“I shall return to the plasma relay room and assist with the distribution network again,” the creature replied. “You are still too hostile to speak with reasonably.”
The white robes should have rustled as the alien floated gently away. Alice pulled herself from under the huge sphere that contained the vast energies of an M-space generator. As she watched it move away, she was reminded of the first time she had seen the alien. Her time aboard the Terran Princess had seemed like another life even before she had regained the knowledge the Engineers had stored in her head. Now it was just another part of her past she wanted to hold on to. On that ship, she had met and fell in love with the purpose of her repairs. As the door slid closed behind the alien they once called “Elves” for their diminutive stature, she reached out for something to throw. Realizing there was nothing, she brushed her hands against the duty coveralls and pushed herself up.
“The least you could have done was give me the damn spanner to throw at you.”
The voice of Roy Booth intruded on her thoughts. “Don’t you worry, lass, that lit’l bugger won’t hurt anyone. He’s actually been kinda helpful around here.”
“You do realize he’s the one who brought the Gizzeen in the first place,” Alice replied. “And created the Ch’Tauk. He’s also responsible for all the stuff in my head and Lee’s … capture.”
“Aye,” the burly engineer replied, setting down a series of tools carefully onto a table. “But he’s also put my ship back inta fightin’ trim, so that makes him okay. How are you doin’ with that thing?”
Roy motioned to the sphere with one thick finger. The room was the largest on the ship, with thick shielding around a massive sphere. Inside, strange radiation cycled the electrified plasma and exotic particles in a way that projected powerful waves to open a portal through space. On Resolute, however, the sphere was not the only thing creating the M-space energy. A set of long fins jutted from the sphere, extending both above and below the round generator and through the decks. Underneath, an oblate spheroid curved the deck and transferred the high-energy waves into something else altogether.
In M-space, the normal rules of special movement were irrelevant. Ships passing through the membrane between universes could traverse great distances quickly by taking a kind of shortcut through the membrane. Resolute’s modifications allowed her to travel almost instantly from one point to another, making her fastest ship in M-space ever built.
“I think she’s alright,” Alice said. “I’ve secured the last of the feeder lines through the projection grid and tightened the intermix conduits to full tolerance. Once I secure the last coolant tube, she should be ready.”
“How are you doin’?” Booth added, concern for a person looking odd on his face.
“It’s strange. The closer we come to finishing this thing, the clearer my mind has gotten,” Alice replied. “It’s like I’ve been pouring the knowledge into the generator. There’s still a few numbers floating around I don’t recognize, but I can think fairly clear.”
“That’s good, but not what I was talkin’ about,” Booth said. “You aren’t the only person who’s faced a loss. Yer captain had a look just like that on his face for nearly a year when you were gone. It made him reckless with my ship and his own life.”
“Lee is out there, Roy,” Alice said, reaching around one of the fins to use the spanner on a thin line. “If I have to endure a little math to get him back, I will. I’ll try not to do anything stupid to your ship in the meantime.”
Booth smiled back at Alice as the last line was tightened and she stood up, rubbing her hands on her uniform jumpsuit. They spent the next few minutes crawling around the lower levels silently trying to verify every seal was tight. With the new engines and their location inside M-space, any deviation from fully functional could be deadly. When they were satisfied, both of them scoured the generator room, collecting tools and anything else not bolted down. When the generator sphere was active, it destabilized surrounding space. If a free tool were to become entangled in the field, it could destabilize the entire vortex, destroying the ship in the process.
Once finished, the two used the double airlock exit and stowed their gear. All that was left was to report their readiness to exit to the captain. Alice had stayed in engineering during the voyage, avoiding Chang at all costs. He was the best man on board for the job, but it infuriated her that he had orchestrated the whole mission. Once again he had manipulated everyone for his own gain. He had angered Farthing enough to send him back to Vadne, and that was a loss she felt keenly. He had also assisted in the collection of most of Resolute’s essential crew back to the ship, and the Demons’ return as well. She hadn’t questioned him as to why just yet, but she knew that conversation was coming and it would likely result in her back in the brig and him with a bloody nose or worse. Either way, she needed to let him know the ship was back in action.
