by M. D. Cooper
Finaeus scowled and shook his head. “You’re also going to show the Orion Guard the FTL path that we’re taking into Star City. Our supposed hosts may not appreciate that.”
“They won’t know where to exit, though,” Cheeky said. “With luck, they’ll think we’re exiting at the edge of the system.”
“Until we don’t,” Cargo said.
Cheeky blew out a long breath and didn’t speak for a moment. “OK, I’m all ears, what’s plan B?”
Cargo looked at Finaeus who shrugged.
Terry looked like she was trying to shrink down to nanoscale, and Cargo was at least glad that she saw that some toes had been stepped on—though he wasn’t sure how it had happened.
“Sabrina? Piya? Math check out on Cheeky’s plot?” Cargo asked.
Cargo wondered what sort of conversation Cheeky and Piya must be having right now.
“Execute it, Cheeky,” Cargo ordered.
STAR CITY
STELLAR DATE: 11.17.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Sexy, approaching Star City
REGION: Star City System, Perseus Arm
Even if Star City was one fourth the size she thought it would be…it was still huge.
Up until now, everything Jessica had seen in the 89th century—barring maybe the dwarf star mine—was less impressive than what engineers had pulled off in Sol in the fourth and fifth millennia.
But this…Jupiter would fit inside of it six or seven times. You could evenly disperse a billion people on Star City, and they would never be able to find each other. And that was if it was only one level deep.
“Why do they even need anything like this?” Jessica asked. “Seriously…what purpose could it serve?”
“Maybe they planned on having a lot of babies,” Trevor said with a quiet laugh.
Jessica shook her head. “That’s a lot a lot of babies.”
“Have we received any other communication from them?” Trevor asked.
The Sexy passed within a thousand kilometers of Star City’s massive sphere, and Jessica gave three short bursts of the ship’s grav drive to match the dyson sphere’s surface velocity.
“This is so weird,” Jessica said as she rotated the ship and nudged it closer to their destination.
“What’s that?” Trevor asked.
“Well, at this distance, we should be experiencing the same gravity—give or take a bit—as you’d experience from around a planet like Earth when a thousand klicks out. But we’re not experiencing anything.”
“Are they using a grav field of some sort to support us?” Trevor asked.
“Wow, Iris,” Trevor said and out of the corner of her eye Jessica caught him grinning.
“I didn’t think you got nervous,” Trevor said. “Always thought you were completely unflappable.”
Iris replied.
“They must be structurally reinforcing it with grav fields, or something,” Jessica said.
“Or something,” Trevor replied.
No one spoke for several minutes as the Sexy drifted closer to their docking coordinates—coordinates that continued to show nothing other than the smooth surface of the sphere.
Jessica zoomed in on the area Iris had pointed out—the movement was at their docking location. The sphere was opening up.
A small section—just over ten kilometers in diameter—slid aside, revealing white light streaming out into space from the hole.
“I read a solid object through the hole…one hundred klicks down,” Trevor said.
Jessica eased the ship toward the glowing entrance. “Anyone want to turn back? This’ll be our last chance.”
“I thought you were flapped,” Trevor asked with a laugh.
“Never let it be said that we weren’t brave,” Jessica said as she nudged the ship though the opening in Star City’s shell.
Once through the hole—a kilometer-long shaft—the washed-out visual cleared up and they were able to see a breathtaking vista. From their height of one hundred kilometers, thousands of kilometers of surface were visible in every direction—atmospheric haze blurring details long before things fell below the curvature of the sphere.
“It’s all terraformed,” Jessica whispered in awe.
“We can see a lot,” Trevor replied.
Jessica glanced at him and saw an expression of true wonder on his face. She imagined the same was on hers.
“It’s like seeing the entire surface of a planet all at once. Up close,” Jessica said.
Below them, a mountain range marched along the periphery of a massive ocean, the land on their far side, dry and arid until it reached the point where a massive river sliced through the continent. From there the surface became lush and green, gentle rolling hills progressing toward a range of old mountains before smoothing out once more and meeting the shores of another ocean.
