“We just passed through the near Earth SJS gate,” Lady Bhool sighed, allowing the depressed catillians to rub against an extended finger, “and from the ABF Ruisia’s estimates, we are on course for the Earth star system. If we continue at full speed we will arrive in about a day and a half, or about 26 hours, Your Grace,” she paused, staring intently into Sasha’s eyes. “I believe it is time we fully disregard the auspice that we are no longer “certain” of Duke Zehman’s involvement,” Knight Admiral Bhool’s voice trembled, seeming to have difficulty restraining her fury, its blaze simmering within her gaze.
“Yes,” Sasha locked her fingers before her chest, “Duke Zehman is definitely responsible...but I still cannot fathom what he would gain in my death,” Sasha’s response lacked emotion, her mind still stuck in the cold embrace of her failure.
“Is there anyone besides you who could stop him, Lady Sasha?” Regalia asked so daintily that Sasha didn't react at first, thinking it may have been her imagination.
“That may just be the case, Your Grace,” Knight Admiral Bhool nodded her thanks to Regalia, before turning back to Sasha. “The traitorous guards would have most certainly sent word to their true lord when they learned of your plan to change course to Earth,” she started to caress the catillians, her expression darkening, “ and the duke, like other ruling nobles of similar affiliation, will not sit idly by and allow an adversary, which you became the moment you denied his request and decided to intervene on behalf of the TSB, to play their hand if he has pieces in place to avoid such an outcome,”
It all made sense. She didn't even attempt to keep her orders secret and anyone, guards, servants, or crew, could have easily found out about their sudden change of destination and the reasoning behind it. Knight Admiral Bhool cleared her throat, expression turning serious.
“Your Grace,” she leaned forward, letting her chin rest on locked fingers, “Sasha, I think it may be time to discuss the possibility of sabotaging the ABF Princess One and escaping on the ferry shuttle.” Sasha’s head shot up, fire burning away the ice that had overtaken her mind as Lady Bhool’s suggestion fully registered.
“If you can find a way to fit 16 people onboard, plus save the two hostages, I may consider your proposition,” she snapped, fury building in her heart. Too many had already died because of her, because of her mistakes!
“Your Grace,” Lady Bhool slammed a fist upon the table, “the king has provided you authority to act in his stead to stop Duke Zehman, you must remember this, since he would not provide such power, even to his daughter, lightly,” she leaned back, her voice calming, “you are the highest authority in Alutia, and you...and only you, Sasha...have the power to stop whatever it is Duke Zehman is planning, that I can only assume is something that will not only damage Alutia, but galaxy 189 itself,” she waved a hand in the air before them, “further proven by this reckless assassination attempt that could so easily be traced back to the duke himself. A man such as he does not make such decisions lightly, since even his closest allies will be reluctant to openly support an assassination of a princess or grand duchess,” she leaned forward, placing a gloved hand atop Sasha’s, “the crew and officers have swore their lives to you, Sasha, and if these lives must be sacrificed so you can complete your mission, then we must seriously consider this option,” Lady Bhool gazed into her eyes, and Sasha found her explanation made sense, but she had already made up her mind.
“I realize this, Lady Bhool, but I will not consider sacrificing more lives until every option has been discussed!” Lady Bhool, like Sasha, slid to the edge of her seat, prepared to snap her response, but held her tongue, taking a deep, calming breath while reaching out to her concerned catillian.
“Very well, Your Grace,” she started, resigned, “but I will not take the option off the board, and if you have not found a solution before we rendezvous with the Hulk'Zif Battle Fleet, then I will force you into the ferry shuttle with one hand while holding a detonator in the other!” Sasha knew Lady Bhool spoke no lies, and that she was overmatched by the old admiral.
“Very well,” she sighed after holding Lady Bhool’s gaze for a moment longer. She reached out to Terra, finding that in the fiery exchange, the worst of her despair had past.
They sat in silence, the tension of minutes before lingering in the air, until Sasha straightened, a crazy idea coming to mind. She doubted it would work, but she had to find out.
