Bold Futura (Chapter 1: The Impossible Drive)

[HCB-11]

The year is now 2150.

A new space race has begun, this time to reach the nearest star in a Kerbal lifetime.

Along with a new cold war between Kerbin and Duna.

Kerbin is controlled by the United Nations of Kerbin, it is a overpopulated, ecologically strained world. Sea level rise and global warming has caused a ecological catastrophe, forcing most nations to turn to the UNK for help, ultimately leading to the UNK controlling all of Kerbin itself.

Duna is an independent power, it is controlled by the Confederacy of Duna. It was settled by many of Kerbin's best scientists and engineers, after it's colonies became fully self sufficient, it began vying for full independence. Which the UNK accepted. It has the ultimate goal of terraforming the red planet.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1: The Impossible Drive

This news is what captured his attention. The idea of traveling faster than light itself. The idea has been prominent throughout science fiction for more than a century. He never knew this day would come in the first place. It was accompanied by the national anthem of the United Nations of Kerbin.

Later, the voice of Joseph Steele, the leader of the UNK delivered a message to his own people on live television stating:

"Citizens of Kerbin, today is a new day. The last decade our fellow scientists have been developing the so called "Impossible Drive", which actually exploited several existing phenomena. It is no longer impossible to surpass light itself. Initially conceived by physicists Dr. Michael Alkubb and Dr. Harald Bright half a decade ago, it was met with skepticism from fellow colleagues saying it was a mere "childish fantasy" and "a dream which will never come true". They were wrong. It caught our attention, we were fascinated by the idea of a FTL drive especially during the height of the second space race between us and Duna to the nearest star of Proxima Kentauri, we were skeptical at first, but we decided to fund their project. Eventually the technology was invented 2 years ago. We began to build a FTL-capable spacecraft which we named "Voyager", construction has been completed. Now only the crew is missing. 8 PM West Jebistan Time/WJT this Monday is when the crew will be launched towards the Tycho orbital shipyard, which is where the spacecraft is docked, aboard a Condor-class SSTO. So stay tuned. This is Joseph Steele, signing off."

The words "Serve the UNK, Serve the common good" appeared on the screen afterwards.

"That's already a game over for Duna." said James afterwards.

The Dunaeans have been constructing a massive Daedalus spacecraft for the last 3 years named "Supremacy". James felt sympathetic to Dunaeans because their spacecraft took a lot of effort to build. Especially when your rival built a small FTL spacecraft in only a few weeks compared to your massive slower than light spacecraft which took 3 years to build and fuel it.

8 hours later, James began watching live feed of the launch. This launch will be one that makes history. The first time Kerbals travel faster the speed of light.

The countdown began.

"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0 and bon voyage!"

After some time they eventually rendezvoused with the shipyard. The Condor then docked with the shipyard, the astronauts then were transferred to Voyager. Followed by several system checks.

After final checks were made, the Voyager undocked with the shipyard. The ship then rapidly accelerated away from the shipyard. It was time to fire up the drive.

For a split second a "bubble" briefly appeared around the ship followed by the ship vanishing from view.

Kerbin has won the second space race to Proxima Kentauri. No one expected them to considering Duna has the technological advantage over Kerbin. By the time the Voyager was launched, the Supremacy was in the middle of the months long acceleration burn. By the time the crew arrived at their destination, it has been colonized and Duna has long accepted defeat. How unfortunate.

Meanwhile, weeks after it was launched, Voyager returned with it's precious data.

A new era of exploration has begun.

It was time to exit the Kerbol system and cross the vast interstellar medium.

James would later join the UNK marine corps.