Sandra stood up from her desk and walked to the stairs leading up to the entrance of the classroom. According to the map on her CROSS, the mess hall was at the end of the right wing corridor, on the opposite end of the school from the main conference room. As she finally made her way out of the row of chairs, she found the brown-haired girl from before waiting for her with a smile.
"Hey Sandra, do you want to have lunch together?" The girl said.
She nodded and waited for Gwen to lead the way, but the girl just stood there as if waiting for something. It was after a few long seconds that she finally spoke, slightly embarrassed. "Do you know where do we have to go?"
"The end of the right wing." Sandra said.
Had she not checked the school materials on the ARK's database? There was a map of the building there. The girl nodded and resolutely moved toward the exit of the classroom, Sandra following a couple of steps behind. They soon reached the end of the corridor, filled with students from all years converging there for lunch, and made their way inside.
It was a large room, filled with rows of long tables each half its length, with a space for people to walk through extending out from the door and going in-between tables. On the other side, at the wall opposite to the entrance, was a serving area where one could walk through and have their trays filled with food. They made their way there and joined the queue of students
"Excited about the launch?" Gwen asked with some excitement of her own, obviously trying to start a conversation.
Sandra shyly nodded. It wasn't every day that a mission like this launched. They'd be the first to attempt such a voyage, and with the biggest ships ever built. Without further input though, the conversation soon died out again. They got their food, some rice with vegetables and a piece of fruit, and found an empty spot on one of the tables.
"You know, we won't actually be the first to launch." Gwen started explaining, creating some conversation. She wished she was half as extroverted as her, it would make her life so much easier. "There are two ARKs next to each Midpoint station, right? The first to launch are the ARKs one and two, then the three and four, followed by ours and the fifth. The seventh and eighth with launch last. Do you know why?"
"Orbital synchronicity." Sandra said with a small voice.
"Yup." Gwen nodded.
"What's that?" An tall Asian boy asked Sandra as he sat down next to her. Sandra looked vaguely in his direction and then back to her tray. "I'm Saito Sakai, from your class. I was sitting a couple of rows behind you two."
"Sandra Young." She said.
"Gwen Wright." Gwen nodded. After a few seconds of waiting, Gwen answered the question for her. "All ARKs are on the same orbit, but at different positions within it. They must start accelerating from exactly the same point in order to enter the same Solar orbit and reach the antimatter depot, so the ships at Midpoint beta launched first, followed by Midpoint gamma six hours later, right about now. We will launch next in six hours, and the ARKs in alpha will ironically be the last."
"Hey sis." A familiar voice loudly said from across the table. Sandra looked up and saw her younger sister sitting next to Gwen. They had the same redhead hair, fair skin and gray eyes, with some people confusing them for twins despite being one and a half years apart. She suppressed a sigh.
"I see you've already made some friends, well done." She added with a grin, which made Sandra go back to staring at her tray with even more intensity.
"Did you have..." Sandra started to whisper a complain, just to be interrupter by her sister.
"My sister might look a bit shy, but she's a keeper once you get to know her." She said, then started eating. "I'm Laura by the way."
"Gwen, nice to meet you." Gwen said.
"Saito Sakai." The boy added.
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"Have you gone exploring the forests in the ARK?" Laura asked to no one in particular.
"Not yet." Gwen said, now turning slightly toward her, more interested in the topic. "Only what I saw walking to the town. I wanted to go later today."
"I explored it two days ago." Laura rapidly explained. "It's all forests and open grasslands, but I found a couple of spots with small water streams leading to ponds. Not sure why they're there in the first place, but I think it would be an amazing spot for swimming."
"They are drinking..." Sandra tarted to say.
"If you're alright with it, why don't we all go there this weekend?" Laura interrupted, with Sandra sinking slightly into her seat.
"Sounds like a plan." Saito said to everyone with Gwen nodding in approval, then turned to Sandra and leaned a bit closer to her. "So what are those ponds for?"
