Riding on the animal's shoulder was a sapphire glass bubble that protected the head of a pinkish-grey aquatic quadruped that Cat knew to be their training master. Apparently, in Modos society a functional name like Running Stream was reserved for the upper echelons.
The Bearephant and Yhsif formed a sort of hybrid or symbiotic being. Two of the Modos tentacles extended out of ports in the sapphire dome and rested on the Bearephants temples. Cat's Heshe enhanced eyes could make out ultrafine nettles that seemed to penetrate the animal's skin at those points.
The sapphire domes were not always present. Many times a Modos would ride the Bearephant 'naked.' In these situations they tended to be grey. Cat suspected the grey riders were using some type of protective skin coating, not unlike a human using suntan lotion.
The Modos supplied the brains while the Bearephant supplied land locomotion and dexterity. The crab suit Cat had seen when Running Stream first came aboard the shuttle was reserved, it seemed, for extra-vehicular travel. This particular symbiote simply went by the name Master Yhsif.
Immediately Cat and the rest of her slave cohort got up from their tables and made their way towards the training master. It had only taken a few experiences with the control collars for most of the cohort to learn that obedience was not optional. Cat knew that most went along with the program, albeit with the thought of escaping as soon as possible.
The other human in their group, Dexter McFarland, seemed to like pain, as he was forever pushing the envelope with their captors. Cat admired his spunk—if not his wisdom—in provoking an enemy that currently had the upper hand (or tentacle as the case may be).
The inductees, as the Modos insisted on calling the captives, were divided into two groups. One group headed back to the gym. The other group, including Cat, Ben, and Sassi, were taken to a new room. Yhsif led them in but then left immediately.
Cat surveyed the room. Something approaching sixty computer consoles were evenly spaced in a large circle. As they entered the display on each of the terminals changed, and an image of each of them appeared on a screen. Cat walked over to the screen that held her image. Not knowing what to do, she reached out and touched it. She was rewarded with a mild shock. Immediately the image was replaced with another of the slaves... a Hopper.
Judging from the noises the others were making, it seemed Cat was not the only one receiving a shock.
She saw her image appear on the monitor next to hers. She reached out and touched it... the shock was stronger. Again the image disappeared. This time her face appeared on a screen two positions over.
Several of members of her cohort started screaming. They had refused to touch any screen after the first several shocks. Apparently non-participation was not an option. Cat had a sudden thought and rather than touching the screen with her face on it she moved over six positions and touched that screen. It went dark, but there was no accompanying shock.
"It's a prime number sequence!" Cat yelled. "Touch the next in the prime sequence and you'll be fine."
Ben and Sassi quickly complied, but, based on the eruption of polyglotal swearing coming from the others in the room, they were the only ones. Cat started helping others, and Ben and Sassi quickly followed suit.
As soon as all the screens had blanked the lights in the room brightened and Yhsif reentered the room.
"Inductees, assemble!"
Cat and the others grouped together in front of the Bearephant. Cat's Modos translator amulet echoed everything Yhsif said.
"Inductees 6, 9, and 4 stay here. The rest of you, report to physical testing."
Cat almost smiled. She was prisoner number six. Ben and Sassi were nine and four respectively.
When the others had exited the room, the Bearephant turned to face the three GCP officers.
"Please explain your performance."
Cat had to remind herself that she was speaking to the domed hump on the animal's shoulder. It was unnerving to speak with a creature and not look at its face.
"I'm not sure I understand the question."
Yhsif shuffled over to the nearest console. The Bearephant reached out with its trunk to tap a screen.
"You solved the logic problem. Most inductees eventually do, but you solved it almost immediately. Your entire cohort solved it."
Cat smiled. "I have an advanced degree in a math intensive science. Sassi is a math prodigy from a race that excels at unassisted complex math. Ben has a cybernetic brain. It should be no surprise we could solve a simple prime number sequence."
Yhsif paused a moment to digest what she had said.
"You misunderstand me," he said finally.
The Bearephant waved its trunk in a manner that reminded Cat of a hand waving dismissively.
"You misunderstand me. All the defectives solved the problem. How?"
Cat raised an eyebrow. "Defectives?"
"My apologies, a translation error. The word I meant was 'Inductee.'"
Ben raised a paw. The Bearephant looked at him.
"We helped the others. It was the right thing to do, your test was hurting them."
"And this justified tainting our test?"
As one Sassi, Ben, and Cat responded, "Yes."
Chapter Four: Sagittarius A...
Yhsif nodded in a very human gesture.
"You will come with me now." The massive Bearephant turned towards the door.
Cat and the others followed. The halls they were traveling through were unfamiliar. The metal alloy on their surface was a burnished light blue hue. Periodically Yhsif would pause and the Bearephants trunk would reach out and touch a series of buttons on a recessed wall panel. Always, when he did this, a door would open in what had seemed like an otherwise featureless wall.
