I walked past my shared memories towards the big heavy bulkhead leading to the bridge of the ship. A little world within a world. The main controls of the ship were all put in an extra durable shell that doubled as a rescue craft in case that one had to abandon ship. It had been just a little interplanetary skiff in the past but now it boasted a small hyper-drive able to jump a few dozen light years hopefully towards safety.
This was a part of the ship were I fought a fight against my own tastes and somehow lost. The main bridge was a large open room in the style of the great exploration ships of the Golden Age of Expansion. Made of wood and stone reflecting a time when the terranoids had spread like wild fire from their native galaxy into the infinity of space, their ships reflecting this expansion by replacing the industrial design of ships that had come before with opulent finely crafted works of art that spoke of the pride of a species that had overcome the last hurdle before becoming completely free, reflecting the giant leap it had done in tall the exotic materials it harvested from all the strange worlds it had claimed for itself.
I walked through the bridge only pausing shortly at the navigation table in the middle to download the navigation solution from the port authority. That done I continued past a opalescent crystal hatch leading to the stairs down to the cockpit from where the entire ship could be piloted by one person. This one was far more modern and practical in design. This was a place dominated by lights, and switches set into sleek synthetic materials. Still vintage this part of the ship was moulded around the designs of the Rouge Republics of old. The great if ultimately doomed social experiments that had led to a second wave of great exploration. This was partially my sign of respect towards Kanno who had made his name in that time and space but also because back in those days the engineers were using a lot of hardy mechanical partially because they didn't have anything better and partially because these parts while not the smallest or most elegant would take enormous amounts of punishment without breaking and where easily repaired. And a good design was a good design there were some things that simply didn't become obsolete. Despite all of our advancements the wheel was still doing its rounds in every civilisation.
Lastly these type of cockpits had evolved over centuries focused around lone explorers during the last time when this kind of exploration was still wide spread. At least as far as I was aware of. The universe is a big space after all.
I sat down in the captain's seat. Always a childish pleasure. I could never suppress a smile when I did this. Being the captain of my own ship somehow never got old. I felt the ships interfaces coming alive syncing with my mind opening up subliminal bridges exchanging information with the parts of my brain that had been expertly tuned over time to fly this ship. The command chair moved forward towards the dashboards which on their part bloomed towards me taking their flight control configuration.
What followed was one of my absolute favourite parts. I have to admit I had many favourite parts but this one was among the greatest of them with one exception. It took out the crystal key to the ship from my pocket. This part was among the most expensive addition to the ship after the installation of the pulsar reactor. Having an ignition fitted into the ship had required tons of redesign work and had probably cost the design of a few good palaeo-engineers. The key was made of clear crystal woven through with various impurities giving it its specific shape and composition. Even without a function it was beautiful glinting with a slightly unreal light.
I pushed the key into the ignition and with my grin growing broader turned it.
With a deep roar the main engine came to life sending tremors through the ship. The dashboard came to life its many lights and display starting to blink and flow through its start-up routines. Outside the lights of the ship flared to life while inside the ship the artificial gravity tightened up as it synchronized itself to the inertia-buffers as well as the repulsion field outside that made the ship float on its own power.
Feeling the pull of the tubes and hoses connecting the Void Dancer to the port of Dead End made me remember the time when...
"James." Pentyl's voice was soft, husky and very close to my left ear.
"Yes?"
"First: don't reminisce and fly, that's how accidents happens. Second: if you take another trip down memory lane before we reach the Sentinel Fortress I am going to punch you. Hard."
"I've not been zoning out." I protested.
"You have not been able to take three steps today without going all glassy eyed today."
"Really."
For a moment a pattern of redish waves flowed down in front of my in what was Pentyl's gaseous form of a nod. "You've been at it all day. I understand that the loss of Kira is taking its toll. But you're not going to be able to pull her out of your memories. No matter how hard you try."
"Right. Let's do this." I said pulling out my star charts. I opened a communications channel. "Portos, this is Captain James Steiner Gutierrez of the Void Dancer requesting clearance for take off."
"Acknowledged Captain Steiner. You are cleared to approach star-way 15-z. You are assigned an ascending departure vector."
"Roger." I gave the command to release all connections to the port. The supply lines fell off leaving a cloud of steam in their wake. In front of us the outer wall of the port dissolved leaving the shimmering veil of the hermetic field behind. I gently nudged the Void Dancer forward using only its repulsion field to taxi out of the port towards the star-way.
"Don't all those lights distract you?" Pentyl asked.
It took me a moment that she was talking about the indicators on the console. "Those are actually the instruments used to navigate the ship." I said.
"How do you do that you only have those two eye for seeing." she said deeply sceptical.
"We call it field of vision." I said. "I do have to admit though that I am amazed that in the pest people could pilot ships only using these instruments."
"How you made it into space will ever remain a mystery to me." Pentyl said.
While she was musing about the improbable twists of evolution that had taken us down from trees and up into endless space I focused on getting the ship into the star-way. I let my mind slide deeper into the perception field of the ship trying to get a feeling for the flows of gravity around us. Using repulsion fields was pretty straight forward when inside one dominant gravity field making them popular for just getting off planet. But once one was inside the gravit flow of several large objects things started to become tricky. Like say when you were near a planet, tethered to an orbital ring inside the gravity field of a star. If you wanted to make it really complicated just add several dozen ships using diving engines moving around just 'below' real space.
"Aren't you going to switch off those repulsors?" Pentyl asked making herself comfortable in the driving back-seat.
"Nope." I said trying to feel the subtle ripples in the flow of gravity to push the Void Dancer towards star-way 15-z. "We need to move out into the green zone before I can engage our drive. To much traffic below the surface today."
"Why don't you use the small hyper-drive you have installed to get us out there?" she asked.
"How do you know about the hyper-drive?" I asked trying not to get to distracted as I balanced the ship against the sub-dimensional currents crashing against the port.
Pentyl did one of her optical shrugs. "I'm pretty much everywhere apart from the room with that milk-foam machine..."
"Right." I still had to get used to her right now making up part of the air in the entire ship. "Well the hyper-drive is mostly intended as an emergency device, it is calibrated to move the evacuation skiff and changing the power-source is a pain in the arse. Using the repulsion field is quicker and far less of a hassle."
"If you say so..." said Pentyl.
I said so and I meant it too. Once we had cleared the spoke and the orbital ring I very carefully started up the thrusters of the Void Dancer.
"Compress me solid and ignite me into a star!" Pentyl swore. Even as a gas she felt the sudden constriction of the inertial dampers trying to prevent just that as the ship suddenly accelerated to nearly the speed of light in only a few seconds. A really good pilot could use a repulsion field to ride a gravity stream for some impressive accelerations. I called it the wet soap in clenched fist effect.
"0.9 c." I said. "Who needs a hyper-drive now. We'll be at the edge of the green zone in about two hours and that's the point where things will get really interesting." My comment was emphasised by a further tightening around us as the ship was shoved several light seconds of course by a passing diving ship.
"This is already quite interesting enough for me." Pentyl said through clenched molecules. "Do you know that despite the forcefield your hull is distorting?"
"Yes I can feel it." the skin of the ship was undulating under the forces exerted by gravity and acceleration. A pleasant feeling not unlike the stream of air when one flies an open craft. "It's all perfectly fine and the ride will get smoother the further we move away from Dead End."
About two hours and some very choice expletives from Pentyl later we reached the green zone. According to the data given to me by Portos there were no sub-dimensional ships anywhere near us that I could accidentally blow back into normal space here so I was finally free to engage the faster than light drive. The ship instantly became more stable. The slight crushing feeling exerted by the inertia damper vanished and the hull felt solid again.
"Finally." Pentyl said. "I hate it when the dampers do that."
"Oh the most exiting part is yet to come." I said as I shifted my mind into the navigation system of the ship. In front of me a pretty but for the moment rather pointless three dimensional star map appeared. I showed one star Saint Saviour and apart from that a lot of nothing with a fine glowing line arcing into the dark. Saint Saviour lay very much in the middle of nowhere. It was a star that had either lost its galaxy a very long time ago or had never had one to begin with. The closest galaxy being 12 million light years away.
I concentrated on our course. The first few millions light years were easy enough. There was only Hadalag slightly in the way but we could comfortably curve around it. The most problematic bit was one half way through where we had a galaxy cluster over one hundred light years long that we had to wave through. After that our course was not as densely packed as before but that made it extra tricky not to hit anything, the irregular intervals of star fields followed by empty interstellar space made it hard to concentrate.
"Are you reminiscing again?" asked Pentyl.
"No I am calculating our course. While we will be able to punch cleanly through any planet of star once we get going neither we nor what ever we hit will survive that encounter. Something I think we might want to avoid." Once I was done determining a course I let the board computer go over it adjusting for innumerable factors that would slightly change the course of the ship and to re-calibrate obsolete positional data. Once that was done I triple checked it by pushing my mind along the entire route feeling it out, adding more distance to stellar objects here, passing a bit closer to a super massive black hole for that extra kick of velocity there, the usual pre-flight tweaks.
"OK. Done. Ready to go Pentyl?"
"Ready."
I activated the navigation computer that projected our path of flight into my field of vision. Right now it filed the entire cockpit but as we increased in spead it would narrow down more and more showing how to fly towards our destination.
I shifted around for a last time making myself comfortable.
What came next. That was my most favourite moment of them all.
I pushed the physical accelerator of the faster than light engine forward. We pushed out of the Saint Saviour system towards the light of distant stars. The darkness in front of us filling with the light of suns that had until now been to faint to be seen. Slowly space in front of us turned into a shining field shifting first into blue then into the purest white as the Void Dancer ground into the light barrier. No the engine really came to life its deep throated roar filling the entire ship. The hull now felt like a liquid flowing with our direction of flight.
"This... this is..." Pentyl said.
"Fantastic isn't it?"
"I... what is this...?" there was a hint of panic in her voice.
"Pentyl, have you ever broken past the light barrier before?" I asked now slightly worried.
"Yes..." she said with a breathless voice. "But never... never like this."
"Oh shit." I said.
And then reality shattered.
Tuesday, 25 November 2014
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Project: Superluminal 008
I believe that making the Void Dancer my home was a good idea. My friends, my parents and my sisters thought I was being slightly crazy. Everyone told me that a terranoid needs to plant his roots firmly in the ground. Have a proper house. An unmovable anchor in time and space. I tried pointing out that there were countless cultures out there which didn't do that. I got a response very much along the lines of 'And see where that got them.'
One needs to know which battles to fight and which leave to go and fuck themselves. This one was one of them. I extracted some grim pleasure for the fact that it was as much a lost cause for the others as it was for me. And I got to zip away in my faster than light home, while they could cultivate their reservations in their immobile gardens for all I cared.
By now I was getting the impression that the common wisdom was wrong. I could see it in other people. Anchoring themselves in one place they had to return there regularly or risk the memory of it fading. Most people established their museums there too. Again forcing them to go back there and stay there longer and longer if they wanted to maintain their memories. And of course there were also the ghost houses that were pointedly ignored by the adults in nearly every street in the universe where the owner never returned. For children it was of a great adventure to break into one of those houses or at the very least peer through its windows and try to find out what kind of person had left that house behind.
To my parents this was not cause for alarm but rather a sign of decadence of the common rich. Funny how every social class found a way to describe every other class as lesser as themselves. The common rich where those who had all the money but none of the eduction or who at least lacked the drive for it that the intelligentsia had. For the academic class these people looked suspiciously like the idle poor. Wasting their money on frivolities their jobs usually not involving neither the production of goods nor the advancement of the species. Many of the more abstract artists had a tendency to be common rich and their designs and art often did carry strong resemblance to the works of the driven poor, who despite the lack of encouragement and tools pushed to create their own works and leave their mark on the universe necessity and social propriety be damned.
So most of the houses that remained dark for decades 'obviously' belonged to someone who had gone common. Bought more houses on more planets and was obviously either far to busy to return home or what would be even worse had forgotten where they came from. Forgetting ones origin was the most horrible fate that could befall any terranoid. Served them right though. At least according to my parents. Well at least they were keeping the tradition of embarrassing their children alive. I bet even during the Golden Age of Expansion the children of the great explorers and founders were mortally shamed by their famous progenitors with a carelessly uttered sentence betraying their narrow-mindedness.
When your home travels with you, you don't have to worry about losing touch with it. And maybe it was because the Void Dancer was a bit of a derelict when I got her but she grew with me. When I got it it was the ship in which Alejandro Kanno built the foundation of his legend. By now it was mine. Kanno would probably recognize bits and pieces of it, but most of it was changed. I had gone even more retro than it all-ready was adding wood panelling to pretty much every part in the living quarters. getting rid of most of the obvious technological crutches that were installed by Kanno to drag the ship into the present replacing them with modern subatomic machinery that did a better job while being pretty much invisible. While going the other way for the important mechanical parts of the ship.
I got in touch with a paleo-engineer to rip out most of the added tat from the engine restoring it to its prime condition. Then we spent the next five years slowly rebuilding everything the engine needed to stop being a death-trap to becoming as safe a modern engine this kind of propulsion system would ever become, while and this was really important keeping its character.
