able to glance inside as the door remained closed until he walked up to it. The display next to the door quickly read the commander’s bio signs and immediately recognized the man and allowed him entry. He walked into an airlock-style corridor, as the doors behind him closed another laid directly in front of him awaiting to be released. Another set of security credential read an even deeper level of scan and took a few seconds longer to confirm the identity as Commander John Henderson then released with a loud audible ‘click’.

“Ah, here he is finally.” The indistinguishable voice of captain James Mahoney overpowered the room as the door swung open and allowed John passage inside the conference room. Along with Mahoney sat two admirals, a lieutenant, a civilian scientist and a commander. The commander and the civilian he had never seen before, but the admirals and the lieutenant he knew well. Sitting right in front was Admiral Marcus Briggs, Fleet Commander of the Federations First Fleet. On the sides of Admiral Briggs sat Admiral Nicholas Jackson, director of Research and Development Ship Construction, and his son Lieutenant Robert Jackson.

John had met Robert at a young age, when he entered the naval academy at fourteen. He was befriended by a very protective nineteen-year-old cadet well into his second year. They had formed a strong friendship at a young age but which ended abruptly when Robert was transferred a few years later to start working on a project with his father at Utopia-Planitia. Admiral Jackson had command control over the station for almost thirty years and has been credited in creating the most efficient and well-run shipyard in the fleet, beating the infamous Juggernaut construction facility orbiting Uranus. John had remembered his old friend, and had easily guessed, correctly again, that the project he was whisked away to work on was sitting right behind that observation window.

“Sir, reporting as requested, sir!” John stood at full attention and saluted the superior officers that stood in front of him.

“At ease, commander,” Admiral Jackson stated while returning the salute.

“Before we proceed, you need to sign this form here.” Admiral Briggs brought up what appeared to be a non-disclosure agreement that displayed brightly in a holographic form above the desk between the men. John did not hesitate, nor did he need to read much into it. This was an opportunity he wanted to participate in, no matter the legality involved. “Thank you, commander,” Briggs said as John completed the document.

“Well, John. This is it,” Mahoney started to tell his young pupil. “The day I have been talking about for years.”

“Sir? I don’t understand.”

“I have requested formal retirement. I’m done, son, I want to spend the remainder of my days on a tropical island, rooted to Earth, never to leave her grasp again!” the old Captain sat down, exhausted from many years of service.

John wanted to say ‘I thank you for your service, training, and many years of mentorship. You have been there for me more times than I can count.’ But before he could speak Admiral Briggs started to speak. “We are going to keep as much of the Avenger’s enlisted crew under your command. As you worked with them, you know their strengths and weaknesses. However, your new assignment is much smaller than a Dreadnaught, so it will be reduced.”

“Who’s going to be the new C.O.?” John asked, ignoring the stab in the back by downsizing his old crew.

Admiral Briggs took out a black leather-bound box, with the United Federation of Nations logo etched in gold and John’s name embroiled below it. The Admiral opened the box, and John’s eyes grew wide. “John Henderson, with great recommendation by your previous Commanding Officers, and extemporary service records that include dedication and loyalty to not only the Federation itself, but to the men and women under your command. With the authority granted to me by the Department of the Navy, I hereby grant you the rank of captain and all the rights, and privileges thereof.”

John stood quicker than the admiral could blink and shot his arm up so quickly Mahoney thought he heard the bones break in his arm. He held his salute firm, and without any sign of weakness and simply replied “Thank you, sir. It is an honor!”

“Don’t thank me.” Admiral Briggs stood and returned the salute, signaling both men to place their arms down. “If James hadn’t of twisted my arm..” Briggs trailed off with a smile while glancing at the old captain.

“Shit, Marcus, I’m done. I’m cooked.” The old man wanted to stand but chose to stay seated. “This is a young man’s game now. And what you wanted me to do, I’m no young man. John is the man you want.”

“Jim, you’re seventy-four years old. You are a young man.” Briggs let out a slight chuckle. “I’m one hundred and fifty, and I can run circles around you!”

“Don’t pester me with that medical voodoo shit. It’s not natural. Men are not built to live past a hundred.”

Medical advances over the last century have grown almost to an exponential level. By 2050 regulations were enacted to prevent the pharmaceutical companies from making a profit from the sick, and heavily invested in technologies and techniques to extend human life. Cancer was completely eradicated in less than a year, in part due to the majority of the research was already completed but the treatment was blocked by the healthcare industry. By the 2120s, tissue regeneration was ready for consumer use, eliminating the need for painful skin grafts and restoring quality of life for burn victims. Limb regeneration and regrowth was possible by 2175. By the end of 2250, the average human lifespan was peaking at 180.

