5 flights both ways per week. I seen this little corner of space so much that I think I could fly this thing with my eyes closed. 8 light-seconds, Earth to Luna. On the cosmic scale, that's barely a hiccup.
I do less than most suborbital transport pilots. Plot course, make occasional corrections so we don't crash into space rocks, and then spend the next 3 hours drinking with my co-pilot and mingling with the bluebloods in first-class.
It's only 3 hours now. These new neutrino engines are damned ingenious. I was talking with a science-type about a week ago who explained to me how it all worked. Don't know what half of it means but damn, it's a lot faster.
"See, first they figured out how to produce neutrinos. Otherwise we'd be stuck with a fuel source scarcer than oil. And as it turns out, it's actually lest costly in energy to make neutrinos massive - that is, have mass - than it is to accelerate regular matter to lightspeed. What you've got now is an engine that provides sufficient thrust to go up to near light-speed in mere hours. This doesn't help much for Luna but for Mars and Jovia, you can imagine."
Yes, damnit, I can imagine. I've always wanted to do the Jovian run. The ships that fly that run are a hell of a lot more luxurious. And the Galilean colonies are absolutely breathtaking - as my co-pilot constantly reminds me, since he's been there and I haven't.
It's not that Luna is that bad, either. But it's mostly industrial; like a city without any parks or sky. Almost all of its agriculture is imported from Earth currently, unlike the other colonies - even the Lagrange colonies have agricultural modules now, and they have a population a tenth of Luna's.
A lot of it is political - NAUTA's stranglehold on Luna's resources and operations mean that they dictate its entire economy. Luna's materials are needed for the expansion of NAUTA and Earth, apparently so much so that they must make sure they can't grow their own food or control their own politics.
Ah, what the hell. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about what'll happen when the Lunar population decides it's had enough. We have enough destruction on our planet as it is and we aren't even at war! Officially, anyway. Everyone knows that militaries love playing with their new toys - orbital fighters, UACVs, stealth battleships, laser defense platforms. Helps justify their existence.
I had a discussion about it with someone a while back. A bit old; looks like one of the first lunaborn. Asked him about his thoughts on the war which will almost certainly come.
He was a bit cryptic, but offered me this advice. It's probably something everyone should take to heart.
"When the revolution comes, there will always be places to go; places that don't have a stake in the conflict du jour. You can't escape the horrors of war, but you can protect yourself from being destroyed by them. Keep your gun loaded, though. Eventually you might have to rebel, or destroy the rebels."
I get the sense he's a revolutionary, but I don't think he wants people to die. It's a nice dream; but NAUTA just seems adamant that no one else control Luna, not even Luna itself.
I know something, though. When the war comes and I'm out of a job, I'm heading to L3 and buying all the rum I can get. It'll help me watch the news without going crazy. Besides, I hear the weather's nice there.
<BEGIN_NOTES>
The title is a reference to an event in my convoluted fictional history known as 'Futurescope', a typical science-fiction setting detailed in several time periods. Anyway, this story takes place sometime around 2100, 54 years before the Lunar Independence War, against the Unified Earth.
The narrating character is a pilot flying daily flights to Luna; currently colonized in the solar system are:
Anyway, a glossary for certain fictional terms I've used in the story (any others should be available on Wiki being not-fictional):
I do less than most suborbital transport pilots. Plot course, make occasional corrections so we don't crash into space rocks, and then spend the next 3 hours drinking with my co-pilot and mingling with the bluebloods in first-class.
It's only 3 hours now. These new neutrino engines are damned ingenious. I was talking with a science-type about a week ago who explained to me how it all worked. Don't know what half of it means but damn, it's a lot faster.
"See, first they figured out how to produce neutrinos. Otherwise we'd be stuck with a fuel source scarcer than oil. And as it turns out, it's actually lest costly in energy to make neutrinos massive - that is, have mass - than it is to accelerate regular matter to lightspeed. What you've got now is an engine that provides sufficient thrust to go up to near light-speed in mere hours. This doesn't help much for Luna but for Mars and Jovia, you can imagine."
