The Bridge Road to Dawn

Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.

To family and friends, to those who provided support and encouragement, and to those who helped edit, providing valuable feedback before going to print. You have all helped me more than you can imagine.

This book is dedicated to all of you, because without you, this would be nothing more than an idea far beyond my reach.

- Brenton Stringer

COPYRIGHT   

Copyright © 2014, 2015, 2016 by Brenton Stringer

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

www.thebridgenovels.com

thebridgenovels@gmail.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

It's hard to find a book that I like, wrong genre, too long, too short, but most of the time, just too much. I understand that the problem is mine, but that doesn't help. Then while on holidays in 2014, I read Andy Weir's THE MARTIAN, and I was inspired. Enough to write a short story, which eventually grew into a book, and here it is.

I don't want to be a best-selling author, I'm just a guy from the country who is looking for a story that suits my style. So believe it or not, this book wasn't written for you, it was written for me, but I do hope you enjoy it.

-Brenton Stringer

ABOUT THE BOOK

THE BRIDGE

ROAD TO DAWN

Book one of THE BRIDGE series by Brenton Stringer

The year is 2072. Humanity is at the dawn of a new age, shaped by millions of years of evolution, discovery and chance. A unified earth, now led by the SUE, is riding on the shoulders of an ancient technology, discovered adrift in the outer solar system. But when its true purpose is uncovered, someone will be given the chance to play god and pave the road to a new destiny.

1. NOT ALONE

Joe Albee's eyes opened slowly, his head ached like he had been out all night. He squinted and scanned the darkness, unsure of where he was - nothing. He moved his hands a little, enough to feel them restrained at the wrist, his ankles too. A few moments passed as he lay in the darkness, bound and cold, confounded by his situation. There was a quiet click and a small, dimly lit terminal came on 30cm from his face.

CHANN

APRIL 21 2072 - 00:17

MISSION: DELTA 9 PROBE REPAIR

ALERT: AMBER - RADAR MALFUNCTION

VELOCITY: OUTBOUND 0

HOLDING

DISTANCE FROM SUN: 775M km

His eyes scanned the screen for a few seconds, then he let out a groan and his body relaxed as everything fell into place. Extended sleep always causes short term memory loss, few ever recall the hours prior to going under, others lose a day or more. It’s something you never get used to.

The soft amber glow of the terminal reminded Albee of a sunset back home in Northumberland. He closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts for a minute, then clenched his fist and bumped it hard against the door release. The pod door swung upward and open, and the soft blue light from the medical bay flooded in. The ship was quiet, the only sound for half a billion kilometres was the soft whirring of the pod fans and the sound of air slowly filtering in through the vents in the walls.

He took a deep breath and savoured the scent, it wasn't Earth but it was better than the canned air he’d been breathing. After a few seconds he pulled his arms from the canvas straps that held them in place, they floated free in the zero gravity. Albee’s screen showed the Chann was dead in the water, but she shouldn't be. They weren’t even half way to their rendezvous with the DELTA 9 probe, deployed between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. DELTA 9 was one of many reconnaissance probes deployed throughout the solar system, each of them requiring regular maintenance.

Humanity was new to this, it all started in the summer of 2032, when an amateur astronomer discovered an anomaly, an unknown vessel beyond the asteroid belt- then everything changed. It was coasting when the unmanned Indian ship intercepted it, its trajectory was estimated to fly by Earth within 700,000 kilometres, beyond the orbit of the moon but close enough to be considered deliberate.

It was like nothing we had seen before, an unmanned deep space probe 17 metres long and 4 metres wide – it was designated Probe Zero. Its systems still had power and it was still transmitting, it was sent here from somewhere- from someone.

It was brought to Earth in 2037 on-board the Indian return module, then reality set in, it really wasn't one of ours, and that scared just about everyone. Humanity's single most defining moment in history, we knew we were not alone in the universe- and someone or something knew we were here.

Money was no longer a governing factor in our race to the stars, and humanity was no longer the only participant. The race was against S2, Species 2, the name given to the second known advanced civilisation in the universe.

Probe Zero was still transmitting when it was returned to Earth, so they will know we are here when they receive the signal. The intercept was clean but their transmission technology was far beyond ours, not what we expected. It took Earth's best scientists years to replicate the probe’s systems, and even then, after all the reverse engineering, all we salvaged was the propulsion and tracking technology. With humanity unable to unlock the probe's data store, petabytes of information remained locked away, humanity had no information on S2 whatsoever.

It appeared ancient, but its origin was unclear. Was it delivered to us as a gift of knowledge? Or was it their Voyager, stumbling across Humanity on its quest to explore the stars?

Humanity was breaking new ground, riding on the back of a species we had never met. Probe Zero was fitted with a small constant acceleration engine, efficient beyond belief. It manipulated space-time using a process now known as mass displacement. By shifting mass beyond the nose of the ship, it bends the fabric of space-time creating a gravity wave which the ship rides forward. Mass Displacement Drives – or MDD’s for short, don’t generate thrust like a conventional engine, the displacement generates gravity and the ship falls towards it, meaning the occupants remain weightless during the journey. It can accelerate a ship at nearly 1m/s². Of course, that's not mind blowing acceleration, if you jump off the roof of your house you accelerate at 10 times that rate, but MDD’s don't need a lot of acceleration, they just need time. All we needed to do was provide a power source. Fusion reactors were perfected in the mid 2030’s and were ideal for the job, high output and low maintenance.

