Jay Allan - The First Imperium

“According to my projected schematic, this passage should lead to one of the acceleration chambers.” Hofstader’s voice echoed loudly off the tunnel walls. He glanced back at his two companions and spoke more softly. “It may be a long way. Remember, I if am right, this complex is planetary in scale.” He readjusted the pack on his back and turned to face forward, into the gloom of the passageway ahead.

They continued for hours, walking at least at least 25 kilometers, stopping only once to eat a few ration bars. They passed a number of sealed hatches, but they bypassed them and pressed on ahead. It had taken a heavy plasma torch to cut through the sealed doorways they’d discovered elsewhere in the complex, and they didn’t expect these to be any different.

“I’m detecting a slow uptick in background radiation.” Katrina’s voice was soft, distracted. She was staring at a small handheld monitor. “Analyzing now.” She looked up, a big smile on her face. “Readings consistent with long-term radioactives from anti-matter production. We must be close.” Katrina Hoffen had been Friedrich’s student first, and now she was an accomplished physicist in her own right. She’d volunteered for this assignment, as had most of the scientists on Earth. This was the greatest research project in human history, and even the prospect of spending years on an alien world wasn’t enough to discourage most of them.

Friederich Hofstader was the top scientist in the Central European League, and it fell to him to assemble that Power’s team. Katrina had a strong record, though she was relatively young and inexperienced for a mission of this magnitude. But Hofstader was a bit of a maverick, and he focused more on securing people he trusted rather than on traditional academic achievements. For the most part he had little time anyway for the fuss and bother of his peers and their review boards and awards committees. All that mattered to him was the job at hand. He didn’t care about credit or recognition…he just wanted knowledge.

They quickened their pace, stopping only to rerun the radiation tests twice more. Finally, the tunnel led through an archway and onto a small catwalk that stretched as far as their light carried. Katrina activated a handful of small chem lights and tossed them over the railing. They landed about ten meters below and illuminated a vast tunnel extending off in both directions. There was a 5 meter wide conduit suspended on a series of brackets. It disappeared into the darkness at both ends of the illuminated area.

“You were right, Friedrich.” Travers’ wasn’t surprised; he’d expected Hofstader’s theory to check out. But it was still amazing to consider the scale of the construct looming in front of them. “Congratulations.” Travers wasn’t a physicist, but he recognized a massive particle accelerator when he saw one.

Hofstader was mesmerized, staring at the amazing structure. It was definitely an accelerator, but it was far larger and more complex than any he’d ever seen. He couldn’t begin to identify half of the appendages and devices built into it, and it would take weeks of detailed computations to even guess at the energy levels the thing could achieve. But they were able to confirm one suspicion by measuring the slight arc of the conduit…it appeared to stretch completely around the planet.

“Apart from the technology involved, this is an engineering achievement of incalculable proportions.” Katrina spoke slowly, her mind nearly consumed by the act of simply staring at the amazing device. “This entire planet was an anti-matter production facility.” She turned to look at Friederich. “Just as you suspected, Dr. Hofstader.”

They stood silently for a moment, unable to look away from the ancient alien construction. Finally, Travis turned and stared at his two companions. “Imagine the power the race that built this commanded.” He took a deep breath. “I wonder if they’re still out there somewhere.”

The three of them lost track of how long they stood there transfixed, but they were all thinking the same thing. Where were the builders of this place?

Ian Tremaine walked slowly back toward the small cluster of modular shelters, the warm afternoon sun beating down on his sweat-soaked back. It was another kilometer and a half to the village, and he could already feel the burning exhaustion in his legs. “No one ever told me colonizing a new world was such hard work.” Tremaine was alone and speaking to himself, and he laughed at his own joke. Someone should, he thought with a smile.

Newton was the most remote planet yet colonized by man. The system was 28 transits from Sol, a solid year’s journey for all but the fastest ships. The colonization party wasn’t even from Earth…Newton had been settled by colonists from Columbia. The expedition was comprised of religious pacifists who chose to tackle a newly-discovered world when it became clear that war and revolution would soon engulf Columbia.

Now the rebellion was over, and Columbia and the other Alliance colonies had won at least partial independence. That news had been joyously received on Newton, but the celebration had been tempered by the horrific losses suffered, the awful cost of that taste of freedom. Tremaine could hardly believe what he saw in the dispatches. By all accounts, Weston was in ruins, and at least a quarter of the planet’s population had perished. He wept for those lost, and he prayed for their families. He had many friends on Columbia, and he didn’t know who among them was alive or dead. We were right to leave, he thought sadly. The Columbians had certainly had legitimate grievances against Alliance Gov…he agreed with that wholeheartedly. But was it worth all the suffering and death and destruction? Was war and killing always the only way?

It all felt very far away on Newton. His people had come to the edge of explored space seeking a peaceful home. They were almost 200 lightyears from man’s birthplace on Earth - when he looked through the colony’s telescope toward Sol, he was seeing light that began its journey two centuries prior. Before the Alliance existed. Before the Unification Wars. Of course, geometric distances in space were largely irrelevant. The important calculation was the number of warp gate jumps required to reach a planet, and by that measure as well, Newton was on the extreme frontier.

The settlement was small, just 120 families. The houses were prefab units manufactured on Columbia, clustered around a few scratch-built common buildings. There was a wall around the village, with several watch towers and half a dozen sonic pulse cannons. The planet was far from any potentially hostile worlds, but the local fauna was large and aggressive. The most threatening animals tended to stay in the jungle areas, but occasionally a serious predator wandered out into the savannah. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Tremaine walked through the open gate and into the bustling little community. The colonists had begun calling their town Haven, though officially it was still Colony One. There was an identical village on the second of the planet’s two continents. As far as he knew, Colony Two’s residents hadn’t come up with any name for their settlement, informal or otherwise.

“Good morning, Ian.” Hampton Charles was walking over from the dining hall when he saw Tremaine coming through the gate. “Back from calibrating the pulse scanners already?” Charles glanced at the chronometer on his wrist. “You must have left before sunup.”

“Indeed I did, my friend.” Tremaine grasped Charles’ arm in a warm greeting. “It promises to be a scorcher today, and I thought it best done early.” He looked up at the cloudless sky, running his hand through his sweat-soaked mop of long brown hair. “It was hot enough already at dawn; I can tell you that much.”