SERENDIPITY QUADRILOGY
The Origins of The Star Jump
Copyright
2018
Registration Number: 1-7018408439
Dated: 10/06/18
ISBN-13: 978-1727002584
ISBN-10: 172700258X
Introduction
Greetings and welcome
to The Origins of the Star Jump, a companion Novella to the Serendipity Quadrilogy.
While taking a short break from writing Volume Three of the Serendipity Quadrilogy, The Children Of The Son, which has turned out to be as expected, one-half
times longer than either Expedition of Discovery or Task Force Orion, a break was needed.
During this break, I was challenged to write this Novella with the goal of publishing it in
two-month’s-time, instead of after the entire
Quadrilogy had been published, as was my original plan.
Ten chapters and ten-thousand words in two months was my challenge. I met that and more.
I present to you now, a story like nothing I have written before.
This story is a fast-paced rollercoaster of action, suspense, drama, tragedy and discovery. It will lift you up, it will bring you down and it will twist you all around.
It is the story of how the Star Jump came
about in The Star Jump Chronicles Universe……
This story is……The Origins of the Star Jump.
While this Novella can be read with or without having read any of the other books of the Serendipity
Quadrilogy, it does have a direct tie-in to a scene in Chapter Six of Volume One of Expedition of Discovery.
The Origins of the Star Jump is an account of the discovery of the Star Jump by the Alphans, who you may remember were the first
alien species to visit the Solans, inhabitants of the Planet Earth.
FROM THE PROLOGUE OF EXPEDITION OF DISCOVERY……
The Alphans had Star Jumped into Earth’s Star System and answered their age-old
question……
”Are We Alone?”
The Alphans did not come bearing gifts, nor did they come to plunder Planet Earth, rather they came simply as explorers while mapping out the Star Systems of the Galactic Web,
much like cataloging the inventory in a warehouse.
They did, however, send greetings and information of just who and what is out there beyond the Cosmos and how the inhabitants of Planet Earth could join an elite group of sentient Species
that could travel to the Stars.
END PROLOGUE……
Over the next eighty years, the Solans mined enough Sulfultanium to build fleets of Starships with Star Jump capabilities.
After the
first five years of the Solans’ Star Jumping from Star to Star, they had traversed all of the Alphans’ known Galactic Web routes and were ready to explore the Milky Way Galaxy on their own.
They will soon discover new Stars
and Planets, as well as new viable routes throughout the Galactic Web.
But……their first attempt ended in disaster for Captain Stonebridge and the crew of the Starship Destiny as they became trapped deep in Inter-Stellar Space
and perished without a trace.
This event was noted in Chapter Six of Volume One of Expedition of Discovery as having taken place one-hundred and fifty years before the events of the Serendipity Quadrilogy.
Also on-board
the Destiny at that time was Bnggkht Tdkqif, an Alphan advisor sent by the Alphan Star Jump Command to assist the Solans with their first Star Jump into a new and undiscovered Star System.
For clarity’s sake, Bnggkht has taken the
Solan name of Bennie, as with the absence of three tongues like the Alphans, the Solans could never properly pronounce his name.
It is Bennie the Alphan, who will tell the tale of the discovery of the Star Jump.
On
a personal note, at the end of this Novella I will spin my tale of what it took to create the Star Jump Logo, complete with pictures., but for now……
I take you back now to the Mess Hall of Starship Destiny, two months into
their fateful journey and one month before Captain David Stonebridge sent his infamous last message……
1
LOCATION: DEEP IN INTER-STELLAR SPACE
On hundred-fifty years before the events of Expedition of Discovery and two months into their fateful journey, the Command Crew of the Starship
Destiny is having one of their severely rationed dinners in the Mess Hall along with the Alphan advisor, Bennie.
Bennie, the Alphan is an anthromorph like the Solans, yet he is ten feel tall and thin, with a pale white complexion.
He has glowing blue eyes and long white hair flowing back from his forehead, down along his shoulders.
