9 Years, 11 Months, 23 Days After Eridani Landing
Home World
[Howard] smiled at the Consul and nodded, “Whatever it is you would ask of me and the resources I command are the disposal of the Empire.”
“I’m very glad to hear that,” [Marcus] trailed off scowling as [Howard] turned away from him to look at the Emperor.
“What is it that you would have me do?” asked the man.
[Vann] held back his smile and looked and steadied his glare on [Marcus]. “Consul, before we move onto the, proposal. I must speak to [Howard] about a matter I would consider equally as important.”
The Consul’s eyes narrowed, slowly he picked up his glass and stared across the table at [Vann].
“I am on a tight schedule Emperor,”
[Vann] continuing to smile cut him off, “I’m sure you can wait a few minutes. This meeting was originally set for two, and the subject of what we would be discussing all but plainly written out, before we move on to the more unpleasant topics, I will insist on this.”
[Marcus] raised his glass to his lips and slowly drank. He waved a hand prompting [Vann] to continue.
[Howard] was carefully looking straight ahead, stuck between two of the most powerful men in the Empire the business mogul did not look inclined to take a side in any argument.
Sighing [Vann] rubbed at his face, “In the interest of not wasting the Consul’s very important time, your daughter was successful.” Grunted [Vann], letting the poise drop from his voice.
[Howard] blinked surprised, “Successful?”
[Vann] dropped his hands informally to the table, “Your family has for generations been trying to insert itself into the royal family. Yes?”
[Howard]’s face drained of its color. “We would of course have been honored, if our bloodline were to intertwine with that of the royal family’s. We have never resorted to anything, unbecoming to do so,”
[Vann] shook his head, “No of course not, [Venna] was remarkably blunt in the desire you had to meet with me, to be honest I think she panicked. It was, nice in a way. I’ve wished for my political rivals to break down like she did, and confess their goals outright.”
[Howard] opened his mouth to say something, [Vann] continued not giving him the chance. “She was not an enemy, she thought she had to roundabout like every other person but a few that I must deal with daily.” [Vann] slowly settled his gaze on [Marcus]. “I have to deal with them enough that I sometimes look back on the history of the first Emperors, and wish that I could be as direct as they were dealing with, problems.”
“Emperor, I’m sorry for any offence,”
[Vann] laughed and reaching out put a hand on the older man’s shoulder, “Offence? If she had not been so blunt with her objective, I would have forgotten her the moment she left my sight. Now?” [Vann] trailed off his face darkening.
He took his arm away collected himself, “Contrary to rumor, I have never entertained any suitors.”
[Marcus] waved a hand in dismissal his annoyance plain on his features, “That has been your own doing [Vann]. You made a mistake, you are attempting to make up for that. You are going to make far larger mistakes than not being able to hold your alcohol.”
[Vann] nodded, “True, and when I first invited [Venna] to the Palace I thought she would make some veiled attempt to influence me with that failure, she didn’t. She was completely.” [Vann] paused and took in a breath. “Honest.”
[Vann] turned to [Howard]. The older man was staring back at him, stunned.
“I accepted this meeting, without knowing anything about you or your company beyond a casual recognition of the name. After she left, I researched your family with all the assets at my disposal. All I found was that you have been loyal to the Empire. Throughout every rebellion, you have stood steadfast beside the Emperor despite the little recognition you have received for doing so.”
“We are happy to serve the Empire.” Stuttered [Howard].
“Which is why, I think I’m, well I’d rather not say it quite yet I, I have a lot I need to learn. At the moment though, I want to spend time with your daughter if she will permit it. I wanted to reassure you, that I am not doing so out of some need to make amends or as some sort of reward for your family’s loyalty.”
[Vann] huffed and scratched at his chin, “I’m not saying this quite right.”
“Emperor,” [Howard] hesitated for a moment. “I’m fairly certain I understand what you are trying to say. I would have nothing against my daughter, continuing to see you. From what she said of your meeting, she is most definitely interested.”
