Simply amazing ...

[Shalin 0]

Shan sat at his console, doing his best to navigate through the collection of ships and debris. Everything was moving slow enough, and although they couldn't get a reading on the nature of space around them those items that actually had mass stood out rather sharply. Most of the vessels within this dark space were remarkable, but to Shan none could be more remarkable than the Lief Erickson.

 

Shan had studied the vessel during his days in the Academy. It was a marvel of human engineering, fortitude, and their willingness to risk everything just for the sake of exploration. Built in the interim between Dr. Cochrane's first warp-drive ship and the point at which the Vulcans assisted with human exploration, it exemplified the need for human beings to explore regardless of the risks.

 

As a vessel the ship was unremarkable except for its drive. Human warp drive was in its most primitive state at the time, and could only be engaged in for brief bursts. The limitation was the inability to transfer power from the generating core to the warp coils; nothing in human engineering was capable of sustaining such an energy transfer and the Vulcans weren't sharing. Quietly, however, the Erickson was built under the leadership of a visionary engineer - Commander Alexander Stefan. He had developed a simple theory; one which Earth's exploratory command was willing to give a try: skip the transfer and feed the coils directly. Commander Stefan provided the plans for Earth's first, and only, Critical Mass Reaction Warp Drive.

 

Simply put: when the warp engines were to be engaged an atomic reaction was activated within the center of the warp core. The warp coils would absorb the energy and translate it into a warp field, driving the vessel very quickly through space rather than simply exploding like the atomic bomb it essentially was. The concept was risky, but Earth had enough adventurous souls to try it. A ship was built, launched out to the zenith point of the solar system, and given permission to depart. Earth telemetry reported a massive burst of energy, and then the Lief Erickson was gone.

 

For over a century it was believed that the vessel simply exploded. The Vulcans seemed satisfied with this explanation, and there were no human ships capable of following up the investigation. Yet now they had evidence that this wasn't the case. The Erickson survived, and made it all the way out to the Gygax system.

 

Shan looked over his sensors: the ship was cold. Perhaps the engines could be awakened, but there was no chance of any survivors or survivor's descendants upon that ship. Noting proximity data, he set about his work - suddenly more eager than most to explore this region. If there was a chance ... even a single chance in a million ... that the Erickson crew or their children survived somewhere in this space, then they had to be found and rescued. The bold crew of that ship deserved that much respect.