by David Smith
‘We were hit with a plague of wee-beasties next. They’re this eco-systems equivalent of the locust, but the little buggers are ferociously omnivorous. Ate most of the cadavers, the bloody tents and quite a few bits of equipment. I was getting a bit down about it all by then and was thinking of shipping Jonah out.’
‘That’s when he got struck by lightning again. This time the heat of the resulting fire affected some protein samples the Mengele twins had been working on and catalysed a reaction, bending a protein structure we’d tried and rejected into exactly what we needed. And as a bonus, no-one was hurt!’
She paused. ‘Apart from Suki Mandali. Poor dear’s a nervous wreck at the best of times. She’d come down to work on a problem with one of the shuttle engines. The lightning strike was only a few feet from her, and she suffered an explosive defecation. Knickers, skirt, boots, lab-coat . . . all completely ruined. And not just hers. Poor Sarah Cumbers was stood right behind her at the time. Messy. She’s still in shock. Cumbers, that is, not Mandali.’
‘Once we had the basic protein shape everything seemed to fall into place and Commander Mengele soon found a way of making the protein self-replicate. Her and the good twin have been up in Tiger’s chem lab synthesising proteins like it’s their latest hobby. We’ve ended up with a variant of the original prion that acts in exactly the same way, but at about a tenth of the speed. Taking into account the near exponential reproduction rate of the original prion that amounts to off-setting the effects for several years.’
‘It’s not a cure in any way, but it means the disease is treatable. I’ve got Alvari and Van der Vaart mass-producing the stuff, while the Mengele twins work on other variants. They believe that given enough time they can come up with a protein that will block the effects of the prion completely. If that’s the case, the Sha T’Al won’t get any better, but as long as they keep taking the tablets, they won’t get any worse.’
Dave sighed ‘That’s excellent news, Aisling, but time is the one thing we don’t have. Eight days, remember?’
Her shoulders slumped. ‘I’ll start packing up shop. And we were soooo close!’
‘Well don’t give up yet. If we can get some breathing space, we’ll carry on working’ said Dave.
‘And where will you come by that in this crazy shit-hole of a universe??’ asked the disgruntled Science Officer.
‘Er . . . still working on that one I’m afraid. But you’ll be the first to know, just as soon as I work it out!’
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Back on the Tana battleship, Chief Deng was prepping the shuttles while Lieutenant Theodoupoulopolis (or Stavros as everyone referred to him) briefed his flight teams on how to operate the alien craft.
The Tana had not perfected transporter technology, and relied on shuttles for all ship to surface movements. As such, the battleship had a large flotilla of craft in four capacious hangar bays, ranging in size from units similar to Tiger’s shuttles up to huge thousand tonne behemoths that could lift a hundred tonnes of cargo in a single piece.
Like the Tana battleship they’d recovered in their own universe, this ship had huge cargo bays, filled with preserved food stuffs. The Tana had perfected replicators, but seemed reluctant to use them for galley services. Instead they relied on fairly complex but highly automated devices that reconstituted and apportioned a stock of freeze-dried, powdered and irradiated food-stuffs into an edible meal.
A few of Tiger’s braver engineers had experimented with the systems and made it clear that ‘non-toxic’ was probably a better description of Tana cuisine rather than ‘edible’.
At least one took on a hue not dissimilar to the bizarre grey skin tones of the Tana after trying a meal, but a few hours in the toilets brought a flush back to his cheeks. (And also to the cheeks of the unfortunate engineer Lieutenant Sato had to assign to unblock the toilet afterwards.)
The positive side of this was that the fleet of shuttles could begin off-loading any unnecessary mass to the surface and taking the Sha T’Al refugees up with them on the return trip.
It was still going to be cramped: the Tana ship was big, but would need to carry over fifteen thousand refugees. In addition to this, she was slow, and would need to carry a food supply to support all fifteen thousand refugees on a three week trip from Cho-dal-far to Todot Hahn.