“Engineering to Chang,” Alice called, refusing to use his rank. “Generator should be ready to go online.”
“Go ahead…” The voice was cold but definitely the former admiral. “Report.”
“We’ve got everything locked down in here,” Alice reported. “We’ll clear the repair teams and do tests run.”
“Commander Booth can handle the engine room,” Chang replied. “Alice, I want you up here.”
“I think I’ll stay down here,” Alice said, turning away from the comm panel. “I’ll be more help—”
“That’s an order, Commander Bennett.”
“We’re deserters,” Alicia said. “You can’t order me around anymore.”
“As long as you call me to report, I can,” Chang’s said, stopping Alice with his tone. “I need you up here to run the engineering console. You still have to input the equations as we translate. Our computer system is still spotty at best.”
“I can enter them from—”
“Lass,” Booth said, stopping her in mid-stride. “I think we can take it from here. You’d better get on up there.”
“Roy, I may have let him sit in that chair but he’s not this ship’s captain,” Alice replied. “I can’t step back on that bridge like he’s still there.”
“You can and you will,” Booth replied, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m orderin’ you to leave my engine room. I don’t care what fleet we’re in. That’s an order you have to obey.”
Alice paused to reply but stopped herself. She knew once Booth made his stand there was no way she would win the argument. She set her hips and stared back at him. She could hear the sound of the bridge over the open comm line. Chang was waiting for the exchange to be over as well, and he had heard her reaction to Booth.
“Bennett to bridge,” Alice said. “I’m on my way.”
“Thank you,” Chang replied. “On your way, pick up our little Elf. I’m going to need him as well.”
Alice heard the signal shut off. Booth turned away from her, calling his engineering crew to prepare for the translation test. Each man would need to be suited and stand clear of the generator. For a moment she considered disobeying Chang anyway and hiding in the launch bay. She had always found comfort in working on her own fighter, and this seemed like a prime opportunity. She knew, however, Chang would find her and she would go to the bridge anyway. As she left the generator room, she felt the first stirrings of plasma flow moving through the ship’s conduits. It was like the pulse of the great battleship and it made her feel more at home than she had in a long while.
She stalked the halls of the ship, trying to find the little white creature along plasma conduit routes. After several blind corners and empty hallways, she nearly tripped over the creature waiting for her in the corridor outside the launch bay. It unnerved her both that the creature appeared to have been waiting for her and that it knew where she would go to look. Together, they moved to the nearest lift and entered. The silent movement of the Engineer was disconcerting. With another being, the lift would at least have the sound of breathing. The Elf did not
make a sound. Near the end of the ride, there was a strange hum she did not recognize until the lift stopped. When the doors opened, it stopped. As she stepped into the corridor, she realized it was the same song sung by the little creatures when they had first come aboard the Terran Princess all those years ago. The song had calmed her then, but now it reminded her once again of Lee and made his absence so much more painful. At last they reached the bridge and she was able to brace herself. Seeing Chang in the command chair felt wrong.
“Commander,” Chang said, motioning her to the engineering console at the back of the bridge. “Please take your station. I’ll need real-time input from you while we run the trial. We won’t be able to balance the flow on our own.”
“I’m no computer,” Alice replied, taking the chair and turning the station on. “I don’t think I can compensate like the computer system can.”
“Just do your best,” the captain replied, turning back to the main screen. “Goldstein, do you have any idea where we are if we come back out into normal space?”
