by George Deeb
7
“Well that was anticlimactic.” said del Rio. “I was hoping Cove had built in some surprises.”
“I do not believe that Doctor Cove is the type of person who would build surprises into his work. What he says he will do is what he will do.”
“Yeahhhh... I was just hoping the Folly had a few more horses under the hood.”
“My interactions with Doctor Cove and his past work indicates to me that he is very precise in his specifications.” said Plessa. “That is a characteristic I value, especially in a person who has built a ship that has to keep me alive.”
“I know. I know. Don't get me wrong. I admire his work. I was just hoping that since he designed an engine that can go this fast he might have added a nitro button. You know... a big red button with a label that says 'Push Only In Emergencies' or something like that.”
“Like in a science fiction movie.” said Mersuul, smiling.
“Exactly,” said del Rio, “ and... HEY! What's that glow around the Folly?”
Mersuul and Plessa turned back around to look at the other ship. Glow wasn't exactly the correct description of what they saw. They recognized it as a low level energy field that lightly danced over the skin of the Folly.
“It is... It is not possible!” said Plessa.
“It can not be.” added Mersuul.
“What? What is ...”
Del Rio never had a chance to finish her sentence. She went silent, with her mouth still open. The Folly was gone.
“Whe... WHERE'S THE FOLLY?”
“You saw it, didn't you?” asked Plessa.
“Yes. I did. I do not believe it.” said Mersuul.
“Saw what?”
“The light emission surrounding the Folly” said Plessa.
“I do not believe it.” repeated Mersuul.
“What about the light?” asked del Rio.
They both looked at her.
“When our people were beginning to travel through space, as your people are now, we lost many ships. The reports from those that observed what happened said that the lost ships began to emit light and then disappeared. It was a long time before our science advanced to where we understood what had happened. None of the lost ships were ever found. But it can not be! Your propulsion systems are not advanced enough to cause this!”
“Cause what? What is that glow?”
“It is the first sign of high energy free particles being drawn into the ship's propulsion stream.” said Plessa. “In space there are high energy particles traveling freely away from their emission sources. They are everywhere within the dark matter of space, but travel haphazardly without any specific purpose. In a way you can consider them to be free and available power if you know how to utilize them. When these particles contact the outside of the ship they change energy states and release photons that create the glow you saw. They also collect on the skin of the ship and act as a magnet that draws even more and stronger forms of free energy. The stronger energy particles collect in a second layer around the outside of the ship, and then combine with the propulsion energy generated by the engine, adding to it and creating much greater total energy levels than what the engine is itself capable of creating. But the Cove engine can not cause this effect. It is not possible.”
Mersuul looked at Plessa.
“It was not possible for our early ships either. Yet they did it without knowing how. The Folly must have done it as well.” said Mersuul.
“So where are they? What happened to them?”
Mersuul and Plessa were silent for a while.
“We don't know.”
“But... can't we track them? Your instruments must show you something.”
“No.” said Plessa. “This shuttle is not equipped to do so.”
“They disappeared! How did they disappear?”
“They did not disappear. It only looked that way to us because the ship jumped into FTL - Faster than light speed. Just in the time we have been talking about this they have traveled a great distance. That is why it seems like they disappeared.”
“We have to notify Moon Base.” added Mersuul, as she changed the comm frequency for one better suited to voice transmission.
“So they are OK?”
“If the Folly has not been destroyed by the stresses imposed they should still be alive.” said Plessa. “What is wrong?” he asked, seeing frustration on Mersuul's face.
“I can not establish a voice channel with the moon base.”
“Is it the delay? We are far from them now.”
“No it is not that. I am receiving only noise. The time synchronization data stream they continually transmit is gone. We should use our own communications system and contact the Orysta.”
“You know we are not allowed to do so. We can only use the moon base radio system. Even acting as the safety ship for this test flight is bending many IGT laws.”
8
Ships passing in the night
The wide area scan of his ship's automated defense system alerted Dhona to another vessel moving towards him at high speed, but the normally infallible system was unable to identify it. Sometimes ships were so heavily modified that they no longer matched anything in the database records. Camouflage and defensive systems were automatically turned on by his ship's battle computer. He watched as the vessel got closer. It wasn't coming directly at him but would be close enough to capture an image of it. He touched the control screen and the ship went dark and silent. With his engine shut down he was just drifting on his momentum. The battle computer was continuously calculating intercept points for the imaging system to record the vessel as it went by.
