The Rise & Rise of Homo Luminous
Chapter 2 From Sailing Ships to Space Ships
The Great Expansion
After the discoveries of the vast far off continents of Australia & the Americas, more expeditions were organised to map & document these new lands. Unlike the expansion into Europe & Africa, the move into Australia & the Americas was well planned & coordinated. The Council of Elders, the oligarchic body that governed the Luminous, were determined to ensure that the expansion did not get out of hand.
Having said that, colonists were already heading off to the latest discoveries. Even though the effort to get to either the Americas or Australia was very difficult, many came anyway. However, these new lands did not attract the bulk of colonists. This was partly due to the journey & the fact that The Council of Elders frowned upon such unauthorised colonisation.
The Council had deemed Africa & Europe open for colonisation for a number of reasons. Firstly, both regions were relatively easy to get to. This further ensured that communications, although lengthy, could still be maintained. Furthermore, the edicts of The Council could also be enforced, to a certain degree, even if it took a number of months to reach colonies in either Africa or Europe.
Then there was the limited levels of technology. Tracks, paths & later roads were not that difficult to construct, linking various regions together & eventually back to The Capital. To keep communications with colonies in Australia or the Americas meant travelling over the ocean. Although boats had been used to reach these locations, this was dangerous to say the least.
Necessity, as always, was the mother of invention. Considering the high intelligence of Luminous, it did not take long for ocean going ships to replace the dangerously fragile boats. Instead of four people per boat attempting to get to the new lands, up to fifty, & later many more, could travel over the ocean. Although danger was not far away, the success of these first primitive sailing ships changed Luminous civilisation for ever.
The Council, in the end, had no choice but to accept that people were heading to Australia & the Americas. There was no stopping them. Furthermore, the journey by sailing ship from Asia to America was much quicker than the journey from Asia to Europe. But the sailing ships would not just effect the way transport was conducted in Asia & the Pacific, soon access to Europe & Africa via ships revolutionised travel. Instead of overland roads being the main access to Europe & Africa, the ocean was utilised.
As ships became more sophisticated, so too was their use. Soon commerce took off at unprecedented levels which inturn pushed technology further. It also meant that far off colonies could trade with the Asian heartland, which incidentally required more & more imports as its population increased & nearby agricultural regions could not meet the demands.
The result of all this was that colonies grew everywhere. The longer established ones soon became rather affluent & this attracted even more colonists. The populations of some regions even began to rival the South East Asian area where the Luminous had originated from. Other regions, meanwhile, became the great food producers for the population. Vast areas of North America produced grain for half the world, even though it had a much smaller population than Asia or Europe.
With this sudden expansion in several areas, commerce, territory, population to name but a few, it became obvious to The Council of Elders that urgent reforms there required. Although shipping had cut transportation times dramatically within a century, there was simply too much going on everywhere for The Council to keep track of. This was besides the fact that The Capital was strategically located in Asia.
The Luminous, even with all this going on, had already developed a grand civilisation which was nowhere better represented than The Capital. Besides the grand & marvellous buildings that awed any visitor, even though regional centres also had great sights, it was what inhabited these buildings that mattered most. Vast libraries of knowledge supported schools & universities. Government departments administered the activities of their respective responsibilities. Over 1 million people kept The Capital alive in all manner of things, from mundane work & government, to important research & above all the arts. Theatre, literature & music were common place. And much of it flowed out to the colonies.
Yet, even though The Capital showed no sign of
the strains of civilisation, as mentioned before, the frontier regions
did. This fact soon became the leading issue for The Council. For over
a decade a solution was debated, all the while knowing that things were
not getting any better. And as the population of Africa began to rival
that of Europe & Asia, only one solution could be accepted: a breaking
up of the Great Community into several regional governments forming a federation.
The Founding
It would come as a surprise to many that Luminous had only been on Earth for a mere 60 000 years when one of the greatest federations ever to be foundered came into being. The Council of Elders, in their wisdom, finally gave their consent for the Luminous Federation. Although The Capital would be theoretically still in control, regional capitals would now do much of the localised mechanicians of government. Yet even with all their wisdom, no Elder could foresee what was to follow.
