Mission Orion: The Travel through Time

Chapter 3 | Launch

Mission Launch Director is now Martin Jackson. All systems go, initiating launch sequence and taking off in Five... Four... Three... Two... One... We have lift off. All systems are normal and trajectory looks good. There is a slight wobble at the tip of Orion Five, but shouldn't be a concern.

Stage One cut off in Three... Two... One... Stage One cut off. Stage Two ignition initiated. Boosters ejected and we have splashdown reported. Stage Two cut off in Three... Two... One... Stage Two cut off. The thrusting of Main Engines of Orion Four and Orion Five initiated. Power at one percent. The trajectory of Orion Four looks good, Orion Five is off course. Orion Five, please activate thrusters for corrective measure. A corrective measure is taken, all systems look good... The trajectory looks good. Launch sequence complete. Godspeed, Captains.

I am Rithvik, the captain of Orion Four and I am joined by Anna, second in command and Konrad, our Flight Tech and medic. On-board Orion Five are Reneesh, the captain and Souvik, their flight tech and their stand in pilot. Orion Four and Orion Five are apparently retrofitted with the most modern weapons available on Earth, which are mostly automated and we did not need a lot of manpower to run the ship. The number of people on these missions were kept to a minimum, firstly due to the increase in the resources required to sustain more than required members of the crew and also USRA believed in the lesser the number, the better philosophy. 

We were now beyond the gravitational field of Earth and the ion-powered engines were providing us with slow but steady acceleration. "All systems green. Everything looks good." I said, looking at the ship's computers. Everything seemed to go on without any sort of glitches. "Ahh! Rithvik! You have to come here and take a look. Nothing can beat this view! This is so exciting man!" Exclaimed Konrad, looking at Earth. "First time in space, mate, everyone feels the same. As you go on to spend more time here, it just becomes downright boring." I replied. It indeed was beauty, at least used to be. Memories of my childhood flooded my head. How clean things were. I remember how interesting things were back then, the cricket matches, the parties with friends, and the smell of rain when it hit the ground. I really missed those days. Now, it's dust everywhere. Constantly plagued by dust storms and solar flares. Every year, the monsoons failed. Year by year, the food shortages became worse. I still remember the faces of people sitting on the sidewalk, their pride preventing them from begging for food and alms. They just sat on the footpaths, watching as their children died from hunger. We could see the rotting corpses on the sides of the road and often the government just wouldn't bother cleaning them up as they already were facing a deficiency of funds. It wasn't long before schools shut down. It was now a matter of life or death. Just when people thought things couldn't get any worse came the great famine which wiped out most of the population. Governments ran out of food stocks, no one was ready to share food. No one cared about each other anymore. It was like the humanity just left us alone to rot. It was the first time in space for Anna, Souvik and Konrad. Reneesh and I had been captains for various missions to space, most of which were maintenance of the telescopes and satellites.  

I was lost in these thoughts when Reneesh came in on the comms. "How many days till time warp?" he asked, over the communication system. " A week." I replied. "How is your ship, Captain?" I asked. "Well... Souvik just threw up. So we are in a bit of a mess!" he replied. "Clean up that crap before the stench spreads." I replied, laughing.

After an hour, Orion Five docked into Orion Four and established a space bridge. It was much better this way as we could travel between both the ships. Soon, Reneesh and Souvik came onboard Orion Four and all of us were assembled on the bridge.

"Well team, you survived the take-off, which is a bit of a relief. Take off is one of the hardest parts of space missions. We most probably are stacked up against aliens and people back home think a huge group of two ships with minimal stealth capabilities would be sufficient in taking down the group of aliens who by the way have 'a defence system like we have never seen before' in the words of Jack Coulson, captain of Orion Three. So, crew, the odds are definitely against us. We are a group of five people heading towards a place we've never been to and probably are expected to fight with a species we have never communicated with, let alone met. But despair not, we will give them all we got. We will have to succeed for the sake of our survival." I said to them. I wanted the crew to know exactly what we were dealing with. They needed to understand the gravity of the situation and to know and understand how the chances of us succeeding this mission were bleak. Understanding this burden on our shoulders would give rise to desperation and sometimes, desperation can do wonders.