Frontier's End: A Seth Donovan Novel

by Jim C. Wilson

  I gave him a reproachful stare. “What do you think happened?”

  He spread his hands out and shrugged. “We’re breaking ground here as it is, there’s no scientific paper to refer to. We simply need more data.”

  “All right. One problem at a time. How long until we’re able to use the Light Bridge?”

  “A couple of hours.”

  “Do we need to do anything to take advantage of it?”

  “Slowing down would be ideal, but I’d rather give Gannerson as much time as he needs to get us fully operational.”

  “That’s uncharacteristically accommodating of you.”

  He flashed me a toothy grin. “Otherwise we have everything we need. I’ve already programmed the Jump Drive to shift the moment we pass through the Light Bridge’s beam. I’ll just need to liaise with Gannerson on when to shunt power from the helium-3 reactors. He’ll need to shut down the manufactories.”

  “I’ll make sure it happens. Get a copy of that report to all the section heads, including First Officer Lenser. How long have we been here, relative to the rest of the Network?”

  “Several weeks, at least. We still have a few hours before we expect to lose significant time, so at least there’s that.

  “Maxine’s going to be pissed. So is Zoe…”

  He pushed his tray away, his meal vanquished, and made to stand. “At least that isn’t my problem. Thank you for the feed, Commander. Glenris.”

  He started to gather up the various tablets, dropping half as he picked up others. Glenris, eager to help out, started to pick up those he had dropped.

  “Thank you, Glenris. Commander, I’ll see you on the bridge?”

  “You will. Thanks for taking the time.”

  The Professor left, Glenris in tow, leaving me with my thoughts.

  “What does all this mean?” I said to the empty compartment.

  Please clarify the query, Commander, said the room’s AI.

  “Sorry, please ignore. Not as empty as I thought, it seems.”

  46.

  A semblance of order had been restored to the bridge, as well as those passages I traversed on my way there. All the stations were manned, save for a few conspicuously empty seats. A harsh reminder of those we had lost recently. Martine was already on the operations deck, speaking with a pair of sensor operators. I passed on my command chair and instead made my way down below to join her.

  “First Officer,” I nodded to her.

  “Sir,” she replied, “Liza here was working with the Professor non-stop since we arrived,” she indicated one of the Orlii operators, the one who had responded as Hieron’s first aider.

  “I’m okay, sir. I can do another shift, if need be,” she explained, although I could clearly see the exhaustion clear on her face.

  I took a glance around the various operators, realising I knew very little about them. I made a mental note to change that.

  “Liza isn’t a very Orlii name, Able Serviceman. Where are you from?” I asked.

  She smiled at me. “Gossamer, sir.”

  Of course, I mentally slapped my own forehead.

  “My parents didn’t make it, I was raised by a freighter crew that got captured. Learnt how to operate my station doing runs to the asteroid fields for the Ghantri labour crews. They were mostly human, I never really learned my full Orlii name so they just called me Liza.”

  “Fair enough. I need my bridge crew at the best, Liza. If the First Officer says you can take time off, I suggest that you take it. Sleep is as powerful a weapon as any. Never forget that.”

  “Go get some sleep,” ordered Martine, smiling, “I’ll take your station until we stand down.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She got up and left, while Martine took her spot.

  “Gaston fill you in?” I said.

  “Just now. Sent me a damn text. Still don’t know what to make of it.”

  “Neither do I. He says we’re not where we’re supposed to be, but how many other blackholes do you know of? With a Light Bridge, no less?”

  “Only one, Commander!” came the voice of Gaston from the Command Deck above, “The Jump Drive is configured and the compartment locked down. Young Alexander has the place firmly in hand. I’m ready to go through the plan with you, now.”

  “I’ll be right up, Professor,” I said, rolling my eyes at Martine.

  As I made my way up to the Command Suite, Reza’k entered the bridge and joined us. Martine had told me she was spending time with my grandfather, making sure he was comfortable.

  “How is he?” I said while Gaston and Rego manipulated the holo-table.

  “Tired. The nanites are taking their toll on him.”

  “Healing like that normally would. I’ve broken my share of bones, in the past. This has to be far worse than bone mending.”

  She nodded. “He eats like a garz’ak.”

  “Runs in the family. You’re sure taking a shine to him since the accident.”

  She was thoughtful for a moment before answering. “He saved my life. I was in the middle of attacking him, I don’t know what came over me – I was just so angry. Next thing I know we were hit by the blast…he just wrapped his arms around me and we…”

  “Go on.”

  “I was still angry with him while we flew about the bridge. I was fighting him even then.”

  “Was it this…reciprocating telepathy you mentioned?”

  “Possibly. Captain Borges was very hostile. I was actively reading him at the time and his emotion certainly was very powerful.”

  “The day didn’t turn out how he thought it would, that’s for sure.”

  She was about to say something but was interrupted by Rego.

  “We’re ready, Commander,” he said.

  Gaston was adjusting the display to focus on the Light Bridge, while a small icon made its way towards it.

