by Dain White
“Captain, may I offer a suggestion?”
“Please do, Em,” he replied as Yak pulled into the bridge deck and made his way through the new companionway into his station.
“Captain, we can test it on the crab first.”
“If we lose that crab, our capabilities drop by quite a bit, my dear.”
She replied in a small voice, “I will never fail you, sir.”
He sat there for a moment.
“Very well, that’s encouraging… Janis, what do you think?”
“Captain, I can calculate the math, and Em’s solution is sound, and I have built the generator to her spec. I am rather eager to see it work, sir.”
“It will go through time?”
“It will, Captain ,” she replied.
“Decisions are hard.” He keyed comms. “Shorty, where are you?”
“On station, sir,” she replied within a heartbeat.
“What do you think we should do?”
“Captain?” she replied.
“What are your thoughts on this?”
“On what, sir?”
“My apologies, I thought you were listening.”
“I’m pretty busy Captain, but I’ll try to help. What are you talking about?”
“Shorty, it looks like we’re not going to make it in time to save a relatively large amount of service vessels, and possibly not fast enough to save Eagle.”
“Can’t we go any faster?”
“I know, trust me… that was the first thing I asked Gene. Unfortunately, we’re simply running flat out. The only way we can go faster is to drop charge to the hull.”
“So let’s drop charge by 75 percent,” Shorty scoffed.
“Here’s the thing, Shorty… we have pretty solid data that shows these critters knew exactly where we were going to drop slip.”
“They probably have some sort of time-shifted remote sensing setup, some sort of scanner, maybe.”
“Yeah, maybe, you know it makes some sense, when you think about it.”
“The idea I just had, sir?”
“Yep... it’s probably about exactly like that. In any case, we go up against these things without a maximum charge to the plates, we’re just going to go incandescent and vanish in a puff of glittery elemental shards drifting endlessly in the cold, abysmal, endless black depths of utter space.”
“That’s a mighty descriptive rationale, Captain,” Shorty replied with a laugh. “But I agree, in any case.”
“So Em wants us to drop slip now, and get to work on the field generators. They think if we make these, we’ll literally have a time machine.”
“Aren’t you worried about paradox?”
“Look, the way I see it, if I use it, then that’s what I did in the time stream. If I am elsewhere in the time stream, well… that’s just where I’ll be. It’s not like I can do two things at once.”
“Well you could…” she replied thoughtfully.
“Yes, but I won’t, because that would be terrible.”
“Yeah, I agree. We definitely don’t need you meeting yourself at some point.”
“Well, if I am meeting me after this thing works, then I’d be pretty comfortable with it, to be honest. It’d be a lot of fun to meet myself from a different time.”
“Well…” she trailed off. “I don’t think it’s a really good idea to do, sir.”
“Well, we know one thing, Shorty, if I ever do run into myself, we’d need a lot more coffee.”
“Maybe your future self could bring you some more coffee? He probably doesn’t go far without his own supply.”
“Of course, Shorty, because he’d be me,” he replied smugly.
“So you want me to weigh in on this idea?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Well… I think it’s a tough call. Any chance we can save Eagle if we prioritize attackers there? Maybe Yak and I could deploy there while you chase orbiters?”
“Unfortunately, you know what we’ll face, and we’ll need to destroy them all. If we go for the carrier, every one of these ships would simply jump, and link up with the fleet that is rampaging across Mars.”
“Ugh.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“So we’re not going to save them no matter what?”
“It doesn’t look like it, Shorty.”
“Well, we need to do what Janis and Em want, then. Worst case scenario, it takes… how long will the install take?”
“Maybe two hours, Shorty,” Gene called up on comms.
“Okay two hours. That’s not terrible. Even if we have to get back into the fight, we’ll only be two hours later. We’ll still kill them all when we arrive.”
“Ooh-rah,” Yak muttered from across the aisle in his station.
Captain Smith continued behind us, “What do you think about their calculations, Shorty? Have you looked them over?”
“Yeah, they look good to me sir.”
“You checked?”
“Sure, sir.”
“Well, Gene said the math was beyond mortals, or something.”
“I said no damn thing,” Gene grumbled on comms, “I said it was beyond my skill level.”
“Gene, I can show you how these work, it’s pretty cool. I have some notes here…. Check that out.”
“Interesting approach,” he replied a moment later.
“You see how it works?”
