Dubious Heroes: a novel Page 18

  I’ve always been amused at the idea of some being off in another dimension looking confused, as something like a coffee cup appears from nothingness. Okay, maybe it’s just me.

  Unfortunately, there is no way to tell what the particular rules might be for another dimension, when the instruments you send to take measurements don’t come back. This, however, did not dissuade researchers from constantly picking out new dimensions (different elements, with different string structures, equals an almost endless quantity to play with), and shooting stuff into them.

  Funny thing was, this method actually worked. One day, a couple of grad students sent out a device, and it came back, right where they’d programmed it to, about three feet from where it had been only a moment earlier. One of the students wanted to shout from the rooftop (literally and figuratively) what they’d done, then eventually get around to publishing the proper academic papers, and hopefully collect a few Nobel prizes, all while basking in the warm adulation of their peers.

  Alas, that particular half of the duo died in a tragic accident before any of this came to pass, run over by a shopping cart while on his way to buy beer for an impromptu celebration. Or so the legend goes.

  As it turned out, the other grad student, a French guy named Pierre Beaulieu, wasn’t all that interested in personal academic accolades, or even that measure of fame their discovery would certainly generate. Instead, he reasoned that there could be a lot of potential profit involved in making things disappear and pop back up somewhere else. Giving to humanity was fine, as a concept, but in reality what had humanity ever done for him, aside from snickering behind his back, and giving him an occasional wedgie? Not much, in his view.

  So, humanity would benefit, but only if his (their) discovery was used as he deemed, at a price that he set. Sooner or later, someone else might figure out what they’d done, but as long as the competition didn’t know the exact element they’d used, as well as how they’d tweaked the string, they’d be looking at an almost infinite set of possibilities. He also conceded that eventually, someone else might hit on another combination that would work equally well, but until that happened, he’d have a monopoly on the multi-dimensional shipping business.

  So, he formed a little company to exploit their discovery, and called it the Dark Energy Corporation, which was something of a complete misnomer, since while dark energy (and matter) did indeed exist somewhere, it wasn’t used in their process at all. But it did sound cool, as well as slightly menacing, and had the bonus of being completely misleading.

  A lot of people, including government people with guns, took a very dim view of his unwillingness to share and share alike. While they sporadically harassed, and on occasion, even arrested him, they had little success in finding out anything. Dark Energy Corporation, nor its owner, were talking. To make matters worse, messing with any of their devices tended to make the party doing the messing disappear, permanently. DEC was accused of engineering this intentionally, but such assertions were as impossible to prove as how the damn things worked to begin with.

  So, how do they make stuff, ranging from simple messages to entire moons, shoot from one place to another? The vanishing part is pretty much a given. A field is generated that syncs the bit of matter you choose with the string you’re tweaking, and off it goes. From the results that we can all see, they must have come up with a way for the device sent through to specify some specific point in our universe, and then re-insert itself there. There are volumes of theories which are much more technical, but that’s pretty much the gist of it. Unless someone else figures it out, or DEC is forthcoming, the worlds will have to be content with not knowing.

  Or, as my old physics professor said, when a student pressed him for specifics (at a bar, after a few drinks): you push the right buttons on the black box, cross your fingers, and hope like hell you haven’t fucked up.

  There are caveats to using a Dark Energy Drive, or star drive, as they're usually called. The most important one (other than no monkeying around with it) is that you shouldn’t use one in close proximity to anything with a substantial amount of gravity. Why a star drive is different than Speedlink, no one outside of DEC knows. Anyway, as was usual with DEC, the phrases close proximity and substantial amount are largely left open to the interpretation of the user. They did suggest you be at least three hundred million miles from anything moon-sized or bigger.

  This does not mean one has to go three hundred million miles out past Pluto before using their star drive. Solar systems (and galaxies, and even galactic clusters) are shaped like round, flat plates. All the planets sit more or less on this plate, or more accurately, plane. In fact, it’s called the plane of the elliptic. So, why should you care? Because if you wanted to get away from the solar system in a big fat hurry, from wherever you might be in the system, all you had to do was head either above or below the plate (or plane of the elliptic, for you persnickety types). Of course, you’d still need to put those millions of miles between you and anything big, but at least you wouldn’t have to spend months flying by all those other planets you didn’t want to see anyhow.

  If you do use a star drive near any gravity, you will go somewhere. There are thirty-two known cases of ships tempting the fates in this fashion. Three of them showed up again, two of which were drifting hulks, carrying crews which had been dead for years. The third managed to straggle back to civilization with a very, very hungry crew, most of whom were disinclined to engage in any future voyages where the use of a star drive was required.

  The other twenty-nine ships are still listed as missing. They might have suffered the mundane fate of popping out of transit so far from any of the known universe that they couldn’t find their way back at all. The Milky Way galaxy is a damn big place, and so far, humans have only explored small parts of it, and we haven’t ventured outside of it at all, even with probes. The distances are just too great.

  The possibility exists that the missing ships materialized too close to something dangerous, like a star or a black hole. It was also possible that they didn’t pop out anywhere at all.

