SPACEHOUNDS Chapter 1

[Shameless]

Ayato frowned.   "I won't order you to change, I just wanted to state I think it better to make the initial survey in tech we fully understand, even if it does take abit longer."

"While time is not a resource we can waste, Neither is experience, and yours will be essential for what is to come you know.  I don't mind you going out on point, but I do wish you'd do so in your normal suit.   Once we establish things are as they seem, then we can break out the alien tech and go to work."

[Nina]

Karen considered this for several moments then with a nod gave a tightlipped 'Aye aye captain' and set about changing back to her normal suit.

About thirty minutes later, with Carrie's help she was fully suited and ready to go.

 

With Rachel in the control room monitoring the sensor relays from the chief's suit and Carrie monitoring the bio-data from the suit on her diagnostic set up Karen entered the airlock. Ayato stood at the AL controls and looked in at his CoB, "No risks chief, this is a initial survey of the surroundings and to gather some general samples. Remember this place may look similar to home but it isn't this is an alien plant and this is the first time a human from earth has set foot on it. I don't want you to get out of sight of the ship and whn I call you back you come back."

 

"Aye aye sir" was the chiefs terse reply. She was both nervous and frustrated. she had full confidence in the other suit. The captain didn't know hadn't worn it but she knew that suit and her had a connection. But still this was an alien world and she was going to be the first to step onto it Her foot print, if they survived and ever got home, would be a historic one right up there with Armstrong, Paxson, and Qin-Xing.

 

"Phew... I need to come up with something memorable to say," she muttered to herself.

 

Carri picked up the sub-vocalization from Karen and smiled. In the bay Ayato  spoke, "Are you ready?"  The Chief gave a thumbs up and Ayato worked the controls, "Airlock sequence  initiated, good luck Chief."

 

Karen could feel the air pressure change as the inner pressure equalized with the outer and then the outer hatch popped out and slid to the side and the loading ramp extended and Karen found herself facing a new world.

 

The sky was clear the sun, a pale yellow orange, sinking in the west. According to Rachel the planets rotation was just a tad over twenty hours and eighteen minutes and , using a twenty hour clock, it was about eleven hundred hours which was evening here during this season.

 

Standing at the top of the ramp Karen surveyed the immediate surroundings and the horizon. The ship rested on a relatively even plain carpeted with short thick plant that looked a lot like grass but heavier. the color was a pleasant, if odd, greenish blue, and the covering was even with each stalk about ten centimeters. to Karen it looked like a well cared for lawn in a suburb.

 

The plain gave way to hills at a distance of about a hundred and twenty meters from the ship, and that was where the first trees were. Those looked odd with the bare long straight trunks and then the umbrella like branches starting some three quarters of the way up the stalk and sprouting broad leaves which where remarkably like oak leaves but twice as large and with the same bluish green tint as the grass. Karen saw no animals and the lack of birds seemed odd but maybe they had been scared away by the intrusion of the large earth vessel settling into their paradise.

 

The hills them selves were tall and steep and went on for about half a kilometer before they rose into a sharp yet short mountain range which was heavily forested with the same type of trees from the hills. This uniformity pushed home the fact that this was not earth. The suits audio sensors picked up the wind and the sound of chirping which sounded a lot like crickets but neither the suits sensors nor the ships sensors had located the origin yet. 

 

Keren took a few steps down the ramp and looked forward of the ships bow toward open end of the valley and the distant horizon. There, just above the horizon, she could see the second sun a bright star visible in the fading light about half the size of a dime held at arms length. Further evidence that this was not earth. She continued to the end of the ramp and stood there for a moment then took that first step.

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Karen McKenna wasn't one to dither, even as her brain failed to come up with anything suitably historic. Assuming this was historic. Or that they weren't the last humans and the only ones to remember it. Or if the ground was going to suck her down, crack her suit open like a starfish and drown her in stomach acid. Or... God damn, she almost preferred the beaches of Yemen or Belize to this niggling uncertainty, and the words that came out reflected that.

 

"Well, here goes nothing."

 

Booted foot pressed down on grass and met ground. She sucked in a breath as nothing outwardly happened beyond the crunch of foliage. Okay. She took another step, fully trusting her weight to the ground of an alien world. Okay. Nothing more. Right. Samples for Doc. She made for the tree line, trying to filter out the distressing normality of everything, trying to think of it as just another hike. Although, and this stuck out in her mind as she double-checked her tools, where were the flowers?