“Yeah… that is profound, Shorty.”
“It really is an elegant series, when you look at it. This checks out as far as I can tell. Captain, I say let’s go for it. This is the kind of adventure we are looking for, and we’re saving the Galaxy while we do it.”
“That’s a fact,” he replied proudly. “Make it happen, Janis. I am going to drop slip.”
“Wait sir,” I called out, immediately regretting the stupid that was about to blather out of my face.
“Wait?”
“Captain, don’t drop slip, just slow us way down.”
He looked at me for a moment, while I considered cringing.
“Very well, I like the way you think, Pauli.”
“Uh, thanks sir,” I muttered, reminding myself to never countermand a captain again. Once is more than enough.
The bridge lock suddenly lifted straight up through the top of the hatch, opening the lock completely.
“That’s brilliant,” Captain Smith replied.
“Thank you sir,” Gene replied.
“These are your design?”
“They are. I’ve worked on this idea for a while. The challenge has always been the machining. Of course, our current set up, ah, controlled by an AI, is pretty much what you need to make gear like this.”
“This is definitely a novel approach to a lock.”
As he spoke, an assembler slid through the opening, the central limbs maneuvering a thick cylinder mounted on a machined base with a central bearing.
“Is that it?” I called out.
“Do those rotate?” Yak asked.
“They do, Yak,” Janis replied.
“How do they work?”
“They leverage a dissonant attraction between the time-accelerated inner and outer surfaces of nested stasis fields. We are producing the fields with variable levels of dissonance, which allows us to accelerate either forward, or backward, through time.”
“Just like that, you go through time?”
“This works in a similar manner to our slipspace drive. The stasis fields quite literally ‘chase’ each other through time, in the direction we want to go.”
“Pretty amazing world we live in,” he replied somberly.
“How far can we go through time, Em?”
“As far as we have time to do so, sir,” she replied.
“What if we go back through time and stop some terrible stuff from happening?”
“Well, we clearly do not do that, Yak, because those things have happened, and they are part of our history. If we had changed them, they wouldn’t be.”
&
nbsp; “Well, that makes sense,” Yak said approvingly.
I shook my head. It sounded like madness to me, but what did I know. I was so out of my league on this ship.
“Do any of you ever get scared?” I blurted out.
“Sure, Pauli,” Yak replied.
“Me too, son,” Captain Smith called out.
“I’m scared a lot, Pauli,” Shorty added on comms.
“I’m almost always scared, son”, Gene replied softly.
Chapter 16
08242614@09:59 Captain Dak Smith
I took another slow sip of Gene’s standard, never change blend, completely safe and trustworthy. Adequately full bodied and exceptionally brisk, his coffee had a particular flavor, every time.
This coffee was like anchorage in a safe harbor, while a storm howls past. This coffee, reminded me of a warm fuzzy afghan, knitted by someone’s grandmother, and a hot fire. If I had to work with tools, I’d want coffee like this.
“Gene, this is great coffee, mister.”
“Thanks, Dak.”
“You’re so amazingly consistent. I can’t really make coffee like that. For me, it’s an experience, a sort of perpetual mission towards some sort of taste nirvana, I suppose.”
“Well, from the coffee you make, I know we’re getting closer. Your coffee is consistently exceptional, Captain.”
I laughed on comms, blushing slightly. “That’s mighty nice of you to say, Gene. Heck, we’re all getting pretty good at making it. Except Yak, that is. He just loads it to the line and presses auto. Pauli, can you take that feature out of our unit? Reprogram it, or something?”
“Are you serious sir?” he queried.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Well, what sort of coffee do you think he would make, sir?”
“I would expect him to make a damn fine cup of coffee, it’s every man’s right.”
“And woman,” Emwan said sweetly.
“And woman, naturally. I wasn’t talking about women though, I was talking about Yak. Do you think you can make a decent cup of coffee, my dear?”
“I could on the crab, sir. I have full control over the galley. The coffee on board is exceptional, fresh, and hot”
“Makes me wish I was going with you, Em, and Pauli, yeah. I am sick of auto coffee. That button needs to vanish into the nothingness that is eternity, unbound.”
“Consider it gone, sir,” he replied smartly.
“Are you away, Em?”
“I am, Captain,” she replied immediately.
“Very well, we’re going to stand off now,” I said softly on comms, and kicked in a brief burn. At 600 meters, I flipped endo and zeroed on the crab, keeping it centered on our forward screens at high resolution as it fell away.
