This story was originally written for two friends, the OkieBois, who came around and then went there ways, and also for my Padawan, who can't be replaced. Comments are appreciated.
Ataq_katt@hotmail.com
P.S. I don't mean to be blunt but I could care less about minor spelling errors I made, just read and enjoy, lol.
The Yukon Express: Chapter One-Exodus
Kanon looked up from his lap reader as the door opened and glanced at his father's face. He could always tell what an encounter would be like from his father's features. Today was not going to be good, his dad had on what Kanon thought of as his war face, and he glanced at the door to see three men coming in wearing suits and grim expressions.
"Well," Ben Mathews leaned his hip against the edge of his desk and folded his arms, "To what do I owe the honor of this surprise visit?" He was a tall muscular man who enjoyed sports. He was in his mid forties and appeared younger. His son, Kanon, shared his sharp features and aristocratic nose, as well as ice chip blue eyes. He watched as the three men moved to the area in front of his desk. One stepped slightly forward and tilted his head to the side, his face patient but clearly angry. "Jeffrey Pelton." Ben smiled and offered his hand. "One doesn't get to see the President of United America very often."
"Knock it off, Ben." Pelton shook the offered hand briskly and dropped it, irritated. "You know why we're here, and Samoan fighters followed my plane in, so please don't bore me with mock surprise." He turned and sat in one of the chairs facing the desk. "May we get straight to the point?"
Ben laughed and shook his head in amazement. "Mr. President, if you've come all the way here to convince me to let you see the Yukon Express, you've wasted your time." He glanced across the room in to the alcove where Kanon sat, watching his father carefully. He smiled slightly and glanced back at the other men. "I told you on the comm. panel that we're prepping for launch. I don't have time for this."
"Ben, we need to see the engine configuration on the Yukon or we won't be able to match it. We won't be able to launch." Pelton crossed his legs and sighed quietly. "I'm not asking you for any secrets, I just want our own ships to be able to stay on course."
"You might have considered that when I was laughed out of the committee chamber when I suggested the Yukon five years ago, Jeffrey." Ben's eyes became glacial and there was a set to his jaw muscles. "I don't give a goddamn what you want to see. If you come near the Yukon I'll blow you out of orbit."
"You don't threaten the President of the UA!" One of the other two men came around the chair Pelton sat in, furious. "Who in the hell do you think you are?"
Ben pushed a button on his desk and immediately the door opened. Four heavily armed men burst in. He pointed at the visibly surprised man that had shouted at him. "Take him outside and kill him." The guards immediately seized the man and dragged him out of the door.
"Ben, for God sakes!" Pelton jumped up.
"Sit down!" Ben thundered. He waited until the President complied and sat down himself. "This is no game, Mr. President." His fury was barely restrained. "Six years ago I had the data that said this planet was fucked, Jeff. Five years ago I took that data to your precious Congress, and you personally led the assault on my name and reputation!" He slammed his fist on the desk so hard a cup of pens tipped over. "I do not give a DAMN what your opinion is, sir, and I guarantee you that you do not have sufficient military power to challenge me." He leaned back in his chair and glared.
"Ben.." Pelton started. Mathews cut him off.
"Shut up, Jeffrey. I really don't want to here it." Ben leaned forward and touched another button. "Kesia, what time is the next cargo launch?"
"A little over an hour, sir." A voice came from the air around them.
Ben met the President's eyes and held them. "Kesia, call General Randle. Tell him to order the UA fighters down. If they don't comply destroy them. We'll escort the President back to the UA."
"Yes, sir. Anything else?"
Pelton glared back at him, and Ben smiled slightly. "Yes. Have Mr. Jessom bring me a data chip with the complete schematics of the Yukon's engines." He cut off the switch and leaned back in his chair. "I really can't stand you, Jeffrey, and if I felt like it I'd tell you to go piss yourself, but I'm not going to doom the people you're trying to save because you're such a prick.'
"Thank you." Pelton said, trying very hard to sound grateful and not surly.
"Don't thank me. By now Governor Fellows is on Centauri, and he works for me, Jeff. He could give a shit less what your laws are. We've written our own. Might as well leave the politicians here to die. They won't live long on Centauri."
"You wrote your own laws?" Pelton said disgustedly. "What about the rights of the people that are going?"
