Space.

Once it all seemed like a dream, a future, a mystery.

Little did we know what was truly to come...

In the autumn of 2012, the United States military, in combination with NASA and several European space agencies, begun a joint research programme based around wormhole theory, coined from the works of scientists like Einstein, Rosen, Wheeler and Weyl. Theoretically it was believed that it might be possible to fold space, much like you might fold metal foil, and transport vast amounts of matter huge distances in virtually no time whatsoever.

For several decades progress was limited, and tension begun to arise between the various science teams, many of them feeling that they were hunting ghosts and chasing nothing more than a pipedream. As the original, supporting governments faded from power, support for the project begun to wane and burdened by a lack of development, it looked like the project was doomed for retirement, with only a few of the original research bodies still devoting any resources to long term project development.

This all changed in the summer of 2036.

Whist performing a routine string of experiments, the remaining US science team monitored a slight anomaly in the expected results, which they tracked down to a rogue electromagnetic pulse from failing local equipment. Energised by the accidental discovery, the team noted that the anomaly had borne some resemblance to the Morris-Thorne wormhole theory, and thus began the first burst of real progress in the project, ironically born of mechanical failure, rather than by human brilliance. Slowly and deliberately inducing larger and larger energy fluctuations during the experiment, the team methodically began to piece together the first real glimpses of understanding and mechanics of what would eventually become known as the Aden-Darner wormhole theory.

In a repetition of history, the contemporary US government refused the release of these advances to the other collaborating countries or their scientific communities, despite protest from the scientific team. At the time, this decision was presented under the reasoning that the promised technological developments would lead to new strides against the growing problems being felt across our homeworld, and would be unfettered from political machinations, should other countries on the project show dissimilar beliefs. Behind closed doors however, politicians of the period later noted that this decision was as much down to a collective fear of information being released and becoming accessible to more volatile nations, and the negative effect this could have towards American interests, than any real belief in maintaining the greater good.

Despite this short sightedness, funding and manpower were elevated to levels unseen since the early years of the project, decades earlier, and even without the resources of the other scientific communities involved, the increased funds and manpower diverted to the project meant that progress continued to be made, albeit not at the same rate had there been increased international collaboration.

In 2051, the Aden-Darner theory was finally proven correct, when under controlled circumstances the research team were able to successfully open a small wormhole, calculating that the atom sent through the breach had accelerated to speeds beyond that measurable by any available testing equipment.

Humanity had finally broken the speed of light, that which had been the realm of science fiction for so many years, had finally become scientific reality.

Emboldened by this success and first proof of a working wormhole theory, the scientific community involved in the research rapidly began expanding the size and scale of experiments, progressing from opening wormholes large enough to accelerate an atom, to the size of a satellite and beyond within the space of a decade. Each experiment was precisely timed to coincide with solar phenomenon, with the obvious intent of masking the developing technology from prying eyes. By 2070, as the focus began to wander from merely opening wormholes, the collective scientific community realised that they had wasted an opportunity for years; and, in 2073, a young scientist named Jason Bowers became the first scientist to correctly discover how to calibrate various pieces of telemetry and measurement equipment fitted to probes and satellites, to enable them to return information from the far side of the wormhole, provided an active wormhole was opened from Earth. Bowers would go on to become a leading scientific mind in various fields over the next few decades, as would his descendents over the following centuries.

Whilst understanding was still growing, it was only inevitable that the key flaw in the process would be discovered sooner or later. Regardless of the calculations and alterations involved, and the collected understanding of how the wormhole system worked, every single attempt to open an alternate wormhole destination was a failure, each one inexplicably arriving at the same destination, the planet that would become known as X32I.

Unable to determine the reason for this complication, research diverted from directing the wormholes to exploring the environment directly present on the other side, and whilst several leading scientists lobbied for an attempt to launched a manned mission to the other side of the breach, they were easily out-voiced by the rest of the community. This is not to say that this was simple fear of the unknown, more due to the simple, pragmatic truth that as yet, there was no way to fit a craft with all the equipment required for wormhole projection, or supply sufficient power to enable it to open a wormhole remotely. Once you had arrived, you would be stranded.

