Space Chronicles The Beginning

Chapter 6B

Marty turned to look back at the crew. “Well folks, this is it.”

Uma smiled. The rest had concerned expressions.

“Ten minutes to launch, Angie.”

“Thank you, Delphi.”

“You are welcome, Angie.”

The X-2001 taxied out onto the salt flat and stopped. The only sound was the gentle hiss of environmental air and the pulsating whine of the engines. The main screen showed a desert devoid of light.

"Flight Control has cleared us for launch, Angie."

"Execute on count, Delphi." Angie said.

“Yes, Angie.”

The ship leaped into the cool desert air and zoomed straight up. The image of Earth's darkened southern hemisphere rapidly shrunk on the main screen.

"This boat is much faster than the X-1001," Marty said.

"How long does it take to reach jump speed?" George asked.

"Not long."

"Ten minutes to jump, Angie."

"Put us at 20 AU of Alpha Centauri A, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

"Why so far out?" George asked.

"We have to scan both A and B for planets before we go in," Angie said. "If there are no habitable planets, we'll take some readings and return."

"We'll find good planets," Uma said. "I just know we will."

"I hope you're right," George said. "It would be a shame to go all that way for nothing."

"It all comes down to just how common planet formation is," Marty said. "Is our solar system unique?"

"I doubt it," George said. "It's a big universe out there. If it happened here, it's bound to have happened somewhere else."

"Jump in ten seconds, Angie."

"Execute, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

Various expressions of concern overcame the faces sitting behind Marty and Angie. The crew had little time to panic.

The stars on the main screen began to spin, accelerating to a blur. When the deck elongated, the crew sitting in the back became alarmed when their more forward seated crewmates disappeared into a tiny spot that everything was rotating around. George looked over at Uma who was seated next to him but was now reduced to thin twirling spindles that stretched to unknown distances in both directions. He felt like his skin was crawling with ants and he could only see multi-colored, twisted lines stretching to a parallax view.

He gasped when everything snapped back.

"We have entered normal space, Angie."

"Good. Bring us to LSR, Delphi."

"Yes, Angie."

The forward engines fired.

"See," Marty said with a big grin. "That wasn't so bad."

"I thought you had left us," Uma said.

"Actually, you arrived before we did."

"That doesn't make any sense," Uma said.

"Nothing about quantum physics does," Marty said. “We’re lucky that going through a jump doesn’t turn us inside out.”

“I felt like that,” George said. “Maybe we were for an instant.”