"Oh, they're guaranteed, Jeff." Ben stood up as the door opened and accepted a small box from the man that delivered it. He casually dropped it in the President's lap as he passed. "Not very long ago the UA was the United States, and it was ruled by a nearly perfect document. That document has gone to Centauri, Jeff, only I corrected it so that the laws are absolute. If your idiots try and bend or break a law they will be executed. That's the law until the people can vote for themselves."
Pelton stood up, his face barely constraining his anger. "If you think anyone is going to stand for you setting up a dictatorship.."
Ben cut him off with a wave of his hand. "You're boring me, Mr. President. If anyone, and I mean ANYONE comes near the Yukon or any of the sleeper ships I'll shoot down anything that tries to launch. I think you know the way out." He waved at the door. Pelton held his gaze for a moment and then left with the other man.
"Damn, Dad." Kanon said quietly from his place on the couch. "That guy's like the leader of the world government, you know?" He ran his hand through his short blond hair. "You were pretty harsh."
"He's the leader of a nearly extinct race, Kan, and he knows it." Ben turned and looked out his window at the launch pads. "They pretended for decades that nothing was wrong, and when it bit them in the ass they had the nerve to act surprised."
"Will we make it on Centauri?" Kanon asked nervously.
Ben smiled wistfully and looked at his son. "We don't have a choice, kid."
One week later Kanon sat strapped into the acceleration chair in his dad's orbiter, nervously watching as the flight techs prepped the large ship for launch. In the cargo bay was the last of the supplies bound for the Yukon Express, the largest spacecraft ever conceived by mankind.
The Yukon had to be built in orbit because it was far too big to survive a launch from earth. It was over two kilometers long and one and a half wide, and was tapered at the ends resembling a cigar. At tail of the Yukon were twelve cylindrical gravity engines that literally bent space in such a way as to make faster than light travel possible. Each engine was a hundred and fifty meters long.
The Yukon was spun on its axis to provide some gravity, approximately two thirds of earth normal. The outer decks of the enormous ship were filled with frozen water that would be consumed on the trip to Alpha Centauri and would act like a radiation shield and meteorite shield during the transit.
The central core of the Yukon was a huge computer that stored nearly all of the records of human history that were available. Everything from current technology to the bible, medicine to arts and culture. The complete record of the human race.
The rear third of the ship held tools and equipment compactly stored that would be used to set up factories, schools, hospitals, and homes. The forward two thirds were mostly taken up by cocoons containing humans and animals in deep sleep, a process perfected by Ben Mathew's company and the consortium he'd formed of the world's wealthiest people. The Yukon Project was entirely funded through private companies, and their association with the tiny island of Samoa had given them privacy to work.
Surrounding the Yukon was a fleet of smaller gravity driven ships called sleepers that were also filled with cocoons. All together half a million people would be making the trip to their new home on Centauri with this being the last flight, along with several thousand cattle, pigs, horses, cats, dogs, and every other animal that could survive the deep sleep. A monumental effort had been made to preserve as many species as possible, even those few fish species that would make it.
Early in the Project the faster than light drive had proven successful, and smaller ships had been sent to Centauri on reconnaissance flights followed by larger crews and the first stasis ships. Ben and the other members of the board had been greatly relieved to find that the fourth planet was earth-like, especially since the small subterranean towns on Mars could not handle a massive exodus from earth. The second flight wave to Centauri had strewn transceiver buoys the entire span of travel, and a limited delay comm. line was now possible with the new colony on Centauri, although there was still a delay of several hours.
Next, robot ships full of equipment and raw materials were sent along with crews that were to set up mining, foundries, mills, and electric generators to begin the set up of what would become the manufacturing base for the new towns.
All during this time the board raced to design and build vehicles to transport as many people to the colony as possible. As the robot ships returned they were quickly converted to sleeper ships and sent back, and the Yukon herself was constructed as the main vessel for critical items that had to be protected from radiation and impacts. Already a tiny population of fifty thousand was building away at the first small towns, Deliverance, Providence, and Hope. All races were represented, and the law on Centauri made any form of discrimination punishable by public hanging. The three towns were so far very peaceful.
