Arriving back at his cabin, he threw his exhausted self onto the bunk. Staring at the ceiling and trying to make sense of everything, he lay there for no more than a minute just thinking and listening to the white noise that was the faint, deep monotonous drone of the engines before he fell into a deep sleep.
*
Hayden woke to find himself floating and yet again was held back by that same unseen force. The only problem was that this time there was no planet to be seen. Anywhere. No planets, no stars, nothing. The blackness of this place surrounded him like gothic drapery and he felt very cold. He closed his eyes tightly then opened them so as if to make a world appear before him or set him back on Earth as if this were a dream within a dream. Neither happened. He tried again and again to no avail until suddenly, the force that ensnared him lifted and he felt very light and very free. He closed his eyes at this release and faintly, distantly thought he heard music. He kept his eyes shut and concentrated - yes, it was music and it was getting louder. It was pipe music and unmistakably his father’s. The sound of it, the sense of it, had never left him. He suddenly uncomfortably yearned for home. It had only been a jumble of hours since he’d last heard the music but it felt like an eternity. Frightened to open his eyes for he was sure it would disappear, he didn’t. As he tried to commit the distant tune to memory, he felt himself move to its rhythm and after what seemed a very long time, summoned the courage to open his eyelids slightly. He was met with blackness and the music abruptly stopped. He opened his mouth to shout in frustration but nothing he could conjure was given voice in the vacuum of space.
*
Waking with fright, he wondered how long he’d been sleeping. Looking at his watch; it read ten pm. Almost five hours had passed. His vision was blurry and he flipped himself over so that he was again staring at the ceiling. He imagined the stars above and below and everywhere around him. He was aware that he would be visiting planets unknown to him but familiar to others on board. Cultures he couldn’t have dreamt of, he would see. What discoveries he would make for himself. Excitement began to creep back into his being. He thought of his strange dreams.
The phantom in the desert and the skull. The planets, one Earth-like, the other covered in ocean and his latest dream with nothing but blackness and music. They had to be connected? Was there something important there that he must discover? Could he tell anyone? Maybe it was a secret he needed to keep, a secret he needed to solve. He thought of his mother. Was she really shocked when he mentioned his dream and she dropped the kettle? Did she know of any significance? Did they all know?
His sleepy eyes had just readjusted to the low-light of the cabin when he heard faintly what sounded like metal vibrating in the ceiling. Ventilation, he thought then closed his eyes again.
There was a lot he needed to learn of the workings of the Copernicus and that was something he knew he definitely had to look forward to. There was a knock at his door and it startled him. ‘Who is it?’
‘Captain Baden, Highness. I know it’s late. I’d like to know if you’d care to accompany me on a ship’s tour?’
Hayden scrunched his forehead pensively. ‘Highness,’ he scoffed self deprecatingly. He really didn’t want to go anywhere but the good manners he was taught wouldn’t allow him to ignore Barry.
Standing from the bed he rubbed his eyes and went to straighten his disheveled clothing before realising it wasn’t disheveled at all.
‘Uh? Yeah, coming. Be there in a sec,’ he mumbled as he reluctantly moved toward the door to greet the captain.
No sooner had he brushed his hand over the door sensor than in one step Maddy and Monty invaded his room and had him firmly in an embrace.
‘I’ve missed you, Hayden,’ she gushed, her eyes red from crying.
‘Me too,’ a glassy eyed Monty added.
Hayden looked at his two friends, not really understanding any of the things that were going on. He looked at Maddy, her hair all messed up and Monty with his broken spectacles. It didn’t take too long for him to appreciate that it was better to have his friends on board with him than to have them trillions of kilometers away.
‘Hayd, are you alright?’
He had to think for a moment.
‘I’m fine - I s’pose, considering.’ He smiled slowly at the realisation then suddenly appeared serious. ‘I need to ask...’
