Future's Past

Where was I? Right, I just left the President’s office and Solar Flare requested I return to her. She failed to mention exactly where that is, but since there’s little that would indicate to the contrary, I’d assume she’s waiting for me back at the hangar, from where we will launch back into space straight away to track down and rendezvous with Starshine, the pony I owe 1200 credits to.

Because apparently it’s too much to ask to allow me to give myself some room to breathe. Quite literally, too, since I still haven’t gotten a chance to breath fresh air, even with me managing to return to my home planet, or at least the version of it that’s close to 1900 years in the future.

Also, I need to watch myself. It seems those last few days are already starting to make me cynical, and that’s something I’m trying to avoid.

Anyway, hangar. Off we go then. As I was trying to remember the way I came in, I once again noticed how clean everything looks. The absolutely spotless walls were endowed in a luxurious shade of crimson and the hall was flanked with Corinthian order steel columns, which managed to make the entire hallway look both grandiose and tacky at the same time. Thanks, human history books!

„Princess Twilight, over here!“ I suddenly heard a familiar voice. I turned my head and found myself looking straight into the hangar, with Solar Flare waving at me in a pretty enthusiastic way. I walked over and we exchanged niceties.

„Ready to pay a debt, Princess?“ Solar Flare asked me. I duck my head. „Actually, I would much rather go for a short walk, I haven’t been able to breath air for the past week or so. Even longer if you factor in time travel shenanigans.“

Solar Flare began pulling me by the wing. „Sorry, Princess, the Darkstar protocol is still in effect and we cannot allow you to roam freely just yet.“

Oh, come on! Seriously? Do I seriously need to re-elaborate what I just went through? I just want to stretch my legs for a few minutes! Instead, I’m being pushed from one place to the next with both figuratively and literally no room to breathe.

„And for the record, I haven’t gotten a chance to breath normal air for the past two months myself.“ Solar Flare said in an unpressed tone.

Unfazed by my protesting, we boarded the same shuttle that brought us to the surface earlier and left the hangar, which proceeded to close its heavy steel doors behind us.

Off to the next adventure today it is, then. I groaned audibly.

Having finally taken notice of my objections, Solar explained „I’m sorry, Princess, but we must act fast. You haven’t exactly popped in at the safest point in time.“

Aha, so someone does finally decide that it’s time to tell me what’s going on here!

„I cannot reveal any specific details yet, as our intelligence on the current situation is as of right now both incomplete and inconclusive.“

Or not.

What is it with these ponies and their secrecy? I rarely go about peddling my status as Princess since I don’t want to come over as boastful, but this is seriously starting to get on my nerves.

So I broke with my principles and demanded an explanation.

„Commodore, I must ask you to reveal whatever it is that you know so far. And don’t give me a ‚That’s below your pay grade‘ attitude.“

Was that good? I’m not exactly trained in military jargon.

But it seemed Solar finally decided to come around.

„Alright, here’s all I know. As you might already be aware, the United Systems controls most of the southern half of the galaxy and maintains some authority over the systems in the north. The only race we have come in contact with that aren’t represented by the United Systems are the Palamen.

Furthermore, we are unaware of any system or planet controlled by a race represented by the US that isn’t a part of it.“

Somewhat pretentious to claim sovereignty over something that is quite possibly still both little explored and colonized, but I’ll run with it for now. Solar continued.

„Now, here’s the kicker. There’s a planet in the Gamma Quatoris system, located in the Northern Traverse, called Jovalia. Originally a human colony established some centuries ago, this world disagrees with several key aspects of US policy and thus seeks full sovereignty over its local regions and full independence from the United Systems. Now, politics apparently prohibit this, I’m again not fully aware of all the details. US policy is both enormous and sometimes hard to grasp.“

I know how that feels quite well. Our laws weren’t always straight-forward, either. Neither were the laws of, say, the land that originally claimed the ‚US‘ acronym.

„So, this has lead to diplomatic tensions and no contact between US and Jovalian diplomats for several months now. I’m not one to believe speculation at face value, but many say that war between Jovalia and the US is inevitable. That’s all I know.“

She looked back outside where we could see another, larger ship. Its looks reminded me of Starshine’s transport that picked me up, however this one was quite a bit more bulky and had more hangar bays.

