Their time in space was endlessly rewarding to both of them.
Their was so much to do between Dalton, and his own studies, that Jason never found the time to listen to the tape from his parents, and eventually forgot all about it.
After almost a year they had covered most of the distance to the whirlpool. They both were growing anxious to find the missing colony ship. Jason's desire to save the poor colonists, if they were still alive, had infected Dalton with equal intensity. Jason regarded this rescuing of space vessels in trouble as his life's work, and felt very proud at actually now having a protege to share his skills with. Dalton regarded Jason as the most amazing man he had ever heard of, his hero!
In the evenings, after a long day of activity, they would enjoy a meal of space-rations prepared by one of the little robots. Neither Jason nor Dalton cared much for cooking, Jason finding that the chemicals exuded by cooking in space required too much of the robotic cleaning system's time and resources, anyway. They would lounge around the living room waiting.
Suddenly, one the ship's little robots, canister shaped, usually the green one, would come blasting out of the cooking cabinet, roll up to either Jason or Dalton, then open up its small storage slot. From inside, they would pull out trays of food, and drink packets. When finished, they would stuff the empty trays and packets back into the slots, and the robot would roll over into the cleaning cabinet, pluck out and throw away the refuse, and then clean its slot and manipulators with sterilizing ultrasonic vibrations and ultraviolet radiation. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying various pastimes.
Jason dabbled with his acoustic musical instruments: guitar, saxophone, a terribly tortured clarinet, and a flute. Music to Jason was a magical way of charming a ladies heart. Dalton had not developed the patience or any desire to work at an instrument day after day. He preferred, in the evenings, the excitement of donning a virtual-reality helmet, and doing battle with aliens, and space pirates.
Virtual-reality was produced by a special helmet covering the eyes and ears, and interfaced to a computer. The computer generated four-dimensional visual images and stereo sound to synthesize any kind of reality. Entertainment VR pitted the wearer of the helmet against all sorts of famous foes. Knowledge VR synthesized the images and sounds of other worlds. Many computers permitted the wearer of a VR helmet to travel within the computer's own memory to make software programming easier by taking advantage of the human brain's ultra-sophisticated visual processing ability.
Jason could not stand virtual-reality. It gave him severe feelings of anxiety, and made him feel like his mind was trapped.
He much preferred physical reality.
Sometimes Jason would sip rich coffee from around the Galaxy, and grow talkative. Dalton enjoyed listening to Jason's exciting tales of past rescues. After he had heard all the stories, he began asking technical questions regarding other space ships and their missions, endlessly interrogating Jason for detail after detail.
And then Dalton began to change, and so too did the topics of their evening conversations. Jason first noticed the change by observing Dalton periodically looking off into nowhere, with a strange, dreamy expression. Then, his voice began to sometimes crack and break, as it grew lower in pitch. And then, worst of all, he began asking Jason embarrassing questions about GIRLS.
Normally, Jason loved ribald discussions regarding the opposite sex, but this was different. Dalton's innocent questioning made Jason uncomfortable and he responded with only obscure 'technical' explanations, not really satisfying Dalton's curiosity at all. Sometimes Jason would grow exasperated and cry, "Go ask the computer!" But, other times Dalton would finally cajole Jason into talking about one of the finer ladies in his life, and he would jabber away happily with his own distant, dreamy expression.
6. ATTACK!
They were now in a dangerous part of the Galaxy. They passed by the black hole of one of Infinity City's NEIGHBORS --
another world inside a black hole, but run by bloodthirsty tyrants bent on learning the secret of the PILL OF LIFE from Infinity City. Countless Infinity City merchant and Adventurer sailships had been attacked and boarded, the occupants tortured for the secret of the pill that gave immortality. But, to the grievous misfortune of the victims, the secret of the PILL was a vastly complex medical science that no single person could comprehend.
