CHAPTER 5 - ACCELERANT

DATE POINT: DECEMBER 15th, 6 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, EARTH, NEVADA DESERT BLACK SITE S21

CAPTAIN HENRY O’TOOLE

“Good morning!” Someone had jumped in his bed, causing Henry to reflexively snap awake, ready to fight. Once his eyes adjusted and he realized who it was, he relaxed immediately.

“Good morning Ariana.” Henry said as he brushed the sleep from his eyes and looked over at the alarm clock in confusion. A quarter to five, not bad compared to his last week full of oh three hundred wake up calls. He had overslept, must have turned off the alarm. That was unlike him. Henry’s brain hurt from a week spent rushing through impromptu classes prepared by less than enthusiastic teachers pulled from their normal jobs. Cramming combined with a lack of sleep was a hell of a combo, so he gave himself a small break for the lapse.

“Hello Henry.” Ariana said with a small smile before she looked him up and down slowly.

Suddenly, Henry found himself very aware of only wearing boxers with a beautiful woman in his bed, so he pulled the sheets back to cover himself a little more

“Oh relax, you men need to realize that not everything is about sex.” Ariana rolled her eyes. “You are cute, but that is hardly enough for me by itself, before you get any ideas. Now listen, I have been sent to collect you so get ready, the Special Delivery has been cleared for exo-atmo flight and she's fully serviced and provisioned. We leave in an hour and we meet in the mess, now get ready!”

Near as fast as she had come, she was gone, leaving Henry even more confused about what to think about her than before. He shook it off and got himself dressed and packed, a duffel over each shoulder. He then met Ariana in the mess hall and was joined by Paul a moment later.

“Follow me, this way.” Paul said, beckoning them both onward through multiple sterile corridors to the elevator which they rode upwards to the main cavern in silence. The guard that had been his shadow the whole week leaned against the corner looking bored. Finally, the doors opened at the top and they were ushered into a car where Dr Rousseau and Dr Washington joined them.

Inside the car, Chantal and Ariana made small talk while Dr Rousseau worked silently on a tablet he held. Henry really didn’t feel like talking to Paul, and the feeling seemed mutual enough, so the ride continued mostly in silence for them. Most of the buildings that could be seen through the obnoxiously tinted windows were mostly nondescript buildings, but their route by the end took them past some hangars, most of which were closed, much to his chagrin, as he had been curious as to what they held. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw something bright and silver through a closing hangar bay door. He looked over at Paul, who had apparently noticed the same thing.

“Some things even I don’t have the clearance to know about, and that is all I am going to say on that topic.” Paul said with finality, leaving Henry to puzzle over the topic. Was that a… Nah. Couldn't be.

The car stopped with a lurch in front of a small train station that was hardly more than a platform, some benches and an MP behind glass panels checking identification in a small booth. A two-car train sat parked with its doors open. Henry understood the clear message and shouldered his bags, heading towards the open doors and to submit to yet another security screen.

They rode that train for almost an hour before it let out into a different cavern complex entirely. This one had more giant machinery and what looked like a pair of LFTR cores along with a whole set of power conversion and transmission equipment. The other side of the cavern had a huge oval tunnel cut from the rock and was smoothed out and paved over, with an end point so far out it was not visible to Henry. Two massive rails were embedded into opposite walls of the oval tunnel, which had a large platform below it and had S27 painted upon the side. Upon the platform, the Special Delivery sat, clamped into a massive iron cradle. Two large robotic arms held onto T-shaped iron posts that jutted from either side.

“What am I looking at?” Henry asked, extremely confused.

“Nothing much really, just a reusable two-piece sabot custom-made for our ship type that allows it to be fired from the world’s longest rail gun.” Paul answered nonchalantly.

“You expect me to get in that thing after what you just said?”

“How else are we going to escape Earth’s gravity well without alerting space traffic control’s gravity wave sensors? Our manifest twin is scheduled to leave again next week under legitimate pretexts, but we need to go now. It’s perfectly safe, we send supplies out to S33 and other sites this way all the time, so quit your bellyaching. It’s only a six gee acceleration while on the rail. You’re a navy guy, you can handle it.” Paul said with smug victory in his voice.

“Six gees is fine, you should feel combat maneuvers sometime, it will show you what real acceleration feels like. It gets really fun when you are also adding lateral gee forces while course correcting to avoid incoming fire.”

“Let’s hope for both of our sake that we can avoid that in our communal future.” Paul said, clearly uncomfortable for once.

“What’s the matter, are your sea legs weak or something?” Henry pushed the attack.

“No, I just hate not feeling in control of what is happening. At least on the ground I can better affect the situation, in space I am at the mercy of a million things that are completely out of my control. I don’t like it.”