 

"I know you guys are watching the feed from my helmet. Shout out if you see anything in particular you want between me and that tree," she commented over the coms, getting some of her mental swagger back, "I'm starting with a bit of leaf and working my way back to the ship until I run out of pouches."  

[Shameless]

Ayato watched the screens intently, not just from Karen's video feed, but the ship's external cameras were also on the viewer, watching her back as it were.   "Congrats on being the first human to set foot on a world outside our solar system.   Just take it nice and slow.     We need to be thorough.  We're watching you from here, and everything's clear."    True enough, the ship lacked weapons, though they did have some small arms for emergencies.   Ayato understood the necessity, and though he'd never had to use a gun before in anger, he was glad for the foresight.   "Once you get back, and we make sure everything's good, I think everyone is ready for some time on the ground."

[Nina]

Karen set about performing a few surveys and taking a few samples at the direction of the science team. Carrie monitored her friend’s vital signs while her medical computers analyzed the atmosphere searching for toxins and pollutants.

 

In the ships main cabin Mr Todd was also monitoring things while working on plans for the tools they would need to print to make the components for the drive. Always an observant man something suddenly struck him as odd. Then after putting his own work aside he studied the feed from Karen’s suit and from the ship’s cameras and sensors.

 

He stood and went to the comms control on the wall, “Captain, the sounds have stopped the insect sounds.”

 

The noise had become simple background noise and so had become ignored but it was true the cricket like sound which had been present from the moment Karen had stepped outside could not longer be heard!

[Shameless]

Ayato was on the comms quickly enough.  "Be advised, we're no longer hearing the sounds of insects.  It could be in response to your presence, or a natural predator.  Being on your  guard chief."   It was something easy to miss, but with so many sets of eyes and ears watching and listening, it was noticed, hopefully in time to prevent any mishaps.

[SalmonMax]

"Not seeing any movement yet," Rachel said softly as she switched from camera to sensor cluster to another camera. "Seems like our landing should have scared anything big enough to want to take a bite out of us away...but I guess that's Earth thinking. Technically we don't even know if those sounds were insects, you know? That's just what they would have been on Earth."

Edited January 15, 2021 by SalmonMax
Oops

[Exile_Jeane]

"Roger. Probably not insects then. Done a lot of hiking on Earth, and dead insects don't run away from loud noises. Haven't found or seen anything animal related out here period," the former Marine replied from a kilometer and a half away, sample pouches filling on her route to the closest ore-bearing rocks, "It's... wrong. *Something* would be eating and pooping in all this gr..."

 

Her voice trailed off as she realized that the short, even 'grass' was now four times taller. And still visibly growing. Annnnd leaning in her direction like iron filings around a magnet, "Heading back now, Cap'n."

 

Nope. Nope nope nope Noooooope. She hadn't survived Yemeni highlanders by ignoring her instincts and every one of those she had was screaming at her that this was a Bad Time in progress. She turned around and started heading back toward the ship with a purposeful walk, only avoiding breaking into a run by the realization that she was walking over a) one very big thing or b) a swarm of many, many small things that only looked like grass. Either picture was very bad if it turned violent. That prophecy came to 'oh dear God no' life as the lawn around her erupted into hundreds of verdant tentacles just 60 feet into her retreat, cutting out her view of the sky.

[Nina]

At the announcement from the chief the rest of the crew looked to screens and scanners and readouts and didn't see any changes but first officer Arjun Connery, who was stationed in the cockpit had an unobstructed view through the large Para-steel windows. Arjun had glanced up when the cheifs voice came over the loudspeaker and his eyes had gone wide, it took him several breaths before her could find his voice.

 

"Captain! It is not just the chief. I can see the...stuff around us doing the same and there are large bulges in the ground like something is rising from below! The grass tentacles are almost large enough to grab the ship!" 

 

At the airlock Ayato  could now see what apeared to be low seismic tremors on his screen.

 

"Captain Karen's heart-rate and respiration are both skyrocketing." This from Cassie who was in the adjacent cargo hold where she had set up her  medical monitoring equipment. "Captain!," she screamed.

 

Ayato looked to the open cargo door and saw the alien armor moving of it own accord, ripping away the connections that had been used to monitor its functions. As they watched it began moving toward the closed cargo hatch!

