Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  "Where is Capstone now?"

  "Still headed to that station but its' speed is decreasing. At its' rate of deceleration and given its' direction I say it was going to dock there."

  "How long before it docks?"

  "At its' current speed about four hours. And we are about two hours behind it at this point."

  "While we wait I have a question for all of you. Just to pass the time."

  The crew with the exception of Nomi turned to look at Silvi. "Why did Capstone run when we appeared in Sargon. Any guesses?"

  Farn spoke first, "I'd guess they were up to something and didn't want to get caught."

  "That's a good guess," said Silvi.

  "Perhaps they just finished their work, like mining, and it was a coincidence that we arrived at that time," said Lennie.

  "Possibly," Silvi replied. "I really don't like coincidences."

  "I have a wild idea," said Buddy. "They knew we were coming and they wanted us to follow. That's why the portals at Harappa were masked. We had no choice."

  Silvi thought long and hard about Buddy's wild idea.

  Nomi practically whispered, "Fuel station."

  "What?" replied Silvi.

  "Polyhedron. Fuel station."

  The speculation about the Capstone and its' intentions ceased as the crew considered Nomi's observation. The polyhedron was an anti-matter fuel station and somehow it was manufacturing or harvesting anti-matter from the quasar to provide as fuel, or perhaps as a commodity, to other ships.

  "Mr. Brunner, how many other ships are out here headed for that thing?"

  Buddy took a look at his console. "Lots. I am counting about 40 now, but there are others coming in. I can see some leaving as well. Looks like folks don't stay around long. In and out."

  "Can't blame them," said Farn.

  "Lets assume it is a fuel station," said Silvi. "I doubt whoever runs that thing runs it as a charity. Lets assume it's a commercial enterprise. What's the form of payment one makes for fuel?"

  Lennie spoke first. "Rare earth metals. That's why the Capstone was in Sargon. They were mining for something to exchange for fuel."

  "Buddy, What do those other ships look like. Are they all like Capstone. Could this be a Capstone facility?"

  Buddy replied, "Give me a moment I'll select a few ships and take a closer look on scan."

  Moments later Buddy continued, "Have looked at five of them. They are all different. Perhaps whoever made Capstone never made another like it, but I doubt that. I suspect these are ships from different systems and cultures. In fact only two seem to be powered by anti-matter engines. The others seem to use conventional fusion engines."

  Silvi thought a moment. "That would imply that this station is not just a fuelling station but a place where you can purchase anti-matter to transport elsewhere." After a moment Silvi continued, "I need to check with Emmitt."

  Silvi and Emmitt spent the next half hour on vid-com discussing the events that led to their current position. While Emmitt had nothing to add to the speculation about what Capstone was doing at Sargon, he was in agreement with the assumption that the polyhedron was a station selling commodities; in this case anti-matter. If one of the means of exchange were rare earth minerals, then Emmitt reminded Silvi that the Greenland carried some rare earth minerals mined in the Jamon system and intended as trade goods on the voyage to New Carthago. The minerals were still available for trade.

  After terminating the comms with Emmitt, Silvi turned to Buddy, "Mr. Brunner can we get close to one of those ships approaching the station. One with conventional propulsion. I'd like to see how they exchange goods for anti-matter. There must be some rate of exchange for various minerals and for a non anti-matter vessel there must be some kind of containment chamber for the commodity. I'd like to observe how the exchange takes place."

  "Ok," replied Buddy. "I hope those guys are not too touchy or nervous. But I'll get as close as I can."

  "With so much anti-matter around this place, I am fairly certain that everyone is on their best behaviour," commented Silvi. "Their very best behaviour."

  After some time Buddy focused the vid screen on a single ship as it approached the polyhedron. Scans revealed that the ship was fusion powered, and like the Capstone to human eyes, it had an odd shape. "Looks like a dumbbell, commented Farn.

  Silvi took a closer look and indeed the ship appeared to be two spheres connected by a long thin column. "Mr. Brunner, what's the mass on that dumbbell ship in comparison to ourselves?"

