The Arwen Book two: Manifest Destiny

by Timothy P. Callahan

  He continued to look at her even as he walked out of the room. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

  “Good, I’m starving.”

  “Why is your ship named the Arwen? When I was on Earth we named our ships after presidents, gods, or scientist.”

  “When we started building ships to go into space we quickly realized we would run out of names so it was decided to give all space ships names from books. Mostly science fiction or fantasy books. It seemed appropriate since science fiction was becoming reality. My ship is a Tolkien class battleship. All Tolkien class ships are named after characters from Lord of the Rings. Well, the good guys anyway, don’t think we’ll ever have a Captain of the Gollum. Captains are still a superstition bunch and who wants to command a ship named after a bad guy?”

  “Seems like a strange idea to me,” he replied walking back into the room. He carried two plates which he stacked on his right arm. In his left hand he had two more glasses of the orange liquid. Marjorie stood to help by grabbing the glasses. “Used to be a waiter, you never lose those skills even after four hundred years.”

  He placed the plates on the table. Marjorie looked at the plate and saw he had sculpted the food into the shape of a fish, a very deformed pale fish with tiny flecks of grey in it. It was more like a gelatin than a fish. She sniffed it and, just like the orange liquid, it smelled exactly like he wanted it too. “This really does smell like fish.”

  “It’ll taste like it too. Sorry about the look, but you’ll be happy to know it’s very healthy for you. I could have made it look and taste like a chocolate cup cake and it would still be healthy. It's just a matter of knowing how to manipulate the molecules.”

  Marjorie took a taste and nodded in approval. “Very good.”

  “Tell me about Earth, what’s it like now? When I left things were heading in the wrong direction.”

  “How far back do you want me to go? I know from your time things did get worst. What was known as the United States of America was involved in a war with China that climaxed with the launch of a nuclear missile.”

  “My god, from who?”

  “It was the United States. They destroyed the missile not too long after it was launched. Some believe it was a mistake, others think it was a warning. The only thing for sure is after the launch both sides decided to talk. It was a very pivotal moment because China and the United States eventually went on to develop wormhole technology. The ability to travel from one star to another is really what finally brought peace to Earth.”

  “So, there are no more wars?”

  “There are still some countries that like to rattle their sabers from time to time but for the most part, things are peaceful on Earth.”

  “So, no more wars.” He said.

  “We still have wars, just not on Earth. We recently got done fighting a very bad war. It killed hundreds of thousands and nearly wiped out the Earth Fleet. We won in the end but the cost was huge.” She lowered her head remembering her lost friends.

  “It’s so strange. We still have war just not among humans. We now fight aliens. How strange to give up war on Earth only to take it into space.”

  “It’s not entirely our fault,” Marjorie replied. She didn’t like his judgmental tone, didn’t like the fact he was judging her and the Earth. “The first race we met, the Kreel, attacked the first colony outside of Earth. So, we built a fleet and taught them a lesson. We still have some enemies, and we still fight some battles but things are peaceful now. To tell you the truth we’ve only met about fifteen other races and most don’t bother us and we don’t bother them. The galaxy is big enough for everyone.”

  “Not everyone,” he said. “You look like you enjoyed that meal.”

  Marjorie looked down at her plate and found it empty. She hadn’t even realized she had eaten it. She was so wrapped up in her story. “I guess I did.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Pretty good actually.”

  He stood and walked over to her and took her plate. “There’s one question I’m surprised you haven’t asked me. You never asked me how I managed to live for this long.”

  “I assumed you’d tell me,” she said. “I didn’t think it was the most important question to ask.” The last of the sentence came out garbled, as if she were talking with cotton in her mouth. The room started to spin, and she had to grab the table or else she’d fall over.

  She felt his hands grab her just as the plates crashed to the floor. He was supporting her, holding her as she leaned against the chair. “I’m sorry, Captain. They wanted me to do this. I refused at first but they made me an offer I couldn’t say no too. They told me they’d let me die.”

  She felt her muscles loosen. She wasn’t able to command them to do anything. As she fell he slid her off the chair and laid her down onto the ground. “I have some good news and some bad news,” he said. “The good news is, they don’t want you dead. In fact, they want you to live a very long time, which is why I gave you the last of my rejuvenation tonic. That orange stuff you drank is now repairing your cells. It’s fixing everything that might be wrong with you. When you wake again your body will be as healthy has it has ever been. The stuff even slows down your aging so you’ll be around for at least another two hundred years.”

  She wanted to say something but couldn’t. He picked her up and walked her over to the couch. Gently, he laid her down, careful not to harm her. “The bad news is, they’re going to do what they can to get Earth’s location from your mind. They tried it with me but since I had no idea where I was when they found me all I could do was tell them the galaxy and the approximate location. They’re a very patient race and would have waited millions of years if need be. Thanks to you finding one of their wormholes they know the general area, and they’re going to use you to find the exact location. I guess that leads to my second bit of bad news, once they find out they’ll destroy the Earth and use the materials to build the next Dyson Sphere.”

