Overdrive
Phillip W. Simpson
Published by Arete Publishing
Copyright 2005 Phillip W. Simpson
For Johnny Boy
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family and my friends for all their support and comments during the writing of Overdrive. Special thanks go to my brother, John, without whom this book would never have been written. Thanks also to Mark Cato for his artwork and Michael Lightbourne at blueprint. Finally, to my wife Rose, for her unwavering encouragement and support over the years.
Chapter One
Felix Tebbitt woke early. His AI cheerfully informed him that it was 6am and he better get his arse into gear and get to work. He looked around. This certainly wasn’t his apartment and he was buggered if he knew how he got here. A mystery and a very bleary mystery at that. He had a vague recollection of going out last night to one of the new Anti gravity 3D bars that were popping up all over the place in the asteroid.
The woman he’d met there and the one now lying prone and snoring on her side, had seemed pretty, intelligent, and, - most attractive of all, interested in him, - had suggested in a rather coy and flattering way that he come back to her place. Felix had been drunk and suspected he still was which certainly encouraged his “little head” to take over all negotiations and major decision making. In retrospect, he doubted whether she had been either coy or flattering since he was drunk and horny and would’ve shagged a soggy rag in the middle of a muddy field.
That was, however, irrelevant. The fact was he was here and not in his small and cluttered apartment. Her’s (his AI supplied her name – Simone - , physical dimensions, and asked if he wanted a play back of any of last night’s activities – he told it no), was a lot larger than his lower level dwelling. The ceiling was white with an expensive looking sensor array hanging directly above him. It occurred to him that the sensor was for some reason important but decided to give his brain the morning off, mentally shrugged and proceeded to climb out of bed.
The importance of the sensor array became immediately apparent when he discovered himself floating in the bed’s field 6 feet from the floor. The array on the ceiling was projecting an AG field around the bed from which he had no idea how to extract himself. Helpfully, his AI provided details and played back him and Simone, naked, giggling and drunk entering from a circular hole underneath the bed and gaining access from a ladder she had placed there.
After several aborted attempts, Felix gingerly extricated himself from the glowing blue bubble, put a foot on the first rung of the ladder, missed the second one and elegantly face-planted onto the floor.
“Fuck," he said, fingering one tooth that seemed much looser than it had 2 seconds ago. He got up, stood still for 30 seconds, waited for his head to stop spinning while feeling his face for anymore damage, then scanned around for his clothes.
For its size, Simone’s bedroom seemed rather sparse. There were many built in hold-all’s distributed around the bright orange (ouch) walls, and a large floor to ceiling window dominating a quarter of the wall space and providing a panoramic of the asteroid’s central chamber. He walked over and stood buck naked looking out at the impressive view. Simone (still snoring, bless her) obviously did all right for herself. Unbidden, his AI told him she worked as a managing supervisor for a StarCruise line.
Near the top of the chamber, some 300 meters above him, Felix was able to see the glow tubes that approximated real sunlight about 1km away. The hard bright light enabled him to see the far side of the chamber some 3kms away. Five hundred meters below, a small heart shaped central lake lay nestled within a small forest of lush green miniature firs. Narrow white paths threaded between the small trees, all leading towards the lakes edge and bearing more than a passing resemblance to arteries spreading out from a central organ.
At this time of the morning, Felix could only make a couple of people utilizing the space. This was communal recreation space. All residential apartments were situated in the walls overlooking the chamber whilst all commercial interests lurked deeper in the asteroids rock strata. Felix’s own apartment, less expensive and strategically situated, was about 300 meters lower and about 45 degrees further around.
The asteroid was a large one. Coleridge had a population of roughly 200,000, mostly working for one of the commercial astroengineering firms, associated support industries, and recreation providers. Orbiting 30,000 kms above the planet Unamuno, Coleridge, like the other 45 asteroids in orbit, were bought here en masse 120 years earlier from a local asteroid field, towed behind a huge industrial “shifter," and enclosed in its giant field like so many marbles caught in a large transparent bag. Coleridge, with a diameter of 16kms, was one of the bigger ones in orbit and differed as it was the only one that specialized in astroengineering. Most of the others were devoted to recreational purposes – not surprising, considering Unamuno’s reputation as a “games world."