 

Outside... Karen looked all around and she saw a bulge a few meters away as something began to rise from under ground, while all around her thick tentacles of the plant-like fibers flailed at her and tried to wrap around her.

 

Outside the ship three bulges had appeared and hundreds of tentacle reached for the Polaris!

 

Spoiler

Karen is in rounds the rest of the team is not quite there yet. act accordingly.

 

 

 

 

[Asarasa]

Leaving Earth had never been a goal of Yseult's, let alone setting foot upon an entirely different planet. Yet, here she was. As spectacular and historic as the event was, even beyond all they had been through already, her main drive at the moment was to get home. For that, they needed to wrest what they needed to make the components to modify the gravity drive from the planet.

She was an engineer, not a geologist, nor a miner. Yseult truly wished they still had access to the infinite database onboard the alien vessel, rather than the far more rudimentary one available on the Polaris. Inputting the specs for the drive modifications was just an issue of math and time. Designing and assembling the tools they would need to gather the materials needed to make those modifications was a trickier issue.

It would be highly doubtful it would be as simple as picking up ore from the surface of the planet and separating out the elements required. They would need to 'dig' as it were. Was plasma or sonics the better tool? It would partially depend on the composition of the landscape they would be digging through, and that in part depended on studying the samples Karen collected.

Sitting in the main cabin with Todd, so focused on thought, she hadn't been paying much mind to the feed from Karen, hadn't noticed the silence of the ambient sound. She barely even registered the tone in Karen's voice when she informed them she was coming back to the ship. It took Arjun's sharply emphatic voice over the comm for Yseult to blink and look away from her monitor and ad-hoc mining tools.

Her mouth dropped open at the sight shown on the holographic screens of the outside of the ship. Her husband loved old sci-fi movies from over a hundred years ago, the ones with the retro-futuristic aesthetic and completely ludicrous plots and acting. This looked like something from one of those, the killer grass from outer space, or the like. Except it was real. 

And one of the crew was somewhere in its midst. Osti de tabarnak de sacrament, de câlice de ciboire de criss de marde!

 

Yseult jumped to her feet, fumbling at her helmet and the environmental seals as she raced for the engine room. She saw monstrous foliage. Since they didn't have equally monstrous hedge clippers or lawnmowers on hand to cut it down, the next best thing to clear was fire, her mind informed her, far more coolly than she felt. And the chemical engines could make pretty monstrous fire.

Thoughts racing on how to adjust the settings and chemical composition for maximum dispersal and flame, rather than thrust, the elegant scientist stumbled and slammed into a bulkhead when the ship shifted slightly but unexpectedly. Holding her shoulder, she continued her jog, another idea jostled up from her bump.

"Arjun! Rachel! Le laser de communication! C'est un laser!" Yseult called over the comm system, then cursed and repeated herself in English. "The comm laser! It is a laser. It can be using as a laser-laser to be cutting the grass, yes? Make a path for Karen. Me, am going to engineering, to be changing engines from flight to flamethrower."

[Exile_Jeane]

Spoiler

Need a 12 on a d20 to crash through the tentacles surrounding Karen.

Details:[1d20 (6)] lol, nope.

 

The US military officially retired flamethrowers in 1978, Karen suddenly remembered, and she found herself wishing that they hadn't so that she a) might have one and b) know what to do with it if she did have one.

 

That thought was the last rational one she had as she spotted the ominous large bulge of earth not-too-far from her, promising an even worse kind of alien nastiness. Flamethrowers aside, she would have been glad for anything larger than the sampling spade she had at her belt. The ship was *that way*. So, she threw her power-armor assisted body in that direction, hoping against hope that the leverage of her weight and might would outpace the gathered limbs of whatever eldritch horror lurked underneath the soil.  

 

One step. Two steps. Three steps. Four steeee... Oh shit oh shit oh shit..! Her forward progress died as the collective pressure of the blinding, grabbing, tearing limbs wrapped around the blonde former marine. No breaches, not yet, but she didn't doubt that that was coming if she didn't get clear.  

[Shameless]

Ayato was thankful he'd had the prescience to suit up, even if he'd taken his helmet off, since Karen had head out.   Quickly he grabbed his helmet and put it on, the familiar hiss as the the seals activated at his collar, giving him a sealed environment, and letting him do what he was about to.  "Cassie, Seal your hold and get into your suit.  The Alien battlesuit is about to make a hole hear in the bay if I don't let it out."
 

