by M. D. Cooper
Sera continued. “With the ability to manipulate gravity, they discovered how to drop into the same layer of space-time where dark matter resides. It was always postulated to be like this. Dark matter has all this mass, but isn’t bending light like it should. To be honest, the exact nature of the dark layer, as it’s called, still isn’t perfectly understood. Some think it’s utterly void and frictionless, while others think it’s Einstein’s universal frame of reference. I suppose someone knows, but they’re not sharing the details.
“Either way, when you move into the DL your speed relative to the normal universe multiplies exponentially.”
Tanis looked down at the whiskey and downed the glass in one shot. The captain gave her an appreciative look and continued.
“Gravity manipulation gave us other things, as well—namely methods for cheaper antimatter production. Once that was available, hitting speeds up to 0.70c with an antimatter pion drive became trivial. The end result? A trip from Sol to Alpha Centauri takes four days instead of four decades.”
Tanis had always prided herself on being strong. Granted, the decades with Joe aboard the Intrepid had taught her about her softer side—but she still considered herself strong, a rock.
Until now.
She felt her foundation slipping away. She had understood her place in the galaxy so well. Known how to operate within all the parameters. Now, she knew nothing. She felt like all her value was lost.
“Have we?” Tanis whispered.
“Pardon?” Captain Sera asked.
Tanis felt like she was going to have a mental breakdown. She thought of the harrowing events on Toro, the Mars Outer Shipyards, and the Cho. Of her awakening on the Intrepid as it was falling into a star and the desperate battle against the Sirians above the fledgling colony world of Victoria.
She thought of the picobomb.
“It was all for nothing,” she muttered.
“What? No! That is the furthest thing from the truth. At the very least, there’s no more Sol Space Federation, so your colony mission doesn’t owe anyone a cent. They fell apart millennia ago,” Sera said and then clasped a hand over her mouth, realized her misstep. “Oh shit.”
Tanis’s head snapped up. “Millennia?”
Cargo laughed. “And you said I stepped in it.”
“Ummm,” Sera shifted uncomfortably. “Well I guess in a way it doesn’t really matter much, you never expected to see anyone you knew again anyway. Like Cargo said, the Streamer has a pretty wicked time dilation effect if you pass between the gravitational arms like you did. You skipped a few thousand years of relative time on that transit. By your calendar, it’s just about the year nine thousand…or so.
Tanis rose, her legs shaking slightly. “If you’ll excuse me, I need some time to myself.”
Not waiting for a response, she left the galley and dashed down the corridor to her cabin, where she quickly closed the door. Praying no one would hear her, she began to sob.
TIME TRAVELER
STELLAR DATE: 07.02.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Interstellar Dark Layer
REGION: Galactic South of Trio Prime, Silstrand Alliance Space
“That went well,” Cargo commented as he reached for another baked potato.
Sera ran her hands through her hair. “I didn’t even get to tell her the good news.”
“What, that aside from the positions of galaxies, everything she knows is no longer valid?”
“No, that like all good classics, her gen ship is worth a hundred times what it took to make the stupid thing. If they’re early fifth millennia, they’ve got amazing tech. I’ve heard biological android were even common then. Do you know what a bio-droid with an advanced AI neural net goes for on the market?”
“Haven’t a clue,” Cargo said around a mouthful of potato.
“More than my sweet Sabrina will make in the rest of her life, that’s how much.”
Sabrina groused.
Cargo perked up at that. “You don’t say.”
“We’re not hard up for cash, but the tech her ship carries is worth more than a dozen star systems. I wouldn’t object to a bit of a reward.”
Cargo chuckled. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go talk to our little flower.”
“Not yet...with what she’s been through—and I bet we still only know the half of it—she’s gonna need a bit of time to settle down. I’ll go check on her in an hour or so.”
Sera killed the hour running through a few checklists and doing a circuit of the ship. She stopped in the galley at the end of her tour to see Tanis sitting at the table alone, another glass of whiskey in front of her.
“Mind if I join you?” Sera knocked on the wall.
The major looked up and nodded.
Sera sat and poured herself another drink.
“It’s a lot to absorb,” Tanis said, her voice devoid of emotion
She nodded. “I can only imagine. But you left before I could tell you the good news—well, sorta good news.”
“I already know it,” Tanis replied. “The Intrepid is worth an immeasurable amount now.”
Sera wondered exactly how Tanis knew that, but let it slide for the time being.
“I knew you were smart; that clueless act you tried to pull was pretty pathetic,” Sera chuckled.
Tanis joined her in short laugh. “Yeah, it really was—not sure what I was thinking.”
“Let’s go up to the obs lounge. Its small, but it has a nice view of Sabrina’s ass,” Sera said as she stood and picked up the whiskey. If there was ever a good reason to break her ‘no drinking onboard’ rule, this was it.
