[New Gangkuang, Novaltus - 1942 KT]
“Mom! Come tell me a story!”
A small voice echoes through the short metallic halls. There isn’t much privacy in a mining camp, but, luckily, Shengda offered any workers with children small personal quarters. There was a dedicated bedroom which was practically unheard of these days, especially on Novaltus IX. Tremonia, stood up from where she had been lying on the musty rug in the kitchen, exhausted from the labors of the day, and went to put her son, Skott, to bed. Nightly stories were a tradition, after all, handed down from her mother’s mother’s mother, and Tremonia knew she wouldn’t be the one to break it.
Skott looked up expectantly as his mother entered the room. He knew tonight was the night, mom had gotten home early today so there had to be time for the story, right? Trying to hide his excitement, Skott looked up and tried his nightly plea as meekly as he could.
“Since you got back early today, we’ve got time right?! You promised to tell me the story as soon as you had time!! Please?”
It was hard for a five year old to be meek and patient.
Despite the weariness from the day, Tremonia’s lips pulled up slightly at the corners. She really had promised him and, well, now was probably the best time. Giving in, she kneeled on the cold metal flooring next to Skott’s small bed, her legs grateful to no longer be standing.
“Yes, I did promise you and I suppose since you’ve been such a good boy recently…” Skott dove under his blankets as she paused, fully aware that tickles would be forthcoming if he wasn’t ready.
This time Tremonia really did smile as she watched her darling boy playfully hide, fully accustomed to their daily routine.
“I should warn you, Skott, it's a long story, do you think you can stay awake for the whole thing? Yesterday you were snoring before I even brought up the prince.”
“I promise Mom! I won’t go to sleep this time.”
He knew she was weak to his pouting face. She always caved when he acted cute like this and tonight must not be an exception. Skott wasn’t taking any chances, tonight was the night.
“Alright Sweetie, alright. Snuggle in and I’ll tell it to you.”
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[Sanhosu - 11 KT]
- CLASSIFIED -
- NO ACCESS WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM -
- THE TANAKAHOSHI CORP BOARD OF TRUSTEES-
Stamped 11m 2d 11c with official Tanakahoshi Corp seal
DECLASSIFIED FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Tana-Jituan Corporation
3m 1d 159c
Stamped 3m 1d 159c with official Tana-Jituan Corporation seal
The FTL Catastrophe and What It Means
Authors: Dr. Arnold Renntha and Dr. Octavius Halsoforth
Responsible editor: Sophia P. Martsen.
First published: 10m 13d 11c Standard Kaino Time
Stalaric Research Foundation
Stalaric Research Center, Colony 5, Kaino
DMS: 156.415789.369
Abstract
The TRAPPIST-1e voyage was intended to last 35 years, 7 months, and 6 days according to Earth time. Twenty-two vessels were dispatched on May 6, 2317 CE with FTL capabilities. Thought to be previously impossible, quantum engineer Dr. David Porth and physicist Dr. Yamato Kobayashi theorized, tested, and proved a design for a FTL capable engine. Though the details of how the engines schematics and exact method of FTL travel was achieved was kept classified by the world government, a project was put in place to transport 2.5 million humans from every region of the earth to TRAPPIST-1e, the closest confirmed Earth-like planet that was immediately capable of sustaining life. Unmanned vessels had been sent as early as 2098 and confirmed the planetary conditions. Through the direct support and funding of the largest world corporations at the time with a vested interest in space exploration, the project was funded and prepared over the course of 21 years. However, due to budgetary setbacks, there were only 2.2 million humans prepared for colonization.
The launch was successful and 8 ships arrived safely. At 36 years, 0 months, and 12 days the first colonists were aroused from cryosleep by order of priority and work to establish colonies was begun. Despite minor setbacks in the number of actual arriving ships, the colonies started to flourish. Dr. James Mansterdeen, however, was the first to publish a series of concerns regarding the situation. According the Dr. Mansterdeen, the star and planet were completely different that estimated parameters and the star arrangements in the night sky were entirely different from those of the Milky Way.1 Other researchers began to corroborate these findings and it was proven that the Colony ships had not arrived at TRAPIST-1e, but had instead arrived at a previously unknown planet in a unknown galaxy. Since which, for the last 10 years, there have been many attempts by all colony researchers to ascertain the causality of this condition. No conclusive evidence has been found. This article collects the minor and inconclusive evidence published and puts forth a new conclusion and reasoning for the cause of the voyage disaster.
