Prosperine: The Adventures of the Space Heroine Hickory Lace: Books 1, 2 & 3 (The Prosperine Trilogy)

by PJ McDermott

  The students obliged, and she joined in their laughter. “Of course, there were those who sought to take advantage of this popularity. Sales of so-called sacred relics flourished, and God temples and religious sects sprouted up everywhere. Others saw the whole thing as a plot by the Vatican and were hawkish in their opposition.

  “The left-wing populist movement known as the People's Crusade was the most militant. Run by a central committee with an agenda for revolutionary change, they targeted multinational organizations and governments who paid lip-service to individual freedom while practicing a lack of humanity and care.”

  Kendrick McAvoy, a seventeen-year-old with a shock of red hair, raised his eyebrows and murmured, “Not such a bad thing, is it?”

  Hickory nodded. The young Irishman usually played the rebel of the group, always willing to take the counter side of an argument. “I agree with you, Kendrick. But unfortunately for the Vatican and their plans for the Alien Corps, the Crusaders promoted a human-centric view of God that emphasized old-testament values. Their membership came from all over—Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, followers of the prophet Muhammad, and atheists. They opposed the use of human-machine technology and were anti all things extraterrestrial.

  “Over the next nine years, violent protests and terrorist activity escalated exponentially, resulting in the planet-wide war that began in 2104 and lasted five years. It took another decade for the transport and communications infrastructure to recover.”

  Lilly Liu, the youngest in the class, raised a hand. “My grandparents lived through the New Dark Age, and they say it was horrible, but the United World Congress would never have been born if it didn't happen.”

  “That's true, Lilly, and as a result there’s been no war on Earth for the last sixty years. But over time, people lost interest in the search for Christ, convinced by skeptics that the manuscript was a fake.”

  She looked at her students' serious faces. Just twelve. Three had dropped out last semester, and she would be surprised if several more didn't leave before the year's end. The course demanded a lot, but if people didn't believe in the quest anymore, what could you expect? A mere ten had completed the program last year. It was depressing.

  She clicked the Holographic Blackboard to reveal the sculpted figure of their long-dead founder. “Pope Innocent XIV must have owned a crystal ball back at the turn of the century.” She regarded the image for a moment then turned back to her class. “He established the Saint Philip Research Academy and its field investigations offshoot, the Alien Corps, five years before the conflict began. When it became apparent war was inevitable, he transferred the records and base of operation off world to the Earth colony on Sumer.” She looked at her watch. “Almost time. Questions anyone? Yes, Jean?” she said, nodding to the elegant Frenchman, who was her best student.

  Jean Aqualon spoke in accented English. “The Corps' charter is to search the Cosmos for evidence that supports the universal nature of God—”

  Hickory clarified. “Specifically that the Lord of Light has existed or currently exists on another planet. No such evidence has been uncovered to date.”

  Jean hesitated, then plunged on. “Pardonez-moi. I've never understood why the Corps goes out of its way to recruit non-Christians. Regardez.” He gestured at the hollo-class. “Most here are atheists. Jacob, he is Jewish. Only Kendrick and I are of the Christian faith.”

  “Innocent deliberately set it up that way in an attempt to defuse the impact of the People's Crusade. If traditional Christians dominated the Academy and the Corps, the Church would be open to claims of bias, manipulation, and hypocrisy. But, of course, all Corps operatives report to Prefect Cortherien, who has the ear of the Pontiff.”

  She smiled at her students. “That's the lot for today. Don't forget, tomorrow will be the final class for the term. We'll be discussing twenty-first century political and moral beliefs, so make sure you read up on the biographies of Bishop Alberto Battista and Cardinal John Verroni. Goodnight, everyone.”

  Hickory paused while their images flickered out one by one, then made herself a coffee. She settled down to wait for Jess and Gareth to arrive and played Gareth's vid for the third time. As well as eye-witness accounts of the finding of St. Philip's tomb, the appendices covered in detail much of the initial assessment of the manuscript.

