Beyond Light

Unidentified Vectors.

The sliding double doors to the bridge automatically spread when Captain Cortez crossed the biolecture scanner. The device and his wristcom beeped with a green light, and the disinfection web appeared. Before he continued, the figure of Commander Star approached.

“What a bunch crap, is not it?” the young man had a grin expressing bitter irony. “I’ve just re-read quickly the mission expedient. It only says that the objective was to put humans on Hawking-616a. It was never specified whether they needed us to be dead or alive. How convenient.”

“Don’t even remind me. I was thinking the same thing,” Jay swirled his eyes and sighed. He hit his cigar for one last time before putting it out. 

“Now it’s time to resume that transmission back on the sol system, I guess. They are likely still waiting to know about us. Bet they have some cover-up story just in case we don’t report again.”

“I am sure President O’Donnell and Admiral Hopkins will have many answers for all of this. Let’s get us in,” he responded with an accusing tone, and they transpassed the web, crossing the slicing doors that had a triangle of green lights on their middle.

The bridge was a white ellipsoid room, where all the crew positions were installed across the circular walls. Hydraulic arms extending from the roof suspended the seats in front of the bloated sets of physical and holographic screens, keyboards, retina lectors, and other radars and sensors spinning. Right on the other side of the entrance, a large, curved window allowed to look right away into outer space stood. The flight deck was located below it.

The bittersweet smell of sanitizing liquid crossed over their noses. Some of the main figures in charge of the ship’s main operations were already in their positions, and they didn’t seem to be any less stressed than Captain Cortez.

The room descended into a small cove at the center. A hovering white seat of red jacket stood on it alongside a series of terminals and computers. That was the captain's position, but the place he wanted to move next was the navigation deck. 

He approached. “Lieutenant Linda Hoffmann? what’s our status? tell me what we all have been wanting to hear.” 

The short-haired woman spun on her seat to face him. She looked contrastingly glad to be there compared to the rest of the crew, although the cryohangover made her look sick and pale. “Captain? Yes, sir. We are already on the Vita Nova system! I’ll show you the current map of our exact location,” she turned around and moved her fingers over her holographic interface.

She then extended the blue, circular screen of a radar. Three white dots made a triangle in the center. Another four were sparsed on the consecutive circles, and a single red dot was near the corner of the screen, blinking its tone hard and low.

“This report is from seven hours ago, Captain," explained Navigations Chief Hoffmann. "We can’t generate a new one until Hydra turns on the sensors again. Hawking-616a is a trinary system. Those three dots are the three stars located at the center, and the other dots around them are the four major bodies of the system, Hawking-616d, e, f, and g. The blinking red dot at the corner is us, the Eternity of Return. We are already on the Vita Nova System!” 

The other crewmen turned their heads around when they heard the woman yell the so-awaited news. They already knew it, but listening to it coming from the navigations officer was like already making it official on history books. Jay felt a relieving force putting some weight off his shoulders; they had successfully executed their mission, regardless of the shady tactics they weren’t warned about.

“Woohoo! we did it!” Flight Officer Dante Rossi extended both of his fists and got up his place. The other three flight assistants on the deck did the same. They all traded hugs, chuckles, and congratulations.

“Drinks on me when we’re off duty!” yelled Commander Star. He didn’t get up from his seat. As the vice-captain and executive officer of the ship, the hassle on the engineering deck with the EPAL that almost killed everyone had given him lots to work on at that moment. 

Neither of the rest of the crewmen got up to celebrate, as much as they chuckled and ovated their success. They looked as busy as him, concentrated on their terminals and their moving lines of text and images. Having to work with many of the ship's systems off was not making their job any easier.

“Good job, Lieutenant,” Captain Cortez put his hand on the young woman’s shoulder and turned around. The news had raised his mood more than the tobacco he brought in contraband. “Now, let’s not make everyone back on the Sol System wait. Ramirez,” he spoke to the communications officer. “Let’s get those buoys working. Establish a connection with the Control center and put them on my interface.” 

“Aye Aye, Captain,” the bald man enthusiastically said from his position. He moved his hands quickly over his interface.

Captain Cortez moved to the center of the bridge and sat on his seat. The image of the technician on the Control Center appeared on screen before he could even blink, but it was too blurry and undefined to see much of his expression. Jay straightened up and adjusted his cap.

“Control Center? here Master Captain Jay Cortez reporting from Hawking-616a, safe and alive. I repeat, Reporting from Hawking-616a, safe and alive. Do you copy?” 

A small chuckle sounded before the technician spoke. “Captain Cortez? here Mission Control Center at New Abuja, Earth. We receive you with some static and delay. Glad to hear you are good on there! Excellent news!” laughs and ovations could be heard coming from his blurry line. “Please, send us a status report and keep us connected. Await for further orders.”

“Understood. I’ll make my people connect to your channel,” Jay took a small breath and looked at the ceiling. A fully-fledged smile formed on his slightly wrinkly face. He had done it! All his military career had led to that moment of joy of struggle, and one of the biggest achievements in human history as well. 

His name would become widely known for generations to come, and so would the name Eternity of Return. Both he and his ship would get commemorative holograms, images pasted all over history books, and his name would become a synonym of success and progress. His long-dead father would shriek on his grave after telling him when young that he would always be a meaningless mining supervisor on Miranda.

