by M. D. Cooper
Sabrina said with no small amount of adoration in her voice.
“Is anyone seeing the nav points here?” Cheeky asked.
Everyone gave her blank looks and then Nance’s eyes began to widen. “No, it can’t be. They severed all contact with the rest of humanity.”
“Maybe they haven’t,” Cheeky said with a hint of smugness as she took a bite of a large strawberry. “It all adds up. She took a way bigger interest in Tanis than made sense, you said so too that night when…” Cheeky stopped for a moment. “When I was helping you with that thing. Anyways, we should have just given her a ride. Instead, we head out to Bollam’s World and dive right into a war. Not that I really mind; taking out The Mark was awesome. On top of that, she whips out plans for stuff no one has ever seen before and contacts the FGT. What else could it be?”
“Very little else.” Flaherty said from the doorway.
“We uh…we were just…” Cheeky stammered as everyone in the galley shifted uncomfortably.
Flaherty moved silently to the counter where he poured himself a cup of coffee, his back to the three silent crewmembers around the table. Once he had finished adding condiments and stirring carefully, he turned to face them.
“So you think that Sera is from the FGT? A freighter captain from the FGT?” Flaherty asked.
“She’s not your usual freighter captain,” Nance said. “There are some discrepancies.”
Flaherty nodded. “A few, yeah. She can hold secrets pretty well, but when she doesn’t really want to, they tend to slip out.”
“It’s not my place to say such things,” Flaherty replied.
Nance looked angry, her brown eyes sparking. “If she is, then she has a lot to answer for. We’ve been little puppets in her schemes while she risks our lives for god knows what!”
“You all knew the risk when you signed up,” Flaherty replied calmly.
“Like hell we did,” Thompson said. “I don’t remember anyone telling me that we’d be hurling ourselves into other ships.”
“Not specifically, no. No one can predict the exact course of the future, but she did inform all of you that this was not a regular freighter, that we would be doing things that didn’t make sense, and that there would be a lot of danger involved.”
“Yeah, but this is different.”
“Is it?” Flaherty asked. “If Sera were FGT, do you know how dangerous that knowledge would be? What if someone let it slip?” He let that sink in as they all contemplated the value and danger of that knowledge. “Not that I am confirming, nor denying it. I am just promoting rational thought.”
“What’s all the noise in here?” Cargo asked. “I could hear you guys hollering all the way up on the bridge and Sabrina seems upset about something.”
Cheeky cast an accusing glance at Flaherty. “We’re discussing whether or not Sera is FGT.”
Cargo walked over to the table and picked up a strawberry. “Oh, that.”
“What do you mean ‘oh, that?’” Nance asked. “She’s been lying to us this whole time.”
“Not telling you her life story is lying?” Cargo asked around his mouthful of strawberry. “I don’t recall her ever lying about her past. She just never talks about it.”
“So when did she tell you?” Cheeky asked. “How long have you been keeping this from us?”
“She never told me. I figured it out on my own about two months ago.”
“Just how did you manage that?” Thompson asked.
“She was talking with Tanis on the bridge. They had the holo showing the Intrepid from Tanis’s Link. Tanis asked if it would be possible to get a ship that large to transition to FTL and Sera said that she had heard of bigger ships managing it.”
“What ships are bigger that can go FTL?” Cheeky asked.
“Exactly,” Cargo said. “I thought about that long and hard and came up with just one answer, FGT world ships. They are the only thing I could dig up that were larger than the Intrepid. I’ve never known Sera to lie, so I assumed that the FGT was the only possible answer.”
“And you didn’t share it with the rest of us?” Cheeky asked. “Why would you keep that to yourself?”
“Because Sera didn’t want it known, and I respect her too much to go sharing her secrets without her permission. Besides,” Cargo continued after a moment. “That’s some pretty dangerous knowledge.”
The strawberries were all gone from the basket so he grabbed one from Cheeky’s plate, before continuing under her glare. “It’s also possible she has some personal reason for not sharing as well. God knows I have enough stuff in my past that I don’t want to talk about. I bet she has her share as well.”
“I appreciate your consideration,” Sera said from the entrance to the room. “Sorry for barging in on your discussion like this, but Sabrina reached out to Helen and I.”
Sera stepped into the room, revealing Tanis standing behind her.
“What is she doing here?” Thompson asked. “This is crew business.”
“Tanis was crew on this ship for almost four months,” Sera replied. “She also saved my life; and this is my ship after all.”
Thompson sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. He looked like he was going to speak for a moment, but then thought better of it.
“Does she already know too?” Nance asked. “Are we the last to know?”
Sera took a deep breath. “She does know, I told her and Captain Andrews about it a few days ago—although, in my defense, Bob had already figured it all out and was going to tell them if I didn’t.”
“I already figured it out too,” Cargo said with a smile from behind his cup of coffee.”
“So how come Flaherty knows?” Cheeky asked. “I’ve been on this ship almost as long as he has.”