He watched as the unoccupied suit made it's way directly towards Karen.  "We're gonna run out of time."   Cassie quickly sent back that she was ready, having been listening like everyone else.   "Alright I'm opening the hold!"
 

Ayato pulled the lever which opened the Cargo hold, and though he wasn't sure the suit would respond, he called out  "There, now go save my Chief Engineer."  He said, hoping that it had the intelligence to go through the opening instead of making its own.   He hadn't keyed his radio, so it was just between the two of them, which afterwards made him feel even stranger about it all.

[Nina]

In the engine room, Yseult makes adjustments to the engines while in the cockpit Rachel and Arjun bring the comm laser online and swing it toward the threat.

 

Below the empty suit of armor pauses as the cargo lock begins cycling it body tilts slightly in the direction of Ayato. As soon as the doors are open it steps into the lock and as the inner door close and the outer opens a blueish glow surround the huge hulk and it steps out into air and the glow intensifies as defying gravity it hurtles in the direction of the chief.

 

Karen struggles with the grassy tendrils as they pull and prod seeking entrance to her armor which is showing the strain. she glances at the bulging dome of earth a few meters away just as the dome cracks opens and large thing like a bulb wriggles from the ground it is at least three meters across and twice as tall the top of the bulb opens and closes revealing a toothy maw while the bottom of the bulb writhes with hundreds and hundreds of the grass like tendrils.

 

The alien armor soars toward Karen only a meter off the ground tendril lash toward it only whither and burn when they touch the field emitted by the armor. as it closes on Karen a it suddenly opens up and seems to come apart the blue glow flashes once and vanishes as the parts descend on Karen and wrap themselves around her struggling form until she is encased and the alien armor is once more whole and complete!

[Exile_Jeane]

Karen had the most peculiar sensation of her armor being... eaten, for lack of a better word, by the alien suit as it fried the vines around her, replacing every single component of the American-made tech without breaching it's integrity even where the design of one piece was radically different from the new part. There was a bit of kaleidoscopic confusion as the digital HUD of her helmet melted without heat, bloomed away from her head, and formed the dome of the alien suit in less than a few of her pounding heartbeats. A very tiny part of her indignantly hoped that her... Well, ally was the word you used for a stranger who saved you when you had your face to the wood of a bar and arm twisted painfully behind your back, and this was so much more serious than that.

 

God, why was her brain so spastic in a crisis?

 

The killer turnip opened it's maw again with a distinct lack of the T-Rex roar movies had used and abused for decades, jogging her fight or flight instincts from their stunned distraction. Still very nope and the ship was still that way. Let's see these things cope with whatever alien tech included an AI capable of monitoring, understanding, and acting on the feed from their tech. Tool to point them in the right direction, indeed.

 

Spoiler

Might test to beat feet for the ship again. DC 6 this time.

Details:[1d20 (4)] Nope, rofl.

   

[Asarasa]

Dark eyes flicking back to the monitors giving her a view of outside the ship, Yseult waited impatiently for the fuel composition to finish shifting to her new specifications, while she flitted hither and yon in the engine, making precise adjustments to the thrust and vectors of the main thrusters and maneuvering jets. She chewed on a lower lip in concentration and concern.

This was never something she had ever considered doing before. To burn, but not to burn indiscriminately, which could end up damaging the ship or send Karen into even greater peril. It was hard to judge distances as she calculated how hot and how far the spume would burn. When she saw the hillocks of dirt burst open and the terrible creatures open their horrible maws, she inhaled in a sharp gasp of fear.

Yseult turned one more dial, then slapped her comm unit. "Arjun! Tout de suite! Be turning on all thrusters now, up to 36%!"

She turned her attention back to the monitors, and watched the flames bloom out in an imperfect circle, red and orange brightening to blue, then white, hands on an overhead support to steady herself as the Polaris bucked.

[SalmonMax]

"We're going to need more than comm lasers for that!" Rachel snapped. "Karen! Get back to the ship!

 

She turned her attention back to her controls, cursing that the ship lacked armament. But then why would it have guns? There was no war in space. And they weren't meant to be visiting alien planets full of hostile life! There had to be SOMETHING though! What did the ship have that output energy? More than the communication array?

 

Survey suite maybe? Rachel thought furiously. The spectrographs and lidar used lasers, but not particularly better than the comms. Maybe she was going about this the wrong way. Maybe the total amount of energy wasn't the key. Maybe... Wavelength?

