Farthest Reaches, page 1
FARTHEST REACHES
©2024 BRANDON ELLIS & MAX WOLFE
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CONTENTS
Also in Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Thank you for reading Farthest Reaches!
ALSO IN SERIES
Farthest Reaches
Starship Arcadia
CHAPTER ONE
My name is Scott David Moore. Yes, that Scott David Moore, the Savior, the Star Butcher, the Golden Tyrant, the Hero of Sol. Not many know about my real personal life. I doubt anyone would understand. Not even you. You can go read a million myths about me, and only a handful of them are true. People still think I was the first to make contact with an alien race. If only that were true.
I was born on 16 July 2141, in the middle of the Great Famine. Back then, it wasn’t easy feeding a family, but we lived in a small farmhouse outside Billings, Montana. With dad and the rest of us kids working the farm, I grew up with enough to eat. I was tasked with taking care of chickens, and I almost gave up eating meat during that time. Of course, I did other things too. I put up fences, ran perimeter patrols in our old armored van, and helped reload ammunition. Back then, farms traded a lot with each other for basic supplies, and on more than one occasion, I worked crops on various government farms.
My grandfather on my father’s side emigrated from Scotland during the purges, escaping on the last boat before the fall. He taught me how to play chess, took me to church, showed me how to run a trout line, and how to throw a punch. He used to tell me stories about how when he was growing up, there were grocery stores on every block and if you wanted a Pepsi, you could go down to the recharge station and buy one. I wanted to live in a world like that more than anything.
In a lot of ways, my grandfather raised me because my father spent so much time training and organizing the local militias. Every month, Dad deployed with the National Guard because of the food riots. He didn’t talk much unless he drank and then he’d spend a lot of time on the phone, talking to his friends. “A man’s duty is to protect,” my father would always say. “You wouldn’t be here if your ancestors didn’t sacrifice their lives.” Heavy words for a ten-year-old.
My dad started hiding ammunition beneath the floorboards and said to stay away from the pond out back. We ran drills about where to go in case something happened and we needed to leave the house. He and mom would have long talks by the tool shed, so I couldn’t overhear them. She raised her voice to him one time, and I thought she might slap him.
Dad set up a still and started to store alcohol in ceramic jugs. He taught me how to shoot. His friends stopped calling, and my father stopped drinking. When I asked if everything was okay, he’d nod and tell me everything was going to be fine. Then our meals started to rapidly shrink. My mom kept a notebook with her and made sure we had enough calories during the day.
I’d watched enough holos to know what was coming.
When I turned seventeen, the Chinese claimed they were close to launching a ship in hopes of finding a garden world since our world’s soils were almost dead. The U.S. wasn’t about to let them be the first to leave the solar system. Asia had lost an entire generation to hunger and another one to war. The U.S. wasn’t far behind them either.
I grew up after the war had already ended, though before I left Terra, it looked like another one would start any minute. There would be no winners next time.
I remember one Christmas, Mom cooked one of the best meals I’d ever had. Everything was perfect. Even if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like pumpkin pie, I’d have asked you to try my mother’s before you make up your mind completely. Everyone was sad at the table because we knew we’d never eat that good again. It was a goodbye meal. Grandpa said grace, and we shared what we were grateful for. I said I was thankful for having a roof over our heads, but I wanted to say I was grateful to have a family. Most kids my age didn’t.
Even as a kid, I thought of being a starship captain. You watch enough of the old sci-fi holos, you start to hope humanity has a better future on the horizon if only we can just stop fighting one another. Or however it goes. My grandfather had a stash of movies, and we’d watch them during our free time. Silicon Valley stopped making sci-fi holos when I turned fifteen. No one was watching them anyway.
I joined the Space Force after graduation. I sent my parents money every month, and when possible, I mailed care packages full of goodies—vitamins, coffee, chocolate. Anything they could trade.
Looking back, it seems only yesterday when we first set off to the stars. If we’d thought about it longer, maybe we wouldn’t have dipped our toes into the void so quickly.
The story I’m about to tell you isn’t as much about me as much as it’s about the fate of our species. For those of you still alive, you should know I tried to save as many people as I could, no matter what you might’ve heard. War is hell, as they say. War with an interdimensonal alien race is something else entirely. For every soul who served under me, I thank you with all my heart. You are the true heroes.