She watched the symbiote interact with the host. More to the point, she noticed how it didn't interact. There was no movement, no sound, no visible signal of any sort. If Cat had to guess, she would say the tentacles were establishing a direct neural link with the host, the so-called Bearephant.
She wondered how far the connection went. For example, could the Modos see, hear and feel through the connection? Unfortunately, these were questions for another day. They seemed to be arriving at their destination.
A final door opened and the briny smell of ocean filled the corridor. The room, if you could call it that, was massive. The floor was covered with a black sand that reminded Cat of some of the beaches in Hawaii. The dimensions were, in a word, astounding. If Cat had to guess, the famous Mall of America could fit within the cavernous void with ample room to spare. Most of the space was filled with the largest artificial ocean Cat had ever seen. There were numerous outcroppings of rocks breaking the surface of water near the shore. Gentle waves lapped the beach.
On each of the rocks were several of the gray-pink Modos. Many were a deeper shade of red. On the earth a number of plants employed photosynthesis based on anthocyanin rather than chlorophyll, which gave the leaves a distinctive reddish-blue color. Cat's enhanced senses and embedded AI did a spectral analysis which confirmed her suspicions. Absorption was occurring in the green and yellow wavebands of light, roughly 500 to 600 nanometers, exactly what one would expect for anthocyanin. It seemed the Modos were capable of photosynthesis.
The sight was amazing but by no means the most amazing. Above the water was an open glass dome. The black of space matched the black of the beach.
Glancing up Cat saw an amazing sight. The ceiling was transparent. A wide expanse of stars was visible. She immediately flagged the GCP via her quantum link. This was the break they were waiting for. The ship was apparently rotating because new stars continuously came into view.
As she watched, an amazing sight appeared. A massive orange accretion disc surrounding a black hole slid into view. All three friends paused to take in the sight. A pair of helical plasma jets streamed from poles at ninety degrees angles to the accretion disc.
Yhsif saw his charges pause and looked up at the view that had captivated the others.<
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"Ah... I believe your people call this Sagittarius A."
Cat looked at Yhsif. "Sagittarius A is a complex high intensity radio source located near the center of the Milky-way. It involves the remnants of three separate stellar events. This cannot be your destination. No habitable planets could exist anywhere near this area of space."
"I applaud your deductive skills Number Six... Or should I call you Commodore?"
Cat turned to face another Bearephant symbiote. The host was dressed in a uniform that was far more ornate than Yhsif's. The voice was completely unfamiliar and rather than coming from the Modos translator amulet they all wore, it was an organically produced sound made by whatever the Bearephant used for a larynx.
"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," Cat said with a hint of a smile.
The Bearephant echoed her smile. Yhsif's host had never given any sign of facial expressions. This was something new.
"Ah... yes. The last time you saw me I was wearing a combat suit. Allow me to introduce ourself. We are Captain Running Stream."
"We?"
The Bearephant's smile deepened. "As you may have noticed, there are two of us here. My language has terms for individuals, pairs, and symbiotic couples that function as one. There are no direct English equivalents."
"I think I understand," Cat said. "We just met a race that formed a hive collective. In that state they functioned as one even though they consisted of billions of sentient individuals. You and your... companion are on the other end of the 'group mind' spectrum. Will you entertain another question?" Before he could answer she waved her hand in an encompassing arc. "This is impressive. I assume there is a purpose for showing us all of this?"
"Indeed. Master Yhsif tells me you are the first to pass our induction exams and that you did it in record time. You will find the Modos can be very accommodating when we have reason to be. All intelligent creatures have some sense of curiosity, therefore we decided to show you where we are... and where we are going." Running Stream finished with a broad and genuinely warm smile.
Cat was forced to admit the effect was disarming. "I notice your symbiosis seems to be much more complete than we have seen among the Modos we have been exposed to."
"Ah..." Running Stream said with a flourish of his trunk. "I, meaning the Modos partner, have been paired with my big Suhtii friend here for so long that the neural connections are fully integrated. He and I share every thought, every sensory experience. As odd as it must sound to you, together we are one, we function as one... we think as one... and we react as one."
"Fair enough. That being the case," and because I find the 'we' confusing, "I'll refer to you in the singular. Does your 'Suhtii' have its own name?"
The Bearephant rocked back and forth on its two massive hind legs. Cat became concerned that she had somehow given offense. She would later learn that among the coupled Modos, the rocking was a form of silent laughter.
"Delightful! I can't remember the last time someone cared to ask," Running Stream roared. "The Suhtii's don't think of names in the same way as you and I. His name is more of a purpose. In your language it would be 'He-who-speaks.' His spouse is called 'she-who-pours.'"
Gesturing towards the clear dome above them, Running Stream continued. "In answer to your first question, Sagittarius A is a door, not a destination.
***
"What do you mean, 'They disappeared?'" Admiral Faragon yelled the moment he walked onto the bridge of the GCP Yorktown.
