“Yes.”
“Jason and I have something you need to see. Can you come to the physics lab on deck three, please?”
“I’ll be right there,” he replied.
He completed dressing and proceeded to the lab. When he arrived he found Karen and Jason running some sort of simulation with two Sapien physicists, Sola Doll and Pata Mon. She introduced them, then pointed to the screen where a simulation was running. It showed what appeared to be a recreation of the experiment they did back in the lab back on Earth, when they first created the sphere.
Karen said, “We explained to the Sapiens how we first pulled apart the space-time continuum, and generated the worm hole. They’ve explained to us how the gravity well generator works, and we’ve melded the two technologies together. We believe if we built more quantum rods we could retrofit them to the gravity well generator and increase the capacity of the rods by many factors.”
Jason continued, “With the power from the quantum singularity, combined with the rods, we think we could pierce the barrier with a wormhole and just maybe, go home.”
Jason pressed a button on the keyboard and the simulation updated to show a wormhole originating at the rear of the ship, piercing the barrier and opening a portal to the lab.
Karen added, “We think with the power increase we’ve calculated we could, in theory, open a wormhole of massive size too.”
“What kind of increase are we talking about?” asked Bishop.
“Hold on to your hat,” said Jason. “We calculated the potential increase in power to be 3.7 times ten to the twenty-second power.” He paused. “In theory, that could open a wormhole large enough to envelope an entire solar system. And not only that, look at this.”
He updated the simulation. Now it showed a wormhole large enough to for the ship to pass through, opening to the void. Jason continued, “In theory this could also be used for instantaneous travel between any two points in space.” The ship in the simulation moved through the wormhole and appeared at the void. “The trip that just took us months could be made in minutes,” he added.
“What do we need to do to set this up?” asked Bishop.
“Well, there’s a problem,” added Karen. “We seem to be able to control the origin and size of the wormhole, but we can’t figure out how to focus the end point.” The simulation changed and what was a clear path to the void became another infinite wormhole, the same as what happened in their original experiment.
“We know this can be done,” said Jason, “but we just can’t figure out how to pin down the terminus of the wormhole. That’s why we called you. We wonder if you have any thoughts.”
“This is amazing,” said Bishop, “but no, I don’t have any immediate ideas. I wish I could see this simulation in better resolution in 3D,” he added.
“You can,” said the Sapien physicist Pata Mon.
He opened a person-to-person channel to Sava and said, “Sava, we need to get into the core of CHRIS. We’ve been working on something with the scientists from Vhamora,” he corrected himself, “I mean the humans.
“We may be on the verge of finding a way home for them, and we may be about to make a huge leap forward in our own space travel technology. We think we’ve found a way to jump the ship instantaneously from one location to another. Any other location, regardless of the distance.”
“What?” exclaimed Sava. “That is interesting. Why do you need to get in the core?”
“We have one problem we can’t seem to resolve. We need a high resolution 3D view of our simulation, and the core is the only place to get that.”
Sava replied, “Ok. Permission granted. Good luck.”
Follow me, said Pata. She and Sola let them through the ship to deck two.
“The core is on deck one,” said Pata, “right through this portal.”
There was a ladder extending straight up to a hatch. Pata opened the hatch and they went through. They were now inside CHRIS.
CHRIS, the Crystalline Holographic Imaging System, occupied the entire first deck. It was filled with an array of large and small crystals rising out of the floor, arranged in shape that mimicked a nautilus shell. Bishop recognized the pattern immediately. “These crystals are arranged to the golden ratio,” he said. “Look at the arrangement and the increasing size of the crystals as they spiral out. This is incredible.”
“Amazing,” added Jason. “You are correct. I see it too.”
Pata said, “At the base of each crystal is a laser that targets focal points in the crystal, but look above. That is the result.”
They looked up. Overhead were tens of thousands of holographic images floating in the space above. They were constantly changing, resizing, and morphing to something new.
“This is the mind of CHRIS,” said Sola. “CHRIS is an artificial intelligence machine, and the ship’s main computer.”
“CHRIS,” commanded Sola. “Display the simulation from terminal 31A above.”
The wormhole simulation with the ship travelling to the great void displayed in front of them as a high resolution 3D holographic image. You could actually walk into the image and look around to see it from every angle.
Jason and Karen began adjusting various parameters of the construct. With each variation the holograph changed, but always the infinite wormhole appeared. They spent several days trying alternatives. Everyone had different ideas and made suggestions, then Bishop had an insight.
“Let’s try this,” he said as he manipulated the settings.
They ran the simulation. The wormhole stabilized.
“Great,” he exclaimed. “I’ve got it. This is how you set the terminus.” Everyone watched as he explained the concept and showed them how to set the coordinates.
