The Doctor’s Danish accent was heavy, making it difficult to understand, but the implications of what he was saying were quite clear to Nathan, as they were to everyone else, as evidenced by the murmurs of response to the unbelievable news.
“Are you saying we could jump back to Earth, instantly?” Nathan couldn’t help interrupting.
“Oh much farther than that, Lieutenant,” the elderly physicist assured him. “With this prototype, we can travel at least ten light years in a single transition event,” he proudly proclaimed.
That statement caused the room to become even noisier. “Settle down, people!” the captain ordered.
“The only limitations we currently have are power, of which enormous amounts are required, and of course the risk of navigational inaccuracies, even the slightest of which could have catastrophic results.”
That got the captain’s attention. “What kind of results?”
The Doctor looked perplexed as he tried to come up with an example. He was a man accustomed to speaking with other physicists, and not with laymen.
“Well, there are so many. Space is not empty, you know. If your transition is not calculated exactly, you could end up appearing inside a planet, or a star-or even worse!”
Even worse? Nathan thought. What could be worse than jumping into a star? He looked over at Cameron. He was sure that she understood what the Doctor was talking about, as she had a far better understanding of the complexities of interstellar navigation.
“Thank you, Doctor,” the captain said, taking charge of the room once more. “As you can all imagine, the ability to travel great distances so quickly would provide an enormous tactical advantage. Our orders are to help the doctor and his team test this new system. Using Jupiter to mask the test from any observers on Earth, we will attempt to transition to a point just outside the Oort cloud, approximately one light year away. If successful, we will transition back to our orbit around Jupiter and then return to Earth, so that the good Doctor and his team may continue their work at what I expect will be an even more accelerated pace.”
The captain looked about the room once more, noticing the looks of shock, concern, and amazement on the faces of his young crew. “Now I know this seems like a big risk, and that you probably feel like Fleet Command is using us all like guinea pigs. And you’re probably right. But considering the severity of our situation, we’re going to have to take some additional risks if we hope to prevent an invasion of our world. And I don’t see this being any more risky than facing down a fleet of Jung warships. And you all knew that you might have to do that someday.” The captain looked around the room again. “Any questions?” He turned towards his flight crew, knowing full well that they would have a few.
“Sir,” Nathan said, “What do we have to do during this test?”
“Apparently nothing, Lieutenant,” the captain answered. “From what I’ve read in the briefing file, and correct me Doctor if I’m wrong, the ship’s velocity and course will remain unaffected by the transition event. So the direction and speed that we’re traveling at departure will be what we’re traveling upon arrival. Just be prepared to maneuver quickly should something suddenly be in our way,” he added with a wink.
The captain’s sense of humor was not serving to comfort his nervous crew, and he could tell. “Look, people. This will all be over in a few blinks. After that, you’ll all be in the history books and we’ll be on our way back to Earth. It doesn’t appear that the transition events will have any effect on the rest of the ship’s systems, so for most of you things will go on as normal. This entire test will take about thirty minutes, after which we’ll resume normal operations.”
The captain scanned the faces of his crew, trying to make eye contact with each of them. “Now I have to remind you that this is highly classified, and you are not to discuss it with anyone, not even with each other. Needless to say that if the Jung ever learned of this technology, they would attack immediately, destroying everything and everyone that stood between them and this technology. It is undoubtedly the biggest genie to be let out of its bottle since the invention of the hydrogen bomb.” He paused one last time to let his words sink in and take their desired effect. “Now double check all systems and stand ready. The test will begin just after we enter comm blackout with Earth as we pass behind Jupiter.”
Nathan knew the captain was right. Spaceflight as they knew it, along with everything it provided, was about to change drastically.
“Five minutes to the far side of the planet, Sir,” Cameron reported.
“Lieutenant,” the captain said, “when we come out of the transition, if you see anything in our path, don’t wait for anyone to tell you to take evasive action. Understood?”
“Yes Sir,” Nathan answered. Now he was starting to think Vladimir had been wrong.
“Ensign Taylor,” the faster you can get a fix on our location after the transition, the happier I’ll be.”
“Yes Sir.”
“XO, bring the ship to yellow alert, please.”
“Yellow Alert, Yes sir.” The commander changed the ships readiness status to yellow, again changing all the light bars throughout the ship and sounding the condition change alert. “All hands, Yellow Alert! Set ship’s to condition to yellow!” the commander announced ship-wide.
All over the ship, the crew rushed to make sure that everything was properly stowed away, every system was checked and ready, all non-essential systems were shut down, and all bulkhead hatches were closed.
A few minutes later, the last of the green condition lights on his tactical display changed to yellow. “Ship is set at condition yellow, Sir,” Commander Montero reported.
“Very well. Time to threshold?”
“One minute, Sir,” Cameron responded.
Down in Engineering, Vladimir was getting nervous. The two reactors used by the special projects team had been running at one hundred percent for over four hours, long before he had come on duty, and he did not understand how they were using so much power. No one had informed him of what was about to happen, but he knew that the moment of truth for the special projects team was at hand. He only hoped it didn’t result in damage to his reactors.
“Crossing threshold, Sir,” Cameron reported. “We are now on the far side of Jupiter from the Earth.”
“Doctor Karlsen,” the captain announced. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Doctor Karlsen watched over his daughter’s shoulder as she worked the console at the auxiliary station, making comments to her in Danish as she worked.
“Transition systems are ready,” she announced. “Energy banks at forty percent capacity.”
“Is that enough?” the captain asked.
“More than enough for transitions both there and back, Captain,” she answered calmly, trying to hide her annoyance at the question during so critical a time.
“You think we’ll feel anything,” Nathan whispered to Cameron, but got no response.
“Transition parameters locked into auto-sequencer, the system is ready for initiation.”
Doctor Sorenson looked at the captain, who was looking back at her over his shoulder. It was a polite gesture, as it was his ship to command.
“Let her rip,” he ordered.
“Initiating transition in five…”
Despite the fact that they had been told there would be no sensation, and no change in ship’s velocity momentum, everyone on the bridge turned their chairs to face forward.
“Four…”
The captain wondered what his wife was doing at the moment.
“Three…”
Nathan rested both hands on his console, as if to brace himself.
“Two…”
For some reason, Cameron did the same.
“One…”