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The Exodus to Sagittarius and the
Stargate Crash A timeline of significant events 2038 - The first carbon-nanotube ribbon space elevator is commissioned in the Pacific Ocean near the equator south of Hawaii. It is a joint American and Japanese project capable of lifting 20 tons of payload into geosynchronous orbit in about seven days at a cost of $100 per kilogram - a hundred fold drop in price from a rocket launch. Space development and exploitation efforts explode with the construction of additional beanstalks. 2039 to 2125 - The first colonial era of mankind. Human colonies independent of Earth governments thrive on the Moon, in Earth orbit, the L4 and L5 LaGrange points, Mars, and the Near Earth Asteroids. The first off-world nations - the Lunar Confederation, the Martian Alliance, and the Jovian Association are born. 2039 - Concurrent with American and Japanese space efforts to build beanstalks, a joint nuclear power propulsion program successfully sends a crew of twelve to Mars in just six weeks, one quarter of the time it took the original manned Mars landing effort in 2025. The combination of cheap access to orbit plus fast propulsion to the outer planets creates a gold rush mentality that pushes humanity out in to space all the way to the moon of Titan. 2044 - The Bank of Sol is founded to provide an off-world exchange medium to facilitate trade independent of Earth. The Solarian Dollar becomes the de facto currency beyond Earth orbit. 2055 - After nearly a hundred years of effort, sustained fusion power becomes a reality. Fusion powered spacecraft cut the transit time to Mars to just three weeks one way. Transnational Citizenship through the United Nations formally recognized in all of the Great Nations, though most Transnationals in practice have highly restricted travel visas unless they are U.N. employees. 2058 - Manchuria creates the first dedicated Space Force armed with true space warships. The United States rushes to put their own Space Force into operation, and the other Great Nations follow suit out of self-defense. 2067 to 2072 - Manchuria-Jovian War is fought. 2067 - The first armed conflict between Earth and the offworld nations occurs between Manchuria and the Jovian Association when a Manchurian enclave on Europa attempts to break away from the mother country. Manchurian ships are better armed and outnumber the Jovians, but the Jovians have much shorter supply lines and are more experienced with operating in the harsh electromagnetic environment surrounding Jupiter. 2071 - Manchuria succeeds in bringing their wayward colony to heel, but at a heavy price to both sides. 2072 - The Jovian Association is saved from collapse by an alliance with Mars, Russia, and the European Union that forces the Manchurians to watch their step in the outer planets. An armistice is signed between the belligerents and their allies. 2088 - Aztlan backed terrorists drop an asteroid on the Brazilian colony of Sao Tome on Mars. War between Aztlan and Brazil is averted only by intervention of a United Nations peacekeeping force consisting of American and EU warships. This marks the first time terrorist and nihilist groups backed by Aztlan attack a target offworld. These attacks will continue well into the interstellar era. 2091 - The first stardrive equipped spacecraft, Adventurer I, using a stardrive invented by Doctor Gavin Aurimas and his Solarian Space Time Engineering corporation (SSTE), makes a jump from the Solar system Inner Jump Zone to the boundary of the Outer Jump Zone, a distance of 1.03 AU. 2099 - The Adventurer III becomes the first man made object to reach another solar system, when it makes a stardrive jump to Alpha Centauri A and then returns to Earth with news of a small garden planet orbiting the star. 2109 - The first version of the Amaranth Tweak becomes available, granting life extension to those who can afford it. 2125 to 2242 - The Interstellar Era of colonization begins. 2125 - The first extrasolar colonies are being founded by the Great Nations: The United States, Great Britain, the European Union member states, Manchuria, Guangzhou, India, Brazil, Japan, Russia, and Aztlan. Having learned their lesson with separatists during the 21st century, the new colonies are kept in line through a combination of home rule and dependency on the mother country for support. 2128 - Now the wealthiest man in human history, Gavin Aurimas buys up the last of the SSTE's outstanding stock and take the company private. He goes into seclusion for nearly eighty years. 2133 - The Bank of Sol begins setting up branch offices in the extrasolar colonies, paving the way for the eventual breaking of the economic stranglehold the Great Nations have on their colonies. 2134 to 2359 The undeclared Commerce War between Russia and Manchuria will be an on-again off-again interstellar war fought largely by mercenary and privateer proxies in an attempt to cut Russia off from her newly established offworld colonies and the interstellar trade that has revitalized Russia's economy. The war never quite blossoms into a direct confrontation between the two countries, but low level raids, pirate attacks, and sabotage against merchant shipping simmer without respite for over two centuries. 2150 - Biosynth Corporation of Brazil unveils the Horseclaw chimera animal. 