I was sitting in a bar when they arrived. I could tell without looking because there were three or four of them that shuffled awkwardly through the single door, and the conversation in the crowd stopped as they made their way towards me.
Two sat on either side of me, and–yes, it was just one–one stood behind.
“You guys sure come out in force. Want a drink? Want a drink? It’s on me.” I ask the group. No response. Humorless Suits!
“I’m Jim Porter, with NASA.” Said the guy on my right.
I held out a hand. “How do you do, Jim. I’m Graeme Turner.”
“I know.”
“It’s just courtesy man, shake my hand.”
He shook my hand. “We wanted to come in person and share the news. The results are back from the evaluations.”
“Oh yeah? I presume you wouldn’t come all this way to tell me I didn’t make it.”
Jim smiled, it looked like for the first time in his life. “Right. You’re in.”
“Great! Who else?”
“No one. Just you.”
“What? There were like two dozen other test pilots you had running around. You’re not taking any of them?”
“We just need one.”
“What if I get sick? Get nervous? Say no?”
“Who said we came to you first?”
I stared into my beer for a moment. “Touche. I’m humbled. Sounds like we need to celebrate. Seriously are none of you guys having a beer?”
“No. We’d like you to come with us, so we can begin preparing immediately.”
“Why the rush?”
“Can’t tell you until you come with us.”
“What did you pick me for?”
“We can’t tell you until you come with us.”
“Where are we going?”
“Graeme. We can not tell you until you come with us.” He said, emphasizing each word.
“Do I have a choice?”
“No.”
I downed the rest of my beer. “Well ok then. Let’s go!”
Jim started talking fast as soon as the door to the car closed, something about schedules and plans and equipment.
“Jim, you gotta slow down.” I said. “None of this makes a lick of sense to me unless you tell me what it is I’ve just agreed to do.”
“Well, the long and short of it is, we’ve got Faster than Light Travel, and you’re going to be the first human to fly it.”
I felt like I’d just been sucker punched. My head spun. I couldn’t find words.
“No, we’re not joking. We reverse engineered it from the derelict we found out near Jupiter. We think the Japanese beat us to it but if we can get a human test before them…”
“Have you tested it on…not humans?”
“Mostly sensor suites. We’ve sent probes here and there. But none of it tells us if it’s suitable for humans.”
“So I’m a guinea pig.”
“You’re a test pilot for the government, you’ve always been a guinea pig. This is not new to you, Graeme. If you die, you’ll have the fastest, most spectacular death of any human ever. If you live, you’ll be a hero; the first human to travel faster than light.”
“That’s reassuring Jim, thanks.”
“We’ll get you a technical brief when we arrive.”
The next few hours were a blur. We arrived at some secret facility. I signed some forms. I was sent here. Sent there. Pick up this. Sign for that. None of this made any sense to me. They assigned me a place to sleep, and I slept. Maybe it was the beer, but I slept better than I had in years. Even when they woke me up 6 hours later, I felt refreshed.
It was Jim again. “I’ve gotta take you to the nerds.”
“Suits, nerds, it’s all the same to me. When do you have to take me?”
“Now.”
“Not going to give me a minute to wake up?”
“It’s been two minutes since I walked in here.”
“You’re just full of jokes aren’t you, Jim. Everyone’s a comedian around here. Alright take me to the nerds.”
We wound our way through the labyrinthine halls of the compound to a conference room where bespectacled engineers stood fussing around a long table and what appeared to be a model plane.
“Ah, Graeme Turner?” Said the lead nerd, striding towards me with an outstretched hand, “Barry Singh, it is a pleasure to meet you. These are the engineering team leads behind your craft. That’s Helen Coates with Structural design; Tommy Chen with Quantum Mechanics; Louis Mosby with sensors and interface; and finally James Morris who led the engineering team behind the drive itself.”
I took a seat as the team was introduced. “Sounds great. Always nice to put faces and names to the people responsible for keeping me alive.” They laughed politely. I pointed to the model plane, “So what the hell is this?”
Barry looked to James, “You want to start us off?”
“Sure.” James sat down heavily and pulled the model closer to him. “This is the X-206C, your FTL spacecraft.”
“Catchy name,” I quipped.
“They have a naming convention established for when they Christen the ship but i’m telling you the official designation because they haven’t done that yet. So for now, X-206C will do. You might be thinking what I thought when I first saw it, that it was kind of ugly. Nothing like the classic science fiction. You’re right, this is an ugly ship, because it’s not so much a ship as a piece of equipment you’re going to be clinging to. We tried to keep it as stout as possible, for reasons Tommy can explain better than I. You can think of this thing in terms of modules. This little pod here is the tin can you get to sit in. This long section here is rocket fuel for conventional thrusters, the main exhaust connects here and here, with the maneuvering thrusters along the x, y, and z axes here. The FTL drive itself is surprisingly compact, we placed it centrally along the body here, and these three prongs sticking out are essential components. These are your quantum deployment masts which fold out from the ship, which we decided in case we want to launch these from the surface–the same consideration for making the main exhaust compatible with our current booster regimes. Your job, simply put, will be to fly, turn around, and come back. Are you following me so far?”
“I’m following you so far.”
“Ok. Here’s where it gets tricky. Every pilot needs to know the capabilities of his craft. I’m going to need you to listen carefully because this is how you will actually be achieving FTL status.”
I put down my pen–I was doodling in the margins anyway–and looked attentively at James.
“The principle is this. You’re familiar with space-time? Of course you are. Space has the dimensions x, y, and z, and also time. We move around in space at will, and are pushed inexorably forward through time. Time is the control dimension we cannot change. This drive capitalizes on technology which inverts that dimension. Space functions like time. Think of it this way. We can sit here and do nothing and we’ll move 30 seconds forward in time. In this dimension, we can sit there and do nothing and move 30 miles forward in space. Because of this inversion, you can cross unfathomable distances without progressing through time.”
“What? How do we navigate? If we can just do nothing and travel through space, why do we need all these thrusters?”
“That’s a good question. Honestly we don’t know whether you will experience time or not. 206B was equipped with a chronometer and it was still in sync when we brought it back, less distortions from the nominal thrusting. We don’t really know how you will experience this. We know these things: That it’s point to point navigation, that gravity has a repulsive effect on your trajectory, and the only way we have to pull you out of the dimension right now is by using that repulsive force to bring you to a stop.”
“What does that even mean? You’re pointing me towards an obstacle and I’ll stop before I hit it?”
“Essentially. We lost 206A because it went past Jupiter and the gravity well pushed it off course. Consequently we aren’t able to bring it back to assess some of the sensory equipment, though we know where it is. It’s location helped us refine the trajectory for 206B. The Roche Sphere is the gravitational well around planets and stars that, if you are within, you will be captured by the planet and pulled in. Using this drive means that it’s the point where the FTL thrust and the gravitational repulsion reach equilibrium. The quantum disruption brings you out of the dimensional inversion and you return to normal space. The trick is that you will be going the speed you were going when you entered the inversion.”
“So i’m going to be accelerating into a gravity well.”
“Yes. But once you enter normal space you’ll be able to maneuver, and the Roche Sphere gives you plenty of room to navigate. Far from being captured and sucked in, you’ll be able to maneuver as normal. Our planned trajectory has you approaching Jupiter, maneuvering so your trajectory rounds Jupiter, and once you’re clear if the Roche sphere you can FTL back to Earth. You might say that the whole thing will be over before it’s even begun.”
Some of the nerds snickered.
“Alright,” I said, “So how do I fly this thing?”
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 