“Gil'Da,” she turned to her old servant and tutor, “could you go and fetch Senior Deck Engineer Tho'Mos...and if he isn't on duty, bring him here,”
“Of course, Your Grace,” Gil'Da bowed before hurrying from the officer’s mess. The three ladies all looked at her inquisitively.
“Sasha? You know you can’t hide anything from me,” Tiana said while leaning close, obviously expecting to garner a response. Sasha ignored her goading, and went back to poking at her meal.
“Fine,” Tiana muttered with a huff as she leaned back, a forced pout on her lips. Lady Bhool and Regalia glanced at each other, an unspoken word passing between the two at the exchange. A minute later, Tho'Mos entered, bowing stiffly.
“Your Grace asked for me?” Tho'Mos said with a wide, toothy grin. Sasha put down her spoon and looked up at the older man, with long, bone white hair, and wrinkled skin that told he was well over 200 years old.
“An idea has come to me and I thought you would be in the best position to be able to explain if it would work,” Sasha told.
“You honor me, Your Grace,” Tho'Mos nodded, his curious stare joining those of her companions.
“The atmospheric production facility is located in engineering correct?” asked Sasha.
“Yes, Your Grace,” Tho'Mos responded instantly, “and I think I know what you're thinkin', if we try to turn off the atmosphere to the rest of the starship, the backup systems will kickin’, which are located in each department and inaccessible to us,” Sasha nodded, having figured as much, but she wasn't thinking of turning off the atmosphere.
“That thought did occur to me, but after recalling the method the assassin tried to use,” Tho’Mos’s eyes went wide, “I was thinking more along the lines of introducing an “agent” of some sort into the air supply, perhaps allowing us to put everyone to sleep?” she found the idea sounded ridiculous as she voiced it, but Tho'Mos seemed to consider it, tilting his head in thought, before slapping his leg.
“By Origin, that could work!” Tho'Mos forgot himself, but Sasha didn't mind. Lady Bhool cleared her throat.
“I see a few problems with this plan, Your Grace. Mainly, the scrubbers and the foreign agent alarms. If we introduce a foreign agent at the main atmosphere production facility, the scrubbers will remove it immediately, and if we introduce it further into the system, the foreign agent alarms will create a similar situation to if we turned off the atmosphere all together,” Lady Bhool explained.
“I see,” Sasha’s head drooped, having expected as much. But Tho'Mos stood, rubbing his jaw, seeming to still be considering her suggestion.
“ I shoud' be able to alter the code,” he started, his voice low like he was talking to himself, “for the foreign agent alarms to recognize it as normal, everyday air,” he looked up, seeming ready to repeat himself, but held his tongue when he realized he was speaking his thoughts. Sasha and Lady Bhool shot up at once to speak.
“That's impossible,” Lady Bhool won the race, “the detection list is hardcoded into the starship’s primary matrix system. You'd have to create a bypass within the primary system with a diagnostic matrix, then isolate the coding and do a complete manual rewrite. It would take weeks, if not months outside of refit,” Lady Bhool blustered. Sasha's heart fell again, finding she'd jumped out of her seat in excitement, where Lady Bhool had still been thinking logically. But to her surprise, Tho'Mos just grinned, like he had a secret he couldn't help but share.
“Ah, my apologies, ma’am,” he saluted to Lady Bhool when he noticed her glare, “that would normally be true on most stars
hips, but here, on this particula’ starship we have somethin’ that will allow us to bypass that ol' little problem,” Tho'Mos now had everyone's undivided attention and seemed to be relishing in the fact.
“Which is?” It was Tiana that called him out first.
“Vin, My Lady,” Tho’Mos replied while bowing and saluting at the same time, “It can patch me directly into the primary matrix to allow me to do the codin’ without having to remove anything or perform a bypass with a diagnostic matrix,” Sasha spun towards Lady Bhool, who could only stare at Tho'Mos in disbelief.
“Vin! Is this true?” Sasha asked without looking for a PDU. A bronze sphere appeared above the center of the table, being projected from somewhere Sasha couldn't guess.