  Marjorie opened her mouth to talk, all that came out was a garble and a whimper. “I know, how can I do this? I can’t say I’m not saddened by it but the truth is, for me, it’s worth it because I’ll be able to die. They’ve never let me die, every time I’ve tried, and believe me I’ve tried a lot, I would wake up in a new body. I’d still have the memory of me attempting to kill myself but nothing after that. I don’t know if they cloned me and downloaded my memories, or if they somehow just grew a new body without my DNA. In any case, I would die, they would revive me and I would keep living.”

  From the coffee table he opened a drawer and pulled out what looked like a gun. “Took me a long time to convince them to make this for me, they finally did after we made our deal. This will be the last time you see me, Captain Cook. It was an honor to meet you. It was also an honor to share my final meal with you. Thank you for reminding me what it’s like to be human, even for a few hours.”

  She tried to reach out to grab him, but her arm didn’t respond. He walked past the couch and out of sight. Moments later she heard a gunshot, then the body hitting the floor.

  The room was quiet after that. She smelled gun powered mixed with the still lingering scent of fish. She heard the door open followed by a skittering sound. The room was out of focus. She could only make out blob like shapes and shadows. She saw a shadow pass over her eyes. She detected a strong scent that reminded her of peppermint then, another shadow, followed by the smell of licorice. The shadows went away. Something was placed on her finger. She felt the sensation of falling. A darkness creped in, all sites and sounds were muted. She felt consciousness detach from her and float away. She received one more sensation, the smell of spring after a gentle rain, before everything shut down.

  Chapter nineteen

  Juliet sat behind the desk with her head in her hands and let out of frustrated scream. The computer techs around her looked at each other and laughed. “We told you,” one of them said.

  “I know, I know,
I just thought we could do it,” She replied standing. Professor Ricter walked over. This was the last person she wanted to see.

  “Well?” He asked in a way that told her he knew what the answer was.

  “We can’t get it to work. They use totally different computers. I don’t even think they use binary to run calculations. I'm not sure what the use.”

  “Looks like a quantum computer,” another tech said. “No way to get our systems to interface.”

  “Fine,” Professor Ricter replied turning his back to the group.

  That was it? Juliet thought. Just a fine and a walk away? She now wished he had said something, at least then she would know how to react. Instead, she felt as if her emotions were in some sort of limbo. She couldn’t be upset because he didn’t say anything to upset her yet, she couldn’t be happy because he had dismissed them so quickly. “Professor, do you want us to try something else?”

  “No,” he replied. “You’ve all worked hard on a project that was doomed to fail.”

  “In that case we’ll start to gather the cables and return them to the Arwen.” She stood from her chair and felt her legs stiffen; she had been sitting too long and needed a stretch. She pointed to the two guys who made comments. “You guys start bundling the cables. I'm taking a walk.”

  She walked pass the Professor and saw a half grin on his face. She had no idea why she did it but she turned and asked, “Professor, would you like to come along? You’ve been at this a long time too. I'm sure a walk will do you good.”

  The Professor’s half grin faded and his face seemed to flush. No, Juliet thought, I must be reading him wrong. The Professor would never flush. He cleared his throat. “Yes, that sounds good.” He looked back to Doctor Lipton, “Fran, I trust you can take care of things from here.”

  Fran looked over at Juliet and with a slight nod said, “Sure, Professor. Have fun.”

  They walked out. Juliet started to walk toward the Arwen. Professor Ricter lightly grabbed her arm. “I thought we might want to go this way.” He pointed down the other hallway, away from the Arwen and deeper into the station.

  “You want to do a little exploring?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “Although, if asked, we’re just stretching our legs. Come on.”

  Juliet found she liked this side of the Professor. He seemed to be in his element exploring the unknown, wondering what was around the next corner. She found it appealing.

  “You know, this mission has been a huge waste of my time.” He said.

  “I think it’s a waste of everyone’s time. We were only supposed to be off the Earth for a few weeks.”

  “True, I have a lot of unfinished business on Ulliam that I’m sure others will be forced to finish. I was hoping that we could uncover some secrets here that I could use to save Ulliam, which is why I was hoping you’d be able to crack into their computers.”

  So, that was it. She thought. He was here to berate her in a passive aggressive sort of way. “I’m sorry, Professor Ricter,” she snapped the name as if it were a curse. “I did my best.”

  He looked almost embarrassed and quickly stopped her. “Juliet, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come off that way. I know my reputation, and I know I can be an ass sometimes. I have ways of making people work and one of the most effective is to yell and scream at them. I don’t do sublet very well so if you think I was trying to subtly tell you something I can promise I was not. I really admire you and what you’ve accomplished so far.”

  Now she felt like an idiot. It was true, she had let the stories she had heard cloud her judgment. “I’m sorry. I thought-“

  He raised his hand to stop her talking, and then placed his finger over his lips asking her to be quiet. “Do you hear that?”

  She listened and thought she heard something. A high pitched hum. “I think so.”

