Warped speed/time

[nick_garou]

Back in March, I got a call from Walter down in Phoenix, requesting my help on behalf of the Sons of Ether (Oh, wow! That's big!), and if I'd meet him in San Diego to discuss in person with some other SoEs. Sure. I grabbed the first flight out the next morning.

Long story made short, the SoEs have a space program (!), and a starship named "New Hope" capable of travelling to other galaxies (!!), and they'd lost contact with it two months earlier. Hence, they were sending out a search and rescue party using "The Defiant." Yes. A small spacecraft named after the ship from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. But nowhere near as big, fast, armed, or capable. Bonus? The Defiant was being retrofitted as it'd been mothballed after an engine failure on the launch pad wiped out half the crew. So.... Yeah. But the SoEs were pretty confident that the new anti-matter drive they were putting in would be much safer.

Woo?

They needed someone with mastery over Forces to help work the engines, since their most capable Forces mages had been lost in space on the New Hope. So I was tapped to be an emergency backup for an emergency backup ship. I had a lot of alarms going off in my head, but... spaceship and traveling to another solar system. That's kind of an opportunity of a lifetime, so I signed on. By nightfall, we were headed in a yacht to the largest island of the Islas San Benito. Population 2 according to Wikipedia, but it's more like 22 once you get to the underground R&D and launch/landing facility. All mages. 18 SoEs, three Orders of Hermes (guests), and one Orphan (me). The Order mages were a little grumpy as none of them were masters in Forces like I was, but I tried to be professional about it even though one of them was CONSTANTLY looking down his nose at me. Whatever. I got a crash course in the science/ritual magic needed to run the anti-matter drive safely from the SoE who was the chief engineer over the next three days, and then we were off. My job on launch was masking the ship on takeoff with illusions and keeping it off of radar. Nailed it. Then we were in orbit, and then we were off and accelerating hard for three days, when the ship had reached enough velocity to create a "Kreuger-Boolean Hyperphasing-bubble" that was the secret to "etheric warp." Mostly, it made me want to puke from all the vibrations, and we were not to counter them with Forces magic as the vibrations were critical. Somehow. Truth be told, I did vomit pretty much until my stomach was empty. And then some. But most people did.

20 hours later, we were at the New Hope's last known position. We spend a few days cruising around the solar system (twin stars, three planets (none with life), and a shit-ton of asteroid fields that really made scanning difficult. But eventually we found the wreckage and two bodies--or what was left of them. The general consensus was that an asteroid got them, as we'd had a few close calls ourselves. (Seriously. Asteroids everywhere and /fast/.) One of the OoHermes mages swore up and down that he saw "something gigantic" out there, but no one else detected it--and by then we'd already found the wreckage/bodies and were about to head back.

The return trip to Earth was uneventful (other than more puking during etheric warping).

(Holy shit. I just described traveling from another galaxy back to Earth as "uneventful." How divorced from reality am I becoming?)

We touched back down and... it was the end of Summer and not the end of Spring. Time-dilation from high speeds and etheric warping made what felt like a two week trip into a nearly 5-month disappearing act. 

As exciting as space travel and this SoE chantry is, I need to get back to my node, my research, and my very, very neglected responsibilities.