Prologue
Prologue: The Journey Begins
March 28th, 2200. A relay satellite operated by the Department of Physical Sciences in the outer reaches of the solar system blinks on as it receives a message. The message was broadcast only moments beforehand by Lieutenant Scientist Daniel Smith Jr, an Archeologist trained by the Department of Sociological Studies but operating under a grant from the Department of Physical Sciences. His ship, of course, was outfitted by the Department of Practical Engineering, which controlled the majority of industrial production in the Commonwealth of Earth, both on-planet and off.
This marked the first time that all three branches of the Directorate cooperated this closely since the Climate Accords of 2130, soon after the conclusion of the Third World War with the Day of Rationality. The scientists of the world had successfully convinced the highest ranking generals of each of the great powers that continued war would lead only to the destruction of mankind. The war must be ended, and the climate crisis dealt with strongly and decisively! they urged, and in 2129 the generals finally listened.
Soon after, the three great departments of the Directorate found that while they all upheld the principles of rational analysis and the scientific method, their differing perspectives often led to conflicting paths forward. Humanity avoided extinction, but the glorious future the Directorate had promised at the founding of the Empirical Commonwealth of Earth was slow to arrive.
By 2200, development in the Commonwealth had stagnated. While some of the Directorate's achievements were praised, such as their work in the Sahara, their inability to deliver on such promises as an automated workforce for the benefit of all or radical improvements in medicine translating to increased lifespan and quality of life has marred the Directorate's reputation.
Two thirds of Earth's population still worked relatively menial jobs, and while the basic needs of nearly all of Earth's billions were met sufficiently, opportunity for growth was rare. Nearly all children of working class families would remain working class for their entire lives. Even for the middle class, it was rare for more than one or two of their children to find the same sorts of opportunity that their parents had. Social mobility mostly pointed down.
Despite this, faith in the Directorate remained strong. The people hoped for a new generation of scientists to make new breakthroughs which would lead to another burst of growth. Governor Miroslava Larionova of the dominant (and in an open secret sponsored by the Directorate itself) Intellectual Party had been elected under precisely that mandate, promising to expand the planet's research facilities. In the Empirical Commonwealth of Earth, a position of Researcher was greatly coveted, especially as the rank of Director-General could be reached only by a Scientist approved by the three Departments.
The current Director-General, elected for a 20 year term in January of that year, was a non-nonsense architect from the Department of Practical Engineering. Before her election as Director-General, Katya Fedorova had spent time directing projects both on Earth and in space. Her biggest claim to fame was overseeing the construction of Uranus's wind turbines, which harvest its violent storms, as well as the asteroid processing plant on 4 Vesta. Her platform called to restore Earth to the time when new discoveries drove growth and innovation.
Following a Director-General's inauguration, they appoint a cabinet of Director-Colonels to head up the Departments of Sociological Studies, Physical Sciences, and Practical Engineering. These candidates are chosen based on proposals made which come from a pool of prospective in each Department. By law, the sitting Director-Colonels must make their own proposals, but generally at least two of the three are retained. Bucking tradition, Fedorova immediately replaced the whole batch of Director-Colonels. Her new cabinet consisted of three of the brightest young minds in their fields, each of whom was selected because they promised that under their guidance, the Department would accomplish new and remarkable things.
Director-Colonel Mathieu Fortin of the Department of Physical Sciences was the least experienced of the three, but he was also known to be something of a prodigy. His early work studying the anomaly that had recently been discovered near Pluto was quite remarkable, and under Director-General Fedorova's guidance, he directed the Department to study the wider implications of these strange readings on the Directorate's accepted quantum models, while his personal team dug into the anomaly itself.
Director-Colonel Natsuki Sato of the Department of Sociological Studies began her career in practical government, but after becoming frustrated with the entrenched political structure she returned to academia, determined to reform the process to be more efficient and produce better results.
*Director-Colonel Aluwanip Tshonyane of the Department of Practical Engineering is an industry titan and the owner of a great conglomerate of private research lab, manufacturing facilities, and asteroid mining operations. His appointment to the Cabinet again bucks tradition. Tshonyane studied the sciences and is certainly more than qualified for his position, and in his earlier years he held a number of lower positions within the Directorate. In 2197, as he prepared for reelection, his father (who at the time controlled the family industrial empire) unexpectedly passed away; Tshonyane abandoned his campaign to care for his ailing mother, and did not return to the public eye until his appointment in 2200. His qualifications aren't in question, but his status as a wealthy industrialist with control of over a third of Earth's manufacturing facilities worried many even before his political appointment. However, this was the result of a compromise; in exchange for this position, Tshonyane ceded 49% control of each of his factories to the Directorate.
