The Long Road Home

by Max Swan

  “Unless she is complicit to the crime, and has had second-thoughts.”

  “None of this makes any sense to me. The Lieutenant is smarter than this. Why would she act so recklessly?”

  “I don’t think you will get much chance to work it out. The Colonel will be sending you to Earth tomorrow, I suspect,” Dexter warned.

  Paul felt his heart leap. “I’m worried about you, Dex. I know what a bully he can be with you, and while I’m away he—”

  “I should be all right,” Dexter cut over him. “He needs me, and that should assure my safety. At least with you on the planet he won’t be able to touch you.”

  “And I won’t be able to continue my investigation. By the time I get back, any remaining evidence will have vanished,” Paul replied sagging in the sofa.

  “I’ll do my best to prevent that,” Dexter said trying to reassure Paul.

  “Thanks Dex. I’ll see ya at breakfast. Sleep well old friend,” Paul said, and hung up.

  *****

  The next morning Paul woke and walked out of his bedroom to see the intercom flashing. He played the message that told him breakfast is in the Colonels quarters this morning. Looking at the time he gasped, hit the shower, and got dressed. He’d heard Nadirs quarters is amazing, and looked forward to seeing it for himself. The holographic beach looked like a real beach, according to rumors. The door to Nadirs quarters were open when he arrived, so he walked in. After going down a corridor, he came into an open-plan kitchen and living room with old-fashioned furniture. He looked at the group seated around a breakfast bar, eating and chatting. The beach now gone, and outside stood forbidding mountains rising up into a cold sky. Paul walked to the breakfast bar and sat at the only empty seat left, which happened to be next to Lijuan.

  As Paul sat at the breakfast bar, Nadir snorted loudly. “Good of you to join us, Major,” he said sarcastically.

  “Err, sorry, sir, where’s the famous beach I always hear about?” he said sitting.

  “Mr. Crimpson reprogrammed the outside view in readiness for our guest,” Nadir said.

  “If the Professor looks over the balcony, he’ll recoil from the five-thousand meter sheer drop,” Dexter said enthusiastically.

  Paul began to say something, but Nadir cut him off. “Gentlemen, please, the morning briefing has already begun.” He looked at Lijuan and nodded, “Now please continue Lieutenant.”

  Paul reached over and filled his plate with bacon, eggs, and hash browns, he felt hungry this morning.

  “Well as I was saying, I have examined the specifications for the sensor hubs in the Warbird’s, and I’m confident I can use three of them. All I need to finish at the moment removing the old one and fixing one of the workstations.”

  Dexter frowned at Lijuan. “Lieutenant, using three hubs scavenged from Warbird’s will still leave you short on the number of connections you can make.”

  Lijuan smiled and nodded. “True Mr. Crimpson, I think I can get sixty to seventy percent of the sensor fibers connected. Given that Warbird’s use the latest technology, and our old sensor array is an antique. I think you’ll be surprised at how good it’ll be.”

  Nadir couldn’t help feeling impressed by the young officer. Blake is always raving about how good she is, but seeing how she is coping under this pressure made him feel pride. “The sensor array is in good hands. Good work, Lieutenant,” he said mustering a rare smile for her. “Now the Major has seen fit to join us let’s get on with the planetside mission. Captain Barrett where are you with this?” he said turning to her as she sat on his direct left.

  Barrett stiffened in her chair, “Sir, our target Professor Richard Starr has a wife, but no children. Several theories he published about gravity three-years ago, has resulted in his scientific peers regard him as a ‘laughing stock’.”

  Blake said sarcastically, “You should be right at home, Major.”

  Paul sighed heavily ignoring Blake. “Captain, any information about his wife?”

  She looked down at her Palmcorder again with that pinched expression she has. “Her name’s Emma Maree Starr, she has no occupation, aside from charity work. Her family is wealthy by Earth standards.”

  “Looks like the Professor has married into money,” Blake said, and laughed.

  Paul turned to Nadir and said, “The Professor having a wife puts the mission at risk. While I might be able to fool some into believing I’m the Professor, no one knows a man like his wife.”

