Other Earths - Sci-Fi Short Story

Chapter 1: Interstellar Travel

Humanity's first manned mission to another planet outside the solar system. It was an incredible achievement made possible by the creation of the first generation hyperspace propulsion system. The hyperdrive was no longer just a wondrous device in fiction, it was a real key to the stars and the secrets of the galaxy where at humanity's doorstep. No longer confined to our cradle star, no longer only nursed by Earth. The crew selected for the mission left Earth in the reusable Stratus four class space shuttle. Its name came from the idea to name all vessels involved in different missions after abstract things that the crew couldn't take with them, small reminders of home. For this missions the theme where cloud types. The shuttle was about to dock with the new international space station called Tellus gateway. From there, the crew would transfer to Cirrus the manned interstellar exploration vehicle, or more popularly called the starship that would take them to the planet Maia. The mission was only days away and the world was watching.

"Tellus gateway this is Stratus, we are enabling our instrument approach procedure, excepting to initiate docking procedure in twenty minutes, fifteen seconds." Captain Nolan gave the rest of the crew a smile, behind the professional, lifelong training was a deep feeling of excitement. Like a child playing with toy rockets, he visualized every step.

"Stratus this is Tellus gateway confirming approach produce, looking good." The international space station was basically a scaffold containing several docking bays and habitats, aboard awaited several maintenance and technical crews for final preparations and launch. It was a dry dock for many missions to come and most scientific research were moved to several private stations. The international space agency focused on deep space and beyond.

The crew shuttle slowly docked with the scaffold and the docking module's clams locked them secure. In high orbit around Earth, the crew would spend their last few days of system analysis and hyperdrive tests. First, the starship would go to Mars and then to Pluto and back again. Time dilation was no problem as the hyperdrive only change the starship's positon, distance in hyperspace was shorter than in real space. But that meant that time was still a factor. Two years the journey would take in hyperspace, but compare to near two hundred and eighty-nine in real space it was more than acceptable, it was possible. With the right calibration the journey could be instantaneous but with the incorrect, instant destruction as the slightest difference in the laws of physics in hyperspace would be catastrophic. The starship and crew would be torn to pieces. However the crew was not worried, the hyperspace calibration where static, hard-coded and only the route from A to B differed which were a much simpler matter that took the onboard navigation computer a few minutes to calculate. Multiple teams had conducted extensive simulations of the entire mission and each part was tested for any possible scenarios.

Without a sound and only a small flash of light the starship reappeared from hyperspace, automatic system checks filled the screens and all systems reported full functionality. The first test was a success with a new Earth-Mars record of twenty-four minutes.

"Mars gateway this is Cirrus. All hyperdrive test parameters are successful." Nolan said using the external communication system and awaited a reply.

"Cirrus this is Mars gateway. Welcome to the red planet, hope you stay for lunch." A voice answered.

"Sounds great, but we will have to pass on that this time, we have a date with Pluto." Nolan replied as he entered a few commands and checked the instruments.

"See you when you get back home, have a safe journey and stay away from red stars." The voice said and a lengthy technical conversation followed.

Within an hour the starship disappeared again. The world was silent, waiting. There was no way to communicate with the starship in hyperspace. If something were to happen, no one would ever know. Not even ten hours later it reappeared near Pluto, they were ready for the first manned interstellar travel to another world.