Trader Vyx

by DePrima, Thomas

  "Faster then light speeds became a reality with the discovery of Dis-Associative Temporal Field Anomalies. Our antimatter engines generate the massive electrical power needed to expand a coalesced group of anomalies and create an invisible, temporal envelope around the ship. When moving, the ship always remains inside the temporal envelope, so it's always isolated from the normal space around it. The envelope itself doesn't move so it doesn't exceed the speed of light. Rather, a new envelope is created slightly in front and the ship is pulled into that while the old envelop decays. During the process, the ship always remains disassociated from normal space. We steer by altering the shape of the new envelopes. The altered shape positions us in a new direction as the envelopes are created in a new direction."

  "But aren't we traveling faster than light inside the envelope?"

  "No, the temporal nature of the envelope generated by the antimatter-produced energy field separates us from normal space. It might be easier if you think of it as an envelope that constantly renews itself in a new position. We just go along for the ride, much as a rider on a surf board, but we're completely isolated from the space outside the envelope. That's why we don't feel anything when we accelerate or decelerate. We're not actually moving within the temporal envelope; it's just shifted position to a new point in space. The Colorado's generator is the most advanced ever built; giving new meaning to the old expression of 'pushing the envelope.'"

  After a few chuckles passed around the table, the doctor asked, "Then why aren't speeds faster than Light-487 possible?"

  "Nobody ever said they were impossible, they just haven't been possible with our current technology. Our speeds are governed by our ability to regenerate the next temporal envelope at a new point in space. The Prometheus and the Chiron were the fastest ships in the fleet before this ship was built because of the massive power they can generate. Our oldest active-duty Space Command ships can only travel at Light-225 or maybe Light-262, while few freighters can exceed Light-187. Power innovations have resulted in faster and faster speeds, but I'm sure no one ever conceived that the Colorado would travel faster than Light-9000."

  "I think that I understand better now. You're saying that we've regenerated our envelope more than twenty times faster than anyone ever has before?" Lieutenant Doran asked.

  "Well, yes— and no. Our theorists have always maintained that we could only achieve speeds as high as Light-862 with a single envelope dynamic, and that only Light-500 was practicable in the foreseeable future. But while the Light-862 limitation has been accepted by almost everyone, there're two other theories that have been the subject of great discussion in recent years. The more pragmatic theorists believe that you can generate an envelope within an envelope. The Two-Envelope theorists feel that the first envelope isolates the ship from the outside envelope, allowing the outside envelope to reestablish itself many times faster because it doesn't initiate any relationship to the vessel. It only 'sees' the inner envelope. It's true that at this point I'm guessing, and I really don't know what factors were responsible for creating a second envelope, if that's what happened."

  "But wouldn't such envelopes merge, as when two ships get too close to one another and the two envelopes become one?"

  "The theorists say no. They speculate that although the two envelopes are synched, they'll be slightly out of phase with one another. There's a lot to work out and better theoretical minds than mine will have to do that work. It might be the new hull, the new engines, the electrical problems, the equipment that we used to replace failed equipment during the previous trials, or a combination of those and other factors. Did the electrical problems cause the generation of a second envelope, or did the generation of a second envelope cause the electrical problems?"

  "And the second theory?" Lieutenant Doran asked.

  "A few scientists believe that since we're already separating ourselves from time and space, it should be possible to have the replacement envelope appear at our destination, instead of just ahead of the old envelope. It would mean instant teleportation to any other place in the universe. Pretty wild, eh? If they ever get that one figured out, the universe will change overnight. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting though. They have no idea how to make an envelope appear at a distant location, much less one that retains a bond to the ship."

  "Then that couldn't have happened to us? I mean, we couldn't have been instantly teleported across the galaxy, and then simply continued on at Light-487 until the drive disengaged?"

  "I don't know, Doc, but I don't think so. I'm more inclined to go with the double envelope theory. Now, if we had suddenly found ourselves in another galaxy, I'd have to support the second theory."

  "As interesting as this discussion of theoretical physics is," Jenetta said, "right now we have to figure out where we go from here. Or rather, do we go anywhere from here? Are we going to be able to get the engines running again?"

  "The power systems are running fine," Commander Cameron said, "and there should be nothing wrong with our sub-light engines. However, the drive circuitry to the temporal envelope generator is disengaged. I don't know yet if we'll be able to re-engage the drive again. I'm fairly certain that the entire generator won't have to be replaced, so a long period in a spacedock won't be necessary."

  "Did you figure out what shut the drive down?"

  "Not exactly. I have a theory, but I know that you're not going to be comfortable with it. I know that I'm not."

  "I'm already uncomfortable," Jenetta said calmly. "Might as well lay it on us and we'll see if it makes us feel better or worse."

  "Okay, here goes. At the speed I estimate we were traveling, there would have been less than one and one-half seconds from the time our DeTect system could have identified a stationary object in our path until we reached it. If the object was traveling on a reciprocal course, there might have been less than a second. But the ACS system takes two seconds to identify a danger that would result in a shutdown of the light drive. With normal speeds that's more time than anyone ever thought would be needed. So— I think that we flew through whatever caused the ACS to shut us down."

