Lives of Future-Past (The Chronicles of Max Gunnarsson Book 1) Read Online Free Page B
Author: S.K. Benton
theory he postulated in his doctoral thesis.
The SSCC project would enable Azul’s military to more easily respond proactively to any external threat. Aside from this, Azul had been receiving radio signals from an approaching, intelligent alien race, the Artusians, for a number of years and saw no reason to let their guard down. The alien fleet was traveling STL (slower than light), so the military had a few years to ramp up for their arrival. The SSCC project facilitated this, as it dealt directly with side space - a layer of space next to, or below (or even above) normal space. It was not known if side space was an alternate dimension, with scientists only knowing that Einsteinian physics did not apply. They found that there were side space carrier currents – strands of energy moving at extreme velocities, many thousands of times the speed of light as it existed in normal space.
Max led the engineering group that developed the hook , which would enable a ship to reach into side space, and drag itself onto the carrier currents for a ride, which travelled in an infinite number of directions. Each current strand would run on its own side space frequency, so, in theory all one needed to do was to tune the hook (which more resembled a massive electronic spear) to the appropriate frequency and get dragged into side space, releasing when at or near their destination.
Unfortunately, for the first time in decades, the politicos on Azul came to a stand-off – they could not agree on whether to implement the hook drive or not. There were those who wanted to use it to reach out to the stars, and then those who wanted to return to Earth (or Old-Earth, as they sometimes called it). No radio signal from Earth had reached Azul in centuries, and it was unknown if the planet even still existed anymore. Space telescopes showed it still there, but a telescope is only as accurate as the light being transmitted to it, and Earth was light years away. As the form of government on Azul was very methodical and logical (and extremely slow to make decisions, which was intentionally written into their Constitution), they felt it best to study the hook drive in laboratories, and not in space, while they came to a consensus on its final implementation.
So, not willing to wait, Max developed his own hook drive in a private warehouse, working evenings and weekends in secret, drinking copious amounts of coffee and listening to ancient symphony music (J.S. Bach was his favorite), while assembling pieces of the device out of junk parts he had smuggled out of the Military Scientific Research Complex. He knew that if he were discovered he would be penalized and possibly jailed, as the military basically had ownership over the technology, but he forged on, intending on returning to Earth as a test. He surmised that if he could successfully go to Earth and return, then the government would have no choice but to allow military ships to be retrofitted with the technology, enabling mankind to go out and meet the approaching alien fleet - just to make sure they were not hostile, and if they were, to decimate them where they floated in space.
His calculations set the estimated arrival at Earth in less than eight standard days – roughly 14,000 times faster than it had taken the original Exodus to achieve orbit around Azul. When he was nearly finished with his homemade hook drive, he sought to purchase a small transport craft capable of rugged space travel, so he found an old cargo ship that was used to carry everything from cattle to shipping containers between Azul and the local moons. He purchased it after he was approached by a less than reputable vendor named Ali on Sienna’s Verdal continent, and named it The Machu Picchu, after the historical Inca ruins on Old-Earth’s South American continent. He then flew it back home and filled it with cargo – camping gear, a water purification system,
The SSCC project would enable Azul’s military to more easily respond proactively to any external threat. Aside from this, Azul had been receiving radio signals from an approaching, intelligent alien race, the Artusians, for a number of years and saw no reason to let their guard down. The alien fleet was traveling STL (slower than light), so the military had a few years to ramp up for their arrival. The SSCC project facilitated this, as it dealt directly with side space - a layer of space next to, or below (or even above) normal space. It was not known if side space was an alternate dimension, with scientists only knowing that Einsteinian physics did not apply. They found that there were side space carrier currents – strands of energy moving at extreme velocities, many thousands of times the speed of light as it existed in normal space.
Max led the engineering group that developed the hook , which would enable a ship to reach into side space, and drag itself onto the carrier currents for a ride, which travelled in an infinite number of directions. Each current strand would run on its own side space frequency, so, in theory all one needed to do was to tune the hook (which more resembled a massive electronic spear) to the appropriate frequency and get dragged into side space, releasing when at or near their destination.
Unfortunately, for the first time in decades, the politicos on Azul came to a stand-off – they could not agree on whether to implement the hook drive or not. There were those who wanted to use it to reach out to the stars, and then those who wanted to return to Earth (or Old-Earth, as they sometimes called it). No radio signal from Earth had reached Azul in centuries, and it was unknown if the planet even still existed anymore. Space telescopes showed it still there, but a telescope is only as accurate as the light being transmitted to it, and Earth was light years away. As the form of government on Azul was very methodical and logical (and extremely slow to make decisions, which was intentionally written into their Constitution), they felt it best to study the hook drive in laboratories, and not in space, while they came to a consensus on its final implementation.
So, not willing to wait, Max developed his own hook drive in a private warehouse, working evenings and weekends in secret, drinking copious amounts of coffee and listening to ancient symphony music (J.S. Bach was his favorite), while assembling pieces of the device out of junk parts he had smuggled out of the Military Scientific Research Complex. He knew that if he were discovered he would be penalized and possibly jailed, as the military basically had ownership over the technology, but he forged on, intending on returning to Earth as a test. He surmised that if he could successfully go to Earth and return, then the government would have no choice but to allow military ships to be retrofitted with the technology, enabling mankind to go out and meet the approaching alien fleet - just to make sure they were not hostile, and if they were, to decimate them where they floated in space.
His calculations set the estimated arrival at Earth in less than eight standard days – roughly 14,000 times faster than it had taken the original Exodus to achieve orbit around Azul. When he was nearly finished with his homemade hook drive, he sought to purchase a small transport craft capable of rugged space travel, so he found an old cargo ship that was used to carry everything from cattle to shipping containers between Azul and the local moons. He purchased it after he was approached by a less than reputable vendor named Ali on Sienna’s Verdal continent, and named it The Machu Picchu, after the historical Inca ruins on Old-Earth’s South American continent. He then flew it back home and filled it with cargo – camping gear, a water purification system,
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