  “It seems to be coming from this direction,” he pointed to a turn in the hallway. “Come on, let’s check it out.”

  “Should we contact the Commander?”

  “No, he has enough to worry about. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  If it’s nothing, then why are we checking it out? Juliet thought as she followed him.

  The humming intensified as they walked. Juliet continued to follow even though her instincts were telling her to turn around and get someone else to help. Why was she following him anyway and why did she let him quickly convince her not to contact the Arwen? “Professor I think-“

  “I know what you think, we should call the Commander. If we were to contact him, he would tell us to come back, and he will send a team to check this out. Granted, that’s probably not a bad idea, but I would be very annoyed if some ‘team’ discovered something important when I could have done it myself.”

  “If I come along you won’t discover it by yourself, I’ll be here.”

  “True, but chances are I’ll be the first one to understand what it is, if it’s important.”

  “Thanks,” Juliet replied dryly. “I’m not an idiot. I could probably figure it out just as quickly as you could.”

  “Maybe, you have surprised me on more than one occasion. Your discovery of the Dyson Sphere was very nice work.”

  “Thank you. Someone would have found it if I hadn’t.”

  “Yes, but you gave us time to prepare for it. Never under estimate time, the sooner we know things the quicker we understand them.”

  They stopped at a hallway which broke off into different directions. Not sure where to go they decided to go right. When the humming grew quieter, they turned around and followed the hallway left until it was louder. “I think we’re getting closer,” Juliet said.

  And they were. They turned one more corner and stopped. Professor Ricter’s mouth fell open. Juliet gently grabbed Professor Ricter’s arm, he mouth also agape. It was a Wormhole, a silver sphere floating in the middle of a large room. “Is that what I think it is?” Juliet asked.

  After recovering from the initial shock of the discovery Professor Ricter said, “Yes, I believe it is. It looks like a smaller version of the one we fell through. Where does this one go, I wonder?” He stepped toward it.

  Juliet held onto his arm tightly preventing him from moving any further. “Professor, you’re not thinking of going into that wormhole, are you?”

  “Yes, of course, how else do you expect us to see what’s on the other end?”

  “What if it’s space? What if there is nothing on the other end.”

  “All good questions,” He said while looking at her hand still grabbing his arm. “I can have an answer for you if you leave me go.”

  “You could die!”

  “Yes, I could. But, do you really think I’d risk my life foolishly? No, I would not. Sometimes discovery is worth the risk of losing your life. Besides, do you really believe they would place a wormhole that went nowhere in the middle of a hallway for all to see? No, I don’ think they would.”

  She let go of his arm. “Okay, but you’re not going in there alone.” She said the words and almost immediately wanted to take them back.

  This time the Professor held his arm out. “I would be honored if you accompany me to the other side.”

  Juliet rolled her eyes and walked toward the wormhole. The hum was loud, the hair on the back of her arm seemed to move toward it. She felt a breeze, as if it was pulling the air out of the room.

  Professor Ricter stood next to her and smiled. Without a word he grabbed her arm and jumped into the wormhole.

  The feeling of nausea washed over her like a wave. When she and the Professor fell out on the other end of the wormhole both tumbled and fell in a tangle of hands and feet. She moaned and found herself laying on top of the Professor, her back on his side. She rolled over to get off him and stood. “Sorry about that,” she said reaching down to him.

  He took her hand and let her lift him up. “Guess we’ll just have to go through one at a time on our way back.”

  She smiled and looked around. The room was illuminated f
rom the light shine through a polarized window. She peered through the window to see blue colored star. Even in the few seconds she had to see she could tell the space between where they were and the star was crammed with ships. It took her only a few seconds to realize they had traveled to the Dyson Sphere.

  Professor Ricter walked over to an odd-looking bench. He ran his hands along several poles. “I would love to know what this is."

  She walked over to another piece of furniture. It had several holes on one side and one sizeable one at the top. She looked through the large hole only to see the other side of the room. She placed her hands inside the holes and they also went all the way thought. “I don’t know, maybe these are couches and chairs for the Handlers. We still don’t know what they look like.”

  “We won’t make any conclusions until we see them, but I agree. This seems to be some sort of storage closet. Let’s see if we can find a door and go outside. I don’t think we can miss a chance like this, do you?”

  Juliet wanted to say no, she wanted to say they should go back but she knew if they did he would just sneak out and do it all himself. “Well, I guess any intelligence we gather will help. However, I’m not armed and neither are you, what if we run into trouble?”

  “I don’t know.” He replied walking over to the other side of the room. He felt along the wall looking for something. “Help me, please. I’m looking for a seam or something that might be a door handle.”

  Standing next to him she felt along the wall as well. It was smooth for most of the way. She bent down and felt along the ground. Her finger ran across a bump. She felt back to find a line in a wall. “I think I found something.”

  He knelt down next to her and felt the same thing. “They must be very small.”

  Between the two of them they managed to outline a small box about six feet wide but only two feet high. He gave it a push and heard a click. “Well, looks like we’re in business.”