Off Course

by Doug Farren

  “That's a relief!” Heather replied.

  Thumis led the way down the ramp. The sand was so hot AJ could feel the heat through the soles of his boots. A light breeze was blowing but since the air was hot and dry it failed to provide any relief from the intense heat. The group quickly made their way across the burning sands to an awaiting transport.

  It was obvious that the needs of the human visitors had been anticipated. A flat-bed truck outfitted with a cover and a bench for seating was waiting for them. The driver placed a box near the rear of the truck to act as a step into the back. AJ was relieved to discover that the air under the cover was considerably cooler.

  The Keldans boarded a separate vehicle that looked more like a squat, double-deck bus.

  After everyone had taken a seat, the driver put the box into the back then got back into the truck. A moment later they were on their way.

  “We will visit the ship first,” Thumis explained, the translators now doubling as transceivers. “It's impossible for us to know what caused the ship to crash. Based upon the data we’ve gathered so far, we believe it fell from a considerable height. Pieces of the wreckage are scattered across several hundred kilometers.”

  The truck slowed and started down an incline as Thumis continued. “The section we are visiting is one of the larger intact pieces. The largest section lies about 20 kilometers south of here. It is intensely radioactive and we believe it to be the engineering section of the ship. We have explored it using robots but nothing of value has been found there.”

  “You've recovered artifacts?” AJ asked.

  “Yes. Quite a large number of small objects have been found. Most are common items of no real significance. The ship has been here for a very long time – not much is left and what does remain has suffered severe deterioration.”

  The truck came to a halt and a moment later the box was pulled down to once again serve as a step. AJ found himself standing next to the twisted remains of the ship. Three huge, black, ring-shaped structural supports surrounded by scaffolding jutted out from the sand at an angle of about 45 degrees. The rings appeared to be undamaged. An incomplete support, bent and warped as if it had been subjected to a colossal force, poked straight up into the sky. Two other rings appeared to be lying together in the sand a bit farther on.

  “This way please,” Thumis said and began walking. The Keldans did not seem to be bothered in the least by the heat.

  As they approached one of the upright supports, AJ craned his neck so he could see the full height of the complete ring. The rings were more than just black in color. They seemed to absorb all incident light. It was like looking into a bottomless pit. The effect was almost hypnotic.

  “How big was this thing?” AJ asked forcing himself to stop staring at the alien material.

  “Hard to look at aren't they?” Thumis replied. “The rings are 178-meters in diameter. Touch it.”

  AJ and Scott both reached out and placed their hands on the strange material. “It's cool!” Scott exclaimed.

  “Is it absorbing the heat?” AJ asked as he removed his hand.

  “As far as we can tell, it does not absorb heat. It just remains at the same temperature no matter what the surrounding air temperature is.”

  “What's it made of?” Scott asked, preparing his scanner for use.

  “A detailed examination of the intact rings has failed to reveal any joints. It appears as if they were made in a single casting. The material is unknown to us and is exceptionally resilient. We’ve been unable to cut it or to even scratch its surface. High-powered cutting torches and lasers have no effect on it.”

  AJ looked over at Scott who had also been looking up at the ring. Scott jerked his head down. His eyes were wide with wonderment as he manipulated the scanner.

  “If I'm right, you won't be able to damage it with anything short of a nuclear warhead,” Scott explained.

  “What is it?” Vevicty asked trying to peer over Scott's shoulder. AJ had unconsciously backed away as Vevicty moved closer. Although he was slowly becoming accustomed to the Keldans he still could not tolerate being too close to them.

  Scott's fingers flew over the mini-keyboard entering additional commands into the scanner. Muttering to himself, he unclipped a utility probe from the side of the device and held it against the surface of the ring. Numbers and graphs flowed across the display.

  “I don't believe it!” Scott finally remarked, sweat running down his forehead and dripping off his nose in an almost constant stream.

  “Would you care to elaborate?” AJ asked, wiping his forehead. He was anxious to get out of the heat and was becoming impatient.

  Scott's smile threatened to split his face in half. “It's dark matter!”

  AJ's jaw dropped open; Heather's head snapped around so fast AJ swore he could hear it crack.

  Thomas, his head still bent back so he could look up at the ring, suddenly lost interest and exclaimed, “WHAT!?”

  Goeglict looked at Vevicty who asked, “Is this human humor? Of course it's dark matter – anyone can see that. We want to know what it is.”

  Scott looked at his new-found friend and burst out laughing. “I'm sorry,” he said to the very confused scientist. “I forgot we’re speaking through a translator. It must have literally translated what I said. Are you aware of the fact that 65 percent of the matter in the universe cannot be detected?”

  Vevicty had started to become angry, the hairs on his body starting to rise although none of the humans had enough knowledge of Keldan body language to know this. As soon as the question had been translated, understanding set in and the hairs immediately settled back down.

  “We have known about the missing matter for a number of years,” Vevicty replied. “Are you saying that this material is made of missing matter?”

  “Exactly! We called it dark matter because it was something we could not detect. Unless I'm mistaken, these supports are made of it.”

