Pointed Starward

[NASAFanboy]

The Dawn Voyager One fired its massive antimatter engines, their bright blue trails trailing behind it. Each engine was as powerful as fifty Mainsail engines that had propelled Kerbalkind to land on the Mun an entire century earlier, but unlike the Mainsail, these engines could burn for years, as compared to minutes or even the seconds; products of the horrid efficency of the Mainsail engine, which was now confined to musuems. It was an massive vessel, three kilometers in length, the product of an system-wide effort to open an new frontier. Its radiators streched far out, slowly cooking at temperatures as hot as the corona of the sun, while deep inside, an fusion reactor provided the power for the life support functions and robotic units onboard. With its photon sail folded out, the vessel made an speeding dive near its home star, using its gravity to fling itself out of the system and its radiation to speed the sail along. Within a single month, the ship had flown past the orbit of Jool. Within a year, the craft had departed the system altogether. But onboard, not a single soul stirred.

Commander Nedbob Kerman was sound asleep. Actually, he and his entire crew of thirty was sound asleep. They had set out from Kerbin on an voyage that would last five hundred years to another star system. Charging across interstellar space at 3,000 kilometers a second, they had raced out of the solar system, away from their family, away from their friends, away from everything they had ever known and ever had. And despite its breakneak speed - enough to circumavigate Kerbin five times in a second, turning the scenery into an majestic blur of colors, the starship would take centuries to arrive. The crew had long since entered their cryopods, leaving the journey for the onboard supercomputer to handle without manned interference.

All onboard was silent now, except for the occassional chittering of the many robots as they scurried to and fro, scaling the ships rigging, inspecting te antimatter rockets, and fixing any mechanical issue that arose on the voyage. The years ticked by, and the massive ramjet at the front of the vessel continued its scooping up of any stray particle for manufacture into fuel. The ship was at its top speed of one percent light speed, its antihydrogen tanks half spent despite the best efforts of the ramjet, which as now only functioning at half capacity. The reactor itself was beginning to show signs of its immense age, but onward the ship charged, their home sun now lost among the sea of stars. Their target star, Huones A twinkled in the distance, an stunning backdrop against the unforgiving velvet blackness of interstellar space. Finally, five hundred years after they set out, their starship, the Dawn Voyager One braked itself with its remaining antihydrogen fuel, settling into an low orbit around Huones Ab.

Adam woke up to the sound of hissing pipes as the cryopods all depressurized and spat out their occupants, dazed and confused. He grappled at several handles in the centerfuige chamber, slowly clambering his way to the Flight Deck. Slowly adjusting himself to the microgravity outside of the centerfuige chamber, he looked out the porthole.

"Nedbob!"

Nedbob stirred from his sleep. Muffins and pancakes, he thought, trying to return to his dream. Boosters and liquid rockets...

"Nedbob!"

Nedbob woke up from his stupor as dazed and confused as the rest of his crew. Quickly recognizing the voice as Adams, he made his way to the flight deck. A small group was gathered around the Porthole, engaging in hushed conversation at the ocean planet below. Jebediah pushed his way through the crowd, then turned to face Adam.

"What?"

"The planet, sir!"

Looking through the hole, his heart sank. Bright lights shone on the planetary surface, and several clearly artifical constructs were orbiting the planet, coated in bright lights and small spacecraft docking and undocking in an flurry of activity.

"Should we attempt contact?"

"The inhabitants of the planet might not be friendly, sir."

"Should we launch a preemptive strike and conquer it?"

An nanobot engineer by the name of Al spoke up.

"I don't think so. What if they are more advanced?"

"But we do have weaponary-", another Kerbal protested.

"You mean our asteroid defense system and whatever remains of our antimatter? Not a chance. Whoever lives down there is more advanced than us, heck, their stations are of an more efficent design than we last saw on Kerbin, and their cities shine brighter. We shouldn't awaken a sleeping giant."

"But what about the mission? What now?"

"I don't know."

Nedbob motioned toward the controls.

"Adam, turn the reciever dish toward Kerbin."

"Sir, I do-"

"That's an order."

The crew gathered around the reciever, listening closely. Static began, with the usual background noises of cosmic radiation following - then, suddenly, came a burst of Kerbal languages, differently spoken, but still understandable, another, for another 20 years. Nedbob turned the controls toward Huoenes Ab, and the same sounds came out. Kerbals talking - in an more advanced language, but still speaking understandably and clearly.

"Oh, great."

"Nedbob, we have a vessel apporaching us from aft, starboard. Should we signal them?"

"Yes, go ahead."

Nonbob slumped down, defeated. He had travelled 500 years to an remote planet, away from his friends and family, away from everything. He had sacraficed everything for this mission, only to find out that someone else had beaten him to it. An notice flashed on the status panel.

DOCKING PORT ONE OCCUPIED

An Kerbal emerged from the airlock. He was dressed in an unidentifable uniform, and grinned at the crew.

"Sorry about that. We detected you after you entered the system, but we had to completely create an identical replica, of..uh, what was that thing in the history books again? Oh, the Clamp-O-Tron docking port! We had to ship it all the way from Kerbin on an faster-than-light vessel, an-"

"Woah, woah, slow down. You have faster than light?", Adam interjected.

