To Boldly Go

[Wayne23]

DDSCB:2020 To Boldly Go
April 25, 2101: My name's Jim Kirk. I get teased a lot about that. Oh well. I'm about to be a passenger on a historic voyage. We're kind of experimental and there are no guarantees. More about that as we go along.

Eight years ago there was a pretty incredible breakthrough in physics. I'm not a physicist so I won't even try to explain in too much detail. This is the layman's version.

Einstein said space was flat, and that stars, planets, and everything else kind of depressed the flatness by a certain amount, depending upon the given body's mass.

Later physicists confirmed that but so what? It wasn't much use, interesting as it was.

Well Tyson Meltor found a use. He and his colleagues found a way to... get behind(?) the flatness. Turned out, according to their theory, that once you got behind the flatness weird things happened, especially related to the distances between bodies. They got closer to each other for some reason. Again, this is the layman's version of something I don't really understand.

So if you could get a ship back there you might actually be able to travel to other stars and explore the planets around them. Pretty big deal!

Now the speed of light still holds. No one has found a way to get to more than about .1 light speed, which translates to about 67 million miles an hour. That's pretty fast, but given the enormous distances between stars it would still take a while to get to the nearest stars, let alone those far away. BUT remember... once you get behind the flatness, those distances aren't nearly as great.

So Meltor and some others actually found a way to get behind the flatness. That was four and a half years ago. They've been doing all sorts of experiments since.

They sent ships with robots, ship[s with robots and various plants and animals... But they haven't sent a ship with people... until now.

The WSS Meltor will take off in three days with 600 people on board. Its mission is twofold: first, to report back everything they discover, experience, feel...

Second, to find a planet that humans can live on and to settle it.

The first part will simply be a more sophisticated report than the robots have given. We know we can get messages back to Earth from beneath the "blanket" so to speak. The robotic ships did that successfully on every voyage. But humans will be able to send different kinds of messages.

The second part is more speculative. During the last century or so we've learned a great deal about planets orbiting other stars, but there are things the most powerful telescopes and other devices just couldn't tell us. We will be able to report on all of that.

It's all pretty exciting, and it's being planned as a one way trip. All 600 volunteers understand that they will be settlers, who almost certainly will never return to Earth.

There's going to be a lot more to tell and I'll do my best to tell it all as we move along, but that's enough for now. In my next journal entry I want to talk about college basketball and my role in it, past, present, and hopefully future.

[Wayne23]

April 27: So my passion is college basketball. Okay, and boring holes in space by driving a ship through. I'm a pilot and became a "space pilot" as soon as i could, which was at age 21. I graduated from Georgia Tech at age 18, got a Ph. D. In astronomy at age 21 from Dartmouth, and started flying the ships immediately. I'd been flying planes, helicopters, heliplanes... since I was 12.

I loved hoops but given my age I didn't even get to walk on at GA Tech until my junior year, and never got to play more than a few minutes of "garbage time" here and there. Coach said if I'd entered at the normal age I would have been good enough to get a scholarship, and yes, I have some regrets about that, but the path I've taken is really the only one I could have taken. I have never wanted anything more than I want to travel to the stars. I'm 28, or will be on May 1, and until I was 20 it didn't seem like that would ever be more than a dream, but then along came Meltor.

Anyway, I got to play some college hoops, and when I got to Dartmouth for the Ph. D. I was able to land the position of grad assistant on their basketball team. I learned a lot about coaching during those three years, from the staff there, from reading every book on coaching college hoops that I could find, and from picking the brain of every college coach who would let me do so.

Still, I wasn't about to become a college basketball coach. But it was fun, and I played all of the cool video games related to coaching college hoops in my spare time.

Now we're headed for the ship and guess what? The holo chambers have a program for coaching at the Div. I level, and three other guys and I will be each coaching our own team. How cool is that. The holo program allows us to set our skills. Mine are: Offense 33, Defense 33, Recruiting 50, Scouting 65, Player Development 33.

Then we get to select our coach's personality type- I stayed as close to my own as possible so I'm a guy who's ambitious to coach at an elite program some day. I value academics very highly, I believe in strong but not harsh discipline, I do not and will not cheat. I will use a fast paced offense that blends set plays and offensive freedom about equally. Crashing the boards is a very, very high priority, as are ball handling and defense. I won't press much, and I'll play man to man about 3/4 of the time.

I will start off coaching the Ohio Bobcats in the Mid-American Conference. I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of assistants I was able to get. Len Edge is my Recruiter, Jul Leis is my Scout, and Ty Jack is my bench coach, and they all seem really good at what they do.

