by Rolf Nelson
Ship AI: (OC) No. The balance is worse. Thirty percent success, plus or minus oodles.
Stenson: Oodles? Since you’re the one riding heard on these drives, any bright ideas?
Ship AI: (OC) I’m not the genius around here. You thought of the breakthrough.
Stenson: Any better chance starting with the Sokolov end of the drives?
Ship AI: (OC) Unknown. Insufficient data.
Stenson: Feeling lucky?
Ship AI: (OC) I may not be the best one to ask that question.
Stenson: Guys?
The other team members look at him, one with fingers in his ears against the shriek, and they shrug, except for Alvarez, who nods slightly.
Quiritis: (OC) Punch it, or just use earplugs?
Stenson: (To the air) Captain, feeling lucky?
CUT TO
INT - DAY - Bridge
Helton and the rest are at their normal places.
Helton ponders it for a moment, looking at screens and people around him. He nods, grins.
Helton: A good ship. Let’s see if we can be great.
Quiritis nods, plays with the controls. The readouts get angrier, the ship starts vibrating noticeably, and the screeching, pulsing dissonance of the unsynchronized drives worsens. Everyone cringes as the sound and vibration pound at them. The notes of the drive cores start shifting closer together, making them sound worse and worse. Readouts are wild, far into the red, then back into green, changing rapidly. Suddenly the sounds of the drives begins to converge on a chord that harmonizes, and suddenly with a CRASH it‘s much quieter. The background notes of the drives are subdued and pleasant, and the readouts all drop into the green. Everyone looks at the screens in front of them, assessing what they see.
Quiritis: (Quietly) Wow.
Helton: (Into mic) How’s it look, Henery?
Stenson: (OC, over PA) WOW! Gimme a sec! Never saw numbers like this. Need to sort it out. Don’t think we went nova, though. Never a good career move to do that on a flight.
Helton: Quiri? Big picture?
Quiritis: Drive field strength is huge. We might even be able to transition to FTL now.
Helton: Now? You sure? Still pretty deep in the well.
Quiritis: If these numbers are right, we’d be able to transition at half the normal distance from the gravity centers.
Kaushik: But nothing can do it that close! Not even FTL torpedoes!
Quiritis: I know that, but IF these numbers are right, we can. Field density is off the charts. Power and efficiency readings over one hundred percent.
Helton: That can’t be right.
Quiritis: Dunno. Sounds wrong, but seems to fit with the rest of the pieces.
Helton looks at the readouts in front of him.
Helton: Christ. More than a hundred Heinleins.
Quiritis: Yup.
Helton: OK, ease back the power a bit, let’s get a better handle on things. Don’t want to drive like a crazed teenager with new wheels and kill ourselves on something stupid.
Quiritis works the controls, and the readouts settle lower into the green.
CUT TO
Engineering
Stenson and his team are all excited, checking readings over with frantic movements and wide eyes. Stenson talks to half to himself he checks things, moving around the engineering section verifying and cross-checking what he sees. Most of the read outs are steady.
Stenson: Think I got it. Rock solid. Linked, synced, locked in, and ROCKin’! We are golden, even if we never look at the Sokolov drives again. Best numbers I’ve ever seen. Stupid high efficiency rates. Field strength that’ll beat anything we might see. Space tugs have strong fields, but nothing like this.
Helton: (OC) Quiri says we can transition now, this close. Agree?
Stenson: Think so. Yes. Just about certainly.
Helton: (OC) Want to try that first, or try out the Sokolovs, see what six of them can do?
Stenson: Still feeling lucky?
Helton: (OC) Just got married, sank a pirate, found out we’ve got planet killers on board, and the deepest transitioning self-aware ship in existence. When you’re on a roll, go with it. Ready for a transition?
Stenson: Always playing it safe, eh?
CUT TO
Bridge
Helton: (Grins) Being on a roll doesn’t mean you have be a complete idiot.
He nods to Quiritis to make it happen.
