NanoSymbionts

by Joseph Philbrook

  Steve shook his head again, then replied, “The fame you will get from both of those combined will pale by comparison to the story of the nanosymbiont who dared to moon the guild council!”

  “What?!?” interrupted captain Waymaker.

  “I thought the council was suppressing that information,” Jake ignored Waymaker as he countered Steve's comment.

  “Which is exactly why that story will spread so far,” Steve explained. “If they hadn't tried to suppress it, then nobody would have believed it. Still, I think you should hold off giving captain Waymaker the details of the story until your several thousand lightyears away from here.”

  “Wait a cyclet,” Waymaker protested. “The Avant-garde is my ship and I demand those details now.”

  Steve shook his head.

  “But I'm here as a ‘guild’ representative and a paying passenger,” the Questor said. “That's not the kind of order you can give me. As for Jake here, I suppose you could threaten to space him but I doubt you'll get a word about it until he's good and ready. He is something of a stubborn individual after all.”

  “You know of course old friend,” the Admiral interjected. “That I will have to include the fact ‘that my old friend brought the subject up’ in my report to the council.”

  Steve actually smiled.

  “True enough old friend,” he admitted. “But the way I see it, they lost the ability to give me arbitrary commands about anything that happened from the moment they violated the original nanosymbiotic pact by commanding you to use a neuro-restraint to force my nanosymbiotic network to shutdown, until they restored my freedom. Nonetheless, I'll admit that it's a good thing that the Avant-garde will be departing the system, the moment we launch your shuttle pod. So by the time they get your ‘full report’, we will be deep within the embrace of a subspatial jump.”

  “He's got a point there Admiral,” Jake said. “By the way I'm curious, was it the council that decided you would be my escort to the Avant-garde or was that a personal choice?”

  “Both!” the Admiral replied. “Actually they ordered me to have you escorted. But I'm the one who decided that I would escort you personally. Speaking of which, it's time I returned to Location-null. I've got a lot of work to find it a new home.

  First however Mr Peterson, I would like to say that I find the innovative new way you've devised to make subspace such a viable medium for interstellar travel very intriguing. I know for a fact that the Professor himself once spent considerable effort to develop a subspatial drive system for certain stealth operations. And the best he was able to do was considerably slower than what your jump ship design seems able to do.

  You see a guild reconnaissance scout ship detected some very unusual vessels in a very close orbit to a star 20 galactic standard lightyears away from Central Freight Station just before one of them entered a subspatial rift. It's worthy of note that the scout ship wasn't even able to determine the direction of the ship's subspatial journey. This intrigued the commander of operations at Central Freight so much that he decided to study the other six ships for a while before taking any direct action. It was nearly six cycles later that they opened their own subspatial rifts and made their way to Central Freight Station. And just two cycles after that, the Avant-garde arrived here. So I have a fairly accurate time line to base my assessment of how fast your jump ships are. I also note that they are also just as difficult to track as the Professor's stealth ships were.

  Would you care to explain how it is that you were able to come up with what I'd class as a subspatial stealth ship that's faster than the best that even the Professor could come up with?”

  “There's only so much I can tell you without giving up all the details of how my ships work Admiral,” Jake replied. “But I will say that I did have the advantage of having access to all of Hillside's proprietary technology when I studied the unusual design ‘the people’ used for their starships. That combined with the insight I got from having survived deploying that terrible weapon I used to destroy them combined with a strong desire to find a way to offer the Alliance a way to compete with the guild. So that they would be unwilling to turn down my proposal. All added up to a very motivating brainstorming session.”

  “That doesn't really explain it very well,” the Admiral said. “But then I didn't expect you to give up all your secrets. So that brings me to one final request on behalf of the council. They have asked that you please provide me with a nano-verification tool, that certifies that you have removed or permanently disabled any and all of your nanites from all guild facilities and equipment in this star system. Including my shuttle pod.”

