Chapter 21
“These Ion engines are gonna work, right?” I said as the ship began to shake.
“They should work,” Francine replied.
“Should?” I said. “That fills me with confidence.”
“This ship was constructed using substandard Earth materials,” Francine said. “And we didn’t have time to run all the proper tests. So ‘should’ is the best I can offer.”
“I hope we don’t ‘should’ all over ourselves…” I trailed off.
I looked back through the side window and saw the soldiers backing away from the spaceship as they tried to process what the hell was in front of them. The ship’s slow liftoff suddenly became much more dramatic as the full power of the engines kicked in, and the next thing I saw was wood beams tumbling to the ground as the ship punched through the barn’s roof. The sides of the barn seemed to collapse in slow motion as well, and then nails and wood clattered against the nose of the ship.
Sunlight suddenly filled the cockpit and nearly blinded me, but I could still see the shockwave from the engines hit the helicopters. The helicopters started to spin away as the pilots fought to regain control, and I spotted the soldiers who had dropped onto my house plastered against the shingles as they tried to hold on against the sudden wave of energy.
Dust and clouds of dirt swirled across my field, and I spotted Agent Adeogun and Agent Applebaum as they scrambled to their feet. A couple of the smaller robots fell off the ship as we flew up, and I saw Adeogun point to the tumbling forms. I was able to read his lips as he looked at the cockpit and said ‘What the fuck’.
We were out of bullet range by then, and Kansas was spread out below me. I could just make out Billy-Rose with her binoculars, and though I couldn’t make out her face, I didn’t need to. I watched as she passed out in the middle of the field from the shock of seeing a spaceship burst out of her neighbor’s barn. She hadn’t realized just how close to the truth she had been when she’d mentioned Star Trek earlier, but I had a feeling she’d just put two and two together.
Some of the soldiers still had their rifles pointed in our direction, and for a moment, I thought one of them might have gotten lucky when the ship began to shudder. But we were still moving upward through the blue sky, and I realized that there was another whining sound in the mix. The thrusters were about to fire up, and I found myself gripping the armrests so tightly that my knuckles were white.
“God, I hope this works,” I muttered.
The helicopters had just about recovered, but they wouldn’t be steady for long.
“Three,” Francine said.
I gripped the seat belts across my chest.
“Two,” the AI said.
I took a deep, shaky breath.
“One,” I said.
There was a loud roar as the boosters fired up at full strength, and then an unimaginable force pushed me back against the chair. I barely managed to reach out and grab the joysticks, but I finally had both hands in place. I made a mental note to grab the controls before the engines fired up from now on, and then I pointed the nose of the ship toward the blackness of space.
The earth began to fall away, and the familiar roads and buildings vanished from sight. Soon, it was just patches of green and brown like a topographic map without the lines.
“Goodbye, Agent Adeogun,” I said.
The turbulence increased as we climbed higher, and then flames began to lick the nose of the spaceship. It became impossible to see anything besides the bright orange fire that marked our passage through the upper atmosphere.
“Is this normal?” I shouted.
“Yes,” Francine said, though not in an especially convincing tone of voice. “We are about to leave Earth’s atmosphere.”
“Okay,” I said as a nervous pit opened up in my stomach.
“Are you ready?” Francine asked.
“There’s no going back now,” I replied. “Punch it.”
The ship cut through the last layer of atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. There were various beeps and noises that came from the control panel of the ship, but I ignored them. The ship was shaking so hard that I was almost sure I was about to get tossed into space, and every muscle in my body was tensed so hard that I felt like I was made of stone.
“Holy--” I began, but I never finished the sentence.
Just like that, the shaking stopped, the flames vanished, and the universe unfurled before me. There were more stars than I had ever imagined, all crystal clear without the atmosphere and light pollution of earth’s surface to block their light. It was one of the most breathtaking sights I had ever seen in my entire life. I was speechless.
I was so in awe of the sight that it took me a moment to realize that I was now weightless. I felt myself lift up from my seat and my hair floating around my head, and it was the strangest sensation I had ever felt in my whole life.
“Wow…” I gasped.
Then, I turned to the side, and I could see the pale-blue dot in all its glory. North and South America were large masses of green and brown in a bright blue ocean, and white clouds moved slowly across the globe. I could just pick out the path of the Amazon River and the Mighty Mississippi, and at the edge of the horizon, where daylight gave way to darkness, I could see the bright lights of cities. And then there was the soft cobalt glow around the planet, the atmosphere that I had just broken through. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.
“Not such a bad view, is it?” Francine said.