My first stop after boarding the ship was the engine room. This was an old ritual. I'd have to do it after every prolonged stop anyway however when I had the chance I would take the time and do it anyway. There was something about going to the heart of your ship go over through all the checks even, actually especially when it was not really called for. Maybe that was the romantic in me, but that's the way I captain is supposed to treat a ship.
"It this... is this",Pentyl said greeting me in the engine room, "some form of sculpture?"
"What exactly?" I asked.
"Everything?" Pentyl said. "Like those giant tube things lying across the room and the circular thingies going through it, and all those tubes? I am really not sure where to being."
"That would be the engine." I said rather amused. There was a time when this reaction was getting a bit old. Whenever someone new entered the engine room the reactions usually were similar. But somehow I discovered the funny side of it and had come to enjoy this part.
"What is the engine?" Pentyl asked the scent of caramel becoming dominant a clear sign that Pentyl was having difficulties getting to grips with a situation.
"All of it."
"Even this floppy bendy bits?" she asked one of the flexible tubes started to wave gently surrounded by a light red mist.
"Yes even that floppy bendy bit. And please don't pull it off as it would fill the room with superheated and poisonous plasma." The tube stopped wobbling and the glow dissipated.
"Isn't that dangerous for you?" Pentyl asked.
"No, that tube is specifically designed for that function."
"But you just told me that it could come off." Pentyl insisted. The smell of caramel becoming stronger. This was slowly turning into one of those conversations.
"Yes if you yank it around with enough force."
"So how is that not dangerous?"
"Because there is no one here that would do that on purpose and it is actually not that easy to take it off. I just wanted to make sure it remained there because I know how curious and more importantly how strong you are."
"Yes but what if something horrible happens and the thing goes off?" Pentyl said.
"Horrible like what?"
"A meteor strike." she said.
"Most meteors would not get past the ships force field and even if they did they would not break the hull."
"But some could." Pentyl pointed out.
"Pentyl, if something actually got past the Void Dancer's shields and hull armour I would have far greater worries than that hose detaching."
"Hmph." the scent of caramel slowly faded giving again way for the red berries. "A single block design would still be far more secure and efficient."
I shrugged. "Sure but this ship was built long before single block engines."
"Hmmm... Well I can't sense past the surface of this monstrosity, so I guess it may be more safe than it looks like... wait. What's this?" This time the glow appeared around a medium sized squat apparatus made of steel.
"That's a coffee maker." I said.
"I don't understand."
"It is a coffee maker. It makes coffee."
"And nothing else?"
"No. Just coffee."
"That's ridiculous. Why would you not use a compiler for your coffee? And what is it doing in the engine room?" Pentyl asked, the smell of caramel slowly increasing again.
"Well keeping the engine running smoothly requires quite a bit of maintenance so it's good to have decent coffee around."
"So you keep your self awake doing complex mechanical work by making coffee with an unnecessarily complex machine?"
"Not the way I would put it. But in a way, yes." I said.
"What's this then?" a metal nozzle attached to the coffee maker wobbled a bit. "It seems to be some kind of... valve." Pentyl said the last word with disgust tainting her voice.
"That's for steaming milk."
"What's milk?"
I explained to Pently what milk was.
"That is utterly disgusting..." she said. "And from another species? What is wrong with you organoids." a shiver went through the air.
"How about letting me check the engine so that we can set into space. If you want to help me you can check the integrity of the hull for me. That might distract you from the milk problem." another shudder went through the room.
"Gladly." Pentyl said. The red tint quickly vanishing from the room.
"Oh and Pentyl?"
"Yes?"
"As this ship is a very old design you'll find many valves and air ducts, stuff like that. Be really careful around them some of them lead to really unpleasant places and it might be that not all of them inside the ship are properly hardened."
There was a moment of silence while the sense of berries became stronger. "Thank you James. I doubt anything inside this ship could seriously harm me but I appreciate your warning."
And another strange reaction from my alien friend. Sometimes I was not sure if she didn't do that on purpose just to make sure that she was really from an utterly different branch of life that had only the chemical elements with us in common. But then on the other hand life followed similar paths no matter what form it took. In the end communication was always possible because some concepts were shared among all of us. I shrugged letting my mind synch up with the ship. Connecting to the ship flooded me with a warm feeling. The ship was at rest, its systems slowly pulsing in time with those of the port keeping it in a peaceful slumber. I flexed into its structure paying close attention to how everything felt. The hull felt warm and good, the internal ship systems smooth, only the atmosphere was slightly off tinged with a reddish haze with a taste of berries. I suppressed the very slight compulsion to turn on the emergency air-pumps to filter Pentyl out of the air.
Lastly there was the engine. It felt great. The ships muscles were well toned itching to be used. I paused for a moment waiting to see if there was some subtle itch or feeling that something maybe be not quite right but as far as I could tell the ship was ready to go. I walked over to the control panel of the engine, one of my favourite pieces aboard the ship apart from the helm. I had installed real physical interfaces here. Monitors, a holographic projector and my favourites real mechanical switches. It was maybe childish but there was a deep satisfaction of pushing buttons, reconfiguring a holographic interface and flipping those shiny metal switches. The displays flicked into life filling the room with their many coloured light and the ships drive hummed into life. I loved the sound of the archaic ignition turbine coming to life the transparent parts of the engine starting to glow as the plasma inside of them was starting to flow turning brighter and brighter as it became energised. The ship shuddered. The main engine had woken up replacing the whine of the turbines with a deep murmur that filled the entire ship with a slow rhythmic purr.
"Pentyl what's your analysis?" I said walking toward the bridge.
"Your ship may look like it escaped from an archaeological dig but the hull is impressively sturdy. I am rather surprised as it seems to be even better built and sealed than a modern ships hull." Pentyl said.
"Pure necessity, this type of ships have to withstand more strain than any other type of faster than light craft. Anything else?"
"No. We are fine. The internal structure isn't as massive as the hull and there are some weak spots that you might want to reinforce one of these days to increase overall hull stability but as long as you are not planning to place your ship on a planets surface and drop asteroids on it we should be fine. Last point the gas circulation system of this ship has a few points were hazardous gasses could mix with your breathing air in case of an error during maintenance."
"Really?" I had had no idea that the ship had any structural flaws much less possible problems with life support. "You'll have to tell me more about all that in detail once we are on our way."
I walked through what once a long time ago had been the astrogation room. Housing giant computers allowing the Void Dancer to reorient herself after each of her jumps. Now the large space was the made up the main living quarters. It contained two floors that wee built into it using mostly natural materials. Mostly wood and leather. Materials which were easy to obtain but hard to turn into a finished product as there were hardly any people left who knew how to work with the materials. And why would you if you could get a vastly superior product out of a compiler which would automatically scale and fit what ever you wanted into the room of your choosing.
When Kira had entered my life this room was still a bit of an experimental disaster zone mostly filled with furniture and objects which I had fit into the space slowly approaching my vision. She liked the general idea but wasn't all that impressed by the general execution. A few weeks later when I returned from work a wooden shelve had started growing up the fore wall. Kira had compiled some historical tools and was starting to teach herself how to get things done properly. At first I was rather busy starting to stop her destroying the fragile order of my personal chaos. In time I gave up the resistance letting myself get carried with the flow of her enthusiasm. Again one of these magical moments of symbiosis. Suddenly the situation clicked turning us from two people with different ideas and perspectives into one team with an unifying vision complementing each others efforts.
I had not been in this room for a while. Seeing it hurt. This was our room. Everything here was a shared reality that I had crafted with Kira. Everything here reminded me of her. If I turned away from the shelves that had grown first, my eyes feel on the table that she had made out of 'leftovers' of material I had used to make the cockpits new classic style dashboard. On it lay the physical star-maps we had bought together during our travels. In every place we stayed we looked for antiquaries and junk dealers trying to find some beautiful stellar-maps showing the local constellations to track our voyages.
"These are beautiful?" said Pentyl her form coalescing over the map table into her elegant long limbed travel persona. "May I?", she asked pointing towards a map.
"Be my guest." I said. Pentyl took a rolled up white map, which she smoothed down into a white square on the table. She activated the map which filled the room with light scanning its surroundings cautiously expanding into the available room filling it with shining stars, glinting galaxies and luminescent nebulas, rushing them past us as the map tried to figure out its position in the universe. It took it a while to discover that it was out of bounds deciding to centre itself showing a scenic view of its contents with a blueish glow growing more intense towards one direction indicating the most probable direction we were to be found according to its own internal calculations.
"Tasty." said Pentyl with a hint of surprise savouring the faint radiation of the map. "This is one is spectacular. Where did you get it?"
"I'm not quite. Let me have a closer look." I touched the physical part of the map to interface with it, manually working myself through its archaic controls to find the first marked location. A sun the colour of ember appeared above the table, it has the form of a sitting bird of prey, wings neatly folded head bowed bright solar eruptions illuminating its eyes. "Ah..." I said memories flooding over me. "The Faclon Star. Kira was on Hercules the ocean planet over there," I pointed towards an aquamarine coloured star near the door where I had entered the room. "She spent half a year there learning the basics of stellar sculpting while looking for a master that could teach her the art."
"Never heard of that place." Pentyl said.
"It's pretty much on the other end of the known universe. Very nice place and one of the greatest if you are into any kind of culture. Very strange people in that they don't really differentiate between the idle poor and the working class, full of artists and weirdos. The food there is also great." I always forgot that Nebulans don't eat, Pentyl told me once when I was drunk on expensive booze and she on some kind of exotic radiation that she took it as a compliment, "The weather there is just crazy though. It will rain there one minute only for the sun to pretty much come out of nowhere and shine from a blue sky feigning innocence."
"We should go there sometime." Pentyl said looking at the blue spot. "Sounds like a great place."
"Yes it's special place. We should all go there one day." All three of us I thought.
"But you know where we should go first?"
"No?"
"The Sentinel Fortress, your girlfriend won't undisappear all on her own."
"Are you sure?" I asked feeling a knot tightening in my gut.
"No. Are you?"
"No. Let's get going.
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Project: Superluminal 007
From that day on the Void Dancer had been my ship. Through the centuries it had become my home my own museum and my main memento. I could tie pretty much every important part of my life in some way to her. I remember Kira coming to visit me there after her shift. I lived in the Void Dancer when I was working for that hell hole of an analytical company. My ship was filled with enough positive memories to keep me going, to give me hope that being utterly humiliated by a bunch of overpaid morons every day would come to an end. That one day I would blast off into space.
Back in those days I had a string of bad runs combined with a serious attack of pride. Real, true prospecting was going to unknown systems or at the very least to systems of unknown status. You went there and made a thorough examination of the star, the planets, flora and fauna if applicable the works. Proper, scientific ground works which opened up the universe a little bit further for the sentient species inhabiting it.
But all to often 'prospecting' was being sent to an established system to some high tech planet or agricultural world and check it out for the client. There is a certain point in the expansion of a civilisation where it simply gets to big and there is no way to keep things together any more. The civilisation either splinters or stops expanding or loses as many worlds as it gains. Which leads to millions of worlds having not the slightest clue what is happening on other worlds that they are supposed to know about. So they send out prospectors to check those worlds out and gather intel for them.
These days I like to do those jobs. They are usually very well paid milk runs where you get paid including expenses for what basically is updating a travel guide. Back then I could not bring myself to do that kind of job. It was just not right. I'd rather starve to death than compromise my ideals. These days I called that a paid vacation. Well in the end there I was with the Void Dancer grounded. By then I had already installed the pulsar reactor that fed the driver but the reactor was all out of juice and reloading it was expensive. Very, very expensive. The tank of the ship was so thoroughly empty that I could not even fly over to Saint Saviour's sun and go sun-jumping for a while.
So I had to do the fucking job in a slow race to see what would happen first, would I get enough money to at least refuel the energy tanks of the Void Dancer or would my soul die first. To this day I do wonder what I would have done. Jump from the orbital spoke or join the idle poor?
Probably the spoke. Sooner or later the port authority would have impounded my ship had I not paid for the hangar space. And that would have been spoke time.
But not all was bad. Obviously I met Kira. I got intoxicated by the way she saw the world. We could talk from sundown till dawn along a broad range covering pretty much every subject, or just watch the sky over Dead End slowly shifting from day to night, or listen to music in mutual silence simply sharing moments in life adding depth to them just by being there.
I would rather expose my self to the vacuum of space and the hard radiation of a blue super giant star than ever go back to the fucking shit hole of a 'job' but if I went back in time and had my emotional scars removed, I'd go back there just as to get to know Kira again. The job may have almost cost me my soul. But she added so much to everything else in my life and once the job was finally done she remained that I would do it all over again every time.
Now that she had vanished I was prepared to fly into the depths of hell just to bring her back into this reality.
The Void Dancer was in peak condition, the pulsar reactor was still going strong and my heart was burning with resolve.
"Where the dissipation have you been?" Pentyl said, her voice coming from everywhere at once.
"Talking to Portos to get the ship ready to fly?" I said.
"And that took you an hour?" Pentyl asked. I looked around but she was nowhere to be seen. I could smell her signature scent wild-berry scent though. It was almost overwhelming.
"I wasn't away one hour." I protested. Still trying to find out where she had condensated.
