New Enceladus – chapter 3

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June 15th, 2208 – Launch Day

Low Earth Orbit, aboard the colony ship ‘Conestoga’

Mission Commander Rito Mori

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I watched some of our thrusters end their burn as we moved away from the space elevator and orbital station. The flight checklist continued, “…Conestoga is past station safety perimeter. Activate inertial dampers. Drive containment GO, PLI GO, MRF 1 GO, MRF 2 GO, Navigation GO, AFS GO, Inertial dampers GO, Data link GO. ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR LAUNCH! Flight clock is running at minus one sixteen…”

In passable English, the Secretary General told me and the two billion people watching; “Crew of Conestoga, I know you will do best and take human to stars! Earth wish you happy and good fortune!”

I forgave her minor mistakes, since I knew she was fluent in many other languages. Ops announced in the background, “Fuel flow begin, increase three percent per second to ninety. Forty-two, forty-one…”

I told the Secretary General and the world, “Building the Conestoga and preparing for this mission has taken half a million people more than a decade. All that work so the few of us aboard can carry humanity, and the human spirit, to a new home among the stars. We’re ready for the challenge! In the words of early astronaut Alan Sheppard, ‘LIGHT THIS CANDLE!'”

My timing was off, reducing the drama. Ops finished, “Fuel flow ninety, clock at minus 5, 4, max fuel, 2, 1, IGNITION!”

For a few milliseconds, sixty of the most powerful lasers humanity could build shined into the center of the drive chamber. The ship’s five million gigawatt Zolachev drive FEROCIOUSLY ROARED to life, with a hundred times the power of everything on Earth combined. We were riding on a carefully controlled supernova. The accelerometer instantly changed from zero to 627 G.