Beyond Kuiper: The Galactic Star Alliance

by Matthew Medney

  Brian leered. “More hypocritical bullshit from the son of the man who destroyed CERN and killed 4,000 people.”

  Isaac’s discblade hand twitched. He gave Brian such a disturbing look; the bully backed up a step.

  “We don’t care who gets it,” Howard said, “as long as it’s not you. Nobody wants a mass murderer’s name on a published paper.”

  Isaac turned to him coldly. “Continuing to misplace blame on my father for your mother’s death at CERN won’t make it true.”

  Howard hissed. “But the part about aliens being responsible is true?”

  Many at Kepler lost parents or siblings at CERN or knew someone who had. His arrival had been met with hostility, bullying, and ostracization. By the end of his 1st cycle, he’d set a record for being involved in fights, but he’d learned to fight back.

  Isaac brought his foot down crushing what was left of the avian drone. “So, did you like that owl, Howard? How long did it take to build?”

  Abandoning all pretense, Howard dove at him. Isaac sidestepped, but before a victorious smirk could form, Brian took out his right leg with a kick to his knee. He fell face first, a pine cone slashing his cheek. Bleeding, he dropped his discblade and tried to roll away.

  A kick slammed Isaac’s abdomen. He coughed up blood. As more blows found their mark, Isaac flexed his fingers in a complicated sequence. After crunch of pine and a pained yelp, the beating stopped. He got to his knees, gasping before standing and spitting more blood. His ribs were throbbing, but he smiled through his bloodstained teeth at the loathing and bewilderment on the faces of his attackers.

  The discblade that tried to hit him hovered protectively nearby. The five rubbed and held the bleeding spots on their arms, legs, and backs where it had cut them.

  With calm finality, he announced, “That’s quite enough.”

  Howard was bug-eyed. “How? That’s MY disc!”

  “Second rule of hacking—never let anyone touch your stuff. When I deflected it, I also transferred a controller virus7. As you’ve seen, it not only let me take over, it disabled some of the safeties.

  One of the girls, Elisha, shouted. “You’ll regret this!”

  “I will? How about we all walk up to Professor Hyderion’s office and tell him how five students stalked and beat one lanky boy in the woods?”

  The five shuffled uneasily.

  Having no choice about the hatred for his father and himself, he relished this fleeting moment of control. But real control meant knowing the smart choice. He never reported incidents like this. Snitching was a sign of weakness from those who lacked the imagination to create options.

  “Now get out of here.” He nodded up at the disc. “Once you’re far enough, it’ll find its way back to you.”

  Naomi snarled. “The world will never forgive your father, and it will never accept you!”

  The hovering disc wobbled threateningly. Isaac’s response was icy. “My humanity wears thin.”

  Quickly, they slunk into the trees leaving the wrecked owl behind.

  Isaac eyed it. “Hm. Keep what you kill.”

  With a gentle upward thrust of thumb, he restored the music in his nano-earbuds and, for the next twenty minutes, salvaged what he could of the drone. Much of that time was spent cursing at the pain in his knee. When he finished, almost as an afterthought, he smacked the air sending Howard’s disc back to its defeated owner.

  Reaching the trail to campus center, a light wind patted his shoulder reminding him… Oh no, Hunt’s office hours. I have to see him today.

  Limping aggressively, he knew that even without the bloody cheek, his wounds would be tough to hide. Thankfully, he emerged on a campus green full of things more interesting to look at than him. Students were everywhere; tossing holo-Frisbees, playing music, watching pre-recorded holograms, testing body shields (always amusing to watch), and training morphic drone pets, not unlike Nothra and Albus.

  Two girls in matching Kraftwerk t-shirts live-programmed their golden eagle and diamondback rattler for an adaptive strategy battle. When the eagle tried grabbing the snake in its talons, the rattler’s scales shifted into protective spines driving it off.

  Surreal to outsiders, the flat oval green stretched hundreds of meters periodically interrupted by massive granite slabs. At their center, a natural spring bubbled into a serpentine waterway that spiraled along before disappearing into a cave.

