by Grant Fausey
"Sir," said Zero Four Five, "The Submariner has been diverted to Orgus two, remember?"
Trinod Rex looked oddly at the mechanical. He loved the western accent the system had given his companions. Trinod shook his head and continued on his way. He looked down the corridor to where the cargo holds where being loaded on the great star cruiser, Earthcore Two.
"You all have a good day, ya hear?" echoed Tee Two's voice from behind. Trinod nodded, looked behind him as he smiled a half smile. "You too, Tee two." The Tripodal rolled away, squeezing a tube of lube into his mouth.
"Awe," he said, "Now that hit the spot." Trinod grinned, wavering as he walked away, stepping lively along the length of the travel tube that connected the maintenance facility corridor to the lab. "All right, Four Five..." he continued on the move. "Let's get down to business. Main Frame set up a simulation for me. I want a time warp distortion field established with lateral movement effects. Display in the maintenance lab holo-sphere."
The maintenance facility darkened and a swirling mass appeared in the center of the bay. Trinod walked around the projection, looking it over carefully. Zero Four Five slipped down off the transit rail, lowering himself in front of the projection.
"Okay, Main Frame," said Trinod. "Elongate the fusion center and show me the lateral movement in the vortex." The projected image of the time distortion vortex separated, showing the movement of two different thresholds. One was the transit field. The other moving clockwise was the event horizon of the future wave corridor, and it was moving in a counter clockwise rotation.
"Introduce the normal passage distortion, Mains," requested Zero Four Five. "Then freeze the shifting field."
The shifting field appeared in the center of the vortex as a stream of swirling and pulsating waves. The image froze, stopping its movement. Trinod reached through the projection for a moment, to the center of the vortex. Trinod pointed out a point of rotation then backed away from the image. He stood on the opposite side of the room, in the shadow of the support structure of tall grids and girders.
"Here's my idea," he said candidly to Zero Four Five. "If the distortion field was disrupted by Jennifer's passage then the shifting field would have been altered." He thought for a moment. "That has to be why we had inter-dimensional disruption in the field. The shock wave was reflected back."
Zero Four Five computed the information. "But what caused the disruption?"
"That's why Jake had such a rough ride," said Trinod stroking his beard.
"The field's distortion waves formed a cone, and that interfered with directional guidance. Jennifer's craft went out of control."
Trinod knelt down, looking up at the projection from below. The colors from the holographic image reflected on his face and in his eyes as he concentrated on the situation. The only thing he wasn't sure of was this new wave that entered the simulation. "I'm not sure what caused the disruption," he said to Zero Four Five. Zero Four Five stopped the projection, turned to face Trinod in the shadows.
"What's this new wave we see here? The one entering the threshold..."
"I don't know," answered Trinod Rex. He pointed up to the projection with a small mechanical hand. "Here's the tip of the new waves' cone..." said Zero Four Five, continuing his computations, "...and if Jennifer's shifting field formed another cone, that would explain the inverted shockwave. It would have sent a shock wave backwards in time, but not with the direction of this new wave.
Trinod began to add two and two together. And it didn't add up to four. "This has to be an artificially introduced future wave corridor," continued Zero Four Five, "but where did it come from, and why? Who knew the exact moment of impact before it happened."
"Wait a minute..." declared Trinod Rex. "If you're correct, and Jake's field generators were operating at the time, the wake automatically would have created an inversion field behind him." Trinod paused, did some calculating of his own. The ideas were correlating in his mind.
"And that would mean..." Zero Four Five interrupted, sending out a news flash, "...if the whale was close enough to the point of departure. It may have been hit by the wake of the inversion wave, then counter struck by this one in the inverted cone."
"And that would have sent the whale forward in time, not backwards! But to where?" continued Trinod Rex, making his point with a point of his finger. "The second distortion wave had to originate out side of the universe.”
“How is that possible?" Zero Four Five didn't have a clue.
"Gotcha!" announced Trinod boldly! Zero Four Five spun around. "Accessing,” he answered a little confused. "Main Frame," yelled the scientist. "Patch me through to twenty-nine. I want to talk to Jake Stern, right away!"
Trinod's voice echoed over the intercommunication device in a strong, steady verbalization. "Jake..." he shouted, "set your course for the future. We'll be able to give you a steer to the whale's location. But be careful. You could jump universes in the process."
"Understood," answered Jake.
Jennifer sat forward in the lower seat, and plotted a course––one that would take them forward in time. Jake throttled up the ship's engines. "We're transferring the data now," continued Trinod Rex. "Good luck."
Jennifer monitored the transmission, making minor adjustments to the ships NAV computer as the coordinates plotted a series of possible locations. The search was on. "Up-link complete..." said Jennifer. "According to the profiles I've just transferred, we've a clear shot. Ready for transit."
"All right then," said Jake. "Here we go!"
The tracker pivoted, retracting its extended arms as they secured in place under the belly of the ship. The hum of the tracker's motors whined hard as the field generators displaced the space-time continuum. Then in a blur, the tracker leaped forward, streaking out across the horizon in a spectacular departure. The machine rocketed through the shifting field vortex, vanishing into the distortion waves as the evening sky swirled in two directions.