He was now relatively close to the moon of the third planet, which at first made Dhona think that this must be one of their ships. But that wasn't possible. There wasn't much known about the planet called Earth by its inhabitants – there was little need to. It was tanrhas away from practical space flight that would bring it into contact with its galactic neighbors. Occasionally a ship full of sociologists and anthropologists would go there on a field trip to observe the planet, update their records, and look for any anomalies that do come up in the development of all species. For a fee, talented amateur scientists could also come with them, which would help offset the cost of the expedition.
Dhona watched his display panel and when the ship was in visual range he looked out but saw nothing. That wasn't surprising considering the speed the other ship was moving at. His defense systems were well capable of doing what his eyes were not, and almost immediately images of the vessel were sequentially displayed on one of his screens. He was very surprised. This was not a known vessel design and it was not one that was modified. This unknown vessel was a sleek and beautiful ship that looked like it would be able to hold its own in a dog fight. This made no sense. The Earth people had not reached this level of technology, yet this ship could only have come from that planet. Analysis of the exhaust stream it left behind was more confusing. It indicated byproducts of combustion as well as an ion stream, both occurring together – which was ridiculous. No one would do that. Even more confusing was that neither propulsion method was capable of propelling a ship at such speed.
Then a memory of his school days popped into his mind, and he remembered something he had learned about the early days of space flight and vanishing ships. 'What was the name of that...' he thought, 'the Gol... Guul... no, the … THE GUUVASIE EFFECT! That was it – the Guuvasie Effect, named after the physicist who discovered it and was finally able to explain why ships would suddenly vanish.' It was the basis for the development of propulsion systems that allowed his people to travel across galaxies in short periods of time. 'Could the Earth people have developed a Guuvasie engine. Can't be possible – can it? Could the crew of the Orysta be alive and have violated the IGT by giving the Earth this technology? Could they have been forced to?'
Dhona transmitted this new information back to the Eowaar, and continued back on course – but this time at inter-gala
ctic speeds. It was normally not recommended to travel at this speed within a solar system, but the questions at hand were too serious to ignore, and they were also the basis for authorization of his action. He looked at his ships indicators and watched as temperature, stress and performance monitors climbed to their maximum indications. If he wasn't flying one of the latest IGT fighter designs he would not be able to maintain this level of performance for as long as would be needed. His fighter was one of the first production models of the type, and he was about to find out if it truly could do what the designers said it could – or probably blow up in the process.
9
Intul-sil-Califas felt like the skin was separating from the rest of his body. He had trouble breathing. Having been turned in his seat while checking his equipment, the sudden tremendous acceleration had caught him off guard. Now his right arm was being crushed against the back of the seat by his body. The cushioning material of the seat had been compressed from a thick foamy material to a paper thin solid, and offered no protection or comfort. The G forces on his body kept him from turning around, and he couldn't see the other two men. He tried to call to them but the force pressing against his chest and throat muscles made it impossible to speak. Still, his mind was functioning and after some thought he had a good idea of what had just happened. Now there were only two questions in his thoughts – Would he live through this, and was this actually the same thing?
Since he heard no sounds from the other men he assumed they were feeling the same influences as he was. On the positive side, no body parts had come off. On the negative side, he was beginning to black out. He didn't know if this was due to low oxygen levels from his shallow breathing, or from the blood being forced from his brain. His vision narrowed and everything was getting quieter. Then he heard it, just before everything went black and silent. It was a scream of horrible pain. He couldn't tell who had made the sound.
10
“HRRRAAAGGGHHHH !!!!!!” came the sound that John Smith forced from his throat, as he tried to maintain consciousness.
He couldn't believe the force he was feeling against his body. Warm fluid ran from his eyes, nose and mouth, and he only knew what it was because he could taste his own blood. They were all about to die – he knew that. But he wasn't going to give up without a fight. He was being crushed to death, and knew the others were also. His years of training kicked in automatically, and his mind went through the minutes before whatever happened had happened. They had been running for some time with the main engine at full power so it probably wasn't that. Then they had engaged the ion drive engine which ran without much effect for just a couple of minutes, and wasn't likely to have caused this. There was nothing else that he could think of. There just wasn't anything else. Even when the Folly's main engine was running at ninety percent there was nothing out of the ordinary. They flew faster than the other base shuttles, but still no where near the speed the Ganaphe' shuttles were capable of. 'Undo the last steps one at a time.' he thought. That was what he was trained to do – undo the last steps before the SHTF and hope you can reverse the situation before you die. It was a tried and true methodology – a few people had even lived through doing it. The last step was the ion drive.
