Chapter 1-1: Call Me Zed

--Much earlier--

My name is Zedekiah Aldrin but you can just call me Zed. I’m currently on board the space station Radiance locked in orbit around Mars waiting for my mother, Rem Aldrin.

She’s a kind, gentle woman who’s raised me mostly by herself as Dad’s nearly always off planet for his job. For as long as I can remember she’s worked as a nurse, which is how she met Dad, invariably running around in an almost annoyingly bright and chipper mood.

She’s always encouraged me to be whatever I want and is the type to let me figure things out myself rather than show or tell me directly, and for the last six months we’ve been off Terra, where I was born, moving all around the Martian colonies. Because of this I’ve been with her even more than usual lately. Not even sure if I find her mood endearing or aggravating anymore.

As for my father, Paul Aldrin, he’s a stoic man who’s taken care of us since I can remember. Not much for small talk and his sense of humor is a bit… irritating, but he’s always been there for us and provided for our well-being.

He believes firmly in his holiness the God Emperor’s teachings that it is mankind’s destiny to spread out amidst the universe and tame the vast unknown stars of outer space.

Today we’ll be leaving along with my father for the Delta Pavonis star system. Dad told me it’s just less than 20 light years away from Terra.

As for why we’re going there, it’s part of the latest wave of colonization fronted by the United Terran Empire under the explicit command of the God Emperor of Mankind, may His Divinity live eternally. After the unification and the founding of the UTE 166 years ago he’s greatly funded research towards interstellar travel and technologies that may propel mankind to our birthright among the stars.

Ever since I could read I’ve been fascinated by tales of exploration and humanities spread through galaxy that’s been enabled by these new technologies. Going to alien worlds and planets of all types has always tickled my imagination; exploring all of space as a brave starship captain in the UTE or staking it out on my own as a freelancing bounty hunter.

It’s all quite romantic if you ask me.

Anyway, from the moment spacetime warp gate technology was first invented in 2357 until today it has been perfected to the point where it can now be used to jump tens of light years in a single heartbeat.

The UTE’s colonization exploded with funding and manpower after the first successful multi-light year warp jump in 2395. The subsequent colonization of the first extra-solar star system with a habitable planet in 2399 with the founding of Eden solidified our place in the galaxy.

It is now 2424 A.D. and the colony ship my family will be travelling on is the second one to set out so far in this Terran year alone. It has been dubbed the Vulcan’s Hammer and its mission is to colonize Pavonis Prime, the fifth planet in the Delta Pavonis system.

Speaking of Pavonis Prime, I’ve been reading about it over the past year since Dad told me we’d be going there to live. It’s been known to harbor primitive alien life for about 10 years but this is to be the first full scale colonization, primarily because of the extremely harsh environment and wildlife.

There are massive mammalian-like quadrupeds all over the surface of the planet, which is mostly land with only a single large ocean. These animals are said to be extraordinarily ferocious and according to some of the early planetary scouting records I read some of the scouts were… well, eaten whole.

As bad as these animals sound, they’re the least of our worries. Worse are the man-eating plants and extremely dense jungles, not to mention the invasive microorganisms that we have little to no natural protection against; some of them can literally liquefy eternal organs, which happened to one of the scouts unlucky enough to have a suit breach. All in all it sounds like a lovely place to live.

We won’t have much to worry about though as the Vulcan’s Hammer is equipped with a large habitation module to shield us from the dangers of the planet until we can tame it.

I’ve never been further away from Earth than Mars before and now I’ll be 20 light years away on an alien planet! Maybe we’ll even find intelligent alien life and befriend them. There really are endless possibilities out there.

Man, I can’t wait for Mom to get here so we can board the Vulcan’s Hammer and make our way through the Sol-Delta Pavonis gate. There’s an entire new solar system to see and explore beyond that gate with a sun that isn’t the one I’ve looked up and seen all my life. Though I’m told Delta Pavonis looks much like our own sun only slightly brighter, so I suppose that won’t be much different.

As I’m pondering all the adventures that I might have in the future I hear my mother call out “You ready to board, Zed? Dad is on the bridge preparing the ship and he said we could go on up to watch during departure.”

“Sweet!” I practically yell as I leap up and grab the luggage I have with me and follow Mom towards the Vulcan’s Hammer.

Oh yeah, did I forgot to mention? Best of all is that my father, Paul Aldrin, is the captain of the Vulcan’s Hammer! He used to be in the United Terran Imperial Navy piloting military craft, but he retired from that when I was born. Now he only pilots non-combat craft for the UTE; primarily colony scouting, supply, and mining vessels. He’s been training these last few years to lead this colonization effort.

As I follow behind Mom to board the Vulcan’s Hammer I get a side view of the ship through the windows lining the hallway. The entire ship is painted a bright shining white. I can see the bridge atop the large crescent-shaped forward section of the ship. The points of the crescent sweep back towards the rear of the ship making it look something like a weird hammerhead shark.