“At least your finally being honest about something. The cure for that is a rock solid faith in your crewmen and in the relentless paranoia built into good old fashioned human engineering.” Henry retorted, remembering all too well having to deal with those same anxieties when he first joined up.

Taking his own advice, Henry ascended the gangplank first and stowed his bags before he rode the quick lift up to the third deck and settled into his acceleration couch.

“Where does the end of this barrel let out, anyway?”

“I think in some barren wasteland in what used to be Wyoming if I remember right. Nothing about and nobody to complain out there for hundreds of kilometers.” Paul just laughed as he replied. Henry felt more queasy, he still remembered watching news coverage of the abandonment of the west as viable living space after the bombardments.

“We have a green light to launch, in five, four, three, two, one…” Jessie said over the speakers before everyone was sucked back into their seats as they accelerated hard as they screamed down the rails. Just as Henry felt the blackness encroaching, they escaped from the barrel with a sonic boom and a rough jerk forwards into their restraints. External cameras showed them clearing to orbit over the course of a few minutes before they dashed out of Earth’s gravity well somewhere over the north pole. After several hours of flying under momentum and micro-gravity, they finally began to slowly accelerate using their TK drive as they passed detection range of all known sensor nets around Earth.

“Right now, the very last of your crew are making their way to S33 from places all over the solar system. Every one of them is picked from similar backgrounds, war orphans, loners, extreme NAU patriots, anyone we could clear as having nothing to lose, nobody to leak information to, and for being an ideological fit. Just like you, most received falsified orders, though most have been recruited from other means. We will spend about two weeks traveling to S33 at a reasonable 1.5 gees. Once we arrive we will have you meet your crew, and you can begin assignments and drills. We have a six week shakedown cycle planned that will help you train up fleet cohesion and get people accustomed to their roles before you will begin the first manned out of system FTL test flight in human history.”

“Just six weeks for a new ship type? We Have tested this method before with like probes and such, right?” Henry asked, suddenly a little alarmed.

“Of course, we have! Don’t worry, we know exactly what we are doing.” Paul replied smugly.

“Wait a second, you said two weeks at one point five gees. Just how far out is S33 from Earth, anyway?”

“Oh, just about 40 AU, it’s in the Kuiper belt, as nobody has claimed territory that far yet, so the NAU expects to have it all to ourselves for decades at the very minimum. We actually have a pretty aggressive drone mining fleet out there, and substantial in situ processing capacity. We expect to be able to mass produce warp gate and complex fleet components on site with increasing complexity in the next five years out there and to be able to sustain a substantial population in O’Neill cylinders camouflaged with asteroid rock ready for work and colonization efforts.”

“You are really serious about this breakaway civilization concept, aren’t you?” Henry asked, humbled by the scale of the operation he was stepping into the middle of.

“Absolutely, as we mentioned, it is mostly as an insurance policy, but the rest of the world likely wouldn’t see it that way. If we can preserve a remnant of the human race in one or more off the books colonies with a ban on the use of high powered radio, that is our best chance of survival should the giants return with more than an expeditionary force and should they overpower our more obvious defenses in Sol.”

“Makes sense, I just wonder if this won’t come back to bite us in the ass if it ever leaks out before we are ready.”

“That, Henry, is why we are being so picky with our recruiting. Loose lips sink ships. Or in this case, they'll kill our best chance at securing mankind’s survival before it has a chance to establish a firm root. That is the burden of command sometimes, having to partition knowledge when its widespread release threatens the larger plan.” Henry had some slightly different thoughts on the matter, but there was no arguing with the intelligence community when it came to the value of the compartmentalization of information. Henry smirked, just how had his life become so strange, so quickly?

“So, why are we bringing the two doctors along for the ride with us anyway?” Henry asked as he looked over at the pair on the other side of the crew compartment. Chantal had caught his eyes, having been looking already, before she looked away in seeming embarrassment.

“Chantal is here to make sure that the C.L.A.P.P.E.R is running at tip top shape and has volunteered to join the mission as a civilian contractor, Alphonse is returning to his lab at S37 with a short layover at S33 before he departs.”

“He did mention that he was based elsewhere, didn’t he?” Paul merely nodded.

Henry sat up, walked over to the galley, and placed and a coffee pouch into the dispenser before making himself a cup and securing the lid. He sipped the beverage and looked over the people he would be cooped up with for the next two weeks and resigned himself to it. He felt a presence for a moment before realizing Ariana had somehow snuck up next to him without his knowledge. She narrowed her eyes, cocked her head to the side and smiled.

“Would you make me one too pretty please?” She flashed her canines for a second in an open tooth smile before raising her eyebrows twice to really sell the point. Henry laughed, unable to say no, he prepared her a cup as well.

“Why, it would be my pleasure, ma’am.” Henry said, offering the cup with his best shit-eating grin.

