Dawn of the Second Age of Exploration - United Nations of Earth Part Two
Xenonaut Program Launched
Captain Emma Storey stared blankly at the nav monitor in front of her. She could hear the hushed, concerned, voices of her deck crew around her. What she was looking at felt impossible. No… not impossible. Merely highly improbable.
“Run the scans again,” she ordered.
With held breath she waited.
“Scan complete Ma’am,” chimed her AI.
The hushed voices grew louder.
“Run. Them. Again.”
“Ma’am,” replied the AI, “additional scans are unlikely to produce any new results. Previous seven scans have all returned the same data within a 0.003 degree of error.”
“Captain Storey,” chimed Lieutenant Avers, “should we alert NavCom?”
Storey paused before answering. What she said next would change the course of humanity. It had only been a little over a year since Captain Eliasson made the first ever jump to a new star… and now this? How could this be real? How could we have never found any traces of this before? All the space races of the old world nations, all of the satellites, all of the listening to the stars. Nothing.
Until Now.
Reports of artificial structures made waves back on Earth. The entire Naval Command structure was put into high alert as the United Nations press corps scrambled to keep up with media demands and questions. For the last decade this possibility had always remained in the back of everyone’s minds, but like Storey, no one expected this to happen so quickly… and so close to home.
Proxima Centauri was only one “jump” from Earth, barely over a light year away and only a couple weeks of time for survey vessels to reach the core of the system.
After the confusion has settled, Secretary of the Navy Isik Zorlu brought the long shelved Xenonaut Program plans before the UN Assembly. With Maximov’s pressuring backing the plan, the program was approved and funding immediately allocated. Phase One of the program entailed the recruitment and training of 4 companies. Equipment totaled 20,000 tons including all necessary life support, tools, vehicles, and a light military presence. Army officers would be placed in charge of each company, although only nominally in command. Their presence was more to keep the soldiers from interfering with research while providing disciplined escort. Real command of these companies lay directly with New Horizon’s command and their research and exploration division.
By the end of 2202, Phase One was completed and Phase Two underway. The second phase included another four companies being raised and transports arranged to move the first four companies to the Proxima Centauri star system. They were slated for planetfall on the 10th of January 2203.
The newfound discovery that we aren’t alone in the universe…or at least weren’t alone, weighed heavily on the body politic in the Assembly. Many that had been clamoring against Maximov military build-up were silenced and shouted down for the time being as fear ran through their ranks. No one knew what to expect. Clearly this wasn’t some new insect species found in a rainforest, nor was this some new bacterium living in thermal vents in the deepest trenches of the Pacific. No, the scans clearly showed artificial structures. Someone, or something, had to put them there. Were they from this world? Or were they, like us, able to traverse the Aether to distant stars.
Maximov mulled over these things in his chambers before the next press conference.
If they were advanced - how advanced?
Could we even comprehend their capabilities?
Or was this their home turned into a toxic environment of methane and ammonia from some cataclysmic event?
Or was this their homeostatic norm?
Do they breathe what kills us?
More importantly, where were they?
If someone was home, surely they would have noticed us. We weren’t exactly subtle with our signals and scans. We were like a bumblebee struggling to find a way into a flower, just bouncing off of everything until we found paydirt.
The prospect of aliens terrified and excited Maximov. His entire military career was aimed at unifying old world militaries under one cohesive force, one with no real target. Policing is no place for those trained specifically to kill with particular efficiency and with controlled violence of action. On one hand this posed an unknown threat with a countless number of possibilities, on the other an opportunity to advance humanity to a new height with a fully unified cause.
Maximov was itching for a challenge beyond political liars and bravado. He wanted a real taste of battle.
Right on schedule, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Xenonaut companies made land fall on Proxima Centauri II. Besides bacteria and algae analogs, the rock was confirmed lifeless. Nothing more advanced that a few basic multi-cellular microscopic organisms. Certainly nothing capable of building the machinery and structures found on the surface.
Proxima Centauri II was a frigid world, with average “annual” temperatures never reaching above -5°C. Her atmosphere was thinner than Earth’s, but strong nonetheless. However, it was toxic to any previously known lifeforms. While there was slightly high percentage of Nitrogen, Proxima Centauri II’s atmosphere was heavily ammonia and methane based. Oceans were comparable to Earth in surface coverage, but not nearly as deep. The roughly two thirds covered by water was mostly frozen with some liquid water present around the equator where solar radiation was able to melt.