Quiritis: OK, Mr. Married Man. Get ready to make history. Even if no one knows but us.
She works the controls. The sound of the drives changes, drops a bit, then the screens show a suddenly moving star field.
CUT TO
EXT - DAY - Space, near Tajemnica
A planet in the distant background is moving slightly, and the space around her glows a cheery yellow green, pulsing and rippling gently, like an Aurora Borealis. The light of the drive field extends much further and brighter than it ever has before. The field becomes brighter, pulls in closer, Tajemnica disappears from this universe, and the light fades.
FADE TO BLACK
Test Flight
FADE IN
INT - DAY - Tajemnica Bridge
The usual suspects are in their places. Stenson stands in the doorway.
Helton: I’m just the captain. You two are the flying geniuses. What do you want to do?
Stenson: Time dilation tests. Speed tests. Acceleration tests. Grav well depth tests. Transition tests. Deep tests. Sensor tests. Conventional accelacomp tests. Interference tests. Verify field-strength readings, which I’m still not sure I believe.
Quiritis: And that’s just with what we have now. Run ‘em all again if we get two drives on a single core working, then again with multiple resonance cores in various combinations. We have zero data and only the sketchy outline of a theory on how things will actually handle under those conditions. We need empirical data.
Stenson: We’re in the instrumented test pilot realm here, with everything.
Helton: So, what are you waiting for? I failed my flight test, so I only kinda follow half the details you two throw out there. Set it up, work out the schedule with Taj, tell me what you need, set it in motion.
Quiritis: Really? That’s all you want to know?
Helton: You three are smart. Since the war’s pretty much over on NewOz, we can’t really go back, so while Lag and I figure out where we should go we’ve got nothing better to do. Make it happen. Tell me ahead of time if you think we are all about to die so I can get a goodbye kiss.
Allonia: Only if I can go find Dorek at the same time!
Helton: Deal. We also need to figure out the best permanent solution to the legal situation.
Bipasha: Emirate allows multiple wives, you know.
Helton: No, thanks. I’m quite sure just one is fine. Either one-
Allonia: (Feigning a dramatic letdown) Married a week and he’s already rejecting me. Just one of either!
Helton: Kaminski complicates things, you know.
Quiritis: And I don’t?
Helton: No, you’re pretty uncomplicated, actually. I think. Maybe. Or am I putting my foot deep in my mouth? Seriously, though, we should find a long-term solution that fills both the legal and social demands. I like simple, uncomplicated things.
Quiritis: (Teasing) Now you’re calling me simple?!
Helton: No, I… oh, hell, you know what I mean. Go figure out the test flight plan… So I can talk to Bipasha about what her wedding plans are, so when we-
Helton ducks an empty zero-grav cup thrown at him by smiling Bipasha.
DISSOLVE TO
INT - DAY - Garden
Allonia is humming along, pruning some of the plants on the many overflowing racks around her in the brightly lit room. Things are obviously growing well, and there are bushes, herbs, and all sorts of different shades of green, even some flowers. A very green, happy place. Helton walks in just as the background noises take another change in note.
Helton: Kwon needs some sage.
Allonia: How’s the testing going?
Helton: Pretty good.
Allonia: Every time they talk it makes my head hurt. It’s another language.
Helton: It is, but the basic ideas are pretty simple.
Allonia: Fill me in?
Helton: Sure. Harmon and Sokolov drives do basically the same thing, push on the fabric of the space-time multi-verse, but they do it differently. Synchronizing more than three drives is very difficult. Using even four is rare; only in racers, really. You can fly on one drive, but most use two because it’s more efficient and you have redundancy. Bigger ships can afford to support three, for redundancy and speed, but usually have the same or slightly lower efficiency. Very few ships use both Harmon and Sokolov drives. It’s expensive, takes up twice the room, and most ships are optimized for one sort of mission. Harmon drives create a more intense field and allow transition slightly deeper in the well, and they work better near planets. They are also faster for short hops between stars. Sokolov drives spread a wide field so they can grab a lot of space and allow greater acceleration. They work better in deep space, and because they allow better acceleration in subspace, they’re generally faster for long hauls. Stenson figured out how that analogue gizmo in engineering helps sync the drives and how the twist might allow us to use both at once on a single core. The hope is that together they can spread the field intense and wide, possibly having better time dilation control, be faster in universal time, come out of transition with some speed, and maybe even wade into the turbulent subspace of The Deep.