For most of the process Ben and the other members of the consortium were more or less ignored, treated as crack pots and jokes to the various media companies and governments, but as the earth was savaged by enormous storms and the sea level began to drop as the ice thickened at the poles a new sense of urgency was felt. Glaciers were now forming much faster than anyone thought possible and the planet wide temperature was dropping a degree a year. There were riots and even wars as humanity was driven towards the equator by the ever-thickening ice, and massive starvation quickly reduced the population from a one time high in 2093 of eleven billion to less than three billion in 2142. Clearly, the human race was in deep trouble.
When several governments tried unsuccessfully to take over the Yukon Project Ben had the entire operation moved to Samoa where they'd been launching from, and used the wealth of the board to purchase and build a very strong private military to protect them. They had overwhelmed and devastated every attacker.
Finally, much to late, other governments had begun building their own ships to go to Centauri, but Ben doubted any would launch, and if any did he gave them low odds of survival. The ships were thrown together with desperation, and he personally wouldn't set foot on one. The United Americas and their uneasy allies the Russian Union finally started building sleeper ships in orbit, but it was doubtful they'd be completed. Several factions had already attacked the UA ships and damaged them, and had tried unsuccessfully to damage the Yukon fleet. The launch of the Yukon had been accelerated as much as possible because the attacks were coming more and more often. It was time to go.
"Kanon." Taylor Harper stuck his head out of the cockpit. He was the personal pilot for Ben Mathews and had been instructing Kanon to fly for almost two years. His face was angular and he wore a trimmed mustache. His brown hair was buzzed close to his skull, and he was powerfully built. Yukon would launch in three days on his twenty fourth birthday. "They took all the copilots to fly fighter escort. Want to fly second seat for me?" His brown eyes, usually cheerful, were showing the strain of the day. He and his pilots had flown a lot more the last week than was good for them and the stress was showing.
Kanon glanced at his dad in the other seat. Ben looked at both of them and nodded and then went back to his lap computer. Kanon unstrapped and climbed into the cockpit, pulling on a headset as he sat down. "Yukon Control to all shuttles, inbounds ten minutes out." A tinny voice came over the speakers. "All shuttles are released to onboard controllers. Launch when ready."
"Give me a list, Kan. By the numbers." Taylor reached up and flipped switches, turning the ops controls over to Kanon.
"Engine pre-start complete. Lift thrusters ok. Nav Comp set and locked. Launch cradle released." Kanon ticked off the list. "Orbital insertion confirmed and locked. Second Seat clear." He tugged at his acceleration straps and looked over at Taylor. "When you're ready."
Taylor glanced back through the door to the passenger compartment. "We're number two to go Ben." Ben nodded and Taylor turned back to his controls. "Watch Cargo Four. As soon as they're clear we go."
"They're lifting now." Kanon checked his screens. They could hear the deep rumble of the cargo ship's engines increase as the ion engines powered up, and through the forward ports they watched as the massive ship rose up and thrusted into the sky. Taylor powered their lifting engines up and the shuttle rose out of the cradle to slide forward onto the launch area. "Cargo Four is clear." Kanon said, wiping his hands on his pant legs. "Cargo twelve is warming up behind us."
"Primaries slaved to the Nav Comp." Taylor ordered, switching the engines over to the computer. "Yukon Control, this is Klondike. We're lifting off."
"Roger, Klondike. Your vector is clear." The controller responded. "Cargo Twelve is next behind Klondike. Cargo Six, stand by behind Cargo Twelve."
"Last time you'll see it." Taylor said, noticing that Kanon was looking out the side of the ship. "As messed up as it is, it's still home."
"Not anymore." Kanon responded quietly. He sighed and met Taylor's eyes. "Ready when you are Captain."
Taylor smiled and nodded. He went back to his controls and initiated the launch program. The Klondike oriented itself and began to rise. They could feel the entire shuttle begun to thrum with the vibrations of the ion engines coming to power, and the nose angled up sharply. A second later they were pressed into the backs of their seats as the main engines fired. The ground fell away instantly and in seconds the light blue sky began to darken as the earth gave away to orbital space.
"All fighters, all fighters, launch and intercept incoming targets." The controller's voice came through their headsets. "All fighters are cleared for launch. Targets are five minutes out."
"How many fighters are left on the surface?" Kanon called out over the roar of the engines.
"Not many." Taylor looked down at his screen displaying the locations of all Yukon ships on the surface. The last two cargo ships were lifting off, and fifteen fighters were launching towards what appeared to be fifty or sixty inbound targets. "Doesn't look good, does it?"