  “This is us,” he explained, “Once we hit the beam, our Jump bubble will let us shift…and…”

  The image faded to show the chaotic Phase Space depiction that Tac had assembled for us. We had a pair of AI Cores working with the program, in place of Tac, and the image was less than stable.

  “Is this loss of clarity because of the AI’s?” I asked.

  Rego nodded. “They just can’t compete with Tac’s processing capacity.”

  “Could this be the cause of the discrepancies with the image?” I asked Gaston.

  He shook his head. “I doubt it. The problem isn’t lack of detail, it’s a lack of known constants. At least some of them anyway. Have a look.”

  He changed the image to a clearer picture, indicating this was Tac’s rendition before he left the Restitution. After a moment, he switched the view back. We could clearly see several changes, as well as many subtle shifts in some of the world lines.

  “I see,” I said, rubbing my chin.

  “Indeed,” Gaston said.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “We should jump back to Eridani. It’s the easiest landmark we can target at this speed, and shouldn’t be a stretch for the AI’s. We’ll almost be retracing our steps.”

  “I was going to suggest that,” I said, “Or Barris Doon. The Corporates would have left by now. No Jump Drive, no Restitution and no Borges for them to hang around for.”

  “That’s a little too precise for our speed,” warned Gaston, “I wouldn’t recommend anything quite so accurate. Nearest large gravity well is about as good as I can manage with so many variables.”

  “Fair enough. You’re the science guy. Eridani star it is.”

  “It’s also close to discrepancies that we can study.”

  “All right. When do we shift?”

  Rego brought up a countdown – he was getting fond of using these – that showed we had just over an hour to go.

  “I’ll close up the ship in half an hour,” I said, “Good work, gentlemen.”

  As the hour progressed, I could see the crew were getting anxious. A lot had happened, in the last
day or so, that was not considered normal space travel. It seemed every time we had an encounter of some sort, things never went as expected. I felt the urge to say something.

  “Open main broadcast,” I called below.

  “Comms open, Commander.”

  “All hands, this is Commander Donovan. We’ve been through a lot, these last few hours, more than I had a right to ask of you. For that I’m sorry, but I just wanted you all to know that you’ve done an outstanding job restoring the ship to operational status and taking care of our own. As far as shakedown cruises go, this has been one hell of a trip. We always knew this would be dangerous, but with any luck, that’s all behind us now. I’ll see you all on the other side.

  “Commander Donovan out.”

  Reza’k nodded her approval and began to tighten her crash harness about her body. I returned to my command chair and did the same. As the final moments ticked away, I gripped the armrest in anticipation.

  “Convergence in three…two…one…shifting.”

  The disorienting lurch into Phase Space once more caused people to cry out in alarm, and I was unable to withhold a loud belch as my stomach filled with gas. The sensation passed quickly, followed by an eerie calm.

  “Status report!” I called down to the Operations Deck.

  “Sensor’s calibrating, sir,” called Martine, “Command suite updating.”

  I unbuckled my harness and made my way over, to see Rego with a disgusted look on his face. “You okay?”

  “A bit of food came up. I’m good, now.”

  “How do we look?”

  “The AI’s are doing an okay job of mapping Phase Space, it’s what they predicted with Tac’s algorithm and the sensor readings we took before. We should drop out near Eridani in fifteen minutes.”

  I returned to my chair, watching the sensor readings, looking for something, anything, that might explain why we were seeing, or not seeing what we expected to.

  After a while, Hieron made his way onto the bridge, sitting down in his chair with a wince.

  “Thought you might need me,” he said, shrugging.

  “Only if you’re up to it, old man,” I said. Seeing him up and about brought a smile to my face.

  “I’ll manage. Always found sleep to be a waste of time, anyway.”

  “Aren’t you retired?”

  “So?”

  “Isn’t wasting time the whole purpose of retirement?”

  “Do I strike you as the kind of man who could sit still for any length of time? I’m a star traveller, lad. Always have been, always will be. Just like you and your dad.”

  “We do seem to be rather restless, don’t we?” I said.

  Reza’k barked out a short laugh. “Not even death seems to keep you lot down.”

  “Oh, Death and I have been sparring partners for a long time, my fine feathered friend,” said Hieron, “Don’t think that last knock put me off living, I’m not done yet.”

  “I can see that, human.”

  “Returning to normal space in fifteen seconds, sir!” called Martine.

  I brought up a static filled holographic of local space, ready to respond to any dangers that may be waiting for us when we shifted.

  “Shifting!”

  As before, leaving Phase Space was by far a gentler affair than entering. With a faint shudder, the ship returned to three-dimensional space, and the sensors started populating with data.

  When local space had revealed itself, it took several minutes for us to believe what we were seeing.

  “Eridani Prime, Acheras Orbital, Restus Station, Collumus Station…” murmured Reza’k, “They’re all gone…”

  “How can a whole planet be gone?” said Hieron, turning in his chair to look at her.

  She was right, however. It wasn’t simply gone, it had clearly been destroyed. Where before the Jewel of the Votus-Eridani Network had orbited, a slowly expanding asteroid field ringed the Eridani star instead. A ragged sphere of cooling planetary core spun on an unstable axis, flinging matter into the surrounding space.

