5.0 Overview

Warp drive produced a quantum jump in the exploration of space for man, multiplying the stars accessible to him many hundreds of times over what was possible with even the most sophisticated sublight spaceships.

Unmanned stellar probes of a generation before had discovered the surprising presence of large amounts of antimatter floating in the interstellar void, and decades of follow-up work finally resulted in floating space refineries that collected and stored (in antimagnetic nacelles) sufficient antimatter to fuel starships. Then, streamlined along the contours dictated by warp theory, warp drive starships were constructed employing the propulsion of matter/antimatter annihilation, the only universal known to generate enough power for the warp effect.

In 2059, the first warp drive starship, the UNSS BONAVENTURE, was launched and made a twelve light-year journey to Tau Ceti. Soon, a fleet of warp drive vessels was spreading out in all directions, pointed, as might be expected, toward identified possible sources of life.

During this period, man's home Solar System was visited by two alien spacefarers, whose encounters with Earth forever changed the course of space history. In 2065, a damaged Vulcan vessel revealed its presence to a Solar Fleet ship, the UNSS AMITY, which fearlessly came to the aid of the stricken ship and so opened what ever after have remained cordial relations with our fellow UFP member Vulcan.

The meeting with Vulcan represented another great step in the evolution of man's galactic conscience. Unlike the Alpha Centaurians, who were similar enough to humans to suggest a possible common ancestral link, the Vulcan race was truly alien, physiologically and, most especially, psychologically. Though the Vulcan lack of emotion made adjustment harder than expected, the discipline of relating to an alien race made Earth's first encounter with Tellar less volatile.

For true to the feisty spirit of the race, in 2073 a Tellarite ship crossed the Pluto perimeter and immediately claimed the entire Solar System as an addition to the Tellarite Territories. With a graciousness bulwarked by firepower, the UNSS BONHOMME RICHARD's captain defused the potentially violent confrontation, and soon Tellar had been added to the list of important Earth allies.

From the growing interaction of alien worlds, a fertile exchange of knowledge and culture began. Transfer points of commercial space lanes were agreed upon, and the synergistic advantages of space relations began to be seen everywhere. For instance, the Andorian genius Kazanga (see Volume VI-Andor) postulated the theoretical basis for warp communication. Examining one of the solutions to the Unified Field equations, shown him when Andor was encountered in 2069, he suggested the holes in space discovered by the Drake probe decades before were sufficient to allow field-warp electromagnetic communication to penetrate hyperspace and emerge at distant points along the warp curve. These communications could, of course, attain much higher warp speeds than a massive starship, but, limited by the inverse-cube law of warp theory, were not instantaneous. (See Chapter 10 for speculations about instantaneous communications.)

An extremely important historical document was written in 2062, the Fundamental Declaration of the Martian Colonies. The settlements throughout the Solar System had grown to such an extent that they began to feel unevenly represented in United Nations decisions. Much like the American Declaration of Independence almost three hundred years before, the Fundamental Declaration insisted on each region's right to make the critical legislation governing their internal life, acknowledging, however, the United Nations' jurisdiction over matters on the solar level. This major precedent was incorporated into the structure of the United Federation of Planets, which makes galactic decisions but leaves home government to the member planets themselves.

There were some people though, for whom all governments were equally to be shunned. During this period, several multigenerational colony ships were launched to seek out new worlds to settle undisturbed by any outside interference. Using by then outmoded fusion propulsion, these pilgrims knew they were destined almost assuredly never to return. And none did. The lifeless wreckage of eight of these valiant, doomed ships has been salvaged. One (Terra 10) survived, marooned on a barely habitable, volcanic world. One has never been found.

On Pluto, a combined Earth-Alpha Centauri research team finally solved the century-old debate between correct models of the universe. Measurements relating the Big Bang—the cataclysmic commencement of our universe—to the furthest radio galaxies conclusively demonstrated the superiority of pulsating universe cosmogony to the hyperbolic model. Instead of the universe expanding indefinitely to maximum entropy, in other words, dying, our pulsating universe will reach a maximum breadth of expansion, then begin to contract, eventually forming a primal nucleus from which another Big Bang will explode to start another cosmic cycle. The universe pulses as surely as does a human or a Tellarite heart.

In retrospect, the incorporation of the United Federation of Planets in the next era seems almost an inevitable result of the meeting and mixing of alien cultures that took place in this quarter century. The cooperation among isolated planets clearly augured the institution of some political structure to recognize and coordinate the new galactic realities. A galactic community was being formed, and the Earth was to be an integral part of it.