Cycle of Stars

by D. W. Patterson

  “I think this time General we go over the ridges. According to what I saw in the last battle this force field, or whatever it is, they used against us hugs the ground. As long as we maintain a position above the encampment I don't think they can use the weapon.”

  “I think that is obvious,” said Kianga taking some of the credit away from Mulinge.

  “However the difficulty is going to be in getting our forces in place on those ridges.”

  “We should incinerate the vegetation first. Then it would be a simple matter of climbing the hill.”

  “You would incinerate such a large area?”

  “To ensure our victory, yes.”

  “Okay I approve.”

  It was late at night when the ship's encampment was mostly quiet that Jomo stood guard duty. He was the first to notice the glow beyond the ridge.

  “Control we have a light behind the ridge to our east.”

  “We see it Astatke. Hold on.”

  “Contact Captain Reynolds and ask him to come to control immediately.”

  Reynolds was awakened and quickly dressed and hurried to control. By this time the glow was apparent from both the eastern and western ridge.

  “What you got Lynne?”

  “We've put up the drones to get a visual sir it should be coming in shortly.”

  They all stared at the wallscreen.

  Suddenly the room was bathed in an orange-yellow light. The drone was over what looked like an uncontrolled blaze. Everything was burning.

  “That is the eastern ridge sir. Switching to the western.”

  The same picture presented itself.

  “Well if it was one side I might think it a natural occurrence but since both ridges are ablaze I believe our enemy is back,” said the Captain.

  “Call for Dr. Mach and Walker to man the wormhole weapon. We may be needing them shortly.”

  Dag alerted to the sound of his Emmie alarming.

  “Sorry to disturb you Dr. Mach,” said the crewman, “but the Captain asks that you man the wormhole device. Something is going on outside the ship up on the ridges. Walker will be joining you.”

  Dag rushed to the wormhole control room, Walker was already there.

  “You got any idea what is going on Walker?”

  “No Dag. But I'm tying into the drone feed on the eastern ridge.”

  They both stared at the wallscreen. The view was difficult to make out because of the brightness of the fire line.

  “Walker that fire seems unusual to me.”

  “I agree Dag.”

  “It seems to be too efficient. Notice how sharp the demarcation line between what is burning and what is burnt out. That doesn't seem natural to me.”

  “Yes it is not a natural burn line.”

  “We need to see what is lurking in the dark behind the burn line.”

  “But the drone's camera is compromised by the bright fire.”

  “I wonder,” said Dag. “Walker bring the telescope online.”

  Walker moved to the scope controls.

  “Online.”

  “Okay I'm just going to try and find a local link to the other side of the ridge. If I'm right we can use the link to see in the dark.”

  Dag began casting the output of the wormhole drive hoping to find a local link. He tried over and over for five minutes before he stopped.

  “Walker it looks like from these coordinates that I've got what we want. See if you can get the telescope aligned with the nearside.”

  Walker worked with the controls of the telescope. The near link was programmed in automatically but the scope had to be fine-tuned to get a picture. Eventually he had something.

  “Okay we're behind the burn line. Bring up the infrared.”

  The infrared allowed them to “see” in the dark. At least anything that had a temperature above background. The wallscreen showed a steady glow where the fire had burnt out but the ground was still warm. Then brighter streaks stood out from the background as if something with a heat source was moving over the burnt ground.

  “That's it Walker the soldiers are back and they are advancing up the other side of the ridge along with their vehicles.”

  “They must be doing the same thing on the other ridge also Dag.”

  “No doubt. Let's inform the Captain.”

  After explaining to the Captain what they had seen he said, “But Dr. Mach how will we counter these forces? Last time you were able to create the energy bubbles but if I understood your explanation we will not be able to use them this time because they can't move to higher locations in the gravitational field of the planet. Is that right?”

  “Yes sir. We were able to set the bubbles in motion and the downhill slope to the enemy last time took them in the direction we wanted. It might be possible to force them up the hill but it will be difficult, as difficult as landing on this planet.”

  “So what can we do?”

  “We can create an energy shield around the ship which should prevent them from being able to damage it.”

  “That's good Dr. Mach but we will be trapped behind our defenses. All the soldiers have to do is wait until we can no longer maintain such a shield.”

  “I agree sir.”

  “So what is your recommendation Dr. Mach?”

  “I'm afraid we will have to use the weapon as originally intended. We can't afford to wait until our power reserves are depleted to act. And I suspect we will be fighting on two fronts so we will have to be agile. Even if we could force the bubbles up the ridges creating and guiding them in both directions would be too slow to prevent damage to the ship.”

  “I agree Dr. Mach. Do you and Walker need a hand?”

  “No Captain we are capable of this task.”

  “Okay Dr. Mach I will leave it in yours and Walker's capable hands.”

  Dag looked at Walker.

  “It would seem we have no choice Walker.”

  “I agree Dag.”

  “Very well I'm bringing the weapon online. I'll depend on you to sight and aim.”

