Forward One

No one can hear you scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Alan had heard the secretary of space exploration make the unclever quip during his first day of orientation nearly 10-years ago. He didn’t think much of it at the time, only the foolish remarks from another unremarkable bureaucrat. Only now, as he sat aboard his ship, the Bucephalus, did the words return.

A decade of preparation for this moment and this is where my mind wonders? he thought to himself.

Attempting to reorient his thoughts to something more constructive, he looked to his right at Z. She was busily moving through her pre-flight checks, unaware that Alan’s attention had become fixated on her.

That was the first day he saw her, cadet orientation. They were part of the first class of hopefuls. As the secretary made his uninspiring remarks, Alan scanned the small group of hopefuls filling the small cadet intake auditorium, looking for who might be the best, and who he might be able to count on as an ally. As he examined each face, his hope for an ally began to fade. It seemed every cadet was fixed on the secretary, hanging on his every word. Just as he began to lose hope, there she was. Moving from one sober face to the next, he was startled when his eyes were suddenly locked with hers. She was striking; a slight glow to her round face; her blonde hair was fixed securely in a tight bun as was the requirement for all female party professionals. Her stare was intense and even at some distance the blue in her eyes was clearly visible. The stare between them lasted only a few moments, but it was all he needed – she was the one.

Now, 10-years later, alone they sat aboard the Bucephalus, moments away from embarking on a journey that would last a lifetime. The mission was unambiguous – explore and report, so long as they were able. That was their directive. They would spend the remainder of their lives in service to the party, searching some distant galaxy for a new home for humanity. The Earth was dying, humanity was killing it and it was time to move on.

A seemingly futile task, given the distance between galaxies and time required to travel between them. However, while most civilizations languished and innovation stifled following the war to end all wars, a team of two physicists found solace in their work and grew the field tremendously. In their work, the humanity found hope through escape.

Their first breakthrough arrived when they discovered the true nature of gravity. With this, they were able to develop mechanisms to manipulate and eventually, control it. Soon they obtained a firm grasp on quantum entanglement, which led to the development of a new communication protocol capable of instantaneous transmission, regardless of the distance. Stepping forward from these discoveries, they found that they could manipulate the very fabric of space, making travel to distant galaxies possible. Unfortunately, both scientists disappeared before their work on wormholes was complete. Without a capacity for further innovation, the vultures swept in and made use of the incomplete work. Thus, distant galaxies are within reach, but where exactly one will end up is indeterminate.

And so, the space explorer program was born. Cadets would train for years and be sent off in pairs into the unknown. Return to Earth was impossible. The energy required to create the wormhole was so immense, it could only be generated from the Earth’s surface and could only be maintained for minutes. Without the ability to determine an exact location, they would spend the rest of their lives together, exploring the furthest reaches of the universe, without any chance for return. Uncertain of their exact location, but in Alan’s mind that didn’t matter. They’d escaped and they would always have each other. Z was the only woman he’d ever loved; the only person for whom he ever experienced emotion for.

“How are we looking Alan?” Z asked.

“Ready to light this candle!” Alan responded with a smirk on his face.

“What? Candle?” Z inquired, only half paying attention as she continued down her list of checks.

Subdued he replied, “I’m all set”.

“Control, we’re ready for departure. All systems are nominal” Z radioed.

A crystal-clear voice came over the headset, “understood, Forward One, your path is clear, you may begin the staging process.”

At this, Z looked to Alan for the first time since taking their seats in the pilot’s capsule. She was smiling.

“Take us away Alan” she said.

With that, Alan pressed the ignition switch for the gravitational field generator. A whirring sound began to grow in strength behind him as the generator ramped up to its operating speed. Subtly, he began to feel the pull of the artificial field competing with the Earth’s gravity causing the ship to pitch and roll as it slowly lifted off the ground. With his right hand, Alan slowly raised the throttle lever increasing the field’s strength, raising the ship now several meters off the ground. Using his left hand and feet, he countered each pitch and roll until he had achieved ideal field positioning and the ship was completely balanced, hovering perfectly level at 10-meters, ready for ascent.

“Control we are staged, all systems performing nominally” Alan spoke into the radio headset.

“Understood Forward One. You may proceed with lift off. We are standing by for worm-hole generation.”

Pausing momentarily, he looked over to Z again. This time she returned the look.

“Here we go” Alan said as he looked into her eyes.

Pressing the throttle forward, the ship rose rapidly, fully disappearing from spectator view within only a few seconds. Watching the altimeter as they rose, Alan began to pull back on the throttle allowing the ship to decelerate and come to rest at 10,000 kilometers.

“Control, this is Forward One, standing by for TUI.”

“Understood Forward One, we’re tracking you at 10,000 kM. Standby for trans-universe injection.”

Shifting the field to the rear, Alan pitched the ship forward, the nose now pointed down presenting a clear view out the cockpit window or the Earth below.

Without looking out the window, Alan turned his attention to Z.

“One last look” he said after switching the communication network to internal. “Any last thoughts?”

Neither of them had ever seen the Earth from this point of view. They had done many simulations and ascent training exercises, but until now, they were prohibited from traveling above 10,000 meters. In fact, they were the first humans in the last several decades to see the Earth from such a distance.

No one could be certain of when the last space explorer traveled beyond the 10,000-m mark was. Most of the former United States government facilities were targeted in the war to end all wars, destroying nearly all records of the past. They weren’t even sure what year it was.

Without removing her gaze from the Earth below, Z replied solemnly, “Look at her. She’s beautiful.”

Alan peered out at the distant Earth below. He couldn’t describe the view as beautiful. As a child, he had stumbled across an old library, buried in rubble, long forgotten, and hidden away. It was here that Alan spent most of his days prior to enlisting in the defense services and being selected for the space explorer cadet program. He would dedicate hour after hour to studying anything that interested him, especially when it contradicted the party. Most books that turned up outside his sanctuary were deemed objectionable and thus removed from the public’s view by the Forward party’s ministry of truth.

During one of his first visits, as he moved through the collapsed aisles of books, something caught his eye in the clearing ahead. A large book sat atop a small table, seemingly undisturbed by the chaos that surrounded it. Both the book and the table were covered with dust. He wiped his hand across the cover revealing a perfect blue sphere suspended in darkness; large regions of white covering the two poles, green and brown patches interspersed throughout. Most of all he remembered the wonderful white marbling from which he was only able to conclude, after years of gathering bits of information piecemeal, must have been clouds. With this image in mind, he now looked down on a largely blue sphere covered in a pale brown tint. The regions of white were nowhere to be seen and the wonderful white marbling he had dreamt of was no more. What remained was some diminished version in which the shades of white were replaced with more shades of brown. The Earth, it seemed was devoid of both color and life, he thought to himself, but he didn’t have the heart to spoil the moment for Z.

“Yes Z, she sure is something”.

Moments later chatter came over the radio, “Forward One, standby for tunnel initiation”.

“Understood Control”, Alan replied.

“Do you copy Forward One”, Control repeated.

Alan looked down at the communication switch, still set to internal.

“Whoops” he said as Z looked to him.

He switched it back to global and replied again, “Understood Control”.

He maneuvered the ship with their back now to the Earth and slowly raised the throttle pushing the ship forward.

A flash of light appeared directly to their front.

“Worm hole activated”, suddenly came over the headset. “Sally forth Forward One, Control Out”.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Alan thrust the throttle frontward sending the Bucephalus hurtling forward into the blinding light.