Terence Baxter

One of the founders of the PPB, with Hardy Cullum and Solomon Maier, Baxter was an astronaut by training and a gifted scientist along with it. While it was Cullum who first found the anti-photonic material during an environmental survey of the Antarctic, it was Baxter who persisted in unlocking the bizarre possibilities it presented.

From the first investigation of its ability to project a beam of darkness that only grew stronger as the light source grew brighter, a phenomenon he described as "Shadows stronger than light." - to the discovery that resulting stream of anti-photons were actually capable of pushing objects, this was the breakthrough space-propulsion had been desperate for for years. Fuel-free thrust. A space drive that could run on nothing but batteries, or reactors.

More dedicated minds unlocked its true potential, but Baxter's part in discovering its utility earned him the opportunity to test the first space craft to be powered by the new anti-light drive, after exhausting testing with un-manned drones to assess the level of acceleration it could produce.

It was decided a one second, 1-Watt burst from a focused ultra-violet laser would be adequate to test the system. It proved to be more than adequate.

The only issue with the technology was trying to producing consistent results at low enough wattages for the drive to be usable in orbital operations, as the impulse produced was prodigious but erratic. Estimates were that, if a human were capable of surviving the acceleration, the drive would be able to travel from earth orbit to the moon in approximately 3 minutes.

While there was still a huge amount of work to be done, it was clear humanity was about to enter an interstellar age.

Another PPB project was planned for the drive, a series of unmanned probes that would be directed to areas of interest, those being star-systems which observations suggested may contain exoplanets. It was likely these probes would take years to produce valuable results, whether detecting alien life on other worlds, or just worlds humanity might attempt to colonise.

Having been formed as an offshoot from a rather extremist group of environmental activists, the PPB was very wary of allowing humanity unfettered access to new worlds they would simply despoil and pollute as they had the Earth. In the years while they waited for the probes to return, they drew up their criteria for who should be allowed to form the crew of a potential colony ship. As the PPB controlled the technology, they would be able to control the program.

As the probes started to return the results were disappointing, until the return of one probe which had the kind of data the PPB had been dreaming of, a world which gave every indication that it would be ideally suited to supporting human life. Though the journey of the probe had been a 14 year round trip, the notion of a 7 year journey did not seem impossible, especially as any craft would be freed from the wasteful need to carry fuel. The craft could be built in space, to any size, and be sent on it's way with only a nuclear reactor, a laser, and an anti-light filter.

There was only one choice for who would captain such a vessel, Terence Baxter.