Starships of the Alliance (eBook)

Thomas Busenbark (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
372 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-0208-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Two million years ago, an Alliance starship with more than one million passengers and sentient robots departed from the planet Sentolis to explore the Milky Way, settle uninhabited planets, and observe developed worlds. Following strict Alliance policy, before a planet can be contacted, it must have the ability to record its own history, harness fusion power, and make burgeoning space exploration within its own system. These travelers have lived among us for years, waiting for our world to be ready for contact...

Thomas Busenbark is a California-based author who has spent his life reading sci-fi stories. At 72 years old, Busenbark decided it was time to share his own sci-fi story with the world.

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Are you ready to join the Alliance?Two million years ago, an Alliance starship departed from the planet Sentolis 250,000 light years away from Earth. On board this massive starship were over one million passengers and sentient robots. These pioneers embarked on a long journey to explore the Milky Way, settle uninhabited planets, and observe developed worlds. After reaching our solar system, this mix of Otonans, Cavanans, and Agatans created outposts on various moons and planets including our own Moon, Venus, and Mars. Following strict Alliance policy, a planet must have the ability to record its own history, harness fusion power, and make burgeoning space exploration within its own system before they can be contacted and offered membership. These travelers have lived among us for years, waiting for our world to be ready for contact... An irresistible first contact story where aliens have always been among us, Starships of the Alliance is a tale of discovery, speculation, and exploration taking us to worlds never before seen!

Textauszug

Chapter 2:
Leaving Sentonol

Sentonol shrank behind them, its yellow glow fading into amber rust, then deepening to reddish brown before vanishing into black. The stars reclaimed the sky.

Greg adjusted his telescope, focusing on a familiar sight: the seven-star cluster that had fascinated Otonans for millennia. The constellation shimmered in soft reds and golds, appearing close together but separated by light-years. Cave paintings, the oldest records of Otono’s history, depicted hunters chasing game beneath these very stars. The full hunter’s moon had lit their way, its glow reflecting off spears. Now, those same celestial beacons guided something far greater than humanity’s first steps beyond Sentonol’s system.

The seven idols, as they were called, held different meanings across Otono’s cultures but always symbolized beauty. Oval in shape, iridescent, and distinct in color, each had its presence in the night sky. The largest, a red giant named Megate, stood at the top of the cluster. Expanding toward its inevitable collapse, Megate would one day dim into a common red dwarf. It was tempered by the whites and yellows of its neighboring stars, blending into a soft, fiery glow as seen from Otono.

One of the yellow stars, Shalmar, was the destination of the Starship Idol Dream, forty light-years away, home to the planet Maritine. The ship Sandy Solane would appear to pass directly in front of the constellation, crossing the oval’s peak in a spectacular sendoff. A symbolic crossing into interstellar space.

Solane, the binary brother of Sentonol, lay just 0.7 light-years away, yet for the travelers, it was a 3,500 year journey.

Greg activated the video feature on his telescope, a zigzag, as Otonans called it. His unit was remotely mounted on a shuttle orbiting the far rim of the solar system. Even from that vantage point, he needed 200 times magnification to capture the details of the seven idols. The signal took five hours to reach him. No problem: the video was time-stamped, and time, after all, was relative.

Everything seen in the night sky was a glimpse into the past. The light reaching his telescope had been emitted hours, years, even millennia ago. His real-time video feed was already five hours old before he saw it. The shuttle, positioned just beyond the ice giant Tarantino, had taken one year to reach its location. The time delay from the shuttle’s perspective added another hour.

Zooming in, Greg framed the star cluster perfectly in his camera.

A handful of engineers, scientists, and enthusiasts gathered on this remote hilltop, among them his close friend Chas. Most Otonans watched the event from home or massive arenas, but some, like Greg, preferred the raw experience far from the crowds, beneath an open sky.

Greg’s travel dome, mounted on his van, was state-of the art. A fully expandable sensor system, video suite, and transmission relay. Chas liked to call it “really roughing it.”

Greg smirked. “You laugh now, but when the arena feeds start buffering, we’ll be the only ones with a direct link.”

Chas leaned back; eyes fixed on the night sky. “Five-hour delay, though?”

Greg adjusted the feed. “Doesn’t matter. Everything we see in space is old news anyway.”

The seven idols gleamed overhead. Soon, the Sandy Solane would streak across their faces, marking the moment the pioneers left their solar cradle behind.

A historic journey. A step into the unknown.

Greg locked onto the feed and hit record.

Greg turned on the video feed. Chas glanced at his notepad

“Beautiful,” Chas muttered, watching the idols shine on his monitor. He tilted his holoscreen to the small group gathered nearby.

“Could you have imagined this fifty years ago?”

