Operation Orion

One: Envoys to the Stars The ship was a silver giant: a long, sleek cylinder with four massive engines arrayed at the stern and docking pods for as many as six shuttles at a time jutting from various spots along the otherwise sleek hull. Rows of bright portholes allowed passengers and crew to gape at the vastness of space in all directions. Three Plexiglas domed observation podsvery high-tech cocktail lounges, each offering the occupants an unprecedented view through a full 180-degree sweepsprouted from the hull near the bow. The entire vessel spanned a length equal to two football fields. Her name was Pangaea, and she was the first internationally commissioned spaceship built by humansand the largest spacefaring vessel ever to call Earth her home. Her captain, and much of his staff, was a United States Navy officer, and the rest of the command group included members of the Chinese, British, Russian, French, and Indian navies, though the vessel herself flew the flag of no country. She was crewed by some forty men and women, with another fifty staff aboard to tend to the needs of the passengers. Although she could be configured to haul cargo, there was little of that on the current mission. Instead, she carried an official embassy party of some 100 dignitaries. Those luminaries had been boarding over the last three days, rocketing upward from planet Earth aboard a succession of shuttles while the Pangaea orbited the globe and her crew finalized the preparations for an interstellar jump. Unlike the two United States Navy frigates (space) that made up her escort, Pangaea was unarmed. Her mission, symbolized by the United Nations emblem emblazoned on her hull, was peaceful. In the main, she would be used to carry cargo and passengers from one star system to another, jumping through the interstellar void with the aid of the faster-than-light technology that had been brought to Earth by the Shamani some five years earlier. Now, however, with one test jump behind her, the Pangaea was ready to embark on a mission that held great promiseand unknown but very real dangerfor all the humans of planet Earth. On this particular voyage she would carry very important passengers indeed. From the point of view of USN Lieutenant Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, his fellow travelers belonged in an orbit worlds, if not galaxies, above the circles in which he usually dwelled. Merely in making the journey from his "cabin"actually a tube barely long enough to allow him to roll over in his sleepto the mess hall, he had encountered a four-star general, the ambassador from China, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and lastly the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) himself, Admiral Brian "Ball-Breaker" Ballard. "So you're Jackson?" the admiral queried casually, taking his time looking the lieutenant up and down. The two officers stood on the deck just outside one of Pangaea's elegantly appointed lounges. For the moment, they were alone. "Yes, sir," Jackson replied. "U.S. Navy SEALS, sir." "I know you're the SEALexcuse me, SEALS," the admiral retorted with more than a touch of sarcasm. "I suppose you think that extra 'S' on the term stands for 'Special Privileges'?" Jackson stood at attention but made no reply. The admiral knew as well as anyone that the SEALS classification was an elite status, indicating a SEAL who was qualified not only for Sea, Air, and Land operations but for Space as well. He was proud of his Team and it was galling to listen to the admiral's unpleasant tone, but there was nothing to be gained by arguing. He wondered where this was going and tried to suppress a longing for thNiles, Douglas is the author of 'Operation Orion', published 2008 under ISBN 9780345490421 and ISBN 0345490428.