He tried to reach for the drive controls mounted on the lower center console but couldn't move his arms. They were pressed hard against his seat. He tried turning his head to check on Washington but he couldn't do that. Worry crept into his mind. 'How long has this been going on?' he wondered. 'How much longer can I stay conscious?' He tried moving his legs and found he could inch them forward. The larger leg muscles had enough strength to overcome the force pushing them back – just barely. He pushed – and pushed – and kept pushing them to the side, nearer the control console. His body felt hot, and breathing was hard. Progress was very slow. He wondered if he would die first. After what seemed like a very long time he had his knees against the console, but the throttle was higher than they were. He was able to force his left knee under the right one, and locking them together used their combined strength to slide up the side of the console. There was too much friction between his pants and the console. Then he remembered to breathe.
He tried to jerk his body forward to get his knee to slide against the console, but it was such a small movement. He did it over and over, gaining fractions of an inch. Smith took a slow, labored breathe into his lungs. Then another. Then one more, and with all his will he forced his legs to move upward until they were touching the throttle. Another pair of knees came into view, and he knew that Washington was trying to help him. They were both in contact with the throttle handle. They had to get the throttle back beyond the overthrow position that kept it in place. When they stopped pushing forward with their legs, the same force they had had to fight against was now pushing their knees backwards, bringing the throttle with them.
Chapter 21
Encounter
1
Faoul Mahna had been a dhrojja for most of his adult life. He considered himself to be an intelligent man who never could fit into the restrictions of society. He didn't understand why people had looked down on him for torturing small animals when he was a child. He thought it was great fun. And didn't these same people raise animals to slaughter for food. What hypocrites! Then later, in his early adulthood when he would beat young women into submission for his sexual gratification the same society tried to put him on trial for what they called crimes. But didn't these same people go home every night and beat their wives and daughters for the same reason. Mahna had no doubt that they did.
The so called legal trial was nothing more than other men trying to show they were superior to him, which Mahna knew they were not. It was their game, by their rules, but Mahna didn't play. Escaping prison wasn't very hard. He only had to kill three guards to do it. Once free he was able to steal a ship and flee. Luckily the ship he stole was very new, and fast, and easy to power up. Over the decitans he had modified his ship by adding weapons, armor, and the latest technology that he could steal. Even today he could remember the faces of all the people he had killed to do this, and it always brought a smile to his face.
There had been many people from many planets and galaxies. The ones he enjoyed killing the most were the free thinking fantasists that thought they could talk him into leaving them alone because they offered him their understanding. They understood his situation, and they understood his anger, and they understood where he was coming from, and they understood his being misunderstood, and it all could be worked out peacefully with talk – and more understanding. When Mahna thought about those people he almost started laughing. They were the easiest prey.
Mahna was a hard worker. Over the decitans he worked hard at his trade, and now he had accomplished something no other dhrojja had in history. He had brought together the largest coalition of dhrojjas ever seen by the galaxies. Dhrojjas were by nature suspicious of other dhrojjas, and rightly so. Mahna had killed many other dhrojjas to put this collection of ships and personnel together. Some he killed while sharing a meal, and others while buying them a drink. Some he killed in their beds while they were unconscious – that he reserved for the most dangerous ones. Some he had even betrayed to the IGT, and let them do the killing for him. It was all just a day's work. The work had paid off.
Mahna was now the unchallenged leader of a fleet of ships. Enough ships to challenge even some IGT security forces – IF they could sneak up on them. That was the reason why he was here in this unaffiliated galaxy, gathering the ships together, away from the eyes of the IGT. When he fortuitously spotted a mining ship in trouble in the same area, he knew it was a good omen. He didn't even bother following the damaged ship right away. He didn't think he would have to. He knew that they would leave a trail of emergency beacons that would point right to their location. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. He had no way to decrypt the data stored in the beacons, and for some reason the trail of beacons ended at the outermost planet in this solar system. Even a relativ
ely small solar system as this one is very large when you are looking for something the size of a mining ship.
Mahna didn't waste time searching for the ship – it was too big a job. Instead he sent out his dhrojjas in small groups to attack the helpless throughout the known galaxies. They would regroup back here, and while planning future attacks he would assign some of the dhrojjas to continue the search for the mining ship and what he was certain was by now a dead crew. His part time search over the decitans had turned up other beacons but they didn't seem to lead anywhere. Then two small ships were spotted flying away from the moon of the third planet. One was a shuttle of standard design, and the other was unknown. It was another good omen for his fleet of dhrojjas. He had left the two ships alone so that they would not alert anyone, and pointed his fleet at the third planet's moon.
2
The alarms and warning lights went off simultaneously with the automated evacuation instructions that came over the speakers throughout the base. Strobe lights flashed continuously on the walls, while rotating red beacons marked the hallway intersections. The blaring horns intermittently stopped to allow the prerecorded verbal instructions to be heard.