2189 - A white paper on the construction and operation of a Casimir Effect drive sail is published. The paper is believed to have been written by Gavin Aurimas, but all patents for the invention are in the name of SSTE. The Drive Sail would allow for near-light velocities to be obtained by spacecraft, but the pitiful thrust generated coupled with the availability of stardrive equipped spacecraft means the invention is considered to be no more than an interesting curiosity. 2208 - Gavin Aurimas comes out of seclusion to announce that he has developed the means to create a stable, permanent, traversable Lorentzian wormhole. A one-time sale of SSTE stock to finance the construction of a Stargate is held. 2212 - The first Drive Sail equipped Linelayer is constructed and sent towards Alpha Centauri with one mouth of a stable wormhole in tow. 2239 - The Alpha Centauri Linelayer reaches Alpha Centauri A and begins the process of inflating the wormhole to a size capable of supporting vessels. 2242 to 2305 - The Stargate Era of humanity begins, with a network of traversable wormholes slowly forming to link Earth to its important extrasolar colonies. The last obstacle to free trade in the colonies is overcome, and while the economic benefits are enormous, the stargate network has the perverse effect of tying the colonies closer to the mother country through fast radio communications via stargate link. 2242 - The first Stargate is opened between Sol and Alpha Centauri, allowing radio traffic as well as people and freight to pass between systems instantaneously. SSTE announces that warships of any kind are forbidden to pass through any stargate now or in the future, under threat of deflation of any and all stargates that link an offending nation to its colonies. The Great Nations are understandably angered by this announcement, but abide by SSTE's terms. Rumors of a secret development project of Gavin Aurimas and the SSTE to mollify the Great Nations begin to circulate. 2243 to 2271 - Gavin Aurimas becomes disillusioned with the direction humanity is taking, especially as off-world colonization wears away at the taboos of nuclear, biological, chemical, and relativistic weapon use. He begins to funnel the enormous profits from Stargate construction into a secret development project, what will become the most ambitious human endeavor of all time. Working with Mercer Heavy Industries, the primary engineering and construction contractor for SSTE’s Stargate division, Gavin begins the construction of a Linelayer that can cross the unheard of 1300 parsec gulf between the Orion and Sagittarius spiral arms of the galaxy. Exotic matter production is achieved by cannibalizing lone brown dwarf systems within a ten parsec radius of the Wolf 359 System, an obscure and dim red dwarf star within three parsecs of Sol that was secure by dint of its utter lack of anything exploitable. 2271 - The Orion-Sagittarius Linelayer is launched in total secrecy from the Wolf 359 system towards the Sagittarius Arm of the galaxy. 2280 - SSTE patents the Long Jump Stardrive in cooperation with the Western Alliance (an informal but influential power block including the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Oceania, the European Union, and the Martian Alliance.) Long Jump stardrive is considered proprietary, and only for these nations' warships. 2301 (Earth Relative time) - The Orion-Sagittarius Linelayer becomes the fastest man made object of all time when it attains a velocity of 0.99975 times the speed of light. Though the voyage is projected to take 4200 years of objective Earth relative time, the Linelayer itself will only experience 79 years of subjective time reaching Sagittarius due to the time dilation effects of moving near the speed of light. Exploiting a quirk of Relativity theory that allows both reference frames to be valid at the same time, it will be possible to travel to Sagittarius through the inflated wormhole within just eighty years (Earth relative time) of the ship's launch from the Wolf 359 system. 2333 to 2357 - Gavin and Frederick Mercer sell off their entire holdings to finance the Sagittarius Development Corporation (SDC), and begin the exploration and colonization of the Sagittarius Arm in cooperation with select corporations, NGOs, and immigrant groups. 2339 - The SDC tenders bids for the Bonaventure Class Explorer starship. Estrella Esperanza Shipyard of Alpha Centauri A IV (Terranova) wins the contract. 2342 to 2349 - Aztlan-Brazilian War. Aztlan declares war on Brazil after it intervenes in Paraguay against Aztlan-backed guerillas attempting to topple the government. 2344 - The first three starships of the class, Bonaventure, Enterprise, and Fortunato are received by the SDC for space-trials and final fitting out at an SDC orbital complex in the Wolf 359 system. Unknown to anyone including Estrella Esperanza, the Bonaventures are outfitted with Long Jump stardrive in contravention of the agreements SSTE has signed with the Western Alliance nations. Bids for seven more Bonaventures for delivery by 2352 are tendered. 2348 to 2351 - Tensions between Manchuria and the Western Alliance escalate as the Alliance gains U.N. approval to intervene in Manchurian democide against its separatist colonies. There are numerous exchanges of fire between the two sides, though relations back on Earth remain icy but non-confrontational. 2349 - An Aztlan space task force of six cruisers and their escorts attempts to bombard a Brazilian colony in the Epsilon Eridani system, but is destroyed by a task force of the British Royal Starfleet. The attack is a disaster for Aztlan, which has managed to isolate itself even from its EU allies and can no longer sustain the war against Brazil. An armistice is signed, with generous reparations being owed to Brazil as a result of the British intervention. 