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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 3:24 PM
FIRST CONTACT DAY
DATE: SATURDAY, APRIL 5TH 2014
ZEFRAM COCHRANE
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on the 27th of January 2031, Zefram Levar Cochrane was best known as the inventor of mankind’s first warp drive engine. Both of Cochrane’s parents were academics at the University of Chicago which resulted in him developing a love for science.
At the age of 13 during the year 2044, Cochrane became an orphan with both of his parents being killed during World War III, whilst Cochrane survived he was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder which he received treatment for by way of a cerebral implant.
Cochrane continued to pursue his love of science and in 2047 he got a job with a military contractor based almost purely on the fact that it was one of the few growth industries still spending money on scientific research. By the time he reached the age of 18, Cochrane was able to get himself assigned to a team designing antimatter weapons so that he could pursue his fascination with matter/antimatter reactions. At around the same time samples collected from Jupiter’s 5th moon Io led to the discovery of a new element, dilithium. Learning of this discovery Cochrane used his influence to have the company he worked for obtain some dilithium claiming that it could be used to develop advanced antimatter weapons, in reality Cochrane was more interested in determining for himself whether theories about dilithium’s ability to be rendered porous to light-element antimatter when exposed to high temperatures and electro-magnetic pressures was true.
Cochrane whilst working as a scientist.
Cochrane soon became convinced that if the dilithium was properly structured into a lattice alignment it could be used as a catalyst to regulate a controlled matter/antimatter reaction which would allow for incredibly efficient, clean and bountiful energy creation. This led Cochrane to secretly begin designing a dilithium based matter/antimatter reactor, before Cochrane could finish his design the global exchange of nuclear weapons as part of World War III took place which resulted in the almost complete destabilization of civilization which would later be known as the post-atomic horror.
Cochrane was fortunate to survive World War III having been in Bozeman, Montana an area left almost entirely untouched by fallout from the nuclear exchange. It was quite by luck that just days before all out nuclear war broke out he and some of his colleagues had been sent to the region to conduct tests at a near by missile complex. Despite Bozeman suffering hardly any fallout Cochrane did suffer from radiation poisoning which resulted in a more aged and weathered physical appearance.
The missile complex in Bozeman, Montana where Cochrane developed the warp drive.
With the decline of Earth’s natural resources Cochrane and his colleagues came to believe that mankind needed to expand it’s knowledge of local space and develop more efficient means of spaceflight so that the untapped resources of the solar system could be exploited. Sharing his knowledge on the potential of dilithium the team began work on an engine design that would allow for more practical travel between the planets and moons of the solar system, a design they could then sell to the highest bidder and live out the rest of their days in comfort.
The work started well however with the collapse of much of society the team were forced to improvise and make do with what they had unable to rely on the funding they had once enjoyed, part of this improvisation led to a nuclear missile from the near by missile complex to be adapted into a space vehicle to test their new engine design. Unfortunately Cochrane himself was forced to improvise when he was unable to obtain either the medicines he needed to refill his implant, nor a replacement. This led to him self-medicating with alcohol and nearly destroying himself.
Cochrane struggles with alcohol addiction.
Lily Sloane, an associate of Cochrane and his team who had assisted them in acquiring materials needed for their work became deeply worried about Cochrane and was eventually able to get him to control his drinking. This act led to the two developing a close personal relationship as friends and Lily soon joined the team.
Cochrane and Lily.
In the early 2060s Cochrane completed the matter/antimatter gravimetric field displacement manifold engine, something he referred to as a “space warp generator” and by 2063 the engine had been installed within “The Phoenix” the team’s prototype spaceship.
Cochrane working on The Phoenix.
The ship was due to be launched at 11am on April 5th 2063 however the night before the launch site was attacked by unknown forces. This attack lasted only a few seconds but resulted in the deaths of the entire team with the exception of Zeframe Cochrane and Lily Solane who were toasting the launch of the Phoenix at a local bar. Miraculously Cochrane was able to put together a team to repair the damaged Phoenix and launch the ship on schedule.