The center of the ship is a long rectangle with a neck connecting the center section to the bridge section. Below the rectangular center section is the civilian habitation module; it’s shaped like a large dome. Also jutting off from the sides of the center section are stubby pylons connecting the oblong impulse drives to the ship.

I read about these impulse drives in class last year. They’re called the Anemoi Mark III and are capable of propelling the ship at an astonishing 0.1 c (roughly 30,000 kilometers per second) to soar through entire solar systems in mere days.

On the rear of the ship is also an incredibly massive, white jumble of machinery being towed. I recognize these as the various parts of a warp gate that has yet to be assembled. These parts are the other half of the mission for the Vulcan’s Hammer. They will be left in orbit around Pavonis Prime while the main body of the ship lands on the planet permanently to found the first colony.

It couldn’t be called a particularly graceful ship, but I was filled with wonder as I looked at it. To my eyes it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. As soon as I’m old enough to do so I plan on entering an imperial piloting school to train as a starship pilot. Hopefully I can be a CO on an imperial starcruiser someday!

I feel a tap on my shoulder. “Terra to Zed. You in there? Daydreaming about starships again?” Mom asks.

“M-maybe….” I mumble.

“Well you almost walked straight into that advertising hub.” She informs me, and then says “Ah, here’s the boarding dock for the Hammer. Come on.”

After walking through the docking airlock we make our way through the ship and onto the bridge where Dad is.

“Zed’s daydreaming about being a starship captain like you again.” Mom teases me by telling Dad.

“Only 12 and already ready to conquer the galaxy, eh?” He chuckles to himself as he turns around.

“Hey there little guy, haven’t seen you for a while.” Dad greets me with his usual grin, and then looks me up and down. “Sheesh, did you already get taller again? At this rate you’ll be catching up to me!” He kids with me.

Don’t think I’ll be up to his height anytime soon. Dad still towers over me at 198 cm while I’m still barely over 155 cm.

“Very funny Dad, you saw me yesterday.” I reply with a smirk then ask “Will we be leaving soon? I can’t wait to see Pavonis Prime; is the wildlife really as dangerous as they say?”

“Well yes, it is. But you won’t be seeing any of it, at least not up close. You and your mother will be nice and safe aboard the Hammer or the habitation dome.”

“And as for departing.” He continues, answering my first question “Soon as the last colonist’s finish boarding and strap in we’ll make our way to the gate. Should be any minute now, you two were among the last ones.”

After about 20 minutes on the bridge the chief officer informs us that all colonists have officially reported in and the last of the supplies have finished loading.

Dad gives the command: “Uncouple from the loading dock. Helm, proceed at 1/100th impulse until we get within twenty-five thousand kilometers of the gate, then slow to 1/2000th impulse over the next twenty thousand kilometers. Let’s ease ourselves through that gate.”

I can see the gate getting larger and larger as the Vulan’s Hammer makes its way towards it. The appearance is a large, almost featureless ring 3.5 km in diameter with a beautiful, smooth white luster to it. The only obvious modules I can see from this distance are the control centers dotted around the exterior of the ring and the three large humps that hold the matter-antimatter reactors that power it.

The ring seems to be powering up as the warp gate connects through spacetime. Just as the bridge passes through the rim of the gate I can glimpse the edge of Delta Pavonis through the tunnel, it really is a star much like Sol.

As I’m captivated with the sight of this alien star and the ship further enters the tunnel I suddenly hear the communications officer yelling in a panicked tone, “Captain! Control says the gate is failing! We have to reverse the thrust before it closes around us!“

“What?!” My father practically roars before he gives the command to reverse the ship in an attempt to get us out of the spacetime warp tunnel before it collapses.

Meanwhile I’m just standing here a bit stupid not knowing what to do as I feel the ships impulse kick in to reverse and almost fall flat on my face.

The g-forces of a ship almost instantly reversing impulse at a speed of 0.00005c are significant even with inertial dampening. I look over to check the external navigation monitors and it looks like about three quarters of the ship is still inside the gate.

“If the gate collapses too soon the bow compartments of the ship will be sheared off! All non-vital personal go towards the stern sections!” Dad continues giving commands then turns to Mom beside me and says, “Rem, take Zed to the rear living quarters, it’s the most reinforced section of the ship.” then orders me, “Son, follow your mother. Now. Go!”

Just as he finishes I hear the communications officer screaming again, “Shit, SHIT, SHITSHITSHIT it’s too late! I-it’s closing NOW!”

I can hear more cursing as my mother grabs me to leave, followed by an incredibly loud tearing sound, like a saw cutting through feet of steel in an instant.

Then everything seems to turn silent and my vision goes blurry.

Moments later everything comes back into focus as a loud roaring sound invades my ears like wind rapidly rushing past accompanied by the sound of cracking metal. My Father rushes over to shield me and Mom as my mind starts becoming fuzzy like I’m not getting enough oxygen.

The last thing I see as I look through the front bridge window before I lose consciousness is… blue sky?