Keystones: Tau Prime (7 page)

“So tell me, Mr. Tobin, why do you want to be a member of my crew?” asked Calm.

Deklan decided not to disguise his motives. “A friend of mine, Susan Anthony, was in an accident, and turned into a being made of light. She was last seen flying through the mouth of the wormhole.”

Calm crossed his arms and seemed more amused than sympathetic. “How noble.” Calm pointed in the general direction of the wormhole. “Whatever is out there, I want to know about it, and I want to know about it first. If I bring you along, your search for your friend will be secondary.”

There was no way for Deklan to begin a search on his own. These were the best terms that he could expect. “Agreed,” he said.

Calm made a steeple of his fingers with their tips just under his nose. The silence lasted for at least ten seconds. Deklan felt trickles of sweat form on the back of his neck before Calm spoke, his voice still even. “Well then, Mr. Tobin, you will be a welcome addition.” His eyes twinkled a little. “You bring us up to a full complement of people. I think it’s time for a celebration and a launch.” He tapped an icon at his station. “Mr. Day, Dr. Beal, please come to the bridge for a celebratory toast. Bring four glasses, and I’m certain that Mr. Day can be relied upon to provide appropriate refreshments.”

Jamie Beal appeared at the bridge like a summoned genie and said in her perky voice, “Jonny’s on his way. I passed him on my way here.”

Deklan couldn’t deny the flush of pleasure at seeing her again and knowing that she’d recommended him for the position. Having her around would make things more tolerable if he had to be on the ship for days or weeks or months on end.

Jonny Day made his entrance before she’d finished speaking. Deklan’s first impression on seeing him was one of self-assurance. The man entered the room as though they were all his guests. He wasn’t rude to Calm; he just radiated confidence. His immaculate dark hair and spotlessly white clothing further differentiated him. He held up four glasses. “You wanted a toast?”

“Indeed I do, Mr. Day. What can you offer us?”

“I’ve added a fine Scotch to my repertoire,” replied Jonny.

A tug at the corner of Calm’s lips expressed approval. “That seems appropriate. Kindly proceed.”

Jonny held the first of the glasses up to the light. “Are you sure that you want a demonstration? It is, after all, still early in the day.”

“The Scotch, Mr. Day, the Scotch.”

Jonny placed the glass on a table and held one finger above it. A thin stream of amber liquid poured from his fingertip. Jonny stopped when the glass contained a generous measure and passed it to Calm before filling the three other tumblers.

With a silent toast they drank.

Jonny asked the
Serenity
’s captain, “Does it meet with your expectations?”

Calm took another sip before he answered. “Careful. I may have to raise your pay.”

“You haven’t told me what my responsibilities are yet,” interjected Deklan after a moment.

“Ah, yes. I told Mr. Day that we needed a doctor and a lawyer on this little venture. Dr. Beal was already aboard at that point in time and recommended you as a lawyer with a useful Keystone ability.”

Jamie winked at Deklan and raised her glass in his direction.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” said Deklan.

“The one thing that wealth has taught me,” replied Calm, “is that lawyers are a necessary evil. I don’t know what we’re going to find, but I’m going to need you as a witness when we find it. When we return, you will be responsible for ensuring that there is paperwork documenting what we’ve done.”

“There’s no legal precedent for the exploration of wormholes,” commented Deklan.

“Exactly, but there is legal precedent for the annexation of planets, correct?” Calm spoke in a way that made it clear he knew the answer.

Calm obviously expected Deklan to secure for him the ownership of all discoveries he made while in the wormhole, including intergalactic real estate. The venture could be worth untold billions, if they were successful.

“Yes,” answered Deklan, “as in the annexation of Mars. Do you wish to annex the planets that we encounter?”

“And the Lagrange points.”

Those would be important too, Deklan realized. No one simply colonized planets, they were dangerous with unpredictable climates. Papers had been written on the subject. Even if they found “Earth-normal” planets, biospheres would have to be created or altered for human safety. Space-based habitats set in stable orbits within Lagrange points were the way forward for humanity. “Why me?” asked Deklan. “I haven’t practiced law in years.”

