by T J Bryan
"How long to interception of the departure point Pilot Karrlson?"
"I estimate 9 hours for Ragnarök and about 12 hours for Greenland."
"All right Pilot Karrlson, slow us down so we meet Greenland at the departure point. I wish to depart together. Notify the Greenland please."
Silvi thought to herself I hope that masked portal does not wiggle. Although portals rarely moved even a centimetre, they were known to collapse when some cataclysmic event occurred nearby such as a collision of two black holes and a succession of gravity waves, often called a gravity storm, followed.
"All right," Nomi said. "Lets get some rest. Four hours off. Buddy you have the con."
"Aye aye, Sir, I have the con."
Silvi motioned to Farn to follow her into the captain's tiny quarters. Silvi sat at the small desk. Farn remained standing. There was no place for her to sit.
"Farn," said Silvi. "How is Nomi doing? Her talents and her behaviour are simply incomprehensible to me. I suspect you know more than I ever will."
Farn sighed. "Nomi is fine. We get along very well now, although at the beginning she didn't respect me at all. Not that I get much respect now when it comes to astrogation, on the other hand we are now close friends and she values my ideas and suggestions about life: girl stuff and how to live life. Nomi is after all still a child. Some aspects of Nomi will always be childish, that's part of her talent. Our job, I mean my job, is to make the best of the whole being that is Nomi and to ensure that she makes our mission and her life a success."
Silvi stared a moment at Farn. Silvi would have made Farn a captain by now given her performance under many difficult circumstances and her natural ability to manage a crisis. However, her contribution to keeping Nomi focused overweighed any short term OCN advancement for Farn. Captaincy for Farn would have to wait and perhaps wait a long time.
"There is something you need to know captain"
"Oh?"
"Nomi wants the 'stars.' It is not just something she says. It's something she is. I can't explain it entirely. It's more than a passion for the stars, and it's not an obsession. Her desire for the stars borders on the divine, or the spiritual. I don't know the words, but there is something there that is way beyond the sublime. The only word I can think of to describe her belief that the stars will be hers is 'Messianic'."
In once sense Silvi was surprised by Farn's description, but in another she knew that Farn's description of Nomi Ketill was spot on.
"One other thing Silvi. She's working on something she calls 'Nomi's Book of Stars.' She spends all of her free time on this book. I don't fully understand what the book is for, but she wants to give everyone the stars and the book is some kind of simplified system of plots through the portals. Something that does not require an astrogator of Nomi or Dilli's skills. An astrogator is still required but with Nomi's book the entire process will be quicker and require less..." Farn stopped trying to find the right word. "Require less intellect."
"And how far along is she on 'Nomi's Book of Stars'?"
"She just started filling out the first set of plots in the last two weeks. But she has been thinking through the methodology since we left Jamon. It's the method that is the tough part, and our recent plots have allowed her to refine the equations and methods that go into her book."
"Any idea when it will be done?"
"I asked Nomi that and she said it's done when it's done. With someone like Nomi that's as definitive an answer as it is possible to get. Perhaps when she is reunited with her brother Dilli he may shed some light on this. But Silvi I suspect that this will take years. Possibly a life time and I pray every day to the gods that Nomi lives a long long life. She deserves it as a human being, and we deserve it as humanity. We all deserve the stars."
...
Jamon System - Iceland - Old Mining Dock - Year 3246. March 19 ET: 03:14
Abel and Helen stood on the cold deck of the Old Mining Dock as drag lines continuously pulled cargo containers from Iceland into the dock. As they arrived four man dock crews pulled them onto sliders, noted their contents, assigned inventory numbers and sent them into deep storage. The dock crews were visibly happy and often broke into song which Abel had never observed before, but which the watch officer said they did when working hard and happy.
"How long till we complete the cargo transfer?" Abel asked.
"Probably another six weeks. If we rushed it, and there is no reason to, then perhaps four weeks. The bottleneck is our inventory process and the limited number of drag lines. It would be a shame to loose a million metric tons of fish into a deep storage space we could not find in a hundred years. Even frozen fish will go bad in a hundred years." Helen laughed.
Helen continued, "How goes the navy building?"
"Actually we are close to two full crews today. And another four or five months I feel good we will have three or four more qualified crews."
"Good replied Helen." She paused a moment to gather her thoughts. "Abel you know we left Wu out there all alone. Those are good people and they deserve our support. And even the New Carthago folks with their peculiar religion would make good trading partners. We really need to go back. We need a longer term relationship to ensure our own survival. Relying on one system like Girots, while a necessity at the time given our isolation, is an invitation to disaster. We need to help establish strong and effective trade and commerce."
Abel smiled, "With only two freighters, even huge ones like Iceland and Greenland, we don't have the carrying capacity for major commercial efforts. It takes fleets of ships to rely upon reliable trade. We may well have crews, but the lack of cargo ships is a real limitation."