Sandra looked at her sister, then roughly in Saito's direction, and as she was about to answer, her sister started talking yet again, prompting Sandra to refocus on her food. "So what do you all think about meeting in front of the school this Saturday morning? Lets say at ten, and we can have lunch there."
"Sure." Saito was quick to join in.
"Of course, sounds like fun." Gwen added a bit later.
Sandra didn't say anything, Gwen was sure she considered it as obvious that she was going with her sister. As they continued to eat and talk about the plans for Saturday and the upcoming launch, Gwen contemplated the messed up dynamics of the group.
Sandra was a few notches too shy for her own good, while her sister was the complete opposite, not only talking all the time, but also rudely interrupting others whenever she felt like it. On the other hand, Saito was quite obviously interested in the older sister, but had no clue about how to interact with her, nor did Sandra notice.
Silently shaking her head, she stood up from the table and went to return the tray, the rest of the group following behind. They exited the food court and headed for their classroom, with Laura separating from the group and going her own way.
"You know, you shouldn't let your sister interrupt you all the time." Gwen said.
"She doesn't do it on purpose." Sandra said in a small voice, then hesitantly continued after a long pause. "My family is like that. They talk over each other all the time without even realizing."
"That's rude." Saito said indignantly, walking to Sandra's side. "Why don't you do the same to them then?"
"He's not wrong, you know?" Gwen added.
"I couldn't!" Sandra said while fidgeting. "Plus, it's not like I have anything interesting to say anyway."
Gwen looked at her from the corner of her vision, not sure what to do with the girl. She probably had some kind of inferiority complex from having to deal with a family like that. As she was thinking about that, they reached their classroom and walked down the flight of stairs to their respective seats.
"It's history now, right?" Gwen asked even though she had already checked it on her CROSS.
"Yes." Sandra confirmed.
Five minutes later, a woman on her early thirties, with long brown hair and brown eyes walked into the classroom and down the stairs to the central platform. There, she spent some time zoning out, most likely fiddling with her CROSS, until she finally addressed the classroom.
"Good afternoon everyone." She started, sweeping her gaze across the room. "I'm Dr. Maria Herrero, and for the next few years I'll be your history teacher." She paused to let the introduction sink in, before continuing. "Five hours from now, the ARK's main engines will ignite, officially marking the start of our trip and the culmination of the ARK project, what is commonly referred to as the first wave."
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"You are all familiar with the sixty years of history of the ARK project, or at least its general strokes." Maria continued. "What is usually left out, though, are the reasons that prompted the UEG to start this project. I think today is a good day to quickly review them, don't you agree?"
-Accept request from Maria Herrero to join a shared Augmented Reality environment?-
Gwen accepted the request, and the walls of the room vanished along with the floor and ceiling. The classroom was now floating mid-air right next to a mountain top, a gigantic dome built on top of it.
"Even before the Great Filter, humanity had already started exploring the deepest regions of space." Maria started narrating, as the dome outside turned on itself and opened to reveal a massive telescope. "The methods used back then were similar to our own, gigantic telescopes, sometimes even using interferometry to increase their resolution. Both land-based and orbital telescopes were used, and with those started an age of astronomy that spanned from the early 21st century to the end of the first Exodus War, in the year 2117."
"During that time, countless exoplanets were discovered, including the targets for the ARK missions." Maria paused for effect. "Sadly, after the mass migrations from the beginning of the Great Filter and after the first Exodus War, the survivors had no choice but to focus on their survival. By that point most of the tropical regions had already been lost, and resources were scarce on the densely populated habitable areas, in no small part due to the unstable climate. This would later be the cause for the second Exodus War, worsening the situation even more."
As she was explaining this, the classroom flew over Earth's surface. Below, massive barren lands and city ruins covered the regions close to the equator.
