A Calm Mind

by Ruairí Cinéad Ducantlin

  “That is the plan, but you know that already. Why did you call? Anything else?”

  “Just wanted to know if Corb had changed his mind in the last few hours. I guess it is mission go. Safe travels to you. Marissa out. Helm report.”

  “Slip-stream in forty-three minutes.”

  “Why so long?”

  “We need to decelerate to twenty percent sub-light to enter the Vortex. Open the comms to the Jenny again.”

  “Comms ready.”

  “Landry?”

  “Yes, Captain Turner?”

  “I thought you said the crew was trained in the new protocols?”

  “They are trained. The ensign at the helm ignored the new protocols and reverted to the old protocols.”

  “How do you know to answer with those specifics before I asked? Are you monitoring the Marissa?”

  “Yes, Captain Turner, I created a micro-wormhole link between the Marissa and the Jenny. It allows me to monitor the new inter-link controls. The new algorithms are working perfectly, by the way.”

  Not seeing a reason to complain, Landry monitoring the ship was a good thing, Joshua continued.

  “Ensign explain your decision to revert to the old protocols.”

  “The new protocols have not been tested. We do not know what will happen if we enter the vortex too fast. It could destroy the ship.”

  “Landry, what will happen if we form and enter the vortex at forty percent sub-light?”

  “The time required for the Marissa to achieve maximum velocity inside the slip-stream will be reduced by seventy-four percent.”

  “Is there any danger to the ship under the new protocols?”

  “Not to the ship. The time-dilation effect on the crew will be more intense but of a shorter duration.”

  “Ensign, did you read the brief on the new protocols?”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Well?

  The ensign pressed a long series of buttons on the navigation control panel. He looked over to the engine officer for confirmation of the new flight plan. She nodded approval.

  “Slip-stream in eight minutes.”

  When the Marissa entered the slip-stream at the higher speed, the distortion effect was intense. The medical team reported one Marine passing out and more than a dozen crew personnel were sick and vomiting. Of the personnel on the bridge, only the Ensign at navigation vomited and sheepishly ran off the bridge to clean up.

  Aboard the Jenny

  “Okay, Cowboy, where to?”

  Lucinda, the captain of the ship, knew where the ship is headed. She also knew Corb viewed the Celestial Council’s planned mission as a suggestion. Headed first to K’an to learn more about the nanobots and how to fully utilize Landry. Then on to an appointment with the Marissa at Plentari to ensure the transaction goes smoothly.

  “Nick, I am sending you the coordinates now.”

  Corb appeared to do nothing but the new flight path appeared on the navigation console.

  “Bots?”

  “Yes, Nick, I can use them to interface with the computers. Well, Landry helps, but I am getting better.”

  “Where the hell are we going?”

  “It says here, Captain, we are going to Kripkeni for a three-day layover, then to a new system. Stand by.”

  Nick looked over to Janish who nodded, then swiped a calculation, dropping it on the spot that routed it to the navigation console. The calculation appeared on Nick’s console allowing him to incorporate it into the flight plan.

  “Captain, we are going to some place named Gowąh. We are headed inward, along the Orion Spur, toward Cygnus X. Calculating now. Stand by. Janish?”

  “Confirmed, the trip from K’an to Gowąh will require three weeks. The mission protocols indicate three weeks on station at Gowąh.”

  Lucinda sat back, thinking, before responding.

  “Nick, how long from Gowąh to Plentari?”

  “Ummm… Four weeks. Janish?”

  “Confirmed, four weeks.”

  “A week to K’an and a week on station. Three weeks to Gowąh. Three weeks on-station. Then four weeks to Plentari. That is twelve of the twelve weeks. Is my math correct?”

  “Yes, Lucinda, your math is correct.”

  “I did not ask you, Landry. Nick, Janish?”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “NT, Ragnar, are you going to be able to fill the gap left by the chief?”

  “Lucinda, NT will perform the daily maintenance, following the schedule the chief laid out. If NT needs help, he will ask.”

