Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity

We are the Jovians.  Pushing outward, moving onward.
It was the Motto of her people.  It was the summary of their migration out ward.  
Had they become just words?

Once upon a time they had been born of an Eden world long since consumed by their sun, Sol.  When it became too crowded some pushed outward to Mars.  The histories, stories and legends tell how the first Martians fought for the right to terraform their home and make it more live-able.  Many of Earth felt Mars should remain untouched and unspoiled.  When Earth was consumed, she had to wonder, did the Martians feel vindicated or horrified?  There was little love lost between the two, but somethings you shouldn't wish on your worst enemy.  She looked through the telescope.  Mars was a molten cinder now.  it's orbit only barely outside the growing coronasphere of Sol.  All the once proud achievements and culture of the Martians either destroyed or,,, move onward.  

Someday she realized Mars would be as much a place of legend and myth as Earth.  existing only in embellished stories or history texts.  Nature and physics had done what all the wars in all of human history could not.  Erase the past.  In a cosmic time frame the rise and fall of the humans of Sol would be a blink of an eye.  All our petty differences evaporated in a furnace of hydrogen and helium fusion.

We are the Jovians.  Pushing outward, moving onward.
it's what we do to survive.

Once established on Mars they began to push outward into the asteroids.  The wealth from minerals and resources were as vast as they were dangerous.  Her father would say, "there are reasons it's all a bunch of broken rocks.  They slam into each other."  People no longer thought of themselves as being from one rock or another.  You were just part of The Belt and that was all.  It didn't matter if you were a port manager or a lowly grinder, chipping away at some new stake.  "We all take the same chances in The Belt".  They say it to this day, but how much longer?   Did the person who first coined the phrase ever guess it would last over 2 millennia?  There were still scattered mining colonies among The Belt and it's minor planets.  They would be next.  Not this generation, but those of the future.

She looked through the telescope again as the glowing cracks continued to grow on it's surface.  there had been a debate at the Academy whether Mars would break up, melt away, or be swallowed up whole.  Each group had their own theories and formulas to argue their case.  each group attacked the other theories with all the religious zealotry they could muster.  As always, each claimed to be defending science.  All our science, all our knowledge and in the end somethings are so complex they are left to chaos and chance.  

Chance.  Do we Chance it?  The numbers say it will work.  then again her numbers said that Mars would stay intact until swallowed by Sol.  Some bets you can lose, others you can't.

The Jovians were a mix of culture and people from Mars and The Belt.  It showed.  No one called themselves Ioan, Ganymedian or Europan.  They were Jovian.  The time to travel between the gravity wells of the fast moving moons was insignificant.  there was always a transport to hop and a few hours of "dancing with the L-points" and you were home for the holiday or your uncle's birthday.

Some had moved on to Colonize the moons of Saturn.  Most of those failed.  From time to time some new expedition would try again.  She appreciated the spirit of those people that had tried, but in the end they all seemed to end the same.   It's system was just too cold and too remote.  The resources required to maintain a colony too high. Would the ever expanding Sol give them the warmth they needed someday?  That was another debate.  one she stayed out of.   she had her hands full as it was.

Not to say that it didn't require vast amounts of energy to maintain the cities, farms and other biospheres here in the Jovian system, but Jupiter gave off enough energy of it's own to make it practical.  Life was good here and they had become comfortable.  Comfortable and complacent.  

Pushing outward, moving onward.
Sol was growing.  Sooner than it should have, but that was irrelevant at this point.  All our science, all our knowledge,,,.  It was time to start.  it was necessary.

She looked through the telescope.  Mars was breaking up.  it would be a slow process, but it had begun none the less.  She owed Dr. Faust 20 Ceriums.  No doubt he would rub in the fact that he was not only right, but he even called the orbital pass that it would happen.  The last part was chance, but he called it all the same.  Her only consolation was that he agreed with her on the Escape Velocity plan.  He was the first to point out it's problems, but agreed with it still.  some problems were minor and would be addressed by ever evolving technology and new sciences.  Others had been more embarrassing like bumping into Saturn.  Yeah, that one hurt, but even he pointed out it would be a matter of timing the expanding orbit of the Jovian system to clear that of Saturn's.

Just the thought was staggering.  we have reached the point that we can alter the orbits of our moons and planets, but we are still helpless to halt a sun that will consume us given the chance.  If only humans had this level of science and technology 2000 years ago.  The Orphan Giant could have been diverted.  Venus and Mercury not ripped into the millions of pieces of the Inner Belt.  Sol's life cycle irrevocably accelerated by the impact.  The Hundred Year Storm of CMEs that ripped Earth's atmosphere off into space.  The chain of events that led to her standing in her observatory watching a once thriving planet slowly give up it's last breath.   

