Deep Space Journey - 1. DSJ Chapter 1

It had been a long hard-working project, 18 years in the making for 40-year old Martin Lenegan, a widower at the young age of 32 with a young son Quinn who once old enough was sent away to the best schools in Europe. For Dr Martin Lenegan, an engineer of enormous potential, along with a team of scientists and engineering geniuses, and with the support of a huge anonymous benefactor, they were able to design and build the very first Deep Space Research and Exploration Shuttle - DSRES. Designed very similar to that of the space shuttles of the USA, but on a larger scale, the shuttle would have a total of twelve crew.

Instead of a cargo bay, there is research laboratories, water and air tanks, a maintenance workshop and supply storage rooms. It was designed to keep the crew alive for three years in space. It was secretly designed and built in an undercover facility that was built on an island in the South Pacific, that was devested a few years before the project started by a small meteor, with the island owned by New Zealand, located 58 kilometres north-west of the North Island of New Zealand.

For the last quarter of the construction phase, a total of twelve shuttle crew and two backup crew had been selected. They were now living on the island, which can only be reached by helicopter, along with the design and construction teams, the shuttle crew were young University students with bright minds. Now just weeks left before the big launch date, the shuttle crew and backup crew were given restricted rest and recreational leave, and they flew to the North Island for their leave.

All of the 14 crew members, now all aged in their mid-thirties, except for the two-back-up crew who were 22 and 21 years old, went on the last R & R leave. Both of the backup crew were recruited recently because of the sudden death of two crew members due to a car accident 12 months ago. The youngest member is Quinn Lenegan, the Project Director’s son, who completed his high school education at 15 years with distinction.

Quinn began University studies at the beginning of the following year, and now four years later has recently completed a Doctorate in Astrophysics and Geophysics, along with a degree in Astronomy. After taking just two years to complete a degree in basic Science, Quinn had also completed 200 hours of simulation shuttle flight training on top of the 450 hours of actual flight training as a reservist air force pilot with the RNZ Air force, which is a continuation from the private flight experience he has had since gaining his pilot’s licence at the age of 16.

Deciding to remain on the island to continue his work as a preparation team for the shuttle crew, Quinn was in the office when the telephone call came in from the police in Whangarei, the northernmost city of New Zealand, reporting the death of three staff members of “The DSRES Project” after a major brawl occurred in a night club involving members of a notorious bike gang; the 3 DSRES members were part of a total of 7 killed and 19 people injured during the 5-hour brawl.

As a result, all recreation leave was cancelled and all personnel were ordered back to the base, for a debrief on what happened. After the debrief and a five-hour conference between Martin as Project Director and the Board of Directors, it was decided that Quinn would take up the position of Junior Science Officer and Shuttle Co-Pilot, to replace the Co-Pilot and science officer that was killed, his close friend Lucas Durham, the other backup crew member would become Junior Engineer and Co-Medical Officer.

Both young men knew the shuttle well as they had gone through the same training as the original main crew, but had less time to put their training into practice, so for the next three weeks, they were put through a lot of intensive training to catch up.

When the evening came for the launch the shuttle was in place at the launch pad attached to eight enormous jet fuel tanks, two for leaving Earth’s atmosphere, four for the push deep into the solar system, and two more as backups for later on in case of an emergency if required to get home in a hurry.

The launch was scheduled for 8 pm local time in New Zealand, which is 7 am GMT, and 2 am in New York. All the crew had spent the last twenty-four hours doing final checks in their areas on the shuttle, which at the last moment had been named “Star Voyager”.

There was uncertainty on if or when they would return; they knew they had enough air and food and water for just over 3 years and if they could not find supplies they would either die in space or manage to return in that time frame.

All of the crew members were prepared for that. The launch was successful, and alarm bells began all over the globe for this unknown space launch which was detected just minutes after. Once the launch booster rockets had detached safely the deep space rockets were activated, and so began the long exploration journey for the brave crew of eleven astronauts who were able to keep in touch with base for nine days before eventually losing contact.

By this time with the extra booster rockets being continuing burning for that time, they finally ran out and were released into space, the shuttle was now running on nuclear power to keep the engines running which can go on for up to twelve years before running dry.

After some adjustments to communications equipment, the shuttle was able to send one-way messages back to Earth to let them know what was happening and how far out they were. What was meant to take a few years to get to the outer planets of our solar system only took a few months?

After the Exploration Commander, Dennison Chaney had safely brought them through two-time rips, which pushed them forward a lot quicker. The main science team of four were able to monitor what was happening to the shuttle as it was passing through these time rips; recording everything happening around them.

The first time-rip jump brought the shuttle close to Saturn; while the second brought them near Neptune. Each time they approached a planet they would orbit the planet and begin intensive scientific research on each of the planets and send the data back home to Earth not really knowing if the information was being received.

Meanwhile on Earth, four months after the launch, the Board of Directors of the DSRES project had gathered at a conference room in a hotel in Wellington before a large crowd of media, after sending an email stating that a press conference would be held to answer some questions about the mysterious shuttle launch that occurred a few months ago.

The Directors introduced themselves, told the media that they are a group of wealthy investors who had designed and built a deep space exploration shuttle that would travel beyond their own solar system to explore new areas in space. They informed the media that a month ago they had invited three top scientists from five countries to view and analyse all data that has been received from the shuttle, to verify its authenticity, and this included audio and visual communications from the shuttle, up until the last messages received before leaving the solar system.

The Directors stated that the journey would last for three years if they were not able to find suitable locations for resupply for the return journey, or it could take a lot longer depending on what they find. Finally, they said that recently they had received a large amount of information data, which they do not know how long it took to send and receive, but it arrived just shortly after the four months since the 11- member crew launched.

When the shuttle approached a third time-rip just past Pluto, they had left their own solar system and entered a new one, by this time five months had passed since they had left Earth, but with the time rip they were not sure if they were in sync with time and dates on Earth, but they kept track of it in case they were in sync.

Usually, the journey through each time rip lasted three to five hours, but this third one lasted for 8 hours before they came out of it, and before them was a new planet, they had no idea if it had a name or what it was like on the surface, so in keeping with usual protocols, they went into orbit around the planet and began collecting data.

Much to their surprise, it was similar to Earth, with small lakes and lots of rocky lands, similar breathable air, but the external temperature is between plus 5 Celsius and minus 35 Celsius in most regions of the planet which was estimated to be a little bigger than Earth’s moon. Commander Chaney decided to try their first landing on a foreign planet, using their small 4-man surface shuttle, with Quinn as the pilot, two science crew and a member of the medical crew; they made their way through the thin atmosphere to the surface.

With all the precautions taken, the four-member team made their first steps onto a foreign planet. After three hours and a lot of data and samples collected, they returned to the main ship to begin analysis of what they had gathered. The following day another 4 team members made a trip to the surface, and searched a different zone from the first team, returning with more samples to examine and on the third day the remaining 4 team members who hadn’t gone down made a short trip to another separate zone.

Once all the information was safely stored away, the shuttle made its way further into space pleased at their success with their journey so far. For the next few months they continued their journey deeper and deeper, but only finding groups of meteors and sometimes small planets, but nothing as big and significant as their first find.