Second Chance
Names: Second Chancethe starshiphuman starshipSecond Chance missionSecond Chance flight
First appears in Book 1: Pandora's Star, chapter 6 (FIVE)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Pandora's Star
- Ch 6The starship has a 300-meter rotating habitation ring and a 400-meter central cylinder holding the FTL drive and five plasma rockets.
- Ch 6Powered by fifteen niling d-sinks plus microfission and fusion backups, it can fly seven thousand light-years and carries seven force field generators.
- Ch 6Construction is delayed by zero-gee problems; completion is projected at about nine months, and the wormhole generator is in stage three testing.
- Ch 10Huge starship under construction with plasma rockets, hydrocarbon reaction mass in honeycomb-sac tanks, and a life-support wheel; hull fitting soon.
- Ch 11Second Chance is a starship under construction at Anshun; Wilson concludes it is the attackers' target.
- Ch 11Few of the Second Chance's systems are operational and its primary malmetal airlocks are contracted and unusable, so emergency airlocks are used.
- Ch 11Second Chance has no weapons installed, and her fuel tanks were pressure tested two weeks earlier.
- Ch 11Second Chance escapes by opening the platform shell and igniting two plasma rockets, accelerating away just before the spaceplanes destroy the platform.
- Ch 12The Second Chance was a starship subjected to an incredible assault that most of the Commonwealth watched, and it reached safety.
- Ch 12The Second Chance escaped the assembly platform and now sits in a highly elliptical orbit; a new assembly platform is planned around it.
- Ch 12The starship survived the attack; critical systems are stable and it awaits a new malmetal globe, due in about four days, before reassembly platform work.
- Ch 13The Second Chance is a four-hundred-meter starship with a rotating life-support ring and a wormhole drive, with operational target speed 0.25 light-years per hour.
- Ch 13Second Chance departed its assembly platform and entered the wormhole, aiming for a first exit point twenty-five light-years from Dyson Alpha; over fifteen billion watched.
- Ch 14The human starship Second Chance has departed for Dyson Alpha; news of its fate will take a year to reach the Commonwealth.
- Ch 15The Second Chance has an eighth-gee life-support wheel, good food, many TSI dramas, gyms, and heavily redundant systems; it has run flawlessly since leaving Oaktier.
- Ch 15The ship carries eight sensor modules that fly out fifty thousand kilometers and are linked by laser and microwave, and it has force fields, atom lasers and missiles.
- Ch 15The Second Chance uses plasma rockets and a hyperdrive; Wilson refuses to take the hyperdrive offline at any time.
- Ch 15The Second Chance can manage only five-gee acceleration in emergencies, so its main tactical advantage is its FTL drive.
- Ch 15The Second Chance holds station a hundred kilometers from the Watchtower and uses shuttles to send teams across.
- Ch 15Second Chance has a plasma drive, a force field, hyperdrive, and shuttles; it moves close to the Watchtower to recover the shuttle.
- Ch 16The Second Chance returned from Dyson Alpha above Anshun and docked at its assembly platform, looking completely unworn.
- Ch 16The Second Chance returned from Dyson Alpha and docked at its platform in an event watched by the whole school.
- Ch 17The Second Chance was a large exploratory vessel; its arrival coincided with the barrier being switched off.
- Ch 19The Second Chance was a human exploratory, science-only starship flight whose crew Dudley Bose fought to join.
- Ch 25Second Chance has a life-support wheel, long endurance and large delta-V reserve, and can jump through hyperspace to fight bombardment projectiles.
- Ch 25Second Chance fires all 173 remaining missiles to mine near-orbit space around Anshun, then is encircled by Prime wormholes.
- Ch 25The starship Second Chance fought over Anshun, destroying many projectiles, before being destroyed by a nuclear blast as Prime wormholes surrounded it.
- Ch 25The Second Chance exploded in a nova-bright blast while dying in battle above Anshun.
Book 2: Judas Unchained
- Ch 6Oscar notices the Second Chance's main communications dish was extended, pointing toward Dyson Alpha, which shocks him.
- Ch 8Oscar's log recording shows the main dish deployed prematurely toward the Prime homeworld, signaled by an unknown crew member bypassing management programs.
- Ch 13At the Watchtower, the Second Chance transmitted a message to the Dyson Alpha homeworld, in the Primes' communication pattern, warning that the ship was alien and should be destroyed.
