The day had finally come, and Steven was starting to get nervous. Really nervous. He'd been pacing the small quarters he had been afforded by the council. The last three days he worked with little sleep to complete the presentation. It had to be perfect, everything must be perfect. The path of humanity rested on his shoulders alone.
Five years ago a signal was picked up by deep space probes and relayed back to Earth. It was a message, a greeting in a familiar language, English. The message itself wasn't very long, a cordial how do you do followed by a series of numbers and then pure noise.
It took a kid in Virginia, a 16 year old comp sci enthusiast, about 10 minutes to realize the nature of the noise. Using a series of filters and interpreters he compiled a series of graphical files.
Contained in these files were, among other amazing things, plans for an interstellar space ship, complete with faster than light-speed capabilities. He released that file onto the internet for the world to see, making sure it wasn't hidden away by the powers in control.
It blew up instantly, humanity was in a frenzy. Not only was life from other worlds real, it was giving us the keys to the Cadillac. The kid became a household name and was brought into the fold of scientists, thinkers, and politicians sadly, named The Council.
His name was Steven Digsby, and five years later he paced around his small quarters contained in a ship built for one purpose. With all of humanity's pride and dignity on his shoulders, Steven took a breath and walked into the narrow hallway of the ship.
The various monitors and consoles glowed in the dim cabin lighting. The stars through the large view-screen twinkled brightly. Steven hadn't stopped being amazed by the sight. He had always read accounts of astronauts about the vastness of being in space. How it could make you feel minute and insignificant.
He felt none of that standing on the bridge of the Prospect, humanity's first and only FTL ship. He felt a surge of awe and inspiration. Everything he ever needed to say about humanity and it's place in the universe made perfect sense. He had the spark he needed to finish, and there was plenty of time make the changes.
The captain sat in his command seat, toying with a small pad. In the corner of the main display a small window mirrored that display. A simple game was playing out, shapes made of small blocks were descending down the screen, moving and rotating to be placed in ways that left no gaps and filled the play field from right to left.
"Tetris, is it?" Steven asked, taking a few steps further into the cabin.
"Oh you know us old folk, never too fond of what's new. Tetris never gets old, no matter how much I do." He laughed deeply, pausing his game and stretching. "Anything I can do for you Steve?"
"Not much, Bill. I was just curious if you had any updates on our flight plans," Steven said. The last three days they had been drifting on a steady course toward what they were calling a Jump Point. After construction on the impossibly long range communications devices included in the plans Steven decoded information and messages began pouring in.
Humanity finally had the information they desired for hundreds of years. To know exactly what lie beyond the stars. Dozens of races were in communication with each other. It seemed that one or two of them (Neither would stop arguing with the other about who was first) had launched enough probes that they finally started running into each other.
From there the two set up more permanent communications arrays, developing new technologies together along the way. Soon they were trading, visiting each other, and standing together on one another's planets staring up at the sky. Wondering what else lie beyond the stars.
They contacted more planets, and then more and more. Finally they reached us all the way in the Sol System as it is now known to us. Steven and the rest of the council worked for these last 5 years straight to further humanity to the point of galactic travel. Their work paid off but the true challenge still awaited them.
It was a meeting, a convention so to speak, of all the connected races. To share their cultures and finally all meet face to face they all had pushed their technology as well.
A planet had been found equidistant to their respective homes, and soon they worked to build the meeting halls. Each planet launched preliminary test flights containing building supplies. These ships were piloted remotely and most made it safe and sound.
Some were lost, but these had taught a valuable lesson about properly planning your flight paths. If you don't calculate proper planetary orbits along your way during FTL travel you may end up passing through the core of a planet and causing a detonation event that creates a new asteroid belt.
"We're just about there," Bill replied," we just have to double check the numbers. You know Val, she won't let us go on the computer's calculations alone. She's been cooped up more than you these last few days double checking every bit of it."
"She is tenacious about her work, I respect that," Steven said, standing next to the captain. "I hope she's sleeping enough though. I can tell you it's not been doing me any good."
"You've got everything prepared though, right? I don't want us to get there and our keynote speaker is woefully unready."
"Certainly, I've got one small change to make and it'll be perfect. If I have time I'll screen it for the crew before we touch down. I had another question for you but I'm not sure if I should ask it now or wait."
"Whichever floats your boat, Steve. We've known each other for a short time in the grand scheme but I feel we can trust each other."
"Thanks, Bill. I'll think it over and drop by if I need anything."
"Yeah, and get some damn sleep kid. You look like shit." Bill reached up and punched Steven on the arm, a wry grin on his face.
"Sure, dad," Steven replied with a thick layer of sass, "right after I finish my homework." He smiled back at Bill and turned, walking back toward his quarters.
He took a few steps into the hall before the sight of a small bundle of bedding coming straight for him forced him to press against the wall. It blazed past him without pausing, a string of mumbles and words were barely audible. Steven shook his head and walked back to his room laughing. He worked with the oddest people.
He barely sat down at his desk when the ship-wide intercom made it's introductory tone.
"This is Captain Russel, our navigator has finally finished our route. We're clear to launch in thirty minutes, prepare your gear for FTL travel, and maybe pray. Hopefully we don't hit a small rock."
"I TOLD YOU THERE'S NOTHING IN OUR WAY!" Navigator Val screamed, sleep deprivation's toll having long taken her conversational skills.
"I know, I know. It's just some humor, Val. Calm down." Steven heard Bill's communicator over the speaker, probably calling the doc to get her some bed rest.
"The rest of you get up and around, we can't have any of you smashed to bits in the launch." The intercom went quiet and Steven laughed once more for good measure. He couldn't wait to meet people just as odd as these.
He spent the next twenty minutes making sure his presentation was perfect and stowing away his various decorations. The chair at his desk doubled as a flight seat if he didn't feel like being on the bridge, but who would want to miss something like this?
The rest of the crew, save Val had already arrived and secured most of the good seats. He took one next to a console for regulating power in the ships various areas, and turned his chair to face the view-screen.
"We shouldn't notice too much, at least not according to this," Bill said, waving the flight plan pad. "We'll accelerate faster than anything man made before or possibly after us and since we're only going a few systems away we should arrive in seconds."
"That short? I expected time to take some pics for the kids, a wormhole, something spectacular," said Roger, one of the ships mechanical engineers.
"Sadly, no," this time Janet, their physicist piped up. "From our perspective things will look kind of like you'd expect from science fiction. The stars will stretch as we move past the light they emit, it may flash due to our speed."
"Well damn, now all I get to do is be one of the first to step foot on alien soil and meet people we never imagined existed. What a waste," Roger said. They all laughed heartily before falling to silence in the minutes leading up to launch.
When thirty seconds remained, Bill flipped the switch to activate the ships intercom once again.
"We are set to launch in T minus 25 seconds. Twenty seconds."
"Ten," they counted together.
"Nine."
"Eight."
"Seven."
"Six."
"Five."
"Four."
"Three."
"Two"
"One."
"PUNCH IT CHEWIE!" They yelled as the captain engaged the FTL drive.