Brad and Alex
Their home base is Shanghai International Spaceport, Earth. It‘s a bit quaint and old-fashioned, but parking fees for their lander are low, and they like the fact that they can order just about any alien cocktail from their favorite bar, ‘The Nervous Wreck‘.
Besides, they‘ve been on so many trips at significant fractions of light speed (186,000 miles per second) that both have long-since survived their immediate families.
Their trusty ship is called the ‘Full Advantage‘. She‘s their home, transport, friend, protector and pride all in one. She‘s also an AI, so when she speaks, everybody listens. However, she usually speaks through Clement, as humans find it easier to converse with other humanoids.
How do they pay for these exploration missions? With difficulty, but they have one big advantage (no pun intended) - they live in the platinum age of exploration. They were lucky enough to be born shortly after the discovery of ‘The Subway‘, a huge network of dark matter superstrings that covers vast areas of the galaxy. The Subway allowed anyone with a ship that was equipped with a dark matter drive to explore worlds never before seen by anyone in Earth‘s domain. Well, it wasn‘t quite so easy - it also took lots of money, courage, and an appetite for adventure. But the rewards were potentially huge, regardless of whether you were in the exploration business for profit, pleasure, politics or science.
Their home base is Shanghai International Spaceport, Earth. It‘s a bit quaint and old-fashioned, but parking fees for their lander are low, and they like the fact that they can order just about any alien cocktail from their favorite bar, ‘The Nervous Wreck‘.
Besides, they‘ve been on so many trips at significant fractions of light speed (186,000 miles per second) that both have long-since survived their immediate families.
Their trusty ship is called the ‘Full Advantage‘. She‘s their home, transport, friend, protector and pride all in one. She‘s also an AI, so when she speaks, everybody listens. However, she usually speaks through Clement, as humans find it easier to converse with other humanoids.
How do they pay for these exploration missions? With difficulty, but they have one big advantage (no pun intended) - they live in the platinum age of exploration. They were lucky enough to be born shortly after the discovery of ‘The Subway‘, a huge network of dark matter superstrings that covers vast areas of the galaxy. The Subway allowed anyone with a ship that was equipped with a dark matter drive to explore worlds never before seen by anyone in Earth‘s domain. Well, it wasn‘t quite so easy - it also took lots of money, courage, and an appetite for adventure. But the rewards were potentially huge, regardless of whether you were in the exploration business for profit, pleasure, politics or science.
Clement
Clement is a good old-fashioned robot. (A far cry from his early ancestors, but a purpose-built machine nonetheless). Besides his role as human interface to the Advantage, he‘s highly specialized in certain areas of computation, both quantum and linear. This hasn‘t won him any personality contests, but it sure makes him a useful scientific instrument to have around.
Clement is a good old-fashioned robot. (A far cry from his early ancestors, but a purpose-built machine nonetheless). Besides his role as human interface to the Advantage, he‘s highly specialized in certain areas of computation, both quantum and linear. This hasn‘t won him any personality contests, but it sure makes him a useful scientific instrument to have around.
The Full Advantage
The Full Advantage is a new nostalgia-class exploration vessel. What it lacks in good looks it makes up for in versatility, the best weapon in any explorer‘s arsenal. (When Alex gets annoyed by comments about his ship‘s looks, he says “which would you rather have when stranded on an alien planet - a lovely ceremonial dagger or a Swiss knife?“, but I digress) Being an AI mind, she follows her own callings to some degree, but fortunately she loves nothing better than exploring. Better yet, she can be relied on to figure the way out of most sticky situations, and has always been a loyal friend to Brad & Alex.
She has two separate propulsion systems; a conventional fusion drive for relativistic (up to 20% the speed of light) speeds, and a dark matter drive for the subway.
As a first-rate exploration vessel, she has pretty much every capability a ship can have; AI mind, sophisticated sensor arrays, multiple labs, even a shield and weapons.
The Full Advantage is a new nostalgia-class exploration vessel. What it lacks in good looks it makes up for in versatility, the best weapon in any explorer‘s arsenal. (When Alex gets annoyed by comments about his ship‘s looks, he says “which would you rather have when stranded on an alien planet - a lovely ceremonial dagger or a Swiss knife?“, but I digress) Being an AI mind, she follows her own callings to some degree, but fortunately she loves nothing better than exploring. Better yet, she can be relied on to figure the way out of most sticky situations, and has always been a loyal friend to Brad & Alex.
She has two separate propulsion systems; a conventional fusion drive for relativistic (up to 20% the speed of light) speeds, and a dark matter drive for the subway.
As a first-rate exploration vessel, she has pretty much every capability a ship can have; AI mind, sophisticated sensor arrays, multiple labs, even a shield and weapons.
The Lander
The Lander, or ‘Rapid Insertion Vehicle’ docks with The Full Advantage. It’s small and mobile, and designed primarily for non-vacuum flight. Brad and Alex use it for low-altitude planetary exploration, and to shuttle them to and from the Full Advantage.
The Lander, or ‘Rapid Insertion Vehicle’ docks with The Full Advantage. It’s small and mobile, and designed primarily for non-vacuum flight. Brad and Alex use it for low-altitude planetary exploration, and to shuttle them to and from the Full Advantage.
The Platinum Age of
Exploration
Up to that point, Earth had managed to push her fusion-powered ships up to about a quarter the speed of light, which was just enough to expand her reach to include a few local solar systems, but far more importantly, to find the first ‘discontinuity’, or subway entrance.