“That’s probably far enough,” I said, and mashed the collision alarm. “All hands crash stop in ten,” I called on the 1MC, then gently bled speed with a pretty casual retro until we were zeroed. No need to make people cry. It was the thought that counted. They all had the thought.
“Okay Em, we’re holding position at twelve hundred meters.”
“I am ready, sir.”
“Very well, please proceed.”
“Do you have good telemetry Janis?”
“As best as I can, Em. Please be careful,” she replied softly.
“I will, Janis. Please do not be concerned. I am energizing the field now.”
We sat there, waiting for something to happen.
“Is there a problem, Janis?” I asked casually.
Epilogue
“Ma’am, negative IFF on all targets. Recommend master designation.”
“Very well”, I replied curtly, and keyed the 1MC. “All stations, all stations, this is Vice Admiral Huskey, all stations. A fleet of unknown origin is located in the Hildian asteroids near the Jovian L4 triangle point. You are hereby ordered to your highest state of readiness in preparation for imminent combat.”
As I paused, the activity on the bridge around me paused, almost imperceptibly.
“Ma’am, I have GENSEC Rogers on 23A,” a young comms officer called out.
“Ironic timing”, I nodded. “Open channel.”
“Channel open, ma’am”, she replied.
“General-Secretary Rogers, Admiral Huskey”, I said briskly.
“Admiral, I am getting a lot of reports of fleet deployments here”, he called out gruffly.
“Sir that is correct. I am arraying forces in response to a fleet of vessels of unknown origin in Jupiter’s orbit.”
“Unknown origin… what are we talking about here Mel, pirates? Could this be an undeclared glom fleet?”
“Sir, we do not think so. I am planning for the worst, given the recent attack on Oort Station.”
“What do you think is the worst, Admiral?”
“Invasion, sir,” I replied immediately.
This story will continue in APEX, by Dain White
Afterword
03042016 02:47 Dain White
Adventure always finds a way.
The summer before last, for nearly six weeks, we were stranded on the ocean with a broken transmission and ended up sailing our Ingrid 38 against the wind and current from Mazatlan to San Diego, on the dreaded ‘Baja Bash’.
This route is brutal, with strong winds that blow relentlessly across a white-capped ocean towards a rocky, desolate, seemingly endless desert coastline lurking under the surf, waiting for our boat to be driven ashore.
Despite our best efforts, upon arrival in San Diego, I learned that my position had been terminated, and from survival to despair, I found myself jobless, wallowing in a pile of debt – and back in small-town Idaho.
I scrambled to find new work; and life worked out very well, for a while. I landed a great job slinging code for a cool company in Redmond, WA (no, not that one) but unfortunately, after a few years, and just a few days ago, they ran out of money.
Am I terrified? You bet.
I switched from writing code as a day job, to looking for a job as a day job. In my evenings, I’ve taken on a night job, finishing this book. Pragmatically, I admit, but it’s been a lot of fun, keeps me smiling, and who knows, ‘Maybe this will be my breakout novel that sweeps the world off their collective feet,’ he wrote with a chuckle.
Writing a book isn’t easy, it takes a lot of effort and dedication, and while there were times I simply didn’t have the drive or determination to press on, there were a few people who were instrumental in supporting me.
I’d like to thank a lot of people for their help and support during this time, but first and foremost, I’d like to thank Dr. Melynda Huskey, for inspiring such a great character, and her tireless effort to sally forth in brutal editorial combat with the absolutely terrible pile of words I threw at her.
We literally wouldn’t be together on this page, if it wasn’t for her help.
I’d also like to thank my family, my friends, the people I’ve worked with, met online, met offline, had a beer with, or who sat still long enough to hear me rant and rave about this story. You have all contributed in very real ways to this book.
Specifically, I want to thank Angie, my best friend, confidante, and one true love. Her support and trust, her commitment, it’s simply beyond compare. I quite literally couldn’t do any of this without her love and support.
More than anyone, I have to thank Zahn and Ava, for all the great ideas, concepts, plots, and some of the cooler verbs, nouns, and adjectives used in this book. Nothing has made me happier in this life than to be able to share this time with you!
Lastly, my friend… it’s your turn. You make this all worthwhile. Thank you so much for supporting me!
It may be my story, but I wrote it for you.
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