Yes, damnit, I can imagine. I've always wanted to do the Jovian run. The ships that fly that run are a hell of a lot more luxurious. And the Galilean colonies are absolutely breathtaking - as my co-pilot constantly reminds me, since he's been there and I haven't.
It's not that Luna is that bad, either. But it's mostly industrial; like a city without any parks or sky. Almost all of its agriculture is imported from Earth currently, unlike the other colonies - even the Lagrange colonies have agricultural modules now, and they have a population a tenth of Luna's.
A lot of it is political - NAUTA's stranglehold on Luna's resources and operations mean that they dictate its entire economy. Luna's materials are needed for the expansion of NAUTA and Earth, apparently so much so that they must make sure they can't grow their own food or control their own politics.
Ah, what the hell. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about what'll happen when the Lunar population decides it's had enough. We have enough destruction on our planet as it is and we aren't even at war! Officially, anyway. Everyone knows that militaries love playing with their new toys - orbital fighters, UACVs, stealth battleships, laser defense platforms. Helps justify their existence.
I had a discussion about it with someone a while back. A bit old; looks like one of the first lunaborn. Asked him about his thoughts on the war which will almost certainly come.
He was a bit cryptic, but offered me this advice. It's probably something everyone should take to heart.
"When the revolution comes, there will always be places to go; places that don't have a stake in the conflict du jour. You can't escape the horrors of war, but you can protect yourself from being destroyed by them. Keep your gun loaded, though. Eventually you might have to rebel, or destroy the rebels."
I get the sense he's a revolutionary, but I don't think he wants people to die. It's a nice dream; but NAUTA just seems adamant that no one else control Luna, not even Luna itself.
I know something, though. When the war comes and I'm out of a job, I'm heading to L3 and buying all the rum I can get. It'll help me watch the news without going crazy. Besides, I hear the weather's nice there.
<BEGIN_NOTES>
The title is a reference to an event in my convoluted fictional history known as 'Futurescope', a typical science-fiction setting detailed in several time periods. Anyway, this story takes place sometime around 2100, 54 years before the Lunar Independence War, against the Unified Earth.
The narrating character is a pilot flying daily flights to Luna; currently colonized in the solar system are:
- Luna (the Earth's moon; an industrial settlement that produces construction materials)
- Earth orbit (mostly small 'space hotels' and military emplacements)
- The 5 Lagrange Points of the Earth-Luna system (The L3 point being controlled by a neutral nation; primarily for luxury purposes and agriculture)
- Mars (or Ares as the locals call it; currently in the process of terraforming and largely populated by scientists)
- Jovia (or Jupiter; several colonies in orbit, and outposts on 3 of the Galilean moons (Io is too unstable); its main exports are deuterium (for fusion reactors), computer systems, and extraterrestrial life samples from the Europan ocean)
Anyway, a glossary for certain fictional terms I've used in the story (any others should be available on Wiki being not-fictional):
- Neutrino Drive - an engine using massive neutrinos to produce thrust. Not useful for fast acceleration, but its total speed and thrust produced is sufficient to propel ships to about .91c at maximum speed, more than enough to go around the solar system quickly.
- NAUTA - the North American Unified Tactical Agreement, a political entity consisting of the United States, Canada (and later Quebec), Mexico, large swaths of the West Indies, and parts of Central America. Formed in 2017 after the US nearly fell to its knees from debt; the nations have a common currency and military, as well as free trade, but (in theory) are still politically independent entities. The document that formed NAUTA is known as the 'Treaty of Bermuda'.
- Orbital fighter - A fighter aircraft capable of vacuum and 0G operations. Most of these were deployed in regular service starting in 2051.
- Lunaborn - A human born on the Lunar colony. Many of the earliest Lunaborn are unable to return to Earth due to its higher gravity; however, with conditioning, this restriction can be reduced or eliminated.
