Collision Course

by Doug Farren

  “Correct.”

  “Keeping me here against my will is not much different than physically assaulting me. You’re keeping me away from my people, causing what we call mental anguish. I’ve run out of water and that means I’m going to be dying of thirst in a few days. Even if you get me a source of water, you’re going to have to feed me. If you don’t, I’m going to die of starvation. Even if you can somehow figure out a way to get me food, there’s no way to keep it from spoiling. What if I get sick? Do you know anything about human physiology? Are you a doctor?”

  “I have no data concerning your physiology,” the warship admitted.

  Melissa sat up in the chair. “Even if I don’t get sick, I’ll eventually go insane unless I can interact with other humans. Please, let me go.”

  “No. I will dedicate one of my remotes to locating a supply of water as well as some type of food for you to eat on one of the Ba’Rutu ships.”

  “Thank you. Make sure you try to grab something that’s not going to rot like meat or eggs. Any idea how long we’re going to be here?”

  “It depends on how difficult it will be to prepare the Ba’Rutu warships. I estimate no more than three days.”

  Yawning, Melissa got up and walked over to one of the wall-mounted displays. “Well then, let’s see if I can’t get a good view of one of those Ba’Rutu ships.”

  It only took a few moments for her to bring up an image of one of the damaged Ba’Rutu warships. At first, she couldn’t see anything happening. After watching for a few minutes, she saw one of the hull plates detach and begin moving away. Crossing her arms over her chest, she stood there and watched the action.

  “I have found what appears to be a food preparation area,” the warship announced. Melissa had been asleep on her feet and the announcement had startled her, causing her to almost fall to the deck. “A remote will collect a variety of items including water,” the warship continued, unaware of her condition. “I will inform you when it is available for you to retrieve.”

  Melissa yawned, opening her jaw so wide she thought her cheek was going to split. “Take your time. I’m so tired right now I can barely stay awake. I need to get some sleep before I pass out.”

  “The weaknesses inherent in possessing a biological body are probably why my builders chose to construct a ship without a crew. You require too many resources to be devoted to maintaining your viability. Any warship built to be crewed by biological life is inherently inferior to one not requiring such a waste of space. It is one more reason why I am superior.”

  “Frankly,” Melissa replied, heading for the chair, “I don’t care. My shoulder is hurting, my eyes are burning, and my mouth feels like I just ate a handful of dust. I’m getting some sleep.”

  Melissa collapsed into the chair. She barely had enough energy left to reach over and flip off the monitors and then the lights.

  Chapter 23

  “Great catch,” Merlin said. “You have very quick reactions.”

  “Don’t try to give me a bull-crap explanation!” Heather replied. “I know what I saw.” Turning to AJ, she asked, “Hon, you saw it too, didn’t you?”

  AJ nodded his head and said, “I saw a carafe of hot coffee defy the laws of physics. Heather should be nursing a bad burn on her leg right now, but some unseen force intervened. What you didn’t see was the top of Merlin’s staff glowing during the whole event.”

  “Glowing?” Merlin said, getting up from the table. He walked over to his staff leaning against the wall next to the door and picked it up. “Perhaps it was just a trick of the light.”

  AJ slid his chair back and stood up. “I know what I saw. I also know there’s no such thing as magic. I want an explanation as to what just happened.”

  Instead of replying, Merlin turned to the door controls and touched the open icon. As soon as the door was open far enough, Aryth walked into the room. There was a moment of silence during which Heather had the distinct feeling that Aryth and Merlin were engaged in a telepathic conversation. After a moment, Merlin nodded his head as if agreeing to something.

  “Not all of the legends about me are totally false,” Merlin began. “But this is not something we want others to know about. I can refuse to answer and you can believe what you want, or you can give me your solemn oath that you will never tell anyone about this and I will try to explain what you just saw.”

  “I have to know,” Heather replied. “I promise never to say a word about this or what you might tell me to another person—ever.”

  AJ crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Nobody would believe me if I told them anyway. I give you my word that I will keep this to myself.”

  Merlin pointed to the huge couch that dominated most of the central living area. “Please, have a seat.”

  Heather picked up her coffee and moved over to the couch. AJ took the time to refill his kref then joined her. Aryth lowered herself down until her belly was on the carpet, her back legs folded underneath her and her front legs stretched out in front. Merlin sat down on the floor using one of Aryth’s arms as a back rest. Aryth’s tail slowly slid around until it was laying against Merlin’s outstretched leg.

  “The crystal at the top of my staff is not there just for decoration,” Merlin began. “It’s been grown in such a way that it acts as a collector of a type of energy your science has yet to discover. It’s called shivara or aetheric energy and it’s nearly impossible to detect. It’s a form of multidimensional energy existing simultaneously in all known dimensions. It also has the unique property of being able to respond to mental commands.”

  “You talk to this energy?” AJ asked.

  “No,” Merlin said, shaking his head. “The Ba’Rutu have been researching shivara for centuries and still don’t understand it very well. The telepathic bond Aryth and I share is most likely a result of our brains being able to access and to some degree control this energy. It’s like having a new sense, like hearing, touch, sight, and smell.”