Other than a new governmental structure, one that would last for thousands of years, the setting up of regional capitals began other reforms. The first was the dispersal of scholars & teachers from The Capital to the regions. Many major centres had already established schools & academies long ago, but these were now filled with personnel with the latest ideas from The Capital. Soon the Luminous civilisation had six, instead of one, centres of learning, research & excellence.
And as the knowledge revolution was taking place, so too followed a commercial revolution. As new ideas, particularly in science, came forth, inventors & then industries discovered new ways in implementing them into the realm of commerce. In a similar fashion, agriculture also benefited from these advances & soon farm production increased three fold.
The cycle would then roll on. As advances were made in science, new building techniques & materials were available. Shipping was the immediate successor of these advances & soon ships were twice as rugged, twice as large & twice as fast, even though they were still powered by the wind. But, after a long absence as a primary source of transport, roads linking major centres over long distances came back into fashion. Once again it became common for caravans to slowly move along on well maintained roads, unlike in previous times, & above all cut transport times by going overland. Soon, even the fastest ships were challenged for speed. Ships, however, held their own due to the sheer bulk of goods that one could carry.
The roads, however, had another advantage: one far more important than journey times. They opened up the interior of the continents for further expansion. Until this moment, 75% of the Luminous population had settled along the coastlines. Soon, with the introduction of good roads, the coastal population would drop to 60%. And as inland trade increased, although rivers & canals would carry a lot of transport, it was the roads that carried much of what was done.
Having said all that, three great reforms would leave these earlier ones behind. The first was the introduction of a new language. Although the spoken tongue had changed little & easily adapted as it matured, the written one had become almost impossible to learn. Old Luminese had run its course. Most people who could write (about 50% of the overall population), only actually knew about 50% of all hieroglyphic symbols.
The unforeseen result was, however, a simplification of the written language in mainstream society. Government & academic organisations may have continued to use Old Luminese, but Middle Luminese had basically replaced it everywhere else. In most circumstances, anyone fluent with Old Luminese could understand the new written version, so many academics saw the wisdom of changing over, even though there was some resistance. Yet, within a century, Old Luminese only survived in linguistic & history departments in academies & universities. The new language had taken over.
The second great reform was in sexual politics. Although females were not overly restricted in any activities, over the thousands of years, they had been allotted two basic areas. The first was child raising. The second was farm management. For thousands of years, they had excelled at both. But as farming became more & more commercially orientated, so females expanded from farm management into general commerce. Males may have crewed the ships, but it was the females who did the commercial transactions & farmed the crops & domesticated animals for food. But it did not stop here. Females also became involved in minerals trading, not to mention their mining, textile production & so forth.
Other industries & professions also witnessed an influx of females. Teaching & medical practice, both once the domain of males, soon saw an equal participation of both sexes. Society, it seemed, over a period of 200 years, had decided that equality was self evident. Although some areas witnessed more, or even sole inclusion of one sex over the other, in general this was no longer the case. The Council of Elders, whether it be in The Capital or in one of the regional ones, were uncertain in how to react to this particular reform, as it was an unexpected yet fundamental change in Luminous society.
Like the two pervious reforms, it was not The Elders who initiated the next great reform. It was the people themselves.
Although females had become equal in almost everything, in governmental politics they had nothing. In fact it was safe to say that 95% of the entire population shared in this situation. The Council of Elders, regardless at either federal or regional level, was only made up of males usually over 50 years of age. Furthermore, the oligarchic structure denied any political participation for 90% of the male population as well. But with the rise of the commercial power of females, calls for political reform soon followed. Money, in many respects, had become just as powerful as governmental authority.
The calls for demands, even though limited at first, soon became the leading issue everywhere. It was probably the one major failing of the Elders, especially at the federal level, for most were determined not to surrender their political power. It was not, however, for nefarious reasons. On the contrary, the Elders believed that only leadership through wisdom was the correct way to go, & wisdom only came through age & reason. This, however, for the masses was no longer good enough.
The first cracks in the Elders authority came from the frontier regions: the Southern Union & the Eastern Territories to be exact. Both were still not as developed as the three other regions, but in these two areas, more than any other, practicality, innovation, education, science & common sense were considered far more important commodities than tradition, strict adherence to government & above all societal confines. And it was in these two regions where females had become equals prior to any other.
