AWAKEN - HUMANITY: Book One

Chapter 3: Gateway to the Stars

The wormhole was a small white hole, half the size of Earth's moon, held in a constant live state by a fixed mesh of intricate scaffolding three times the size to allow the largest of ships through. This housing was magnetically and electronically regulated the size, shape, power and direction of any ship that entered, managed by a small doughnut shaped control centre attached to the side also known as the compass, all channelled through to JFK One Star Base back on Pluto.

Cade sat at his chair in the Control Bay of Starlight One, in his hand a small tablet. He used his thumb to initial the electronic document and passed it back to the admin person standing at his side. The young man smiled and left the room, the door closing silently behind him.

The Captain stared at the huge screen in front of him, at the wormhole, the silent swirling mass of whiteness, looking more like a pale sun than a gateway. He could feel the slight vibration of the engines firing through his fingers and the floor as the ship edged slowly forward and started to manoeuvre into position, all crew had been accounted for, all crew aware they would be gone for three years, venturing into the unknown, into the vast wilderness of interstellar space. No ship the size of Starlight

One had ever run through the gateway, this was a first, all calculations theorised, he could feel the sweat beading on his forehead.

Communications officer spoke softly, "Sir, President Forbes is on line."

The Captain nodded towards the screen. "Put her through."

She appeared on screen, her face taking up much of the pixels, "wishing you and your crew a safe journey Captain, I will alert Earth Central as soon as you have departed, JFK Base Two have already received the communication capsule so they will be expecting you." She gave a warm smile, "safe journey to you and your crew, see you back here in three years."

The Captain spoke. "Thank you Miss President for your warm hospitality to me and my crew, we will indeed meet again on our return journey." He watched as she nodded and the screen went blank.

"Okay people let's do this." Cade turned to the communications officer, "notify all crew of imminent interstellar flight."

The communications officer announced through the internal tannoy system. "All crew to report to their stations and relevant secure points...interstellar jump in ten minutes, this is not a drill." He repeated the announcement. His console bleeped.

"Captain, the Compass at gateway have confirmed we are ready to jump..." he looked over at the Captain, his young face etched with fear, his eyes unable to stay focused and wandered back to the console.

The door to the Control Bay opened and a young woman entered, dressed in a simple one-piece grey jump suite, a name tag on the left breast Stated Safron. Cade turned and smiled at her, she looked pale, dark black hair resting just onto her slender shoulders, slender nose and green sapphire eyes, she stood next to the captain, her slight six foot figure standing next to the Captain's chair.

The Captain forced a smile, "just in time, we are about to jump."

She spoke, no accent just a slight metallic sound to her voice as she looked straight ahead without emotion. "Yes I have prepared recording."

"Of course you have." Cade replied as softly as he could manage.

Cade was uncomfortable having a Data Gatherer aboard, something else to worry about on a mission which had its fair share of worrying moments throughout the mission. Their sole function was to record current events, ask questions and log the answers whilst creating various data flows. The problem was the last time DGs were used it did not end well.

Three Data Gatherers were on board an exploration ship heading out to the far side of the sun heading towards Mars to explore an rea of interest on the red planet, an anomaly, and were exposed to some type of radiation which they think erupted from a solar flare, that affected their programming. Earth central lost contact with all human hosts and then when trying to connect with the DGs found they had corrupt data and refused to acknowledge their repeated requests for data link up. They were left with no choice but to abort the mission and take full automated control of the ship and rendezvous back to the International Space Centre orbiting the moon.

It was after docking they found the exploration ship had returned with none of its four crew alive, all in hyper sleep status with their oxygen tanks empty. Suffocated in their sleep and just one DG out of the original three left intact. The other DGs were disassembled, torn apart, their wires pulled like spaghetti over the electronic panels in the Control Bay.

The shock brought about the recall of all DGs and programmes upgraded but the damage had been done, the use of such tools, because that's what they were, was drastically reduced with orders cancelled and contracts closed. Now only one year later they were starting to appear again, apparently improved from new technology created from Pluto and updated movement and schematics including voice, touch and auto switch off if their data becomes corrupt.

Here now standing next to him was one of those updated versions of Data Gatherers, he looked up at her, the body designed to be pleasing to the eye to relax and ultimately mask whatever thoughts were raised about their technology, about their history and their downfall and subsequent resurrection.

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The large bulk of Starlight One shifted its weightless metal body in the vacuum of space towards the large circular gateway of the entrapped wormhole. The white swirling globe of energy released slender tendrils of white fingers, like snakes racing across sand, stretching out towards the bow of the ship, blue veins of electric charge started to run down the sides of Starlight One floating out towards the white snake like fingers of the wormhole.

They touched, milky blue miniature explosions erupted as the blue veins met the white fingers, the ship now being pulled in, through the circular framework of the holding area of the wormhole then the ship suddenly stopped moving. The blue veins now stretching out touching, dancing around the framework that was holding the wormhole in place. The White fingers smothered the bow, stretching out, caressing the sides of the cargo ship.

Then without warning, it was pulled in with a sudden urgency, the bow being swallowed into the swirling fog of energy, pulling the remaining length of the ship through, the blue veins running around all the sides merging with the white fingers, the small explosions rippling over the metal framework. Within minutes Starlight One had disappeared into the wormhole, the tendrils of white retracting back into the main body of the gateway.

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The Control Bay shook violently, the crew were either standing over control panels their hands gripping the safety handles to steady them, or sitting down buckled up. The room was filled with flashing lights, various different toned alarms sounded, sparks erupted from between sealed panels releasing faint tendrils of smoke into the air creating a faint haze.

Cade barked questions to his crew, "status report..."

Tom Kane the science and technical officer replied frantically pressing buttons on a console to the Captains right with one hand and holding onto the hand rail with the other. "Hull integrity at ninety percent Captain and holding."

Cummings, one of the two pilots, shouted above the alarms, "engines holding at half power."

George, the other pilot, wafted smoke away from her face, "Captain we are entering the wormhole in five, four, three, two..." the ship stopped moving, she turned to look at her Captain puzzled.

Then the ship lurched forward as the Control Bay filled suddenly with white light, everything around them shuddered, people slowed down, colours smudged as everything around them slowed down, light, air, time and movement. Everything suddenly went completely quiet, still, a fixed moment in time then suddenly everything went dark.