Survey teams and their escorts quickly mapped out the territory containing the alien structures. Military squads ensured the buildings were empty before civilian teams could enter. Everything was eerily quiet, but a hum of excitement filled the air. These were the first human souls to set foot on a world not kissed by Sol. On top of that, there was life. Life that we were no where remotely close to understanding yet, but life nonetheless.
The Xenonauts got to work. They were on their own for the next few months. Phase Two was slated to finish by mid April Earth time, and the next four companies would arrive by early to mid May.
Back at the home front, expansion continued marching on. More factories and industrial capacity brought online, new vessels christened to the stars, and more colonists arriving on other worlds. By mid March 2203, Chi Pavoni and Psi Ceti had been linked to the jump network. Colonies had been established on Mars and Luna with the former boasting almost 5 million souls and the latter over 8 million. Plans were underway to exploit their material wealth.
Titan, the moon of Saturn, had been identified as a particularly important potential colony. Titan was found to be the only significant concentration of the important Trans-Newtonian element - Corundium - in the solar system. Several other bodies were confirmed to have the resource, but only Titan would be even remotely commercially viable. The first automated mining complexes were shipped to the moon, as most colonial infrastructure was already slated for transport to Mars and Luna. Although Titan was denied population for the time being, the Navy Intelligence Department did deem it a good candidate for extraplanetary tracking stations. Multiple deep space trackers were shipped to the moon in mid February, as well as Mass Driver cannons able to send the mined material wealth back home.
May came and the next four companies of Xenonauts made it to Proxima Centauri II without incident and quickly got to work themselves. Progress had been made in understanding these aliens and Xenonaut command was confident that they would have working translations ready by the end of summer.
Based on imagery and hieroglyph analogs interpreted by Colonel Elena Makarov and her command team, these aliens were dubbed the Taft Oligarchy. According to a report by Makarov herself, this was loosely based on a picture that somewhat resembled former US President Taft in “size and stature” as well as an image of a similar creature above a small group of “more normal looking” bipeds, appearing to lead them.
Xenonaut command found this humor to be relieving as tensions and fears were still high on Earth. The name stuck with the media and thus the Taft Oligarchy was cemented.
The summer brought the discovery of Luhman 16, Barnard’s Star, and Lacaille 9352. Nothing much of note in Luhman or Barnard’s save a comet or two.
Lacaille, however, held several more worlds to explore. Several gas giants and terrestrial worlds, and a massive asteroid belt. Captain Harvey Krueger put in his report that the entire system felt like a condensed Sol with a much much dimmer light. Laicaille II was even Earth sized with a nearly breathable atmosphere.
On the 10th of October, Xenonaut Command presented their report to the Assembly on Proxima Centauri II.
The structures turned out to be ruins of a far flung outpost of the Taft Ascendency. Proxima Centauri II was a fueling station with a small habitat for either potential colonists or as a “truck stop” of sorts. Xenonaut companies were able to finish their translations and identify 17 separate facilities, that were then subsequently exploited by engineers from the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th Pioneer companies.
Several of these facilities were simply fuel and maintenance supply depots, while others were production centers. Pioneers brought online a fuel refinery, 3 mining complexes, an automated mining facility manned by alien drones, a general production line, and a complex able to produce weaponry by uploading design data. Additionally, enough functioning infrastructure was recovered that life support was brought online in several areas. Turns out, this environment was hostile to these aliens as well and they too thrived on an oxygenated system.
Where the Taft were from, and where they were now, remained a mystery. The site had been abandoned for many centuries, perhaps even millennia. The last logs that were able to be recovered translated more or less to ground crews and facility workers complaining about delayed shipments and material good shortages. The presence of the mining facilities appeared to be in response to these problems. Xenonaut teams were unable to determine whether if any further logs had been recorded.
Exactly one year after Xenonauts arrived in Proxima Centauri, and 5 days shy of their planetfall date, a link to Alpha Centauri was found. Twin stars, nearly perfect for life, held many celestial bodies. Alpha Centauri A, the primary star, was orbited by two gas giants, including a Super Jovian.
Of more interest was the secondary star, Alpha Centauri B. Her orbiters included two terrestrial worlds - both with nearly breathable Nitrogen-Oxygen atmospheres with one being dupped a cold “Super Earth” at 26,000m in diameter - separated by a single gas giant slightly smaller than Neptune.
The binary system was linked to the jump network via Proxima Centauri, and hopes more Taft artifacts were high.
And those hopes were confirmed on 29 May 2204.
