Solar Warden by Jakob Waechter (best authors to read TXT) 📕

“That's a good question. If you meet up a civilization you won’t proceed at all. In this case your scientists will try to decrypt communication and you just gather as much sensor data you can and return. Else if there is not much found you scan every surface of a planet and decide how you can proceed. If there is a habitable planet you may go down and take probes of course. For that you also have now more experts in biology. Also if you find minor signs of intelligent life, you have to judge for yourselves how much you can risk. Keep in mind if there is someone it would be useful to know what kind of threat they are. For that kind of reconnaissance operations, you are trained,” the General replied.

“Affirmative,” Knight replied.

“Good, I think all is said and things have to be decided when we are there.” Captain Fisher had his orders and was fine with it.

“Then I can only wish you good luck and keep out of trouble. Dismissed,” the general finished the meeting.

Samuel was with the others in the back of the TR-3CS and following the approach over the monitor. They went into the right hangar. Then on the left a bigger door opened where they glided in. After touching down a lift brought them a level higher and the shuttle went to a docking position. Samuel could not tell if they rolled there on wheels. But as smooth as it was he guessed they used the anti-gravity gliding of the shuttle. Eventually they were anchored and the back of the airlock showed they could exit without the suits which they were wearing. Owens and Taylor joined them and they went into the ship. Surprisingly Ryan was already there.

“Seems it was a short briefing,” Taylor noted.

“Yes, but there was not much more to say. Now I show you our lockers and rooms. Then we make a tour through the ship. Departure is tomorrow so we have quite some time,” Ryan replied.

Everybody knew from the schematics they got, the internal structure. Also on some points of the ship there were maps of the current level on the wall. Still it was necessary to get common with the interior.

On the next day, there was a preflight briefing of the whole crew in a cinema like room with also such a big screen. The Captain was in front of the screen. There were seats for over 300 people.

“Good morning crew. Everybody should know now about our next mission. Here on the screen you see our upcoming travel again. This mission may have an encounter with an alien race that could even be hostile. Therefore, our first stop will be the star system S 102, where we do our sneak into foreign system testing. So our approach into S 103 stays as stealthy as it could be. From there we will then plan our further operations. Our journey to S 102 will take one and a half week. So we have enough time for further refinements and the new ones to get common with our systems and proceedings.” The captain finished his speech.

“Sir, do we have more information about the alien race?” Samuel asked.

“Well, I guess all of you had the common introduction. We have an archive everyone can access. That means all have access to the special classified information we have. So you can read it and make your own thoughts. Surly this information is still classified for Earth. You won’t be allowed to talk to others on Earth about it and our operation,” the Captain replied.

“Why all this secrecy. Would it not be wise to inform the people about this?” Samuel wants to know.

“Well, you are not from the special forces. But most of us coming from there and conducted CIA operation. So it's common to us talking about secrets can cost lives. We were drilled to it. As of the Solar Warden project is known to the public to some point as conspiracy theory. The politics made the decision to keep it like it is. There might be some whistle blowers which have to deal with the punishment for that. Also this secret cannot be kept forever. But there are reasons for it and we will sure have to talk about them at a later time. Then it will be thought over again if the situation has changed. The main fear of the politics is economically instability or even power loss. The Military sees it quite different. On the one side, it may restrict the resources we could get. Otherwise speaking openly about it will also lowering security. This may also make it more easily for aliens to spy on us, which technology we possess or even terrorist and countries give access to technologies they should not have. More is there not to say. I think we have now to focus on the importance of our mission. What possibilities we have, to gather information without getting caught doing it,” Captain Fisher replied.

“Do we also conduct landing on planets in the S 102 system?” Ryan asked.

“Of course while we go there we refine the sneak in approach and finally if there is a suitable planet we land there and take probes. So you can prepare your teams for that. We will send all teams if it is possible. Remember we are only 210 people some have here more duties because of that. Until we get the full crew the ship is built for, some time will pass. Still we are a lot more as the minimum needed to operate this ship. However as inexperienced in interstellar space travel we still are, we have to prepare for the unexpected as good as we can. Now we make our preflight checks. Then start and travel to S102. Normal training and preparation shifts will now take place. The team leaders will be informed in a further briefing. All back to your duty. Dismissed,” the Captain was done with the briefing.

