Timestar

by Robert George Mertens

  "This is the kind of surprise I like to see," Suni was smiling. "Where is Michelle, I would like to congratulate her."

  "She's asleep—we sent her to bed."

  "She'll be on command duty this evening."

  "We were hoping that you would see your way through to letting her off tonite. She's been working very hard."

  "For this, I give her two times off command duty—as long as the rest of the crew doesn't mind."

  "She really needs rest."

  "I don't begrudge her that, but we do have a deadline."

  "I know, I know, but I just don't see everything we need getting done in seven days."

  "Five—two travel days, remember?"

  "Yes, but that's even worse."

  "We'll make it. This was our biggest obstacle. Now that it's out of the way, we can do some fast clean-up work—just enough to get the ship in working order. We don't have to get everything built and battle-ready until we return to Iskol."

  "But we still have the black hole people to reckon with."

  "I think they're gone by now."

  "But if they aren't?"

  "It's doubtful that they'll actually be at the rendezvous point. We only need to pick up Frank and return here to finish our modifications."

  The day went by quickly, as it always did when things were rushed. Work went on late into the night, and by the time Suni was ready for sleep, she knew that, once again, she would only be getting about four hours of it. Dyna continually reprimanded her on this issue, but Suni would not hear it.

  But much had been done this day. The drives needed tuning from the recent escape from Iskol, where they had been so badly abused. The hole in the ship had stressed almost every system on board—everything had to be retested and rescreened for damage and wear, and the black hole had to be simulated so that matter taken from it would not be missed. Matter from the black hole was being used to build up the outer hull of the ship and to reinforce the superstructure.

  Only two of the new superdrives had been built so far, but a third would be finished in time for the rendezvous. Any one of the three could supply enough power to move the ship, so that up to two could fail and there would still be drive capability. There would not be time to test any of them, they would have to be tuned on the way to the rendezvous. There was great danger here. If all three engines failed, they would have to rely on the old drives, which would additionally be burdened with the task of generating power for the nuclear force fields that supported the ship's hull and superstructure. Without these, the entire ship would collapse from its own weight and become another black hole. Humans within of course, would be instantly crushed into oblivion.

  The five remaining days went by too quickly for Suni Tashika. Today was a go or no go day. It was five A.M. and she had not been to bed yet. Instead, she had stayed up all night to make the ship ready for the trip. Many times in the night, she considered how easy it would be to drift off to sleep—just a few minutes—but she knew that if she did, it would not be just a few minutes. She would sleep soon—after the ship was underway. Then there would plenty of time to sleep. Two days of travel between here and the redezvous point would give her plenty of time for that. But right now, she had to stay up and get the ship moving.

  "Coffee, Suni?" Maria asked, as Suni concentrated on the bridge console.

  "Thank you, Maria. Should you be up?" she responded, looking up at Maria.

  "I want to help any way I can."

  "I know, and I appreciate that. But you're not fully healed yet." Maria still favored her left shoulder, though therapy and surgery continued in order to heal her injuries. No one on the ship could look at her without thinking about the vengeance that would be exacted for this atrocity.

  "I'm feeling better than most everyone here."

  "I don't think I can dispute that."

  "Then let me help. If we miss our rendezvous, we may not get Frank back. We have to move six hours from now—ready or not."

  "All right," Suni surrendered, "you can take over this console while I work on the 47A strut reinforcement problem."

  "I thought Tia did that yesterday."

  "She started on it. I pulled her off it to do something else."

  "It'll take at least an hour to finish that, but what about implementation?"

  "A couple more, but I won't be needed for that. The 'bots can do it without me."

  Four hours later, Michelle, Nikki and Paddy showed up on the bridge, looking haggard and worn from going without sleep. Suni looked around as they walked in.

  "Finished?" she asked.

  "Uh huh," Paddy replied, "everything's ready—barely."

  "What about Sandy and her group?"