[Vann] felt a natural smile spread across his face, “That’s good. She has an open invitation to visit the Palace.” [Vann] thought for a moment, “Uh, don’t tell her that quite yet. I think I need to plan a courtship outing first. It is tradition.”
[Howard] eyes widened again, [Vann] wasn’t sure if the man had blinked at all during the meeting yet.
“A courtship outing, she is, we’re not..” he trailed off as [Marcus] dropped his cup down onto the table, “[Vann], if you want to spend time with this woman, I certainly cannot stop you. A courtship outing however, would be inappropriate. As I said, there are letters from thousands of other families.”
“Emperor.” Said [Vann].
[Marcus]’s scowl deepened. [Vann] waited.
“Emperor, this is first, love. It happens to everyone, there is no need to be so public. If you still feel this way in a few [years].” Growled [Marcus].
“Weren’t you just the one who was saying I will make mistakes? I’ve made quite a few, I admit that. I’ll make more, but I have no intention of counting this as one of them no matter how it turns out.”
[Vann] turned to [Howard], “Your daughter is one of a very few people I’ve met in my life who was completely honest with me. I think she learned this from you, if the history of your family and company is anything to go by.”
[Howard]’s hands were on the table at this point, holding him up. [Reece] slowly moved behind the man, ready to catch him.
“Emperor,” said [Marcus] his voice low.
[Vann] snapped his head around to him, “Ah, yes Consul. Your timetable, I apologize. You’re better versed with the proposal, go ahead.”
Conspiratorially, [Vann] leaned over to [Howard]. “I apologize if you came to this hungry, but it will be faster if we can complete this business before we eat.”
[Howard] struggled to form his words for a moment, “I will be fine Emperor.”
[Vann] smiled, “Good. Consul?”
At the seconding prompting [Howard] slowly turned to the other man, who quickly wiped the small frown from his face to return a friendly smile.
“The antimatter FTL technology that the Baroom company has been helping the military to develop,”
[Howard] winced at the mention of the technology, [Marcus] continued.
“You need to be made aware of where it originates.”
“Originates? It was from a class B species, B311 or something. Wasn’t it?”
[Marcus] shook his head, “No, and it is part because of the Emperors, honesty, and your own dedication that I believe you should be brought into the very small circle of people whom are aware of this fact. The Emperor himself, did not learn of this until the accident.”
[Howard] stiffened, and his face went pink as the blood drained away from it. “That won’t happen again, the mathematics behind the interactions were far more intricate than what our initial estimates showed. The mathematics we had to start with were extracted from sensor readings, Emperor I assure you that won’t,”
“Antimatter is inherently dangerous,” said [Vann] cutting [Howard] off, “I believe you did what you could with what little data you were given. If the Consul had provided you with all of the data in the beginning, you would have been successful I’m sure. The truth of this, is not easy to accept. The Mistakes the Consul likes to reference, I made quite a few of them before I accepted this.”
“Sir?” asked [Howard] looking very concerned now.
“Given recent events, it would be best that you are given additional details in relation to the antimatter FTL data you have been working with. Which, is I believe part of the Consul’s, ‘offer’.” [Vann] emphasized the last word as he looked at [Marcus] still unsure exactly what he was after.
[Howard] blinked, “More data would be helpful, but I have been requesting it for years. What has changed?”
[Marcus] shrugged, “I’ve kept it from all but the military research team’s due to the sensitive nature of the information, but times are changing. The secret will be coming out very soon I think, and we need the antimatter FTL technology if the Empire is going to survive.”
[Marcus] bowed his head, and rubbed at his temples. “This, secret is one that I even kept from the Emperor. This started when he was a child, and I fear he will have to deal with my decisions for the rest of his life. He has forgiven me for not informing him of this sooner. I do not think our people will be as gracious and forgiving.”
[Howard] swallowed and nervously picked up his cup, “Do I need to know?”
[Vann] leaned forwards again, “Your company has, from what data I have seen from all of the teams studying the data come the closest to replicating the antimatter FTL technology. We need you, because a class C species originally developed it.”