Allonia: So, bigger faster stronger better, basically.
Helton: Pretty much. Gotta get this to Kwon. See you later, dear.
Helton heads for the door, leaving Allonia happily tending her plants.
FADE TO BLACK
Tau Piper
Surprise
DISSOLVE TO
INT - DAY - Engineering
Stenson and his team examine readouts, tired but happy. Helton and Quiritis stand next to him looking over the readouts and data.
Stenson: There is something about the combination of density, mass and drive distribution, power density, power flow… Same mass but much larger, can’t do it. Same general dimensions, lose the armor, can’t do it. Same mass, but just a load of ore in the middle, can’t do it. Lower flux density, can’t do it. Same density, missile size, no can do. Taj is right at a sweet spot, a golden ratio of mass, dimensions and drive flux. We can transition deeper in the gravity well than anything I’ve ever seen. Might even be able to use an L1 to transition between a planet and a moon.
Helton: L1? Shiny.
Stenson: Indeed. We have much tighter control over time flow and dilation-
Helton: How much?
Quiritis: Normal trip in the current swirl to Eridani is four or five days subjective depending on route, a week universal. We could do it in about three days universal, and anywhere from a day to nearly six weeks subjective.
Helton: Hell of a range. No need to go that slow.
Quiritis: Maybe. The fuel usage on the long course is almost zero. Nearly coasting along a subspace field line. Really slick. All sorts of interesting subspace curves to surf, depending on what you need to do.
Stenson: We can cut a lot of corners planning trips. Not sure how far into The Deep we can go, but places that are just past the edge for any other ship should be doable.
Quiritis: And we can skip like you wouldn’t believe. Transition in, get a fast look, disappear from this universe in a heartbeat.
Stenson: And we can open a transition field, then extend it a ways into other fields. Not just pulse the drive field like we did with the interceptors, but I think we can do all kinds of things, including hitch a ride on another ship when it’s trying to leave. Need another ship to really test it fully, but the possibilities are fascinating.
Helton: So, anyplace in particular you’d like to go to test more?
Quiritis: Well, we-
Ship AI: (OC, brisk male voice) Yes. There is.
The three raise eyebrows in surprise.
Ship AI: (OC) Tau Piper II.
The three show expressions of either non-recognition or puzzlement.
Ship AI: (OC) It does not have any known human habitation. A failed terraforming operation on the edge of The Dark, only a day’s subjective flight under current conditions, half that universal. It has something I would like to investigate.
Helton: Close. What’s there?
Ship AI: (OC) The second planet was a promising world in the water zone. There are several potentially interesting items there. I’d like to keep the specifics a surprise, if I may.
Quiritis: You want to surprise us?
Ship AI: (OC) Yes. Don’t you like surprises?
Helton: Most of the surprises we’ve had are not the kind I normally want.
Ship AI: (OC) Perhaps so. Nonetheless.
Quiritis: Well, we can certainly run faster if it turns out to be unpleasant.
Helton: OK, then. Lay in a course.
DISSOLVE TO
INT - NIGHT - Bridge
Lights are dim and reddish. Helton, Quiritis, Allonia, Kaushik, Bipasha are at stations. Lag and Kwon stand in the doorways. A graphic of the local system displayed on the screens show the star and a half-dozen planets. Their position is shown approaching the second planet, which, as the diagram zooms in, shows numerous moons. They approach close, a bit outside the most distant moon’s orbit.
Helton: So, let’s see what the big surprise is.