I've got some talented players, or at least they seem to be at this early stage. Weirdly, I have 5 juniors, all guards, three of whom will get most of the minutes. I have only one senior, a decent looking SF. I have one soph, who will start inside, and the other 3 guys are frosh. We're not deep inside so I'm hoping some guys will develop, but time will tell.

So when I go into the holo to coach, everything becomes real- the players, the courts, the locker room, the stands, the fans, the announcers- everything. There's no way to tell that it isn't "real." Maybe it is.

I start "officially" on May 1, my birthday, and I can't wait! Of course that May 1 date is artificial in that time only runs as quickly or as slowly in the holo program as i deicide I want it to. At times, especially at first, and then later when we get near a planet, I'll be way too busy to coach.

[Wayne23]

April 28: Today we launched. I'll tell you about that in a few minutes but first some background.

Selection of the 600 of us was a very competitive process. The people in charge of it, The International Space Association, needed to select for usefulness to the community on a new planet above all else, while being certain they also had all the people they needed to get the ship there. The number of factors to be considered had to have been mind boggling.

They felt it was important to include as many racial, ethnic, national groups as possible, and to include people of a wide variety of beliefs, sexual orientations, hobbies and interests...

While doing that, everyone needed to be willing to be a biological parent, whatever their sexual orientation, because in order to go from a population of 600 to a population that would be sustainable on our new home, we would need children- lots of them, and, needless to say, as wide a gene pool as possible.

Anyway, all of those decisions were made. I am the chief pilot on the Meltor. I'm not totally sure what I'll do for work on the planet, when we get there, but my guess is shuttle pilot back and forth to the ship, which will remain in orbit, and which will be used for many purposes, for decades, if not centuries after we land.
The shuttles we have will also almost certainly be used for travel from place to place on the planet so I'm all but certain that I'll be a shuttle pilot. That suits me just fine.

The ship is huge. It needs to be. It has lots of space devoted to hydroponic gardens. We want to jump start as many crops as possible since we have no way to know what will grow on the new planet and whether anything that grows there naturally will be edible by humans. The engines take up lots of space, as do the water production and use, recycling, waste management, atmospheric control, and other vital areas.

We are all on a vegetarian diet but there are so many food products that taste exactly like any and every kind of meat, that this is no hardship for anyone. Carting animals all this way wouldn't be feasible anyway.

There are 10 holo chambers, all of which are capable of having 30 or so people in them at a time, as long as they're all within the same program in a given holo.

There are three dining areas, each of which is open at all times. Given that people work on one of three "shifts," this will work out, at least according to all the studies done in advance.

There's no way, and no need, of getting everyone onboard into the same space at the same time. Any announcements that need to be delivered will be done via video-communicator.

Living quarters are sparse, as one would expect. Two people share a 10x12 cabin. There's nothing in there except a double bed or bunk beds, depending on the relationship and choices of the two inhabitants, two small desks with chairs, and two small closets. We wear simple "uniforms" so wardrobe isn't an issue. People who want more in the way of clothing can get that in a holo.

I'm doubled with my fiancee, Ruby Suite. Ruby is a communications officer. She knows more about the tech we use to communicate, the tech we'll use to communicate with anyone we meet along the way- if we do meet anyone along the way, and the tech we use for leisure, than anyone else on the ship. Ruby and I have been together for a little over a year, and we hope to have children once we settle on the planet, if not before. Ruby is 26 years old. We don't work the same shift so spending time together will take some planning. At least we have the same day off.

Everyone works six 8 hour days. It may not be completely necessary to work that much, but there's not a lot to do on a ship in space after take off and before planet approach, so this uses up a good deal of time. Some people think that with the holos people could have more time off, but at least for now, that's not the way it is.

So we're bringing hydroponic crops. We're actually not bringing a whole lot else because 22nd century 3D copiers can make anything we might possibly need. When we go into orbit around the planet we'll be living on- after we determine that it's right for us, of course, we'll shuttle some copiers down and start printing living quarters, and then the other essentials we'll need before we can send everyone down. Well, some people will continue to work on the ship, as I sort of said, but that will be done on a rotating basis. Everyone will essentially live on the planet as soon as we can make that happen.

The ship was built in orbit around the Moon. Lower gravity, easier to "take off." The construction started with a dozen 3D printers. They were launched and worked together to construct the ship, under the supervision of a few humans and lots of robotic workers. Oh, we'll be printing robots too, once we settle on the planet. We have some onboard, but only the ones needed to perform tasks that humans either cannot do, or that are prohibitively dangerous. If, now that we're travelling, work needs to be done outside of the ship, robots will do it. Humans could, but why take unnecessary chances.