– 13 –
THE PACKAGE
• • •
THE THIRD UNIVERSE
THIRD DIMENSION
Tia paced back and forth along the edge of the jungle, where her starship met the energy fields that protected her from the predators outside the compound. Another distortion wave had cut across the horizon only moments before, and now, much to her chagrin, something or someone had moved the empty cryogenics chamber outside of the ship, resting it on the ground in front of her. The black and sliver tube, covered with freshly cut brush and leaves, had been moved nearly fifty feet from its original position. Tia stared at the chamber, trying to ascertain the situation. Her personal search had taken her on an excursion of her own thoughts, leaving her wondering whether or not her passenger had simply disappeared, or if he had escaped the crash to find his way into the jungle.
Samuel Nomad, the very special package destined for Oceanna; the famed water world on the far side of the Netherlands Nexus, had vanished, but why? Tia figured if he had escaped the crash, and made it into the protective cover of the jungle, he may have found himself at the threshold of the Nexusphere that rare location were the universe crisscrossed itself in a convergence of both space and time. Here was the berth, created by the intersection of an amalgamation––A place where conjunctions coursed the avenues of all possibilities. If Samuel had indeed crossed into the Nexusphere, and found himself in the one place in the universe where he, as an individual, could move from one existence to another then he had stepped beyond the dimensional boundaries, which separated one universe from another and into the unknown.
Here, on this world of mining rigs and desolate, wind foraged lands, the doorway existed, and along with it, came the one opportunity whereby Samuel Nomad could move from one future to the next, traversing the universes of the past as well as those of the present. The possibilities were as infinite as the number of universes the Nexusphere crossed. This was the haven were all time was thought to exist; where all possible futures collided in a conjunction that sepa
rated them to form the one true world of a universe within a universe. A place history called New Haven America.
Tia didn't like the odds, though. The Alpha Renettas were a very secretive group. Nothing they did ever escaped the secrecy of the organization. If the occupant of the cryogenics chamber had been anything but an Alpha Renettean Tia would have felt safer, but he wasn't. Samuel Nomad was what she feared the most an individual manufacture with a single purpose: A dignitary no one was to know existed.
Here was a secret prize the Industries would kill for, Tia cringed, a professor's son being transported in cryogenic suspension wasn't an unusual task, but a hero was. This was something so unusual, she hid it in her logs. Trinod Rex had agreed to transport the cargo. There were no details, no entries to be scanned by Industrial spies. No plans that had to be altered. Rex was often involved in deals that needed to be kept secret. That was how he managed to save Senator Jacob Mantell from the clutches of the Industries. Without his intervention the elderly Senator would have found himself at the hands of death. Instead, he found himself in a plot to save the Galactic Senate. Most of the Senators from the Athinian capital had been transported via cargo whale to Oceanna. But only a select few had survived. Thanks to Trinod Rex and his tiny band of desperadoes and, of course, the Haulers.
They were the eyes and ears of the universe, moving to and fro in an exercise of patients that saved humanity from itself and its worse enemies, including the Industries. Only a select few were still en route. Some aboard transports destined to Orgus Three. Others, only Rex himself knew the whereabouts. Not even Tia had been informed. It was her responsibility to get the cargo, whatever it was: dignitaries, dinosaurs or even biogenetic materials to the connecting flights across the heavens. Very rarely had the opportunity arisen to have a venue of travelers transferred to a high tech jumpship like they had done with Lightship One. The Industries revolutionary advanced tactical reconnaissance starship had been ripped away from the confines of the Company and placed into the protective hands of the republicans. The rebel leaders had managed to get a foothold with a duplicate crew, replacing the originals just hours before the madden voyage departure.
The plan was foolproof and executed with precision timing. Only the Cat woman Ree ta had fell victim to the enemy. Legend dictated that the esteemed bounty hunters Crimson and Indigo, the henchman of the Industries had been involved in the counterplot. It was a shady deal that exercised the talents of the universe, helping humanity to survive one day longer. The Industries designs on the future, a perfect plan to eliminate the human race from existence forever. But with the facts uncovered by a tiny group of Senators, and the initiation of a counterplot, the future of the universe was given a new direction into the darkness Trithen Kellnar and his cloned replicant counterparts bestowed upon humanity.
The future was being rewritten, decomposed, then reconstructed in the regenerated form of a new matrix. A course designed by Industries. One filled with replicants, counterplots and secrets so secret not even the high council of the Industries knew of their existence. Dr. Reta Jordan and Reil Ben Tolar (Reuben Taylor) found a way to right the course using the DNA using twin sisters. A counterplot of their own initiation, a course within a course, but the attempt failed. According to the legends, the twin sisters escaped unharmed across the threshold of the Nexusphere. Heroines, such as Rune Linka, the famed Liaison Officer of the old republic were destined to give birth to new ideals and ideas: A trek leading the way into the unknown. Together these icons became the inspiration of a generation, an entire culture of living machine replicants. Soul searching, these replicants triggered an unstoppable desire for knowledge, self discovery and a spiritual research that lead to the launched of a analysis project destined to cross the stars. For the first time, Living machines were searching for something they would likely never find the creator of machine kind. From this soul searching spawned a special breed of living machines. Teams called Trods, which searched the universe for the legendary supercomputer, which was the true founder of the Industries––The metaphysical creator of the machine race.
