Children of the Old Star

by David Lee Summers

  John Mark Ellis was startled when he realized he could almost see his console. He tried to reach for it, but could not. His neurons, used to working in normal space could not move his arm. He concentrated harder. However, the harder he tried, the less likely he seemed able to succeed.

  Trying a new approach, he relaxed and did not try to move his arm. Instead, he just imagined the act happening. His arm was at the console. Unfortunately, his eyes were not registering the hologram as anything more than a mass of sounds. The captain watched the growl escape his lips. Blinking with some surprise, Ellis sat back and tried to listen. All he heard were teddy bears in the night and a vague sense of green.

  * * * *

  The ship seemed to hit a bump. At least that was the perception that Clyde McClintlock had as the Sanson moved across one of the mysterious nodes that stood in the middle of deep space. “Cluster, where are you?” The whisper rattled his head.

  * * * *

  Ellis felt the ship lurch as it passed a node where none should be. The lurch took Ellis’ mind from thoughts of song. Aboard the Firebrandt such a lurch would not have been noticeable. He wanted desperately to know where the node went. He seemed to sense that answering that question would help him find the Cluster.

  Just as that thought came together, Ellis felt a tightening in his chest as reality converged and the Sanson returned to normal three-dimensional space. His stomach lunged for his throat. The captain grabbed his armrests and fought a desperate need to throw up on the deck. “We can't have been jumping for an hour."

  "One hour three minutes, Skipper,” said Yermakov checking instruments. His smirk made him look even more like a squirrel than before.

  The captain took several deep breaths. That only made the nausea worse. “I take it the ship's okay?"

  "You'll have my report.” The first mate sniffed.

  Ellis only had time to nod before he found himself running back to the lavatory. There, his lunch came up with a fury. He had not bothered to close the door. The captain reddened when he saw Kirsten Smart looking in at him bemused and a little concerned. “The jump was a success, Captain. Make the ship ready to go again day after tomorrow.” She inclined her head. “You might go to sickbay before the next jump. They probably have something that will help the motion sickness."

  A low growl rumbled down in the captain's throat. “Motion sickness, indeed,” he muttered under his breath.

  * * * *

  Kirsten Smart rubbed itchy tired eyes. She had just spent the entire day staring at map data. Standing, she stepped to the drink dispenser and ordered a cup of tea. Returning to her desk, she saved her work and turned on the holo news.

  Clyde McClintlock's face appeared. “Still no word from the missing evangelist,” said the disembodied voice of the reporter.

  "I'll say,” said Smart. She took a tentative sip of tea. “What's Ellis doing with that guy in tow?"

  The door chime sounded. Kirsten turned off the news. It was Clyde with dinner. He placed it carefully on her desk. “Can I bring you anything else, ma'am?” asked Clyde.

  Kirsten smiled knowingly, trying not to look at the bad hair dye job. Why hadn't she noticed it before? With a barely perceptible sigh, Clyde left for Ellis’ quarters.

  * * * *

  "They say the Cluster is out there in the void,” said Clyde McClintlock. He sat opposite G'Liat at the table in Ellis’ cabin.

  Ellis sat on his hands on the bunk shaking his head. “The Cluster is, or belongs to, a three-dimensional entity like us. A fourth dimensional object passing through our dimension would not have as constant an appearance as it does."

  "Why not?” asked G'Liat.

  "If a three-dimensional object passed through a plane, it would appear different as different parts moved through. Even an object as regular as a sphere would appear to change size.” Ellis pursed his lips.

  The warrior rocked from side to side. “I see your point, though I'm not sure it's safe to reach any definitive conclusions."

  The captain snorted. “I do think the deep space nodes hold part of the answer, though. I think the Cluster might be able to use them to navigate."

  "Use them to navigate?” asked G'Liat, genuinely curious. “What makes you think that?"

  "I listened to the lyrics, like you told me. I heard the color green."

  "You heard it too,” said G'Liat nodding. “But why associate green with the Cluster?"

  McClintlock waved the warrior's question aside. “Where do the nodes go?"