  Buddy took a moment, "It is about 300 times our mass. Only one of those spheres is energized. I'd guess that's where the fusion engines are. Those engines seem to be running hot. They have either lost their shielding or they don't have any shields at all and instead rely upon the distance from the other sphere to reduce contamination. Not the way I would design a ship, but it probably works for them. Still with all this radiation around it's hard to get an accurate scan."

  "It's slowing down," Buddy said.

  "Can you get us a closer view Mr. Brunner."

  The vid screen moved in tighter. After the dumbbell ship came to a full stop Silvi noticed that it ejected a package or container of some kind which remained stationary with respect to the polyhedron. Moments later the dumbbell pulled back a few kilometres. As they watched the package was grappled by the polyhedron and pulled inside. Moments later a second package, this one much smaller was expelled from the station and in the direction of the dumbbell. So much for negotiating a price thought Silvi. Seems to be a take it or leave it purchase.

  Silvi called up Emmitt on the comms. "Did you see that transaction Emmitt?"

  "Yes. Seems an odd way to purchase something. I have no idea if the purchase price is fixed or variable but an exchange seems to have taken place."

  "Want to give it a try? Trade Greenland's rare earths for some anti-matter."

  Emmitt thought for a long minute. "Anti-matter is rare in our part of the galaxy and it's use is primarily in weapons, like our dead torpedoes. But there are lots of other applications like in propulsion and advanced tech manufacturing. I can see some use for it in Jamon. But if we get some I would keep it away from the habitat."

  "It seems to be in a containment vessel of some kind."

  "If it were not then we would all be dead by now. No, it was clearly delivered in a containment vessel. I once read that anti-matter is in constant motion. It wants to ebb and flow, and if you stop its' motion it gets upset and goes 'boom.'"

  "How is the stuff contained?"

  Emmitt replied, "That's the odd part. It is stored in a magnetic chamber in which a klien bottle is suspended. It's the klien bottle that holds the anti-matter. The stuff can flow over the bottle surface without obstruction and as long as the magnetic field holds you should be safe. With the emphasis on 'should.'"

  Silvi spoke, "I think it's worth a try. If we can use anti-matter at home that's great. But I suspect that as a trade good it might well be worth a fortune."

  "Agreed," replied Emmitt. "Give me an hour and lets see if we can purchase some of that stuff."

  The exchange had been simple and took very little time. Greenland had approached the station, ejected a package of five different kinds of rare earth metals, and several minutes later a containment package of anti-mater was ejected. One of the minerals, Europium, was returned together with the anti-mater package. Emmitt guessed that the polyhedron probably had enough of the stuff, or that it had no commercial value. The Obsidian Commonwealth had no equipment for handling anti-mater, although there was some Greayson equipment back in the Jamon system that would be suitable for siphoning the stuff off into other containers. In addition Emmitt simply had no idea how much anti-matter their containment vessel contained, or for that matter how durable the containment vessel was. Was it intended for short term storage? Was the vessel disposable, or was it durable and reusable? Emmitt even wondered if there was a deposit on the vessel. He simply did not know and this made him quite nervous. Howev
er upon retrieval they saw that the containment vessel was a toroidal polyhedron and appeared to have been used many times. There were scuff marks, some small dents, and one side seemed to have faded paint compared to the other. The unit seemed entirely self contained and Emmitt carefully had the storage unit placed in the lower hold of Greenland.

  Now the challenge was how to get out of this system and start to find a way home.

  Chapter Fifty

  Poly System - Ragnarök - Year 3246. March 22 ET: 08:53

  For reasons no one but Silvi was certain, she had decided to call this system Poly.

  Silvi sat in the mess with Emmitt on the vid comm.

  "Emmitt we simply must make a decision. Staying here any longer is certain death."

  "Agreed," Emmitt said. "But which exit portal do we choose? It seems we have only three choices. First we choose one at random and we both agree that that's the worst scenario possible. Second we follow the Capstone on an assumption that if Sargon was on its' knot line it might well lead us to a path back to knot lines possibly leading to Jamon. And the third is that we take Nomi at her word and accept her 'guess'.

