I checked the ship plating once more time. Moved my hand over the smooth titanium surface somewhere over the propulsion unit.
"Start in 4 minutes..."
It felt weird - so cold. Just few inches away the plasma was burning but it felt unnaturally cold here. I put my hand away, taking a look on the distorted reflection of my face. I moved the head quickly to fix the distorted image of my right eye in the "mirror" but I just got my nose worse. I suddenly realized what I am doing and how it probably looks. So I walked further to the back of the ship. Everything was perfectly clear and I was confident I will not find any problems. I've been checking that ship almost all the time in last 8 days.
"Start in 3 minutes and 30 seconds..."
I walked around the Kitten - that's what I called my beauty, and entered the opened door on the other side. One more look around - just to make sure all this is real... Some other dozen of ships around, all of them with pilots as excited as me, entering their ships. I felt that sudden shiver up my spine. The idea of all the things that are about to happen in next few hours - I was excited but there was a little bit of fear as well. I shut the door quickly and got myself inside.
"Start in 3 minutes..."
I take it to the left - straight to the bridge. Kitten was rather small ship, built for excellent
maneuverability but mostly - acceleration. So there was a pilot cabin in the front, the chair for just one person, some panels and that's it. The room on the right was canteen, medical bay, work room - and pretty much everything else. The room on the other side with all the engines in in - You can call that the Engine room I suppose. But to be honest - You cannot do anything in here except checking visually if the propulsion works okay, and adjust few parameters manually if needed. The remaining room was utilitarian as well.
I plant myself in the pilot chair and initiated automatic pre-start sequence.
"Start in 2 minutes 30 seconds..."
The automated voice sounded now a little bit different coming from little speakers inside the cabin.
I turned the communication channel on and reported my status. The answer was as brief as it can be - "Everything's going fine, wait for the start confirmation signal". I let myself even deeper into the soft leather, and started thinking for a while what I'm doing here. What we all are doing here. That funny curiosity we humans have. Some drive that makes us want to conquer, to compete, to be the best. Something like getting closer to God.
The flow of thoughts was interrupted by automated pre-recorded message. No problems found during the self-check sequence, the ship is ready to take off. I checked the watch on my hand.
12:57:57...12:57:58...12:57:59
"Start in 120 seconds..."
I thought for a moment about remaining 13 drivers, what's running through their heads, who are they. Just anyone could have signed for this. Ex military pilots, engineers, scientists, maybe some lost existences trying that for all the money involved. 10 billions of new American dollars in cash for anyone who can do that. I dare to call that a motivation! For that kind of money I could buy some small island in Pacific. I could have an island with my name. Brodski Island. It sounds nice. What would such an island look like? Long gravel beaches, lot of palms, exotic looking girls in their colorful bikinis. I almost feel the taste of coconut rum in the back of my mouth.
"Start in 90 seconds..."
I realized suddenly that the island is not the right thing for me... I know myself too well after all these years. I was not the type who can enjoy whatever life has to offer. Studying on recognized schools until 32, 2 years experience on military astrophysics labs, and then the 10 billions dollars offer. It was not the money that got me. The exciting part was the idea that I can do that. Maybe. That I can be the first one ever who did that. Screw the Brodski Island, maybe there will me something much more greater carrying my name. I wanted to think about something really important but only things like lemonades, chewing gums and candies came on my mind at that moment. I had this idea of an older lady buying the cookies in some supermarket with my face on the packet. I was imagining weird stuff.
"Start in 60 seconds..."
Well - stop thinking about next week, next 60 minutes are all You should care about. The engine
running at 82 percent. I could have easily started 20 seconds ago. No need to hurry. I leave the Kitten to heat up a little bit, don't want to risk anything. There was just one attempt. You either do it or all the work will render useless in next few minutes. I got that warm feeling deep in my belly reassuring me that it will work...
"Start in 30 seconds..."
I adjusted the plasma injectors flow. Kitten made subtle wrrrr sound You can barely hear... 20 meters ahead huge doors started moving up. There was only deep universe going all the way to infinity behind. There were no technicians inside the hangar and all the access doors started closing down so the energetic field - only barrier between the ship and space can be turned off. Few seconds after the field really did disappear and I felt little shake as the air pressure hit the inside of the hangar. The automated voice was counting down last few seconds.
"4 3 2 1 - Start..."
Driver 6
One would have expected some quick start, full speed forward, but all the ships and Kitten was no
exception just moved forward really slowly towards the black universe...
