Free The Long Road to Gaia by Timothy Ellis Page A

to the sides of her
path. What later became the French sector led her to the Sirius system, but
they wisely decided not to go too far in. A system with two suns in orbit
around each other was deemed too dangerous to search properly, with the current
level of technology. The ship backtracked, going on to chart the areas which
became the Spanish sector, Italian sector, and Portuguese mini-sector, before
heading back to Earth.
    After a refit, she left up spine, and on
the other side of Earth, she charted what was to become the Corporate sector,
and expanded the known systems beyond the systems already settled by the Arab
states, on both sides of Barnard's Star.
    She returned home once again, receiving a
major overhaul and upgrade, before setting out once again for Sirius, the only
unexplored system left around Earth as far as anyone knew at that time.
    I watched the ship as it headed into an
area of instability they could not see, or understand if they did. In spite of
its upgrade, Enterprise was not shielded well enough to withstand the sheer
effects.
    "No," said Twelve, as I was about
to do something to help them.
    "Why not?" I asked.
    "The most you can do is suggest they
turn around before it's too late."
    I did so, whispering into the ear of the
Captain. The ship turned immediately for the jump point, but I could already
see it was too late for her. They weren't going to make it.
    I said as much to Twelve.
    "Then you need to ensure they do make
it."
    I looked at him in shock.
    "You let them go in there. You stopped
me from helping them. Now you tell me to make sure they survive?"
    "Yes. They are allowed to make it as
far as the next habitable planet, where they must abandon the ship in
orbit."
    "Why?"
    "It will be needed again, one
day."
    I tried to move forward along this line,
and was blocked.
    "Do what you have to, Thirteen. But
only that, nothing more. These people must survive, but not thrive."
    "Don’t they deserve better than
that?"
    "Maybe so, but their destiny is
already foreseen."
    "One?"
    "As always, yes. She has seen all
variations. This must be."
    I ensured Enterprise reached the next star
system, and made sure the ship was evacuated as fast as possible, and remained
in a stable orbit. Its future remained blocked to me.
    Knowing the ship was to survive, I made
sure the databases didn’t contain anything at all about prophesy, before
ensuring all power on the ship was lost. I didn’t even bother to try and
extract anything this time.
     

Four
     
    "Now what?" I asked.
    "Now you continue to follow
Galactica," answered One.
    "For how long?"
    "For as long as it takes."
    I looked at her, my face indicating how
inadequate I thought that answer was.
    She laughed.
     

2360
One
     
    Lieutenant (JG) Jon Hunter piloted the
scout ship off the front of the right flight pod.
    Galactica had long had a set way of
exploring a system. A scout ship jumped in first to make sure it was safe for
the Explorer ship to come through. Once she had, more scout ships were sent to
find the planetary bodies, while Galactica made a circuit outside the Oort
cloud, looking for jump points. By the time she had made a complete circuit,
and was ready to proceed to where they thought the next logical jump should be
from, the scouts would be on their way back. If they found a habitable planet,
or one which might be terraformed easily, Galactica went there, and the planet
would be surveyed. Then move on to the next jump, and send in the first scout
again. This could take anything from weeks, to months, or even more than a
year. It depended entirely on what they found.
    This was Jon's first mission in charge of a
first jump. He was excited, and honoured to be given the responsibility. But he
was also acutely aware he was in charge of other lives. And the nightmare he'd
had the previous night was still on his mind.
    He ran the checklist by the book, and made
sure the others had as well. The check in call to Galactica before jumping
showed his