“Damien, this part is absolutely crucial. Even a slight deviation from the location, trajectory and the time of lightspeed jump can put your ship millions of kilometres from Kepler-186f. There is a black hole right at the edge of the milky way, it will not be on your course of flight but the lightspeed jump will be using the gravitational pull of the blackhole to propel you without needing to use as much fuel. The probe we had sent 2 weeks ago have confirmed the gravitational readings and the calculations have been accounted for.” the scientist emphasises as he points at the holographic galaxy map. His dark-skinned fingers protrude out of the holographic image of the sun to a specific red dot floating on the holographic map next to the sun.
On the other side of the holographic map was a tall and well-built man in his late twenties. His facial features had a mix of European and Asian backgrounds, as seen from his light tan skin, piercing light blue eyes and jet-black hair. His eyes trained at the red dot and his brows furrows, “Raj, you know that this is right next to the big giant ball of flaming gas that we call the sun, right? Won’t the radiation alone give us all cancer and kill us before we reach Kepler-186f?”
“Yes, however, based on current calculations of the velocity which the Kepler system and our solar system are moving and the distance between the systems, also factoring deviation, and of course not wanting to fucking ram your ship straight into a giant rock. that this is the only location you can perform the lightspeed jump from. We must do this jump at this location in 2 weeks, or the next chance will be in 250 years and I don’t think we discovered the science to immortality yet. Though it would be unfortunate if you die before reaching Kepler-186f, so please start the lightspeed jump within 10 minutes of arriving, as that is how long the radiation shields from the ship will last before the sun begins bombarding every cell in your body with high energy photons” Raj chided before continuing his briefing on the other calibrations required. Damien listened intently to the rest of the briefing as he puts his physics degree to good work.
There was a total of 15 crew members in the ship, each with different backgrounds in their fields of study, all with goals and genetic varieties to potentially restart the human population if the rest of humanity is unable to escape the dying planet in time and Damien was the captain. Each and everyone of the crew had spent the last year training, studying, and preparing for the mission to save humanity from extinction. There was no room for failure.
It was the night before the launch and Damien’s eyes were wide open. He wasn’t anxious about the weight of the world on his shoulders and the responsibility of the entire species survival was in his hands. He was excited. Earth as he remembered growing up has always been the greedy preying and exploiting the weak. Even when the whole world was crumbling before themselves, they could not put away their own self-interests for the benefit of their civilization. It took full-on nuclear annihilation, toppling of the world’s governments and possibility of extinction to finally unite these idiots to do the right thing. He made it his goal to get off this god-forsaken planet soon as he heard about project Rebirth and did everything in his power to get in. He was going to survive and will do whatever it takes to do so.
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“Hey Damien, some of us want to sleep before the launch! Quit the bouncing already!”, an annoyed shout coming from outside. The slightly high-pitched voice was Dong-Woo, the team’s ecologist. He and Damien did not get along well during training but put up with each other for the sake of the mission. Damien always felt that in a different timeline they would definitely be mortal enemies.
“Fine!” Damien grumbles as he catches the rubber ball one last time before shelving it away in his pod and begins to close his eyes, imagining the luscious green greeting him as he gets off the spacecraft on Kepler-186. It would be like the pictures of Forests on Earth he had seen in his history books before the third world war. His breathing shallows and slows as he slowly drifts to sleep.
The launch station was in full throttle as engineers, technicians, scientists are running around and preparing for launch. The actual spacecraft itself is attached onto an external fuel tank and 4 solid rocket boosters, to let the craft be able to break the earth’s atmosphere without using any of the spacecraft’s internal fuel. Every drop of fuel within the spacecraft was precious and even the slightest change in weight could alter their course completely. The ship was designed as aerodynamically as possible, its silver sheen glistened under the irradiated maroon sky. On the side of the ship was painted the words “S.S Rebirth” Anya was the main pilot and was the most reliable person for the job. She had successfully launched and returned from space 4 times prior to this when she was with the Russian space program. Damien sat next to her as her co-pilot while the rest of the crew sat in 2 rows behind them.
The astronauts all wore new high tech space suits, the days where astronauts wore big clunky Michelin Man suits were long gone. These were sleek black suits, with glowing blue circuits that hung tightly to the skin. The suit had cutting edge thermodynamic properties, oxygenation system and in-built HUD when they pull over a plastic hoodie that hardens when sealed around their head to act as a helmet. Everyone had a tool kit around their waist, which had spare oxygenation capsules lasting 10 days, 2 solar powered portable chargers for the suit that can recharge the suit for 4 extra days without excess to the power, a nifty Swiss Army Knife, torchlight, and a non-lethal side arm.
Raj’s voice comes through the speakers, “Once you have breached Earth’s atmosphere, the ship’s A.I. echo will help guide you to the coordinates. Good luck and godspeed our heroes! Anya initiate launch protocols and everyone prepare for launch.”
The crew held their breaths, a nervous tension fills the air both in the command post and within the crew deck. Damien’s gaze steeled as he stared towards the sky, a slight smirk leaves his lips as the countdown begins.