  “No problem,” Jake said with a grin. “I don't mind setting their minds at ease about the fact that any and all remaining nano-pods will self destruct the moment the subspatial rift closes behind the Avant-garde. I presume that they'd also like me to include the fact that I've no intention of trying to sneak any new ones past your sensors as well.”

  Captain Waymaker rechecked the preprogrammed sequence one last time before he keyed open the ship to ship communication channel. “Are you ready for launch Admiral?” he asked.

  “Anytime your ready,” the Admiral's voice screeched in reply.

  “Initializing launch sequence.” Waymaker replied as he pressed the flashing button.

  The Avant-garde began to pivot along it's horizontal axis. At a predetermined point a carefully regulated magnetic pulse coursed through the pod launcher. Sending the Admiral's shuttle pod on an ideal transfer trajectory that would require no modifications until the inertial damper circuits of Location-null's docking hub would bring it's relative momentum to zero. The pod's transit would take only two subcyclets to complete. One subcyclet after the pod was launched, the Avant-garde had finished pivoting on it's axis. Now that it's linear axis no longer intersected either the pod nor any of the asteroids, a massive burst of energy passed through the Avant-garde's particle thrusters. Meanwhile almost simultaneously the fully licensed Hillside technology gravitational optimizer completely neutralized the attraction of all local gravity wells. Thus even as the Admiral's shuttle pod came to a halt inside the docking hub The Avant-garde had acquired sufficient relative system escape velocity to begin generating a viable, precalculated subspatial rift.

  By the time the Admiral had disembarked from the shuttle pod, the Avant-garde was fully immersed in subspace. The only one at Location-null who wasn't surprised that the Avant-garde could muster enough energy to do this so quickly was the Admiral. Indeed, most of the crew onboard the Avant-garde were also surprised.

  The ships redheaded tactical officer, Omer Jones, ran his fingers through his short red hair, treated his Captain to his widest blue eyed stare and spouted, “What the fringe just happened sir?”

  “The ‘fringe’ has nothing to do with it Omer,” Waymaker informed the young officer. “We just began a subspatial jump.”

  “But that should have taken a full cycle,” objected Galina Fialkovskii.

  Waymaker treated the brunette navigator to a smile.

  “Sure,” he said. “Under normal circumstances when we don't have it all precalculated.”

  “It's true enough that the calculations take about 8 subcycles out of that cycle,” Galina countered. “But it still should have taken at least a full subcycle to implement them. We did it in less than 2% of that.”

  “That's because this time we spent nearly 50% of our total synthuel capacity just to open the rift,” Sue Kreidenweis interjected as she entered the control room. “I think it was rather nice of them to procrastinate about releasing our passengers, long enough for us to fully refill our synthuel tank.”

  Then the short blond and promiscuous engineering officer walked up close enough to her captain that each time she inhaled her oversized breasts lightly brushed against his midsection. Since she was wearing a nonstandard uniform consisting of a wraparound skirt that barely reached her knees and a silk like top with a wide cleavage that barely covered her rapidly sti
ffening nipples the effect she was intentionally having was obvious to everyone present. After a couple of breaths Captain Waymaker sighed and took a step back.

  “Do you have something to report?” he asked with a sigh.

  Sue grinned and pointedly focused her gaze downward. As she did so she responded to his query.

  “You mean besides noting that it's obvious that you wish we weren't on duty at the moment?” Then without hesitation she abruptly shifted her gaze to her Captain's eyes and continued in a more professional tone of voice. “Actually I came forward to inform you that every single system performed exactly as our benefactor said it would.” Sue nodded in Jake's direction, and continued. “During the rapid insertion procedure, the core temperature of the rift generator jumped briefly to 99% of the rated safe temperature as we punched through. But by the time the rift closed behind us it had cooled down to 50%. Also the load on the Synthuel conversion containment field maxed out at 75% of it's rated capacity. All other systems stayed at ideal levels.” Sue paused for a moment. “At the moment we have nearly 20% of it left to complete the current jump with. Which, considering we used nearly 16% just to achieve a safe stellar escape velocity so quickly, isn't bad.”