They climbed up the ladder to the bridge deck and then followed a short corridor aft to a small room. There were several low couches and four windows facing out over the rear of the ship. Nothing beyond the ship was visible in the dark layer, but the inspection lights were on, casting the stern of the ship in a soft glow.
“Don’t your engines emit light here?” Tanis asked, when she noticed there was no illumination coming from the back of the ship.
“We kill ‘em in FTL, the hum you probably heard back in the med lab was our reactor. Our batteries are a bit low from the excitement in Trio, so we’re charging them. There’s nothing to thrust against here in the DL anyway. You can’t maneuver or accelerate—except with grav drives against globs of dark matter. Once we come out of FTL, we’ll need to do some serious braking since we entered it at well over half the speed of light. It took Cheeky some time to figure out when we’ll need to drop back into normal space.”
“Cheeky?” Tanis asked.
“Our pilot. You’ll meet her soon enough.”
“How big is your crew?”
“Six humans. Seven with you aboard.”
“AI?” Tanis asked.
“There’s Sabrina, the ship’s AI, and Helen who is embedded with me. Nance, Cargo, and Cheeky have what you would probably call NSAI—sort of. Flaherty and Thompson don’t have a lot of mods.”
“Well, at least I won’t have to remember many new names and faces, though I’m going to have a bit of work learning about the last five millennia.”
“To be honest, things have been a mess,” Sera responded. “FTL has been the bane of humankind.”
“It has?” Tanis asked. “After more than a hundred years drifting through interstellar space, I sort of imagined it would be the opposite.”
“What could never really happen in your time?” Sera asked by way of response.
Tanis knew the answer. “Interstellar war—though I wouldn’t say ‘never’.”
Sera nodded. “Bingo. Let’s just say there have been some setbacks. Humanity has only just recently begun to pull itself out of the toilet. For instance, there was even a period in the eighth millennia when the bulk of humanity co
mpletely lost knowledge of nanotechnology. It’s been rediscovered since, but believe me, your nano is better than any you’ll find across a thousand systems.”
Tanis realized Sera had continued speaking while she and Angela talked.
“…I’m willing to bet you’ve got tech on your ship that the rest of mankind would kill for—probably has killed for. That’s why we found you in a shipping container. I bet that Kade wants to have a nice long chat with you about where your ship is.”
“Kade? Who’s he?”
“Local scumbag. We have some dealings with his group, called The Mark, from time to time. Pays pretty well.”
“I do hope you’re not going to turn me over to him. I won’t go quietly,” Tanis’s voice was level and dead calm.
Tanis watched Sera’s face grow more serious as they stared into one another’s eyes. She wondered how she appeared to this not-so-simple freighter captain: a problem and an enigma, but a possible payday as well. The moments dragged on, but Sera must have come to a conclusion about Tanis because she suddenly smiled and leaned back in her seat.
“No, I don’t transport slaves, and I certainly wouldn’t turn you over—threats notwithstanding.”
“Good, that makes our relationship a lot more agreeable.” Tanis took another drink from her glass and relaxed into the deep leather couch.
“However, Kade’s going to expect to get you and I can’t directly cross him or my ass is grass. How’s about you tell me the rest of your tale so I can make sure whatever we work up jives. How did you end up at Coburn Station?”
Tanis held that conversation with Angela as she ran a hand through her long blonde hair. “I don’t know how I got there, but I do know at least the start.
“We didn’t exit gracefully from what you call Kapteyn’s Streamer. In the split-second we transitioned out, something hit the ship at relativistic speeds. I was in the bow and managed to get to an escape pod. We ejected and then the Intrepid was gone. Angela and I were trying to find it when a small ship appeared out of nowhere—using FTL I now realize—and snatched the pod.”
While querying Angela, she continued her recitation to Sera.
“When they boarded the escape pod, I could tell right off that they weren’t any sort of official representatives…of anywhere. Though, I must admit, they had some good nano suppression tech in their interrogation room. I almost got past it a few times, but I had a limited supply of bots and I decided to hold back to repair what they were doing to me.
“They beat me for a few days trying to get any detail they could from me. I was pretty messed up—Angela tells me I was on death’s door. I guess they—what? Cryostasis?” Tanis sputtered as Angela fed her more details. “This is the dark ages!”
“Sorry, I should really give you Link access so you and your AI can chat with the rest of us,” Sera apologized. “Sabrina, can you give the major and Angela our protocols?”
“Certainly, Captain,” the ship said somewhat icily.
“No wonder everything aches,” Tanis said while rolling her shoulders. “I can’t believe it. How long was I under?”
