Crossfire short stories XV: Journey with no return feature

Crossfire short stories XV: Journey with no return

The Tactical holo-display in the middle of the Command Center at GMG’s research station shows symbols for more than 50 ships hovering around the station and huge special jump-gate. The appearance of there being peace in space is misleading. On board the ships and space station itself, there is nervousness as the crews repeatedly perform all internal systems checks. In the center of all that activity is a man formerly known as a terrorist and then celebrated as the savior of mankind, Casper Orilion, the leader of an organization known as "The Order". His eyes follows the data on the holo-display, but his thoughts still revolves around a simple question ... "What is on the other side?". This operation is the largest and most risky of all those previously taken. Also, the stakes are high as ever, the very existence of the human race in the Milky Way may very well depend on the success of this operation. The last show of force which revealed the unknown alien race standing behind the Nomads, displayed very clearly the gap that exists between theirs and human technology. It was a mystery why this unknown race, despite having overwhelming qualitative superiority, suddenly and inexplicably withdrew from the fight. For the Human side it was an "rescue at the last moment" event, but on the other hand it opened up a number of questions and some of the possible answers were chilling. The small fleet parked around the secret space station and its experimental jumpgate is perhaps the only way to get these answers. Sensor readings from an unknown alien hypergate in Altair that leads to the Inner core of the Milky Way, that were obtained by one of the scout ships from the Coalition expedition fleet which miraculously returned, helped set the jump frequencies for the first human prototype hyper-gate, which GMG built according to plans supplied by the Order. Human forces must reach the inner core systems in the Milky Way at all costs and find out what is going on there! This information is perhaps our only hope on how to survive as a race in the distant future.

Endless months of preparation and planning is over. Strategies on how to proceed after the jump were prepared and special equipment for repair in deep space have been loaded onboard ships belonging to the Reconnaissance fleet. Everything is ready, only a few minutes left ... The rings on the experimental hyper-gate were activated and the pathway into the unknown is opened. The reconnaissance fleet ships, with thrusters active are heading into the entry point. One ship after another disappears on the way to the unknown. The chances are that most of them if not all, will not return. But the hope still lives; mankind many times in the past, has proved their ability to survive and adapt. The future will soon show whether that remains true this time too ...