“You will draft documents that will then be worked over by a team of lawyers I retain here, but you have one advantage that my corporate lawyers do not.” Calm sniffed at his Scotch. “You, Mr. Tobin, will be an asset to my crew in other ways.”

“What are my responsibilities that don’t involve legalese?” inquired Deklan.

“You have a durability that Mr. Day and Dr. Beal lack.”

So it was back to his Keystone power of regeneration, or what Jamie earlier had called the Lazarus Syndrome. “I think we’re going to work well together,” Deklan declared.

Calm drained his glass. “Excellent. Unless anyone has any objections, it’s time to begin.” Hearing none, Calm executed the commands to undock the ship.

Deklan felt the tremble that came when the docking clamps released. The forward window showed the bay retreat as
Serenity
drew gradually away.

A controlled burn from the thrusters then took the ship into space. The Terra Rings leaped into view, massive spinning structures.
Serenity
swung around into the gap between Rings Two and Three before Calm engaged the Doppler Bubble Drive and left the Rings far behind. Instead of crawling between the two structures, they were coursing freely through open space.

Deklan watched as Calm brought them up to about half of maximum speed. At that rate it was going to take less than two minutes to reach the wormhole.

Calm wore a smile that suggested a nearly manic level of happiness. Jonny looked excited but not to the same extent as Calm. Beal’s perky smile seemed almost inappropriately relaxed. She was leaning back in her chair and had both hands behind her head, thoroughly enjoying the show.

Upon reaching the small fleet of ships stationed outside the wormhole, the craft slowed. “We have to make sure they see us,” Calm said, winking at Deklan, “if only to cement your celebrity further, Mr. Tobin, and of course to bring Mr. Day and Dr. Beal into the limelight.”

After a ten-second pause Calm punched the ship back into motion. “I hope you’re all sure about this,” he announced, “because we’re not going back.”

Serenity
dove into the mouth of the wormhole. Black nothingness gave way to pulsing purple. Sensors went off, and screens tracked information. Deklan understood less than half of what he saw, but he was mesmerized by the wonder. The tunnel had narrowed from the gaping maw they had entered, but it was still vast and framed by walls that shimmered with a hypnotic splendor.

Without warning Deklan and the rest of the crew floated out of their seats. A message came up on all of the screens: “Doppler Bubble Drive Disabled.”

Before Deklan could even think of how to react, Calm said, “Releasing probe.” He glanced around him. “We might as well activate the wheel in the sleeping quarters.”

A new screen lit up showing a small probe fired from the ship. It had a spherical head and tendrils that trailed behind, looking almost like a white squid. They tracked the probe for a few seconds before the space around it rippled and the probe abruptly vanished.

Deklan attempted to mimic the nonchalance of the other crew members as they pulled themselves back into their seats. Calm, like Deklan, had been born on Earth, but his actions aboard the ship made it clear that he was thoroughly at home in space.

Another screen filled with diagnostic information.
Serenity
was in perfect running order.

Jonny broke the silence. “Does anyone have any theories as to why the Doppler Bubble Drive went offline?”

“I do,” replied Calm slowly. “The rules here are different. I feel similar forces around me all the time, but I’m feeling something different in here. It’s something I’ve felt only once before during The Sweep.” Calm leaned back and tapped his fingers on the console, producing a drumming noise. “The Sweep altered our entire world. It had to do something strange to space and time to do that. The Doppler Bubble Drive manipulates space and time. Maybe things are so different inside a wormhole that the drive can’t function as normally it does.”

Deklan was surprised. You didn’t expect celebrities to espouse theories that tackled the ramifications of localized subspace variations on interplanetary travel.

Jonny shook his head. “It can’t be that simple. The probe worked just fine.”

Calm stroked his chin, apparently not annoyed by the dissenting opinion. “It could be the size. It’s well known that, the bigger the object being moved, the less effectively the drive works. It could be that in here this ship is now too large, but the probe isn’t.”

Deklan worried that this was going to make the others want to turn back. “Well,” he said, “that’s an inconvenience, but is it enough to stop us?”