"Abel, our experience at Wu indicates that there are probably serviceable ships scattered all over remote systems. Most need only maintenance and crews. I'm not saying there are enough, probably far to few, but it is a start. The real issue in The Dark is piracy, the maintenance of safe knot lines, and the establishment of active trading as a profitable and worthwhile pursuit. And not one guaranteed to get you killed or enslaved. While we don't have enough cargo capacity, we do have SAR's, and we can use them to re-establish some modicum of trade and eventually civilization by keeping the knot lines open. We will not be the resurrection of humanity from the dark age, but we can at least start rebuilding."
"Helen that's an ambitious plan and I am not sure the Commonwealth would support it. Right now peoples stomach are full, children fill the playgrounds, blow-outs are at a 150 year low, and the quiet lives so many want has returned. I feel there is little desire for adventures out among the stars. Yes, we can convince people we need some strong trade ties with a few systems like New Carthago, but to go further and become a new police force along the knot lines is simply too much to ask."
Helen laughed, "Abel if I told you at the time those kids came back with Greayson ship suits that one day you would command a fleet of ships in something called the Obsidian Commonwealth Navy you would have laughed me off the system. Whether our citizens want to go out among the stars or not at this time, the Commonwealth's place in the stars is inevitable. The only issue is do we lead or do we follow."
Helen decided to change the subject. "How is the shrimp farm coming along. And the other projects?'
"We have stopped making shrimp paste and moved up a step in aquaculture. Our prawns are a big hit. Now that seafood from New Carthago is wonderful and very popular, but it's frozen. The Dios prawns are fresh and we can't grow enough of them to meet demand. We have some other ideas for food production, however we will never become self sufficient. In fact if we can create a reliable supply chain with New Carthago via Wu, and a few others then we can concentrate on what we do best; mining and manufacturing of basic industrial goods."
"Any progress on the New Quark."
"We just restarted the project now that people have the energy. But it is still a ways away and there is the possibility we will fail. We are not shipbuilders. We don't have yards, the necessary skills, and the
technological resources to build ships. I cannot imagine that we will ever build real starships here. Perhaps a sweeper or two, low tech ships, but starships never. It's just too difficult."
"And that repair ship you tied up to Dock Three. Any progress there?"
"Much of that ship remains unusable with it's repair comp slagged. We have been able to get a few machines running manually, but it is not easy. Still without a replacement for the repair comp we may never get any real benefit from the ship. It's a real pain, because eventually we will need repair facilities for the fleet we have now, not to mention any larger effort. And without something like that repair ship I simply don't know what we will do when damage or old man entropy makes an appearance. Our supply of Greayson ships and materials is not infinite. The margin of only two freighters is a good illustration of our limits."
"I understand that the Collegium is establishing a Navy Department."
"Yes, it is a good move to formalize our system. Not that we will abandon our selection process, or lack thereof. But the real issue to me is that just SAR qualified skills are not enough. The simulator does not train captains. And I fear that is one limitation we need to overcome immediately. Letting pilots run ships is not a guarantee of success. Yes, you will probably get wherever you are going fast, but I'm not entirely sure you will get home."
"True Abel. Then there are other skills needed to run an operation; logistics, supply, management, finance, even the repairs you so dread. I don't know how many planet based personnel the old navy's had but I'm sure it was equal to those actually in space. And without planet or station support I doubt any navy would last long. There are a lot of skills needed and probably many we don't even know at this time."
Chapter Forty Nine
Harappa System - Ragnarök - Year 3246. March 19 ET: 21:13
"All right Pilot Karrlson. On my mark."
"Aye, aye, Captain."
Silvi stood on the bridge looking out a vid screen that showed nothing but distant stars; very distant. A small green circle appeared on the vid screen at the point of departure from Harappa made by the Capstone ship. Twenty kilometres behind Ragnarök lay Greenland about to follow hard on her heels.
"Mark."
Silvi felt the gentle pull of a ship beginning motion in GWP mode. The distance to the departure point was less than 1,000 kilometres and their entry speed would not be high. However that mattered little because the exit speed from a portal was always at a dead stop.
The green circle grew larger until it enveloped the vid screen and they entered yet another portal tunnel. As an un-surveyed tunnel no one knew how long the tunnel passage would last, but that was the least of their worries. What was the system they would enter? Who if anyone would they encounter? Yet the real issue was how they were to find their way home from a distant and uncharted system.
In one sense Silvi and the crew were relieved. They had actually departed Harappa and were in a portal tunnel along someone else's knot line. There had been some worry that the masked portal might not exist and they would simply sail the stars forever. On the other hand the masked portal proved not to be some destructive ruse or trap.
"All right. Lets stagger our watch. Half crew on the bridge now. Two hour rotation. But be ready the moment we enter the new system. Nomi, Farn, Mabel get some rest. Pilot Karrlson, Mr. Brunner, and I will remain on the bridge."
Twenty six rotations of monotony and they were still not through. Helen had once described to the crew the historical record of portals from the Encyclopaedia Gallectica. There was no correlation between time in the tunnel and distance. Some tunnel passages were quick yet the distances travelled immense. Some long in time and the distance short. So the amount of time they were in the tunnel gave no indication of distance, direction, or destination. No one was getting any real rest and Silvi was about to increase the rotation time to 4 hours when the vid screen flashed and they entered a new system.