“Yes, Grand Duchess Sasha Alutia. This is well within my capabilities. I am, however, unable to assist with the altering of the code itself or become directly involved in the current conflict on the ABF Princess One,” Sasha looked back at Tho'Mos, unable to hide her concern.
“Don't you worry, Your Grace. I can have that system rewritten in a couple a days,” Sasha felt the blood drain from her face.
“Make it a day, Senior Deck Engineer,” Knight Admiral Bhool broke in.
“Very well, Countess Bhool,” Tho'Mos grinned widely while saluting.
That was the first time Sasha had heard Knight Admiral Bhool's noble title, which was usually only used in non-military social situations, but could also be used in place of her military title, since it carried the same respect. Tho'Mos bowed again to the rest of the noble ladies before rushing from the officer's mess.
“Do you think he can finish in time?” Sasha looked back towards Lady Bhool. “Cutting an entire day seems to be asking too much,” voicing her concern.
“One thing you must know about engineers, Your Grace,” Lady Bhool leaned forward, a tight grin on her lips. “They always triple the time required to perform a job. Not because they are lazy, but because they know something could, and most likely will, go wrong. So remember, if the work is urgent and within a third of their quoted time, they will usually not complain if you ask for them to rush,” Sasha let out a confused sigh, feeling her concern fade slightly, but not completely vanish. She looked up at the expectant faces that surrounded her.
“Well, we have a day to kill, why don't we try to figure exactly what we will do with Duke Zehman and Sir Simwa once we get our hands on them.” Her words were met by a circle of icy smiles.
*********
“This is food?” Trent muttered, poking at the bowl holding what looked eerily like what had exited his stomach after his last heavy night of drinking. But he found himself salivating all the same, the unworldly aroma that in no way matched its greenish-brown coloring and lumpy texture wrapping him in bliss. Finding his hunger overpowering his eyes, he grabbed the bowl from what the voice in his head had called a nutrition dispenser, along with a plastic cup of what appeared to be water, and moved across the smooth black floor, to one of the many round tables scattered throughout the cafeterias interior.
The food tasted beyond what Trent expected, flavors he had never before experienced exploding across his tongue. Each bite shifted between sweet, sour, or slightly tart, while some seemed to be a mixture of all three. He shoveled the contents down his throat, it having been so long since he had last eaten a meal as good as this. When he finished, he leaned back, rubbing his full belly, thinking on his next move.
A few questions were still burning in the back of his mind and he thought this might be as good a time as any to get some answers.
“Please provide me with information on how the NHA is capable of traveling through the universe,” he thought a question he knew impossible to answer logically, hoping it may help in finding the corporation responsible for this ruse.
The Theory of Relativity still existed and only allowed movement up to the speed of light, since as you approached that speed, energy creation would become immense while time would slow for the traveler. This would make it impossible to travel between stars in any semblance of reasonable time, not to mention making travel between galaxies a completely ridiculous notion. Trent took a sip of the refreshingly cool water and waited patiently for a response.
“Excerpt found in; Introduction to Spaceflight One, class resource for TSB General Training School: Interstellar space travel is separated into two categories: Instantaneous and Faster than Light, or FTL. Instantaneous interstellar travel allows movement between two points in the universe instantaneously through the use of the Doroneonn Theory. The Doroneonn Theory, discovered 15,000 galactic years pre-NHA, states that every location within the universe has a discernible universal location code. If one could locate one code, all other codes could then be derived. Sir Doroneonn, during his research, was able to pierce the fabric of the universe with a specialized probe with similar properties to a singularity, and access what is now known as the recondite universe, allowing him to determine the universal location code as the universe rebuilt itself during the probe’s removal.
“Further study found that it was possible to inject a different location code into the recondite universe as the standard universe corrected itself, allowing one location of the universe to exist in two places simultaneously. These altered locations would exist for less than a picosecond before collapsing as the structure of the recondite universe reformed to correct the irregularity.