‘I can’t believe it,’ Monty interrupted, anticipating his question and he started to explain in the typically feverish manner all were used to. ‘ We were at home the other night. I mean, Maddy was at our house with her parents cos they’d come over to visit mine and they were talking and suddenly said that we were all going out which was weird because it was really late and it was dark outside and all.’ He paused to catch his breath but it was only a slight breath as it was only a short pause. ‘We got all rugged up for the cold and jumped into their car which is newer than ours and has more room so that’s why we took it and we headed toward Jagged Peak then stopped at the old hiker’s trail and got out of the car and trekked halfway up the side of the mountain-’
‘The hiker’s trail?’ Hayden interrupted, really intrigued.
‘Yeah, strange or what?’ Monty continued unabated, ‘In the dark! Did I say that? Yeah I did. We were in the dark. We went up there and Madds and I were told this amazingly ridiculous story about who our parents were and who we were and who you were,-’
Hayden’s eyes widened and he stopped Monty’s gushing with a slight shove to the shoulder. ‘You mean you didn’t know?’
‘We thought they’d gone bonkers!’
‘Wait!’ Hayden interrupted him again. ‘You mean you really didn’t know anything about this until then? Until that moment?’
Maddy stepped forward.
‘Not until they took us up that old trail and showed us a secret door into the mountain could we even consider that what they were saying to us could remotely be true.’
Hayden was so relieved and happy that he wanted to punch the air. His friends hadn’t been lying to him for all these years. They knew as little about who they were as he did himself.
Hayden thought of the mountain. ‘What an incredible thing. A spaceship inside a mountain! A spaceship - just waiting.’
His mood changed rapidly to the positive. This adventure may just turn out to be real fun with my best friends aboard.
‘Wait a minute!’ He realised what Maddy had said. ‘Which secret door into the mountain? ’
‘The one above the hiker’s trail.’
‘There was another entrance inside the mountain?’
Before Maddy could ask what door Hayden knew about, Baden stepped forward and explained.
‘We had a lot of people working in that mountain, what with maintenance crews and the like and we would need to get in or out of there quickly if there was to be any trouble. We couldn’t have crew trekking up to the top of the mountain all trying to squeeze through the smaller entrance.’
‘Makes sense,’ Hayden nodded but he detected there could have been another reason. ‘Why did I have to in through the hut then?’
‘It was the most remote. The barren terrain made it easy to watch over. We had lookout stations around town. The water tower, the school tower, the town hall. You couldn’t afford to be seen entering.’
‘Seen by who?’
‘Are we ready then?’ Captain Baden asked, quickly changing the subject and Hayden could tell that he wouldn’t be able to pursue the question further. Who and why would anyone want to follow me? He’d ask his mother, he was sure that she’d tell him now that it was all out in the open.
‘Hayden?’ Baden asked again. ‘Are we all ready?’
Hayden looked at his friends and laughed.
‘Captain, I think we are.’
They stepped outside into the hallway.
‘Engine room first,’ Baden suggested.
They started to move aft. Along the way Maddy noticed that there were no windows along the corridor and asked why.
<
br /> ‘There are no windows, my dear girl, in case of an attack.’
‘Attack?!’ The three exclaimed in unison, not previously really appreciating that with such an expanded universe could come such expanded dangers.
‘From who?’ Hayden asked.
‘Let me just say-’
He was interrupted by Monty ‘- That all will be revealed?’ Baden didn’t look impressed but Hayden smiled.
‘You too, huh, Mont?’
‘Pretty much until five minutes before you showed up in the mess hall that was just about all we got from anyone here. It’s like when I’d ask mum what we were having for dinner and she’d reply - ’
‘Wait and see?’ Maddy interjected.
‘Exactly.’
‘ Must be the way they do things around here.’ Maddy offered.
Monty was mulling this all too common diversion tactic over, clearly recalling all such moments he’d heard his mother use the same spiel. ‘I hate wait and see.’
‘Let me just say,’ the captain continued, ‘it can be a very dangerous place out here. There are no windows because all sleeping quarters to port and starboard are protected by a thick armoured hull with gel-filled cavities. ’
‘Gel-filled?’ Hayden questioned.
