“In retrospect, there were early hints of the message's ominous intent. All formulas—early on it was all about the math—always came to zero. But there was yet no context to frame this in a worrying light. The period of decoding took decades to complete, but long before the final translation was complete, the message was becoming clear. Ultimately the simple translation came out to the effect of:
Stay in the gift of your home system. Jump on the darkwave and you face ultimate annihilation. This will be your only warning.
“It was repeated over and over in many separate codes and languages and understanding many of the codes required development of the technological process required to utilize darkwave jump capability. As though they were taunting us or daring us to test their warning.
“Despite the horror of the message, or perhaps because of it, unity on Earth became even greater as the need people felt to face a hostile universe as one people exceeded even that desire to face a friendly universe as one people. There was much debate on what to do. The lines of opinion; however, were not drawn on the globe, but in human hearts. Few could deny the utter foolishness and recklessness of calling a potential bluff that held such high stakes. But there were those that considered alternate plans.
“A long voyage colony ship mission was put forth as a way to escape the limits of our solar system, without endangering Earth. There was great enthusiasm all around for this plan. At that time, it would take years to build a ship as large as Longissima and the great laser array that would remotely supply much of its power. The technology existed, but further engineering was required. We took the time to select crew and colonists for the endeavor and to train them. They needed to be levelheaded and determined above all things, only once filtered for those attributes were the travelers selected from the remaining candidates based on skills and knowledge.” Eva stood ever so slightly taller as she said this.
“Once we were selected and trained, we were immediately placed into suspension within sleep pods. This was done in part as a required process. To pack so many pods onto the frame of the ship required that they be placed tightly in layers. But, it also served to maintain security. So that word of our true purpose was not revealed to the world. The true purpose being that we intended not to establish a colony but to safely call the bluff of the message. And if we discovered that the message was indeed no bluff, as we now know it was not, to struggle as we might against the Great Evil of the galaxy, so that the human race might not stand forever still without hope.
“From that point through the millennia until now we all slept quietly and without awareness, with of course the exception of duty crew members such as Snow, our own Starborn heroine. I have read the reports; however, or at least those in the anomalies log, which recorded anomalies and deviations from the mission. This is new information to everyone, save perhaps Snow herself.
“For over four decades the Longissima traveled on its way to Alpha Centauri as planned. A strong line of communications was maintained between the ship and earth through the laser. New technologies were shared with us as they were developed, and all was well. Then the laser quit. At first it was hoped that it might be a mere malfunction and that it might soon be remedied. But it was not so. On Earth our true mission was at long last discovered and all support was cut off. Next a missile was sent, powered by what had previously been our own laser, seeking to destroy us. Fear of the danger to the Earth had taken deep root. Our advocates on Earth tried to explain the plan, how it would keep Earth safe, that our stop at Alpha Centauri to pivot away from Earth to erase our trail. But it was to no avail. For my part I can forgive their mistrust. The conspiracy had been real after all. The lies ran deep. How could they trust us then?
“We would have been destroyed. But we were warned by our co-conspirators on Earth, the organization Manifest, and so we had many decades to prepare. Large sails were left behind in our path, and decades later when the missile arrived, the sails were maneuvered to block the laser. Without its primary power source the missile was unable to complete its maneuvers and so we were saved. After that Earth simply left us to the solitude of interstellar space. There was no political will long-lasting enough to deal with us is my guess. Still, without the laser, and relying only on our onboard reactors, our progress was slowed greatly. The two hundred plus year journey to Alpha Centauri was increased by more than fifteen hundred years bring the total of the trip to greater than seventeen hundred years.”
There was a communal intake of breath at the number from the Earthlings in the room.
“But this outcome was not unplanned for. The duty crew would take the brunt of the change of mission parameters, but the mission itself would continue unaffected. The duty crew was responsible for the mission while the journey lasted, and they did not disappoint. Shifts were extended from twenty to sixty years of periodic duty per crew member and new crew were birthed to further fulfill the required duties. Hence Snow and others like her.”
“There's no one like me!” Max expected Snow to say. But she remained silent. Only a smile on her face revealed that he was not far off in his reckoning.
Eva continued, “When we arrived at Alpha Centauri, a small space-born colony was built and an array similar to that around Sol erected. Perhaps they are still there today… the rest of our journey was as planned, until our arrival that is. The new laser continued to power Longissima for the rest of the journey. Where here is, I cannot say. There is no record of the location in the logs, nor in the database. Best to not easily know our way home, or at least not have it recorded as such in our files.
“When we arrived, the ship went haywire. The gyros twisted and tore the ship in two, 'Almost as if they were programmed to do so' or so it says in the log from that time. The only clue as to why comes from a minor log entry that I have left out until now. There were log entries suggesting that the new Starborn duty crew suffered, on rare occasion, a space madness upon waking for a second or third shift after centuries in their pods. The Captain at that time, Captain Franklin, wondered if the Starborn were suffering from having been born and raised with so much exposure to low gravity. He initiated a change of procedure, restricting young Starborn to the grav decks for all but one hour per day until the age of puberty. But the instances of madness were rare enough, and it isn't clear if that this was the source of the problem.”