Elder Jalai was the most senior leader still alive in this area of the disputed zone and took charge of the discussions with the Sha T’Al residents on Cho-dal-far. Fortunately for all concerned, the residents had immediately deferred to his seniority and followed his instruction to evacuate without question or hesitation.
The five thousand that could not be accommodated aboard the battleship included most of the worst cases of the prion-afflicted Sha T’Al, and these were spread amongst the Sha T’Al flotilla and even a hundred and fifty on Tiger’s Rec-Deck, hastily converted into an infirmary.
The last conundrum for Dave was the Sisters of the Order of Latter Day Saints. They had little to gain by staying on the Sha T’Al world once their charges left, and Dave was aware that the aid they’d given to the Sha T’Al would make them extremely unpopular with the Empire.
Records they’d unlocked at Hole and in Sector 212 had references to members of the order being detained without significant cause. Worryingly, many of the sisters seemed to have disappeared once in custody, and there were details of extensive interrogations of a group of Sisters who’d been caught trying to buy passage across the border into the disputed zone.
The documents referred to these poor unfortunates as ‘traitors to the Empire and the human race’ and they’d all been subjected to extended periods of physical torture in agoniser booths even though it was clear they were no threat to the Empire.
Dave met with Sister L’Amour again to discuss the evacuation. ‘I believe you know that Elder Jalai has sanctioned the complete evacuation of all the remaining Sha T’Al?’
‘I was informed of this yesterday’ admitted the Sister calmly.
‘So you understand that your raison d’être for being here is effectively gone?’ Dave asked.
She smiled. ‘Our work is done. We now place ourselves in the Lords hands.’
Dave was watching her intently, and caught the clear anxiety in her eyes. ‘The Empire will not take your actions here in the spirit you meant them. There may be repercussions if you’re still here when the Imperial fleet arrives . . . ‘
‘Are you asking us to leave with you? If our status here is questionable, leaving with the Sha T’Al will only increase our apparent guilt.’ It was more of a question than a statement, and Dave knew she was uncertain.
‘I think your choices are limited. If you come with us, you can continue your good works. If you stay . . . things might not go so well’ Dave said, trying to find a diplomatic way to express his own fears.
‘Abuse . . . torture . . . rape . . . murder . . . ‘ she sighed as she fought back tears. ‘That has been the story for most of my order. We were once a beacon of light throughout the Empire, but continual war has brought us further and further into conflict and disfavour with the Emperor. There are just thirty-six of us here, and we constitute the rump of the order. For us, the good fight has been fought and lost.’
‘Then come with us, Sister’ urged Dave. ‘You have no reason to stay here once the Sha T’Al leave.’
‘But what then? We go to another Sha T’Al world, to be hounded out again? Even if the Sha T’Al were to be welcomed back to their home-worlds, we most definitely wouldn’t be.‘ She shook her head, unsettled by internal conflict.
‘I can’t promise anything, Sister, but I don’t believe staying here is a real option. If you come with us, you’ll at least gain a little time to consider what other options you might have.’
She looked up at him, scorn in her eyes ‘I know our choices. Carry on the fight and be martyred, or sneak back across the border and hide in the midst of the evil that destroys us. Live a life of connivance, accepting the evil the Em
pire does in the name of progress? Buying my very existence by stifling my conscience?’
Dave could admire her principles, but the pragmatist in him wanted her to have the best of both worlds. ‘Not everyone is going to change the world. If you die, your principles die with you. Stay alive, spread the word, softly if that’s the way it has to be, but keep the flame alive.’
A tear rolled down her cheek. ‘So this is how we end. A proud order, giving up our goals and settling into a life of mediocrity and obeisance?’
‘Would it be so bad? To settle down? Find a partner? Have a family perhaps?’ said Dave softly.
To Dave’s surprise she blushed vividly ‘I . . . um . . . am wedded to the order . . . I’ve never . . . um . . . I’m not . . . experienced . . . in such matters.’
