Gabatrix: The First Peace

"Can you hear me, Ambassador?" the captain told him.

"Yes, I can captain," he responded. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can. I have you patched into a separate channel. You will only hear me from this channel instead of the crew com channels. I will be able to talk quieter to you instead of me yelling across the room and causing unnecessary noise pollution in the bridge."

"I understand," Kane said. "You have to see the House of Representatives when the chairman introduces a bill. This place is relatively calm by comparison."

"Politics.....One of the things with having a crew of a hundred is that it is far easier to manage these ships than the past. Bear in mind that I will be in and out in this channel. I do have a ship to run."

"Understood, Captain," the Ambassador responded. "Makes sense."

"Ever done a rocket launch like this before?"

"First time for me."

"Just want to make sure you are ready. You are the most important person for this mission. Essentially this whole ship is getting you from point A to point B for a meeting."

"It is Captain," Kane replied. "But everybody on this ship is important as well."

"They are. I am still surprised that the T'rintar clan doesn't send message envoy probes to do these negotiations."

"Sooner or later, we would still have to meet them face to face. Perhaps the T'rintar want to meet us face to face as a custom."

"With the UWAN nowadays, things get pretty isolated between.....hold on."

The com between the captain temporarily ceased. Kane knew that he was busy. His eyes would continue to watch the hangar bay lights. The red lights continued, and finally, it gave an orange glow.

"Titan Hangar control reports that we are ready to launch," one of the crewmembers announced to the captain. "Air is matched with Titan's air. They report that there is a methane rainstorm that is over our heads. The crew reports that they are all strapped in and ready to go."

"Oh, they are going to have fun cleaning all that shit up when they open the hangar bay doors," the captain responded to her. "Normally, they wait till it passes before they open the doors. Tell them we are ready to launch. We welcome the rain."

"Aye, sir."

Even though Kane was near the back of the room, he was mostly getting front row seats. The captain's voice came into his earpiece once again.

"Normally, the doors remain closed during the methane rainstorms," the captain told him. "Since this mission is top priority, they will have to have us launch through it. I don't know about you, but I will have to hate having to clean that up after we launch."

"I don't know much about my chemistry captain," Kane replied. "But isn't methane and nitrogen explosive?"

"It is. Of course, there is one thing that Titan doesn't have, and that is oxygen. Good ol oxygen is the culprit for your explosions. Since Titan doesn't have any, we are just lying on a pile of frozen inert natural gas. It's why they have to pump out the oxygen safely from the hangar. If they just open up the hangar bay doors without doing it, the results would be.....kinda explosive."

The hangar bay doors began to open up. The moment that it did, the natural light of Titan began to flood inside the bay. It was an orange and tan hue that began to illuminate everything. It was not bright outside. Titan was much further away from Sol than Mars or Venus. The thick atmosphere served as a blanket for the sunlight as well. Kane could see as the hangar bays continued to open up more and more.

The moment that the bay doors retracted over the midsection of the ship, they could hear the sound of faint taps on the hull. It was the sound of the methane rain that was smacking harmlessly off the hull. It reminded Kane of the bountiful rain storms on Cebravis. He could only imagine that even though Titan had its own beauty, that it was just a frozen gas dump of a wasteland.

"I will have to get a chance to do a spacewalk outside of Titan's moon base someday," Kane said out loud. He didn't know if the captain heard him or not.

"Hangar bay doors are fully open," the crew member told the captain. "Pylons preparing to adjust our position for launch sequence."

"Roger. Once we are in position, initiate countdown and launch at your discretion," the captain replied.

A new set of blue lights began to light up in the bridge. Kane did not know what it meant, but he began to feel a pull on his feet and body. The overhead display was showing all the events that were taking place.

"Hold on and get ready for a ride," the captain told the ambassador through his earpiece. "This is the fun part."

