Void Contract

by Scott Rhine

“More than that.” Zane continued. Omar gave him a quizzical glance. What more could the young man want from him? “It wasn’t a decision to make while in consensus, but I would like to use your genes as a template… if you are ok with that.”

  “I would be honored.” The crew sat together for a while, enjoying the feeling of closeness which the consensus had given them. It was Pulan who finally indicated that they must resume their lives. There was work to be done.

  Tensions ran high in the Fleet during the next hours. Captain Conrad brought his case to the council, citing the deaths of his men as well as those of Captain Kharzin as ample proof of the dangers the girl posed. Omar brought up the bounty that the Fleet had reaped as a result of those same powers. Veronika spoke little. Her feelings for Omar were likely clouded by the knowledge that the girl was responsible for the deaths of those under her charge. Eliot, having given sanctuary to Omar and his ship, was beset on all sides by those calling him a traitor to the Fleet. Some were even calling for him to resign his commission so that a more pliable captain could be given command of the Westinghouse.

  What none of the captains could guess was that most of Omar’s arguments were simply a cover for his true plans. Using prepared statements, he allowed Captain Conrad to browbeat him, giving ground until it seemed that Omar had lost his case entirely.

  “The girl is dangerous!” Conrad said. “It has become clear that Captain Hadi is incapable of controlling her or containing her abilities.”

  “I would ask how the good Captain would accomplish such a task if given the opportunity?” Omar countered. “Sasha can circumvent any electronic restraints you might seek to put on her. Her nanocytes can negate the effects of nearly any drug. Any attempt to do so will only anger her and as we have seen, she can kill with a thought.”

  “And you believe that you can keep her in line with soft words and a pat on the head?” Conrad sneered. “The Fleet will never be safe as long as that killer is roaming free among us.” Veronika took this moment to speak.

  “You are correct, Captain Conrad.” Conrad seemed taken aback by her sudden support. “The girl presents a danger none of us can contain. I warned Captain Hadi when he undertook this dangerous experiment that the results could be beyond his ability to control. However, I have no right to interfere with how another captain chooses to run his ship, even if it brings them to an untimely end.”

  “Finally someone has come to their senses.” Conrad seemed pleased.

  “Indeed.” She continued. “The Fleet’s safety is paramount and that is completely within my rights to act upon. Captain Hadi’s recklessness has endangered us all. This creature cannot be controlled, not by Captain Hadi or anyone else. I see only two possible solutions. Either he removes the threat from his ship or that ship must leave the Fleet. What say you, Captain?”

  “I will not kill the girl.” Omar thought he found the right tone of righteous indignation.

  “As Captain Hadi has indicated that he lacks the resolve to deal with the problem himself, I move that The Moving Finger be removed from the lists of Fleet ships and left in this system to seek out its fate where it can no longer be a threat to Fleet security.”

  “Wait!” Conrad interjected. “I want that…”

  “There is a motion on the floor.” Eliot cut him off. “Those in favor?” There was a moment’s pause while the Captains voted. Omar smiled as he noted Conrad’s vote against the motion. Some of his supporters were not so quick and voted in favor. “The motion carries. Captain Hadi, your ship will depart from my maintenance docks before the Fleet leaves this system, earlier if possible.”

  “I understand. We are prepared to leave now.” Omar cut the active connection but left the channel open. The Moving Finger, already prepped for departure, shot out of the docking station under full thrust, hidden from the Damascus by the bulk of the Westinghouse. The Damascus’s fighters delayed attacking the vessel, awaiting confirmation from Conrad who was still sputtering and making demands in the captain’s assembly.

  At Omar’s directive, Sasha leapt down the communication’s channel which Omar had left open and reactivated the long dormant virus which Price had used against the Fleet. The Damascus fell silent on all channels.

  “It won’t last long Omar.” Sasha said. “While the virus was good enough to hold the Fleet in Unity system until the blast wave hit, it wasn’t designed to disable them permanently. They’ve also had researchers picking it apart in the time since, hoping to weaponize it. We’ve got maybe five minutes before we become a small stain in space.”