Dave nearly choked. It had never occurred to him that Skye might be a virgin. The Skye he knew was . . . incredibly . . . liberal with her favours, and had no problems finding partners. They might only last a night (or a few minutes) but there were certainly plenty of them. Often at the same time.
He gathered himself a little and continued ‘Er . . . I guess the detail isn’t important, but either way our offer stands and I’m pleading with you to accept it. Come with us.’
She broke into a slightest of smiles and conceded ‘Thank you for considering us. I will consult the remainder of the Sisterhood.’
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Six days later, Tiger led the odd-ball flotilla out of orbit.
Crash, Dolplop, ASBeau, Jonsen and Chief Deng had taken nearly eighty of Tiger’s crew across to the Tana battleship to get it moving, and Dave had thinned the shifts on Tiger down to the point that they’d have to bring the relief crews in to fill out the roster if Tiger needed to fight. Dave knew this was extremely unlikely, but he still crossed his fingers as he sent out the orders.
Dave updated the Captain again, and received an unexpected but not entirely surprising reply via Yeoman De Soto, who’d evidently picked up the Captain’s tunic by mistake when she’d dressed.
Dave’s light-hearted offer to make way for her in the Captain’s chair went over her head, but then, most things did.
She handed Dave a pad with one of the Captain’s uniquely truncated communiqués:
‘Who are the Tana, and why are they dead?’
Ps. Call me when we get to Arcturus.
Pps. You have the Bridge’
Just to be different, Dave down-loaded an ancient black and white movie serial from the mid-20th century. He’d never seen ‘Flash Gordon’ before but a quick glance showed it had all the right elements. Attaching these to his last status report, he handed back the pad and said ‘Tell the Captain the Tana are evil villains, and we’ve recorded some of their nefarious deeds.’
Rather confused, Yeoman De Soto simply said ‘Lovely!!’ and wandered off back to the Captain’s Ready Room.
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Within the little convoy, they’d managed to accommodate all of Cho-dal-far’s surviving nineteen thousand, two hundred and forty-four Sha T’Al as well as the thirty six sisters of the Order of Latter Day Saints.
Together with the refugees from Joran Dal, they had nearly thirty thousand Sha T’Al crammed aboard Tiger, the Tana battleship and the fourteen Sha T’Al vessels.
Their progress was limited to the speed of the slowest vessel, but Dave was mindful that Tiger struggled to match this herself without resorting to the hybrid drive system that resulted in the ship travelling forward through space but backwards through time.
Dave sat on the Bridge of Tiger, nervously watching long range scans for signs of subspace disturbance that might indicate the proximity of the Terran Empire fleet they knew was heading their way.
He couldn’t be sure how fast the Imperial fleet would travel, or even when (or if) they’d reached Cho-dal-far, but their own progress felt like a snail’s pace.
Now they were in transit, he devoted some time and thought to their strategic position, and it wasn’t good.
He’d allowed his concern about the Empire’s wrong-doings to distract the entire ship’s complement from their primary and over-riding objective, which was still to find a way back to their own universe.
However much he hated what the Terran Empire was doing here, he needed to be clear in his own mind that fleet regulations specifically forbade their intervention.
It pained him to do it, but he eventually decided that he had no choice but to pull O’Mara away from her research into combating the Empire’s bio-warfare and back to assisting Commander Romanov’s engineers in trying to find a way to make the transition back to their own universe.
O’Mara wasn’t impressed.
‘You’re shitting me!! You seriously want me to drop the Sha T’Al and work on a method by which we can leave the poor buggers in the lurch???’
Dave sighed. O’Mara was as nutty as squirrel poo sometimes, but she was never afraid to speak her mind on matters of conscience.
‘Aisling, we’ve discussed all of this before. For right or wrong, the prime directive is non-interference, and even if interference was the right thing to do, we’re just one ship against an Empire.
‘But it’s not right!! We can’t just leave the Sha T’Al to be wiped out because Mengele’s evil twin and that strumpet who looks like me think we should!!’ she shouted.
