Cycle of Stars Read online

  “Casting the far wormhole mouth now,” said Dag.

  With the bubble fully formed and large enough to accept the ship Captain Tessa began a slow approach. The ship entered the wormhole mouth and in a subjective moment was exiting the other side.

  “Where are we?” asked the Captain.

  “One-hundred AU from our previous location,” said the navigator.

  Ally looked at Dag, she thought he was smiling.

  “Congratulations Dag.”

  “Thank you Miss.”

  “All right everybody let's get back home and report,” said the Captain smiling.

  11

  Captain Parsons and First Officer Dixon had made their way to drive operations.

  “Okay Rodriguez,” said the Captain. “What have you got for me?”

  “Captain Parsons you know that each day I run a diagnostic on the drive. And every day it fails, until today. Captain, I ran the test multiple times today and the drive passes every time. I think it will work.”

  “Well let's test it Rodriguez. First Officer make the announcement. We will jump in five minutes.”

  Everyone aboard the ship was surprised but rushed excitedly to prepare for the jump.

  Back in control, the Captain called the drive room.

  “Okay Rodriguez, take us to Adowa.”

  Watching the wallscreen the Captain saw the bright spot of light increase in intensity and size. The wormhole mouth was forming with the usual halo effect. The mouth continued to grow until it was large enough to encompass the ship.

  “Cast the far mouth Rodriguez.”

  “Okay Captain,” said Rodriguez and after a moment continued. “Ready Captain.”

  The Captain signaled to the helmsman to take the ship in. A moment and the ship exited the far mouth. There wasn't any planet nearby.

  “Navigator we don't appear to be very near Adowa. Where are we?”

  “Just a moment Captain.”

  The navigational Emmie finally responded.

  “Sir navigation says we are about fifty AU from Adowa.”

  “Still outside the Kaffa System,” said the Captain. “Well, apparently there is still something a little bit wrong with our jump-drive. How long to Adowa under fusion power?”

  “About forty-five days.”

  “Okay let's get going helmsman.”

  The Star Hopper arrived at Adowa not long after the Jump-Ship Two from the Dnoces System with Dag and Ally aboard.

  “They came in under fusion power but they made a jump of several light-years says their captain.”

  “Did you invite the captain?” asked Dr. Payne.

  “Yes sir,” said the Jump-Ships Corporation COO, Dr. Kemal.

  “We'll find out tomorrow then.”

  Also invited to the meeting at Jump-Ships headquarters orbiting Adowa was Dag, Ally, the Star Hopper's Captain and the Captain of Jump-Ship Two.

  “Thank you for coming,” said Dr. Payne. “We are here to discuss the apparent solution to our jump-drive problem.”

  He then went around the room introducing everyone including Jaile Germin representative from the Union of Adowa and Raila Ruto representative of the Gallan government.

  “Professor Mach if you could fill us in, without too much physics, with what you have done to get the jump-drive working.”

  “Thank you Dr. Payne. I will attempt to explain without the physics as you say. Basically, spacetime at the quantum level has changed. This is the level from which we extract wormhole mouths. You can think of this level as a sea that is in constant turmoil with waves thrown up as in a storm. Some of these waves are wormhole mouths and the drive seizes such a microscopic mouth and expands it to a macroscopic size which we can then use for the jump.

  “But now the sea has settled down and the waves are too small to toss up wormhole mouths. There just isn't enough energy available to create them. So what we have done is to reconfigure the drive so that it first heats, so to speak, an area of spacetime. You might think of it as bringing the sea to a boil. Now there is enough energy in the area to create microscopic wormhole mouths. At this point, the drive functions as normal to inflate the mouth to a usable size.

  “Any questions?”

  Hearing no questions Dr. Payne spoke.

  “Thank you Dr. Mach. I believe you gave us just enough information.

  “So ladies and gentlemen we can restore the jump-drives to working condition by retrofitting them as Dr. Mach and Dr. Mekur have done. We need to get this information disseminated as soon as possible. Jump-Ships Corporation will be working with Dr. Mach and Dr. Mekur to convert as many ships as possible. These ships will then be stocked with equipment and engineers and sent to other systems where we believe jump-ships need retrofitting.

  “We will also share this information with our competitors because it is too important to society as a whole not to.

  “Any questions?”

  Seeing that there were no other questions Dr. Payne continued.

  “Very well that finishes the board meeting. Now I would like for Captain Parsons and his men and you scientists to stay. Thank you all for coming.”

  After the others had left the room Dr. Payne spoke up.

  “Captain Parsons would you tell us your experience with the jump-drive aboard your ship.”

  The Captain looked around the room and began, “Well as I told Dr. Payne our jump-drive failed us light-years away from any port. We continued on our course under fusion power. I figured that if anyone searched for us that would be the best.

  “Anyway, at first things continued as normal but as weeks turned into months we began to run out of certain non-renewables and the crew began to show the strain. I decided to look in the cargo hold to see if there was anything that might improve the mood of the crew.

