by Randal Sloan
A second missile had launched behind the first, loaded with a payload of hyper energy pulled in during their flight to the test area, just enough to make it look like backwash from the hyper boundary. Sara and the AI had generated a perfect EW signal, even magnifying the signal in the area where the ship’s hull had already begun transitioning into hyperspace so that the faded areas still matched Sara’s EW waveform perfectly.
To the watching ships, it had truly appeared that the Katarina had exploded. It looked like the analysis was bearing out that explanation even after a thorough examination. As some of the ships started moving toward the edge of hyperspace, Jarra decided it was time to let them know they were alive. She nodded to her team and Galen brought their ship back into normal space as Gabo dropped the stealth mode.
It took only a few seconds for the surprised Borjon to start calling.
She smiled at Kaeden. “Better start working on your cooking skills,” she told him.
The smile he returned was every bit as big as hers. He hadn’t told her that he couldn’t cook worth a darn.
Chapter 9
Off We Go Again, Or Do We?
The Katarina and her crew were preparing to get underway, the ship once again docked beside the Amfiltrite. Despite the success of the “getaway system” test, as Gabo called it, they’d still had a lot to do before they could begin their mission and it had taken nearly a week’s time. It wasn’t like they were on a timetable and no one had any desire to rush off to their possible death.
Jarra sighed internally as she thought back to the past week. She had made more than one call to her uncle, talking about the mission and the needs of the Empire in general. She had also had another opportunity to meet with her father, who had returned to Borjon along with the Borjon Ambassador. They’d had a quiet dinner that night, just the two of them in her father’s private quarters.
It had been somewhat bittersweet, with both of them knowing the risks associated with the upcoming mission and yet both savoring the time together, the first real alone time for them since Jarra and her father had repaired the rift that had grown between them. That rift had been due to Jarra’s career choice being so very different from her father’s expectations for her, but he now accepted that she was doing what she needed to do for the glory and honor of the Empire.
Duty. It had embodied both of their lives since the death of her mother; partly due to that vow each had made separately to dedicate themselves to serving the Empire in honor of her. It still wasn’t easy. That duty would keep her father here in Borjon for at least another year, and that same duty was sending Jarra off again on her most dangerous mission yet.
Still the dinner had been more sweet than bitter, the two tactfully not discussing the future, but just enjoying the time together. Jarra couldn’t resist talking about her team and especially about the addition of Amy and Jason. She already planned that for the next special dinner she had with her father, Jason was going to be there. He had become that important to her.
Jarra smiled as she remembered their final parting. She hugged her father fiercely, neither knowing what the future held, but both knowing whatever came they would always love each other. She had thought they were finished, but her father held his hand up.
“Before you go,” he told her, “I have something for you that belonged to your mother.”
He picked up an ancient wooden box, a box that was still well-preserved despite its age, and opened it to reveal its contents. Inside was a very unusual necklace, a necklace made up of crystals that shone with an amazing blaze of colors.
“This has been passed down among your mother’s family for generations. Your mother intended to give it to you when you reached the appropriate age. It will help you to control your psychic abilities. I believe you’re now ready to wear it.”
He placed it around her neck and Jarra was surprised at the strong reaction it produced. It was like she could feel the essence of her mother and the many generations prior within. She stared at it in wonder and delight. Some of those in the past had left quite a powerful impression. She wished she could have known them.
“Amfiltrite says they’ll be ready momentarily,” Sara told her, interrupting her deep thoughts. “They’re loading the last of their provisions. It seems we’ve gotten the lot of them addicted to coffee and it wasn’t included in their original delivery.” She laughed. “We should have known it after last night. I believe that was the only thing at Kaeden’s meal that was safe to consume.”
Jarra laughed with her. “Yes, I think we’re the ones that really lost that bet. It’s a good thing the Embassy dining hall was still open last night.”
Despite the failure of Kaeden’s cooking, the time spent by the team the night before had been quite pleasurable. They had all enjoyed spending the time together not worrying about the mission the next morning. Jarra had been pleased that the expanded team had come together so well. They were going to need that teamwork in the coming weeks she was sure.
“I have a call from Master Hadassah,” Sara told her. “Addressed to the Katarina.”
“Put him on,” Jarra told her. “Ship-wide, since it’s addressed to us all.”
Master Hadassah appeared on the main ship viewer as well as on the individual’s consoles. “I wish to tell all to have good mission,” he said. “I still wish no send, but we have duty.”
“Yes, Master,” Jarra replied for the team. “We will do our duty, and we will do our best to return.” Jason had come to stand beside her and she grasped his arm. “I now have much to live for.”
“Yes,” the Master told her. “Must believe. Now have necklace, you must practice, be ready.”
“Yes, Master,” Jarra smiled. “I will practice. It has been a big help to feel my mother.”
