Look Before You Leap

By Gameheart

In 2050 NASA announced they had developed the first stardrive, utilising newly-discovered foldspace physics.

The announcement was met with some ridicule by the news media and various space agencies world-wide who felt they had missed the beat somehow and wished to put a damper on the competition.

Nevertheless, by late 2050 NASA upped the game by launching a test vehicle into high earth orbit with standard rocketry then hit the GO button, which saw the bulbous and smooth ship suddenly wink out a reappear in Mars orbit five seconds later, verified by NASA tracking and the ships onboard systems.

The world went hysterical. We were no longer tied to this small system. We could now dream of venturing to the previously unreachable stars. Mankind had grown up.

However, NASA was not too forthcoming on how they had achieved this.Being the official space agency of one country and also being tied financially to that country , meant that this country now had access to the galaxy and all the riches, both knowledge and physical it contained, enormously boosting their influence on world events and giving their economy a massive gain which might never be caught.

While various international agencies whined and wheedled in equal measure and stocks went up and down like yo-yos many governments decided they simply had to have this gem of achievement any way they could.

The resulting attacks, both physical and electronic, on NASA by various hostile governments and their proxies led to a blanket ban on information dispersal and cooperation with any space agency.

It also led to many countries testing the resolve of NASA'S host country to the point where the swapping of missiles came up for discussion.

This cooled down the more hotheaded miscreants to the point where sanity could, once again, raise its dizzy head and set about trying to create an equitable solution for all.

It was while a heady mix of relief and hope was sweeping the world that the first alien ship landed in Geneva and the occupants told the assembled throng that we would not be allowed to infest the stars with our juvenile and misguide behaviour and any further attempts to use the stardrive would result in the general annihilation of our population.

They proceeded to demonstrate their power by making the Himalayas disappear.

With the result we are now back to lightning the blue touch paper.

For now.....

The end