Captain Ruck swiveled his command chair to face the admiral. His hands worked a holographic 3D display that floated in front on him and rotated with the seat as he turned.
"We were tracking them via their commlinks. Cat and Ben managed to get us a beautiful scan of Sagittarius A. I immediately dispatched two cloaked pinnaces, per our plan. Commander Kirkland's cloaked pinnace, the GCP Esperance arrived first and force-docked onto the Modos slaver near what we are assuming is a shuttle port. The active nanite skin carried out a perfect ship-to-ship dock and overrode the Bluefin's sensors. Captain Valen's Honey Dipper stood off ten kilometers and remained cloaked."
"So what happened?"
"Well there was no indication that they were detected, if that is your question. At 16:47 the Bluefin maneuvered near to a group of asteroids and latched onto a massive forty-eight ton iron-nickel rock. Ricky pulled the Honey Dipper in to a distance of three kilometers to try and get a better view of what was going on with the Bluefin. As he got close, the Modos ship created the largest hyperfield envelope I've ever seen right on top of the Black hole's event horizon. When the three ships jumped we lost contact."
"How is that possible?"
Captain Ruck swiped a hand across the holographic display to dismiss it. His brown eyes met the admiral's. "Sir, the signal was lost instantaneously from all three ships. They were either all vaporized in exactly the same moment, or..."
"Or what, Captain?"
"Or they jumped into a parallel universe. A universe from which our entangled quantum pairs are no longer entangled."
The Admiral rocked back on the heels of his feet. Cat and the others were on their own. God help them.
***
Admiral Faragon set his coffee down. He was in the Captain's mess with a collection of electronic tablets scattered across the table. He shuffled them about with his hand, looking for one he had been reading a few moments before. He was trying to make sense of what had happened to his officers. The Ship's sentient AI had confirmed the likelihood of a jump between universes. As a result the admiral had spent the last day reading everything he could find on the subject.
It seemed the theory had first been proposed by a big brain type from MIT in the early 1980s. A physicist by the name of Alan Guth came up with the idea of parallel universes in a theory which, to the admiral's way of thinking, sounded more like a discussion of economics than cutting edge physics. The formal name of his theoretical work was the 'inflationary universe theory.' Apparently it opened the door to a whole host of things, including parallel universes as well as the doctoral work Cat Kimbridge had done on hyperfield dynamics.
Shortly after Dr. Guth's first paper on the subject, a Russian scientist by the name of Andrei Linde extended the theory by proposing that inflationary universes might exist within coherent bubbles. The current thinking was that when bubbles touched each other it could become possible to jump between them, across the joint membrane, using a hyperfield conduit. There was a potential problem, however. In classical physics a black hole compresses down to a singularity.
Admiral Faragon knew this was problematic in that anything approaching the singularity would be torn apart by unbounded tidal forces. Fortunately, early in the twenty-first century a new understanding of the physics that was involved resulted in theory called loop quantum gravity. LQG combined Einstein's general relativity with quantum mechanics. The result was an understanding of space-time visualized as a web of indivisible chunks. Gravity in this model does not produce a singularity, but rather approaches an inflection point that confirms an inflationary model.
A massive gravitational body would weaken the fabric of space-time and greatly reduce the energy required to make a jump across an inflationary boundary. This would explain the need to utilize the gravity well of a massive black hole along the lines of Sagittarius A.
The real question was, armed with this knowledge and an understanding of what had happened, was there anything that the Admiral or the GCP could do to aid Cat? The only answer he could come up with was a very dissatisfying 'no.'
***
Ricky Valen whistled softly while looking out the nanite-infused transparent aluminum view-screen. Normally he would simply have pulled up a visual of the ship's exterior on a high-definition video display, but certain sights needed to be seen with the naked eye. This was one such sight.
An undulating light display surrounded the ship. He could see the massive Modos craft called the Bluefin just ahead. The colors swirled and shifted from rutty re
ds through painfully bright violets and everything in between. He had been maneuvering the Honey Dipper closer to the Bluefin to get a better sense of why it had latched onto that asteroid when a supermassive hyperfield surrounded all of them.
He was glad that the Creator was in a generous mood when this happened, because his ship was in the shadow of giant rock when they entered the jump-point. From what his ship's AI was reporting most of that asteroid had been ablated by their passage into whatever this place was.
Normally a hyperfield jump was instantaneous—you left point A and arrived at point B in essentially zero time. Wherever they were now, this was not the case. In addition, there seemed to be a sense of forward motion, even acceleration—as though they were falling into a gravity well. The problem was they had been doing it for hours.
He turned to face his ship's avatar. The Honey Dipper had been augmented earlier in the year with top-of-the-line Heshe nanites and the associated Heshe AI to control them. Cat had cloned her systems as a way of repairing the ship when it had crash landed on a heavy world called Kepler-47b. The result was a ship with a fully sentient AI that had its own opinions and sensibilities.
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