“Oh, thank you, kind sir, coffee is life, after all.” The oversized knit sweater she wore slipped over her bare shoulder as she grabbed for the cup with both hands. Henry resisted the urge to draw his eyes down her curves mightily as he stared her straight in the eyes. They were both breathing slowly, captivated.

“Get me one too?” Paul asked, shattering the moment. Henry gave Paul a death glare.

“Make it yourself.” He said, moving with his steaming cup back to his station.

“What!? You’re right there! You made her one!” Paul said to the retreating Henry, who simply ignored him. This was going to be a Long two weeks, Henry thought. To distract himself, he pulled up the file on the schematics and specs of his new ship to ensure that he would be ready.

“Hi Henry!” He looked up, trying to keep any irritation at the interruption from showing on his face.

“Dr. Washington, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He asked with a smile.

“Oh, please, Alphonse might love the sound of the title doctor, but I love the sound of my own name a bit more. Please call me Chantal. So... tell me about you and her.”

“Me and whom?” Henry asked, a bit confused.

“Please, you could have cut that sexual tension with a knife back there with Ariana. So, do you like her? I won’t tell, I promise!” Henry was taken aback, unsure of what to say, and not entirely sure of her motives, he deflected.

“I am fairly sure that she doesn't like me, even if I did like her, which I am not sure about. Plus, Paul will not let that happen without stepping all in the middle of it constantly, and I believe that is something we would both rather avoid. Finally, I am about to assume command over an experimental starship with an experimental faster than light drive. There are real ethical concerns with an officer fraternizing with those under their command, especially without the ability to rotate personnel to other postings to remove this issue. There will always be a power imbalance no matter how powerful one’s personality may be to counter it. Lastly, I really should avoid the distraction, especially right now when I need to focus on a strict timetable to get this expedition drilled and ready.”

Hopefully, the diplomatic, proper response would get her to back off enough from the fact that a part of him very much did want Ariana, in spite of his logical self staring at a sea of red flags and some clear words on her part saying she wasn’t into him.

“Booo! What if she's the one, wouldn’t you fight for her?” Chantal said, riding the line between teasing and criticizing him as she looked him up and down with an unreadable expression.

“There are a lot of hypotheticals here. The biggest one is affected by the fact that the last person I would want to have as some future brother in law would be Paul, anyway. That’s if we are talking marriage at all, which frankly is getting about 1000 steps ahead of ourselves.” Henry rallied, wanting this conversation to be over with already.

“Heh. I completely understand you there. But let’s just say that Paul was out of the way, would you want to date her?” Henry gave her a questioning look.

“No, she is in my chain of command, fraternization regs are there for a damn good reason.” Henry said with finality. Chantal seemed suddenly very happy, oddly enough.

“So, would you ever date a black girl? Say, one that is not directly in your chain of command?” She asked with her very best grin. Henry’s jaw nearly dropped as his heart began beating rapidly. He suddenly found himself completely tongue tied for a moment before he pulled himself together and looked at her in a new light. She was smart, fun, beautiful, they had pleasantly interacted with each other quite a bit, and she was a civilian so there was no chain of command issues. He had been attracted to her from the start. What the hell, why not?

“You know, suddenly those distractions I mentioned don’t sound nearly so bad. So long as we can still accomplish our essential duties.” Henry clamped his mouth shut afterwards, hoping he had not just ruined it. Chantal milked every moment of mulling it over.

“You show me some romance and effort and I will make very sure that I take good care of your needs in turn. I am much more than just a genius inventor; I am also a hell of a cook and I know how to take care of a man.” She said with one hand on her hip and the other fluffing her hair while looking at him seductively. Henry couldn't help himself, she had him completely tongue tied. He opened his mouth to say something, anything.

"If a little romance is the price, I will gladly pay it. My official duties will keep me busy, very busy, but I will always make time for you. Something tells me you're worth it." Henry said with a grin. Chantal cocked her head and smiled at him, causing his heart to beat faster.

“Now, I have some work to attend to, as I assume you do too. Don’t take me for granted, Henry O’Toole, I know my worth.”

Chantal spoke with absolute icy certainty. She smiled over her shoulder and swayed her hips as she walked away over to her station, humming. Henry found himself entranced in the spectacle, and in a daze as to what had just happened. He tried to return to the newly non-redacted specs of the Indomitable Will, but she had successfully done it. She had him completely distracted. Rallying around that realization, he chuckled to himself and found himself freed of it after. He then set himself back to his work with iron willpower replacing eager excitement.

MEANWHILE…

DATE POINT: DECEMBER 15th, 6 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN PONY EXPRESS EN ROUTE TO S33

FIREMAN APPRENTICE ANDREW REESE

Andrew sat back feeling quite content with himself. He had taken a risk on a two year special service contract with double hazard pay, and for the first time he felt like he had made the right decision since. When he'd been offered the contract during a performance review while working on wiring up Liberty Station, it had seemed too good to be true. Now after hearing the truth of their mission at last, in flight to some place called S33, Andrew decided it was a story too crazy to be false. Not everyone seemed happy about the revelation, however.