It was not overly surprising then, that the Elders of the Southern Union & the Eastern Territories were given little choice but go. Under threats of violence, unheard of in Luminous society, the public staged protest after protest demanding reform. After a year of such public challenges, the Council of Elders in both regions stood down, although there would be a supervisory period as a new political structure took control. It was unknown & thoroughly revolutionary at the time. They called it Democracy.
It did not take long for news of the success of
the reform movement in the Southern Union & the Eastern Territories
to reach elsewhere. The news hit the Asian continent first & then flowed on towards Europe &
Africa. The reformers here took heart & protests were renewed with vigour.
Males & females, regardless of class, rank or belief, marched united.
Few, other than the oligarchic Elders, truly challenged them. And
these challenges did not last for long.
At the most critical moment during the revolution,
as the last regional government in Africa surrendered, an estimated one
million people marched through The Capital, in a peaceful manner, demanding
change. Joyous songs raised up from the people as they marched proudly
on their way. There could be no stopping them. The Elders knew that times
had changed forever. Thankfully wisdom, & not greed for power, guided
the Elders decision.
Year Zero
Still to this day, much debate continues over the Luminous calender, especially in regards to the Year Zero. A few historians are still prepared to argue that Year Zero occurred with the foundation of The Capital. There is some evidence to support this position. Thus it would locate Year Zero at about 10 000 years after the first Luminous was born. This theory, however, fails to recognise the fact that, upon the foundation of the Federation, The Council of Elders announced a new calender to coincide with this event.
At least officially, then, the first record of the "establishment" of the Year Zero is actually about 60 000 years after the birth of Homo Luminous. Unofficially, though, few people changed over to the new calender. Only The Capital used the new dating system. Most of the regional capitals introduced the calender, but few actually used it. In the more remote areas, it was not even introduced. By the time of the Glorious Revolution, as the democratic reforms took hold, less than 40% of the population used the Federation Calender.
The event that truly saw Year Zero become totally accepted was the Glorious Revolution. The new democratic regimes were a clear break from the past. Many scholars were quick to point this out. Furthermore, the rapid speed of change was without parallel. It took only one year, from when the Southern Union & the Eastern Territories had become democratic, to the entire Luminous civilisation following suit.
This symbolism was not lost on the new leaders. They quickly jumped on the ideas of scholars who argued for a new calender which would recognise this fundamental change in the civilisation of the Luminous. The second Act of the Federal Parliament authorised the new calender. It did not take long before the new calender took over. Only in the more remote areas of Africa & Europe, did the old calender hang around for a while. In the Southern Union & the Eastern Territories, regardless of location, the new calender was implemented in full within two months.
The first Act, however, of the Federal Parliament, was the acceptance of the new Constitution, thus authorising the Assembly of People to constitute good government. The Chamber of Elders would, on the other hand, scrutinise the Assemblys legislation & activities. This governmental structure would remain in place, except for the occasional reform, for 10 000 years. From its humble beginnings, the Luminous Federal Government would oversee the Luminous people go from using sailing ships to space ships.
Only one major reform of the governmental structure would take place during this period. In 956 AZ (After Year Zero) the Chamber of Elders was directly elected, in a similar fashion to the Assembly, by the general population. The only restriction for candidates was an age one, wherein a candidate had to be older than 50. The Assembly continued with their age entry level of 18 (often, however, most Representatives were no younger than 28). There was no restriction based on sex in either House of Parliament.
Although not original, the one striking difference of the Federal Cabinet (as compared to almost every other known governmental structure within the Milky Way Galaxy), was the absence of a Ministry of Defence. Military action was unknown in Luminous society & history. That was not to say that Luminous could not arm themselves, that they did, but this was only for protection against wild animals or for hunting. There was the occasional violent act between Luminous individuals, but this was not common. The result of this was a small police force organised at regional level & nothing more.
Having said that, weapons were advanced, but in limited numbers. Furthermore, these weapons were for hunting animals & nothing else, although various sports utilising archery, spears & later guns did take place. In fact more people, by the time of the Glorious Revolution, participated in sports that involved weapons, than in hunting. On a side note, hunting was never considered a sport. Hunting was for either food acquisition or for controlling animals that were considered dangerous. No Luminous gained any satisfaction in killing for enjoyment, unlike some of their Homo Sapiens counterparts.