  "You mean we destroyed a ship or small asteroid without even feeling it?" Lieutenant Doran asked.

  "No. I'm not saying that we impacted anything large enough to cause a problem. If we had, we'd certainly know it. In normal FTL, if an object is small enough to fit between our hull and the outside edge of our envelope, it's like encountering the object in normal space. Relatively speaking we'd be at a standstill, and the micro-meteorite would simply disintegrate as it impacted our hull, or it would glance off and then disappear back out of the envelope. An object larger than fifteen-point-two-four centimeters wouldn't immediately fit inside our envelope and there wouldn't be time for the envelope to expand to encompass it before it came into contact with our hull. So the extent of the problems caused by a large object would be relative to the object's mass, direction of movement, and speed if it was moving at the time we made contact. It's likely that a tritanium hulled ship encountering a chondrite asteroid, would just smash its way through. That would be dependent upon the size and mass of the chondrules, of course. The specs for our hull indicate that such an encounter would be negligible, but we're not invincible."

  "I agree with your earlier statement," Jenetta said, grimacing. "I'm not too comfortable with the theory that we flew through whatever caused the ACS to shut us down. You're talking about Transverse Phase Differential theory, aren't you?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "I don't understand," Lieutenant Doran said. "Did I miss something? What's Transverse Phase Differential theory?"

  "As I mentioned when I explained the double envelope theory, Doc," Commander Cameron said, "the inner envelope is expected to be out-of-phase with the outer envelope. If that's true, then the ship was also out of phase with time and space outside the outer envelope. I believe that we might have passed directly through whatever the ACS saw."

  "Passed through it? Without touching it?
"

  "We might have— touched it, metaphysically speaking. We just didn't impact it."

  "But how is that possible?"

  "Let me see if I can keep this simple," Commander Cameron said, running his hand through his hair. "Objects can only impact when they attempt to occupy the same three-dimensional point in space at the same time, right?"

  "Uh, right."

  "Time is considered a fourth dimension. Two people can occupy the same chair, if they do it at different times, right?"

  "Right."

  "So with a fifth dimensional attribute, one requiring complete alignment with the others to cause a conflict in three-dimensional space, you're adding a new variable like time. If the new attribute, let's call it phase boundary, is different than that attribute for the other three-dimensional object, there's no conflict for the same space. So if we were outside the phase-boundary of that other three-dimensional object, then we never attempted to occupy the same three-dimensional point in space at the same time as the object we passed through."

  "I still don't grasp the intricacies. What is the phase-boundary?"

  "I'm talking about dimensional shift. A different plane of reality. The theory is that you'd occupy positions in two dimensions at the same time, but not be sufficiently in either for the physical laws of matter in that dimension to apply to you."

  "Could you become trapped between dimensions?"

  "I honestly don't know. The theorists say no, and all we're really talking right now is theory. As far as we know, no one has ever accomplished it before. I'm not even sure if we've accomplished it now. I'm just guessing."

  "Wow," was all Lieutenant Doran said, clearly out of his depth.

  "Putting that aside for now," Jenetta said, "will we be able to use FTL speeds again?"

  "I think that we might be able to make repairs, once we have access to the parts and equipment available aboard the Prometheus."

  "Trouble is, the Prometheus is probably about ten months away. Are we dead in space until then?"

  "We'll have the Sub-Light engines available once the helm console is repaired. Our hydrogen tanks are topped off and we can keep them that way by collecting as much as we need, as long as we remain in normal space."

  "Sub-light engines are designed for maneuvering the ship during battle, or for approaching a station, but they're not going to get us home in our lifetimes."

  "Sorry, Captain."

  "It's not your fault, Commander. You and your people have faced a Herculean task and shown yourselves to be equal to the challenge. Thank you for everything you've accomplished." Jenetta paused and sighed. "It looks like we're going to be here for a while so let's continue to concentrate on getting our communications up first. I'd like to let the Prometheus know that we're alive and well. This ship was fully stocked before we left the Prometheus, so we have plenty of food aboard. Since we're not in any danger of starving for two years, and life support functions are operational, we're fine. We'll just kick back and wait for the Prometheus to pick us up in ten months."

  "I'll be back on the com system as soon as the meeting is over, Captain."

  "Anyone have anything else to bring up?"

  "Should we continue to fully man the bridge twenty-four/seven?" Lieutenant Commander Pulsen, the first officer, asked. "It hardly seems necessary with the ship being stationary, and all the consoles unusable."

  "We're still an official Space Command vessel and we'll follow regulations. Any other questions?"

  When no one spoke up, Jenetta dismissed the group.

  Commander Cameron's people had the communications console reassembled and apparently operating by 1830 hours. Jenetta sat at her desk in the briefing room to record the first message. She took a deep breath, let it out, stared into the vid lens, and then pressed the record button.