The pre-programmed aging process controlled by human DNA was a long and balanced program sculpted by primordial evolution to adapt life to the ever-changing environment of Earth. The counter-program to counteract all this without adverse side-effects required a complex protein synthesis of mind-boggling complexity. The PILL OF LIFE, too complex for reliable self-replication (and, unfortunately, long-term storage), had to be ingested monthly. The technology for producing the PILL required the cooperation of three different Families, involving hundreds of personnel. The NEIGHBORS knew nothing of this. They only knew that the people of Infinity City lived forever, and held the secret of the PILL.
Jason had the computer begin scanning on all sides, round the clock, for undesirable sailships. It was not many days before the clanging encounter alert bell was suddenly heard throughout the ship...
It was morning. Jason and Dalton were wolfing down large quantities of breakfast -- Jason, amazed as ever at Dalton's ever-growing appetite, wondered where the slim boy put it all.
When the bell went off Jason knew what it probably meant. There was no regular shipping in this area due to the dangerous proximity of the Neighbors.
Jason looked up suddenly at Dalton, wagged his eyebrows up and down, and hissed "Could be a Militia Guard scout or ... MAYBE
PIRATES!" with a cunning grin. He then launched out of the living quarter for the pilot room. Dalton, excited and scared all at the same time, followed on his heels.
Jason saw the flashing message "APPROACHING SPACECRAFT!" on the main viewscreen and strapped himself into the pilot chair and ordered Dalton to do the same at his chair; it could be a bumpy ride if it turned into a chase; the local gravitonic currents --
perhaps due to the whirlpool somewhere in the region -- had grown short and winding. Jason checked the gravitonic radar display and focused in on the reading.
"Jason!", Dalton cried excitedly. "Let's do it all in virtual-reality! It'll be easier!"
Jason could just picture himself inside miserable V-R
getting nauseous from all the rapid, swirling colorful action.
His brain just would never stand it. "I don't trust it, kid.
I'm sticking to the old-fashioned way. Jump into V-R if you want but keep a comm channel open so you can hear me if I need you."
"Aye, Captain!", cried Dalton with growing excitement. He pulled his V-R helmet over his head. Jason looked around at Dalton and noticed with amusement that Dalton had painted silver lightning bolts all over it.
"Dalton, can you hear me?", Jason asked quietly. He saw the helmet nod quickly.
Inside his virtual-reality, Dalton had first called up a vast, multi-colored display of the internal workings of the sailship -- which he had fallen completely in love with. He quickly reviewed all systems for proper operation -- he would monitor the sailship and support his Captain no matter what!
Dalton then ordered the computer to display a small three dimensional representation of surrounding space so he could watch their own sailship and the approaching one -- he 'hung' the little sphere-shaped display at eye-level and to the side, but close enough so he could reach out with his virtual-hand and turn it to see what was going on at any angle.
Jason turned back to the command console spread before him and rubbed his hands excitedly -- action! He reviewed the information regarding the approaching ship now displaying across his main situation viewscreen. There was no point in contacting the other ship by gravitonic radio. What turbulence the graviton-belching ship was leaving behind! Definitely a non-Infinity City clone and almost certainly a pirate sailship from the neighboring black hole known as The Gouge.
>
Unlike the advanced world of Infinity City, floating on an enormous man-made disk-planetoid within its black hole, inside The Gouge was a huge collection of thousands of old sailships and space stations girdered and guy-wired together with great collections of gravitonic sails billowing out all around precariously holding the entire mass roughly in the middle of the black hole. It was a Galactic pirates' cove, a haven for the Galaxy's outlaw privateers where they came to buy and sell -- or retire, permanently attaching their old unspaceworthy sailships to the great floating mass of other ships, many of these converted to stores, shops, inns, and taverns where the successfully retired space buccaneers and their descendants lived and worked, some descendants never having left the black hole.
The Gouge, home to any privateer ruthless enough to have somehow commandeered a sailship from elsewhere in the Galaxy.
Usually, these craft were from Infinity City -- several worlds had learned to copy the design of the Infinity City sailship, though Infinity City continued to design and build the best.
