Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic (5 page)

“He who
can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his
eyes are closed.” –Albert Einstein

A loud knock rang through
Gavin’s quarters, and he rose to his feet as the door slid away.  In the narrow
hallway beyond, the captain stood with her arms crossed.  She regarded Gavin. 
“Please, sit down.  We need to talk.”

He shrugged and sat down on the lower bunk. 
“Sure.”

She stepped through and closed the door.  “How are
you feeling, by the way?  I know this is probably taking longer than you
thought it would.”

He answered, “No, it’s fine.  I’m OK.  I don’t
mind.”

“Good,” she said and turned a kind smile his way. 
Overhead light touched her golden hair in such a way that it seemed to glow. 
It cast soft illumination upon her eyes and high-set cheeks.  Her fair skin was
flawless, and her chin was proud.  “I sincerely appreciate your patience.”

Gavin’s mouth fell
slightly open.  “You’re… uh, no problem.”

She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. 
“Focus, Gavin.”

“Right.”  His heart was racing.  “So, what’s up? 
What did you want to talk about?”

“What you did on the surface,” she replied, but
Gavin looked confused.  “Your truck.”  Zerki leaned closer, scrutinizing him. 
“You really don’t know?”

“There’s a lot I don’t know.  Ask any of my
professors.”

“I mean what you did.  What you can do.”

Gavin stared at her questioningly.  “Details would
help.”

Her shoulders sagged.  “You’re serious.”  She
puffed her cheeks and brought her hands to her mouth, clapped them quietly
together.  “Gavin, you’re a Wellcaster.”

He blinked and shrugged.  “Is that bad?”

Zerki’s throat was suddenly dry.  “Not usually. 
Do you know what a Wellcaster is?”

“I really don’t.”

She nodded slowly and looked angrily toward the
heavens.  “I’ll be back.”  Zerki turned away, tapped the activation plate, and
the door retreated.  She glanced down the hall.  “Just my luck,” she muttered,
and the door sealed shut after she passed through.

Gavin sank against the wall at his back.  “What
was that about?” he whispered to himself, and he allowed his thoughts to
wander. 
Zerki Ibarra…  Why does that name sound familiar
?

·· • ··

“He doesn’t know,” Zerki repeated as Valerie
joined her in the hall leading to the cockpit.

“That’s bad.”  She shoved her hands in her pockets
and puffed out her cheeks.  “Is it too late to get Kendra back?”

Zerki nodded solemnly.  “She’s on her way to New
Falkirk.  Besides, she’s burned out.  Even if we could somehow intercept her
transport, another trip might kill her.”

Valerie shrugged.  “I don’t know.  She was the
best Navigator we ever worked with.  She could probably make a few more jumps
before it got dangerous.”

“Her eyes are fully red, Val.  She wore contacts
the last couple jumps to spare anyone having to look at them.”

Her first mate winced.  “OK, you’re right.”  She
stared blankly at the wall across from her.  “What do we do?  The
Shadow
’s
built around her entanglement drive.  We’ll have to hire someone from an agency
if we can’t get Gavin to wake up and take the helm.”

Zerki considered silently awhile.  At last, she
raised her brows and looked to Valerie.  “I’ve got an idea.”

·· • ··

“It’s been more than an hour,” grumbled Taryn as
she stepped back into her quarters, and the door closed behind her.  “I talked
to a couple guys in the hall.  I guess this is just her shuttle, not her starship. 
Why can’t Zerki talk to us here?”

Takeo checked his phone.  “I have no idea.  I’m
about to ask them to send us home.”  He reached for the touch plate, but to his
surprise, the door slid open.

“This way,” said D’Arro.  He hardly fit in the
hallway, he was so tall.  “Both of you, if you would.  Captain wants you up
front.”

“Is it meeting time?” asked Takeo.

D’Arro considered.  “I don’t think so.  She wants
you to see something.  That’s what she said.”