The Progress Era
For close to 8 000 years, the Luminous civilisation continued in basically the same fashion since the Glorious Revolution. The essential changes saw the Luminous spread to most areas of the planet, although Antarctica still remained vacant, but not undiscovered. Explorers eventually reached the ice covered continent from the tip of South America. Their reports were anything but promising & no colonists followed. There were much better prospects elsewhere.
And elsewhere Luminous colonists travelled & settled. And there was plenty of room for the entire population. At the beginning of the Progress Era, only 100 million Luminous lived on Earth. This would soon change, albeit over a 1 500 year period. By the end of the Progress Era, almost 4 billion Luminous would cover the planet. In many respects, the impact of the Luminous would mirror that of Homo Sapiens.
The starting date for the Progress Era is rather arbitrary. Various dates are given, all with valid arguments, but the year 8 001AZ appears the most common. Having said that, nothing overly took important place other than an obscure Federal edict authorising the regulation of watermills along side rivers. This recognised the fact that recently watermills had become a law of their own & several rivers had become clogged due to this rapid increase.
Yet it was these very same watermills that would propel Luminous industry to unprecedented levels. Furthermore, the sudden Federal legislation on the matter forced several watermill owners to seek other means of providing power for the machinery operated by the watermills. Windmills was another option, but these were limited by location & the weather. This limitation was not as severe for watermills, thus their rapid expansion.
The surge in industry, caused by watermill power, ensured that an answer to replace watermill (& windmill) power would occur. Demands from other industries, especially transport, also propelled the search for an answer, although it was a very long process.
The first stage was thanks to watermill power itself. By the constant supply of power, hotter furnaces could be achieved which produced stronger metals. These metals, inturn, were used to build even hotter furnaces. Soon products such as steel was achieved along with mountains of other easily produced metals.
In another area, totally unrelated, the Luminous scientist Mallord Meakson observed, while in the volcanic regions of Southern Europe, that the steam produced had a significant amount of pressure. Out of interest, he produced a model mill based upon that from a watermill. And like the watermills, his model mills also turned, but by steam not water. It did not take Meakson long to recognise that steam powered mills could also power machinery in same way windmills & watermills did.
Alas making a real mill behave like the steam powered model proved impossible. Meakson tried several times, but had little success. His only notable moment, was to cover one of the steam outlets with a bronze structure that had a small hole in the middle. This hole then had a pipe that aimed the steam at the critical point so that the steps in the mill wheel gained from the steam pressure. Although the wheel did turn, the power produced was still very disappointing.
Not long after, another scientist Sharron Dichester, noted that a pot boiling away on a hot stove forced its lid to raise due to the pressure of the steam. Having heard of Meaksons experiments, she wondered if the answer layed here. Soon thereafter, Dichester (who was based at Western University) used one of the universitys furnaces to heat water instead of metals to similar high levels of temperature. The result was a tremendous amount of steam with pressure levels never achieved by Meakson.
When he heard of Dichesters experiments, Meakson immediately got himself involved. Soon, his steam mill & associated equipment was attached to the furnace which was fired up. The results were spectacular in several ways. The power generated by the mill was more than equal to any watermill. Unfortunately the unstable structure, combined with the stream pressure, saw the steam mill to, more or less, explode under the pressure. Although a successful experiment, a lot more work would be required before the steam mill could be used in industry. Thankfully, no one was killed in the experiment.
It only took a mere decade, however, before the first fully operational steam mill went online. The Western University proudly displayed the steam mill to the world. Soon everyone in industry wanted one. It permitted the owner to establish factories totally independent of wind or rivers. Only a supply of wood or coal was required & both were in bountiful stock.
It did not take long, however, before the limitations of the steam mill became known. This was no where more so evident than in the transport industries. For them, little had changed. Although new metals made construction easier & stronger, they still had to rely on what had come before steam mill power - namely the weather for water transport & beasts of burden for the land. A few experiments were made with the steam mill, but these all ended in failure.
Many factory owners also became critical of the steam mill. Like watermills & windmills, they could only power a small amount of machinery. Furthermore, a steam mill cost more to construct. But the biggest burden was the ongoing costs. Unlike windmills & watermills, steam mills needed fuel that cost money. Although some experiments to improve the efficiency of the steam mill were successful, they were not successful enough. Without a breakthrough soon, the steam mill would become extinct.
