Compete (23 page)

I place my index finger on the ignition key and watch the two Aides do the same.

Anu, followed by Gennio, both sing a simple three-note sequence, and I follow their lead.

In that moment the hull walls of the shuttle come alive, and a low harmonic hum rises. Hair-line threads of golden light race around the etchings in the hull. . . . Somehow I can feel an echo of that fine vibration where my finger touches the panel.

I realize it is my literal
connection
to the ship.

Next, Gennio shows me how to call up the Navigation Grid. “Each of the Pilots has access to four virtual coordinate grids, depending on need. They are hologram projections that pop up above the console and you can do things like plot coordinates, for example to go from point A to point B.”

He points with his finger to each of the four corners of the console. “These buttons call up grids. Red, top right corner button is Propulsion Grid. Green, bottom right, is Brake Grid. Blue, top left, is Adjustment Grid. Yellow, bottom left, is Navigation Grid.”

“Okay,” I say, while the shuttle is vibrating all around us.

“You can tap any of the four corners to switch between grids any given moment.” And Gennio demonstrates by tapping the yellow corner.

Immediately a rectangle grid of yellow light shines brightly over his console, like a ghostly laptop display screen. I see fine lines marking grid squares stand up in the air, appearing out of nowhere.

Next Gennio switches to blue, and a blue grid pops up, then a green one, then a red one. “You can make it 3D if you tap it twice.” And the moment he does, the red rectangle suddenly morphs and extends, taking up a strange three-dimensional space, as though a translucent box of light is hovering over the console.

“Wow!” I say. And then I tap the yellow corner key on my own console. Up pops my Navigation Grid, golden-yellow. I tap it again, and it elongates into 3D space.

“Enough playing,” Anu says. “Time to get going.”

Gennio bites his lip nervously, then tells me, “All right, this is how you set up the Navigation itinerary. First, you choose Destination.” And he presses a spot on the console smart surface that’s right next to the yellow corner grid button—basically swipes his finger off to the side.

Immediately a small secondary grid appears in the air over Gennio’s console, right next to the main Yellow grid. I replicate his movement by sliding my own finger across in a swipe. A similar yellow square pops up before me. It is populated by rows of weird Atlantean symbols that blaze yellow, like an array of angry alien emoji drones.

“What’s that?” I say, while my mind goes,
“oh, crap.”

“Okay.” Gennio points to the very first one on top left. “See that
circle
character? That represents you, in other words, this ship. That’s like the Home button, okay?”

“Okay. . . .”

“See the four-point star character right next to it? That’s the Fleet Menu. In other words, you can use it to call up a list of all the ships in the Fleet.”

“Got it. What about the other weird characters?”

Gennio shakes his head. “Don’t worry about them. They’re other menus. Ignore them for now. All you need is the Fleet Menu.”

“All right.”

“Now, tap the Fleet Menu.”

I do as he says, raising my finger up in the air to touch the projected holo-character star made of yellow light.

At once the character expands into a long scrolling menu of Atlantean numbers, in three columns.

“Holy crap!” I exclaim.

“Just a visual representation of our actual Fleet formation—three adjacent columns of ships, each one a number, lined up the exact same way we’re flying in space right now,” Gennio says. “Now, to scroll up and down, just touch the edge of this menu grid on either side.”

I make a scared sound and
very
gently move my trembling finger to engage the scroll function. The numbers start moving down through the air. I slide my finger in the other direction, and they scroll up.

“Good,” Gennio says. “Now comes the easy part—find the ICS-1 flagship and tap it. That will choose it as our flight Destination.”

“But I don’t really know how to read these numbers.” I bite my lip. “I only know how to count to maybe twenty in Atlantean?”

“Hah! Congratulations, you’ve achieved the reading level of an Atlantean three-year-old,” Anu says with a snort.

“You know what?” I turn in a burst of fury, and glare at Anu. “One more word from your filthy mouth and I will stuff my fist in it!”

“Whoa!” Anu makes a hoarse laugh and sits back from me. “Earth girl’s got a bite!”

“You just shut your Atlantean trap!”

Gennio shakes his head at both of us. “Please, Gwen. Okay, let’s just continue, please.” And he points to the moving columns of numbers. “Fortunately all you need is to count to four in Atlantean. There are four Imperial Command ships in the Fleet. They are all in the middle row. And they are spread out evenly, the entire length of the Fleet. Unlike the other ark-ships, each Imperial Command Ship is designated by a large circle, with a number inside. ICS-1 is at the very beginning of the formation, so just scroll up all the way until you see a circle with a #1 in it. By the way, there we are, ICS-2, see it?”

As he points, I see a big bright circle with two dashes in it, among the sea of numbers—our own current ark-ship. It inches downward slowly, eventually disappearing off screen. I scroll with my finger to speed up the movement, passing hundreds of numbers, and finally reach the top of the menu. Just as Gennio said, there’s the other big circle with one dash, up on the very top.

“Now, tap it to select our Destination.”

I do as I’m told.

In that instant something weird happens. The Fleet Menu grid disappears and instead two circles suddenly pop up on the main Navigation grid. They float in the air—the circle with #1, our Destination, is on top, and a blank circle designating us, the shuttle, on the bottom.

“That’s it, Navigation set!” Gennio says. “You did it, Gwen, good job!”

I exhale in relief. “Okay, now what?”

“Now, I take over, and fly!” Anu says harshly.

And he puts his fingers on the red corner, calling up the Propulsion Grid, then sings a brief major key sequence.

The vibration in the hull of the shuttle around us increases. I watch the window and see the view outside shifting. We start to move, drifting off the platform to the side and into the concave drive tunnel.