  “So you control it with your mind?” Heather asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know,” Merlin admitted. “And I- - -”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” AJ interrupted. “If you do it, then you know how it’s done.”

  “Really?” Merlin asked. “Then explain to me how you walk across the floor?”

  “I learned how to walk when I was a baby,” AJ said, sounding annoyed. “I decide where I want to go and then I walk there.”

  “Exactly!” Merlin said. “You know how to walk, but if you had to explain how you do it to someone you can’t. You just know how. It’s like trying to explain what the color red looks like to a blind person or the sound of a song bird to someone who can’t hear. It simply can’t be done.”

  “But you’re human,” Heather began. She took a sip of her coffee then continued, “We don’t communicate telepathically. You do. We can’t manipulate aetheric energy. You can. Why are you so different?”

  “Humans can’t because evolution has caused that part of your brain to be weakened to the point of nonexistence. Mine has been awakened by the nanites flowing through my blood.”

  “You were also special,” Aryth rumbled, the translator hanging around her neck speaking for her. She lowered her head until it was level with that of Merlin’s. “When Merlin and I first met, I knew he was different. There was a connection between us. The nanites helped him unlock his hidden potential.”

  “Not without a great deal of effort,” Merlin said. “If I remember right, it took almost a year before I really began to learn.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Heather said. “Your ability to use this undetectable energy and your ability to communicate with Aryth are all part of a sixth sense?”

  “Yes.”

  “And we all have it?”

  “To a point,” Merlin replied. “Have you ever gotten the feeling that there was someone behind you yet you never heard them approach?”

  AJ
and Heather both nodded their heads.

  “That’s probably because of your sense of shivaro. It’s deeply buried in your brains, but it’s there.”

  “So, you used this energy to prevent my wife from burning her leg?” AJ asked.

  “It happened so fast I didn’t even think of the consequences,” Merlin replied.

  “The consequences if you had done nothing would have been far more painful to my wife. Thank you.”

  “Can we see another demonstration?” Heather asked. “Something a little bit slower?”

  The crystal at the top of Merlin’s staff began to softly glow as the staff floated off his lap and stopped halfway between Merlin and Heather. The staff performed a slow end-over-end flip then continued moving until it was within arm’s reach of Heather. She reached out to take it but discovered that it had become unmovable. She gave it a tug then looked at her husband.

  “Mind if I try?” he asked, standing up.

  Merlin gave his consent by motioning with his hand, palm up, fingers pointed at the staff.

  AJ grabbed the staff with both hands and pulled. It moved ever so slightly but remained hanging in the air.

  “Just hold onto it,” Merlin said, “I don’t want you to be hurt when I release it.”

  AJ stopped pulling but kept his grip on the staff. A moment later, the glow ceased. AJ pulled the staff toward him and stared into the crystal. Looking at Aryth, he asked, “If Merlin can do magic, does that mean you can breathe fire?”

  Aryth’s laugh sounded like an old rumbling steam engine. “No,” she replied. “I don’t breathe fire. But I can control aetheric energy in such a way as to turn it into a weapon that might look like fire from a distance. So can Merlin.”

  AJ spun the staff until it was horizontal to the floor and opened his palm. The staff slowly made its way back to Merlin’s lap.

  “With this sort of ability, why did the Akuta war last so long?” Heather asked.

  “Aetheric energy is not common,” Merlin explained. “It’s also not uniformly distributed across the universe. In some places, it’s virtually nonexistent. In others, it’s relatively abundant. But its usefulness as a weapon of war, especially in space, is quite limited. That’s why the Ba’Rutu rely on technology instead of the manipulation of aetheric energy to power their society.”

  “Speaking of the Akuta,” Aryth said. “There is news concerning the warship.”

  She went on to explain the results of the latest encounter with the Akuta warship including the use of the aetheric weapon. When she finished, Heather said, “Seems the Akuta have found a way to turn this virtually nonexistent aetheric energy into a weapon. I take it they were also capable of manipulating aetheric energy?”

  “No,” Merlin replied. “The Akuta apparently lacked the ability. But even if they were able to, the Ba’Rutu would never have showed them how to use it.”

  “So how did they come to understand aetheric energy well enough to turn it into a weapon against which you have no defense?” AJ asked.

  “The Akuta were brilliant scientists,” Merlin explained. “They probably got their hands on some Ba’Rutu crystals, analyzed them, and then researched how the energy the crystals collect could be used as a weapon.”

  Merlin stood up, grabbing hold of Aryth’s tail and holding it as she slowly raised it off the floor. “It’s been a long day,” he said. “We’ll talk some more tomorrow.”

  AJ and Heather both stood up and walked their guests to the door. As the door was sliding open, Heather said, “Aryth?”

  Aryth swung her head around so she could look at Heather. “Yes?”

  “Our mythology depicts dragons as being both good and bad. I’m glad the ones showing dragons as vicious beasts are wrong. I always liked the stories of the good dragons more than the ones about the bad ones and I’ve always thought it would be fun to meet one. I’m very glad to report that you have fulfilled that dream.”

  Aryth dipped her head. “Thank you. Good night Heather. Good night Captain Zak.”