Calm snorted. “Hardly! You aren’t going to find many ships smaller than
Serenity
that are capable of going on a voyage like this one.” His voice was firm. “No, we continue. I want to see the other side.”

Day 12

The undulating wall of the wormhole was visible through the viewport of the bridge. Flares of energy bathed the room in a purple hue.

Deklan sat on the bridge with Jonny. He hadn’t yet got a sense of the man, who was by turns friendly and serious. At the moment he seemed to be in a serious state of mind, non-talkative and focused on the display in front of him. Like Deklan, he wore one of the uniforms that Calm had given them. Uniforms were unnecessary on a relatively small private craft, but Calm had opinions, and it wasn’t as though Deklan’s wardrobe had survived The Sweep.

A series of alerts lit up at Deklan’s station, little icons at the side of his screen. “We have more probes returning,” he announced. “Do you think they’ve found anything?”

Jonny didn’t look up. “They’ll have found something.”

Deklan sighed. After six days of slow travel he was bored. There were only so many manuals he could read and so many training exercises he could perform. He’d spent two hours on making sure that he had a complete understanding of the safety protocols used with an EVA suit. His presence on the bridge was superfluous. He wasn’t a pilot, though in a pinch he could be trusted to activate the auto-pilot function. His actual onboard duties hadn’t commenced yet, and he was desperate for activity. Hence his fascination with the returning probes.

Just then Jonny lunged into the air, both arms raised high above his head. “Yes!” His yell shattered the peace of the bridge.

Deklan looked at him in bewilderment. “What?”

“They’ve found it. They’ve found harvestable resources and an Earth-normal planet!”

Deklan’s heart sped in his chest like an engine surging to life. “How far? How long?” he asked. He knew that humanity’s future was in space-based habitats, but to be among the first to visit a new world where people could live would be amazing.

Jonny turned to him, still floating and his left fist still held high. “No more than six hours, and we’re clear.” Jonny hooked his foot onto his console and pulled himself back down to a seated position, a victorious smile still plastered on his face. “You should rest. Who knows how long we’ll be awake once we get there.”

A beep sounded as Deklan was leaving the bridge.

“Wait,” Jonny called to him. “Scratch that. Can you head down to the probe bay and check on the fifth probe? It isn’t uploading data, and I’d like to know why. It might be important.”

It was a measure of Deklan’s desire for activity that he responded to this request with enthusiasm. “Sure,” he said. “I’m on it.” He gripped the edge of the door and with a shove propelled himself down the hallway, gliding parallel to the floor. All other concerns aside, weightlessness was fun.

The probe bay was a small room just off the shuttle repair bay. Scores of probes lined the walls in a manner that allowed for either manual or automatic release. The fifth probe had returned to its usual place, but the slot was lit with a yellow diagnostic light.

Up close the probes were bigger than they had appeared from the bridge. The spherical heads were fifty centimeters wide, but the trailing tendrils had withdrawn into the main body for ease of storage, little nubs being the only indication of their existence. The surface of each probe was covered in overlapping white rectangular plates. The smaller plates were about ten centimeters long on their shorter sides.

Deklan had no idea of how to fix a probe, but he could run diagnostics, and more importantly he could do acrobatics while he was at it. He keyed the release sequence and took the probe in hand for placement on the diagnostics cradle. He then executed a backflip that allowed him to bounce along the ceiling before touching down on the far side of the bay.

Jonny’s voice came over the intercom. “Having fun, Deklan?”

Deklan flashed a thumbs-up in the air. He couldn’t resist tweaking Jonny. “I am. Is it still wild and exciting on the bridge?”

With inexperienced hands he placed the probe on the cradle. It didn’t look quite right. He rotated it one hundred and eighty degrees so that the tail nubs faced up. The cradle lit up and locked the probe into place. Information crackled onto the diagnostics hologram: “Memory Corrupted,” “Hardware Damaged.” As the text faded away, the hologram became detailed schematics of the probe coupled with instructions. An animation showed a recorder being removed from the center of the probe for further analysis.

Deklan’s smile faded. “Hardware Damaged” was a troubling report and an odd one because he didn’t see any signs of damage. Even stranger was the fact that diagnostic cradles could usually read the information off damaged probes.