"We invented it a whole century after you left. Some Kerbal astrophyiscist named Dr. Jenkens and his team of engineers, uh, I forgot some names. There was this Fanboy Kerbal scientist who worked with the docking functions of the FTL drive, allowing ships to dock while going at tremendous speeds, and there was another Kerbal who was building interplanetary shuttles with it. I don't remember. It can acclerate ships up to 10c and back down again."

"Wait, you know when we left Mun Station? And how the drive works?"

"Sure I do. You were the start of a first wave of sleeper ships. How the drive works is an state-controlled secret, only few have access to it, and I'm not one of them. Are you guys hungry? We have a whole feast down in our shuttle."

Nedbob nodded.

"We certainly are", he declared, rising to his feet.

"Follow me then! Uh, how do you work the airlock?"

The Commander grinned silently, and opened the hatch to the shuttle below.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

"Anyways, sorry about that quick introduction. You Kerbals are like heros, seriously. Its like Jebediah Kerman himself shows up in person. I'm really sorry about that, Huones Prime isn't mean't to host interstellar celebrities."

"Huh?"

"We renamed it Huones Prime. Its got an big population, around a million."

"Oh."

Nedbob paused to poke at something on his plate.

"Whats this?"

"That's Jias steak. Some form of animal on Jurosu A. They've domesticated it an now use it like cattle. It's pretty good, the animal itself is way more efficent to be farmed for consumption than beef, and it tastes better."

"Oh."

"Anyways, we'll have to send you back to the main dockyard in three hours."

"Why?"

"Quarantine. As much as I hate to say it, they're afraid you got some viruses from pretty long ago on you. Your ship is huge compared to this shuttle. Ned, since you're the Mission Commander, the property rights legally belong to you. You get to say if you want to sell it or not. It'll make a mighty fine musuem ship, mind you. It even has an vintage fusion reactor, even later ships used antimatter for electrical power. It's up to you, sell it, or keep it."

"I'll have my crew decide. How long is quarantine?"

"Three days. They scan you on the fourth day to kill any viruses."

"That'll be plenty of time for us to decide."

Al spoke up.

"So, Huones Prime, is it an independent faction or still an colony?"

"It's an colony. We have the United Kerbin Outer Space Authority governing almost all the colonies of Kerbin. It's either that, lawlessness, or a transnational corporation. We dock with the station in half a hour. Your ship is already there, and its being serviced by our nanobot repairmen."

"Is spaceflight something that's still uncommon, or is it already mundane and typical?"

"Mundane and typical. A trip outside this solar system is pretty common nowadays, but we still do have exploration vessels probing far-away systems. Some even operate at speeds of 100c!"

100c?, Nedbob thought. He quickly calculated.

"100c, right? Isn't that one thousand, five hundred years to the nearest galaxy?"

"I believe so."

"Do you have sleeper ships headed there?"

"None."

"Why not?"

"Noones volunteer-"

The Kerbal's eyes widened. He looked at the crew, each and every one of them.

"You don't mean-"

"We mean exactly what we mean. We're going to sell the ship to an orbiting musuem, then use the money to purchase an exploratory starship, then transform it into another sleeper vessel."

"But-"

"We'll name it the Dawn Voyager Two"

"It'll be a 3,000 year round trip!"

"We aren't coming back, actually, we won't come back for a while, but eventually we will. That galaxy, Uisla, it's going to collide with our galaxy in ten billion years, so even if you don't build a faster ship, we'll still come home."

"You've just come here! And buying a starship like that is going to be expensive, your vessel couldn't cover half the costs!"

"Which is why I'm asking you to help me."

"I would love to donate, but I can't cover the rest!"

"I mean, spread the news."

"That," he paused, then continued. "That, I can do."

_______________________________________________________________________________

Word spread quickly. Within several months, Nedbob was once again at the helm of an starship, this time, one that was faster than light.

It was an massive vessel,powered by three anti-matter reactors and several onboard facilities that would produce matierals during the trip, letting the starship travel forever in space and time. His entire crew stayed with him, faithful to their captian. And a new addition.

"Nedbob!"

The Kerbal who had greeted them from the first day of their arrival at Huones Prime was running toward them.

"Why are you here?!"

"I want to come with you."

"Why?"

"I want to explore!"

Nedbob turned toward Adam. Adam shrugged.

"We have three extra cryopods. He could fit."

Nedbob smiled.

"Well son, what's your name?"

"Lucifer, sir!"

"Lucifer, head to Cryopod 31. Buckle in, and have a safe trip. Next time you wake up, we'll be at another galaxy."

Lucifer grinned, and shooked Nedbobs hand before running down the aisle and strapping himself inside the cryopod and pulling the cover over his head.

_______________________________________________________________________________

"All systems ready!"

"Roger that!"

Nedbob clambered into his cryopod. He looked out at the beautiful planet below, an shining oasis against the backdrop of space. Do I want to do this?, he wondered.

He sighed, then pulled the glass cover over his head, and fell asleep, just as the engines began to roar...

[THE END]

Edited March 11, 2014 by NASAFanboy

[KSK]

Short but sweet - I like it!

One minor nitpick - assuming that your kerbals are living in our universe, 1% lightspeed is 3,000 km/s (give or take), not 110,000 km/s.