  "To Captain Lawrence Gavin, commanding officer of the GSC battleship Prometheus, from Commander Jenetta Alicia Carver, commanding officer of the GSC scout ship Colorado. Begin message.

  "Hello Captain. As the result of a shipboard anomaly that we don't fully understand, the Colorado has traveled three hundred fifteen light-years into the former Frontier Zone. As the test of the Colorado's drive system began, we suffered a massive electrical discharge through all systems that rendered us deaf, dumb, and blind until now. Life support functions were restored soon after the problem occurred and we have adequate food stores. The crew is healthy and we suffered no injuries to personnel. We believe that we have the communications systems functioning again and we're working on the other bridge functions. I'm estimating our position as being 8667-3212-7797.5691 ante-median 0101. I can't be more accurate until our navigation equipment is restored to working order. This position is based on my visual observation of the star configurations around us.

  "Our engines are functioning but the FTL drive can't be engaged so we're limited to Sub-Light travel only. We have no choice but to wait here until we're picked up. On all future trips of the Colorado, I recommend that a fighter, shuttle, or tug be part of the mandatory equipment on board. They would offer us additional options that would be very helpful in this situation.

  "I estimate that it will take four days for this message to reach the Prometheus, and I realize that it will take time to decide upon a course of action but I request an immediate, simple acknowledgement that the message was received.

  "Jenetta Carver, Commander, Captain of the GSC Colorado. End of Message."

  The message was encrypted and sent immediately by the com operator. Jenetta fixed herself a cup of coffee and sat down to relax. Getting the message off lifted a huge weight from her shoulders.

  Over the next few days, the other bridge functions were restored. When the first images of the surrounding space appeared on the huge monitor screen at the front of the bridge, a cheer went up from everyone present. The ship couldn't move FTL, but the Colorado had eyes, ears, and a voice again.

  Eight days after Jenetta sent the message to the Prometheus, a reply was received. The com operator buzzed her in her briefing room when it arrived, and passed it through to her com. As she depressed the button to play the message, the face of a grinning Captain Gavin appeared on her screen.

  "It was a relief to hear from you, Jen. We were deeply concerned when we weren't able to contact you. As the test began, you just disappeared from our sensors. We replayed the image logs over and over trying to resolve what happened. We finally determined that you had accelerated to a speed in excess of Light-7500. You departed so fast that we weren't able to determine your speed any more accurately than that. When we weren't able to contact you, we feared that the speed might have been uncontrollable and that the ship had impacted some object, or, perhaps some other calamity had occurred. We've been traveling at top speed on our original course, scanning space for any sign of you.

  "I've sent your message on to Space Command with my report of the incident, and until we hear differently, we're proceeding on course to pick you up. I'm sure that the significance of this event will not be lost on Space Command planners so I don't expect that we'll be diverted. Even so, it will take us more than nine months to reach your reported location.

  "I'll send another message as soon as I've heard from Space Command. Rest assured that help is on the way. Captain Lawrence Gavin of the GSC Prometheus. Message complete."

  Jenetta, her spirits buoyed by the message, immediately buzzed the com operator and instructed him to place her on ship-wide speakers. When the operator said "Go ahead, Captain," she began talking.

  "Attention crew of the Colorado. This is the Captain speaking. I've just received a message from the Prometheus. They were happy to hear from us at last and are proceeding here at top speed. Still, it will be many months before they arrive. Beginning tonight we will transmit personal messages once each day. Don't give our location and don't mention anything about the incident that resulted in our being here. We've all been privileged to be a party to something momentous, and one day you'll be able to tell everyone that
you were aboard the Colorado when it changed the history of travel in the galaxy, but for obvious reasons that information must remain classified as top-secret for now. The normal message limit of one minute is being extended for this date to three minutes. Forward your message to the com operator by 1800 hours. All messages received after that hour will be held until the next day's transmission. The burst transmission will be directed to Dixon Space Station, the nearest SC base, for forwarding. That's all."

  * * *

  Admiral Moore called the special meeting of the Admiralty Board to order as he took his seat at the center of the large horseshoe shaped table. The gallery of the enormous meeting hall that the Admiralty Board used for both private and semi-private sessions at Space Command Supreme Headquarters on Earth was empty today, as it was for most meetings of the Board. "Good morning," he said, as the private conversations ended and everyone looked towards him expectantly. A couple of dozen aides and senior officers occupied chairs behind the admirals but they would never dare return the greeting, or even speak aloud while in this chamber, unless specifically invited to do so. The four women and six men at the table were the most powerful officers in Space Command, by virtue of their rank and their position on the Admiralty Board.

  "Something completely unexpected has happened and it requires our immediate attention," Admiral Moore said. "While conducting a space trial of the new Dakinium sheathed Scout-Destroyer, Commander Jenetta Carver has discovered a capability that we were unaware of."

  "Oh, no," Admiral Hubera groaned loudly. "Not Carver again. We never should have let her leave Dixon. We had an entire year of peace and quiet with her posted inside that asteroid."