“Let’s try Sapiea.” He engaged the simulation and the wormhole opened from their current location to the planet Sapiea.
“Let’s try the Aquita.” The wormhole opened and terminated at the Nanda home world.
“Ok, one final thing. Let’s try to break the through the barrier to the lab.”
He engaged the simulation. It reset, positioning the ship at the void, then it displayed a wormhole that breached the barrier and terminated in his lab, just outside the sphere.
“We have it,” he said. Everyone was thrilled.
Bishop had thought of Asha several times during the last few days. He wanted to go see her, but now with their return home a possibility, he didn’t know what to say. That was not a factor that night on the dance floor, but now it was. He found himself in conflict. He wanted to both go home and stay.
They were working on yet another simulation when Sava Doll called. “We are approaching star system Hail,” he said. “We’ll be dropping out of FTL flight soon. I’ll need you to exit the core.”
They exited and the ship dropped from FTL flight. It went into orbit around the planet of the Mahatma.
Chapter 11: Sapiea Falls
The cargo ships Spracus and Nirva dropped out of FTL flight directly above the planet Sapiea. The Nirva entered orbit and circled the planet. The Spracus entered the atmosphere and made an unauthorized landing in the agricultural fields just outside the capitol city of Burgo. The cargo bay door opened and over two hundred Tecate’ streamed out.
The Tecate’ broke into two ranks. One followed the queen into the city. They headed directly toward the council building at city center. The other rank remained behind. Of that rank, forty Tecate’ took defensive positions around the ship. The remainder unloaded two crates of manava and immediately began seeding the ground.
Manava was an incredibly hardy substance that grew fast and thrived in even the harshest conditions. On a planet like Sapiea, manava would take root in no time. In less than two days this location would be another Tecate’ mega-farm.
On board the Spracus, in the cargo hold, was yet another new horde of Tecate’ waiting to mature. The queen had laid that brood just before they arrived at Sapiea. Like before, three nests had been separated out and p
repared. Two would become blue drones. The other would become the third queen.
The unauthorized landing was noticed and a ship was sent to investigate, but by the time they launched the invading Tecate’ had already entered the outer city. The ship saw the swarm and reported the situation. There was some discussion in the council to try to understand what was happening, but it was quickly recognized as a likely attack.
Sapiea had never been attacked before and Sapiens had no known enemies. They were woefully unprepared to defend themselves. They quickly assembled a make-shift group of over two hundred Sapiens and armed them with spears and burners. The group rushed to intercept the invading horde and did so several blocks before the council building.
Their spears could not even scratch the hard outer shells of the Tecate’. And the burners were, likewise, just as ineffective. The Tecate’ engaged. Within minutes two hundred Sapiens lay dead in the streets of Burgo.
The Tecate’ swarm again split into two groups. One group continued on toward the council building. The other group headed toward Center Station. When they arrived at the station they swarmed the docks and boarded as many shuttles as they could. They took seven shuttles before the pilots realized what was happening and took to the skies.
Four Tecate’ boarded each of the captured shuttles and also took flight. They mixed in with the fleeing shuttles and headed to orbit. There they targeted several orbiting vessels and docked with them. They took those vessels as easily as they had taken the Spracus and the Nirva. The Tecate’ now had complete control of nine spacecraft. The Spracus, the Nirva, five additional cargo ships, one mining vessel, and one deep space interstellar craft.
Reports were coming in to the council from locations on both the ground and in space. The council sent out a planet wide message ordering all ships in orbit to flee. They gave no destination, the order was simply:
“Sapiea is under attack. Ships are being taken on the ground and in the air. All ships are ordered to leave orbit and find refuge elsewhere. Flee and save your ship.”
Orbiting ships began fleeing in all directions. The ships occupied by the Tecate’ remained in orbit over the planet, except for the Nirva. The Nirva blended in with the mass exodus and set course for the Sapien moon, Barra. No one knew the Nirva had been captured, so it was, as far as all knew, just another ship of refugees.
The council knew they were being targeted by the Tecate’ so they ordered the QETARs be removed from the council building and hidden at different off site facilities. They did not know where. They assigned a QETAR to anyone they could find to assume responsibility and told them to run and hide. Their orders were to find safe refuge then try to contact the other outposts and deep space vessels and let them know what had happened and stay away from Sapiea.
Before the Tecate’ stormed the building the council got off one more planet-wide message to the general population. The message was:
“Sapiea has fallen. Tecate’ are the enemy. Find refuge and save yourself. Resist by any means possible. All known weapons ineffective.”
The council waited for the Tecate’ queen to arrive. They would hear her terms and negotiate a surrender.
The queen and her army arrived at the council building and found their way to the council chambers. The queen asked, “Who is your leader?”
Abatta Hai answered, “I am the leader.”
