NOVEL WEB Prologue
A lone sleek spaceship drifted through the fringes of space, its shining silver hull gleaming red from the system's star. The ship itself was long and thin, exuding an alien grace with its rounded front and its glowing quad engines in its rear. A bridge on top of the ship's hull watched over the ship and the endless sea of space like a domineering lighthouse.
It was lightly armed, with only a few railgun cannons and lasers mounted into its sides like pins. Yet, its several hundred-person crew knew their mission was not for combat, especially with the lack of known alien species within the greater galaxy.
The ship was the only foreign object drifting through this section of space, a lone traveler amidst an infinite space that had shown a worrying lack of warm intelligence throughout.
"Nothing of note again, captain. Scanners are reading no signs of life. Plentiful deposits of iridium and rhodium on planet 2B of the system may warrant a synthetic mining colony in the near future."
Captain Jin-Ren Chang of the PLS Guangzhou sighed and leaned into his chair, his hands ruffling his messy black hair and scratching his scalp. "Rocks, rocks, and nothing more than fucking rocks. Is there anything interesting in this galaxy?"
"Sir, this is only the fifth quadrant we've surveyed on our mission," Lieutenant Bor, one of his synthetic officers, stated.
The lieutenant's outer features were strikingly Asian, and he was indistinguishable from an ordinary human except for his glowing blue eyes. He was sitting by the ship's navigational equipment, processing hundreds of various reports about local systems and star coordinates—a task that a lone human was ill-equipped to deal with, though possible for the artificially intelligent being.
"You, of all people, should know, lieutenant. How many systems have been surveyed in the history of Earth?"
Lieutenant Bor responded without delay. "Ninety thousand, nine-hundred and forty-six."
"And which of those had intelligent life?"
"... If we are to exclude sapient life, captain, then the total would be one."
"Including?"
"None."
"Do you get what I mean?"
"Captain, I am certain you know the Fermi Paradox…"
"I wouldn't have joined the Discovery Corp if I didn't know."
"It is impossible to state if his calculations or theories were correct due to missing variables that we are still unable to grasp today." Lieutenant rambled on. "However, in an infinite universe, there is a mathematically possible chance that intelligent, sapient life is out there in the universe. We only have…"
Captain Chang rolled his eyes. "Yet to find it, I know the fucking bullshit slogans and mottos the UN cooked up. I don't care. We're not going to be home for three years, and all we'll be stuck with is scanning rocks all day, every day. They had to make a mockery out of me and assign me the ship with the name of my hometown so I'm reminded of home every day. Who is to say that I will be the one to make mankind's greatest discovery since the warp engine?"
"Well," Lieutenant Bor said with a smile. "The chances aren't zero, captain."
"Whatever. What are the coordinates for our next system?"
"It shouldn't be too far, captain. I have the coordinates locked into our galactic positioning system, and the warp engine is ready for launch."
"If there's one thing I love about this job, it's saying this every time we go somewhere," Captain Chang grinned. He pointed to the vast expanse of space ahead of him and slammed the armrest of his chair. "Punch it."
The ship lurched briefly, sending some crew members sprawling, before accelerating into a pocket of bright white lights. The captain heaved and held onto his stomach while looking around the bridge. "What the hell happened, lieutenant? I thought you had everything locked in."
"I… I did, sir." The synth officer stuttered in shock for the first time in the weeks that Captain Chang had known him. "Everything was according to protocol."
"Damn, I need to yell at Lieutenant Sun about disciplining his engineering crew. Well, we're at warp speed, but we might need to run a full diagnostic of our engines and GPS as we move."
"Should we drop out of warp speed then, captain?"
The captain tapped his armrest and clenched his fist. "No. The last thing we want is to get stranded in the middle of nowhere with our engines blown. We'll ride it out until we get to our designated sector. At least that'll give us somewhere to land or settle instead of drift."
Lieutenant Bor nodded wordlessly, prompting the other officers on the bridge to carry out their duties to check the ship's health.
A few minutes into checking for damages, a computer screen began to blare, and Lieutenant Dor read the content before turning back to the captain with widened eyes. "Captain… the ship is dropping out of warp speed now."
"What?" Captain Chang asked, stumbling over to the screen and reading the display. His eyebrows furrowed with every word he read. "Multiple gravitational pulls detected. Shit, is it a deep space storm? We shouldn't be in the path of any systems, right?"
"No sir… there are exactly three readings. Two are very close, and a third is isolated by itself. All of them registering… sizes close to our own sun."
"Twin stars and a tertiary star…"
"I believe that may be the case. It seems to be located in a sector that disappeared off our star maps a century prior."
"What, in 2038?"
"Correct. I believe the system was named Petroica. After some bird, if I recall correctly. The system went "dark" from our telescopes, and two previous expeditions had failed to enter its supposed location."
"Well… I guess it's a system, alright. Do we have any information about the system?"
"Nothing comprehensive, captain. Mostly just estimations involving the planetary bodies around the stars."
Captain Chang pointed at the pilot. "Drop out of warp speed then. We'll have to sit tight here instead of risking another jump."
The ship smoothly exited warp speed, descending out of its light tunnel with a practiced ease. Captain Chang looked out the windshield to see the three stars ahead and gaped at the planets that orbited the twin stars. "...Please tell me I'm not going mad, and that is… green?"
"It is, captain."
"Well, I'll be damned." Captain Chang sank into his seat and rubbed his temples. "Proceed to the planet and carry out initial biome and zoometric scans. I'm feeling good about this."
One of the officers tasked with the scanners frowned while tapping a few screens. "Captain, you may be more interested in these two planets orbiting the tertiary star."
"Why is that?"
"Both contain signs of… civilization, with extreme energy readings. I have… never witnessed such readings in any of my studies or records. I'm not detecting any signs of pollution from either of the planets, yet the energy readings are beyond what even the Moon produces..."
"... Did we hit the galactic jackpot?"
"I believe that would be the appropriate use of the phrase, sir."
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AN: After some thought, I'm going to rewrite parts of the first chapter and either add a prologue chapter or add additional bits to chapter 1.
I think the biggest problem for the story's beginning is that it lacks an inciting incident. The discovery of a new planet with humans and other intelligent life, especially in a universe where Earth has failed to find such things for decades, is a huge moment. And I think I'll add a scene of the captain and his crew discovering the planet and its anomalies.
(Credits to the user named Dominura on the VoyceMe discord for giving me good criticism over the story)
Additionally, I dove into the first chapter too "dry." The MC is introduced a bit awkwardly, and I did have some ideas to expand upon his background that I will take the time to implement. For instance, this wasn't an assignment he particularly wanted, especially after the events surrounding Nova (which is hinted in the beginning chapters). I'm gonna expand upon that fully, and make it clear that he's sent because of his experience in Nova, and his superiors vouching for him.
Hence, he's in a sticky situation that is against his will, but he carries out his duties the best he can despite being a bit young and reluctant. Adds a nice layer to the insanity of his crew.
Hopefully, I'll have both edits done by today. However, I plan to release the next chapter later today.