This is how it happened.
CHAPTER TWO
YEAR: 2185
U.S.S. Atlanta
I’d just learned that in less than twenty-four hours, my crew and I might be blown apart in the void of space. Our AI, Melody, warned us that our jumpdrive was set to fail. It was definitely going to be one of those days.
I was in Engineering, where the heart of ship stood ready to take us light years beyond Earth. The Aries Drive rose behind me. Holoscreens glowed in every direction. Engineers buzzed around me, and despite the pressure, everyone remained calm.
A technical sergeant with a sweaty brow passed us, grimacing. “Captain.”
I nodded in his direction. “Stay the course, Sergeant.”
“Aye, Captain.”
A sense of pride washed over me. My crew was the best Earth had to offer, and nothing would change my mind about that.
They were doing all they could down here. Double-checking graphs, comparing notes, getting Melody’s help on damn near everything because the AI ultimately ran the ship.
Chief and I gathered around one of the free-standing consoles near the turbo lift. As captain of the starship U.S.S. Atlanta, my hands were full with last-minute preparations until we initiated our first jump. This ship was all that stood between billions starving or the chance at a new beginning upon a distant world.
“These numbers and percentages… are they
“I’m afraid they are, Captain.” Chief Engineer Pete Breckinridge worked at a console next to me as both of us tried to figure out if we were going to achieve faster-than-light travel or be obliterated. Pete was a good friend of mine, but I called him by his rank. Chief shook his head. “You want to talk about last minute changes affecting how we do business down here—these new changes are insane. Whoever authorized these should have their head examined. Between Space Force, Equinox, and Melody Systems, we have too many chefs in the kitchen.”
Chief said it loud enough for the Equinox engineers doing the last-minute updates to hear him. Equinox designed the drive under conditions a hundred times more secretive than the Manhattan Project.
Chief was a good friend, and as the tallest member of the crew, he towered over me. His jumpsuit bore the colors of Space Force; silver and blue. Every branch of service had a motto. Ours, Semper Supra, Always Above, was stitched on our shoulder patch, a motto I believed in with all my heart because it exemplified not only Space Force’s duty to protect the United States and her allies but spoke to our moral character. Always above, carry yourself as heroes, and you will one day become one. It was an honor to wear this uniform, and I was proud to serve the best nation on Earth. Could you blame me?
“Makes you wonder why Equinox didn’t fully test the drive in advance,” Chief said.
He was right of course. “Tell me about it.” Atlanta was built around the drive, and it took a ship the size of her to empower it. “If Space Force tested the drive and some catastrophe occurred onboard the ship, we’d lose both the ship and the drive.”
You’re probably asking why we didn’t test the drive’s full capabilities. It came down to a contractual agreement amongst other things. Melody Systems, the corporation who designed our AI, had several disagreements with Equinox which had everything to do with trade secrets. Without AIs like Melody, Equinox couldn’t have built the drive, but without Equinox building the drive, Melody wouldn’t receive the enormous amounts of federal grants and tax write-offs.
My mission began with two goals. One, complete the first interstellar trip to a distant world called Victoria, in hopes we could colonize it and survive. The fate of humanity rested on whether or not we succeeded. Two, we needed to prove faster-than-light travel was possible for reasons I’ll explain below.
The Great Famine, caused by a global nutrient depletion in soils, brought humanity to its knees, and within a century, food would become a relic of the past. As a kid, I’d read about how the Chinese used a bioweapon to starve out a rebellion in a few of their provinces, and that was how things got to where they were. The agricultural chemical they used spread far and wide, killing most of the soil, and hence, killing most of the plants. Later, I’d learned those were rumors put out by the State Department, so who knew what was true? Back in the day, we’d almost wiped ourselves out when a few corporations thought they could invent an immortality injection. They said we’d all live forever because our telomeres would stop decaying. If you ask me, the Great Famine could be traced back to that event.
With FTL travel, if we could prove that a ship could break the laws of physics, and better still, use that technology to find a habitable world, humanity could come together and work toward a common good. So the theory went. The first country to do it would dictate the terms of that “common good,” and I wanted to be a part of that. I valued freedom and individual liberty. I was American, after all.