The queen then looked to her soldiers and made some clicking sounds. The translator was still on and translated her speech. She said, “Keep this one alive. You may eat the others.”
The council was terrified. They had no idea Tecate’ ate people. But their fear was short-lived. The Tecate’ descended on the remaining council members, pushed them to the ground, and began chewing off their limbs. There was a lot a screaming, then soon, silence. Only Abatta remained.
Abatta was in disbelief at the horror she had just witnessed. Nothing she had ever imagined could be so cold, or so gruesome. The feeling was surreal. Then the queen spoke again.
“You have two planets with allies, the Dolek and the Nanda. I want the coordinates to their home worlds.”
Abatta refused. The queen responded with confidence, “You will tell me,” then a shaft splintered out of her right forearm. This was a needle shaped object, different than the barbed spear she had used to dispatch the helmsmen on the Spracus. This was a stinger. She stuck the point into Abatta’s leg and injected venom.
Within a minute, Abatta’s thigh began to cramp; what humans would call a charley horse. Then her calf began cramping. Then, as the venom spread, every muscle in her body cramped in a full blow spasm. Abatta curled up into a fetal position. She could not help it. Her contracting muscles pulled her body into a taught little ball. She could not move. She could not speak. The pain was unimaginable, and unbearable.
The queen said to her, “We will speak again tomorrow when the pain subsides. You will tell me then.”
Meanwhile, the Nirva landed on Barra. It touched down about a mile outside of the resort of Lavada. The queen did not know the name of this outpost, nor did she care. She dispatched fifty Tecate’ to storm the city.
They had no difficulty traversing the terrain or surviving the moon’s atmosphere. The greenhouse effect on Barra kept the moon warm enough to support them, and while the atmosphere was unbreathable, they were able to withstand it for a prolonged period. The Tecate’ did not have lungs. They had a system of tubules that ran all throughout their body, and the tubules stored enough oxygen to sustain them for at least forty minutes.
In less than an hour the city of Lavada was under Tecate’ control. The remainder of her contingent were sent out onto the surface with a crate of manava. They began the planting procedure. They would work in forty minute shifts until the manava was fully seeded.
As for the manava, it would grow on Barra. Manava was a symbiotic organism composed of three distinct species that lived as one. One species could extract elements from the atmosphere. Another species could dissolve solid rock and extract raw materials. The third species could use either heat or light to create a lipoid type substance from the materials provided by either of the other two. All three species lived off the lipoid composites. So long as the elements were present in the air or soil, and there was a source of heat or light, manava would thrive. It was a versatile and hearty organism.
A second Tecate’ farm had now been established, and a second colony was now on Barra. In less than one day Sapiea and Barra had both fallen.
The next day, the queen on Sapiea returned to speak with Abatta. She again asked for the coordinates to Aquita and Dolis.
Abatta again replied, “No.” The queen approached Abatta with her singer extended. Abatta began crying, then she gave her the coordinates.
The queen took the coordinates to Aquita and Dolis and again approached Abatta with her extended stinger. She said, “Give me more.” Abatta cried again and gave her the coordinates to star system Hail. The queen stung her anyway, this time injecting a lethal dose of the painful venom.
The Tecate’ were not yet ready to extend themselves further. They have to gather forces to continue on in their conquest. They needed more Tecate’, more queens, and more manava. All were coming soon.
Chapter 12: The Father
While the Maximus was in flight the engineering team designed a system to improve access to the Mahatma’s lair. The system was built-out and ready for installation, so Sava sent the engineers down to complete the set-up first. When they arrived they noticed a change in the configuration of the growth that sprawled out of the hole. The Mahatma had created a clearing large enough to land a shuttle and had opened path from there to the entrance.
This made the installation all the easier. They installed a containment field to cover the landing area and a lift system to traverse up and down the hole. The containment field was similar to the field they used to hold in the atmosphere in the cargo bay. It created a bubble that would allow a shuttle to pass, but hold in air.
The Mahatma was aware of what they were doing and, as soon as they activated the field, the Mahatma filled the bubble with clean, oxygenated air. Now visitors could reach the cave without the need wear an environment suit or make long climbs on ropes.
The first team to visit the Mahatma included Devor Bon, Paumi Dor, madi-tah, and the three humans. When they arrived the Mahatma was waiting for them.
The Mahatma was first to speak. A head in the rear said, “It’s good to see you friends, but I fear time is short. I sense the darkness is upon us.”
The humans had not been told about the darkness so they did not understand. The others knew of the warnings but they had no news of any threats, so they didn’t yet fully understand the urgency.
Devor replied, “It’s good to see you again. Our trip was successful. We breached the barrier and extracted these three beings from beyond the void. This is Bishop Avery, Karen White, and Jason Smith. As requested, we brought them to you.”
The Long Day Page 11