Absolute Zero
The blackness of space was abruptly pierced by a brilliant flash of violet light. A dark, amorphous shape lumbered through the emptiness, tumbling slowly. It seemed to gain definition over the next few moments, like an object coming into focus, as the great hulking shape finished materializing.
The technology had originally been a VASC innovation. The intention was to bring products to Earth based markets faster than would otherwise be possible with conventional propulsion. Like the UBC and the Alliance, VASC would discover that faster than light travel was indeed possible, but each effort was wildly secretive and isolated. Each implementation was slightly different, with slightly different side effects. VASC abandoned the technology 84 years ago because they were unable to make the system nonfatal to human passengers.
When Miach happened across the technology in their slowly growing but immense archives of stolen knowledge, they were at first astonished. Miach researchers could not imagine how such a trivial effect could possibly justify not developing such a revolutionary technology. It was only when Miach finally grasped VASC's intense cyberphobia - the entire organization employed one and only one AI - that Miach finally appreciated VASC's lack of vision. They'd actually allowed their fear of thinking machines to deny them the stars.
The great ship slowly spun through space; tiny flecks of dust and debris floating through the hard vacuum inside the ship. Every atom of matter aboard the vessel was at absolute zero - an effect of the drive system. The original designers never did work out how to sustain heat levels without the ship emerging as dissociated particulate plasma.
Phoenix sat, utterly inert, not a single hair in motion, her lifeless eyes staring straight ahead, as the little particles floated by. The ship had come out within a billion kilometers of a medium sized star, as intended, and the sunlight bathed the hull, gradually heating the ship until, two days after it arrived, an auxillary automated wakeup system had been heated enough to become active. Fusion cells were activated. They powered heaters, which brought yet other systems online, and so on. RCS came online and the random rotation became a slow roll - what ancient astronauts used to call a "barbecue roll" - to allow sunlight to bathe the hull.
At 150 Kelvin, the ship's automated systems began heating Phoenix' chassis. She powered up slowly, limited by expansion coefficients and thermal shock hazards. First she was simply a basic automatic device, then a computer, then an intelligence. Her processors reached the point where her sentience could finally be brought online, some 20 minutes before her chassis was warm enough for bearings and joints to safely operate again. She brought her vision online. She stared at the silent and dark panel in front of her, fascinated with the clarity of her vision. As she warmed up enough to move, her eyes slowly panned left, then her head followed in a deliberate, simple motion, careful not to put too much stress on fittings that were only just above their minimum operating temperature.
Her mind thrilled as she beheld the stars. She could tell, even with just a narrow field of view, that the sky had VERY much changed. Stars were not where they appear when close to the Earth. She released her seat's restraints - bolt clamps designed to hold her metal chassis against the forces of acceleration, and floated toward an observation airlock.
She locked her feet into a riser plate, then looked up as she sent the command to open the airlock doors. The ship was not yet pressurized. The airlock doors slid silently away, revealing the naked majesty of deep space. The riser plate ascended, becoming a platform she could stand on and behold the heavens. She gazed out at the unfamiliar night, brushing aside a few strands of raven hair that threatened to float into her field of view, and her mouth fell agape in pure wonder.
She'd never beheld the sky with her cybernetic eyes at 190 K. Without the background haze of her own chassis' heat, her infrared vision could make out details of great nebulae, galaxies, and other objects she'd never seen directly. She watched the magnificence scroll by slowly as the ship rolled, until the star finally came into view.
Too distant to be blindingly bright, she watched it rise over the edge of the hull. It was at that moment that the ansible crackled to life. A quantum entanglement communications device, providing instantaneous communications with Miach HQ back on the homeworld, she received a transmission stream in a language only living machines could speak.
Thoughts of great depth and complexity flowed into her mind. They were her orders. When she requested access to a jumpship - one of only 3 that Miach possessed - Miach of course saw it as an opportunity. Phoenix would be allowed to look for her friend and compatriot, the man with whom she'd worked to establish freedom and citizenship for AI within the Alliance, Erich Zufruer, but only under certain conditions.
She was not to use the same route the Alliance exploration jumpship had used to explore this region of space. And she had to take along a very curious piece of cargo. A large box shaped object, the size of a small building, it's side emblazoned with "DP-23" and the company logo, lay silent in the ship's hangar bay.
The concepts of secrecy, of lethal force, and of absolute priority floated through her mind. She bit her lip. Working with Miach was always a dance, sometimes with something unknown and frightening. Yet time and time again the company had saved her life, and invested millions of credits in pursuit of her interests and goals.
"Please be worth it" she pleaded at the stars themselves, before furrowing her brow with worry and commanding the platform to take her back inside the ship.