  “I do not see how that’s possible,” Vevicty argued. “Missing matter cannot be detected. All of our theories indicate that it’s a form of matter that does not react with normal matter except gravitationally.”

  “We didn't know what dark matter was either until we finally managed to reconcile the theory of relativity with quantum field theory,” Scott explained. “What we call normal matter is actually a three dimensional manifestation of a type of energy that exists across multiple dimensions. Dark matter, on the other hand, does not manifest itself in any dimension we can detect. Gravity, however, transcends all dimensions and that’s how we learned of the existence of dark matter.”

  Vevicty's face lit up with understanding. His feeders began to twitch as he became excited causing AJ to take another step back. “We have long known that all matter is composed of energy. We’ve also suspected the existence of higher dimensions. If this is actually missing matter, then why can we see it?”

  “Because,” Scott replied, gazing up at the towering ring, “this matter has been dimensionally altered so that it manifests itself in our dimensions. This is way beyond our abilities.”

  “Yet you are able to identify what it is,” Goeglict said.

  Hearing the suspicion in the statement, Scott turned to face the Councilman and replied, “We can identify it because our theoretical knowledge of multidimensional space allows us to do so. Even though you can’t yet build one, your scientists have a working knowledge of fusion power. Because of this, you would recognize a fusion reactor if you saw one. It's the same principle. I understand the material but the technology required to alter dark matter on a trans-dimensional level is way beyond our science.”

  “I understand,” Goeglict replied. Inwardly, he was not convinced. To him, the fact that the humans could identify this material was another confirmation that they might be Akuta.

  “My question,” Scott said, looking back up at the rings, “is why on Earth would the Akuta build their ships out of an unstable material?”

  “So it is un
stable!” Vevicty exclaimed. Seeing Scott's reaction, he added, “We’ve discovered that the damaged rings and the hull plating seem to be evaporating at a fairly constant although very small rate. The evaporation takes place near the edges. The intact rings do not seem to be exhibiting this deterioration.”

  “That's because the atomic (if you could call it that) structure of the crystal lattice is unstable unless the lattice is complete,” Scott explained. “The only way for that to be true is if the material is formed into a ring. A few hundred years from now the only dark matter left standing here will be these intact rings.”

  “Why would the Akuta use this material then?” Heather asked.

  “Because it’s virtually indestructible as long as the internal lattice remains intact,” Scott said. “The hull plating would have to be periodically replaced as it disintegrated but a ship protected by this material would be nearly impossible to defeat in combat.”

  “Making the Akuta a nearly unstoppable force,” Thomas added.

  Chapter 15

  “I'm burning up out here,” AJ said, wiping his face with his soaked sleeve. “I need to get out of this heat before I collapse.”

  “Follow me,” Thumis said. “The buildings are cooled.”

  As promised, the inside of the building was considerably cooler. Thumis led the way down the wide hallway. AJ was finding it difficult to get used to Keldan architecture. Because of how they were built, Keldan doors were very wide, averaging 275-centimeters from frame to frame. The hallways were the width of a two-lane country road. The low ceilings made him feel claustrophobic.

  Thumis paused in front of a door. “We store the recovered artifacts in here,” she explained. “Because of the violence of the impact and the resulting fire, most of what has been recovered is unrecognizable. Green labels indicate items that have been positively identified, blue are for those we are unsure of and red indicates an item of unknown purpose.”

  Thumis keyed a security code into the door's keypad. It slid smoothly and quietly into the wall, revealing a large, warehouse-type room with numerous shelves arranged in neat rows. The humans were relieved to find that the ceiling here was considerably higher. To keep from crowding themselves, the group split and went in two separate directions – Thomas, Scott, and Vevicty went to the right while AJ, Heather, and Goeglict took the shelves on the left.

  The smaller objects were stored in separate, see-through plastic containers. Each container was marked with a colored label that matched an identical label on the shelf. Larger items were set on top of a soft pad. Most of the objects showed signs of having been involved in a major catastrophic event. Even the large pieces of structural material were twisted and partially melted.

  “Must have been one hell of a crash,” Heather remarked.

  “Although it happened over a thousand years ago,” Thumis replied through the open transceiver link, “our scientists have determined that the ship must have lost all propulsion and fallen from a height of several kilometers. At the time of impact, it is estimated that the ship had a horizontal velocity in excess of one thousand kilometers per hour and it was descending at over twice that speed.”

  “Did it break up on impact?” AJ asked.

  “No. The distribution of the various crash sites indicates the ship broke apart before it crashed.”

  “Given the material the ship was made of how is that possible?” Thomas asked.

  “The entire ship wasn't made of dark matter,” Scott replied. “It was most likely armored with a thin layer of dark matter held in place by the circumference rings. The rest of the ship, including the transverse supports, would have been built of normal material. Torsional stress tore it apart as it descended.”

  They walked down the rows of recovered debris in silence for several minutes. AJ looked but he really didn't see what he was looking at – his mind was elsewhere. Heather finally took his hand and asked, “Are you okay AJ?”

  AJ interlaced his fingers with Heather's and replied, “I'm worried.”

  “About?”

