2205
General Secretary Maksimushkina continues with her plan for Earth resources reclamation. After the clearing of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a new tender for megacorporation is now in place to revalue the industrial wasteland surrounding the Delhi region.
In May the President addresses the Senate with the State of the Federation, a message that is held every five year that assess the health of the United Systems and the future plans. Data show a significant growth in resources production and extraction and generally a favourable balance of them. The focus on outer space however led to a decrease in availability of Consumer Goods, and Wade reassured about his plans to refocus the Federation efforts in helping companies that operate in close contact with the population.
The big challenges related to the space exploration, exploitation and expansion keep in particular the Department of Space very engaged on all fronts, and the recent colonization of Centauria, that involves continued and sustained transportation of goods and people back an forth with the Earth, is putting a strain the resources of the Space Transportation and Colonization Division, that is planned to be expanded and additionally budgeted.
The discovery of alien life, especially the presence of ancient ruins of intelligent and evolved species, forced the Federation to allocate a good portion of the budget also in a constant (although slow) expansion of the Federal Navy, with the aim to continue it. Wade, regarding this topic, outlined the will to be “ready for everything”, and that the further the galaxy will be explored, the higher the risk to confront dangers.
The message is well received by both the citizens of the Federation and the rest of the government organizations, confirming the widespread popularity of Wade.
While further exploring the nearby systems, science ships stumbled across several new anomalies:
In the Gliese 2585 system, the USV Kepler identified an unusual pattern of interference that embeds a mathematical equation “coded” into a song. The complexity of the equation and the usage of subspace harmonics left the science team aboard the ship without a clue about the meaning and the origin of it, although the signal’s geodesics suggest a point of origin outside of the Milky Way.
The USV Hawking investigated the atmosphere of the first moon of the fourth planet of Z1556 and discovered that, due to the extreme weather of the celestial body, periodically “snows” metal on the surface. This will possibly lead to future mining efforts performed both from orbit and on the surface.
The USV Dupuy de Lome retrieved artifacts on 6 Leonis III, and for the first time it was able somehow to decipher in part the writings on them. What human scientists discovered is that these artifacts belonged to a long gone civilization that was a confederation called “The First League”, composed by different alien races that coexisted in relative peace around approximately two million years ago.
This confederation’s territories covered a significant portion of the galaxy and seems like at some point collapsed for unknown reasons. This information led to the assumption that additional artifacts could have been recovered, eventually leading to the First League central, if any exists, homeworld.
2206
The Sirius system, started to be explored the year before, reveals that its third planet is a habitable continental world, a new valid candidate then for colonization. With Centauria reaching its self-sufficiency the plan for Sirius is put in motion by ordering the construction of a new colony ship.
Talking about Centauria, the immigration request peaked with the colony already surpassing 500 million citizens.
In Barnard’s Star, a system between Sol and Sirius, a new starbase is built to allow not only to leverage the system’s resources but also to facilitate the future colonization of Sirius. The starbase, orbiting the main star, is called Port East
2207
The year 2207 starts with a revelation that was, at this point, expected. In the second planet of the 89 Aquarii system, an intelligent, sentient race is discovered. Their civilization has reached a technological level similar to the mid 20th century on Earth, where nation states were able to harness the power of the atom.
The species look similar to a bipedal frog, with an average height of 130 cm (4.2 feet), and is believed that they can have a physiology similar to reptiles of Earth. The first contact protocol, defined by the Department of Xeno Affairs, envision an initial observation phase to avoid putting in harm not only humanity but also the newly discovered species, for this reason plans are to build as soon as possible an observation station which will host a scientific team that will study the species behavior. There are some concerns however about the possibility for the aliens to enter a nuclear war between the planet’s nations.
The planet radio communications were monitored constantly, and it was possible to determine that the aliens have a natural inclination toward biological studies and deeply believe that resources must be conserved and recycled. They defined themselves as “Athanebian” and there are around 13 billion individuals on the planet.
Athanebian’s homeworld climate, 89 Aquarii II, is similar to Earth alpine regions, with the surface covered by mountain ranges and temperature around 0°C (32° F).