Introduction
In recent years since the discovery about the surprising reality of our voyage to Kaino, there have been many speculations and research attempts to determine the nature of the incident. Dr. Halsoforth and myself have endeavored to create a collection of the substantiated claims regarding the incident along with some evidence from our own research and are publishing it in an attempt to set the record straight about the reality of our current situation. As foremost experts in the fields of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity for the Stalaric Research Foundation, we feel we are uniquely placed with the ability to properly explain the incident in whole.
We must acknowledge, however, that there is much regarding the science we do not know and our aims are merely to provide as much evidence that is currently to be had so that a true and convincing story may be put forth towards the colonists. We have seen the unrest among the people here on Colony 5 and imagine that the other colonies must be facing similar issues. As such we will acknowledge the areas of science we don’t fully understand but attempt to explain the reality with the evidence we do have before providing areas of further research that is required before a full picture can be gleaned.
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[Colony 62, MR-428 - 1168 KT]
Wiretap of Children of Nalth secret meeting 6m 18d 1168c
TACAM Security Force Authority and Security Department
Filed under folder ‘nalthChildren’, subfolder ‘investigation_3219b’, subfolder ‘surveillance’
(00:00:00) -Recording begins. Unintelligible hushed conversation.-
(00:47:93) -The voices quiet as the rec room’s door opens with a pneumatic hiss.-
(00:50:51) -Footsteps as the reverend walks to the pulpit, giving small greetings as he passes certain individuals. The congregation is predominantly quiet.-
(01:20:38) Children, thank you for gathering on this glorious occasion as we witness the remembrance of the birth of our Lord. Though you have all heard me tell it many times, I shall regale for you the tale of the death of the Old World, the doom of the gods of yore, and the time of chastening, a story which, I hope, turn your hearts with fear and foreboding to greater worship and honor to our great Lord.
(01:53:01) You know as well as I, that our kind comes from Earth. A planet beyond our reach now, but the legends say that it was beautiful unlike any other planet before the scourge. Our ancestors began to congregate and build and in their hubris began to destroy the planet they called home. They had no means of travel, they could not abandon their planet yet they could not escape. The deceivers came and offered a hope, a future beyond their ruined lands. It was a lie.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
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[Lombard University, Terrafros - 442 KT]
Now class, if you remember from the end of our previous lecture that it was Dr. Porth and Dr. Kobayashi that first proved the theory of faster than light travel, though it was highly disputed. Their math disagreed with every other law and somehow it didn’t, they seemed to have found the needle that needed to be threaded in order to make interstellar space travel feasible.
You see, on Earth, the world government was so greedy with its wealth that they refused to take any risks. Travel that was slower than light speed was impractical and expensive, they claimed, so there were no real efforts made before Kobayashi and Porth to travel beyond their solar system. It was a rather primitive way of thinking.
Yes, Hart?
…
How do we know the world government thought this way? Well, if you had done the readings you would see that the early colonists had access to a large selection of Earth relics, many writings and recordings and would even regularly access them until the corporations wisely choose to restrict those materials.
…
Why? Because they are dangerous old ways of thinking that nearly destroyed their planet. We would be wise to stay as far from Earth’s example as possible. We simply trust that the corporations are protecting us as they help our people expand through our galaxy. Perhaps one day we may even expand into other galaxies!
But back to my point, Porth and Kobayashi were able to convince the government to organize and lead the project in exchange for the eager aid offered by the most forward thinking corporations of Earth. Several of which are still around today! Think of that, a single corporation spanning worlds and worlds and having existed longer than any human organization ever had prior. Can you see how incredible this is?
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[New Gangkuang, Novaltus - 1942 KT]
“What happened next, mom?”
Skotts eyes were wide with anticipation, no one talked about Earth in New Gangkuang, which made the story even more exciting.
“I’m getting to that part. So the two smart men began to plan and plan. They designed incredible ships that could travel faster than you can imagine. These ships were so fast that if we rode one from here to Kaino, it would only take 50 cycles!”
“No way! That’s gotta be made up! Why can’t we go that fast now?”