The face of the pilot was tight, obviously under stress. The image on the screen was of the blue-brown wasteland of M-space. Lee had once told Alice how he believed it was beautiful and she had almost seen it through his eyes. Now, though, it was choppy and muddy. The discontinuities of the Gizzeen entry and the subsequent battles had disrupted the flow. It was almost as if a current flowed in multiple directions around them. Josh must have been struggling with their limited resources to keep the ship steady in the flow.
“Nowhere is my best guess,” Goldstein replied. “We’re out of the main space lanes and pretty far away from any system.”
“Perfect,” Chang replied. “Kama, can you read any traffic?”
“Negative, sir,” replied the communications officer. “I get signals from navigational buoys, but nothing distinct.”
“Then we are well and truly lost,” Chang replied. “Engineering, are we ready?”
“M-space generator is showing ten percent capacity,” Alice replied automatically. “We’re green on plasma flow and shields.”
“Alright then,” Chang said, his voice betraying no trace of fear. “Fire her up and let’s see what we’ve got left.”
The bridge, normally a hub of activity, turned quiet as the automated systems controlling plasma flow and power began to take over. A small corner of the main screen was displaying field readouts from the engine room. Even Cal at his station seemed to be staring intently at the screen. Alice turned back to her own console and began tapping in numbers to the computer. At first she was hesitant, not wanting to push her injured mind too hard and lose control. As the numbers began to flow, however, she found her fingers tapping faster than she could think
Chang’s voice came through the haze. “Alice, that’s enough. This is just a test.”
Instead of easing back on the equations, Alice’s eyes began to glaze over and her fingers, still healing from her escape from prison, began pounding on the console. She was streaming equations now faster than her mind could process. She had become a conduit again for the strange calculations the Engineers had placed in her head. Blood flecked across the console as her hands tapped faster and faster.
“Alice, stop!” Kama shouted as the ship began to shudder.
There was a feeling of weightlessness for everyone on the bridge, but nothing moved. The image on the screen changed rapidly from the blue-brown current to a wide swirling mass shot through with yellow lightning. Chang tried to rise from his seat, intent on stopping Alice’s wild tapping, but his legs refused to move correctly. The low vibration rose to a thunderous roar as the deck heaved under them.
“Cut power to the engineering station!” Chang ordered, trying to lift from the deck with his injured arm. “Cut her off!”
“No,” replied the Engineer, his mentally projected voice loud in their heads. “She is doing what she was meant to do. Let the translation finish.”
“We won’t make it,” Goldstein called from the pilot’s set. “I have no readings and my controls are … I don’t know what’s happening now.”
“Shut it off!”
The deck began to resonate with a deep thrumming. The lights dimmed and took on a bluish, actinic feel, and the crew was jolted sideways. There was a crack of something snapping, but no explosion of sparks or fire. The Octopod gripped his console tightly with three of its eight arms while Kama Yu held on to her seat with whitened knuckles. The only person moving was Alice, the wet sound of her bloody fingers sickening with the vibration. The Engineer was a study in calmness as the ship seemed about to tear itself apart. Only a graying of its white skin betrayed any reaction to the chaos around it.
Just as suddenly as it began, the vibrations ceased. The projections screen and all lights on the bridge blinked out—complete silence broken only by the panting of the bridge crew. Not even the sound of Alice’s bloody fingers penetrated the darkness. When the red emergency lighting blinked on, the crew looked around, ensuring their stations had not been damaged. Chang stood, rounding the rail between the command chair and the engineering station. Alice sat before the console in a daze looking at her fingers, bloody and raw again, with terror. When Chang looked into her eyes, he saw her horror at what she had done, but also vulnerability. Whatever equations she had been streaming were gone now, but the fear and loss of control were permanent.
“Alice,” Chang called, putting his hands on her shoulders to draw her attention. “What happened?”
“I …I couldn’t control it…” she stammered out. “I tried to input the startup codes but something … else … took over.”
“What did you do?” Chang said, rounding on the elfish creature standing near the door. “This ship wasn’t ready to go back yet.”