It was not until 2106 that this simple, but inescapable, issue was solved. Due to the stagnation of wormhole research, and the United States governments’ continued resistance to releasing revealing documentation to allied governments, many of the leading scientists from the heyday of wormhole advances during the 50s, 60 and 70s had since moved into various other research fields. Perhaps somewhat prophetically, it was again to be a team directly under Bowers which was to make the critical difference.

Utilising the recently-discovered element Beridium, Bowers and his team made several advances in the field of antimatter reactors between 2100 and 2106, singlehandedly solving both the power requirements for portable wormhole creation, and reducing the size considerably of the equipment required to do so. It was somewhat inevitable that the progress would draw attention back towards the Wormhole project. Attempts to miniaturise the array required to generate a wormhole extensively enough that it could be fitted aboard some sort of craft had been underway since approximately 2080, however without a sufficient power source, any advancement had been a fruitless endeavour. With the power issues resolved, effort was redoubled and early prototype transport craft entered testing in the early decades of the 22nd century.

Finally, in 2125, the first manned wormhole mission was approved, dubbed Operation Icarus. Under command of Commander Adams, the craft successfully opened a wormhole to X32I. From there it entered orbit above the planet, before reopening a wormhole and returning to earth, all within the duration of 12 hours. As far as the US military and government were concerned, it was a great success; 156 years after the first moon landing, humanity had finally made the first, true step into the wider universe.

Following several return visits over a five year period, approval was granted for the scientific research station Renatus, named after the Latin for rebirth, which was constructed in geosynchronous orbit over the equator of X32I. With a mandate to explore and understand the nature of the planet before them, Renatus was designed both for habitation, scientific experimentation, to providing a stopping point for research teams to and from the planet, and also as known point for communication relay. The discoveries pioneered from Renatus were to go beyond the wildest speculation.

Between 2135 and 2145, numerous landing missions were made to the surface of the planet and it rapidly became clear that humanity were not been the first race to mar the surface of the planet, despite the rugged, inhospitable climate. Scientific uncertainty and confusion gave way to disbelief, before finally becoming dawning reality, as technology and artefacts exhumed from X32I made it obvious that an extraterrestrial race had inhabited the planet, with carbon dating suggesting the civilisation was somewhere between five and ten thousand years old, although no reason for the apparent extinction could be discovered. The race was classified as "Alpha", meaning beginning.

The uncovered artefacts, whilst obviously alien, began to yield huge technological advances as scientists and linguists began deciphering the glyphs, writings, designs and objects, most valuable being those that still appeared to activate or contain forms of power sources, eclipsing even the advent of the microchip in raw technological progress. For the notion of public order, however these advances and discoveries were kept purely behind closed doors, leaked slowly to the rest of humanity, much like microwave and computer technology had been two centuries previously.

Perhaps inevitably however, other countries slowly began to unveil technologies which bore striking similarities towards those the USA had reverse engineered from the Alpha, and it became quickly apparent to a shocked American government that they were not, as they had arrogantly believed for so long, been the only country with access to working wormhole technology. Reluctantly forced to show their hand, the US government, led by President Rodriguez, held a global summit in spring 2182, to discuss the wormhole technology, how it would affect humanity, and to finally openly share understanding, as should have been standard from the beginning.

It came to light that the other original, member nations of the Wormhole project had also continued their own experiments unannounced, and as the nations had grown closer, had combined efforts more directly than the American government had believed. Following the pooling of resources, the European Space Agency had made direct progress in the development and application of wormhole technology. Supplemented with information, such as the Aden-Darner theory, obtained from rogue scientists during the American research stagnation of the late 21st century, the ESA had had little trouble fabricating ships of similar capability to their American counterparts, albeit taking a little longer to do so due to slightly more finite resources. More alarmingly however, many other worldwide governments and even some conglomerates claimed similar levels of progression, however the vast majority refused to reveal the source of their research, asserting that there was to be no intimidation or one-sided exchanges, and after several days of heated debate, the summit rapidly fell apart.

