A Legacy Among Stars (1/??)

Episode 1 — Gokstade

It was a busy morning for eight o'clock. While vehicles moved slowly along the main roads, air traffic between the buildings was just as heavy. Flying vehicles traveling through designated corridors had gradually become a normal part of everyday life. Humanity was still getting used to this new transportation system, while the system itself continued to evolve.

Some people still preferred asphalt roads. Yes, flying vehicles shortened commuting times and made it easier to travel from one end of a city to the other, but having hundreds of vehicles moving through the sky at the same time still felt unsafe to some people. Others were simply more cautious and traditional. New regulations were being prepared for air corridors and intersections, while the existing system was regularly being modified.

In other words, the strangest thing about Earth in the year 2432 was that, compared to the previous centuries, it actually didn't look all that strange.

People were going to work, children were going to school, cafés were serving their morning customers, and traffic was still testing everyone's patience.

Thanks to laws that were not particularly old, the green areas outside the cities were largely protected. New construction could not extend beyond designated boundaries, while certain forests and coastal regions were placed under complete protection.

And they had to be.

Earth was beautiful. It was still the heart of humanity, but it was no longer its only center.

Humanity was slowly expanding.

Approximately six million people lived on the Moon. The settlements had long since grown beyond simple research bases, becoming small cities with residential districts, hospitals, production facilities, and transportation centers. Some people had arrived from Earth only recently, while others had started their lives there. Traveling from Earth to the Moon was still considered a long journey, but it was no longer an extraordinary event.

Mars was a little different.

Approximately twelve million people lived on the Red Planet. The colonization process had been long and complicated, and even though nearly thirty years had passed since the first settlements were established, Mars remained a developing world.

Outside a few major settlements, red soil and rocky terrain stretched for miles, while the stars appeared much brighter than they did from Earth. Human-made structures continued to spread across larger areas with every passing year.

Life was governed by more rules than on Earth. Airlocks, pressure systems, oxygen levels, and temperature were constantly monitored. Opening the wrong door or suffering a minor system failure could have serious consequences here.

For the millions of people living there, however, these were simply ordinary parts of life.

Another two million people lived on orbital stations, while approximately one million more were scattered across small colonies in different parts of the Solar System.

They were somewhat more rebellious and isolated. They had created their own way of life around a traditional hippie communal culture, largely living however they wanted.

Humanity's total population had reached fifteen billion and twenty-one million.

Not counting the fugitives...

Transportation routes were interconnected. Traveling to another planet was no longer unusual enough to make the news.

What was unusual lay beyond the Solar System.

The time had come.

Humanity had discovered a technology capable of crossing that boundary only a few years earlier.

It was still a baby, really. But the technology had been born.

It was learning to walk.

FTL.

Humanity had spent decades working on it. There had been failed experiments, some of them ending in death. The first successful test had taken place forty-seven years after the project began.

Millions had been invested in the project, with numerous governments providing resources and support.

Humanity had a single goal:

Find the key to interstellar transportation.

At least, that was what they thought.

In reality, the technology was still in its infancy. It could not simply jump to whatever coordinates it wanted, long distances could not be crossed in a single move, and not every star system offered suitable conditions for a transition.

The structure of spacetime, local mass distribution, and the conditions in the exit region all had to be taken into account.

Which, as you might imagine, was difficult.

And the farther the destination was, the more difficult the calculations became.

For this reason, humanity's first crewed FTL mission had not been sent to some distant corner of the galaxy.

Scientists and engineers had selected a nearby star system where the possibility of error could be kept under control.

The target system was 3.7 light-years from Earth.

Close enough for humanity's first FTL transition, yet still farther than any human had ever traveled.

Gokstade had been traveling through space for nine days, approaching the transition region selected to reach the target system.

The first days of the journey had been remarkably calm. The crew had spent most of their time performing routine checks and preparing for the scientific mission.

But as the ship approached the transition region, everyone's work became a little more serious.

In the command section, Elias Ward studied the screen in front of him as the marker showing Gokstade's current position slowly approached the target region.

Elias had seen the same data countless times before.

He still waited for the final check to be completed.

Maya Chen compared the navigation data on her own screen.

“Position confirmed, Captain.”

Elias gave a slight nod.

“Adrian, status?”

Adrian Kovi checked the final line before answering.

In FTL navigation, entering a single incorrect number could cause consequences far more serious than a few kilometers of deviation during a normal flight.They could die.

“The transition window is suitable,” he finally said. “There is no significant uncertainty in the exit region, Captain.”

Elena Varga's voice came from the other side of the command section.

“Engines are ready.”

Adrian looked at her.

“‘Ready’?”

Elena paused for a moment.

“Ready to operate. No problems. Everything is within normal parameters. Based on the checks, I can confirm a flawless perfection.”

“That sentence made me feel better. Thanks, Ele.”

Elena turned back to her screen.

Gokstade's FTL system had been tested countless times, but no one aboard the ship considered those tests equivalent to a real transition.They were right not to.Still, they trusted the technology.

Preparations were also being completed throughout the rest of the ship.

Daniel Okloma monitored the power systems, while Amir checked the computer and communication systems for possible data loss, malfunctions, or unexpected behavior during the transition.

Yuki Tanaka inspected the emergency equipment, while Doctor Dewen Birdso completed the final checks in the medical section.

The science team had also opened the research protocols prepared for the target system.

Lena Hartmann examined the star's current astronomical data, while Mateo Alverzon compared the estimated characteristics of its planets.

Sarah Bennett was making sure the biological scanning systems were fully operational.

Everyone had returned to their own tasks.

When you are on a mission where you have no choice but to be serious, you have to become even more serious to relax.

There was that familiar atmosphere of a mission where everyone worked just a little more carefully than usual.