  “Please, call me AJ. Good night.”

  “When will we see you again?” Heather asked Merlin.

  “I will stop by after breakfast. Good night.”

  “That was nice,” Merlin told Aryth as they walked down the passageway.

  “Agreed,” Aryth replied. “They accepted our ability to use aetheric energy better than I expected.”

  “Humans no longer believe in magic,” Merlin replied. “They believe in science and we gave them a scientific explanation for what they saw. Even if they don’t understand it, they know it’s not magic.”

  They walked in silence for a moment, then Aryth said, “It’s taken a thousand years, but you will finally get to fulfill the promise you made to yourself when you first saw Earth from space.”

  “I remember! I was looking at Earth in the shuttle’s monitor and I said, ‘Someday, I’m coming back’. I don’t remember saying it out loud though.”

  The door to their spacious quarters slid open. “You didn’t,” Aryth said. “But I heard your thoughts.”

  Aryth headed for the bathroom while Merlin sat down in a chair. “Do you think the veil has thickened too much for us to open a portal?”

  “None of our monitoring stations have picked up the energy signature of a portal in almost a hundred years,” Aryth replied. “There is a chance we could breach it using one of our portal machines. We would need the full council’s permission to do so though.”

  Merlin leaned back and stretched. “Would that prohibition extend to us? It’s been a few hundred years but I’m sure we can remember how to open a portal.”

  “The veil may have grown too thick,” Aryth replied. “The use of the portal machine was restricted to primitive worlds about 300 years ago following the disaster on Amar-4. But I don’t believe it mentions anything about individuals opening a portal to a known compatible universe while on one of the conjunction worlds.”

  “Why would it? As far as I know, we are the only ones who have that ability.”

  “True,” Aryth replied.

  Merlin heard the spray of the shower through the open door. Tightening his connection with Aryth just a bit, he could feel the warm water cascading down on her body. “Even though I’m nervous,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing Earth again. It would be even more interesting though to see how the Ilvinishem are doing after all these centuries. Maybe they can explain why we started picking up small portals half a millennium after we left Earth. It had to be them. No human has the ability.”

  “No human other than yourself, you mean. Now that we have established an open relationship with Earth, we can do some discrete investigating to see if there are any humans who might know the answer to your question.”

  Merlin closed his eyes and conjured up the memories of his past. Aryth came out of the bathroom and settled in on the thick pad in the corner that served as a large combination couch and bed for her race.

  “I liked the Ilvinishem,” Merlin said. “I wonder if they have a myth about me like Earth does?”

  Aryth opened her mouth and yawned. “You were a very influential person in their universe,” she replied, laying her head down. “More so than you were on Earth. I’m sure they remember you well.”

  Merlin got up, walked over to Aryth, and sat down next to her. She curled her tail around until it rested against him as he leaned back against her warm belly.

  “We will petition the council for permission to attempt to open a portal to the dragonverse,” Aryth said, her thoughts becoming quiet as she began to fall asleep.

  Although Merlin wasn’t tired, he closed his eyes and allowed his thoughts to coalesce with Aryth’s as she fell asleep. It didn’t take long for him to join her.

  Chapter 24

  Melissa opened her eyes and stared into the darkness. Her back was sore, her mouth was dry, and her tongue felt like it had grown to twice its size. Her lips felt cracked. She tried licking them, but her mouth was so dry that it provided
no relief.

  “Ship?” Her voice sounded strained and the act of speaking was almost painful.

  “Yes?”

  “How long have I been sleeping?”

  “Eleven hours and nine minutes.”

  “Ugh. I haven’t slept that long in years.” Reaching down, she used the controls to adjust the seat to a sitting position. Even though the chair was comfortable enough for short-term use, the padding had deteriorated over the years and was now only a fraction of its original thickness. She felt as if she’d slept on a slab of cement.

  “Is that water ready?”

  “Turn on the lights.”

  “What?” She said, her brain still foggy from her long sleep.

  “Turn on the lights.”

  Using touch alone, she reached over until she found the row of toggle switches on the control panel. After finding the proper switch, she flipped on the lights. The sudden brilliance caused her to quickly jam her eyes tightly closed. After a few seconds, she opened them just enough to see. Turning her head to the right, she saw something that caused her heart to begin racing. A small machine of some type was sitting on the floor in front of the airlock. She tried opening her eyes so she could get a better look at it, but the lights were too bright.

  “What the hell is that?” she asked.

  “A Ba’Rutu repair drone. It delivered the water and food you requested.”

  The mention of food caused her to notice that her stomach was begging to be filled. “A Ba’Rutu … Are you controlling it?”

  “I am. The drone is more advanced than my own but it utilizes a command protocol I am familiar with.”

  Swinging her legs off the chair, Melissa stood up and approached the drone. Her eyes were now completely adjusted to the light and she could see clearly. The machine looked like a giant mechanical six-legged insect. The body measured a little under a meter long and a third of a meter thick. A pair of cameras mounted on a short stalk rose from the top of the machine near the center of the body. A bin holding a collection of tools designed to be attached to the ends of the machine’s arms took up one end. Sitting on the deck next to the drone was a box.