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Two months later.
“Permission to come aboard, Sir?”
“Permission granted, Captain.”
With those words of calming tradition Ellen stepped through the airlock and onto the Einstein for the first time.
“Welcome aboard, Captain” John Lees, the Einstein’s First Officer and a former member of the original star probe mission, greeted her. “Would you like a few minutes in your quarters to freshen up after the last part of the journey?”
“No, Commander. There has been enough delay – first the Bridge.”
“As you wish, Ma’am. It’s good to see you again, Ellen.” He continued dropping briefly from formalities.
“And to see you, my friend. Now we need to get on.”
“Captain on the Bridge.” The ship’s computer, recognising her insignia’s transmission as she followed her first officer on to the bridge, announced her. The crew members started to come to attention from their various work stations.
“As you were everyone.” Ellen stalled the movement quickly as she stopped to study her surroundings in real life for the first time. Although she had spent many hours in simulator practice during the journey from Mars to Titan station and her new command, the actual reality was, as she knew it would be, subtly different and indeed quite amazing.
As she scanned the bridge, she could not but help recall the 20th century television science fiction series that still could be found on digital recordings in most electronic libraries and which, though she might not easily admit it, had been one of her favourite shows during her childhood. Encouraged by her grandparents she had spent many a weekend evening watching the various versions of Star Trek. Here in this modern day was a bridge that was not significantly different from that of the USS Enterprise Mark 2. It was the second slightly unnerving experience of the last couple of hours.
Earlier her first sight of the ISS Einstein had had a similar effect. As had every astronaut, she had seen films of the ship and also simulations but none had really prepared her for the experience of seeing the actual ship that would be powered by the Alcubierre Drive, first suggested just over 60 years ago. She often found it difficult to believe that less than a hundred years after Apollo 11’s historical trip and with all the difficulties facing mankind back on Earth it had still proved possible to develop and build the Einstein. It’s size at nearly twenty kilometres long dwarfed the original interstellar probe she had, as a junior officer, had the joy of welcoming back home.
She smiled to herself as she compared her thoughts of the Enterprise bridge so similar to the ship she was to command and those of the fictional starship’s shape so totally different from the Einstein. The twin-engine nacelles of Enterprise had been replaced by the two Alcubierre drive tori. With the ship itself nestling within its drive structure and ready to be protected from the warping of space time generated by the immense power of the drives it was easily the largest mobile structure built in space. Despite her science degree and later training, she admitted that the means by which the ship would be able travel across space at up to around five light years every week, when at full power, while not actually exceeding the speed of light still mystified her.
The next few hours were taken up with introductions to her bridge officers and with a few heads of department both within her direct command and the research teams before she made the decision to retire to her quarters. There she found a secure message from fleet command on Earth which had been transmitted to match her arrival on the Einstein.
*** *** ***
AS SHE ACCESSED THE message her thoughts went back to her second deep-space mission - the recovery of the first star probe as it returned from Alpha Centauri. The data they had recovered and analysed showed that conditions within the space time bubble should allow humans to work normally and manage a ship in the warp drive status.
She remembered being surprised that there had been such rapid agreement between the world’s governments to fund the building of not just an interstellar capable spaceship but one the size of the Anticipation and that there would be not just a larger second ship built in tandem but plans for three more ships to follow. While Anticipation was ten kilometres long, Einstein, her own command, was even bigger at over twenty kilometres. Only now was it clear why and why both ships carried armament as well as significant cargo space.
Contained in her new orders was a detailed background to the history of the project. It also explained how the first-choice commander of the Anticipation had died. Ellen had admired Gerald Pasternak since he had been her commanding officer on the star probe mission. He had been first her mentor and later they had become good friends. She remembered fondly the last time she had seen him and Fran Hawkins in Houston before the, at the time, terrible news that she was no longer to be a part of the first interstellar voyages.
News of the “accident” which had killed both her friends and their crew had always seemed, to her, a little forced. It had been scant help to keep reminding herself as the grief enfolded her, that mankind had been a space faring species for less than a hundred years and accidents could and did happen. Even then she had been overlooked for the command team of the Anticipation.
Now she sat, still struggling to assimilate the facts that she had just been made privy to.
