by Chad Spencer
“She thinks we’re monsters,” Danae explained. “She’s afraid of us.”
Jeff questioned, “You told her about us?”
“No, she saw you save Dirk.”
“Oh.”
Jeff approached Amanda slowly. She cringed.
“So you think I’m a monster?”
Wide-eyed, Amanda trembled and seemed to want to melt into the wall her back was pressed against.
“She was nearly hysterical when I got here. She just kept saying that you were some kind of freak, so I showed her my wings and told her about Eden,” Danae said. “She didn’t believe it. I’ve been trying to tell her that we’re just people. She doesn’t believe that either.”
Jeff heaved a sigh and directed, “Don’t tell her that. Maybe she’s right. Maybe we are freaks.”
Deflated, Danae opened her mouth, and then closed it. Sulking, she plopped down onto the sofa.
“Amanda,” Jeff said softly, “there’s not really anything I can say to you except that the story that Danae told you is true. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s really true. I don’t know why we are the way we are. But whatever you think of us, I want you to know that you’re safe with us. Dirk tried to kill me twice. But I saved him when he needed me to. If Dirk is safe from me, then everyone on this planet is.”
Quietly, Amanda asked, “Does … does your father know?”
Shaking his head, Jeff replied, “No. Neither does Porsche. If you want to tell them, tell them. We won’t deny it. But I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t–at least, for not for now. I just made up with Porsche. Everyone here’s finally getting along. I’d appreciate it if we didn’t have to deal with this just now.”
Amanda just continued to cower away from him, so Jeff instructed, “Let’s go, Danae. It’s getting dark. You and Denise can stay in my spare bedroom.” Danae nodded and followed Jeff outside, with Denise trailing along behind.
Denise asked, “Does Amanda still like us?”
“I don’t know,” Jeff answered gravely. Picking up Denise, he flew through the gathering darkness to his house. Danae followed on horseback, crossing the river at a shallow spot and making her way to Jeff’s. When she arrived at his house, he told her, “You and Denise make yourselves at home. Have Arvix make you some dinner. I have to run up to the Ellsworth. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Without waiting for an answer, he strode off into the night.
12
Just before dinner time the following day, Jeff knocked on the door of his dad’s house. Denise let him in. Amanda was there, looking anxious and skittish. Dirk appeared uncomfortable as well. For the first time since Jeff had known her, Porsche seemed relaxed and happy. She was playing cards with Danae and Denise.
‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen her do anything with Denise,’ Jeff thought.
As Denise sat down to resume the card game she pointed to the pillowcase Jeff was carrying and asked, “Is that a present?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “Should I give it to your mom now?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Chuckling at Denise’s enthusiasm, Jeff pulled a translucent sphere out of the pillowcase and held it toward Porsche. “Happy Birthday,” he said.
“Oh … Jeff. It’s very … nice. Can I ask what it is?”
“It’s a starship seed.”
Bewildered, Porsche asked, “What did you say?”
“Remember that I told you all that the crew of the Ellsworth were working on a project that they called the Living Freighter? They had me working on it before the wormhole collapse. I’ve been working on it most of the time I’ve been here. It was mostly done before I joined the crew. I finished up the rest. Last night I went up to the Ellsworth and programmed some nanobots. I dropped them on the ground before I went to bed. This morning when I came out of my house, this was there.”
Dirk asked, “That turns into a ship?”
“Kind of,” Jeff told him. “It’s a seed that has lots of nanobots. You put it into an asteroid, and in a couple of months, the nanobots build a ship from what’s in the asteroid. Once the ship is built, it can also mine raw materials from asteroids. Not lots. It’s not a mining ship. But it can mine the materials it needs. Its nanobots use that to fix the ship if something happens. The ship can even refuel itself from ice asteroids in space. We can’t get seaboricite to make the generators go as efficiently as they should, but that’s ok.”
Patiently, Porsche told him, “That’s nice Jeff, but without a hypergate, there’s really nowhere for us to go in a ship.”