Mars had been found nearly lifeless.  It was given life, and then had it taken away.  poetic really.  Each of the planets like a child.  Some growing old over the ages, others taken before their time.  She wondered what did that make the Orphan Giant?  Was it a victim of some other event or was it just a star that never fully formed?

She looked into her telescope.  Not really sure why at this point.  it was a slow process that would have few sudden changes.  It wasn't as if there would be a way to save it from this far out or this late.  It had been discussed.  set up the spacial compressors and decompressors to alter it's orbit and bring it out further.  lord knows we could use the extra space, but the asteroids of The Belt were closer and slowly adding up.  it's what the tech was originally designed for any way.  Small bursts of light erupted from the surface of Mars.

A sudden boom shook the room.  The first was follow by another and another.   It was Dr. Faust knocking on the door.  Damn him for not using a buzzer like any other civilized person.  Her heart began to beat again.  "Come In" she yelled rolling her eyes.  Faust entered the room smiling.  "yes, you told me so" she said before he could come to a stop next to her telescope.  

"Yeah, yeah,  the Academy made the announcement an hour ago, but that isn't why i'm here."  
"Oh, then please bless me with your wisdom." she said followed by a tense silence.
"Khavah, I didn't mean for this to become personal.  it's one of the few times i can remember disagreeing with you."
"I guess that's why it hurts"
"So you'd rather we be wrong together?"
Don't you even go there, she thought waiting for his next well chosen comment.  Her eyes saying what she had not vocalized.
He continued, "it really didn't matter how it went, the end results would be the same and only go to strengthen your proposal."
Good recovery.  He may not have to sleep in an airlock after all.  Adam Faust stepped closer and tried to put an arm around her but she stepped away.
"You're not getting off that easy."
He sighed and stepped back. this was when he would give her the puppy dog face.  
,,,
right on que.
she turned back to the telescope, pretending to check it's settings, "I shouldn't give you an out, but go on, why did you come here then?
he pulled in the puppy dog face, "The Academy also recommend to the Council to go ahead with your Escape Velocity project.  I wanted you to hear it from me first."
"and that way you'd cover your ass for going against me on the Mars decay model"
"not the words I would have chosen, buuuuut, yeah, kinda, maybe, sort of"
Pointing her finger at the end of his nose, "if you do the puppy dog one more time I swear I'll rip it's eyes out!"
Taken aback, Adam pointed to the eye piece, "looking for something new?"  He was changing the subject.
Khavah half smiled, "Thinking mostly, about the Orphan Giant."  
Adam took that in, raised his eyebrow and replied, "It may prove difficult to see in a telescope, it's long gone."
he never saw her turn, but his ribs sure felt her left hook.  she always had a good left and she always found that same spot on his ribs.  Once she had left a bruise and it had been flagged in his annual check up.  The doctor shook his head and laughed, "you two.  I swear"
Trying to regain the loss ground, Adam asked, "Did you ever wonder if it had moons of it's own?  when they did finally notice it, everyone was in such a panic that all anyone thought of was getting to mars or the outer planets."
"I think someone would have noticed"
"really? why"  there wasn't  much left of the records.  after the first few solar storms most magnetic data was lost."
"So where are you going with this?
"What if" Adam had shifted to his I'm on a roll face, "someone else had succeeded in doing what we are planning to do, but while drifting through deep space between start systems they lost control of their spacial controls?  They would have been unable to slow, or turn or "
"Find a safe orbit" Khavah finished his sentance.
"They may have been working perfectly and just been forgotten over the generations.  drifting through space not caring where they were going anymore."
"Are you saying we shouldn't do this now?" she said crossing her arms.
"Heavens no, we don't have a choice.  Sol will never reach an equilibrium, it will nova.  with it's life cycle all screwed up we can't be sure when that will be or how strong.  our models and simulations just can't seem to adjust correctly.  it's like there was an order of magnitude more mass than could have possibly been present in the Giant"
"Maybe it just had a larger core than any of our gas giants. Maybe they were trying to ignite the gas giant.  Make it become a true star. Maybe we should be trying to calculate it's mass from our models instead of trying to run our models from it's mass!"
Khavah ran her fingers through her hair, "I can't believe where this led.  when i first started this study the Idea was just to move us out a little further.  Then it became about traveling out into deep space as our own system to avoid a nova.  then it became about traveling to another star system and parking there.  now your suggesting someone else already tried that and it's why we're here having this conversion!"
she felt as if her head was about to explode.  Nova.