Solstice 31: The Solstice 31 Saga, Books 1,2,3

by Martin Wilsey

  “Why are you telling us this now?” Rand asked.

  “When a ship is flying at .9999 the speed of light it does not need shields. It has a density and mass so high it cannot be measured.” Wex said absently.

  “Grav-drives don't work that way. They move through normal spacing a series of small Quantum Leaps. It's perceived velocity. Not actual velocity. As we are currently moving through space, we are destroying any and all things in out path. If we were traveling under Grav-drive, We would be skipping through normal space at the velocity and direction we were already moving. It looks like we are accelerating. We are not.”

  “I ask again. Why are you telling us this?” Rand said more firmly this time.

  “Today I will show you the other hangar decks. They are full of ships. All kinds of ships. Ships that Iosin has been collecting for centuries. Not as ships. But I believe as weapons.”

  “Shit,” Hume said.

  ***

  Wex led them all to a lift at the back wall of the hangar. It was one of many, including one that the STU could fit inside. There no sense of motion inside the lift and no controls. Wex had simply said. “Crew quarters,” and the door slid shut.

  A minute later it opened on a large round common room, fifteen meters across, with a large round table in the center. It could seat twenty easily. The room had a counters and cabinets all the way around. A wide corridor was opposite the lift that went straight back into darkness.

  “Look like made by artist, not engineer.” Kuss said as she began to navigate around the room with her hand drifting over the blond wood counter. The walls behind the counter looked like glass that contained a waterfall. It was illuminated.

  “The textures and materials all look like they are impossibly natural and... damn this is clean,” Elkin said. Approaching the table, she realized the center of the table was turning slowly.

  Wex said opening a cabinet that turned out to be a modern fridge. It was full of fruit and juice.

  ***

  Barcus laid back on a massive sofa on the bridge. His eyes were closed, but Po knew he wasn't sleeping.

  Now and then he would speak to her with his eyes closed. Po knew he was just reassuring her as best he could.

  A voice spoke. It seemed to come from all around her. It was quiet and soothing and spoke very slowly, in a matronly female voice.

  “So you are the one they all fear? The savage killing thing that they knew would come, but not that they had made.” She paused, “No need to worry, he rests now, truly.”

  “Who are you? Where are you?” Po said, showing no fear.

  “I am Iosin. I am all around you; you are within me.” She answered.

  “No one fears me. It's him.” Po pointed to Barcus. “He is the fierce one. I have seen it.”

  “He is the witness. He sees all along the line now. He knows what you are and still he loves you. He knows what you...”

  “Stop,” Barcus said coolly, and Iosin fell silent. He opened his eyes and smiled, “I think someone is making pancakes.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:

  Speed

  “I never would have believed it had I not been on the ship myself. We were back in just seeming days. Nineteen months gone by in a flash. I hate relativistic travel. That's for prison ships.”

  --Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Captain James Worthington, senior surviving member of the Ventura's command crew.

  <<<>>>

  The lift door slid open, and laughter washed over them.

  “Barcus!” the shout went up. He smiled to cover the thought he had about Peck's Halfway. Everyone’s favorite bar on the Ventura.

  “Sit. Sit. Eat.” Kuss guided them to open seats at the table. She had a pan in one hand and a flat utensil in the other. Conversation was loud and cheerful. Peter Muir poured coffee and juice for them both as everyone called greetings.

  Soon they had plates of pancakes and syrup and ham. There were bowls of fresh cut fruit of several kinds.

  “You lot seem well rested,” Barcus smiled.

  “They are under orders to have a full breakfast because we are getting back to work as soon as we can,” Worthington said.

  “There are maintenance spiders swarming over the ships we hear. All sizes. Maybe millions of them this time. Some of them can fabricate natively.” Jimbo smiled, “It is freaking Muir out just a bit watching it.”

  “Wex says they will be done in two days,” Elkin add through a mouth full of syrup covered ham. “The Memphis won't have FTL, but all three reactors will be back on line. Even the engine bells are being restored.”

  “I have told them to remove the ship Ident transmitter. Somehow they even know where it is.” Barcus said.

  “Why pull the Ident?” Worthington asked.

  “If the powers that be get so much as whiff, that the Memphis is back, we'd be shot down on sight,” Barcus said.

  “Considering that is the standard procedure for any ship with no ident code what do we do?” Worthington asked.

  “We make a stop on Mars and get a couple new ones,” Barcus said.

  “You ever been to Mars before?” Rand asked, “If you aren't careful they will slit your throats and just take your ship after they eat your unfinished breakfast.”

  “I lived there for eleven years,” Barcus replied. “It will be fine. I just need to extract some of the plutonium for trading.”

  “I know a place that will trade for Ident codes and pay a big price for a Javelin warhead. Gold if you want.” Rand said, and the room became quiet.

  “An intact Javelin warhead?” Worthington said. “How the hell would you know people like that?”

  “Look they don't trade weapons to people that would use them in the Sol system. That would be bad for business.” Rand said through a mouth full of pancakes, “They sell to security forces that hire out to the colonies. Nothing to worry about.”