Taryn and Takeo stepped out, moving in front of
the massive ospyrean.  The door slid shut, and he urged his guests forward. 
Soon, they reached the bulkhead leading to the command room, where Gavin
twisted to meet their eyes, and he smiled.  “Hey, guys,” he whispered.  Krane
manned the flight controls.  Zerki and Valerie stood on the other side of
Gavin.

“Hey, Gavin,” said Taryn.  “What’s going on?”

“You’ll like this,” Zerki interjected.  She
pointed toward the stars.  “Just watch.”

Tiny at first, little more than a dim glimmer
against the sea of stars, the
Sanguine Shadow
appeared as a dot at the
center of the shuttle’s broad canopy.  As they closed, details became clearer. 
Gavin gasped, and Taryn mouthed, “Oh, wow,” as she gripped his upper arm. 
Takeo leaned forward slightly.

“Full stop, Krane, if you would be so kind,” said
Zerki.

The glow of directional thrusters was momentarily
visible just past the cockpit’s lower horizon, and the shuttle swiftly halted. 
They took in the
Sanguine Shadow
’s full
measure.  With the grace of a leviathan, the lengthy starship drifted, buoyed
by the void, coated entirely in a certain sort of black.  Where light touched
the outer hull directly, the otherwise inky paint appeared to be the color of
blood.

Her forward section swooped down over a pair of
cargo bay doors, with a visible main airlock seated toward the back, near the
amidships junction.  It housed the main bridge, briefing room, officers’
quarters, and the captain’s cabin.  Mounted to the top of the command module, a
dozen expansive, adjustable flanges reached beyond the width of the starship,
an integral component of her entanglement drive.

Spanning the forward command module and aft crew
module, an alloy spine supported moorings for six cargo bins, three to a side. 
Each container was large enough to store several construction vehicles and
could be retrofit to convey up to eight hundred passengers in cryo-freeze. 
Along the top of the spine, a secondary bridge sprang up at its fore, crowned
with aerials, and sturdy cabins occupied each mooring junction, where operators
coordinated the management of the cargo bins as needed.  A cool, dim hallway
ran beneath the secondary bridge and the operator compartments, linking the two
primary modules.

At the far end of the starship, massive thrusters
framed the crew module.  Easily twice the size of the command module, it housed
the starship’s barracks, mess hall, observation deck and rec room at the top
level.  A level below, the engineering station, medical bay, hydroponics farm
and science lab saw frequent use.  At the bottom deck, a cavernous bay served
as the shuttle’s roost, gave home to the maintenance station, parts and
fabrication shops.

Dense and highly massive, gravity keels ran the
length of each primary module’s underbelly, allowing for weightlessness only
near the heart of the cargo passageway.

“She’s beautiful,” Gavin whispered.

Takeo nodded almost imperceptibly.  “So she is.”

Taryn faced Zerki.  “Why are you showing us this?”

“She’s the
Sanguine Shadow
,” declared her
proud captain.  “Most people spend their whole lives planetside.  Very few ever
get the chance to see a starship in her natural element with their own eyes.” 
For a moment, her gaze was very far away.  “It’s something you never will
forget.”

A moment passed in silence, and Zerki at last
declared, “OK, that’s it.  You can go back to your rooms, if you like.  We’ll
be docking momentarily, and then we’ll have our meeting.”  As the enormous
ospyrean urged Taryn and Takeo back along the hall, Zerki glanced toward
Valerie.  “Please show Gavin back to his quarters.”

“Aye, Captain,” she answered and faced her
charge.  “Ready?”

“Sure!”

As she and Gavin returned to the hallway, moving
for his cabin, the captain urged Krane to resume his approach.  Slowly, the
shuttle scudded into motion and closed the remaining distance to the
Sanguine
Shadow
.  Bay doors pulled away ponderously, and warning lights flashed.

“What’s going on?” asked Gavin.  His door slid
open, and Valerie gestured for him to enter.  “What could be worth an entirely
new Hulkr Rhino?”

