September 14th, 2009: The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland is fully repaired and operational. Data begins to be collected at an exceptional rate.
April 3rd, 2012: U.S. Navy successfully fires weaponized test laser. Article
September 19, 2012: U.S. space agency NASA admits to working on faster-than-light drive designed by Mexican scientist Miguel Alcubierre. Article 1 Article 2
November 5th, 2012: The National Ignition Facility (NIF) fires a 5-trillion watt laser blast. NIF managers hope to hit laser-fursion "break-even point" by the end of the 2012 fiscal year. Article
February 11th, 2015: Gravitational waves are officially detected by scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Article
October 5th, 2016: Plans for the “International Linear Collider” to be built in the United States are finished. It is twice as large as the LHC.
April 16th, 2017: Groundbreaking ceremony for the ILC east of Buffalo, South Dakota.
April 17th, 2017: Construction of the ILC commences.
December 13th, 2017: Laser-driven technique for creating fusion is now within reach, say researchers
November 26th, 2036: Construction of the ILC completes.
August 10th, 2037: Tragedy strikes as the ILC suffers a catastrophic failure and creates a 20 mile diameter crater in South Dakota. All data safely transmitted and stored on an off-site server farm. No one mourns the loss of over 300 square miles of great plains.
January 19th, 2038: Data from ILC explosion indicates speeds reached by particles to be greater than the speed of light. It is believed that mankind has stumbled upon the tachyon particle.
July 28th, 2038: American scientist Michael Komatsu publishes Komatsu's Theory of Tachyon Synthesis.
December 10th, 2045: Michael Komatsu receives the Nobel Prize for outstanding achievement in the field of particle and quantum physics.
April 22nd, 2050: Russian scientist Evgenii Nikolaev demonstrates space tension and ripples under laboratory conditions. This is what caused the crater where the ILC once stood.
June 5th, 2050: Discovery of the Nikolaev Wave spurred a sudden and strong interest in the Close Orbit Space Elevator. It is decided that the COSE ("cozy") will be built on the site of the ILC to commemorate the rapid advancements in this field of technology, and to honor the sacrifice of all the people who lost their loved ones in the explosion. President Frasch challenges Americans to complete this historical achievement before he leaves office.
November 6th, 2052: President Frasch re-elected. His slogan was, "America was challenged to finish cozy before I left office. Don't let America down!"
February 17th, 2055: Cozy is fully constructed and operational.
May 15th, 2057: The first space ship capable of FTL travel, Endurance I, is fully constructed and operational. It is the tachyon equivalent of a cockpit strapped to a jet engine.
May 17th, 2057: Cosmonaut Arjun Desai becomes the first human to travel at light speed. Neither he nor the Endurance I are ever seen again.
July 23rd, 2057: The International Institute of Tachyon Research and Development opens its doors.
March 20th, 2058: Swedish scientist Oluf Jacob successfully shoots a hole in the side of his laboratory with a ball bearing riding the wave, learning that objects traveling faster than light still interact with matter in real-space. Teleportation is still only for science fiction writers. Neither the laboratory wall nor the ball bearing survived.
March 21st, 2058: American spec-ops team seize the notes from acclaimed Swedish scientist Oluf Jacob, seeing the war-time potential in his studies.
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June 3rd, 2058: Swedish scientist Oluf Jacob discovers the Jacob Trough, and successfully sends a ball bearing 100 miles riding a tachyon wave.
August 17th, 2060: Endurance II is fully constructed and operational, docked at the end of cozy. It is still little more than a cockpit strapped to a tachyon engine.
August 20th, 2060: Cosmonaut Martin Brothman becomes the second human to travel at light speed. Hours after his departure he returns to Earth orbit. Quoted to say, "The sunrise over Neptune is quite breathtaking." Data from Endurance II's databanks indicate warp 1.17 achieved.
August 22th, 2060: After rigorous medical examination, cosmonaut Martin Brothman is declared perfectly healthy. Tachyon warp travel declared safe for humans.
May 11th, 2081: International Institute Scientist Anastasia Stamatia achieves warp 3.6.
September 26th, 2081: Construction begins on Hermes I, the first planet colonization ship.
February 13th, 2082: Team of specialsts chosen to crew the Hermes I on its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri.
April 5th, 2082: Hermes I embarks for Proxima Centauri.
December 17th, 2082: Hermes I returns to Earth with a skeleton crew, bringing unexpected survey results. Proxima Centauri b can sustain human life nearly unassisted! The first colony on another planet has been formed.