“It’s… incredible,” I replied.
I was a lucky man, and that fact was reinforced by the view I currently had out of my window. Not many people would ever get to see what I could at that moment, the way the stars glittered in the distance, the way the Earth slowly spun on its axis, and how gorgeous our planet was. I figured that if more people could see this beautiful vision for themselves, then maybe a lot of the problems we humans had with each other would disappear.
But that was a pipe dream for another day. I turned away from the Earth and looked forward instead. We passed a large satellite that looked like a giant can with a pair of flat wings and moved deeper into space. I wondered which of the many stars I could see was our destination, or maybe I couldn’t even see the star where we were going.
It was so quiet now. I could hear the engines, of course, but otherwise, it felt timeless.
“Right,” I said as I ripped my eyes away from the view in front of me, somewhat reluctantly, to check the readouts in front of me.
The screen indicated that the engines were functioning properly and that there wasn’t any damage to the hull. I took a deep breath and then reached up to the panel above my head. With a flick of the switch, normal Earth gravity returned, and I was pulled back into my seat with a soft thud.
“I can’t believe this actually worked,” I said as I put the ship on autopilot for a moment and took my hands off the joystick.
“I can,” Francine said smugly. “I designed it.”
“I didn’t doubt your design for one moment, Francine,” I replied. “But we had to rush everything at the end. I was worried that one of the robots might have missed a weld or something.”
“That is understandable,” Francine replied. “But I made sure that the robots completed their tasks.”
“I wish I could have taken a photo of Agent Adeogun’s face when he saw the ship,” I said. “It was hilarious.”
“Yes, it was,” Francine said.
“God…” I said as I looked around me. “I’m actually in space. This is insane!”
“Yes, it is impressive, especially for a person experiencing it for the first time,” Francine said.
“You’re telling me,” I chortled. “We’re moving pretty fast. Earth’s barely more than a blip now.”
“Yes, even at its lowest speed, and with inferior materials, this spaceship is faster than the most powerful Earth rockets,” Francine said. “Are you glad I took those extra minutes on the engines now?”
“You love a good ‘I told you so’ moment, don’t you?” I laughed.
“Yes, very much,” Francine chuckled.
“Still, it was a close call,” I said. “Those soldiers were practically inside the ship when we took off.”
“But the robots finished the engines,” Francine said. “And that is all that matters.”
“I wonder what Adeogun and his friends will make of what I left behind,” I said. “It’s not every day that a civilian escapes the Feds by flying into space. At least the robots can’t talk, or I imagine he’d try to question them until they told him everything they know.”
“There’s very little information stored in the units,” Francine said. “I made sure of that.”
“Good,” I replied. “So, we don’t need to worry about anyone building another ship and trying to follow us. And it looks like the ship is in perfect shape--”
“It could do with a number of upgrades,” Francine said. “But yes, for now, it is fully operational.”
“Right…” I said as I stared out at the dreamlike view in front of me. “I’m sorry, I just keep getting distracted by what’s in front of me.”
“I can see that,” Francine said.
“I can’t believe I’m here,” I said. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams. And I can’t wait to see as much of the universe as I can.”
“That is the--” Francine began, but the AI stopped talking when we both heard a thump from the living area behind the cockpit.
The door was closed, but I could still hear a noise coming from the back room.
“Did one of the soldiers make it onto the ship?” I whispered.
I unclipped my seat belt and got up. The ship was on autopilot, so I walked to the back of the cockpit and pressed the button to open the door. I had one hand on my gun in its holster, and I was ready to fight whoever had managed to sneak on board. My fingers gripped the handle of the gun tightly, my stomach dropped, and my heart started to pound.
The door slid open, and I took out my gun and pointed it into the bedroom.
There was nothing in front of me at eye level. No confused soldier that had snuck onto the spaceship and now found themselves unwillingly in space with me, and no Agent Adeogun, much to my relief, since being trapped on a spaceship with him didn’t sound like a fun experience.
Slowly, my eyes dropped down, until I saw what the source of the noise was.
“Bob!” I said happily as the little robot hopped in front of me. “Glad you made it, buddy.”
Bob let out a happy beep as I patted it on its main body, and it trotted into the cockpit like a happy dog after a long walk in the sun. He explored the cockpit for a few minutes, and I’m sure if he’d had a nose, he would have sniffed everything just like a real canine. He finally came to a stop in the copilot’s seat, where he laid down with what sounded like a contented sigh. Bob could move around without the aid of Francine, and it was amusing to watch the loyal robot explore the world it found itself in.