“Yes,” Greg answered without hesitation. “By then, we had already gone too far to turn back.” A timer on the screen counted down.

“Five minutes,” Greg noted. “Dani just checked in.”

“Oh yes, your niece, the botanist,” Greg said with a small smile. He had met Dani several times young, bright, and with a promising future.

“She’s working in the seed room?”

“Yes, on the third ring.”

Chas had overseen the construction of the genetic storage areas on Sol, especially the seed rooms and botanical labs. Now, ironically, he and Greg, a master technician, were sitting here on this remote hillside with a telescope while most others watched on high-resolution displays they had helped build.

“One minute,” someone announced.

Chas found himself lost in thought. Fifty years ago, he had stood on this same hillside, on his brother’s farm, celebrating his promotion to chief engineer of the botanical section. His brother, a master farmer, and his sister-in-law, a sensor technician, had raised their glasses in a toast. Somehow, the conversation had drifted to designs, and by the time the sun rose, they’d sketched out the early plans for the seed storage system. At the same table where they worked sat Dani, eager to help. Now, she was a trained botanist, playing a direct role in what they had envisioned.

A sphere of color emerged against the backdrop of the idols, slowly moving across the sky.

On-screen, the ship displayed colors chosen by a popular vote: green, representing Otono’s lush growth; gray, mirroring the deserts of Sandy, their destination; and deep blue, the unifying choice of both Agatans and Cavanans.

Chas live-streamed the event. He watched as his follower count surged thousands tuning in. Of course, most people were watching on massive satellite displays in their homes, conference rooms, or public arenas. He wasn’t the only one capturing this moment. Thousands of perspectives, recorded from orbital telescopes and station shuttles, flooded the networks.

As the starship passed in front of the idols, a wave of oohs and aahs rippled through the crowd.

Chas’s mind wandered back to his contribution. The seed rooms alone are 10,000 cubic meters, insulated with silicon-oxygen polymer, lined with vinyl granite composite. The botanical chambers were airtight, soundproof, with constant air filtration. Entry required a steam shower and a sanitized uniform.

Chas had designed these chambers. Now, his niece Dani worked inside them.

Greg, whom he had met during Sol’s construction, was a long-range sensor technician. He had been enlisted to refine the seed storage sensor systems. Greg had enough on his plate, but he volunteered anyway, calling it “playtime” on someone else’s project.

Greg never took credit, brushing off his contributions as minor. Yet sometimes, his “small changes” shifted entire systems. As one of the L7 humans on Otono, Greg had the authority to alter key projects but, thankfully, not the botanicals.

Chas turned to Greg. “Do you wish you were on the ship?”

Greg nodded. “Yes. I miss her already. My child has left the house.”

“Well,” Chas smirked. “On to a new project.” Greg exhaled. “Yeah. I’ve joinedthe Idol Dream.” Chas raised a brow. “You took that position?” Greg nodded. “Should keep me busy for a few years.”

The Idol Dream was set to launch in 500 years. While their sister ship journeyed to Solane, the Idol Dream would continue jumping 3 to 5 light-years at a time toward the Shalmar System. 40 light-years away. 200,000 standard years of travel.

Their destination: a water world orbiting the sun Shalmar, in the System of the Seven Idols.

Greg and Chas bumped hands and parted Greg for the Idol Dream, Chas for a consultation with the LongTerm Interplanetary Storage Society. He had no plans to join the Idol Dream but would remain on a shuttle near the rim, working on the next starship already in development.

Apogee

Onboard the ship, a celebration was underway. This was the moment they passed apogee, the outermost point of their solar orbit, their first true departure from Sentonol. For centuries, solar magnetic forces would still tug at them, but not enough to alter their course.

They would never orbit their sun again.

Their destination, Sandy, was habitable and modifiable.

Its lakes were covered in algae, and along the shorelines, moss and fungi thrived in cool, damp inlets. Near shallow, clear rivers, ferns sprouted before the water emptied into vast deserts.

Onboard, they carried seeds and genetic material capable of restoring entire ecosystems of trees, fruits, insects, mammals, birds, and more. These were stored in long-term viability chambers, waiting for their time to take root in a new world.

The Ceremony

The first ceremony of departure was held in the central gathering hall. Three civilizations had selected speakers from among those on civic duty:

• Dani, representing the Otonans.
• Alex, representing the Cavanans.
• Montez, representing the Agatans.

Dani stood, beads of sweat forming. Her CI steadied her, cooling her nerves. She smiled a natural, warm expression, her soft aquan eyes glinting under the lights.

“I am honored to be here,” she began. “We are all fortunate. I acknowledge those who applied but were not chosen. I salute them. I was one of hundreds who could have been selected. I am grateful to be among...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.5.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-0208-0 / 9798317802080