  To Isaac’s left was the nanotech lab: indistinguishable from the mountains save a few windows and one door hewn into the rock. And to his right, the large triangular stones of the planetarium dome.

  Keeping to the shade of a forty-meter ponderosa pine grove, Isaac ducked three racing drones. Evolution moved faster at Kepler. Even so, his father had taught him to be a history junky. Most students found the past too barbaric to contemplate: a reflection of the World Council’s efforts to move away from painful memories for the sake of unification. But his father found many truths about the future in the past—patterns that repeated—the same flawed governments repeating the same inventions rediscovered after each civilization fell. Now humanity was at the edge of space travel, yet it still had its internal conflicts. Memory made wisdom, not just technology.

  Wondering what his great-great-grandfather, Edwin S. Hubert, would think of it all, he limped past edgy gals doing hoverboard tricks on the slabs, while the jocks played Hunterball8, a 21st Century game based on wit as much as physical prowess. Isaac occasionally played, a mild surprise to friends, as he was seldom seen outside his lab. But it explained how he managed to deflect Howard’s disc.

  Watching students cheered as the floating hunter angrily buzzed among the 3rd cycle players. When it accelerated at one, the boy used a holo-mace to deflect it. There were whoops and howls as the purple ball ricocheted, forcing an opponent to eat dirt in order to avoid being hit.

  Meanwhile, Isaac stoically limped to an unoccupied tree at the edge of the clearing overlooking the glorious ridge. Exhausted and aching, he slid to the ground.

  “Saac, whatcha doing there all alone?”

  Chloe Peppercorn, a goofy, awkward, yet somehow still incredibly cool looking girl walked up. She was the daughter of world-renowned cosmologist Hannah Peppercorn, who not only worked with his father, but was one of the few who believed in his innocence.

  Isaac smiled. “Hi Chloe”

  Her blue hair, blue eyes, and ever-present Hoverhoop 9always attracted attention. Unfortunately, she also drew some glares his way. “Don’t mind them. I’ve been experimenting with my nano-cream10, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got it perfect. You look like a perfect test subject.”

  Without asking, she pulled him behind a tree away from prying eyes, and Chloe rubbed a clear gel across his face. The bleeding stopped. With a gasp of amused excitement, he looked at Luna, rolled up his pants leg, and pointed at his knee. She applied the goo with similar results.

  “The pain’s gone!”

  Minutes later, his bruises were soothed, his cuts scabbing over. “Luna, that’s an invention, right there!”

  “Don’t mention it, and don’t tell anyone. My patents on the thirty-seven different genetic pathways that make it work haven’t gone through yet.” She plopped down next to him. “I can stay awhile if you like; they’ve got a good match going.”

  She gestured to the students still battling the tiny ball of chaos.

  “That’s okay. I told Chelsea I’d catch up with her at the dorm. Thanks for patching me up.” They exchanged a secret handshake, and she skipped toward the Hunterball madness.

  He felt lucky for a change. There weren’t a ton of people like Chloe or Chelsea here. Smart didn’t necessarily mean enlightened or compassionate. When he was twelve, his parents asked if he wanted to transfer. Loving Kepler, not wanting to give his tormentors satisfaction, he refused. Now, he was top of his class, discblade proficient, and savvy enough to avoid the wrong sort of attention from the faculty.

  The attacks even diminished as he grew more formidable,
but some, like Naomi and Howard, wouldn’t let things go. Truth be told, they provided a stimulating challenge that helped temper his expectations of people. It also helped him imagine how his father felt.

  Shifting his leg, he winced. Chloe still has work to do.

  Isaac thought his faith in his father’s innocence would bring them closer, but Bernard Hubert had withdrawn from everyone, including his son. His favorite time of the year, a three-week marathon spent locked together in a private lab, had been cancelled two years running. Something came up with dad’s schedule, then school started. It was okay, he needed some time with everything happening, but Isaac missed him.