“Holy shit,” Jessica whispered. “I know what that is! It’s North America!”
“That’s ambitious,” Trevor said. “Though with the room for thirty-three thousand planets, you might as well have some fun with it.”
“I never considered how much water there would be,” Jessica said as the Sexy continued to descend toward their updated coordinates.
I guess they’re not really docking coordinates, Jessica mused. They’re landing coordinates.
“Huh, we’re going to Jerhattan,” Jessica said as the realization dawned on her. “Or whatever that is…it doesn’t look like Jerhattan.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Trevor said with a shrug. “I assume Jerhattan’s a city?”
Jessica shook her head. “OK, that’s just too weird. For the entire time I lived in Sol, Jerhattan was one of the most important cities there ever was. Now, no one knows what it was.”
“What was so special about it?” Trevor asked.
“It used to be two different places. New York City and New Jersey. Eventually they merged and formed their own city-state, named Jerhattan. After a while, almost the entire eastern coast of the United States was Jerhattan.”
“United States…” Trevor mused. “That sounds familiar. Weren’t they the first ones to put someone in space?”
Jessica shook her head as the Sexy passed over the Mississippi River. “That was the USSR. Similar name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”
“I guess, yeah,” Trevor said. “So the United States wasn’t as big a deal then?”
“They put the first people on the moon,” Jessica said. “The other guys, the USSR, they didn’t stick around for long before they dissolved.”
“Strange to think of so many nations all on one planet. Yet it worked somehow, we all came from here.”
“You should show me where you’re from—Athabasca,” Trevor said.
Jessica glanced out the port side of the cockpit. They were lower now, and the Canadian prairies were no longer visible. A part of her wanted to see the waves crashing on the southern shore of Lake Athabasca more than anything. Another part of her knew no good would come of it. Nothing she needed from that place could be had. Neither here, nor back at Sol.
“I would rather not,” Jessica said. “I mean…we can’t right now. Whoever runs this place probably doesn’t want us flying all over like a bunch of tourists.”
“Good point.”
Trevor’s tone of voice carried more meaning than the words, and when Jessica looked over at him, she saw understanding in his eyes.
They shared the unspoken union of thought for several moments before Iris interrupted.
“Oh yeah? What is it?” Jessica asked.
“It’s nothing.”
“No, really,” Jessica insisted. “What are you referring to.”
Iris said.
“Maybe it’s some sort of preserve,” Trevor offered.
“The a-grav tunnel is weakening,” Jessica said. “I think we’ll be in regular atmosphere and grav soon.”
Jessica flew the Sexy over the eastern forests of North America, before turning and following the coast toward Jerhattan. The city that eventually came into view was much smaller than the one she had seen in her youth. In fact, it only covered the island of Manhattan. The mainland, as well as long island, were both heavily forested.
But on Manhattan, gleaming white towers rose into the sky, some as far as a kilometer, their tops dragging through the intermittent clouds drifting up the coast.
Iris said.
“Any advertised comm channels?” Trevor asked.
“This place is creepy,” Jessica said softly as she brought the Sexy down to a dozen meters, coming in low over the breakers on the final approach to their landing coordinates on the southern end of Manhattan Island.
They flew over a park that ran along the water’s edge, and then set down on cradle that emerged from beneath a wide clearing a hundred meters from the ocean.
One of the island’s tallest towers stood in front of the ship, and scan showed that it, unlike the others, had some amount of EM activity going on inside.
“Well?” Trevor asked. “You ready, Jess?”
Jessica pulled off her harness and rose. “As I’ll ever be.”
“I assume we’re going to go in unarmed.”
“Yeah, we’re at these people’s—if there are any—mercy. Let’s not piss them off.”
Jessica led the way to the Sexy’s boarding ramp and palmed the control to lower it. The moment it cracked open, they were met with crisp, cool air, tinged with the smell of the sea.
“Damn. Been a while since I’ve smelled planet,” Trevor said.