‘ A very special gel, that we couldn’t reach the speeds we do without. Otherwise the ship’s prow would crush back to the stern in the first instant of intergalactic acceleration.’
‘It acts like some sort of an inertial cushion then?’
‘Yes, it’s the magnetic qualities of it that really help. It creates a magnetic field that encompasses the interior of the ship and that’s what absorbs the great shock of our massive acceleration.’
‘That’s some fancy fluid dynamics then.’ Hayden was fascinated. ‘Did you get to see Salar-One? ’ Hayden asked his friends.
‘We did,’ Maddy replied. ‘But not for long. We were told,’ she started to whisper. ‘ That the captain wanted to get away very quickly.’
The Captain, ahead several paces by now but obviously a possessor of sharp hearing, turned back to face Maddy directly.
‘Let me just explain something to you, young Maddy. Salar-One is home and a regular stop to a great number of shady characters that we have the misfortune of having dealt with before. It is a place no captain.’ He paused for a second. ‘ Nobody wants to stay for longer than is necessary.’
‘Why do you go there then? ’
‘Because it’s the only place of supply for at least a half light year in each direction.’
Maddy understood.
‘Parsecs?’ Monty questioned, frowning heavily.
‘A very, very, very long way,’ Hayden answered, listening in while his mind reeled at the thought of the gel at play in the ship’s hull. The passageway had ended and before them was another air-lock. The Captain swiped his hand across a reader, the door opened and he signaled for the others to follow him in.
‘Captain Baden and three guests,’ he announced.
‘Welcome, Captain Baden. Welcome; three guests.’
Hayden felt the soft pin pricks of air on his face that the DNA tester used. ‘Welcome, Prince Hayden,’ the clear female voice added.
Hayden felt embarrassed, especially since he was in the presence of his friends. He didn’t want them to get the inclination he thought he was better than them because of who he apparently was. He certainly didn’t think he was better than anybody.
The inner door opened and all three stepped into the engine room and the three young friends marveled at the hardly recognisable alien machinery. The room was massive and in the centre, three immense orbs that Hayden assumed were the engines were fused together to funnel power into the gigantic propulsion system. Turning to the Captain and elevating his voice over the marked increase in noise, he asked as to how the computer knew his name?
‘Those sensations on your face were tiny jets of air that send biological material - skin particles - into a microscopic filter at the rear of the chamber to read the molecular make up of an individual.’
‘Like in the mountain?’
‘Yes. In your case, you can go anywhere on this ship. ’
‘Anywhere?’ Hayden was intrigued.
Baden smiled. ‘It’s your ship.’
‘Mine? ’
Monty looked at Maddy and they realised at that exact moment that Hayden clearly did not know as much about his situation as they did.
It hadn’t even occurred to him that he’d have such entitlement.
The thought of this grated against his very being as he was really very humble and didn’t care for material things. Some other kids when he was growing up wanted lots of toys and things like fast cars and mansions when they grew up but he just wanted to learn. Tor Baden looked to his prince and noticing his furrowed brow, reminded himself that it was up to Hayden’s immediate family to inform him on such matters. ‘I apologise Highness. I am but your humble servant and should not mention such. ’
The engine room suddenly seemed very quiet.
Humble servant?
Hayden didn’t like the connotation at all. People were people and that was that as far as he was concerned. For him to even consider his old bus driver and friend as a servant to him felt uncomfortable. In the reverse, it also sparked a feeling in him that perhaps Barry - Baden didn’t like him as much as he had thought.
Perhaps all those years he was just doing a job?
Maddy broke the silence. ‘So then, this is the engine room?’
Baden reverted to tour guide and began explaining the workings of the fuel ignition system. Hayden was deep in thought and caught only fractions of the explanations. They were things that would normally have been of the utmost interest to him but now seemed much less so.
Royalty. Pffft.
Baden went on talking. A cooling system, miles and miles of cable and conduit, the bending of space.
