A Loss of Innocence, Chapter Two, Part Seven

One of the most interesting aspects of our training was the weekly seminar titled “The Psychology of War.”  What it amounted to was a semi-moderated bull session in which teachers, drill instructors, and would-be NCOs participated in a verbal free-for-all, debating topics ranging from current events to exobiology.  The seminar was required for all students, but it wasn’t graded.  My personal feeling was that it gave the instructors another way of evaluating us outside of classroom instruction and morning combat drills.  I also noticed that if any one student remained silent for too long, the moderator for the week would be sure to call on them either to submit an opinion or critique one that had already been given.

After the first third of our training had been completed, O’Leary and I sat together in large auditorium, reviewing our notes for a test in physics which would cover the calculations behind obtaining a firing solution for two bodies moving at relativistic speeds.  The exercises themselves seemed to be pointless, since the Navy would be the ones firing that type of ordinance, but I had learned to shut up and learn what was set before me.  At the time, it hadn’t occurred to me that understanding the science behind the weaponry would give me a keen understanding of its limitations. 

The moderator for this week was an interesting surprise.  If I wasn’t mistaken, he was one of the most senior officers we had in the Military Intelligence section.  He carried a small personal computer with him, which he set up next to the holographic projector.  A hush gathered over the crowd as we all realized who he was.

He looked up at us as he completed his preparations and smirked at the sudden silence.  “I’m Colonel Smith,” he said.

I rolled my eyes at O’Leary.  “Sure, he’s Colonel ‘Smith,’” I said.  She giggled behind a fist.

“I am currently head of the assets that the Solarian Marine Corps has dedicated to assess, monitor, and counter the Rak’Lan threat.”  He paused and turned on the projector.  A perfectly rendered image of Earth sprang into being.  The dark side of the Earth was illuminated with jeweled pinpoints of light as it slowly rotated.  At a touch of a button, a small, gray slider appeared at the bottom of the image, and a time-lapse movie started.  Tiny glints appeared in orbit, showing our development of the first space stations.  “I’m here tonight to give you a brief history of the Space Age, describe the events of First Contact, and give you a summary of how our war with the Rak’Lan is progressing.  I’ll open the floor for questions when I’m finished.”

“As you know, the first moon landings in 1969 by the United States were not immediately followed up by any sort of advancement in our capabilities for driving toward the outer solar system.  Military concerns regarding the Cold War enmity between the United States and the Soviet Union forced us to spend money and research time on electronic intelligence, ballistic missile technology, and reusable orbital vehicles.  Both countries were spending significant portions of their GDP on dead-end projects that did nothing to push our frontiers outward.

“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the impetus for developing space-based technology was lost.  The competition that had driven both participants in the Cold War to make improvements in space based technology was lost.  Our space-based enterprises were without direction.  Public funding of space travel was cut, and then cut again.  Our eyes turned inward, preferring to deal with some of the admittedly important domestic problems that plagued the globe.

“By the dawn of the twenty-first century, disasters in an aging shuttle fleet used by the United States had turned public opinion against government-funded space travel.  Increasingly successful attempts at socializing the governments of the West emphasized spending money at home on domestic programs, and so the budgets of space agencies, already anemic, continued to dwindle.

“Private enterprises developed launch vehicles for tourists and commercial purposes.  Seemingly overnight, the United States saw private space ports spring up all over the southwest.  NASA soon found themselves in the regulatory business, ensuring safety for personnel and cargoes boosted into low earth orbit.

“The aerospace boom recalled the glory of the first days of airplane flight.  Pioneers, adventurers, and venture capitalists poured money and sweat into the industry over a period of the next twenty years.  Space flight soon became routine, with small companies founded by passion, competent engineers, and hard science rising to prominence.  The first privately built space station was completed in 2025.  It was a luxury hotel and an industrial lab, using centrifugal acceleration to provide gravity at one-third gee.  The development cost reached thirty billion dollars before the construction was completed.  Investors quailed at the cost over-runs, and the stock of the company who built the station fell drastically, signaling a sharp decline in all private aerospace stocks.  Pundits claimed that the aerospace bubble, similar to the one that had existed for internet stocks in the 1990’s, had finally burst. 

“A funny thing happened, though.  Chemical and materials companies were clamoring for lab space in orbit that was unhampered by regulation.  The lab space in the station sold out almost immediately.  Fabrication of advanced materials, pharmaceutical research, and raw innovation made the profits of the participating companies nearly triple what analysts had anticipated.  Suddenly, these companies had the vast capital needed to build their own labs in orbit.  A new construction boom ensued, based on the profits obtained in a strain-free, germ-free environment. 

“When mankind finally returned to the moon, it was a consortium of aerospace companies who did so, with the goal of setting up a mining colony to obtain aluminum, titanium, uranium, iron, and oxygen.  As an aside, we’re standing nearly on the site of the first permanent human settlement, labeled ‘Luna City’ by the space-going press, in homage to early science fiction writers.

“Governments soon became interested in space travel again, if only for the terrific tax revenues to be gained from the regulation of goods made in orbit.  A global body, separate from the UN and formed of the G8 and a few select nations, hammered out the agreement that allowed them all to obtain a split of tax revenues based on the proportions of their citizens who called space their home.  Member nations of the UN cried foul, but they were powerless, having no manufacturing or technology base available to contest the new balance of power.  A new land rush, closely akin to the gold rushes of the nineteenth century, gripped the entire globe.  Men and women of every specialty clamored for an opportunity to ply their trade off of the globe.  The best and brightest of humanity were once again conquering the frontier.  By 2060, there were nearly two million people who were living more-or-less permanently in Earth orbit or in Luna City.
 
“In 2065, a survey ship built by Lockheed-Martin and Coyote-Dugan Aerospace made the first trip to the Jovian system, powered by a new drive system that allowed for constant boost.  The trip was made in an astounding time of two weeks.  The purpose of the trip was to determine the economic feasibility of establishing mining outposts to send ice and raw ore in a cheap, economic orbit that would eventually arrive at Earth with a minimal expenditure of energy or fuel.  Other consortiums had already maneuvered captured asteroids into an orbit similar to the moon, using them as massive quarries for hungry industries.

“The ship, Mojave Sunrise, made a surprising discovery.  In the shadow of Europa, perfectly positioned to be invisible to Earth, tidally locked to Jupiter, was a space station that had never been built by man.  The captain radioed his discovery back to Earth, as well as some impressive video feeds.  The station was surrounded by four ships, larger than anything mankind had ever built, and sleek in a way that suggested a deadly grace.  We had made first contact with the Rak’Lan.”

The video of the Earth had reached its end, turning from a lonely globe to one surrounded by a net of space stations, heavy industry, and bustling traffic.  It was replaced with the video feed from the Mojave Sunrise.  Audio sounded from the auditorium speakers.  “What you are about to see is the complete record of our first contact.  I needn’t remind you that this is considered ‘Classified’ information.”

Shannon and I exchanged a look.  First contact had long been considered classified information.  The media had received carefully edited video footage of the first contact, but the audio was a closely guarded secret.  Because of this, conspiracy theorists believed that we had provoked the war with the Rak’Lan and forever destroyed our hope for peace.  A splinter element of the population blamed the governments of the world for the destruction of San Francisco and Shanghai, citing “Western Arrogance and Imperialism” as the cause for the war.