 

The masers!

 

Her fingers flew as she jury-rigged a program to isolate the microwave lasers used in the CiNB system and take manual control of them. Less focused than comms, they wouldn't be as destructive from the perspective of radiative thermal transfer...but organic life usually had a lot of water in it. The microwaves would heat up the water in the outer layers of their surfaces even from a distance...and if they kept coming closer, it could evaporate it, flash-steaming them from the inside. Best of all, in that suit Karen should be basically immune!

 

"Yseult, I've got a plan. Give me just a second!"

 

What followed was a brutal mangling of operating code that she'd have to stitch back together again later, but it did the job and it did it fast. Rachel opened a channel to Karen.

 

"Karen, this is Rachel. In a second there's going to be...a bit of a lightshow off your armor. Keep running. Don't panic. You'll be safe."

 

The emitters of the Close-in Navigational Backscatter system whirred under her improvised manual control scheme. Precision wasn't possible, but fortunately wasn't necessary. The system was designed to emit over a wide area. She watched her camera feed, waiting for Karen and her pursuers to get closer...closer...but not so close they'd catch her...

 

Now!

 

There was no beams of bright light, no 'pew pew pew,' or sci-fi vid-worthy special effects. Two things happened. First, the outer surface of Karen's armor erupted in sparks and pops as dust and dirt and mud and other impurities on it superheated and burned away. Second, the bizarre carnivorous 'turnip' alien that was nipping at Karen's heels suddenly stumbled and fell over, skidding over the dirt. Its thick skin ruptured along joints and spurted a viscous, nasty-looking fluid as it warbled eerily and waved its limbs helplessly around.

 

Rachel played the invisible beams around Karen, making sure she was clear, then swiveled the system around to clear around the ship as well. Another massive creature flailed tendril-like limbs and rolled around, swelling and leaking. Then one creeping up from behind the vessel caught her eye, and she gave it much the same fate.

 

By the time Karen reached the airlock, the aliens had learned a healthy lesson about not approaching the ship. At least Rachel hoped they had. The CiNB was not made to run that hot. She didn't know how long it'd put up with it before something burned out.

 

For now though, mission accomplished.

 

"I guess those things have more water in 'em than I thought," Rachel remarked, wincing. "Lets hope they're not intelligent, right?"

 

Spoiler

Rolled a 15 on Discord, verified result with Nina and edited it in rather than make a new post because it'd be weird posting a reply to myself.

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by SalmonMax

[Asarasa]

"Rachelle, you are needing to enact your plan on he move," Yseult responded over the comms.

"Everyone, hold on!" Arjun commanded

The Polaris bucked, then settled into a rough, rhythmic vibration as flames flared out around the ship, red, orange, yellow, then blue and white. Yseult's hands tightened even more on the support, her knuckles going bone-white. She stared at the series of monitors she had set up to give her a surrounding view of the ship, but all she could hear was the whine of the engines and the roar of the flames.

Green tendrils, tentacles, writhed as they were crisped, turning brown then black, burning like seaweed under a blowtorch. The raven-haired scientist couldn't smell what was going, couldn't hear, but the giant, terrible bulbs throw back the apex of their bulk, their maws widening in what Yseult imagined were squealing screams. Grasping tendrils, burned free from their roots (?) scrabbled over the surface of the ship before falling off and into the rolling flames.

Near a full circle was being charred clear around the ship, save for a swathe from the cargo hatch towards where Karen had gone. Yseult hadn't been willing to risk testing the resistance of Karen's power armor with the barely controlled flames. She hoped Rachel's idea was more discrete in its application. She felt a shift and the shaking of the ship lessened as it broke contact with the alien, hostile surface.

"Karen, dépêchez-vous!*"
 

Spoiler

dépêchez-vous! = hurry up!

 

[Exile_Jeane]

The calls to hurry up were quite unneeded, a stumbling lack of progress reinvigorated by the spontaneous dying of the swarm holding her in place. Wreathed in a halo of sparks from the maser, the blonde marine sprinted through the chaos of fire and death for the ship, marveling at the ease with which she moved in the alien suit and wincing as she watched the ship buck in place.

 

She was going to do so many checks to make sure everything survived unscathed through that abuse. The ship, her baby, had so many little bits you'd overlook until they stopped working and you suffocated to death in compartment four because a valve jammed in bay three.