The successful launch and flight of The Phoenix attracted the attention of the T’Plana-Hath, a passing Vulcan survey ship which changed course and instigated first contact with mankind. When mankind learned that they were not alone in the universe and that other planets were now within their reach they reached out to the Vulcans who began to aid them through the post-atomic horror which ended by the early 2080s.
Cochrane meets the Vulcans.
During this time Cochrane continued to work on refining and building upon his space warp generator engine and over the years spent some time on Vulcan and later Alpha Centauri. Many years later he began collaborating with Henry Archer on a new engine dubbed the “warp 5 engine” with the two opening the Warp 5 Complex on Earth during 2119. Later that year he left Alpha Centauri in an unregistered prototype ship and promptly disappeared near the Gamma Canaris. Despite an extensive search the ship was never recovered and Cochrane was presumed dead.
As it happens Cochrane's disabled ship was drawn to an asteroid by an entity known as the Companion. The entity restored the close to death Cochrane to a more youthful state. The Companion lived with and sustained Cochrane for over 100 years but Cochrane eventually became lonely and found immortality boring.
The Companion captures the shuttle Galileo intent on taking care of Cochrane's need for company.
The Companion tried to help Cochrane by taking control of the Federation shuttlecraft Galileo and bringing it's occupants, James T Kirk, Spock, Leonard McCoy and the fatally ill Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford to the asteroid to act as company.
Cochrane and the Companion/Nancy Hedford together.
As it transpired the Companion was in love with Cochrane and immediately before Hedford died the entity merged with her so the two could live out a normal life together.
"IMPOSSIBLE IS A WORD TO BE FOUND ONLY IN THE DICTIONARY OF FOOLS."
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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 3:25 PM
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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 3:25 PM
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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 3:26 PM
FIRST CONTACT DAY
DATE: SATURDAY, APRIL 5TH 2014
WORLD WAR III
World War III is the name given to a period of global conflict on Earth during the 21st Century which eventually escalated into a nuclear cataclysm leaving over 600 million people dead from the immediate conflict alone.
Historians believe that World War III came about as a result of several factors although there is no agreement as to which factors played the greater role in creating the conflict. In the early 21st century global terrorism brought on as part of the earlier but still largely secret Eugenics Wars was a major issues for a number of nation states, with differing opinions on who the enemy was and how to fight them tensions between the major nation states began to grow, this tension was made worse by the rapid depletion of Earth’s natural resources.
A new cold war broke out just prior to 2015 as political blocs began to form based on differing ideologies as to how involved the international community should be within the affairs of specific nations.
Tensions continued to mount and in the mid 2020s clashes between the Trotskyists and the Neo-Gaullists resulted in the political destabilization of France, around the same time the United States of America the Bell Riots took place as mass protests took place as a result of how the poor and vulnerable were being treated in society.
The Bell Riots.
The rising tension and increased civil disobedience were soon exploited by an eco-terrorist network who, in 2026, committed terrorist atrocities resulting in approximately 35 million deaths. Despite a number of nation states being targeted the prominent political blocs of the time were quick to blame each other for not doing more to effectively combat the rise of global terrorism and creating a global culture of tension and suspicion where terrorism thrived.
A few years later in 2030 the United States and the European Union led the creation of the New United Nations, much to the annoyance of a number of Eastern nations. The response of China was to create the Eastern Coalition (commonly referred to as the ECON) an opposing alliance comprised of China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Singapore. Later joined by Iran, Mongolia and Afghanistan. This in turn led to the creation of the Pan-African Alliance and the Muslim Bloc.
Occasional skirmishes took place between New United Nations and Eastern Coalition forces during the 2040s and early 2050s, these skirmishes are now regarding as being part of World War III conflict despite the fact that war had not been officially declared at this point. The final catalyst for the war took place in February 2053 during a skirmish between the New United Nations and the Eastern Coalition over the vast oil fields located in Antarctica.