  “Okay.”

  It was another twenty minutes until the fire started to die down on the top of the ridges. Another ten minutes before the first of the railgun launchers pulled into position.

  “Now Walker.”

  Walker sighted the weapon and fired. The plasma seemed to jump off the weapon as a mini black hole exploded into a dense soup of particles. The weapon guided the plasma in the direction of the ridge. From one end of the ridge to the other Walker bathed it in plasma.

  The sound was terrific. The lightning storm and thunderous booms followed each other almost immediately. Walker pivoted the weapon to the other ridge and proceeded to launch the plasma blasts from one end to the other. Dag watched the readouts to make sure the weapon continued to function under such a heavy load.

  It was several minutes before the last of the thunder had echoed away. The Captain called immediately for observers and drones to report. Finally, the pictures from the top of the ridges started to come in. The Union vehicles were like melted slag. The ground was like a congealed lava although obviously still very hot.

  There was no movement on either ridge or behind it. There was no report of soldiers or bodies. Everything not made of a hardened composite had been vaporized by the immense temperatures of the plasma. In some places electrical arcs could still be seen as some rock or what used to be a vehicle discharged as it cooled. The nightmarish scene was burned into the ground and would be for years.

  “Well Walker I guess that's the last of the troubles we will have with those fellows.”

  Walker was just about to answer when the ship was shaken by some collision or explosion.

  “Captain what's happening?”

  “We have been outflanked Dr. Mach. While our attention has been on the ridges the enemy has closed the distance by coming down this end of the valley.”

  “Then they still have the high ground. We'll have to use the weapon again.”

  Dag st
arted to check the gauges and froze. The temperature gauge showed the weapon was far outside its ratings.

  “Walker the weapon won't fire until it has cooled.”

  “I'm afraid that will be too late Dag.”

  “We'll have to come up with something else.”

  Dag started to cast the drive repeatedly.

  “The casting is still working Walker.”

  The ship shuttered again as it took a hit.

  “Dr. Mach is there anything you can do?” asked the Captain. “Otherwise I'm going to have to abandon ship to save lives.”

  “Just a moment sir I'm working on getting us out of here.”

  Dag made a cast that held. He had found a link. He didn't have time to build his tunnel idea, he would have to open the link wide enough to accept the ship. What was essentially a narrow wormhole began to enlarge. Soon he could see it above the ship as a kind of cloudy spherical mist in the air.

  He didn't have the time to discern if it was local or not. To insert the ship into the link he created a bubble of negative energy around the ship which then detached, then another and another. Another bubble from the drive engulfed the vessel and it began to rise as the negative energy bubbles repelled each other. Slowly by manipulating the shape of the bubbles around the ship Dag was able to insert it into the growing mouth of the link and suddenly the ship was gone.

  23

  Jomo watched the ship rise until it seemed to melt into a kind of milky bubble and disappear. He ran from his post to the shuttle where he along with his family and others had been staying. He had no idea how to fly a shuttle but he knew they were all equipped with flight Emmies.

  Hustling inside he urged his family to secure themselves. He seated himself at the flight console.

  “Flight Emmie take off.”

  “What is the destination?”

  “Anywhere.”

  “Unable to comply.”

  There was a loud noise and vibration as a shell landed nearby.

  Jomo thought.

  “Union territory.”

  “Complying.”

  The shuttle lifted off and turned north directly into the approaching forces.

  Jomo was horrified, he had given them into enemy hands.

  Fortunately, the gunners in the railgun vehicles were taken off guard, never expecting a shuttle to head directly at them. They were too slow in correcting their aim and missed entirely.

  Once out of danger Jomo had time to think about what they should do.

  “Father, I think we should go back to the village. As we've seen no place is safe and at least we know the area. We will find a place to hide when troops are nearby. Otherwise we will stay in one of the village buildings and gather food during the daylight hours. This shuttle has enough food to get us started.”

  “Very well son, I can think of no better plan.”

  The JS1 came out of the other end of the link in a slow roll. The ship had not been in trim before it entered the link and now its axis of rotation was askew. Anything not bolted down, including crew members, were sent flying.

  It took no more than a couple of minutes for the flight Emmies to stabilize the ship but that was more than enough time to cause damage and injuries. Ally had a broken arm. The other injuries were on a par with Ally's or more minor. The Captain had a few cuts and bruises.

  It was the following day that the Captain called for a meeting.

  “Navigator you want to fill the others in,” said the Captain rubbing a bruised arm.

  “Sir we are approximately a thousand light-years from our previous location. In the direction of the galactic center as reckoned from Earth.”

  “Impossible,” said the Chief of Engineering. “You should take another reading. No ship has ever been that far out.”

  “I know my business Chief. We are where I say we are.”

  “I agree Chief,” said the Captain.

  “But Captain that's impossible we don't have the energy for a jump like that.”

  “Not according to Dr. Mach.”

