Ventures Heart

 

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COLONIAL GOVERNANCE DIRECTIVE - Privileged Networks - Mission Archive 

Mission Update - Exodus Vessel “Ventures Heart”
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Link Established - Intelligent Command System “SARA”
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Time on Mission: 96 Hours 38 Minutes 17 seconds.
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Cryostasis Capacity:  99.9% of stasis pods currently active.
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CAUTION: NETWORK ACCESS DETECTED!!
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Location - Main Bridge - Captain’s Command Console.
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Checking Access Security Code..............
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Captain Christopher Taylor (Serial number 1945637AF)
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Authorisation Accepted and verified!
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Updating ships audio logs............
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Log Transcript Begins at 15:37 - March 21st 2119
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[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - Okay, SARA transfer reserve power to your control!

[SARA] - Transfer complete!

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - And switch helm over to your system.

[SARA] - Helm successfully reassigned!

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - Ok, we're nearly there... Begin recording of Captain’s personal log.

[SARA] - You may begin when ready Captain.

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - This is Captain Taylor of the colonial ship “Venture’s Heart” recording my final log prior to our departure towards the Perseus system. I am pleased to say that we have a clean sheet! Not that I want to tempt fate of course, but all in all the first stage of this mission has been a resounding triumph. We cast off from Europa Station four days ago and finally cleared the outer edge of the Sol system as of 3pm, Earth central time. So our flight status is now green... All personnel (bar myself and Doctor Haskins) have been safely secured in stasis in preparation for the long journey through interstellar space and on toward our end destination. Currently I am in the process of activating the "caretaker" procedures by transferring all of the ships controls to SARA. To be honest I still find it hard to believe that for us it will feel like we all just went to sleep and woke up to find we have magically travelled many thousands of light years in one night. But for this ship it would have witnessed over 200 years of continuos flight time across the endless void of open space. My mind literally boggles at that thought! I would also be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little afraid by that same exact thought. As an experienced Naval Captain I’m so used to being able to command heavily armed vessels wherever I need them to go in just a few days or even hours, all with a fully staffed bridge of trained personnel ensuring that whatever we meet along the way, we can deal with it in that moment. But now suddenly I’m here all by myself on this huge bridge having to hand all vital functions over to the ships dedicated AI system - known only as SARA. They assure me that this system is all but perfect, but I find I still have my nagging doubts... No offence SARA.

[SARA] - None taken Captain!

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] But to be fair, I’d still have the same exact doubts leaving command to anyone other than myself, human or otherwise. What can I say, I’m a control freak! Something that can actually help when you’re commanding military vessels, but not so great when you have to relinquish that control and put your life, and that of your crew in the hands of this level of uncertainty. Although I must confess that I have seen Artificial Intelligence go far above and beyond to safeguard the lives of my crew. Especially when I was captain of the Merlin - Rogue mercenaries feigned a distress call and caught us out in an asteroid cluster, setting off a fusion bomb hidden inside a huge chunk of rock, essentially creating one of the largest fragmentation bombs in Human history! Quite ingenious really, but also very deadly. It blew out a huge section of the port side hull, crippled our defences and manoeuvring capability, forcing us to have to repel boarders when the audacious gang thought they could just waltz onto a colonial frigate and steal our weapons! I still kick myself for falling for that one... But it just amazed me how without any order or direction, the AI immediately reacted on it's own will and redirected power and life-support to ensure my crew members in the damaged areas were kept safe from unnecessary danger. We still lost eight people sadly, but I know that if not for that AI’s actions, the death toll would have been significantly worse... SARA,  can you confirm you have access to all ships power networks?

[SARA] - Access confirmed, Captain!