  Silvi responded, "We won't chose a portal at random. And I am inclined toward following the Capstone. But I suspect that our best outcome will be to follow Nomi's suggestion. The problem is that she cannot really articulate the logic behind her guess. All she can do is provide equations that I am simply too ignorant to understand, nor is anyone else on our ships. If we had Dilli here he might translate, but he is on Iceland. The problem is made worse by the word 'guess.' I have no idea what a 'guess' means to Nomi whose short life has been driven by mathematical exactitude."

  "Perhaps we should ask Farn. She might have some insight. They do seem to get along well."

  "I did consult with Farn," Silvi said. "Farn thinks we should take Nomi's guess. She cannot explain Nomi's calculations any better than anyone else, but she has a feeling that Nomi's guess is more of a certainty than something grabbed out of thin air."

  Emmitt sighed, "Guess, feelings, My God Silvi. The lack of solid footing here is really disturbing. But we must decide and decide soon before we all start glowing like that quasar column."

  "Farn does have some idea of Nomi's theory. Nomi lets Farn read the draft of Nomi's Book of Stars and although it is far from complete the methodology section appears almost done. Farn can no more follow the equations than you or I can, but she is able to read the text between the equations as well as many of Nomi's notations on the definition of terms and expressions."

  "And?" asked Emmitt.

  "At best Farn can tell an entry portal often has a 'back wash" and every time an object passes through some of the destination elements rush back. In other words some matter, gas or dust, from the destination system blows back through the tunnel to the port of entry at the far system. Now there seems to be a boatload of exceptions. Tunnels not travelled have little or no backwash, that's why Nomi calls some of them 'unknowable.' But when a backwash is present it can be analyzed. After all whatever washes back simply enters the origin system at a dead stop. The dust or gas or whatever just hangs around the entry portal"

  "So, If I get this right, all one has to do is analyze the gas or dust and it will tell you where the portal leads?"

  "It's not that simple. Portal backwash is like fingerprints according to Nomi. The problem is you need to have visited the destination, sampled it carefully, and placed it into your star systems database, before you can be certain of anything. As of now Nomi's database consists only of those systems we have made a transit through. That's nine systems to date. Ten if you count Poly."

  "So, if you have never been there, you don't know where your going, even with Nomi's guess."

  "That's about it. With one proviso. She can tell from the backwash how close the destination is to the galactic center. Jamon is pretty far out on a galactic arm. Poly is halfway to the center. So Farn thinks part of Nomi's guess is partly based on her understanding of how far a destination system is from the galactic center."

  "So if Nomi's guess is right she could still put us on the far side of the galaxy and 100,000,000 light years away from Jamon just because it's kinda like our spiral arm."

  "Yes. I guess that's what it means."

  Silvi paused a moment before continuing. "To make matters worse Emmitt, if we don't return to the Habitat in say four or five months what do think Abel will do?"

  "Send someone out to find us. We made our plans clear to Iceland. Abel will wait a good while, but then assign a ship to track our steps."

  "Right. And when they got to Harappa what will they find."

  "Nothing and worse those masked portals will result in the relief flight being trapped. They won't have the luxury of following someone out who knows the way. They will simply be there for eternity. Or they may make the long drive home. 90 years is the estimated sub-light time to reach a portal for home. By then the crew will be dust."

  "So Emmitt we are agreed then?"

  "Yes, Nomi's guess is the only recourse. I just wish I knew more about guesses."

  ...

  Lonely Blue System - Ragnarök - Year 3246. April 10 ET: 21:53

  We have now made 5 portal jumps and we still have no idea where we are thought Silvi. The one positive aspect of so many jumps in so few day was that it kept the crew busy and it kept their minds off of being completely lost. At least they had a plan, even if was only a 'guess' in Nomi's mind. The most recent jump had landed them around a lonely blue giant which Silvi aptly named the Lonely Blue System. Nomi had found three exit jumps and had chosen one as the most probable for a return to space that might bring them home to Jamon. Prior to jumping Buddy ran a suite of tests on the system to gather data for Nomi's Book of Stars. With each jump the star fingerprint database grew, but given the size of the galaxy, not to mention just the spiral arm that held Jamon, the results were far far less than a drop in the bucket.