The tracking technology came from the MDD, each one operates at a different frequency. Even minute variations in manufacturing meant each engine had its own frequency and could be easily tracked, and with an on-board reactor they could be tracked constantly, even when the MDD’s were idle.

Discovery of the technology forced humanity’s hand, and the Sol United Earth were formed. A unified body, with representation from every nation on Earth, treated as equals on the board of the new global corporation. A corporation that would come to be known as the SUE. The board would vet all decisions at first, ensuring the SUE remained on track, and that the rewards would benefit every nation involved. But by the mid 60's, power would be given to the Defence arm, which would be driven by one person, The Director of Defence, Julie Barber.

It was easier than expected, to unify humanity. Without a second thought, nations who had been at war for decades stood side by side, minorities and militia groups stood down their arms and declared a cease fire, one that has lasted until this very day. All for the good of humanity, to stand up against a new enemy, a common foe.  

The world's military fell under the control of the newly formed SUE. They shared technology and intel in a seemingly pointless attempt to protect our sandy beaches from a threat far more advanced than they could ever defend. The SUE would maintain the military facade for a while, partly out of a desire for public calm, and partly out of complete ignorance of how any attack, if one were to come, would be perpetrated. Humanity knew nothing of the species known as S2, their strengths and their weaknesses could not even be imagined, and we knew nothing of how they might choose to defeat us. Would they rain terror down upon the Earth from the relative safety of space? Or would they choose to enter our atmosphere and engage us at sea, or on land? Would it be hand to hand, or would they simply kill us all with a virus sent in a capsule, a probe maybe, that would clear the Earth of all humankind. The SUE knew one thing for certain, one thing that was without doubt, humanity needed to act.

The new SUE created a bold plan, they used S2's technology to build probes, lots of them. The first 2 model runs, ALPHA and BETA, were, as their name suggested, not fully operational. None were deployed into service, instead, the entire 2 model runs were used for testing, on and around the Earth. Their limited power and short range communications meant they were little use beyond that. CHARLIE models were the first real breakthrough in our partnership with the new technology. More robust than their predecessors, more powerful MDD's, and better communications. They were humanity's first real success in a field barely understood. The early CHARLIE models were deployed to monitor existing, populated areas like Earth, and the partially constructed Mars space station, Providence. Then, building on their success, DELTA, ECHO, FOXTROT and GOLF models were brought into service, each iteration fine tuning the design, closing in on the pinnacle, Probe Zero.

Then came the ships, small and unmanned at first, then bigger with an on-board crew, kept asleep on longer missions to increase range. As the ships grew in size, so did the obstacles. Space was a long way from Earth when you had to ferry thousands of tons of steel for new ships. It was only 100 kilometres up, but it may as well have been 100 million. And so, with humanity's new space wings, we drew on the nearest resource available, asteroids. Drawn into Earth orbit, they were mined for their metals. The process was wasteful, nothing like the precision found on Earth, but that was of little concern to the SUE.

With nearly unlimited resources, humanity took great strides in science. In 2068, construction of the first Channeung class ship was complete, the first ship to come from the new Hudson dockyards in high Earth orbit. She was mankind's greatest technological achievement, perhaps our greatest achievement ever. Chinese built, 11,743 metric tons, 26 metres wide, 67 metres long, with 2 12 metre long shafts that protruded from the front of the ship, these were the mass deflectors, designed to concentrate the mass generated by the MDD. She had two liquid fuel rocket engines for emergency manoeuvres, and was fitted with a cannon at each corner, she was designed to battle or run, or both. She wasn't some cushy cruise liner with bow tie waiters and all you can eat buffets, she was a warship. Our best ship, with the biggest engines and cannons we had.  

The Channeung class was purpose built for deep space missions, capable of travelling to the outer edges of our solar system in 2 months. Dual hull, the best AI, and the best in extended sleep technology, with a crew of 10 she could stay in space for 6 Months as long as the crew were asleep for most of the journey. In an emergency, the entire medical bay could be jettisoned, even while the crew were asleep, a life boat if things went wrong.

In 2069 she was officially commissioned the Chann and she was brought into service, she was the pride of the fleet. With the help of S2, humanity had become a unified space faring race, but our intentions had changed. We were no longer focussed on exploration, we were focussed on war, or at the very least, defence of our existence.

2. CHILDREN OF HUMANITY

Nice to see you too, Albee mumbled under his breath, directing his sarcasm at the Chann. He didn't mind being woken after 25 days of sleep, it wasn't like he needed it, but he'll have to endure the headache for the next few hours, a side effect of extended sleep. He removed the IV from his arm, pulling it from his vein in one smooth motion, then he capped the end and flicked it away as if to show his authority. Blood had already started to leak from his wound as he covered it with an adhesive bandage, then he pulled himself upright using the pod handles and let his eyes adjust to the soft light.

