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Reach for the Stars
Universe History
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If the space age started with Sputnik, the interstellar
age started with Pathfinder II. By the early 23rd century
Humans had settled every vaguely habitable lump of rock
in the Solar System. A developed colony existed on Mars,
with smaller ones on Titan, Ganymede and a number of the
larger asteroids. The energy crisis was over, with
limitless solar power and almost limitless hydrogen
scooped from the Jovian atmosphere and accelerated
earthward. Humanity was in a golden age, Earth was in the
midst of the most sustained period of prosperity and
peace in history, and enough of a frontier existed to
keep most of the more adventurous souls out of trouble.
Still the stars beckoned.
Oh, we had reached the stars before Pathfinder. The first
probe, Stellar 7, entered the Alpha Centauri system in
the year 2056, after only 28 years flight time. The
perfection of cryogenics allowed a manned vessel, the
U.N.S. Neil Armstrong to reach the system in 2109, flight
time 37 years. While the voyage of the Armstrong was
hailed as a triumph, it was clear that the problem of
accelerating any substantial mass to relativistic speeds
was so great that interstellar flight was simply not
worth the trouble.
The equations said it was possible, in theory at least.
The mission of the Pathfinder Project was to see whether
the equations could become reality, whether the fabric of
space-time could really be curved on demand, whether two
distant points could really be brought closer together by
the massive application of energy. Einstein it seemed
could not be cheated, but he could be manipulated. If we
could not travel faster than light it seemed that we
could at least bring our destination closer.
It began with Pathfinder I. In June 2198 the unmanned
vessel slipped into what inevitably became known as
hyperspace and completed a journey of six light days in
less than two hours. After the initial jubilation, it was
realized that this was only the beginning, that the
technology required to fold space-time had almost
limitless potential. Pathfinder II ironed out the bugs
and included the first portable hyperspace field
generator, just powerful enough so that when the unmanned
probe entered the Alpha Centauri system on September
21st, 2207 it could send a message that reached Earth in
considerably less than the four years it would normally
have taken.
The news that the stars were within reach caused both
jubilation and trepidation on Earth. Mankind would go to
the stars, but if we could do it, so could others. We
were no longer safe behind our Einsteinian barrier. No
one with any vision could seriously believe that we were
alone in the Galaxy. Sooner or later we were bound to
meet another species. Would they be behind us
technologically, or so far ahead that they would brush us
aside just as European powers had brushed aside less
developed peoples in their push to dominate the globe?
Some commentators postulated that any developed species
must be peaceful but the biologists quickly pointed out
the flaws in this argument. Any species with enough drive
and intelligence to develop interstellar flight must have
displayed enough aggressiveness to dominate their home-
planet in the first place. Opinion remained split on
whether our first contact was likely to be with a cuddly
teddy-bear or with a slavering killing machine.
Whoever we were likely to meet it was considered only
prudent that we be as strong as possible. For the first
time space weapons were seriously considered. When the
mission to Barnard's Star was launched in 2216 it was
accompanied by one of the first star destroyers in the
newly formed United Nations Navy.
The wisdom of a "be prepared" policy became evident in
2235 when a scouting force entered the Deneb system and
was immediately attacked by forces of the Saurischi, an
aggressive reptilian species. Although Humanity lost that
first battle we learned enough from it to be able to win
the war. Just as we were congratulating ourselves we
discovered that the Saurischi were the least of our
worries. When our former enemies approached us for a
treaty so that we could jointly fight a new species known
only as The Hive, we knew that our problems were only
just beginning. Little did we know that the Hive Wars
would last for over two hundred years and bring Mankind
to the brink of destruction. What had begun as a reach
for the stars had become a bitter struggle for survival.
