Travel

Effective space travel first became possible in 2139 with the discovery of time travel. Initially a cause for great excitement, time travel was quickly deemed too dangerous to be used casually after the process was found to be completely useless on organic matter, as it caused permanent and extensive nerve damage. The traveller would be effectively crippled and left unable to return, making it useless. Thus, stuck with a trillion dollar unusable project, the military decided to find other uses for it. Someone from NASA caught wind of it and figured it might be used to overcome problems of time dilation in space travel. Thus, with the time travel process in place, a minute on a space vessel would be a minute on Earth, meaning the astronaut who spent 6 months in space wouldn't come back to find 20 years had passed for everyone else.

NASA tested the new hybrid rocket and it was an unqualified success.  The system was simple. As the rocket travelled, it would periodically check via Earth satellite what the time was 'supposed' to be and travel back to synchronize. The ship was completely automated and loaded with sensors and other equipment so it could send back data in real time. No humans could be on board and withstand the rapid cell deterioration, and so it would be controlled via remote.

And so the ship was prepared and launched and a team of scientists and doctors went to work analyzing and interpreting the data that was constantly streaming in via the ship. At first, they found the images and telemetry fascinating but also routine. They had sent probes and satellites out that far before. It was once the ship started past the solar system that they began to get really excited. The moment no scientist ever though he would live to see was coming true at last. What would they find? What would they see?

This was when the problems began to surface for the first time. People around the world began to report strange headaches, coming from nowhere and so painful they would force people awake in the middle of the night or cause people to collapse on the ground when reported during the day. Doctors were baffled and could find no explanations for it; every treatment traditionally prescribed was completely ineffective. then the nosebleeds. People would develop random, thick and painful nosebleeds. First by the dozens, then the thousands. Then the millions. Finally, a physicist came forward with a solution. It was possible, he theorized, that the time trips the ship was making were causing disruptions in natural cycles of the planet and in people. We didn't realize we were sensitive to it, but multiple exposure was causing serious residual effects. His theory was not based on any fact and so he was largely discredited, although he continued to try and get the project stopped. Unfortunately, he killed shortly after in a freak weather storm.

Then things got serious.

Nature started going wild. Cuba had a heavy snowfall of 24 cm.  Siberia hit a record 30 degrees Celsius, both in the middle of January. Mountains standing erupting like volcanoes and earthquake stable regions suddenly reported 5.2 grade earthquakes. Flash floods and snap droughts ruined crops worldwide. People were panicking and demanding answers, and the government tried to pull the plug on the ship. But the scientists couldn't do it. Although designed with remote steering, it was never designed to be shut off and didn't have enough fuel to turn around. And if it was the cause of all the calamity, it may cause double the damage on its way back. To make matters worse, the ship was in deep space and there was nothing to crash it into. Their only hope, they agreed, was to let it continue on and hope the ripple effect would lessen the farther away it got.

Things continued to deteriorate. Weather patterns reversing overnight and then returning to normal again. Plants withered and died or grew fantastically large. Luckily, with the entire world and economy on the brink of collapse, the ship collided with an object unseen by its pilots and was destroyed just as it made its way into a new star system.

It took time, but things on Earth slowly returned to normal. Things calmed down, and a shaken humanity learned a valuable lesson: even the smallest changes can have catastrophic effects.