  Of course, those thirty-two were just the known cases, and rumor has it that bad transits are a lot more common than anyone is willing to admit. Some of these could be the result of crew error, and the ships do manage to get back, in which case, they wouldn’t be apt to admit to anyone that they’d screwed up to begin with. Regardless, if you had a bad transit, there was around a three percent chance you’d get back, if the numbers were to be believed. In reality, your chances could be much better.

  Or much worse.

  Chapter 14

  I’ve never known AIs to be either pessimists or optimists. It could be their tendency toward literalness which their logic-coded origins impart, or maybe the distinction is just so subtle that we humans don’t notice it.

  One thing was certain, though; in the space of a split second, Angela had evaluated our situation, said what the hell, and rolled the dice.

  The darkness and quiet ended as abruptly as they’d begun, replaced by the crushing weight of over two gees of acceleration. Alarms blared, and the lights blinked off and on, adding measurably to the chaos of the moment.

  “Angie”, I said. “Kill those alarms, and cut our boost back to one half gee.” The noise stopped immediately, and the gravity began to ease off.

  “What the fuck was that?” Cozi asked. “And why are we slowing down? Aren’t we still trying to outrun the bad guys?”

  “To answer your first question”, I said, “I think that was a transit-”

  “It was.” Eng said.

  “Which means that the answer to your second question is that there are no longer any bad guys to run away from. At least, not in this neighborhood.”

  “So what the hell happened?” Cozi asked.

  “We were about to have a high speed collision with the debris field”, Angie said. “I estimated our chances of surviving the collision to be effectively zero percent. The reactor was seconds away from
failure. So, while we still had the power, I set coordinates for the star drive, and activated it. It seems to have worked.”

  “In so far as avoiding the collision”, I said.

  “I realize I should have gotten your approval in advance”, she said, “but I didn’t think there was time.”

  “Don’t worry about it”, I said. “My chief concern at this point is this; where the hell are we?“

  “We’re supposed to be at Tau Ceti Three”, she said. “But I don’t think we’re there. I haven’t determined our current location yet.”

  The lights chose that moment to go out, then flickered back on, at half power.

  “Reactor just died”, Cozi said. “We’re on battery power.”

  “What about other damage?” I asked. “Anyone?”

  “One fuel cell destroyed”, Angie said. “Engineering is in vacuum, due to a hull breach. There’s also other, non-critical damage, if you want to hear about it.”

  “It can wait”, I said. “Cozi? Engineering is your domain.”

  “I’m on it”, he said, unbuckling from his seat. He’d never had a chance to get out of his spacesuit.

  “You’ll have to use the core in the lower Cargo module as an airlock”, Angie said. “Let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll handle the cycling for you.”

  “Gotcha”, Cozi said, and headed for the hatch out of the Bridge.

  “Eng”, I said. “I suspect an Executive Officer knows a bit about ship systems.”

  “I do”, he said. “I even used to space as an engineer, years ago.”

  “Great”, I said. “If you feel up to it, suit up, and give Cozi a hand. We need that reactor back online, pronto.”

  “No problem” he said, then rose and followed Cozi out.

  “Angie, get me Lola in MedLab.”

  “Done”, she said.

  “Lola?”

  “Here”, Lola said. “Did we just transit?”

  “Yes, we did. I’ll explain it in a bit”, I said. “Right now, how are you and Kyra?”

  “I’m fine”, she said. “Kyra is still unconscious. About that transit…”

  “I’ll be down in a minute, and I’ll explain then.”

  I looked around the Bridge, and couldn’t think of anything constructive I could do, so I unstrapped, and walked to the hatch.

  “Angie”, I said.

  “Yes, Doon?”

  “Make a list of what’s damaged, and whether it’s something we can fix or not. After that, see if you can figure out where we are.”

  “Aye, Captain”, she said. “I’ve already put a list together for damage control. As for figuring out our location, the cameras are all out on one side of the ship. May I rotate us to change the view?”

  “As long as it doesn’t damage anything further, or slow down our getting the reactor back online.”

  “It won’t”, she said.

  “Then do it”, I said, as I dropped into the core. “And let me know if you find anything.”

  The main passageway on each deck was nothing more than a doughnut surrounding the tube of the central core. Auxiliary passages radiated out from the core to different parts of each deck. As I dropped onto the upper deck, Cozi and Eng made their way to the core, Eng now wearing a spacesuit.

  “We’re going down now”, Cozi said. “It may take some time. Just depends on what we find when we get there.”

  “Call me once you’ve taken a look”, I said. “I’m headed for MedLab.” Cozi waved, and they both dropped into the core. I made my way around the passageway, and went into MedLab.

  I entered to find Kyra still strapped to the exam couch, either unconscious or sleeping. Lola was at the MedLab workstation, punching up stuff on the vidscreen. She looked up when I entered.

  “How is she?”