On the 1st of May 2053 at 02:30 Eastern Standard Time an event took place that would later be known as the “May Day Horror of ‘53”. The ECON launched a series of intercontinental ballistic missiles against targets in North America and Europe. At the same time ECON agents deployed portable nuclear weapons from within the New United Nations targeting local infrastructure and military facilities. As this was going on a massive cyber attack consisting of a viral assault against the New United Nations computer infrastructure was launched.
Approximately 500 million people died in the opening days of the war.
Despite the efficiency of the first strike the New United Nations responded almost instantly with a retaliatory nuclear assault of it’s own as well as coordinated bomber and satellite-based attacks against targets across the Middle East and Asia. The Pan-African Alliance and the Muslim Block remained neutral although the later was hit multiple times during the chaos of the opening nuclear exchange.
A soldier wearing US army infantry World War III body armour.
Approximately half a billion died during the first two days alone. With most nuclear weapons capable of deployment having already been used conventional military forces on both sides were brought in to action. On the 3rd of May a number of New United Nations fleets converged in the Bay of Bengal and launched an attack on ECON forces in the region, meanwhile the ECON launch an invasion of North America sending troops and aircraft southward through Canada.
Following the initial nuclear exchange conventional military forces were deployed.
As a result of the loss of infrastructure many military units were reduced to having to organise themselves with little or no functioning chain of command to coordinate their efforts, this resulted in large numbers of military units being assumed as missing in action and subsequently being abandoned behind enemy lines and forced to fend for themselves.
A New United Nations airstrike eliminates much of the ECON leadership.
Later on in the year a New United Nations airstrike successfully destroyed the Eastern Coalition’s governing palace, killing much of the ECON leadership including their founder Lee Kuan. Following this event leaders from around the world met in San Francisco and a cease-fire was declared, effectively ending the war.
Most citizens were forced to fend for themselves with few governments surviving the war.
Despite the end of hostilities many governments essentially ceased to exist and even those that survived such as the United States of America suffered greatly with large swaths of the country regressing to barbarism, carved up in to regions controlled by competing warlords as a result of a lack of federal resources or infrastructure being available to support regional and local governments who could no longer support their own people resulting in widespread chaos and anarchy.
Civilisation during the post-atomic horror.
The end of the war was sadly not an end to the suffering, the period immediately following the war became known as the post-atomic horror. During this period societies struggled to repair the damage done following the conflict whilst also trying to protect what little was left from terrorist organizations and rogue states that made use of “suitcase nukes” and biogenic weapons.
The infamous Colonel Green.
During late 2053 Colonel Phillip Green, a New United Nations officer who had served during the Eugenics Wars and had been thought lost during the events of World War III reappeared in Alaska leading a significant force of former New United Nations and ECON troops. Green proceeded through areas of North America culling those afflicted with radiation sickness who he deemed “weak” and “impure” before eventually being stopped.
Colonel Green addresses his followers imploring them to cast out the "impure".
In 2063, mankind achieved it’s first warp flight and first contact was made with the Vulcans, this momentous occasion helped galvanise humanity in to finally addressing the age old issues of poverty, disease, war and hunger. Though the post-atomic horror continued for decades with some nations not emerging from it’s grasp until as late as the early 22nd century mankind made rapid progress and in 2113 the European Hegemony was formed representing one of the first steps towards the creation of a true world government.
Nathan Samuels, United Earth Prime Minister
By 2130 the United Earth world government had been formed and in 2150 the last remaining independent nation state, Australia, joined. In less than one hundred years mankind had gone from the verge of self destruction to taking it’s role as a unified species in a wider galactic community.
"IMPOSSIBLE IS A WORD TO BE FOUND ONLY IN THE DICTIONARY OF FOOLS."
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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 3:38 PM
Brilliant read Chris, I actually found out some interesting information about the background of the Star Trek Lore for things such as the eugenics wars and world war III. Thanks for posting that
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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 5:00 PM
Well done. A fitting tribute to First Contact Day!
What I really need is a cupholder and a couple of Advil.-Quincy Taggart
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Posted Sat 05 Apr, 2014 7:56 PM
Thanks for the posts! Great information.