Tesstwo Odyssey (by Rune Woodman)
September 6th 2009 09:23
We were 11 years into our journey before we received the news about the destruction and chaos back home.
If we went back there was nothing we could do to help. Even though, if we had decided to go back it would take several several months of breaking to stop the ship, then we'd need time to re-plot our course and following this would still be another 11 years travelling to get there. For us, travelling at near light speed, the time would go much more quickly, but it would still be a long wait.
I decided it was best that we continue with our mission. Perhaps this is not the best place to start. I'll go back to the beginning. My entire life has been a part of this story. Sometimes I forget that there might be others now who don't know how it began.
When I was ten years old scientists discovered a signal coming to our planet from a distant system. In the hundred years or so since the discovery of radio-waves from space this was the first time anything had been found that was more than static. It was a message. It was proof that we were not alone. But it was less than a message, merely a series of numbers repeated over and over.
I remember how on that day everything changed. One day there was despair across the world as we worried about our impending self-destruction, the next we were joyous and elated at the news that we were not alone, that there was someone else out there who was facing the same struggle through existence as we were.
I grew older I noticed and the joy became strained as it took another 5 years for scientists to discover meaning in the message. Their eventual 'best interpretation' was that it contained a set of co-ordinates and judging by the direction of the message's source it seemed to be telling us the location of our neighbour.
On that day, when I was 10 years old, I decided that I was going to be the first person to go to this new planet. As much as I wanted it the dream seemed impossible. The planet was roughly 25 light years away – no-one had ever travelled close to even half a light year.
Following those coordinates with our telescopes we eventually identified a system with a sun and several planets. One of the planets was blue, just like our own. We named it TSS2P3-NX0000001.1. In translation that means - Transmitting Solar System number 2, Planet number 3 – Unexplained type 1.1. It was named solar system two because, of course, we inhabited Solar System one. The full name was quickly shortened to 'Tess-two-pee' then just 'Tesstwo'. Most people took it as the hand of god that our planet and this new-comer were both third in line from their respective suns. I'm sure that churches all over the world breathed a sigh of relief at that coincidence, since the discovery of the message people had started turning away from their faith in droves. This little bit of galactic symmetry had them turning around and racing back in again begging forgiveness.
Relentlessly we sent return messages to our blue sister, perhaps hoping that the rules of space and time could somehow be bent and it would take less than 50 years for them to receive it and reply. But their broadcast of numbers never changed.
I finished school, joined the air-force and was sent to university to study advanced mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics. It seemed, despite government denials, that there were plans to attempt to send ship across the void and I had managed to make myself one of the candidates to be part of the crew.
After university I was sent to for more study, learning about top-secret propulsion systems, new methods in extended life support and navigation. I had no idea what I was being trained for, it seemed they were throwing everything at me.
I worked all over the world on aeroplanes, in low orbit space craft, under-water in submarines and crazy space suits with fat umbilical cords. Eventually, just after my 37th birthday, when I was beginning to think the rumour of the mission was little more than my own fantasy I was taken to my commanding officer's house late in the evening.
He sat in a comfortable chair drinking something that looked smooth and warming, while I stood to attention. He asked his butler to leave the room and close the door then directed me to a chair and handed me an envelope. “We have a 'Go' status for the mission,” he said at length.
I looked at the envelope, it had my name on it. “Which mission is that sir?” I asked.
“Tesstwo.” It was only one word but it made my heart leap into my throat. I tried to keep my voice calm as I asked, “And who's going?”
He smiled at me, “You are.”
Almost fit to burst I struggled with my voice again and asked one more question, “In what capacity?”
“Captain of the mission, of course.”
I was sent to our low orbit station where I met my ship and my crew. Only four of us would make the 53 year journey. We needed 26 years and three months to travel to Tesstwo (including three months to break our speed from near light to something more suitable for orbiting a planet). We would have as much as six months either in orbit or if possible on the surface of the planet and another 26 years and three months to return. Technically that would make me nearly 90 years old when we get back, but the effects of time would be reduced due to our travelling so close to light speed. For us on the ship the journey would be shorter by decades.
