by Guerin Zand
“So, if we incorporated your current star drive into this new Zand class cruiser we would be capable of 1000 c, and could upgrade it in the near future without a major refit or replacement?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any cargo ship designs in the works?”
“Yes, of course. As soon as the first explorer class becomes operational, we plan to build several cargo vessels equipped with this new drive.”
“What’s your production capability for these cargo class ships?”
“Our current schedule has us delivering five in the next five years.”
“So you couldn’t handle building us five more in the near term, maybe the same five years?”
“Not with the current facilities, Guerin. Why?”
“I want at least five of those cargo ships for the project Steve and I are working on.”
“We just can’t handle that, Guerin. Besides, from what I understand, you won’t be operating under Earth system authority. They’d never let us build those ships for you anyways.”
“Thanks, Diane. I just needed to know before I looked elsewhere.”
“Oh no, Guerin. We’re not building you a fleet of cargo ships. The...”
“Just calm down, Milly. Don’t get your panties all bunched up. You are wearing panties, aren’t you?”
“Very funny, Guerin, but the answer is still NO!”
“No what? I haven’t even asked you for anything yet.”
“Yet?”
“I was just thinking, what would be the problem with the Collective building those shuttles for us?”
“Absolutely...”
“Hold on, Milly. Gees. Can I finish my thought?”
“Go ahead.”
“The ships will be totally of human design. Diane will make the designs available to the Collective and we’ll simply use your facilities to manufacture the vessels. You were going to have to pay for them anyways. This way you just cut out the middleman and build them yourselves. It would be a lot cheaper that way.”
“You know that money is not a concern to us, Guerin. Nice try.”
“But we need them if Steve and I are going to make this project work. Besides, you guys would get the design of our star drive. You even admitted it was an interesting design that your people never thought of. Come on. I’ll even throw in a few sexual favors, if that would help.”
“Very funny.”
“Milly, I’m only trying to help. We can even supply the raw materials for the ships from the deal we already have with the outer moons. Believe it or not, Milly, I’ve actually given this some thought.”
“Admit it, Guerin. You’re making this shit up as you go along.”
“Well, yea, but it does take some thought. These little epiphanies of mine just don’t happen all on their own.”
“I didn’t know that an epiphany was another word for bullshit.”
“Very funny, Milly.”
“Ok. I’ll see what I can do, but that’s it. Two of your Zand class cruisers and five cargo ships.”
“That should do for now, what do you think Steve?”
“Not now. That’s it. I mean it, Guerin.”
“Ok, Milly. It’s a deal. We can find more ships somewhere else when the time comes. Maybe we can trade a few cargo ships we get from some other worlds to the Earth folks for more. Your one tough negotiator girl. Any of your friends interested in some swamp land in Florida?”
We all laughed, while Milly could only respond by giving me one of her looks. I couldn’t complain. I liked just about all the looks Milly had.
“I don’t know how the Earth governments are going to feel about giving the Collective our designs, Guerin. They know that our drive technology is unique. I don’t think they’ll want other worlds stealing that technology.”
“Ok, first off, Roger, you need to stop thinking like an Earthman. You’ll be representing the Collective as their ambassador. Just make up some bullshit about how the Collective needs to review their designs and they would appreciate Earth sharing that information in the spirit of cooperation. Remind them that the Collective has shared a lot of technology with Earth and might take offense at not being trusted with our designs. If all else fails, you could always imply that this sharing might just come to an end if they don’t reciprocate.”
“Guerin?”
“Don’t worry, Milly. I’m sure they’ll see things our way. We’re just bluffing. Something you obviously don’t have any clue about. Diane, have you considered what might happen to one of our cruisers if we tried to transit a portal while we were also inside a pocket universe?”
“No. Why would you want to do that?”
“Give me some time, Diane, and I’m sure I can come up with a reason. My first thought is, do we need to add logic to prevent this in the new cruisers?”
“It would probably be a good idea. Come on, Guerin. What are you thinking?”
“Ok, while we’re here just brainstorming, I was wondering if there might be some benefit to doing this. Not that I really understand all of the physics involved, but when we normally enter the void aren’t the physical items from this universe, the ship and our bodies for instance, simply repelled back into our universe through the secondary tear in our spacetime at the destination?”
“Yes, I mean, more or less.”
“Then isn’t it possible that wouldn’t happen since we were essentially a small universe moving through the tear in our spacetime, not a physical entity?”
“You’re not thinking...”
“Yes, I actually am thinking, Milly. Try to contain your surprise, but this monkey may just be about to make you brainiacs look really stupid.”
“What’s he talking about?” Jackie asked. It was impossible for her to imagine that I could possibly come up with an intelligent thought.