"Either you lost track of time or you need a new clock." Pentyl said. "You were probably reminiscing again."
"I wasn't. Well I might have been remembering a few things. But I was certainly not reminiscing." I protested.
"Were too." the still invisible Pentyl said.
"I'm to young for that kind of shit!" I protested. Only really, really old people spaced out like that. I wasn't that old.
"Well you are reaching the age where you organoids increasingly get lost in those repugnant brain things of yours and ever since Kira dissipated you have been drifting off into your happy space with increasing regularity. If I did not know you better I'd be starting to worry about you." Pentyl said.
"There's no need to worry yet." I said closing the airlock behind me moving into the main port side corridor. Still no trace of Pentyl apart from the smell. "Where the fuck are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding."
"Oh really? And where are you then?"
There was a short pause. "Here."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Did you fall over while reminiscing and hit your head? I am here. With you. Aboard your ship." Pentyl said with as much exasperation in her voice as I was feeling.
"I know that you are aboard the ship. But where exactly are you? It's far more comfortable to talk to you when you are actually mostly in the same room as I am."
"We never travelled together before." said Pentyl stating a fact.
"Nope." I said.
"Probably a misunderstanding then. Remember how you told me to go into the ship and make myself at home?" she asked.
"Yes." I said wondering where this might lead.
"This is me being comfortable. I am actually here in your ship. All of it. When I relax I let go of the containment field and just expand. This is more or less my natural form."
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh. If you prefer I can take a more organoid form." Pentyl said.
"No. Sorry. It's OK. A bit strange, but OK." no that I knew that she was, well everywhere I could see that everything was tinged very slightly red. "Is there anything I have to do so that you are safe?" I asked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Well seeing that you are now pretty much a gas cloud dispersed all over my ship, do I need to seal of the air-vents leading to the oxygen recycler something like that? I think the reactor is hermetically sealed but I am not sure about its cooling system."
Pentyl laughed. A strange sensation as I heard her laugh and saw it in form of a subtle heat flicker in the air. "Don't worry." she said. "I can take care of my self and hold myself together well enough to not rush into any machine parts that might damage me." she giggled again. "But I appreciate the thought. It's sweet."
Back in those days I had a string of bad runs combined with a serious attack of pride. Real, true prospecting was going to unknown systems or at the very least to systems of unknown status. You went there and made a thorough examination of the star, the planets, flora and fauna if applicable the works. Proper, scientific ground works which opened up the universe a little bit further for the sentient species inhabiting it.
But all to often 'prospecting' was being sent to an established system to some high tech planet or agricultural world and check it out for the client. There is a certain point in the expansion of a civilisation where it simply gets to big and there is no way to keep things together any more. The civilisation either splinters or stops expanding or loses as many worlds as it gains. Which leads to millions of worlds having not the slightest clue what is happening on other worlds that they are supposed to know about. So they send out prospectors to check those worlds out and gather intel for them.
These days I like to do those jobs. They are usually very well paid milk runs where you get paid including expenses for what basically is updating a travel guide. Back then I could not bring myself to do that kind of job. It was just not right. I'd rather starve to death than compromise my ideals. These days I called that a paid vacation. Well in the end there I was with the Void Dancer grounded. By then I had already installed the pulsar reactor that fed the driver but the reactor was all out of juice and reloading it was expensive. Very, very expensive. The tank of the ship was so thoroughly empty that I could not even fly over to Saint Saviour's sun and go sun-jumping for a while.
So I had to do the fucking job in a slow race to see what would happen first, would I get enough money to at least refuel the energy tanks of the Void Dancer or would my soul die first. To this day I do wonder what I would have done. Jump from the orbital spoke or join the idle poor?
Probably the spoke. Sooner or later the port authority would have impounded my ship had I not paid for the hangar space. And that would have been spoke time.
But not all was bad. Obviously I met Kira. I got intoxicated by the way she saw the world. We could talk from sundown till dawn along a broad range covering pretty much every subject, or just watch the sky over Dead End slowly shifting from day to night, or listen to music in mutual silence simply sharing moments in life adding depth to them just by being there.
I would rather expose my self to the vacuum of space and the hard radiation of a blue super giant star than ever go back to the fucking shit hole of a 'job' but if I went back in time and had my emotional scars removed, I'd go back there just as to get to know Kira again. The job may have almost cost me my soul. But she added so much to everything else in my life and once the job was finally done she remained that I would do it all over again every time.
Now that she had vanished I was prepared to fly into the depths of hell just to bring her back into this reality.
The Void Dancer was in peak condition, the pulsar reactor was still going strong and my heart was burning with resolve.
"Where the dissipation have you been?" Pentyl said, her voice coming from everywhere at once.
"Talking to Portos to get the ship ready to fly?" I said.
"And that took you an hour?" Pentyl asked. I looked around but she was nowhere to be seen. I could smell her signature scent wild-berry scent though. It was almost overwhelming.
"I wasn't away one hour." I protested. Still trying to find out where she had condensated.
"Either you lost track of time or you need a new clock." Pentyl said. "You were probably reminiscing again."
"I wasn't. Well I might have been remembering a few things. But I was certainly not reminiscing." I protested.
"Were too." the still invisible Pentyl said.
"I'm to young for that kind of shit!" I protested. Only really, really old people spaced out like that. I wasn't that old.
"Well you are reaching the age where you organoids increasingly get lost in those repugnant brain things of yours and ever since Kira dissipated you have been drifting off into your happy space with increasing regularity. If I did not know you better I'd be starting to worry about you." Pentyl said.
"There's no need to worry yet." I said closing the airlock behind me moving into the main port side corridor. Still no trace of Pentyl apart from the smell. "Where the fuck are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding."
"Oh really? And where are you then?"
There was a short pause. "Here."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Did you fall over while reminiscing and hit your head? I am here. With you. Aboard your ship." Pentyl said with as much exasperation in her voice as I was feeling.
"I know that you are aboard the ship. But where exactly are you? It's far more comfortable to talk to you when you are actually mostly in the same room as I am."
"We never travelled together before." said Pentyl stating a fact.
"Nope." I said.
"Probably a misunderstanding then. Remember how you told me to go into the ship and make myself at home?" she asked.
"Yes." I said wondering where this might lead.
"This is me being comfortable. I am actually here in your ship. All of it. When I relax I let go of the containment field and just expand. This is more or less my natural form."
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh. If you prefer I can take a more organoid form." Pentyl said.
"No. Sorry. It's OK. A bit strange, but OK." no that I knew that she was, well everywhere I could see that everything was tinged very slightly red. "Is there anything I have to do so that you are safe?" I asked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Well seeing that you are now pretty much a gas cloud dispersed all over my ship, do I need to seal of the air-vents leading to the oxygen recycler something like that? I think the reactor is hermetically sealed but I am not sure about its cooling system."
Pentyl laughed. A strange sensation as I heard her laugh and saw it in form of a subtle heat flicker in the air. "Don't worry." she said. "I can take care of my self and hold myself together well enough to not rush into any machine parts that might damage me." she giggled again. "But I appreciate the thought. It's sweet."
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
Project: Superluminal 006
"Does it still work?" I asked looking at the strange plane. I had never seen one of its kind before. I guessed that it must be some kind of ancient cargo-hauler from a time before voretx rectors took hold of the universe allowing to twist material pretty much instantly from one place to the other within a solar system.
"Yes." said Kanno "She still flies." still looking at the craft his eyes gazing intently at a point in the distant past.
"She?" I asked Kanno was old fashioned even for an ancient. I hadn't ever heard anyone talk of their transports in the second person outside of stories set in the Golden Age of Expansion. Surely Kanno couldn't be that old. I looked at him more closely. However apart from the museum and his inexhaustible cache of practical knowledge there wasn't anything showing that he was older than his mid twenties.
"Yes. Every once in a while you will come across a ship that is special." his eyes clouded over even more, he shivered a little as he spoke. Being so close to his memento being actively asked questions about it pushed him back into his past, igniting his memories. "This ship was my first." His smile broadened radiating centuries of deep comfort. "I rescued her." his eyes twitched around following the action of his adventure long past.
"From what?" I asked. People in this state usually were so distracted by their vision that one had to either follow them into their vision, an option that was clearly out of the question, this was something you only ever shared with your closest friends or you had to gently coax the details out of the people.
"Have you ever heard of the Republic of Xhanuoe?" he asked looking me in the eyes for a brief moment.
I shook my head. "No."
"It was far away. Dissolved a long time ago." his smile turned melancholic. "That was a wild place. Back then the Republic was pushing a lot of radical ideas, trying to really form a new society adjusted for the infinity of space. Built on the principle of a constant forward momentum. That was a great time to work as a freelancer. I'd been a prospector back then already. Around that time I was travelling with Livi and Kesley two mercenaries I had hired for protection for a mission who in the end decided to hand around seeing that my job always brought me into trouble and them into the thick of it. And of course Polyhex our 'scientist'." Kanno snorted.
"Polyhex? A nebulan?" I asked.
"Yes." Kanno said chuckling shaking his head. His gaze now firmly focused on the past. "Can you imagine that? The Nebulan War was hardly a century over. There was still a lot of extremely bad blood on both sides and Polyhex was always such an easily incensed fellow."
"Literally or figuratively?" I asked remembered then one time Pentyl had burned a hole in the door to my flat on Dead End when I had stumbled back to intoxicated for the door to recognize me.
"Both! And he was a great nebulan scientist!" he said his eye locking with mine again for a moment, building a bond on our shared experience with the nebulans peculiarities.
"So," I said "he was pretty sit at organoid science."
"Yes! He was usually busy studying us while being utterly worthless at any kind of task even a first year student could have handled. Be he had other abilities. So instead of going for the usual research assignments we tended to go for the Quasar Burst pile." Kanno stood up making a sweeping gesture stressing the peculiarity of their situation back then. The 'Quasar Burst' pile was still in use among prospectors today describing missions that were usually some shade of crazy, supposedly named after the Quasar Burst network that once upon a time had distributed news to the universe that were working hard to to out do the works of fiction of that time.
"Those were really exiting times back then. I still remember that one time when..."
"... you got your ship?" I said trying to gently steer his train of thought back to the original topic.
"Right. We were on a mission on a planet with no official name. It was designated Junkyard 17 as it was one of those planets which had reached some form of high tech civilisation but never made the leap to the stars. One of those that dies a sudden death after its civilisation crashes. This one had the added bonus that people had discovered the planet and used it as a convenient dumping ground to get rid of their own trash turning it into a sphere of corrugated metal and broken synthetics."
"What were you doing there? A disposal run?" the most desperate of missions. Dumping someone else's junk for a bit of money.
"No. Even worse. We were there on a stage zero claiming expedition."
"You were prospecting a junk-yard planet for resource recovery?"
"And colonisation." Kanno added.
"That's utterly crazy." I said.
Kanno's grin just broadened. "Isn't it? That's why we took it. Cost us barely anything. We could keep what ever we found there and could take with us and if the mission yielded anything leading to planetary recovery or even a colony we'd get 0.005% royalties."
"Royalties?" I asked my eyes growing wide as my mind considered the implications. Especially with so large a cut.
"Yes. We were also told to go look for survivors of the cataclysm that had befallen that planet who might help us uncover the secrets to its now lost technology."
"That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in my entire life.", a long life filled with ludicrous things, "Would it not have been easier to invest into a straight jacket for the one giving you the mission?"
"Probably. But those were other times back then. It was really a magical era. It's the crazy missions that have the greatest payout when they work."
"And did it work?"
"Of course not. But we also had another reason to go there. Our ship the Skipper was always just one dive from breaking apart. That's also where the name comes from. The diving engine was unstable kicking us out into real-space ever so often. So we flew like a well thrown skipping stone to the junk-yard world mostly hoping to find some spare parts to our ship. We did pretty well out of that run. While the world was just a giant pile of rubbish there were some choice parts to be found down there thanks mostly to the exotic senses of Polyhex.
After getting into a spot of trouble with another party of scavengers who were objecting to our right of exploitation and a tactical retreat we found ourselves inside
a crashed cargo ship we found lodged deep within an ancient pile of rubble. It must have crashed there from orbit. And there we found her." said Kanno pointing at the Void Dancer. "Looking a bit worse for the wear but mostly intact."
"So the freighter crash-landed on the planet and still had a working aeroplane within it? Why did the people aboard not use it to gather supplies?"
"Aeroplane?" Kanno looked confused snapping back to the present for a short moment.
"Yes?" I said.
"The Void Dancer is a space ship you idiot."
I was to surprised to be offended. "That thing," I said pointing at the Void Dancer, "is a space ship?"
"For fucks sake... kids these days." Kanno said exasperated and with a bit to little irony for my liking. "Yes that over there is a space ship. It will also fly in most gaseous atmospheres and hydrospheres. It's even stellar hardened letting it withstand the corona of all but the most ferocious stars for up to 36 hours."
I didn't know what to say to that. On one had that claim was clearly preposterous on the other hand Alejandro Kanno was a legend among prospectors, he hardly would lie about his ship... "But does that not make it even stranger that it was inside the ship, unused?" I decided to follow the most sane train of thought open to me.