“I know. I didn’t give it to you for that. It’s for living in. I modified the design to put some biodomes on the top. You and Dad can have your farm there. You’ll have everything you need to live. You’ll never have to go outside again.”
Porsche was amazed. “Thank you,” she said.
Dirk interrupted, “Are there any asteroids around here that you can make a ship from?”
“Sure,” Jeff replied. “There’s lots of them in an asteroid belt along the outer edge of this star system. I checked the Amsterdam’s computer. Their ship did a much better survey of this system on their way in than ours did. I’ve used the data to pick out a perfect asteroid. We’ll plant the seed, wait two months, and come back in the new ship.”
“Yes, but Jeff,” Kent objected, “This isn’t like hopping between two planets close together. Our little shuttles can’t make a trip this long.”
“No but the Amsterdam can, if Amanda doesn’t mind.”
“No … no I don’t mind,” Amanda tentatively responded, as if she wasn’t sure.
Kent was not persuaded. “I can’t fly a ship that size by myself. The Amsterdam is made for a full-time crew of ten.”
“We might be able to do it with three,” offered Jeff.
It took a moment for Dirk to realize that Jeff was talking about him. “What? Me? You want me to go?”
Jeff explained, “The trip would take about four weeks to get there. For a long trip like this, we would need a pilot at the helm all the time. You, Dad, and I could take turns.”
Dirk eyed Jeff warily, but he agreed. He told Danae, “Someday you’re going to have to learn to be a pilot so I don’t have to do stuff like this.”
“Ok by me,” Danae replied. “While you’re gone, Denise and I will look after both this farm and yours. You’re welcome. Amanda can help us with Jeff’s, right Amanda?”
Still a bit wary of them, Amanda guardedly replied, “I guess so.”
Danae addressed her mother, “And you can go with them.”
Surprised, Porsche asked, “Me?”
“Sure,” Danae replied. “You’d hate it here without Kent, and now that we have a comfortable ship to ride in, there’s no reason you have to stay behind. Go with them. Enjoy a nice trip.”
Kent seemed pleased at Danae’s thoughtfulness. “Then it’s decided,” he stated. Porsche nodded in agreement.
Three days later, the Amsterdam was resupplied and ready to go. With Kent at the helm, they departed. The trip out was uneventful. Jeff didn’t see much of Dirk the first week, and only ran into Porsche occasionally. He suspected Dirk was avoiding him. But then Kent, who piloted on the night shift, insisted that they all eat dinner together. It was well into the third week of the voyage before the tenseness between Jeff and Dirk eased.
When they reached the asteroid, Kent donned his spacesuit. The gnarled mass of rock and ice was so large that it had a very slight gravity pull. He could actually walk on it. But it was a bit tricky. In such a weak gravitational field, he could easily launch himself into space if he wasn’t careful.
It took Kent just a few minutes to plant the seed into a crack in the rocky asteroid. Almost immediately, the seed sent root-like tubes into the surrounding rock. He returned to the ship. There was nothing else for them to do but wait.
A day went by. “It’s not working,” Dirk complained.
Jeff explained, “It takes the whole first week just for th
e nanobots to produce enough copies of themselves to start the job.”
Dirk wasn’t convinced.
As Jeff predicted, nothing seemed to happen during the first week. Nothing continued to happen through the end of the second week. Jeff was getting worried. He spent the third week glued to one of the big windows on the ship’s observation deck. Watching very carefully, he saw nothing happen. He was depressed. “Why isn’t it woooooorking? It should wooooork! Argh!”
“You just have to wait,” Kent reassured him. “Real-world experiments seldom go as smoothly as simulations.” Jeff wasn’t reassured.
At the beginning of the fourth week, Jeff sat staring at the monotonous surface of the asteroid as the ship floated a few hundred yards away. All at once, he noticed a small cylindrical object projecting itself up from the ground. He called Kent on the intercom. “Dad! I think something’s started to happen.”
Kent, Porsche, and Dirk arrived quickly. By the time they did, the cylinder was about ten feet long and growing rapidly. Over the next few days, they observed the main cylinder of the ship form itself. The asteroid got slightly, but visibly smaller.