The technology had originally been a VASC innovation. The intention was to bring products to Earth based markets faster than would otherwise be possible with conventional propulsion. Like the UBC and the Alliance, VASC would discover that faster than light travel was indeed possible, but each effort was wildly secretive and isolated. Each implementation was slightly different, with slightly different side effects. VASC abandoned the technology 84 years ago because they were unable to make the system nonfatal to human passengers.
When Miach happened across the technology in their slowly growing but immense archives of stolen knowledge, they were at first astonished. Miach researchers could not imagine how such a trivial effect could possibly justify not developing such a revolutionary technology. It was only when Miach finally grasped VASC's intense cyberphobia - the entire organization employed one and only one AI - that Miach finally appreciated VASC's lack of vision. They'd actually allowed their fear of thinking machines to deny them the stars.
The great ship slowly spun through space; tiny flecks of dust and debris floating through the hard vacuum inside the ship. Every atom of matter aboard the vessel was at absolute zero - an effect of the drive system. The original designers never did work out how to sustain heat levels without the ship emerging as dissociated particulate plasma.
Phoenix sat, utterly inert, not a single hair in motion, her lifeless eyes staring straight ahead, as the little particles floated by. The ship had come out within a billion kilometers of a medium sized star, as intended, and the sunlight bathed the hull, gradually heating the ship until, two days after it arrived, an auxillary automated wakeup system had been heated enough to become active. Fusion cells were activated. They powered heaters, which brought yet other systems online, and so on. RCS came online and the random rotation became a slow roll - what ancient astronauts used to call a "barbecue roll" - to allow sunlight to bathe the hull.
At 150 Kelvin, the ship's automated systems began heating Phoenix' chassis. She powered up slowly, limited by expansion coefficients and thermal shock hazards. First she was simply a basic automatic device, then a computer, then an intelligence. Her processors reached the point where her sentience could finally be brought online, some 20 minutes before her chassis was warm enough for bearings and joints to safely operate again. She brought her vision online. She stared at the silent and dark panel in front of her, fascinated with the clarity of her vision. As she warmed up enough to move, her eyes slowly panned left, then her head followed in a deliberate, simple motion, careful not to put too much stress on fittings that were only just above their minimum operating temperature.
Her mind thrilled as she beheld the stars. She could tell, even with just a narrow field of view, that the sky had VERY much changed. Stars were not where they appear when close to the Earth. She released her seat's restraints - bolt clamps designed to hold her metal chassis against the forces of acceleration, and floated toward an observation airlock.
She locked her feet into a riser plate, then looked up as she sent the command to open the airlock doors. The ship was not yet pressurized. The airlock doors slid silently away, revealing the naked majesty of deep space. The riser plate ascended, becoming a platform she could stand on and behold the heavens. She gazed out at the unfamiliar night, brushing aside a few strands of raven hair that threatened to float into her field of view, and her mouth fell agape in pure wonder.
She'd never beheld the sky with her cybernetic eyes at 190 K. Without the background haze of her own chassis' heat, her infrared vision could make out details of great nebulae, galaxies, and other objects she'd never seen directly. She watched the magnificence scroll by slowly as the ship rolled, until the star finally came into view.
Too distant to be blindingly bright, she watched it rise over the edge of the hull. It was at that moment that the ansible crackled to life. A quantum entanglement communications device, providing instantaneous communications with Miach HQ back on the homeworld, she received a transmission stream in a language only living machines could speak.
Thoughts of great depth and complexity flowed into her mind. They were her orders. When she requested access to a jumpship - one of only 3 that Miach possessed - Miach of course saw it as an opportunity. Phoenix would be allowed to look for her friend and compatriot, the man with whom she'd worked to establish freedom and citizenship for AI within the Alliance, Erich Zufruer, but only under certain conditions.
She was not to use the same route the Alliance exploration jumpship had used to explore this region of space. And she had to take along a very curious piece of cargo. A large box shaped object, the size of a small building, it's side emblazoned with "DP-23" and the company logo, lay silent in the ship's hangar bay.
The concepts of secrecy, of lethal force, and of absolute priority floated through her mind. She bit her lip. Working with Miach was always a dance, sometimes with something unknown and frightening. Yet time and time again the company had saved her life, and invested millions of credits in pursuit of her interests and goals.
"Please be worth it" she pleaded at the stars themselves, before furrowing her brow with worry and commanding the platform to take her back inside the ship.
http://gcn.com/blogs/emerging-tech/2012/12/nasa-thinks-warp-drive-travel-might-be-possible.aspx
ReplyDeleteGoal: Live long enough to die under another sun.
Coming back from zero Kelvin is close enough
to being reborn from one's own ashes, Phoenix.
P.S. Glad to see your blog is still active.