“We have not gone backwards, Admiral Ronald Chang,” the Engineer replied in his head. “We have gone forward.”
“Stop talking in riddles and just tell me…”
The lights blinked back on as the bridge restarted. The projections screen blinked back to life while Kama struggled to find an image to project. The whole start-up took less than ten seconds, but it was an eternity for Chang. He left Alice and walked back around the rail to the command well. Cal was pulling up status reports.
The ship appeared to have maintained shields throughout the power loss, but not much else. As the image appeared on the screen, Chang moved closer to Goldstein.
“Where are we, Josh?”
“I don’t know,” the pilot replied. “I’m running all of this through the astrogator system for reference, but I don’t recognize anything.”
“I’ll call engineering and get someone up to fix the screen,” Chang said, nodding to Kama. “I don’t like not seeing what’s out there.”
“That’s just it,” Goldstein replied. “There’s nothing out there, sir.”
“What do you mean? Are we still in M-space?”
“Negative,” Josh said, turning to look at the captain with panic on his face. “There just isn’t anything, sir. The stars aren’t there.”
“What did you do, Alice?” Chang said, turning back to the stunned woman at the engineering console. “What did you do?”
“I don’t know,” Alice replied, staring at her bloody hands. “I don’t … oh God, I can’t remember. I can’t remember what I—”
“The stars are still there, Joshua Goldstein,” said the Engineer, gaining the attention of the bridge crew. “This is just not your universe.”
25
“So … what now?” Goldstein asked as the skeleton crew assembled in the briefing room. “I mean, I didn’t even think it was possible to go from here to … well, there or here or whatever.”
“Apparently,” said Cal, “the modifications to the engines designed by Melaina Petros and Alice allowed whatever just happened to happen.”
Josh replied, “The laws of M-space physics prevent anything from our universe from crossing over to … well, from this side crossing over to our side.”
“I don’t believe the Engineers believe in law,” replied the Octopod. “They seem more the pirate type.”
“I thought the Gizzeen needed the power of a sun to cross over,” Josh said, raising a finger to make his point. “We didn’t have a sun to open a vortex through.”
“The wee little bastards got us halfway through,” Roy Booth said, interrupting the conversation and chewing on a soggy cigar. “We weren’t openin’ a portal all the way through. We only needed to get the other half of the way. Fer that, I suppose, you don’t need a sun, just a crazy blonde with math issues.”
Captain Chang entered then, followed by the Engineer and Alice Bennett. Conversation quieted as the ship’s commander took the podium with the little white creature behind. Alice took a seat in the front row by herself. Josh couldn’t help notice the glances other crew were giving her. For her part, she kept her head down and stared at the fresh bandages around her fingertips. Doctor Demsiri reached from behind and said something to her Josh couldn’t hear. She nodded and resumed staring at her hands as the doctor settled back in his seat. The other available crew settled into their seats and waited while Chang brought up a local area projection on the imager. Josh noted the Engineer had taken on an off-white coloration and now seemed less substantial.
“We have determined our relative location from information provided by our friend,” Chang said, waving to the Engineer nearby. “We’re not that far from where we entered M-space, just in another universe. If we were to plot our location in our own universe, we would be near the orbit of Saturn.”
“Sir…?” asked one of the technicians from Booth’s staff. “What do you mean by our universe? I don’t get it.”
“From what I understand, we’re in a parallel universe that is much older than ours,” replied the former admiral. “It’s the home galaxy of the Gizzeen.”
There was a murmur among the crew. Rumors of the origins of the Gizzeen had circulated around the fleet, but there was little agreement on their validity. Every single person on board had been taught since childhood that M-space was a one way trip and passage between our reality and the one on the other side of the membrane was impossible. The consensus had been that the Gizzeen were from a distant part of space, far beyond our galaxy but still in the same space. The reality being anything otherwise was too fantastic to believe.
Resolute Glory (The War for Terra Book 8) Page 19