"No because most of the people died during the crash and the few survivors were trapped within the ship unable to escape before the air ran out." Kanno said. "Besides the Void Dancer is a sun-jumper."
"Ah what?"
"It is a sun-jumper. An ancient ship class."
"How do you jump suns?" I asked slightly confused.
"What?"
"Sun jumping. How do you do that?"
"I was getting there." Kanno said. "Back in the most ancient past we solved the secrets of travelling faster than light before we knew how to produce enough energy to actually power these engines. The sun-jumpers were the first ships to cheat their way past that problem. They would fly to the star of a system and syphon the power of the sun directly into the drive, allowing them to jump from sun to sun."
"Oh. That's kind of clever." I said and after short consideration. "And also fucking dangerous. I would not want to hang around so close to a star for a prolonged time."
"No. It is very dangerous. But back then people would take the risk just to reach further into the infinity of space. Well. So there we were standing in front of this ancient ship with an empty tank. the people inside the freighter did not make it out in time but one of the technicians managed to leave behind a psychic imprint of himself containing enough information for us to be able to notify his next of kin and the knowledge of how the Void Dancer works on a basic level. The imprint told us that even if he was to die the Void Dancer was a good ship that had been fulfilling its duties for a long time. He wished that maybe one day at least the ship they were transporting back to be upgraded would continue its voyage through the stars."
"How did you get it off the junk-yard?" I asked.
"With great difficulties. Antique or not we were not going to leave a faster than light ship behind that was legally ours to take. This lead to another much more violent confrontation with the other scavengers. They destroyed half of Polyhex, almost killed Kesley who had to auto-crystallise to save his arse, I lost my left arm almost bleeding to death while setting the Skipper on a collision with the scavenger ship. Only Livi came out of it mostly unharmed but she felt like she now had a loaded fate making her paranoid from that day on.
And that was when we discovered that the Void Dancer had a true faster than light drive."
"Really?" I said looking again at the metal beast dominating the centre of the hangar with new found respect. And fear.
"Really."
"How did that first journey go?" I asked.
"Bad. We hardly knew what hit us. But going beyond the speed of light lets you travel very far, very fast. So at least it did not take us long to return back to our base of operations. Of course we nearly crashed into the planet."
"What? Why?"
"Turns out that real faster than light drives don't drop out of hyperspace or anything but decelerate back into reality."
"Ouch. How did you survive?" I asked.
"By being lucky enough to crash into the ocean and not onto the continent. That's also how we found out that the Void Dancer can also operate underwater."
"So did you manage to get Kesley back?" I asked becoming aware that during the story the ship in front of me had slowly turned from an ancient air cargo lifter into a ship of legend. Somehow I had the feeling that it was now filling out much more of the space of the hanger than before.
"I... I can't remember." Kanno said. He turned around facing the Void Dancer again, his face clouded by confusion. "I guess we did. I have many memories of him. Some of them aboard the Void Dancer so we must have saved him... somehow."
"Do you remember what became of the others? Livi and Polyhex?" I asked.
Kano stood there staring at the ship concentrating hard, trying to remember. Finally he shook his head. "I don't know. I can't even remember why we stopped working together. Just that one day I was working alone again." His smile had faded away leaving behind confusion and loss.
"Did you come to see me for any particular reason or did you just want to hear an old man reminisce about the past?" he said trying to force himself back into the present.
"I wanted to ask you about a claim." I said feeling that my request suddenly seemed rather insignificant. "There is a group of islands that a few friends and I'd like to stake a claim on. We think we can turn that spot into a special place."
"I thought you were looking for a ship, James." Kanno said.
I forced a feeble smile through a decent workout. "I did look."
"What changed your mind?"
"The price tag. Right now it's a sellers market for ships. Not a good time to invest in one."
"Very sensible of you." Kanno said making it sound like an insult.
"I have no choice. Also those islands look good. I was here to talk about the price. If you cut us a good deal we will be able to build something special at that place."
"And what about your ship?"
I shrugged. "It will have to wait. Once the development of the islands yields results we will be making money, then it's just a matter of time. I'll recoup my investment and ship prices will eventually drop. Everybody wins." I was trying to sell that idea as much to him as to myself.
Kano looked at me for a while saying nothing. I did not dare interrupt his thoughts afraid that any kind of intervention would make the situation worse. He then turned back to the ship looking at it. His eyes glazing over again as the memories washed over him again. A bitter sweet smile dawned on his lips. He stood there for a long while just starting at the Void Dancer while I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
"I want half of your resources." he said.
"That is a very generous offer!" I said a bit to amazed at the low prize for the claim to ask why he just wanted half of my resources. "We can afford to pay you more and you can have a cut of our profits. We don't want preferential treatment."
"I was not talking about the claim." Kanno said. "I'm talking about here." he pointed to the ship. "You give me half of your resources and I give you my ship."
"What... I... I couldn't... no..." I stammered.
He turned back around fixing me with his eyes that were perfectly focused on the present again. However his sad smile remained.
"Look around you James. Look." he slowly waved his arms around gesturing all around him. "Don't you see it. Here is an ancient ship, built to travel to the furthest corners of the universe. A bit dilapidated perhaps. Certainly not state of the art but perfectly space worthy. A formidable ship with a great history stuck inside a cargo freighter surrounded only by ghosts." the sadness spread from his lips to his face.
"Take the ship James. I am settling down here for good. Leaving her here is wrong, this ship needs to fly and so do you."
"But all your memories..." I protested.
"I will try to cling to them. If they can't survive with one less memento they can't have been so important to begin with."
"But..."
"It's OK. It's time to let go."
"Yes." said Kanno "She still flies." still looking at the craft his eyes gazing intently at a point in the distant past.
"She?" I asked Kanno was old fashioned even for an ancient. I hadn't ever heard anyone talk of their transports in the second person outside of stories set in the Golden Age of Expansion. Surely Kanno couldn't be that old. I looked at him more closely. However apart from the museum and his inexhaustible cache of practical knowledge there wasn't anything showing that he was older than his mid twenties.
"Yes. Every once in a while you will come across a ship that is special." his eyes clouded over even more, he shivered a little as he spoke. Being so close to his memento being actively asked questions about it pushed him back into his past, igniting his memories. "This ship was my first." His smile broadened radiating centuries of deep comfort. "I rescued her." his eyes twitched around following the action of his adventure long past.
"From what?" I asked. People in this state usually were so distracted by their vision that one had to either follow them into their vision, an option that was clearly out of the question, this was something you only ever shared with your closest friends or you had to gently coax the details out of the people.
"Have you ever heard of the Republic of Xhanuoe?" he asked looking me in the eyes for a brief moment.
I shook my head. "No."
"It was far away. Dissolved a long time ago." his smile turned melancholic. "That was a wild place. Back then the Republic was pushing a lot of radical ideas, trying to really form a new society adjusted for the infinity of space. Built on the principle of a constant forward momentum. That was a great time to work as a freelancer. I'd been a prospector back then already. Around that time I was travelling with Livi and Kesley two mercenaries I had hired for protection for a mission who in the end decided to hand around seeing that my job always brought me into trouble and them into the thick of it. And of course Polyhex our 'scientist'." Kanno snorted.
"Polyhex? A nebulan?" I asked.
"Yes." Kanno said chuckling shaking his head. His gaze now firmly focused on the past. "Can you imagine that? The Nebulan War was hardly a century over. There was still a lot of extremely bad blood on both sides and Polyhex was always such an easily incensed fellow."
"Literally or figuratively?" I asked remembered then one time Pentyl had burned a hole in the door to my flat on Dead End when I had stumbled back to intoxicated for the door to recognize me.
"Both! And he was a great nebulan scientist!" he said his eye locking with mine again for a moment, building a bond on our shared experience with the nebulans peculiarities.
"So," I said "he was pretty sit at organoid science."
"Yes! He was usually busy studying us while being utterly worthless at any kind of task even a first year student could have handled. Be he had other abilities. So instead of going for the usual research assignments we tended to go for the Quasar Burst pile." Kanno stood up making a sweeping gesture stressing the peculiarity of their situation back then. The 'Quasar Burst' pile was still in use among prospectors today describing missions that were usually some shade of crazy, supposedly named after the Quasar Burst network that once upon a time had distributed news to the universe that were working hard to to out do the works of fiction of that time.
"Those were really exiting times back then. I still remember that one time when..."
"... you got your ship?" I said trying to gently steer his train of thought back to the original topic.
"Right. We were on a mission on a planet with no official name. It was designated Junkyard 17 as it was one of those planets which had reached some form of high tech civilisation but never made the leap to the stars. One of those that dies a sudden death after its civilisation crashes. This one had the added bonus that people had discovered the planet and used it as a convenient dumping ground to get rid of their own trash turning it into a sphere of corrugated metal and broken synthetics."
"What were you doing there? A disposal run?" the most desperate of missions. Dumping someone else's junk for a bit of money.
"No. Even worse. We were there on a stage zero claiming expedition."
"You were prospecting a junk-yard planet for resource recovery?"
"And colonisation." Kanno added.
"That's utterly crazy." I said.
Kanno's grin just broadened. "Isn't it? That's why we took it. Cost us barely anything. We could keep what ever we found there and could take with us and if the mission yielded anything leading to planetary recovery or even a colony we'd get 0.005% royalties."
"Royalties?" I asked my eyes growing wide as my mind considered the implications. Especially with so large a cut.
"Yes. We were also told to go look for survivors of the cataclysm that had befallen that planet who might help us uncover the secrets to its now lost technology."
"That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in my entire life.", a long life filled with ludicrous things, "Would it not have been easier to invest into a straight jacket for the one giving you the mission?"
"Probably. But those were other times back then. It was really a magical era. It's the crazy missions that have the greatest payout when they work."
"And did it work?"
"Of course not. But we also had another reason to go there. Our ship the Skipper was always just one dive from breaking apart. That's also where the name comes from. The diving engine was unstable kicking us out into real-space ever so often. So we flew like a well thrown skipping stone to the junk-yard world mostly hoping to find some spare parts to our ship. We did pretty well out of that run. While the world was just a giant pile of rubbish there were some choice parts to be found down there thanks mostly to the exotic senses of Polyhex.
After getting into a spot of trouble with another party of scavengers who were objecting to our right of exploitation and a tactical retreat we found ourselves inside
a crashed cargo ship we found lodged deep within an ancient pile of rubble. It must have crashed there from orbit. And there we found her." said Kanno pointing at the Void Dancer. "Looking a bit worse for the wear but mostly intact."
"So the freighter crash-landed on the planet and still had a working aeroplane within it? Why did the people aboard not use it to gather supplies?"
"Aeroplane?" Kanno looked confused snapping back to the present for a short moment.
"Yes?" I said.
"The Void Dancer is a space ship you idiot."
I was to surprised to be offended. "That thing," I said pointing at the Void Dancer, "is a space ship?"
"For fucks sake... kids these days." Kanno said exasperated and with a bit to little irony for my liking. "Yes that over there is a space ship. It will also fly in most gaseous atmospheres and hydrospheres. It's even stellar hardened letting it withstand the corona of all but the most ferocious stars for up to 36 hours."
I didn't know what to say to that. On one had that claim was clearly preposterous on the other hand Alejandro Kanno was a legend among prospectors, he hardly would lie about his ship... "But does that not make it even stranger that it was inside the ship, unused?" I decided to follow the most sane train of thought open to me.
"No because most of the people died during the crash and the few survivors were trapped within the ship unable to escape before the air ran out." Kanno said. "Besides the Void Dancer is a sun-jumper."
"Ah what?"
"It is a sun-jumper. An ancient ship class."
"How do you jump suns?" I asked slightly confused.
"What?"
"Sun jumping. How do you do that?"
"I was getting there." Kanno said. "Back in the most ancient past we solved the secrets of travelling faster than light before we knew how to produce enough energy to actually power these engines. The sun-jumpers were the first ships to cheat their way past that problem. They would fly to the star of a system and syphon the power of the sun directly into the drive, allowing them to jump from sun to sun."
"Oh. That's kind of clever." I said and after short consideration. "And also fucking dangerous. I would not want to hang around so close to a star for a prolonged time."
"No. It is very dangerous. But back then people would take the risk just to reach further into the infinity of space. Well. So there we were standing in front of this ancient ship with an empty tank. the people inside the freighter did not make it out in time but one of the technicians managed to leave behind a psychic imprint of himself containing enough information for us to be able to notify his next of kin and the knowledge of how the Void Dancer works on a basic level. The imprint told us that even if he was to die the Void Dancer was a good ship that had been fulfilling its duties for a long time. He wished that maybe one day at least the ship they were transporting back to be upgraded would continue its voyage through the stars."
"How did you get it off the junk-yard?" I asked.
"With great difficulties. Antique or not we were not going to leave a faster than light ship behind that was legally ours to take. This lead to another much more violent confrontation with the other scavengers. They destroyed half of Polyhex, almost killed Kesley who had to auto-crystallise to save his arse, I lost my left arm almost bleeding to death while setting the Skipper on a collision with the scavenger ship. Only Livi came out of it mostly unharmed but she felt like she now had a loaded fate making her paranoid from that day on.
And that was when we discovered that the Void Dancer had a true faster than light drive."