He sits crouchingly amongst the Solans at their small table.
Bennie is adorned in his skin tight blue EMAGS which
is surrounded by an artificial atmosphere generated by the miniature nuclear fusion powered atmospheric generator on his utility belt.
This artificial atmosphere around Bennie’s body is so thin that Bennie appears to be glistening
and sparkling from time to time, but the glow is consistent.
Captain Stonebridge: So, Bennie, are you telling me that the Alphans never came across this situation? Ripping through a string of the Galactic Web and being deposited
into Inter-Stellar Space with no hope of ever reaching home?
Bennie: I would have to say no, Captain.
Captain Stonebridge: Please, call me David. Formalities do not really apply anymore, do they?
Bennie: Yes, I see your point, uh…...David. Yes, we have had our share of accidents and lost Starships, but since no one was ever found, we never knew what being trapped in Inter-Stellar Space is like. This is new
to me as well.
Pilot Stewart: Didn’t you Alphans discover the Star Jump and the Galactic Web?
Captain Stonebridge: Yes, they did. When exactly did that happen again, Bennie?
First Officer Barret: Yes, please tell us that story again.
Weapons Officer Martel: And, please tell us how that event brought us here to where we are now.
Bennie: Sure, sure……
Well, just over twenty-five hundred Alphan years ago, which is roughly about seventy-two thousand of your Solan years ago, we Alphans had progressed our technology to the point that we had colonized every Planet and Moon in our Star System
that could suit our needs.
This was made possible by the invention of cold-fusion. Once armed with that, we eventually built Space ships capable of incredible speeds that were fast enough to eventually take us to the edge of our
Star System in three days time.
There, we discovered Sulfultanium ore encased in the coldest, iciest bodies of our outer Star System and its cometary debris.
It was Sulfultanium that prepared our society for a technological
travel breakthrough beyond our wildest dreams.
But for the time being, it provided our Space ships protection against the stresses of the increasing speeds that we were achieving.
We soon became an Inter-Planetary
species, spreading out amongst our Star System, yet even with the speeds that cold-fusion allowed as well as the protection from Sulfultanium built Space ships, Inter-Stellar travel was still the stuff of science fiction.
We learned early
on that developing Warp Drive would severely destabilize the Galaxy, so warping Space was just not an option.
Yes, just like your Planet Earth’s place in the Milky Way Galaxy, we were just too far away to use cold-fusion technology
to get to even the nearest Star in one of our lifetimes and we were not prepared to build Generation Starships.
We did, however, build robotic Inter-Stellar Starships and sent them on one-way missions to many nearby Stars at full fusion
speed to collect and transmit back data. We did not expect an answer for many of our decades.
Anyway, since easy and affordable Inter-Planetary travel was now available, we Alphans had the luxury of visiting ten Planets and sixty-five
Moons in our Star System at our leisure, much as your Solan weekend getaway.
So common was the travel that we eventually created an Inter-Planetary Space Race to determine who had the fastest Space ship in the Star System! This event
was held every Alphan year and was called “Star System Alley”.
It was a dangerous course that took the competitors from the farthest edges of our Star System through a gauntlet of obstacles including asteroid fields, gravitational
pulls from Gas Giants, visiting an approaching Comet to rounding our Star and returning back to the point of origin.
To simplify the translation of these racing events, I will now analogize with your Solan culture of Drag Racing, combined
with Off-Road Racing and Formula One Racing and I will do it in your Solan language, complete with slang…….as best as I can translate. I do rather enjoy that period in your history …...
When the Star System Alley
first began, it was a one-on-one competition of amateurs and hobbyists of fast Space ships for the ownership papers of the Space ship……pink slips.
As the competition grew over the years, business sponsors began backing certain
Space ship teams and with all the money they could throw at them, made for the fastest ships.
Over the next few decades the race eventually became a Star System wide event and televised everywhere. The winner would now get the opportunity
to design and build their very own Space ship from scratch using the latest and greatest of technologies…...For free!
