‘Command, this is Light-Blazer, we’re ready to proceed’
‘This is Command, everything appears to be green across the board on our end, prepare for pre-flight checks’
‘Copy, disengaging from docking station delta. Moving to designated co-ordinates, over’
The ship’s wings spread, its thrusters burst with furious fire, pushing its sleek, metallic body through space and to the staging point.
‘Well dear, this is it, it’s finally happening’
‘Yeah, from all our hard work…we did it’, said Deanne.
‘Oh Mark can you boil the kettle’, she added.
‘What, right now?’
The two give each other lingering gaze.
‘I don’t thing that’s a great idea Deanne, I’ll make you a coffee once we’ve made it, ok?’
The woman sighs.
‘I guess’
‘Going to be you cleaning up the mess if it gets everywhere, not me…how far till our staging point?’
‘Er, ten metres, so any moment….now’
The astronauts tap away at the terminals in front of them, running diagnostics, double checking everything.
‘Pre-flight checks out’
‘This is Light-Blazer to Command, pre-flight checks are green, we’re ready to warp, over’
‘Affirmative Light-Blazer, you are cleared for warp, Godspeed’
Mark and Deanne interlock fingers for a brief moment and smile ecstatically. Eleven years of marriage and hard work, two of the top scientists of the world, and through all that they discovered the means of warp travel. In their early years together, it was just theories and equations. Around the seven to eight year mark, the equation was found; the years from then involved development of the technology as well as its testing by utilising unmanned probes sent to the moon. Last year one had succeeded. The Light-Blazer began construction immediately after the event, it housed the SMD (Spatial-Manipulation Drive). Mark and Deanne Blazer strived to be the first humans to travel faster than light.
‘Activating quantum shield overlay to negate time dilation’, Deanne explained. A flicker of light enveloped the hull. She nodded to Mark.
‘Initialising deuterium annihilation and charging sequence’
The vessel hummed with power and every hum thereafter had grown louder and louder the longer the warp core sustained this energy.
‘Is the core stable?’, asked Deanne.
‘Yeah’
‘Okay, setting course for Luna Orbital-One…we should decelerate the closer we get’
‘Lets hope so. I have faith in the computer’s calculational precision’, Mark grabbed the key and inserted it into the throttle lock. The unit opened, and revealed the throttle for warp.
Mark’s hand clutched the throttle with a firm grip.
‘Another small step for man, another giant leap for mankind!’
__
Beep, beep, beep…BAM!
They were thrown back into their seats, both of them took a snappy examination of their belts; each one remained fastened securely. The Light-Blazer gradually gained momentum up to the speed of light (299,792,458 metres per second) and before the effects of dilation could take hold the bubble was already present.
‘ARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!’ Deanne yelled whereas Mark’s hands clasped the ends of the armrests. The hull shook and creaked.
He fixated on the camera that showed the rear view, and watched Earth shrink in mere moments. Deanne on the other hand in her frightened state, glared relentlessly at the sudden approach of the moon, and at the close of that exhilarating twenty-three seconds; the throttle had automatically sprang back into its default position. Light-Blazer decelerated, the warp bubble vanished, and the ship came to a steady stop. Luna Orbital-One lied just under five-hundred metres away.
The two turned their heads delicately and gazed in awe. Giant grins crawled across their faces.
‘WOW!’
‘Wow…’
‘This is Luna Orbital-One to Light-Blazer, do you copy? Over’
Mark took the intercom.
‘This is Light-Blazer, we hear ya, care to lend us a docking port? Over’
‘Make yourselves at home, you’ve got clearance. Orbital0One out’
Deanne jabbed a selection of buttons and established communications with Command. She gave Mark a nod.
‘Command, this Light-Blazer, we have arrived at the moon, I say again, we have arrived at the moon, over’
Momentary silence ensued.
‘We receive you loud and clear Light-Blazer, well done, rest and refuel…we’ll contact you in twenty-four hours’
‘Affirmative Command, Light-Blazer out’
__
Luna Orbital took care of their needs for that time. Deanne chugged down many cups of coffee, since the warp, an affliction developed and hence, she could not sleep for the “night”. Mark on the other hand slept like a daisy. Although earlier when the two ate dinner in the mess hall, Mark noted Deanne spacing out a few times, something she’s rarely done when together albeit in a less extreme fashion. But he thought it was nothing more.