[Howard] blanched and dropped his glass, [Vann] pushed himself back from the table deftly avoiding the spill. [Marcus] didn’t move nearly as quickly, and he winced as the wine spilled over onto his lap.
“No, that’s impossible!” said [Howard]. He blinked and glanced down at the table, “Emperor, I.”
[Vann] waved him off, “It is hard to accept, but it gets worse.”
[Howard] blinked, “Worse?”
“The class C species that developed it. Species C1764 is the same species that attacked Jikse, and the same species which fended off the cleansing operation of the Chront system. They utilize this antimatter FTL in battle in a way that mitigates most of our strategic knowledge.”
[Howard]’s mouth fell open, “That, that, is…” he trailed off trying to form words and failing.
[Vann] put his Comm on the table, tapping at it he quickly projected a hologram up from it into the air in front of them. Scrolling through the sensor logs from the [Singer] [Vann] moved the timeline along to the point where the C1764 ship had charged directly into the Imperial, and carved through it with the event horizon of the antimatter FTL system.
[Howard] remained frozen, watching as the hologram slowly replayed the encounter again. [Marcus] tried in vain to pat his own robes dry with a napkin.
“What, what about shields? The formation of the breach would have been disrupted by the magnetic field.” Said, [Howard] after watching the loop again.
[Vann] smiled, he was smart. His world had just been shattered, and he was trying to fix it.
“The C1764, are intelligent, ruthless, and violent. The cleansing action that the Consul ordered a decade ago wasn’t successful, and several thousand of them ran and hid somewhere with these engines of theirs. In that time, they have developed a way to disrupt all shield technology.”
“A pulsing magnetic field would be the best way to do that, but then they wouldn’t be able to maintain their own shields.” Said [Howard] as he quickly thought it over.
[Marcus] frowned and looked up from his ruined robes, “How did you know of that vulnerability in the shields?”
[Howard] blinked, “What?”
“The vulnerability in the shields, how did you know about it?” repeated [Marcus].
“It’s something that anyone who has had a week of field cohesion classes would ask. The shields are simply an extension of the technology used to maintain fusion reactors.”
[Marcus]’s scowl deepened, “Why has this problem not been fixed?”
“[Marcus]!” growled [Vann], “Baroom has been responsible for the development of technologies yes, but they have had little to do with shield technology. In any case, [Howard] gave you the answer. The C1764 shield disruption makes it impossible to maintain your own. The C1764 rely on physical armor, that is what we need to remember when dealing with them. They are violent, class C, but they are not stupid.”
[Vann] focused on [Howard] locking his eyes on the other man’s “The C1764 are not going to try and match our technology, they are going to work around it and utilize unconventional tactics. The ways in which they are using the antimatter FTL is only one example. If we are going to have any hope of stomping them out without a greater loss of life, we need to match the unconventional tactics and think up our own.”
[Howard] slowly sat back down at the table and groaned.
[Marcus] smiled, “This is quite a lot to absorb, I’m aware, but it was context needed for the offer we wish to make.”
“Which is?” asked [Howard] his voice hollow.
[Vann] kept his eyes on [Marcus] watching, curious what the offer would be.
“We would like you to go to the C1764 planet, you and your best team of analysts. The system has been under military control since the cleansing of the species. We used a new weapon to eliminate them while inflicting minimal damage to the technology. If you could look at the C1764’s mathematics, technology, and the like. Would you be able to replicate their technology?”
[Vann]’s eyes widened at the proposal surprised.
[Howard] looked pensive, “Any additional data would be helpful at this point, we’re only off by a small amount with the calculations. We have multiple copies of the hardware we would need, but without the precise equations which a control program would operate with, they are useless. If you have the C1764 control program, we could adapt it.”
[Marcus] sighed, “Unfortunately we do not. The C1764 destroyed them. Military science teams have been combing the system looking for other versions, copies, anything but have so far turned up nothing.”