Gerry and Fran had been killed not in an accident but by an explosion. En route to test the possibility of triggering the original probe’s warp engines between Jupiter’s orbit and that of Saturn, they had swung past the Jovian system. In this process their sensors found an anomaly. The object spotted was emitting a signal and clearly was not of human origin. Unsurprisingly the team decided to change their course slightly to get closer.
For the first time the rules of First Contact were being brought to mind. As they approached the object, they started transmitting to the unmanned Jupiter orbiter for onward transmission to Earth. Their transmission lasted under an hour. As they approached slowly to within a hundred kilometres the object exploded destroying itself and their ship. We believe, said the report, that there was a matter-antimatter reaction.
The emissions might have been towards a group of objects approaching the solar system, although there was no evidence that that assumption was correct. This formation had been spotted some seventy years before by the Hubble telescope and to the amazement of the small number of astronomers, tasked with understanding what they were looking at, it was moving at almost three quarters of the speed of light towards the solar system. Frantic efforts had finally confirmed that the objects must be around forty light years away. Making the only reasonable assumption that the formation would have to slow on its approach they calculated that they would arrive at Sol in about seventy to eighty years.
Once it had been confirmed that the “sighting” was not of a naturally occurring event and although there was nothing that could have been done at that time the World’s governments came together in an unprecedented manner and had agreed, in secret, to fund any research that might provide an escape route or viable defence should the alien fleet prove unfriendly. Indirectly CERN and its sister research locations had benefitted from additional funding as a result. Ellen wondered if her cousin, Megan, had any idea of the real reason why her research had been so lavishly funded over the twenty-five odd years that it taken to achieve the star drive.
When the potential for powering the Alcubierre drives and developing spacecraft capable of effectively travelling faster than light speed had been discovered it was not surprising that the funds had been found to complete and launch the starships.
After the event with the “probe” explosion Earth’s governments had agreed that they should continue to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. One “ship” approaching might be friendly but a large fleet seemed less so.
At the time of writing the report, for Ellen and her fellow captains, the fleet was still about six light months away and slowing on their approach to the solar system. The best estimate was that the alien fleet would now arrive in about four months’ time.
Ellen now learnt that the Einstein was actually fully equipped to carry a small element of humanity in a search for a new home. She was also amazed to learn that a system ship loaded with laboratory equipment and various animal embryos and incubators was due to arrive within the next few days.
When it reached the starship Ellen was to evacuate Titan base and move out of orbit before engaging the star drive. Two light years out they should deviate from the course towards the Centauri system and head out towards one of the stars already identified as having planets.
There was no mention of Anticipation or the later ships but her orders were clear enough – her task was to ensure the survival of her species, should First Contact prove hostile as feared.
For some time, Ellen sat in her quarters gazing at, but no longer seeing, the visage of Titan below. Her entire world had been turned upside down. “Why me?” she thought. “Captain of a starship, yes. But responsible for the survival of our species?”
Slowly she started to collect her thoughts. She knew she would need to involve her ship’s officers without delay but, she realised, it might also be necessary to brief the commander of Titan base.
Commander Tian would have received instructions to place herself and her team under Ellen’s command. That she knew, but had she been given the background as to the reasons for this? Being ordered to abandon the only manned research station in the Saturnian system would have raised questions, if not objections, from the team of scientists currently dedicated to expanding their knowledge of Titan and the other moons orbiting in and around the rings.
Ellen swiftly reviewed her orders and realised that the only reference to the Titan base was that she must evacuate it and that Commander Tian had been instructed to place herself at her disposal. There was no suggestion that the station commander had in fact been given any information beyond that.
She made a decision. “Computer – connect me to Titan Base. Secure line direct to Commander Tian.”
“Acknowledged.”
A few moments passed then her screen cleared to show the face of the Titan commander. Their conversation was formal.
“Captain Bayman. It is good to see you and not only because I hope you can expand on why I am to place my command at your orders.”
“And to see you, Commander! I will be happy to brief you but we have limited time. How soon can you be aboard the Einstein?”
“About 45 minutes, Captain. I have had a shuttle prepped and ready to go since my orders came in.”
“Then please make haste – I wish to brief you at the same time as my senior officers. Einstein out.”
Ellen tapped her communicator again and instructed the Einstein’s computer to pass instructions to her first officer and the heads of the different sections to be in the briefing/conference room in two hours.