  “Newton?” Lydia, a petite Japanese girl, was using his nickname. “Chelsea told me about the owl. What happened? Naomi’s posse?”

  “As usual.”

  “Why do you even let them get close?”

  “And give up the fun? How could I? Especially when they make it so easy.” A chuckle caused a weird little spasm in his ribs.

  Huh. Chloe may have a lot of work to do.

  She tsked. “Look, Euclid’s11 sweeping the green. I’ve got a quilting pack in my room.”

  “Where’s Chels?”

  “Telling Matthew Saturday night is off. She didn’t trust our secure channel.”

  “I don’t blame her.”

  “He will. He spent all Tuesday on that window program instead of his genetic grafting homework.”

  “Don’t hyperbolize. He spent two hours at most. It’s not like he was reprogramming a ballistic missile with a flip phone.”

  Lydia chortled, then put her hands on her hips and shook her head. At the signal, a blue and bronze falcon dipped from the sky and lit on her shoulder.

  After a glance at the hologram it provided, she said, “All clear, let’s go.”

  Isaac grabbed her, offered a hand, and hauled himself up. “I have great friends.”

  “Can’t let you die before you contribute something meaningful to the world, now can we?” She eyed the rolled pants leg curiously. “Hey, from the look of that knee, you’re not limping nearly as much as you should.”

  “Wish I could tell you, Lyd. It was an experimental med-gel I won in a game of Cubes”

  “Cooool.”

  Together, they slowly cut a path across the green, past the library, to the student village. Isaac nodded at the Mobius shaped dorm complexes for 1st-3rd cycles, vast pythons on either side of a narrow rock ridge. “Aren’t you glad we aren’t in those anymore?”

  “Remember having to leave a jammer12 on in your room every time you went to take a piss?” Her nostalgia was tinged with sarcasm. “And magtape13 around your door to fry crawlers14?”

  They reached the Towers, a collection of twenty beehive structures, prototypes of 3D printed lodging for future Mars colonies that housed upperclassmen. They were also a live experiment in micro ecosystems and social organization in small populations.

  “Think they’ll ever actually use these off-planet?” Lydia mused.

  “They have to. Even if exploration has been replaced with mining—god, I hate saying that out loud—the war proved our species needs a backup plan.”

  At Tower #11, unseen retinal detectors granted them access retracting the curved door like a reptilian eyelid. Leaving Isaac to collapse on the common room couch, Lydia sprinted up the central circular staircase, taking the steps two at a time. Euclid flapped after her. Above, balconied walkways had entrances to their private quarters: two on the second floor and two on the third.

  Her voice echoed. “Want a thermal pack, too?”

  Feeling his cuts reopening, his knee swelling again, he shouted, “Yes, please!”

  Rather than returning footfalls, there was a light humming and buzzing as a four foot floor ring glowed to life. Lydia gently descended through the air touching down on the ring’s center. Isaac, Lydia, Chelsea, and Matthew were thrilled when they won the housing lottery. The former occupants, who went on to design the Hyperion Loop15, really knew what they were doing when they installed the glide rings.

  Many of the Towers had similarly unique leftovers. One had a ferrofluid 3D-suspended manipulator that could create morphing statues (great for parties) and hold gamers aloft while in VR. Another had moss growing on the inner walls, providing natural air and natural water filtration. One hive even had a laser infusion forge that used the sun and mirrors to create a concentrated beam furnace (great for customizing lightsaber designs.)

  Lydia applied the quilt pack patches to the cuts on Isaac’s face and head. Bioengineered fibers stitched the wounds and applied a balm to accelerate healing.

  Isaac wrapped the thermal pack around his leg. “Ahh, that’s the ticket.”

  After giving him a minute to enjoy the thermal pack, she said, “You sure you want to use the space elevator as your submission? You really have to blow them away, Newton. Start talking theoretical application, you’ll be dead in the water.”

  He gave her a hard stare, which she returned with equal vigor.