  “It is possible with this new method for using the drive Captain. As a matter of fact, it takes even less energy than a jump of forty light-years would take using the old method.”

  The Chief sat staring at Dag, not quite believing what he was hearing.

  “It's true Chief I've checked Dag's calculations,” said Ally. “This jump proves that he has discovered a new method of propulsion. Unlike the wormhole drive where you have to use a good amount of energy to open the link in the wormhole dimension. The spin-two drive as Dag calls it finds quantum level nonlocal links and simply has to open them just enough for a ship to pass. And the drive is not limited to thousand-year jumps. Jumps of any distance are possible.”

  “That's true Ally,” said Dag. “But the longer distances are less probable. You see Chief the jump distance follows a Gaussian distribution. The longer the jump the longer it will take to find a nonlocal link that will facilitate that jump.”

  “I have two questions Dr. Mach.”

  “Yes Captain?”

  “Will we be able to control the ship so that we don't have a repeat of our first use of this new drive?”

  “Yes. If we go into the link in good trim we will come out of the link in good trim. Unfortunately the unusual way we left the surface of Adowa and the difficulty controlling the negative energy bubbles put us into the link already with some rotation and that continued when we exited.”

  “Very well. My other question is can we get back? As you all are aware we left quite a few people behind.”

  “We will have to map the links in this area sir but I feel we should be able to find one that will take us back.”

  “So we begin mapping these links as you call them?”

  “Yes Captain that is the next logical step.”

  Working with the navigator Dag, Ally and Walker got busy mapping the nonlocal links. But Dag soon noticed an anomaly.

  “That's right Miss we are not finding as many links, local and nonlocal, as I thought.”

  “What does it mean Dag?”

  “I think it means that entanglements in this area are being broken or perhaps they were always suppressed. Hard to say which.”

  “That's true of Adowan space too, isn't it?”

  “Yes it is Miss.”

  “You think the same thing is happening here as around Adowa?”

  “Well that would be a surprising coincidence. Wouldn't it? After a jump of a thousand light-years to end up in the same mess.”

  “But Dag what could possibly cause this phenomenon here and at Adowa?”

  “I don't know for sure Miss. We'll just have to keep collecting data as we map the area and see if it leads us to any conclusion.”

  The mapping was taking place as the navigator and helmsman spiraled the JS1 out and away from the point where they had entered the space. As the ship followed its spiraling course Dag noticed that each time they came around to the same heading the Casimir device detected an increase in broken entanglements. Whatever was causing the breaks had a definite source. After a week of mapping Dag had decided they had found enough good links to get them back in the local vicinity of Adowa when and if the Captain decided they should return. But now Dag was interested in following the heading straight to the source of what he believed was causing the broken entanglements and he was able to convince the Captain also.

  “But Dag,” said Ally. “As we get closer to this source we are going to put ourselves into the same danger as in the Adowan system. That broken space-time is going to play havoc with our instrumentation and ability to maintain the ship.

  “And Dag, we need to get back to the people we left behind.”

  “I'm aware of that Miss but if we are ever to mitigate the effects of this spacetime here and around Adowa we are going to have to find out what is causing it to deteriorate. This seems like a good opportunity to do so.”

  Dag watched his instruments and followed the trail of greater and greater space
time disruption. The ship was starting to be buffeted by the broken space, the Captain was beginning to get worried.

  The Captain entered the room where Dag's equipment was located.

  “Dr. Mach, helm informs me that he is starting to have a difficult time keeping the ship in trim. He attributes it to the same situation we ran into around Adowa. Have you gathered enough data yet so that we may leave this space?”

  “Yes Captain it is very much like the space around Adowa. But that is why it is important to continue investigation and follow the trail to the source of this disturbance. At Adowa I thought it was the wormhole cylinder which caused the problem but now we have a second location without that phenomena as far as I can tell. So what is causing the breakup of space here? We need to find out so that we have a chance to stop it.”

  “I understand Dr. Mach. But the ship can only take so much of this kind of space, I worry that we will go too far.”

  “Captain we still can get out of danger with the spin-two drive if need be. Just as we did on Adowa. But even if the space gets too disrupted to use the drive I believe this is our only chance to find out what is happening and stop it. If we don't then all humanity is at risk.”

  “Very well Dr. Mach we will continue this course until you are satisfied but if we do need to use the spin-two drive in an emergency let's try to enter the link with the ship in trim. Shall we?”

  “Yes Captain.”

  A day later and the buffeting was more noticeable.

  “It's incredible Miss, to see this kind of disintegrating spacetime again. It's been four hundred years since we've seen anything like this.”

  “How much closer do we have to get Dag?”

  “We should be at the source by tomorrow I think.”

  “Then we can turn back?”

  “Is it worrying you Miss?”

  “It is worrying me and the rest of the crew. The Captain is having to keep the crew in line. They all believe they are flying to their deaths. Don't you ever think about that Dag?”

  “I'm sorry Miss I guess I'm just too excited about the new physics I will be learning to worry about my personal safety.”