  “Dixon here, my First Officer, and I opened one of the shipping containers. In the first crate we opened we found a large smooth-sided sphere. It was like a work of art or something, its inside was hollow and the thing must have been at least four feet across.

  “So we decided to lift it out of the crate and get a better look. As we were trying to dislodge it the thing came flying out of the crate and hit the ceiling. As it hit I saw a flash of light almost like a lightning flash except in the shape of a halo that spread from the globe. Dixon and I didn't wait around we headed for the door. I was sure we had received a large dose of radiation but Dr. Means didn't find any problems.

  “Anyway just as the Doc was finishing up Rodriguez here, he's the drive operator, called. He had just run a diagnostic on the drive and found nothing wrong. We were pretty surprised but I decided we should test it. That's how we got here. The drive worked except that it dumped us fifty AU from Adowa instead of ten. We then made the run under fusion power the rest of the way.”

  “Thank you Captain. Dr. Mach you're the expert here do you wish to comment?”

  “Well sir I would say they found themselves in a region of unchanged spacetime or something occurred to change that spacetime. I think we should take a ship into the area and investigate while at the same time inspecting one of the spheres Captain Parsons mentioned.”

  “Sounds reasonable to me. Anyone else got anything to say.”

  Seeing that there were no other comments Dr. Payne continued.

  “Dr Mach Jump-Ships Corporation will provide a ship for the investigation if you would head it up.”

  “Of course Dr. Payne.”

  “Good. Now Captain Parsons can you provide a sphere for inspection?”

  “They actually belong to customers but I believe we could divert it for some time for your inspection Dr. Payne.”

  “Excellent, we should have the ship ready in a couple of days.”

  On Adowa, Jomo had to invest his own money to provide for the expedition. He soon had the necessary supplies and the leased robo-donkeys that they would need to get into and get the object out of the jungle region.

  He and Tulu and Bikila had made good time through the demil
itarized zone and had retrieved the large ovoid object from the cave. It was being carried by one of the donkey robots.

  Looking at his Emmie Jomo said, “We should almost be there.”

  He meant that they should almost be out of the demilitarized zone and back on Union of Adowa soil.

  “I think I see the border,” Tulu said as he stopped to point.

  Just then he went down in a crumple. Jomo and Bikila dropped. Jomo crawled over to Tulu.

  “He's unconscious,” he said in a whisper to Bikila.

  “That was a sonic stunner,” said Bikila. “My ears are sensitive to it. Behind us, I think.”

  Bikila pointed in the direction toward the mine.

  “The Gallans,” said Jomo.

  “What are they doing here?” asked Bikila.

  “I don't know but setup another donkey so we can carry Tulu out of here.”

  An explosion rattled through the wooded hills.

  “The Gallans, something happened,” said Bikila.

  Then another explosion, this time in the direction of Adowan territory.

  “A firefight,” said Jomo. “You got that donkey ready? Quick let's put Tulu on it and get out of here.”

  With Tulu on the donkey, Bikila led the way. Running as fast as he could toward the Union border the donkeys and Jomo were working hard to keep up. The explosions were coming closer together and getting louder as they approached the border.

  Bikila veered to his right to avoid the worse of the bombardment. They were across the border and up a hill before they stopped to look back.

  “Get down Bikila incoming busters!”

  Whumpf! Whumpf!

  The men and donkeys were thrown into the air as the ground beneath them heaved.

  After a minute Jomo, deaf in one ear which was bleeding, looked to the south. There the trees and other foliage were flattened and arrayed in a spiral away from ground zero. The busters had done their job. There was no more incoming fire from the Gallans.

  “Well I never thought they would use one of those,” said Bikila.

  “Yeah I wonder why?” responded Jomo.

  They heard the noise behind them and turned to face a detachment of Union soldiers with their weapons trained on them.

  They put up their hands.

  “Perfectly normal spacetime,” said Dag.

  He and Ally were back from their investigation of the space that the Star Hopper had traveled through and were discussing the results with Dr. Payne and the Union government's liaison.

  “How can that be Dr. Mach?” asked Dr. Payne.

  “To be honest with you sir, I don't know. It's like someone restored that portion of spacetime to its original condition.”

  “Well won't that make it dangerous to use your enhanced drive?”

  “The drive operator will have to know what kind of space the ship is in before he uses the drive. A simple change in procedure should take care of it.”

  “Okay that makes sense. Anything else?”

  “Well since I think that portion of space was artificially restored and as far as we could tell it occupied a spherical volume centered on the coordinates where the Star Hopper restarted its jump-drive. Then maybe that incident that Captain Parsons described . . .”

  Dr. Payne interrupted.

  “You mean the story about the sphere that Captain Parsons told us might have something to do with it?”

  “I don't know what else to point to.”

  “By the way did you investigate one of the objects from his ship?”

  “We couldn't.”

  “Why?”

  “The shipment disappeared.”

  “Well that's that I guess,” said Ally in disappointment.