 

A helpful list of 'TOOLS' popped up, and she had just enough time to think to spare a grin at some of them. The ship was doing most of the work killing the swarm, but her direct path wasn't being bathed in flames so that meant the emerging xeno horrors in front of her had at least some time to kill her or slow her down as they baked from the inside. Couldn't have that. 'Axe', Karen subvocalized, and the armor obediently shifted down by her right arm to disgorge and assemble the tool in question, a descendent of the first wedge on the stick.

 

The ground bulged in front of her, and she broke to her right in a circle, armored feet driving her forward in a sprint, trailing streamers of dying tendrils. The ground exploded to reveal the already dying horror, but Karen was food and she was right there and those teeth were clearly meant to help it eat. Burning tendrils reached for her, and she lashed out with the axe half-blindly, catching the first of them before being yanked backwards. She grunted and kept her footing, looking back at the thing as it fried. A very tiny part of her pitied the creature, buried under her own fight and flight as she yanked her arm free.

 

That was the last of the big ones to rise between her and the ship, and timing her approach to scramble up and into the airlock on a pause between bucks, breathless and flushed, "I'm in! Go go go!"    

[Nina]

The ship lifted off, microwave beams flashing and flaming jets burning, soon they were back in orbit. It was decided that instead of seeking out one of the other planets a second landing should be made where they already knew the dangers and where the resources were available.

 

Instead of landing in the valley, a new landing sight in the rocky terrain of the mountains nearby was chosen. This time when the Chief went out to make the initial survey she wore the alien armor with everyone's approval. During those initial surveys Mr Todd and Rachel were busy designing and 3d printing some weapons, and armoring the regular space suits. There was a lot to do and they needed to get it done as soon as possible.

 

 

[Nina]

Work progressed at a decent clip, mine shafts were dug, ore extracted, tools to make the tools that would mill the parts for their new engine were designed and made through a combination of old-fashioned milling and forging and  modern 3D-printing with the ships printers. It was not a job that would take only days but rather one that would take months if not longer.

 

Work on the ship was not the only thing. Food had to be produced, the soil was rich enough that Terran plants could be planted and with care would thrive. All ships in the solar system carried seed material for emergency hydroponics whether on board or at a station/habitat and with those supplies Carrie planted a garden which supplemented their on-board food. Likewise, various native plants proved compatible and game animals were discovered which would prove nourishing as well.

 

They explored the mountains and valleys, cataloged life both animal and plant, encountered new dangers but with the first lesson learned they never let down their guard and everything this new planet threw at them they overcame.

 

Slowly as each component was built and assemble the ship took on it’s new shape dictated by function. Some sixteen months by the ships clock passed when the last part was fitted, and computer test said that it would function.

 

Initially it was proposed that only one crewman should take the ship up and test it but in the end it was decided that if the test was a failure and the vessel lost they would all rather be onboard together than some left to end their days on an alien world.

 

The Polaris lifted with it’s full crew and accelerated out of the gravity well once free of the planets gravity, Rachel using the system for navigation she and Arjun had devised, input the predetermined equations that would, if they were right with their theories, take them home. All that remained was to engage the engine.

 

The order was given and the Spatial Compression Engine spun up and with a shudder the ship was thrust into the space between, like a missile it hurtled from on pin point of light toward another and then anew shudder and the Polaris blinked into existence at a new star, one they all recognized, Sol, the sun of their birth.

 

Spoiler

This will end the first installment. If you have anything you wish to post here you may I will leave the thread open. 

 

[Nina]

The return of the Polaris to the solar system after almost 2 years was a miracle. The worlds reacted with cheers for the ships apparent destruction during a rescue mission had made each of those aboard her posthumous heroes in much the same manner as those brave spacemen of the past who had also lost their lives expanding the boundaries of human knowledge.

 

But the sudden reappearance of this ship and what she carried held a vastly greater impact on all the settlements within the solar system. With the secret of interstellar travel revealed the stars were now within reach.

 

The crew and passengers of Polaris were reunited with family and friends, they were welcomed like those first astronauts of the last century, with medals, parades, hailed by world leaders, they became instant celebrities.

 

 Of course, there were the debriefs. The papers written about what they had seen, the discoveries made and the technical specifications of the new drive. The crew could write their own ticket now.

 

Spoiler

this ends chapter  1 Chapter two will commence shortly.