Infinity City Adventurers often lost their marvelous sailships through debt, theft, or attack. Astronomically valuable for their faster-than-light speed, most lost sailships wound up in the hands of privateers who -- becoming outlaws -- usually sought refuge within inhabited black holes. Within The Gouge there was more than refuge. Here, the privateer could deal in any stolen or illicit merchandise imaginable. Here was where they brought and traded their booty from thieving raids. Here were the only repair facilities for a privateer living completely outside Galactic law. And, here was one of the largest centers for the human slave trade in the Galaxy.
But the most valuable commodity traded within The Gouge was not stolen precious commodities, or the almost universally banned experimental DNA alteration drugs, or even the vast collections of well-trained sex slaves. The most valuable commodity was information on the Pill of Life from Infinity City. For though a privateer could quickly amass vast fortunes raiding around the Galaxy in faster-than-light sailships, they had no cure for aging because Infinity City did not sell to criminals. And the Pill was not available on the black market because each individual required a unique prescription exclusively produced on Infinity City. And the Family that distributed the Pill from Infinity City was bent on monitoring the activities of every single subscriber throughout the Galaxy to prevent the immortality of tyrants. Unfortunately, the controlling Family could never control the Galactic-wide rumor that there existed a secret generic Pill that anyone could use, an irresistible untruth believed by all aging pirates.
Jason's craft had been sighted by a fat privateer loaded with cargo from a raid on a frontier world where they had left all of the colonists dead. The privateer could easily tell by Jason's smooth, ripple-free progress through the gravitonic current that Jason was sailing a fine ship from Infinity City.
The privateer's old craft was a clone of a clone of a genuine Infinity City sailship and no match in speed for the real article so attack was not practical. Prudently, lest Jason's craft turn out to be a scoutcraft of the Infinity City Militia Guard, the privateer had taken a handy off-shoot branch from the current he was on and had headed away from Jason's sailship, taking a longer way around to The Gouge.
The privateer had been close to The Gouge anyway and arrived soon with the exciting news of a sailship fresh from Infinity City in the vicinity. A gang of old idle pirates formed a quick alliance around their favorite table in a tavern aboard an old ship that had not left The Gouge black hole for over 100 years --
so rickety was it that all patrons wore spacesuits with helmets dangling down their backs in case the old craft, surrounded by the vacuum of space, busted out an air seem. They quickly mounted spacebikes or similar vehicles, rocketed back to their own craft, then sailed out of The Gouge in search of this valuable craft from Infinity City which might just contain a huge supply of the fabled generic Pill of Life to counteract their aging.
Jason increased power to the gravitonic generator to full to allow rapid maneuvering, though he continued sailing onward at the present cruising speed, the generator filling the pilot room with its low throbbing hum. He then quickly readied the sailship's weapon systems: the potent atomic particle-beam antimissile system and electromagnetic deflector fields for defense, and a trusty high-power gravitonic cannon for offense.
As usual, the antimissile system took a long time to charge its high-energy particle capacitor. Power for the cannon was always available from the ship's gravitonic sail system, though the ship would temporarily slow whenever power was transferred.
Jason ordered the computer to display in three dimensions the structure of the local gravitonic current containing himself and the approaching unidentified craft, still at a great distance though much less than a light-year. ( An average Infinity City private or merchant craft took about a day to sail one light-year. The fastest scoutcraft of the Militia Guard was about three times faster. The largest sailships, the Guard's Destroyers and Ships-of-the-Line, took about two days to traverse a light-year. Gravitonic bolts fired by cannon were actually waves that traveled from 10 to 100 times faster than an average sailship depending on the characteristics of the gravitonic medium. )
The computer quickly displayed the branching structures of all known local currents in thin, translucent white over a light blue background. Jason saw his ship, a tiny dot in the middle of the display, and the pirate approaching from behind down the same current. Farther behind and off to the side at a distance of just over one light-year was The Gouge black hole and its little yellow companion star. There were no other stellar objects though Jason reckoned the great whirlpool must be within just a few light-years.
