First flight

Once on board the ship, Dustin had gone through the pre-flight checks with the AI. Sola had been on top of everything, naturally - the general and Re’x would have made sure of that, but he wanted to do things right and make sure. After all, if the ship decided to explode on launch, they wouldn’t be the ones on board, he would. He debated running a diagnostic to try and get more information about the mysterious Rye from the ship’s databanks but decided against it. Whoever she was, she’d gone to great lengths to make contact without being caught by any of the three governments working on the Solar Ascent which he felt he had to respect. Besides, he wasn’t an engineer or a scientist. Once he got his chief science officer from the Velca homeworld there would be ample opportunities to investigate the strange message. Or, alternatively they could jump to Rabythion and investigate directly. Neither of these were immediate problems however, so like so many things in his life to date he put them off as future Dustin’s problem.

The immediate checks done, he gave his first order, settling somewhat nervously into the captain’s seat. “Sola, patch me through to ground control please.” As first commands go, it wasn’t quite up there with the greats, he had to admit - but it was practical. The vid screen flickered for a moment before showing the general’s face along with that of the on-duty air and space controller who had been in charge of clearing the air for the Solar Ascent’s initial landing. “Solar Ascent requesting permission to launch from Contact city flight control.” Dustin said, nodding respectfully to the two officers. “Roger that Solar Ascent. We have you clear on all vectors, you may launch when ready. Good flying” came the reply from the traffic controller - probably a bit more appropriate for the history books than Dustin’s words so far he had to admit, but that didn’t matter much right now. What came next did. “Sola, cut comms and select the nearest launch vector to the jump point for Velca Prime. Let me know when we are five minutes out from weave-jump.”

As soon as his order was given the vid screen cut to an external view, and Dustin could feel the ship humming under his feet. Softly at first, then building in volume as the powerful anti-grav engines lifted the craft up into the air before at last the hum rose in pitch and the Solar Ascent shot skywards. Dustin had planned on going to his cabin right away to skim over whatever the documents the general and ambassador had given him were, but instead he found himself glued to his seat watching the screens as they cleared the clouds and the pale blue of the sky began to fade into first twilight and then the blackness of space. He’d done school trips before of course - but the cheap transports they had used didn’t have external viewscreens to let you see the curve of the earth fall away from below you as you entered orbit. Nor had they let the younger Dustin gaze in wonder at the habitation satellites, the great orbital platforms that handled much of earth’s inter-system trade as his ship slid effortlessly past and into an escape trajectory. The nearest of the satellites flickered suddenly - the onboard lighting dimming in parts of the station to form a crude approximation of a hand waving back and forward as he passed. It seemed even those on the orbitals who were much closer connected with aliens than the average earth citizen were excited about this mission.

Once past the stations however, there was nothing much to do. Despite the Solar Ascent having very powerful engines, the sheer scale of space meant that travel to the jumping point for the predetermined flight path from Sol to Velca Prime was a trip of several hours - and so, after staring in wonder at the stars for a minute or two Dustin climbed out of his chair and headed down to his cabin. Once inside, he closed the lock on the auto-door and set his case down with a sigh of relief. With the door locked, this cabin was officially outside anything except for biometric scanning; unless he had a medical emergency or directly contacted the outside world, nobody could see inside included Sola - an ambassadorial perk that he was very grateful for. It would make some future meetings easier potentially - and in the meantime… He picked the case up again and slouched into a chair at the long table that filled most of the first room. In addition to being part of his private cabin, this room doubled as a briefing room for his officers - or at least it would once he actually had some, he reminded himself.

Setting the case carefully in front of him, he worked the catch - biometric locks, naturally - and after retrieving the envelope pushed the case back. There would be ample time to unpack during the flight from the far side of the jump point to Velca Prime, and the contents of that packet were the more pressing. Opening the envelope with one nail he pulled out the documents inside. “Ok, let’s see what sort of mess I’ve gotten into this time. Letter from Re’x - I’ll read that in a bit. Folder of… technical specs? Hmm. That’s helpful, but I’ve been drilled on the specs of this ship so much in the last month I don’t see why that would be so secret. Oh, and a letter from the general.” Dustin muttered to himself as he retrieved the contents. “Let’s go with the general’s letter first…” he skim-read the letter, got about halfway down where a line in bold font twice the size of the rest of the text simply said “I know you’re skimming this Dustin. Go back and read it properly.” At that, he sighed and began reading again.

In total, reading the letter carefully took about half an hour - during which the general explained a few of Star Command’s hopes for the mission as well as a couple of useful details of things they’d done their best to keep hidden about exactly what the Titan yards had added to the ship or had at least partially repurposed from the rationale they’d given to the Velca and Rabyth during the design phase. Of course, this then lead Dustin to reading the folder of ship specifications a lot more closely, before scribbling a handful of notes on the inside of the folder - key things he needed to remember. He’d try and spend some time reviewing them whenever he got downtime, some of the stuff Star Command had added was well beyond the scope of the mission as he understood it - just what did they expect him to find out in space?

As he was thinking that, his hand nudged the other letter. Glancing at it, Dustin nodded. Of course - there wasn’t just one government official’s clandestine communication here, there was whatever Re’x had thought so important to say without the Research Council finding out. Putting the rest of the documents back in their envelope for safe keeping, Dustin kicked his legs over the arm of the chair and began to read.