  "They should be done soon—a few more minutes."

  Michelle and Nikki had fallen asleep in their chairs when Sandy, Anna and Tia arrived on the bridge. A few minutes later, Heidi and Sahn came in.

  "We're ahead of schedule by an hour and a half," Suni announced, "Let's make use of this time to give our new drives a test run. Everyone ready?"

  "I'm past ready, let's go," Sandy replied.

  "I don't see any problems with that," Nikki said.

  "Very well. Dyna, engage drives, ten percent power to one-half light speed… now."

  The low hum of the three new super-drives barely changed as power was delivered and the ship began moving more quickly and broke its orbit around the black hole.

  "Reduce our mass a little more," Suni directed.

  This had the effect of increasing the ship's accelleration, and it moved more quickly. In a few more minutes, the accelleration ceased.

  "We are at one-half light-speed," Dyna announced.

  "Systems check?" Suni queried.

  "All systems are go—the ones we need, anyway," Tia answered.

  "Dyna, let's go to ninety-five percent light-speed."

  "Thrust ratio?"

  "Give it fifty percent thrust."

  At this, the three new engines grumbled, but obeyed, and the starship accellerated again, but even more quickly. Stars about them remained stationary, since this velocity was still relatively slow in comparison to the speed they would eventually need in order to make redezvous on time.

  "Ninety-five percent light-speed," Dyna anounced, again.

  Suni looked around at the faces on the bridge. The next step was to break the light barrier. If anything went wrong, they would not live long enough to know about it. She saw blank faces. She was the captain; the responsibility fell on her. She made her decision quickly.

  "Systems check."

  "All systems are ready," Tia responded, again.

  "Compute breaklight and trajectory to rendezvous."

  "Computed," Dyna said.

  "Initiate," Suni ordered.

  "Sequence initiated," Dyna responded, "breaklight in forty-three seconds."

  For Suni, forty-three seconds went by in the blink of an eye, and the forward main imager began to swirl as they were engulfed, once again, in the mesmerising flight into non-existence. The colors whirled and flowed together until finally, they found themselves in the brilliant white of transpace, with its many colored stars. Relief fell across the bridge, and the tension was broken. The hardest part was over.

  "Breaklight achieved," Dyna said, breaking their trance.

  "Good work, ladies. Dyna, adjust drives for eighty percent thrust. As the drives prove out, increase the thrust in small increments. I'm going to get some sleep. Maria, you have the helm. Sahn, you keep Maria company. The rest of you are off duty—get some rest."

  Eighteen

  It took a while, but Frank got used to his new form and duties as a Kinorian mechanic. His shipmates did not seem to suspect anything unusual about him, even though he mostly kept to himself. He was given Kinorian food to eat, but he had to pick through it to find what he liked. His daily activities involved routine maintenance of the star drive and its various components, and occasional repairs of other mechanical systems. He made sure that the star
drive was maintained—the last thing he wanted was for it to break down.

  Trong had stopped communicating with him early on and he thought that just as well, since there was little sense in taking chances getting caught and then exposed. Frank thought for a while that he could actually get used to this sort of life. The trip to the rendezvous point would take about three months, and it had already been two months and a few days. In his spare time, he browsed the ship’s library. However small it was, to him it was a storehouse of galactic history, which was the captain’s favorite subject. This was more than a mere coincidence, and turned out to be why there were so many disks on it.

  Frank had walked in on the captain one day late in the trip while he was visiting the library, and struck up a conversation with him about it. The captain was an even greater storehouse than the library was, and enjoyed talking about it. Since Frank turned out to be a pretty good mechanic and did his job well, he became friends with the captain.

  "What do you know about the Shadow Ships?" Frank asked him.

  "Ahhhh, a meaty subject, that," he said in his gravelly voice. "You might be tellin’ me."

  Frank stiffened for a moment, then, "How do you mean?"