Two months after the election, Director-Colonel Fortin called an Assembly of Directors, summoning his two equals as well as Director-General Fedorova to a meeting. It was here that he revealed the results of his investigation of the anomaly near Pluto.
About a year beforehand, the ECS Amazon detected strange radiation readings from an otherwise unremarkable point a way out past Pluto's orbit. Fortin, not yet a Director-General, was put in charge of a thorough investigation of this anomaly. While his findings remained classified, whatever he had revealed to Director-General Elect Fedorova convinced her to place him as head of the Department of Physical Sciences. Since then, his team had continued investigating the anomaly. These were their findings.
So it was that Lieutenant Scientist Daniel Smith Jr. was placed in command of the ECS Aldrin, the first ship outfitted with a hyperdrive device. By mid-March, the Aldrin had made its way beyond Pluto and started charging up the new Fortin Device it was equipped with. A few days later, the Aldrin dropped off a satellite equipped with a modified Fortin Device to allow communication through the neighboring dimension, should all go well. Then it slipped through the anomalous region and disappeared.
A few days later, a message arrived over the relay. It contained only a single high-resolution image, taken by the relay device on the other side. Humanity had reached a neighboring star system.
*If this guy ever gets elected Director-General, I may need to change government type to a MegaCorp
March 28th, 2200. A relay satellite operated by the Department of Physical Sciences in the outer reaches of the solar system blinks on as it receives a message. The message was broadcast only moments beforehand by Lieutenant Scientist Daniel Smith Jr, an Archeologist trained by the Department of Sociological Studies but operating under a grant from the Department of Physical Sciences. His ship, of course, was outfitted by the Department of Practical Engineering, which controlled the majority of industrial production in the Commonwealth of Earth, both on-planet and off.
This marked the first time that all three branches of the Directorate cooperated this closely since the Climate Accords of 2130, soon after the conclusion of the Third World War with the Day of Rationality. The scientists of the world had successfully convinced the highest ranking generals of each of the great powers that continued war would lead only to the destruction of mankind. The war must be ended, and the climate crisis dealt with strongly and decisively! they urged, and in 2129 the generals finally listened.
Soon after, the three great departments of the Directorate found that while they all upheld the principles of rational analysis and the scientific method, their differing perspectives often led to conflicting paths forward. Humanity avoided extinction, but the glorious future the Directorate had promised at the founding of the Empirical Commonwealth of Earth was slow to arrive.
By 2200, development in the Commonwealth had stagnated. While some of the Directorate's achievements were praised, such as their work in the Sahara, their inability to deliver on such promises as an automated workforce for the benefit of all or radical improvements in medicine translating to increased lifespan and quality of life has marred the Directorate's reputation.
Two thirds of Earth's population still worked relatively menial jobs, and while the basic needs of nearly all of Earth's billions were met sufficiently, opportunity for growth was rare. Nearly all children of working class families would remain working class for their entire lives. Even for the middle class, it was rare for more than one or two of their children to find the same sorts of opportunity that their parents had. Social mobility mostly pointed down.
Despite this, faith in the Directorate remained strong. The people hoped for a new generation of scientists to make new breakthroughs which would lead to another burst of growth. Governor Miroslava Larionova of the dominant (and in an open secret sponsored by the Directorate itself) Intellectual Party had been elected under precisely that mandate, promising to expand the planet's research facilities. In the Empirical Commonwealth of Earth, a position of Researcher was greatly coveted, especially as the rank of Director-General could be reached only by a Scientist approved by the three Departments.
The current Director-General, elected for a 20 year term in January of that year, was a non-nonsense architect from the Department of Practical Engineering. Before her election as Director-General, Katya Fedorova had spent time directing projects both on Earth and in space. Her biggest claim to fame was overseeing the construction of Uranus's wind turbines, which harvest its violent storms, as well as the asteroid processing plant on 4 Vesta. Her platform called to restore Earth to the time when new discoveries drove growth and innovation.
