7/26/12

MINERVA: CHAPTER 1
By E.S. Wynn


>>file #C82013-AT-20311
>>11/13/2124
>>open feed

November 16th 2124 will be a day that history will never forget.

Already, they’re calling it Triumph Day, the day we broke free. Senator Richard Odom is pushing the vote that it be made an international holiday. It’s that kind of day, folks. It’s that kind of day.

The experimental starship TEV Minerva, the first ship capable of faster-than-light speeds to be constructed by the human race, is scheduled to be launched at 1400 GMT this coming Thursday. This is the same TEV Minerva which has claimed nearly ten years of joint research and development between two corporate giants, Minerva Eclipse and Duke industries. This technological marvel has been outfitted with the latest navigational software, runs a beefed-up version of Duke Industries’ own OS thirty-four point one, sports the highest caliber of security systems ever built and carries humanity’s first Eclipse 2.11 Displacement Drive.

And let me tell you, she’s fast, folks. Fast enough to make Einstein blush.

In the command chair for this historic mission is no less than Captain Cindy Hawk, hero of the Eastern province police action and the woman singlehandedly responsible for negotiating the treaty between China and the West. Her second in command is Kim Ferox, a highly decorated Lieutenant in Terra’s Black Navy and the youngest member of the Minerva’s crew. Heading up security for the operation is Sergeant Thomas Vangelder, from our president’s own security detail, while medical needs and biological studies will be led by none other than Nobel Prize winner Rosemary Glass, daughter of Nathan Glass, whose work in the Amazon led to a cure for the epidemic of Hirstahli syndrome in 2067.

At the beginning of next week, the crew of the Minerva –some forty-four of the most qualified engineers, medical personnel, Ph.D’s, and support crew– will board the Minerva and be catapulted forward through hundreds of light-years of space in just a few moments, arriving at a currently undisclosed destination where they will spend seven days recharging their engines, checking systems for stress damage and conducting various other undisclosed tests related to this exciting new FTL drive.

What will they find? What will they bring back? Tune in here, Thursday, November 23rd when we cover the triumphant return of humanity’s first FTL starship, the TEV Minerva!

Back to you, Ted.


>>feed ends


- - -
Author of over 30 books. Chief editor of Thunderune Publishing and all affiliated magazines. E.S. Wynn's "Minerva" is available here: http://www.thunderune.com/2011/04/minerva.html