A further thought came to mind and she checked that the Phoebe had not yet departed for its trip back to Earth. She then contacted Captain Jordan and asked him to attend the officers’ meeting.
Realising that she had not eaten for several hours she requested some food and then settled down to organise her approach to the briefing.
Recalling her own shock a few hours before, when reading the message sent from Earth and the reasons behind the massive change in the interstellar project, she decided that her first approach would be to tell her team the truth about the deaths of Gerry and Fran.
The alien fleet approaching the inner system would come next as the reason for the changes and the abrupt acceleration in the timing of the Einstein’s interstellar mission – originally planned to follow several trial runs of a few light seconds over another three months.
Before the main briefing she called her First Officer in.
“Captain?”
“Let’s get things straight, as a general rule and certainly in private, first names please, John.”
“Ma’am. Sorry. Ellen.”
“Firstly, to warn you, the briefing is going to provide a number of shocks which I suspect you will not have been prepared for, I certainly was not. Having said that its probably best that I leave it at that for the minute.”
“As you wish.”
“Right, practical things. Not everything was detailed in the reports I reviewed on my way to join you. I know that we have four interplanetary ships on board but how many could we take? And could we bring the Titan station into the hold without compromising our capacity for moving ships around? Also, we have another ship inbound which will need to be landed and, in the circumstances, we need to add the ship I arrived on.”
“Wow.” John Lees gasped. “Let me think. I’m not sure about the station but we certainly could cope with three or even four additional shuttles and all the landers. It’s possible we could handle three interplanetary ships. I’ll need to check with the chief engineer – on the station issue. I guess not before the briefing?”
“You guess right but immediately after the briefing I will need to know. Now Commander Tian is due imminently, perhaps you would do the honours and greet her.”
“Yes. Ellen.” John was still struggling with the informality expected of him.
“One last point, will Alan or Megan Piper be at the briefing?”
“Both should be, Ellen, as the overall heads of research.”
“Thank you. I will see you at the briefing later.”
As she worked on her final outline there was a chime from her workstation – warning of an incoming message.
The message was from fleet command. The latest tracking of the incoming fleet had found that half a dozen objects had changed course and were now moving directly towards Saturn! Their apparent deceleration had reduced and their ETA was now less than a month away. Einstein needed to be moving out of the system within the next week to enable it to reach a safe point to engage the warp drives in time.
As a last moment decision, she put out a call asking Megan to attend the captain’s quarters. It was an emotional reunion but gave Ellen the chance to warn Megan that shocking news was to be expected.
*** *** ***
AS ELLEN APPROACHED the conference room, she could hear a buzz of conversation. No doubt, she smiled without humour, various theories were being put forward for her calling such a meeting even before making the tour of the ship that every new captain would normally undertake. As she entered the room a silence fell and her officers were quick to stand followed by the various heads of the science community.
“At ease everyone, please be seated.” She paused for a moment. “Firstly, my apologies, to those I haven’t met yet, I would have preferred to meet all of you each face to face before now. However, as you will learn, I have good reasons for the urgency attached to this meeting. Now while I have had the chance to review your files on the trip here it would help me if you could go around the table and introduce yourselves.”
Her officers went first followed by the science heads. To Ellen’s surprise she found that she had met more of the latter than she had her own direct subordinates.
With that process complete she began her briefing with an immediate caveat that questions should be kept until the end. At the end of her presentation there was initially complete silence as the room took in the import of their mission. There had been varying degrees of shock expressed non-verbally as initial disbelief changed to concerns about how this message could be passed on to the rest of the ship’s personnel. Not everyone had family members aboard but it was now apparent why so many of those selected did have personal relations of one sort or another onboard. Equally very few did not have family and friends back on Earth.
In the end the quality of her people was underlined in that the questions raised were almost entirely technical and business-like. The one framed in emotional terms was whether or not personal messages could be sent to family members back home. Ellen’s response was as they might have expected.
“I believe that they can be sent but they will need to be consolidated and sent via Houston. It may well be that they will wish to delay them until the existence of the aliens is better known. I do not mean that they will read them but simply hold them. I can promise no more than that.”
