James Wittenbach - Worlds Apart 01

by Meridian

  However, Republic and Sapphire have recovered an ancient technology that permits instantaneous communication across any distance, with zero data loss.”

  She looked to the interfaces for signs of interest. They betrayed nothing. She spoke on. “The ancients used a technology known as tachyon-pulse communication. Tachyon is the generic term for any naturally occurring energy or particle that moves faster than light. Certain tachyons move at infinite speed, meaning they pass through every point in space simultaneously. Using this breed of tachyons, instantaneous communication is possible across any distance in space. Infinite speed tachyon transmissions have zero data loss because no force in the universe can interfere with them.” There was a long silence. Lear heard the rustling noise again. It is the Voice of the Regulators. Something told her. Something else mixed in, like a scream of agony.

  At last the interfaces turned and answered her. “The theory is sound, if the existence of tachyons can be proven and if the Regulator’s intelligence matrix can be encoded into tachyon. If so, could you enable us to construct such a device?”

  “Such a device is possible using your existing technology.”

  The Interface spoke again. “Even if it is possible, is the use of this technology not limited to worlds that possess the capacity to receive the signal? The Regulators demand to know if you know of any worlds besides yours that possess this … tachyon pulse technology?”

  “Unfortunately, I do not. However, imagine if you will, the intelligence of the Regulators transported to Republic. Each of our cities is run by a central intelligence, our version of your Regulators. Our world possesses the technology to build ships that travel among stars. With the Regulators in control of our world, you could build thousands of ships, and bring order to all worlds.” The interfaces leaned forward into their consoles and seemed to silently debate for a long several minutes, before declaring, “The Regulators demand that you demonstrate the existence of these tachyons of which you speak.”

  “I require your largest and most advanced laboratory, unrestricted data access, and a team of your best scientists and technicians.”

  “Scientists and technicians?” the interfaces conferred. “We have a large number of inhabitants programmed to perform as technicians, but we have no need for scientists.”

  “We should be able to manage without them. I will require equipment from the ship that brought us here. Will you permit these two access to it?”

  “Stand by, we are receiving additional input.”

  The screen came back on, showing the perimeter of Meridian enforcers guarding Prudence. “Your ship has activated some kind of autonomous defensive system. No one is able to approach.”

  “Specialist Taurus knows the disarming codes. She will be able to approach the ship and recover the equipment that I need.” She knew this would come as news to Taurus, but the Warfighter kept her tongue.

  “The Regulators agree.” Merids in shock-troop armor began to spill, somewhat listlessly, into the room. They quickly surrounded Partridge and Taurus.

  Lear raised her hand firmly. “Will you guarantee the safety of these people?”

  “The Regulators absolutely guarantee their safety.”

  Lear smiled, “It’s all right. Go with them.”

  Partridge broke away from the guard and tried to break toward Lear. He reached for her, but was held back. “Tyro Commander Lear, are you really going to help them?” Lear smiled. “We are going to help these people, as the Odysse charter requires us to do. They are different, but who is to say that their way is not better?”

  “…but, you saw…”

  “Specialist, I order you to go with them back to the ship. Get our landing packs and bring them back, also as much scientific equipment as you can carry.”

  Partridge backed down, and slowly returned to Taurus, surrounded by a group of diminuitive, armored Merids. The interfaces barked a command to the enforcers. They turned and marched out with their prisoners. An interface came toward Lear. “I have been instructed to take you to a facility we have prepared for your use.”

  “I am honored by the trust you have placed in me.”

  “The Regulators believe you only because examination of the human specimen you provided enabled them to determine that you were telling the truth.”

  Taurus and Partridge were led down the long hallway that earlier had brought them to the Council Chamber. As they rounded a corner, Partridge stumbled, spilling several small, clear glass cylinders from his medical kit. “I’m sorry, I must be tired, it’s making me clumsy, would you help me…” The enforcers looked at him dumbly. Only when he leaned over and began reaching did they begin to follow suit. They grabbed the small tubes in tightly closed fists, exactly as Partridge had hoped. He quickly stuffed them back into his pack. “Thank you so much.” Without so much as a grunt of understanding, the enforcers continued down the corridor. The construction was shoddy, even on this level. Many of the wall panels and lighting elements were installed poorly, mismatched to the others. Ventilation shafts jutted out from the walls, loose wiring hung in places. Neither on his world nor on Republic had he ever seen such shabbiness. On Sapphire, no one would pay for such shoddy work. On Republic, non-spec workmanship got you sent for retraining.À

  They passed through a gateway and their guards were changed. The hand-off was accomplished wordlessly, and they were taken down yet another corridor. Partridge was wondering if the Meridians were going to offer them food at some point. He hadn’t eaten in hours. He wondered what Merids ate.

  They approached the transporter station where they had earlier been deposited on this level. One of the enforcers who escorted them exchanged words with the enforcer who stood sentry at the transport station. The words were in Meridian, but Partridge had a sense that something was amiss. He thought he was used to being terrified and was surprised to find he still had capacity to be even more scared.