  “Maybe not,” said the liaison. “We recovered one of those artworks in a military operation. It would have to be kept secret but we could allow you Dr. Mach and Dr. Mekur to take a look if you wish.”

  “We wish,” said Ally.

  12

  It took some time to spread the news of the modified drives to all the human settlements. The fusion ship Star Bound had spent five months delivering the technology and engineering expertise to the human settlements in the direction of the constellation Aquila. They were about to make the jump to the outermost human settled star system, the Libertas System. The G-type orange star of the system had several giant gas planets and a few rocky ones orbiting it. The fourth planet from the star, named Liberty by its settlers, was rocky and somewhat smaller than Earth with an atmosphere that protected the surface from radiation but was not directly breathable by humans. It had been settled only for a few years under domes of a gel impregnated plastic which provided further radiation protection.

  “Okay drive operator take us to our next destination,” said Captain Bull Nelson.

  The wormhole drive responded as usual with the near mouth bubble opening and growing in size until it was large enough to accept the ship. The operator was in the process of trying to cast the far wormhole mouth which would take them to within ten AU of the Liberty planet when he reported a problem.

  “What is it Lerner?” said the Captain.

  “I'm having some problem with establishing the far wormhole mouth sir.”

  “Try again.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The operator tried to open the wormhole to their destination but it still refused. He then decided to move the coordinates just slightly. The wormhole opened.

  “Got it now Captain.”

  “Okay let's go in helm.”

  The ship entered the near wormhole mouth and almost instantaneously exited the far mouth. Everything seemed to be normal.

  “Where are we navigation?”

  “Sir we are about ten AU from Liberty.”

  “Very well take us there.”

  The crew wheel powered down and they prepared for acceleration. The fusion engines were started and the light acceleration provided a weak gravity for the crew.

  It was an hour later when the helmsman called to the Captain.

  “Captain we have another ship in the area.”

  “Where at Rosare?”

  “Trailing us Captain, about five-thousand klicks.”

  “Communications, can you raise that ship?”

  “I'll try sir.”

  The comm officer called the ship asking for its credentials. He seemed to take longer than usual to respond.

  “What is it Defar?”

  “Sir there's something wrong.”

  “Well?” said the Captain impatiently.

  “They say they are the Star Bound. In fact, it sounds like me.”

  “Don't be ridiculous Defar, put them on.”

  “This is Captain Bull Nelson of the ship Star Bound I request your identification immediately.”

  There was a moment.

  “Star Bound this is Captain Nelson of the Star Bound. You must be mistaken.”

  Captain Nelson looked at the comm operator who just shrugged.

  “That's impossible. We are the Star Bound.”

  Just then the drive operator called.

  “Sir I think we've got a problem.”

  “Captain Nelson I'm afraid I have business to attend to, I'll have to get back to you”

  “Understood Captain Nelson.”

  The comm-link was closed.

  “Okay what is it Lerner?”

  “My readings of the spacetime we are in make no sense.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We appear to be on the border of a region of spacetime that resembles more the wormhole dimension than anything.”

  “So?”

  “As best I can explain Captain we are circling this region even though it appears we are headed toward Liberty.”

  “Okay I want all my officers and engineers in the wardroom immediately,” said Captain Nelson.

  “Chief can you confirm what Lerner told me?” said Captain Nelson at the meeting.

  “Sir I think that he is right. We are very nea
r a spacetime region that doesn't register as normal. It could be wormhole dimensional.”

  “Why are we circling it? And why was I talking to myself back there?”

  Lerner spoke up, “As far as to why we are circling this region I think it is because of the strong warping of the spacetime around the region. We are caught in the frame dragging effect of this strong gravity.”

  “Like a black hole?”

  “Yes sir, at least as far as the warp goes. But a black hole that is stretched out in one dimension so that its event horizon would resemble a cylinder of spacetime.”

  “What about that other ship?”

  “Sir,” said the Chief Engineer. “It could be a reflection of us.”

  “And that reflection could talk to me?”

  “I know this is all crazy and speculative but according to the physics, I learned this region of space is operating as a kind of time machine, a Tipler cylinder it's called in the literature. If that's true then the other ship could be ourselves displaced slightly in time.”

  Captain Nelson looked long and hard at his Chief Engineer.

  “Okay Chief it's not really important who they are anyway. What is important is how do we get out of this space?”

  “Why can't we just use the jump-drive to get us out of here?” asked Lerner.

  “Chief?” said the Captain.

  “We can try it but I don't think you'll be able to cast the far wormhole mouth. The gravity will probably just bend the cast around the cylindrical region.”

  “But we can try can't we?”

  “I guess so.”

  An hour later they were back in the wardroom.

  “Well that was interesting,” said Lerner.

  “Yeah the way the far wormhole mouth came up behind us every time we tried to cast,” said the navigator.

  “One thing I don't understand,” said Doctor Ager. “If the gravity is that strong why don't we feel it?”

  “It's like orbiting Earth. As long as we keep our orbit we won't feel it, at least until we get too close,” said the Chief.