Samuel was on a front window below the bridge part. This curved higher tower from the center part at the end of the ship gave a good overview. He saw down to the Moon base on the side. The only thing what was visible because of the turned on lights.

Then it was time. Slowly the starship lifted off and a short time later the lights went out. The ground behind was in the darkness. Only light came from the stars and the room light. Samuel put on his glasses which had infrared support. Now he could see something coming closer. It was cigar shaped, like his ship without the tower and wing parts. That must be one of the prior stellar vessels used to secure the Solar system. They past it and only the stars were left to see. Samuel went to his work place. A small office room where he could close the door if needed. In this section were more offices with most of them used also by computer science experts. Also Max had her office nearby. With a terminal they had access to all the ship database and sensors readings. So they were able to do analysis or develop improved algorithm. He and Max had also the task now to improve the passive sensor readings. So he started to look at the sensor specs and the description of the current algorithm the system used. After reading some of the specs he activated one of the front cameras which displayed the stars. He continued to read more specs. Then the camera, view started to flicker and went dark. Samuel checked the status of the camera it was OK. Then that of the spaceship. They were in hyperspace now. Samuel remembered from a prior talk with Newman that in hyperspace the physics is different and light seems not to exist there. So he continued his work.

Newman and Ryan were on the bridge. The Captain was preparing the exit from the hyperspace.

“Open the exit window,” he ordered. Then in front of them a part with stars appeared.

“Send the probe,” was the next order.

An about two-meter sized cube object flew away.

“Readings coming in. It is clear. Scanning the back now,” the sensor officer informed. The probe made a turn and moved to the side.

“Also clear. We can exit now,” the sensor officer finished the protocol checks.

“Helm, engage the dimension change,” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative,” came the reply from the navigation. More stars came to sight all around the ship and they were back into normal space.

“Start the position determination and all passive scans.” The Captain turned to Newman. “This is the normal procedure to check for all objects in a star system we scan now some time. Then we fly a bit closer and do it again. After that we can calculate the position of the planets and moons we spotted. We could do a third approach to check from another angle but for a normal approach this is enough data. At that distance we are, there is no possibility to spot us. Light travels not that fast and we would be surly out of range with our size and heat signature.”

“At that distance of about one light-year away from the habitable zone we could even use active scanning for the surroundings. It would not matter much except secure the Icarus more. Also we could move closer to a half lightyear if needed. But it would not solve the main problem. If they radiate like we do it on Earth, we would detect a civilization here without a problem. However, if they don’t and have sensors also in their moon orbits, we will be detected on our closer approach we have to do later. The only option we have is to optimize the sensor scan out of the hyperspace to avoid running into a trap. They could have defense system on the back side of their moon. Much more difficult it will be if they have no moon,” Newman replied.

“Yes, that's the critical phase but we need to do it like we did with the passive mode. There is not too much to improve. Opening this window out of the hyperspace costs a lot of energy. Maybe we can use a smaller window. I'm open for any suggestions,” the Captain replied.

“We have two launch tubes at the front. The size of the window can be lowered to the size of the probe. Then we send two probes through. The first one immediately turns to the side and flies a bit back, too. With the second one we scan also the front and more important hold the connection to us and relay to the first one. So we have 100 percent of the windows back and even can triangulate if needed. The other question now would be. Do we active scan the surface of the moon or passive and how much time we want spent on this,” Newman suggested.

“I guess you already have an answer for this?” the Captain suspected.

“I made simulations and calculations and came to 25 seconds with active scanning. 270 seconds for passive. But it's better we make some real testing,” Newman replied.

“Good. Then we will make it so,” the Captain confirmed.

The scanning was done and the target was set for a tiny moon of a planet outside of the habitable zone.

“Newman, I have a question. I thought the hyperdrive system detects any gravity field around. So why we scan our back?” Ryan asked.

“It detects only the gravity fields that would influence the dimension change. This means smaller ships or sensors further away we could not see or even dangerous micro particles are a problem. But that's a quite different story. This means in normal operations an active scan is a must do to be sure,” Newman informed Ryan.

A bit later they arrived their next stop. They sent now their two probes and 30 seconds later they dropped out of hyperspace. This was nearly instant as they just had