Guide:Before 2063 - The Playground

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Before 2063 - The Playground

Space has never been empty. As long as there has been space and time, there has also been matter or energy in it in some form. Structure has existed ever since the birth, or creation, of space and time. The appearance of the complex structures we know as life was just a matter of time and space, and rather mundane compared to what had taken place before. The earliest forms of structures we could regard as life are believed to have existed in the very first minutes of time, but contacts to them have been indirect and ultimately inconclusive. Biological life appeared in space no later than 11 billion years ago, as evidenced by proton-dating of the oldest surviving spaceborne organisms. DNA-based units have existed in our galaxy for some eight billion years, and humanoids, the primary type of intelligent life encountered, have been around for at least 4.5 billion years.*

We are all children of space and time, yet we know very little of our parents. But we never cease to try and learn more. To this end, humanoids have roamed space for at least the time of their existence, perhaps even longer. Today, only five humanoid species are known to be naturally capable of life in interstellar vacuum; most of us have to resort to spaceships of some kind. And since space is a formidable ally in the fight against time, many examples of ancient craft still survive in the vacuum between stars, silent proof of interstellar travel conducted millions or even billions of years ago.

The handiwork of the ancients has largely been forgotten, however, and the oldest starfaring vessels in use today are usually at most ten thousand years old by design or by physical structure. It appears that every aspiring galactic power has to develop warp technology or comparable interstellar travel anew to build its empire, and most succumb after a couple of thousand years of reign, taking their technology with them. Thus, the first chapter of this work does not dwell on these past achievements. Instead, it concentrates in describing the earliest attempts at starflight by the culture that seems destined to have its shot at ruling the galaxy in the next few millennia.

Planet Earth is an ascending world at the moment, and its space forces are of great interest now that they are close to achieving the capacity required for exploring and perhaps later also controlling this galaxy in its entirety. Other currently aggressive local cultures, like the Klingon and Romulan empires, have expressed little interest in galaxy-wide spheres of influence. And although their space navies are highly interesting by themselves, it is evident that the mainly Earth-run Star Fleet is the organization whose history and development will be of most interest to present and future readers. Thus, the choice of the scope of this work; let history be the judge in deciding whether this is simple arrogant speciesism or logical pragmatism.

*Signs of humanoid intelligence older still have been located on planet 522-IV, nowadays named after Dr Helmut Kreutzer who first discovered the planetwide ruins in 2172 during a standard precolonization assessment mission of the surveyor USS Schliemann. However, it is now believed that the ruins are in fact the result of time travel and not of an intelligence born 7.5 billion years ago.


Before 2063 - The Ships

Updated to August 2014 version (there is no intent to upgrade these existing ships to new versions, due to the potential for extreme historical contradictions)



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