AWAKEN - HUMANITY: Book One

Chapter Eleven: Flashback: The Beginning

The signal was first picked up by accident, a faint murmur amongst the growing noise of the universe, it was the Helix telescope and communications system that found the repetitive broadcast. Part of the International Planetary Observation Station. IPOS, the discovery was kept quiet, meticulously scrutinised and verified before any further course of action was taken. They did not want a repeat of the last time a signal was received, that nearly destroyed what was left of the space programme, that and the pandemic which gripped the globe killing billions of people, the after effects of which were felt for decades after.

At the same time the signal was detected the first small, gateway was being constructed, designed by the conglomerate technical company Destiny Dynamics Corporation. Back then the gateway was all speculation and the theory discussed at length if such a gateway could be manufactured. A portal bending the very fabric of space and time, to bring two distant points closer together. A concept where huge funding was given, a multi-millions pound project, spanning five countries involvement and, if successful, would catapult the human race towards the stars.

The signal was monitored, eventually filtered and after being deciphered by a secret division within the Destiny Dynamics Corporation funded and managed by the UK government, was found to be a series of co-ordinates.

Whatever that signal represented fuelled the completion of the gateway, what should have taken eighteen months to just build was completed in six, tested within ten months and after a further six months a full scale gateway was signed off.

At the same time Pluto was being upgraded to be the main link with the gateway, JFK One was also under construction just as the materials for the gateway were being despatched to its new destination, arriving at the new reformed Pluto within a couple of months. Meanwhile a team was put together to be the first astronauts to travel through a gateway, essentially a man-made wormhole, a corridor to another part of the universe, in what was originally considered to be a potential one-way mission.

Whatever the signal represented was kept secret from all but the highest powers within the UK government and kept from those who managed the UK Space Programme to limit any leaks to the media. It became evident that there were more than just coordinates within the signal, as construction of new equipment and new technologies were being sanctioned, tested and approved.

Within five years of the signal being detected the gateway was ready, a small fleet of old shuttle craft designs based on the ancient Challenger NASA vehicle were quickly constructed along with Galaxy One, the first transformable ship of its kind. The crew were trained and Pluto established as an important link being transferred from a place of mineral extraction to space port and communications hub for the new gateway.

Back on Earth, the In2net was alive with constant streaming of updates referencing the up and coming historic event. Announcing the first female to take charge of a mission Captain Regina Carmichael was presented to the media in a frenzy of flashing lights, and pushed onto a conveyor of interviews. She had the visual responsibility of taking the human race onto its next phase of evolution, when in reality her mission was something else entirely.

Arrival through the gateway was only the start, they had to construct the same gateway the other end, hence the construction of smaller lighter crafts to take the semi constructed materials through to the other side. Nobody knew if they would safely arrive to their destination, if they would be able to construct the second gateway, if they could return, or if they would even survive the journey.

It would be a further two years before the first small drone module returned through the gateway, a communication confirming the success of the second gateway.

This was when Galaxy One and the fleet of shuttle crafts embarked on their next part of the mission, to Nuovo Mondo where the signal originated from. The shuttles were grounded and used to form the Ground Base Sections 1 to 5 dotted around the planet. Galaxy One then converted itself to a small version of IPOS and released its own Helix for future exploration.

On the planet, once all the bases had been set up and manned, the first expedition to the signal location began, a solitary cave atop a raised small mountain of rock. Ground Base Section 5 situated below. The small team of four including the Captain arrived outside the cave, its entrance covered in thick moss and huge twisted branches from the tall trees surrounding the cave structure.

Once opened their beliefs in humanity changed...