  “I am aware, and yes, I’m sticking to it. I’m sick of people treating big ideas as if they’re science fiction. I already have solutions for printing it from the surface up, trans-atmospheric tethering… shit, I even have an asteroid picked out that can be easily redirected to a geostationary orbit once it passes near the moon.”

  Lydia’s eyebrows went sky high. “Riiight. You also have a space tug with a fusion drive I don’t know about?”

  Isaac went quiet.

  “Noted. Do me a favor and grab the cryptocube from my room? I can’t do stairs yet. Door’s open.”

  “Sure, where you headed?”

  “Office hours with The Hunter.”

  “Calc 5?”

  “No, I want to go over the tensile matrix numbers for the elevator.”

  “Cool.” Lydia ran back up and a moment later, glided down and placed a jade cube in Isaac’s hands. Gingerly, he stood.

  Lydia eyed the leg. “Need help getting there?”

  “Nah, the pack’s working. Catch you at dinner.”

  1 Hurling

  An outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin. Known as the fastest field sport on earth, Hurling combines the skills of baseball, hockey, and lacrosse. The game has prehistoric origins and has been played for 4,000 years. One of Ireland’s native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of players, and much terminology. Two teams of 15 players compete to score the most points by hitting the ball, called a sliotar, between the opposing team’s goalposts in one high speed, high scoring, high octane sport.

  2 Explorers’ Cup

  Kepler Institute students compete in an annual innovation challenge. The winner must provide a thesis on their best and boldest innovation, a feasibility plan, and why their project deserves to be funded. The winning student gets an internship at Outer Limits, a grant for project funding/research, and a lifetime networking opportunity.

  3 Lightsaber

  Kepler device that was developed by nerds to emulate the “lightsabers’ ‘ from Star Wars. They are handheld sparring weapons that generate a mild electrical charge and are comprised of photovoltaics over a telescoping metallic “blade.” Initially used in lightsaber dueling clubs at SETI schools, later, lethal, more powerful versions were developed and quickly banned except for the military. These can slice through a human with ease or cut through an 8 cm thick steel wall. Deadly but inefficient: at full cutting power, the battery can drain in 30 seconds. Though the lightsaber can be devastating in close quarters combat, they are useless against enemies with firearms at any distance, thus remaining predominantly a sporting instrument.

  4 LIDAR: Light Detection and Ranging

  A surveying method that was created by Malcolm Stitch of the Hughes Aircraft Company for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. It measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflected light with a sensor. Differences in las
er return times and wavelengths can then be used to make digital 3D representation of the target. LIDAR was developed as an evolution of radar, but with the power and accuracy of lasers, to map distance and features with tremendous accuracy.

  5 Cycle

  An annual education term for a student under the W.C. academic restructuring. Most schools run in 4 or 8 cycle terms for a completed degree.

  6 Discblade

  A fast paced team sport where each player is equipped with an hollow disc encoded to them that is thrown, guided, hovered, and boomeranged. One member of each team carries a disc, through which a ball must be thrown by another teammate to score, but only in specific locations.Two team members temporarily neutralize other players by hitting them with discs. Discs may be blocked by discs or very rarely caught, which eliminates the thrower from the game. There are 9 to a side; the field is a hexagon or circle. Discblade began when a group of Kepler Institute students tried to replicate the TRON combat disc wars inside of their dorm. The plans for a disc were stolen by a Jefferson Hall student who was dating a Kepler student. Soon after, Jefferson Hall’s first Discblade Club was founded by Christopher Dryson. In time it became a SETI varsity level sport and went global after WWIII.

  7 Controller Virus

  A computer virus that gives complete control of a discrete tech item. Developed by Chinese hackers, controller viruses came to popularity in the mid 21st century alongside the rise of robotics. While controlling entire security systems or defense grids took tremendous effort, a controller virus could be locally uploaded directly to a target, overwhelming networking protocol, and giving full control. They were widely employed when the Chinese were fighting US robot troops in dense Asian cities.