His computer had drawn the 3-D map from information downloaded back on Infinity City from the latest Militia Guard scouting missions. These maps would be handy, even life-saving if Jason would have to flee. But Jason did not want to flee!
Part of him wanted to turn and fight. One less pirate would do the Galaxy good. Jason had had several such encounters during his active duty with the Militia Guard. But the stronger side of him desired to continue with the mission to rescue the colony ship. So he chose to continue forward and leave the slower ship behind. However, he allowed himself to be... cautious.
The pirate was behind -- perfect! Jason lowered the powerful gravitonic cannon beneath his sailship and set the automatic targeting control for the approaching craft -- in his mind he pictured the snub barrel of the mighty cannon swinging around to aim at the mysterious ship. Jason ground his teeth wolfishly. At the first hostile action from the pirate, Jason would blast the pirate's gravitonic sails with a thin, extremely powerful beam of unstable gravitons -- shredding the fragile sails and hopefully shorting out the pirate's gravitonic generation system, knocking the pirate below the speed of light and stranding him. If Jason found himself in a particularly hostile mood he might turn back, draw within range, then destroy the pirate with a few shots from the particle-beam weapon, perfectly effective against a sitting duck like a disabled sailship. But would that be a proper example to set for his protege now viewing the precedings within his V-R helmet?
But then coming up behind the pirate another sailship appeared. It was moving fast! Surprised and puzzled Jason watched his situation screen as the faster sailship approached the first. An Infinity City scout craft or destroyer? He checked the radar information coming back. Definitely an Infinity City ship! That's why it was so fast. But its gravitonic radar signature was too small for one of the great Militia Guard destroyers, and too big for the tiny, rapid scoutcraft. Jason scratched his jaw in puzzlement. Was the faster ship attacking the smaller ship? As Jason watched he coolly loaded the coordinates of the faster ship as a secondary target for the gravitonic cannon.
On the situation screen, Jason watched the faster sailship quickly approach and then pass by the other. It was approaching up the current rapidly toward Jason, less than an hour away. He did not like the looks of it. Jason typed commands at the comm
unication console and beamed a coded recognition signal back down the current toward the approaching ship. It cut so smoothly through the gravitonic current that it HAD to be a ship built on Infinity City. But there was no response -- definitely not run by anyone from Infinity City. That left the identity clear: ATTACKING PIRATES!
Jason now had three options: Continue as before, turn and attack, or speed up to maximum and flee. Unfortunately, Jason did not know if the approaching ship was attacking. Conceivably, it COULD be an Infinity City craft with communication trouble.
With a growl of frustration Jason ordered the computer to make all sail and accelerate forward at full speed. The sailship began to rock back and forth and sometimes vibrate due to the gravitonic resonance reflections between the ship's gravitonic system and the twisty-turny current. Dalton's voice issued from the pilot room's amplification system. He was complaining shrilly why they were running instead of blasting the approaching ship. Jason ignored him and watched the image of the unidentified ship closely. It was fast, real fast!
Suddenly, a small orange dot appeared on the display in front of the strange ship and shot ahead of it heading toward Jason's ship. The computer used orange to represent any unknown object with offensive characteristics. That much faster-than-light it could only be a highly destructive gravitonic plasma bolt similar to what his own cannon could fire. Jason quickly fed the coordinates of the approaching bolt into the particle-beam weapon and fired. The display showed Jason's ship leave behind a small green seemingly stationary streak. Far from stationary it was a particle emission travelling at near light speed. However, compared to the sailships super light speed, its movement could barely be seen. The approaching gravitonic plasma bolt from the enemy, however, would hit the particle beam and explode into a messy cloud of unstable gravitons -- plasma bolts were 'dumb' weapons, just energy bolts that could not be steered once launched. There were many torpedo weapons available but few equipped with gravitonic systems for faster-than-light speed.
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