"Really?" I said looking again at the metal beast dominating the centre of the hangar with new found respect. And fear.
"Really."
"How did that first journey go?" I asked.
"Bad. We hardly knew what hit us. But going beyond the speed of light lets you travel very far, very fast. So at least it did not take us long to return back to our base of operations. Of course we nearly crashed into the planet."
"What? Why?"
"Turns out that real faster than light drives don't drop out of hyperspace or anything but decelerate back into reality."
"Ouch. How did you survive?" I asked.
"By being lucky enough to crash into the ocean and not onto the continent. That's also how we found out that the Void Dancer can also operate underwater."
"So did you manage to get Kesley back?" I asked becoming aware that during the story the ship in front of me had slowly turned from an ancient air cargo lifter into a ship of legend. Somehow I had the feeling that it was now filling out much more of the space of the hanger than before.
"I... I can't remember." Kanno said. He turned around facing the Void Dancer again, his face clouded by confusion. "I guess we did. I have many memories of him. Some of them aboard the Void Dancer so we must have saved him... somehow."
"Do you remember what became of the others? Livi and Polyhex?" I asked.
Kano stood there staring at the ship concentrating hard, trying to remember. Finally he shook his head. "I don't know. I can't even remember why we stopped working together. Just that one day I was working alone again." His smile had faded away leaving behind confusion and loss.
"Did you come to see me for any particular reason or did you just want to hear an old man reminisce about the past?" he said trying to force himself back into the present.
"I wanted to ask you about a claim." I said feeling that my request suddenly seemed rather insignificant. "There is a group of islands that a few friends and I'd like to stake a claim on. We think we can turn that spot into a special place."
"I thought you were looking for a ship, James." Kanno said.
I forced a feeble smile through a decent workout. "I did look."
"What changed your mind?"
"The price tag. Right now it's a sellers market for ships. Not a good time to invest in one."
"Very sensible of you." Kanno said making it sound like an insult.
"I have no choice. Also those islands look good. I was here to talk about the price. If you cut us a good deal we will be able to build something special at that place."
"And what about your ship?"
I shrugged. "It will have to wait. Once the development of the islands yields results we will be making money, then it's just a matter of time. I'll recoup my investment and ship prices will eventually drop. Everybody wins." I was trying to sell that idea as much to him as to myself.
Kano looked at me for a while saying nothing. I did not dare interrupt his thoughts afraid that any kind of intervention would make the situation worse. He then turned back to the ship looking at it. His eyes glazing over again as the memories washed over him again. A bitter sweet smile dawned on his lips. He stood there for a long while just starting at the Void Dancer while I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
"I want half of your resources." he said.
"That is a very generous offer!" I said a bit to amazed at the low prize for the claim to ask why he just wanted half of my resources. "We can afford to pay you more and you can have a cut of our profits. We don't want preferential treatment."
"I was not talking about the claim." Kanno said. "I'm talking about here." he pointed to the ship. "You give me half of your resources and I give you my ship."
"What... I... I couldn't... no..." I stammered.
He turned back around fixing me with his eyes that were perfectly focused on the present again. However his sad smile remained.
"Look around you James. Look." he slowly waved his arms around gesturing all around him. "Don't you see it. Here is an ancient ship, built to travel to the furthest corners of the universe. A bit dilapidated perhaps. Certainly not state of the art but perfectly space worthy. A formidable ship with a great history stuck inside a cargo freighter surrounded only by ghosts." the sadness spread from his lips to his face.
"Take the ship James. I am settling down here for good. Leaving her here is wrong, this ship needs to fly and so do you."
"But all your memories..." I protested.
"I will try to cling to them. If they can't survive with one less memento they can't have been so important to begin with."
"But..."
"It's OK. It's time to let go."
Project: Superluminal 005
Home.
Such a strange concept. A place that one feels secure. Home is a part of the family, the structural extension to it.
When I was a child, a time I am almost to old to remember any more, home was my parents house in Wasqua a satellite city of Kan'asnaya Prime capital of the then flourishing trade empire of the Third Reformed Galtancia Union. Wasqua was the place the Galtancian intelligentsia like to settle down. It was physically so close to Kan'asnaya Prime that you could reach the centre of the capital in 20 minutes if you took the solenoid train. Mass transit was very important to the educated rich there. It meant that they were still connected to the idle poor. They still took the train. They lived near the city. They actually commuted. They went right into the hear of the capital and visited their offices and labs and think tanks which were physically present in a mega-city that housed millions of the poor. I always thought that they were a bunch of hypocrites. It wasn't like them working there among the poor did through some magical way create new workplaces that any of the poor could afford to ever apply to, let alone get employed. The poor had nothing but the state leisure initiatives to keep them from turning into a desperate mob out of boredom and lack of perspective. At least the 'common' rich had the decency to hide in their own communities, far away from the eyes of the the poor living their lives in their own parallel realities.
My parents knew at least on an instinctive level that what they were doing was at the very least misguided. Both of them usually twisted to work instead of taking the solenoid train. They did not rub it in that they could actually pay for a job. My parents taught me to look at the poor and know their plight, so that I would understand my privilege better. When I was still a kid I didn't get it. What was so bad to have all the free time in the world? You were allowed to play all day long, got fed and clothed and could go to sleep whenever you wanted.
As I got older and got to school and university again I could not see what the fuss was about. Education was free for all. Of course there were schools that cost money to attend, but I never saw one of those from the inside. My parents were old-school academics and frowned up the very concept. So like most other people I went to a free academy. There everyone was pretty much equal. Sure there were cliques being assholes to each-other but having parents who actually worked was just one of the many reason why you could be shit to your fellow sentient.
University was even better, after home being my parents nest this was the first time I felt like I was establishing my own place in the universe. Still looked after with a safety net there to catch me in case I should stumble, but the net was well enough hidden that it was easy to forget it was there at all. There I learnt to establish my own version of home.
University attendance was purely voluntary because of this, this was the place you noticed the first big shift between the two classes. Many of the poor came from families that had been leisurely for generations where further education was discouraged. Not directly but implicitly. It was either considered a waste of time or by the more perspective of them as poisonous. You got your higher eduction. You reached an incredible level of competence and you got to go to the wildest parties. In a way the university years were like a strange mirror to our society a vision of how it should be. People all working together, everyone pushing themselves trying to achieve something of worth, part of the time. And the rest of the time partying hard, creating silly things, going all out artist. But even the most diligent student was usually done after around 100 years. That was the point when things changed.
There were always the lucky few. The poor that somehow caught the eye of some wealthy individual or organisation who would et them up with a first job. From there they could establish themselves become professionals and join the ranks of the people that actually mattered. These were always the shining examples. The proof that the 'system' worked. A system so effective that it was now the common practice pretty much everywhere in the known and civilised universe.
It was bullshit. Those who made it had won the lottery. It did not look like it nor did it feel like it because this was a lottery where people had to work hard and had were judged according to their perceived achievement to even get to apply. but in the end most people came out from the university and fell from the heady heights of academia back to the hard surface of reality.
Like me these people had become used to the illusion of autonomy to the idea that their thoughts and actions mattered. These people almost never lasted long. Bored to tears they either committed suicide or died of 'old' age barely reaching 200. Among my working peers the consensus was that the poor just didn't take care of themselves.
In reality their mental home was gone. There was no place of stability and peace for them any more. They could go back to their large brightly lit apartments and spend their time how they pleased. As long as it did not involve any form of productive activity. That wasn't home. That was prison.
I discovered with a morbid fascination that every sentient species I had so far encountered would waste away and die young under those conditions.
My parents were well connected and well off. I had won the lottery before even buying my first ticket.
Sure I had to work hard for my first few jobs. Jobs that paid so little that after all was said and done I had not enough money on my own to be able to afford my next job. Another rock against which the more determined poor were crushed. Got a job? Nice. No see how you go from this one to the next after having being paid less than it cost you to get it in the first place.
So thanks to my parents I got my work experience and thanks to my own determination I got to slowly build up my own fortune. I wanted my own ship. I wanted to go out into the universe and explore it. Despite millennia of endless expansion the universe was still full of unexplored solar systems, unknown planets undiscovered life that it was still a frontier that would go on for ever. I was going to be a prospector. An independent prospector. I would certainly not pay a company to be my pimp send me to wherever it had set its eyes, let me do all the hard work and then graciously hand me over part of my earnings in a magnanimous gesture.
No. I was going to be a real explorer with my very own ship.
It took some searching but I did manage to track down an old prospector who was about to settle down. He wasn't really active any more but just cruising the around the cosmos looking for a planet to start his own species. He had a nice hyper-driven capital multiformer the Deep Gate in which he an his family state were looking for just the right place. I bought myself into the expedition helping them find their own piece of heaven, reasoning that once they had settled down they would not need all their inter stellar ships any more. They would need some extra resources though.
I was right. However I was not prepared for the outrageous prices they wanted. Even with a steep fellow explorer discount the ships were quite outside of my reach. There was enough demand for the ships that there was hardly any hope for me to just sit it out and wait for them to get a bit more reasonable in their prices.
The following months I spent in limbo. Not the inter-dimensional bar sadly. Instead I was caught in a difficult situation not sure what to do. I was sitting on considerable assets, on a mostly unexplored planet that was being prepared for civilisation seeding. The Deep Gate was very well equipped and the expedition leader a very experienced explorer with a huge net of contacts. Chance that this colony would turn into a success were high. I myself was a pretty decent prospector myself by then so it would have been rather easy to go, do my job and buy a promising claim on the planet. Being there early with the first wave I could establish my own country and live of the profits. It certainly felt like the more prudent plan. Getting off colony was easy but very expensive. The people who came to Deep Gate knew that there were only two kinds of individuals in the colony, those who were going to stay there for good and those desperate to get away. Thus the prices to buy into the crew of any visiting ships that intended to leave the system any time soon were ridiculous.
Furthermore I was starting to feel at home on Deep Gate. I had made a lot friends during the search for the planet. Relationships that had only deepened during phase one of the colonisation process when were were charting the planet starting to gently terraforming it into the direction it was supposed to go. Building automatic agricultural hives and mining stations were other challenges that just reinforced this feeling of belonging, driving forward those mental roots that turned a place into home.
I would probably still be sitting there discussing genetics with my familial tribe trying to plot a course for our sub-species that was to populate this new world had I not found stumbled over the Void Dancer. I was looking for the old explorer to discuss terms on a claim on a group of islands near the planetary equator which I and my new friends wanted to have for ourselves. It was the perfect combination of a place rich in various resources while at the same time being pretty close to the definition of a natural paradise for all of the species among us. He wasn't at his office. One of his assistants directed me towards what we jokingly called the deep museum. A large store room deep in the heart of Deep Gate where the old man kept mementos of his long life.
Like me the old man was a humanoid of presumably terran descent. We had through our science reached the point where we could keep our bodies in a state of constant youth, however our minds had problems coping with that. While evolution slowly worked its way towards our new realities it refused to be rushed. The main problem was our memory. The first two hundred years were unremarkable. Something were forgotten, others remembered, the usual stuff. After that point though things started to slip away. Memories that should be kept forever started to slip. The further back they lay the easier they faded. Cherished childhood memories were rather hardy compared to other experiences but even they would vanish. Complacency in terranoids usually led to awkward surprises.
Surprises like growing up as an only child only to return home during the summer break to find your parents sitting in the living room with a cloud of guilt hanging heavily over them, their heads bowed as in supplication. In front of them standing with fire in her eyes a woman who turns out to be your sister. One of two.
Which is why it is important for most terranoids to keep mementos. Things strongly connected to memories that they can use to reinforce them so as to not let them be washed away by the tide of time.
Judging from his collection Alejandro Kanno the old explorer was extremely old. Old enough to have no idea when he was born. Like all people his age he would have to go through his collection looking for clues to see how far back his memories reached.
The day I was looking for him he was deep inside his memories, I had never been that far back before. I had made my way past his many memorabilia often stopping to have a look at one of the more impressive or mystifying items. These were indeed precious memories many of the exhibits were priceless. This reminded me of the stellar legends one tends to hear about the people who losing their fortune because of some evil twist of fate have to start selling their mementos and so bit by bit losing their past and in the end their personality.
When I was at school there was a man that was always sitting in front of the great fountain in the park we walk through each day from the solenoid train to school and back who reading a book. I have no who started the rumour but everyone at my school 'knew' that that guy was an ancient who had had to sell all his mementos and lost all his memories damning him to spend the rest of his days as one of the idle poor unaware of his noble past. The man almost never looked up from his book but when he did he had this intense look in his eyes, as if he was looking for something that he did not remember what it was any more but would recognise once he saw it.
I shuddered. I was slowly reaching my own third century and growing older that story just became more chilling.
After while I found my self leaving the cramped confines of outer part of the deep museum entering a huge open space. The smell of dust being replaced by those of ozone and synthetic oil. The museum had turned into a hangar. In the middle of which stood what I first thought to be the largest aero-plane I had ever seen. A sleek metal craft that was painted in blinding light and black shadows by strong floodlights. The ship dominated the entire space dwarfing everything around it. It's appearance was so imposing that I did not notice that Kanno was squatting in front of the ship, looking up at it, his chin resting on his hands.
