The World Of Alcubierre

Episode XI

Premier Valast was gobsmacked. Each time his frustrations with the Zix reached a zenith, the maddening creatures somehow managed to squirt their way to a new height. He scrambled out of his pile of white fluff and crossed the distance to large metal tank and began to pound on the side with his paws, howling.

Overseer Neeria watched with mixed emotions. On the one hand, she felt some sympathy for the Premier, knowing that the stakes were far too great for this degree of frustration. On the other hand, she could not help but be fascinated by the interaction. She was no Zix scholar, but she intended to be after today, assuming, of course, the galaxy still existed. On the third hand, the entire situation was quite humorous, a fact she tried very hard to hide considering the Premier's agitated mental state.

"Premier Valast, I strongly suggest you refrain from attacking the float tank, the Zix can be quite protective of their containers." Indeed, there was some evidence to suggest that the Zix viewed their floats as an extension of their corpus, meaning that the Premier's actions may be viewed as an assault on the Plenipotentiaries themselves.

Even with the warning, it took some time for the Premier to collect himself. After he had spent his rage on the metal exterior, he took a moment to smooth his ears back and brush off his outfit before turning back to Neeria. "Overseer, please inform our guests that projectors are not something the Combine lends out. They are under the guard and care of the Central Mercantile Fleet and not some pleasure craft for two idiots in a space bucket to play around with."

Neeria found the speech curious. It was uncommon for the Premier to express his emotions freely in front of her, their interactions were often characterized by mistrustful distance. She also wondered whether she was obliged to perfectly translate the contents of the message, given the hostile tone. "Premier Valast, I do not believe the Zix will change their posture. Their willingness to engage in the first place was remarkable. The fact that they have developed a workaround to the wormkey compact is quite unexpected -- a single tank is not known for its problem-solving abilities."

Valast's whiskers twitched.

Neeria held out her four hands in what she hoped was a soothing gesture, "The ask is great, but so is the need." She paused for a moment before adding another thought, "And you will be the Premier who saved the galaxy by negotiating with a species considered non-negotiatable."

Valast's head tilted to the side, his ears perking up at the last bit. "We will require the right of monitoring on the usage of our ship."

The Overseer nodded, "I believe they will agree to such a stipulation."

Valast tugged a whisker with his paw, pacing back and forth. "Well, that leaves only one problem."

"That is?"

"How do we wedge a giant tank onto the projector?" Valast asked.

Neeria considered this. "Carefully."

---

Xy already regretted agreeing to the Right's foolish plan. When it had acceded, there was a presumption that borrowing the wormhole projector would be a relatively benign affair. Indeed, Zyy had established an emotion thread at the time full of assuring calmness. The traitorous Right and its lying cilia had fooled Xy for the last time. But the accord was established and there was nothing for the Left to do but suffer in silence.

Or, rather, in monstrous, jarring clanging mayhem as their poor float was glommed on to the exterior of the wormhole projector and integrated into its systems. Zyy was positively giddy as it squirted about the tank, brushing cilia along the portions that were being manipulated to enact the unholy union. It pulled in a translated external feed that allowed it to monitor the progress. Zyy seemed quite content to participate in sacrilege.

Rights.

Xy cowered in the center, its cilia curled inward, its bladders long since emptied so it could shrink its size. Each time Zyy approached, Xy would squirt away, making it clear that it wanted no part of Zyy's mind. Zyy did not even have the decency to feel remorse about the situation.

It had even been amused when the Premier had attacked their tank, finding the frantic clawing quite entertaining.

Xy realized now that it had been seduced by a wayward singleton. They were a rogue tank now, it was sure of it. No sane Left would ever countenance the insanity they now embarked upon. Xy assumed they would be destroyed on sight once the Zix saw the abomination they had become. Xy's only solace was that they would surely be a cautionary tale for other Lefts, a parable passed from float to float on the dangers of Right-brained foolishness. At least Xy's folly would serve some purpose then.

Xy, the Left who went Right.

The shame was unbearable.

---

Science Officer Jack Griggs stared into the majesty of space, his mouth ajar. It looked different. Wrong. Where were the stars? Only lines. Lines everywhere. Long streaks of white and blue and yellow. No points. No stars. Where had they gone?

Jack began to laugh, a small tendril of drool spilling from the corner of his mouth and stretching down to his chest before it snapped off and fell to the ground. "Where are the stars?" He slammed his head against the viewscreen, causing it to c***k and then shatter into shards. Gingerly, he pulled his head back, the laugh fading as his raised a trembling hand up to his forehead. It was unblemished. Unharmed.

"It's all wrong," he whispered, "Someone took the stars."

Jack collapsed to his knees, repeating the words over and over until they slurred together in a mumble.

---

"What's wrong with him, Kate?" Admiral Levinson peered down into the medical bed, his face a mask of concern.

"Kai, he's exhausted. I pulled bios from his console and he hasn't hit REM in days." She displayed a medical chart above Jack's bed. The chart contained a series of graphs, each of which showed a series of green lines that deteriorated into yellow, then orange, then red. "Sleep. Nutrition. Stress levels. Emotional state. They're all red." Chief Medical Officer Kate Lai gave the Admiral a hard stare, "He's been working himself too hard. Pushing himself way past the limits."

Kai slumped into the chair beside Jack's bed, raising a hand to massage the bridge of his nose. "I told him to take a break...to ease off."

"Well, Jack has never been one to rest easy when he's under your thumb, Kai," Kate replied, the tone making it clear what she thought of that.

Levinson did not rise to the bait, "He was our best hope, probably our only hope. You're right, I pushed him, but I don't have any other options here. We've got an unsolvable problem and I went to the only man that can dig me out." He slumped further into the chair. "Dig us out."

"All he is digging is an early grave. I've stabilized him but he'll need some time to recover."

Kai chuckled, letting his hand fall away as he stared up into the lights embedded into the ceiling, his eyes unfocused. "Time...well, sure." People always wanted what they couldn't have.

The Alcubierre was out of time.