But then, in one race which took place two-thousand five hundred and fifty-three Alphan years ago, there came
along one unsponsored team, the Byron Brothers.
Just a couple of guys, brothers……a pilot and a grease money with the right ideas and doing it for the love of the speed and the race, yet they had limited resources.
Frankie “Fireball” Byron and Johnny “Tank” Byron did something with their Space ship, the X-9 that changed Alphan history forever. And Solan history for that matter as well, which is how we got here today.
Captain Stonebridge: Yes Bennie, if not for that Race, none of us would be here. We are all anxiously awaiting the story, so please, if you will.
Bennie then remembers back, just over twenty-five thousand Alphan
years ago……
2
LOCATION: THE HANGER BAY OF THE ORBITAL SPACE PLATFORM, INDY
Just hours before Heat One of the Star System Alley race, Frankie and Johnny are tinkering with Frankie’s latest idea for their Space ship, the X-9 which looks similar in design to the old Planet bound, liquid fueled rockets from many, many generations
past.
It has a pointy nose and a sleek, long fuselage with an upright tail fin and two horizontal stabilizer wings at the rear of the Space ship.
The rear of the Space ship is covered so that no one else can see what
they are doing. As they tinker, they hear a voice. It’s Moon-Doggie, the favored winner of today’s heat and the entire race who is passing by……
Moon-Doggie: Hey Frankie, what’s that big
fat thing under there? Problems with your engine? You got no chance, man. Fireball Frankie is gonna burn out and Tank? You are so slow man, I don’t even know how you two got here. This race is mine.
Johnny
pops his head out and pumps his right fist into the air.
Johnny: Hey, Moon-Doggie! Up Yours you Hound Dog! We’re gonna win this race, you’ll see.
Hours later, after all of the teams have
prepped their Space ships for the race and are floating in Space, they are lined up in a row at the starting point which is at the far edge of the Alphan Star System……the Star System Alley is just about to begin.
There are
five Space ships in finals…...
At position one is the favorite, Moon-Doggie and his Space ship, the Dog Catcher.
At position two is Dead Head with the Coffin.
Position three is manned by
Animal and his Gnarly Space ship.
In the fourth position is Riff with his Beast.
And in the fifth and final position, a position that makes it difficult to win in any circumstance is the X-9, crewed by the Byron Brothers,
Franky and Johnny who just edged out a top contender in the semi-finals to take this last position in the finals.
Yet, the X-9 has one curious large exhaust nozzle in the center of the rear of the ship in addition to their four nuclear
fusion engine exhaust nozzles at the four outermost points of engine compartment.
All other Space ships in the race have the standard four nuclear fusion engine exhaust nozzles at the four outermost points of engine compartment, making
the X-9 look like an oddity…...
Race Announcer Howard Rosell: Hello race fans and what a beauty we have in store for you today. Five of the finalist are here, ready to duke it out to see who has the fastest Space ship
in the Star System!
I bring in now Big Daddy Don Garlic, three-time winner of the Star System Alley. Big Daddy, what are your thoughts today?
Big Daddy Don Garlic, a big burly Alphan is screaming at the top of
his lungs and waving his arms all around……
Big Daddy Don Garlic: I MEAN MAN……I’M TELLIN YA, THESE GUYS ARE FAST, OKAY? FAST, FAST, FAST…….DID
I SAY FAST? MAN, THEY ARE FAST!
Howard Rosell: Okay, we’ll come back to Big Daddy in a moment, the race is about to begin in three, two, one, and there they go!
All five Space ships roar
to life with their fusion engines spewing flame out the rear of their crafts, some in different colors depending on their various fuel mixtures, yet no activity is seen coming from the curious large exhaust nozzle of the X-9. What could it be for, the
others thought.
LOCATION: IN THE ALPHAN HOUSE OF FRANKIE AND ANNETTE BYRON, ON THEIR HOME PLANET OF MSSSNAHSUUL