With plenty of money and time to plan the early stages of the mission, the final preparation of the ship and her crew went perfectly. Our launch date was reached, we set our solar sails and we were off. The sails were made from a tough, light-weight fabric made of a substance that is repelled by light so the ship would be pushed through space, sails billowing with the gathered light in the same way ancient water-craft were carried along by their sails with the speed of the wind.
One hour after our launch we were already a third of the way out of our solar system and that's when things started to go wrong back home and they sent that the useless, pointless message. Because we were travelling so very close to light speed and the message was travelling at exactly light speed we didn't get it until now, more than 11 years after it was sent.
Our mission had always been kept from the public but we knew the take off in high orbit at extreme speed was going to be noticed. After all, we were heading in the same direction all of those telescopes were pointed.
Though two-and-a-half decades earlier the world had been united by the message from Tesstwo we united only by an idea, not by an ideology. There was still conflict and war. One of our enemies felt that our deceit around the mission was an act of war and launched a nuclear strike on us and our allies. We retaliated and the war was over.
We have all taken the news with shock. Right now we are avoiding each other, keeping to our quarters as much as possible.
I have considered slowing down to pick up other messages that might have been sent but we have heard nothing from our mission control since that first message. We have no details on the size of the conflict, if anyone is declaring victory or even how many might have been killed. There are some smaller states in the far north and south of the planet who have always remained neutral during wartime but even if they escaped direct attack the fallout would surely cover the surface of the entire planet. There would be few survivors. Slowing down to get more messages could be worse than having none.
Our best chance is to continue the mission. To go to Tesstwo and seek their help. It is possible they are more advanced than us, it is possible they may have had similar conflicts to this and have methods of survival. Perhaps, at least, they will understand our problems and offer some sympathy.
As I write this I look into the future with hope that there may be help from the people of this other planet, but I also look into the future with fear. I fear what we will find when we return home in another forty-two years.
If we went back there was nothing we could do to help. Even though, if we had decided to go back it would take several several months of breaking to stop the ship, then we'd need time to re-plot our course and following this would still be another 11 years travelling to get there. For us, travelling at near light speed, the time would go much more quickly, but it would still be a long wait.
I decided it was best that we continue with our mission. Perhaps this is not the best place to start. I'll go back to the beginning. My entire life has been a part of this story. Sometimes I forget that there might be others now who don't know how it began.
When I was ten years old scientists discovered a signal coming to our planet from a distant system. In the hundred years or so since the discovery of radio-waves from space this was the first time anything had been found that was more than static. It was a message. It was proof that we were not alone. But it was less than a message, merely a series of numbers repeated over and over.
I remember how on that day everything changed. One day there was despair across the world as we worried about our impending self-destruction, the next we were joyous and elated at the news that we were not alone, that there was someone else out there who was facing the same struggle through existence as we were.
I grew older I noticed and the joy became strained as it took another 5 years for scientists to discover meaning in the message. Their eventual 'best interpretation' was that it contained a set of co-ordinates and judging by the direction of the message's source it seemed to be telling us the location of our neighbour.
On that day, when I was 10 years old, I decided that I was going to be the first person to go to this new planet. As much as I wanted it the dream seemed impossible. The planet was roughly 25 light years away – no-one had ever travelled close to even half a light year.
Following those coordinates with our telescopes we eventually identified a system with a sun and several planets. One of the planets was blue, just like our own. We named it TSS2P3-NX0000001.1. In translation that means - Transmitting Solar System number 2, Planet number 3 – Unexplained type 1.1. It was named solar system two because, of course, we inhabited Solar System one. The full name was quickly shortened to 'Tess-two-pee' then just 'Tesstwo'. Most people took it as the hand of god that our planet and this new-comer were both third in line from their respective suns. I'm sure that churches all over the world breathed a sigh of relief at that coincidence, since the discovery of the message people had started turning away from their faith in droves. This little bit of galactic symmetry had them turning around and racing back in again begging forgiveness.
