Earthrise: 2176 [Published - Sample Only]

Introduction V2.1

Introduction V2.1

Earthrise: 2176

Copyright © 2014 by J.C. Gunn

What if we invented a workable stardrive 10,000 years before we were supposed to? What if we were the first in our quadrant of the galaxy to discover the secret of faster than light travel? What would those who were watching us think, and how would they react?

The Year is 2166: To the people of Earth, the universe seemed to be a very large and lonely place. Astronomers had discovered tens of thousands of planets; many had indications of organic life. SETI had been searching for signals from intelligence for over 200 years. There had been a few tantalizing bits of radio or radar energy received but nothing had ever proven to be of intelligent origin.

But there was an alien civilization out there, in fact, a few of them precariously linked together in a Web of Worlds. They were watching us quietly, carefully and patiently. It had long been the prime directive of the Web that no developing civilization be contacted until that civilization made it into interstellar space on their own. And that took time, lots of time. Most Web worlds took 1,000 years or more to go from steam to the atom and none had made it from the atom to a sublight stardrive in less than 5,000 standard years. Every civilization of The Web had proven that faster than light travel was impossible, so there was plenty of time to watch the Earth...

The watchers were astounded with the speed of progress of human science and also horrified at the periods of violence. By 2076 nuclear fusion power was widespread on earth. By 2100 the first interplanetary fusion ships explored the Sol system. The men and women of the Anglosphere Alliance began their first missions in ships approaching 0.1c. At that velocity, manned flight to even the nearest stars would take a lifetime. In 2160 a robot drone survey mission was sent to Barnard's Star; it will take over 40 years to get there.

In the meantime, manned missions would soon explore deep space out to the edge of the Oort cloud nearly; 1.1 light years into the interstellar void.

What would happen if a beautiful, insightful engineer and a brilliant physicist stumbled upon an artificial gravity field which would make a faster than light drive possible...

Earthrise: 2176. The First Story in the Earthrise Series.