The launch happened in front of a worldwide video audience, at 9:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. Everything went seamlessly. Captain Roleau asked me to set a course for the "back of the blanket" and we got there by dinner time. We then headed for a star that would be 7.8 light years away if we were travelling in the traditional manner. It will take us about 8 months to get to the star, and then we'll need to move more slowly in order to survey the two likely planets, and get into orbit.

It's now approaching midnight, ship's time, which is Greenwich Mean Time as long as we're on the ship, and I'm back in the "driver's seat" at 8:00 a.m., so I'll stop here.

[Wayne23]

5/1: We buy the East, South, and Mid-Atlantic Basic scouting reports.

I really like my office. I have a big desk with plenty of room on top and in the drawers. I also have a table that comfortably seats eight people, which will be great for all kinds of meetings. There are bookcases, a nice view, I'm near the A. D.'s office. Excellent all around.

5/15: We've been travelling for awhile now. This "underground" route does not take us anywhere near the other planets in our solar system, we're going in a whole different direction, so there hasn't been much to see, but people do go to the observation deck and look out anyway. For many it's their first time in space, and it's pretty exciting.

Everyone is settled into their jobs and routines and things are going smoothly. There's been no friction and no conflicts so far, but it's early. People being people those things will probably spring up.

The holos are busy all the time and people are saying there should be more of them. People are also saying they don't need to be working so many hours but with the holos at capacity I'm not sure what people would do with more free time.

[Wayne23]

6/11: First sign of trouble. We've been in communication with Earth since we left on 4/28. The time delays due to the speed of light limit have been increasing as we move farther away, but they're still not bad, given how much closer things are on this side of the "blanket." Time delay yesterday was 2 hours, 7 minutes to receive a reply to a message. Today at 9:00 we sent our daily a.m. report, and it is now 4:30 p.m., and we've received no reply. We'll send the evening report at 9:00, but this is puzzling.

6/12: Still no communication from Earth.

6/19: 8 days and nothing from Earth. The Captain has us sending our twice daily reports and he says we will continue to do so but for whatever reason he says we should assume that we're on our own and we likely will receive no further communication from the home planet.

6/26: 3 scholarships. We want 2 bigs.

7/2: Some minor problems with a couple of systems on the ship- water reclamation and holo #7. Neither was a big deal, and we had both systems at 100% within a couple of hours of the problem being picked up by the systems involved.

Piloting in open space is pretty routine. The launch was fun, even though it wasn't at all difficult. Launch is when all kinds of things can happen, but launch from the Moon's orbit was pretty sure to be seamless and it was. Now that we're just moving through space there's not much for a pilot to do and not much chance of any difficulty related to what I do. We have detectors that can spot anything bigger than a dust particle in our path in plenty of time for us to divert our course enough to avoid it. That shouldn't happen often. Space is pretty empty. But we're ready when and if it does happen.

Still no word from Earth. I think most of us have given up on that.

[Wayne23]

8/7: Our Junior PG, Ed Howe, is #41 on the Norton list. Didn't expect that.

8/21: We offer to a PG, a PF, and a C.

9/5: The alarms clanged all over the ship during the middle of my sleep cycle. I was up like a shot and on the bridge in less than two minutes. Turned out that the alarm was about a small hunk of space rock in our path, or that would be in our path when we intersected with it.

The Captain got to the bridge just a few seconds after me. He and I, the navigator on duty, and the pilot on duty all discussed what we should do. We agreed that a small course correction was in order, after which we would monitor the space rock. The correction was made and I went back to bed.

Ruby, who was not the navigator on duty, and I talked about the incident before we finally got back to sleep.

9/18: We get a PG. He's listed at #439 but we think he's a lot better than that. Still chasing 2 bigs.

We're in the Coaches Classic vs. Louisville. That's a tall order. The rest of the pre-conference schedule is pretty weak. We want wins.

9/25: We get a PF, #115. We feel like we're close with our #1 guy, a C.

10/2: First day of practice. We're picked to win the Mid-American. I think that's a little optimistic but I hope they're right.

[Wayne23]

10/9: We get the C, #72.

11/6: Here's the lineup we'll start the season with:

Junior Ed Howe will start at PG. He's probably our best player; great defender, really good ball handler, and a surprisingly good rebounder for the position.

Cris Stry, another junior, is at SG. He's good at the position but his D needs work.

Our #3 guard and 6th man is junior Cory Star. Stry had better watch himself or Star could steal his position.

Our only senior, Cris Hank, is at SF. He's a really good offensive player and rebounder but his D is weak.

Frosh Mike Rowl is at PF. Good defender, maybe our best rebounder, but he doesn't score much.