  “As best as I can tell”, she said, “The MedSystem has her on painkillers, a glucose feed, and is saying she needs a transfusion. She’s still alive, but only barely. The system keeps harping about the transfusion, so it must be important.”

  She’d attached a MedCuff onto Kyra’s arm, which was monitoring her condition, and supplying the meds and fluids.

  “I wonder if the cuff can do the transfusion?” I asked. “Because I don’t think any of us has a clue how to do it.”

  “According to the MedSystem, all we have to do is hook the donor into another MedCuff, and it will do the rest. There are several warnings about matching her blood type. We get it wrong, the system won’t do the transfusion, since apparently, it would kill her.”

  “Yeah, let’s not make anything worse”, I said.

  “No shit”, she said, looking up at the vidscreen above the couch. It was displaying a lot of data, but I had no idea as to what most of it meant.

  “Can you read that?” I asked.

  “I can read it just fine”, she said, “But I don’t have a clue what any of it means.”

  “That makes two of us”, I said. “Angie, do you have access to the MedLab system?”

  “Yes, I do”, she said.

  “Can you tell us what this data we’re getting on Kyra means?”

  “I’ll have to go over the system documentation and instructions”, she said.

  “Well, please do that”, I said.

  “Done”, she said. AIs are, if nothing else, spooky fast.

  “So, what can you tell us?” Lola asked.

  “Kyra’s blood pressure is very low”, Angie said, “And her pulse and respiration are weak. The system has tapped a vein in her arm now, and is doing an intravenous glucose feed.”

  “Yeah, we got that part”, I said. “Question is, what do we need to do now?”

  “Okay”, Angie said, “In addition to the glucose drip, I’ve also added a steroid cocktail to stabilize her. The system is recommending a transfusion for her as soon as possible. Apparently, she’s lost a lot of blood.”

  “We got that, too”, I said. “The system is a bit vague on how we go about the transfusion thing.”

  “You’re going to need a volunteer”, Angie said. “Someone with a matching blood type.”

  “How do we figure that out?” I asked. I didn’t have any idea what my own blood type was. I don’t think I’d ever been sick more than a few times in my entire life.

  “Look in the cabinet next to the workstation”, she said. “Third drawer from the top, there should be a white device about the size of your hand.”

  “Is this it?” I asked, removing it from the drawer.

  “That’s it”, she said. Lola and I both peered at it, dubiously.

  “So how’s it work?” I asked.

  “Simple”, Angie said. “Extend one finger, and insert it into the hole at the end of the sampler. Push the green button on the side. Count to ten, and the display next to the button will tell you what your blood type is.”

  I stuck my index finger into the gadget, and pushed the button as instructed.

  “What the fuck”, I said, yanking my finger out of it. “It poked me with something sharp.”

  “Of course it did”, Angie said. “How else is it supposed to sample your blood?”

  “What does it say?” Lola asked, looking down at the device.

  “A-Positive”, I said, looking at the little display screen on it. “What does ‘0% VR’ mean?”

  “Zero percentage of viral contamination”, Angie said. “Which means, you don’t have any retroviruses, or anything else contagious. It checks for that, too.”

  “Cool”, I said. “Am I match for Kyra? Do we need to check her too?”

  “The MedCuff already did so”, Angie said. “You’re not a match. Her type is O-negative.” I handed the sampler to Lola, who checked herself, wincing slightly when it pricked her finger. We waited a moment, and then the result appeared.

  “A-positive, just like you”, she said.

  “Shit”, I said. “Cozi, can you hear me?”

  “I’m here”, he said. “We just got into the Engineering module. Give us some time to look a
round, okay?”

  “Do you know your blood type?” I asked.

  “Nope”, he said. “Why?”

  “We’re going to need to know”, I said. “It’s for Kyra, but we can check when you come back up. Hey, ask Eng.”

  “He doesn’t know his either”, Cozi said, after a moment. “Should we come back up?”

  “Take a look around there first”, I said. “I don’t think the situation here is that critical. If it changes, I’ll let you know.”

  “Alright”, he said. “Out.”

  “Out.”

  “Well, now what?” I said, more to myself than anyone.

  “I realize I’m not crew”, Lola said, “But it would be nice to know what’s been happening.”

  “Sorry”, I said. “You have every right to know what’s going on, crew or not. I’ve just been kinda distracted.”

  “You care a lot about her”, she said, nodding toward Kyra.

  “I care about everyone”, I said, “Until they give me a reason not to.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.”

  She looked at me silently for a moment.

  “Are the feelings mutual?” she asked.

  “I kinda doubt it”, I said, shrugging. “It is what it is.”

  She studied me for a long moment, before replying.

  “Her loss”, she said. I felt myself blush.

  “Somehow, I don’t think she shares your opinion. You wanna know what’s going on, or what?”

  “Alright, shoot”, she said.

  “Well, right after we came aboard, we took off as fast as we could, and tried to elude the raiders, which pretty much didn’t work. They strafed us on their approach, and blew up a fuel cell, which knocked out the reactor. Cozi, who’s an engineer, and Eng, are down there looking at it now.”