Quiritis: Here we go. Ready to skip. Reentering the universe in three, two, one-
CUT TO
EXT - NIGHT - Space, not far from a moon of Tau Piper II.
The planet lies in the distance, a nice-looking marble covered in a swirl of green and tan land, many small seas, one ocean going nearly pole to pole, and scattered clouds. Space shimmers and glows, and Tajemnica fades into view in the middle of the glowing patch to hang motionless in space, with a moon that has regular circular patterns on its surface clearly visible in the distance.
CUT TO
Bridge
Helton: Nice view. Planet looks pretty good.
Quiritis: I thought it was a terraforming failure?
Kaushik: A whole line of ships detected. Gas Transports.
Allonia: Looks like a lot of water. Clouds are a good sign.
On the speaker, a mechanical voice calls.
Tau Piper II Robo-Moon: (OC, on cabin speaker) Challenge germanium Alister cheese tendinitis.
Quiritis: Skipping in three!
Ship AI: (OC, similar voice) Respond Alfred airport Cato gorgon tropical.
Helton: Wait, what?
Tau Piper II Robo-Moon: (OC, on cabin speaker) Challenge Crete Alcibiades Tacitus Gemistus.
Kaushik: Target locks, but no launches!
Ship AI: (OC, similar voice) Respond Themistocles Alexander aspis garden gander
Quiritis: -two-
Helton: Hold a sec! Wait!
Tau Piper II Robo-Moon: (OC) Send cladistic profiler for final.
Ship AI: (OC) Confirmed. As I thought. Thank you, Allonia.
Allonia: I… what? Me?
Helton: Details, everyone!
Kaushik: No more target lock! Just normal dual-pole radar. No launches.
Allonia: Nothing but the line of GTSs on sensors!
Bipasha: Nothing more on com, just a couple of carrier signals, and a… landing beacon.
Quiritis: Ready to skip any moment if we have to.
Ship AI: (OC) No need. We passed.
Helton: Passed WHAT?
A Tajemnica avatar appears onscreen, a peaceful looking elderly monk. Dressed in dark robes similar to Brother Libra, he sits in a lotus position with a quiet smile on his face. He’s in a simple garden with a small hut and orch
ards in the background.
Ship AI: (Calm elderly voice) Please set a course for the landing beacon. We have been granted entry.
Helton: Are you sure?
Ship AI: Yes. Please proceed promptly.
Helton nods to Quiritis to do so. She looks skeptical, but works the controls, and the moon slowly starts growing larger on the screen.
Allonia: Why did you thank me?
Ship AI: Our previous encounter at Emirate with a corp-war moon provided the clue. Allonia’s DNA had a number of sequences that didn’t match any known pattern. The problem of how to only let authorized people near is simply solved. The challenge uses words that start with letters corresponding to one of the unexplained DNA sequences, and the response is words that start with the subsequent DNA sequence. I speculate a cladistic profiler is one from whom they take a DNA sample to verify the sequence. Quite literally, you are the key to the moon base.
Helton: OK, that’s great! Then what?
Ship AI: I do not know. That is your job. I will help if I can.
Helton: Gee, thanks. Next time you want to surprise me, try to keep it something more along the lines of a birthday cake.
Ship AI: Noted.
Helton: So what if they want to test ALL of us?
Ship AI: That eventuality might become… interesting.
Helton: Define “interesting.”
Ship AI: I’d rather not.
Entrance
CUT TO
EXT - NIGHT - Space, not too far from a moon of Tau Piper II.
The space around Tajemnica glows softly as she gently approaches the moon-base, seeing details more clearly as she nears. The entire surface is covered with thousands of circular weapon emplacements. In the middle of each armored ring is a missile launcher, railgun, laser, or particle weapon. As Tajemnica nears on final approach a pair of massive doors, capable of admitting much larger ships, swing inward. Ahead they see a long, well-lit tunnel lined with gun turrets. As Tajemnica glides across the threshold into the moon the doors close ponderously in her wake.
FADE TO BLACK