  Acheras Orbital, the giant torus habitat famous for its lush parklands and wealthy inhabitants, was a great debris field less than half an AU from our location. Cataphract, the closest planet to the star, was once a thriving community sheltering below the Votus constructed Star Shield facility that allowed an atmosphere to form on the terraformed world. Scans revealed it nothing more than a dry, baked desert devoid of life.

  The galactic headquarters of the DonCrest Corporation, Restus Station, was nowhere to be seen, but long range scans could detect masses of metallic debris within a broad vicinity of its previous location.

  Tyrillian – once a hotbed of political strife and ideology, was enshrouded in a poisonous atmosphere of toxic gases and violent storms. Collumus – traceable to several large sections of destroyed space station adrift throughout the star system. Joining the vista of devastation was the debris and remnants of the thousands of smaller habitats and station that once permeated this part of the Network.

  “No signs of radio traffic,” reported Martine, “No active satellites or communications signals detected.”

  “A hundred and fifty billion people…” I lamented, “What happened here?”

  “The Jump Gates!” called one of the sensor operators, “I can’t find them!”

  “Commander,” called Gaston behind me, “You’d better come see this.”

  Almost unable to tear my eyes from the vista before me, I slowly turned and made my way over to the Command Suite. Gaston was looking nervous, while Rego was pale faced and speechless, leaning back in his chair with a look of despair on his features.

  “What is it?” I said quietly.

  “I may have made a miscalculation. We haven’t been gone several weeks. We’ve been gone nearly forty years.”

  To be continued…

  Preview

  Please enjoy this sneak preview of Book 4 – The Prophet Engineer

  It’s funny how things turn out. You put all your efforts into bettering your life, trying to scratch out some small measure of happiness, you find that special someone and hang onto it. You get it in your head that no matter what, regardless of what happens, so long as you and that special someone are together you can face anything. You make plans. You build things together.

  And just like that, it’s all taken away.

  If it weren’t for the nearness of a chair by the holo-table, I may have fallen to the floor. Instead, I collapsed into the seat heavily. “But…how…”

  “I’m at a loss,” said Gaston apologetically, “I can’t account for the increased time dilation. It just doesn’t make sense…but never the less,” he gulped, then gestured at the hologram on the table, “The position of the stars, the location of what few planetary bodies remain untouched by this destruction…the angle of the galactic arm…thirty-nine years, eight months, fourteen days. The ship’s computers have already updated. It’s how I noticed it at first, but I’ve confirmed their…”

  “Enough,” I said, holding up a hand, “I’ve heard enough.”

  Gaston closed his mouth and nodded solemnly. A look of intense guilt and remorse pervaded his face and body language. He turned slowly and walked over to a vacant bridge station.

  A firm hand closed upon my shoulder and squeezed. I looked up at my grandfather, a grim look on his face. “They need you now more than ever. Lead us out of this.”

  “What can I possibly do to make this right?” I said with a bitter laugh.

  “Take us out of here.”

  “Where?”

  “What does your gut tell you?”

  I opened my mouth to retort, then thought better of it. Instead, I focused inward, trying to wrest my mind away from the cold numbness that threatened to engulf me.

  “Argessi,” I said at last, “The Kersios Ring. Maxine would always say that no matter what, we can always return there for whatever we needed – repairs, resources, recuperation or relaxation.”

  “She was a
lways a smart woman. Use what she taught you. You’re going to need it now. We all are.”

  I nodded, silently thanking him. I stood and walked back to my command chair. I took a deep breath, forcing my own despair away.

  “Helm!” I called, putting steel into my voice, “Bring us to full stop. Professor?”

  He looked up dejectedly from his station.

  “When we’ve shed some of this velocity, navigate us to the Argessi System. Can you get us close to the Kersios Ring asteroid belt?”

  He nodded. “I should be able to, once we’re stationary.”

  “Martine, keep us on full alert. Launch all drone wings and keep them in a defensive screen. Whatever did this might still be in the system and I don’t want to be caught with our mouths open.”

  “Launching drones,” called the First Officer.

  “How long until we reach zero velocity?” I asked.

  “Forty-two minutes,” came the reply from the helmsman.

  “What’s at the Kersios Ring?” asked Reza’k, her voice still shaky.

  “Asteroids,” I said.

  “Asteroids?”

  “Asteroids with ores in them,” explained Hieron, “We need raw materials for our manufactories, and our repairs. It’s also a great place to hide if you don’t want to be found.”

  I stared at the holographics for some time, my mind in turmoil. I noticed that I was tapping the armrest loudly, and that both Hieron and Reza’k were staring at me.

  “Logistics?” said Hieron.

  I nodded. “We’re only stocked for a brief mission. How long, exactly, I’m not sure. Looks like that victualling report was a priority, after all.”

  He canted his head to the side in askance. I shook my head and brought up the report that Haldenstein had flagged by mistake. It held the nutrient and protein supplies for the autochefs, along with perishables and other consumables. I wished that Ormund were here, he always had a better head for this kind of thing than I did.

  What would Maxine do, I asked myself, would she come up with a plan all her own? No, she would ask our input, use the minds that are with her.