"If Lieutenant Davis hadn't perished, you wouldn't have found yourself at the end of your credit, and you wouldn't have wound up betting against a group of unsavory space pirates in a foolish game of chance."
Now Quasar and Steve stood beside a table where the younger Quasar sat playing a heated game of Terillian Dize with a bunch of Xenodians—a reptilian race known for their forays into piracy, scavenging, pillaging, politics, and other unsavory pursuits. Idiotically, the captain had wagered his ship—without the knowledge of his first officer or crew, of course. One of the pirates had wagered a sealed data cube containing the coordinates to a place called Opsanus Tau Prime.
"Good thing you won." Steve winked.
With another overwhelming vertiginous sensation, the environment blurred out of focus to materialize as a sheer rock face of strange, burgundy stone surrounded by a thick purple and blue haze. The fog seemed to have a life of its own, swirling in eddies around both Steve and the captain and obscuring their vision of the surroundings.
"Eventually, you came here." Steve raised his oaken staff, and the fog parted before them, dissipating to reveal the most otherworldly landscape the captain had ever seen, beauty that defied description—although if he'd had to, Quasar would have said the glorious, hazy world resembled a watercolor of heaven he'd once painted as a young lad.
Somehow, he recognized it instantly.
"Opsanus Tau Prime," he gasped.
Episode 71: Opsanus Tau Prime
"How is this possible?" Captain Quasar swallowed, suffering sudden heart palpitations. "We never made it—I've never been here—"
"Haven't you?" Steve's eyes twinkled as he raised a bushy eyebrow. "How can you explain your movement through space-time otherwise?"
It made no sense. How could Captain Quasar recognize this alien world as being none other than the far-flung planet of mystery, Opsanus Tau Prime itself, if he had, in point of fact, never set foot here before? And how in the galaxy had Steve managed this? Wasn't he just a hallucination borne of quartz particles imbedded in the captain's brain?
Traveling to and fro within his own timeline made a certain amount of sense to the captain, since it seemed somewhat conceivable to be able to reenter one's younger or older self by magically transferring one's essence through space-time. But breaking free to travel across light-years to a planet he had wanted to find and yet never had, thanks to that confounded cold fusion reactor aboard the Magnitude going kaput and sending them into five centuries of limbo—it was more than he could grasp!
"None of this has made much sense."
"How about now?" Steve tipped his staff toward their mystical surroundings.
"Is this my future?" Hope swelled in the captain's chest. If he could now partake of the magical elixir, he would not only be able to save Lieutenant Davis's life—and Ensign Elliott's too, of course; he truly did not want to notify the fellow's parents about his passing—but he would also be able to travel at will into the past and keep the evil Zhan from destroying Earth and its sister-planet, Carpethria.
"You just don't get it." Steve blew out a sigh, shaking his head. "This goes against our ways and everything we believe in, but here you go: You have already been to our planet, Captain. And you have already drunk of our magical elixir." He paused, waiting for that to sink in. "And you have been out of sync with your temporal existence ever since."
Captain Quasar frowned. "The Noble Gases of Epsilon Seven and the non-temporal entities of Opsanus Tau Prime…are one and the same?"
Steve chuckled. "No. I'm not one of those noble gases—nor am I the byproduct of quartz dust imbedded in your brain. I merely assumed this form because a preliminary scan of your mind indicated that you trusted without reason wise old sages—"
"With oaken staffs. Right." Quasar cursed under his breath as the situation became partially clear. "So you're one of the local non-temporal entities, then. Sent to escort me on my journeys through space-time?"
"Now you're getting it." Steve—or the non-temporal entity formerly known as Steve—beamed.
"And all this time, whipping from the present to the past and back—it's because I've already partaken of your magical elixir?"
"We would have thought it fairly obvious, but then again, we don't often deal with your kind. All that fleshy, bloody goop in your head really has a way of mucking up your cognitive processes."
Quasar faced the entity. "Why this sham? Pretending to be someone—something—you're not?"
