Down in the cargo hold of the Osprey, a matte black combat droid was shoving two meter by two meter cargo modules around, moving them closer to the portside cargo door. Wirelessly, he instructed Skip, Kill the gravity, please.
A second later, everything in the not-overly-large cargo hold shifted as the artificial gravity disengaged. Baxter, a Mark IX combat droid, magnetized his feet, then asked Skip to open the cargo door. When the thick door slid away, he saw the much larger bulk freighter parked less than one hundred meters away from the Osprey . An equally large cargo door slid open on the other vessel, revealing two crewmen in bulky EVA suits. One of them waved. Their gloves were not the same color as the rest of their suit.
Baxter returned the gesture, then guided the first of ten modules across. It would be nice to have room to move in the cargo hold again. As it moved through the static atmosphere barrier that kept the ship’s atmosphere inside, a faint blue line moved across it. Seeing as he could vaporize a small rodent from over a kilometer away with any of his assorted blasters, drifting a two-ton cargo module a hundred meters to arrive exactly where he wanted without crushing the parties on the receiving end was a piece of cake. In less than ten minutes, Baxter had sent all ten modules across to the other ship. He didn’t wait for the last one to be caught by the other ship as he closed the cargo door. We’re good to go, he wirelessly transmitted to the flight deck.
On the flight deck, Baxter’s voice came out of the overhead speakers. “We’re good to go.”
Jax nodded and toggled the comm system. “We’re heading out, unless you need anything else.”
The woman appeared on the screen again. “We’re all set. I’ve let our contact know that we’ve made the hand off.” She made a mock salute gesture, then closed the channel.
Jax powered up the sub-light engines and guided the Osprey away from the larger cargo hauler. “Wormhole generator ready?” he asked.
From his station, Rudy answered, “Yup, board is green.”
Humanity had been trying to unlock the secrets of Faster Than Light travel for decades when the solution fell into their laps. While most of the United Nations was working on Alcubierre Warp Drive technology, a small Japanese expedition to the Jovian moon Ganymede discovered the ruins of a crashed starship, alien in every way. Aboard the ship was a functional wormhole generator. Once scientists found out what it was, it took less than twenty years to reverse engineer and mass produce human made versions. The owners of the ship never showed up, and no ship like the Ganymede ship was ever seen again, anywhere.
The galactic gold rush began the moment the first colony transport went through the swirling energy vortex of a wormhole bound for the Alpha Centauri System, then Epsilon Eridani, Wolf 359, and so on. Humanity spread quickly from then on.
Once Jax had confirmed that the wormhole was stable, he powered down the flight console, letting Skip take over. “Two days back to Kelso. I’m gonna reheat that pizza and watch some TV.” He went down the stairs.