Zephyr's Odyssey - Stellar Wave

Part I | Read time : 7 mins

Sep 23, 2023

Hello to all the hundred and fifty-six people who have subscribed!

I had said I would be away for two weeks but I went away for almost two years!

But in an alternate universe, two weeks could well be equivalent to two years! After all, no one fully understands the mysteries of space, time, and the universe.

This story started as a short story but describing a fictional world takes a lot of patience. This has now become a multi-part story spanning at least 3 or 4 parts so subscribe now to automatically receive the next parts in your email inbox!

Here is part one… Hope you’ll like it!

Stellar Wave

Interstellar space is like a vast ocean of nothingness. If you did not have a jump-drive-enabled ship, small distances like the one between Aelorian and Veridian, the two outermost planets of the Astrylis System, would take up to 140 rotations. A jump-drive-enabled ship would take at the most 1 or 2 rotations. Aelorian was the outermost with Veridian technically the closest planet in a series of 28 planets revolving around the red giant - Crimsonite.

Approximately 2.5 billion years ago, the system had more than 40 planets but as the Sun started expanding, Astrylans started migrating outwards and eventually occupied Aelorian and Veridian as well.

Veridian was the last mineral outpost. The entire planet was rich in Chronomium with approximately 5 billion billion tonnes of this special element that powered all the jump-ships of the system. It was initially found in one of the planets consumed by Crimsonite, half a billion years ago. Chronomium’s special property was that at the right ignition temperature, it could make a tear in the space-time continuum. It took millenniums for this civilization to master the accurate amount of Chronomium required for jumping to nearby planets. But once they mastered it, one planet after the other started getting occupied. With the red giant increasing in size and consuming one planet after the other, this element of nature helped the Astrylan civilization become interplanetary.

Aelorian was the smallest planet in the system if you wished to call it a planet. It was the base camp for the next frontier. A few thousand Astrylans worked on this planet which was a spaceport in itself. Their mission was to find a precise way of reaching the Aurorian System. Astrylans had been running away from the Red Giant for millions of years, they knew that to survive for the next few millions or billions of years, it was important to find the next planetary system. After years of looking into the great abyss, Astrylans found the Aurorian System at a distance of 12 parsecs around 3 millenniums ago, but much to their dismay their spaceships could only jump 2 parsecs at once, and refueling midway was not possible. Since then the Astrylans kept their eyes on the Aurorian System and kept researching about how they could reach there. There was ample time but not enough resources. Veridian was one of the last 2 planets with Chronomium reserves. Without Chronomium, their spaceships would take millions of years to reach the Aurorian System, probably making their entire civilization go extinct.

Astrylans on Aelorian had an idea of how to reach the Aurorian System. Space and Time continuum can be imagined as a piece of cloth. The Sun sits in the middle of the cloth causing a trough. The planets revolve around the Sun like marbles going around the troughed cloth. If you could fold the cloth in a way that you could reach the other end of the system and then tear your way through the cloth, interstellar travel could be possible. This was the basic premise that the Astrylans used. The Chronomium and the spaceships were the tools to achieve this. The Aelorian sect of Astrylans were looking for a planet or a set of planets on the opposite side of the Aurorian System to which they could directly travel under 2 or 3 parsecs and then jump the distance of 6 parsecs at once in their AstroLeaps. This would still require 2 jumps but the idea was to find a planet rich in Chronomium or a planet that would be big enough to become a refueling station. The AstroLeaps were also being redesigned to be able to jump farther than 2 parsecs and also carry up to tens of millions of tons of Chronomium fuel.

Zephyr Nova was born and brought up on Veridian. Being a planet of mineral reserves, there was nothing much for Zephyr to do there, so he responded to the hiring broadcasts from Aelorian. The Aelorian sect of the Astrylans was looking for exploratory pilots to find planets full of Chronomium. Zephyr was a passionate pilot. He loved his Echolight II series spaceship. It was fast and sturdy whether running inside the atmosphere or out in space. Once he got selected as an exploratory pilot, he had 200 rotations before he had to report on Aelorian. On the 46th rotation, he started his journey. He knew he would reach well before the deadline and since he was traveling alone, he did not want to hang around in the spaceship doing nothing. Zephyr set up the cryo chamber to revive him 3 rotations before the destination. He then went to his liquor collection, poured himself a drink, gulped it down, and stepped into the chamber. The chamber made a small hissing sound as Zephyr went into cryo-sleep.

The doors of the cryo-chamber opened with a low hissing sound. The cryo-gel was drained as per the procedure and Zephyr woke up like nothing had happened since he gulped down that drink 140 rotations ago. He walked out of the chamber and went to the ship’s console as a force of habit. The vast abyss of nothingness welcomed him sprinkled with minute stars. Crimsonite was nowhere to be seen. This was odd. The Red Giant was always visible, no matter the direction one traveled in. Zephyr pulled down the touchscreen navigation controls to get an update.

“What? No! No? NO! What? How? What the fuck!? No! No! Where the fuck am I?”