"No." Kanon rested his head back. "Hope they hold them off that last cargo shuttle." He switched to orbital displays and was relieved to see almost a hundred of his dad's small fighters arcing away from the Yukon and headed to where the ships were coming up into orbit. "There's the cavalry."
"Good thing too." Taylor switched the radios over to the fleet channel. "Yukon Express, this is Klondike. Request approach and docking."
"Klondike, you're cleared for forward bay two." A pleasant woman's voice came back to them. "Proceed to orbit level three and notify me at one hundred kilometers out."
"Confirmed, Yukon. Level three, forward bay two. Notify at one hundred." Taylor responded. The pressure eased on them as the Klondike achieved orbit and the weightlessness of space. The primary engines powered down to a lower level, and they were gently thrown against their chair straps as the thrust pressure dissipated. "Mains have powered down." He confirmed for Kanon.
"Course is locked and updated." Kanon said, checking his boards. "Ten minutes until we hit a hundred kilometers."
"What's happening to the other ships?" Taylor asked.
Kanon flipped back to the readings for the launch area and then had to look again. The number of dots on the screen was much lower and he ordered the computer to identify Yukon ships. Cargo Twelve was not far behind them, settling into its own orbit, but Cargo Six wasn't on the screen. There were only four fighters on the surface, and the inbounds had been drastically cut to about sixteen. They appeared to be strafing the launch area. "Taylor, I can't find Cargo Six on the screen." Kanon swallowed hard.
"Yukon, do you have a lock on Cargo Six?" Taylor asked the headset.
"Negative, Cargo six is not responding." The woman replied.
Kanon felt nauseous and rubbed his face with his hands. The bastards got one of us, he thought. Let them die on that infected hellhole they created. He glanced out at the large northern polar cap and felt anger and resentment burn through his stomach. So much for the rest of the human race.
A few minutes later Taylor interrupted his thoughts as he called the Yukon at the hundred-kilometer mark. Kanon helped adjust their course and locked the Nav computer over to Yukon Approach. Already they could see the other ships in the fleet scattered at various heights and distances, and they passed within a few kilometers of a large freighter, its irregular surface gleaming in the sunlight. Cargo Twelve was headed for that ship and angled off behind them.
"All ships, all ships, this is Yukon. Multiple inbounds. I say again multiple inbounds. All fighters tie into channel alpha for tactical." The woman's voice came over the headsets.
Kanon flipped his display over and saw several waves of blips heading up out of the atmosphere towards the fleet. "Oh my God, that's like two hundred fighters." He said in shock.
"Yukon, Klondike is on final." Taylor said tensely. "Cargo Twelve, are you hard docked?"
"Will be by the time you are." Came the response.
"Roger. Yukon forward bay two, you have control." Taylor lifted his hands away from the controls and the board went red as the Yukon's computers took over flight controls. They drifted towards the giant main engines that were in the center of Yukon's twelve gravity engines. The mains were coming to life, glowing with the blue green energy of the massive ion drives. As they arrowed down and under the Yukon they could see the large doors that sealed in the equipment for Centauri and the few windows that weren't blocked lit from within. Yukon looked like it stretched forever as they passed by, and Kanon never could help the feeling of awe he got when he saw the massive ship.
"Klondike, secure all and stand by for docking." A man's voice came over the speakers. "Bay two is depressurized, coming about." Their shuttle began to slip side ways as it neared the nose of the ship.
"Secured." Kanon responded. "Klondike is green for docking." He glanced out the window and saw several fighters racing towards each other, colorful blossoms of light arcing back and forth. He watched as a fleet fighter was destroyed and two from the surface collided. He swallowed hard, feeling a sense of loss he couldn't understand.
"Heads up." Taylor said gently. He pointed towards the Yukon's side and the gaping opening into bay two. Kanon sighed and rested his head back as the shuttle was piloted in by the Yukon's computer. The thick walls slid past them and there was a rumbling bump as the nose of the shuttle locked into its clamps. Even before they could take of the safety belts the light was already leaving as the bay door closed. "Yukon, Klondike has hard dock, all systems shutting down." Taylor said and began shutting his boards down. Kanon did likewise.
