As far back as he could remember he had always wished to be amongst the stars. As a child that had been his dream. A dream he had held since his earliest of days looking up at the night sky and dreaming of what could lay past the blue atmosphere of Earth. Past the Moon and beams of light from the Sun and past it's hold on all things that existed in Sol. This child was, of course, none other then Zefram Cochrane. The man who would one day usher in a new age for humanity. An age so pronounced and so significant to the whole of humanity that it was known throughout the world as the age of Cochrane.
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If he could complain about anything about the ship he was now in it would have to be the cramped conditions of the cockpit of the Phoenix. To him, it was far too small to be at all comfortable and the seat was a true nightmare to sit in for more than a few minutes at a time. But if he wanted to launch before next week this was his last chance as the following days would be unsuitable to launch due to safety concerns expressed primarily by his launch staff inside the bunker. By his side sat Lily, his ever-faithful companion and co-pilot who couldn't help but roll her eyes as he yelled about the coolant systems being broken or the computer being slow or some other nonsense that didn't at all matter for today's test. But this was why she loved him so much. He was always fun to be around even if he had a bad tendency to blow up at the most insignificant of issues.
"Zef you need to relax everything is fine. Now tell me the power output of the warp nacelles. Bob said they were entering the red last time. He's worried they may overload". Lily asked as she busily checked and rechecked everything off her sizeable list. It was her job to ensure that everything that could go wrong was fixed for tomorrow's launch on the 5th of April, 2063.
"Both are showing me green". Cochrane answered as he battled the seat backwards. "This damn thing hates me Lily. I want this thing fixed. Get on the phone and get them to call Jonathan back in". He yelled after getting the seat to pull back far enough so as to allow him to finally turn around to face Lily.
"He's asleep Zef. Besides even if he wasn't his shift ended hours ago so you can't order him to do anything". Lily pointed out to which he only grunted in reply. She knew how he was always fixated on even the most insignificant of details. The most minute of flaws he would no doubt pick up on and would thus drive the crew mad with work. But she understood why he was like that. This was after all the embodiment of a dream. The end result of thousands of hours of hard work and decades of study on even the most obscure scientific papers on the idea of faster then light spaceships. To him little else mattered or existed. To him this ship was going to turn a new page on human history or like the bird burn away into ash at the end of his life. She hoped he would see that new page being turned over what the latter would have in store for him. But she knew of course that she was being selfish. Nobody could change history. What was meant to happen would and no power could ever hope to alter it or so she thought.
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If there was one thing the captain of the T'Plana-Hath knew it was that something was clearly wrong with the ship's navigation systems. If what his crew were telling him was to be believed their ship was somehow on a collision course with the G-type main-sequence star of this fairly out-of-the-way star system. How such a flaw was overlooked by his crew for so long he hadn't a clue but if he didn't find a way to resolve the matter it wouldn't matter at all in the end.
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"The outer hull is starting to fail, sir. If we don't move away soon we'll have a hull breach in less than three minutes". His XO (executive officer) said as the ship moved ever closer to the white star. The heat growing hotter with each passing second.
"Send word back to the high command that we failed our mission due to a massive system failure of unknown origin". The captain said as he readied himself for his death. The last thing he saw before the hull of the ship failed was his crew working tirelessly to fix the flaw. As a Vulcan who held onto the traditional values, the feeling he felt was one he wasn't used to feeling but it was one he didn't bother to suppress any longer. He was proud of his crew and he was proud to have been their captain.
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Meanwhile back on Earth Cochrane and Lily were busily looking over everything one last time in preparation for the launch that would commence in less than one hour.
"Ready to make history...Zef"? Lily asked as she checked off one more thing on the list of pre-launch requirements. Once she was sure everything was good she looked at Cochrane. She was happy he allowed her to be here for this. She knew there were far better choices for this role and she knew he knew it as well.
"You know as well as anybody else here that I have been ready for years now. My whole life has been for this day. I am just...nervous. I'm sitting here Lily in this nightmarish chair looking up at the Moon and thinking I could die today. We could die today. But I'm happy to know that should this be it that I had you by my side". Cochrane said as he looked upward to see the Moon. It was a sight he had, of course, seen thousands of times before but somehow this time it felt different. This time he wouldn't be seeing it from the Earth. No, if everything worked out as planned he would be viewing it from a mere 500 miles. He would be the closest mankind had been to the Moon in nearly a century. It was a fact that made the man understand for the first time in his life how significant this day could become. Sure if it worked he would go down in history as the first human to go faster then light but he would also be the first human to be so close to the Moon since the last days of Apollo.
"Ten minutes guys. Sky is clear blue all the way to the horizon. The launch is a go". The mission head said over the comm channel. The words made Cochrane feel almost like a child playing in the backyard eyeing the Moon and stars. In ten minutes he would be up there in space fulfilling a dream he had had for nearly 40 years. The last few minutes passed slowly but with each passing second his hold on the ships controls grew.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Liftoff". Came the cry from the mission head as the ship slowly started to lift itself out of the bunker. The force pushed him into the back of his seat. The ship rocked to and fro and it seemed for a time it could rip itself apart. But it held together and soon the ship began to come to a rest.
"Control phase one is complete. I'm beginning phase two now". Lily said as she released the warp nacelles. The ship rocked somewhat due to the force.
"The warp nacelles showing green. Powering them up now". Lily said as she started the slow climb upwards. For Cochrane this was the worst part of the mission. This was the great unknown. If he was wrong they would be no hope that they could survive.
"10%, 22%, 29%, 33%, 42%". Lily called out as the ship seemed to cry out in pain. Cochrane held onto the controls as best he could as the numbers grew higher and higher.
"58%, 62%, 68%, 74%, 80%, 88%, 90%....something is wrong". Lily said as she couldn't get the power to rise past 90%. As far as she could tell everything was working as intended. Yet for some unknown reason the power stopped at 90% and while it was theoretically possible that they could generate a warp field with 90% power it was obviously not intended.
"Zef I can't give you anymore power. I'm giving you all she's got". Lily said as she attempted to pull even one more % out of the ship. But it wasn't to be as it wouldn't move past 90%.
"We'll just have to hope that's enough". Cochrane said as he activated the warp nacelles and made history.