  She reviewed the key passage, “And Jesus said, ‘At the end of days, the Lord of Light will return to all the worlds of the universe and in each world He will gather up the true believers, and lead them to this Earth where they will be united with the righteous, both the dead and the living, and they shall dwell with the Father and his Sons for all eternity.’”

  Two hours later, Jess Parker's full-sized image flickered to life in the chair opposite Hickory.

  “Hi, Jess. Great to see you. How are the twins?” said Hickory.

  Jess's husband had died two years after they were married, leaving her to raise their children, Andrea and Erica—now studying their final year in alien biology at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “Same as usual. Too smart and too slippery for their own good. They both send their love, by the way, and a reminder they are available if you need them.” The twins often helped Hickory prepare assignments for her students.

  “Isn't it about time you introduced me to these two geniuses?” Materializing at the end of the table, Gareth Blanquette grinned at the two women mischievously. “They sound just my type.”

  Jess tutted noisily and shook her head. “Not on my watch, boyo. I don't want to be the one having to pick up what's left after they're done with you.”

  Hickory's eyes crinkled at his crestfallen look. “Hello, Gareth—welcome to the hollo-meeting.”

  Gareth brightened immediately. “So, what's it all about? I'm guessing you have a job that needs doing in some far-flung corner of the Galaxy. Otherwise, Mother wouldn't be here.”

  Jess bristled. “I'm not your mother, boyo, but I'm not averse to putting you over my knee and giving you a good whack either. Why don't you hold your tongue and listen for a change instead of being a know-it-all?”

  Hickory interjected before Gareth could respond. “All right—that's enough!” If she didn't take control, Jess and Gareth were capable of trading pot shots for an hour. “I do have a job. It's a big one, potentially dangerous, and I'll be leading it personally.”

  There was silence for a moment. This would be her first interstellar trip since the ill-fated Andromeda mission. Both knew the conclusion to that, though only Jess understood how badly it had affected her.

  “Hickory...?” Jess began. “You're back on active service? Are you sure—”

  “Perfectly sure.” She held up her hand to forestall further discussion. “In fact, I'm raring to get my teeth into this one.”

  Jess and Gareth glanced at each other. Neither said a word. Hickory swallowed hard. They'll stick by me, I know they will. She briefed them on their destination, described the indigenous inhabitants and finished up with their mission objective. “Prefect Cortherien wants us to get close to this Kar-sѐr-Sephiryth and make an assessment.”

  Gareth snorted. “You mean expose him for the fraud he no doubt is!”

  Hickory's brow furrowed. “You know we don't work that way in the Corps. We begin every case with an open mind. If you don't think you can manage that—”

  Gareth's shoulder's drooped. “Okay, okay. There's no need to get all bossy, boss.”

  Hickory relented a little. “Look, I realize you're a religious skeptic.” She leaned towards him. “You're entitled to think what you like, but if you want this job you'll have to put your personal beliefs to one side. I know that's a tough ask, especially for a scientist, but it's a requirement, Gareth, not an option. I don't want any trouble about this when we reach Prosperine. Understand?”

  This mission was important—perhaps her last chance to get back on permanent active duty. Gareth wasn't the only one to question the existence of a creator. In her heart, she hoped that God prevaile
d somewhere. But whether she or any of them believed in a supreme being was beside the point. Perhaps Philip's manuscript was a fake, and in all probability this Kar-sѐr-Sephiryth was a charlatan. Regardless, she was determined to do a professional job. No way would she give Cortherien a second chance to be “concerned for her welfare.”

  Jess's protective instincts kicked in. “I'm sure he'll be fine once we get started, Hicks. There's no one I'd rather work with on this than Gareth. He's just behaving like a typical boy.”

  “Thanks for the support, I think,” said Gareth with a laugh.

  Hickory smiled crookedly. This was typical of the two. “The second part of our assignment isn't the sort of thing the Corps usually becomes involved with,” she continued. “The prefect wants us to find out what we can about the political situation in the capital, Ezekan. There's been some unrest and one or two violent outbreaks, and the IA are concerned about stability.” She paused. “I don't want this to interfere with our investigation of Kar-sѐr-Sephiryth, but a lot depends on us coming up with the right answers.”

