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Old 08-24-2019, 05:53 AM   #6
Prince Charon
 
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Psionics] [Space] Psi Trek - Worldbuilding

TOS-like timeline (Probably more detailed than it needs to be.)

1930s: A group of scientists receive funding for a series of eugenics experiments from the Nazi-lead government of Germany. The are far more successful than they should have been, due to one of the younger scientists being very talented in Probability Alteration. One of the more dangerous techniques they pioneer (which basically only gets particularly good results due to Probability Alteration) is chromosomal transference: moving chromosomes from one germ cell to another. Most of their early results are still disappointing, and in some cases, very disturbing.

1940s-'50s: First generation of successful enhanced children are born of the eugenics experiments.

1944: Several of the scientists running the eugenics experiments in Germany (specifically, those who are more interested in science than in political ideology) recognise that the Third Reich will lose the war, and likely sooner rather than later. Later in the year, they, along with some nurses and host mothers (there's some overlap in that) and one orderly, abscond to Switzerland (disguised as several families on vacation) with the most successful of their first-generation eugenic babies. They set off an explosion to disguise this, and to keep their colleagues from informing anyone of their plans. As with the experiments themselves, it would not have worked nearly so well if one of them hadn't been so talented in Probability Alteration. Whilst there, they quietly arrange to control a quantity of the gold and other valuables stolen by the Nazis, and located in Swiss banks.

1947: The scientists and their charges and helpers relocate to the newly-independent Republic of India, to continue their experiments.

1960s-'70s: The second generation of 'young supermen' are born.

1967: The boy who will be known as Khan Noonien Singh is born.

1980s and early '90s: The third generation of 'young supermen' are born.

1981: The transtator is invented by a group of 'child prodigies' (several of the second-generation 'young supermen') in India.

1989: The DY-100 class of space hibernation vessel ('sleeper ship') is invented. The design takes advantage of 'transtator-based inertia manipulation' (psychotronically-generated psychokinesis) to produce a robust artificial gravity system, including an early inertial dampening field, to improve the heat-radiating systems (with cryokinesis), and to significantly increase the exhaust velocity of the reaction mass. The launch configuration includes some quite impressive fairings, due to the size of the trapezoidal external modules (there are several images of DY-100 with modules mounted here, and three galleries for a more 'realistic' variant here, though none with the fairings or external boosters).

1990s: Scientists begin noticing a tendency for transtator-based equipment to fail with sufficient time and distance from human operators, even though the same devices can work for long periods unmaintained, when people are nearby. A few do not work at all without someone right there, willing them to work. Eugenics Wars begin, as many 'young supermen' seize power in various countries.

1996: Eugenics Wars end, as the young supermen were both too arrogant (biting off more than they can chew), and too lacking in numbers to maintain control of what they had. Several DY-100 class spacecraft are launched by the surviving young supermen, though most fail due to poor launch conditions. In the confusion, all are reported destroyed. A very few of the surviving second generation of 'young supermen,' and a larger number of the third generation, hide among humanity, some of them successfully contributing their genetics to the whole. Others are discovered, and either imprisoned, lynched, or executed. In many cases, those who are imprisoned are also sterilized, a war-crime for which later generations will condemn the perpetrators.

2009: First images of an Earth-like planet outside the Sol System received via transtator-based long-range sensors (psychotronic ESP), trained on the Alpha Centauri system.

2010: The planet orbiting Alpha Centauri is officially named 'Centaurus,' though the planet is sometimes referred to conversationally as 'Alpha Centauri.'

2010s: Psionic abilities are generally acknowledged as real by Terran scientists. The term 'psychotronics' begins to be applied to transtator technology by people other than kooks and parapsychologists. Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher commands the first manned mission to Saturn, aboard the DY-147 class vessel Lewis and Clark.

2018: Fusion-impulse drive developed, making sleeper ships obsolete for interplanetary journeys (but not interstellar ones).

2019: Three DY-156 class sleeper ships (equipped with the new fusion-impulse drive) are sent to the Alpha Centauri system, in the hope that a colony can be founded, there; if the planet Centaurus is unsuitable for colonization, these craft and the unmanned cargo vessels sent with them are capable to being adapted into space habitats, and include asteroid mining equipment.

2032: Zefram Cochrane is born. He is only the third child to be born on Centaurus.

(WWIII occurs at an uncertain point in the twenty-first century, probably before the invention of warp drive.)

2063: Zefram Cochrane invents the first human-built warp drive (based on psychotronic teleportation).

2196 or later: SS Botany Bay, one of the sleeper ships launched in 1996, is discovered by USS Enterprise. (The actual dates of the Enterprise's adventures - apart from the past portion of some of the time travel incidents - were never given in the Gregorian calendar during TOS, but Kirk told Khan that Khan and the others had been asleep for '200 years.')


TNG-like timeline

1990s: A number of scientists working on the Human Genome Project begins making plans to uplift humanity, in what the New York Times will mistakenly call 'eugenics experiments' - a term that will unfortunately be entered into history (to be fair, the later actions of many of the young supermen did not exactly help the project's reputation).

2003: Human Genome Project declared complete.

2020s: Colonization of Mars begins. Transtator invented.

2030s: DY-100 class of space hibernation vessel ('sleeper ship') is invented. Colonization of Mars stepped up significantly, colonization of the asteroids and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn begins.

2040s: Eugenics Wars begin, as many 'young supermen' seize power in various countries.

2050s: WWIII occurs, overlapping with and effectively ending the Eugenics Wars.

2052-'53: Several DY-100 class spacecraft are launched by the surviving young supermen, though most fail due to poor launch conditions. All are reported destroyed. A few of the surviving second generation of 'young supermen,' and a larger number of the third generation, hide among humanity, some of them successfully contributing their genetics to the whole. The Post-Atomic Horror begins.

2063: Warp drive successfully tested. Sleeper ships become obsolete for interplanetary journeys, though most of Earth's humanity will not be aware of this for some time.

2080s: The Post-Atomic Horror ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

2267: SS Botany Bay, one of the sleeper ships launched in 2053, is discovered by USS Enterprise. (The year is apparently canon or semi-canon as of TNG, and the difference between 2253 and 2267 is small enough for Kirk's '200 years' comment to be acceptable - Spock would have answered with more precision.)


Thoughts?
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Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
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