“Later research found that there was a way to keep altered location codes active indefinitely by building a specially designed containment sphere which would simulate the correct location code to the recondite universe while maintaining the simultaneous location codes. Originally known as the Sudalimialis Jump Hole System, based on the creator, Emperor Sudalimialis, was later shortened to just, SJS Gate. This system allows NHA starships to travel anywhere in the universe, instantaneously, through the use of the SJS Gate network.” Trent's head was spinning, unable to fully grasp the explanation before the voice moved on.
“Faster-than-Light travel, or FTL, is utilized when an SJS Gate is unavailable or impractical, and is performed through the use of the Neutron Star Drive Propulsion System, or NSD for short. The Neutron Star Drive Propulsion System uses the energy of a bundled mass of active neutrons to power a starship’s systems, propulsion, and weapons, while also providing gravity, inertial compensation, energy dampening, and time “anchoring”.
“An NSD core is created through a process similar to the formation of a natural neutron star, though the resulting creation is of a mass of 99.99E19 percent less density, or 1.79E16 kg, and a surface gravity of 5.8 x 1011 less intensity, or 58 Origin gravities, then its natural cousin. But even with a mass density and gravitational intensity of the artificial neutron star being significantly less than normal, it would still make its utilization impossible in a starship design.
“This is where the concept of black hole physics, or BHP, versus standard universal physics, which were discussed in the previous chapter, come into use. Through the manipulation of a BHP field created within the NSD core by the utilization of unstable singularities that double as a failsafe system, allows for the altering of mass and rational time, even while existing within the rules set by standard universal physics. Combined with the gravity manipulation ability of a dark matter containment matrix, the NSD core will add no perceptible mass or create a detectable gravitational well on the starship in which it is installed, allowing the creation of a gravity manipulation field, or GM filed, that permits NSD equipped NHA starships to travel at FTL speeds, without the expected time dilation effects, energy creation, or loss of “anchor” to the rational timeline, which we will be fully discussing in future chapters, and to travel at speeds that are only limited by current sensor range,” Trent sighed as he cutoff the explanation.
“I guess it could be possible,” he muttered, given he knew nothing of this so called black hole physics or standard universal physics it referred. He decided to keep an open mind, having met too many ignorant people over the years
who would disregard anything that didn’t fit their narrow set of beliefs or knowledge. Though the throbbing of his mind at the strain of trying to grasp the concepts made him decide against delving further into this particular line of questioning. But another idea began to gain strength...was this really a corporate experiment? The question made him realize his own stupidity; why hadn't he asked the voice directly?
“Please inform me of the corporation responsible for this facility.”
That’s why, he gritted his teeth as the annoying tone that told of an unanswerable request echoed in response. Once it faded, he decided to hold off on further questioning, deciding it best to ask someone in person. But first, he had to find out where to start searching.
“Please inform me of the location of all personnel in TSB Earth Base.” A simple question he probably should have asked sooner.
“Please be advised; all TSB personnel have been called to active-duty by acting TSB Commander, Knight Captain Quinn. Nonessential and injured active duty TSB personnel can be found within medical bay one and freight storage area one. Non-TSB personnel can be found in Base Command and Control, Docking Command, Barracks Two, Three...” The metallic voice continued listing off the location of non-TSB personnel, and after a minute he cut it off.
He stood and started towards the outer corridor, wondering why the remaining TSB personnel would be confined to medical bay one and storage area five, while non-TSB personnel seemed to be scattered throughout the base. A shiver crept up his spine as a sense of impending doom was the only answer his mind provided.
As he exited the cafeteria, he had the sudden urge to test the weapon that hung from the holster at his side. He pulled it free, turning it over in his hands as he studied its smooth cylindrical exterior. There appeared to be no trigger, but he did find what looked like a depressed, concaved button a third of the way up the rear end of the weapon. Sliding his right hand into position over its 8 cm diameter, so that his thumb rested atop the depressed button, caused it to light and push out against his thumb. His heart beat with excitement as he braced himself and aimed at the far wall, then slowly depressed the button.
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