  “Could the two issues be connected?” said Gareth.

  “You mean a messiah stirring up revolution? It's a definite possibility, but there's some intel from our man on the spot that other hostiles could be involved. We'll have to wait and see. We'll be working hand-in-hand with the IA.”

  Jess shifted in her chair. “We're going to be working with your father?”

  Hickory nodded. “Prosperine is naturally rich in crynidium. The Agency has a keen interest in the planet, and the admiral will be keeping his eyes on the project. He'll provide us with support, but I'll have complete discretion on the ground.” She paused and looked each of them in the eye. “You need to be aware this will be dangerous for all of us. Questions?” She looked at Gareth, knowing he would be the first to ask.

  He cleared his throat. “As a matter of fact, there are a couple of things I'm not sure about. The population is humanoid, although their DNA is highly correlated with dinosaurs. But they look human, or near enough human, right?”

  Hickory nodded and waited for the inevitable.

  “Well, uh, what about sex? The naurs and nauris—that's males and females, eh? Do they have sex for enjoyment like us or only when they come into heat? I don't mind, but I wouldn't want to make a mistake with one of the locals.”

  Jess raised her eyes, and Hickory burst out laughing. “Gareth, you are an idiot! These girls hatch from eggs. Even you wouldn't want to be making out with them. But just for your information, the reproductive organs of the Avanauri are similar in size and function to humans. What's your next question?”

  “Um, well, it's a related question, really. You say their young hatch from eggs, but do the nauris go into labor, or are they like chickens—plop, and it's out? It's a bit bizarre, isn't it?”

  Jess snorted. “I'll assume that's a serious question, although I have my doubts. It's a more complicated process than you might think, Gareth. When it's near their time, the female goes to a birthing clinic where the older matriarchs of the family look after her. The egg is protected beneath a thin membrane on the pregnant nauri's abdomen. It separates from the mother over a period of several days and then hatches. And to answer your next question, yes—it is a painful process.”

  Hickory raised her eyebrows.

  “I was scheduled for a field trip to Prosperine earlier this year,” Jess explained. “It was canceled at the last minute, but I attended one of the vid-briefs before we pulled out.”

  Gareth frowned. “It's...uh, different.”

  Hickory shrugged. “It's weird, I agree, but they're aliens. We need to get used to it. I've got a feeling we'll come across a lot of strange things on this trip before we're done. Okay, guys, that's it. We leave in two weeks. There will be plenty of time for a full briefing once we get under way. We should all be experts on Prosperine culture and customs by the time we get there.”

  Planet Prosperine

  The captain's voice resonated in Hickory's quarters. "Commander Lace, Prosperine is now visible in the forward viewing panel if you'd care to take a look."

  "About time," Hickory grumbled as she swung her legs off the narrow bunk bed. "Three weeks is too long to be crammed in a spaceship with only seven people and the captain's dog for company." She cursed Cortherien for his stubbornness. The Jabberwocky was the fastest transport the IA could provide, but if they'd waited a few more weeks the Prince of Wales would have been available. Slower, yes, but infinitely more comfortable. She showered then pulled on the plastiskin uniform of the Alien Corps. Checking her appearance in the mirror, she pushed a brush through her hair a few times then headed for the viewing area.

  "Dead ahead, commander," said the captain as she entered.

  Hickory gasped. The entire forward bulkhead was taken up by a panoramic view of a dwarf galaxy in Eridanus. Densely packed stellar objects sparkled against a smoky background of interstellar dust with here and there the dull black of nothingness. A window to infinity, thought Hickory, although she knew that what she saw was an image relayed from the ships sensors and displayed on the curved wall of the ovoid spaceship. Prosperine appeared as a small disc, too far away as yet for the sensors to provide clear definition.

  She left the command deck and walked to the multi-purpose mezzanine area that served as a cafeteria-cum-resource library where the passengers and crew could relax, play games, watch training vids or discuss strategy. When she arrived, Gareth was explaining the physics of modern propulsion systems to the junior lieutenant, Jenny Morrison, a pert twenty-year-old just out of flight academy. The two had been inseparable since the beginning of the voyage.