  "I think I might be able to use ship's sensor data to determine that,” said Ellis with a smirk. “I think I can set up my console to operate under jump conditions. During the jump, I should be able to use one bank of sensors to scan a node as we pass."

  The warrior narrowed his eyes. “That doesn't sound productive. You should continue to listen to the songs. I too heard the green,” said the warrior trying to return to the original subject. “It seems a clue. Perhaps there are others."

  "Some clue,” grumbled Ellis. “Like you asked, why associate green with the Cluster. If we're not careful, we'll spend all our time trying to find meaning in all the clues. I think programming the sensors will provide more answers."

  "I agree,” said Clyde, slapping his knee. “But why not program the sensors to come on automatically? You might be able to move your arm, but I'd be surprised if the console would register the action."

  "If I programmed the sensors, Ms. Smart would ask questions. I'm not prepared to answer those questions just now.” Ellis dropped from the bunk to the deck. He stepped over to his duffel, pulled out a pedestal and sat it on the table between McClintlock and G'Liat. Turning it on, the hologram of Jerome Ellis standing on the bow of his boat appeared. His hair blew in the wind. The captain stood back and let them watch the holo for a few moments. “For his memory and for the other humans who've died,” said the captain with a determined whisper. “I'll make the console work."

  * * * *

  Putting words into action proved nearly impossible, though. The next day, Ellis spent hours in his office trying to recall how his panel appeared during the jump. From his experiences with jumps, he knew that squares often looked like circles. Unfortunately, as he tried to put his mind to the problem of making a panel that would look like something in the beyond, he found he could not recall exactly how anything looked during a jump.

  After about seven hours, there was a knock at the door. Ellis turned off his console. “Come in,” said the captain.

  A lanky man entered the office. “I'm sorry to interrupt, Captain."

  "Who are you?” asked Ellis, rubbing his eyes.

  "Isaac Aubry,” said the man. “I'm one of the ship's programmers."

  "Oh,” said Ellis. The captain indicated a chair across from him. “Can I get you a cup of coffee? How can I help you?"

  "The computers seemed a bit slow is all,” said Isaac. “That's really unusual. I did some poking about.” Isaac pointed to the captain's holo terminal. “I found that lots of the compute cycles were going to that station."

  "Oh,” said Ellis again, too tired for a snappy come back. “I'm designing a new interface for my console."

  "With 4-D codes?” Isaac back-peddled when he saw the captain's expression. “Sorry, but I got curious about what you were doing and checked it out. You should really encrypt your files better."

  "I'll do that,” said Ellis coolly.

  "Still,” said Isaac, only slightly daunted. “Check out Norton's book on 4-D programming. It's on the net."

  "Okay,” said Ellis. “Sorry I've been eating so much computer time."

  "It's not enough to worry about. I don't think most people would even notice, but I get irked when I even notice a second's delay,” said Isaac. He stopped and wrung his hands noticing the captain's expression. “Sorry, but lots of people play games in the beyond. Keeps them from getting motion sick. I just saw how much time you were spending on the project and wanted to keep you from reinventing the wheel."
/>
  "Thanks,” said Ellis.

  "I hope I haven't overstepped my bounds,” said Isaac.

  "No,” said Ellis with a sigh. “Actually you've helped me a great deal."

  With that, Isaac stood and left. Ellis reviewed the recommended reading and, at last came up with a design that simply consisted of one large red button to initiate scan. He would have to rely on feeling the bump to know when to begin scanning. When time came for the next jump, Ellis brought the display to life.

  Yermakov shook his head when he saw the obscenely simple display. The captain simply sneered in reply and left to make his rounds of the vessel. At last, the jump warning was sounded and the Sanson leapt into the beyond.

  Anxiously, Ellis waited for the bump that would alert him to the presence of one of the deep space nodes. In time, he felt the jolt. With a great force of will, he was able to reach the button. The scan initiated. Ellis held his breath, hoping he would learn something.