  “Plenty of time. Hang on team. This is when we find out if this new drive works as advertized.” He sent the signal for the star drive to engage. Nothing happened. Omar sent it again, this time following the command with his mind. The signal was reaching the drive but it wasn’t engaging.

  “Uh, Omar?” Bella started. “Now would be good.”

  “The damned thing isn’t working.”

  “Think Nasi sold us out?” Zane asked.

  “No, Eliot isn’t that kind of man. Something must not be hooked up. Probably happened when we shut the work crews out of the ship. The problem is, we have no way to get to the problem without pulling half the ship apart.”

  “Omar, we may have a solution.” Pulan said. “Though the drive is inaccessible to a human, we may be able to do so in singular fashion.”

  “Will solitary atomo be able to figure out the problem and fix it in time?”

  “It is the only option we perceive as having a chance of success in the time allowed.”

  “Do it.” Omar watched as Pulan dissolved into a dozen rapidly moving forms. Seconds stretched to minutes as they waited. Though the ship was leaving the Fleet behind, the distance would be meaningless if the Damascus managed to get its main weapons online. Worse still, some of their fighters had decided to match velocities with the Finger, waiting on the command to fire.

  Even as he began to lose hope, Omar heard the distinct banging on the hull which Pulan’s atomo made to communicate at a distance. He accessed the drive once more and felt it engage.

  “I guess he got to it in time.” Zane said, his voice as calm as ever. Omar was about to agree when he sighted Pulan in the corridor. Before he could congratulate the alien on his success, he realized something was terribly wrong.

  Pulan normally held a human shape when around the crew, his atomo sliding across each other in a neverending dance of movement. Now though, his shape was uncertain and his atomo moved slowly. Gaps appeared where none should be and the alien seemed on the verge of total collapse. Omar started to reach out his hand to help the creature but Bella beat him to it, cradling the alien in her massive arms.

  “What’s happened, Pulan? Are you going to be ok?” Omar asked. There was hesitation before a mouth formed. The voice which came from it sounded low and distorted.

  “With regrets Captain Omar, we must report a casualty. Atomo Phi was able to find the problem with the drive but there was only one solution which could be enacted in time.” Again the hesitation. “She was able to act as a conduit to allow the drive to engage. Her corpse will serve to keep the drive working for a short time, long enough for us to be lost to the Fleet. After that… after that more permanent repairs will be needed.”

  “That can wait.” Omar replied. “Sasha, are we far enough away to disengage the drive?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll stop now and retrieve… we’ll go get her. Please rest.” Bella carried the ailing creature to its room.

  Getting to the alien corpse was tougher than it sounded but Zane and Omar were able to reach it after pulling up some flooring. There wasn’t much left of the little creature but they did their best to treat it with the respect it deserved.

  They waited in the void between stars for Pulan to recover. After a day, he emerged from his room. He appeared in the kitchen and began to absorb his nutrient solution.

  “Hey Pulan,” Zane started, the rest of the crew looking on. “We feel
terrible about what happened. The thing is…” Zane stopped, uncertain how to continue.

  “We will recover. Atomo Phi is… was a remarkable part of us. We grieve for the loss.” He paused and turned to Zane. “You wish to reengage the star drive. We are afraid that we cannot help you in this manner any longer. Atomo Phi contained in her memory the understanding of engineering. Those of us that remain have only the echo of her greatness in us. You have learned much from us Zane. We trust that you will be able to solve this problem.” Pulan turned to Omar.

  “Where are the remains?”

  “In the meday. We weren’t sure how your people treated their dead.”

  “The dead are a part of us. The individual dies but we live on. We will bring Atomo Phi into ourselves as a last act of love. Having shared consensus with you all we would offer to include you in the ceremony but we retain medical knowledge enough to know that this would cause you injury.” With that, Pulan left the room.