Soph Scot Nels is at C. Very good defender, good rebounder, but he's not a big scorer either. Our points are going to come from outside.

We're weak inside. When we need to sub we'll try to go with three guards. Our first big man off the bench is frosh Mike Morr. We have great hopes for him but he's not ready yet.

Food is something that's always important to people. Here on the Meltor, we have lots of choices. As I said awhile back there's no meat, no animal products at all, but the synth stuff is so good there's really no way to tell it's not the real thing. Anyway, here are the typical cafeteria choices at mealtimes:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (no way to do synthetic eggs any other way, scrambled or omelets; that's it. Waffles, French toast, or pancakes. Bacon, sausage, or ham. All kinds of hot and cold cereal.

Lunch: Every kind of sandwich imaginable. Salads of all kinds. Smoothies of all kinds. Soups.

Dinner: It varies from day to day but there's always a meat entree, a fish entree, a veggie entree, and a few casserole type dishes.

There's fresh fruit available at every meal and various desserts at lunch and dinner.

There are snacks available at all times. We work hard at not wasting food here; every resource is precious. The rule is that everyone needs to empty their plate or
bowl or glass or mug- every time.

11/12: We start the season tomorrow at the Coaches Classic vs. #3 ranked Louisville. We're not ready for this level of challenge.

[Wayne23]

11/13: 60-74. Not bad really. We didn't get a lot of offense going and they were clearly the better team, but we never gave up and we played decent D. 24 for PG Ed Howe. Good rebounding.

I'm worried that scoring is not going to be easy with this team, and after 6th man Cory Star we really don't have a bench.

11/18: First planet is on the horizon. There are three planets all in orbit around their sun and around each other, and they're all in the Goldilocks zone. That's a weird dynamic. We're now able to observe from far away, and we're getting some interesting readings.

One is a water world, no land at all. One is a rocky world without any water that we can detect from here.

The third is about 2/3 water, one major continent and lots of small continents or big islands. Temperature is good, chemical balance of the atmosphere looks good. We're too far away to see things like vegetation, animal life if any... but we'll keep monitoring.

11/20: 2 recruits sign. The 3rd didn't. He's from Australia and his GPA is 2.7. We never gave it a thought that he wouldn't hit our SAT score but now I'm worried.

[Wayne23]

11/22: 93-94 at Coppin ST. Tough loss in a game that went back and forth. We had our chance. We don't get scoring from our big guys- only 17 of our 93 points came from the bigs. At the end we tried to get it to our C, Scot Nels, but it never got there, and we never got a shot off on our last possession. In retrospect we should have taken an outside shot. Gotta go with your strengths even when the percentages say otherwise. 37 for Howe, 26, 7, 3 for SG Cris Stry. +16 RBs.

We're getting closer to the three planet system. Getting into orbit will be tricky given that they all orbit around each other as well as around their sun. The Captain has already told me I'll be the pilot for that maneuver.

[Wayne23]

11/25: 88-66 over Brown here. Finally a win! It was close for a half, then we took charge in the 2nd. PG Ed Howe led us with 22, 6. 17, 5, 6 for Stry, 14, 5 for SF Mike Rowl. +14 RBs. We don't have a real glass eater but everybody rebounds, and that works for us. 11 TOs.

11/29: 87-79 at Alcorn ST. 23 for Stry, but all 5 starters had 12 or more. +10 RBs.

I thought scoring would be a problem. So far it hasn't been.

Tomorrow we slide into orbit. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

11/30: We did all the math, planned the route, did every possible kind of figuring, and at a certain point Captain Roleau said, Kirk, get us into orbit.

We knew that at a certain point there would be a sort of gravity well where we would be pulled in three different directions at once by the three planets. We hit that and the ship began to shimmy and shake. I had to fight hard to keep control and to guide us through that. The real trick was when we got past that point the ship would want to accelerate rapidly since we'd needed to give it a lot of power to get through. This called for some very quick, very tricky maneuvering. It went well.

There was an initial jolt of power but I powered down quickly. It was a rough ride for a few seconds and a few people who had ignored out warnings to get buckled in tightly were thrown around, one breaking an arm. He's in the ship's infirmary and will be confined to quarters as a disciplinary measure for not following orders. You just can't teach some people.

Anyway, I inserted us into the proper orbit and now the telescopes are observing the planet from relatively close range and all kinds of instruments are getting some really accurate readings regarding everything we need to know about the planet.

12/1: There is animal life on the planet. We aren't sure yet what kind. We haven't glimpsed any of the animals. The telescopes can see something as small as a football (soccer ball for those Americans who still don't get it), but it's a big planet so it may be a while before we see anything.