After that, all it took was a few thousand physics and engineering geniuses to build a propulsion system that could ride the subway.
Up to that point, Earth had managed to push her fusion-powered ships up to about a quarter the speed of light, which was just enough to expand her reach to include a few local solar systems, but far more importantly, to find the first ‘discontinuity’, or subway entrance.
After that, all it took was a few thousand physics and engineering geniuses to build a propulsion system that could ride the subway.
The Subway
There are many theories about the origin of the subway. By choosing, and dogmatically sticking to one of the theories below, you instantly become a guru in bleeding-edge physics:
There are many theories about the origin of the subway. By choosing, and dogmatically sticking to one of the theories below, you instantly become a guru in bleeding-edge physics:
- The subway has always existed. It‘s a natural part of the fabric of the universe. (Think Swiss cheese, or the underground tunnels that form in limestone as a result of erosion)
- The subway was built by a very powerful, almost god-like civilization. (There‘s no trace of them now.)
- The subway was built by a great federation of many advanced civilizations. (No trace of them either, nor any left-over ‘scaffolding‘ used during construction.)
- Insert your own pet theory here.
Anyway, though the possibilities of the subway
seem endless, the problem has always been to find the entrances. The entrances
are small, and very far apart for slower-than-light travel. Of course, being
made of dark matter, they‘re pretty near invisible too, so they are extremely
difficult to find. Once found however, the finder must immediately report the
coordinates to GAIA by law. Gaia, consisting of extremely risk-averse AI‘s,
decided that all subway strings first need to be scouted out to see where they
lead before making them generally available. Even though finders are rewarded
most handsomely, there are still those who elect not to give up their private
subway entrance. The reasons for such selfish behavior are many and varied.
Relativity
One strange effect of Einstein‘s theory of special relativity is that the closer a traveler gets to the speed of light, the slower time passes for him, relative to those he left behind. As a result, when space explorers return to Earth after say six months, they might find their friends and relatives older by several years!
One strange effect of Einstein‘s theory of special relativity is that the closer a traveler gets to the speed of light, the slower time passes for him, relative to those he left behind. As a result, when space explorers return to Earth after say six months, they might find their friends and relatives older by several years!
Galaxy
So far nobody has discovered a subway entrance that leads to another galaxy, i.e. one outside our galaxy, or if somebody has, they‘re not telling! Even so, there are a hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone - enough to keep explorers busy for a very long time.
So far nobody has discovered a subway entrance that leads to another galaxy, i.e. one outside our galaxy, or if somebody has, they‘re not telling! Even so, there are a hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone - enough to keep explorers busy for a very long time.
GAIA
G.A.I.A. is short for ‘General Artificial Intelligence Assembly‘, basically the governing body of Earth and its domain. Even though humans have strong representation in the Assembly, they have little executive power.
The transition to an A.I.-operated Earth happened 'naturally', mostly as a result of the ever-increasing complexity of maintaining the balances in the Earth‘s biosphere, which A.I.‘s were much better equipped to do.
When political power was formally transferred to G.A.I.A., it was already the de-facto governing body. Fortunately for humans, and for reasons not entirely understood by them, G.A.I.A. has always gone out of its way to accommodate and support human interests. Sadly, this kindness has not won them many human friends.
G.A.I.A. is short for ‘General Artificial Intelligence Assembly‘, basically the governing body of Earth and its domain. Even though humans have strong representation in the Assembly, they have little executive power.
The transition to an A.I.-operated Earth happened 'naturally', mostly as a result of the ever-increasing complexity of maintaining the balances in the Earth‘s biosphere, which A.I.‘s were much better equipped to do.
When political power was formally transferred to G.A.I.A., it was already the de-facto governing body. Fortunately for humans, and for reasons not entirely understood by them, G.A.I.A. has always gone out of its way to accommodate and support human interests. Sadly, this kindness has not won them many human friends.
AI
Artificial Intelligence: Arguably the second-biggest revolution in Earth‘s recent history was that of computers attaining sentience.
Much has been written on the subject (far more in the Humanities than in the Sciences), but very soon after this ‘brain barrier’ was broken, the forefront of most scientific progress lay indisputably in the quantum minds of pure A.I.‘s, A.I.-derivatives, and A.I.-augmented humans. Breaking the brain barrier soon resulted in blurred biological taxonomies, and, for several reasons, was soon followed by a dramatic proliferation in the manifestations of life. Homo Sapiens, (in his natural form) entered a period of long, steady decline, dominating only a few areas of endeavor, mostly in the crafts and performing arts. Interestingly, they remained at the forefront of soldiery.
Artificial Intelligence: Arguably the second-biggest revolution in Earth‘s recent history was that of computers attaining sentience.
Much has been written on the subject (far more in the Humanities than in the Sciences), but very soon after this ‘brain barrier’ was broken, the forefront of most scientific progress lay indisputably in the quantum minds of pure A.I.‘s, A.I.-derivatives, and A.I.-augmented humans. Breaking the brain barrier soon resulted in blurred biological taxonomies, and, for several reasons, was soon followed by a dramatic proliferation in the manifestations of life. Homo Sapiens, (in his natural form) entered a period of long, steady decline, dominating only a few areas of endeavor, mostly in the crafts and performing arts. Interestingly, they remained at the forefront of soldiery.
The pictures are better in sound