  “Lucinda, we are all going to miss the chief. Relax, I was working with the chief for several weeks. He showed me the ropes.”

  “What? You knew?”

  “Yes, I knew a couple of months ago he planned to retire. We agreed I would learn his routine. That, and now we have Landry monitoring the ship too. We are good.”

  “You didn’t tell me? Never mind, I know why you didn’t tell me. I probably couldn’t talk the chief out of staying anyway. Well, all right then, next topic. Corb, what’s at Gowąh?”

  “Wonders and awe.”

  “Michelle, your man is losing it.”

  “He is not losing it as much as he is realizing he never had it.”

  Corb refused to take the bait. Everyone else grinned at Michelle’s good-natured barb.

  “If you won’t give me a straight answer, I know who will. Landry, what’s at Gowąh?”

  “Lucinda, what’s at Gowąh is a large question. Gowah is on the outer rim of the Core Systems, it is the closet planet to Sol, and lies directly between Sol and the Core Systems. It acts as a gateway to the Core Systems for this part of the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.”

  Landry’s response got everyone to stop monitoring their consoles and look to Corb. He shrugged and softly responded.

  “We are going to say hello and ask for directions.”

  “We’ll talk about this over dinner. Chief, I mean, NT, any reason we can’t fly?”

  “None.”

  “Nick, get us going.”

  “Come on, it has been months. Show us the avatar. We need a good laugh.”

  “Nick, stop it. That’s enough beer.”

  The crew were all in the galley, having finished the evening meal. Janish was chastising Nick for drinking too much and then pestering Landry to appear as the Mayan avatar.

  “Cassandra have you and Landry agreed on an avatar?”

  “Yes, Lucinda. Before we show you, I did a little research. As you know, K’an translates to Precious or Our Precious. Plentari translates to Ours. Kripkeni is We Fight. Gowąh translates to Home in western Apache. Does anyone else wonder why all the inhabitants of these planets are upright bipedal and they all have names that easily translate to common words or have meaning on Earth?”

  Everyone stared at Cassandra, not wanting to enter a philosophical debate. Nick broke the tension.

  “Piss off, we want to see the avatar.”

  In unison the crew began chanting avatar, avatar, avatar… Cassandra relented.

  “Landry?”

  “Yes, Cass, I have been listening, it is time to unveil the new me.”

  Rowdy cheers from the crew.

  In under thirty seconds an eighteen-inch-tall image appeared in the center of the table. Dressed in black boots, blue jeans, and a dark blue polo shirt, the avatar had black hair and green eyes. The projected image was truly lifelike. A miniature human standing on the table. Walking in a small circle, the avatar gave everyone a three-sixty view.

  “He looks like Corb.”

  “No, Janish, it is the boots and jeans. They make it look like Corb. The face is more like NT.”

  “That’s not it, Lucinda, he looks like Ragnar with black hair, but he has Lucinda’s green eyes.”

  “You are all correct. Landry, please explain.”

  “Thank you, Cass. The avatar is all of you. You are my friends and to honor that friendship, I blended a little of each
of you into the image you see.”

  Spontaneous applause and a few moist eyes were not the response Landry had calculated as most likely.

  “Cass why are they clapping?”

  “In this context, Landry, clapping signifies high approval and respect. Say thank you or say nothing, both are appropriate.”

  The avatar turned to each member of the crew and nodded in thanks.

  “The ship is functioning normally, we will exit the slip-stream in three hours, twenty-two minutes.”

  The day shift crew was taking their place on the bridge at oh-eight-hundred hours. At six-feet tall, Landry’s avatar rose from the command chair and stood to the side. Lucinda nodded to Landry and sat in the command chair.

  “I have to tell you, Lucinda, I was not thrilled with turning over the third shift to Landry. It has worked out just fine. There is little do while in the slip-stream. He appears to handle doing little well.”

  “Thank you, Nick.”

  “That was not a compliment you wanker.”