After a few moments he dried himself off, removing the last of the gel that had suspended him during the flight, then he pulled on his underwear. He pushed away from his pod and floated up towards the bulkhead grabbing a handle with one hand, then he pushed away again, aligning his trajectory with the airlock that led to the bridge. He reached out and grabbed another handle, steadying himself in front of the small panel near the airlock. He eyed the panel for a few seconds, then prodded it with 1 finger to show the atmosphere on the other side. Every action deliberate, second nature, drilled into him over hundreds of hours of training.

Looks good, he said to himself, as he pulled the release latch and opened the airlock.

The door swung open and locked in place against the bulkhead with a dull thud that echoed through the quiet ship. Albee pulled himself into the tube that led to the bridge, his limbs floating majestically in the zero gravity, his body was well toned from a life in the military, something he was proud to show off, even if he was the only one awake to enjoy it.  

Albee was a GEN5, one of the 24 embryos genetically modified in the 5th wave, an attempt to stop atrophy and lessen the harsh effects of space travel on the human body. Millions of years of evolution engineered out in less than 5 years of medical R&D. There were few who protested the experiments, with the arrival of Probe Zero, religion collapsed overnight, only the fanatical stayed true to their beliefs. Humanity had come together with a single goal, to survive.

The bridge lay silent and void of light. Reinforced steel shutters covered the windows, in place to keep high velocity debris from penetrating the thick glass, they also blocked out the faded light from the now distant Sun. Albee pulled the latch on the airlock and pushed the door open against the bulkhead. The lights on the bridge came on softly, giving his eyes time to adjust. The air temperature was slightly cooler than the medical bay, environmental control was still raising it to a comfortable level.

The bridge housed 5 crew terminals aligned in 2 rows, 3 across the front and 2 at the rear, each controlled by voice and tactile virtual controls. Alarms and alerts would always display on the terminals when needed, an efficient and tactical design that worked well in simulations to keep the occupants of the Chann alive. Each terminal could control any of the ship's main systems but they were tweaked to serve their own purpose. Navigation, Communications and Engineering were at the front of the bridge, with Tactical and the Captain’s panel at the rear.

Albee slid into his chair, pulled the thick straps across his waist and attached them with the bright blue clip, leaving his shoulder straps to float freely. Flashing on the screen was the amber alert,

DEEP SPACE NAVIGATIONS SYSTEMS CHECK

Nice one, Albee announced sarcastically. Who writes this stuff? referring to the generic message on his screen.

The Chann was floating silently in space, the on-board systems had executed an emergency stop, a high G deceleration using the liquid fuel engines that would most certainly have killed the crew if they were not suspended in gel.

Albee lay his hands on the control panel and the terminal snapped to life.

Welcome Captain Albee, a polite female voice announced.

Chann, status, Albee grumbled, showing his disdain towards the ship for the stabbing pain in his head.

Deep Space Navigation was unable to plot a safe course due to a radar malfunction, Mission Control have reviewed available data and have triggered a diagnostics check, the voice replied.

Albee closed his eyes for a few seconds in an attempt to calm the pain.

Chann, how long before the diagnostics are complete? he said.

2 Hours 14 minutes, the voice replied.

His eyes still closed, Albee slumped back in his chair, his hands floating freely at his sides. The Chann had been pushing the boundaries over the last year, this was her longest deep space mission yet, it was the longest of any manned vessel and Albee expected teething problems.

Chann, provide more detail on the radar error, he said.

There was a small pause then the voice replied, At 17:42 yesterday, a collision warning was activated, Navigation systems were unable to plot a safe course due to inconsistent radar data. At 17:42 Emergency Stop was triggered. At 19:38 the Chann’s velocity reached zero. At 22:19 Mission Control triggered-

Chann, interrupted Albee. Show me the radar data, he said, as he sat up and placed his hands back on the control pad.

Albee frowned as he stared at the radar image on his screen, he sat for a moment, then began to flick through the remaining images. There was nothing of use, mostly just foggy images or nothing at all. He stared at the screen with a blank look then took a deep breath and exhaled as he slumped back in his chair, wondering what would need to be done to resolve the error. Had there been anything where the radar reported, the Chann would have been destroyed well before she was able to stop, even with the fuel burn.

Albee sat silent, eyes closed, pondering what the future might bring and where humanity would be had that lone astronomer not gazed towards the stars in 2032. Would Probe Zero have silently drifted out of our solar system as peacefully as it arrived? Would humanity be better off never seeing the benefits discovered in the push for better humans, the end of war and terror, starvation and disease? Of course, the Chann's crew would never have been born, and Albee knew that. Children of a lab in downtown London, born out of fear and desperation.

The SUE provided the propaganda needed to get the human trials passed in 2039, a year after they were formed. Work on GEN 1’s started straight away, focusing on the effects of atrophy in zero gravity, but it was soon clear that it would not be an easy task. Even before they were born, GEN 1's showed signs of trouble, some dying before birth, while others soon after. Those that lived beyond childhood would bear the scars for a lifetime, humanity's poor attempt to steer evolution. The majority of GEN 2's fell to the same