  "You remember the basic theory from your studies, no? Think of light as a series of waves. To move at the speed of light, you need to be able to reach the first wave." Gareth moved one arm like a dolphin swimming until it met his other hand. "Once you get there, the post-light engines can be engaged to jump from the crest of one wave to the next and then to the next and so on. The scientists call it surfing."

  Hickory approached the two, shaking her head. "Is he sending you to sleep with his physics lessons? He's very hard to rein in when he's on his hobby horse."

  Jenny flushed and stammered, "No, no. Not at all, Commander Lace. It's all fascinating. It's just that, well, I majored in communications. I didn't study faster-than-light theory. But I'd love to know how it all works." She looked coyly at Gareth. "And Gar is a great teacher."

  Hickory didn't need empathic ability to know Jenny had fallen hard for Gareth's charm. The junior staffer was keen on him despite all the technical talk, which she probably found as interesting as sumo wrestling. Hickory placed Jenny's arm through her own and walked her to the roboserver. "Tea?" she asked, smiling. "The theory of FTL is complicated, even if you have a double degree in math and physics. It takes a genius like Gar to understand it."

  Jenny nodded, and Gareth gave Hickory a wry smile. He hadn't missed the diminutive of his name.

  Hickory placed her regular order for Lapsang Souchong and carried the teapot and cups to a low table.

  Jenny flopped into an armchair and said, "I can picture the surfing thing. What I don't get is how we reach light speed in the first place?"

  "That's the hardest part," said Hickory, pouring the tea. "Accelerating up to the speed of light to catch that first wave is the key, and it requires massive amounts of energy."

  Gareth continued, "The sub-light engines on the Jabberwocky are powered by an s-nuclear fusion reactor. Charged particles of infinitesimal mass are propelled through a Crumm Accelerator. In layman's terms, the space in front of the ship is compressed, and space behind is expanded so that you create a tidal wave of warped space."

  Jenny looked from one to the other. "A crumb accelerator?"

  "Er, yes," said Gareth, nonplussed. He dipped his finger into his tea and drew an atomic structure on the table. "The fuel source for the reactor is a combination of hydrogen nuclei and an unstable liquid metal called crynid
ium that was first discovered on one of Jupiter's outer moons sixty years ago. It's ultra-rare, and you need to use a lot of crynidium to get to the point where you can switch on the surfboard, but once there, faster-than-light travel takes literally minutes."

  He pointed to Prosperine, now a blue disc, on a nearby viewscreen. "The longest part of the journey is the deceleration phase, at journey's end. We wouldn't want to come out of light speed too close to a planet," he said.

  "But how do we avoid crashing into them when we're surfing?" asked Jenny, sipping her tea.

  Hickory nodded. "That's a good question. In reality, it's highly improbable that our flight would take us that close."

  Gareth sat at the edge of his chair and nodded his head vigorously. "That's right. The universe is a pretty big place, and there aren't as many celestial bodies clogging it up as you might think. Only about 400 billion in our Milky Way," he said.

  "Only 400 billion!" said Jenny, laughing.

  Gareth blushed. "I know it sounds a lot, but if you joined them all together, they would take up a tiny percentage of the Galaxy. There's a lot of empty space and cosmic dust in-between. Our navigation and forward sensor systems piggyback onto the FTL core system, so the ship knows when to take evasive action. The only thing that could cause a real problem is a black hole—and a black hole would be detected by the sensors long before we got there."

  Jenny stared at him. "Wow! I just about followed you up to where you said the Galaxy is empty." She pressed her fingers against Gareth's lips to stop him from talking further. "Which is all I need to know!"

  Jess arrived, catching the tail end of the conversation. "I've never known anyone to get so excited by particle physics," she said, shaking her head.

  "I figure it's better to know why something works, rather than take it on trust, Mother. You might be comfortable landing this thing without understanding why, but I prefer to know the science." Gareth grinned at Jess's gaping expression. He put his hand around Jenny's waist. "Why don't we continue our discussion over a drink, Jenny? There's no point in boring these two oldies with things they don't understand."