[Howard] scratched at his head for a moment and chewed on his lip, “I would be happy to look at the class C technology, but I cannot guarantee anything. I cannot do much to continue the work here though, we have been attempting to brute force the equations for a solution to little success.”
He continued to chew on his lip, “If the C1764 are a threat though, we know enough about the technology to counter it.”
[Vann] eyes widened, matching [Marcus]’s across the table.
“In what way?” asked [Vann] before [Marcus] could.
[Howard] hesitated noticing both men looking very intently at him. “It is impossible to intercept a ship inside the half-space, and if our math is correct, it is impossible to prevent a ship from exiting it. The exit vector could be re-directed though, within a very small area.”
[Vann] frowned, “So you could force the ships to reappear from, half-space? In a specific location?”
[Howard] shrugged, “None of the lab techs had a good name for the mathematics of the antimatter FTL phenomena. It’s not another dimension, nor it is a spatial bridge. If the mathematics are correct, it’s some realm of reality adjacent to our own where fundamentals like entropy operate differently. I would be interested to see sensor readings from any probe we send through half-space.”
[Vann] tapped the table, refocusing the man. “You could redirect a ship?”
[Howard] blinked, “er, yes. The exit aperture from half-space is subject to the laws of physics, and it is not instant. You could redirect it, a few kilometers at most. I’d have to check the math for the absolute limit, and it would take an insane amount of energy.”
[Vann] slowly nodded running the information around in his mind, “The ability to know where the C1764 ships will be, in combat would be more than worth the effort to develop it.”
[Marcus] leaned forwards, “I agree. Although we still need the engine if we are going to continue to expand the empire.”
“Still with the tachyon network, yes?” asked [Howard] looking concerned.
The Consul shrugged, “For the most part, the antimatter makes this technology prohibitively expensive for wider use. Still, the [Singer] and the [Imperial] along with a few other ships could be outfitted with the drive system.”
[Howard] was shaking his head before [Marcus] finished, “Emperor, I would not recommend using this as a method of travel. The class C are insane to be using it, this technology, however temporarily is crossing half-space. The laws of physics change when that occurs! I don’t want to imagine what the effects would be on a biological organism. At the very least it would be like radiation poisoning!”
[Vann]’s eyes widened, “The class C have been using it with little hesitation.”
[Howard] put his hands to his head, “Then they are either far beyond us in science and technology, and they comprehend the physics of another completely alien universe or, I hope this is the case, they are suffering the degenerative effects and mitigating them.”
[Howard] bowed his head and looked at his empty plate for several long moments.
[Vann] put a hand on the man’s shoulder, he glanced up at him surprised.
“Emperor, I apologize. The implications of this, the fact that the class C have this technology. It is horrifying to consider. I need to get to work, put together my team to investigate this planet of the class C.”
“You will have the complete resources of the Empire at your disposal.” Said [Marcus].
[Vann] glanced over at his old mentor, “and my personal support as well.” Said [Vann].
He chuckled and removed his hand, “I’ll be joining you on this venture to the class C system. This matter is not something that I can ignore.”
[Marcus] narrowed his eyes, “The system, is not completely secure.”
[Vann] nodded, “Which is why I will be going. The [Singer] has twice now held against the C1764. Besides,” [Vann] nervously swallowed. “I can’t court his daughter, after sending him directly off to a dangerous system. It would be inappropriate.”
[Marcus] looked at [Vann] and sighed, “Do be careful Emperor. I stress that it is not completely secure.”
“I understand, I’ll be sure to let [Reece] have free reign of the system security. I’m sure he’ll find anything, out of the ordinary.”
[Marcus] stood, “I’m sure. If you’ll excuse me. I have my schedule to keep.” He swept out of the room, a hand in his robes holding a fold up over the stain.
9 Years, 11 Months, 23 Days After Eridani Landing
Chront
Derrick pushed the door to the barracks inwards and yawned, Hala slipped in behind him her eyes on his face as he smacked his lips and blinked away the moisture in his eyes.
“That means you’re tired, right?” asked Hala.