  "Well you were there, weren’t you—on Iskol, where it all happened?"

  "I don’t understand."

  "That Shadow Ship was orbiting Iskol, and then left in a mighty battle with the Okofani."

  "That was a Shadow Ship?"

  "Many say it was. None alive today can attest to their last appearance. There are stories and old legends about the Shadow Ships. The oldest stories of ‘em go back eight hundred thousand years or more. Least those are the one’s lasted the test of time. Some say the stories go back even further, but many of ‘em got lost in translations of translations of translations. Much of the old histories are lost that way.

  "Languages change and each new translation changes the history a little. Historians wretch over it. But nought can be done about it. The most recent story is about twenty thousand years ago. They say the Shadow Ships roam all the galaxies in the universe, and that’s why we hardly hear of ‘em. Whenever one comes around, it’s a pretty big tado."

  "But how would they know a Shadow Ship from any other if no one’s ever seen or heard of one, especially in twenty thousand years?"

  "Why the name gives it away, don’t it? It slips through space like a shadow, leavin’ no trace. Their captains were called Shadow Riders and they were very secretive, hardly ever showin’ themselves to anyone. But this one had parked itself in the center of galactic civilization and its captain appeared before anyone who wanted to see him. Before this one showed up, no one believed they’d ever existed. They were great and powerful ships that couldn’t be seen or detected while travelin’, and could go many times faster than any other ships. They were said to be the most feared ships in the galaxy—and not just this galaxy."

  "But they ran away from the Okofani."

  "And that’s another thing. There’s some sayin’ wasn’t the Okofani they were runnin’ from. Some say it was another Shadow Ship."

  "Nobody believes that story. I heard the images were retouched to make it look like weapons fire came from an invisible ship. They say people just didn’t want to believe that the Okofani could beat up a Shadow Ship and make it run."

  "That’s the official view, of course. Local governments didn’t want people gettin’ all scared so they confiscated the images and said they’d been forged. But word has it through some o’ my friends—other captains—that there were two Shadow Ships present durin’ that battle. And if that other Shadow Ship hadn’t showed, this one woulda tarred them Okofani good and left ‘em hurtin’."

  "I hear plenty of rumors among the other crewmembers. They seem to be split about this. Other rumors too, especially about how the captain of the shadow ship blasted his way through an army of Okofani warriors and escaped," Frank replied.

  "The Okofani are the most dreaded and feared race in the galactic hub. They’re fierce and powerful warriors, and their starships are equally dangerous. And there’s no denyin’ that captain is still missin’. The government’s sayin’ they don’t have ‘im, and who’s to be believed? An’ there’s no body to be found, so likely he did blast his way through that army. The palace was crawlin’ with Okofani, but no sign of the Shadow Rider himself. How can they explain that?"

  "Maybe he was vaporized."

  "Hmmm… not likely. The Okofani like to stand over their killed prey and boast about it. This one woulda been a prize to make any Okofani warrior the head of an army. He’d have the body stuffed and mounted and show it off to his friends. No, this one got away. And he rightly, as far as I’m concerned, killed a thousand of them Okofani before he left."

  "You don’t like the Okofani?"

  "I can’t believe you’re askin’. They’re mean and boastful folk. Wherever they go there’s trouble and killin’. The galaxy’d be a better place without ‘em. Haven’t ya ever had a run-in with one?"

  "If I did, I wouldn’t have known it at the time."

  "Well, you’d know it if ya did. It’s how I lost this leg." The captain pulled up a trouser leg and showed it to Frank. Frank looked at the alien’s leg and couldn’t tell a thing artificial about it.

  "It looks okay to me."

  "Ah! It’s mechanical. I didn’t even get in an argument with the grub. He just told me to move and I wasn’t fast enough for his likin’."

  "How long ago was that?"