James Mahoney was one of the few who did not believe in the majority of the medical advances that have come long before him and chose to live a life as natural as he could while traversing the stars. His doctors blame his lifestyle on the reason he was overweight for someone who lives in space.

“Yea, because going from planet to planet on a tin can powered by a controlled nuclear reaction is natural,” Admiral Jackson rudely interrupted, not caring or enjoying the friendly banter between old friends.

“Yes, let’s continue.” Admiral Briggs paid no attention to the interruption, shrugging off the rude behavior and the look of disgust on the ‘old man’s’ face. “This is Admiral Jackson, and his son, Lieutenant Jackson.” John just nodded in the direction of Robert, remembering his first friend from the Academy. “The admiral is in charge of shipbuilding research and development, and his son has been the project lead for the WarpStar project for quite a few years.”

“So, that’s where you ran off to,” John interrupted, making a quirky remark to his old friend, someone he had not heard of in almost twenty years.

“Yeah, this is what I have been doing for all this time.” Robert didn’t produce a smile. Instead his face told a tale of worry, and betrayed his attempt to hide how upset he was. John caught this and had wondered why his old friend would be upset, to any degree.

“And to your right,” Briggs gestured to his left and in front, pointing his chin towards the commander sitting beside John. The man looked to be in his late fifties, with medical technology John had assumed he was instead in his triple digits. “This is Commander Charles O’Connell, he’s an ex-Submariner. U.S. Navy.”

“Nice to meet you sir,” Charles gave the new captain a firm salute. “I served last aboard the U.S.S. Michigan. I hope my skillset can help with your command structure.”

John stared at the man, confused and unable to form a coherent sentence. “I’m sorry, no offense, but.” John stared at his new executive officer, then turned to Admiral Briggs to finish his statement. “A Submarine commander? An actual... Submarine? That goes... You know… underwater?” He made motions on his hands that looked like a plane pointing downwards. Charles instantly recognized it as him mocking the movements of a dive plane on one of his subs, but to everyone else, it was a flat hand going downward.

Charles was an older man, but not elderly. In his mid-fifties, he has enjoyed a long career in the Navy, the United States Navy. As a commander in rank, he was captain of the U.S.S. Minneapolis, a Dakota class Nuclear Fusion Attack Submarine. With the war reaching into space, and resources so abundant in the void, sea-based navies became less relevant. Charles, who wanted to advance his career, did what most navy officers do, apply for a transfer to the Federation Navy that solely operates in space. Unlike most U.S. Navy officers, Charles got accepted. From application to first space flight, it took him five years to qualify for duty aboard a starship. Charles has far more experience in the military, especially commanding a crew, but far less space experience than John.

“And this, finally, is Doctor Anders Søviknes. He has created what we call a game changer,” Briggs continued, ignoring the questions John kept pestering about the new commander. “This is what we are calling the first true, Faster than Light drive engine.” John’s mouth dropped as he looked at the diagram and technical details of the main engine core, and its ability to encase the ship into a field to push it faster than the boundaries of light. “This is the first ship we have installed it on, we chose this design for several obvious reasons.” John read the report displayed on the desk in front of him, failing to see the reasons the ‘WarpStar’ was the obvious choice.

Admiral Briggs stood up, and pressed a button on a panel behind him, the blast doors in front of John began to lift. The wall that was behind the admirals slowly transformed into a visible glass window revealing the ship tucked away in drydock, the WarpStar herself. John stood; eyes grew wider as he saw the ship being unveiled to him. Impatiently waiting as the impossibly slow blast doors creaked and struggled to lift, John walked closer to the window to steal a peek as the blast doors got higher than halfway and he saw everything he needed to see.

“So, that is why you left,” is all John said, staring at the ship. His words directed to only one person in the room, and that person was the only one who knew who John was talking too.

“Yeah,” Robert Jackson let out a loud sigh as his gaze hit the floor.

“Tell me. Why?” John walked away from the window, now looking directly at the lieutenant in charge of building this ship.

“You have to understand, you threw the designs away.”

“After being told they were a waste of time, non-viable. Useless.” John scowled. He knew the ship well, almost every bolt of it. Despite never actually seeing the ship in person, or ever knowing of its existence, he still knew the ship very intimately. He had designed the ship as part of his academy class project. When he was fourteen years old, his engineering instructor had informed John that the ship was useless and failed him on the project. The only failing grade he ever got in the academy. Robert knew the designs were more than viable, they were extraordinary. Behind John’s back he presented the plans to his father, who quickly greenlit the project and had his son supervise. The ship did not make any real headway until Dr. Anders Søviknes had somehow gotten ahold of the plans. Part of the ship’s design, and part of the reason it failed, was it was powered by a new theoretical power core. A power generation process that was so efficient, it was able to power an entire continent on Earth. The problem was the technology to build it did not exist. Doctor Anders Søviknes had seen an opportunity, and somehow the core itself had the ability to power his theoretical F.T.L drive.