She followed him inside and tapped the door
closed.  “It’s pretty big, Gavin.  Actually, it’s huge.”  Valerie crossed her
arms as she pondered.  “Captain’s a pretty sharp woman.  She goes about things
in an unusual manner sometimes, but almost always according to a plan, so I
better not ruin the surprise.”  She nodded toward his bunk, and Gavin eased
himself down to sit.  “I’m Valerie Sawyer,” she offered, and she thrust forth
her hand.  Her features were soft, her skin smooth and pale, and her eyes were
ice blue.

He met her gaze, and his heart pounded.  He felt
intoxicated. 
My God, you’re beautiful
, he thought,
and you smell…
really
nice
.  He mentally chuckled. 
If I thought for a minute you’d say yes…
 
Gripping her hand, he replied, “Gavin Santiago.”
 

“Yeah, I got that,”
she teased.  Valerie was very tall, taller than most of the men she met, even
without the boost from her black, strapped boots.  Her hair was carnation pink
and steeply bobbed.  She wore a thin, hooded leather jacket with pierced
teddy-bear ears and steel-studded cuffs.  Under that, she wore a white,
loose-fitting blouse and a silver cross on a silver chain.  Black jeans and a
belt that matched her studded cuffs completed the ensemble.  She smiled
curiously.  “Wait, are you from S-Town?” 

He laughed and nodded.  “All three of us.  Takeo
Sato, Taryn Sikes and me.  You too?”

Valerie nodded and plopped down on the bed next to
him.  “Yeah.  Lived there pretty much my whole life, until Captain hired me. 
Whose bright idea was it to alphabetize the citizen zones, anyway?”  She
chuckled quietly.  “Not that I’m complaining.  Not really.”  She glanced to him
sidelong.  “I’m surprised I never had any classes or extracurriculars with any
of you.”

“Well, there’s a lot of us S-types.”  He felt his
pulse racing as he looked upon her, and he exhaled as steadily as he could
manage.  “What part of town?”

She glanced to her boots.  “Montag, over by Fort
Clark.”

“That’s not the safest part of town.”

Valerie shook her head, her expression distant. 
“You’re telling me.”

A quiet moment shambled awkwardly by.

“So what’s up?” Gavin finally asked.  “What brings
you here?”

She shrugged.  “Captain asked me to get to know
you a little.”  A loud thud sounded from underfoot, and the groan of metal
echoed through the shuttle.  Valerie glanced upward, wearing a slight smile. 
“We’re docked.  A couple more minutes, and the pressure should be equalized.” 
She looked to Gavin.  “Your ears are going to pop a lot, and it might hurt for
a while, but you’ll be OK.”

“Thanks,” he said.  “Hey, uh, do you know what a
Wellcaster is?”

Suddenly giddy, Valerie beamed and nodded.  “I do,
but… I should let Captain explain it.”  She embraced him tightly and pulled
away.  “I’d better go make sure everything’s ready.  Nice to meet you,” she
added and got to her feet.

“You too,” he said.

She paused in the doorway, turning just enough to
regard him.  “It’s sandalwood.” 

“What?”

“Why I smell
really
nice.  It’s sandalwood
oil.”  She winked playfully.  “And thanks for the compliment.  Not everyone
thinks I’m oh-my-God beautiful.  It’s nice to know you do.”  She vanished into
the hall, and the door slid closed.

Gavin was dumbfounded.  “Wait, what?”  He eased
onto his back and stared at the ceiling awhile.

“Choose a
job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –Confucius

In time, Gavin’s ears
began to feel clogged.  He popped them repeatedly, until he no longer felt the
urge to do so.  He straightened, stretched and tapped open his door.  A haggard
fellow was waiting for him in the hallway.  “I’m Buck,” he said, and he
extended his hand.  “Get your friends and follow me, please.”

“Sure,” answered Gavin, and he stepped out of the
cabin.  He crossed into the hall and glanced along the T-junction that led to
the shuttle’s bridge and to the other side of the transport.  The bridge was
sealed shut, but the doorway far across from him was open.  A moment later, he
spotted Taryn and Takeo peering out at him, and he waved.

He hurried over to them.  “Hey guys.”

Takeo smiled as he stepped into the hall.  “Hey,
Gavin.  We’re docked?”