But he saved his euphoria and desires to celebrate. He still had a job to do. “You all heard the technician guy, boys. Give the fellows on New Abuja access to our outside camera systems and the reconnaissance drones orbiting around us. Give them a general report of our current basic status and another one under confidential code about our small trouble with Terrabringer. Ask Chief Adams for a detailed report about the damage.”

“Aye aye, sir. Generating a report.”Commander Blair Star yawned and stretched his stiff arms. Most of those tasks were his responsibility as the executive officer in charge of the ship's security. 

Before Jay could move to the other positions and check the ship in more detail, the interface on his position blinked and his ear communicator beeped. 

“Captain Cortez,” the voice of the same technician on New Abuja sounded on his interface. “Now we will have you monitored. Before moving to the further parts of the mission and giving you instruction about Terrabringer’s state, we need you to rejoin Admiral Frost’s transmission. Connecting you with him in short,” 

The image of the technician disappeared, and shortly after, the white and golden figure of Admiral Frost appeared.

“Admiral Frost, sir, here Captain Jay Cortez reporting from Vita Nova or Hawking-616a. Three years and one month have passed for us. We are safe and alive on the Vita Nova system. I repeat. We are safe and alive on the Vita Nova system or Hawking-616a.”

“...Excellent news, Captain,” a smile formed on the wrinkly face of the Admiral. "Congratulations. Ad-Infinitum has been a success, and you have made history. You make every human alive and in our past proud,” he strongly nodded. 

Heavy clappings came from his distorted channel. The old man began to clap too, and then, images of various places around the solar system passed one by one on camera, filled with crowds of people yelling and moving, jumping and raising their fists and flags of their nations. 

Captain Jay recognized all of those places; New Houston, Mars, and its gigantic tubes surrounding Olympus Mons; New Tokyo on Jupiter, floating in a blue sky full of swirling winds and clouds of color brown, and New Mexico on Callisto, with the giant figure of Jupiter covering its permanent night sky. 

He heard other clapping and ovations too, but they didn’t come from the transmission. When he looked around, the crew around had left their hurried work and were cheering each other in congratulating words, warm hugs, and trading words of comradeship. 

Jay moved from his place to grip everyone’s hands and personally congratulate them. Those people were part of the reason their success was possible. They were some of the best, after all. Everyone aboard the Eternity of Return was.

“It’s been a long time, right sir?” Commander Star gripped strongly Jay’s hand. “to think that 1 year ago we were almost going to get dissembled and now we’re achieving what few will ever do.”

“I knew we were going to succeed, son. Sooner or later. This is the most advanced ship ever built, performing the most ambitious mission, after all. How could we fail?” he asked with a prideful grin. Both chuckled. “Now, I’m going to attend the transmission once again. Feel free to record your personal messages and send them to your loved ones back on the Sol System. The connection is unstable, and it could crash at any moment,” he said that loudly so everyone could hear him. They deserved it.

“Alright sir, thank you,” Blair returned to his terminal, and so did every member of the bridge. It was like the stress that came with the incident with Terrabringer had just suddenly disappeared from their minds.

Jay sat on his seat once again. His people would handle the communications with the Control Center, while he would concentrate on the rest of the public transmission. Billions of people were watching him live from 8096 light-years away.

But something that sent a shiver down his spine sounded from Navigations Chief Hoffmann. “Sir, detecting signals from unidentified vessels at less than 1'250'000 kilometers from us.”

•••

Admiral Frost felt a stream of joy rushing through his chest. More than a fellow navy man, Captain Cortez was a friend for him. They had known each other for more than 30 years, and would often share drinks and play cards on each other’s residences when off-duty. 

But more than joy for his friend, the joy he felt came from the general cheer that most of the people around or watching him shared. One could say many things about President O’Donnell, The INIS, or the Independent Service of Intelligence —ISI—, but it was an inneglable truth that Ad-Infinitum was the first step for a new era in space colonization for humanity. 

He looked down to the screen on the dais. He had to continue with a few more questions before finalizing the transmission. 

But the light on his wristcom suddenly beeped in the color red. The screen below him did the same, and the transmission with the Eternity of Return halted immediately. A message appeared on the screen below him: to finalize the transmission ASAP and report immediately to President O’Donnell’s office. 

He took a deep breath. He could already feel that it was nothing good, but he had to play along for the cameras. 

“Unfortunately, we have lost connection with the Eternity of Return. Transmitting live from 8096 light-years away is not an easy task, and it is not possible to hold a connection with them at this moment. This is all. Thanks to everyone watching us from all parts of our system. This was a moment no one will forget in centuries to come. Please stay tuned to the INIS blog on the Hypernet to receive updated news from the Eternity of Return’s mission. Thanks once again, and have a good day,” he saluted, and one second after, all the drones around him made a red beep to indicate they stopped transmitting.

All the figures surrounding him broke their formation, and President O’Donnell alongside the rest of the admirals strolled to the exit, wearing serious and concerned faces. Admiral Hopkins looked about to explode. His already pink face boiled red. He turned his face to William and launched him a nod to follow them. 

Admiral Frost got off the dais. Something told him that they had not simply lost connection with the Eternity of Return.