"Moving forward three centuries, to the year 2414." The world below spun quickly, becoming a blur, then slowed down. The world now had a much larger vegetation cover. The cities around the world had turned into vegetation-covered ruins, replaced by arcologies. It was a world similar to the current one, but with the tropical zones still barren and uninhabitable. "Past the second Exodus War, past the Meltdown, after the formation of the UEG and recovery of most land areas previously lost to the danger zones. This is the year the first space elevator was inaugurated."
The world below moved, and they were soon floating above a large oceanic platform, about five hundred meters on a side. From its center extended a tether that reached up to space. It was space elevator alpha, although for forty years it would be known just as the space elevator.
"With the global ban on contaminating energy sources established during the foundation of the UEG, the space elevator was the first truly viable option for space access since the Great Filter." Maria continued to narrate. "Its construction marked the start of the contemporary age, where humanity started its expansion into space. But more importantly to our current topic, it enabled the construction of the Lunar Array."
The world below rapidly moved away, the classroom quickly approaching Earth's moon and moving past it, to its dark side. Below, the Lunar Array could be seen. It was a large collection of telescopes, each with a one kilometer aperture, arranged into various intersecting circles that covered over half of the moon's hemisphere.
"Its construction started in 2416, just two years after the inauguration of space elevator alpha, and is still ongoing to this day." Maria explained. "The 112 main telescopes have already been built, with countless auxiliary telescopes and radio-telescopes currently under construction. Contrary to those from before the Great Filter, these are not only much bigger, but also make use of quantum mechanics to break past the refraction limit and increase their resolution. They can work as a single, moon-sized telescope or be used in smaller groups for lower resolution imaging."
"With these, the UEG was able to directly observe, in high resolution, all of the potential habitable planets previously discovered centuries ago." The space outside the classroom changed again, and they were soon surrounded by a swarm of planets. "And while most of them were found to be either Venus-like hells, ice balls or to lack a dense atmosphere, dozens of suitable candidates were still found."
"In 2428 discussions about sending colonization missions to those planets were started, and the ARK project officially began that same year." She concluded her explanation there, and the illusion from the CROSS broke with it, returning the walls and floor to normal.
For the rest of the lesson, which was cut short by one hour, the teacher answered questions related to the ARK project, from both before and after the project officially began. She said her goodbyes and exited the classroom, then headed out of the school, intent on exploring the biome of the ARK. Saito caught up to her as she was exiting through the main doors.
"Hey, Gwen." Saito greeted, joining her to her right. "I have an idea for this Saturday and I wondered if you'd help me with it." He said with a mischievous grin.
"Oh?" Gwen teasingly asked. "Does it have anything to do with Sandra?"
"Is it so obvious?" Saito said while blushing.
"Yes." Gwen nodded. "To anyone but Sandra, that is."
Saito coughed to the side, then started explaining. "Well... I guess I'm kind of doing it for her, but no. It has more to do with Laura actually."
"Oh come on, out with it." Gwen said.
Gwen grinned like a madwoman as Saito explained his plan to her. That was going to be interesting. After giving her approval, they discussed some minor details and then went each their own way. Gwen walked in the direction of the forests to the front part of the ship, and was soon surrounded by trees.
She spent an hour exploring the area, but didn't manage to find much in terms of animals. Only the occasional bird and squirrel, and a couple of holes on the ground, probably some kind of nest. She eventually reached a beautiful meadow, with a young tree growing at its center, and decided to sit at its base.
'Nika, bring up my molecular biology workspace.'
The workspace wasn't much as of right now. Just a series of open documents floating mid-air, with the book she was currently reading at the center of it all. She spent the next three hours studying, until it was just an hour before launch. It was at that time that she received a video call from Jenna. She quickly accepted it, and was greeted by her excited blonde friend.
"Gwen! How's it going? Ready for the launch? I'm sure everyone must be excited!" Jenna rapid-fired.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Gwen said while raising her hands. "I'm actually in the surrounding forests studying for my apprenticeship. There's not really much to be seen from inside the ship."
"Really?" Jenna said with disappointment. "The launches look so cool from down here."