"Buddy, get me a scan of this system. Find that Capstone." Silvi was about to fetch Nomi when she appeared together with Farn. Silvi did not need to ask Nomi where they had arrived, or if they could get out of this place. Nomi knew what to do and any talk was a distraction. Nomi sat at her station and her fingers began to fly over the controls and the keyboard. Silvi would have to wait to learn their fate.
Lennie accelerated the Ragnarök away from the entry portal to make room for Greenland and a few minutes later she appeared as if from nowhere.
As Buddy and Nomi worked to assess their position Silvi just stared at the vid screen. The star field was dense and the darkness of the void significantly brighter than she had ever seen before. It was clear from the vid screen that they were nowhere near the edge of a spiral arm of the galaxy. Silvi knew they had moved closer to the galactic center and a space dense with stars, systems, dust and gasses. Flight and navigation here were going to be very demanding.
"Got ya!" Buddy cried out. "I have a lock on the Capstone Captain. She is proceeding in system at a sedate pace. At least sedate for something that fast. We and Greenland will have no problem following if she maintains that course and speed. Give me five and I can get an update of this system. It's very bright here and the external radiation is much higher than in our home systems. But give me a bit of time."
Silvi did not need to reply. Buddy was getting very good at his station. She had only to wait.
"Ok, here is what I have right now. This system is dominated by a double binary that consists of a massive star orbiting a black hole. The black hole is feeding off stellar material from the sun to supply it accretion disk. There is one hell of a electromagnetic column converting matter into X-rays blasting from that thing perpendicular to the core of the black hole. Nothing organic or even inorganic could survive a microsecond anywhere near that column of X-rays. It's a quasar. Pretty rare. There is an ecliptic plane and we appear to have entered on it as did the Capstone. Seems he has the sense to avoid that column of energy. There are no planets here. I suspect they were eaten long ago. How anything survives here is hard to fathom. But I think the way the Capstone has decelerated and its' direction tells me there is some destination out here and not far from the entry portal. Perhaps a station of some kind since there is nothing else here but cosmic feasting and death."
"Mr. Brunner, do you think the Capstone knows we are following?"
"Probably. They spotted us at Sargon at some distance. Yeah, I'm almost certain they know were here on their tail."
Nomi started to speak and everyone went quiet. "Quasar XTE J1550. We're still in the Milky Way. Far from home"
"How far Nomi. How far from home?"
"21,000 light years."
Silvi found the distance staggering. How would they ever get home.
Larry spoke up. "That Capstone had to get to Sargon some way and I doubt it took them eons to make the trip. So I figure there is some way out of here or some knot line they travel that we might use to get home. How we find that is another matter."
"Portals here. Lots." Nomi almost whispered. Silvi could see Nomi thinking in her trance like state about portals. If Nomi wanted the stars she truly had found a whole bunch.
"Mr. Brunner, where is Capstone heading?"
"Seems to be heading toward an object, no, a station of some kind. I'm scanning now but the readings are rather confused. We need to get closer. There is so much radiation here it's confusing our instruments."
"Can you bring it up on visual?"
"We are still quite a ways out, but I can try."
The vid screen display almost blinded the crew as the blue actinic light of the accretion disk of the singularity simply swamped all other light and radiation sources. Within moments the screen adjusted and attenuated the intense brightness of the system to reveal an amazing sight. The light streaming from the column of X-rays was billions of times brighter than the average sun.
A distorted orange and mottled red sun shaped more like an egg was bleeding matter into the accretion disk of the black hole.
A thin jet of white hot gasses flowed out of the sun and formed a spiral that descended upon the black hole. The accretion disk was electric blue and spun around the un-see able depression in the universe that was a black hole. Perpendicular to the accretion disk a column of intense white light streamed in both directions with an intensity that dwarfed everything around it.
"Mr. Brunner, how long can we stay here. With all this radiation around?"
Buddy replied, "That's Farn's call. She will have a better measure of how long we can stay. But I think not too long."
Silvi looked toward Farn. "We need to stay away from that streaming column of X-rays. It's not a matter of entering the column in which we would evaporate, but getting anywhere within 20 degrees off the perpendicular of that killer. Better yet stay at 90 degrees off perpendicular. Even then we should leave here with 48 hours. This place is just to hot, even for our Greayson radiation shielding."
"Nomi," Silvi called. "What about all those portals you said were here. Do you know where any might take us."
Nomi did not look up but continued her calculations. "Guess. I could."
Silvi did not like the word 'guess.'
Buddy spoke, "I'm getting some resolution on that station now. It is a sphere. No a polyhedron of some kind. It has flat faces and I ..." Buddy paused. "Captain Karrlson the anti-mater reading of that thing is off the charts. Literally my instruments are overwhelmed by the reading. That thing should be only plasma and dust, but some how it is holding together."
"Anti-matter?" asked Silvi.
Buddy responded, "Yes and lots of it. I can see activity around the Polyhedron. There are some other ships there. That thing or station is about the size of our asteroid Dios in Jamon. Probably a 400 kilometres in diameter. It's big and it's hot."
