"Gil'Da, could you go and find Senior Deck Engineer Tho'Mos...and if he isn't on guard duty, bring him here." Gil'Da bowed and quickly left the mess. The three ladies all looked at her inquisitively. Tiana had a small smirk, which told Sasha that trying to hide that she was up to something was impossible.
"Are you going to let us in on the plan?" Tiana asked, expecting a response. Sasha looked at her, forcing a weak, sly smile, and went back to poking at her meal. Tiana let out a small laugh.
"Very well." Knight Admiral Bhool and Regalia looked at each other, something passing between them as Tiana also went back to her meal. A few minutes passed and Tho'Mos entered, bowing stiffly.
"Your Grace asked for me?" Tho'Mos wasn’t quite sure if he was asking a question or making a statement. Sasha put down her spoon and looked up at the older man, with long white hair, and a wrinkled face, still covered in dust from the rescue.
"I have an idea and I was wondering if it would work." Tho'Mos smiled in response, waiting on Sasha's words.
"The air production facility is located in engineering correct?" asked Sasha as Tho'Mos responded immediately.
"Yes, Your Grace, and I think I know what you're thinkin', if we try to turn off the air to the rest of the starship, they'll know, and turn on the backup systems which are located in each department." Sasha had figured as much, but she wasn't thinking of turning off the air.
"I was thinking more along the lines of introducing an agent into the air, perhaps allowing us to put everyone to sleep?" The idea sounded ridiculous as she voiced it, but Tho'Mos seemed to consider it, tilting his head in deep thought, before suddenly slapping his leg.
"By Origin, that could work!" Tho'Mos forgot himself, but Sasha didn't mind. Knight Admiral Bhool cleared her throat.
"I see a couple of problems with this plan, Your Grace...the scrubbers and the foreign agent alarms. If we introduce a sleeping agent at the main air production facility, the scrubbers will remove it immediately, and if we introduce it further into the system, the foreign agent alarms will alert the guards, allowing them time to divert the flow and bring the backups online." Sasha's head dropped as she heard Knight Admiral Bhool's words. But she caught Tho'Mos continuing to think to himself out of the corner of her eye. She was about to drop the idea and ask for any other suggestions when Tho'Mos spoke.
"We would have to introduce it farther in the system so that we wouldn't put ourselves at risk, but I shoud' be able to alter the code for the foreign agent alarms to recognize our little present as normal, everyday air." Sasha and Knight Admiral Bhool both sat up at once to speak, but Knight Admiral Bhool won the race.
"That's impossible! The detection list is hardcoded into the equipment. You'd have to remove it from the system and plug it into a diagnostic matrix, then find the coding and do a complete rewrite. It would take weeks, if not months." Sasha's heart fell again, finding she'd jumped out of her seat in excitement, where Knight Admiral Bhool had still been thinking logically. But to her surprise, Tho'Mos just smiled, like he had a secret he couldn't help but share.
"Ah...yes, Ma'am, that would normally be true, but this here starship has something 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. Tho'Mos, suddenly realizing what he was doing, blushed and continued.
"Vin, Ma'am..." He paused to watch the look on their faces. "...It can patch me directly into the equipment and allow me to do the coding without having to remove anything or rely on the diagnostic matrix." Sasha quickly turned to the Knight Admiral who was staring in disbelief at Tho'Mos.
"Vin! Is this true?" Sasha asked without looking for a PDU. A small sphere appeared in the middle 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 quickly looked back at Tho'Mos, whose expression hadn't changed.
"Don't you worry, Your Grace. I can have that system rewritten in a couple a days." Sasha's face went white.
"Make it a day, Senior Deck Engineer." Knight Admiral Bhool broke in, causing Tho'Mos's face to once again change into a wide grin.
"Very well, Countess Bhool." Tho'Mos bowed deeply. 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 and exited the officer's mess. Sasha looked back at Knight Admiral Bhool.
"Do you think he can finish in time? Cutting an entire day off could be pretty tough." asked Sasha with noticeable concern filling her voice. She received a grin in return.
"One thing you must know about engineers, Your Grace. They always triple the time required to do a job. Not because they are lazy, but because they know something could 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 faces of those around 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.
*********
Trent wandered through the large, abandoned dining hall, looking for what the voice in the wall called the nutrition dispenser. He moved between the round tables of blue and white, surrounded by stools, balanced on millimeter thin posts. The site amazed him...how could such a thin support hold the weight of a man? He paused as he past one of the seating areas, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, and carefully took a seat. He almost jumped as the seat began to wrap around him, a back and arm rest growing out the base of the stool. Carefully he stood, watching in awe as the seat morphed back into its original form. The technology was far beyond anything he'd ever seen, and if not for the growl in his stomach, he would have tested it further. Shaking his head in wonder, he started moving towards the far side of the room, which he assumed was where he could find the nutrition dispenser...and food.