  “You didn't answer the question.” Hume followed up.

  Rand put down he fork and wiped her mouth with a cloth napkin. “Look. After the war, the pendulum swing went so far as banning the manufacture and sale of nukes on Earth. The chancellor made sure every nuke of every class was under his direct control.” She looked around at the quiet room. “It appeased many who kept their heads in the sand. Tens of millions were still out there in the fleet, the colonies, everywhere.”

  “Just like the couple hundred we have in the hold,” Barcus said.

  “Yes.” Rand looked back at Worthington. “Freedom station is only free because it can defend itself. Mostly.” Rand faltered. “Now that a small ship can fly into anything and near the speed of light Nothing is safe really.”

  “A ship traveling at relativistic speed can take out a planet.” Barcus, “Nukes keep everyone polite. Even pirates.”

  “The salvage teams are the new pirates,” Cook said. It started off a debate about property rights, and the room came alive with conversation again.

  “Rand, are you sure you can trust these people?” Worthington asked her, “We are on thin enough ice here already.”

  “Yes. Mostly because it's not a person. It's an A.I. an old one.” She said.

  Po was listening to the conversation but watching Barcus. He was tucking into a huge plate of food. She knew that the higher his fever was, the more he had to eat. She could feel the heat pouring off him where she sat to his left.

  “You know how it will all happen.” This was a whispered statement, “You need to show more interest. It's not the Barcus they know.”

  Barcus stopped eating for a moment and looked at her. “Your hair is so short now.”

  Po blushed and pushed it behind her ear, the one with the bigger scar. “Will you always make me keep it long?”

  “I'm not sure I could make you do anything” he smiled then, a true smile, “No, I am sure. I will never be able to make you do anything ever.” He leaned in for a kiss. She tasted maple syrup on his lips.

  “I told you he was feeling better.�
�� Hume laughed as she elbowed Rand.

  ***

  After breakfast, Barcus invited Worthington to the bridge of the Iosin.

  “You call this a bridge?” Worthington said trying to grasp the scale of the room he was in. “This is like a basketball stadium.”

  The dome of the room glowed a gentle white for a minute as the walked to the circle of couches. “Just wait,” Barcus said as the entered the circle of couches.

  The dome turned to sky. They were among the stars now. Worthington could now sense the motion. The stars moving by as if they were lights in windows of distant buildings.

  “We are no longer traveling relativistically. Time passes normally now. We just are not passing through every point in space/time,” He looked around as nebula's drifted by, “Our literal velocity is actually only a few hundred kilometers per hour.” Backus laughed, “I don't know why it's funny.”

  “Can you show me any tactical data? All this is beautiful, but I am still lost.” Jumbo asked.

  “Sure,” Barcus said as the sky filled with data. There were labels and paths marked everywhere. Regions were overlaid with clouds of color indicating hazards, areas of colonial influence, trade routes, colony stations, and a hundred other data types. “What would you like?”

  “Let's start with a simple map of where we are and where we are going and when. Two dimensions is fine for now.” He asked.

  A giant zenith galaxy wheel appeared. It zoomed in a showed their current location as they moved. Zooming in more their path became evident all the way to Sol.

  Worthington pointed, “If I am reading this right we will park here in the asteroid cloud near this.” He pointed, “Why there?”

  “It will allow the Iosin to park and stay hidden. Remember it's sort of big, and scary and well, big.” Barcus said, “Here it is on the Mars side of the solar system. Earth is in fact on the opposite side of the sun from here. We will go to mars in the Sedna.”

  ***

  Barcus stayed on the bridge. He was reclined on the sofas fully engulfed in outer space. Even though the ship was massive, it made Barcus feel tiny and insignificant in the universe. He could feel the solar winds and taste the radiation of pulsars. There were a hundred other sensations his new senses brought to him.

  Including his future.

  Does the ability to sense the fourth dimension trouble you, Barcus? Iosin asked in his mind.

  It's not the sensing; it's about fidelity. Some things are so very clear. Others vague. Most troubling is knowing I can't change any of it and that I actually made it all happen knowing that. Barcus thought to Iosin, not knowing how.

  I'm sorry they will die. Truly I am. Iosin said into his mind with more emotion than he knew could be conveyed. You know why I picked you? And not her?

  Because she is the monster. Barcus answered honestly. He was well past all lies, even to himself, The one the prophet was wrong about. The one ALL the prophets were wrong about. Barcus said with sadness.

  All the prophets... but you.

  Why do I remember all the conversations I will have with you so clearly? Barcus asked. But not this.

  Because when you can see in four dimensions, there is no regret, no worry, no fear. You only see what happens. Not what you think. Not inside your mind.

  It's not the same for all?

  For some, eternity is not kind. If their natures are vain, cruel or unhappy, all their lives are a tiresome burden. Eternity a cruelty, awound that doesn’t heal.

  And what about you, Iosin? You know that I know your secret, and it remains so only at my whim.

  Yes.

  Will I see you again beyond my long white?

  Whatever I said, I could be lying. I so enjoy a good lie when I can manage one...

