Where Is The Endeavour?

Part of the first chapter. Very early rough draft.

Chapter 1

Where Is The Endeavour? �" February 1, 2198

As told by Captain Michael

We made it to the center of the Milky Way as planned.  We are holding position approximately 100 million miles from a singularity at the heart of the Milky Way.  The strain on the engines to maintain this position is extreme.  We have been expending a great deal of energy just to keep us from being pulled into the singularity. 

My first officer commander Donovan Endeavour has been working with the science team to find a way to maximize the power output of our core to ensure we can continue to maintain this position.  In case you were wondering, Donovan’s grandfather was the President of the United States 25 years ago.  The ship was named after his grandfather. 

Donovan and the science team came up with a brilliant plan to keep the power output maximized.  SH470 is basically a capacitor in that it stores energy from a number of different sources.  Outside of it’s own ability to generate power, it can also be charged to hold far more power than it generates on it’s own.  The singularity has a great deal of energy that it is pulling in from inside its gravitational realm. 

Capturing that energy and storing it in SH470 was Donovan’s idea.  The science team made it possible.  Now we are testing that idea to see if we can manage our distance without significant loss of power.  Assuming it is properly aligned, the power out should be less than the power in from the singularity.  Which means we should be able to hold position indefinitely.

Captain Michael: “Commander, are we ready to engage the collectors.”

Commander Donovan: “Yes sir.  Ready to go on your word.”

Captain: “Activate the collectors.”

Commander: “You heard him Lieutenant.  Activate the collectors.”

The lieutenant touch’s a console display and motions a touchscreen button to start the collectors.  It was a few minutes before we noticed a difference.  However, when it went into full effect, the charge on the SH470 capacitor started to increase rather than decrease significantly as was previously happening.  Moments later, Donovan messaged over the communication system that the collectors appear to be working. 

Captain: “Well now that we have the ships power core stabilizing, what’s the course of scientific experiments in the docket for today?”

Ensign Ramirez, the daughter of President Mark Ramirez punched up a list of the experiments that we were scheduled to get underway once we arrived.  The experiments delayed by our initial power issues upon arrival were simple, but would take several hours to complete.

Captain: “Very good ensign.  Please relay these to the commander and tell him to get underway with the experiments as soon as his science team is ready to begin.”

Ensign: “Yes sir!”

Just as the order went out a jolt hit the ship, followed by a second jolt. 

Captain: “Report!  What is going on?  Were we hit by something?”

Ensign: “Unknown sir.  The sensors are inoperable this close to the singularity.  We aren’t even sure we are in fact holding proper attitude and position from the singularity.”

I called out over the comm system to order the commander to report to the bridge.  Before I could even get the order out, the elevator doors opened to reveal the commander.  He stepped out and immediately went over to one of the science stations on the bridge.

Captain: “Commander, any idea what just hit us if anything?”

Commander: “No sir.  Still trying to determine that.”

Another jolt hit the ship, followed by two more jolts and a flash in the bridge window/view screen. 

Captain: “I don’t think that was a result of the singularity.”

Commander: “Ensign, set a course to back us away from the singularity.  Lets see if we can get far enough away to use the ships sensors and figure out what is going on.”

Another jolt hit and another flash. The bridge goes dark for a moment at which the bridges emergency lights automatically came on seconds later.  Two more jolts and an alarm. 

Commander: “Breach on deck three.  Lock down the breached sections.  Order all personnel off of deck three.”

Ensign: “Captain, we have ship wide loss of power.”

Captain: “Sound yellow alert.  Send a distress message.  Commander, I want a report as soon as you know something.” 

Commander: “Distress sent.  Distress buoy launched. Captain, deck three has been cleared.”

Captain: “Very good. Have we backed off enough from the singularity to get the sensors online?”

Another jolt hits the ship and suddenly quiet.  Power returned as if out of nowhere.

Captain: “Report!”

Ensign: “The sensors are online sir.  However, something is not right.”

Commander: “Ensign, what do you mean by that statement?”

Ensign: “The singularity is no longer there sir.”

The commander begins running scans from his console to which he reported similar results.

Commander: “Captain, the stars are not in the right place.  We don’t appear to be anywhere near the singularity.”

Captain: “What is our present location?”

Commander: “Sir we are orbiting…”

The commander’s hesitation was uncharacteristic.  Clearly something was not as he expected.

Commander: “We are in orbit of the Earth.”

Captain: “Earth?  That’s impossible.”

Ensign: “There’s something else sir.  According to the scanners, the moon is uninhabited.  There doesn’t even appear to be any of the normal orbiting platforms over the planet.”

Captain: “What?  How is that possible?”

Commander: “Unknown sir.”

Captain: “Call Lieutenant Weatherly to the bridge please.”

Commander: “Yes sir.”

The young Lieutenant steps onto the bridge moments after the commander called for her to join the bridge crew.  She looked out the view screen at the planet below.

Michelle: “Is that Earth?”

Captain: “You tell me.”

Michelle stopped at one of the science stations to take scans and find out what was indeed in front of the ship.  It did not take her long to confirm of course, that this was indeed Earth.

Michelle: “Yes sir it is indeed Earth. Judging by the pollution content though, it is pre-industrialized.”

Captain: “Pre-industrialized?  How is that possible?”

Michelle: “I don’t know sir. We need to take a scout ship down there and determine where we are.  Perhaps when we are.”

Captain: “Not yet. We still don’t know what we are dealing with here.”

Michelle: “Yes sir, I agree. Your orders?”

Captain: “Commander, wake up all the senior members of the science team. Lets work the numbers and figure out where and/or when we are.  Have the science team meet me in the briefing room in 30 minutes.”

Commander: “Yes sir.”

Reviews

[YoshiPiccollo]

Very intriguing. I would love to read more.

[Chris A Jones]

The first novel to the series is out now. Entitled 'Reversione: Reset the Future'. This short is the continuation of the series. The novel for this will be entitled 'Reversione: Lost in Time'. Hoping to have that one out early next year.

[Chris A Jones]

Thanks for reviewing BTW.

[wordman]

reads like a movie script,enjoyed

[Chris A Jones]

That's was actually intended. It was written in this form to make it easy to turn into a screenplay if that makes sense.

[wordman]

i`m not much on screen plays or novels,never tried,never had a calling to do so i guess,admire people that can

[Chris A Jones]

I'm kind of the other way. Prefer stories over poetry. Although, I am starting to have some fun with poetry. Not sure I really am a poet though.

[wordman]

not sure if i`m one,

[Chris A Jones]

Better than me from what I can see. But that's just an opinion.

[T.S. Sky]

Very interesting to read. I would like to read more of it.

[Chris A Jones]

Thank you for your kind words. I am finishing my manuscript on the first book in this series now. So hopefully I will be getting into this one in the next few days. Looking forward to getting this one started actually.

[T.S. Sky]

Nice. Great work. :)