  After a few exchanges, their escort unholstered his plasma gun and fired a shot into the sentry, then turned and killed the other enforcer with another shot. He fired two shots to blow apart the doors to the transport station and jerked Taurus and Partridge inside. There was no transporter car waiting beyond, just a long dark shaft from which issued a damp, cold, and monstrous breeze.

  The whole action could not have taken more than a few mere seconds, but the escort lifted a small black pad to Taurus’s neck that issued an electric crackle and knocked her unconscious. The escort caught her collapsing form in his arms and heaved her into the abyss.

  Partridge was so shocked by this that he made no effort to resist when the escort did the same thing to him.

  chapter sixteen

  Pegasus

  Pegasus drifted in space. Her light diminished, the ship appeared not as a single dazzling double-diamond of light, but as a small constellation of dim stars.

  Keeler stayed in the BrainCore sections long enough to confirm what Queequeg had posited. The BrainCore and the auxiliary BrainCore were empty. Caliph was gone, and so was the old man.

  He took his travel pod back to the bridge. He would have preferred— in fact, he wanted nothing more than — to sit in his quarters and drink gin and tonic after gin and tonic until the throbbing pain in his head subdued under a thick blanket of alcoholic stupor, but he knew he had no such entitlement. He was in command of this fiasco and he had to go to the bridge and take it like a man.

  He considered that he ought to turn his command over to Executive Tyro Commander Lear. In light of the situation, she would probably demand it, anyway. Maybe he would retire to his quarters, become the ship’s historian, spend his days honoring those millions he had killed by drinking toasts to their memories, one at a time.

  When he reached primary command, Chief Engineering Lieutenant Ojala, a muscular man with mahogany skin, a bald head, and stony black eyes, reported progress in linking the communications arrays and sensors on the Aves as a substitute for Pegasus’s disabled systems. Keeler was glad he had brilliant
people on board like Ojala.

  “The non-centralized systems, environmental controls, weapons systems, communications and so forth, can be reloaded into the BrainCore.” Ojala had explained, in his throaty basso profundo. “I’ve got teams working on each, we will make this happen.”

  “What about the more complex systems? What about Navigation?”

  “We keep back-ups of all major systems in secure storage. We can reload navigation and engineering systems easily enough, but then we have to integrate them, and get Pegasus back to functioning as an organism again.”

  “How long?”

  “The process took three years the first time around, but I think we’ll be able to pull it together faster this time.”

  “How long?”

  “Pegasus is an extremely complex organism.”

  “How long?” he said, raising the volume for clarity.

  Ojala shrugged. “Eight months?”

  Keeler felt as though he had just received a long slow kick to the stomach, like his back was about to break, from the shoulders down. “Eight months before we can leave this system. Eight months of orbiting the charred remains of the civilization we destroyed.”

  “We don’t have to be in orbit, Sir.”

  “Oh, za, we would,” he slammed his walking stick against the deck. “Every day for eight months, we could look out of our viewports and see what we did, out of our stupidity and our arrogance. Think of it as an object-lesson.” He stopped there. “I’m sorry, it was not your decision. Go to, good engineer. Make my ship work again.”

  Alkema was again standing on the observation deck with his astrolabe. He made some final observations and returned to the Inner Bridge. “I think I have good news.”

  “The ship isn’t on fire?”

  “Neg, sir. We’re on course for the planet.”

  Keeler scowled. How could this be? Without the gravity engines to provide velocity in the opposite direction, Pegasus should have just continued drifting on her original heading. “How? When we knocked out the engines, we were headed away from the system.”

  “Caliph must have turned the ship around, probably about the time she fired the missiles, while we were distracted and blind.”

  “How?”

  Alkema thought the problem over. “Maneuvering thrusters maybe … or maybe the sails….”

  “The sails can only deploy in hyperspace.”

  “Neg, they’re designed to work in hyperspace, but the sails are basically just energy. We don’t use them in normal space because the gravity engines are faster and not dependent on the solar wind, but she could have deployed them, tacked to the wind…?” he paused. “Or, she might just know a few tricks we haven’t figured out.”

  “Have known,” Keeler corrected. “Caliph is gone.”

  Keeler turned to the Kayliegh Driver, who hadn’t left and was presently sitting in for the Communication Officer. “Could you summon Lt. Navigator Change to the bridge?” Driver nodded curtly and began linking to Navigator Change’s quarters, where she had gone to rest two hours earlier, leaving American in charge.

  Alkema sent a test signal along the ship’s lateral deflection array and read that it was 45% restored.

  “At least by the time we get to the planet, we should have most of the systems restored.” Keeler sighed. “All this wondrous technology crippled by the absence of an intelligent mind. Marvel at the contrast between this beautiful ship, and the burned out husk of a world we will leave behind. It was never meant to be like this.”

  Alkema shrugged “We can’t go back to Sapphire.”

