Aug 25, 2008
Alien World, 2954: The Prometheus…
The human colonists plan a return trip to Earth, three centuries after the departure. After studying the Alien technologies they have managed to reverse-engineer some of the essential systems, mainly the engines. The return ship, called the “Prometheus”, is much smaller than the Alien ship that took to colonists to Lalande. It has room for the 800 members of the expedition who have private or family cabins. The length of the voyage back means that families are expected to form and break during the course of the voyage, and kids will be born on the way.
The ship thus has a full-blown clinic, a daycare and school center, in addition to the space needed to grow the food for the whole crew. The majority of the volume of the ship is occupied at launch by fuel and the engines, but as fuel tanks are emptied, they are to be “reclaimed” for human occupation.
The pride of the Prometheus is the Nova engine. Adapted from Alien technology, it is one step further than simple fusion drives, using extremely high pressures to push the nuclear reaction further, creating Iron from Hydrogen, and simulating the energy release of a supernova explosion, further pushing nucleosynthesis and creating heavier elements, on the one hand, and releasing phenomenal amounts of energy. The technology for this is highly secretive and only a handful of crew members know how to work the engines.
The high tech engine is the inspiration for the name of the ship: just as Prometheus brought fire to humanity, thus the ship is bringing back the Nova engine to mankind.