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - Thank you... But anyway, even with all these doubts, to be a lead part of this historic project is still one of the greatest achievements of my entire career, if not my life. A mission to establish the very first colony in a solar system far outside of our own. I mean which intrepid soul wouldn’t want to be part of that? When I was offered command of the Venture’s Heart I almost passed out. I’d been trying so hard to keep all of my expectations low so as not to suffer too much disappointment should my application fail, that it completely overwhelmed me when I was told that I’d actually been selected. I was also a little taken aback by how big this vessel really is once you get aboard her. I’ve seen large ships before, for mining operations and deep space exploration, but this one is by far the largest I’ve ever witnessed. Almost five miles long by three miles wide! I feel less like a Captain and more like the Mayor of a flying city. I’m just thankful that I’m not expected to run everything by myself. Even the most accomplished control freak would struggle with that task, believe me. So to ensure things go as smoothly as possible, every section has it’s own assigned supervisor and the Colonial Governance Directive (CGD) have highly experienced “settlement teams” onboard ready to begin setting up our new home on arrival; all of whom are currently sleeping like a baby in the stasis bay. So my job is basically to get us to the Perseus system, establish orbit around the second planet - officially designated as M1128, unofficially designated as New Earth - hit the wake up sequence and begin transporting resources, equipment and personnel down the co-ordinates chosen for the new colony. After that? Who knows?... Maybe I’ll find a small little corner of this new world to live out my retirement on. Just sit back and watch as the colony grows, knowing I helped secure a future for our species... But of course we can’t get too ahead of ourselves now can we. First of all, we have to actually get there in one piece... Okay, SARA, I’ve locked a course to the Perseus system and I’m assigning you full control of both navigation and the ships stardrive, can you please confirm?

[SARA] - Course accepted and recognised. Both navigation and stardrive control have been successfully reassigned to my network!

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - Thank you SARA... Now I know that we’ve had a lot of people back on Earth and the colonies asking why we are spending so much money and resources on such a risky mission to place a colony so far from home? One that won’t even begin setting up for another 200 years; if at all. But personally I think that Professor Singh of the Science and Exploration Centre pretty much cleared that one up as far as I’m concerned. That in recent years two rogue black holes have been discovered within this part of the galaxy, one of which the simulations predict a 75% chance that it could result in the complete destruction of our solar system sometime within the next eight to ten thousand years. So by establishing a colony in a system far out from this sector, should the worst ever come to pass then our species will live on out there in prosperity, rather than us all facing complete extinction back here. It’s a bit like that age old saying of not putting all of your eggs in one basket, except Humanity are the eggs and the sol system is our basket. The Directive certainly do love their phrases. I think their initial sales pitch for the Venture project coined at least seventeen timeless words of wisdom in a single presentation. The most recent being: “Not to hedge all of your bets on one horse!” So as big and as high-tech as she is, the Venture’s Heart isn’t going to be the only colony ship of her kind to hit the stars, as six months ago the Colonial Governance Directive managed to secure funding for a second Exodus class vessel. Now while there are no other systems, as of yet discovered for colonisation, seeing as the search is always ongoing and that it takes four long years of hard labour to build one of these beasts, it makes perfect sense that when we do find something, we have a ship and trained crew all ready to go. Lieutenant Suarez told me they’ve started a competition amongst the different schools to think up a name for our sister ship. But unfortunately we’ll be well on our way by then, so I guess I’ll have to find out what they picked two centuries from now. Actually, that reminds me... SARA, what’s the status on the com-sat relays?

[SARA] - All communication relay satellites are secured and fully operational. Ready for automatic deployment at their pre-designated co-ordinates on Mission path...

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - Thank you Sara As you can imagine, Communications between Earth and Perseus are going to be a bit of an ordeal. Even with all of our latest innovations the delay is predicted to be years long, which quite honestly is no good for anyone. So we’re carrying a compliment of fully autonomous relay satellites which will be individually dropped behind the ship at set intervals as we go. These will all help to relay messages between Earth and the new colony that much faster. They are programmed to receive transmissions, boost the signal and then send it on to the next. Much like a line of people all passing along a message. This should reduce the delay down to weeks, possibly even days, so that we can communicate with the Colonial Governance Directive in a more practical time frame. Admittedly the whole idea is a bit of a gamble in itself, because if any of them do go wrong for any reason then they can’t be repaired. It would take countless years for engineers to reach them. The developers have done all they possibly can by designing the satellites with the very latest "self-repairing" technology, even installed several independant backup systems to help prevent lasting break downs. But as I keep telling people, a mission of this magnitude will always require some give and take. Nothing is ever assured. We can’t expect conditions to always be perfect for us. There are always going to be risks in some form or another, so we need to be realistic. Maybe while we are sleeping the experts back here may invent something more effective, but as of right now it’s the best option we have available and so we have no choice but to go for it. Besides, with the amount we are set to deploy I personally estimate that we can afford to lose three or four of them without a massive degradation in signal. From what I understand it’ll be mostly for official communiques and status updates. Maybe to help co-ordinate possible future operations; I’m not entirely sure. But what I do know is that on a personal level, for all of the people on this ship, communicating with Earth is unlikely to be a high priority. Because when you really sit down and think about it, the 200 years of stasis hibernation we have ahead of us, will be a one way trip, for us and for those we leave back home. Because while we are softly sleeping, they are all growing old. For them time will roll on regardless, while we are frozen in time. So even if the communications do work as intended, by the time we wake up, there will be no one that we know left back here to communicate with. That’s the personal sacrifice every person on the Venture Project has had to accept! I myself never married, never had children. I was too much the career man,  it wouldn’t have been fair to put them through it. But I know that some of the crew, the one’s whose family members weren’t accepted into the project, are leaving behind parents, brothers, sisters... I can’t imagine what that must have felt like. Going into stasis knowing that when you wake up, all of the people you love will be long since gone. But I guess they truly believe in what the mission represents for the greater good of all Humanity. But still, I tip my hat to their courage... Right, that should now be everything assigned to your control now SARA, can you confirm?

