Wrath of the Void Strider (8 page)

Gavin answered, “She’s amazing!  The hangar deck is huge!”

Takeo glanced at Zerki.  “She’s very clean.  I’m impressed.”

“Thanks.  We all do our part.”  The captain crossed the deck and opened the bulkhead door, revealing the dim cargo passageway.  “We’ll find something for each of you to take care of, if you decide to stay on.”

“Are you looking to hire Taryn and me, as well?” asked Takeo.

“You’re not expected to accept, but it only seems fair to offer you a place on D’Arro’s security team.”  She looked past Takeo, nodding toward D’Arro and Buck.  “You two are excused.  Wait for me on the observation deck.”

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

Zerki guided her guests along the cargo passage.  “Because of how the gravity keels are arranged, 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 passageway had the sensation of becoming increasingly steeper.  “Use the handrails,” she stated as weightlessness began to take hold.  She pulled herself along the gap until her weight again pushed down on her legs.  Turning to face her guests, she said, “See?  Easy.”

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.  Takeo followed, and Gavin took one step more than he should have, pushing slowly off into the gravity void.

“Damn it,” he muttered, as 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 through the corridors of the command module 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, interface consoles slowly advanced through dozens of screen saver images.

Zerki moved to the large screen as interior lights brightened.  “Please, sit down,” she urged, and her guests did as they were bidden.  She turned to them and said, “Before I show you this, I want you all to be aware of a couple things.  Who here knows what a Navigator is?”

Gavin and Taryn raised their hands, as Takeo answered, “Everyone knows what a Navigator is.”  He regarded her questioningly.  “They were used heavily for interstellar travel before the advent of warp drive.  Nowadays, they usually contract out their services or work as spies for the government.”

“Right you are,” said Zerki.  “Do you know how they do it?”

Takeo shrugged.  “Not really.”

“They’re believed to be in tune with a holographic state of consciousness.  In days of old, it was called astral projection, clairvoyance, or ESP, but on a galactic scale.”  She called up an image of a cushioned table crowned by a headband covered in sensors.  “This is a jump rig.  Navigators lie down in one of these while an overhead display shows them information pertaining to the starship’s intended destination.  After the rig induces a heightened alpha state, the Navigator observes the destination remotely.  While that’s happening, 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?”

They nodded in response.

“That’s the Precision Laser Array, or PLA.  Immediately after the remote 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.  “I’ve already told you—I’m not a Navigator.”

“I think you’re wrong,” she affirmed.  “I think you are a Navigator, but your starsight is clearly latent.  I’ve been working on a way to trigger it, and I think I’ve got it figured out, but there’s a risk.  Sure, you may have the gift, but you can also make gravity bridges.”

“Which you said you were going to explain,” said Taryn.

“I am.”  Zerki smiled.  “Right now, in fact.  Do you know what an Einstein-Rosen bridge is?”

“That’s a wormhole,” said Gavin.  “It’s a shortcut through spacetime.”

Zerki nodded.  “That’s correct.  A gravity bridge is a similar topographical structure, dependent on the overlapping of two gravity wells.  Essentially, two points in space become connected through shared spacetime deformations, causing one to overlap the other.  The results are very similar to the Einstein-Rosen bridge, but far more stable and they can last for far greater durations.”

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 a second 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 raised her brow.  “I hope this convinces you.”

Gavin sank into his chair.  “I… Yes, it does.  But,” he whispered.  Collecting himself, he looked to her and asked, “But I still don’t know how I did it!”

“If you go back to Afskya, I promise you this: all the Union’s brightest scientists will spend the rest of your life trying to answer that.”  She retrieved a set of keys from her belt and plopped them noisily down upon the holographic display table.  “You’re already a black file.”

“What do you mean?”

She entered his information into her data pad and showed him the results.  A single word existed below his name, written in bold letters: “CLASSIFIED.”

He swallowed visibly.  “Wait… what?”  He took the pad and studied it.

Compassionately, Zerki regarded Gavin.  “You’re something wars could be fought over.  You’re the next thing.  You’ll make warp drive obsolete, and whoever has you will have such an overpowering military advantage, that no one would dare stand against them.”  She stepped close and took back her data pad.  “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 set down her tablet and squeezed his hands.  “They won’t give you 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 from you that 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, and no one knows that you’re here.  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 can use starsight.  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.  “I invite you two to stay on as part of D’Arro’s security team.  It’ll keep you busy, and it pays a fair wage.”

Takeo stood up.  “What if we say no?”