  “Enough. Nick, did he say three hours to exit?”

  “Cass, it is now three hours, nineteen minutes.”

  “Landry, that is almost two full days ahead of schedule. How did you do it?”

  “When you granted permission for me to pilot the Jenny, while the crew was asleep, I used the time to assess the flow converters in the FTL drives. After syncing the converters and applying new logic to maintain the synchronization, the FTL speed increased by twenty-eight percent. It shaved two days off the expected schedule of one week to reach K’an.”

  “Thank you, Landry, that is good work. One more question. Will the increased speed affect the time-dilation effect on us?”

  “Yes, the time-dilation affect has increased, or I should say, has decreased the aging process. You are aging at a much slower rate while in the slip-stream.”

  Everyone took the news in stride and went to work.

  “You are correct, granting permission for the AI to manage the ship while in the slip-stream is one of the many criteria that unlocks more knowledge within the AI. Here are the sequences required to unlock the knowledge.”

  Corb accepted the input from Tarunik via the nanobots. He knew the complex code sequences would not be forgotten or confused.

  “Thank you, that is good news. Are you aware, friend, we are traveling to Gowąh. Is Landry permitted to help us with first contact at Gowąh?”

  “Yes, the entirety of the AI’s first contact protocols were enabled when you granted it permission to pilot the ship unsupervised.”

  “Tarunik, we think of the AI as possessing male attributes. We use the pronoun he. The Ch’en do not attribute gender to an AI. Is there a reason for the neutral reference? Should we adjust our communication parameters with the AI?”

  “No, it is your nature to make things more comfortable. For us, a gender-neutral device, an AI, is just another tool. That is our comfort. More importantly, why are you traveling to Gowąh? What do you seek at the place called Home?

  “We seek to visit the Core. Gowąh, is a door to visiting the Core.”

  “But why do you seek to visit the Core?”

  “Because I was invited.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Slip the surly bonds of K’an.

  “How people treat you is their karma;

  how you react is yours.”

  Wayne Dyer

  Aboard the Jenny

  “Access to the Core Systems is restricted. Unapproved vessels, entering the Core, are destroyed. Your vessel is not permitted to travel beyond the planet Gowah. You may leave this system from the direction you arrived. Leaving Gowah in any other direction will result in your vessel being destroyed.

  We called you here because we recognize the strength of your connection. Your point is the brightest we have seen in more than three-thousand years. It is our desire to know if you are the manumitter.

  We will consider your request and return when K'inich Ajaw rises. You are instructed to remain within your vessel and await our return.”

  “We are here to serve.”

  Expecting a warm reception, Corb was surprised at the response from the leader of the Gawah people, Aapo. He was curt and demanding. Closing the conversation, Corb turned to Cassandra, but it was Landry, via his avatar, who interrupted.

  “He is using Apache words from the western part of the United State. His title is his name, Aapo. It is the western Apache word for Brother. The words K'inich Ajaw translate to The Sun.”

  Cassandra waited for the avatar to look her way, then replied.

  “Landry, Corb was looking at me prior to asking a question. Please be more observant of the communication nuances in the human anatomy. It is referred to by the term Body Language. If you are going to be part of this crew, you need to read body language.”

  Landry’s avatar turned to face Corb who raised an eyebrow with a slight nod of affirmation, confirming Cassandra’s directive. The crew had begun to stop thinking of Landry as an avatar and were reacting as if it was a human.

  “Landry, what does the word manumitter mean?”

  Landry turned to face the command chair and respond to the question.

  “Lucinda, the word manumit is no longer common English. It is equivalent to the word emancipator. Aapo desires to know if Corb has come to Gowah to manumit, to free the unemancipated from the planets in the Core Systems.”

  Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing and stared at Corb. NT broke the tension without taking his eyes from Corb.

  “Landry, act like I am five and teach me. Why would Aapo think Corb is here to emancipate the Core Systems?”