Outside the hangar, there was a unique spectacle that was taking place. The UHN Gabatrix could be seen in her illuminated glory. A series of lights generated from the ship and the natural lighting of Titan showed a yellowish-gray starship. A set of pylon clamps began to lift the entire vessel upward. It was adjusting the ship to point to a 90-degree vector. It was slow but methodical, where every second was a three-degree change. The rear engine module was positioned downward towards the surface. The methane rain began to fall down, hitting the dorsal section of the ship. The front bow nose was pointing straight up as the pylons held the vessel perfectly in place. With such low gravity, the pylons didn't have to do much work. The Gabatrix had a heavyweight to it, but the low gravity meant that it was easier to deploy ships than what other planets had to do.

Inside the ship, Kane had a firm grip on his seat. He could feel his weight shift to his back as the ship was lifted to a perfect upward position. The gravity pressed down on him was light, but he knew this was only going to be the beginning of this.

"Initiating countdown!" the crew member yelled. "T minus ten in counting. Ten.....nine....eight.....seven.....six.....five......four......three......two......one. Launch!"

Suddenly at the Gabatrix's engine module, a series of five thrusters began to activate all at once. Simultaneously, the docking clamps released the Gabatrix as a volley of burning fire emitted from the thrust nodules. The flames struck the lower pylon and burned out as the Gabatrix began to lift off like a rocket of Earth's ancient past.

Kane could feel the acceleration hit his body hard. It was nothing terrible of course, but it felt like sitting on a seat of a theme park ride on Cebravis. The rest of the crew was feeling the g-forces being pressed upon them as well. The Captain even smiled a little bit.

The Gabatrix lifted off the hangar bay. The pylon clamps began to recede into the hangar bay itself. The methane rain was just a scene that was occurring at the same time. The ship was getting higher and higher as there was a flame trail that left behind it. The liquid and frozen methane evaporated as it was being exposed to the intense heat of the Gabatrix's engines.

The hangar bay doors began to close up immediately as more of the rain fell inside the open bay itself. The spaceship flew higher into the sky, traveling at a hard speed. The constant acceleration was heavy on him, but it felt fun. He gripped his seat and watched the display board as it showed the thick air around the ship. The rain droplets continued to hit the hull, producing the light thumb sounds. Eventually, the ships' engines began to drown out the noise.

Kane knew that this was a heartfelt scene that was occurring. On the one hand, he was enjoying all of this. At the same time, he knew that the crew had families that they were leaving behind. The sacrifices of the UHN were all over the news. Even he was leaving some family and friends behind. All of this was because of his mission and having to be at a specific point and time period. That was, of course, if this wasn't some T'rintar trick to lure a ship to be destroyed. Who knew what was going on in the minds of the T'rintar clan.

The ship flew higher and higher in altitude. Eventually, the rain stopped as the Gabatrix flew above the cloud layer. The thick hue of nitrogen was all around them. It would take a minute as the ship's engines were running faster and faster speeds. The red trail of flames highlighted the spaceship's travel. Vectoring thrusters also helped keep the vessel in a straight forward trajectory.

Kane watched the crew and then the displays. The ship had reached a steady speed as the g-forces began to lighten up. The thick atmosphere of nitrogen was still around the ship, but it was getting lighter and lighter. He began to see the darkness of space as the ship was leaving Titan's atmosphere.

Eventually, the ship's engines began to lighten down a little bit. The intense flames of the engine module began to calm down as the vessel had reached its preferred speeds. Eventually, the ship started to punch through the thick atmosphere. The Gabatrix had immerged from the thick blanket, and it now could see the stars outside with ease. Kane looked at his far right to see the planet of Saturn. The god planet and her rings showed all who was in charge. Titan was just a speck compared to the gas giant.

The gravity began to wane. The ship was reaching orbit. The nitrogen was less and less until it was no more as the vessel had reached a steady speed. The constant acceleration was gone, and the ship was now in space. The Gabatrix was leaving Titan and traveling into space itself. The engine thrusters still emitted a light flame as the ship was keeping her speed to avoid any gravimetric pull from the moon. The frozen methane and any leftover nitrogen gas on the hull of the Gabatrix bled out into space.