  Barrett chuckled to herself asking, “Can’t you apply some of your Greeter charm to woo her?”

  “Greeter charm?” Paul said, clenching his jaw.

  Blake leered at him and licked his lips. “Come on Major, I’m sure you’ll soon tame the Professors wife.”

  Paul noticed Lijuan shift uncomfortably in her chair and he immediately felt embarrassed again about last night. The whole Greeter stereotype always rankled him especially because he has never been like that.

  He began tell Blake where to go, when Nadir cut in with a wave of his hand, “Let’s keep this discussion relevant shall we?” Turning to Barrett, he said, “Any other intelligence, Captain?”

  Barrett nodded. “Military chatter seems buoyant, as they think their nuclear arsenal will be an effective deterrent. The media is still in a frenzy over the scale of the destruction caused by the attack. Civil unrest has been dampened in most places, Australia included. So it’ll be safe for us to go there.”

  Nadir sighed, “You’re going to have to be careful down there. These people will be extremely paranoid. They’re a primitive race and you need to remember that always.” Paul and Barrett showed they understood with a few nods. Nadir looking around the table asked, “Have we anything to use for barter, or money?”

  “We have diamonds,” Dexter suggested.

  “Major, make sure you take some with you,” Nadir ordered. Snapping his head to Barrett, he said, “Captain, have you prepared identities?”

  She nodded and said, “I have two forms of identification for us. I’ve copied Professor Starr from the Australian databases, and used a picture of the Major. I’ve included the Lieutenant, and Captain Blake to the database as Australian citizens.” She suddenly picked up a satchel in front of her and pulled out some items. “This booklet is a passport, and these are driver’s licenses,” she said handing them out. They looked at them with interest, laughing at the photographs.

  Eventually Nadir asked over the chatter, “Mr. Crimpson, have you prepared the Earth mission information?”

  “Yes, sir. I’ve prepared a palmcorder with all the relevant technical data required for the Major to play the Professor. In another one, there’s a list of what we need for the build. I’ve also compiled a list of businesses, and their contact information, that the Captain can use to buy most items. There’s two things we won’t be able to buy, plutonium and xelion crystal.” Dexter passed the palmcorder’s to Barrett.

  Lijuan suddenly asked, “Mr. Crimpson, you’ve had a few days to ponder our situation. Any ideas about getting home?”

  Dexter sat back and folded his arms across his chest, “I think it’s premature at this point to think about such things, Lieutenant.”

  “Surely you must have something, Dex?” Paul asked.

  Dexter sighed. “I’m working on a theory that the speed restricting mechanisms in ordinary space, namely, time dilation and the effect of mass, don’t exist in the void. According to Colonel Nadir, the gravity released by the qdrive shutdown, carried us at speeds faster than the speed-of-light.”

  “It must gall you to have to listen to a Keeper, Mr. Crimpson,” Nadir said, rolling his eyes making Blake chuckle.

  Dexter didn’t look at Nadir, choosing to continue to look at Paul. “It’s possible that faster-than-light-travel in the void makes time go backward.”

  Paul’s eyes bulged. “As good an explanation as any.”

  Blake suddenly laughed. “Time doesn’t exist in the void Brainiac, a tenth grader knows that.” />
  Dexter briefly looked up in annoyance. “How can we still perceive time in the void, if it didn’t exist? Your tenth grade understanding of physics hardly surprises me.”

  Blake suddenly went to stand, saying angrily, “Why you—” but Nadir reached over and pulled him back into his seat.

  Nadir looked at Dexter as if he had swallowed something that tasted bad. “If you have any theories about how we crossed into another dimension, I’m waiting with bated-breath to hear them,” he said in a mocking tone.

  Dexter again crossed his arms firmly over his chest as he replied, fixing his gaze on Paul alone. “Scientific theories that support the multiverse model, hypothesize that all particles are bound to their branes or dimensions, except gravity. So it’s possible the gravity well the Colonel felt, carried us into this one.”

  “So all we need is to somehow re-create the same conditions, and we could theoretically get back to our own dimension?”

  “Or end up in another dimension,” Blake said.