I noticed Earth on my left. Beautiful as always. I don't care what they're saying, I think Earth is most beautiful when observed from the Moon. You see just a huge sphere and once You start thinking of all that lives going on, millions of fates, peoples You're never going to meet - your head starts spinning. I watched the Earth until it left my window. Enough of nostalgia, it's time to do what I'm here for. I increased the main engine thrust, and started enjoying the feeling of quick ride. Current speed 1.2 percent of the speed of light. There was a subtle shake as Kitten adapted for gravity when nearing Jupiter. Few minutes later I was passing last planets of our solar system getting ready for the main event of day...
It was critical to control power parameters of all 6 engines synchronically, so they can deliver the gain I was hoping for, and won't burn in few seconds. To accomplish the mission not even one of them can go wrong.
I couldn't see that but the ship plating was beginning to glow... The sensors were showing 1800 Kelvin degrees. Four motors running in impulse sequence and remaining two running at 50% accelerated Kitten to almost 2%. The ship surface temperature begun to fall and ship was entering the natural vacuum aerodynamic bubble.
So far so good I thought to myself. Now just 50 times more. Once again the goal looks easier than ever before. The speed of light? Not a problem. Anyone knows that Einstein was not right. Well - actually he was. Everything is relative, even the speed of light. In theory - any solid body can travel twice the speed of light. The light flows at velocity called c. In all directions. And if another light rays is flying it opposite direction - their relative speed is 2 times the c. It has to be. Easy on the paper, maybe in the labs with photons a bit more difficult with entity size of Kitten. Still - I was pretty sure it is possible. If the ship can generate reverse chronon wave, and I can run at half speed of light, it should be possible. In theory. In real world - nobody ever tried, me and remaining 13 pilots were the first people ever in mankind history trying to win over TIME. If You think about that - You can reach the finish line before You started!
I started feeling a little bit dizzy thinking about all of this. On the other hand - it could be caused by speed my body never experienced before. I checked the photon flow counter. Estimated speed 2.7 percent. My two main engines were starting to show signs of tiredness, so I changed the power distribution effectively. The ship jumped a little bit as the speed increased quite a bit. I took a look outside the window but there was nothing to be seen, as vacuum bubble covered the whole ship blocking anything trying to get inside. Even the light. It was like flying with closed eyes. I turned on the chronon wave generators and the space in front of the main window started glowing blue. It was - amazing. The energy discharges dancing on the "glass". I imagine those are the dense fragments of time... Something like this was never seen before. Maybe in aeronautics labs on the Moon, but never in real situation. Nobody ever tried chronon wave and well - maybe this is the good time to start thinking about the effects on human body. But - the speed sensor value vas slowly increasing and that was the most important thing at the moment. 13, 14, 15... still growing, and even if I couldn't feel any change on my body I was really excited. The wave was now flowing all around the ship, little streams and drops of pure energy. I was just sitting in the chair thinking if it's just the feeling or I really cannot move any part of my body. 3 minutes passed and I couldn't even move my head to check the speed sensor, so I start feeling uncomfortable about this. And - to make things even worse suddenly I started feeling really tired and wanting desperately a good sleep. Eyelids started getting heavier and the brain was getting ready for a nice long nap...
I noticed Earth on my left. Beautiful as always. I don't care what they're saying, I think Earth is most beautiful when observed from the Moon. You see just a huge sphere and once You start thinking of all that lives going on, millions of fates, peoples You're never going to meet - your head starts spinning. I watched the Earth until it left my window. Enough of nostalgia, it's time to do what I'm here for. I increased the main engine thrust, and started enjoying the feeling of quick ride. Current speed 1.2 percent of the speed of light. There was a subtle shake as Kitten adapted for gravity when nearing Jupiter. Few minutes later I was passing last planets of our solar system getting ready for the main event of day...
It was critical to control power parameters of all 6 engines synchronically, so they can deliver the gain I was hoping for, and won't burn in few seconds. To accomplish the mission not even one of them can go wrong.
I couldn't see that but the ship plating was beginning to glow... The sensors were showing 1800 Kelvin degrees. Four motors running in impulse sequence and remaining two running at 50% accelerated Kitten to almost 2%. The ship surface temperature begun to fall and ship was entering the natural vacuum aerodynamic bubble.
So far so good I thought to myself. Now just 50 times more. Once again the goal looks easier than ever before. The speed of light? Not a problem. Anyone knows that Einstein was not right. Well - actually he was. Everything is relative, even the speed of light. In theory - any solid body can travel twice the speed of light. The light flows at velocity called c. In all directions. And if another light rays is flying it opposite direction - their relative speed is 2 times the c. It has to be. Easy on the paper, maybe in the labs with photons a bit more difficult with entity size of Kitten. Still - I was pretty sure it is possible. If the ship can generate reverse chronon wave, and I can run at half speed of light, it should be possible. In theory. In real world - nobody ever tried, me and remaining 13 pilots were the first people ever in mankind history trying to win over TIME. If You think about that - You can reach the finish line before You started!
