Highliner Antares: Difference between revisions

The '''Highliner Antares''' was an experimental [[Passenger Liner|passenger liner]] by [[Sirius Corporation]] that went missing during its maiden flight from the [[Sirius]] system in 3251.<ref>Tourist Beacon 0123, "Highliner Antares Lost"</ref>  

 

In December 3301, Sirius Corporation CEO [[Li Yong-Rui]] sponsored a new search for the Antares, resulting in the successful identification of its wreckage in Luyten 205-128, in a Salvageable Wreckage cluster orbiting the system's star. According to Sirius Corp's analysis of recovered pieces of the wreckage, the malfunction that caused the ship's destruction was more likely than not simply the result of a tragic accident. The late [[Federation|Federal]] [[President of the Federation|Vice President]] [[Nigel Smeaton]] was thought to have been assassinated in January 3301 for uncovering possible evidence of [[Core Dynamics]]' involvement in the Antares' disappearance, but this theory was never substantiated. In July 3302, Sirius Corp unveiled a memorial to the victims of the Antares Incident crafted by renowned artist Delvin Hoorgan.<ref>Tourist Beacon 0691, "Memorial to the Highliner Antares Unveiled"</ref>

*3251 is remembered chiefly for the disappearance of the Antares, a technologically revolutionary passenger liner designed and built by the [[Sirius Corporation]]. The ship was supposed to usher in a new age in interplanetary travel, but the loss of the vessel during its maiden voyage tarnished the reputation of the Sirius Corporation and stalled the company's plans to develop further superfast liners. The exact reason for the ship's disappearance has never been established, but a fragmentary status report, transmitted by the Antares moments before contact was lost, indicated that a component failure took place during the ship's first [[hyperspace]] jump. The failure resulted in a simultaneous explosion and mis-jump, leading many to assume that the ship had been destroyed. But no wreckage from the vessel has ever been found, and its precise fate remains unknown. It seems, however, that the Sirius Corporation is not ready to close the file on the Antares. Today, [[Li Yong-Rui]], CEO of the company's governmental division, announced that the organisation intends to launch an official search for the ship: "Since the Antares was lost 50 years ago, there have been great advances in scanning technology, and we believe it may now be possible to find the remains of the ship. We are inviting every pilot in the galaxy to deliver wreckage components to our research base at Davy Dock in the Procyon system. Once we have accumulated enough material, we will subject the debris to comprehensive analysis to determine its origin. With luck, not only will we find the remains of the Antares, we will be able to determine her fate." The search begins today.<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/uid/56795df09657ba9552349a85 GalNet: The Search for the Antares]</ref>

*A spokesman for Vice President [[Nigel Smeaton]]'s family revealed today that a concealed data chit had been recently discovered among his personal belongings. The information stored on the device was encrypted but with the assistance of technicians at the [[Federal Times]] they were able to extract some of the information. The spokesman stated that the data would not be made public at this time, but some of the information might enable the authorities to locate the wreckage of the Highliner Antares. The data has been handed over to the [[Sirius Corporation]] as well as investigating officers. The family's spokesman declined to answer any questions.<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/uid/55f7e3849657ba4271cf6eb0 GalNet: Vice President's Investigation Data Found]</ref>

*Yesterday's revelations from the [[Federal Times]] concerning an alleged connection between a high ranking member of the [[Core Dynamics]] board and the Highliner Antares incident have finally prompted an official response from the ship manufacturer. "Core Dynamics takes the safety of space flight very seriously and would never deliberately act to jeopardise our own or any other corporations' development. It is hard to accept that anyone from our company would act in such a manner. Given the gravity of the accusations the accused non-executive board member has agreed to step aside while we investigate. We have requested that the Federal Times share their information with us so that a full investigation into the matter can be carried out." [[Congressman]] [[George Fallside]] is the only named person in the article. When asked about the Congressman's connection with the company and his apparent knowledge of the Vice President's death before it had been announced the spokesman responded: "Any impropriety by any member of the board will be fully investigated. I cannot comment on Vice President [[Nigel Smeaton]]'s death. My understanding it that has already been investigated by the relevant authorities." The Chief Editor for the Federal Times confirmed that they would share the information they had with the [[Sirius Corporation]], Core Dynamics and appropriate law enforcement agencies.<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/en/galnet/uid/55e6b87e9657ba6e79ed4374 GalNet: Core Dynamics Issues Statement Regarding Recent Controversy]</ref>

*The case of reporter [[Elaine Boyd]] took an unexpected turn today as several respected [[News Feed|newsfeeds]], including the [[Federal Times]], received encrypted data packages. It is claimed that these were automatically sent by Elaine Boyd from a public storage server with instructions to be delivered if newsfeeds reported her death. The data apparently reveals a connection between the death earlier in the year of Vice President [[Nigel Smeaton]] and the Antares Incident. His death was officially declared an accident, although many at the time suspected foul play. Those suspicions are likely to rise again with the revelation that he was related to one of the crew aboard the Highliner Antares when it disappeared on its maiden flight 50 years ago. Elaine Boyd discovered details of a private 'off the books' investigation by the Vice President into the incident and that he suspected it was caused by sabotage, rather than drive component failure. He had already spoken to a number of now quite senior officers involved in the original enquiry. Elaine Boyd's information implied that he may have been killed to stop his investigation. In a statement, the chief editor of the Federal Times said: "We hope that amongst the information Elaine has provided there is evidence to prove her innocence in the crimes she was implicated in. We are continuing to examine the data in detail."<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/en/galnet/uid/55ded1f39657ba672b5b8fda GalNet: Antares Incident Links to VP's Death?]</ref>

