3 The Jump
"Daddy?", said the boy in front of me. He looked up at his father who was busy choosing between recycled water or bland coffee.
"Yes?", the father looked down.
"If we had werp drives before that bad rock hit home, why didn't we just put a bomb on it?"
What now?
"Its warp son. But like that movie we saw last time with your sister?", the boy nodded.
"Uhh", the dad wasn't sure what to answer.
"Shall I answer it for you?", I asked him.
"Captain!", he salutes. "I didn't notice that was you sir!".
"At ease, its not 'Bring your child to work day' now is it?", I said jokingly.
"His sister's on duty, I'm taking care of him for now.", he said while ruffing his son's hair.
"Now, about that question. The Warp Drive was invented three years before the bad rock hit home. Warp Drives were still experimental and quite expensive, and there were strict rules to prevent people from randomly jumping out system. When we saw the bad rock, it wasn't supposed to hit home. Think of it like that circle in the middle in shooter games. You missed your target, but somehow, you didn't. A year after, the bad rock changed course and was on its way to hit home. We didnt have time. There were many ships back then, but they didnt had warp drives like we do."
"Why did it change course?"
"I dont know kid, nobody knows.."
"I have ano--"
"How about I answer that for you son? okay? The captain is busy.", he said to his son. "Sorry sir".
...
I was now at the bridge, and on my seat. The fleets were ready. Their metal hulls were old, but still gorgeous. Hmpf, I miss cars.
"Sir, fleetwide message from HSS Foothold. Putting it up now."
"~Attention Fleet, we are Jumping in thirty seconds. Ascens III is our target, a possible habitable planet. The plans for this operation was just sent to all ship computers. All data concerning the planet, and its system is there. Don't lose hope, don't despair and pray to whoever you pray to, that we are on our way home.~", the lights dimmed.
6 ~ 5 ~ 4
"~Report immediately after Jump, and follow formation protocols. Godspeed.~"
3 ~ 2 ~ 1..
~~~~~~
I was used to the feeling of being warped. But there's something about it that makes my heart beat faster everytime we do it. Imagine seeing yourself, and your surroundings, expand backward slowly. Then suddenly bounce back forward so fast. Like the catapults and trebuchets of old. However the rest of the ride wasn't so bad after a while.
"Mid-Jump Systems Check!", I ordered.
"All still operational captain! Dropping out of Jump in thirty seconds!", Flint replied. "20!".
"10!", here we go..
Everything suddenly returned to normal. There was always a ringing noise after Jumps, nothing serious. The lights were turned back on along with everything else that was shut down before Jump. Some subsystems would react to Jump speed with fluctuating power levels, some quickly rising and causing short circuits. In order to prevent that, non-essential subsystems would temporarily be turned off.
As the first ones in we saw the Fleet jump in. As ships jump in, faint streaks of light would follow, slowly fading seconds after arriving. The ships then went to formation, it would still take at least a week to arrive at Ascens III, protocol states to jump in outside the gravity well of the system's star. The gravitational forces in the system would slightly but significantly alter the course of the ship.
"Fleetwide transmission from the Foothold Cap, putting it up now."
"~Fleet, we have arrived at the Ascens System, all ships are accounted for. The HSS Explorer and the HSS Guidance will go ahead full speed and conduct a planetary survey of Ascens III. Hearth Fleet and Thorn Fleet will shortly follow.~", the Explorer passed beside us, we shortly followed.
"~Godspeed."
"Lower the power of non-essential subsystems, all power to forward thrusters.", I ordered as I stood up, the sunlight hitting the area just below my chin. The windows in the fleet were specially designed to block out ultraviolet light, it wasn't too bright to look at.
"Ascens III, I hope you better deliver..", I muttered.
