Stellar Nurseries

Exponents of Soul

Exponent Zero

Just before we broke orbit and started on our way, there was a short ceremony. The director of the project, along with the heads of state from all the contributing nations, addressed us over a satellite link. There was only a slight delay due to the light speed communications lag. It didn't matter. We weren't there to say anything.

"This is a momentous occasion," the director said. "Today, humanity takes its first stages on a journey to the stars."

We listened respectfully; lined up in front of the camera on the Apostle's bridge, dressed in our mission coveralls. We were not going to the stars. We were only going as far as Nemesis - a brown dwarf approximately one lightyear from Sol. At best it was a stepping stone to the stars; but we couldn't deny its importance. It took a great effort for us to look suitably solemn. Some of us wanted to laugh at the stuffed shirts lauding us for what was to some; some of us just wanted to get on with what we had been trained to do. But, like the professionals we were, we managed to hold it together during the interminable speeches. In the end, they had to stop. Time and orbital mechanics wait for no-one.

So, at the appointed hour, Commander Liu gave the order and we engaged the GUT drive. At first we felt only the slightest of pressures. Then, as the GUT drive ramped up to full power, the gravitational force acting on us increased. We were on our way.

The Apostle moved out of Low Earth Orbit, spiralling outwards in ever increasing circles until we had picked up enough velocity to transition to our intercept flight path for the Jovian flyby. When we could, we took turns to watch the Earth gradually dwindle behind us.

Exponent One

Soon we will pass Saturn's aphelion - another milestone in our journey to Nemesis. But this is only an arbitrary point. There is nothing to see here, no object to mark our passage. All we have are the glowing numbers on the navigation display.

It's not like our encounter with Jupiter. For weeks we watched that world grow bigger ahead of us; its features becoming more distinct as we came closer. The first thing we could make out on Jupiter's disc was the swirling storm that is the Red Spot. As we came closer we could make out more of the giant world's features: the equatorial bands of clouds, driven by incomprehensible winds; the vortices that marked the edges; the lightning storms that lit the clouds from below and sent bursts of radio static across the solar system. We watched these, awed that we were seeing them with our own eyes.

Our flyby brought us within the influence of the Jovian radiation belts, and we retreated to the safety of our storm cellar. We huddled behind its thick walls, watching the readouts on the dosimeters climb then fall back to safe levels. While we had been sheltering from the storms of energy and particles, the Apostle had continued on its course, following the dictates of Newtonian physics. Jupiter was behind us. Like a thief in the night, we had come and robbed that planet of a minuscule fraction of its velocity so that we could reach our destination that much sooner.

Now we are once more in the void between worlds. There is nothing to see here but the stars. Even our own sun - Sol - is nothing but another point of light. So we keep going, the GUT drive engaged once more and sending us ever further from our home.

Exponent Two

Yet another milestone. We are now further from the sun than Pluto; further from the sun than Eris! No human has gone this far. It will be some time before we catch up with the probes that were sent out in the last century or so: Pioneer, Voyager, Kuiper Express, Nyx ... . But we will surpass those in time. Of course, we have an advantage. Many of those spacecraft relied on the interplay of gravitational forces - the so-called Interplanetary Transport Network - to speed them on their way. We have the GUT drive. In a shielded part of our ship, the Apostle, a fusion reactor generates plasma at energies approaching those of the Big Bang. As the plasma expands and cools, the forces generated twist space and time, pushing us forward on a wave of expanding space and elementary particles. As long as have sufficient hydrogen fuel, we can keep going.

The GUT drive has taken us the start of the Oort Cloud. Earth is now just a distant memory; its blue skies and green seas haunt us like half-forgotten dreams. New realities have imposed themselves. We are no longer citizens of the nations that gave us birth. Nor are we creatures bound to a pathetic surface. It is as if our consciousness has expanded. ?Now we see ourselves as envoys of Earth, on our way from the hot, rocky worlds of the inner solar system to our closest neighbour.

Exponent Three

When we passed the heliopause something strange happened. When it was developed, the GUT drive was meant to be capable of delivering a low, but constant thrust for long periods of time - perfect for long-duration missions like ours. However, as we emerged from the solar bow shock, the thrust generated by the Apostle's GUT drive increased. Instead of the gentle pressure we had become used to, our weight returned. Accustomed to months of microgravity and centigees, we are finding it difficult to cope.

But that is not the worst of our problems. The increased acceleration means that we are now travelling at greater velocities than had been planned for at this stage of our mission. With the protective bubble of the heliosphere no longer surrounding us, we are subject to the full force of cosmic radiation. As we approach speeds where the effects of relativity become obvious, even the smallest of particles carries enough energy to smash the nuclei that make up the hull of our spacecraft and generate secondary radiation. The space-distorting effects of the GUT drive give us some protection, but not enough to prevent us retreating to the storm cellar once again. If the GUT drive should be switched off or fail, it is unlikely that we will survive the resulting radiation.

We did try to contact mission control back on Earth, but we cannot make ourselves understood or get an intelligible response. As far as Callum, our engineer, has been able to determine, our communications equipment is working perfectly. It is physics that is against us. When Liu asked me what could be done, I told him that our signal was being distorted by the Doppler Effect, and our bandwidth was being affected by our increasing tau-factor. We could do nothing. I held out the hope that maybe mission control would realise what had happened and alter their communications equipment to compensate.

So far, there has been no signal from Earth to tell us that they have succeeded. So, we reman in the storm cellar, huddling together for comfort and praying for salvation. Our world has shrunk to just the six of us.

Exponent Four

I no longer know how long we have been trapped in the Apostle's storm cellar. As we come closer to the speed of light, the tau-factor increases, creating an impenetrable barrier between us and the surrounding universe. Our local frame of reference is now so distorted that time and space are now just subjective measurements, distorted by our masses as we move around. Our thoughts are now focussed on the nature of relativity. The alternative is to contemplate our death.

Our ship is now constantly bombarded by high-energy photons. The atmosphere sparkles blue with streaks of Cherenkov radiation - the result of the cosmic radiation penetrating our bubble of reality. Doctor Jothi calculated the radiation dose we have received. According to her we will be dead soon, our body functions destroyed; but 'soon' is a term that has no real meaning here.

It is no longer possible to tell where we are. we are flying blind, our sensors burnt out by the radiation slewing thorough them. we can only guess where we are or how fast we are going. We carry our own universe with us.

Exponent Infinity

We have achieved c - the velocity of light. Time and space no longer have any meaning. We are at the centre of our own singularity. Our senses, however, have expanded. We can see further than before. Now we can look upon the universe and truly know our place within it. We have transcended.

The apex of our lightcone is our origin. Ahead of us lies our destiny, spread across the universe. We can see what must be done.

* * * * * * *

Journeys are not just physical. They are mental and spiritual, too. The first astronauts to see the entirety of Earth from space were overwhelmed by the sight before them. And, as we venture further from our cradle, we will only encounter more at which to wonder.

Oh - the GUT drive. I stole that from Stephen Baxter. I have no shame.