Panic started setting in. Zephyr repeatedly put in the commands to locate himself and the spaceship’s computer kept giving the same answer.

Distance from Aelorian = 2.3 parsecs

He felt scared for the first time in many years. He was all alone on a spaceship, stranded in the middle of nowhere, a few parsecs from the closest known planet and without a jump-drive-enabled ship.

“How is this even possible?”, he said to himself and proceeded to open the spaceship’s logs for the last 140 rotations.

Spaceship log size = 4.5 GB

“For fuck’s sake! This is going to take a few rotations!”, the number of 4.5 GB on the screen brought a weird sense of calm inside him. He brought the ship to a halt and let it float fixed in space. There was a fuel and air supply for the next 7 rotations. There was enough food and liquor supply for another 10 rotations. He went to the liquor cabinet and poured himself half a glass of drink and gulped it down again. He then took most of his food and liquor supply to the control center of the ship. He cut off air supply to the parts of the ship that he knew he would never have to go. He shut down a few systems that were not needed to conserve fuel. The food, fuel, and air would now last the same amount - 10 rotations!

“Now… I am 2.3 parsecs from Aelorian but where exactly am I?”, he thought to himself. He pulled up the navigation control screen and started doing his calculations. Parallely, he started traversing the ship’s logs. He was done with half of one of the bottles of liquor as well.

The location calculations were done.

Location from Aelorian = 2.3 parsecs (S-T jump)
Location from nearest rocky planet in Aurorian System = 6.5 parsecs (S-T jump)
Location from nearest rocky planet = 0.5 parsecs (linear jump)

“But how is that even possible? How did I jump 2.3 parsecs without a jump-drive?”

“Ah the logs will tell me!”, he turned to look at the other screen that had logs infinitely scrolling, “Damn, this is only 20 rotations since the cryo-sleep and nothing out of the ordinary!” He started to focus only on the logs and increased the speed of scrolling. “There!”, he paused the scrolling logs and scrolled up a bit.

Rotation 50: Incoming Stellar Wave. Origin - Crimsonite

“A stellar wave! That has not happened in… I don’t know!”, he actually didn’t. Stellar waves were so rare that they were considered almost legendary or mythical. There were only stories that were passed down centuries of folklore. No one had ever seen one or at least lived to tell the tale. Zephyr continued reading the logs.

Rotation 50: Incoming Stellar Wave. Origin - Crimsonite..
Rotation 50: Incoming Stellar Wave. Origin - Crimsonite..
Rotation 50: Incoming Stellar Wave. Origin - Crimsonite..
Rotation 50: Incoming Stellar Wave. Origin - Crimsonite..
Rotation 50: Host in cryo-sleep. Performing Collision Aversion Protocol..
Rotation 50: Collision Aversion Protocol - Calculations setting a path for collision with CargoLeap X6500..
Rotation 50: Collision Aversion Protocol - Recalculating a safe path..
Rotation 50: Collision Aversion Protocol - Recalculating a safe path..
Rotation 50: Collision Aversion Protocol aborted. Contact with Stellar Wave residue..
Rotation 50: System Abort Protocol - Rebooting Ship. Host in Cryo-Sleep, Diverting all power to Cryo-Chamber..
Rotation 50: Ship rebooted. Systems normal..

“This does not make sense! Did the Stellar Wave hit me? Did the Collision Aversion Protocol work? No, no, no… No!”, he continued staring at these logs. “This absolutely does not make sense! I need to rest…”, he then stood up and went to the single bed outside the command center and dozed off to sleep.

He awoke to the loud beeping sound of an incoming communication signal. He thought he was dreaming but the beeping sound kept growing louder. He sat upright in a swift motion and his head spun for a few seconds. The beeping sound continued.

“Communication signal? In the middle of nowhere?”, he trod slowly into the command center of the ship only to be greeted by a bright beam of light. His eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the high-intensity beam of light. He turned towards his navigation console and other screens. He was asleep for 4 rotations! Fuel & air supply would have lasted him for only 4 more rotations. The beeping had not stopped. He finally pressed the button to display the incoming communication.

This is the Naval Fleet from Aelorian on a rescue mission. We detect life forms on this ship. If you are alive and receiving this message, please respond to us, or else we will be forced to board the ship.
— Commander Starling

Zephyr was elated to read this message. He quickly responded back -

I am Zephyr Nova of Veridian! Veridian in the Astrylis System! I am alive and well! I don’t know how I ended up here! Please help me!

The beeping started again, he pressed the button to print the message -

Zephyr Nova of Veridian, we are happy to have found you alive and well. Prepare your ship to be towed into the AstroLeap in a few seconds.
— Commander Starling

Before he could finish reading, Zephyr felt the tug of a gravitational beam. His Echolight II started drifting towards the AstroLeap. He sat down on his command chair and fastened his seatbelts. “Commander Starling sounded a bit rude, isn’t it? But at least someone found me! I am too young to be dying stranded in the middle of nothingness.”, he thought to himself.

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