“Don’t worry, captain,” Admiral Jackson interrupted. “No one stole credit from you. Your name is on the design slip.” The admiral set the display to show John’s name on the blueprints.

“Why a Warship?” Charles spoke up, looking at the plans of the F.T.L drive in his personal datapad.

“What are you implying, Commander?” Admiral Jackson nearly snapped at the man, venom dripping from his lips with eyes ready to destroy anything threatening it.

“I’m not implying anything, sir, I am just curious. Why a Warship?” Everyone in the room looked at the Ex United States Navy Captain. John had wondered the same thing but didn’t ask it in time. “Seriously, hear me out. We now have the technology to travel the stars, to truly explore the cosmos. We can transport anything, anywhere without needing a Hyperspace address. So, why not put it on an exploration vessel? Or a fleet of colony ships?”

“It’s as simple as funding,” Dr. Søviknes spoke up with his thick Norwegian accent.

“Doctor!” Admiral Jackson interrupted the man, venom now flowing from his mouth while the veins in his face pulsed with each drip.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, Admiral,” John looked over at the doctor, impressed he had the courage to speak that way to the head of Naval Research and Development himself. Admiral Jackson opened his mouth, began to protest when the doctor cut him off again. “These men are going to command the ship. They deserve to know. Besides, do you honestly think they haven’t already figured it out?” Everyone in the room was speechless. “Common sense is a skill in today’s world, gentlemen. For these two men to achieve high command ranks, they have to have at least a slim amount of it. And for you to think they do not have any, speaks volumes on your own common-sense level.”

John couldn’t help but release an audible laugh. He had caught himself, and made it a brief outburst, but was still unable to completely control his amusement. “It has everything to do with cost, captain,” Doctor Søviknes continued. “My research firm did not have the resources required to build something of this magnitude. The Navy did. It’s as simple as that.”

Admiral Jackson crossed his arms, and a big smile gleamed over his face in approval. The Norwegian doctor made something so sinister sound harmless, especially coming from a civilian outside the military gave it tremendous weight. Charles just nodded his head in acceptance, understanding the answer and being okay with it.

“But why a Warship?” John asked again, knowing there was more to the story.

“Captain, I do believe you are out of line,” Admiral Briggs scowled at John.

“Go on..” Admiral Jackson added, his eyes locked on John’s, analyzing the man in front of him.

“Seriously, the Navy has research vessels. We do expeditions all the time in system, and out of system. This project seems better suited on a Navy Exploration ship, not a Warship.”

“I bet you are one of those no bullshit type people, aren’t you?” Admiral Jackson asked, leaning on the desk between them.

“I like to think I am,” John replied.

“I bet you that you already have it figured out, don’t you?”

“I have my theories, sir.”

The Admiral just let out a burst of laughter, looking at both Marcus and James while pointing his finger at John. “Ha! This guy over here. You found a real winner!”

“Get to the point, Jackson,” Admiral Briggs had an unamused look on his face as he crossed his arms displaying his frustration.

“Alright, young man, let’s see if you guessed right. You tell me why then.” The Admiral initiated a challenge to John. One that John accepted without hesitation.

“It’s the war, isn’t it? We have no idea where the Russian planet is. Or how many they have. Without a Hyperspace address, we cannot get there and we can’t afford the many hundreds of years it would take to send a ship there at relativistic speeds. So, you slap this drive on a Destroyer, use a design that’s built for stealth and turn her into a stalker. That explains the Submarine executive officer. Utilize his tactics that he has gained over the years with stealth and apply it to reconning the Republic planet, then we strike.” John had a satisfied look on his face, one that Mahoney wish he could wipe off his old pupil.

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason why this kid is on the Intel watchlist!” Admiral Jackson had a smile on his face, one that hid his emotions well.

“Watchlist?” John asked, looking around the room.

“You’re too damn smart for your own good.” Jackson gave in and admitted the overall plan to the room. “It’s classified, just as strongly as the ship and the project is, but that is your ultimate goal.”

“So, what’s our immediate mission?” O’Connell felt the need to break the game being played between his superior officers, getting tired of the time being wasted in a conference room. Anxious to start his duties onboard an actual starship for the first time in his career.