The final part of the meeting centred on how the news would be disseminated to the rest of those on the ship. At the end of the discussion part of the meeting Ellen dismissed everyone with the exception of Commander Tian, her first officer, her chief engineer and Alan Piper whom she asked to attend her in her quarters.
“Jing, Gentlemen, initial comments please. No wait. Jing, you need to brief your teams and get them ready to transfer to Einstein. You go first.”
Commander Tian, who still looked shocked, responded. “How do we know that these aliens are a danger?”
“We don’t but the powers that be back home feel that being wary is the safe option. As was pointed out a single ship or even a few ships might be friendly. But this group of objects, which are clearly moving under intelligent control, numbers over a hundred. We would be wise, therefore, to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”
“I know. I just wish we didn’t have to run. I will get back to the station and brief my people. Who should they liaise with, Captain?”
“John, would you let the Commander have the names of the right people. We should look to shift as much equipment and supplies across as possible. Did you manage to work out if we could just take the station whole?”
“Unfortunately, we can’t – it is just too big.”
“Wait a minute.” Alan interrupted. “I understand about the station being too large to load onto Einstein but, there may be another way.”
“And?” Ellen raised her eyebrows in question.
“If we move the station alongside the ship it should stay within the warp bubble. The only problem would be when we want to move in normal space. I’m not sure if that could be solved but we would at least not leave it as a derelict orbiting Titan.”
“Do it. But no-one remains on board it. Understand. Jing you had better get moving. You have 24 hours to evacuate the station and transfer to Einstein. That includes all the people, all the independent spacecraft, fuel stores and other supplies.”
“Aye. Captain. On my way.”
Ellen turned to her own officers. “You had better all get back to your people and spread the word. As we discussed, best keep numbers in each briefing as small as is sensible. Alan, Scott. Once you have covered your people please report back here – I have a task for you once we are moving.”
Once alone Ellen sat back, those first doubts hit home again. “Why me?” she thought. “Captain of a starship, yes. But responsible for the survival of our species?”
Fortunately, she would later admit, she did not have much time to ponder her situation.
Her personal communicator bleeped.
“Yes?”
“Message from IP Deimos, Captain. They advise that they will be entering the Saturn system in two days. ETA Einstein half a day later.”
“Ask Commander Lees to provide the Deimos with our planned routing away from Saturn. Deimos should divert their course so that they can rendezvous without our delaying for their approach to Titan.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“And ask Doctor Carden to join me as soon as is convenient. Thank you.”
Ellen cut the link and decided she needed to update her Captain’s log. She was able to work on this for half an hour before the Doctor arrived.
“Apologies for not arriving sooner, Captain. Needed to set a broken arm first.”
“No apology needed Doctor, but first name terms in private please, Will or William?”
“Either’s fine, Ellen, I believe.”
“Yes, this won’t keep you long but I wanted you to be the first to know about the incoming ship, the IP Deimos, and its cargo.”
“Sounds intriguing.”
“In short then. The Deimos has a crew of three plus a medical team of four. Three nurses and an orderly. So, your team will be growing! The cargo includes an incubator/artificial womb plus, I gather, a stock of frozen embryos both human and animal. My apologies, if my vocabulary isn’t quite right.”
“Captain, someone has been planning on this for some time then?”
“My guess is ten years or more while the original star probe and then the starship fleet was being built, certainly. You’ve around three days to prepare anyway as that is their ETA for rendezvous. Talking of people. How did yours react to the news?”
“On the surface, a mix of shock and concern. I sense that they will have more questions in the coming days but will recognise that they may be some of the lucky ones. The main concern will be for family left behind. If we can find a way to understand what does happen, when that fleet arrives, you would have a winner.”
“I have some thoughts on how but the design guys will need to see if they can convert them into reality. Thanks, Will. I’ll let you get back to your surgery.”
With that meeting over Ellen decided that it was time she moved on from her quarters and join her bridge officers for an update on the ship’s current situation.
“Captain on the bridge.” Einstein’s computer voice rang out as it recognised her insignia’s coding. Everyone started to come to attention but Ellen quickly stopped them.
“As you were. Just be aware if you hear that in future. We can’t have everyone stopping what they are doing – it’s going to be more important than formal courtesy.”