  * * * *

  Returning to her quarters after the jump, Kirsten Smart browsed various on-line news archives. Searching for references to Clyde McClintlock, she discovered he had been a colonel on Sufiro's World. As she continued to work her way through the news archives, she learned about the Erdonium struggle. One thread leapt out at her from all the news archives. A commander in the Confederate Navy had negotiated peace. Unfortunately, the news archives failed to give the name of the Commander. Rather, they gave credit to his commanding officer, the admiral Kirsten had heard on the news, Strauss.

  Kirsten sighed. Her intuition was nagging. She felt certain the commander must be Ellis. Looking at Ellis’ record, she noted he was from Nantucket. It took only moments to locate the Nantucket Beacon on-line edition.

  Searching for the last name, Ellis, Kirsten was surprised to find not an article about Sufiro's World, but rather an obituary. The obituary was for a man named Jerome Ellis, killed by the Cluster. Reading a little farther, Kirsten learned that Jerome Ellis was survived by a son: John Mark.

  Kirsten Smart chewed on her thumbnail and wondered how John Mark Ellis, Clyde McClintlock and the Cluster all tied together. She knew that Ellis had met the Cluster and that the meeting resulted in his loss of a military career. She worried about what would happen if Ellis met the Cluster again.

  With a sigh, she turned her attention to the reports. One report came from Isaac Aubry. Generally, she found programmers an annoying lot, however this one often worked with Quincy Markovitz, a cartographer whose work she admired. Her eyes moved along the report. “Maybe it's time I found out what Ellis is doing with 4-D code,” she said to herself. “He may get motion sick, but somehow I doubt he's playing games."

  * * * *

  On Nantucket, Manuel Raton and Suki Ellis poured over holograms of Titans. They watched as Titans danced computer algorithms and intricate holographic displays appeared. Coffin arrived with three cups of coffee.

  "Okay,” said Fire as she pointed to the hologram. “Watch this part carefully. I think they're pulling up an archive of some kind.” Two Teddy Bear-like creatures flung their paws into the air and barred their teeth. They dropped to the floor and wagged their small tails in the air. Fire sipped her coffee. “Think you can do that?"

  Manuel scratched his nose. “Play it one more time. I think we can pull it off."

  Coffin smiled and stirred his coffee. The three watched the holographic movie one more time. Manuel gulped some coffee. “Let's do it."

  Fire and Manuel stood up, each taking a deep breath. They marched around in a circle. After a three-count, they threw their hands into the air. Barring teeth, they growled slightly and dropped to the floor on all fours.

  "You need to get your butts a bit higher in the air,” called Coffin as the office door opened.

  Dorothy Harriman, the gray-haired observatory director, gasped. Fire and Manuel stood up suddenly, straightening their clothes. “Did I interrupt something?” asked Harriman, eyes wide.

  Coffin, Raton, and Fire all shook their heads quickly. “No,” said Fire. “Nothing at all."

  Harriman, her question suddenly forgotten, stepped backwards gingerly, closing the door quietly behind herself.

  GRANDCHILDREN OF CHAOS

  The African veldt, hot, dusty, and dry, had been one of the most alien landscapes the warrior, G'Liat, had ever visited. Traveling alone, he had battled a lion and killed it for his dinner. The lion was the most graceful hunter the warrior had ever encountered. Whenever G'Liat moved around humans, he mimicked the lion at the cost of some comfort but gained a great deal of respect. Even more than the lion, G'Liat had been taken with the drums of Africa.

  The rhythm of the many types of drums wove a pattern that made the warrior wonder if humans understood fourth dimensional reality, what they called the beyond, even before they needed it for space travel. G'Liat's body moved to those rhythms as he listened to a recording of the African drums while working on his assigned task for Kirsten Smart. His job was to map the deep space nodes where the gravitational forces of unknown objects interacted with the forces of stars in the galaxy; the same thing Ellis had hoped to accomplish.

  Pungent incense burned while he worked. Looking at the perfumed smoke, he saw it travel upward and break into turbulent eddies. Humans, with their talent for metaphor, often worried about the deep space nodes. Too often, they thought of space, not as a vacuum, but as a medium like water or air. They were afraid that as they jumped from star to star within the galaxy, they would suddenly be caught in the turbulent wake of one of those nodes and swept off to some unknown place in the universe. Romantic fictions had even been based around the notion. Fortunately, thought G'Liat, gravitational forces decrease with distance and whatever caused these nodes was very far away.