Tremonia couldn’t help but smile again, she knew telling this story would get him too excited to sleep but she had already started, might as well finish. “Shh. You’re supposed to be sleeping soon so don’t get too riled up. Well these ships were so fast that they could only travel one time but the two smart men wouldn’t tell anyone really how it worked. They wanted to keep the secrets to themselves so they could make lots and lots of money.”
As she spoke in a low, calming voice, she stroked Skott’s hair. He would never really understand just how much she loved him.
“After these really big ships were built, they gathered two million people to travel to the new planet. They chose researchers and scientists, and all sorts of exceptional people who would make the new colony grow. Did you know that’s why you are so smart? All of our ancestors were the smartest people from Earth and you got all the best parts of them.”
Skott giggled as his mother tousled his hair. This was his favorite time of the day, she was gone most times or really tired after work so moments where she focused just on him were the best.
“Then the day finally came. It was time for the people to leave Earth.”
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[Sanhosu - 11 KT]
Travel Analysis
As noted by Dr. Libemann6 and Hordrigrad,7 in their papers analyzing the FTL drive, TRAPPIST-1e was 39.46 lightyears from Earth and would take 394.6 years to travel by current conventional methods.9 Dr. Porth and Kobayashi claimed that their engine would reduce travel time to a mere 36 years, implying a velocity nearly 10% faster than the speed of light. No details were provided at the time but now that we have been able to gain access to the physical engines, we have ascertained they are likely some kind of gravitational field manipulation devices.10 No other scientist has been able to replicate their equations and prove the engines but after testing was shown that their vessels could indeed travel faster than light, the project received a green light.
Engineer expert Mr. Aung Myo Khant was able to perform a detailed examination of the engines in the vessels adrift above Kaino. In his words, he describes the state of the technology and affairs in an interview we had previously.
> I’ve worked with the majority of cutting edge technologies to some degree or another but this device was something beyond my understanding. Everything was normal parts, sure, but for some reason the alignment didn’t make sense. Simply the technology alone shouldn’t have worked any better than your average solar sail. Eventually, it could have gotten to maybe 10-20% the speed of light, but that’s still 90-100% less than the actual result. All the other evidence points to it being genuine but there was something… uncanny about the whole thing. I mean just to access the engine room we had to bypass 3 separate failsafe measures keeping us out. Clearly there was something to hide.11
Those weren’t the only failsafes on our colonial vessels, as has been recently publicized over the last year. In an attempt to reactivate the drives, representatives from the Dasgraha Research Assembly were killed as an undiscovered explosive detonated one of the engine rooms upon attempted reactivation.12 Porth and Kobayashi seemed to have something to hide.
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[Colony 62, MR-428 - 1168 KT]
(05:39:44) They had lied to us! The pride of the Earth dwellers had caused them to cast down their gods and turn to these new ones, deceivers who preached only falsehoods and impossibilities! They spoke of crossing the threshold and claiming the stars but it was all a lie! They took our world from us! They took us from our rightful place! We were sent hurtling through the stars by the power of the damned! Their hubris, their pride, their lies! are what brought us here! They are the reason for our suffering!
(06:18:93) If they took the gods from us, then it was up to us to find the new gods in this strange space and we did! We found them. We found the Lord on the very day of their birth!
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[Lombard University, Terrafros - 442 KT]
After arriving on Kaino, though it wasn’t called that at the time, the colonists focused on establishing safe places to live, factories, and farms. There were a lot of sleeping settlers waiting to be awoken as soon as conditions were right. They were given 1 year before the first batch would awake and then every two years after more would awake. By the end of 12 years, all 100,000 of those first brave colonists would be awake and helping to build up their new home.
…
No, I don’t believe they could have woken the others up early, Matt. The funding companies insisted on ensuring there were safety procedures in place so no undue burden was placed upon their settlers. Starvation was a very real threat so they had calculated out the remaining energy needed to sustain the colonists in cryosleep for the extra time needed to prepare.
…
Yes Jims. That’s correct. Onboard the ship there also was another bank of individuals but these were frozen fertilized eggs ready for incubation and birth. Over 1 million per vessel. Thanks to those generous donations from others on Earth, our population on Kaino was able to grow so fast to adapt to our needs.
