As
part of my participation in My
500 words, I am posting what I write each day. The following is backstory not
included in my novel, Sidewinder.
When humankind
stumbled on the ability to travel at light speed, the galaxy suddenly shrunk.
Population on Earth was reaching critical mass despite limiting laws. So
governments began building jump ships to carry humans to other worlds. The time
and cost of these ships was prohibitive and the energy it took to accelerate a
spaceship to light speed without actually accelerating required a fusion
reactor big enough to power a state. The fusion reactor would spend a year
charging capacitors to make the jump. So the ships that were built were the
size of small cities, empty skeletons with several passenger sections attaching
on before the jump.
Jumps
only happened once or twice every decade. Worlds were colonized, and conflicts
rose up. For lack of a better term, the military dedicated to the stars was
called The Space Corps. Wars were fought, with The Space Corps always
possessing superior technology.
As
the years passed, space travel became more commonplace. New worlds were
discovered and colonized. The less distance traveled, the easier. So worlds
closer together became the centers for government, culture and commerce. The worlds
allied into a loose federation called The Stellar Alliance.
Earth stayed out
on the fringes with all its history and became something of a curiosity, where
many humans would resolve to make a pilgrimage at least once in their life.
Out
in other fringes other worlds lived in isolation, particularly the worlds with
little to offer in trade. More wars started over economics than anything else,
with planets vying for business with each other. One conflict grew to threaten
the stability of the whole galaxy. One planet managed to capture another with
excellent shipbuilding technology. Combined with new chemical lasers and
charismatic megalomaniacs leading, the Petros system raided other worlds. That
is when The Stellar Alliance and The Space Corps brought out a new style of
spacecraft.
The
Sidewinder was like nothing ever made before. It resembled the flying saucers
of Old Earth UFO lore. And it was powered by pushing against gravity, an
anti-gravity ship. With the fresh technology came the ability to navigate like
no other ship had. Inertia was blocked, so the ship could turn and accelerate
without the pilot experiencing anything. The Sidewinder ships were so
maneuverable that they were impossible to hit. Skilled pilots almost appeared
to dodge the directed energy shot from enemy ships.
With
the Sidewinder ships, everyone thought the war would end. But Petros and its
allies continued to fight. Driving them back meant going planet to planet.
Space battles took weeks. The Sidewinders were large enough to be equipped with
bunks and pilots, engineers and gunners slept in shifts during battles. Crew
members struggled with fatigue. The Space Corps fitted Sidewinders for ground
assaults and the war dragged on.
Then
one day an engineer named Jarlath Ivanpah took off from a carrier on the border
and flew off toward Petros. Just weeks later, the enemy fleet had Sidewinders of
their own. Jarlath Ivanpah had sold out.
The
Stellar Alliance negotiated a treaty with Petros. Worlds and trade rights were given
over. But the war was ended.
Jarlath
Ivanpah became the most hated man in the galaxy. Even though a small minority were
thankful the war was over, everyone still called him a traitor. Most people believed
he disappeared to live on Petros. But there were other worlds, frontier worlds far
away from everything, where someone could go and start a new life. And on one of
those worlds, a man named Burl Appleton arrived just before the start of the planet’s
seven year winter. He reportedly buried something out in the dunes, halfway between
the world’s city and its spaceport. Then the winter began and people forgot about
him. He vanished, hoping to start a new life when spring came.