The most successful steam mill efficiency experiment was undertaken by the Eastern Territories industrialist Seffin Louis. Louis had the entire wheel of the mill enclosed in order to entrap the steam within a confined space. The steam would enter from below as before, while a valve at the top of the enclosure allowed steam to be released as each step in the wheel passed it. This improved efficiency by 20%, but the cost was prohibitive.
The next step came as a radical departure from the steam mill wheel. Shipping magnate Lindia Cal began experimentation with the "Louis cover". Cals research team soon discovered that the step of the wheel was the important part of the entire mill system. If the rest of the wheel was dispensed with & the step kept, not only would the new mill, or engine, reduce dramatically in size, its efficiency would triple.
After several experiments, Cal decided that a large tube housing the step appeared the most promising prospect to develop. A valve would let steam in while another, after the steam pressure had been spent, allowed the steam out. A flywheel & inertia pushed the step back, pushing out the spent steam. Then the cycle would start again. Inturn, the flywheel was connected to gearing which could then power machinery. Cal called it the steam engine.
The steam engine revolutionised all Luminous society. The engine used only 10% of the fuel that the steam mill had. Furthermore, it cost much less to build. Importantly it was much smaller, yet it produced three times the power. This would soon change, of cause, as the steam engine was developed further, & as a result, so too did the factories.
But it was transport that really benefited. Soon ships were powered by steam engines. They had become free from the limitations of sail. As if this was not revolutionary enough, land transport was soon to change everything. As had happened to shipping, so too occurred on land. A steam train was soon envisaged to replace horse & oxen powered wagon trains.
The first experiments were disastrous, but if tracks where put down where the engines could travel, as it was reasoned & later realised, the chaotic behaviour of the steam trains would stop. Incidentally, it was discovered, via the introduction of the tracks, that higher speeds could be reached & more wagons attacked to the steam engine. Eventually, this permitted vast amounts of goods & passengers to travel equalling the largest ship, whilst travelling at a higher speed.
Such a competitive transportation method did not go unnoticed. Several railway companies were soon established & rail tracks were soon built connecting cities, industrial centres & resource areas. Ironically, the person who began the steam engine revolution, Lindia Cal, went broke due to the almost instantaneous competition from the new railways & the shipping companies that modernised their fleets quicker.
For just over two centuries the steam engine remained supreme. Industry & technology expanded across the globe. But as the limitations of the steam engine finally ensured that stagnation crept in, another leap forward in technology occurred. Although not as dramatic as the steam engine, it would propel Luminous towards the stars.
It was the railway magnate Hobbes Colpepper that had started playing with the idea of placing the fire of the steam engine in the actually cylinder. If this was achieved, then the boiler, water tank & all the associated equipment could be discarded. The result would be a very small engine, about the size of a small table, producing the same power. Needless to say its efficiency would increase remarkably.
The problem was the fuel. The cylinder method technology would remain, but creating the pressure to force the piston (once called the step) to move was the problem. Furthermore the gas release step within the cylinder caused even more problems. A lamp oil was first used as fuel, but ignition was almost impossible. This was partially fixed through a sparking devise, but still the liquid usually did not ignite. When it did, the resulting explosion caused damage to the cylinder.
Reinforcing the cylinder solved the damage problems, but not the ignition ones. Eventually, it was argued that because steam was a liquid in gaseous form, them possibly the lamp oil had to be as well. Experiments followed by heating up the lamp oil, but these were soon stopped after two situations arose. The heating up process merely replaced water in the modified boiler with lamp oil & did nothing in removing this equipment (a major prerequisite for success). The other situation was a massive explosion. Heating the lamp oil simply caused it to explode, thus destroying the boiler & engine.
Yet this destruction would also be the discovery that lead to the breakthrough. By spraying a small amount of lamp oil into the cylinder, although not gaseous, it was close enough. The spark igniter could make the lamp oil explode, thus providing the pressure that forced the piston back. And as in a steam engine, when the pressure was spent, inertia & a flywheel forced the spent lamp oil gas out of the cylinder through an exit valve. The cylinder would then be ready for the next explosion.
The combustion engine, just as the steam engine had done earlier, soon took over, although steam engines of some form or another continued to hold out in very large factories. In fact in some circumstances (such as electric power generation), it was discovered that steam power was more efficient if only for the amount of fuel consumed. But for ships, trains, personal transport & many other industries, the combustion engine, in one form or another, ruled supreme.