  “The Akuta,” he replied. “They came here over a thousand years ago in a ship built with technology superior to our own. If what the Keldans tell us is true, they didn't come here to trade furs or educate the natives. They arrived as conquerors. If they're still out there, they represent a threat of unknown strength to the peace we have had for many decades.”

  “What we’ve told you is true,” Goeglict said, startling AJ enough to cause him to stop walking.

  “I'm sorry Councilman,” he explained. “I forgot we were using an open translation link.

  “Why don't we make a quick trip to the Akuta star system before we head home and see if they're still around?” Heather suggested.

  “Are you out of your mind!” AJ exclaimed, squeezing Heather's hand as if it would bring her to her senses.

  Heather let go and stepped in front of AJ so she could face him head-on. “Why can't we? Their star system is only six light years from here. We can make that in a single jump.”

  “The Star-Pulse is not a warship and I have no intention of taking her anywhere near that system.”

  “My dear,” Heather replied in a gentle tone of voice. “You are one of the finest freighter captains around. But, you would make a poor military commander. The Star-Pulse will be perfectly safe. We pop out of hyperspace close enough to detect signs of civilization but far enough away so the energy pulse of our arrival won't be detected until weeks later. By the time the Akuta sent a ship to investigate, we would be well on our way home.”

  “She has a valid point,” Thomas said through the open com-channel.

  AJ didn't know how to respond. On one hand, he desperately wanted to know if the Akuta were still a threat, but on the other, he could not justify putting his ship and crew in harm's way to find out.

  “I'll give your idea some thought,” he finally said. “I think I've seen enough of these artifacts. I'm hungry and thirsty – let's head back to the shuttle.”

  “I would like to stay and look some more,” Scott objected. “Who knows what we might find in here.”

  “We have water and can provide a plant-based meal in our cafeteria,” Thumis suggested.

  The thought of being in a room filled with the spider-like Keldans did not sit well with AJ. Heather came to his rescue. “We should avoid eating any indigenous foods until we have a chance to analyze it for compatibility,” she said.

  Relieved, AJ said, “Heather has a point. If you don't mind, we would like to return to the shuttle.”

  “I will have the truck brought to the front of the building,” Goeglict said.

  Fifteen minutes later, AJ and Heather were back aboard the shuttle. AJ downed a large glass of water then made himself a cup of coffee. He grabbed a sandwich and joined Heather at one of the small tables. “Are you okay?” she said, concern in her voice.

  AJ took a tentative sip of his coffee and then busied himself with unwrapping his sandwich. “I'm fine,” he said after a moment. “I just have a lot on my mind, that's all.”

  Heather took a bite of her own sandwich, chewed for a moment, then asked, “Like what?”

  “Well let's see,” he said. Setting his sandwich down, AJ used both hands to tick off each item. “I still think the Keldans don't trust us. It's going to take months before the Star-Pulse is repaired and I don't relish sitting around on this spider-infested planet while that happens. We have a potentially aggressive race that may or may not still be around. And …”

  AJ paused, unable to verbalize his last dilemma. “And, there's us,” Heather finished for him.

  The Captain grabbed his sandwich off the table and raised it to his open mouth. Before taking a bite, he gently lowered it and said, “I'm the ship's captain. I'm not supposed to become involved with any of my crew.”

  Heather reached across the table and put her hand on his cheek. “What happened the other day was no accident,” she explained. “I've admired you from the day you took command. That
admiration slowly grew until I discovered I had fallen in love with you. I've been trying to get your attention ever since.”

  “But why me?”

  Heather sat back and took a deep breath. “Because of all the men I've met over the years, you are the first who treated me as a person and not as some sort of prize to be won, taken home, and then paraded in front of their friends.”

  AJ shoved the food in his mouth to one side and said, “My thoughts weren't so honorable.”

  “That’s human nature,” she argued. “I would have thought something was seriously wrong with you otherwise. But you never acted on those thoughts – not once – ever – and that's what sets you apart from most other men. You treat everyone else the same way. You’re fair, honest, and you don't abuse your position of authority.”

  “You make it sound as if I'm perfect. Don't I have any faults in your eyes?”

  “If anything, you're too forgiving,” she said cocking one corner of her mouth up to form a half-smile.

  “You never really did explain why you decided not to join the merchant marines,” AJ said. “Care to share that information with me now?”

  “I would rather hear how you feel about me first,” she said.

  It was the same question AJ had been mulling over in his mind for the past day. He certainly didn't want to base a relationship on lust and it had been very difficult to separate that emotion from all the others he was feeling. Deep down, in a section of his mind he had tried to keep boxed up because of his position, he found the answer. And now that the moment of truth had arrived, the words rolled out of his mouth as naturally as water falls off a cliff.

  “I love you,” he said. “I don't know when it happened because I don't approve of the command staff becoming romantically involved with the crew, but I know it in my heart that what I feel for you is love and not just lust.”

  Heather leaned over across the tiny table and kissed him. His body responded with fire and passion but now was certainly not the time. He returned the kiss allowing her to feel his passion and to prove he had spoken the absolute truth.