  “Ok, well Zane it appears that you are now our chief engineer.” Bella said. “Get to it. Fix the drive.”

  “I don’t even know how the damned thing works. How do you expect me to fix it?”

  “I’ll help.” Sasha said. “I can access the schematics. We know where the problem is already so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what to do. Atomo Phi managed it and she was only a…” Sasha trailed off, tears forming. Omar realized that his own eyes were glassy as well. His mind filled with the memory of the jumbled, glorious interchange which consensus had brought to him, the soundless voices becoming a chorus.

  “So if we get this tub moving again, where are we going, anyway?” Bella said. Omar once more admired her resilience. She had seen her fair share of death though, perhaps more than her share.

  “We were on course for a white dwarf about three parsecs out but that was just a convenient direction away from the Fleet. We have the entire galaxy to choose from. Ideas?”

  Sasha had been quiet since her recovery. She answered questions put to her but was obviously still a little disoriented. Zane had taken to holding her hand in silent support, his demeanor somewhat softer since the gene treatments he had received. What would come of that Omar couldn’t guess but it seemed that both found some solace in the other’s company. For now, that was enough. When Sasha spoke it was nearly a whisper.

  “I… I know you didn’t want me to interface with the Sikorsky’s mainframe but I did, before. I was able to get some of the answers you wanted.”

  “Something we missed in the consensus?”

  “The data was located in my nanocytes and I’ve only had the time to actually think with my brain about the results since then. I had to think with my mind to give them context.

  “The data Franklin compiled about the stellar collapse on Unity was correct. The odds of moderate star drive usage causing the problems are so low that they approach zero. The fact that Unity was aware of the danger only adds to the impossibility of such an incident happening by accident The number of safety protocols that would have to fail at once is astronomical. Adding to this the sheer number of systems which have collapsed in the past and it indicates deliberate acts of sabotage. Someone or something caused those stars to explode, though for what reason I cannot say.”

  “How is that even possible?” Zane asked.

  “Why would anyone do such a thing?” Bella asked at the same time. Omar waited silently for Sasha to continue. In some way, her answer only confirmed what he had already known to be true.

  “I don’t know. It required massive calculation just to verify Franklin’s suspicions. Designing such an event would require calculations orders of magnitude larger. Then there is the fact that many ships would have to act in concert, much like the scout ships which left Unity, for even a partial collapse to occur.”

  “So where does that leave us?” Bella asked.

  Omar answered. “Someone or something destroyed the advanced human worlds and is still doing so. I think the only way to find out more is to go to one of those systems and take a look for ourselves.”

  “Aren’t those systems just nebulae now? There can’t be anything left.” Zane said.

  Pulan answered him. “While the stellar expulsions would have destroyed everything in the system out past their oort cloud, the nature of the event indicates that the star’s core would remain intact, smaller and highly turbulent for centuries to come but whole nonetheless. Given a long enough time frame, the stars will recover much of their former mass due to gravitational effects. It is only the planets that will not be there any longer.”

  “If everything is gone, what’s the point in going back to one?” Zane asked.

  “If this was intentional,” Pulan said. “Then I can only assume that an alien force intends to declaw humanity by destroying their best worlds and convincing them that star drives are responsible. They may have left behind some indication as to their identity.”

  “That’s good enough for me.” Omar said. He accessed the mainframe to see where the nearest system of that type was. The information was already tagged by Sasha in anticipation of his wish.

  “Talus,” He read aloud for the benefit of the others. “It’s only a few dozen parsecs away from here. Once the cultural and technological hub of the region, it was one of the first worlds to fall, nearly three hundred years ago. Are we agreed?” The crew nodded their assent.

  Chapter 21

  The Moving Finger transitioned into the Talus system cautiously, its new jump drive winding down at what they hoped was the outermost edge of the post stellar cloud. The whole crew was gathered in the small cockpit. As the warped region of space around the little ship resolved into focus Omar heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him. He could not tell which of his crew was responsible. It hardly mattered because it summed up what they all must have felt.

