Arc 2, Update 59
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TrueGuardian32
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The ship shook, everyone was inside, and watching intently. Before in their vision the world started to split, white lines formed in space as white bubbles started covering both starships. However, once the bubble fully covered them, they were still hovering in the same place.
I spoke out loud, "So… this is how this works?"
Astha chuckled, "FTL Bubbles are active. Waiting on you Alana."
A comms communication hit back. "Hitting thrust in 3. 2. 1.-"
The stars around us shifted, becoming white lines, as the planets disappeared. Carter asked "How long till we are there?"
Astha looked into the air, "Six minutes."
That is absurd. "I thought it would take hours." Terrence spoke, "Didn't the briefing say it would?"
"That was for version 0.3 of the FTL Drive. We are already at version 1.5." Astha replied.
Lin spoke, "We already have multiple versions of the FTL Drive?!"
"It's an active project. It's being refined by multiple people daily. It's only natural for it to progress." Astha replied.
"So… what are you expecting Director Carter?" Haruto asked, looking over at the Director.
Carter shrugged. "Not much honestly. We have really good documentation on the Alpha Centauri star system. There is one Garden World, and a few other celestial bodies we can investigate the system. For the most part this will be a data collection trip. Four total planets including the garden world."
"Wait, weren't there only two planets?" Trisha asked.
Carter replied to that, "Upgraded scanners, we are able to get a good idea of the star systems in several light years."
Astha interrupted. "Exiting FTL in Three, two… one."
The surroundings stopped being blurry, and outside the window we could see three stars, and several small asteroids and four planets, two of them being rather small, but one looking rather similar to Earth.
"Welcome to Alpha Centauri." Astha spoke, "Receiving connection from Hightstar."
A familiar hologram appeared. It was the same figure as last time, Commander Calder. "Highstar is going to take an escort position while you work. Take your time."
"Understood." Carter replied before standing up and doing a minor stretch. The call ending, "Alright, you heard them. We will start by collecting samples and running samples of the lifeless planets, finishing up with Centauri B. Since that thing is looking rather habitable from orbit."
—
The rest of this… was actually rather boring. I spent most of the time just examining what we took pictures of to see if we missed anything. Which hadn't been anything so far. It would likely take us a few days to finish scanning everything. Most of it was actually automated, even a portion of going over the data was looked at from Science AI's in the Sol System.
I want to use the FTL Engine again to go to another system, that was cool. Maybe we could find something.
"Detective Williams, can you take a look at this?" Zhao Mei asked, looking up from her monitor.
I sighed, and came over, it was a picture of one of the moons. I paused. Looking closer. That is not natural. "Are you talking about this?" I said pointing at the unnatural structure.
"What?" She looked, "Oh, no. I was talking about this." She pointed to a separate picture, it was a bunch of dunes in one of the moons… or these are from the same moon.
"That." I paused, "That is an anomaly."
Everyone started crowding.
Director Carter spoke, "We have located an unidentified structure, possibly a ruin?"
A hologram appeared shortly, two in fact. It was Commander Calder and USF Director David Gard. He was bent over looking at the details, obviously what was sent back. Calder was taking a more obvious approach, placing the Highstar between them and the anomaly. "Orders Director?"
Gard tapped the bottom of his helmet. "Send drones to take closer pictures before we investigate further. For now I want the Starseeker to finish surveying the rest of the system. We will take a look at this anomaly further after to see just what it is."
So this is going to be more interesting than I thought.
I spoke out loud, "So… this is how this works?"
Astha chuckled, "FTL Bubbles are active. Waiting on you Alana."
A comms communication hit back. "Hitting thrust in 3. 2. 1.-"
The stars around us shifted, becoming white lines, as the planets disappeared. Carter asked "How long till we are there?"
Astha looked into the air, "Six minutes."
That is absurd. "I thought it would take hours." Terrence spoke, "Didn't the briefing say it would?"
"That was for version 0.3 of the FTL Drive. We are already at version 1.5." Astha replied.
Lin spoke, "We already have multiple versions of the FTL Drive?!"
"It's an active project. It's being refined by multiple people daily. It's only natural for it to progress." Astha replied.
"So… what are you expecting Director Carter?" Haruto asked, looking over at the Director.
Carter shrugged. "Not much honestly. We have really good documentation on the Alpha Centauri star system. There is one Garden World, and a few other celestial bodies we can investigate the system. For the most part this will be a data collection trip. Four total planets including the garden world."
"Wait, weren't there only two planets?" Trisha asked.
Carter replied to that, "Upgraded scanners, we are able to get a good idea of the star systems in several light years."
Astha interrupted. "Exiting FTL in Three, two… one."
The surroundings stopped being blurry, and outside the window we could see three stars, and several small asteroids and four planets, two of them being rather small, but one looking rather similar to Earth.
"Welcome to Alpha Centauri." Astha spoke, "Receiving connection from Hightstar."
A familiar hologram appeared. It was the same figure as last time, Commander Calder. "Highstar is going to take an escort position while you work. Take your time."
"Understood." Carter replied before standing up and doing a minor stretch. The call ending, "Alright, you heard them. We will start by collecting samples and running samples of the lifeless planets, finishing up with Centauri B. Since that thing is looking rather habitable from orbit."
—
The rest of this… was actually rather boring. I spent most of the time just examining what we took pictures of to see if we missed anything. Which hadn't been anything so far. It would likely take us a few days to finish scanning everything. Most of it was actually automated, even a portion of going over the data was looked at from Science AI's in the Sol System.
I want to use the FTL Engine again to go to another system, that was cool. Maybe we could find something.
"Detective Williams, can you take a look at this?" Zhao Mei asked, looking up from her monitor.
I sighed, and came over, it was a picture of one of the moons. I paused. Looking closer. That is not natural. "Are you talking about this?" I said pointing at the unnatural structure.
"What?" She looked, "Oh, no. I was talking about this." She pointed to a separate picture, it was a bunch of dunes in one of the moons… or these are from the same moon.
"That." I paused, "That is an anomaly."
Everyone started crowding.
Director Carter spoke, "We have located an unidentified structure, possibly a ruin?"
A hologram appeared shortly, two in fact. It was Commander Calder and USF Director David Gard. He was bent over looking at the details, obviously what was sent back. Calder was taking a more obvious approach, placing the Highstar between them and the anomaly. "Orders Director?"
Gard tapped the bottom of his helmet. "Send drones to take closer pictures before we investigate further. For now I want the Starseeker to finish surveying the rest of the system. We will take a look at this anomaly further after to see just what it is."
So this is going to be more interesting than I thought.