Snow’s face said, “Ah.” Snow said, “I remember that. I thought they were trying to trick me. To make me eager to work on the ship because I hadn't been allowed to go there.”
“There was the Starborn who lost his mind recently when he awoke from his pod,” Gustov said.
“How did you know he was Starborn?” Max asked, feeling a defensiveness for Snow that he was unable to keep from his voice.
“The pod mostly. New pods had been made for them, the Starborn, and they were of a more advanced, and distinctive design. Also, he was young. Too young to have been selected for any part of the mission. Younger even than our Snow White,” Gustov said, nodding to her.
“Whatever the cause, sabotage by the mad or failure of an ancient machine long past its intended life span, the result was sudden failure on the doorstep of success. The bow of the ship was doomed to crash on Alpha—that is Mega. But the stern, with its engines still functioning, was coaxed towards a crash landing on Grailliyn. That part of the story is less well known, even by those who dwell upon its surface.” she looked up at the Grailliyn's. “But, on a planet with a breathable atmosphere, the survivors managed to somehow eke out survival and eventually thrive, while the rest of us slept here awaiting … rescue. That brings us, more or less to the present. And for the present GE is distracted by the population on the larger planet, Beta,” said Eva.
“She means Grailliyn, the larger planet with the distracting population. It would be called Beta in the logs,” Snow said.
There were nods from the trio of his fellow Grailliyns, Ravaea, Freenan, and Bob, mingled with the earthlings who they each towered above. Ma
x only noticed the extent of the height difference when he saw them in comparison. Or when he saw himself reflected in one of the earthlings’ near perfect mirrors.
“Right.” Eva gestured in the air above the small screen strapped on her wrist. “Corrected.” She smiled at Snow.
Max wasn't sure how genuine it was, but Snow did not seem to be bothered.
“We must use our time wisely. We have come far since Snow began awakening us. Our recent landings on…” her eyes flicked to the screen on her wrist for a moment, “…Grailliyn, to assist the population, is a great achievement, but it has come the time to determine what we are to do beyond the present counterassault. GE knows we are here. That there is life in this system. When they realize that their attempts to cleanse the population below are failing, they will no doubt deploy new tactics and new weapons. Our goal has not changed of course. Only our situation. What must we do next if we are to achieve our goal?”
“We need to escape,” said the red-haired Aidan.
“To escape we need ships,” said Song, who apart from his short stature, might go unnoticed amongst the crowd at the theater.
“We'll need resources to build the ships. Lots of 'em,” said Caleb. The light-skinned man had a thick mustache to match his thick cowboy accent and was tall for an earthling, nearly as tall as Snow who so far was the tallest of the earthlings on the ship.
“Most of the resources we need are already available to us, either from the ship or the mine beneath it. But we are missing a key element for the jump drives themselves,” Snow said.
“Akoronite. It was found in asteroids back in Sol's system. If we don't find something similar here, then we may be in a spot of trouble,” said Zarah, who both looked and sounded like someone who would command a star destroyer. That look and bearing was far from uncommon amongst the earthling colonists. Who, though as a whole complained little, smiled little too.
Eva organized all of the comments as they appeared, as if by magic, on the large toaster room monitor.
“And by a spot of trouble you mean we would be royally screwed,” said Aidan, one of the few without fear of the common smile.
“Perhaps,” Zarah said.
“What about Grailliyn then? Surely you’re not planning to abandon us here?” Bob said.
There was silence.
Then Eva spoke, “I don't think that we should find ourselves abandoning the people of Grailliyn. But it is likely that we shall be forced to flee at some point. Certainly, some of our number must move on to ensure that we are not all of us destroyed. GE will not, I think, allow us to reside here in peace. And it is unlikely that we shall be able to halt their efforts entirely. We shall however do what we can while we can. It seems that evacuation is our only hope to survive and we must look to save as many people as possible, to take them with us, when we are eventually forced to go. And to do that, we will require ships. Jumpships. Large and many.”
“Then we need a team to pilot the Dee-Dub-Jay-One to search for Akoronite,” Snow said. “Max and I will do it.” She looked at him as she said it.
He didn't think, he simply nodded assent.
“But what of your operation? It is not yet complete,” Eva said.
“Everything's in motion. I relinquish the baton of leadership. It was temporary in any case. I am confident that any new challenges to production can be dealt with by you. I'm duty crew. Not command. That's your deal again,” Snow said, looking not at any one person, but eyeing the whole of the toaster room.
Eva nodded.