  Captain Waymaker considered how he should respond to his engineer's provocative behavior. He really valued her proficiency with everything technological, as well as her ability to learn new technology faster than anyone else he knew, with the possible exception of their enigmatic benefactor and pledge Jake or his companion, the Questor. In fact if they hadn't been standing there smirking at his discomfort. He'd have been tempted to simply hand off command to Omer and declare both Sue and himself off duty for the next half hour. There wasn't anyone else onboard who wouldn't have expected him to do something like that and of course that was just what he badly wanted to do.

  It wasn't that this top heavy, gray eyed, pudgy, wide bottomed sexpot was his ideal woman, or even his type. It had more to do with the fact that she frequently offered opportunities for nonexclusive sex to almost anyone she liked. Who she believed would neither think less of her nor become possessive. Somehow that seemed so erotic that it was with extreme difficulty that he opted for whatever decorum he could still salvage in front of his guests.

  “The fact remains Kreidenweis,” he said in a stern tone. “That we are ‘both’ actually on duty. I am however pleased with the promptness with which you made your technical report, as well as it's content. so there will be no reprimand for the unprofessional way you chose to deliver it.”

  At this point Galina briefly chortled. Omer didn't make any sound but the look on his face revealed more amusement than if he had openly guffawed. It was with the sinking feeling that any hope of maintaining any sense of professionalism in front of his passengers was a lost cause that captain Waymaker turned towards the spot where they were standing together on the other side of the control room. Questor's expression didn't reveal any emotion whatever but unfortunately the expression on Jake's face reveled even more amusement than his tactical officer's had.

  “I'm sorry you had to see that,” captain Waymaker apologized.

  At which point Questor allowed a wry grin to slowly appear on his face.

  “You know,” Questor said. “Both Jake and myself are quite comfortable with people mixing business with pleasure.”

  “Actually Steve,” Jake interrupted. “I don't think the good captain was really worried about offending some questor nor his former apprentice. I think this has more to do with his professional reputation.” Then, he looked directly at Waymaker. “You know captain, I've been studying the bylaws, as any pledge to Free Spacer Alliance should. And as far as I can tell, the Alliance's definition of proper professional behavior while on duty, merely requires ‘not letting such things interfere with ones duty’. Besides, there isn't even one potentially closed minded passenger on board to make for bad PR. So I can't see where anyone's duty was actually at risk. Am I mistaken?”

  “Not exactly Jake,” Waymaker replied. “The real problem is my own edicts about ‘on duty’ behavior. Still I suppose that there isn't any requirement for the rest of my crew to remain on duty.” As he said that Waymaker fished an antique whistle out of his pocket and after using it to send a distinctive attention getting call through the ships intercom he made a ship wide announcement. “Now hear this,” he said into the intercom. “All hands are hereby relieved of duty until further notice. Consider yourselves at liberty to indulge in the recreational activities of your choice. With the exception of allowing yourselves to become too impaired to resume duty status on one cycle's notice.”

  “Pardon me Sir,” Omer addressed his captain with a grin. “But given the fact that there isn't currently anyone on board who might even conceivably someday enter into a long term monogamous relationship with me, I won't be partaking of any such worthwhile recreation. So would you mind granting me the vicarious pleasure of facilitating the debauchery that will result from my taking the watch for you?”

  “Since you put it that way Omer,” Waymaker replied. “You've got the duty.”

  He then looked Sue, who hadn't moved, directly in the eyes as he slowly leaned forward and slipped his tongue under the edge of the fabric that was suddenly no longer covering her left nipple. Then he began to kiss and suck on it. As he did this he reached down with his arms and began lifting the back of her skirt up. This quickly revealed the fact that she wasn't wearing anything under it. Meanwhile Sue reached down and quickly unfastened her captains pants. Then as she pushed them down, freeing his engorged manhood she suddenly turned around and impaled herself on him as he leaned forward to slide his hands under her top and began massaging her breasts. Neither Sue nor her captain seemed to care who was watching them anymore.

