Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

“What are you going to do with them? They can hardly survive without their mother.”

“I’ll figure something out.” Adrian said, already formulating a plan. It would mean he would need to delay his trip, but he could afford a few days. The ship should be finished in a month, until then he will see what he can do for the two little wolions.

Sanctuary space

The holographic viewscreen showed nothing amiss. The images from outside the science vessel Insight were completely normal, space with the nebula in the background and a small black probe floating there. Small in a relative sense, it was the size of a grav-car.

“Are we ready?” Seo-yun asked.

“All readings are within acceptable parameters.” Luna answered through the speakers.

“Start the generator.” Seo-yun said.

Mia, Seo-yun’s assistant swiped her fingers over the holo screen.

“Field reaching threshold output in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” The image from the outside changed, the probe was suddenly engulfed in purple light waves, and the next moment it was gone.

Everyone on the bridge watched the screen, and a moment later cheers broke out. Seo-yun cut them short by turning to Mia. “Are we receiving anything from the probe?”

“Nothing.” Mia answered.

“Is there debris as last time?” She asked. Mia turned to the screen. “No, there is nothing.”

“Are we reading anything Luna?” Seo-yun asked.

“The trans particles are disrupted. Your speculation appears to be correct Seo-yun, once something passes through the translane, nothing can follow for some time.” Luna said.

Hearing that Seo-yun allowed herself a small smile. “Alright, I want everyone to monitor the communications, if the probe went through it will send a signal back when it arrives.”

Seo-yun looked back at the viewscreen where the probe was just a minute ago. She had half convinced herself that she was wrong. After the test failed each time, with the probes they tried sending through blowing up without them knowing why. This test was their first success, at least for now. And it was also the first test that they did at this location. All of the previous tests were done at the location where the Union ship entered the Nebula, between the third and fourth planets. The reason for that being was simply because that location was closer to Sanctuary in its current place in orbit around the sun. But after the fifth failure, Seo-yun decided to move to the other location. The one where the Union ship exited the Nebula. According to the records that point should lead to the Nuva system, which made things a bit awkward if they did succeed. The probe is nothing but armor around a communication and sensor equipment, though it could self-destruct. Seo-yun believed that there was little chance of it being discovered, the exit point was supposed to be close to the orbit of the second planet in the system. And in Nuva’s current orbit it was partially obscured by the sun, they would need to look for the probe specifically in order to see it.

Seo-yun couldn’t yet figure out why the attempts at the other point failed while this one succeeded on the first try. They did everything the same. After Seo-yun figured out how Union ships traveled, the only thing she had to do was figure out how to replicate it. They had found the trans particles and studied them in great detail, afterwards they found the way to interact with them by using a “trans” field generator. They had the blueprints for the generator since they found the alien ship. But until now they had no idea what it was supposed to do. Now on the other hand, they discovered that by projecting the field onto the area filled with trans particles they could send objects through the translane. Which is the way that the Union ships traveled. It was supposed to be much faster. But also limited, translanes were natural and could only go to one location, and the quantity of mass that can be sent is limited by the intensity of the trans field. In order to send multiple ships one would need to generate a trans field of much greater intensity than the one that would be needed for just one ship. Unless of course that one ship out massed all the others put together. And if Seo-yun was correct in her findings, it had one more drawback. The failed test made at the other location suggested that the translanes could only be used in one direction. Seo-yun went back to her quarters to rest. The Union ship traveled the distance of some 12 light years in barely two days. For now all Seo-yun could do was wait.

Less than two days later Seo-yun sat on the bridge reviewing reports, when the Comm Handler yelled out.

“It came through!”

Seo-yun jumped out of her seat and moved to the comm station. She looked down and saw that they had indeed received a communication from the probe. The probe had successfully passed through trans space, and had sent all the readings it acquired.

“Alright people, get to work, we need to analyze this data!” Seo-yun said cheerfully. They had just given Olympus a travel method that was faster than anything they could have imagined. And the great thing is that all of their ships could use it, without any need for retrofitting. The ships themselves didn’t need to generate the trans field, they just needed to be in the trans area when the field was generated and they would be sent through. Although, how would they come back then? Seo-yun thought. A few more problems became apparent to her. Their sensors were not yet calibrated to detect trans particles, but soon they will. That will mean that they will need ships able to generate the field, the ones that will map out the translanes in their neighborhood. That could be dangerous. Who knows where an unknown translane could lead to? And how far. They could become stranded somewhere years away from the next translane, and If they don’t find another translane that leads back… She shook her head, there will be time enough to think about that. For now they had the lanes that Union used. They knew the ones that led back to Earth, and the ones they used to get to the Nebula, but if Seo-yun was correct they won’t be able to use those from here. We will need to explore them. She sighed and opened the star chart showing the path of the Union ship. She zoomed in on the section that showed the path from Sanctuary to Earth. The time it took them to get to Earth was just over a year. A year to travel what took us sixty. She grimaced, she knew that she would need to tell this to Tomas. But wasn’t sure what that could mean. Would they go back? Would they even want to? This was their home now. She received no message from Asumy, and she didn’t send any back, she hoped that he was alright. She didn’t know how much Earth advanced in 60 years, and didn’t want to unwittingly let them know where they are. She was sure that they couldn’t have advanced as far as Olympus, they didn’t have the aid of alien technology. But then again, most of the Olympus technology was purely human, the alien tech helped them, but it was nothing that they couldn’t have discovered on their own. Often, Seo-yun thought about her friend, the alien Ai Asumy. It pained her to ask him to stay, but she had to leave someone. It couldn’t be a human, they required food and water, it was impossible to supply someone for that long. And she couldn’t leave any of the Ai they created. They were young, and there was no way to predict what it would have done to them to be active over so long a period. During their trip here all of the Ai’s, were either shut down for the entirety of the trip or woken only periodically. And then there was Asumy. He had already spent thousands of years alone. And she knew that another 60 years were nothing for him. And now with the trans travel, she could go back and bring him here easily. Provided of course that there were any translanes leading back to the Nebula from Earth.