Chapter 12
Max pulled the DWJ1 up out of the hanger and accelerated. He steered the Dee-Dub towards the beautiful sphere that filled the view screen. The planet was covered with deep blue oceans which showed through the extensive but spotty coverage of white clouds. A large mass of greens and browns could also be seen peeking through the cloud cover, and Max steered towards the western coast of this now familiar landmass.
He'd been training for days now. So far, he'd attained a level of competency in the basic functions and some quick defensive tactics. Today he would continue to work on his own quick tactical maneuver. The first step was a short jump to a spontaneously chosen target. This was not the first time he had made the attempt. Previous attempts had turned out poorly, sometimes embarrassingly so, and he kept that shame from being public by piloting the Dee-Dub solo.
A standard jump was simple. It required no effort of the pilot at all. No effort that is, beyond choosing the destination which could be any one point in the whole of the galaxy, so long as it was close to a large mass of some sort. But a quick tactical jump was entirely another animal. Even with the ship’s HUD supplying range data and local velocities, translating all that into a quick command on the fly was the trick. But the hours of practice were making a difference. Soon he would see if the difference was yet enough.
The Dee-Dub continued to dive towards what still seemed to be long featureless coast stretching north to south. At the midpoint of that western coast of the northern continent, Max knew there was a large island close to shore. The line of separation, between the mainland and the island, was only just visible from this height. He nudged the Dee-Dub towards that gap which reminded him of his path to and from his survey in the True North, where he'd found Snow, though this channel was further from the white snow cap of the planet than the one through which he'd passed.
As the ship got closer, cities started to become obvious. He steered the ship to near center of the eastern coast a large island at the edge of a long straight. Now towns too became clear, but Max paid them little attention. He maneuvered towards a tiny mountain near the shore that stood apart from the extensive mountain ranges that stretched along the length of the vast green island.
“Okay, lady in the computer,” Max said to the lady that lived in the computer. A new upgrade. The AI had been transferred into the ship since his last training session.
“Yes, Captain Lanky Pants?” she said. Her voice had a subtle electronic tone similar to that of the AI he'd met in the Dee-Dub's jump room.
“…Did Snow tell you to call me that?”
“What's a snow?”
“Never mind, just … we're going to jump right before we hit the mountain. To the side a bit.”
“Okay. What do you want me do?”
“Nothing. I just want you to know, if it works, that it was intentional.”
“Got it! I will keep my eyes on you. The whole time.” The subtle sound of lips smacking followed from the speakers.
“Lady in the computer … are you…being weird?” Max said.
“No?” the lady in the computer said.
From above the peak of the mountain he angled the craft straight down at maximum power. His body was pressed against the back of his seat as the ship accelerated beyond the pull of gravity. The rounded top of the brown and green and gray of the mountain quickly filled the screen. He could pick out individual trees. Max put the computer lady's strange behavior out of his mind and concentrated. Trees resolved clearly in front of the ship. He dialed the range manually to just over two hundred meters to starboard and released the spooled-up jump-charge to the waiting jump-drive. The trees passed him on all sides. He slammed his hand on the button.
Space folded. The view in the screen was filled, though only for a moment, with a green field of energy. When the green light was gone, the view had changed. Instead of brown rock and green trees, there was blue between white capped waves and glints of the sky's reflection.
“Success!” said the lady in the computer.
But he was still moving crazy fast and he had only bought himself a couple hundred meters. Quickly he adjusted the target, one kilometer to the ship’s stern. He slammed the jump button and Dee-Dub exploded. Pieces of the hull spread out about evenly in all directions. Somehow Max's body remained intact, though it flipped and flapped through the atmosphere like a rag doll.
“Aww. Still, the first jump was perfect,” said the lady in the computer, who
was still there with him. “That's the part I'm going to remember. Those long, strong, powerful legs of yours were practically vibrating with excitement and adrenaline. I'm going to put a clip of that in my favorites folder…”
Max could hear her speaking clearly, despite the roar of the wind in his ears. But he paid no attention to her inappropriate pep talk. His mind was on the explosion. They hadn't actually hit the water obviously; they were only just about hit it now. He canceled the simulation a moment before impact. The planet Earth, which had been generated by the computer, vanished along with the wind that had been pressing on his body and howling in his ears. He was not falling to the sea. He was sitting in the cockpit of the Dee-Dub-Jay-One, still in one piece, half-surrounded by hundreds of frozen alien squid-things on the ice.
“Getting off topic for a moment, you should know that I could help you make those jumps. With lightning speed and pinpoint accuracy.”
“Ya. I figured as much. But informing you of where and when might take longer than spinning a dial or two and pressing a button.”
“I would never ask you to stop spinning my dials or pressing my button.”
Max coughed. “Are you by chance able to speed up the fold rotation?” Technically, when the Dee-Dub jumped from one place to another different place, it was folding space to do so. It was also folding space practically, but Max's mind was reluctant to fully accept such a radical notion. And though he dialed the dials and pushed the buttons, he did so assuming that the ship worked in a way that was more believable than the way it had been explained to him.
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 9