The Master returned her smile. “Someday, you give to daughter. She will bring end to this when time.”
He looked around at the rest of the team. “Golden One has many special ones. Each be best, must do part. Bring all back home.”
He smiled one last time, then ended the call. “Fly well, my friends.”
“Safe landings,” Jarra whispered in reply.
She looked around the group, giving them all a smile. “Let’s go do this,” she told them.
Keying the connection Sara had already opened to their companion ship, she sent, “Amfiltrite, prepare to undock. Follow us to fast hyperspace. We have a mission to complete.”
Amfiltrite quickly acknowledged the order and the two ships slipped out of the dock. As a gift of respect, the Borjon had given them a special course out so they didn’t have to use a tug to get them through the minefield. Not only that, but here in Borjon they weren’t worried about spies. No Borjon would be stupid enough to betray their people to the enemy, unlike the foolish humans, so moments later both ships jumped into fast hyperspace.
No one knew what awaited them, but they were as ready as they could be. Jarra could only hope it would be enough.
A few hours later, both ships sat in normal space, near the extreme edge of the Borjon galactic arm. Gabo with Kaeden’s assistance was busy scanning the areas of fast hyperspace in front of them.
Kaeden explained what they were looking for. “We look for hyperspace flows go out, like solar prominences on stars. When align with same on other side get connection, like lightning strike. We know hyperspace energies try match up between arms of the galaxy. Take some time to happen. Borjon learn this.”
Jarra had been listening in. “Does that mean what I think it does?” She was really afraid of the answer.
Kaeden had been afraid she would pick up on that. He gave her a grim Borjon smile. “Yes, you see. The connection between the arms be transient. It break when energies balance, form again at other spot later, again balance.”
“And the time these connections stay together?” Jarra was even more afraid of that answer.
“Days — most time weeks. But can predict time, look at energy level. Perhaps two, three look sam
e, pick best for mission.”
His smile grew even more grim at the look in her eyes. “How do you say? No guarantee.”
Jarra shook her head. “I don’t like it. You should have told me this before now. Perhaps we could have done something to mitigate the situation.”
Sasha had been listening in and she quickly grasped the ramifications of their discussion. She spoke quietly, but she couldn’t hide the nervousness in her voice. “How much data do you have on this phenomenon?” she asked Kaeden.
“Much data,” he replied. “It is study at University.”
Jarra still wasn’t happy, but she quickly saw where her friend was going. Sasha could look for the patterns and give them much more accurate predictions. She shook her head, unable to avoid showing her disappointment and anger as she looked at Kaeden. “If you had told me this in advance, this could have already been done.”
Kaeden nodded. “I very sorry.” He was shaken by the look of disappointment more than the anger, which he knew he deserved.
Jarra continued, but this time he didn’t miss the command in her voice. “I need all of the data you can get me on this and I need it now.”
Kaeden knew the response that was required. He dropped to a knee, placing his hand where the Borjon heart was located. “I do most soon, Your Highness.”
Not one to stand on ceremony, nevertheless, this time Jarra dared not back away. She hoped that Kaeden had learned his lesson, because withholding information from her that could endanger their mission was not something she could tolerate. She hoped that this was just a lack of understanding between their cultures. Because of all that, her response varied from the normal she would have given.
“You may rise and continue in your service.”
Kaeden rose, although he kept his head somewhat lowered. He hoped he never disappointed her like this again. It tore at his heart.
Her gaze softened a little. “Compose your message appropriately and Sara will send it.”
She hardened again. “And Sara — send it with my command codes. We don’t have time for any Borjon slow negotiations on this one.”
Kaeden grimaced at her last statement, but he did as instructed. It wasn’t like she was wrong.
Sasha didn’t waste any time on her analysis. She quickly dived into the data stream even while it was still coming in to their ship. She knew the Princess chafed at the delay, but she dared not rush the analysis. In fact, she checked it twice before she was ready to tell her the results.
Jarra called them all together in the galley. Gabo had completed his scans and had discovered three connections across the void much as Kaeden had predicted. He sent it to the main display.
“We have two strong connections and one weaker one. Of the stronger connections, based on Sasha’s data, this one is the most likely to remain open for the duration of our mission.”
“Ninety-five percent,” Sasha told them.
Jarra shook her head. “That’s not enough, not without backup. What’s our plan for that?”
Gabo nodded. He’d expected that response. “It’s actually the weaker one. Kaeden believes with the enhancements to our ship over the Borjon’s, we’ll be able to do it.”
Jarra looked at Galen. “What do you think? You’ll be the one navigating. Do you think you can do it?”
Galen nodded. “In some ways, it would be easier with the lower flow. But there is some risk. We could get becalmed, causing us to become trapped in between.”
“What is the risk of that?” Jarra asked, looking at Sasha.
“Relatively low,” she answered. “Maybe two, three percent.”