  For a moment, the idea was a bright flash of hope. Za! Go back to Sapphire, to the estate on New Cleveland. Of course, eight years had passed on the planet, and it would be another eight before they got back, but on the plus side, those freshling girls who had been too young for him before would be fair game now. What would they say about him at the Lake of the Loons Country club? “See that fellow, Bill Keeler, killed a billion people, some say.”

  “I guess not,” Keeler sighed.

  Alkema turned away from his panel. “This is not your fault, sir.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “You told us not to leave the system until we had isolated the glitches. If we had stayed, we might have recognized …”

  “Za, but I didn’t stop the mission.”

  “Sir…”

  “Leave it alone.” The last thing Keeler needed was this whelp making excuses for him.

  Lt. Navigator Change regained the bridge. Her uniform was crisp, her hair neat, and she bore no indication that she had been awakened from a sound sleep. “What is it, Sir?”

  “Specialist Alkema tells me that we have somehow reversed course and are now headed for the inner system.”

  “Are the engines back on line?”

  “Neg, we think Caliph altered our course before the missiles were launched. We’re not sure how. I thought you might have some insight.”

  “We think she might have used the inter-dimensional sails,” Alkema added.

  Eliza looked slightly puzzled. She sat down at her navigation station. “That would have been unnecessarily complicated.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Sails are efficient if you’re moving away from a star, but not if you’re moving toward one. It would have been faster to use a gravitational slingshot using the natural gravity of a planet or asteroid to alter the ship’s trajectory.”

  “Is that possible with a ship this size?” Keeler asked.

  “In the guild, we used to slingshot the big ore processors all the time. All you need is a good-sized planetary body.”

  “Or just a planet with big bones,” Keeler muttered.

  Alkema leaned over the NavStation. “Could we use that same technique to pick up extra speed as we inbound toward Meridian?”

  Change was thoughtful for a second. “It’s possible, are there any planets or moons on our present course?”

  Alkema called up a display, which showed the Meridian system and the position of Pegasus. “Za, there are three planets and fourteen moons within fifteen degrees of our current heading.”

  “There’s a piece of luck,” Keeler said, finally.

  Eliza studied the display intently, holding her chin in her hand. “I can do this. I’ll plot three gravitational assists. That should effectively double our speed to the inner system. I will need control over the maneuvering thrusters for any unanticipated corrections.”

  “Unanticipated… you mean you can’t just plot this all out?”

  “I can. It’s quite simple. The Astrogation and Cartography Survey has mapped out the masses, composition, and motion of those worlds. We know the mass of the ship and we can calculate our speed.

  The basic mathematical equations are relatively straightforward. However, our data sets are not complete. Variations in the surface topography of the planets, changes in motion from objects we haven’t plotted may require us to alter course.”

  “Is there any danger?” the commander asked.

  “We can minimize the danger,” Change told him. “Bring it to an acceptable level.” Keeler frowned.”…but we can’t eliminate it?”

  “People who want complete safety don’t belong in space.”

  “Za, but neither do people who would smash this ship across the surface of an alien moon.” Eliza was steady, but firm. “You asked for a solution, I gave you one. If you want a miracle, you’ve gone to the wrong person. I’m a navigator, not a priest.”

  Technically, I didn’t ask for a solution, Keeler thought. He turned to Alkema, who was looking at him expectantly. “O.K., let’s do it. Make your calculations and lay in a course. Would you like an and/oroid to assist with the calculations?” Change shot the Prime Commander a cross look, fiercely offended. “Or not,” Keeler added.

  Kayliegh Driver, mercifully, called for his attention. “Sir, Flight Core reports launch systems are back on-line.”

  Did Keeler dare believe things were turning arou
nd? “Do we have any ships ready for launch?”

  “Three Aves standing by for launch on your command.”

  Keeler leaned into his command station. “Launch the Aves as soon as possible. They’ll serve as our eyes and ears until our sensors and comm. systems are back up. They can escort us in to the inner system.”

  Driver laid a laid her hand on a transceiver pad. “Aves Winnie, cleared for immediate launch. Railgun status enabled. Yorick and Zilla stand by.” A monitor showed the first Aves emerging from the front of the ship and streaking into space. “I see your improvised communications network is functioning effectively, Specialist Alkema.” Alkema leaned over a flight operations workstation. “Let me see how well I can receive telemetry on the Aves after launch.”

  He got his answer a few minutes later. He proudly displayed the holographic image of three Aves holding position, two above and forward, one below and aft. The aftmost Aves was the key, as it linked telemetry and communications to an Aves parked in the hangar bays, which in turn linked the data to Primary Command.

  “Relays in place, receiving telemetry,” he double-checked the readouts and scowled. “Here’s a strange.”

  “What?” Keeler asked.

  “Some kind of signal being beamed over Pegasus, enveloping the whole ship.”

  “A kind of cybernetic intelligence trying to take over our BrainCore?” Keeler asked.

  “Way beyond where I live, commander. I’ve never seen anything like it… of course, it’s not my area of expertise. I’ll send it through Technical Core for analysis.”

  “Can it affect the Aves?”

  Alkema shrugged. “It doesn’t seem to be.”