  “It’s all gone.” Zane whispered. “That’s not possible.” Omar accessed the Finger’s sensor data, aware of the second presence leaping ahead of him in the system. Sasha’s mind was a nimble ghost, picking its way through data streams faster than he could think of accessing them. He felt a light tug on his consciousness and found himself viewing the region where the star should be. Instead of a star there was a dark blot marring the beauty of the starfield, a sphere of nothing.

  Sasha pointed all the ship’s sensors directly at it. Omar felt a slight irritation at her presumption and bit it down. She may have felt it because she spoke aloud.

  “Sorry boss. I just can’t help myself sometimes. It’s like an instinct. The nanocytes jump ahead of my rational mind and act on my behalf. There is something out there though and it’s absorbing all wavelengths of light.”

  “It’s ok Sasha. Bring it up on the screen for the rest of the crew.” The main screen shifted to show the dark spot. At first glance it was pure darkness but Sasha drew the image out until Omar could see stars at the periphery, creating a black sphere by their very absence. Side screens began filling with supplementary material, the results of her scans across all wavelengths. “There!” He exclaimed, knowing that she had seen it long before him but had let him find it himself.

  “Neutrinos.” Pulan said. “A pattern consistent with reactions inside a stellar mass, though one perhaps sixty percent the size indicated in the old star charts.”

  “You’re saying the star is still out there but it’s tiny and invisible?” Bella asked.

  “We possess insufficient data for an accurate conclusion. We are merely stating that there is a neutrino pattern emanating from the center of that empty space which is consistent with a much smaller star. The location is consistent with the star which occupied these relative coordinates. The region of optical occlusion is quite a bit larger though, approximately seventy five million kilometers wide.”

  “Something’s blocking our view half an AU across? We need to get closer.” Sasha’s voice mirrored the excitement he felt. “Omar, we need to go there. Whatever happened to this system, the answers are there.” She pointed
at the dark circle with a shaking finger. Omar was inclined to agree but he felt his veins grow cold with a primal terror when he considered the structure which lay before him. As well, he felt the lives of his crew hanging on whatever decision he made. Looking around him, Omar felt the trust they had placed in him as a heavier weight than all the lives he had blamed himself for over the years.

  “We will, but I want as much data as possible before we get too close. I’m going to plot a slow arc around the system bringing us in. It’ll take us about a day to reach the edges of… whatever that is. By then we should have a better idea of what we’re looking at.” Even as he said the words, sensor readings began to fluctuate rapidly. Warning lights flashed and a buzzer sounded which Omar had never heard before.

  “Omar, what’s happening?” Sasha’s voice was wavering, fearful. She had access to much more information than him about what was going on. She simply needed reassurance. Bella placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder, steadying her.

  “Stay calm.” Bella said. “Tell us what you’re seeing.”

  “The fabric of space between us and that thing just started shrinking. It’s kind of like a jump drive just kicked in but one big enough to move a planet. My god, something’s coming for us.”

  Omar switched the viewer back to the local view. The local starfield was warping just as Sasha indicated, much like the beginning of a jump. The region of darkness grew in his perception until it filled the viewscreen, obliterating everything else. The proximity sensors began to flash and Omar felt a tremor as something made contact with the ship in a hundred places at once. As the ship sensors scanned for data Omar began to get a picture of what had happened.

  The little ship had been completely engulfed in a chamber so large that it defied comprehension, its edges barely visible to his sensors. It might have given him a fit of agoraphobia save that the interior was filled with a lattice of some material he could not define. The tendrils began at the edges of the sphere as dozens of massive trunks, each easily the diameter of the Sikorsky. These pillars branched and split as they extended inward in an orgy of fractal designs. Fraying ends no larger than a thread came together as they neared the ship, enveloping it as firmly as a fly in a spider’s web. The lattice pulsed with energies outside human visual range. The computer, trying to find a medium to represent them, showed the pillars in a deep maroon with a blue lightning arcing from on pillar to another.