I started feeling a little bit dizzy thinking about all of this. On the other hand - it could be caused by speed my body never experienced before. I checked the photon flow counter. Estimated speed 2.7 percent. My two main engines were starting to show signs of tiredness, so I changed the power distribution effectively. The ship jumped a little bit as the speed increased quite a bit. I took a look outside the window but there was nothing to be seen, as vacuum bubble covered the whole ship blocking anything trying to get inside. Even the light. It was like flying with closed eyes. I turned on the chronon wave generators and the space in front of the main window started glowing blue. It was - amazing. The energy discharges dancing on the "glass". I imagine those are the dense fragments of time... Something like this was never seen before. Maybe in aeronautics labs on the Moon, but never in real situation. Nobody ever tried chronon wave and well - maybe this is the good time to start thinking about the effects on human body. But - the speed sensor value vas slowly increasing and that was the most important thing at the moment. 13, 14, 15... still growing, and even if I couldn't feel any change on my body I was really excited. The wave was now flowing all around the ship, little streams and drops of pure energy. I was just sitting in the chair thinking if it's just the feeling or I really cannot move any part of my body. 3 minutes passed and I couldn't even move my head to check the speed sensor, so I start feeling uncomfortable about this. And - to make things even worse suddenly I started feeling really tired and wanting desperately a good sleep. Eyelids started getting heavier and the brain was getting ready for a nice long nap...
All these thoughts were interrupted suddenly. The ship slowed down. I was feeling the speed decreasing and I moved my head quickly to check the chronogenerators status. I was a bit surprised
that the head moved on the first try, and I realized I got full control over my body again. I
unlocked the seatbelts, to get rid of the feeling I am being bind in chair. My eyes checked all the details on the console now. The generators were running just fine. The photon flow counter was
showing 112% and for a second I felt fantastic, I never expected this! Just few moments later I
realized this is not possible - it must be the counter not working right - it was not tested under
these conditions. Then I realized the fact that I am not moving at all. The ship was dead in space. A look from a window confirmed this. There was no vacuum bubble, no chronon wave - just millions of little stars. I checked all the sensors again - no change. All the values remained the same. I tap over the screens with my fingers - all the same, everything was quiet. I need to find out what happened to the ship. The engines overheat probably. It sure happened when the things were so busy and I did not have a time to check the flow. Hold on a second! Engines... I can't hear the engines. There was no noise at all, and the silence was making me even more helpless. A quick look on the graviton radar showed there are no objects around, the nearest one worth mentioning was a meteor 1.4 light day away. Short distance radar showed nothing in the range of 20 light minutes. No ships. I am on my own. Would I send the subspace signal now it will take it maybe an hour to reach the Earth, no problem with that. However considering the current ship speeds it will be no less than a month until the rescue ship arrives. Just excellent, I thought to myself...
I left the pilot room and went out to check the engines in the back. Looking through the visor I saw the core. No signs of problems there. Weird. It was illuminated but making no sound so it was obvious it's not working. Still the locks refuse to open, the computer believed it's still online with "Cannot open the lock, contamination hazard" message on the screen. A kick to manifold did not help - obviously. At that time I still was not realizing how bad the situation is. I went for "dining room", opened the little cabinet and checked nutrition supplies. Two boxes of cookies, 5 liters of potable water and a pack of aspirin... Your food for next 30 days, until the rescue team gets here. Just thinking about this was making me dizzy. Ok - we better start soon - let's send a distress signal from the control room. It did not even surprise me the computer refused to accept my code, acting like I am not there. Right - now I am getting really furious! Yes, I am the technician but opening the main console and rebooting the central computer - that's something I rather not do. One bad move and I end up without life support. There's only one chance how to get out of this at this moment. I need some ship flying by and I need it in next few minutes, hours at most. Good old waiting strategy then. It was pretty quiet outside - nothing moves at all, thousands little dots shining far away. I started counting them but lost a track with one hunderd twenty sixth. I laid on the thing that reminds bed in the dining room hoping that the time will pass quicker if I manage to get asleep...