“Straight to the point!” replied Jackson. “I like it!”

“Your mission right out of the gate is to test the F.T.L Drive Outside of a system,” Briggs began the briefing. “You are to make a Hyperspace jump to Sirius and perform a routine inspection of the mining operations there. Once your cooldown is completed, you are to again jump to Bernard’s Star.”

“There’s nothing out there?” O’Connell interrupted, not used to having a commanding Officer between him and the Fleet Admiral.

“Exactly, no prying eyes to watch your next step. Once you have confirmed there is nothing in the system, you are to activate your F.T.L en-route to Orion.”

“It should take us about four weeks to get from Bernard’s to Orion,” Doctor Søviknes added.

John had to make a mental laugh to himself. Four weeks to travel to a system that would normally be instantaneous to him on a normal circumstance. He could book passage from Earth, to Sirius, to Orion and back and have completed the trip more times than it would take the WarpStar to complete. But in the grand scheme of the universe, four weeks was insanely fast. Bernard’s Star to Orion is almost 200 light years away. Without the use of any sort of faster than light technology, it would take a ship close to a thousand years to traverse the distance, and the WarpStar was estimated to do it in four weeks. After the absurdity of taking an extended long trip to Orion passed, John was in absolute awe at the vast possibilities this drive has opened up. Any star within reach, just a few days or weeks away. Hyper-buoy or not, nothing would be further than their reach.

“Us?” John remarked, noticing the use of the word by the Norwegian Doctor.

“Yes, I will be joining you on this trip. Do you honestly think I would pass something like this up?”

“Sir, I must protest,” John interrupted. “He is a civilian, and this ship is a Destroyer. We don’t have the room or resources.”

“John,” Admiral Jackson decided to interrupt. “He is our leading expert on the drive. Obviously. He invented it. We need hard data for later production lines, and if anything goes wrong he’s the best one to fix it.”

John had conceded, after all, the Admiral had a valid point. This was a relatively untested technology that no one had experience in, the Norwegian scientist would be the best man to fix the drive if something were to fail. “Under one condition,” he added.

“And what would that be?” The doctor was the only one to respond, as all the military minds in the room already knew what the captain was thinking.

“He trains with the crew and serves a damage control position closest to his posting.”

“Oh, fuck no!” he began to protest. “I’m a scientist, not a sailor!”

“Doctor,” John had interrupted with a smile on his face. “You can’t bullshit me. I don’t deal well with bullshitters.” John stood up and crossed his arms, facing the abrasive scientist who had jabbed the director of research and development to the point of being speechless just a few minutes ago.

“Not up for debate, doctor!”

“Nope…” The Norwegian began to say while being interrupted by John again.

“Listen, doc. A Destroyer is a small ship. We won’t have the luxury of endless space like you see on a Capital Ship. So, our resources are limited, this includes personnel. In the event of an emergency, every person onboard needs to pitch in to repair the damage. This could mean life or death for the entire ship.”

The doctor just stared at John for a long minute, scenarios flowing through his mind on what the captain could mean by “emergency.” When his brain could not produce a situation that was at least somewhat favorable to the scientist, he looked at the two admirals in the room, hoping one of them would overrule the captain.

“Sorry, doc, it’s his ship,” Admiral Jackson replied to the gaze.

“And he has a valid point,” added Admiral Briggs. “Space is very limited on a Destroyer. They do not have the luxuries of automated Damage Control Systems.”

Dread came over the doctor’s face. He had two options presented to him. The first was his dream but with a pretty hefty catch. Explore the universe in a ship with near-unlimited travel potential, using a technology that he developed, but be subjected to military training and getting dirty repairing the ship. Or, the alternative, not going at all and missing out on the adventure of a lifetime. Anders did not take long to decide, he spent decades developing this technology, he was not going to let some intern with a complex get to take his place. Whatever the cost, whatever the training, he would do to secure his place onboard the ship.

John took a few steps to the observation window once again, while the admirals and the scientist went over training schedules, requirements, and routines. He marveled at the WarpStar, the ship he had dreamt up, and designed. A project he thought would never be built. In front of him at her full glory was the most advanced Destroyer the Navy has ever produced. John was impressed by the level of detail from his design, even copying the dark black paint on the exterior of the ship. The WarpStar was designed for stealth, as John’s initial idea for the ship was to give the Federation a fast-heavy attack scout. A ship that could sneak up on its enemy, and delivery devastating blows before ever being targeted back. Since the development of the new F.T.L Drive, the Navy had other ideas for the ship, but still kept the stealth properties as they enhanced its overall mission.

