Patterns of Chaos: Book One - The First War
Chapter 21

The morning in Antarctica was crisp, clear, and of course, cold. John Parsyns completed triple checking the systems aboard the prototype craft, then stepped out to address the crowd of inventors, technicians, and the Empress.

“Ah, l-ladies. And. Um...gentlemen?” Parsyns was not much of a public speaker. Hated it, in fact. Nevertheless, for the first faster-than-light journey, he had to say something. “Today, we, ah, take another step towards g-greatness. Many writers and, uh, filmmakers tried to predict w-what our first manned flight to the, uh, edge of our solar system would be l-like; well, here we are.”

He cleared his throat nervously. “So. Ah. Without further delay, I will be next seeing you from the far side of Pluto.” That last bit in a rush, he virtually ran back on board the ship.

“Make sure to edit that to remove his stutter before its inclusion in the archives.” Calixta ordered. Sure, it was being tight-beam transmitted to the Chancel, but that did not mean future generations needed to be subjected to Parsyns case of stage fright.

The ceiling of the hanger smoothly retracted, the prototype vessel smoothly lifting upwards. “VTOL capability checks out.” Parsyns recorded on board. Every step of the maiden voyage needed to be catalogued in case of catastrophic failure.

Not that he expected any.

At all.

He hoped there wasn’t.

The large craft began breaking through the upper atmosphere, stars shining through the canopy. Parsyns had not been to space yet, and he gave himself a moment to appreciate the beauty, the majesty, the vastness of it all. “Calculating for transit to Pluto…” He spoke to the empty cabin. The computer took about 30 seconds.

“Calculations complete. Vector available for five minutes before recalculation necessary.” The synthesized voice spoke from the computer speaker.

“Cycling up engines…” Parsyns breathed. The ship began to hum around him. “Drive engaging in 15 seconds…”

Back on the surface, from separate parts of the base, both Calixta and Jennifer watched the long-range scanner feeds being broadcast across Antarctica. In a moment, the ship would simply disappear from their scopes, the plan being for Parsyns to take some close scans of the dwarf planet, and then return within fifteen minutes.

The time came, and the ship vanished. Jennifer crossed her fingers, but knew if it did not return, it would be for the best anyway. She silently chided herself for her greed in wanting the ship, knowing that if it did indeed return, Paul Stragdoc would have faster-than-light technology. And she dreaded to think what he might do with it.

Calixta sat stock still in the main hanger, trying to get a glimpse into the future. Paul had explained the necessity of having a backup plan in case a hasty withdrawal from the solar system was required, but she did not think it likely. After all, the humans did not even know about -

Fire, everything burning. A set of numbers, co-ordinates? Earth fighters unloading ordinance against the base she now sat in. Red hair, she had red hair now, the bitch was here and told the humans they were here, they were coming to kill them all-

The force of the vision caused Calixta to black out. People scrambled to figure out why the Empress had collapsed. Karman checked her pulse, found it steady. “Get her to the infirmary, now!” He bellowed.

The few technicians who remained at their posts almost did not notice the vessel materialize back into being above them. Parsyns had returned successfully, but the Empress’s condition took priority.