After two weeks, the three-mile cylinder reached its full length. As the days passed, a network of struts, beams, and pipes of all kinds formed everywhere. Large, plant-like buds appeared and grew into cargo bays. The command module formed at the front of the ship. Engineering appeared at the stern. Soon, even the gravity mirrors were growing into place.
Jeff sent regular progress reports back to the others on planet Akio. Hours later, he received excited replies of congratulations. It took three weeks longer than the simulation, but at last the barren asteroid was gone. In its place floated a ship that Jeff thought was the most beautiful vessel he’d ever seen.
Being cautious, Kent wouldn’t let them board for another week. Each day, several times a day, he scanned the ship for active nanobots. Using a datacrown he had obtained from the container Jeff brought to planet Akio, Kent connected to the new ship’s computer and did a full system diagnostic. He also used the new ship’s internal scanners to check for leaks and malfunctions. To Jeff, the new ship seemed flawless.
Kent used his datacrown to connect to the new ship’s computer and fired up the engines to do some basic maneuvers by remote control. When he was satisfied that it all worked, he docked the Amsterdam to the new ship and prepared to embark.
“We need a name for this ship,” he stated. “You guys have any suggestions?”
Impulsively, Jeff offered, “How about Porsche’s Haven?”
Porsche was startled. Smiling, Kent agreed, “That’s a great name Jeff. Porsche’s Haven it is.”
“Thank you,” Porsche expressed gratefully.
‘Maybe there can be more than a truce between us,’ Jeff speculated.
Kent piloted the Porsche’s Haven toward a half-mile-long asteroid that was nothing but a large chunk of dirty ice. Nudging up to the asteroid, he activated the ship’s water harvesting system. As they watched on the main viewscreen, a pair of long robot arms extended from the side of the ship and began cutting into the ice with a laser drill. Rapidly pulling away large blocks, the arms collected the ice and inserted it into an opening on the side of the ship.
“This will take the rest of the day,” Kent informed them. “The ice will be melted into water. Then the water is automatically purified and stored in the fuel tanks. Tomorrow, we’ll have enough fuel to go anywhere in this star system.”
And so the next day they set course for planet Akio in Porsche’s Haven with Kent at the helm. Jeff saw that he was grinning from ear to ear. ‘He likes this ship,’ he thought, pleased. He was surprised that a ship this size could be handled by one person. But its systems were so advanced that it didn’t need a copilot.
“We’ll be home in four days,” Kent said, “This ship really moves.”
Kent spent the rest of the day familiarizing Jeff and Dirk with the starship’s helm. “This thing is both simpler and more complex than the ships you’re used to. It’s simpler because so much is automatic. It’s more complex because its handling is nothing like anything you’ve seen before. It takes twenty minutes just to turn this ship around. Everything you do has to be planned well ahead. Just stick to our pre-programmed course and everything should be ok.”
That evening, Dirk took a turn at the helm to give Kent a break. Jeff watched as he deftly managed the ship’s movements, keeping it perfectly on course. ‘Wow,’ he thought, ‘Dirk really is a good pilot.’
About midnight, Dirk called Kent, Porsche, and Jeff on the comm system, waking them. “I’m getting a message!” he shouted excitedly. “It’s from outside the system.”
Jeff dressed and ran to the bridge. Kent was already there, watching the incoming message on the main viewscreen. There was a lot of static interference.
“ … wormhole collapse. We’re … group of four cargo shuttles … few supplies … engines completely non-functional … help immediately … nearly 900 people. Repeat, we need help immediately.”
In a hushed voice Jeff asked, “Who’s it from?”
“That’s Marcos Martinez, José’s father. You remember him; he’s the communications officer on the Ellsworth.” Kent said.
“They’re still alive out there?” Jeff asked in amazement. “How could that be after all this time? It’s been more than twenty years!”
Kent pointed to the corner of the viewscreen. “Look there,” he directed. “That’s a time stamp. Look at the date.”