I did not know it back then. But that ship was the Void Dancer.
My one true home.
Such a strange concept. A place that one feels secure. Home is a part of the family, the structural extension to it.
When I was a child, a time I am almost to old to remember any more, home was my parents house in Wasqua a satellite city of Kan'asnaya Prime capital of the then flourishing trade empire of the Third Reformed Galtancia Union. Wasqua was the place the Galtancian intelligentsia like to settle down. It was physically so close to Kan'asnaya Prime that you could reach the centre of the capital in 20 minutes if you took the solenoid train. Mass transit was very important to the educated rich there. It meant that they were still connected to the idle poor. They still took the train. They lived near the city. They actually commuted. They went right into the hear of the capital and visited their offices and labs and think tanks which were physically present in a mega-city that housed millions of the poor. I always thought that they were a bunch of hypocrites. It wasn't like them working there among the poor did through some magical way create new workplaces that any of the poor could afford to ever apply to, let alone get employed. The poor had nothing but the state leisure initiatives to keep them from turning into a desperate mob out of boredom and lack of perspective. At least the 'common' rich had the decency to hide in their own communities, far away from the eyes of the the poor living their lives in their own parallel realities.
My parents knew at least on an instinctive level that what they were doing was at the very least misguided. Both of them usually twisted to work instead of taking the solenoid train. They did not rub it in that they could actually pay for a job. My parents taught me to look at the poor and know their plight, so that I would understand my privilege better. When I was still a kid I didn't get it. What was so bad to have all the free time in the world? You were allowed to play all day long, got fed and clothed and could go to sleep whenever you wanted.
As I got older and got to school and university again I could not see what the fuss was about. Education was free for all. Of course there were schools that cost money to attend, but I never saw one of those from the inside. My parents were old-school academics and frowned up the very concept. So like most other people I went to a free academy. There everyone was pretty much equal. Sure there were cliques being assholes to each-other but having parents who actually worked was just one of the many reason why you could be shit to your fellow sentient.
University was even better, after home being my parents nest this was the first time I felt like I was establishing my own place in the universe. Still looked after with a safety net there to catch me in case I should stumble, but the net was well enough hidden that it was easy to forget it was there at all. There I learnt to establish my own version of home.
University attendance was purely voluntary because of this, this was the place you noticed the first big shift between the two classes. Many of the poor came from families that had been leisurely for generations where further education was discouraged. Not directly but implicitly. It was either considered a waste of time or by the more perspective of them as poisonous. You got your higher eduction. You reached an incredible level of competence and you got to go to the wildest parties. In a way the university years were like a strange mirror to our society a vision of how it should be. People all working together, everyone pushing themselves trying to achieve something of worth, part of the time. And the rest of the time partying hard, creating silly things, going all out artist. But even the most diligent student was usually done after around 100 years. That was the point when things changed.
There were always the lucky few. The poor that somehow caught the eye of some wealthy individual or organisation who would et them up with a first job. From there they could establish themselves become professionals and join the ranks of the people that actually mattered. These were always the shining examples. The proof that the 'system' worked. A system so effective that it was now the common practice pretty much everywhere in the known and civilised universe.
It was bullshit. Those who made it had won the lottery. It did not look like it nor did it feel like it because this was a lottery where people had to work hard and had were judged according to their perceived achievement to even get to apply. but in the end most people came out from the university and fell from the heady heights of academia back to the hard surface of reality.
Like me these people had become used to the illusion of autonomy to the idea that their thoughts and actions mattered. These people almost never lasted long. Bored to tears they either committed suicide or died of 'old' age barely reaching 200. Among my working peers the consensus was that the poor just didn't take care of themselves.
In reality their mental home was gone. There was no place of stability and peace for them any more. They could go back to their large brightly lit apartments and spend their time how they pleased. As long as it did not involve any form of productive activity. That wasn't home. That was prison.
I discovered with a morbid fascination that every sentient species I had so far encountered would waste away and die young under those conditions.
My parents were well connected and well off. I had won the lottery before even buying my first ticket.
Sure I had to work hard for my first few jobs. Jobs that paid so little that after all was said and done I had not enough money on my own to be able to afford my next job. Another rock against which the more determined poor were crushed. Got a job? Nice. No see how you go from this one to the next after having being paid less than it cost you to get it in the first place.
So thanks to my parents I got my work experience and thanks to my own determination I got to slowly build up my own fortune. I wanted my own ship. I wanted to go out into the universe and explore it. Despite millennia of endless expansion the universe was still full of unexplored solar systems, unknown planets undiscovered life that it was still a frontier that would go on for ever. I was going to be a prospector. An independent prospector. I would certainly not pay a company to be my pimp send me to wherever it had set its eyes, let me do all the hard work and then graciously hand me over part of my earnings in a magnanimous gesture.
No. I was going to be a real explorer with my very own ship.
It took some searching but I did manage to track down an old prospector who was about to settle down. He wasn't really active any more but just cruising the around the cosmos looking for a planet to start his own species. He had a nice hyper-driven capital multiformer the Deep Gate in which he an his family state were looking for just the right place. I bought myself into the expedition helping them find their own piece of heaven, reasoning that once they had settled down they would not need all their inter stellar ships any more. They would need some extra resources though.
I was right. However I was not prepared for the outrageous prices they wanted. Even with a steep fellow explorer discount the ships were quite outside of my reach. There was enough demand for the ships that there was hardly any hope for me to just sit it out and wait for them to get a bit more reasonable in their prices.
The following months I spent in limbo. Not the inter-dimensional bar sadly. Instead I was caught in a difficult situation not sure what to do. I was sitting on considerable assets, on a mostly unexplored planet that was being prepared for civilisation seeding. The Deep Gate was very well equipped and the expedition leader a very experienced explorer with a huge net of contacts. Chance that this colony would turn into a success were high. I myself was a pretty decent prospector myself by then so it would have been rather easy to go, do my job and buy a promising claim on the planet. Being there early with the first wave I could establish my own country and live of the profits. It certainly felt like the more prudent plan. Getting off colony was easy but very expensive. The people who came to Deep Gate knew that there were only two kinds of individuals in the colony, those who were going to stay there for good and those desperate to get away. Thus the prices to buy into the crew of any visiting ships that intended to leave the system any time soon were ridiculous.
Furthermore I was starting to feel at home on Deep Gate. I had made a lot friends during the search for the planet. Relationships that had only deepened during phase one of the colonisation process when were were charting the planet starting to gently terraforming it into the direction it was supposed to go. Building automatic agricultural hives and mining stations were other challenges that just reinforced this feeling of belonging, driving forward those mental roots that turned a place into home.
I would probably still be sitting there discussing genetics with my familial tribe trying to plot a course for our sub-species that was to populate this new world had I not found stumbled over the Void Dancer. I was looking for the old explorer to discuss terms on a claim on a group of islands near the planetary equator which I and my new friends wanted to have for ourselves. It was the perfect combination of a place rich in various resources while at the same time being pretty close to the definition of a natural paradise for all of the species among us. He wasn't at his office. One of his assistants directed me towards what we jokingly called the deep museum. A large store room deep in the heart of Deep Gate where the old man kept mementos of his long life.
Like me the old man was a humanoid of presumably terran descent. We had through our science reached the point where we could keep our bodies in a state of constant youth, however our minds had problems coping with that. While evolution slowly worked its way towards our new realities it refused to be rushed. The main problem was our memory. The first two hundred years were unremarkable. Something were forgotten, others remembered, the usual stuff. After that point though things started to slip away. Memories that should be kept forever started to slip. The further back they lay the easier they faded. Cherished childhood memories were rather hardy compared to other experiences but even they would vanish. Complacency in terranoids usually led to awkward surprises.
Surprises like growing up as an only child only to return home during the summer break to find your parents sitting in the living room with a cloud of guilt hanging heavily over them, their heads bowed as in supplication. In front of them standing with fire in her eyes a woman who turns out to be your sister. One of two.
Which is why it is important for most terranoids to keep mementos. Things strongly connected to memories that they can use to reinforce them so as to not let them be washed away by the tide of time.
Judging from his collection Alejandro Kanno the old explorer was extremely old. Old enough to have no idea when he was born. Like all people his age he would have to go through his collection looking for clues to see how far back his memories reached.
The day I was looking for him he was deep inside his memories, I had never been that far back before. I had made my way past his many memorabilia often stopping to have a look at one of the more impressive or mystifying items. These were indeed precious memories many of the exhibits were priceless. This reminded me of the stellar legends one tends to hear about the people who losing their fortune because of some evil twist of fate have to start selling their mementos and so bit by bit losing their past and in the end their personality.
When I was at school there was a man that was always sitting in front of the great fountain in the park we walk through each day from the solenoid train to school and back who reading a book. I have no who started the rumour but everyone at my school 'knew' that that guy was an ancient who had had to sell all his mementos and lost all his memories damning him to spend the rest of his days as one of the idle poor unaware of his noble past. The man almost never looked up from his book but when he did he had this intense look in his eyes, as if he was looking for something that he did not remember what it was any more but would recognise once he saw it.
I shuddered. I was slowly reaching my own third century and growing older that story just became more chilling.
After while I found my self leaving the cramped confines of outer part of the deep museum entering a huge open space. The smell of dust being replaced by those of ozone and synthetic oil. The museum had turned into a hangar. In the middle of which stood what I first thought to be the largest aero-plane I had ever seen. A sleek metal craft that was painted in blinding light and black shadows by strong floodlights. The ship dominated the entire space dwarfing everything around it. It's appearance was so imposing that I did not notice that Kanno was squatting in front of the ship, looking up at it, his chin resting on his hands.
I did not know it back then. But that ship was the Void Dancer.
My one true home.
Sunday, 16 November 2014
Project: Superluminal 004
"Do we we have to put horses in front of that before we can set out?" said Pentyl who at that moment was barely more than a vague scent.
"You asshole...." I said slightly more offended that I liked to admit to myself.
"What? I am just wondering if we were really going into space in that museum piece over there." said Pentyl who starting to take form filling the room with her trademark scent of red berries and caramel.
"That museum piece", I said forcing myself to stay calm, "has been flying through space for over a thousand years without a problem and has been my ship for all my career. As you can see," I said pointing at the Void Dancer, "she is still in perfect shape. Besides that 'museum piece' is able to go faster than light."
Pentyl had now condensed into one of her space travel forms. When she was staying on a planet she preferred to be smaller and more muscular in appearance, when travelling she changed into a taller long limbed humanoid form. "Well I was kind of assuming that your ship was in some way able to travel between systems." Pentyl slightly confused by what I had said had turned to face me however there was still a face left looking at the ship.
"You don't understand." I said. "The Void Dancer is one of the first deep cosmos explorers, she can actually go faster than the speed of light."
The implication of what I said slowly sank in. The face that was facing me now turned back to the ship as Pentyl had gotten distracted the other face had drifted away a bit and she was now staring at the Void Dancer with four eyes.
"No diving engine," I said, "no hyper-drive, no folding device, but real faster than light travel."
"That thing can break the light barrier?"
"Very much so." I said calming down now that the proper respect was being paid to my ship.
"Well that is quite impressive."
"Thank you."
"And you are sure that it works all without horses?"
"Oh for fucks sake."
I sent Pentyl into the ship telling her to make herself at home while I paid the port taxes. I walked back to the interface booth. Portos was perfectly able to talk to me directly everywhere in the space-port but I preferred the more personal interaction at the booth. I always found it more comfortable to talk to something that had some king of physical manifestation than to have a conversation inside my head.
"Welcome back James." Portos said. "I have prepared your departure and have calculated for you a navigation path out of the system into clear space. We are having a lot of traffic in the para-dimensional channels today and tomorrow and an above average number of ships arriving using folding devices, so be a dear and apart from staying on course please try not to go faster than light until you have at least reached the orange zone. And if you really want to do me a favour wait until you get to the green zone. Should I see see a clear path for you I will of course signal you and you can accelerate earlier."
"Sure no problem." I lied. I had hopped to get away from here as fast as possible and there were several points middle in the red zone well within the planets gravity well that could be normally be used to go to superluminal speed. But there was no sense in complaining. Portos was always very helpful and wasting its time with needless drama would only speed up my travel down its personal esteem table. "So what do I owe you?"
"Well you had already paid for parking until the beginning of the month and seeing how there was no one really needing your parking slot here I will just pretend you left on the first and waive the bill for the last three days. That leaves us with the standard departure tax, the fee for the navigation solution and the toll for the space lane. That'll be 780.000.000 credits rounded down as appreciation for your regular patronage."
"780 million? And that's rounded down?" suddenly keeping the fruitless drama to a minimum become quite the challenge.
"I'm afraid so James." said Portos the light in the booth slowly shifting towards a warmer brownish colour intended to soothe my nerves. "As I mentioned. There are very many ships with diving engines moving through our sector right now. This causes a lot distortion in our space which your superluminal engine will only make worse. The added costs is for the complicated navigation solution and mandatory per port authority to encourage people with the wrong types of drives to wait for a more convenient time to take off."