Relentlessly we sent return messages to our blue sister, perhaps hoping that the rules of space and time could somehow be bent and it would take less than 50 years for them to receive it and reply. But their broadcast of numbers never changed.
I finished school, joined the air-force and was sent to university to study advanced mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics. It seemed, despite government denials, that there were plans to attempt to send ship across the void and I had managed to make myself one of the candidates to be part of the crew.
After university I was sent to for more study, learning about top-secret propulsion systems, new methods in extended life support and navigation. I had no idea what I was being trained for, it seemed they were throwing everything at me.
I worked all over the world on aeroplanes, in low orbit space craft, under-water in submarines and crazy space suits with fat umbilical cords. Eventually, just after my 37th birthday, when I was beginning to think the rumour of the mission was little more than my own fantasy I was taken to my commanding officer's house late in the evening.
He sat in a comfortable chair drinking something that looked smooth and warming, while I stood to attention. He asked his butler to leave the room and close the door then directed me to a chair and handed me an envelope. “We have a 'Go' status for the mission,” he said at length.
I looked at the envelope, it had my name on it. “Which mission is that sir?” I asked.
“Tesstwo.” It was only one word but it made my heart leap into my throat. I tried to keep my voice calm as I asked, “And who's going?”
He smiled at me, “You are.”
Almost fit to burst I struggled with my voice again and asked one more question, “In what capacity?”
“Captain of the mission, of course.”
I was sent to our low orbit station where I met my ship and my crew. Only four of us would make the 53 year journey. We needed 26 years and three months to travel to Tesstwo (including three months to break our speed from near light to something more suitable for orbiting a planet). We would have as much as six months either in orbit or if possible on the surface of the planet and another 26 years and three months to return. Technically that would make me nearly 90 years old when we get back, but the effects of time would be reduced due to our travelling so close to light speed. For us on the ship the journey would be shorter by decades.
With plenty of money and time to plan the early stages of the mission, the final preparation of the ship and her crew went perfectly. Our launch date was reached, we set our solar sails and we were off. The sails were made from a tough, light-weight fabric made of a substance that is repelled by light so the ship would be pushed through space, sails billowing with the gathered light in the same way ancient water-craft were carried along by their sails with the speed of the wind.
One hour after our launch we were already a third of the way out of our solar system and that's when things started to go wrong back home and they sent that the useless, pointless message. Because we were travelling so very close to light speed and the message was travelling at exactly light speed we didn't get it until now, more than 11 years after it was sent.
Our mission had always been kept from the public but we knew the take off in high orbit at extreme speed was going to be noticed. After all, we were heading in the same direction all of those telescopes were pointed.
Though two-and-a-half decades earlier the world had been united by the message from Tesstwo we united only by an idea, not by an ideology. There was still conflict and war. One of our enemies felt that our deceit around the mission was an act of war and launched a nuclear strike on us and our allies. We retaliated and the war was over.
We have all taken the news with shock. Right now we are avoiding each other, keeping to our quarters as much as possible.
I have considered slowing down to pick up other messages that might have been sent but we have heard nothing from our mission control since that first message. We have no details on the size of the conflict, if anyone is declaring victory or even how many might have been killed. There are some smaller states in the far north and south of the planet who have always remained neutral during wartime but even if they escaped direct attack the fallout would surely cover the surface of the entire planet. There would be few survivors. Slowing down to get more messages could be worse than having none.
Our best chance is to continue the mission. To go to Tesstwo and seek their help. It is possible they are more advanced than us, it is possible they may have had similar conflicts to this and have methods of survival. Perhaps, at least, they will understand our problems and offer some sympathy.
As I write this I look into the future with hope that there may be help from the people of this other planet, but I also look into the future with fear. I fear what we will find when we return home in another forty-two years.
| 27 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