After their leave from the immaculate station and its rows of fans eager for autographs, the signage took place in the midst of the moon’s pale surface as the Orbital rotated; Light-Blazer’s SMD worked perfectly fine and thus returned to Earth, unscathed. Again, Mark noted Deanne’s…absence, and it happened during the quick warp to Earth. Once Deanne realised the moment had ended, a sense of irritation settled in.
Months followed after and the world glorified their success. The couple attended talk shows, podcasts, international news and even classes on the Theory of Spatial Manipulation and its Application across universities. The subsequent success of the Light-Blazer’s engine caused a huge demand for its technology from space agencies around the globe. This technology was distributed and ships based of the Light-Blazer’s design were put on the construction line. Whilst Mark and Deanne conversed, wrote, drawn and performed test simulations in hope for an improved version. A version that will surpass the speed of light.
That hope turned to reality, the equation was altered, Mark gotten his hands dirty, tinkered the hell out of that core. Once that’d been done, the time to test it for real, arrived.
Deanne suddenly unveiled a desperation for their next trip, and closed herself off from what Mark had been saying. As if she had placed significant interest in the phenomenon. Understandably, Mark was intrigued on how the engine will perform…but this wasn’t like Deanne, and frankly, it scared him.
Co-ordinates were set for Pluto, at the speed of light, they’ll arrive after five point five hours. However, with this version, that can be reduced.
Beep, beep, beep…BAM
‘Okay, give it a minute for it to warm up’, Mark said to himself yet wished for Deanne to say something back…she didn’t.
Her eyes were glued on the passing particles and distortion of space-time, and whatever else her wild eyes saw. Mark carefully pushed the throttle further than its original limit, breaking the barrier and were now faster than light. The Light-Blazer shook tumultuously, so much so Mark kept his hand on the throttle ready to jerk it back if need be. Deanne remained still, her eyes became wilder followed by sounds of an erogenous nature that slipped out between her lips. Mark had his attention on what was happening. Gently, he eased the tension he had on the throttle. The ship held steady.
‘More’, she whispered.
Mark turned his head in a precarious manner.
‘What?’
‘More’, she said, and looked at him deliriously.
‘The ship is shaking like hell Deanne, I doubt its going to hold as it is if we push it further, no, I’m not going to’
‘Mooore’
‘NO! You know what, I’ve got something on my chest I’ve been meaning to say for a long time, a long time! You haven’t been yourself Deanne…I look at you now and it looks like you’re out of it. What’s gotten into you?’
She stared mercilessly and ignorantly as she’d done before.
‘MORE I SAID MORE, MORE, MORRRREEE!!!!’
Deanne shot for the throttle and leapt it forward, theoretically they could have gone a lot faster, although something, whether it was the engine or another enigma, wouldn’t allow them. Mark yelped in fear and jumped for the throttle, only to be swatted aside by the person he loved. The Light-Blazer shook viciously, and with it, Deanne’s hysterical laughter.
__
Command had lost contact, their trail dissipated far beyond the scanners of the time, simply put, they became a mystery.
Years after, agencies developed, improved and expanded the original design of the Light-Blazer. Mankind had intertwined its fingers around the Solar System. New opportunities arose, as well as new obstacles; such playthings they can be to our moral compass, and a lack thereof.
A disturbance was detected, or had been detected yet never addressed until the Light-Blazer’s breakthrough. It could have been a mission for Mark and Deanne, instead, a lone pilot was tasked in finding the source of this disturbance. A vector within the Kuiper Belt, the pilot discovered an object that did not belong to humankind. Strangely enough, it affected the spatial manipulation drive in terms of its effectiveness. But did not stop it entirely (Could this have been what influenced Deanne’s odd behaviour, or Man’s fragility?). The pilot returned with his data which also included transmissions, transmissions to who or what exactly, remained in the confides of the unknown.
See: 11:11
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