“Just a few weeks for me,” Jessica noted. “Though it smells different than Acadia and Gallas—cleaner, like…zero pollutants clean.”
They walked down the ramp and Jessica felt her skin tingle when the noon-bright light hit it. It felt glorious, tendrils of energy ran down her limbs tickling as they reached her finger tips.
“You just did the ‘light shiver’,” Trevor said with a grin.
Jessica was unable to hold back a giggle. “It feels great! Not a lot of full-spectrum light on the Sexy.”
“Wouldn’t want you to turn brown and wither away,” Trevor said in mock horror.
“Don’t even joke about things like that,” Jessica said.
“So where do we go?” Trevor asked.
Jessica looked up at the kilometer-high tower with the EM activity within. “In there? I guess?”
“I feel like the city should be green and we should be running from flying monkeys,” Trevor said.
“Really? You know about ancient classics, like The Wizard of Oz, but you don’t know what the United States was?”
“Well, Oz was an amazing story,” Trevor replied as he began walking across the clearing toward the building.
The lush lawn—which was immaculately trimmed—gave way to wide paving stones leading to a broad marble staircase. At the top of the stair stood a tall row of columns beyond which were a dozen doors leading into the building.
“There’s no debris, or litter anywhere,” Jessica said as they climbed the stairs.
“They must have a lot of maintenance bots to keep a world filled with planets clean.”
Jessica smiled. “Planet World, is it? That sounds more accurate than Star City. Heck, even Star World would have been a better name.”
They reached the top of the stairs and passed between the hundred meter pillars. As they approached the doors, a pair swung open. Jessica glanced at Trevor and took his hand.
“Ready to go into the super-creepy building?” Jessica asked.
“I’m ready for whatever Planet World wants to throw at me,” Trevor replied with a grin.
The pair stepped into the building and found themselves in a wide foyer. It was utterly empty, devoid of any decoration or symbols, save for a number on the far wall: 11.
Beneath the number was a set of double doors. Jessica looked at Trevor, shrugged and walked toward it. As they approached, it too opened, and they stepped through into a massive chamber that appeared to rise as high as the tower.
The chamber was circular, and they were standing on a platform which wrapped around its perimeter. A tall, dimly glowing shaft ran vertically through the chamber, pulsing slightly in a complex pattern that repeated every few seconds.
Jessica walked to the edge of the encircling platform—which had no railing—and peered down into the depths.
“Damn,” she said as she tried to see the bottom. “Goes for kilometers, I think.”
“So, where are we?” Trevor asked. “Why did they…it…the welcome message person bring us here.”
“That’s the million-star question,” Jessica replied
Jessica felt as though the voice had spoken audibly as well as over the Link. It carried a deep resonance, a measured purpose that reminded her of an AI she knew: Bob.
“Hello?” Jessica asked. “Who are you? Where are we?”
“Eleven?” Jessica asked. “That’s your name?”
Jessica looked at Trevor and mouthed ‘last’ with a quizzical look.
Trevor merely shrugged in response.
“Are you an AI?” Jessica asked. “Are you the only one left on Star City? Where did everyone else go?”
Eleven responded.
“Where are they?” Trevor asked. “This place seems empty. Are they elsewhere on Star City?”
Jessica furrowed her brow. Whatever this Eleven was, making sense was not high on his agenda. “The Dream?”
What Eleven was saying sounded a lot like spiritual mumbo-jumbo. “They die?”
“Do you mean ascension like the AIs in the Sentience Wars achieved?” Trevor asked.
Eleven replied.
“Born?” Jessica latched onto the word.
Now we’re getting somewhere, Jessica thought.
Iris chuckled in response.
“I’m going to take a logical leap here,” Jessica said. “Your people created you, and I assume at least ten other Bastions, as protectors of Star City while they went into this dream?”
“That’s ah…nothing permanent, is it?” Trevor asked. “I like my meat suit quite a bit.”
“Off the platform?” Jessica asked.
Iris said, speaking on Star City’s net for the first time.
Iris replied.