Steve shrugged. "You fascinate us with your desire to relive the past and force it to change—as if you can alter the course of a river merely by reaching in with your hands and squeezing at the water with all your might. You are a passionate creature, Captain. While it was never our intent to interfere in any way, we have enjoyed our sojourn with you, as long as it lasted."
Quasar shook his head. It was all too much.
"Why reveal yourself now? Why don't I remember ever reaching this planet? How is any of this possible?" He shook his fists in exasperation.
"Back to that river analogy, if you'll indulge me. It flows as far as you can see and beyond. Right now, you're standing near the end, in your future. But from our perspective, there is no river—it's just a great, big pool. Past, present, future, all swimming around together like little tadpoles."
Rivers? Tadpoles? Quasar was ready to kick Steve in his non-temporal face. "Talk sense, man!"
"That's what I've been trying to do all along," Steve muttered. Clearing his throat, he continued, "You will reach Opsanus Tau Prime eventually. And you will drink the elixir, thinking you will be able to change the past: the death of your weapons officer, the destruction of your home world, et cetera. And you will move back and forth through space-time, altering variables along the way, never able to change the constants—the massive rocks that protrude from the river. Even if you were able to reverse the flow of all that water, would you be able to move a single one of them?"
Captain Quasar didn't believe in speaking in metaphors. He believed in cutting to the chase. "Couldn't you have told me all of this earlier? Or have you thoroughly enjoyed sneaking up on me and sharing your snarky comments?"
"It has been a lot of fun," Steve agreed with a brief grin. "But time is of the essence now—to put myself in your temporal shoes, that is. You must return to your present tense. No more journeys into the past for you. The work that lies ahead will demand every ounce of fortitude you possess, and it will be incredibly challenging. But we believe you are up for it."
Captain Quasar found himself instantly intrigued. "Can you give me some sort of preview?"
"We're not supposed to." Steve glanced over his shoulder at nothing in particular and leaned in toward the captain, whispering, "Suffice it to say you're going to assemble your own fleet and bring humankind back to Earth to start over as a species." He winked with a broad smile. "Don't say I never gave you anything."
Episode 72: Two for the Price of One
After that brief glimpse of his own future, Captain Quasar found himself pulled away from the smiling, waving old wizard and sent back on a collision course with his present tenseness, strong-armed by Markus and Lank's band of rough pirates into the captain's transport pod.
"Have a seat." Markus shoved Quasar down in the passenger compartment, keeping Quasar's own weapon trained on him.
Chief Gruber stumbled inside next, muscled toward a bench by a square-jawed she-pirate. Then Hank entered the pod, keeping his eyes to himself as he shuffled to the cockpit without a word.
"Traitor!" Gruber spat, kicking at the very hairy biped as he passed.
"Enjoy your flight." Lank leaned in to wink with his one good eye. "Markus and Naomi will ensure that you both behave. We'll be right behind you, Cousin!"
"Humph." Hank activated the pod's pre-flight sequence. Lights flickered in the cockpit.
With a chuckle, Lank shut the hatch, and Markus secured it from inside.
"Please." He eyed Quasar with a smirk. "Misbehave."
/> With the electromagnetic "charger" storms abated, due to Lank's apparent control of whatever apparatus had caused them in the first place, the transport pod rose from the planet's scarred surface in a trajectory to meet the Effervescent Magnitude in orbit.
"Master Lank may trust his cousin, but that doesn't mean I have to," Markus said loud enough for Hank to hear. The woman Naomi nodded in agreement. "Just to be sure there won't be any funny business, I had one of my crew rig this pod with a plasma charge. You do anything to warn your ship—" He produced a detonator from a frayed pocket in his severely out-of-fashion cargo pants. "And we all go out in a blaze."
"Humph." Hank didn't even glance back.
"A bold move," Quasar said. "But idiotic. Why threaten to blow yourself up?"
Markus narrowed his gaze. "I hear UW starship captains used to do it all the time."
"Ah. Touché."