2350 - The Orion-Sagittarius Linelayer settles into orbit around an obscure K1V orange dwarf star dubbed Gateway, or HM+00 0000 under the newly commissioned Hayes-Mizuno habitable star survey for the Sagittarius Arm. The wormhole mouth is carefully inflated. 2351 - The Manchurians back down and accept U.N. arbitration of its separatist colonies after a humiliating raid on their primary colony of Shenyang by a rogue Anglo-American special forces group liberates hundreds of Western Alliance P.O.W.s out from under the Manchurians' noses. The cause for so much humiliation is not so much that the rescue occurred, but because Manchuria had publically insisted at great lengths that it had no such prisoners and that the charges of holding any prisoners were baseless lies and propaganda. The raid and its aftermath are extensively recorded by independent journalists embedded with the force, and broadcast through the stargate network within minutes of leaving Shenyang orbit. 2353 - The Sagittarius Stargate is fully inflated at a diameter of 300 meters, allowing large spacecraft to pass through. Ten survey teams aboard the Bonaventure class explorers Bonaventure, Enterprise, Fortunato, Amundsen, Intrepid, Magellan, Armstrong, Gagarin, Musgrave, and Adventurer pass through the Stargate. Also in contravention with international agreements, all ten vessels are armed with 500 kT thermonuclear-tipped R-45 Lancer antiship missiles instead of traditional kinetic burst warheads. Construction of Gateway Station begins. 2355 - The first survey expeditions return. All ships save Amundsen return to Gateway for refit and debriefing. Gateway station is completed. 2356 - The Amundsen is declared lost after a year passes from the recall date. Its fate and current whereabouts, as well as those of its ship's complement of 120 are unknown to this day. The Mercer and Aurimas families migrate to Sagittarius in their entirety, and settle on Fury (HM+53 0102). 2357 - The Sagittarius Stargate is publically announced, and colonization begins with the caveat that no colonies subject to Earth authority are allowed. The Sagittarius Arm is declared a Non-Aligned Zone, where no existing nation or polity holds jurisdiction or influence. The Intrepid is stolen from its berth at Gateway Station. The ship's former captain, Drake Skyler, and his astrogator are believed to be responsible. The whereabouts of the Intrepid are also currently unknown. 2359 - Suspected Aztlan backed nihilists crash a merchant freighter into the Stargate between Epsilon Eridani and Epsilon Indi. The resulting destabiliation causes the deaths of 50 million people (mostly of Brazilian and British citizenship) in both systems as several Jupiter masses of exotic matter is converted instantly to gamma radiation. The SSTE accepts U.N. insistence that peacekeeping warships be assigned to protect the remaining stargates from attack, though they will refrain from actually using the stargates for transit in accordance with the SSTE's terms. Exhausted by its many failed military adventures, Manchuria ends the practice of subsidizing and supporting privateers and pirates in its 224 year long Commerce War with Russia, and focuses on rebuilding their armed forces as well as regaining their grip on their remaining offworld colonies. Many of these ships and crews who once fought for or against Manchuria begin to plague general merchant shipping on their own. Some, such as the Pirates du Voile D'Ébène (Pirates of the Ebon Veil), trick their way into Sagittarius by masquerading their corvettes as Wanderer class free traders belonging to a phony minor merchant shipping company. 2360 - A series of bioengineered plagues begin spreading from the British colony of New Manchester in the Epsilon Indi system, wreaking further havoc on a population already devastated by the stargate crash. The plagues manage to escape to Alpha Centauri and to the American colony at Delta Pavonis, prompting a warship enforced quarantine of all three systems. Aztlan is an obvious suspect for the plague, but strenuously denies involvement. The SSTE forbids any vessel under Aztlan flag or any vessel carrying Aztlan citizens or cargo to use the stargates. 2361 - Threats of additional stargate attacks prompt the SSTE to deflate all stargates to a diameter of 1 centimeter as a precautionary measure. As the Sagittarius Stargate is deflated to a transitionary size of 10 meters, an unknown circumstance causes the wormhole to destabilize and implode, permanently cutting off the Sagittarius Arm from the rest of human space. Sabotage is suspected, but everyone in a position to know the truth was too close to survive even a ten meter wormhole collapse. Gateway Station survived the collapse as it was on the other side of the star following decoupling of its orbit to allow deflation. 2361 and on - Humanity in Sagittarius is on its own. Due to relativistic effects exploited by the stargate, any attempt to build another stargate in Sagittarius and return to Orion will cause the Linelayer to arrive in the year 6560 (Earth Relative) at the earliest. Only a second Linelayer from the Orion Arm can possibly link up with Sagittarius, and that will be a minimum of one-hundred years from now. Long Jump equipped ships such as the Bonaventures could attempt a series of jumps back to Orion, but even this would take a decade or more, even if the stardrives could be overhauled in deep space for periodic required maintenance. |
