Gaea

Chapter 2

When the engines finally ceased their constant drone, the pseudo-gravity they provided would also be lost. To replace it, the habitation module would begin rotating on its axis. Of course, this meant that objects would fall toward the walls of the column instead of the base, so the whole population would have to be relocated into structures oriented accordingly. Then, the longest part of the mission would begin. The ship would be moving at seventy percent of the speed of light. At such staggeringly huge velocities, even the diffuse gases of interstellar space could become dangerous. An enormous ablative shield, docked to the bow, would take the brunt of the damage, and keep the vessel in one piece throughout the flight. As an added safeguard, the Facem was also equipped with a magnetic field that would slow incoming particles significantly, reducing their impact. Those that did strike the starship would reduce its momentum slightly, slowing it down to a safe speed over the course of several years. At that point, the heat shield would retract, much like a beetle's wings, and reveal the secondary engine beneath. The final burn would bring the ship down to orbital velocities, and traditional chemical engines would then take over and maneuver the leviathan into position at the destination.

Each transitional step was to be overseen by the crew, but otherwise, there would be very little to do. Whole months would go by, during which the bridge would remain untouched and dark. Without the stimulus of command, the crew could become either lethargic or rowdy, neither of which was acceptable.

On her many missions as a UDS sailor, Caroline had learned that action is what kept a crew together. On most flights, there was always something to set the tempo; military ships were usually understaffed, and the vessels themselves were always only a few weeks away from their destinations. In the few cases where a ship was deployed to the outer planets, there was still a nearby cargo vessel or asteroid to worry about. But here, there was absolutely nothing of the sort. Just the darkness. Compounding the problem was the fact that there would be no radio link for most of the voyage. As the vessel accelerated, red-shifting would render radio communications nearly impossible, and by the time the ship ceased accelerating, it would be simply too far away for radio to be utilized for high bandwidth communication. The signal would have dissipated, too thin to be detected by even the most powerful antennae. There would be no calling home on this voyage. Nor would there be any distractions for the thousands onboard, nothing to keep them away from the insanity of the void.

To combat the consuming existential terror, the Facem's engineers had installed an onboard media hub, the largest library of books, films, and music ever made. It was all digital of course, and physically small enough to fit in a palm, but the exabytes of information it contained spanned the width and breadth of human achievement, from the Greek classics to the most current pop music.

Caroline watched as people began to stream out of the walls like termites. Many looked up to the pale disk of the ersatz sun above, or stretched, or stamped their feet in appreciation of the return of gravity. Clueless, the lot of them. Most had made the decision to come aboard on a moment's impulse, not realizing the true implication of their choice. Six years of empty space, and at the end, an unknown world where they would all be stranded for the remainder of their lives. Most of them had no notion of the great empty, having lived their lives in the finite expanses of Earth, where the horizon was as far as anything could be. What poor fools.

Prior to her promotion to the admiralty, Caroline had served aboard the UDNS Opes, one of the largest battleships in active duty. The Opes had never seen battle, nor had any other Republic vessel. This was because the United Districts of Sol was the first nation in human history to exist in a political vacuum. There was no competing national power, since the UDS governed every inhabited place in the known universe. The continued employment of armed forces in space was not for defense, but rather a projection of Sol's power into the impossible distances over which it governed. The dream of unity only went so far.

Therefore, the main purpose of the Opes was essentially policing the distant colonies, traveling from planet to asteroid to planet and brandishing the UDS's military muscle. In the process, she had seen all the wonders the solar system had to offer, from the floating cities of Venus to the luxury resorts on Titan and Miranda. She was not always well received, but that hardly mattered. Even so, the one element that Caroline was most intimate with was the utter emptiness. Even the rocks in the densest regions of the Asteroid Belt were months apart, with nothing but open vacuum between them. It was chilling, to say the least, and would only be worse out in interstellar space. No one else had ever gazed into that abyss. No other ship had ever sailed across it.

Except for one.

The fate of the Colossus was impossible to avoid thinking about, considering the circumstance. Granted, the Facem was much harder to lose, but the sheer distance could swallow anything. It would be fitting though, to have the most expensive project in all human history go missing. To be laughed at by the ever-unattainable stars.

She had a job to do.