"Leaving the atmosphere," Hank reported. On the viewscreen before him, three points of light appeared on the display representing the pods carrying Lank and his pirates close behind.
"Say goodbye to Carpethria," Lank's growl came over the comm channel. "What's left of her."
Captain Quasar's collar communicator bleeped.
"Careful now." Markus jammed the Cody 52's muzzle into Quasar's ribs. "Go on, answer it."
Quasar jerked his head to activate the device.
"Captain, is everything all right?" Commander Wan sounded concerned. "We lost communication—"
"Sorry about that, Number Wan. I would have contacted you sooner, but we were dealing with a certain level of interference. Get ready to welcome us back."
"Looks like you have some company, sir."
Quasar chuckled, and it sounded genuine, even to himself. "A rag-tag band of survivors. It appears the evil Zhan had his way with Carpethria after leaving Earth in shambles. Believe it or not, we found Hank's long-lost cousin among them."
Wan paused. "Speaking of company, sir. We have some of our own."
"Oh?" Quasar glanced up at Markus who was attempting to stare him down, breathing out great gusts through flared nostrils like a bull about to charge.
"The Amazonians. They managed to find us."
Quasar's jaw nearly dropped. "How?"
"Something about the reactor coils we took from them. According to Captain Asteria, they leak a certain residue only Amazonian scanners recognize, and they've been following our trail ever since our rather hasty departure."
"You've spoken to her?"
"We've been in communication, sir. Currently, the Formidable Grace is sharing our orbital pattern over Carpethria. The captain awaits your arrival with great—" Another pause. "Eagerness."
Quasar winked up at Markus. "We'll do our best not to keep the lady waiting." With another head jerk, he deactivated the device.
"Who are these Amazonians," Markus spat.
"Just some friends from across the galaxy. Nothing to worry about." Quasar forced a smile even as his abdominal muscles did somersaults. The last time he'd spoken with Asteria, she'd told him she had taken command of the Grace, but he'd assumed the story was a fabrication to get him to return so she could have her way with him.
She'd also told him she was carrying his child.
But if it was true that she now commanded the Formidable Grace, was it also true that she was the mother of his son?
Markus turned his attention to Hank while the Cody 52 remained in close contact with the captain. "What do you know of this Amazon race?"
Hank's superior set of shoulders shrugged. "They're a bunch of very large, very strong women."
The pirate Naomi perked up with interest.
"And one of them might be obsessed with the captain—somewhat."
Markus laughed. "Him?" He gave Quasar a shove. "What would any woman see in him?"
"I often wonder," Hank growled.
Quasar scowled at the back of Hank's very hairy head. What had come over him? Had his cousin infected his mind with some sort of Carpethrians against Humans rhetoric? Had Hank ever felt mistreated while serving aboard the Magnitude? If so, he'd never let on.
Perhaps he'd buried it down deep, and now, having seen one of his own kind—a family member, no less—after so long, the feelings were exploding to the surface. Or perhaps Captain Quasar didn't know Hank as well as he thought he did. After all, this was a different Hank than the one he'd known, thanks to the captain's interference with the past. This Carpethrian was a former combat trainer instead of an engineer. Regardless, Quasar never would have predicted Hank's betrayal.
"Two ships?" Cousin Lank chortled over the comm as the other three transport pods broke through the upper atmosphere into the cold black of space. There lay the Effervescent Magnitude and the Formidable Grace, glorious in their enormity and stateliness. "Oh, my cup runneth over! Markus, we're taking them both."
The pirates nodded to one another and grinned hideously.
Episode 73: You Only Live Once
Captain Quasar lowered his voice so only Markus could hear. "What is it about Lank that causes you to swear your undying fealty? Surely you've considered jettisoning that flabby walking carpet and taking full command of your crew. They are yours, aren't they? The humans?"
Markus glowered with a hint of interest in his keen eyes. "You forget things easily, Earth Man. We are Carpethrian, not human. Master Lank is the brains—"
"And you're the brawn. I get that. But there comes a time when the brawn needs to look out for itself." Quasar raised an eyebrow.