Following a Director-General's inauguration, they appoint a cabinet of Director-Colonels to head up the Departments of Sociological Studies, Physical Sciences, and Practical Engineering. These candidates are chosen based on proposals made which come from a pool of prospective in each Department. By law, the sitting Director-Colonels must make their own proposals, but generally at least two of the three are retained. Bucking tradition, Fedorova immediately replaced the whole batch of Director-Colonels. Her new cabinet consisted of three of the brightest young minds in their fields, each of whom was selected because they promised that under their guidance, the Department would accomplish new and remarkable things.
Director-Colonel Mathieu Fortin of the Department of Physical Sciences was the least experienced of the three, but he was also known to be something of a prodigy. His early work studying the anomaly that had recently been discovered near Pluto was quite remarkable, and under Director-General Fedorova's guidance, he directed the Department to study the wider implications of these strange readings on the Directorate's accepted quantum models, while his personal team dug into the anomaly itself.
Director-Colonel Natsuki Sato of the Department of Sociological Studies began her career in practical government, but after becoming frustrated with the entrenched political structure she returned to academia, determined to reform the process to be more efficient and produce better results.
*Director-Colonel Aluwanip Tshonyane of the Department of Practical Engineering is an industry titan and the owner of a great conglomerate of private research lab, manufacturing facilities, and asteroid mining operations. His appointment to the Cabinet again bucks tradition. Tshonyane studied the sciences and is certainly more than qualified for his position, and in his earlier years he held a number of lower positions within the Directorate. In 2197, as he prepared for reelection, his father (who at the time controlled the family industrial empire) unexpectedly passed away; Tshonyane abandoned his campaign to care for his ailing mother, and did not return to the public eye until his appointment in 2200. His qualifications aren't in question, but his status as a wealthy industrialist with control of over a third of Earth's manufacturing facilities worried many even before his political appointment. However, this was the result of a compromise; in exchange for this position, Tshonyane ceded 49% control of each of his factories to the Directorate.
Two months after the election, Director-Colonel Fortin called an Assembly of Directors, summoning his two equals as well as Director-General Fedorova to a meeting. It was here that he revealed the results of his investigation of the anomaly near Pluto.
About a year beforehand, the ECS Amazon detected strange radiation readings from an otherwise unremarkable point a way out past Pluto's orbit. Fortin, not yet a Director-General, was put in charge of a thorough investigation of this anomaly. While his findings remained classified, whatever he had revealed to Director-General Elect Fedorova convinced her to place him as head of the Department of Physical Sciences. Since then, his team had continued investigating the anomaly. These were their findings.
- The anomalous radiation readings were leaking from an unknown dimensional anomaly. This anomaly is not localized to a single point; instead, it stretches outwards in a line. The readings are incredibly faint, but they can be detected emanating from as far as one light-year away. It is likely they continue further, but current instruments are not sensitive enough to detect that far.
- The path of space which is generating anomalous readings points directly at the neighboring Barnard's Star. It is likely it continues all the way there.
- There are two other places in the solar system generating similar anomalous readings, pointing at two other neighboring stars.
- These anomalous readings are not consistent with any known physical model. Quantum theories attempting to explain the readings have struggled to come up with a natural way for these anomalies to develop, but under some models a sufficiently dense veins of dark matter linking between stars could generate these readings by bringing our dimension close to another, which may obey entirely different laws of physics.
- Fortin's proposal which so captivated Fedorova was that these veins were placed there by an advanced civilization, with some means of manipulating dark matter directly. With the right technology, it should be possible to generate a field around a ship which would allow it to pass through this weakened field in space, into this other dimension. It would be impossible to know for sure what awaits on the other side; but assuming that these veins ARE created artificially, it is likely they would have some use, considering the unimaginable energy expenditure of such a project. As the paths appear to connect between stars, it is likely they allow travel between the stars - perhaps even faster than light travel.
So it was that Lieutenant Scientist Daniel Smith Jr. was placed in command of the ECS Aldrin, the first ship outfitted with a hyperdrive device. By mid-March, the Aldrin had made its way beyond Pluto and started charging up the new Fortin Device it was equipped with. A few days later, the Aldrin dropped off a satellite equipped with a modified Fortin Device to allow communication through the neighboring dimension, should all go well. Then it slipped through the anomalous region and disappeared.
A few days later, a message arrived over the relay. It contained only a single high-resolution image, taken by the relay device on the other side. Humanity had reached a neighboring star system.
*If this guy ever gets elected Director-General, I may need to change government type to a MegaCorp