“Because I was born on an FGT worldship, just like the captain,” Flaherty grunted. “Kinda hard to unknow that.”
“Oh,” Cheeky replied and sat back. “I guess we’re all just a bunch of stooges then.”
“You lied to us,” Nance accused.
“I…I don’t think I lied. I just didn’t share.” Sera’s knuckles were white as she gripped the back of a chair. She took a breath before continuing. “I didn’t leave the FGT on what you could call good terms. I displayed a little more of my classic attitude than they were prepared to accept and it...” She swallowed deeply. “It caused some problems. I left the FGT and tried to fix what I’d broken. My recklessness had lost something valuable that Kade eventually got hold of. It’s why I started smuggling, to find what I’d lost and eventually get it back.”
“So that’s why you got so focused on just working with Kade after a while,” Cargo said with a nod.
“Yes, though that is done now. I recovered the device from The Mark’s station before I destroyed it. When we meet with the FGT I will return it to them and my exile will be over—I…I don’t know if they’ll let me stay with you.”
“What do you mean?” Cheeky’s anger had lessened, though there was still a hint of it behind her eyes.
“What will happen to us?” Thompson asked at the same time. “We’re just going to be left high and dry?”
Sera forced a smile. “If. If I am forced. I may be able to squeeze my way out of their grasp. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.” She looked to Flaherty who nodded.
“You don’t have to come along to the rendezvous,” Tanis said. “I’m sure that whether you’re there or not, they will still work with us and give us a colony.”
“I imagine so,” Sera replied. “But they’ll treat you more fairly with me there. I know who they’re likely…” Sera stopped, tears welling in her eyes. She took a deep breath and brought herself under control. “If I end up going with them, the ship is yours, Cargo.” She nodded to her first mate. “Or, if you all
decide that you’ve had enough of me and what I’ve put you through, you can separate. Drop out of the dark layer while we are in transit. I won’t stop you from either course of action.”
No one spoke for several moments; everyone appeared to be giving deep consideration to what their captain had said.
“I know you don’t want my opinion…”
“Correct, we really don’t.” Thompson responded.
Tanis turned her gaze to Thompson and held his eyes until he looked away. “Sera has worked tirelessly to make the galaxy a safer place, she’s put her life on the line to help a lot of people. She’s one of the good ones and I’d stick by her, were I you.”
“Keep things tight,” Sera said to them all. “If this goes badly we may never have to worry about what will happen when we meet the FGT.”
AURORA
STELLAR DATE: 11.03.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Approaching Aurora (12Mj Jovian)
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
The atmosphere was tense on the bridge as Tanis and Sera entered.
“Our friends have arrived,” Captain Andrews said from beside the main holo tank.
The display of the Bollam’s World system was expanded to show their destination, the planet Aurora; the Intrepid, still three hours away; and the newly arrived AST fleet.
It was even larger and more intimidating than expected.
One hundred and twenty dreadnaughts, and over five-hundred cruisers were highlighted on the holo display. The AST ships were spread out, having arrived at half a dozen jump points. Based on their velocity, only a quarter of their fleet would arrive while the Intrepid was filling its tanks at Aurora.
“That’s a lot of ships,” Sera whispered.
“You can say that again,” Tanis said.
“That’s a—” Sera stopped when Tanis shot her a look.
“Thoughts?” Captain Andrews asked as Tanis took up her place beside him.
“It really comes down to whether or not they got the message about our picotech. If they did, I imagine they will exercise some caution.”
Sera chuckled. “You can bet that if they didn’t hear they’re still going to be cautious—given how there is no sign of the eleven dreadnaughts they sent ahead—not to mention the debris of half the Boller fleet.”
Tanis nodded. “It would make me think twice about rushing in.”
“Maintain course,” the captain directed helm. “We’ll see how this plays out.”
The Intrepid’s leadership stood around the holo tank, Tanis with her arm around Joe’s waist while his was around her shoulders. Across form her, Ouri scowled at the display of Aurora, while Brandt and Jessica whispered about the chance of a fight with the new AST fleet.
Terrance and Captain Andrews were also speaking—though more optimistically about the elections they would hold upon arrival at their colony world. Admiral Sanderson was discussing fighter design with Sera and Amanda, the trio growing increasingly animated over small details and improvements to the Arc-6’s
An alert sounded and the holo showed the Intrepid closing within ten-thousand kilometers of Aurora’s surface. A though a switch had been flipped, the disparate conversations ceased. All eyes fixed upon the display before them.
The gas giant’s unnatural existence meant that it didn’t possess atmospheric strata typical for a planet of its size. To capture enough deuterium and lithium-7 to fill the Intrepid’s tanks, the colony ship would have to drop below the planet’s upper clouds for its scoop to reach the denser layers below.
“So that’s what they’re doing! For being so behind on tech, these Bollers have something pretty ingenious going on here,” Earnest said, his holographic image appearing on the bridge.
“You finally figured out what the heck they’re doing with this planet?” Tanis asked.