  The warrior pulled up a holographic display of the nodes he had mapped to date during the journey. The Sanson had made seven jumps into the beyond since leaving Earth. During those three weeks, Clyde McClintlock brightened. He spoke often of the cooks and their sensations of the Cluster in the beyond. On the other hand, John Mark Ellis’ mood darkened. His beard was getting long and shabby and he spent all of his time either in his quarters or in his office. The captain was growing frustrated. His surreptitious scans revealed nothing. Of course, Ellis only had access to one bank of sensors, not enough power to get clues to the distant origins of the nodes. G'Liat knew that Ellis was close to sensing the Cluster in the beyond without the aid of ship's equipment. With his natural sensitivity, Ellis ought to be able to lead Sanson right to the Cluster. The warrior tried to get the captain to see, but was frustrated in his efforts. Ellis insisted that using the ship's technology was the answer. In the end, G'Liat decided Ellis would have to come around on his own.

  The warrior put his worries aside for the time being and concentrated on the task at hand. He overlaid holographic maps of the deep space nodes from previous missions of the Sanson. The warrior's body seemed to list sideways. Gracefully as possible, he worked the human's clumsy interface controls and pulled more mapping data off the intergalactic network. Overlaying all the maps he began to sense a pattern.

  He set the controls to display the maps in time sequence. Watching the animated maps, G'Liat noted that the deep space nodes had a limited lifetime. They would appear, travel through the beyond, then evaporate. Whatever caused the nodes was not only distant, it was moving.

  The warrior rubbed his chest. Although he knew that a space vessel could not get caught in one of these nodes, he began to wonder if a specially designed ship like a mapping vessel could navigate one. He also wondered if any deep space nodes as strong as those within the galaxy had ever been charted and if so, how long did they last? Much as Ellis wanted to scan the nodes for himself, G'Liat suspected the answer could be found some other way.

  G'Liat stood, deciding it was time to ask Kirsten Smart a few questions.

  * * * *

  Suki Firebrandt Ellis and Manuel Raton stepped off a shuttle and walked across the gangway into the human pressur
e dome on Saturn's moon, Titan. According to her travel documents, Fire had come for the weekend to do some research in the vast Titan library. Manuel and Fire obtained lodging for the next couple of nights. Alone in their room, Fire and Manuel reviewed the dance steps and motions they believed would be necessary to obtain the information they wanted from the Titans’ central computer. “Okay,” said Fire. “Now, it's time for you to find where the Gaen Navy has its space suits hidden, and I will find out where the Titans have sequestered their central computer."

  * * * *

  G'Liat stepped into Kirsten Smart's office aboard the Sanson. As he passed through the command deck, the warrior noted that Ellis was absent. Fleetingly, the warrior wondered where the captain was brooding. “How are you coming with your task?” asked Smart. She was a being that believed in coming quickly to the point of any conversation. G'Liat found that refreshing among humans.

  "Quite well,” said G'Liat, carefully modulating his voice to sound as human as possible. “I have charted all the deep space nodal points we've encountered to-date.” The warrior sat down across from Smart's desk. He did not sit because it was more comfortable; rather he sensed it put the humans around him at ease. “I have a question or two."

  "What Rd'dyggian wouldn't?” Smart smiled. “I have a question or two for you, as well. But, let's hear yours first."

  "What do you know about theories regarding the movement of the deep space nodes?” G'Liat inclined his head, even though it hurt his stomach.

  "Ask a dozen astronomers and you'll get a dozen answers,” shrugged Smart. “My favorite theory is that they're caused by large planets that have broken away from solar systems."

  "It's your favorite because you're a romantic. You imagine yourself being stranded with someone on one of those worlds.” While the warrior judged Smart to be sentimental, it did not change his opinion of her. She was a strong willed in a way that seemed almost Rd'dyggian.