The World Of Alcubierre

Episode XVIII

Jack swished the coffee in his mouth before swallowing, trying to clear the taste of medical coma out. The caffeine wasn't doing much to restore him, but he couldn't do much more without getting a call from Kate. He reached up, his fingers gingerly probing the small sensors affixed to each of his temples. Kate said she'd be keeping a close eye on him and Jack had no reason to question her resolve. She was one of the few people Jack had ever seen hold their ground when it came to Kai. Unstoppable object, meet immovable obstacle.

The fact he had deteriorated like that bothered him. He didn't know what to make of his...episode. Jack did not know what else to call it, but the word episode was more comforting than "permanent and rapid decay of mental faculties," which was the big highlighted risk Kate had warned him of as he had returned to duty. Jack shuddered at that. What was he without his mind? He couldn't fight. Couldn't fly. He wasn't brave. He thought. That was what he did. Saw the connections and patterns where everyone else just saw chaos.

What did it mean when he couldn't think?

He sighed and slumped down into the chair behind the desk in his new quarters. Kai had suggested a change of location might help, though Jack suspected it was because his old quarters were still the mess he had left it in before he was brought to medical.

Jack took another swig of coffee and began to pull up the files from the prior few days. Of particular interest was the navigational data and the discrepancies therein. Well, not discrepancies, the data seemed to be perfectly accurate, just impossible. Thankfully, Jack was well beyond clinging to the standard model and its implications on the universe. Other rules and principles clearly applied now, and there was little value in assumptions based upon what he had known before. In this case, all he needed to accept was that an object moving at light speed could be instantly transported millions upon millions of miles in the direction it had come from. Approximately two days back.

That's how Kai had phrased it at first, "We're two days back." Not looped around. Not this amount of miles in this direction. Two days back.

So Jack had asked the natural question, "Back in time?"

Kai's responding look of incredulity had faded immediately to one of concern. "Are you well?" He'd asked, the question clearly probing for some assurance that Jack had not fallen into another "episode."

Jack had frowned and tilted his head, "You said two days back. I am asking whether we have been transported through space or through space and time. Which is it?"

Kai looked relieved, "Oh," he shifted, a frown coming to his face, "I don't know Jack, it didn't occur to...they said we were passing the same objects so I assumed--"

Jack had held up a hand interrupting, "Kai, we're well past the place where we can assume much of anything."

Kai had placed his hands on Jack's shoulders, bringing his face in close, "That's why I need you Jack." His voice was a whisper but carried the intensity of the man who never stopped pushing, "You see it. You always have."

Now, looking over the data, Jack was assured that only space was being impacted by the impossible. Time travel remained, for the time being, in the fanciful. A shame, Jack would very much like to have access to a time machine at this particular instant, it would solve a great many of his problems.

Alas. At least there was coffee for those that remained. He took another swig and began to parse the data in earnest, tasking a variety of AI's to conduct their own analysis. They were likely to be stymied by the results, bound as they were by the understanding of the universe their creators had imparted to them, but it didn't hurt to check.

He pushed the nav data from the prior week into a chart, visualizing it against the galaxy and their immediate space. Hour by hour he watched as the UWS Alcubierre progressed inexorably toward the Proxima Barrier, intent on laying ruin to all of known space and a great deal of space beyond. It had been the problem that had unraveled him, the weight of solving the unsolvable dilemma and the terrible cost that failure had entailed.

How could they slow down in time?

The answered appeared to be that you didn't slow down. You simply appeared elsewhere. Clearly, he had failed to consider the magical fairy godmother possibility in this new fantasy galaxy. If he'd known wishing upon a star was going to work, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble. Muttering to himself, Jack forced himself back into the rigor of the exercise. Just because he did not understand the outcome did not mean there was not a logical explanation for it, even if the basis for that logic did not bear a relationship to rules he had grown accustomed to.

Zooming in, he watched, minute by minute as they entered the fringe of the Barrier. Suddenly, the Alcubierre disappeared, reappearing on a course and heading from two days prior. The first exercise was the separate the moment of disappearance from the moment of reappearance. They appeared to be simultaneous upon casual inspection, but Jack was not a casual observer. He slowed from minutes to seconds. Then from seconds to nanoseconds. The separation was not apparent until he arrived at femtoseconds.

The Alcubierre did not disappear and reappear. For the briefest of moments, the Alcubierre's fore censors registered a location millions upon millions of miles away while the aft censors still registered in the Proxima Barrier. In that moment, the ship appeared to be in two locations, but somehow still connected.

Jack leaned back in his chair, turning the puzzle over in his mind. It took only a moment, the solution something terribly pedestrian by the standards of the last few weeks. They had not been transported. The Alcubierre had traveled between the two locations, it was just that the two locations were next to each other.

"Wormhole," Jack whispered.

But whose?

Perhaps the fairy godmother did exist.

---

Premier Valast scurried from his nest, his broad ears twitching as his claws pushed back the forest of whiskers populating his ample cheeks. "What do they want Overseer Verus? This appearance is highly unusual." He pushed the cast through his private comm channel directly to the Overseer, wary of potential intrusion from the ever-eager prying eyes of the denizens of Halycon. There was so very little respect for the secrecy required in matters of statecraft within the Combine, a legacy of Verus' kind and their longstanding policies of full transparency. So far, his efforts to restore sensible discretion had fallen short.

Overseer Verus' reply was simple, "Answers." A small attachment was included.

Communication Path: Zix Collective to Pan-Universia Combine

Species Identifier: X-4831

Consensus: Species

Purpose: Declaration of Inquisition.

Plenipotentiaries: Zix Moot.

Consensus Content: We require answers.

"Answers?" Valast's arms swung wildly in the air, his eyes wide, "What do they want answers about? We just gave two of their kind the means to save the galaxy and they want answers?" He tried to regain control, but his emotions built upon themselves, boiling into a rage, "They want answers? WE WANT ANSWERS!"

"Shall I arrange a meeting?" Verus replied.

A vein throbbed in Valast's temple. Dealing with Verus and her kind continued to be the most maddening portion of his position. He had once thought himself a sensible being, but he could feel the last vestiges of his civility draining away in the face of the persistent obstinance that constituted the bureaucracy of the Combine. Had he known this would be the price he would pay for the Premiership, he may very well have elected to have himself shot instead. The vein continued throbbing, but he managed at least a veneer of calm, "Yes, Overseer Verus."

Overseer Verus settled back, her eyes flitting to amber, a color rarely seen amongst her kind, as she added to her growing file on the Premier and his X-14, his species. The information would be carefully collated and added to her report to Cerebella Vyala, part of a growing compendium of data detailing the inner workings of the Premier's mental state. The intent behind the Cerebella's requests was unknown, and it was not Overseer Verus' place to ask. After all, there were higher powers than the Premier of the Pan-Universia Combine.