“We are,” he replied.  “There’s a guy named Buck
waiting for us around the corner.”

“To do what?” asked Taryn.

“Show us around, I imagine,” said Gavin.  “He
didn’t actually say.”

“I hope we get to see the rest of the hauler
before we go back home,” Taryn chimed.  “I’ve never been inside an actual
starship before.”

“It’s much like the inside of any other slum,”
Takeo supposed.  “Overcrowded and rich with all the fine smells you’d expect of
so many people sharing the same space.”

“You ever consider writing travel brochures?”
Gavin chuckled.  “Because, wow… I’m sold.  When do we move in?”

Takeo shrugged.  “I just want you to be prepared.”

Taryn joined them in the hall.  “Let’s find out if
you’re even close to right, Mr. Bright Side.”  They followed the hall back to
Gavin’s quarters, where Buck smiled at seeing them.  He began walking on ahead.

Gavin whispered, “By the way, they think I’m a
Wellcaster.  It’s got Valerie and the captain pretty excited.”

“Which one is Valerie?” Taryn asked.

“The tall one,” Gavin explained.  “The first mate,
I think.”

She mouthed, “Ah.”  Glancing along the hall, she
asked, “What’s a Wellcaster?”

“I have no idea,” he answered.  “I was hoping one
of you might know.”

Takeo said, “Never heard of a Wellcaster.”  He
considered for a moment, chewing absently on the inside of his lower lip.  “Not
that I remember, anyway.”

With Buck in the lead, they made their way to the
cargo area of the shuttle.  The ramp was left down, and only dim aisle lamps
offered any light within the smaller starship.  In the cavernous bay beyond,
scattered overhead lamps cast just enough light to navigate its confines.

“Wow, this place is enormous,” said Taryn as they
set foot onto the floor of the vaulted hangar.  “Is the rest of the starship
this big?”  She tapped on her phone’s flashlight app, and a tiny mote of light
brightly shone from her device.  Swiftly, she swept it back and forth against
the darkened path before them.

“This is the biggest room on the
Shadow
,”
Buck offered.  “Parts shop, maintenance, and main hangar bay.”

Takeo nodded.  “It’s quite large.”

They crossed the chamber, and in time reached a
lift at the back of the parts shop.  Buck tapped the call button, and the door
slid open to reveal a brightly lit elevator car.  One by one, they stepped
inside and faced the selection panel.  Numbered one through three, a trio of
circular pads softly glowed.  Buck jammed his finger against the number “3”
button, and the doors promptly closed.

Seconds later, the doors opened again into the
confines of the starship’s observation deck.  Somewhat spacious in its design,
a few occupied chairs lined the far wall.  Windows reached up from the floor to
the ceiling, offering an unfettered view of the starry expanse.

Zerki and D’Arro were waiting for them.  She had
clipped her blonde hair into a short ponytail.  Dressed now in a snug, white
tank top, a black utility vest and cargo pants, she seemed much more at ease.
“Glad you could make it,” she said.  Her high armored boots were red, matched
the color of a narrow stripe that ran the length of her black pants’ outer
legs, and several devices had been hooked to her belt, including her plasma
pistol.   “You guys ready?”

Takeo regarded her and nodded.  “Sure.”

Zerki gestured for them to follow.  “Right this way.” 
A number of crewmen turned to regard the trio as they stepped off the lift and
fell in behind the starship captain.  D’Arro and Buck followed at a distance.

Taryn asked, “What’s a Wellcaster?”

“I’ll get to that at the meeting.  How do you like
the starship?” Zerki led her visitors to a central hall with three hatches and
a sealed bulkhead at the far end.

Gavin answered, “She’s amazing!  I’ve never been
inside a real starship before.”

Takeo glanced at Zerki.  “Why won’t you tell us
what a Wellcaster is?”

“It’ll make more sense if I show you a few things,
first.”  The captain crossed the deck and opened the bulkhead door, revealing
the dim cargo passageway.  “And try to be a bit more patient.  That’s one thing
you’ll have to get used to when it comes to space travel, is just how long
everything takes.  Of course, when it’s time for action, things will happen a
lot faster than you’re used to, but we can train you for that, if you decide to
stay on.”