“What is the mitigation of such an event?” Jarra looked at Galen.
He had to think about it. “Nothing traditional would work.” He didn’t like the look on her face, so he went on, “Maybe something theoretical, what has been called a null drive.”
That drew blank looks from everyone, so he tried to explain. “The first true space propulsion drive, still the basis for our normal space drives, worked by generating a field that expanded space in front of the ship and contracted the space behind. The effect is to move the ship forward as if it were attracted to a gravitation source. As you know, the limitation of this technology is the need to compensate for inertia, which is why all normal space drives have basically the same speed to power curve, unless you give up a little inertial effect like we just used. The null drive would work in a similar manner in hyperspace by generating a hyperspace field instead of a physical field. Theoretically.”
Doing the math in her head, Jarra shook her head. “I know it’s well less than a single percentage point that what you’re discussing will happen, but still something tells me, despite the odds against this, it will happen.”
Jarra looked around at her team, seeing the varying levels of disbelief. They all knew that her abilities to see glimpses of the future had grown stronger, but still this was too much for most of them.
She didn’t give them the chance to argue; after all, she was the one in charge. “The only way I will approve the mission going any further is if you prove to me that you can build at least a working prototype of this drive. It should be easy enough to test in normal hyperspace out here at the edge of the galaxy.”
Jarra could see the shocked looks grow even deeper, but she didn’t give them time to argue it.
“I’ll be in my quarters if you need me.”
She rose and headed for the exit, leaving the group sitting there in stunned silence.
After a moment, Jason got up too. “I’m going to go talk to her. You guys better figure something out. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to bend on this one, and I’m also absolutely certain if she says we need this, we’re going to need it.”
He left, leaving them all staring at each other.
Galen met more than one hostile stare, but they all knew it wasn’t his fault. Finally, Gabo shook his head. “Guess we’d better be going about inventing a null drive.”
He looked at Galen. “How exactly is such a thing supposed to work?”
“The theory is that you would partially null out the hyperspace in front of you and increase the density of hyperspace behind you. Hence the term ‘null drive’; as far as I know, no one has ever built one since there hasn’t been a big demand for it. Everyone just uses the flows already there in hyperspace to do their navigation.”
Gabo smiled. “That’s probably true, but just think of this. With proper maps for navigation, I bet it would be possible to practically double a ship’s speed in hyperspace. We should have already built this — just think of the military applications.”
Kaeden had been sitting there quietly, his self-esteem still hurting from the smackdown the Princess had given him those few hours ago, but he couldn’t resist asking, “So how do this? Somehow change hyperdrive engines? No see how that work.”
Surprising everyone, Sasha answered. “No. You modify the engines for the normal space drive to handle the frequencies for hyperspace. You just said the two work in the same way.”
Gabo was getting excited now. “You’re right. We’ll have to up the strength of the field generators considerably, but it should work.”
Galen was catching the fever now. “Yes, and we tie it in to the same control system we use to adjust the fields powering the beam to match the frequencies of hyperspace around the ship. A simple reverse field to generate the null effect.”
“We best be about it then,” Gabo said. “The Princess is going to be expecting the impossible once more and she’s not exactly a patient person.”
The two rushed off to work on their tasks, the rest of the team following behind. They would all do their part to help.
Kaeden just sat there a moment in wonder. He had thought he understood what the Master meant when he described this team as special. Now, he began to understand in truth.
He didn’t sit very long. He was sure he could help in some way.
Jarra sat watching her team once more do
the impossible. She had been so certain that they were going to need this, she literally couldn’t have gone forward with the mission without it. Even Kaeden had gotten involved, working on the sensors to give a more detailed scan of hyperspace since the ship would be moving even faster than normal through hyperspace while the null drive was engaged.
They had already successfully tested the drive in normal hyperspace, running in both a normal hyperspace area as well as an area that was dead calm. They had moved across the dead area without a problem, the whole crew cheering when they finished the test. Jarra joined them; it was quite an amazing feat.
When they tested it in the active hyperspace flow, Galen pulled out another new trick. He figured out how they could use the drive to “tunnel” through a stream in hyperspace, so that for a few moments the ship was actually flying against the flow. Even Jarra stared in disbelief when he did that.
This time they were going to try it in fast hyperspace. It hadn’t been very difficult finding a dead zone to test, not out here on the edge of the galaxy.
“Initiating drive in five,” Gabo said. No surprise, the ship started moving forward. “Increasing to five percent.” They sped up. So far, so good.
“Increasing to ten percent.” They sped up again. Suddenly, everything went totally black.
Emergency lights came on. “What happened?” Jarra asked calmly. After all, they’d seen this more than once before. She glanced over at Kaeden, who was more or less freaking out, if that’s what a Borjon called it.
“We scrammed our reactors,” she explained to him while her team worked on the explanation. “The only question is why?”