I left the pilot room and went out to check the engines in the back. Looking through the visor I saw the core. No signs of problems there. Weird. It was illuminated but making no sound so it was obvious it's not working. Still the locks refuse to open, the computer believed it's still online with "Cannot open the lock, contamination hazard" message on the screen. A kick to manifold did not help - obviously. At that time I still was not realizing how bad the situation is. I went for "dining room", opened the little cabinet and checked nutrition supplies. Two boxes of cookies, 5 liters of potable water and a pack of aspirin... Your food for next 30 days, until the rescue team gets here. Just thinking about this was making me dizzy. Ok - we better start soon - let's send a distress signal from the control room. It did not even surprise me the computer refused to accept my code, acting like I am not there. Right - now I am getting really furious! Yes, I am the technician but opening the main console and rebooting the central computer - that's something I rather not do. One bad move and I end up without life support. There's only one chance how to get out of this at this moment. I need some ship flying by and I need it in next few minutes, hours at most. Good old waiting strategy then. It was pretty quiet outside - nothing moves at all, thousands little dots shining far away. I started counting them but lost a track with one hunderd twenty sixth. I laid on the thing that reminds bed in the dining room hoping that the time will pass quicker if I manage to get asleep...
Spent maybe 2 hours with my eyes closed there but at the end I was still awake, bored the same. I did another pointless walk around the ship, checked every centimeter of construction, touched all the parts trying to guess the quantity of raw metals used to build every part and - did I mention how boring all this was!? The long range scans shows big nothing. Big nothing and silence. Placed myself in the chair and closed my eyes again. It was obvious I must think of something quickly. I have to focus! What speed has possibly made the ship fail. I read the time since the start, acceleration progress, the engine output... Having considered all this - the speed really must have been near the speed of light when this happened. And - another thing I realized - it took me only few seconds to do all this math! It was pretty complicated formula and I got the result just like that! A bit like when you're dreaming. You can do all the math in the dream, everything seems to be simple, no matter the result at the end is wrong - your brain makes you think everything is perfectly correct. Hold on a second... This all could be just a dream then! I remember now, the feeling of tiredness, right before the ship stopped. I don't remember if I did fall asleep but - it definitely sounds likely! I really might be just dreaming - some weird dream caused by that excessive speed. I stand up and hit the wall with my fist as hard as I can. The pain reminded my quickly this is no dream. A bit upset I started to look for med kit to fix the hand. And - boredom again. Laying on the bed I started working on some math problem just to kill the time. I played 3 chess games in my head - just me against myself. Won all 3 - naturally. In a couple of minutes I had a sum of all numbers below 2 to the 10th power. I waited for a couple of hours thinking about nothing hoping I must get tired at some point. Nothing. Actually I didn't even feel the hunger or thirst. Maybe 6 or 7 hours passed since the ship stopped and nothing has changed. Another 2 hours later something DID happen. It was very silent but there was some sound! Deep humming sound! I ran for a control room but wasn't able to locate where is this coming from. But I can clearly hear a sound - started as a deep buzz and it was getting higher. Couple of minutes later it was just a high pitch beep. And I realized there are more and more sounds - all starting as a deep tone going all the way up and then disappear. I couldn't tell what is going on because I wasn't able to determine where is the sound coming from, but I was pretty sure something big is happening. There was more and more of these sounds and then it happened. I realized the ship is moving again. Just slowly, few meters in a minute but it was moving. Instantly I thought it has to be some star gravity field - nothing to be cheerful about. The speed was increasing and I was becoming sure it's a gravitation causing all this. Radar wasn't showing any big object in range though. I was getting uncomfortable again because I still didn't know what is going on. And another problem appears. I was starting getting tired. Great - now just when I need it. Strange weakness prevents me from keeping my eyes open, and I only watched how the speed is accelerating more and more, heading who knows where... The sounds were becoming louder and louder but not loud enough to keep me awake. It has to be some pretty strong gravity field - the ship was reaching the speed when vacuum bubble started to form around the body. I was too tired to analyze all this and wasn't able to think as quickly as few hours ago but still - slowly it all started to make sense...
The ship did never stop, it was traveling at high speed through the space all the time. The time has
stopped... And well - if the time has stopped, and I was still able to feel and think it can only
mean there is something faster than the time. My thoughts. It was happening thousand times quicker
than some slow time flow. I realized all the things I managed to do while the ship wasn't moving.
Using incredible will I fought all the weakness in my body and checked photon flow counter to find
the last surprise. It wasn't showing 112% like last time I've checked. The number was 106.12 and
falling down. I would swear I felt the ship was accelerating! I closed my eyes, when I finally
understand what is possibly happening. If the time flow is increasing and the ship is slowing down it can only mean the speeds will be in balance some time soon. So I closed my eyes, the well deserved sleep should come any second now. And then - when I wake up again, everything will be just fine again...
5 ships reached the finish line. Brief results follow:
Driver 8, 62%
Driver 2, 73%
Best result, driver 6, William E. Brodski. 111.983%
Driver 8, 62%
Driver 2, 73%
Best result, driver 6, William E. Brodski. 111.983%
All 3 pilots are dead. There is no perspective in faster than light traveling for human crew.
wray 2004