“Are you offering us employment?” Gavin asked.

“I’m hoping to.”  She looked past Takeo, nodding
toward D’Arro and Buck.  “You two are excused.  Wait for me on the observation
deck.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” said the ospyrean giant, and
he led his fellow crewman away.

Zerki guided her guests along the cargo passage. 
“It’s going to feel like you’re walking uphill the closer you get to the
middle, but the gravity’s also going to be much weaker.  After you cross the
weightless section, it’ll be the same in reverse on the other side.  Don’t
worry, you’ll get used to it.”  As she walked, the hallway had the sensation of
being increasingly steeper.  “Jump where I jump,” she stated as weightlessness
began to take hold.  A few more steps, and she sprang from the grated floor,
sailed gracefully through the air, pushed off the ceiling at one point, and
landed deftly several yards away.  She turned to face the others.  “Come on.”

Taryn duplicated Zerki’s movements and soon stood
at the captain’s side, wearing an unabashed grin.  “That was awesome!” she
gushed, though she stumbled slightly before regaining her balance.  With some
effort and a bit more of an impact against the ceiling, Takeo followed.  Gavin
took one more step than he should have and pushed slowly off into the gravity
void.

“Damn it,” he muttered, and he twisted and lunged
to no avail.  Taryn snickered as she watched Gavin slowly drift along.  In
time, the weakened gravity on the far side pulled him down to his friends,
where he landed softly, curled up protectively into himself.  Takeo helped him
to his feet.

With a quiet laugh, Taryn nudged Gavin’s shoulder
and whispered, “Dork.”

He muttered, “Thanks.”  His ears were bright red.

They followed Zerki to a sealed bulkhead at the
end of the passage.  She tapped it open and led them to another doorway. 
Wearing a hopeful smile, she gestured for them to enter the dimly lit room
beyond.  Inside, a dozen chairs sat facing a large screen mounted to the far
right of the chamber.  On the left side, several more chairs had been placed
around a short and wide holographic display table.  Its surface was slightly
concave, with a keyboard affixed to both long edges.  Bordering the table,
reference interface displays slowly advanced through dozens of screen saver
images.

Zerki moved to the screen as interior lights
brightened, and she switched it on.  “Please, sit down,” she urged, and her
guests did as they were bidden, positioning themselves in the front row, seated
near to the captain.  She turned to them and said, “Before I show you this, I
want you all to be aware of a couple things.  Who here understands Navigator
Theory?”

Gavin and Taryn exchanged uncertain looks, and
Takeo answered, “I have a basic understanding.”  Zerki nodded deeply toward him
and waited expectantly.  “It explains how some people have a profound awareness
of their place in the universe, relative to all surrounding matter and
energy.”  He thought a moment.  “Navigators were used heavily for interstellar
travel before the invention of warp drive.”

“That’s more like history, but that’s that not
bad,” said Zerki. “Awakened Navigators sit in the jump rig with a destination
point in mind.  As they get their bearings remotely, the starship generates a
shielded particle fog.  Over the course of several hours, the jump rig reads
the data that the Navigator’s getting from the remote location and translates
it electronically.  Did you notice the flanges mounted to the top of the
command section?”

Takeo nodded.  After a moment, Taryn and Gavin did
too.

“That’s the Precision Laser Array, or PLA.  As
soon as a remote data scan is complete, every one of those lasers fires for a
fraction of a second, aligning all the matter within the particle cloud to that
of the starship’s destination, inducing an entanglement event.”  The three
regarded her silently.  “The starship jumps to the new location.”

“Oh,” mouthed Gavin, and Taryn nodded.

“Your hauler uses a jump drive?” Takeo asked.

“Most civilian starships still do,” said Zerki. 
“Only government starships can afford warp engines, so we don’t have much
choice.  As such, Navigators are still in very high demand in the private
sector.”  She glanced toward Gavin.  “Which brings me to you.”

He furrowed his brow.  “You said I was a
Wellcaster.”