On Earth the news is received with mixed feelings: while the scientific community is excited, many “common” people see them as a possible threat, for this reason President Wade addresses the federation on a unified broadcast:
“
Fellow citizens of the Federation, on Earth, on Centauria and in space. I know that the recent discovery of Athenabian aliens in the 89 Aquarii system has brought concerns about our safety, especially due to the capability for these aliens to leverage on nuclear power.
I want to be clear with you: we’re taking every precaution possible and assessing the situation constantly with the Department of Defense and the Department of Security, and so far we know that they are not yet able to reach their own planet’s orbit. This will give us around 250 years of technological advancement over them, which turn in to be a great burden on our shoulders as we need to ensure also for their own safety, being sentient and living beings that share our own galaxy.
We have plans to monitor them from space, without directly interfering unless strictly necessary for our own security or their survival.
For this reason I’m asking all of you to be confident in our federation and trusting in our teams of xenologists. It’s the first time we approached sentient beings not originated from Earth since our appearance in the universe, but I’m one hundred percent confident we’re doing it right.”
In May, the Department of Space announced that the first phase of the colonization of Centauria is finished, and the planet has already reached a billion individuals. Since the first touchdown in 2203, millions of babies were born in the colony, meaning that after the brief Martian parenthesis in the previous century, there are living humans actually born outside Earth.
Centauria’s planetary growth is further aided by the Department of Federal Affairs that took charge of the allocation of 1 trillion tons (1,000 units) of food to be transported and distributed for free on the planet over the course of the next ten years.
The Department of Space launched a new construction ship to assist in orbital facilities construction, the USV Shippingport (SSM-002).
On Earth, the promised focus on civilian industries from President Wade materializes in a series of subsidies for producing consumer goods, Plurimax and Levante Communications in particular are the two megacorps that leverage most on these.
In September an insistent signal is discovered in the 22 Lambda Sagittarii system and scientists realize that it’s caused by a subspace phenomena that resembles a “rift” in the very fabric of space-time. This could be possibly a natural wormhole: a conduit that can lead to another system in a matter of seconds. The wormhole will require further studies to be exploited, possibly in terms of a better general understanding of physics from mankind, as it’s estimated that any ship that will try to enter it, with the current technology, would be ripped apart due to the instability of the phenomena.
The year ends with the Department of Security asking the Scientific Exploration Flotilla to retrieve four sublight exploration probes that were sent by humans into space two centuries before, as they can possibly end up revealing details about humans to unsympathetic beings in the universe.
2208
Sirius system colonization starts with the touchdown of the colony ship USV Weiss on the third planet, that is renamed Sirius Prime, and a station, named Excelsior Station, is built on the main star orbit.
In the HD 4888241 system, the third planet is revealed to be habitable. The planet, contrary to Centauria or Sirius Prime, is mostly covered by water, with atolls spread on its surface and soon is discovered that it’s populated by a myriad of non-sentient fish-like life forms. On top of the food chain however gigantic, titanic probably, life forms are identified. These are four legged animals for the most part, probably mammals, that roam the planet walking on the ocean floor but with most of their body on outside the water, thanks to their enormous size.
The weirdness of the planet doesn’t end here, as the oceans themselves seem “living”. The scientific crew that landed on the surface experiences visions, impulses and mixed feelings by just staring at the sea. The planet is then a perfect candidate for study, but at the same time it can be a challenge to colonize it.
On Centauria, fossilized remains of several different species are discovered in a secluded valley and dated 3.6 million years back. All appear to have been sapient and strangely everyone of them shows signs of having met a violent end. Further studies will reveal more about these aliens and their fate, but the news implied that humans were not the first to place their feet on the planet.
Two of the four sublight probes were discovered and collected by ships of the Scientific Exploration Flotilla.
2209
A third probe is retrieved, after ion traces indicate that it was artificially moved from its original position. No information on who performed the towing operation or the reason for it were identified.
In the system Gliese 5270, another natural wormhole was discovered.
The expansion plans of the Federal Navy continued and by the end of the year a total of 16 frigates are in service.