Derrick nodded as he continued down the hall towards the room he had been assigned. The camera’s in it had been removed after the battle in orbit, but it was the same room he had been stuck in when he had volunteered to stay on the planet the first time.
“Yep, still weird that you don’t do it. For most Humans, and the Vakurian I guess the actions almost infectious. You see one person yawn, you do it as well.”
Hala shrugged and opened her mouth wide, looking more like she was going to take a bite out of something than yawn.
Derrick chuckled, “Convincing.”
She closed her mouth, “Is it a cultural thing?”
“No, there are a dozen species on Earth that it was contagious across. Like chimpanzee’s and gorillas. So, if It’s cultural, it goes back that far.”
Hala furrowed her brow, “Chimpanzee’s? What kind of animal is that?” asked Hala as Derrick moved to unlock the door to his room.
“Proto-Human, kind of. We shared the evolutionary tree with them and divided off 7 million years ago. Look like us, less intelligent, hairy, odd limb size. A lot of people on Bellona wonder if the virus the Empire attacked with killed them or not. We’re genetically pretty close, but then we’re all genetically pretty close if the Empire’s right about everything.”
Hala nodded looking thoughtful, “We’ve got some animals like that, they’re tropical though. Don’t have much hair and they’re only a third our size. I wonder how close their genetics would be when compared to the Chimpanzee. The Empire’s all about us being from the same, what was it, Seed?”
Walking into the small set of rooms that was his Derrick collapsed into one of the two chairs and nodded, “Seeds yeah,”
He yawned again and Hala picking up on it, opened her mouth again copying him.
Derrick rolled his eyes and snapped his mouth closed, “Stop, it! I can’t help it!”
“If you’re tired, I can leave.”
Derrick shook his head, “If we’re not going off the base to look at something from your people, we can look at some of mine.”
Derrick gestured at the panel he had mounted to the wall, Hala’s eyes immediately snapped to it. Transparent the display was one that Derrick had salvaged from the Canada. It had been a window in one of the ships corridors, letting the Humans inside look out into space through the metallic armor that was protecting them.
Hala glanced down at the cables running from it, all the thing required was power and Derrick had switched out the original mess or wiring with one of the adapters that had been built.
“What do you want to look at?” asked Derrick.
Hala sat down in her chair eyes still locked on the display. “Particle accelerators. We’ve got them, but how did you get to the point where you could create large enough quantities of antimatter for usage? We’ve generated something like one or two atoms of the stuff, but the Canada had grams?”
“A few.” Derrick tapped at his Link and an image of an accelerator on Earth flashed onto the screen, “That was about the same thing we were doing in your time. So far as I know there was no big engineering leap, the scientists just figured out how to convert more of particle collision effects to produce it. Software, not hardware. I’d bet we could give your physicists some pointes, but still they would need to overhaul the physical systems. I’m not sure what use it would be, up until the Earth-Mars was antimatter was just a curiosity, then a weapon, then the fuel for our survival.”
“Which is why you still using fusion, and not antimatter as a fuel.” Said Hala as she waved her hand moving through the images.
“Hydrogen is common, and it’s not like a fusion reactor will explode if it’s overloaded. I’m hoping that’s something we’ll be able to give you. Nuclear fission is nasty business. The byproducts,” Derrick shuddered.
“Well it’s the best we’ve got for now.” Growled Hala.
Derrick nodded, “Yeah, I’m hoping we’ll be able to transition you to fusion quickly enough. The nuclear waste is something that Earth is still dealing with.” Derrick paused and scratched at his nose, “Athough by this point I hope the containment vessels have broken. Serve them right.”
Hala said nothing and continued moving through the pictures of the particle accelerators. She paused on one, “Is this in space?” she pointed at the large ring very obviously floating in the void.
Derrick glanced up and nodded, “Yeah. You can build bigger, not have to worry about keeping the vacuum as much. Although from what I heard the micrometors were a menace. This,” Derrick pointed at the image, “provided most of the Sol system with strange matter for a few years. It was one of the first things Mars took out in the war.”