Following on from these breakthroughs in technology, much was learnt about the chemical structure of metals & fuels. By the end of the Progress Era, high powered chemical fuels manufactured in refineries & laboratories produced even more power from the combustion engine. Experiments into various rocks also suggested that there appeared to be some form of energy similar to electricity that one day might be tapped into. But it was the transportation industry that would, once again, see the next step, although not a revolutionary one.
Rockets, used for entertainment, had been around for two thousand years. But none of them had been powerful enough to lift anything other than their own weight & the result, all the same, was usually an explosion or crash. There were some theories about winged craft that could fly using rockets, but nothing was ever successful. This all changed, however, with the combustion engine. Soon, serious experiments took place, whereupon success came.
The first planes, even the well developed ones, all suffered from a common problem. They were limited in their speed, endurance & above all by their carrying capacity due to the combustion engine. Their advantage, however, over ships, trains & other forms of powered transport was obvious. As in other times of technological challenge, experimentation soon took place. And not surprisingly, success soon followed. It was as if, as knowledge continued to build up, answers to various problems had become easier to find.
The turbine jet engine, invented by Sash Wostcheter, quickly made all other forms of aircraft propulsion obsolete. Although very complicated, it was basically a cross between the combustion engine & a rocket. In a cylinder, a gaseous high octane fuel was added which was then ignited. However, there was no piston to push back. Furthermore, the ignition was constant & higher power requirements were met by an increase in fuel. The pressure, or thrust, thus caused by this combustion was released out the back of the cylinder in rocket fashion. Even though the new engine required a large amount of this high octane fuel, the benefits outweighed the initial engine construction & fuel costs.
It appeared that the new freedom to fly also sparked
an interest to see what was above the sky. Luminous astrology had developed
from an early age. By Year Zero, it was accepted that the Earth orbited
The Sun & several other planets were neighbours. Some wondered
if there was life elsewhere, but no proof was discovered. Many thought
the Luminous were alone in the universe, but that did not stop just as
many hoping to explore what was out there. Alas for most, the technology
would not allow them this adventure. Eventually, however, this would change.
The Space Age
The Luminous Space Age is a relative short period, especially when compared to other periods of Luminous history. As jet powered aircraft developed further, rockets likewise developed, albeit as an afterthought. Originally it was a leftover from attempts to speed up combustion powered aircraft, but the jet engine soon achieved that task. But rockets had become even more powerful in the process & it did not take long for scientists at the Eastern National University to send one into space. Although Space Experiment Rocket #11 was successful, as the number suggests it took ten previous rockets to achieve 20 minutes in space.
The fledgling space program at Eastern National University soon grabbed the attention of government & the Federal Government stepped in. The immediate result was an increase in the budget by more than one thousand precent. Furthermore a Federal Agency, simply called the Federal Space Agency (FSA) was established based on the Eastern National University personnel. Within a decade, the first Luminous astronaut walked on the moon.
Although walking on the moon was a grand achievement, it was the successful development of nuclear engines that paved the way for the glorious, but short, Luminous Space Age. Nuclear power was a controversial industry. Many feared about what consequences may come from splitting the atom. The potential power & energy was enormous & great harm could occur from irresponsible or incompetent use. The government were well aware of the issues & implemented strict guideless for nuclear power: the chief one being only the government ran the nuclear power stations regardless of the purpose of each individual station.
As the nuclear power stations came online across the Earth, due to the enormous cost of construction, let alone the support infrastructure, their numbers were limited. In fact many wondered why they bothered with them in the first place. The general feeling, even in government, was to see them closed down when they came to the end of their operational lives. None would be replaced. Their main saving grace, however, came from medical drugs, medical treatment & scientific research.
Then came the FSA in an effort to develop an engine more powerful than the current chemical rockets. A nuclear engine, it was theorised, could carry more, go much faster & go much further. Furthermore, these nuclear engines would be out in space & well away from any environmental impact that could be dangerous to the Earth. It also meant that the other planets could be quickly visited, not only by robotic probes, but by the Luminous themselves.
It did not take long for the Luminous to get their Nuclear Propulsion Engines (NPE) working. Soon, probes powered by NPE rockets visited all the planets of the solar system. These were soon followed by manned missions that witnessed the Luminous astronaut Tob Sirus (father of Lenous Sirus) be the first living being in eons to step onto Mars. Other manned missions soon followed.