  As Silvi sat in the Captain's chair preparing for yet another jump she thought of the ancient Imperial Survey Service who had made blind jumps thousands of years ago in a quest to map star systems. The courage of those folks astonished Silvi and she now had a more profound understanding of the risks they took. Nomi had so far avoided jumps to blind systems. How Silvi was unsure, but Nomi was certain that each jump would take them to a system with at least one jump out.

  Nomi quietly sat at the astrogator's station. Her work was done.

  "On my Mark Pilot Karrlson."

  "Aye, aye Sir."

  Silvi took one last look at the blue giant. It was kind of beautiful in a cold and deadly way. Blue giants were rare in the galaxy. They became blue as they exhausted their hydrogen supply and thus most were very old. Old and alone thought Silvi.

  "Mark." Silvi felt the ship shift subtly as it headed for yet another portal and another new star system. Once again the time in tunnel would be unknown, but Silvi had learned that it was best to take four hour shifts while waiting to complete the passage. At least this way crew could catch some sleep.

  Time in the tunnel seemed to last ages, but the ship's clock indicated only 94 hours and they then emerged into yet another system.

  "Mr. Brunner give me a scan of this system. Mabel be ready for anything on weapons. Farn are we clear on environmentals?"

  "Environment clear," replied Farn

  Moments later Buddy responded, "Ok, we have a have a sub-dwarf VI star in the M range heading for a red dwarf in a few hundred million years. We have 18 planets and planetoids, lots of ice comets which in a system this old is unusual, and we have..." Buddy paused. "I have a beacon. There is something here."

  Nomi spoke quietly without looking up. "Elegy."

  Silvi turned to Nomi. "Nomi, this is the Elegy system?" Nomi nodded.

  "Then we know how to get home. Elegy is within Wu's range. I remember from your summary of the Wu voyage plan." Silvi reached for her inter-tab and punched on Nomi's voyage plan. She scrolled down and there it was. Elegy with portals t
o Timmons Rock and Far Spec and then back to Wu. They had found a way home. "Nomi," said Silvi, "I could kiss you." And she did.

  "Pilot Karrlson set us a course for the home world, but lets stay quiet until we know the status of humans in this system. Lets not make another Wu mistake."

  "Pilot Karrlson you have the con. I'm going to be in my quarters studying up on this Elegy system. All I remember is Helen saying the inhabitants were some kind of religious zealots and that this was a very hard place in which to survive."

  Silvi settled into her tiny desk and brought up her copy of the Encyclopaedia Gallectica and although the edition was 150 years out of date it still contained a wealth of data about systems, pre-war civilizations, and history. Silvi began to read about Elegy. Elegy was founded in 2347 by a religious cult who called themselves the 'Wounds of Aram'. Little could be found on the beliefs of the cult, but what was present in the EG was disturbing. Wounds of Aram believed that salvation could only be achieved through suffering and deprivations of the flesh. To Silvi's surprise the last entry in the EG indicated that the population of the cult at the time of its' founding in the Elegy system was about 200,000 souls. They had founded the colony on one of the most harsh planets marginally habitable within the galactic arm. The seventh planet from the sub dwarf star was tilted at a crazy angel and most of its' thin atmosphere was frozen most of its' 632 standard day year. For much of that year a fragile band of temperate land provided living space, but for some of the year it was frozen as well. Standing liquid water did not exist on the planet and occasionally even portions of its' atmosphere condensed. Further every few years an ice comet would collide with the planet causing both earth tremors and catastrophic ice storms. How anyone could survive on such a rock was to Silvi beyond comprehension.

  Silvi took a brief nap, then rose and returned to the bridge. "What do we have Mr. Brunner?"

  "Not much. The home planet has a beacon, but there is nothing emanating from the planet itself. If those folks are still there they are being very quiet."

  "Any indication they know we are here?"