The Terrans first started to reach into space in 1957 AD. By the early years of the 21st Century the space around the Earth had become crowded and the tensions between the various nations of Earth over their “rights” was increasing to dangerous levels. Thus it was felt that an impartial body was required to control such matters as traffic control, allocation of radio frequencies, satellite orbits and the such like. To fill this role the United Nations Space Coordinating Agency was brought into being. Gradually, as the Terrans expanded further into space, UNSCA’s responsibilities expanded with them. By the middle of the 21st Century, UNSCA had become the central regulatory body for space operations in the Solar System. During this period UNSCA had expanded its sphere of operations to include a large research component and it was this that was to change forever the course of Earth’s history. In 2087 AD a UNSCA research team at under the leadership of Dr Fawzi Kaukji in the Asteroid belt accidentally stumbled upon the secret of jump drive (called Kaukji Hyperspace Shunt Drive or KHS Drive by the Terrans throughout the Interstellar Wars period).

Initially the poor understanding the Terrans had of hyperspace and gravitic sciences generally meant that these early drives were woefully inefficient and lacking in range. The algorithms used by the Terrans were based largely on observational experience rather than a sound understanding of jump space theory; and consequently their deficiencies were greatly magnified with increasing distance, effectively limiting the range of these early KHS Drives to 30 AU. Despite these inefficiencies, the new KHS Drives were widely used for intrasystem travel and they contributed greatly to the opening up of the solar system in the later years of the 21st century. Part of the savings in travel times made possible by the KHS Drives were paid back to UNSCA as royalties, greatly contributing to the UN’s budget leading to its eventual financial freedom from Earth’s nation states. This was to prove vital; for the later years of the 21st century were marked by increasing tensions between the blocs on Earth (the nation states had largely been replaced in importance by multinational trading blocs during the first half of the 21st century). The new frontier of the space became yet another sphere for these rivalries and this lead inevitably to the militarisation of space in during the second half of the 21st century.

However it was inevitable that someone would eventually attempt to use these KHS Drives to reach the stars despite their apparently limited range. Near the end of the century the algorithms used to calculate jumps had been improved by trial and error to the stage where travel to the stars had become possible. During the last decade of the 21st century Earth’s power blocs were fully involved in a race to reach the stars. In 2093 AD President Margaret Inch of the United States set the United States Space Force (USSF) the task of reaching the stars. The first step was the establishment of the Alan Shepard Deep Space depot between Terra and Barnard’s Star. In 2096 AD, the USSF completed the Starleaper I, a long range scoutship fitted with the latest generation of KHS Drives; hence the scene was set for the first contact between the Terrans and the Vilani at Barnard’s Star. Thus the Starleaper mission, intended as a triumphant demonstration of US technology, returned in secret to a closed session of the UN security council, bringing incontrovertible evidence that they had encountered not only aliens, but that these aliens were Humans.

Contact with the Vilani was to have a profound effect on the Terrans; prior to the mission there had been much discussion as to the nature of a theoretical alien civilisation, but no one on Earth had even considered the possibility of a “Human” alien civilisation. The Terrans entered a period of culture shock, unsure just what to make of the Vilani; most Terrans regarded the Vilani as a threat, though initial a substantial minority did call for an accommodation to be reached and some (particularly amongst the followers of the New Age Mystic religions) even sought to join the “superior” Ziru Sirka. However as the evidence mounted of the Vilani’s policy of forcible incorporation of any race that reached the stars and it became clear that the Vilani culture was almost diametrically opposed to that of the majority of Earth’s citizens, attitudes hardened and the Terrans became increasingly antagonistic towards the Vilani. The military build ups of the late 21st century continued and the various power blocs on Earth vied with each other to “lead Earth against the Vilani menace”. Faced with the overwhelming size and technological advantage of the Ziru Sirka the Terrans responded with a crash program to match or acquire Vilani technology either by research or simply reverse engineering purchased or stolen examples. By and large this program was successful and by the outbreak of the First Interstellar War the Terrans had already achieved tech level 10 in a number of crucial fields (drives and computers), though certain technologies (most notably in the field of gravitics and related technologies) were to remain poor throughout the period.

Related pages

• The Barnard Incident