Prologue:

Date: September 16th, 2438 A.D.

Location: Sol System, main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

Time: 1645 LST (Local Sol Time)

“Celestial Frontier this is XS-Pioneer, over.”

“This is Frontier, go ahead.”

“The temporal drive is destabilizing. I’m receiving reds across the board, over.”

Lieutenant Allen Stryker is currently piloting the United Earth Alliance Navy’s latest attempt to reach true light speed and things are looking bad. The readings on the view screen HUD are informing him that the experimental engine is having a fit. He was thrilled when he learned that he had been handpicked to test the UEAN’s latest technology and was looking forward to being the first human to reach lightspeed. Now though, he may be regretting that decision. The mad scientists of the navy had rigged their new “Temporal Engine” into an old Saturn class star interceptor with metaphorical duct tape and glue and now Lt. Stryker has just been handed the bill.

“Understood. Start emergency shutdown. We will send a tug to pick you up. Over.”

“Confirmed. Starting emergency protocol. Will light beacon once shut down completes. Standby, over.”

Lt. Stryker starts pushing the sequence for engine shutdown into his keypad, but the ship has other ideas. A harsh shudder runs through the ship and an ominous clunk sounds from the engine compartment. Lt. Stryker tries to finish the sequence, but the keypad shorts out and his ship’s HUD starts flickering. Suddenly, the Pioneer speeds up and his controls become unresponsive.

“Celestial Frontier, that’s a no go on shut down. Ship is accelerating and I have a dead stick. Over”

“Frontier copies. We will trail. Try to……….”

The rest of Frontier’s message becomes garbled and filled with static. He could have sworn he heard a panicked female voice screaming for her ship in the background.

“Frontier. Do you copy? Frontier. Do you copy?”

No response from his hails over comms, so Lt. Stryker switches tracks.

“Eve.”

“Yes, Lieutenant.” A pleasant, but artificial voice answers in his ear.

Eve is an Integrated Combat Neuro-enhancement A.I. implanted into Lt. Stryker’s brain. A standard accessory for all United Earth Alliance pilots. A transmitter was also grafted onto his ear bone, so her voice transmits directly into his head.

“Try to re-establish contact with the Frontier and run a diagnostic.”

“Affirmative, Lieutenant. Please standby.”

Lt. Stryker returns his focus to the ship’s controls. He tries to get his ship controls back online, but the ship speeds up yet again and another shudder runs through the structure.

“Lieutenant, temporal field increasing. Gravity well forming in local space.”

“Now, that can’t be right....” Lt. Stryker mutters to himself.

While Lt. Stryker tries to get the ship to respond, a ripple forms in front of him and he doesn’t notice as the Pioneer slips through.

The ship is currently surrounded by a maelstrom of flashing lights and Lt. Stryker is being tossed around like a child’s toy in his seat. His ship’s HUD goes dead, and the constant blaring of many alarms fight to grab his attention.

“Eve, what’s my current trajectory and velocity?”

“Unable to calculate due to interference from unstable temporal field and gravity well, Lieutenant. Current trajectory and velocity, unknown.”

Lt. Stryker sighs and leans back in his seat despite the violent shaking. His mind starts to recall his life as most are wont to do when they believe their time living is coming to an end. Allen Stryker joined the United Earth Alliance Navy on a whim after he lost both parents at 19. His evaluation scores were high enough to get him into the star pilot program where he excelled. Allen devoted his life to his career and no woman could compete with his love for flying. He was no slouch in the romance department. Standing at 6’2” with an athletic build, brown hair, blue eyes, and handsome features, Allen had no trouble catching the eye of the fairer sex. They just never stuck around once they realized that Allen’s heart belonged to flying first and foremost.

“At least I won’t be leaving anyone behind. Well....I think Captain Mercer will grieve me.”

Captain Alicia Mercer was Allen’s commanding officer and they both clearly had chemistry. They had skirted military regulations multiple times with their not-so-subtle flirting. The navy seemed to never realize that it gets lonely out on the inner rings while playing tag with belter pirates. Allen didn’t forget that final squeeze of his arm and the lingering look filled with worry from her as technicians strapped him into Pioneer’s cockpit.

Increased, violent shaking and a seeming end to the maelstrom tunnel brings Lt. Stryker out of his musings. The ship exits the maelstrom with sudden lurch and the ship’s electronics go dead. Lt. Stryker sighs with relief as a familiar blue and green planet takes up most of his view screen.

“Any UEAN ships in vicinity of Earth, this is Lt. Stryker piloting XS-Pioneer. Please respond, over.”

No response.

“Any UEAN ships in vicinity of Earth, this is Lt. Stryker piloting XS-Pioneer. I have a dead stick. Please respond, over.”

Still no response from the comms in his flight helmet.

“Eve. Do you pick up any Alliance ships in local space?”

“Negative Lieutenant. No Alliance ships nor do I read any Alliance traffic on any channels; including emergency channels.”

“Strange, local space should not be this dead so close to Earth.”

“I agree with your analysis, Lieutenant.”

The view of Earth in his view screen looms larger and Allen realizes with growing alarm that the ship isn’t losing velocity. As it draws closer to Earth, her gravity reaches out greedily and sinks it’s claws into his ship. Earth quickly grows larger in the view screen, and his ship is showing no signs of slowing down.

“Eve, slave yourself to Pioneer and see what you can do.”

“Affirmative Lieutenant. Please stand by....”

Pioneer continues to accelerate towards Earth’s exosphere and the electronics on board remain lifeless.

“Avionics…. offline. Navigation.... offline. Engines.... offline. Life Support.... offline. Pioneer unresponsive, Lieutenant. Recommend switching to internal air and prepare for hard landing.”

Pioneer plunges into Earth’s exosphere and the abrupt contact slams Allen’s head against the inside of his helmet, causing his vision to swim and fill with stars.

“Well. Shit.” Is Lt. Stryker’s eloquent response as he blacks out....

It’s a beautiful autumn night sky above the peaceful city of Ellington. The full moon adds to the beauty of the night as stars twinkle, and sparse clouds pass overhead. A bright red glow starts to brighten in the south as the Pioneer streaks across the sky, heading on a northern trajectory. The fiery ball continues to track north as pieces of debris fall off Lt. Stryker’s ship and burn up in the atmosphere. Many of the citizens stop and watch the fiery ball, believing it to be a meteor. Eventually, the fiery ball explodes close to the northern horizon. The blast sets off car alarms, rattles windows, and sets dogs to barking. After peace returns to the night, the populace returns to their nightly routines and dismiss the meteor. No one notices a parachute deploy from a falling body. The silvery chute slows the fall of the unconscious pilot, and it safely delivers its cargo to the forest north of the city.