Bending of space? Interest instantaneously revived, Hayden stepped forward.
‘I have your attention. Good. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to repeat this later.’
‘Bending of space?’ Hayden pressed.
‘The distances we cover - These very vast distances can only be traversed so rapidly, via -
‘Wormholes?’
‘Yes,’ the captain answered Hayden unsurprised.
‘I knew it!’
‘Wormholes?’ Monty asked.
Baden began to explain. ‘Wormholes are like tunnels that can interconnect points that are separated by ridiculously huge distances.’ Monty began looking the way he looked when things were about to get complicated. ‘Therefore each wormhole can be both an entry and an exit point for travel between locations.’
On seeing that familiar look on his friend’s face, Hayden took over. ‘Mont, imagine that you have a piece of paper and you draw two dots at opposite ends.’ Monty nodded. ‘What’s the fastest way to get from one point to the other?’
After a few seconds Monty suggested ‘A straight line?’
‘Well, conventionally I’d agree that’s the fastest way but think laterally for a moment.’ He waited to see if Monty would twig. He didn’t. ‘The quickest way is to bend the paper up or down so that the two points meet,’
‘And you can pass right through!’ Monty exclaimed excitedly.
Hayden paused and turned back to Baden. ‘I thought wormholes were theoretical and would be at best, unstable anomalies?’
‘Anomalies!’ Baden laughed. ‘Far from it. Wormholes are certainly real and numerous but some I do have to say are quite unstable. They are definitely fact. The ship has hundreds logged in its NavCom.’
‘Hundreds! ’ Hayden echoed, excited by the possibilities.
‘How fast can we travel then?’ Maddy asked.
‘How fast are we travelling?’ Hayden added.
‘Not to sound cliché but we are travelling at what is commonly referred to in Earth pop-culture as hyperspace.’
At that announcement Hayden’s left
eyebrow lifted sharply. ‘Well, at least when we are not tunneling.’
‘As fast as light?’ Hayden asked. ‘That’s impossible, isn’t it? I wonder what Einstein would think of that?’
‘The speed of light is beaten but not surpassed.’ Hayden looked at Baden a little confusedly. ‘It would take many millions of years to travel even at light speed the distances we cut-off by using wormholes. Our knowledge and tech has advanced far beyond Earth’s measure.’
Hayden had to believe that. The proof was inarguable.
‘Tunneling?’ Maddy asked. Hayden knew what he was referring to but was distracted, mumbling softly to himself and rubbing his fingers together, making mental calculations.
‘That’s the term we use for the navigation of a Wormhole.’
Baden watched Hayden thinking intensely. ‘When tunneling, we reach speeds far in excess of what the ship is capable of from its own propulsion.’
‘So the wormhole acts like a slingshot?’
‘Perfect description, Madeline.’
‘How long do we stay in one?’ Monty asked.
‘We don’t actually spend that long inside them. They have a tremendously strong gravitational pull and that’s the force that essentially pulls and pushes us through to the other side.’
‘Other side?’ Maddy and Monty asked together.
‘Our map room has all of our tried gateways marked. They let us traverse our known universe with less energy expenditure but there are others that we have encountered - unstable for the most part that could lead to other universes entirely.’
‘Alternate universes,’ Hayden smiled.
‘And as you’d be aware Hayden, an alternate universe could consist of the same matter including you and me and everything, but be set slightly askew from our own - or not.’
Monty, whose interests clearly didn’t lie in theoretical physics, asked what he meant by a universe askew.
‘What Captain Baden means Mont, ’ Hayden again took it upon himself to explain. ‘ Is that if you could imagine a universe exactly like this one,’ and he waved his arms in a wide arc. ‘With you, Maddy, Barry and me, ’ he paused realising what he’d said but Baden just smiled and motioned for him to carry on. ‘ Us standing in exactly the position we are in now, on this very ship. There could be an exact universe elsewhere with us or, replicas of us, doing exactly the same things but with an infinite amount of variations.’
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 10