  “Theory won’t overcome the fact that we’d need a qdrive that functions in Void. We can’t create an overload, like the sludge bomb caused, because we cannot control the outcome,” Dexter said.

  Barrett snorted. “Notwithstanding that it could kill us all.”

  Nadir stood suddenly, and they looked up at him. He looked at Dexter and said, “I trust you’ll continue to work on it, Mr. Crimpson.” Dexter nodded, Nadir looked around the table at them.

  “Getting home is moot point if we don’t get out of here before the Garan’s arrive. So I suggest we concentrate on the qdrive for now. Three months isn’t a big window, considering what we have to do.” They brightened with the energy Nadir radiated. “Now I want the ground crew gone today. The sooner you start down there, the better. Make sure you change into civilian clothes, before you leave,” Nadir ordered. Paul gave Dexter a knowing look, not surprised that Nadir wanted him gone.

  “The rest of you know what you have to do, so let’s go to work,” Nadir said loudly, turned, and walked off back into his quarters.

  *****

  A few hours later they said good-bye to Nadir and Dexter in the hanger after a busy morning loading supplies. Paul took his seat at the helm of the shuttle and touched the console saying “Computer, begin launch procedure.”

  “Yes sir,” The computer replied and the shuttle began moving toward a launch tube on its rail. It took its position in the launch tube and a large door closed behind them, sealing them inside. “Depressurizing launch tube,” the computer informed them.

  Paul looked over at Barrett fidgeting in her seat, moments later they were fired out of the hanger bay into the vacuum of space.

  “Activating stealth measures,” Barrett said aloud working her console.

  “I have plotted our course into the nav-control, so now we can sit back and enjoy the ride. ETA about four hours,” Paul said leaning back in his chair.

  Barrett reached down next to her and retrieved a palmcorder. “A good time to bone up on your physics, Major,” she said, holding it out for him.

  Paul took it from her and looked at it. “I never was good at homework,” he said.

  “You also need to review all the data I have on the Professor,” she said.

  “This may go down in Corps history as the most unprepared mission ever attempted,” Paul said hitting a button on the palmcorder. He looked up at Barrett with a frown. “In my experience ‘seat of the pants’ missions rarely succeed, Captain.”

  Barrett shrugged. “It’s not like we have any choice is it.” She turned to look at Paul, and said, “Major, may I suggest you change the way you address me while we’re on this mission.”

  “Good idea. What would ya prefer me to call you?”

  “Why don’t you call me Jane? That’s my name.”

  Paul felt surprised given how cold and informal the IO usually is. “Very well, ‘Jane’ it is. I suppose you’d better call me: ‘Richard’.”

  Barrett suddenly smiled. “I could call you: ‘Dick’.”

  “You can take the girl outta Veleuse, but you can’t Veleuse outta the girl,” he replied, looking at the readout on the palmcorder.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Jane said frowning.

  Paul looked at her for moment. “Do you really want the truth?”

  She pursed he lips for a moment. “I’m game, shoot.”

  “Well you IO’s are renowned for busting peoples balls, but add that chip on your shoulder because you come from Veleuse, and you take the title of queen ball-buster,” Paul said, steadily watching her face turn red with anger.

  “How dare you! My life on Veleuse—” she began.

  “Was a steaming pile of dog shit? I’ve read your file, Barrett, and I know what you’ve come from,” Paul said coldly.

  That remark took Jane by surprise, because to her knowledge nobody knew what she endured growing up on Veleuse aside from the EMC shrinks. Still she doubted what Paul said, because they promised her that her childhood history would be kept out of her personnel records.

  She stiffened and took on that librarian look again, “Just because you’ve read my file doesn’t mean you know me.”

  “Your psych reports gave me a good insight into you.”

  She suddenly felt embarrassed and got out of her chair heading for the privy.

  In the privy she sat on the toilet breathing heavily feeling her heart racing as Paul’s words replayed in her mind repeatedly. Your psych reports, the words struck at her like punches. Suddenly, a loud knocking at the privy door startled her.

  “Captain, open the door and let’s talk about this,” Paul said sounding worried.