  Chapter 41 Exile

  The Avant-garde returned to normal space in close proximity to a binary star system. Captain Waymaker quickly checked the ships energy reserves.

  “Plot a low power consumption course change Galina,” the captain ordered. “I want a slow elliptical charging orbit around the primary.” Then he spoke into the ships intercom system. “Sue, I want you to deploy the particle collectors. Start scavenging all the power you can get.”

  “Are we really as low on power as I think we are?” the ship's purser inquired nervously, as he entered the control room.

  “Yes Robert,” Sue affirmed. “We've less than 5% of our synthuel capacity left.” Then noticing a slight twitching in one of the purser's normally calm green eyes Sue continued. “Of course that's still more power than most old style ships can muster with full powercells. So why so nervous?”

  “Well it just seems like we recently irritated the guild counsel,” Robert replied. “We are also known to be carrying at least one passenger that they really got it in for.”

  “Not to worry,” Jake interjected. “I'm fairly sure that the council's word bond will keep them from taking any ‘direct’ hostile action.”

  “That much is certainly true,” Questor interrupted. “Even so, Robert has good reason to worry. Given the intensity with which the council is known to resent your status Jake. It is likely that there are several of the kind of questors who would cheerfully use their considerable personal discretion to hunt you down. Who were most likely informed of our imminent departure before we were allowed to board the Avant-garde. And some of them are dammed good trackers.”

  “Not good enough to track that jump I'll wager,” Galina spoke up. “I mean aside from the fact that there is no known way to directly track a subspatial jump, I'd already calculated a very convoluted jump path before Jake added an intense sidereal element to it.”

  “Even so we did start our jump under intense scrutiny,” Jake said. “So I wouldn't be too sure that one of them won't eventually find a way track us here. After all questors tend to be quite resourceful. But considering how little time they've had to devise a way to track a subspatial jump, we should certainly have enough time to fuel up.”

  While they wa
ited for the synthuel tanks to fill up Questor found a moment to talk privately with his former apprentice. He had some of the same questions for him that the Admiral had about Jake's jump ship design. Though he was more interested in when he'd had time to test it properly.

  “If you must know Steve,” Jake replied. “It was a key component of how I engineered the destruction of all those star systems. I'd done a lot of simulated testing during the extremely long subjective time of my very indirect voyage to their established territory. I'd needed to ensure that none of those monsters escaped by beginning a subspatial flight even as I detonated my weapon system. My plan for survival involved launching a special escape vessel through an old style inverse temporal dilation wormhole which I opened at the exit point of my first and only test jump. Even as I used the onboard half of a pre-linked pair of specialized portalizers to transfer a massive load of synthuel to it's mate in the equally special subspatial escape pod I'd jettisoned just before I reached my exit point. Since the escape pod didn't have a synthuel containment system some of the synthuel would be in transition between the portalizers when the primary detonation occurred in subspace before the subspatial exit point could close.

  The fact that there could possibly be anything left of me for the Captain to rescue proved that all of my theoretical designs worked. If they hadn't I'd have failed to stop those beasts from launching their attack on the rest of the galaxy. The design for this jump ship has considerably more safeguards than my first jump ship did. I'll admit there was some risk that it might not have been able to go quite as far on a single jump. Or that the process of condensing synthuel in normal space time might have been more time consuming. But I had no doubt about the safety of the subspatial jump process itself. Even so, I think it's a very good thing that the oath I took, when I joined the fraternal order of the Free Spacer Alliance, will prevent me from allowing good people like captain Waymaker and his crew from testing my assumptions without at least disclosing the lack of formal testing first.”