Connections
- led byWilson Kimecaptain
- related toBayfossbuilding probe satellites for the ship at High Angel
- containsWilson Kime
- inassembly platform
- related toAnnaworks on the ship project
- related toWilson Kimepossibly piloting the ship
- has memberJean Douvoir
- has memberTu Leepilots the hyperdrive
- has memberDudley Bosecrew member
- has memberOscar Monroeexecutive officer
- has memberAnna
- has memberTunde Suttonastrophysics head
- has memberMcClain Gilbert
- has memberFrancis Rawlins
- related toIntersolar Commonwealthhumans' home; ship is to return there
- has memberEmmanuelle Verbeke
- led byOscar Monroecaptain
- led byTu Lee
- has memberLaroch
- has memberLindsay Sanson
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 6Wilson names the ship
Nigel lets Wilson name the starship, and Wilson chooses Second Chance. He also sets a cautious approach for the mission.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Adam commits to Bradley's crusade
In a Leithpool café, Bradley asks Adam to lead direct action against the Starflyer's interests. After wavering over rejuvenation and hope, Adam agrees, tasked with assembling a crew to destroy the Second Chance.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Inspection of the Second Chance
Wilson and Nigel tour the ship's assembly platform, discussing tanks, plasma rockets, funding, crew selection, and Nigel's pressure to consider Dr. Bose.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Wilson secures the Second Chance
Wilson and Anna seal emergency airlocks, organize crews and reconnect to the planetary cybersphere; the SI says reinforcements are twenty-five minutes away.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Second Chance escapes the platform
The Second Chance opens the platform shell and fires plasma rockets, fleeing as the gateway field ruptures. The spaceplanes then destroy the platform.
- Book 1 · Ch 13Second Chance departs into the wormhole
Wilson leads the crew aboard, Douvoir disengages the ship from its platform, and Tu Lee opens the wormhole. The ship enters it, cutting its link to the unisphere.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Second Chance emerges near Dyson Alpha
Wilson's ship exits hyperspace in interstellar space, and sensor modules survey Dyson Alpha's barrier at progressively closer stages, finding no threats and little new information.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Hysradar sweep and approach to the barrier
At one light-month the crew uses hysradar, which is reflected like a mirror, then jumps to one million km above the barrier's equator and learns wormholes cannot penetrate it.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Wilson and Anna view the barrier
Off duty, Wilson and Anna stand in the forward observation gallery, trying to see the barrier as a faint ghostly red haze with natural vision.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Exploring the Dark Fortress
Using Galileo and Armstrong satellites, the crew maps four lattice spheres and the central rings, discovering electro-repulsive and negative mass layers, and finds no hole on the opposite side.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Decision to move on
Wilson, Oscar and Tunde agree the Dark Fortress can't be understood with onboard resources and politically won't earn follow-up missions, so the flight around the barrier resumes.
- Book 1 · Ch 15The barrier vanishes
Dyson Alpha's barrier loses cohesion and disappears as the Second Chance approaches, revealing a civilized, heavily colonized system and a changed Dark Fortress. Oscar fears something knows they are there.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Cautious contact plan and approach
Wilson authorizes a minimum-emission investigation of an abandoned wreck or habitat, with the ship on combat alert. The Second Chance crosses the old barrier line and heads for a chosen rock.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Dysons signal the Second Chance
Laser and microwave beams from Alpha Major's moonlets target the ship. Wilson's crew concludes the Dysons detected them, and hysradar then reveals eight ships approaching.
- Book 1 · Ch 15Second Chance flees
After recovering Mac and Francis, Wilson abandons the missing pair and orders a hyperspace jump home.
- Book 1 · Ch 16The Second Chance returns
The Second Chance returns to Anshun reporting that the barrier around Dyson Alpha vanished and that the aliens seem hostile. Mark follows the news in Randtown.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Second Chance fights over Anshun
Tu Lee's Second Chance destroys projectiles and jumps around Anshun launching missiles, until Prime wormholes block its hyperdrive and ninety-six missiles per wormhole fly at it.
- Book 1 · Ch 25Loss of the Second Chance
The Second Chance is destroyed in orbit above Anshun while trying to escape Prime wormholes.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Oscar spots the Second Chance's dish
Reviewing sensor composites, Oscar notices the Second Chance's comms dish was extended toward Dyson Alpha. Then the Defender's alarm sounds as hysradar finds the other end of Hell's Gateway.