The research uncovered something more than they had hoped for, and with the discovery of this new Source, came a place in the universe legend called New Haven. A universe within a universe the Netherlands Nexus, a Nexusphere were everything existed on a single plane. It was said this was the world were life began. History called it the garden in the Eden sector. Still, no one knew for sure. The three expeditions to find the one world universe of the Triad had failed. Just as Tia's mission had failed. Again, as the young pilot stood there, the universe changed.
"Let's see..." Tia said to herself. This time she was somewhat pensive. "What can we use out of this mess?" She dug a little deeper, pushing aside the cryogenics chamber.
"What are we going to need?" There were no answers. Tia didn't know what she was looking for; what she had been looking for. It was a touchy kind of day. She pushed aside the burned out remains of a panel and pulled the transmitter off the top of the cryogenics chamber, removing it.
"All right," she stated happily. The instrument was intact. "Yeah," she continued. "This will do nicely. Now, if we can just get it to work." She thought for a moment: hesitated even. This was not what she had been doing moments ago. No. She tried to remember … stretched her memories as far as she could … something was different! She could feel it. Something had changed.
"Okay," she said finally. "We're going to need a power source. But what?" Tia stood up and looked around. The interior of her derelict tug was a wreck. The rear of the compartment was filled with locker like storage containers. Most of which had been destroyed during the initial impact, which she still couldn't seem to remember. The rest of her ship was a charbroiled mess, useless. Most of the walls were missing. Several of the containers had burst open during the crash. Others had sprung open due to stress, torsion and any number of reasons. The hull was cracked and cinder filled. But still, a few of the containers remained closed. Secured for eternity the contents still intact.
Tia pushed open an overhead compartment door and pulled down the last remaining storage container, dropping it to the floor. The case hit hard, crumbling on one edge. Tia hoped the instrument packages were undamaged. She had let go of it during the fall, guiding it path to the floor for the slightest moment. It was all she could do to hold on to the container. She had done the best she could. Nothing could’ve softened the impact. The instrument package was too heavy, in fact, much heavier than she intended to lift. She opened the lid, and laid the half broken container on its side. The other half fell open on its own, then, resting along the opposite side of the container. She searched into the interior and pulled out a small black box.
"Maybe..." she said to herself, announcing her intentions to the universe. It was a good choice. Tia looked it over, giving the black box a close inspection. There were no major cracks in the case. That in itself was a relief. Second, she inspected the latches; everything seemed tight. "This just might do it," she said, continuing her conversation with herself.
She smiled. She had done it. Managed to drop the case and walk away with a usable piece of equipment. She held the six-centimeter by six-centimeter box in front of her face, and stared at it until she could almost see the glow of its power source inside. "Now," she reiterated. "If I can only get enough power out of it for an intermittent signal. It should be enough for someone crossing the zone to pick it up."
"Open the shields will you, Self?" she asked in a demanding tone of voice.
"What are you planning, Tia?" The question was an easy one to answer.
“Attempting to make a homing beacon,” she answered. It was obvious the ship’s transmitter was destroyed in the crash. No one had rescued her, so it was time to make an adjustment or two. This was the first. "Just a little rescue party of my own Self, that's all." She didn't wait for his reply. "Come on," she said. "We've work to do."
"I'm right behind you," answered the nondescript voice, happily follo
wing her direction. "I'm all around you as a matter of fact."
"That's good to know, Self," she said eagerly. She wasn't sure whether or not she had decided the entity was good and kind or whether the universe had decided it for her, making the alteration in one of its mood shifts. Somehow the being had befriended her. That was all she really knew. He or It was a friend. Still, there were times she felt like a prisoner.
"Transmitter operational," asked the Self.
"Yes," answered Tia.
"Good."
There was still the feeling of uncertainty; the unknown. She needed to find a way home. If nothing more, she had to find a way to the horizon. Curiosity had the best of her. She knew all that she had to do was run, but she couldn't.
A wind had come up strong behind her like the hot breath of a beast. It curled around her, engulfed her in a whirlwind that changed the sky, the trees, and the surface below her feet: Everything around her rippled in the distortion wave of another shift in the universe. The device dropped from her hands. She could hear the calling, the voices in the distance.
The thunder of civilization…
The sonance in her mind, calling her just as loud, the beeping and bleeping as the device was intended to do. The universe was calling and she was answering.
The distortion wave crossed the starship, rushing out into infinite space. Tia's body vaporized in the wake of the wave, crushing hard against the Self as the entity turned to face the wind. The being looked deep into the patterns that echoed the creation of a new universe then stepped out into oblivion himself.
Alone.
– 14 –
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
• • •
THE THIRD UNIVERSE
THIRD DIMENSION