China was close to launching their ship, and by close, I mean in the next decade. As far as we knew, they hadn’t quite cracked the code on how to build a reliable FTL drive, but it wouldn’t be long.
Chief punched up several windows on his holo containing data on the drive and compared them. “I can’t make sense of this.”
A small red dot blinked in the upper corner of his screen. “Sir, we have time to request another dataset from the Pentagon,” Chief said. “They’re the only ones who can confirm any of this.” Chief punched up the last launch information we received from Earth. “What Space Force sent us makes no sense whatsoever.”
“What’s this number?” I pointed to a textbox flashing red.
“That’s the moment Space Force detected the anomaly. It almost went unnoticed, and no one knows exactly what it means.” Chief highlighted rows of calculations given to us by the finest American AIs. “Our AIs disagree with each other on what the anomaly might be. It shouldn’t exist.”
I needed an aspirin. “Care to explain what the anomaly might be?” I gestured to the date Space Force’s satellite network detected the disturbance. “How did the anomaly go undetected?”
“No idea, sir. If anyone other than the AIs understood how the drive works, I could probably give you a better answer.”
He pinched the holographic graph and widened his fingers over the holodisplay, enlarging it. “The anomaly wasn’t there before.” The graph’s X and Y axis showed the Aries Drive gaining power until it launched us into jumpspace. The graph should have shown an even black line up until we translated, but instead, right at the moment the Aries Drive was to catapult us past FTL speeds, the simulation predicted a massive drive failure might occur.
Why didn’t anyone pick this up?
According to what I was reading on the screen, a quantum fluctuation occurred at precisely the time when our jumpdrive started to spool up. The computer listed the most important American AIs: Ford-Freedom, America’s Open-AI, Silicon Valley’s Grypion, HUMAN-8, and a dozen others. Next to them, the AIs gave their predictions on possible Aries Drive failures. The Los Niños AI based in Miami-Dade detailed the highest result of failure, a whopping 15.031% chance we’d rip open reality and blow up the universe.
None of them could explain the anomaly. It was as if something out there knew we were ready to accelerate our ship faster than light, something that obviously shouldn’t be possible.
And those AI figures bothered me. Was Space Force still willing to risk existence in order for us to find a habitable world? The way I looked at it, none of us had a choice. Because of the distances involved and the nature of the jumpdrive, by the time it would take to recalculate a jump to Victoria, the Chinese would’ve probably launched their own ship.
Chief scratched his chin. “With this anomaly, maybe someone down on Earth knows what it is, but they’re afraid someone might pick up the transmission.”
“Could be. The Sino Bloc is certainly monitoring our comms. Still, to send updates to Melody and the jumpdrive this late in the mission….”
“Looking at all these AI predictions, it’s the first time I’ve seen so many computers disagree on something.” Chief glanced behind him and lowered his voice. “You wanna hear something, Captain?”
“Shoot.”
“The only AI that doesn’t think the Aries Drive will fail is Melody.” Chief spoke about Atlanta’s AI, the most advanced artificial intelligence ever created. If the Aries Drive was our ship’s circulatory system and heart, Melody was its brain. That’s where my brother came in. He designed it.
Chief brought up a new holo. “Melody’s prediction remains the same—2.496%, just under the safety threshold necessary for launch.”
“Melody knows the Aries Drive better than anyone. That sounds like a good thing. We can’t change our launch window.”
“Not unless we want to end up in dead space. If we miss our window, who knows where we might end up?”
Let me tell you a quick story.
When the Kessel 2 satellite first picked up signs that Victoria might be habitable, I was out on Lake Tahoe with my nephew. It was his birthday, and I’d been lucky enough to win a fishing license. He wanted to go fly fishing, and if you ask me, it was one of the hardest things to pick up. Sure, it was all in the wrist, but it felt incredibly awkward. He caught a five-kilo bass that day and said it was one of the best days of his life.
When we went back to the hotel, my sister was glued to the holo, watching the images come in. None of us could believe it.
Earth Two, some called it. The Real Garden of Eden. According to scans, it wouldn’t take much for us to live there. The gravity was relatively close to Earth’s, and the oxygenated atmosphere meant we could breathe the air. We had a second real chance.