“I know!” Diane jumped in. She had a giant smile on her face. “If it were possible, it might actually solve your problem with being able to travel between universes. It’s impossible for matter from one universe to exist in another since the basic laws of physics are different. It’s possible some particles from one universe might exist in another as what we call exotic particles, but those particles might very well be what remains of foreign matter from a different universe when it breaks down. Matter in a pocket universe would still be governed by the laws of that spacetime, and not that of the surrounding universe’s.”
“Well, yea, that too, but it might also eliminate the effects of portal lag on the ship’s crew. I know we’ve all gotten used to it, but it still is impossible to ignore the effects 100%. The ship would never actually enter the void.”
“HA! Now you are bluffing, Guerin.” Jackie looked at me with a smirk on her face. “You never considered using it for trans-universal travel. That was Diane’s idea. You were just thinking about the portal lag effects.”
“That wasn’t my only thought, Jackie. I was just wondering what you might be able to do if it were possible. Diane simply took my suggestion and postulated one possible use of this combination of technologies. That’s what we call brainstorming. We throw out ideas to the group and see where it takes us. I still get credit for the original idea. We could call it the Slater-Zand Bridge Portal. That’s got a nice ring to it, and I’m sure it will piss off more than a few of the Collective scientists.”
Jackie simply huffed at my answer. Milly decided to jump in before we got into it again.
“I’ll admit, it does raise some interesting possibilities. It’s not that simple though, Guerin. There’s a lot of questions that would have to be asked and answered before we could ever consider testing this theory. Perhaps you and Diane should talk to Lori about this. I’m sure she’d find it interesting.”
“We could do that, and I know it’s not that simple. I’m an idea guy though. I like to leave those trivial details for others to work out.”
We all sat around on the porch talking for a while. Prima and Maria went in to check on Gamma. They came out a few
minutes later, all three were dressed in swimsuits. I asked Maria where she got the swimsuits and she told me that she had talked to Roger earlier and had him bring a few for them. She wanted to take Gamma down to the lake for her first swimming lesson. Gamma looked stoked by the idea. Roger had also stocked the cabin with plenty of food for our visit. We all decided to take a break from work and relax for a while. The girls would go swimming and when they returned we’d start working on dinner. I asked Milly if she’d like to take a walk with me. She had never been to the ranch before and I thought she’d enjoy taking a look around. We’d catch up with the girls at the lake a little later.
It was a beautiful summer day on the ranch. It didn’t get that warm in Chile even in the summertime. The temperature was in the low 80’s and the sun was shining. I grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the fridge in the kitchen and we headed out. All the wildflowers were in full bloom and you could hear the birds singing. No matter how many wonders I saw in my space travels, nothing felt as nice as the sun on my skin and the smell of the woods. I missed Earth, and at least for today, I felt at home. I knew it wouldn’t last, but I wanted to share this experience with Milly.
“It really is beautiful here, Guerin. I guess I understand how you miss this living in space with us. Are you still thinking about staying on Earth for a while?”
“I’d like to if it’s possible. I don’t want to stay here though. This was Anna’s home, and I can’t help but think of her constantly when I’m here. Maybe we’ll try to find us a place back in the States. This might be my last visit to the ranch. I need to move on and being here doesn’t help. Maria may want to come back here, so I appreciate Roger keeping the cabin and all. Roger told me she’s been visiting over the years.”
Milly didn’t say anything. She had a sad look on her face and that wasn’t my intention. I wanted to spend this time with her enjoying each other’s company and not bringing up the past.
“Remember the last time we were together on Earth?”
“Of course I do, Guerin.”
“We were both so happy, and we had fun. Why is it so different now?”
“We’ve both grown up.”
“Speak for yourself, Milly.” I smiled and we both laughed.
“Ok, maybe just one of us grew up, but we both have responsibilities now. You complain about it all the time, but you still live up to those responsibilities. Back then, we were like teenagers. We had fallen in love and nothing else mattered. You know that never lasts.”
“I know, but we hardly have any time together. I still do love you, Milly. You know that, right?”
“Yes, and I still love you. Like you said the other day, that’s the easy part. So have you figured out that hard part yet? You know, the part about how we can be together?”
“Well, no. I’ve been kind of busy saving the universe and whatnot. As soon as I get some spare time I’ll figure it out.”
“You may have just figured out a way to travel between universes off the top of your head, and you’re going to tell me that you have no ideas.”
“You’re a little more difficult to figure out than the universe, Milly. I have one idea, but I don’t think you’d like it.”
“Oh. What would that be?”
“Well, I could just kidnap you. Drag you off to some unknown paradise planet and you could be my sex slave.”
It took a while for Milly to stop laughing. “Well, if your last performance is any indication, I’m going to need a hobby to keep me busy during your downtime.”
“You’re just not going to ever let that go, are you?”
“No!”
“That wasn’t my fault. You know Julie did something to me when I was at the medical center.”
“When all else fails, blame my mother.”
“That women has tried to kill me on more than one occasion you know.”