"I'm inside a cylinder with no windows." Gwen shrugged.
"Right. Wait a minute." Jenna did something on her glass terminal and soon a second window appeared next to Jenna's video feed. "That's the view from Midpoint delta."
Gwen could see both ARKs, which apparently had moved during the past few days and were now side by side facing the same direction, with a space of about five kilometers in-between them. All of the smaller ships around them had disappeared.
"So, you woke early for the launch?" Gwen asked. "It must be four in the morning down there."
"Of course I woke up early." Jenna indignantly said. "It's the last day we'll be able to talk face to face. In twenty-four hours you'll leave Earth's orbit and with the time delay we'll only be able to talk through video recordings."
"That's true." Gwen said, now feeling a bit down.
"You know, maybe I'll join the second wave in thirty years." Jenna wondered.
"Still, those ARKs will go to other planets." Gwen explained. "The follow-up missions to our world won't happen for three centuries at least. That's how long it will take for us to reach and settle there, and then the news to travel back to Earth."
"But! I'd still get the CROSS." Jenna clarified. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll see each other again."
They spent the next hour talking, until the time for the launch finally came. On the Midpoint delta feed, the back of both ARK-5 and ARK-6 lit up in a long, almost invisible incandescent blue trail. At the beginning, it looked like that was all. Then, it seemed as if both ships were turning together at ever increasing speeds, until only the back of the ARKs could be seen. Then they started to get smaller at an increasingly rapid pace, disappearing into the void in short order.
Gwen didn't notice anything from on-board the ship. She knew the ship's engines were still burning, and would continue to do so for hours, but she couldn't feel the acceleration. It was eclipsed by the artificial gravity of the cylinder. Jenna went to sleep for a while more shortly after the launch, and Gwen kept studying for a couple more hours. After that, she went home to have the precooked dinner her dad had left for her on the fridge.
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Eiknus was at the inner gardens of the UEG headquarters, sitting on a bench and watching the launch of ARKs seven and eight from his band. The culmination of sixty years of work, with a dedicated budget of almost thirty percent of the planet's GDP. A ridiculously extravagant investment that had only been possible after the most ambitious geo-engineering works had reached their conclusion, leaving massive amounts of unallocated money behind. More things hinged on the success of this project than what the general public could possibly fathom. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the future of humanity was on the line. Again.
He let out a long sigh and finally relaxed. It had all gone smoothly. Now it was just a matter of reaching the depot, loading the antimatter, breaking past the heliosphere, and it would be completely out of his hands. He rubbed his eyes and cracked his neck. His old heart couldn't possibly take much more.
"Eiknus, old friend." He looked to the side and saw Siming slowly walk her way to him, then sit down next to him on the bench. "Stop worrying about what's outside your control, you're too old for that."
"There, I think this deserves a celebration." Siming said, passing him a glass of red wine.
"To the ARK project." Eiknus said, raising his cup.
They'd met seventy years ago. Back then, Eiknus was an ambitious scientist pitching the construction of the space elevators to a then secretary of the environment department. They'd both been young, at about forty years of age. Now, past one hundred and twenty, they were both nearing the end of their lives. They probably had one more decade on them, two if the stars aligned.
"To a life of service." Siming said, raising her own cup. Then they both drank. "You know, with the ARKs out of the way, maybe it's time for us to consider retirement."
"But what about the Thans?" Eiknus said while looking up to the night sky.
"Like you're in any position to deal with that." Siming snorted. "We'll be long dead before we receive any updates regarding those guys."
"You're right, you're right." Eiknus sighed.
"There's no evidence they'll make a move anyway." Siming said, trying to console him. "The Methanians inhabit only hydrocarbon-based ecosystems, they won't be interested on any of the planets we targeted. We even went the extra mile and ensured that those solar systems had no planets suitable for them."
"And Titan is too small for them anyway." Eiknus finished for her.
"But did we do the right thing by keeping it from the public?" Eiknus wondered.