A chorus of “Yes ma’am” and “Yes, Captain” acknowledged Ellen’s instruction as her bridge team returned to their tasks readying the ship for departure.
Turning to her first officer Ellen asked how progress on the evacuation of Titan base was proceeding.
“Better than I expected, Captain. I gather there have been a lot of expressions of annoyance but they are dealing with the situation, as you might expect, and we should have everything and everyone transferred within forty-eight hours.”
“Then we need to focus on the essentials, Commander. Einstein will be leaving within twenty-four hours. We will have to leave the station behind. These incoming objects may be weeks away but I do not want to take any risk that they may spot us and be able to track us before we can engage the warp drives.”
“Captain, how do we know that they can’t follow us into warp space?” The question was raised by a young Lieutenant sitting at the helm.
“Good question, it’s Lieutenant Cheung, yes?” Ellen responded.
“Yes, ma’am.” There was obvious pleasure from the young woman.
Ellen smiled to herself, this was one to watch but still too young to spot that an important part of a Captain’s job was to fit names and faces together quickly.
“The simple answer is that we don’t but the fleet of which they form a part was seen travelling in normal space, albeit at almost unbelievable speed. If they had warp drive it is likely we would have had no warning of their arrival around Sol. But let’s not take chances. It’s our job to avoid any contact if we can. So, people, let’s get ready to run.”
“Captain, Lieutenant Cheung was off-duty when you arrived, there is one other member of the bridge team also off-duty then. The junior member of our tracking team – Ensign Piper.”
“Judy Piper. A member of the bridge team?”
“She had already shown promise before being assigned to the Einstein and has proved to have just the type of approach to tracking that we needed. Judy, I think you know the Captain?”
Judy stood and crossed to her cousin. “Captain Bayman, it is good to see you.”
“And to see you, Judy. Well done on gaining your position. Commander, I will let you get on with the preparations for departure but, if you can provide me with someone to show me round, I wish to undertake a brief tour of the ship, at least the major sections after I have eaten. I have studied the schematics but they do not replace the feeling from seeing the real thing.”
“Leave it with me, Captain.”
Ellen returned to her quarters. Half an hour later there was a hesitant tap on the door. She opened the door remotely and a nervous young ensign entered.
“Captain, Commander Lees has ordered me to escort you around the Einstein.”
“Ensign Piper.” Ellen grinned. “No need for formality in private, Molly, how are you?”
“I’m well but, Captain Ellen, is it all right to admit I’m scared?”
“Oh, Molly. Of course, it is. Though maybe to your Mom & Pop as well as to me. It is natural to be scared. We are going into the unknown. Being scared is fine as long as it doesn’t stop you doing your job. Now, show me round our new home please.”
“There’s a lot to see. It can take more than an hour just to get from the bridge area to the stern, and that doesn’t include the engines.”
“True, but take me to the main areas.”
Over the next couple of hours Molly led her captain and cousin from section to section of the vast craft. Finally, they arrived at the centre of the research teams’ quarters and operation rooms.
“Mom, Pop” Molly called over to a side room with a series of computer screens. Alan and Megan appeared at the door.
“Ellen!” Megan smiled. “With a young ensign.” Her face fell. “Molly’s not in trouble, is she?”
“Of course not. She was just assigned to show me over the Einstein. You are both well? I couldn’t really ask you at the presentation.”
“We’re fine. But not much different to everyone. Still getting over the shock, I guess.” Alan replied.
“That’s good. Now I need to finish the tour. Then I want to have a session with you, both, and my Chief Engineer.” Ellen checked the time. “Nineteen hundred hours please.”
She and Molly completed that first tour of the ship shortly after and she returned to her quarters dismissing the young ensign with a thank you and a quick hug.
A short message to Scott Bailey giving him the time she wanted to meet before having a quick snack and getting her thoughts in order.
The Pipers and Scott duly arrived to meet with Ellen and John Lees at 19.00hrs.
“Thank you for coming, I will try to keep this short. First a question. When Gerry Pasternak and Fran were killed, they were en-route escorting the original star probe, which would have attempted to engage its warp drives just outside Jupiter’s orbit. What happened to the probe? There was nothing in the papers explaining the background to my orders.”
“I don’t know,” replied Alan, “there was such a fuss at the time that I’m not sure if the probe actually survived.”