The void of space was beautiful. Kane still had his eyes set on Saturn and her rings. This was what it was like to be in the outer quadrant of the Sol System. The rings of Saturn were perhaps the captivating beauty of the planet. Even Cebravis lacked any ringed gas giants. Perhaps the Sol system was just lucky to have such a planet. Of course, Uranus had his smaller rings as well.

The ship's vectoring thrusters began to fire to turn the ship a little bit. Kane could feel a few adjustments to the vessel as it made its movements. The entire bridge and ship were now in zero gravity. Kane was reminded as to why women and men were required to have their hair cut short or tied up. He already had short hair, so it was never really an issue. The zero-g environment would cause everything to float around that wasn't nailed down. Thankfully, UHN ships were all prepared for such things. Everything in the ship had some sort of magnetized system or could be safely put away to prevent such occurrences. Kane's magnetic red shoes activated to keep his feet to the ground, much like the magnetic boots and shoes that the other crew members wore.

The forward thrusters fired for a little while as the ship began to slow down. Kane and the crew could feel a tug forward as the vessel was slowing down its forward velocity. Once the ship came to a full stop, the forward thrusters ceased.

"We are at a full stop," the navigator called out.

"Begin gate probe ring arrangement," the captain said to his crew. "Set the coordinates to the New Olympian system."

"Aye, sir."

"You are safe to walk around, ambassador," the captain told him in his earpiece. "Opening a gate without a gate array takes about thirty to forty minutes."

Kane was already aware of this when the transport he was on made the jump to Titan from Cebravis. Gate arrays could fold space a little bit quicker since the array was already there. Without it, the ships had to create their own.

The Gabatrix's forward-center bow was a small launcher next to the six large missile/torpedo flex tubes. The launch tube opened up as a small probe was ejected into space. It flew to about less than a kilometer away as the probe's vectoring thrusters caused it to slow down. Another probe was launched from the tube as it flew almost in the same direction as the first probe. It also began to activate its thrusters as it began to slow down.

The first launched probe looked like a metal cylinder. It began to give off a yellow light as it slowed down to a stop. It then positioned itself in front of the Gabatrix. The next probe then began to fly next to that probe as well. This one slowed to a stop as it positioned itself below the other one. Kane was watching as the Gabatrix was firing these small probes trying to form a ring. It was just the beginning phase. He knew that he had time before the jump to New Olympia could occur.

Kane took his headpiece and earpiece off as he put it next to the holder from where it came. They clicked into place as he undid the straps. When he stood up, the magnetic shoes were doing its job. It was keeping him from floating around in the environment. When he stepped forward, the magnetic clips disengaged for his moving foot while the other foot held in place. This allowed him to walk forward on the bridge deck without too much hindrance.

The light clicking of sounds could be heard below his feet as Kane was seeing the probe array being slowly built. He stepped up next to the captain but made sure not to bother him too much. The captain seemed calm, though, and was only listening to the occasional com chatter going on.

"Ambassador," the captain called out to him. "We will be starting up the centripetal ring pretty soon. I have seen some crew members move their belongings to the ring before a jump like this since it takes time. If you want to, you can do the same as well."

"It is alright," Kane replied. "I don't have much with me except my wardrobe for the meeting."

"Packing light, eh?"

"I figure this mission will be one of the shortest missions in either direction."

"True," the captain nodded.

"Captain," the communications officer called out to him. "We are picking up a message from New Olympia. They are powering up their gate array and setting coordinates to the rendezvous point."

"That will make our trip even shorter," William said as he turned to look at Kane. "Looks like this will take less than an hour to do it."

"A two hundred light-year jump....." Kane said.

"Not including the jump to New Olympia. At least the New Olympians are cooperating on this part."

"How far is it from here to New Olympia?"

"About 12 light-years."

The captain said like it was mundane. The fact was that it was twelve light-years away. Even Kane felt thankful that they had a method to go from one place to another relatively quickly. New Olympia was actually one of the closer colonies to the Sol system.

"Hold on, I need to make an announcement," the captain told him. The captain still had his hand pressed to the control display. Kane could tell he was about to make a ship-wide announcement. The overhead intercom activated once again.