The final checks were completed.The FTL core came online.Gokstade's engines did not begin pushing the ship forward faster.Instead, an energy field formed around the ship, altering the structure of spacetime.

The sensors began receiving new measurements, while the normal navigation system gradually became less useful.

Adrian kept his eyes on the screen.

“Transition beginning. May God give strength to your seatbelts, or you can just hold on to them yourselves, kids!”

Within seconds, the stars surrounding Gokstade began losing their shapes.

Points of light stretched and blurred together as the ship's computers abandoned normal-space coordinates and switched to FTL calculations.

It was impossible to feel the ship accelerating during the transition.

What changed was the space the ship itself occupied.

Then, all the sensors began receiving new data at once.

The stars reappeared.

Gokstade was in the target system.

The initial checks were surprisingly clean.

Spotless, even.

The ship's position showed only a minor deviation from the calculated exit region. The FTL core was returning to normal levels, life-support systems were functioning, and the communication antennas were beginning to collect data from the new star system.

Maya stared at the screen in front of her.

“We did it. We actually did it.”

This time, a small smile appeared on Elias's face.

“Looks like it... It really does look like it!”

But they were too disciplined to celebrate yet.

Along with the pride and complicated emotions created by what they had just accomplished, there were still checks that needed to be completed.

First, they had to make sure the ship had not been damaged during the transition.

Then they had to scan the star system they had entered.

The initial scan was completed within minutes.

There were no malfunctions aboard Gokstade. No abnormal conditions either.

The system displayed the expected characteristics.

The positions of the planets matched the previously calculated data.

There was no problem.

The system confirmed most of the models humanity had prepared.

Everything was fine.

There were only a few new developments.

One of Gokstade's long-range sensors sent back a new reading.

Lena did not pay much attention to it at first.

The amount of energy detected by the sensor was not enough to draw any conclusions on its own. Natural energy sources in a star system were perfectly normal.

The problem was a single, very meaningful word.

“BUT.”

A few seconds later, a second measurement came from the same coordinates.

Lena leaned closer to the screen.

The third scan showed the same location.

This time, the possibility of a sensor error was almost impossible.

Millions of kilometers away from Gokstade, in a dark region of the system, there was an unknown object.

As the sensors attempted to calculate its size, the first images began to form.

At first, only a massive shape appeared.

It was not completely clear.

Then light reflected from its surface became visible.

Pale metal.

Lines, protrusions, and enclosed sections that did not resemble anything humans had built began to emerge from the image.

The energy distribution surrounding the object was even stranger.

Gokstade's sensors indicated a power source of a type humanity had never encountered in any of its own vessels.

It was strange.

Very strange.

Lena repeated the scans several more times, but the result did not change.

At the end of Gokstade's first FTL journey, what they had encountered was not a ship malfunction, a failed mission, a planet, an asteroid, or a natural formation.

It lay outside every logical prediction.

Yet it was the very possibility they had never considered.

A ship.

And it looked nothing like anything humanity had ever built.

For several seconds, no one spoke in Gokstade's command section.

The image on the screen remained unchanged.

Millions of kilometers away, among the stars, a metallic structure floated motionless.

Lena checked the data again.

Then she compared the results from different sensors.

The image did not change.

The object was really there, and the measurements clearly indicated that it was not a natural formation.

“There is something there. It's approximately 1.4 times the size of our ship.”

Sarah's voice was quieter than the others.

Lena turned toward her.

She enlarged the biological scanning results on her own screen.

She repeated the scans dozens of times to make absolutely certain.

The result was the same every time.

There was no error.

The situation was becoming increasingly strange.

The crew was not alone in the darkness.

The silence in the command section continued for several more seconds.

Elias spoke calmly, though there was concern in his voice.

“Keep scanning. We won't approach it. Just collect data from a distance.”

No one objected.

No one had anything to say.

Everyone was still trying to process what they were seeing.

Gokstade's sensors began examining the vessel's hull in greater detail.

Some sections of the structure were still carrying energy, while others appeared to be completely inactive.

There was still no way to determine how long it had been there or why it had remained motionless.

As the data continued to accumulate, one of the sensors gave a brief warning.

Adrian raised his head.

“There is a signal coming from the ship.”

Lena turned toward him.

“A signal? For communication?!”

“I don't know. It's difficult to interpret. It seems shorter than it actually is, and it's an extremely brief signal.”

Adrian opened the recording.

The signal had been detected for only a few seconds.

Then it disappeared completely.

Gokstade's systems attempted to determine the source again while everyone stared at the screen.

The signal did not return.

There was no visible movement from the ship.

Its engines were not running.

And yet that brief signal suggested that someone—or something—might know Gokstade was there.

Maya slowly looked at her screen.

“Could it have detected us?”

No one answered immediately.

While Gokstade silently observed from millions of kilometers away, movement had begun aboard the unknown ship.

The latest data from Gokstade's sensors was still being processed.

The energy distribution surrounding the unknown vessel changed once again.

This time, the change was much more obvious.

The ship was not activating any weapons systems.

Quite the opposite.

Some of the systems that had previously been active began shutting down one by one.

Adrian stared at the screen.

“What is this? I don't understand. Why? How?! It's shutting down its defensive systems. Why would they do that?”

No one knew what to say.

The ship was still motionless.

It was as if the vessel before them was withdrawing everything it could have used against Gokstade.

Eventually, the energy field surrounding the ship disappeared as well.

A short while later, a weak and distorted voice signal came through.

Several words could be distinguished through the interference.

The system tried to clean up the audio, but the recording was too short and damaged.

Or perhaps their technology simply could not translate it properly.

Still, one phrase was understandable.

“...Kad—... humanity...”

The signal cut out.