Noticing his reflection in the window, Felix paused and flexed mightily. Any hopes of impressing himself were dashed when his muscle definition hardly changed despite straining so much that his eye balls almost popped out. The sudden rush of blood to his head forced Felix to steady himself against the unbreakable Plexiglas. He looked at his reflection with bloodshot eyes. Dark complexion, 5’8," lean and handsome in a boyish way but hardly physically imposing, he decided he probably looked better with clothes on. Moving away from the window, he began to look in earnest for his clothes.
A quick scan around the apartment told him that either his clothes were playing silly buggers and had hid themselves or the apartment’s utility droids had tidied them away. Concluding that the first scenario was unlikely, he asked his AI who agreed with his hypothesis. Unnecessarily, his AI went on to confirm that yes, his first guess was unlikely as his clothes weren’t sentient and had no internal propulsion system. Sounding frustrated and bored, his AI then informed him that its last recorded memory had seen his clothes piled in a disheveled heap under the bed, and as they were no longer there, they were obviously somewhere else. Felix thanked his AI with heavy sarcasm and repressed another urge to giggle.
He began fossicking in the hold-all’s. After 5 minutes diligent work and some distracting moments playing with Simone’s lingerie, his efforts were rewarded with gold, or more specifically, gray. His gray coverall with his name coded into the back. He’d gotten a lot of stick from the boys about that. They said his mother had done it, but the truth was he had, and thought it was a very practical idea, thank you very much.
Simone was obviously a convert to the relatively new trend of having a variety of clothes as opposed to the one multipurpose coverall. Unlike most people who possessed 2 or three Coverall’s, Simone had a variety of “real” clothes. Most people preferred to use Coverall’s as they took up less space and had the ability to transform themselves into whatever the wearer desired – including shoes. They were self cleaning and only had to be serviced once every six months. Felix slipped his on, waited while it linked to his AI and then instructed it for “workaday clothes 3."
The gray coverall changed color, starting at his feet, hardening and darkening into black work boots. The transformation moved up his body, creating black linen pants, a white linen shirt, open at the neck, and black jacket. So equipped and with a last glance at the still quietly snoring Simone, Felix quietly made for the door. Hesitating at her lounge room door, he debated whether to wake her or leave her a note at least. His morals getting the better of him, Felix turned towards the main holo projector in the lounge and after stepping into its field left a quick message and then just as quickly, exited her apartment.
In the corridor outside, Felix paused to grope in his jacket for his hangover sniffer. With steadily increasing anxiety, he re
alized it must have fallen out in Simone’s apartment. Cursing, he turned briefly back towards her door, mentally debating whether to go back but finally discarding the idea in favor of walking to work.
Nebula Inc, his employer, was situated about 2kms away, buried deep in the rock of the asteroid. Felix began working there some 5 years ago, almost immediately after graduating from Unamuno’s premier Astroengineering college, Ralph Emerson University where he finished 2nd in his year. In Felix’s opinion, the guy that finished first cheated. Discarding numerous offers for immediate employment, Felix took a year off to bum around the galaxy with a few friends, drinking, attempting to womanize, more drinking, and some staggeringly impressive displays of falling over. Nebula Inc snapped him up as soon as he set foot back on Unamuno and 2 years ago he was promoted to Senior Design Engineer.
Nursing a rather sore head and rapidly getting the hump with walking, Felix instructed his AI to summon a cart, scaring the bejesus out of him when it silently rolled up to his right shoulder 30 seconds later. Hopping in, he let his AI instruct it, closing his eyes and silently praying that he enter a subspace time warp and somehow arrive at work 12 hours later; a time where his hangover would be long gone. Two minutes later, his AI informed him they were outside work.
