The First Jumper (first draft version)

The First Jumper 05: Departure

Four years later, Gerleesh departed for the stars.

It was a quiet departure, without fanfare, for the binary was flaring again.  Her mother and her friends were all opposed to her going, until she told them about the results of the failed egg.  It was her only way to survive into the next cycle, they knew.  Reluctantly, they all supported her.

Gerleesh wanted to tell them about the impending death of her planet, but she was forbidden, lest it create a panic.  Obediently, she did not.  She tried to talk the group into sending colonies out exploring, but that had already been discussed, planned, and overruled by the sovereign board.  They would send out colonies only when one of the explorers had found a viable planet.

Over a hundred explorers had been sent out, in as many ships.  All sterile Tarshen, all on solo missions.  The foolishness of this was incredible, but again, the sovereign board had decided that this was the only way they would allow the exploration at all.

Gerleesh was given a specific area of sky to search.  They wanted her to find yellow dwarf stars like their own, and planets to which the Tarshen people could make their glorious migration from their home.  

Standing well out from her planet, Gerleesh was making final checks on her systems, when an alarm sounded on the console.  The solar radiation from the smaller star in the binary had jumped approximately ten thousand percent from what it was in the flare.  

Without hesitation, Gerleesh engaged her secondary drives, accelerating outward from the sun as rapidly as possible, while readying her primary drive for trans-light travel.

In the two hours before she could jump into hyperspace, the star behind her jumped in magnitude three more times, until it was every bit as hellish as the physicist had predicted.

Shaking, Gerleesh thought of the beautiful landscape of her home, blazing in fire.  She thought of the songs of her mothers, down to the beginning of time, which she would never hear.  She thought most of all of her mother, and the rest of her people, who were even now beginning to suffer.  

At least it will be quick, she thought.  I’ll suffer for who knows how long, before my time comes to die.  

Then the blazing hell behind her jumped a hundred-fold again, and Gerleesh hit the primary drive, leaving all her hope, love, and dreams behind.

Somewhere out there, she thought, I must find a place I can call home.

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