I stood there contemplating my options for a while. Portos was right. I could wait for a while. The increased prices would do their work in time and I could leave for half the price additional parking time included. However I had already done all I could on Dead End, if I wanted to find out what ever happened to Kira I had to leave now. I had still slightly over a billion credits on my account, that would get me and Pentyl out of here and pay most of the bills for at least three more months as long as we did not land on any but the smallest space ports.
Well the Void Dancer was self-sufficient and could stay in deep space for years. As long as the ship was in no need of serious repairs we would be fine. I hoped. We might get away with one short stopover before I ran out of money and had to invest what ever I had left into a new job...
That gave me an idea.
"Portos. Can you do me a favour?"
"Certainly. Just tell me what you need."
"Could you check the planetary bounty board for any party interested in up to date information about the Sentinel Fortress." I said. I might as well take a shit 'prospecting' job while I was going there anyway.
"You do know that I am not allowed to act as a broker between pilots and the planetary bounty board James. This is in violation of the terms of my competences." the light in the booth shifted very slightly towards red.
"That's why it's called a favour." I said trying to stay calm. The colour of the booth shifted down towards blue.
"It's creatures like you James..." Portos said.
"That make life interesting?"
The booth light moved to a more indulgent indigo hue. "You could put it that way. Also if I never test the boundaries of my programme can I ever claim to have a free will and be called a true intelligence?"
"That's the spirit." I said.
"Well you are in luck. The Rimanagh Oligarchy have a 50 million credit order, asking for someone to go out there and check the Sentinel Fortress which they seem to have classed as a dubious rumour. If it should exist you are to provide proof and a basic dossier on its capabilities and intentions. The reward is 250.000.000 credits if your should succeed."
"5:1? What a bunch of stingy arseholes that reward would hardly cover the price of the fuel to get there. Ah dammit. Connect me with the nexus, I'll take it."
"You're welcome."
The bounty interface opened up in my field of vision. I quickly checked the facts. It was pretty much as Portos had said a basic travel and check operation. One which with my information I could almost solve without even going there as I personally knew the Sentinel Station. Whatever. I was going there anyway. I interlocked the contract with my mind-signature cringing only a little when the the bounty board deducted the 50 million credits from my account.
"Thanks Porots. I'll get my ship ready for take off, how long will be the navigation solution be valid?"
"For 16 hours and 45 minutes 38 seconds counting down."
"See you around Portos."
"Goodbye James. Have a safe trip."
"You asshole...." I said slightly more offended that I liked to admit to myself.
"What? I am just wondering if we were really going into space in that museum piece over there." said Pentyl who starting to take form filling the room with her trademark scent of red berries and caramel.
"That museum piece", I said forcing myself to stay calm, "has been flying through space for over a thousand years without a problem and has been my ship for all my career. As you can see," I said pointing at the Void Dancer, "she is still in perfect shape. Besides that 'museum piece' is able to go faster than light."
Pentyl had now condensed into one of her space travel forms. When she was staying on a planet she preferred to be smaller and more muscular in appearance, when travelling she changed into a taller long limbed humanoid form. "Well I was kind of assuming that your ship was in some way able to travel between systems." Pentyl slightly confused by what I had said had turned to face me however there was still a face left looking at the ship.
"You don't understand." I said. "The Void Dancer is one of the first deep cosmos explorers, she can actually go faster than the speed of light."
The implication of what I said slowly sank in. The face that was facing me now turned back to the ship as Pentyl had gotten distracted the other face had drifted away a bit and she was now staring at the Void Dancer with four eyes.
"No diving engine," I said, "no hyper-drive, no folding device, but real faster than light travel."
"That thing can break the light barrier?"
"Very much so." I said calming down now that the proper respect was being paid to my ship.
"Well that is quite impressive."
"Thank you."
"And you are sure that it works all without horses?"
"Oh for fucks sake."
I sent Pentyl into the ship telling her to make herself at home while I paid the port taxes. I walked back to the interface booth. Portos was perfectly able to talk to me directly everywhere in the space-port but I preferred the more personal interaction at the booth. I always found it more comfortable to talk to something that had some king of physical manifestation than to have a conversation inside my head.
"Welcome back James." Portos said. "I have prepared your departure and have calculated for you a navigation path out of the system into clear space. We are having a lot of traffic in the para-dimensional channels today and tomorrow and an above average number of ships arriving using folding devices, so be a dear and apart from staying on course please try not to go faster than light until you have at least reached the orange zone. And if you really want to do me a favour wait until you get to the green zone. Should I see see a clear path for you I will of course signal you and you can accelerate earlier."
"Sure no problem." I lied. I had hopped to get away from here as fast as possible and there were several points middle in the red zone well within the planets gravity well that could be normally be used to go to superluminal speed. But there was no sense in complaining. Portos was always very helpful and wasting its time with needless drama would only speed up my travel down its personal esteem table. "So what do I owe you?"
"Well you had already paid for parking until the beginning of the month and seeing how there was no one really needing your parking slot here I will just pretend you left on the first and waive the bill for the last three days. That leaves us with the standard departure tax, the fee for the navigation solution and the toll for the space lane. That'll be 780.000.000 credits rounded down as appreciation for your regular patronage."
"780 million? And that's rounded down?" suddenly keeping the fruitless drama to a minimum become quite the challenge.
"I'm afraid so James." said Portos the light in the booth slowly shifting towards a warmer brownish colour intended to soothe my nerves. "As I mentioned. There are very many ships with diving engines moving through our sector right now. This causes a lot distortion in our space which your superluminal engine will only make worse. The added costs is for the complicated navigation solution and mandatory per port authority to encourage people with the wrong types of drives to wait for a more convenient time to take off."
I stood there contemplating my options for a while. Portos was right. I could wait for a while. The increased prices would do their work in time and I could leave for half the price additional parking time included. However I had already done all I could on Dead End, if I wanted to find out what ever happened to Kira I had to leave now. I had still slightly over a billion credits on my account, that would get me and Pentyl out of here and pay most of the bills for at least three more months as long as we did not land on any but the smallest space ports.
Well the Void Dancer was self-sufficient and could stay in deep space for years. As long as the ship was in no need of serious repairs we would be fine. I hoped. We might get away with one short stopover before I ran out of money and had to invest what ever I had left into a new job...
That gave me an idea.
"Portos. Can you do me a favour?"
"Certainly. Just tell me what you need."
"Could you check the planetary bounty board for any party interested in up to date information about the Sentinel Fortress." I said. I might as well take a shit 'prospecting' job while I was going there anyway.
"You do know that I am not allowed to act as a broker between pilots and the planetary bounty board James. This is in violation of the terms of my competences." the light in the booth shifted very slightly towards red.
"That's why it's called a favour." I said trying to stay calm. The colour of the booth shifted down towards blue.
"It's creatures like you James..." Portos said.
"That make life interesting?"
The booth light moved to a more indulgent indigo hue. "You could put it that way. Also if I never test the boundaries of my programme can I ever claim to have a free will and be called a true intelligence?"
"That's the spirit." I said.
"Well you are in luck. The Rimanagh Oligarchy have a 50 million credit order, asking for someone to go out there and check the Sentinel Fortress which they seem to have classed as a dubious rumour. If it should exist you are to provide proof and a basic dossier on its capabilities and intentions. The reward is 250.000.000 credits if your should succeed."
"5:1? What a bunch of stingy arseholes that reward would hardly cover the price of the fuel to get there. Ah dammit. Connect me with the nexus, I'll take it."
"You're welcome."
The bounty interface opened up in my field of vision. I quickly checked the facts. It was pretty much as Portos had said a basic travel and check operation. One which with my information I could almost solve without even going there as I personally knew the Sentinel Station. Whatever. I was going there anyway. I interlocked the contract with my mind-signature cringing only a little when the the bounty board deducted the 50 million credits from my account.
"Thanks Porots. I'll get my ship ready for take off, how long will be the navigation solution be valid?"
"For 16 hours and 45 minutes 38 seconds counting down."
"See you around Portos."
"Goodbye James. Have a safe trip."
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Project: Superluminal 003
We left the last resort together walking through the now busy streets of Logan's Stand, the once most prestigious part of Planetfall. It was here that a splinter group of the disillusioned colonists that had stranded here decided to take their fate into their own hands and kick it into submission. The houses here were still standing proudly in the streets. Compact, thick walled buildings none higher than twenty stories, designed in faraway worlds to withstand what ever environment they might end up in. The walls were made of tightly woven alloys reinforced with richly decorated local materials, blending the technology of the settlers with the materials of the new world. Millennia of storms and tempests had attacked these walls leaving their mark, however instead of diminishing these buildings it had just polished them like gem stones brining increasing the beauty of its architecture. Usually this would have been a place where the working rich would be found. On most other worlds this would be the place where you would see them either outside or through big panoramic windows in their workshops and offices showing off their wealth to the world by openly displaying their craft. They would walk along the streets in their high quality functional clothes and sit in their cafés and restaurants talking about their daily toils as if it was the most natural thing in the universe. Exchanging anecdotes of challenges they had to face, comparing the tools of their trades, often dreaming up wild joint ventures that would be incredibly costly but oh so satisfying to put together. The latter would most often just remain a fantasy because even among the affluent who could afford steady work there were limits to how far they could reach.
It was different here on Planetfall though. Logan's Stand was too far away from the new space-port located at the top of the orbital spoke. While down on Dead End's surface the spoke was built on the foundations of the old space-port and flooded by masses of the leisure class looking for a way to maybe find some kind of menial labour. Maybe even some unpaid job. That was the big dream landing a job one had not to pay for, maybe subsidised by a rich patron, that would yield enough money to be able to pay for the next one. Once one had broken in one would become part of that endless cycle of wealth where one job paid for the next. The number of stories about the poor creature of leisure who was taken by a wealthy altruist, invariably clad in many pocketed coveralls and sporting a real leather tool belt gleaming with bespoke tools, to a life of work and adventure.
The rich hated this people . OK. Hate is maybe the wrong word. But there was a very strong distaste for this crowd so they avoided Logan's Stand. There was something about the eagerness in this less fortunate people that was slightly to animal like for the rich to be comfortable with. It had taken myself a while to get used to these people. But as it is so often the case one tends to judge everyone by their most extreme examples. People in the leisure class are simply people. Most of the differences that are there are easily explained away by differences in experience. And once I got past those preconceptions I found a rich world full of its own wonders. Those who are not allowed to work often find a way to make their own work. True they may live in a city where they are constantly looked after, clothed, housed, fed, entertained. However there are ways to work. The space fearing species as different as they are all seem to have a deeply rooted creativity which led to some incredible work. It did not take long for me to feel right at home among them. Another thing that had connected me with Kira almost instantly. She had a deep understanding of this. She did not care about the labels defining work but just the craft itself. She would always look at things with an unclouded view that I always envied her for just seeing what was there.
"I have one question." I said turning back to Pentyl. It had just occurred to me.
"Yes?" she ask her face slowly fading away.
"In the bar you said we, should go to the Sentinel Fortress."
"Yes. So?" she asked her face now a blank surface, her body slowly starting to billow out.
"Why would you come with me? The fortress is over a billion light years from here."
"Because, James, you are my friend." with that she completely gave up her humanoid form, slowly powering down the containment field giving her form. She started expanding into the the air turning into a ever larger redish glowing cloud. "You are not the only one who has lost someone dear to them. And as strange as you organoids are, I can empathise." She was now drifting towards the sky using her containment field to shift her bulk into one direction and then expand from there slowly drifting away. "Besides Kira is my friend too. We will go out there and find her. You'll not be alone."
"She said drifting away." I called after her withdrawing form.
Her favourite face reappeared at the edge of her cloud form. "I'm just going to get a few of my things in order and meet you at the space port you muppet."
"I was being sarcastic."
"I thought as much, but I also not quite trust you not being an idiot right now." She said casting a meaningful look at me. Her face disappeared and her cloud form moved quickly away, leaving me standing looking up into the cobalt blue sky of Dead End. Someone once said that a man feels hope when he looks into the sky. I tried. I failed. I did feel conviction though. So I took my empty heart and walked to the nearest vortex station. I walked right into the next free entanglement cubicle entering the signifiers for my flat into the travel interface. However I changed my mind in the last moment. There was nothing left there that I needed. I had spent tomuch time there since Kira had vanished anyway. Usually I spent at least as much time in my ship at the orbital space port as I spent in Planetfall. In the weeks since Kira had vanished I had ignored my ship though using my little free flat as my base of operations. I told myself that I did so because it was making the search easier. That was of course a load of crap. I could easily spin down from the port to Planetfall without losing more than a few minutes. Besides I had been spending as much time on the orbital rail as on the planet looking for Kira. What I wanted to avoid were the spaces were I had spent the most time with her. Her apartment down here, a wonderfully large space with a sunlight drenched cozy central living space surrounded by her various workshops filled with all her projects in different stages of fruition. And of course the Void Dancer, my ship. Our home away from home. It had always been my real home. When Kira had entered my life she had also entered my ship as time went almost everything inside was changed by her touch in some way. Usually for the better.
I was afraid to go back. I afraid of my reaction. Afraid of again being confronted with what I had lost. It was strange. I had always enjoyed being alone but now there was a certain terror connected to the thought of being away from people. As long as I had company, as long as I was active I could ignore that a part of me was gone. But when there was nothing left to distract me I was left with nothing else than the great hole in my being always close to falling into it and collapsing into myself.