“How could we find it if it kept on its course? It won’t have gone into warp without a “go” signal would it?”
“No, it shouldn’t have,” commented Scott, “but I suspect we have the wrong members of the Piper family here, Commander?”
“I agree, Captain. We should set that task for Judy Piper. She will be able to handle that.”
“John, please track her down if she’s off duty and make that a priority. Ideally, I would like to be able to send the probe a go-signal to warp out to the Centauri system – before we warp out ourselves.”
“On my way.”
Turning to the others Ellen raised the ante. “We may or may not be able to find and activate the original star probe and it is, in any case, a large craft easily spotted when in normal space. My real task for the three of you, and whoever you may need to involve, is this. How small a warp capable craft could you design and build while on the Einstein?”
Megan asked, “Why do you want a small probe, Ellen?”
“The news of the alien fleet and our mission has affected everyone on board and the most common question or fear is that they may never find out what actually happens when the aliens arrive. It is possible that they will not be hostile in which case we could return home. Problem is that any signals from Earth will take over four years to reach Centauri and we aren’t supposed to stay there in any case. If we can send a probe through warp space, and it is small enough to avoid detection, we can hope that we will at least know the outcome.”
Scott looked at Alan. “We must be able to get smaller than the original probe – that was designed to be strong and built accordingly. Is there a physical constraint on producing the power in a small craft?”
“I need to look into that. The answer is smaller than the original but how small I don’t know. To be truthful it’s not something I’ve ever really thought about. We need to be sure that anything small enough to be built within the machine shops of the Einstein could carry warp engines and the fuel for a round trip of tens of light years. Ellen, you are going to have to give us a little time. How long before we engage warp drive?”
John Lees responded. “We will be leaving orbit in a little under twenty-four hours. Allowing for a little margin of safety it will take a further four days before we can warp out of the system. The incoming aliens are still around three weeks away from Saturn but tracking will be watching them closely in case anything changes.”
“Right everyone, keep me in the loop. Thank you all.” Ellen ended the meeting with a sigh. “I suggest that you get what rest you can. Things are going to get busy.”
The Einstein kept an artificial 24-hour day and as it moved into evening ship time the lighting dimmed and most of the people on board were off-duty and relaxing in their quarters or the various community locations around the ship.
Ellen decided that she would leave her quarters and take a stroll via the nearest crew’s dining area and the exercise areas nearby and take the opportunity to chat with some of her people.
Meanwhile Megan and Alan were with their daughters having a quick supper. Normally a chance for an easy family time the conversation was centred on tracking and warp drives and Judy had to leave early so as to carry on with her task of finding the star probe’s current position, if it was still following its original course. Molly, too, was on duty in the engine room as a Junior Ensign and Megan and Alan were soon left to their own devices.
“Do you think we can really build a “baby” warp drive? Do we have the equipment on board Einstein?” Megan was clearly doubtful but admitted to not being an engineer.
“If we can design one that can sustain warp drive then the machine shops should be able to construct it. The issue will be, can we get it small enough to be built onboard. You should visit them – they are next to the ship’s landing airlocks.”
“I think I should look into how small the warp engines can be and still work. That is going to be the underpin to your design. Tomorrow is going to be busy for all of us. Best to get an early night.” Megan led the way back to their personal quarters. “You know, Alan, I still find it amazing that everyone has their own quarters it’s like a giant hotel with multiple restaurants. At least in that sense.”
“For the moment that’s not far from the truth but there will come a time when movement around the ship will have to be restricted, I suspect. Especially if we find ourselves having to handle contact with other species.”
“Do you think that we will have to assume alien species will always be hostile?”
“No, but we should be ready to come across other intelligent life. After all we already know that there is at least one intelligent species out there and indications are that it is not friendly.”
“Alan, I think that there must be at least two in the local stellar area.”
“Why?”
“The Mars anomaly implies alien intelligence. That one species left a fuel source for us to find but only when we were already a space faring species. Then there was the Jupiter anomaly. I know that it exploded when approached but we don’t know that it was broadcasting to that fleet. That transmission may have been a warning to the aliens who left it and perhaps the Mars deposit.”
“Megan, that sounds so logical I wonder why it hasn’t been discussed before. Perhaps you should find the time to tell our Captain.”