A whole generation would go by in what seemed to be a flash. Yet the activity & scientific endeavours that took place were without precedent. A year after Tob Sirus returned from Mars, he oversaw the construction of the first Luminous colony on The Moon. Soon after, a similar colony was established on Mars. Both were for research, but the real exciting stuff took place on Mars. By experimenting with various magnetic fields, & extremely powerful nuclear reactors, it was believed that faster than light speed travel could be achieved. Mars was selected due to its remote location from Earth. The researches fully knew that if anything went wrong, there would be no hope of rescue. The Earth, on the other hand, would be free of any contamination if there was an accident.
After some 20 years of experimentation, the Mars researchers finally achieved their goal. Faster than light speed was possible. The first generation Magnetic Space Warp Drive (MSWD) could only achieve 25 times the speed of light. It was, however, enough. The first missions, which were robotic probes, went to the tri-star system of Alpha Centauri. The view was fantastic, but they had come to map the Alpha Centauri & surrounding systems for the next bolder step.
The first manned deep range space mission of Homo Luminous came not long after the successful testing of the first MSWD engines. The second generation engines, however, doubled the speed of the first generation. The speed of 50 light years was amazing for Luminous. Although these engines were primitive by United Federation of Planets (UFP) standards, they were, nevertheless, an outstanding achievement for such a young race barely 70 000 years old.
The scout ship Discovery, captained by Lenous Sirus, soon arrived at Alpha Centauri. Like their ancient cousins Homo Sapiens, Homo Luminous followed in their foot steps. And like their ancient cousins, the discoveries, albeit nothing in comparison to the federation that surrounded them, amazed all. However, Alpha Centauri had a major surprise install. Even though the natural phenomena was impressive enough, it was the discovery of an abandoned ancient space colony that really got Homo Luminous excited.
The UPX surveillance team, following the Discovery, could not believe the colossal mistake. Although Earths solar system had been cleared of any UFP presence, everyone had forgotten about Homo Sapiens first extra-system colony. Alpha 4, in the Alpha Centauri system, had been abandoned almost 600 000 years ago. It was long forgotten. But now Homo Luminous had discovered it & they were bound to deduce from, even the limited & ancient data there, where the nearest UFP planet was located.
Before anyone at UPX headquarters, let alone in the UFP government, could make a decision on First Contact, the little scout ship jumped for Eden. The Homo Luminous explorers were about to discover one of the largest planets in terms of economic & social activity in the entire Federation. Although several UPX & UDF ships awaited their arrival with anticipation, much concern was abound as to how these new Humans would react to their First Contact with aliens.
Discovery suddenly jumped into Eden space. Immediately her primitive scanners jumped to life. Even so, it did not take much effort to look out the windows to see the miraculous.
"Well thats not something that you see every day", captain Sirus spatted out in wonder.
"I hope theyre friendly," replied her first officer Mal Rensis.
"Do we say hello or wait for them to?" asked communications office Genis Omal
"With ships that huge, I think we should most definitely say hello & be real friendly while saying it", Sirus answered while in part giving an order.
As Omal sent the signal, he wondered if the aliens could understand Luminese. An alien language was identified at Alpha Centauri, but translation was sketchy at best. Mistranslation was totally possible & the last thing Sirus wanted to do was to send an insulting, instead of a friendly, greeting. Sirus hoped that any advanced civilisation would have the technology to translate Luminese into their tongue & then reverse the procedure when they replied.
Sirus was in luck. Omal, however, was surprised he got a message in Luminese. "Captain, I dont know why, but Ive got a reply in Luminese that even has an eastern accent to it". Sirus wondered about Omal sometimes. He was clearly intelligent, but sometimes said the most stupid things.
"Omal, what was the message?" inquired Sirus.
"Ill play it for you Captain."
"Oh good, for a moment I thought I would have to use telepathy." Sirus slight comment was lost in the moment as Omal fiddled with his controls.
Suddenly the aliens reply could be heard throughout the ship. "Welcome to the United Federation of Planets. We offer our friendship in peace. Congratulations on your first step into the great galactic community."
Sirus could not believe it. Omal was right: the
accent was eastern!
Alternative
History Homepage
Chapter 1 In The Beginning
Chapter 3 A Child Among Adults
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