Zerki met his eyes and gestured toward the keys.  “Fly back.  The shuttle will find its way home.”  She picked up her tablet and approached the doorway.  “Whatever you decide, please let Valerie know, and she’ll help you out with quarters, or she can give you the shuttle’s bridge access code.  She’ll be in the rec room for the next couple hours, near the elevator you took up here.”  With a nod, she turned away and vanished down the corridor.

After a moment, Takeo’s shoulders sank, and he plopped heavily onto a nearby chair.  “My dad’s going to be pissed.”

Gavin nodded and leaned forward over his knees.  “It sounds like I’m missing school on Monday.”

“Would it be so bad to fly with her for a while?” Taryn softly asked.

Takeo shook his head slowly.  “It wouldn’t be just for a while.  Unless someone else starts making gravity bridges, it’ll be for the rest of our lives.”  Taryn began to protest, but Takeo continued, “Think about it.  90 minutes after it happened, and Gavin’s already a black file. They’re going to start doing background searches, and they’ll find out we’re all friends.”

“They’ll use us against him if we ever go back,” she sighed.  “We’ll have to pay cash for everything from now on.”

Gavin leaned further over his knees, trying to fight back a wave of intense nausea.  “I’m sorry.”  He rocked slightly, back and forth.  “Oh, God, I have to warn my family!”

Takeo rested his hand upon Gavin’s back.  “My dad will keep them safe.  You have some time.”

“I should call my mom, just in case,” Taryn whispered, and she stared absently at her feet.

Gavin vomited, and his head spun.

“Come on,” Taryn urged, and she slipped her arm around his back, seated it under his arm and helped him to stand.  A holographic caution cone appeared over the mess, and a tiny yellow light began flashing near the briefing room’s doorway.  Takeo grabbed the keys and fell in behind as they stepped out into the corridor.

“Let’s go find Valerie,” he said as a tiny helper droid raced by.

Gavin had regained himself by the time they reached the cargo junction bulkhead.  It slid open, and they stepped inside.  “Hold on,’ he said as they approached a portside porthole.  Takeo and Taryn moved to stand on either side of him.

“You okay?” asked Taryn.

With a nod, Gavin pointed beyond the glass.  “Look at that.”  They beheld the planet’s broad, blue crescent.  Set against a brilliant cloak of stars, its soft glow bled into a faraway cloud of brilliant dust and gas.

Taryn whispered, “What is that?  The cloud, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” said Gavin.

“That’s the Raven Nebula,” said Takeo.  “It’s too dim to see from the city—too much light pollution, but it’s something I always look forward to seeing when my father takes me up here.”

“Lucky,” pouted Taryn, and she wistfully sighed.  “I could stare at it forever, if it wasn’t setting so fast.”

Takeo chuckled.  “Don’t worry, you’ll see it again in an hour, if we’re still here.”  He nudged his friends.  “Let’s find the rec room.  We should figure out what we’re doing.”

With a nod, Gavin exhaled.  “You’re right.”  Turning to his companions, he managed a smile and led them along the passage.  Gripping the handrails well ahead of time, he gracefully traversed the weightless gap.  Soon, they reached the far end, and the aft module’s hatch opened at their approach.

Directly ahead of them, a sturdy bulkhead was marked, “OBSERVATION DECK.”  To their left, a wide hatch was labeled, “BARRACKS.”  To their right, two hatches were set close to one another.  The nearer one was marked, “MESS HALL,” while the farther one was marked, “RECREATION AREA.”  Its doorway remained open, allowing the distinct sounds of a heated table tennis match to spill out.

Puffing his cheeks, Gavin led his companions inside.  Seated at a gaming table across from them, a redheaded woman met Gavin’s eyes and brightened.  She pointed to a square folding table, where Valerie poured over a handful of digital forms.  Her data tablet was in her lap.

Gavin nodded and approached.  “Hey,” he began.

She looked up with a hopeful smile.  “Hey, Gavin.”  She took note of Taryn and Takeo as they stood nearby.  “What did you decide?”

He blew into his hands.  “We’d like to sign up.”  Glancing briefly toward his companions, he added, “We’d like to enlist with the
Sanguine Shadow
.”

Valerie snickered.  “Actually, you don’t enlist with a starship, you get assigned to one, but that’s great news.  I can’t tell you how grateful we are.”  She was visibly relieved.  “Here, I’ve got the Merchant Star Navy enlistment forms already pre-filled out for all three of you.”  She rotated a trio of brightly lit sheets of paper to face them correctly.  “Since we’re trying to keep you guys under the radar, Captain’s planning to pay you all in cash credits.  Regardless, you should still fill these out so your rank and pay grade can be transferred to another starship, in case this ever blows over.  I put a transmission lock on them, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally submitting them to Fleet.”