Sera looked perplexed. “What’s wrong with cryostasis? It’s pretty common; keeps you alive and all that.”
“No, stasis keeps you alive, cryostasis freezes you! As in it makes you very cold!”
Tanis’s eyes widened and she flexed her fingers one-by-one as though she expected to find defects.
“Oh wait…you have true stasis on the Intrepid, don’t you?” Sera sat up, eyes wide.
Tanis nodded. “Yes, when we left Sol, everyone had stasis; no one had used cryostasis in hundreds of years. I can’t believe I was frozen!”
“There’s some tech that’d be worth a pretty penny,” Sera said with a smile. “True stasis tech was lost thousands of years ago. No one could figure out how the null field was created without ridiculous amounts of energy.”
Sera sighed. “War, people hoarding tech and not sharing it, piracy, you name it.”
“This is going to take some getting used to,” Tanis said. “So what’s our deal here? I’m guessing you’re more than happy to take me back to the Intrepid if we provide you with something in trade to make it worth your while.”
Sera leaned back again. “Look, I’ll be honest. I won’t hand you over to Kade, but I also won’t traipse across human space on a courier run without payment—especially when everyone and their dog probably wants to find you and get a piece of your hide.”
“I have one priority,” Tanis said. “To get back to the Intrepid and ensure it remains safe. I can personally guarantee that you will be exceptionally well compensated.”
Sera took a sip of her drink as she considered the Tanis’s words. She certainly believed what she was saying, but the shrewd businessperson in her wondered what ability Tanis had to deliver on her promises. What sort of deal could she make with a major that would be binding? There was a lot of risk here.
“I would love to help you, Tanis, but how do you know that your ship will still be there? They may have retreated to interstellar space, or been captured by some other force. This is a pretty big risk.”
“I can promise you one thing,” Tanis said. “The Intrepid is there, and it is still sovereign. There is no force in the galaxy that can stop that ship—especially given the state of things right now. They will reward you handsomely for returning me. If they’re not there, then I will give you specs for enough advanced tech that you’ll never have to work another day in your life.”
“You have them on you?” Sera asked.
“Yes, I’ve taken to carrying a lot of data with me.”
Sera nodded. “Very well, before we enter into this deal, I want to make sure I know how many factions are involved. Did you notice anything significant about the ship that attacked you?”
“Not much. It was obviously not a cargo hauler by primary trade. My scan of it showed some big lasers for such a small ship. When they tortured me, I noticed that they both had an odd tattoo over their right eyes.”
Sera pulled a plas sheet from a pocket and marked a pattern on it. “Like this?”
Tanis nodded. “That’s the symbol. What’s it mean?”
“Padre. It’s his sign; all his guys have it tat’d on.”
“Padre, as in a priest?”
“Priest? No, he’s a pirate. One of the distinctly less pleasant ones. It was his guys that chased us out of the Trio System.” Sera took another sip of her drink. “I’m betting that somehow Kade got wind of what Padre had found and snatched you up. We’re su
pposed to deliver your container to him in about seven days.”
“What a mess,” Tanis sighed.
“It’s gonna take some fancy footwork to pull one over on ol’ Kade. I’m probably going to have to fake logs and show that Padre’s ships boarded us and toss your container out the hatch here in the DL so he won’t find it if he comes aboard.”
“What about finding me?” Tanis asked.
Sera winked. “You’re much smaller. I’m sure we can tuck you away somewhere.”
A STARSHIP NAMED SABRINA
STELLAR DATE: 07.02.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Interstellar Dark Layer
REGION: Galactic South of Trio Prime, Silstrand Alliance Space
It certainly was a motley crew, Tanis thought as Sera introduced her to each of them around the galley table. Cargo, the first mate, seemed to be the only normal one in the group, which was a disturbing thought.
The bio and life-support engineer, who apparently was just called the bio in the ninetieth century, seemed to live inside of her hazard suit. She didn’t even pull off the hood as she ate, and only unhooked the mouth filter, which exposed a circle of pale skin around her lips. She seemed passionate about her job, though. At first, Tanis couldn’t understand the need for a dedicated bio on a ship this size, but she was realizing that technology wasn’t quite as foolproof as what she was used to.
Everyone taking a shower or two a day probably didn’t help with the volume of waste management.
Angela had already gotten to know the other AI. Sabrina seemed a bit touchy, almost as though she was a little insecure in her place as the ship’s AI. Angela was obviously superior in capability, but even without that, it seemed as though Sabrina had already felt threatened.
Angela expressed surprise to find that Helen was something of an equal, though evasive on her origins.
Sera was correct in that Cheeky didn’t have truly sentient AI, but it wasn’t an NSAI either. Cargo’s and Nance’s were similar; both clear violations of the Phobos accords.