“I have indeed—well, Bob did most of it. They’re using graviton emitters—pretty large ones at that—to emit a negative gravity field around the planet. But that field only goes so far. Then it reverses and increases pressure. Basically, the whole thing is a helium-3 generator. It’s the biggest gas station you ever saw. If they didn’t have the graviton emitters it would collapse into a brown dwarf star.”
He walked around the holo display, peering intently at the world into which they were descending.
“If they focus the energy coming off it, they could probably use it as a heat source for orbiting dwarf planets too. It’s like having a second star without all the problems a second star causes.”
“Nice of them to leave it here for us, then,” Tanis said. “Saves us having to turn protium and deuterium into helium-3 ourselves.”
“I wonder if they’ll try to bill us,” Joe chuckled.
The Intrepid slipped past the graviton emitter web and into the atmosphere of the planet, while above, scan showed that the leading ships in the AST fleet were now within a hundred-thousand kilometers of Aurora
“I wonder if they have any idea what we’re doing?” Sera asked.
“There’s nothing to see here, go back to your homes,” Tanis chuckled.
“Gods, I wish they would,” Sera replied.
The Intrepid dipped beneath the swirling clouds and deployed its scoop. Like a straw, it reached deep into the planet and began to draw the denser deuterium and helium-3 into the ship. The process proceeded quickly and thirty minutes later the colony ship’s tanks were full and Captain Andrews directed helm to bring the ship out of the clouds, timing their ascent for a vector toward their desired jump point.
They broke free of Aurora’s atmosphere to see the world ringed by AST ships.
Scan called out an alert. “They’re launching something—a lot of somethings!”
“RMs,” Tanis swore. “They’re targeting the graviton emitters.”
“Oh that’s bad, very bad,” Earnest shook his head with dismay.
“Helm, full thrust. Get us out of here!” the captain called out.
“Why very bad?” Tanis asked. “The mass is the same, the planet will just collapse.”
“You don’t understand,” Earnest said. “One of two things will happen. The first is that the planet just collapses. Except things like this don’t happen naturally, you don’t get nice spherical balls of heavy hydrogen and helium isotopes that can collapse under their own gravity in minutes. This thing is a planet-sized fusion bomb just waiting to happen.”
Tanis frowned, watching as concern showed on the bridge crew’s faces.
“What’s the other option,” Tanis asked.
“Graviton emitters don’t just make gravitons out of vacuum,” Earnest replied. “They get them from somewhere. That somewhere is the dark layer. They tap into dark matter for mass and energy.”
“Seriously?” Tanis asked.
Sera and Earnest nodded together.
“Sooo?” Tanis asked.
“The Bollers are really going to hate us,” Terrance commented. “I have to admit I feel bad for them.”
“They did try to kill us,” Andrews frowned. “I don’t feel so bad. Besides, we’re not taking out their big H-bomb of a planet, the AST is.”
“I can see why it might create a singularity, but why do you think it’s probable,” Tanis asked Earnest.
“When a ship transitions into the dark layer to achieve FTL, it does so by slipping through the fabric of space-time into that sub-dimension—graviton emitters do something very similar.
“A better description of what a ship does, is to say that it cuts open a portal into the dark layer. That portal self-heals, because no energy is being used to keep it open. But if there was an energy source nearby—say an exploding planet, it could be used to keep the portal open. It’s why systems enforce the use of their jump points, and it’s also why people don’t just blind-jump into unexplored
systems—at least I would imagine they don’t.”
“You are correct,” Sera nodded. “People who do that usually aren’t heard from again.”
Tanis took a deep, calming breath. “To the case at hand, Earnest. What do you think?”
“I think we need to push our engines harder than we have ever pushed them before,” Earnest replied.
Everyone fell silent as scan updated, showing graviton emitter platforms exploding in a wave across the planet.
“Oh!” Earnest said.
All eyes turned to him.
“There’s a lot more tritium in this planet than I expected. My money is on black hole. Given how much dark matter is clustered around this world, we’re looking at a significant increase in mass.”
The Intrepid was pulling past the last of the planet’s clouds, even as the gasses began to rush past them, drawn down into the deep gravity well that that the graviton emitters had kept them from for so long.
“Neutron storm incoming!” scan called out, and Amanda announced that full shielding was in place. Stasis layered over grav, layered over electro-static.
On the holo, the AST ships began to veer off, apparently also realizing the full enormity of what their actions caused.
“They really didn’t think this through,” Earnest said through gritted teeth.
“Or maybe they considered it worth the risk to destroy us,” Joe replied. “Think about it. We have an invincible shield and our pico could wipe them out. What better way to deal with an unimaginable threat than to drop it into a black hole.”
“Makes sense,” Tanis scowled.
“Too damn much sense,” Anderson agreed.
The Intrepid had reached an altitude of twenty-five thousand kilometers above the previous surface of Aurora—though the radius of the planet had decreased by fifty-thousand kilometers.