Orders were given immediately to redeploy the Xenonauts to this new world. Estimated arrival time was mid September 2204. The world was much warmer and more humid than Proxima. Majority of the planet was covered in dense jungle and swamps. Vascular plant analogs were present throughout the world, with much more advanced life. Several creatures were similar to isopods and arthropods, some as large as a wolf back on Earth! Most of the detected structures were near the equator on an island similar in size to Kalimantan in old Indonesia.
During this same time, more stars were linked with Ross 128 and V1216 Sagittarii were both added in January. Later in July and August, 61 Hydrae and Nu Sculptoris were discovered. Although each of these systems held orbiting bodies, none were marked as of particular note save a few rocks with atmospheres in Sagittarii and Sculptoris.
However, on the 6th of September, a link to Tau Ceti was discovered and New Horizon’s command were awestruck by the system.
Tau Ceti II, another “Super Earth” held a truly breathable atmosphere, a livable temperature, and a tolerable gravity. Overall pressure was the only problem in an otherwise perfect world. The planet was over twice the size of Earth and was quickly considered by many to be our future homeworld. Earth for over a century had struggled with population density, and this new world may hold the keys to alleviating that problem.
2204 Came to a close with the next United Nations Presidential election. Early campaigns produced three main candidates:
Incumbent Vyacheslav Maximov and the Military-Industrial Complex supporters.
Fabia Strozi and the Xenophobic Isolationist supporters.
Dakini Rao and the National Commerce supporters.
Early polling held Maximov in high regard, despite using much of his political good will throughout his term. The discovery of alien life and a missing civilization certainly bolstered his cause, but now that two years had passed the excitement and uncertainty had begun to wane. Many of his opponents argued that this civilization was long extinct and was simply proof of the Great Filter being long before us. These creatures clearly had reached the stars, but were equally clearly dead and gone! Others were more moderate believing that while yes the threat still existed, there was a need to continue to develop internally before further expanding out.
Rao represented this line of thinking. She and her supporters generally agreed that further investigation was necessary, but all the new knowledge in the universe wouldn’t help them if deficits continued to rise and capabilities lagged behind. Rao was partial to continued, but restricted, military growth so long as neither economic growth and human well-being weren’t sacrificed.
Initial voting was inconclusive. Dakini Rao was able to rally her base to be the front runner, but no single candidate won a majority. Even her plurality was weak. Fabia Strozi spent the latter half of her campaign targetting Maximov, hoping to sway voters from his camp into hers. Strozi represented a reversal faction - one aimed at demilitarizing, focusing on the homefront entirely, and limiting further extension into the void. Her strong isolationist beliefs likely cost her the election, as after the initial ballots were counted and before they were finalized, Maximov announced his departure from the race and declared his support for Rao. In his eyes, she would at least continue to fund military expeditions and ventures. He could not allow his base to be swayed into Strozi’s camp, and so he did the only logical thing as the third place candidate.
And so it was, that after the runoff election in December of 2204, Dakini Rao was declared the Fourth President of the United Nations of Earth.
The year 2205 went precisely as Rao had hoped. She curtailed some of the military build-up in favor of commercial ventures. She brought Luna to over 20 million people and Mars just under 14 million. She oversaw permanent colonies established on Titan, Ganymede, and Io, multiple more commercial mining conglomerates setup operation throughout the solar system, and the first Azov-Class Fuel Harvesting Station was put into service high above Jupiter - some 670,000 tons of pure human engineering marvel.
Several more systems were linked and mapped out including:
- Alpha Normae
- Sirius
- HIP 82725
- Pi Ophiuchi
- Xi Arae
- AD Leonis
Known systems connecting by jump points reached 22, including a loop between Sol, Wolf 359, and Chi Pavonis.
Rao began bringing attention to developing technologies to stabilize these jump points. As of yet, the only vessels capable of traversing these jumps were those equipped with Baidya-Hukkeri engines - something prohibitively expensive even for the conglomerates and mega-corporations operating in Sol.
Humanity was ready to colonize another system, they just needed the right tools.
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“Damn Ortega, this rock is killing me. How have you and your egghead friends not gotten properly cooling setup in here yet?”
“Relax Sergeant, engineering is on their way over. We’ll have your precious air-conditioning soon.”
“Precious air–, are you aware that I’ve had two NCOs and a private go down from heat exhaustion? If we have to stand around for months protecting your sorry asses from the creepy crawlies outside, you could at least help keep us from choking to death in this heat. This armor doesn’t vent well and you know it fucker.”
“The fact that you can breath freely in here is nothing short of a miracle. Be happy you don’t have to be stuck in your envirosuit the whole time.”
“Pssh. Just tell engineering to get a move on.”
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END OF PART TWO