At the same time I see that Gennio puts his fingers on the blue corner and calls up the Adjustment Grid. He sings a minor key sequence, and starts manipulating the blue circle that represents our shuttle, to keep it centered along a perforated line that must be a vertical guide.

Anu taps twice to take his Propulsion Grid 3D. And then he sings again.

The shuttle suddenly blasts forward along the launch tunnel.

I grit my teeth and hold back a scream.

W
e burst outside past the violet plasma shield and into empty space. Black vacuum fills the flight windows. The shuttle makes a turnabout—while Gennio is busy manipulating the Blue grid. Once again, as that first time with Pilot Keruvat Ruo, we end up in an “alley” between two formations, two vast rows of ships stretching in both directions to the invisible horizon.

Now thinking back, I remember all of it—all the things that Keruvat Ruo was doing on that flight—the swift flashes of color grids popping up above his console, the sequences he was singing. Neither I, nor the other three Earth refugees on that shuttle were paying any attention to what the Pilot was doing back then, completely occupied by the view of the black cosmos.

But now—oh, it all comes rushing back. Now that I have an actual perspective, a basic
understanding
of sorts, now I remember and care. Pilot Keruvat Ruo was brilliant! But no, it suddenly sinks in—not just brilliant, he was a
virtuoso
. That’s how good he was, how amazingly coordinated and fast on the controls. He needed no co-pilot. . . .

“Ready, Gennio?” Anu says, throwing me a sideways glance. “I am about to fly us out of here, fast!”

Gennio merely nods. I realize they are talking mostly for my own benefit.

“Watch, Earth girl, this is how you increase speed and go forward.”

Anu continues holding down the red corner. In addition he now places his other hand on the center of the console touch surface, right above the ignition button. He slowly swipes his finger
outward
—away from himself and out to the console upper edge.

As he does so, I hear the shuttle hull vibrate at a higher pitch. At the same time the view outside starts to blur with motion—we are speeding up, as we coast through the corridor between formations. Faster and faster we fly. . . . Soon, ships on both sides flash past us, appearing as stationary road markers while we seem to be the only thing in motion.

I have no idea how all of it works. But it must be the nature of the Quantum Stream—apparently it creates some kind of space-time bubble around the Fleet. The term I’ve heard used is a different “phase-space.” We’re basically contained within our own unique mini-universe of velocity and relativity. I expect they’ll be teaching us more about it in classes at some point.

“We will fly all the way to the front of the Fleet,” Gennio says without taking his eyes off his Blue grid, which he is watching like a hawk, making sure the blue circle ship marker remains lined up against the guide.

“How long do we fly like this?” I say a few minutes later, trying to keep my breath even.

“One third of the length of the Fleet. The Imperial Command Ships are spaced out evenly, dividing the formation into three segments,” Anu says. “We’re now probably about halfway between ICS-2 and ICS-1, so, almost there.”

“How do you know? How do you know when to stop?”

Anu snorts. “I don’t. That’s
your
job to tell me. Watch your own Yellow Nav grid and tell me if we are close.”

“What?” My mouth falls open.

“Oh and if we
don’t
stop in time, we will overshoot, and pass the flagship,” Anu adds almost gleefully. “Which will kick us out of the Quantum Stream and into standard interstellar space—in the middle of nowhere, uncharted, with no way of getting back. There we will coast for days until our life support runs out—or, if we’re lucky, we run into something potentially incendiary, like the gravity well of a nearby star, which will instantly take us out of our misery. In either case we die a horrible death while cursing you.”

“
What?”
A wave of panic engulfs me. I feel my hands trembling while my temples pound. I stare helplessly at the Yellow grid before me. “What do I do? What?
What?
What am I looking at here? Quickly! Please, Gennio,
help me!
”

“It’s okay, Gwen,” Gennio glances at me calmly. “Technically, Anu, we’re still within the solar system confines so we’re not interstellar, but it is still deadly. If we fell out of the Quantum Stream we would be lost, completely on our own, and yes, eventually die. But anyway, Gwen, there is plenty of time. See the two yellow circles, how the bottom one—our shuttle—is slowly nearing the top one?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, now see those little notches on the vertical guide? When there’s only
one
notch gap left between the two circles, that’s the optimal Braking distance.”

I stare like crazy at the Yellow grid projection, and count the notches silently. “Okay, I think there are two?”

Gennio quickly releases the blue corner of his console and taps yellow, making different color holo grids replace each other in the blink of an eye. He glances at Yellow and tells me, “Yes, you are correct.” Then he instantaneously flips back to Blue and continues his own task.

“So what do I do?” I mutter, while we continue rushing onward and the windows show endless formation ships flashing by. “Hello!
Gennio!
”

“Oh,” he says. “Sorry. Just tap the shuttle circle twice. That will signal the Brake system. At that point Anu will initiate the Braking process.”

“Okay, got it!” I forget everything else in the world around me and stare at the two yellow circles of light as they slowly converge in the air grid before me.

Seconds tick away. . . . At last the shuttle circle touches the last notch closest to the circle representing ICS-1. “Now!” I say and double-tap the shuttle circle.

In that moment the circle on my Yellow grid starts blinking. At the same time Anu’s Red grid flashes once, then his circle flares really bright and stays that way.

“Engaging Brake!” Anu releases the Red grid and pulls up Green. Holding the green corner with one hand, he slowly swipes the center of the touch surface, this time down, toward himself and closer to the rainbow ignition key on the very bottom.

The nature of the hum in the walls immediately changes. The motion outside the windows slows down, and we coast softer and finally come to a smooth floating stop before an ark-ship at the tip of the formation, beyond which there is
nothing
—no more ships, only black space and distant on-rushing stars.