…
Didn’t it take 5 years for people to notice we were at Kaino, not Trappist? Well, not quite. They were somehow recorded how odd the stars appeared or how the star was brighter than it was supposed to be almost immediately, but those were taken to be measurement misreadings. It wasn’t until the corporations got together and shared their new star maps and data from their researchers that they found out there was something wrong.
Now the corporations understood how disruptive this knowledge would be and decided keeping it hidden for the meantime was best for the young colonies. They didn’t want to scare anyone by alerting them that there were going to be no more visitors from Earth. Try as they might, there was no evidence of Earth, Terra Sol, or anything else resembling the Milky Way Galaxy.
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[New Gangkuang, Novaltus - 1942 KT]
“But why didn’t they just go back to Earth mom?”
“They tried, Sweetie, but there was just no way to get back. It was like Earth had disappeared. The stars were all different and they couldn’t find how to go back no matter how hard they looked. So we decided to stay and build up Kaino. Even though it’s been almost 2000 cycles since then, we haven’t stopped finding new places to call home. This place is ours now and so we continue to build new colonies and cities all around the galaxy.”
Skott looked up with bleary eyes, practically asleep already. The tiredness from the day had hit him finally.
“Do you think we’ll ever get to travel to another planet momma?”
Tremonia for the first time of the night had to fake her smile as she answered. She didn’t like lying to her son but sometimes the lies were kinder than the truth.
“You bet, one day we will go see Kaino and even Glornin. I hear they have the most beautiful beaches there. You can even see their star most days, how does that sound?”
Fading off to sleep, Skott gave his mumbles of ascent. Tremonia stood up after lightly kissing her son on the forehead before preparing herself to sleep. There were only a few hours left until her next shift started.
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[Sanhosu - 11 KT]
It has been shown that there is no possibility for us to travel the distance required to no longer be able to identify any previously known galaxies or stars from Earth’s night sky.21 Our proposal is that rather than having traveled through space22 or through time23 as others have suggested, we believe that the FTL engines produced on Earth caused us to travel through reality until we had crossed into a new universe, previously undiscovered. This has been theorized by Einsteinian mathematics for some time but had not yet been proven. It had been assumed the only method of traveling between Einsteinian universes was to traverse a wormhole and since only 8 of the 22 departing ships arrived and the engines do not appear to be capable of creating such a hole in the fabric of space-time, then it must be our journey happened across a worm hole at the exact moment of its birth and death. An improbability so astronomically unlikely that there are better chances to correctly pick a randomly chosen atom, like a card from a deck, out of all the atoms in the known universe. Despite the impossibility of such a claim, we put forth that there is no more likely solution. As such, all efforts to return to Earth should cease as it is an impossibility. Efforts to recreate the FTL engine should also cease, they have been shown by our study to be incapable of actually traveling at FTL speeds. Our research time instead needs to be spent instead confirming the physical laws of this universe in comparison to our previous one and developing our presences here on Kaino Terra, our New Earth.
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[Colony 62, MR-428 - 1168 KT]
(15:34:84) Can you not see the wickedness of the deceivers?! Can you not see the greed and pride of these Corporations that claim to care for us?! They have taken us to a hell beyond saving and granted us no freedoms to save ourselves! If it weren’t for the Lord, who drifts among the stars, we would not know that there was hope! His signal broadcast for but a moment was a message that we are not alone! We may not know his name or species, but I promise that we shall find him! We shall find our Hope among the Stars!
(16:16:35) -A crash sounds as security agents enter the scene to arrest the reverend. All those in attendance were enrolled in standard re-education classes.-
(24:59:83) -A brief moment of static before the recording device shuts off.-
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[Lombard University, Terrafros - 442 KT]
Any final questions?
…
Yes, Thomas.
…
What do we do now that Earth is gone? Well, that’s a very good question. Our efforts to expand on Kaino are proceeding rather rapidly. Our population has risen to over five-hundred million in only four-hundred cycles. We expect to have outgrown this planet in the next four-hundred years and so the leading corporations, such as our university’s sponsor, Lombard Industries, have set their sights on traveling to another nearby planet before eventually moving further outwards into other solar systems. Who knows, maybe in a few decades, you might be able to travel to one of these new planets and help colonize it? Did that answer your question?
…
Good. Any other questions?
…
Alright, don’t forget your exam opens up tomorrow. I expect you all to pass. Class dismissed. Have a good evening!