  "Hmmm… musta been nigh on twenty years ago, back when they was layin’ seige to Larthamon. I came in on a freighter. I was first mate then and we didn’t know the place had been attacked. So we arrived and they told us to drop our shipment and leave. I was orderin’ the men like I always did when we were unloading and this Okofani officer came around and thought I was sloughin’ off. He tol’ me to get to work and I told him I was workin’ and that was that. The bastard shot me in my leg. After that, I keep an ear on the wave and avoid them Okofani when I can."

  "But you didn’t this time."

  "That’s true. They couldn’t get no captains to come around Iskol, what with them Okofani warships hangin’ about, so the pay for shippin’ just kept goin’ up and up. It went up so high I couldn’t resist. I offered the crew a big bonus and we all agreed to take a shipment. I figured you was just tryin’ to get off that miserable planet."

  "I was. But I saw hardly any Okofani while I was there."

  "That’s odd. The Okofani don’t usually land on a planet without takin' control of it."

  "It was a coup, as I recall. The Duke had his own military, but it wasn’t big enough to take over the government, so he made a deal with the Okofani. What I heard before I left was that Iskol is building weapons and ships for the Okofani."

  "Seems to me that duke’s made a deal with the devil to get what he wanted. And deals like that, the devil usually gets the bigger half. I guess he musta thought he was buyin’ himself an empire, and what he probably bought was a front row seat in Hell. When those Okofani get done with their other little wars, they’ll be comin’ back ‘round to finish this little tidbit o’ business. We’ll not be around for that."

  "You’re not going back for another shipment?"

  "Ya throw the dice once and ya get lucky. Ya might even throw ‘em a second time and get lucky. But sooner or later luck catches up to ya, and we got way too much to lose. No, Kalo, this trip’ll make us a lot of money, but it’s the one time only. We’re not gonna chance it again."

  "If other captains are talking that way, the shipping pay will keep going up."

  "Yup."

  So things went.

  Nineteen

  Net scattered quickly to nearby star systems. The factory drone planted below the Iskolian ocean floor had all of the Iskolbots it needed and was producing new bots of whatever form it deemed necessary. These were supplied with identity papers and histories by the current force of Iskolbots that had infiltrated the Iskolian Public Service System.
It was barely noticed that the Iskolian Public Service System had, over the past several months, become far more efficient than it had ever been in the past.

  In the absence of direction from Dyna or Frank, Net was carrying out its mandate; spy for the Master. In addition, Net would gather information, make investments in Frank's name and create social trends that would help achieve the Master's goals. On this world as any other, the master's current goal was to end the enslavement of the Relmish people. The imprisonment of the Emperor and the changeover of government did not impede Net's progress. If anything, it had helped to move the process along.

  New positions had been created in the government and Net moved in, taking its place among the power brokers. It was with this kind of power that Net began taking and purporting the view that slavery was wrong. Subtle hints, dropped here and there, in a society that, heretofore had kept its anti-slavery proponents in check, brought them out of the woodwork and into the public conciousness. It would not be much longer before owning slaves would become a thing that invoked disdain.

  The Emperor had been imprisoned, and Lord Wellum had become the new Emperor, with the aid of the Okofani, who now had a few garrisons of Okofani soldiers stationed on Iskol and several warships in orbit. These, Wellum needed to keep order, since there were still many troops and factions loyal to the old Emperor. Still, he had some concern about this new anti-slavery sentiment growing among the people, especially since it appeared coincident with his takeover of the government.

  Certainly people knew that he would have no part in such a movement. Still, there were factions clearly capable of moving against him, and it could not hurt too much to have some new allies. The new anti-slavery groups were gaining momentum, and he needed to be rid of the Okofani terror he had enlisted in his bid for power. He had agreed to build weapons and warships for them, and along the way, he would become immensely wealthy and powerful. Iskol could even build a few additional weapons and warships for itself. They would be needed when the Okofani finished their wars on the other side of the galactic hub and decided that it was time to claim Iskol as one of their prizes.