Project Long Jump

Project Long Jump

Many centuries before the birth of the United Federation Of Planets, an Earth philosopher likened the globe of their world to a cradle that humankind would one day step out of into a wider universe. With the advent of Earths Space and Information Age’s, it seemed they were right, and the human race was on the verge of a migratory leap to a multi-planet species. Manned missions to the outer planets and a tenuous colony on Mars were but the beginnings of a much grander plan. A new golden age beckoned from the distant undiscovered country of tomorrow...

It was only with the outbreak of the Third World War, a large scale nuclear exchange between sociopolitical nation-states, that curtailed this early advancement. But this is not the story of the First Contact, nor of the inaugural flight of human kinds first warp ship The Phoenix.

Over the centuries from that fateful meeting, humankind has joined with other sapient races across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants to form the United Federation of Planets. We have explored strange new worlds and met alien civilisations the likes of which could never have been dreamed of in a thousand years. But the drive for exploration has been tempered by the wars of the past hundred years. With the scars of the Dominion War still healing, a new hope is required to rekindle the promise of the United Federation of Planets.

Driven by industrialist Maximilian Straus, the Long Jump Project was formed as a private think tank whose goal it was to find a way to explore beyond the boundaries of the Galactic Barrier. Passage through this space-time anomaly have proven fatal and dangerous to all living matter. And so exotic new sciences were investigated and sometimes invented to help circumvent it.

Artificial wormholes, subspace burrowing, even transwarp drives were tested. In the end, the Long Jump Project found its answer in the published works of Zado Kasmire, a Bolian theoretical physicist. Her theory of Phase Space Acceleration travel, using a higher dimensional plane from subspace as a travelling medium, would not only cut down travel time to mere picoseconds from point to point, but also pass under the barrier with no ill effects. It is at this point that the Project Long Jump working group selected Messier 4 as its target destination. As a relatively close globular cluster orbiting above the Milky Way, it was the most closely studied extra-galactic target within range.

Maximilian Straus used his not inconsiderable resources and connections with the United Federation of Planets to begin building the Alpha Accelerator, a device that would catapult a ship from one point in space to one far beyond the bounds of the Milky Way. This was in keeping with the Five-Phase Plan as set out in the Long Jump Project proposal.

Phase 1: Scouting. A starship would be sent out to perform a limited stellar survey over a period of two years, transmitting a data burst back to Project HQ via a one-time use Phase Space Transceiver built using locally harvested resources and onboard fabrication facilities.

Phase 2: Outpost. Following successful receipt of the scouting report, a Starbase would be sent through to a predetermined site. This would operate as a hub to organise further scouting sorties and begin the scientific mission of the Long Jump Project.

Phase 3: Settlement. After a period of two years and the creation of the Beta Accelerator, allowing for accurate two-way travel to Messier 4 from the Alpha Quadrant, civilian assets would be sent through. These would begin building support infrastructure in the form of the Pollux Shipyards and other industrial nodes. At this time colonial assets would be sent through as well, to begin the settlement of any vacant planetary bodies.

Phase 4: Integration. This phase of the plan would run concurrently with phase 2 and 3, and involve the diplomatic envoys of Starfleet interacting with any local or indigenous populations to the Cluster. This would begin to allow the United Federation of Planets to expand diplomatic and cultural ties to new races and political entities beyond our galaxy and place the UFP on the universal stage.

Phase 5: Furtherest Star. CLASSIFIED