  “For over three-thousand years, the Xjaal qo’-ya have believed a redeemer will arrive and free them from oppression. The oppression imposed by the Core Systems. Xjaal qo’-ya is another western Apache phrase and it translates to We the People. The Xjaal, originated from the planet Nah. Nah translates to Great Home and is the fourth of the five Core Systems.

  Educated and trained in administration on Nah, the Xjaal elite become the administrative directorate for the Core Triumvirate. The Xjaal are the administration. Aapo is Xjaal. The Ajawlil are the military protectorate. Although, Ajawlil means Kingship in Maya, in this context it is a word that means Protector of the Realm.

  The Core Triumvirate is protected by the Ajawlil. The Ajawlil are to be feared.

  We will be in danger if they determine Corb is the embodiment of the manumit prophecy.”

  “Hold up, there, buckaroo. Aapo is Xjaal and is an administrator. The Ajawlil are the security forces and bad hombres. Correct?”

  “Correct, Nick.”

  “What kind of danger are you talking about? Danger like we might catch a cold or danger like we’ll end up looking like NT?”

  “Nick, it is danger like they will destroy the Jenny, and anything related to the Coterie. The Core Triumvirate will not permit the Enlightened One to free their conquered worlds.”

  “Oh, so, danger, like real danger. Bloody ‘ell. Ya know, for someone so Enlightened, you seem to be a little too clueless a little too often.”

  “Yeah, Nick’s right, why is it that the Enlightened One is as confused as the rest of us?”

  “This, NT, is only the first step. I have no immediate intention of visiting the Core Systems or meeting the Triumvirate. No intention to visit, yet. Landry, please display the file, Tarmish Session Three and jump to page six.”

  The monitors on the bridge all changed to a page of neatly type notes. Everyone began reading while Corb watched. The first two notes were inconsequential. Janish and Cassandra kept reading while everyone else stopped on the third note and waited. When Janish and Cassandra looked up, Corb continued.

  “You read that correctly, the Jenny is too light and not fast enough to survive an attack by the Ajawlil.”

  “Which is why you negotiated for the fighter/scout ship with the Plentari.”

  “Correct, Lucinda. We need to be prepared if we are
going to visit the Core Systems.”

  “Tell me again, why are we going to visit the Core Systems? The response ‘wonders and awe’ is not going to cut it this time.”

  “Lucinda, the Triumvirate has the answer.”

  “The answer to what question?”

  “The only real question. Where did we come from?”

  “The Ch’en have told us they believe you are the Enlightened One. The Plentari consider you worthy of the title. They did not kill you.”

  Aapo, was in a videoconference with Corb the following morning. Apparently bipedal, and not too tall, Aapo had wide-set eyes, a broad nose, and a lite-amber skin tone. Except for the unusual skin tone and the four fingers with two opposable thumbs, Aapo resembled someone with Asian or Native American ancestry. He appeared to be in an unadorned office with no others present. Corb sat at the table in the galley, with Lucinda on his left and Landry, seated on his right.

  “They tried to kill me.”

  “Yes, we are aware of the exchange. For us to proceed, for you to be permitted access, you must prove your worth. We have improved our language translators. The old words will be omitted and replaced with new words by the translators. What is it you request?”

  “We seek, what all species seek, to know our origin.”

  “Yes. Yes. They all say that. That person next to you, he has no connection. Why is that?”

  “What you see is an image of a person we call Landry. He does not have a connection because he is not human.”

  “You referred to it as a person, therefore it is sentient, but it is not human?”

  “That is correct, Landry aids me, and I rely on his abilities.”

  “So be it. What is it you seek?”

  “I seek to know why I was chosen.”

  “You think you are the Enlightened One? Do you not know? How can you not know?”

  “I do not see my connection. I see others’ but not mine. Therefore, I cannot know that which is not available to me.”

  “That is close but not correct. Has no one taught you The Way?”

  “The Way? I have been taught many things. I have learned many things. I do not know to what you refer by The Way.”