"What are you suggesting?" Markus kept his voice near a low murmur, and judging by the expressionless faces of Chief Gruber and Naomi across from them, the rumble of the transport pod's engines were masking their conversation.
Quasar shrugged his thick shoulders. "When you see an opportunity for advancement, you should take it. No matter the cost." He winked. "Yolo."
"Yolo?" the pirate growled.
"You only live once. It's a little acronym I picked up on Narvana 6, once upon a time. I didn't realize the significance then and there, but now it seems quite profound. We cannot change the past, Markus. If we try, we just end up making a mess of things. Instead, we must focus on the here and now. It's all we have, after all. We only live once." The captain chuckled to himself. "Wolo."
Markus backed away from Quasar as one would from a raving lunatic. The Cody 52 abandoned the captain's ribs for the moment.
"Making our approach," Hank reported. Then switching on the comm, he gave his cousin's crew directions to the Magnitude's other transport bays.
"Four is full," Quasar spoke up. "Bill has that annihilation bot down there, remember?"
"Right." Hank redirected the last pod into a holding pattern on the starboard side of the ship.
"I've got a better idea," Lank's voice came through loud and clear. "We split up, two docking inside the Magnitude and two in the Formidable Grace. It will make our commandeering efforts run much smoother. Don't you agree, Cousin?"
"Humph," Hank said.
"The Cousins Carpethria plotting their first heist. Isn't this grand? Soon the entire quadrant will be ours to pillage and plunder!"
Markus and Naomi cheered, raising their fists. Hank remained unresponsive as he guided the transport pod into the Magnitude and activated the docking clamps. The bay door slid shut automatically behind them. Then Hank swiveled around in his seat with the projectile weapon in hand that he'd taken from his cousin. Without a word, he sent one of the seeker rounds through Markus's left thigh and into Naomi's right. The two of them dropped to the floor of the pod writhing and barking obscenities as Quasar and Gruber disarmed them with both speed and agility.
"Never doubted you for a second, Hank!" Gruber cheered, soaked with perspiration. He pointed the retrieved atom rifle at the two pirates as he adjusted the settings. "With your permission, sir?"
Quasar nodded. "Let them have it."
"No!" Markus yelped, soiling himself. Naomi only screamed.
Gruber shot each of th
em with a blinding charge, and they fell limp onto the floor. "Big babies," he muttered.
"How long will they be out?" Quasar opened the hatch and climbed through.
"An hour, maybe two." Gruber followed.
Pistol hidden in his fur flab, Hank was the last to exit the pod. He cleared one of his throats, giving his voice that oddly harmonic quality as he shuffled his feet. "Captain—"
"You did what you had to, ol' buddy." Quasar clapped him on a superior shoulder, his hand sinking deep into the loyal Carpethrian's fur. "It was the only way to get us all back on board the Magnitude in one piece."
"Yeah." Gruber nodded as if he'd been in on the plan from the start. "Right."
Truth be told, it was only now that Hank's plans were beginning to coalesce clearly in the captain's mind, but he didn't let on. "So, what's the next stage?"
Hank shrugged all of his shoulders. "I was hoping you'd take it from here, sir."
"Of course." Quasar flashed a broad smile intended to instill confidence in anyone within twenty meters. "And so I shall." With a quick head-jerk, he strode for the nearest corridor. "Commander Wan, close all bay doors on the double!"
"But sir, the other pods are already on approach—"
"Do it! Those pods contain hostiles, and we don't want them on board. Understood?"
"Bay doors shut, sir."
Quasar jerked his head to deactivate his communicator and faced Hank. "Return to your post, Helmsman. And set coordinates for Narvana 6—full power and speed and all that good stuff."
The deep-set eyes of the Carpethrian held a look of remorse, but he said nothing. With a quick nod, he shuffled off in what passed for a jog among his species.
"Chief, I want those two pirates in the brig AFAP."
"As fast as—yes, Captain!" Gruber dashed off to round up a security detail.
The Space_Time Displacement Conundrum Page 23