“Bugger," he said aloud. The cart, governed by the Asteroid’s central AI and disturbed by the sorry state of its recumbent occupant decided to vocalize its concerns.
“Your blood-alcohol toxicity level is well above normal levels. Do you require medical assistance?," it asked.
Felix sighed. It was pretty much a given that if a person was using his or her’s AI for all interactions with the Asteroids governing AI and if the Asteroid detected something physically wrong with that person, it would start communicating directly. Annoying, given that Felix didn’t feel like speaking to anyone, let alone a hyper personality computer program, but it was to be expected.
“Have you got a hangover sniffer?” he asked.
“No”
“Then fuck off and leave me alone”
He got out and walked towards the front door of Nebula Inc. The cart hung around for a few seconds longer and either satisfied that its recent passenger was still in possession of its basic motor skills, or irritated by his reply, drove silently off. Felix didn’t give a toss either way.
His AI initiated its security entrance code and the doors opened automatically for him. As he walked in, the lights came on revealing the stark reception area. Nebula Inc was a fairly small company. Only 10 employees on this asteroid, and as far as he knew, in the whole Camus system to which Coleridge and Unamuno belonged.
6.30am. No one in yet. Well in reception anyway. Not surprising really. Their receptionist, Sheridan, didn’t normally turn up until 9am and that’s if they were lucky. Effectively, Felix was the senior most employee and thus, technically in charge of the office. He walked behind her reception desk to find the area strewn with debris. Bending down, it appeared to be mostly Sheridan’s personal items, including a startling large dildo. Someone had obviously just upended her drawers. Probably Sheridan, he thought irritably; in a hurry, on her way out to some bar. Muttering darkly to himself, Felix walked towards the main doors to the engineering section. Unbidden, his AI again fired the code into the door which swung open as he approached. He stopped walking when he saw what was lying in the corridor, propped up against the wall.
Felix had seen a dead body once before. When he was 10, his uncle Manfred and a few of his cronies had taken Felix and his older brother Rupert on a hunting trip in one of the designated hunting regions of Unamuno. His brother, being 4 years older, had been initially invited but Felix had spat the dummy so much that Manfred had agreed to take the two of them. Not that Felix really wanted to go hunting, and frankly, putting a plasma rifle in the hands of a 10 year old child was as ludicrous as tying a piece of steak to your dick and then entering a cage full of hungry dogs. However, it was the principal of the matter. Felix didn’t want to be left out. Understandable mentality for a 10 year old boy.
The men had gone hunting for genetically engineered Elan. The largest of the gazelle; on Earth’s African Savannah nine hundred years earlier they could weigh over 1000 pounds and stand 7 foot high. Unamuno’s GE version, weighed almost double that and stood over 9 foot at the shoulder. Their efforts to find an Elan on this particular day however, were to go unrewarded. Manfred, frustrated and swearing, spied a pack of huge warthogs, and after instructing the boys to remain where they were, set off in pursuit accompanied by his heavily armed friends. Elan were not aggressive, but warthogs certainly were, and despite the boys protests and wingeing, Manfred was not about to tempt fate and his brothers wrath by having his boys turned into human sis kebabs.
One of Manfred’s friends remained with the boys. His name was Perry. Felix thought he was a dickhead. Tall and lanky with long greasy hair and bad breath, Perry was as uncomfortable with the boys as they were with him. After a couple of failed attempts at conversation, both parties gave up and Perry went to stand a few meters away to smoke a cigarette. The boys spent the time trying to focus their rifles, and in Felix’s case, actually lifting his and holding it steady – difficult considering the rifle was almost as long as he was tall. A loud crashing in the undergrowth to Perry’s left saw all three turn their rifles in that direction. The next thing Felix could remember was seeing a incredibly fast furry shape streak from the undergrowth, bowl Perry over and clamp massive jaws around his shoulder. It was a saber tooth. Some bright spark had GE'’d some a few years ago, and despite the governments best efforts to eradicate them, rumors still abounded whenever someone disappeared in the hunting regions.
