The Dawn of Day was Monday's Signature story feature, and I hope you took the time to check it out. If not, this excerpt might change your mind. I've done two, since the story is one of those which gives you insight into two very different happenings....

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The mission was classified. The US had worked on the gravitational drive for almost thirty years. Interstellar space flight and colonization of an Earth-like exoplanet seemed imminent because the overall situation had worsened on Earth. Energy resources, oil and gas, had become scarce, and climate changes had become a major factor all over the world. Vast areas in Africa had rapidly turned into wastelands. The people fled as a result. War had never stopped in the Middle East. On the contrary, more and more countries got involved in a war that was mainly about the last oil and gas resources. The European continent was hit by a never-ending migration flow from Africa and the Middle East. Welfare systems had collapsed and governments had gone down. Many European countries were now ruled by military leaders. The situation and life conditions of hundreds of millions in Africa, the Middle East and Europe had deteriorated. As a result, Russia, China and the USA had closed themselves up. The three remaining fairly stable countries watched each other suspiciously, but none had the will or the means to attack the other. The Chinese had spent large amounts of money on developing and advancing their space program. They had erected habitats on Mars and the Moon in the previous years. Russia couldn’t quite compete and the US didn’t react, much to the surprise of the Chinese who became even more suspicious.

The US pursued a secret project. It was finally crowned with success. The mission target was an asteroid in the Kuiper belt. The flight was masked as a supply flight, but it was really about testing the new warp drive and preparing the first interstellar ship for a long distance flight.

The USS Explorer was based on the IXS Enterprise, a spaceship with an Albucierre drive that was designed as early as 2013 but had never been built. The sleek ship had two thick outer rings that generated the warp field and thus generated and controlled the contraction of space ahead and the expansion of space behind the ship. The space inside the rings was optimized for cargo, crew and equipment. The ship was a long-range ship.

The men looked at their displays and the monitoring screens. The sophisticated board computer worked properly. No errors and failure messages occurred. Hence, the immense gravitational wave hit the ship unexpected and unprepared. The USS Explorer tumbled through space until the board computer had stabilized the ship. The men, shocked to the core, checked the displays and monitoring screens. 112 seconds had passed since the gravitational wave had hit the ship. The cockpit was ringing with a multitude of alarms. The USS Explorer, carried away by the surge of the gravitational wave, had changed its location in time and space.

Captain Eric Johnson ordered drop-back into real space.

 

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“Shining morning star, how you have fallen from heaven! In the darkest of nights you fell.”

“You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground.”

“How art thou fallen from heaven, son of the morning! In the darkest of nights you fell.”

“We will praise another glorious morning. Dawn is near, ending the rule of the fallen one.”

The wings of the main door opened and the light of a single torch fell into the hall.

The high priests left their place by the altar and left the room. The other priests filed out of the benches and followed suit. Vaajat was the last to leave the room. He turned back on the threshold and looked at the altar, wondering if he had had a nightmare, had witnessed a horror ritual or a piece of sickening madness.

The air outside the temple was fresh and brisk. The priests assembled on a rock platform not far from their temple. The men looked at the sky. Vaajat had often wondered if the special night was only about praying to the stars, but he now discarded the thought. It was all about a crown from heaven coming to Sin in ancient times when some glorious lords had ruled over Sin. Vaajat had no idea for how long they had ruled and why their empire had fallen in the end. He gazed at the black sky, feeling empty and drained. All he had hoped for, a life of wisdom and knowledge, had crumbled to dust during the night. He had heard only weird words and obscure songs sung by old men wearing golden crowns and purple robes. They were probably imitating the glorious lords, but Vaajat found the entire event resembled a play staged by bad actors in ridiculous costumes. Vaajat didn’t want to become like these men.

He stopped brooding when a faint light appeared on the horizon. The small red sun was rising. A few minutes later, the second sun rose above the horizon, a deep red disk, soon turning orange and then yellow and blocking out the light of the smaller sun. The priests cheered on the rising suns, the light that warmed their land and their hearts and illuminated the day and their souls. The priests sang songs of praise until the second sun was high in the sky. And then the priests and the novices returned to their facility where meanwhile the peasants had gathered.

Vaajat looked at the people who carried baskets filled with fruits and vegetables. He looked at the carts filled with firewood and cereals. He saw animals, cattle, poultry, and fish in baskets. The people had come to the monastery from all over the country, some from far away, some must have set out on their trip a couple of days ago, some in the dead of the night when the priests were praising ancient lords and a crown descending from heaven. Vaajat spotted his parents. His mother carried a huge basket on her back, his father led a well-fed calf, and his brothers and sister carried fruits in their hands. Those people had come from afar in order to sacrifice to their god, the creator of life, the god of love and mercy, the good shepherd and guardian. These innocent people sacrificed time and goods to the priests, some peasants would have a hard time in winter as a result, while the priests would live on the supplies for another year. These poor people sacrificed their goods to worshipers of madness. Vaajat felt disgusted. His stomach cringed and only with willpower, he suppressed the urge to puke on the floor.

 

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