“Oh please. She was just trying to teach you a lesson. Maybe if you were actually nice to her?”
“I’d rather wear a onesie!” We both laughed. It was nice to just laugh. Our talks were always so serious now.
We had reached the shore of the lake. We both took off our shoes and started wading along the shoreline. I decided we should start heading down to where the kids went swimming. We had our arms around each other’s waist as we walked through the shallow and cool lake water. For several minutes we said nothing. We were just enjoying each other’s company, and for a moment, it was like it was oh so long ago. We could only ruin the moment by talking.
“You know, with all the projects you have on your plate, we aren’t going to get to spend too much time together, well, that’s if you don’t kidnap me.”
“Yea. So, are you going to dump me again?”
“I should. I don’t know why I love someone as stupid as you.”
“You don’t really have a choice you know.”
“How’s that?”
“You don’t get to pick who you love. It’s like one of those quantum state thingies. It just is.”
“Thanks for clearing that up for me.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“You really are an idiot when it comes to women, you know that?”
“I am not! Maybe it’s not common knowledge, but I am the first human to ever score with a space babe. I must know a little something about women.”
“You just proved my point.” Milly laughed.
“Well, why don’t you enlighten me then?”
“We don’t have that much time.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.”
“Well, I tried once before, but you thought it was all bullshit.”
“It was. It took a while, but I think I won that argument.”
“You didn’t win the argument. I just got tired of trying to talk any sense into that tiny monkey brain of yours. When I left Earth the last time, you told me you wanted me to follow my own path and that we’d have to let the future take care of itself. Don’t you remember?”
“You do know that most of what I say is total bullshit, right?”
Milly laughed as I smiled a dumb monkey smile. “I think everyone knows that. Still, somehow in all of that bullshit, there are a few gems. What is it that you humans say, ‘Out of the mouths of babes?’”
We reached the area of the lake where Maria, Prima, and Gamma were swimming. It looked like they were all having a lot of fun. We waived to them and Maria asked if it was time to head back to the cabin. I told her we had plenty of time and they should keep on playing. Gamma showed off her swimming skills. I knew she’d be a fast learner. Milly and I walked up the hill following the path that led to the cabin. We found a good spot to sit down and watch the three of them play. The cabin was about a quarter of a mile from the lake, and about 200 feet higher in elevation. It was perfect for watching Maria when she was little. She could go swimming and I could watch over her with a pair of binoculars while I sat on the porch.
We sat and watched as the girls played in the lake. Gamma would climb up on Maria or Prima’s shoulders as they squatted down in the water. Then they’d spring up on their feet and Gamma would jump off. Gamma was relentless and wouldn’t give either one of them a rest. We were laughing at how Gamma was using them as springboards. Milly looked at me with those beautiful green eyes and smiled.
“It’s nice to see you so happy, Guerin. I was glad you found Anna. I was glad that you were happy with her and Maria. You were so angry when the Council broke us up, I was worried. It made me feel better knowing that you had gotten past the anger and found that happiness to fill your life.”
“You weren’t jealous? Didn’t you feel I betrayed you?”
“Maybe I was a bit jealous, but I never thought you betrayed me. I love you, Guerin. I always will, and I know you feel the same. It doesn’t matter if we’re together or not. That will never change. You shouldn’t ignore what’s right in front of you. Imagine how much you would have missed out on if you ignored your feelings for Anna because you couldn’t accept not b
eing with me.”
“I’m not ignoring what’s in front of me. I plan on raising Gamma, and I’ve arranged things so Maria and I will be spending more time together.”
“You’re an idiot!”
“What?” I had no idea what Milly was talking about. That wasn’t that unusual I guess. Her little talks always seemed to leave me more confused. I had accepted that we weren’t going to be together at this point in our lives and I wasn’t angry about that. It wasn’t like it was when the Council was keeping us apart. I had Gamma in my life now and I was looking forward to all the fun we’d have together.
“Prima is in love with you.”
“She is not. We’re just friends.”
“I stand corrected. You’re beyond stupid! Why do you think she asked to join your crew?”
“Because she wanted to give Seca and her partner some space. She didn’t want to get between them.”
“I know that’s what she told you, but you believed her?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”
Milly shook her head and rolled her eyes. “And you thought when she was asking you about love, she was looking for dating advice?”
“Well… Wait a minute. Did Maria tell you about that?”
“Yes.”
“That girl doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. I don’t know what you and your mother did to my daughter. It seems I can’t even have a private conversation with her anymore.”
“That’s not the point. She was trying to tell you how she felt and you, Mr. I Know All About Women, totally missed it. She’s had a crush on you since the day you took her from Heesa. After you left her and Seca with me and returned to Earth, that girl did nothing but ask questions about you. Had I heard from you? Were you ok? Were you coming back to the ship, and if so, when?”
“I don’t believe you. If that were true, why would she and her sister use me to score a few game points?”
