Methoshua

     The year was 2153 and humans had finally colonized a great deal of their star system. Interplanetary spacecraft were routinely running supply lines and shipping routes to colonies out as far as the moons of Neptune. There was even talk of a new venture to explore the minor planets even father out. By this time also just about every orbiting body had been mapped and charted in the inner part of the Sol system, with some areas of the outer parts still uncharted. While advances in interplanetary propulsion had cut the time to reach the outer planets to just weeks, there were still problems developing the technology to carry humans to the stars. This is not because it hadn't been discovered yet. On the contrary, a way had been found to warp space-time such that one could easily travel faster than the speed of light to reach all corners of the Milky Way galaxy. It was even theorized that with enough energy put into it the drive one could travel to neighboring galaxies. The universe had suddenly opened itself up and companies everywhere were racing the clock to develop the first real star ship. 

     The Vandenburgh company had expanded its reach to nearly every corner of the charted Sol system. It was responsible for the production and service of huge interplanetary spacecraft in orbit at the Mars space docks, as well as numerous small craft used for a variety of purposes throughout Sol system. Its research division was also hot on the trail of the development of a practical star drive to carry the first interstellar mission to our nearest star neighbor Proxima Centauri. The company established a research station around the planet Neptune to pursue its experiments in star drive technology. Creating a space warp around an object in the lab was easy. It had been done many times before on very small scales, even in labs on earth. What had not been done was to build a larger version that would propel a craft through space-time. At the Vandenburgh Neptune Research Station in orbit about the planet Neptune a brand new spacecraft with a propulsion system unlike anything before it was taking shape. 

     The Methoshua, named for the Vandenburgh company's founder Methoshua Vandenburgh, lay floating in its space dock. A small ship by interplanetary spacecraft standards, about 300 meters long and roughly 100 meters in diameter. It was a prototype, a test bed for humankind's first adventure into deep space. It was largely constructed of a cylindrical shaped open scaffold that held its sections together, and it didn't carry anymore conventional propulsion than the standard docking thrusters. The meat of its main drive was the Vandenburgh Star Engine located deep within the ship along its center of gravity. The star engine itself was nearly as long as the ship. It was composed of several coils of superconducting magnets focusing their energy on a single one dimensional line in space running through the center of the ship lengthwise. The whole thing was powered by several fusion reactors located near the aft section. If all went according to theory, activating these coils would produce a space-time warp bubble that propagated outwards to surround the entire ship. Oscillating the coils while they were activated could produce motion forward or backwards against established space-time outside of this bubble. Speed could be enhanced or reduced by adjusting either the amount of power put into the system or by minute changes in warp wave resonances created by the oscillations.  There was only a bare minimum life support in several access tubes running along the ship's length because the first few tests were to be run remotely. The effects of warping space around a human body was not fully understood, though it was known that the initiation of a star engine could produce copious amounts of highly directional gamma and X rays forward and aft of the ship.  

     Advances in quantum communications devices had made communications across vast distances virtually instantaneous. A technology that had outpaced space travel by light years, the ability to communicate over such vast distances had been established almost one hundred Earth years ago. You could be sitting in your office around Neptune watching the local news back home on Earth in real time. This would also make remote operation and data collection of the Methoshua possible, even while the star drive was activated and the ship was in motion.

     The day came for the first test of the Vandenburgh Star Engine on the Methoshua and everyone had a front row seat. The first test did not involve any deep space travel rather it was to prove the engine would start up and form a stable warp bubble. Company officials from the top to the bottom were on hand to witness the event and live coverage was provided throughout Sol system for all to see. The Methoshua was towed out to a distance of a kilometer from the space dock for a final check. This would be the first time anyone had ever seen a warped bubble of space-time forming around anything so large. The final check proceeded with all systems nominal and the technical team began evacuating the Methoshua's access tubes. The towing ship Jackhammer detached itself from the docking port of the Methoshua and proceeded a kilometer away at a ninety degree angle from Neptune Station. The Methoshua was maneuvered so that its forward and aft profiles were pointing away from Neptune Station and the Jackhammer. Another check of the remote links to Neptune Station was initiated and with all systems nominal the signal was given to initiate the Methoshua's star drive for the first time. A technician input the computer command and the star drive came online. A brilliant flash of light briefly lit up the internal workings of the rings of superconducting magnets all along the length of the ship. For a moment the Methoshua looked as though it was a distorted mirage which instantly cleared, leaving a faint line of distorted background stars surrounding the ship. A round of applause resounded through the control center as technicians and company officials congratulated themselves on a job well done. Humanity had achieved true interstellar travel capability.