"Attention crew of the Gabatrix," the captain said. "We will be activating the centripetal ring shortly. Be aware that we have not made the jump to New Olympia yet. We will still need to make the necessary course adjustments to make the two jumps. Make sure you are near places you can grab ahold of, to prevent yourself from getting thrown around too much."

Kane knew that was sound advice. With no gravity acting on the crew, changes in position can cause the crew to be tossed and jostled through the ship. The magnetic boots and shoes helped prevent some of that, but if the ship engaged in a rapid course change too quickly, people could be flung to the walls, the ceilings, or the deck. Ship computers, trained navigators, and the micro-adjustments in the vectoring thrusters in the ship itself did help discourage these sorts of events from happening. Too rapid acceleration or deceleration and it could kill the crew quickly.

"Starting up the centripetal ring," one of the crew announced.

Outside of the ship, the large ring of the Gabatrix began to spin in a clockwise motion. It was slow at first, taking at least ten seconds. It would start to spin faster and faster. Meanwhile, the probes being launched from the Gabatrix was forming into a large ring. About half the circle was complete. The radius of the probe ring had to be bigger than the Gabatrix to ensure the vessel could fit through it and arrive at its designation. There were about eight probes that were floating in space and in sync with each other. The probe lights would all indicate a yellow color. This meant that they were in formation but required more probes to complete the ring. The red color was either an indication that the probe was not functioning or not in formation yet.

The centripetal ring had reached its normal operating spin. Whoever climbed into the ring would experience the centripetal force of gravity. It was one of the few ways the ship helped generate gravity for the crew. It was the rings that always gave a distinct look even for the warships. Most of the times, the warships would act like space stations in orbit. Their nose would be pointing downward, and the ring would spin normally. Space was harsh, but the vessels worked on a simplicity that one had to get used to operating. Unless the vessel was doing a series of massive turns and rapid maneuvering, it was possible to run like this indefinitely as well. Space was enormous. Unless gravity were in the way, the UHN Gabatrix would just hover harmlessly in space.

Kane looked at the display of the camera that was looking at the ship itself. The moment the ring began to spin, it almost seemed to make the ship look alive. Without the ring, the warship just looked like a gray cylinder in space with the rail guns attached to the dorsal and ventral sides. Despite the apparent age of the ship, Kane noticed that the ship still looked like it was in good shape. Perhaps technology had only improved on the future warships that proceeded after the Gabatrix.

"Centripetal ring is in full operation," one of the crew members informed the captain.

"Good," he replied.

Kane felt it was safe enough to let the captain know. "I received an email from UWA Research and the Intelligence Bureau. They sent us some new data on the scavenged data hard drives from the Syn. They sent it to me and the ship's computer."

"Perfect timing...." William responded. "Any extra data will help." He looked at his console and interfaced more with it. He checked up the latest intel, and there was a series of different warships that popped up. Schematics were being displayed on his console. The captain's eyes widened, and he had a big grin on his face.

"What is that?" Kane asked.

"Oh, the timing is so good. I will have to review this after we make our jumps. I will make certain operations division can further utilize this information. What you are looking at Ambassador is some of the warship specifications that the Itreans use. The T'rintar....the Aksren....and the Shal'rein. Amazing....."

"I wish I understood it..." he said.

"Don't feel bad about it. Most of the information isn't good. They are more powerful than we are, but this information is still helpful. You might have an easier job than you think."

"What do you mean?" Kane asked.

"Their ships have a similar profile to ours. Even their weapons seem similar as well. Perhaps....."

"We think on a similar basis?" Kane added. "Yes...."

*******

The ring of probes was fully completed. About thirty minutes had passed as the Gabatrix sat near the ring. All the probes were lit green. They were in perfect sync with each other. Kane sat down on the same seat he had before. He had never seen this in front of his eyes before.

"We report the ring is in operation," the navigator informed the captain. "Wormhole formation at 35% and climbing."

It was a beautiful sight as Kane watched the array in front of him. It was similar to how the gate array operated. You could watch as a swirling vortex of blue and purple began to form inside the array of probes. The particles would start to swirl around the center slowly. You could still see behind the array easily since the wormhole was at the very beginning of development.