Perry was screaming. The saber tooth was slowly dragging him back into the undergrowth. Rupert was yelling at the top of his lungs, his rifle dropped in shock and lying forgotten at his feet. Felix too must have also gone into shock. He couldn’t break his gaze away from that of the Saber tooth's. Another disturbance in the undergrowth, this time on Felix’s other side. He turned his head slowly and saw his uncle Manfred sighting the cat with his plasma rifle. The saber tooth hedged one way and then the other and then finally shot back the other way just as Manfred pulled the trigger. The resulting blast took Perry’s head off, simultaneously separating the Saber tooth from half its face and a leg.
The autopsy revealed that Perry would have died from blood loss anyway. Hardly comforting for Manfred, who surprisingly was never invited on a group hunt again.
All this went through Felix’s mind as he stood, frozen in shock , looking at the headless corpse slumped against the corridor of Nebula Inc. Some time passed, Felix couldn’t be sure how long but eventually he started to take stock. Recognizing the corpse could be difficult. Without a head and therefore an AI to direct it, the coverall had reverted back to formless grey. The bodies build and the slight tuft of chest hair poking over the top of the coverall suggested Luke, one of the design engineers, but Felix couldn’t be sure.
He slowly walked down the corridor and into the open plan work space. The office was a write off. Smashed Plexiglas was everywhere littered amongst overturned desks and more bodies. Felix recognized Grace and Brian lying together like sleeping lovers, both with plasma burns covering their bodies. One of their earlier prototypes of the Overdrive lay next to them, looking like it had been on the receiving end of a good kicking. Stunned, Felix continued his tour, spotting Tomas’ corpse lying face down amidst Plexiglas. Looked like Tom had done a runner and got shot through the back. At least they all died quickly, he thought, unlike the next body he discovered. Marie had been tortured by the looks of things. Charred burn marks covered her body, one eye had been burned out and her mouth was open in a frozen scream.
How do you cope when finding the burned and broken bodies of your friends and colleagues of five years? Felix reacted admirably, first panicking, then sitting down where he buried his head in his hands and had a good cry. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best move. Whoever had done thi
s, could come back at any time and would no doubt be looking for him. He sat up, wiped his eyes and attempted some form of regrouping. His AI, disturbed at his emotional and physical readouts, suggested he apply a sedative. He told it to stick its suggestions up its arse. His AI contemplated this for a nanosecond, realized that it was being rebuffed and decided to sulk.
Death. Carnage. Gratuitous trashing of the office. Could only mean one thing. They were after the Overdrive.
Eight hundred years ago, a vastly overpopulated and polluted earth had finally developed the two technologies required for successful exploration and colonization of the galaxy – Anti gravity and a faster than light drive. Anti gravity enabled humankind to transport the huge amount of materiel into orbit that a project of this scope inevitably required. Conventional boosters didn’t come near to cutting the mustard in terms of shear mass lifting power. The orbital infrastructure alone was immense, not withstanding the amount of starships required to realistically embark upon colonization of the stars. AG was a technology that was hailed with almost religious fervor when it was introduced early in the 22nd century.
With no harmful by-products and relatively cheap to produce, AG was freely accessible and affordable. Almost overnight, Earth’s economy changed and governments were free to devote more resources to solving the problem of traveling to the stars. Twenty years went by before a viable solution became available. An eccentric physicist by the name of Henry Biggles developed and tested a new method of propulsion that enabled starships to generate powerful fields. These fields, initially designed to protect conventional powered Sol system ships, had a bizarre and totally unexpected side effect. Ships with modified fields could now effectively “slip” into a new physicality or dimension, which appeared as a grey “nospace," and travel over a period of days, weeks or months (depending on the distance) to other star systems.
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