The large white wall was covered with a multitude of square and round holes that stood about a meter and half from the ground. Next to each of the square holes a small, semi-circular device protruded, similar to the one's he'd seen in multiple locations since he awoke. Trent searched the holes, hoping to find some food, but instead found the round holes ending after about a half meter, then falling into darkness, and the square holes, about a meter deep and a half meter wide and tall, contained a solid back. Trent knocked on the backing a few times, noticing an echo, which seemed to indicate that the area behind was hollow. So he leaned in and tried to force it open, hoping it may slide in one direction to reveal the dispenser, but decided to move on when it wouldn't budge. Searching a few more of the holes in vain, finding them all the same, he sighed in resignation.
"Hello, how do I order food?" No response came as Trent shouted his question. He thought for a moment, then lightly tapped his forehead...he'd forgotten about the voice. He opened his mind and searched the wall, and as expected, found the voice midway up.
During his trek to the food dispensary, he'd noticed that the voice nodes, as he'd begun calling them, were located in intervals throughout the base. So no matter where he was, there was always a voice in the wall to talk too. He smiled, realizing in the short time since he'd awoken, he'd completely accepted the voice, no longer believing it just to exist in his head...the brainwashing must have worked, he joked to himself. Quickly thinking of the best way to word his question into a request, while ignoring the incessant growl from his stomach, Trent began.
"Please provide me with food." He brace
d himself for the annoying tone that followed requests that the voice was incapable of answering.
"Food will be dispensed once your selection is made through the irradiated particle display unit input." the metallic voice responded. Trent scratched his head, thinking about what could possibly be an irradiated particle display unit. After glancing around the room and not seeing anything that looked like what he'd expect a display to be, he thought up another query.
"Please provide me with instruction on the use of the irradiated particle display unit." Trent thought at the voice in the wall.
"Excerpt found in, Basic's of PDU Operation: To activate an irradiated particle display unit, first select the small icon floating above the display port. A larger projection will appear, presenting the user with either the basic navigation menu or a specialized menu for station specific displays." The metallic voice gave him a slightly helpful answer. At least now he knew what to look for, a small floating icon, or something of the like.
As if blinders had suddenly been removed from his eyes, he could see, for the first time, a small bluish round sphere hovering over the small opening in the semi-circular protrusion that sat next to the square holes. Amazed that he hadn't noticed it before, he carefully reached out and touched the floating sphere. It was solid, at least partially so, and his finger made a noticeable depression in its tacky texture, which when released, expanded into a half meter wide square display, with floating three-dimensional objects appearing in three columns.
At the top of the column on the left was the word protein, and below it floated pictures of different types of meats, or so Trent thought, finding he didn't recognize a majority of the pictures or names. A down arrow was present at the bottom of each column that when touched, caused the pictures to start scrolling, showing additional choices. He smiled while he played with the arrow, finding another at the top of each column, staring in amazement at the scrolling, floating images before him. A painful growl from his stomach reminded him of his aching hunger, causing him to stop on what he hoped was a steak, before touching the image. The column vanished, leaving the floating image of the steak and two adjacent columns that read carbohydrate and vegetable. He quickly selected what looked like rice and a plate of, what he assumed, were assorted vegetables.
After the last choice was entered, a door in the back of the adjacent square hole opened and the food, lined perfectly on a white tray, appeared, moving to the front on an invisible conveyer. Trent's mind was filled with wonder, knowing that when the company responsible for this technology released it to the public, they would make trillions. He picked up the tray of food, looking closely at a strange green container full of liquid that accompanied it, and chose a seat close by, at one of the round tables.
The food tasted beyond what Trent expected. The meat perfectly cooked, while the rice contained a wonderful flavor that caused his taste buds to explode, unable to grasp if it was sweet, sour, or slightly tart. The vegetables tasted fresh and were perfectly cooked, with a slight crunch and robust flavor that surprised Trent immensely. It had been a long time since he could remember having a real meal, even longer since he had one this good. Most of his meals over the last couple months were leftovers, or garbage, barely acceptable for human consumption.
He quickly finished and brought the tray over to a round hole in the wall, guessing it was a garbage shoot, and dropped it in. He half expected an alarm to sound, but all that followed was silence, causing Trent to smile and rub his full belly. Returning to the table where he'd left the green container he had found to be water, he sat back down. A few questions were burning in the back of his mind and he thought now to be a good of time to get some answers...and let his food settle.
"Please provide me with information on how the NHA is capable of traveling through the universe." He wanted to quickly find the corporation responsible for this ruse, so he thought of a question that he knew would be impossible to answer logically. The Theory of Relativity still existed and only allowed movement up to the speed of light, since as you approached it, 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 his drink and waited patiently for a response.