The WarpStar was larger than a Frigate, and even larger than a destroyer but not as big as a standard Cruiser, thus the Navy gave her a new class designation: WarpStar Class Exploration Destroyer. The Navy’s Engineering core had several debates over the ship designation, their choices were an Exploration Destroyer, or Combat Destroyer. Combat Destroyer lost for a few obvious reasons. The terms ‘Combat’ and ‘Destroyer’ were a bit redundant when describing the ship. To add to the redundancy, the Navy did not have any actual deep space exploration ships. With current faster than light technologies, the ships were limited to destinations that were already known, making actual exploration of the cosmos a near impossible feat. There was also the matter of the continued war with the Russian Republic, the Navy’s vast resources is concentrated on the construction of warships in order to assure continued safety of the citizens of the Federation. The WarpStar was the first ship, truly built for exploration, combat, and defense.

It only took a few minutes for the rest of the men to leave the room, everyone except for Robert Jackson, the project’s lead developer. John’s old academy friend stayed behind to marvel at the product of his labor with him.

“How did you do this? Why?” John finally took his gaze away from the starship and focused his attention solely on Robert.

“They would never had gone with it.”

“Who?”

“The Senate, and the appropriations committee. You know, the people in charge of distributing resources,” the pair finally sat down after the lieutenant handed a glass of what appeared to be liquor to the commander.

“How did you know I like scotch?”

“Just because I haven’t seen you in twenty years does not mean I don’t keep tabs on those who I care about!”

“So, you do have a conscience….” John spat out as he sipped his flavorful scotch.

“I tried; I really did. It did not matter how many PhD’s you had at fourteen years old, they did not want an immature kid designing a starship.” Robert cringed a bit while taking a sip of his scotch.

“So you had your father spearhead the project?”

“Exactly. Besides, I did not have to do any convincing.”

“If I remember correctly, your father was a bit of a hard ass.”

“He still is, but he knew those plans were something special. He recognized genius. So, he led the operation until I had enough rank to take over the project, but we hit a brick wall about ten years ago. By then production on the WarpStar had already begun, but we couldn’t solve the power core issue.”

Robert took a long pause while enjoying more of the whiskey. “Your plans were incomplete.”

“Yeah, I know. I couldn’t figure out how to solve the absorption ratio.”

“No, believe it or not that was just a simple fix, your original hypothesis was written wrong. The variable of one point seven terajoules should have been point one seven terajoules, after we found that mistake the calculations were perfect!”

“Well, son of a bitch!” John replied with a look of shock. “How did I miss something stupid like that?”

“It happens to the best of us!” he said, offering another drink to his former best friend

“So what was the issue?”

“Believe it or not, the fuel was off. You had theorized that by using a gas, like hydrogen or helium, we could easily create Positrons in our particle accelerators, but that caused the deaths of twenty-five scientists.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” The thought of lives being lost over research that he had hypothesized made him sick to his stomach.

“It was a tragedy, sure, but it caught the attention of another scientist. Doctor Anders Søviknes, a Norwegian professor in theoretical physics. He had access to a rare metal that was discovered ten years prior in the asteroid belt in the Orion System.”

“How was he able to gain access to the research?”

“He had clearance; he was working on a separate project for the navy at the time. But, turns out this metal that was rare at the time, is in massive abundance in Orion, and we just recently discovered its abundance in Alpha-Centauri as well.”

“What’s the properties of the metal?”

“I have not a clue, all I know is when subjected to the same tests he found the metal produces Positrons in vast quantities.”

“Is it efficient to produce?” John replied, unable to contain his excitement.

“Insanely,” Robert had a gigantic smile, knowing John’s brain was firing all sorts of ideas around.

“Shield systems, energy weapons, all can be powered and intensified beyond imagination!” John started to ramble. “We cannot let the Russians know about this.” He quickly snapped to reality.

“That’s not even the tip of the iceberg.” The smile on Robert’s face grew to its widest point yet. John noticed and developed a concerned look of curiosity.

“And how is that?”

“Weapons and Shields are insignificant compared to what the good doctor has cooked up.”

“The F.T.L drive!” the light bulb turned on finally in John’s head.

“Bingo! He found the power output and something to do with the wavelengths of the radiation being produced fit his work like a puzzle. It lit up his work like a Christmas tree.”

It was John’s dream ever since he was a kid to explore the cosmos. Actually explore it, go to places in the universe that no man has ventured before. A dream that was previously unobtainable due to the vast distances between solar systems, a dream that John finally realized he will get to live. And better yet, he would command the most important ship ever to be built in human history!