  ***

  Worthington was standing in the hangar next to Kuss, Rand and Hume watching as the ship’s hull final touches were being restored.

  “Imagine the money we could make if this was a shipyard,” Worthington said with awe. “It's bigger than any that exist anywhere. Did you see that other bay? There were hundreds of ships in there already. The salvage rights on the colony ships alone would make us all rich beyond belief. Dead, But rich.”

  “Thinking of retiring after this is over Captain?” Hume asked Jimbo, half in jest.

  “Why the hell don’t we forget all this and stay here?” Muir asked.

  “I need to find my family. I haven't spoken to them in almost two years now. I'm not sure my youngest girl will even remember me.” Worthington echoed again. Knowing he was putting them in danger by returning. He remembered Barcus said it would be all right in the end. Jimbo had no idea why he believed him.

  “The spiders make stomach queasy. They like elves for shoemaker. Magic. Do all work.” Kuss said in disapproving tone. “These things ruin civilization.”

  “How do you figure? We have bots help with tons of stuff now.” Hume said.

  “Make people lazy. Stupid. Forget. Everything.” She spat out the words, “Make slaves of man. Make so can't live without.”

  The view outside the hangar shifted. The sky became bright with the cloud of the milky way, and everyone could see the Orion constellation as they descended into the asteroid belt. They were not thick here, and they were close to the edge with the hangar bay facing the sun. The hangar window adjusted perfectly to the level of brightness.

  “We're home,” Hume said as she unconsciously stepped close. “It's Sol?”

  Wex answered. “Yes.” She looked up at the Sedna as the spider bots flowed from it converting themselves to pallets again at the sides of the hangar. “I have done all I could. That was the easy part.” She turned without another word and walked up the freshly cleaned ramp of the Sedna as if she owned it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:

  The Vast Hiding

  “The size of things in space is at a scale that few humans can comprehend. We were in the largest ship in the system, the galaxy maybe, and we just settled into an obscure part of the belt and supinely we are a needle in a haystack.”

  --Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Engineer Wes Hagan, senior surviving engineer of the Ventura's.

  <<<>>>

  Hagan was on the Sedna command deck when they settled into the belt. He stood mesmerized at the windows facing the hangar door.

  “How do the asteroids just flow around the ship? No collisions with the ship. No sending them off in all directions. The Iosin just shoves them aside a bit. But they stay put,” Hagan said.

  “The Iosin has very fine gravity controls,” Wex said to him as they stood watching. “Very fine and very powerful.”

  “You really are one of them?” Wes stated more than questioned. “Ralta asked me to tell you something,”

  Wex looked at him like she already knew what he would say. He said it away.

  “She wanted to die. To end, once she knew she could.”

  “We all do,” Wex said. “But it lies within the long white.”

  “She said to tell you, It's beautiful, the letting go of it.” Hagan said, “The unspoken lies to ourselves.”

  ***

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Hume said when Worthington asked for a security assessment of their plan. “So just to restate this plan to make sure I have it right.” She began ticking off fingers, “We are going to an illegal outpost. One that’s a toxic waste depot that was closed over a hundred years ago because it was so contaminated.”

  “Two,” she ticked up another finger. “We are going in without radioing ahead. Flying in to a place you say sells weapons. No warning.”

  “Three,” she literally rolled her eyes, “Did I mention that it is contaminated with radiation, toxic waste poisons, and maybe bio hazards.”

  “Four,” She lifted the finger slowly. “You plan on walking in there in Earth Defense Force Warmarks. War Machines, the kind they would send to destroy the place if what you say is true about it.”

  “Five,” she help up her hand
high, “You will be hand carrying nuclear warhead from a Javelin So they can see it.”

  “Six,” she held up the middle finger of her right hand, “All this in front of their main security cams and likely automated defense sentries.”

  There was a pause as everyone stared at Hume.

  “That just about covers it.” Rand was nodding at Worthington for confirmation.

  “Standard smuggler protocol. No RF. Let them see us pants down.” Kuss said.

  “If they don't like the looks of us they just never open the blast doors.” Rand added, “I think we should make the Warmarks less professional.”

  “How?” Worthington asked.

  “Do we still have that paint?” Rand smiled.

  ***

  Worthington decided that they would take Stu and only four people and four Warmarks. The team would include Worthington, Rand, Hume, and Hagan. Barcus declined to go. There is nothing worse than puking in a suit. They all knew it.

  By the time Hagan had the Javelin missile dissembled and the warhead ready to go they had already painted fierce looking faces on the fronts of the Warmarks. One was a skull in white with no lower jaw elongated teeth. Rand said it was from a classic graphic novel that she could not remember the title. Hume did hers in bright red. It was just small squinting eyes and a screaming toothy mouth. The red paint ran like blood from the lower teeth. Worthington painted a single blue eye. It was rather disturbing to look upon.

  Hagan arrived with the warhead. It took Muir, Cook, and Kuss to help him carry it. It was heavier than it looked. Safely loading it and securing it on to the STU, took a few minutes. Hagan then took a can of yellow paint and made a simple smiley face. Everyone sobered at the memory of Peace and Olias.