With the full scale of the technological prevalence now laid bare, a planet-wide rush to claim chunks of X32I, either from space or from landed missions using prefabricated, atmospherically regulated domes flared into existence, governments desperately trying to claim any possible source of technological superiority, and arming themselves appropriately.

Conflict was inevitable.

World War III finally erupted in late 2195, sparked off by the unprovoked destruction of the Renatus station around X32I, and the bombing of one of the new American settlements by unknown assailants, believed to be members of the Indian Coalition. News of the attack rapidly spread planet wide, and inevitably reached back to Earth, sounding the final days of the old world. Diplomatic relations were quickly stretched past breaking point, and the world rapidly began to succumb to global war.

These were dark days for humanity, whole continents rocked by immense salvoes of nuclear missiles, and in the space of but a few months, our world was changed forever. Thousands upon thousands of miles of land lay submerged below the sea or rendered uninhabitable by the sheer volume of weaponry unleashed, skies darkened and silenced forever by swarms of missiles and firepower, and millions upon millions dead.

It culminated in the creation of the United Earth Alliance in March 2196, a cross-continental coalition loosely formed from the remaining nations of the European Union, some of Northern Russia, Japan, and the remnant of what had once been North America. Having long faced resentment from other countries, it was perhaps to be expected America had paid a terrible price, fully half of the continent having either been sunk under the waves, or made completely uninhabitable due to lethal radiation.

Presented with the very real possibility of human extinction, the UEA council, formed from representatives of all the member states, and led by Chancellor Gaius Broadhall, forged the Atlantic-Asian Peace Concord with the remaining, contactable, worldwide powers; a treaty designed to prevent further hostilities, and intended to open the doors to a new era of peace and healing.

Segment from ‘Space – Our Final Frontier’ by Derek Madman.

Funny really, it never did really work like that in the end, even if humanity was ‘saved’.

My name is Dave Lehmann. I’m one of the sons of the UEA. Originally my family came from a mix of English and German blood, but none of that really matters anymore beyond some sort of nostalgic pride. After that war the Earth was doomed, but fate, or god, or whatever, damned power you believe in, well, it’s got a funny way of intervening just when nobody expects it.

Shortly after the war, scientists all over the world realised that the whole ‘wormholes always go to X32I’ thing didn’t hold true anymore, we actually had to ‘aim’ now. Ironically the thing which almost destroyed us, actually gave us freedom. No one really knows why, last I heard, some scientists had suggested some of the technology destroyed during the bombings and fighting might have been some sort of beacon, but no one has ever really found out. I’m not really sure if we want to know.

The Earth couldn’t have held for another century after the war and it wasn’t long before the various remaining powers began hunting, searching for any planet within range that could host some of us, ESPECIALLY planets similar to Earth which might have water with no need for terraforming. Some of expeditions didn’t come back. The technology was less refined back then, it was a pretty nasty way to go when you think about it. Sooner rather than later though, the first reports of habitable planets began to come in and the age of colonisation began.

Nowadays Earth is pretty much deserted; I think they still send people there sometimes on expeditions to try to recover relics of our history, and I hear there are still settled pockets of civilisation, but more or less it’s a dead world. The only people there are people with nowhere else to go, or who never left in the initial evacuations.

With a reminder like that on your head, you’d think people would have learnt their lesson but it seems humanity and people never really change. When we went one way during the colonisation period, the other powers went others however there was usually some sort of continued, if limited, communication, so we have an idea of where they are, and them us.

What we do know though, is that most of the smaller groups seem to have banded together now. Still a few straggling colonies I’d bet, but more or less, they go under the flag of the Terran Chance. Over the years they’ve done things the brass doesn’t like, and I’ll bet we’ve done things we don’t want to admit to as well.

Still, as the newscasts like to remind us, the last couple of decades have been the worst for hostilities since the evacuation. Almost two damned *centuries*, and light years between us, and still people never change.

Sooner or later it’s going to be time to end this, claim whatever X32I has left and finally put this whole situation behind us. A new beginning... thinking about it, I guess I’m really starting to sound a bit like that exert I read just now.

What did I say?

People never change.

*Computer Voice*

Audio-log of David Lehmann, United Earth Alliance Naval Corps, dated 31st December 2385.