  Jane looked at herself in a mirror next to her, almost getting a fright as she barely recognized the woman sitting there. Her brown hair tied back in tight ponytail and her face looked pale and fragile. Where did it go wrong, she wondered? How have I turned in to this woman he sees me as? She stood and brushed herself down and wiped her tears. Taking one last look at herself, she opened the door to a worried looking Paul waiting for her.

  “Captain,” Paul said tentatively, “Jane. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be such an asshole, it’s—” he began.

  She raised her had to silence him. “Is it really all there? About my childhood?” she asked.

  Paul lowered his head to hide his red face. He mumbled, “Yes, everything you told the shrinks is there about how your father—”

  The words stuck in his throat as he didn’t want to say them and humiliate her further. She stepped out of the head and pushed passed him walking into the shuttle and sitting at her station.

  Paul followed her but stopped behind her and said, “Jane, we’ve all had shitty things happen to us. My wife was killed by a plasma bullet meant for me. She died in my arms,” he said, lowering his head clenching his eyes tightly as that memory filled his mind.

  Jane turned and looked at him thoughtfully. “The incident on the Bridge, when you attacked me?”

  He nodded. “When I was knocked out I relived the event. But it’s all in my file, with loads of other crap I wouldn’t want people to know, I bet.”

  “You should’ve had the grace to keep it to yourself,” she said looking annoyed.

  “Every Marine has shit in their files that they wouldn’t want known. But you mustn’t let that detract from the most important thing here,” Paul said.

  “Oh, what’s that?” she said raising an eyebrow.

  “You’re one hell of a marine, and this mission needs that. But if you’re going to use this mission to play: ‘Hate the Greeter’, like Blake and Nadir, you’re in for a miserable time.” Paul said, making Jane look away from him.

  Paul sat and reached into a bag next to him and pulled out a bottle with a blue fluid in it, and began drinking it. Eventually, Jane pulled out a sandwich herself, and began eating. They still had several hours to kill before they reached Earth, and they spent it reading the data on the palmcorder’s. Paul felt guilty for
using knowledge of her past in that way. The obnoxious behavior of Nadir and Blake were bad enough, yet his instincts as a commander were telling him that all Jane needed is a push to break away from their influence. He wanted to break through her cold, outer shell; because he sensed a capable marine and a decent person hid beneath. He looked at her briefly, noticing her pinched librarian face again. Then again, he thought, I probably made it worse.

  *****

  Eventually, the shuttle reached Earth, and Paul worked at preparing for atmosphere insertion. Below the continent of Australia loomed large. Green around the coastline and mostly desert in the middle, as on their Earth.

  Paul looked across at Jane noting she looked pale, she held her seat belt like her life depended on it. “Are you OK Jane?” he asked.

  She looked over at him, “I never have much liked atmosphere insertion.”

  “You’re in safe hands, I’ve only crashed a few times,” Paul said with a wink to the ever-increasing pallor on the Captains face. Paul took them out of automatic pilot and tilted the front of the shuttle for atmosphere insertion.

  “External shields at full power,” the computer reported.

  With that they were away, with Paul holding the course steady to deflect the heat generated by the friction of the atmosphere on the shields. Soon they were dropping quickly as Paul didn’t want to spend too long in the air.

  “Jane, activate hull camouflage,” Paul ordered and the black shuttle became blue sky. The ground came up quickly making Jane’s face turned green. Paul smiled. The shuttle rocked at the turbulence caused by the fast descent. Paul directed a geodetic field above them which caused them to slow and finally they pulled up to a stop twenty meters from the ground.

  “You did that intentionally!” Jane accused.

  Paul laughed, “Sorry, old habits die hard.”

  Jane looked at him with narrow eyes and a red face, “We’re not dropping into a war zone here, Dick!”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry,” he smiled.

  “Oh you’re impossible sometimes,” she huffed and removed her seat belt and got out of the chair. They were above a wooded area and Paul found a clearing large enough to land the shuttle and did so.

  “Jane, notify the Colonel that we’ve arrived,” he said and she pulled her cell out of her pocket and made the call. Paul studied a map on his monitor when she came up behind him and looked over his shoulder.