Al, busy on weapons responded, “No, the hostile is gone. I tried to track it, but it moved faster than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s gone.
Before we had a minute to think about things, Iwona spoke up. “Sir, we have an unknown ship hailing you.”
“Can you take it?” I asked
“Sir, you want to see this.” She replied
“Fine, put it up on the big holo-screen,” I said.
The screen came to life with a view of a ship’s bridge. Seated in the captain’s chair was a familiar man wearing a pair of Lola coveralls. I never expected to see him again. Liam Horan spoke in his distinctive brogue. “Good, I see I have both Jack and Chris on the bridge. I wanted to let my sweet darling daughter know not to fret. Her loving father is safe. I can’t visit for long, we’re traveling too fast for that. Tell the General I’m sorry for the loss of his shuttle and of course for his men. Sometimes sacrifices must be made to prove a point. Oh Jack, think about naming one of your little ones Liam Tracey. It really does have a good old sod ring to it.”
The screen went dark before we could reply.
Chris sent a message off to General Mauer. He included our video of the incident as well as the message from the Rapparee. The General called for a conference with all the ship’s captains including Chris and me. We moved to the bridge’s conference room and I pulled up the meeting on the wall mounted screen. I’d once considered installing a holographic conference table but after considering the cost and huge data band-with it needed, I went with the traditional method. Each Captain’s video was in a smaller box around the edge of the screen. The center of the big screen was the General.
After a minute of waiting for all the captains to join in, the General began. He started off by showing the video feed we’d sent him of the shuttle’s destruction. “Have any of you ever seen a ship with that capability?” No one had. He then showed the message from the Rapparee. “Jack was this live or previously recorded?” He asked.
“It had to have been live. He’d requested I name a future child after him while he was here on the Lola. He was also wearing coveralls with our logo on the pocket. He died in the shuttle less than five minutes after we saw him. I saw him aboard the shuttle and saw the shuttle leave our hangar. Our cameras followed the shuttle up to its destruction. I don’t know how this could be.”
Chris had been on his pad responding to an urgent message from Thom Rustack. He interrupted me and the General. “I want to patch in one of our people with some information. General I suggest you make this between us for now.”
The General asked the other Captains to be patient while he paused their feeds. “Chris this had better be good.”
“Yes sir, I think it is,” Chris said.
Chris pulled Thom’s feed into our conference with the General. “Go ahead, Thom. Tell the General what you were telling me.”
“General, I’m Thom Rustack. I am ship’s engineer aboard one of Captain Tracey’s ships. I’ve been evaluating the Trolls ship found in the cavern. There are some very interesting developments. First, Dr. Mariano has deciphered most of the Runic writing on the dash. We are certain of the translations. They have begun work on a program that will convert these Troll Runes into English in real time. It should be finished within the hour. Fascinating equipment on this Troll ship. I can learn a few things from the design.”
The General interrupted, “Mr. Rustack, if you could please get to the point, we are in a bit of a time bind right now.”
“Yes sir, that’s exactly the point I am getting to. This ship runs completely by computer and AI. Both rely on quantum computers utilizing our friendly little green Carbonado diamonds. Shine a light on some of the works, and the green reflection will blind you. Anyway, I spoke yesterday about the possibility that this was a warp drive. You know, a ship that warps the space-time continuum to travel great distances faster than light itself could travel the same distance. This was always a dream for space travel ever since the name was coined on a low budget twentieth-century television show. Many argued it was impossible and, yet the idea continued.”
Thom paused to take a sip of water. The General was getting impatient and cleared his throat to hurry him along.
“The idea is, it warps the Space-Time Continuum to move over great distances in space. No one thought about using it to warp time, not just space. Well, that is we never thought about using it that way.” Thom said.
The General sat forward in his seat very interested in what was now being said. “You mean this ship…”
“Yes sir, the Trolls ship did more than travel at speeds greater than light, it could also move forward and back in time. I think that might explain what you experienced with the shuttle explosion.”
The General sat back in his chair. A look of shock on his face. “That means the Rapparee have this technology, doesn’t it? This rewrites the entire book.”
Thom replied, “Yes sir, it does. The entire book.”
Notes from the Author
I hope you enjoyed Rapparee – The Regeneration as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is the fifth book in the Journey of the Freighter Lola series. While it falls into the science fiction genre, I feel there is more to it then science fiction. I tried to make the book about the characters rather than the technology even though the technology is what makes a story sci-fi and not fantasy.