[SARA] - Affirmative Captain! All systems are fully accessible on my network.

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - Okay then, time to go I guess... The ship is now under SARA’s control and Doctor Haskins informs me that she’s prepared my pod and is awaiting my presence in the stasis bay. So, how do I feel moving forward? This venture is wrought with danger and unpredictability! We are essentially going to sleep, pointing this ship towards a solar system we know very little about, other than a few scans which show an Earth like planet in orbit of a stable star, with nothing but an intelligent computer system at the helm. Numerous simulations of the mission reveal a sizeable risk that the Venture’s Heart could malfunction or suffer some kind of damage while in flight that could see us thrown out into deep space or destroyed entirely! But I suppose my biggest fear is the thought that we could arrive at New Earth and discover that the planet is not as suitable as we thought. Maybe in between it suffers some cataclysmic disaster that screws up the environment. After all, a lot can happen in 200 years. But, again as I have already said, it’s a risk and a struggle whichever way we go at it. Because even if everything does go according to plan, we still have a herculean task ahead of us! We are building an entire colony, quite literally from the ground up, with no one to rely on but ourselves to get the job done. Whatever we meet, whatever we face it’s all on us. If we need something that we haven’t brought with us, then we will have to find a way to fabricate it from the resources and the materials we find on the planet. So the best case and worst case scenarios are simply a matter of perspective when you really think about it. So despite all of these fears and doubts, I suppose if there is one thing I feel more than anything else, its’ a great sense of excitement! Of hope and of purpose! If ever there were a reason to face such fierce adversity and genuine danger head on, then surely this is it...  Isn’t it? True pioneers of the Human race! Yes, we could all die out there, but then we all have to die some day. We can’t escape it forever. Besides, who says that staying in our home System will be any safer? Tell that to the those eight brave sailors who died on the Merlin that day in that asteroid cluster! Just like this mission, life is also a risk whichever way you live it, and so for me it’s about deciding what risks are worth taking in the end. New Earth is worth risking everything for in my book, so that if and when that black hole touches Earth, then the lasting legacy that we will build shall serve as an enduring beacon of hope and prosperity for all Human kind... End of log.

[SARA] - Ending recording.

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - SARA, the bridge and indeed the ship are now yours. Take good care of her.

[SARA] It is my prime directive Captain.

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - But can you do me one favour? If anything goes wrong; like I mean really wrong!

[SARA] I have orders to wake all senior staff and technicians in the event of a major event or incident Captain.

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] - I would certainly appreciate that, thank you. Talk to you in 200 years SARA. Hopefully at Perseus.

[SARA] - Sleep well captain.

[CAPTAIN TAYLOR] Thank you... Please inform Dr Haskins’s, I’m on my way.

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Log Transcript Ends - 15:56  March 21st 2119
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Final Mission Update - Exodus Vessel “Ventures Heart”
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Link Established - Intelligent Command System “SARA”
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Time on Mission: 96 Hours 56 Minutes 12 seconds 
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Cryostasis Capacity:  100% of stasis pods currently active.
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CGD Mission Authentication key received... Codes Accepted
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Course heading - Perseus System - checked and verified.
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Activating ships stardrive in 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - - - - - - -  (signal lost) 
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