"Klondike, as soon as the bay is pressurized Mr. Mathews is needed in the ops center." The man's voice said.
"Understood." Ben said, floating in the opening to the cockpit. "Tell General Riechert I'm on my way." He put his hand on their shoulders. "Nice flight, boys. Get to your sleeper pods. I'm ordering an immediate launch."
"I want to stay with you, Dad." Kanon looked up at his father. He pulled the straps loose and floated up out of his seat.
"Kanon, it'll take seven months to accelerate out of the solar system and almost ten years to reach Centauri." Ben put his hand on his son's shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "Believe me, you won't miss anything."
"But.." Kanon started but Taylor cut him off.
"They don't have enough consumables for all of us, Kanon. There's barely enough for the people that won't be in deep sleep."
Kanon gave his dad a resigned and slightly bitter look and looked away, nodding. He followed the two of them out of the main hatch, pulling himself along the wall tether in zero-g. As they entered the Yukon there was activity everywhere as the ship was hurried into launch readiness. He had only a brief look at his dad as they parted ways, Ben heading for the Ops Center and Kanon following Taylor into the inner levels and the sleeper pods.
In cross section the Yukon looked like a dartboard of sorts. The floors were slightly curved and the ceilings were narrower. Overhead was the central computer core, and beneath the floor was the hull of the ship so that when the ship was spun a centrifugal gravity was generated. Since the Yukon couldn't spin while ships were entering or leaving the docking bays, or under acceleration, they had to pull themselves along the corridors using tug lines anchored to the walls. Oddly the ship seemed deserted since the crew was either in deep sleep or at flight positions.
"Ah." Dr. David Fields looked up as Taylor and Kanon floated into the sleep prep room. His magnetic shoes held him to the floor and his instruments and sensors were kept in pockets in his jumpsuit. He was a young physician, only thirty-two, and his dark hair was buzzed short like Taylor's, and he wore antique glasses. "Ops said you were coming. We're in a bit of a hurry." He pointed towards a side room. "In there, please."
"So what do we need to do, Doc?" Taylor asked, letting his deck shoes touch and hold to the floor. He took Kanon's arm and gently pulled him down to lock on as well.
"Strip off your flight suits and we'll put your monitors on." Fields said, turning to a drawer in the wall where the bio-monitors were kept. "Then we'll give you a couple of injections, and see you on Centauri." He chuckled at his own joke.
Kanon felt uncomfortable but followed Taylor in taking off his clothing. He wasn't particularly modest, but the thoughts of someone moving him around like some kind of doll while he was naked and unconscious bugged him. He jumped as the doctor touched a cold metal sensor to his arm. It stuck. "What is that?" He asked, looking at the shiny disk.
"One of about thirteen sensors you get to wear to bed." Fields responded. "Together they monitor heart rate, brain activity, nerve function, and so on." He touched a larger octagonal sensor to Kanon's chest near his right side. It immediately lit up with a blue light and then turned green. "See, while your asleep your metabolism will slow to a crawl. You'll only age about a year over the next ten years. Lucky you." He smiled and met Kanon's eyes. "Sort of a pleasant side effect isn't it?"
"So I'll be almost thirty and look like I am now?" Kanon chuckled. "That could be good and bad." Despite himself he found that he kind of liked the doctor.
"Ah, eternal youth." Taylor quipped, grinning at him. "You get to still be a knock out at thirty. The women will fall all over you." He glanced down as one of the med techs placed sensors on his body, a couple in somewhat private areas. As a pilot he was used to physical exams and wasn't near as embarrassed as Kanon.
"Ok." Fields finished with Kanon and held a mouthpiece up for him. "Bite down on this and breathe through your mouth. I'm going to put a small clamp on your nose, ok?" Kanon nodded and did as he was told, not liking the clamp at all. The air coming through the tube was a little cold, and he flinched as something was injected into his arm. All at once the room seemed to distort and he felt his heart begin to race in his chest. He tried to reach up to take the tube out but his arms and legs suddenly felt very heavy. There was another jolt as a second needle pierced his left arm, but he barely felt it. He caught sight of Taylor and tried to speak, but cold blackness swirled into his vision and he felt as though he were falling into a black spiral. His last memory of the day they left home forever was how beautiful Taylor was floating in the prep room, and how much he was going to miss the beach on Samoa.