To accomplish my goal of remaining sci-fi, I tried to keep my technology as realistic and grounded in fact as possible. Of course, I used some literary license. This is fiction and based on a time almost five hundred years in the future.
In this novel and in the second book in the series, I introduce the Carbonado diamonds. They really exist here on earth. They are believed to be caused by a collision of a meteor and the earth, although that is under question by experts.
They are usually black to dark brown in color. I took the liberty of making my diamonds a brilliant green. Green diamonds do occur when they are exposed to high levels of radiation. I combined the two and made the green Carbonado diamonds of this story.
For more information on Carbonado diamonds, you can go to:
https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/summer-2017-carbonado-diamond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone_irradiation
One friend criticized my work saying there wasn’t enough tech in the stories. After all, it is a Sci-fi story based in the future. I saw his point and I tried to address this issue in this book. My theory is some things just don’t change because they work so well. Provided they continue to be the easiest method they continue to be used.
Case in point, the wheel. First created around 5500 years ago it has remained in use as the primary method of surface transportation. The materials of its construction have changed but it still does the job better than anything else. People dream of hover cars and maglev transportation, but you still see wheels rolling along where ever you go.
For more information on the wheel look at:
https://www.livescience.com/18808-invention-wheel.html
The Trolls along with their quad-helix DNA are a product of my imagination. Of course, if it were true it would explain so much, wouldn’t it?
Much of the quantum computer information is a complete mélange of information I’ve read over the years and is compiled here with a liberal dosage of literary license.
The active camouflage idea is based on several different ideas being researched by the military and more can be learned about the idea here at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_camouflage
My mother’s side of my family is all Irish. Her parents were both born in Ireland and came to the USA early in the 20th Century. I ask their forgiveness in casting my villains as Irishmen. Ireland has a great history cloaked in pagan and Christian folklore. I like to show their love of song and story in my work.
The Rapparee existed in the 17th Century. They were bandits and highwaymen who fought against the English. There were many songs written about them and one was recorded
by the Clancy Brothers. That is where I first learned of them. Here is a link to the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem singing the Outlawed Rapparee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Uj_Nf5tOg. This is the same song Liam Horan sings on the Lola.
I mention tachyons in this book. Tachyons are hypothetical subatomic particles theorized to always travel faster than the speed of light. I took a great deal of license with this term. I like the word and have heard it mentioned in other sci-fi stories. To learn more, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon .
In 1994, a Mexican Physicist named Alcubierre proposed that allows travel faster than the speed of light by creating a wave in the space-time continuum where the space ahead of the object contract and the space behind to stretch. This created a wave or warp of the space. Even more information is available online beginning at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive .
Finally, I delved into the idea of teleportation. I’ve read several books concerning this recently. The idea of breaking down a living being into a data stream at one location and sending it to another location brings up moral and legal issues I hadn’t thought of before. First, the process of digitizing the original person destroys that person. They are killed. Even if the person is transported willingly a homicide is committed. Now that the person is a data file can it be duplicated more than once? If the original person owns property who is the new owner? Can modifications be made that might effectively lead to immortality? For the religious reader, the idea of a soul comes into play. Does the soul go to the newly created body? What if there are multiple copies made? Are they soulless? Is it any wonder Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy didn’t like to be transported?
I plan to write at least one more book in the Journey of the Freighter Lola series. There are so many questions still to answer. If you have enjoyed the series, you may like to go to my blog https://bobweisskopf.com/ and Join the Journey. I’ll notify you whenever I have new releases in the series or release other work.
I hope I’ve entertained you with my book and look forward to writing more for you. If you’ve enjoyed this book or any of the other novels in the Journey of the Freighter Lola series, please go to http://amzn.to/2AtBL4F select the title and leave a review.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy your journey,
Robert Weisskopf
About the Author,
Robert Weisskopf retired in 2012 from the Chicago Police department as a Lieutenant after 30 exciting years. Drawing upon his experience as a divorced father of three sons he first tried his hand at a small book on cooking. Dining, not just Eating targeted the single dad or anyone new to the kitchen. It wasn’t so much a book of recipes as it was a philosophy towards cooking and preparing meals that were tasty and easy.
After his success with the book he decided he enjoyed writing and continued with Hardcore, The Journey Begins, book one in the Journey of the Freighter Lola series. He draws upon the many characters he’s met and dealt with through his career in law enforcement and works to make his stories more about the people than the tech.
Rapparee_The Regeneration Page 18