I closed the door to the living area and then made my way back over to my chair, where I strapped myself in, turned off the autopilot, and started to fly the ship through the solar system. It took some getting used to since there was no feeling of up or down, or left or right, even with the fake gravity. I had to use the heads-up display, the HUD, that was built into the front window of the ship, which showed me what direction I was moving in, to work out exactly where I was at that moment in relation to various objects around me.
“So, all of this is just readily available to you any time you want, huh?” I said.
“Yes,” Francine said. “Most planets in the discovered universe have already developed space travel that can be used by any occupant of the planet. People have friends, or enemies, on other planets, and travel between them. Some even have jobs that rely on transporting goods from one planet to another.”
“So, it’s like traveling to a different state, only it’s an entirely different planet,” I replied.
“Sometimes a different star system, too,” Francine said.
“Wow,” I said.
“Yes, I suppose it is something that is often taken for granted,” the AI said.
“I’ll say,” I chuckled. “I’m just imagining some alien dad buying his son his first old banger of a spaceship like we do with cars on Earth.”
“That is not far from reality for many species,” Francine said. “Of course, there are planets that have the knowledge to travel through space, but some planets are poorer than others. It’s much the same as Earth. The wealthier you are, the nicer your spaceship.”
“I guess this one would be considered pretty bottom tier, then?” I asked.
“Yes,” Francine admitted. “But it does the job.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “It’s pretty perfect in my eyes, but I’m probably quite attached to it because I built some of it myself.”
“Indeed,” the AI said. “There is a very good view coming up on your right, by the way.”
“What are you, a space tour guide?” I asked.
“Who else is going to show you these things?” Francine replied. “And you are the first human to actually see Mars close up. Too bad we do not have time to stop for a visit so you could be the first person to set foot on Mars.”
“Wait, what?” I said as my head snapped up and turned to the right.
A moment later, the red planet came into view. It glowed with a burnt-orange haze as though it was a ball of fire trapped in a spherical prison. I could see its dusty surface, mountainous ridges, and large craters as we zoomed by. Sections of the planet were more ochre and brown in tone, but a large majority was the color of rust, only broken up by the shadows cast by nearby mountains or ridges along the craters. It was strange, after seeing the blue oceans of Earth, to see a planet that was entirely land. It was hard to imagine being able to walk anywhere, but in theory, that was exactly what you could do.
We slowed down so I could really take in the view. Of course, I had seen photos of the planet sent back by the various rovers over the years, but those images didn’t do the place justice. It felt familiar yet completely alien, and my face was nearly plastered against the glass as I watched it go by. I could even make out the frozen pole at the top of the planet from where I was, and for a brief moment, I entertained the idea of leaving my mark in the ice.
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “Maybe not as beautiful as Earth, but it’s pretty damn amazing.”
“Yes, it is,” Francine replied. “As is the rest of the universe. Speaking of which…”
“Is it time?” I asked.
“Yes,” Francine replied. “I believe we are far enough from the pull of the sun now to complete our first jump. I will enter the destination into the navigation system.”
“Okay,” I said as I returned to my seat.
I had no idea what to expect from the folding engine, but I could imagine that folding space and then traveling through it was gonna be a pretty intense sensation. My whole body buzzed with nervous excitement, and my palms felt slick against the joysticks.
And, boy, was I right.
“Folding engine is ready to execute,” Francine said.
“Okay,” I said. “We’re, uh, not gonna hit anything, right?”
“Of course not,” Francine said.
“Good, just checking,” I laughed nervously. “Okay, what do I need to do?”
“Hold on,” Francine said. “I will do the rest.”
“Alright,” I said as I leaned back in my seat and held onto the seatbelt. “Let’s do it.”
“Launching in three,” Francine said.
“I hope this works,” I said.
“Two,” Francine said.
The final second felt like a year. I stared out at the stars and listened to the ship as it got louder and louder inside the cockpit. As I watched, the stars seemed brighter, the blackness they were speckled across seemed deeper, and inside my body, my heart threw itself against my rib cage like a battering ram.
“One,” Francine said.
I watched as everything seemed to stretch out. The stars, which had been simple dots, became long, bright lines while Mars became a red smear. I was thrown back into the seat by an invisible force, though the ship was still as space folded around it. A moment later, we flew forward like a stone out of a slingshot. I had never experienced a force or a speed like it.
“Holy craaaap!” I shouted as I was flung into the unknown.
Maybe not the most memorable words for the first human to travel in folded space, but what else was there to say?
My adventures were just starting.
End of Book 1