"Excerpt found in, Introduction to Spaceflight One, class resource for TSB Officer Training School: Interstellar space travel is separated into two categories, Instantaneous and Faster than Light, or FTL. Instantaneous interstellar travel allows movement between two places in the universe instantaneously through the use of the Doroneonn Theory. The Doroneonn Theory, created 15,000 galactic years pre-NHA, states that every location within the universe has a type of built in location code. If one could locate one code, all other codes could be derived, so you would know where you are and how to get anywhere else no matter your location in the universe. The problem was how to find this code. Sir Doroneonn, during his research, was able to punch a hole in the universe using Black Hole Physics and determined the location code as the universe rebuilt itself during the singularities collapse.
"Further study found that it was possible to inject a different location code as the universe corrected itself, allowing one location of the universe to exist in two places simultaneously. These altered locations would quickly collapse as the surrounding universe realized the error and again corrected itself, but further research found that there was a way to keep altered location codes active indefinitely by building a specially designed containment sphere.
"This sphere's outer shell simulated the location that was supposed to be present within the sphere, which kept the surrounding universe from correcting the error, thus, allowing the altered location contained inside the sphere to survive indefinitely.
"Originally called the Sudalimialis Jump Hole System, based on the creator, Emperor Sudalimialis, was later shortened to just, SJS Gate. NHA starships are able to travel anywhere in the universe, instantaneously, through the use of the SJS Gate network." Trent's head was spinning. Someone had taken a lot of time and effort to think up this explanation and he started questioning his initial theory, maybe this wasn't actually a corporate experiment. He quickly brushed off the thought. The metallic voice continued after a short pause.
"Faster-than-Light travel, or FTL, used to move within normal space when a SJS Gate is unavailable, is performed through the use of the Neutron Star Drive Propulsion System, or NSD. The Neutron Star Drive Propulsion System uses the energy of a Neutron Star, possible through the use of Black Hole Physics, unstable singularity containment, and dark matter manipulation, to power the propulsion system. Black hole physics allows the distortion of mass, space, and time, by exploiting the contained, unstable singularities space-time, mass, and energy altering abilities, while negating the gravitational forces through the use of a gravity manipulation system consisting of the anti-gravity material, dark matter. This allows the immeasurable energy of a Neutron Star to be harnessed without its immense mass or gravity affecting the starship or surrounding space, allowing NSD equipped NHA starships to travel at FTL speeds, without the expected time dilation effects, or being limited in speed based on energy creation. So in closing, NSD's allow FTL travel since time is kept constant to the stationary universe as speed increases, while the starships mass is constantly adjusted and excess energy negated through the use of singularity manipulation, or Black Hole Physics, allowing for FTL travel at speeds that are only limited by sensor range." Trent sighed, it was improbable, but could be possible. He knew nothing of this so called black hole physics and trying to say it didn't exist in the manner being described would show his ignorance. He decided to not delve further into that line of questioning until he could ask someone directly. But now, he had another annoying itching feeling in the back of his head...was this really a corporate experiment? The question made him realize his own stupidity, why hadn't he asked directly?
"Please inform me of the corporation responsible for this
facility." He regretted the request immediately as the annoyingly painful tone filled his mind, letting him know that the base, was indeed, part of a giant universe spanning empire...or more likely...the information was restricted. Finding he had no additional pressing questions, he decided it was time to move on, but first, he had to find out where.
"Please inform me of the location of all personnel in the TSB Earth Base." A simple question he probably should have asked earlier.
"Please be advised, all TSB personnel have been called to active-duty. Nonessential and injured personnel can be found in TSB Earth Base wing one. Current active duty TSB personnel can be found within medical bay one and freight storage area five. Non-TSB personnel can be found in Base Command and Control, Hanger Bay One, Officer Barracks Two, Three..." The metallic voice continued listing off the location of non-TSB personnel, and after a minute he cut it off.
Trent stood, tossing the green container that had held his water into a circular hole and started towards the hallway. He was running through what the voice had just said. Why would the remaining TSB personnel be found only in a medical bay and storage area? Trent felt a shiver crawl up his spine as a sense of impending doom filled him. Whatever was going on, and whoever these people were, he had a feeling he would become embroiled in the chaos...like he always seemed to do.
As he walked into the hallway, he had the sudden urge to test the weapon that he had supposedly seen in action, pulling the long cylinder from his belt and turning it in his hands. There appeared to be no trigger, but he did find a depressed button a third of the way up the rear end of the weapon. Sliding his right hand into position so that his thumb would land perfectly on the depressed button caused it to light and pop out slightly. His heart began beating rapidly as he braced himself and aimed the weapon at the far wall, pushing the button.
Alutia Rising Page 19