“This is testflight 1701, ready to engage the engines” The received a green light for OK and what he hoped was good luck on this dashboard and brought his ship around to the prearranged co-ordinates.
“All in place, now go make history” his radio crackled back at him.
He surveyed the view from around his cockpit, black, as far as they eye could see… black. If this worked, he was about to get much much deeper into that great big sea of black. He flipped three switches over his head and a pleasant whirring sound followed from behind him. He rolled his shoulders forward in preparation and surveyed the console in front of him. One further light was green, another 3 dead, he needed the lot green, but that would take a few minutes yet.
He allowed his mind to wander, if all went well here, he would literally put his career forward my miles. He could be a hero, everyone would know him, images started running through his head of parades, parties, in his name. 3 months ago nobody knew the name Armstrong Taylor, now, a few geeks and freaks who spent their lives on communications networks and the internet did. This time tomorrow there would be nobody more famous.
Yuri Gagarin? Neil Armstrong? They’d be nothing compared to him. One giant leap for mankind? This one be one huge rocket forward for mankind. No cameras here though, one was fitted above him, but he was far too far away to consider broadcasting back live, he had no doubt it was recording and everyone would see it at some point.
A third green light lit the console, he tapped at the forth, as if somehow he could speed it along. Adrenaline was building now, he could feel his heart rate picking up by the second, which was by no means a good thing, he had to stay calm, a few deep breaths followed and he started to feel calmer. He reached forward and held the controls, the inside of each glove was becoming just a little more damp. He could sense his moment approaching.
“Nearly there flyboy, hang tight.” came a voice over the radio. He was being monitored by dozens of people at the base, albeit at a few seconds delay, they’d obviously noted the heartbeat jump and were seeking to keep an eye on him.
More whirring from behind him, as more of the equipment came to life. He’d wanted flashing lights and blue glowing tubes, like he’d seen on television so many times, but when it came down to it, everything was encased in metal. It was clean, functional, but lacked a bit of excitement.
A 4th light was now showing green in front of him. He needed just one more.
He turned his head to a computer to his left, it showed a detailed map of where he was expected to go, it was straight, let’s face it he wasn’t going to be able to turn while hurtling through the galaxy at previously unknown speeds, while he was the pilot here, and when he got back home the glory would follow him, he was essentially here to get it to the experiment then turn it round and bring it home afterwards. There were inanimate carbon rods that would maybe deserve as much praise as him.
The route he saw was huge, the distance involved, the places he’d pass, people had never done before. His glance shot down to the panel, still holding steady on 4 lights. He stared at the 3 ignition switches which it would soon be his job to flick, he didn’t fully understand the science part, he wasn’t a scientist although he’d studied much of it to get the job. Primarily he was a pilot, and the best pilot, well the best that was willing to take part. There was some risks involved out here, he’d been in hundreds of simulations of the next 5 minutes but, nobody had done it before, the simulations could be so far wide of the mark.
A beep. A fifth light. It was time.
Within seconds the radio cracked in, “This is it Taylor, we’ll see you when you get home.”
Taylor signalled an acknowledgement, he stared at the lights for a couple of moments, all green, all steady, everything was ready. He stared at the switches, all down, it was down to him. Butterflies flew around his stomach, he took a few deep breaths, he dreaded to think what his heartbeat was now, but no doubt 5 men with clipboards and worried looks were pointing at the readout right now.
He reached over and flicked ‘top engine’ a whir from above him, as the engine came to life. He waited 5 seconds and hit the right engine, then the left. He always though space was supposed to be quiet, but the noise felt deafening inside his little self-contained tin can. All the switches were up, he pressed a large button next to them and sat back as hard as he could in his seat, checking every restraining harness he had attached to him.
Nothing, nothing was happening. Patience he told himself, it’ll come. A few more seconds passed, it felt like hours to him and nothing. He left his almost braced position and looked at the panel, every display seemed to suggest things were ok. The noises from behind confirmed the engines were running, so what was going on.
He began to reach for his radio to ask for help when the whole craft began to shake. No build up either, this was quite a violent motion, he gripped on to the sides of his chair as tightly as he could, this has never happened in any simulation. In fact in each case, at least towards the end, he’d have been on his way home by now.
The shaking got worse , he felt almost pressure building up on him, he didn’t know if it was fear or some kind of unexpected g force or what, but he couldn’t get up from his chair. His vision began to get blurry, he felt sweat dripping into his eyes, but couldn’t move a hand to wipe it away. He felt like the ship was about to shake itself into tens of thousands of pieces, when a light shone directly in front of him, outside the ship, it was bright, so bright it hurt his eyes, but in a way it was beautiful.
Then the light seemed to run at the ship and suddenly he knew he was moving, the shaking had stopped, the pressure had gone, a wave of calm flew over him. The light outside now seemed to flow over the ship, was this it? Was he breaking records? Was he a hero?
There was a loud, high pitched beep from above him. He recognised it instantly and held on tight again. Suddenly the pressures were back, the engines cut out and the ship flew to a sudden halt. The force of breaking from such a massive speed to nothing in a second hurt him. He felt winded and pressed against his seat. Which is where he stayed for a few minutes, almost coming round gradually.
He surveyed the area, black, everything around him looked the same as everywhere he’d been before. For all he knew he’d gone exactly 20 yards and it’d have been a massive waste of time. He knew that at this moment the computers on board were photographing, cataloguing, monitoring and logging everything they could. He dragged the screen to his left over to him, to plot the return course he literally just had to drag his finger to where he wanted to go.
The earth was clearly noted on there so he simply moved his finger from ‘current location’ to ‘Earth’, even his finger slide felt like a long way. The computer notified him it would stop him a safe distance from the planet and allow him to proceed on conventional engines from that point. He’d OK’d the warning and waited. The engine began its readiness again, same procedure as before, he manually positioned the craft as the computer recommended, essentially so it was facing the right way, and waited. None of the nervousness was there this time, everything felt a bit slower now and the computer signalled the information gathering process was complete before the third green light even came on.
Armstrong flicked through some of the data as he waited but it was all gibberish to him, but at least he could confirm it was saved and present. The final light came on after several minutes and Armstrong flicked each switch in turn, once again disturbed by the noises from each of the engines.
“All ready!” he thought, preparing himself for the same ordeal as the outward flight and once again the ship began to shake. A computer noise sounded from above him, but stuck to the seat there was nothing he could do but read, it was a proximity warning. Proximity? He peered out of the screen and a familiar flash of light appeared from the distance within seconds a massive craft appeared and started making its way towards him.
His radio cracked, noises, sounds, maybe words but nothing he could understand or respond too even if he could move a muscle. Then the light came, he began to move, the image of the vehicle was gone in an instant and so were the sounds from the radio.
Within a few minutes he came to a stop, the blue/green sphere of the earth in the distance, emotions and thoughts running through his mind. What or indeed who was that, did they know what he was, could they trace him back here. If they could what were their intentions?
Had this mission opened the biggest can of worms in the history of humanity?
He moved the ship to dock with a large space station in orbit of the planet, he couldn’t resist the all too human reaction of glancing over his shoulder, nobody… yet…
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