Solar fiddled around with the controls on her seat and began:

„USS Tranquility, this is Darkstar. We have the package. Requesting docking clearance.“

The loudspeakers responded „Hello Darkstar, acknowledged. You are cleared to land in hangar bay 1.“

Solar ended with a thank you and closed the comm channel. She turned her head back to me and opened her mouth once more.


„That’s the Tranquility, a Menelaus-class carrier. They form the bulk of the US fleet and carry several dozen fighter craft. These are vital to our military power as FTL capability has actually managed to make long-range combat obsolete and ship-to-ship combat assisted by squadrons of specialized fighters is the norm.“

Hmm, I remember reading several books and papers on combat in space that predicted combat would be similar to air warfare, just at far larger distances. It seems that concept still hasn’t caught on. They use fighters, we used fighters.

I wonder if no one has thought of the implications of massive amounts of debris orbiting a planet. Or perhaps they did and have implemented something that avoids ablation cascades.

We landed, got off the shuttle, headed to the bridge, leaped into hyperspace, meet with Starshine, paid off my debts and came back. Right?

Actually, no. Seeking to satisfy my cravings to see new things, I had other plans. I took a look around the large hangar and noticed many fighters attached to the ceiling by clamps.

Noticing my interest in them, Solar Flare again began explaining: „Those are Raider Mk III multipurpose fighters. While I have never flown one myself, I have heard mostly good things about them from pilots I talked to that have. Apparently they are widely regarded for their versatility and reliability.“

A stallion walking around the hangar overheard our conversation and came over to join in. „Yes, these Raiders are really great. They are also one of the few classes of fighters used by the navy equipped with their own transit drive, meaning they can operate independently of home base for weeks on end. Actually, did you know that these have been in production for almost 400 years now, yet are only in their third generation? While both the Navy and the company that produces them, Altair Aerospace, have added and changed many things over the Raider’s time in service, the general design has remained the same. Its wings are equipped with two hyperspace stabilizer nacelles and retract back when the ship engages a transit, and at a top transit velocity of 0.21 lightyears per second, these can outrun almost all other ships in the fleet. It is equipped with twin beams and particle cannons and enough missile banks to blow an entire enemy squadron out of the sky. These babies may be decidedly average, but damn son, you wouldn’t want to pick any other if you had the choice. Except maybe for their successor, the Raider Mk IV that Altair has recently unveiled as the top price at a StarSword tournament and will begin selling just a few months from now. Oh Celestia, that thing is gonna be SO AWESOME! Oh, sorry, Commodore Flare. Princess.“

The stallion bowed his head and left.

„Who was that?“ I asked. „One of our pilots, don’t remember the name. Come on, I’ll lead you to the bridge.“

Solar began trotting off, fully expecting me to follow suit.

This wide-open hangar gave off a strange mixture of freedom and claustrophobia. It was pretty big, at least 300m in diameter. Yet it also felt confined, closed off from the wider world by a bluish energy field erected over the gate, likely to keep the atmosphere in and the colt-hearted vacuum of space out.

I don’t quite know how or why it happened, but I suddenly felt an intense urge to explore, to rid myself of the shackles these Ponies sought to impose on me, even though I knew perfectly well they just did so for my own protection.

And it appeared that the world had picked up on my stated desire, as another Raider fighter entered the hangar a close distance behind us. The formidable fighter settled down on the ground and the pilot, apparently another pony, began climbing out.

I thought to myself „Now or never.“.

I dashed over, knocked the pilot over, snatched his helmet and began climbing into the fighter’s cockpit.

„Princess, what exactly is it that you’re up to?“ Solar Flare yelled over. I wasn’t willing to respond to her, I just wanted to be free, at least for a few minutes. I haven’t had a chance to truly go about quenching my thirst for exploration since I’ve gotten here, even though there was so much that I had already seen. But I wanted to see it all up close. I put on the helmet and settled into the fighter’s seat.

The canopy began closing and a variety of holographic displays began appearing around me. A feminine voice said „DNA and identity analysis successful, welcome aboard, Princess Twilight.“.

I looked around the cockpit looking for the controls, but I only found the flight yoke and throttle. Perhaps the rest can be accessed via these displays?

A blinking light on the right screen lead me on the right path. I looked over and it read „Launch“. Yes, that was exactly what I was looking for.

I waved my hoof at the area where the button was located, somewhat surprised to find the hologram resisting me putting my hoof all the way through it as if there were a piece of glass behind the hologram and the ship began lifting off the ground.

