FTL is so easy... For most. Whilst we all know that in the simplified model we can't travel faster than light, one can simply charge the local area with the 5th field and woosh, off we go. For Laymen, its similar to how light slows down when it moves through an medium. In some media it actually speeds up. We do the same thing, using the Anisotropic nuon displacement field to create false curvature in the space-time around us. This creates a bubble of spacetime that we take with us, and therefore we move the bubble faster than light, moving us through space faster than we normally ought to.
But the humans. Their entire galactic cluster is in a null point. The nuon field is unusually weak in the area, leaving the whole place... Thin.
And yet here I am. I am currently in the aft of my ship, looking out a window onto a human vessel. They have come from the heart of Cluster Axl.B3 and have send me friendly greetings.
I am recording these notes for posterity, and so that, should the worst happen, others know of what happened here today. It is momentous!
Let me summarise. I am Calhwoun of the Dwheh. I am normally sent to investigate areas for mining possibilties of rare materials. I was on my way to 900.884.Mmj.45h/innerdry when i picked up an unusual signal.
Strong, and i mean strong gravitational waves coming from an area between the 4 stars that make up the quadrangel with innerdry, by aletheal measurement. I will attach the exact coordinates later, when i have calculated them.
I came closer to investigate, as there were strong waves, but none of the normal gravitational effects associated with a black hole or other body strong enough to generate such waves.
Instead, i found this Human ship. Ofcourse i hailed them, not recognising it as having any known markings, but they failed to respond. As they have never had direct access to subspace they use arcaic radio based technology! I had to convert a scanner into something that would allow me to both recieve and send messages before we could talk!
After passing their language through the normal translation algorythms we had a talk.
They are humans. They are bipedal species that has an internal support structure, and oxegenates via two large bags they inflate within themselves. They use these to talk via the normal method of vibrating gasses.
It was thrilling. Whilst i would like to record all the facts i also want to record how thoroughly thrilling this whole experience has been for me! My normal day is scanning soil samples, not being an alien species first contact!
We spoke at length, i told them of the current situation with our home sector and a little about how we normally interact with other species. They seemed pleased we sounded friendly, and would like direct contact with the sector authority so that more formal greetings can be made.
However. I must touch on the troubling matter. Whilst I am thrilled to have met them, it is not the fact they escaped Axl.b3, but the manner in which they escaped it that is troubling.
Whilst we use the Nuon field to create just enough of a bubble that we can move at FTL velocities. They have skipped this entirely. They have devised a method for bending space and time, based on gravity alone. Whilst this sounds... Dubious, impossible, I mean how could one generate such a gravitational effect strong enough, let alone without crushing the ship! But as i said. I stare at them now, through the aft window of my ship.
Whilst i am no physicist, minerology is my trade, i understand the implications of what the humans have told me. Whilst we skip along the surface of space at speeds no normal being should be able to go.... They punch a hole through reality. They force two points of space, that is any two points in space, to touch. Therefore transferring themselves anywhere in the time it takes me to spool my engines for FTL.
This changes everything. If we are able to aquire this technology our trade routes stop being days or weeks or months and become seconds, with none of the usual time dialation implications.
However, i also see the possibility for weapons. Was not the earlier hyperdrive first used for war? The pre FTL drive used millenia ago, was involved in scorching the planet of the Mammern.
I could easily see this used for destruction.
So I record my thoughts, here, and will be sending them out via subspace immediatly there after. The humans will be leaving to return to their 'earth' soon, and i am hoping to see them go. I worry about what the wake of such a large gravitational pulse will do to the local spacetime, but i will move a few thousand km out and watch from there.
The humans will try to return to this spot in 1 month. They claim their engine will need further repairs before a return journey.
Give my love to all those on the homeworlds.
MESSAGE ENDS
[EDIT: Message 2 is found in a reply to this]
Personal log, or Message Two, if I can get this thing to send.
So far, I have had the exciting part of this adventure. I would like it to end now. Ideally, happily. Since the recording of my last message, I have experienced several life changing events. I have travelled by what the humans termed "Jump Drive", I have crashed my ship, and found myself stranded in orbit of the human homeworld.
Lets unpack that shall we? I hope to make this record to remember these events fondly, surrounded by the younglings on the homeworld, as I tell them my tale of Adventure. Lets just hope this adventure ends happily, where I make it home. I believe Oufnouhn would say I have been reading too many stories again.
From where I left off previously, the Humans prepared their Jump drive, whilst I was moving away from the area at sub-light speed. I began to be dragged in, faster and faster, and that is when I realised. I was effectively caught in a black hole. The wake of their engine effectively is a short lived black hole! Having no other choice I spooled my FTL drive, preparing to jump if required. If I hadn't done this, I would not be flapping my gills this moment.
I was dragged by the pull of the wake through the contact point the Humans had made. I had no time to try and FTL jump, which I think may have made things worse for all parties involved. I have theorised that by spooling my engine I had created an FTL bubble, and prevented the local space-time at the breach from crushing me. So instead I was pushed out the other side. To the exact co-ordinates where the Human vessel sat.
They appear to have been as alarmed by this as I was.
Luckily for me, my ship is made of much harder materials than the Human ship, meaning during the collision my ship came out more or less whole, whilst theirs was first bisected and then exploded.
Luckily for the Humans, my ship is far smaller than theirs, and I came through roughly at the point of the breach. This is where the Engine sits in their ship. The Humans themselves, sit in a compartment connected to the drive section of the ship by a very long corridor, to reduce the danger should the engine explode.
Well this was a good design choice, as it thoroughly exploded as I came through. As I said, my ship is roughly intact, but theirs, only half so. I can Gladly say there was no loss of life!
Both I and the Humans quickly realised what happened, and we made further contact. I used the attachment apparatus of my ship to grab what remained of theirs, as they now lack any form of engine or thrust control. It is common, they have told me, for humans to excrete not-yet fully digested food when exposed to "Wildy spinning out of control" as they termed it.
For a time, we sat conversing via radio. They had no thrusters, and mine rely on the Edven-Gelger principle, applying Nuons to allow force to be created. However, there are no Nuons here.
We where at the edge of their star-system. They told me the danger of the gravity drive precludes its use within a star-system, but they had radioed for help, and a ship was coming to rescue them.
It took some time, but the ship came, and we were towed through the solar system to their homeworld.
Whilst I cannot visit their homeworld, having not got a suitable containment vessel to sustain the atmosphere and pressure I need, one of their number has asked to come aboard and visit my ship. I have excitedly accepted, and await for them to modify a "space suit". They are used to a much higher degree of water and nitrogen in their atmosphere, and a great deal less hydrogen, but I am excited to see one of them in person!
I will end this message-log here for now. If the sublight communications didn't also require Nuons then I would merely send this to the homeworld, but instead, I will take the novel approach of sending it via Radio Wave.
Hopefully somebody will be listening in the hundred million years or so it will take to arrive there. I hope very much to be there before it.
MESSAGE ENDS
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I would like to write a part 3, perhaps a part 4 if it needed it. I hope he gets home, but I won't know until I write it.
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