A Tale of New Pathways
The ship had crashed over a week ago and all attempts to retrieve the engine form the ship had been unsuccessful. The scientists on site didn't know exactly where it came for, but they suspect it was from far outside out galaxy. They were stumped as to how it could even have gotten here, which made the retrieval of the engine all the more important. They believed it would unlock secrets for interstellar travel for humanity.
Three teams had been dispatched from the forward command unit, all attempting the mission with varying degrees of success. The first team had come into the ship purely as exploratory. They found no living beings in the ship, leading to the theory it was either a scout ship piloted like a drone or by AI. In their exploration, they found the engine fully intact and attempted to begin removing the golden sphere from its housing. This released a massive amount of heat which charred the uniforms of the scientists and military officers in the party. They quickly left and second team was equipped and sent in afterwards.
This second team was successful in loading the sphere on a truck and started to drive it out of the crashed ship when they noticed it had a side effect on the men and women of the party. They began to age rapidly. Their eyes quickly started going blind and they abandoned the engine and made back for the base. There, the scientists ascertained that the engine likely was used to move the ship though slip space, distorting time so that the ship traveled faster than would have been possible through mere speed.
With this knowledge, the scientists prepped the third team for a speed run. They were meant to go in very quickly and retrieve the engine and bring it back to a containment chamber which would nullify the effects of the time field around the engine. This team was more successful than the teams prior, managing to get the sphere within sight of the base before having to abandon the engine as ancient reflections of their earlier selves.
However, they brought the sphere close enough to base that it began to affect the base, though in a much slower fashion than they themselves were effected. As a result, the base had to be abandoned and a new plan was formed. The brass decided that sending in a team of the youngest soldiers on the base to go in and retrieve the sphere where it was abandoned, and speed run it to the containment chamber.
They came into the time field as quickly as possible and ran it as fast as they could to the containment field. Every step was a month, each one aging them. When they finally managed to get the engine to the containment chamber, they were nearly on death's door with age. The geriatric heroes shut the door on the chamber just as they began to fade away. They died on the steps of the chamber, knowing they had made a sacrifice which would propel humanity forward in untold leaps.
Author's Note
This story is based loosely on the Cherokee tale of the first fire. In this tale, many animals see the first fire on a distant island and attempt to retrieve it and bring it to the mainland. Several animals try and fail, each leaving changed by the effect of the fire. Finally, a small, young spider comes forward and offers to bring the fire for them all. She does this quickly and efficiently, giving fire to the world and allowing civilization to develop and grow at a much faster rate. This tale was meant to modernize that original Cherokee myth by introducing an element which would proportionally realty to the fire for early man: interstellar travel technology. I'm no scientist, so all of my science in this story may be wildly off base, if that effects your reading of the story I am terribly sorry! One final touch I wanted to add was how civilization is always built on the paths created by the older generations and how it is expected of the younger to keep the pathways growing and expanding, even at the risk of their own position in the world and in life. Thank you for reading!
Story Source: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
Image Source: Pixy
