Today’s story was inspired by a speed sketch from Jason Michael Hall. He has a link to the creation of the piece here.
“Passing through the outer terminus now,” Galo said. “A little vibration on the hull, but holding. Over.”
“Balboa Six, Confirmed. Captain Gasper, you’re about to be the first human to pass beyond Pluto’s orbit. Over.” Mission control said about twenty minutes later.
“Like heaven,” he said. “Coming in fast and will be at marker in about forty minutes. Will grab a bite while I wait. Over.”
This was the first manned flight of Balboa Six. In all previous testing the Balboa series had performed admirably, with the exception of Balboa Three but the methods for deflecting small rocks like that rogue asteroid had improved since then. Six was the first manned Balboa, and Galo Gasper was her first pilot. The goal of the flight was simple. Exit beyond the dwarf planet Pluto’s orbit into the inner region of the Kuiper Belt. There, he’d commence a trajectory adjustment and match pace with the planet, orbiting ahead of it out of sight a mere five degrees.
The Drake drive would punch then.
The drive would take him beyond light speed, into a portion of space flight that would warp the area around the ship. Here, he would confirm the finding from the last fifty-six jumps recorded by the Balboa Six’s, Five’s, and Four’s automated systems; that within the bubble the ship did not experience a speed increase as the portion of space just moved with the warp. The jump should take him beyond ten degrees of Pluto’s orbit and speeding along.
“It’s official, by now you’re officially passed Pluto. Congratulations, Captain. In about nineteen minutes you should be at trajectory. Expected communication delay to reach twenty-one minutes and rising at that point. Once you jump, you will be out of communication until you complete the warp. Over.” Mission control said.
Mission control was in the orbit of Neptune, and as Balboa Six sped before Pluto’s orbit it was getting further and further away. Galo had already been travelling for weeks to reach this point, and had already built up considerable speed. If the test went successful, he’d be home in three weeks. If not, it was a long five months back as the ship orbited back to Atlantis Station.
“Mission Control, we are reaching trajectory. Systems have confirmed orbital position. Per request they are requesting permission to engage drive mechanics. I have confirmed. Repeat I have confirmed engagement of drive mechanics. See you on the other side. Over.”
There was no window to the outside in this part of the ship. Here in the center column only camera feeds showed the darkness beyond the ship’s hull, with countless stars and the single anchor light of the Sun dim and distant. Then there was nothing. No light, no distant stars, no radio waves, nothing. The ship was blind.
“Mission Control, we have begun warp. I’ve set the audio log to repeat in ten minutes these exact words so I don’t have to repeat myself. Per previous testing, I can confirm within the bubble nothing is happening. We are still registering at the same speeds, but no light, radio, or background signals are touching the ship. Correction. A minor fluctuation on the hull, with heat signatures increasing near the rear of the ship.”
Galo reported the conditions of each system within his control’s scope, indicating each and every change, and increase, decrease, and adjustment the ship completed. By the time he had run through the lines he was nearing the end of the ten-minute jump.
“That about does it, Mission Control. We should be exiting the jump shortly. Talk to you soon. Over.”
On cue, the universe returned to the cameras of the Balboa Six. He felt a kick as the engines shorted then reignited, as if a massive temperature shift had kicked in the safeties. The stars looked right, but he double checked the readings. Better than right. He was still doing the math when Mission Control spoke to him forty minutes later.
“Confirmed, Balboa Six. Took us a second to find you. You went a bit beyond the marker, we have you at twelve degrees ahead of Pluto’s location. It worked, but we’re concerned about you being that far off. Hold on and we’ll confirm. Congratulations, Captain Gasper. You’re the first human to reach beyond the speed of light. Over.”
Galo smiled. In the back of his head he knew he probably had five months of flight ahead of him due to the long jump, maybe a bit longer from the distance travelled, but he’d done it. They’d done it. The dawning of true space exploration began with this mission.
The creation of art is an amazing process I love to watch. Text is my primary mode of creativity and seeing a master of this or another medium is something that inspires me. It’s one of the reasons I idea mine in Deviantart, because while I consider myself far from a master in any of the art I create I do find inspiration from watching a talented individual’s completed work. It’s even better when you get to see the creation process itself. I highly recommend the video at the start of this post. It’s worth your time if you have any interest in what a program can do in the right hands.