*A [[Sirius Corporation]] shuttle was destroyed this morning when its docking computer failed on approach to Patterson Enterprise in the [[Sirius]] system. While such failures aren't unheard of, they are rare, especially among smaller craft. [[Elaine Boyd]] from the [[Federal Times]] asked a Sirius Corporation representative how the company was able to determine the cause of the accident so quickly. She was told: "The telemetry from the shuttle provided clear evidence of a stall in the computer's operation as the vessel approached the docking port. The boost protocol should have been disabled but was instead activated, causing the shuttle to crash into the station." The representative stated that the crash would be investigated further, and in particular why the software failed in this instance. Everyone onboard the shuttle was killed including Sean Richards, a senior consultant engineer who helped to compile the incident report on the recent disappearance of [[Starship One]]. Richards had also formed part of the task force some 50 years earlier with the Antares enquiry.<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/uid/55c07fd99657ba707a237d68 GalNet: Five Killed in Shuttle Accident]</ref>

*Continuing [[GalNet]]'s exclusive series highlighting key events in [[human]] history, historian [[Sima Kalhana]] remembers the Antares Incident.<br/>In last week's article about the [[Sirius Corporation]], I described the Antares Incident as one of the corporation's greatest failures. Until the recent disappearance of [[Starship One]], this was considered the most infamous spacegoing accident of all time. The Highliner Antares was to be the first of a new type of fast, comfortable liner, making a trip in hours rather than the weeks that were common at the time, and offering a previously unseen level of luxury – something we are accustomed to in the top-class liners of today. It was the first ship to use a production version of a new type of [[hyperdrive]], a predecessor to the [[Frame Shift Drive|modern fast hyperdrives]]. The Antares vanished during its maiden voyage in the [[Sirius]] system in 3251, with many celebrity guests on board. The event is poignantly remembered in this quote from the [[Federal Times]]: "Your reporter watched the departure of Antares on her maiden voyage, the monolayer streamers glinting in the harsh light of Sirius as she moved gently away from the orbital habitat and out to launch range. Spacemen talk of a graveyard of lost ships, a place where all who lose their lives in the colossal drive to colonise the galaxy rest in gentle luxury. We can be sure that the great Highliner Antares is now in their company." The exact cause of the accident was never properly determined. The final report indicated that it was most likely caused by the unlucky failure of a single component during the start of the jump, causing a small fire in a key part of the drive that resulted in a massive explosion and consequent misjump at the same time. There were, of course, a great many fanciful explanations, too. Since the accident, no confirmed wreckage of the ship has ever been found, although several claims of discovery have been made over the years. Combined with the lack of a definitive cause, this has led to considerable speculation and many conspiracy theories concerning what actually occurred. The final safety report into the incident found there were insufficient safety precautions within the internal drive systems. This delayed the commercial introduction of these drives for several years, damaging the Sirius Corporation, and ultimately resulting in the fitting of many additional safety features to these new hyperdrives. It was later speculated that the deaths of those on the Highliner Antares effectively saved the lives of many more in the subsequent decades, as the number of ships that went missing was measurably reduced, and the new drives proved to be much more reliable than the earlier, slower drives they replaced.<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/uid/55bb42b19657ba152b2ff024 GalNet: Remembering the Antares Incident]</ref>

*It has now been 5 days since [[Starship One]] lost contact, and the search and rescue teams have yet to find any trace of the missing ship or her crew. According to Lieutenant Barringer of the [[Federal Transport Safety Administration]]: "Starship One's disappearance appears to have been caused by a major malfunction in the [[Frame Shift Drive]]'s safety systems. It looks like there was a major power surge, followed by four separate system failures in quick succession according to the data we have, resulting in a catastrophic explosion. We do not believe this explosion would have been survivable by anyone on board. The FTSA has seen each of these failures in commercial and military [[hyperdrive]]s in the last few years, but each one has resulted in the drive shutting down and the ship failing to enter [[hyperspace]]. There are strong similarities with the loss of the Highliner Antares in 3251, but since then we have many more safety systems designed to prevent such failures. At the moment it looks like this was a terribly unlucky tragic accident. We have not found any evidence of tampering, and all the systems passed their automated pre-flight checks. Our condolences go out to the loved ones of those lost."<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/uid/c2955e4406913906e65a0a519c91e0b1eb477572 GalNet: Malfunction or Malice?]</ref>

*At a press conference held earlier today, [[President of the Federation|Acting Federal President]] [[Felicia Winters]] made a personal appearance to address the disappearance of [[Starship One]] after failing to re-enter normal space following a routine [[hyperspace]] jump. "The disappearance of Starship One has us all on edge. Tensions are high, and the rumour mills are making all their usual noise about terrorists, aliens, conspiracies and cover-ups. I'm afraid the truth will likely get you all far fewer viewers, but it is the truth that the people of the [[Federation]] need to hear from me now. I'm told the early investigations from telemetry and uplink data suggest an explosive [[Frame Shift Drive|drive]] failure destroyed Starship One in hyperspace, catapulting all three of her protective Guardian Wing out of hyperspace. Wreckage is likely spread across interstellar space. I'm told there are parallels with the loss of the Highliner Antares way back in 3251 when she was lost with all hands on her maiden voyage. I know I remember where I was when the Highliner Antares disappeared, and I fear we will always remember where we were the day Starship One was lost. While we don’t know what caused this incident – yet – we do know that Starship One's engines experienced an unexpected surge of power just seconds before making its last jump. The search efforts will continue, of course. Our hearts and hope go out to the friends and families of President [[Jasmina Halsey|Halsey]] and all those lost yesterday in this terrible incident."<ref>[https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/uid/2d0472c6f8e7eee1966acb1f542cfb6a6689f379 GalNet: Shades of the Antares Incident]</ref>