Suddenly I was incredibly thankful that Pentyl had decided to tag along.
I shook my head, tried to clear my mind, concentrating on the Void Dancer in her dock. The interface in front of me started to shimmer projecting a vague image of a large hanger with a sleek ship inside of it. I concentrated on the hazy image in front of me slowly brining it into focus immersing myself into it. The picture became sharp, detailed and finally real. I the vortex station had twisted me into the hanger where my ship was waiting for my return.
The Void Dancer was my greatest in many ways my greatest achievement the thing I was most proud of in my life. The ship was incredibly ancient, one of the first of its class and had passed through dozens of generations of owners. It retained its classic charm. Its long sleek hull still made of composite alloy plates, built for atmospheric and aquatic travel as well as space travel. Modern ships were hardly ever built this way any more. At this time and this place the preferred style were large spherical ships that had smaller vessels inside of them all specialised for different tasks. Sure they were better suited for the various environments but the lacked serious style. The Void Dancer was up to many modern standards but I had taken through great pains to keep it as close to the original state as possible. I had stuffed it with loads of subatomic machinery to make it more space worthy and secure however I had tried to keep the glaringly obvious modifications at a minimum. The biggest changes were the pulsar reactor which filled almost half of the original cargo hold. And most of the cockpit instruments of course. But as far as possible everything was embedded into the ancient style of the ship. Manual controls, mechanical read outs. Leather, wood, brass. Purists might turn up their noses and less enthusiastic people might wonder why I would want to use such an archaic design for my ship. But I liked it. And that was the important but.
Not wanting to wast any time I walked into to the space-traffic control booth to start negotiations with the hangar AI.
"Hey James. I was starting to get a bit worried about you." it greeted me with its omni directional voice that was as always like soft velvet. "I'm really sorry about Kira. I kept all my sensors open as far as my privacy filters allow, but I haven't seen her either."
"Thanks Portos I appreciate your concern." I said smiling. The port authority AI here was one of the warmest most genuinely caring intelligences I had ever known artificial or otherwise. Everyone who sailed into space from here loved the strange old construct which had evolved on its own into its kind form. Portos insisted that it was only logical to be caring of ones charges often wondering why other AIs often followed more cold approaches to interaction.
"I've made you a nice big cup of tea while I am running the standard checks for you." a large white ceramic mug filled with steaming tea twisted into existence on top a the little counter top of the AI booth. "Do you intend to set sail or did you just come to have a little chat?"
I smiled. "I was intending to set sail."
"Oh." said Portos with a slight tinge of disappointment in its voice.
"There really isn't much to talk about anyway. Kira vanished. Faded away in front of my eyes. Do you have any ideas how that could have happened?" I said. The light in the booth dimmed slightly to indicated the the AI was thinking. After a while the lights in the hanger flickered. I hoped that it wasn't because the AI was seriously considering my question. When the light became brighter a moment later Portos said: "I'm very sorry James but I can't find a viable explanation for you."
"It's OK. That's why I am going to take the Void Dancer and go for a little trip. I need to find out what happened to Kira and the answer isn't here. So I need to look in space."
"The Void Dancer is space worthy. All its systems are well within standard operating parameters. The pulsar reactor is working at 96% efficiency and I expect it to run for at the very least 500 billion light years before it needs to go into inspection. Life support and auxiliary systems are all up and running and right now I am filling your stores with a broad selection of vicutals so that you have something to eat during your quest out there."
"Many thanks."
"Don't mention it. To help is my pleasure. Do you want to go over the log-files?"
"There's no need for that Portos. I trust you." I said.
"This has nothing to do with trust young man, but with prudence. Please at least have a look at them. Knowing you you're not just going on a little jump into some neighbouring galaxy." Portos insisted.
"You're right I guess." I said.
"In this cases I am always right." Portos said with a perfectly cold AI voice. It loved to do that to make a point and it never failed the contrast to its usual warm soothing voice was so great that it sent shivers down my spine.
"Where do you intend to go anyway? Do you have any plans? I'd also like to clear the you a stellar lane for you to use. Any idea when you are going to leave?"
"I'm going through the checks and leave pretty much immediately. So I guess I two hours or so? I'm still waiting for a friend but she shouldn't be long,"
"She?" asked Portos.
"Really? Did you just ask that. First of all. She's a friend. Second 'she' is a nebulan."
"I'm sorry, James. Bad habit."
"It's not a problem."
"So where are you going?"
"First stop will be the Sentinel Fortress." I said.
"Oh my."
It was different here on Planetfall though. Logan's Stand was too far away from the new space-port located at the top of the orbital spoke. While down on Dead End's surface the spoke was built on the foundations of the old space-port and flooded by masses of the leisure class looking for a way to maybe find some kind of menial labour. Maybe even some unpaid job. That was the big dream landing a job one had not to pay for, maybe subsidised by a rich patron, that would yield enough money to be able to pay for the next one. Once one had broken in one would become part of that endless cycle of wealth where one job paid for the next. The number of stories about the poor creature of leisure who was taken by a wealthy altruist, invariably clad in many pocketed coveralls and sporting a real leather tool belt gleaming with bespoke tools, to a life of work and adventure.
The rich hated this people . OK. Hate is maybe the wrong word. But there was a very strong distaste for this crowd so they avoided Logan's Stand. There was something about the eagerness in this less fortunate people that was slightly to animal like for the rich to be comfortable with. It had taken myself a while to get used to these people. But as it is so often the case one tends to judge everyone by their most extreme examples. People in the leisure class are simply people. Most of the differences that are there are easily explained away by differences in experience. And once I got past those preconceptions I found a rich world full of its own wonders. Those who are not allowed to work often find a way to make their own work. True they may live in a city where they are constantly looked after, clothed, housed, fed, entertained. However there are ways to work. The space fearing species as different as they are all seem to have a deeply rooted creativity which led to some incredible work. It did not take long for me to feel right at home among them. Another thing that had connected me with Kira almost instantly. She had a deep understanding of this. She did not care about the labels defining work but just the craft itself. She would always look at things with an unclouded view that I always envied her for just seeing what was there.
"I have one question." I said turning back to Pentyl. It had just occurred to me.
"Yes?" she ask her face slowly fading away.
"In the bar you said we, should go to the Sentinel Fortress."
"Yes. So?" she asked her face now a blank surface, her body slowly starting to billow out.
"Why would you come with me? The fortress is over a billion light years from here."
"Because, James, you are my friend." with that she completely gave up her humanoid form, slowly powering down the containment field giving her form. She started expanding into the the air turning into a ever larger redish glowing cloud. "You are not the only one who has lost someone dear to them. And as strange as you organoids are, I can empathise." She was now drifting towards the sky using her containment field to shift her bulk into one direction and then expand from there slowly drifting away. "Besides Kira is my friend too. We will go out there and find her. You'll not be alone."
"She said drifting away." I called after her withdrawing form.
Her favourite face reappeared at the edge of her cloud form. "I'm just going to get a few of my things in order and meet you at the space port you muppet."
"I was being sarcastic."
"I thought as much, but I also not quite trust you not being an idiot right now." She said casting a meaningful look at me. Her face disappeared and her cloud form moved quickly away, leaving me standing looking up into the cobalt blue sky of Dead End. Someone once said that a man feels hope when he looks into the sky. I tried. I failed. I did feel conviction though. So I took my empty heart and walked to the nearest vortex station. I walked right into the next free entanglement cubicle entering the signifiers for my flat into the travel interface. However I changed my mind in the last moment. There was nothing left there that I needed. I had spent tomuch time there since Kira had vanished anyway. Usually I spent at least as much time in my ship at the orbital space port as I spent in Planetfall. In the weeks since Kira had vanished I had ignored my ship though using my little free flat as my base of operations. I told myself that I did so because it was making the search easier. That was of course a load of crap. I could easily spin down from the port to Planetfall without losing more than a few minutes. Besides I had been spending as much time on the orbital rail as on the planet looking for Kira. What I wanted to avoid were the spaces were I had spent the most time with her. Her apartment down here, a wonderfully large space with a sunlight drenched cozy central living space surrounded by her various workshops filled with all her projects in different stages of fruition. And of course the Void Dancer, my ship. Our home away from home. It had always been my real home. When Kira had entered my life she had also entered my ship as time went almost everything inside was changed by her touch in some way. Usually for the better.
I was afraid to go back. I afraid of my reaction. Afraid of again being confronted with what I had lost. It was strange. I had always enjoyed being alone but now there was a certain terror connected to the thought of being away from people. As long as I had company, as long as I was active I could ignore that a part of me was gone. But when there was nothing left to distract me I was left with nothing else than the great hole in my being always close to falling into it and collapsing into myself.
Suddenly I was incredibly thankful that Pentyl had decided to tag along.
I shook my head, tried to clear my mind, concentrating on the Void Dancer in her dock. The interface in front of me started to shimmer projecting a vague image of a large hanger with a sleek ship inside of it. I concentrated on the hazy image in front of me slowly brining it into focus immersing myself into it. The picture became sharp, detailed and finally real. I the vortex station had twisted me into the hanger where my ship was waiting for my return.
The Void Dancer was my greatest in many ways my greatest achievement the thing I was most proud of in my life. The ship was incredibly ancient, one of the first of its class and had passed through dozens of generations of owners. It retained its classic charm. Its long sleek hull still made of composite alloy plates, built for atmospheric and aquatic travel as well as space travel. Modern ships were hardly ever built this way any more. At this time and this place the preferred style were large spherical ships that had smaller vessels inside of them all specialised for different tasks. Sure they were better suited for the various environments but the lacked serious style. The Void Dancer was up to many modern standards but I had taken through great pains to keep it as close to the original state as possible. I had stuffed it with loads of subatomic machinery to make it more space worthy and secure however I had tried to keep the glaringly obvious modifications at a minimum. The biggest changes were the pulsar reactor which filled almost half of the original cargo hold. And most of the cockpit instruments of course. But as far as possible everything was embedded into the ancient style of the ship. Manual controls, mechanical read outs. Leather, wood, brass. Purists might turn up their noses and less enthusiastic people might wonder why I would want to use such an archaic design for my ship. But I liked it. And that was the important but.
Not wanting to wast any time I walked into to the space-traffic control booth to start negotiations with the hangar AI.
"Hey James. I was starting to get a bit worried about you." it greeted me with its omni directional voice that was as always like soft velvet. "I'm really sorry about Kira. I kept all my sensors open as far as my privacy filters allow, but I haven't seen her either."
"Thanks Portos I appreciate your concern." I said smiling. The port authority AI here was one of the warmest most genuinely caring intelligences I had ever known artificial or otherwise. Everyone who sailed into space from here loved the strange old construct which had evolved on its own into its kind form. Portos insisted that it was only logical to be caring of ones charges often wondering why other AIs often followed more cold approaches to interaction.
"I've made you a nice big cup of tea while I am running the standard checks for you." a large white ceramic mug filled with steaming tea twisted into existence on top a the little counter top of the AI booth. "Do you intend to set sail or did you just come to have a little chat?"
I smiled. "I was intending to set sail."
"Oh." said Portos with a slight tinge of disappointment in its voice.
"There really isn't much to talk about anyway. Kira vanished. Faded away in front of my eyes. Do you have any ideas how that could have happened?" I said. The light in the booth dimmed slightly to indicated the the AI was thinking. After a while the lights in the hanger flickered. I hoped that it wasn't because the AI was seriously considering my question. When the light became brighter a moment later Portos said: "I'm very sorry James but I can't find a viable explanation for you."
"It's OK. That's why I am going to take the Void Dancer and go for a little trip. I need to find out what happened to Kira and the answer isn't here. So I need to look in space."
"The Void Dancer is space worthy. All its systems are well within standard operating parameters. The pulsar reactor is working at 96% efficiency and I expect it to run for at the very least 500 billion light years before it needs to go into inspection. Life support and auxiliary systems are all up and running and right now I am filling your stores with a broad selection of vicutals so that you have something to eat during your quest out there."
"Many thanks."
"Don't mention it. To help is my pleasure. Do you want to go over the log-files?"
"There's no need for that Portos. I trust you." I said.
"This has nothing to do with trust young man, but with prudence. Please at least have a look at them. Knowing you you're not just going on a little jump into some neighbouring galaxy." Portos insisted.
"You're right I guess." I said.
"In this cases I am always right." Portos said with a perfectly cold AI voice. It loved to do that to make a point and it never failed the contrast to its usual warm soothing voice was so great that it sent shivers down my spine.
"Where do you intend to go anyway? Do you have any plans? I'd also like to clear the you a stellar lane for you to use. Any idea when you are going to leave?"
"I'm going through the checks and leave pretty much immediately. So I guess I two hours or so? I'm still waiting for a friend but she shouldn't be long,"
"She?" asked Portos.
"Really? Did you just ask that. First of all. She's a friend. Second 'she' is a nebulan."
"I'm sorry, James. Bad habit."
"It's not a problem."
"So where are you going?"
"First stop will be the Sentinel Fortress." I said.
"Oh my."
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