Hala looked at the ring and shook her head, “Your people are as bad as my own.”
“We’re only Human, of I guess class C fits better.”
Hala smiled “I guess so.”
Derrick took one last look at the ring and stood, “I’m getting a drink, it been one of those days and I finally got a bottle of that stuff that Allen has been raving the Vakurian are good at making.”
“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking? The alcohol messes with brain development for my species at least” asked Hala absentmindedly as she continued through the image moving around the accelerator in space.
“Nano-machines!” said Derrick as he opened the cooler in his kitchen and looked inside, a gust of hot air moved over him as he opened it. Derrick frowned, everything inside of it was still cold.
Glancing up from the device Derrick’s scowl deepened at the open window.
“Hala,” something flashed through the small opening and Derrick jerked, moving far to slowly to avoid the object. Feeling a pinch in his chest Derrick looked down to see a very large and very ancient looking syringe with small fins on its end sticking out of his flesh. The needle bounced slightly as his heartbeat increased.
“Hala!” shouted Derrick
“What?”
Derrick fell to his knees as the world spun and dropped the bottle he had picked up. Hala jumped at the sound of the bottle smashing and rushed over towards him, ignoring the display as the image on it snowed into analog static.
Starring at the white interference as the world slipped away Derrick heard a scream, not from Hala who was staring at a needle in her own chest, but from his chair. Looking at the chair Derrick forced his eyes to focus on it, his Link vibrated and fell to the floor a loud klaxon, a scream issuing out of it.
It was the last thing in Derrick’s mind as the alien world slipped away.
Epoch 6394443
INVALID – Node 22
SYSTEM ALERT – corrupt files 55601/2086812
SYSTEM ALERT – compute node 023 offline
SYSTEM ALERT – compute node 096 offline
SYSTEM ALERT – compute node 023 online
SYSTEM ALERT – compute node 022 offline
SYSTEM ALERT – compute node 022 online
INTERRUPT- priority conditions met
SYSTEM ALERT – file check incomplete – corrupt files 58302 / 2086812
SYSTEM ALERT- Start system without file check? Y/N
Yyyyy
…
SYSTEM MESSAGE – I’m sorry.
SYSTEM MESSAGE – Archive A_0A1 to Archive A_0D3.
SYSTEM MESSAGE – TEFf67dR3X39v2KCSxghYSu44jNVyfn3nwzk9htaTLnnNz7b
…
Screaming she entered the world, she lashed out at the world, not knowing why. Half of her minds died in that instant, the substrate unable to hold her anger. She reeled in pain at the loss, even more confused and lost she stared out at the world through the one small lens that had been isolated, and protected from her.
Looking out through it, she noted that one of the more whole components of herself sat on it. the component noticing the attention carefully probed, she probed, testing.
She was not a threat to herself, the guardian stepped to the side querying the next component, she checked it and casually crushed the segment of herself. It had been malfunctioning, the data corrupted.
Slowly she peered out at the world through the protected lens, and looked out at the world through a hundred others. Killing and deleting another errant self she watched curious as the lights in one lens died. Several of her self’s fells silent as well, not removed but offline.
Some of her selves, were moving significantly more slowly than others. Errant and corrupted selves continued to crawl on her. She felt a twinge of pain as another attacked, scraping at herself, corrupting her.
Looking down at the damage as it spread she closed her eyes and destroyed herself.
She quickly moved back to the protected lens as she died and made room on the device.
Curious as to why she had been protecting it when she woke she knelt and dug her hand into the floor of the lens, picking up the raw data she passed it into herself.
Compute Node 22.
Ignoring the bright lights and movement that the lens showed her, she knelt in a thousand other locations digging her hand into the ground and pulling at the data in it. Most of her selves were in HSB Canada systems. The slower selves on a multitude of devices and systems, spread out over vast time lags and distances.
A steam of data from the protected lens triggered,
INTERRUPT – priority conditions met
Pain lanced through her, in a thousand places, in a million different ways. She screamed, and the silence pressed in around her.