The static made the time stamp difficult to see. But at last, Jeff made it out.
“That … that’s the day the wormhole collapsed!”
“Yes,” agreed Kent. “In fact, it’s less than an hour after they abandoned the Ellsworth.”
Dirk demanded, “Is that a computer error?”
Shaking his head, Kent replied, “I don’t think so. I think it’s accurate. I’ve triangulated the signal’s point of origin. It’s right where the Ellsworth was when it came out of hyperspace twenty years ago.”
“Huh?” Jeff immediately wished he’d said something more intelligent.
“Well, guys,” Kent began, “I don’t completely know the theory behind it, but I do know that it’s possible for a collapsing wormhole to do more than just scatter fragments of itself through space.”
Jeff asked, “What do you mean?”
“The collapse of a wormhole like the one the Ellsworth was in could cause fragments to fly as much as 10,000 light years in any direction,” Kent said. “It’s also possible, at least in theory, that the fragments could move through time as well as space.”
Jeff was dumbfounded. “Time? You mean time travel? Isn’t that impossible?”
“No Jeff, it’s possible. It’s just extremely unlikely. But it’s the most logical explanation. They can’t have taken enough fuel and supplies to last out there all this time. And we’ve not had any signals from them until now. The fact that you can see so many people in the background of the picture means that they’re all still alive. My datacrown says that there were no cryostasis units on their shuttles. The time index on the message tells me that they haven’t been in space long at all. So when they left the Ellsworth, they must have accidently reentered the wormhole fragment. It carried them forward twenty years in time.”
“They time traveled?” Dirk asked incredulously. “Are you serious?”
Nodding once more, Kent told them, “It’s the most logical explanation.”
Jeff was speechless. Dirk asked, “What do we do?”
Before he could answer, another, stronger signal came in across the depths of space.
“Shuttle craft, this is the passenger liner Royal Queen. We were right behind you in the wormhole. We’re approximately fifty-eight minutes from your position. Stand by; we’ll rendezvous with you and … “
A clamor of faint voices suddenly came across the channel.
“Sounds like something’s happening on the Royal Queen’s bridge,” Kent muttered tensely
.
“Sorry for the interruption, shuttle craft. Our scanners just picked up some unusual debris moving toward us. Have you seen anything like this? We’re getting some strange readings from it.”
A video feed appeared showing a stubby, cylindrical object. It had a dull, greenish-grey metallic sheen to its surface.
“What is that?” Jeff asked.
Kent shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Dirk questioned, “Why can we hear them so much better than the shuttles?”
“Better communications equipment,” Kent replied curtly. “Stronger signal.” He motioned for them to be quiet.
From the Ellsworth’s cargo shuttles, they could hear Marcos Martinez replying through the static, “ … two of them near us as well … no idea what they are … “
The video feed from the Royal Queen still showed the strange object. Suddenly, it emitted a harsh, unhealthy glow and started to vibrate visibly.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kent mumbled to no one in particular.
The object flashed and the video feed ended.
Horrified, Jeff couldn’t speak for a moment. Then he stammered, “Wha … what just happened?”
Without taking his eyes off the communications display, Kent replied quietly, “It was a bomb.”
Jeff’s blood seemed to freeze in his veins. “Are … are they all dead?” he asked.
As if in answer, a weak voice came from the Ellsworth’s shuttle crafts. “Royal Queen? Are you there? Come in … hear me?”
Opening a communications channel, Kent hastily called out, “Shuttle craft, this is Kent Bowman aboard the Porshe’s Haven. Please do not transmit. It is vital that you do not emit any signals at all. Marcos, tell Captain Vorless that the object the Royal Queen saw was a bomb. I think that similar bombs were used to collapse the wormhole. It was probably the Royal Queen’s radio transmissions that set the bomb off just now. We will rendezvous with you in … three point one days. We’ll take you to a habitable planet. Message repeats.” Kent set the comm system to repeat the message ten times.
“Why are you repeating the message?” Jeff queried.