‘Calm down, Lieutenant-Commander’ Dave chided. ‘As you yourself pointed out, small changes can have far reaching effects. We’re not part of this universe and just being here could be wreaking untold damage on the fabric of this universe’s history. You don’t know if the Empire winning this war won’t ultimately be to the benefit of all. Who’s to say the next rebellion won’t be successful and result in the establishment of a peaceful Federation such as our own? And if the Sha T’Al and Tana hadn’t run up against the Empire, they wouldn’t have a non-aggression pact and could be preparing for war just like they are in our universe.’
O’Mara seemed to shrink. More than anyone else aboard, the brilliant scientist knew that she actually knew nothing. She was acting on moral instinct, not reason and facts.
‘But . . . it’s just . . . ‘ She slouched back in her chair and groaned, running her hands through her hair. ‘Yeah. You’re right. We don’t know and can’t know what the right course of action is. We shouldn’t even be here. Logically, we should be doing everything we can to minimise our impact on this universe.’
Dave tried to ease the burden of guilt. ‘I’m not suggesting we abandon the Sha T’Al, or even the Tana for that matter. But we need to have our priorities right, and that means finding a way to get out of here. I need my best brains focused on our primary objective: I need you to find a way to get us home. The rest of the team can work under Commander Mengele’s instruction to help the Sha T’Al as much as we can, and I’ve also instructed them to start working on possible anti-virals and vaccinations to protect the Tana from the disease they caught at Cho-dal-far.’
‘Sorry sir. You’re right, one hundred percent. I just feel really aggrieved for the Sha T’Al’ said the Science Officer.
‘I know Aisling, I feel it too, and if the chance presents itself, we’ll do something about it. But until that chance arrives we focus on what we must do, not what we should do.’
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Dave was impressed by the way O’Mara knuckled down to the task in hand over the next few weeks. There was a vast amount of data to wade through, and from that she had to try and formulate a drive operating process from a largely theoretical and mathematical perspective.
He was, therefore, absolutely stunned when she called him after sixteen days of toil and boldly announced ‘Right. We’ve cracked it.’
Caught cold by the statement, Dave was forced to ask ‘Cracked what?’
‘The way home, numpty! Y’know, to that other universe thingy that we came from?’ she said with a beaming smile and a hint of Irish mischief in her voice.
Dave went silent.
&n
bsp; ‘You still there Hollins?’ asked the Science Officer.
‘Yeah, I’m here. You’re kidding me, right?’ he said, desperate not to get his hopes up.
‘Nope. Well, to be honest, we can’t be one hundred percent sure until we actually try it, but all the simulations seem to stack up.’ She lowered her voice ‘I even had Susan check it completely independently, and she couldn’t believe we’d cracked it either!’
‘Did she concur??’ asked Dave.
‘Oh sure! Ran through it with Dr Chandrakar’s thought processes, then with the mass of the rest of the physicists and mathematicians and they’re all happy too’ she said nonchalantly, as if this was only to be expected.
‘My god, that’s amazing! We can finally go home and get out of this shit-hole of a universe!!’ gasped Dave ‘I thought we were going to be stuck here forever! So how long will it take to set this up?’
‘Actually, no time at all. We’ve been looking at this from completely the wrong perspective. We’ve been worrying about how to navigate our way back to our universe and what we use as markers and so on. All pointless’ she smiled.
‘We had a light-bulb moment when we talked about the scenario of taking a step sideways and getting a slightly altered perspective. Logically, it doesn’t matter where we are. We just have to take a step back in the opposite direction.’
‘And that makes a difference?’ asked Dave.
‘Oh to be sure!! We don’t have to worry about where we are and where we’re going, we just focus on reversing the process that put us here in the first place. And because we weren’t sure about blipping the drive at Hole, we recorded all the data we need purely by chance.’
‘We’ve done all the background work we need to, all we have to do is charge the plasma in the drive coil manifolds negatively rather than positively, and collapse the two different warp fields with the same interval as we monitored the last time, and it’ll shove us the same distance in the opposite direction, trans-dimensionally speaking. We can go in ten minutes if you like.’