I moved the only two physical controls in this cockpit around and immediately bumped into another ship, a strange blue waving pattern, possibly another force field, briefly flashing in the area where I had bumped that other fighter. Wow, this is certainly a lot more twitchy than what I’m used to. Not that I am some sort of ace pilot, but I have piloted other ships before. Okay, one other real fighter, the one that had brought me to this time period in the first place. All the other ones were in training simulations.

However, the controls, while twitchy, also somehow felt very precise and instantly familiar and I didn’t have to account for inertia, as the ship itself appeared to handle that particular issue with space fighters.

I pointed the ship at the hangar gate which had already began closing its doors and pushed the throttle to max.

The resulting sensation felt similar to the one I had experienced at one time when Rainbow Dash had given me some flying lessons and allowed me to ride on her back. Case in point, we had pulled off a Sonic Rainboom. That’s how it felt when the fighter burst out the hangar. And it was exhilarating. I passed the blue force field just before the gate had fully closed and I finally entered the orbit of Equus, its majestic bluish hue filling my view. It was an indescribably astonishingly beautiful view. Sure, it wasn’t the first time I had seen it like this, but it was the first time I was given such a wide view. The canopy was triangular, with its catheti meeting roughly 40cm above my head and the longer side extending at least 2 and a half meters away from my view to the front of the ship. It wasn’t a right triable though and the back of the cockpit sat merely 50cm away from my back, behind the seat’s head rest. The cockpit itself was around a meter wide or easily as wide as a normal desk. It was a lot less cramped than the old Orion capsules, and aside from a few cockpit struts, the entire canopy was transparent, allowing for a complete 360°-view of the surrounding space. It was every hobbyist astronomer like myself’s dream.

Still dazzled by the astonishing view bestowing itself upon my face, I heard a yelling in my ears coming from the helmet. While it was certainly loud enough and I could make out random words that sounded like they came from Solar Flare, the experience I currently found myself in had absolutely overwhelmed all of my senses.

I looked over to the left display that had a list of all the closer surrounding star systems. I scrolled through them and found another very familiar system: Sol. I tapped its entry and a dropdown list appeared. One of its entries in particular sparked my interest, the one reading „Transit“. I remembered both Starshine and the pilot of the rapid transit cruiser I used to travel here from Olympus refer to a starship’s FTL capability as „Transit“, so my curiosity took hold again.

Also for some reason I suddenly felt like one-upping Rainbow Dash in flying speed. She had challenged me to friendly races a few times and I had never been able to beat her. That won’t happen this time, Rainbow.

I picked the Transit option and a tailless arrow appeared at the edge of my field of view. I maneuvered the ship over to the area the arrow pointed towards and saw a circle with four more arrows pointed inwards, the symbol flanked by the word „Sol“ and a value, 11.9 ly. Eleven point nine lightyears. Back where I had come from, that distance took weeks, even months to cross. Let’s see how much starships of today have stepped up their game.

Okay, yeah, I already experienced a total of four Transits. But I slept through pretty much all of them. This would be the first one I experience first-hand from beginning to end. I was so excited my heart began racing and I already felt the adrenaline pumping throughout my bloodstreams.

I tapped the symbol, then confirmed my selection. The ship then took over the controls and that same feminine voice announced „Preparing for Transit jump. Five, four.“ The world around me began being slowly stretched longer and longer, particularly the stars which were changing into streaks. „Two, One.“ This is it, my first jump. I was ready for anything.

„Jump!“

Except for this.

We began moving so fast that I couldn’t even see the surrounding space zip by me and I found myself being pressed hard into the seat. Or was it just my body reacting to the insane apparent change in movement velocity?

Whatever it was, next thing I found myself staring down a rapidly swirling blue tunnel that my ship raced through faster than I had ever moved before. I was so overwhelmed by the sudden intensity of light that I had to close my eyes. I just wanted it to be over right now. After what felt like an eternity, the tunnel began disappearing, replaced by streaks of stars and then a planet briefly rapidly closing in on me, and finally falling back down to the speed I had left the hangar at and the new planet, one looking eerily reminiscent of Equus with the same blue hue, moving towards me very slowly.

***

The trip had lasted a little over 56 seconds. But they felt like the longest 56 seconds I had ever experienced in my life. My heart raced in anxiety and a felt pearls of sweat rolling down my forehead.