“And so you are,” she affirmed.  “Around the time
Navigators were discovered, experts predicted the existence of Wellcasters. 
They surmised that a family line of Navigators would eventually become so in
tune with the universe over the course of generations, that its offspring would
one day be able to induce entanglement events unaided.  They predicted these
descendants could cause existing gravity wells of any size to converge across
any distance, and allow for objects of immense size to pass through these
points of overlap.”

Takeo said, “You’re talking about space folding.” 
He glanced to Gavin, then back to Zerki.  “That’s impossible.  The amount of
energy needed to do it would destroy half the known universe.”

“Unless it’s not dependent on energy,” she
replied.  Before Takeo could argue, she activated the video file, prompting the
interior lights to dim.  “Here’s the footage and the readings we took on
Afskya.  See for yourself.”

They all watched as Gavin’s truck sailed through
the air and stopped short of smashing into anyone.  It played again, this time
in slow motion.  Energy readings and space-time mapping appeared as an overly
on the third pass.  Gavin jumped, and Taryn beamed as a jagged leader snaked
from Gavin’s head to a point well above the ground.  The grid used to indicate
local gravity warped and collapsed for an instant around the truck, taking the
shape of an extended funnel.

Takeo’s mouth fell slightly open, his eyes wide. 
He regarded Gavin with a mix of wonder and horror.

Zerki paused the footage.  “You begin to
understand.”  She crossed her arms as she looked upon Gavin.  “I’m sorry I
couldn’t address it before now, but it’s so extraordinary I doubt you would’ve
believed me without some hard proof.”  She paused.  “I hope this convinces
you.”

Gavin sank into his chair.  “Of course it does,”
he whispered.  Collecting himself, he looked to her and asked, “How did I do
that?”

“If you choose to go back to Afskya, I promise you
this: all the Union’s brightest scientists will spend the rest of your life
finding out the answer to that.”  She retrieved a set of keys from her belt and
plopped them noisily down upon the holographic display table.  “Navigators are
limited by how far and how accurately they can perceive, and sometimes entire starships
are lost in a bad jump.  When warp drive came along, all the big governments
got onboard with it.  Warp drive is safe, effectively only slightly slower than
jump travel, and isn’t dependent on an exceedingly rare genetic mutation.”

Compassionately, Zerki regarded Gavin.  “But you… 
You’re something wars will be fought over.  You’re the next thing: instant,
risk-free space travel across countless parsecs.  You’ll make warp drive
obsolete, and whoever has you will have such an overpowering military
advantage, that no one would dare stand before them.”  She stepped close, knelt
before him and took his hands.  “Picture it.  Vast armadas appearing in an
instant, striking with awesome and brutal accuracy, only to slip away before
taking even a single volley of return fire.”

“That’s monstrous,” he timidly asserted.  “I’d
refuse.”

Zerki squeezed his hands and stood up.  “You
wouldn’t have a choice.  At best, they’ll find your price.  If you can’t be
bought, they’ll try to brainwash you.”   She glanced to Taryn and Takeo, each
in turn.  “And if you still won’t play along, they’ll take something you care
more about than any of the wars across any of the systems.”

Suddenly, Gavin’s eyes began to fill.  “I didn’t
ask for this.”

“Very few have asked for what happens to them.” 
She released his grip and stood back a step.  “Fly with me, Gavin.  The
Shadow
is my business, my hauler.  We mostly take salvage and transport jobs.  A
little adventure, no wars, no brainwashing and no bribes.  You’d have your
freedom, and you’d be earning a junior officer’s pay.  Three meals a day and a
place to sleep…  You could do a lot worse.”

She inhaled audibly.  “In exchange, I’d ask you to
be my Navigator.  In theory, you already have the Awareness.  All you’d have to
do is take a seat in the jump rig for a couple hours at a time when I need you
to, read the navigation display, and the
Shadow
will take care of the
rest.”  She glanced to Taryn and Takeo.  “Should you two decide to stay on,
there’s plenty that needs doing.  I’ll keep you busy and pay you a fair wage,
too.”