A Splintered Galaxy.
1 FOSTER
Interstellar Expedition Space Agency HQ (IESA)
Paris, Earth, Sol system
February 19, 2033, 08:21 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Rebecca Foster strode into IESA HQ, a tall, white, and pristine building in Paris. It was formerly the location of the ESA before it was badly damaged during the Hashmedai invasion of Earth some fifteen years ago. The elevators made a digital dinging noise as they slid open giving her access to the top floor of the facility. Rays of sunlight beamed through the skywalk as she moved away from the elevator and toward the office of director James Barker.
She took one last glance through the windows and fixed her eyes on the Paris skyline amazed at how fast the human race was able to rebuild this city and many others across the globe. Most people born after the war had no idea of the amount of devastation that transpired during that dark moment when two billion human souls came to a sudden end. Only a history book provided them with that knowledge unless they traveled to the regions of Earth that society hadn’t gotten around to restoring, or the many glass craters that scarred the world in some regions like the east coast of North America.
She stepped away from the window and the reflection of her short brown hair and dark-blue IESA uniform with the flag of the United States stitched onto the shoulders of it. Many of the personnel she passed in the hallways had a uniform like hers; each had a flag of their birth nation. She entered the director’s office where Barker sat at his desk with his hands folded. The flag of the United Nations of Earth hung on the wall behind him, while two chairs were parked in front of his desk. In one of the chairs a familiar face Foster hadn’t seen in years was seated. A young man with dark skin, short black hair, thin and nicely trimmed beard also wearing an IESA uniform, Dominic Williams.
“Foster, glad you could make it,” Barker said as she took a seat next to Williams.
“Dom too?” she gestured to him with a smile. “We in trouble?”
“Big trouble,” Barker said. “We’re sending the two of you away from Earth. For a long time.”
Foster looked at the aging director with her eyes wide open. “You’re kidding right?”
“He’s serious, Foster, they found out.” said Williams. “Found out we’re too damn awesome.”
Foster and Williams had met in the days following the invasion of Earth, the two stuck together and made sure to share the same interests so they always had an excuse to watch each other’s backs. There were no laws during the first year or so after the main Hashmedai command ship was destroyed after all. Those years of watching each other’s backs lead to the two becoming members of IESA and the shared dream of exploring the great expanse beyond the solar system.
“Congratulations, Captain Foster,” Barker said to her as he offered her a new rank pin. He then addressed Williams and offered him a new rank pin as well. “And congratulations to you, Commander Williams, your flight to Sirius will happen.”
“Thank you,” she said while she resisted the urge to jump up and scream with joy. “What made things change? Thought the Carl Sagan was on hold indefinitely?”
“New President, new rules,” said Barker. “Construction on the Carl Sagan continued and is near completion.”
“You mean you knew it wasn’t scrapped in favor of new warships?”
“Had to keep a lid on this, people want more protection for Earth, not science and exploration ships. With that said the Carl Sagan will be the last for a while, the next ship in the pipeline will be a warship.”
“When do we get the keys, and move in?” Williams asked.
“That’s our next challenge, rather your challenge,” said Barker. “We don’t have a full crew yet.” Barker handed the two of them data crystals. “These are dossiers of people you should consider for the expedition. I’ll leave that in the hands of you two to recruit the best.”
“Us?” Williams asked.
“These people will not only be your crew, but your family,” explained Barker.
“We’ll be a long way from home, Dom,” Foster said to Williams. “Best we put that team together.”
“That, and I need to contact hundreds of colonists that were rejected due to lack of space, and tell them never mind, we got room still,” said Barker.
Williams stood up, eager to get started on the new task at hand. “Well then, let’s get to it.”
The two left the director’s office and made a brief detour sitting down in the cafeteria on the lower floor. They viewed the contents of the data crystals on their handheld data pads and began the tedious task of skimming through its contents while indulging in small lunch and coffee breaks.
There was a respectable list of names that appeared on their screens. Each name had biographies, psychological reports, education, and work history background details attached. Foster winced and sighed, she underestimated the amount of work recruiting a team for interstellar exploration was going to entail.
“That’s quite a list,” Williams said as he put his data pad down.
“Um, yeah. Tell you what, I’ll look into recruiting senior officers,” she suggested as she will be Captain and therefore the one dealing with senior officers the most.
“Fair enough, I’ll select well-rounded people for the rest of the crew.”
She tossed her pad onto the table they sat at and addressed the next problem before her. Her roast beef sandwich was getting cold. “Where will you start?” she asked after finishing three bites of it.
“I’ll look into securing our psionic first,” Williams said. “That, and it will give me an excuse to visit the Radiance embassy.”
Foster smiled and somewhat regretted not taking on that task herself. “You just want a free trip to Jamaica.”
“You know me too well!” Williams said with laughter. “Jealous?”
“Maybe.”
The galaxy outside of Earth was controlled by two factions. The Hashmedai Empire; the invaders of Earth, and the Radiance Union; a five-species collective who came to assist the human race defeat the Hashmedai Empire. In the aftermath of the invasion many of the governments around Earth crumbled. From the ashes rose a new global government, the UNE one that was aided by the Radiance Union as they shared their technology and knowledge of the galaxy with the human race.
Part of the reason why the human race recovered quickly after the devastating war was largely due to a fleet of Radiance ships that arrived at Earth from Alpha Centauri, the nearest Radiance controlled system. They uplifted humanity, helped rebuild cities, and guided the human race in constructing ships capable of interstellar travel. Like the UNE, which was formed by marrying all world governments together, IESA was formed as the ESA merged with NASA, CSA, Chinese, and Russian space programs, to name a few. According to Radiance, Earth existed in a region of the galaxy that was largely unknown to the union and the empire. IESA’s goal was to advance into that region of space before either of the two galaxy nations did, to explore, chart and colonize it, further cementing the UNE as a third galaxy superpower in their corner of the galaxy.
The ESRS Nikola Tesla, ESRS Stephen Hawking, ESRS Freeman Dyson were the first three IESA ships built and were planned to be launched at the same time from Earth to explore the unknown and establish humanity’s first extrasolar colonies without the watchful eye of Radiance. And now the ESRS Carl Sagan will be joining that fleet, taking explorers and colonists to the stars.