”Listen, all of you are part of the final round of crew to be brought in, and compartmentalization demanded that we tell you this last part only when you had been safely brought on board.” Commander Alvarez stressed the point once more, but it didn’t seem to land any better.

“Oh, so you meant to keep this secret until we couldn’t just back out any longer. Make us sign non-disclosures that imply major state secrets, hush hush two year travel contracts at double rates. God, I knew something was up.” A very unhappy woman with arms folded aggressively against her chest shot back.

Another woman, Susan, if Andrew could remember properly, spoke up to support the first woman that had just objected. “Tania is right! What else haven’t we been told?”

“That's all of it, what I have just told you. You'll be helping to crew an experimental new dreadnought design and take part in a two year round trip mission using an experimental FTL drive, and you are expected to keep to the highest levels of secrecy on this topic.” The Commander stared everyone down that dared to complain. “Look, people, nobody had a gun to your head to force you to sign, and the pieces of the puzzle were there for you the whole time. We even gave you three separate interviews and each of you were asked if you wanted to back out, and every time you all refused all the way until your final chance to back out yesterday before you ever boarded this craft.”

Fuck... fuck... fuck!! This is bullshit! Andrew struggled to hide his fury. The girls could fight it all they wanted, he knew better. There was no escaping this situation now. Andrew studied the faces of his compatriots as they got their dressing-down. Everyone seemed equally miserable, if not outright furious.

“Yeah, fine, I get that. It just doesn’t feel right, is all. Being left in the dark like that. This FTL drive, it has been tested, right?” Susan spoke up again, with quite a bit less fire in her voice this time around.

“Yes, extensively with probes, and once in-system with a frigate that has also been modified with the drive, the Fist of the Argonauts. The system works. We will simply be the first to travel outside of Sol with it.”

A shiver ran down Andrew’s spine. They would be trapped in some tin can with an experimental FTL drive for two goddamn years a billion miles from maintenance or repair and they have the gall to hide it from us until its too late to turn back!?! I signed up for double hazard pay... sure... but this is a fucking suicide mission.

"What!?! We're leaving the solar system?! This is insane, we can't go that far from Earth when the system is still in testing! What if something goes wrong? What if we get stranded?! Is there some other FTL capable rescue ship that can come get us? It doesn't sound like it." Tania said, refusing to back down as easily.

"The system has been tested, and it works. Somebody has to be the first to take it on a longer trip, and that somebody is us. We are explorers and we will make history one day, when we can declassify this properly. It's a short trip to our nearest solar system and right back, the system has been thoroughly tested, as I told you before. It's practically a milk run, you will see. This is why you are being paid double hazard pay after all." Alvarez replied, doing his best to cool the emotions in the room.

"More like a suicide run..." Tania replied. She sat back down with her arms folded, and her head to the side as if she refused to even look at the flustered Commander.

"Everything will be fine, people. We wouldn't be risking such an expensive ship and such a large crew if we weren't absolutely positive that the technology was ready. We do have contingency plans, and plenty of supplies to await rescue if it comes down to that. Most of the technology involved is either primarily solid state or is based upon an extrapolation of field proven technology like the null barrier system, and we got the idea from a reverse engineering of xeno tech. Everything you are worrying about we also worried about a thousand times longer and thought through ways to mitigate the risk."

"Well, shit. I'm sold. Slap a red shirt on me and let's go to Alpha Centauri. I'm sure nothing will go wrong." Tania said, still clearly having none of it.

"We're going to Proxima Centauri, actually. I didn't choose the secrecy, but I certainly understand why it was necessary. I can understand the shock of this has caused some frustration, but that does not excuse the insubordination! You are a part of this crew whether you like it or not, once we are underway your survival and that of your fellow crewmates will depend upon you all doing your jobs well. You have until the end of this flight to get over your feelings on this matter and to get your headspace squared away and mission ready, or so help me I will find every creative way under the sun to make this trip a living hell for you. That's if I don't just outright space you for being a danger to your fellow crewmates and the mission. Have I made myself clear?!" Alvarez snapped.

"Yes, Sir." Tania replied, still refusing to look at him.

Andrew locked eyes with several other people, nobody seemed happy with the situation, nobody else seemed willing to speak up about it either.

This is insane! No matter what the Commander says, we didn't choose to go of our own accord and everything about the way they tricked us into going feels wrong. Somebody is going to have to do something about this. The officer corps clearly isn't going to budge... Looks like we are going to have to find a way to make them change their minds. Better keep my head down and play along in the meantime.

Andrew settled in for a long and miserable trip and began to plan.