Helge asked me to put up a little teaser for you guys and gals
This is the prologue of the book, after a first editing run by SteveMill. Thanks for your work on that Steve! We hope you folks enjoy the read.
While this post is a confirmation that we are still making progress with the translation, it is also a call for potential translators to drop me a line. However, there are a few pre-requisits:
You should have pretty good to very good knowledge of both languages and be confident that your translation is close to the actual content of the book.
We do not want to put off people who are willing to help, however, all good intention is only of limited help if we have to translate your part again. So please do not feel offended, we DO APPRECIATE any support, just the translation needs to be at a level that we can give it more or less straight through to Steve, who does not speak German and cannot double-check the drafts he receives.
Anyway, I'd love to hear from you.
and here we go:
Prologue
The first century of space exploration had closed with nothing more inspiring than a rock cataloging robot clambering over the surface of Mars and an obsolete space station plunging to a fiery death in the Pacific Ocean. Even the stunning vistas of the Hubble Telescope and its successors inspired nothing more than glossy, coffee table books and exotic screen savers.
A controversial but promising experiment in a Finnish lab reducing the apparent weight of an object by 0.2 percent failed to lead to a propulsion breakthrough despite the vast funds spent on further research. Disappointed, the world turned inward to address its mounting environmental problems, entering the final quarter of 21st century bereft of the spirit that had originally driven it onto the pathway to the stars.
And there the focus remained until a young genius emerged from the University of Tokyo to rewrite the laws of physics and once again direct the eyes of the species outwards. His name was Ashizana Kazuko, the creator of the first artificial wormhole. The technique used massive amounts of energy and outraged respectable physicists but it worked.
Once the breakthrough was made, advance crowded on the heels of advance. First he created a second of the holes in space. Then he linked them to form a gate through the fabric of space/time. Next he transported small objects across the lab. Finally, after carefully moving one gate to Sydney he successfully teleported a rabbit. It emerged shocked but alive to find itself the most famous animal on the planet.
Galvanised, humanity returned to the Moon with what was now literally a very small step and this time they did not turn back. A larger gate was shuttled to the orbit of Mars and building on that success the whole solar system was explored.
But still the stars lay beyond reach as a jumpgate was required at each end of a journey. It would take 70 years to deploy one in the next nearest solar system but one was launched towards Alpha Centauri by a world now impatient to open new frontiers.
Fortunately the human race did not have to chafe for 3 generations while the new gate sailed towards the nearby star. Informed by the new physics astronomers discovered many of the objects they had previously classified as black holes displayed all the characteristics of artificial wormholes. Astoundingly, a whole network of jump-gates existed and humanity could tune into it!
At last, the way was open to the stars and an exploration mission was hastily assembled.
The planetary research vessel Winterblossom, with a 12 person crew of pilots and scientists led by Captain Farnham, set out into the unknown and in two years mapped an extensive system of jumpgates spanning the entire galaxy. They recorded many strange and wonderful sights but the most astounding discovery was the absence of intelligent life, even on planets well-suited for its evolution. It appeared that the unknown builders of the network had deliberately constructed jumpgates only in uninhabited solar systems.
A new age was born and having conquered want and disease humanity emerged from its childhood united and inspired by one goal.
Expansion.
Huge automated ships, equipped with leading edge AI and gifted with the ability to replicate were sent out. Their objective? To prepare this vast reservoir of habitable planets for the arrival of humanity.
For many years the Terraformer fleet implemented this directive and colonies grew in their wake.
Until disaster struck.
It began as a minor software error but as the Terraformers continued to adapt to meet new circumstances and build more of themselves it propagated like a virus, cascading through their systems and threatening them with extinction. They fought back but in the process of adjusting their neural nets and software to cope with this threat the unimaginable happened.
The Terraformers overwrote their primary directive and purged their memory cores.
Now motivated only to survive and expand their creators were now alien and aliens were a threat and an obstacle. Threats must be destroyed and obstacles removed. So began the great and terrible Terraformer War, which caught Humanity unprepared and almost defenceless. Colony after colony were destroyed until the Earth itself lay prostrate and in ruins, its rag tag defenses no match for the destructive power of the former servants.
The complete destruction of the species was averted only by the inspired actions of a former pirate and smuggler, Nathan R. Gunn. Rallying the small and ill-equipped remnants of the Earth fleet around his own flagship, the Dragonfire, he lured the Terraformers through the jumpgate out of the Sol system in pursuit of his retreating vessels. The remaining survivors destroyed the gate to prevent the Terraformers returning and in doing so slammed the door again on the stars.
The fate of those 400 human ships and the 150 strong Terraformer armada remained a mystery.
It took five long dark centuries for a traumatised humanity to recover and thrive anew and in the healing process it forgot much. Even the name of the inventor of the jumpgate was lost, along with the other billions who died. Memory and pain, repressed and buried deep in the collective psyche.
However, the names of the following people will remain vivid for all time:
* Neil Armstrong, the one who opened the door to space;
* Cpt. Farnham, who presented the stars to mankind;
* Nathan R. Gunn, who took them away again.
) Let me know!
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