The World Of Alcubierre

Episode XXXI

Human Jack was gone.

Instead, there was a new entity, Human Bailey. ZyyXy despaired, feeling as though it had lost another connection to a potential partner. While they had never intertwined cilia and shared minds, ZyyXy had felt close to Human Jack, as if they were next to one another in the float, exchanging thoughts freely and fluidly. Such kinship was a rare thing, and not one ZyyXy shared with all humans. Human Bailey used the same words, but she spoke a different language. There was not the same compatibility. Perhaps she was not a singleton. ZyyXy shrank some, perhaps she was a Left.

The flows shifted, subtle currents and swirling eddies carrying information on what transpired beyond the boundaries of ZyyXy's float played across its corpus. ZyyXy immediately perceived the continued, rapid encroachment of the Combine crafts. Human Bailey said they would stall the ships, but such efforts did not yet appear to be having an effect. This was unsettling as it meant the Combine would arrive before ZyyXy was prepared to project the wormhole. ZyyXy shriveled further, concerned for the well being of all involved.

ZyyXy possessed options that the Humans did not. ZyyXy's float could easily evade the incoming vessels by utilizing the internal wormdrive. The ingrained system required significantly less energy and preparation compared to the projector, though it was restricted by the Zix wormkey. Such a restriction meant ZyyXy would constrained to the limited viable destinations within the bounds of Zix space, an unappealing outcome Additionally, and more pressing, was the fact that utilizing the internal drive would mean abandoning the Humans.

This would not happen. ZyyXy gulped in tank fluid, expanding in size rapidly, as it felt a surge of courage rise within it. ZyyXy had lost much to save the galaxy. Had risked much in bringing the Humans here. It had become a singleton to protect, to act, to resist the stagnancy that had come to dominate the Zix. ZyyXy would not flee, not while the Humans were in jeopardy.

ZyyXy would fight the elephant in the float. Human Jack would want it to.

ZyyXy jetted around the tank, emboldened and empowered, as it adjusted flows and spurted aggressive commands into the currents of the float. The worm project came online and requested ingress and egress coordinates. With the Combine closing in, there was little time to contemplate options. The power of the Combine wormkey lay in its broad access to egress points within Combine space and unaffiliated regions, substantially increasing the options available to ZyyXy. Even with access to the Combine Key, certain territories, such as those controlled by certain member species, remained unavailable as was required by the Combine Compact. This was immaterial, as ZyyXy was not interested in any location that might generate additional complications to their current situation. It rapidly filtered out regions of inhabited space and looked for places that were unlikely to see traffic from the various spacefaring entities amongst the stars.

The options narrowed considerably. Certain choices contained warnings with respect to interstellar phenomenon. ZyyXy began to filter these out and then paused, startled, a little squirt expelling outward in its excitement. The Combine wormkey granted access to Divinity Angelysia Restricted Space. ZyyXy did not think such a thing was possible, and wondered at the secrets that lay within the very sort of regions that had produced the enigmatic Humans.

A realization curled ZyyXy's cilia as it flicked at the flows, manipulating the search parameters. The Sol Project. Restricted Space. Multiple warnings were present regarding irregularities in space/time structure. Wormhole egress available but not advised.

ZyyXy considered this information. It would be possible to return the Humans home. ZyyXy did not have much time to communicate with the Humans on the subject to determine their desires. It tried to imagine whether Human Jack would desire such a thing, but it could not tell. ZyyXy also could not assess the degree of risk of wormhole collapse associated with the warnings on Sol Project egress points. Even if they were to arrive safely in the Sol Project, the space/time structure could prevent a wormhole from being formed afterwards, stranding ZyyXy and making it impossible to return for Grand Human Kai.

ZyyXy swallowed a great gout of fluid, expanding to almost its maximum size, preparing for battle. Its nerves steeled, decision made, it entered the coordinates.

--------------

"Captain, the Combine ships are continuing their intercept course," Comms Lieutenant Bera said, a light sheen of sweat covering his brow as his fingers nervously danced across his console. The update was unnecessary, the situation plain for all to see on the holo-emitter, but times of crisis called for over communication.

Idara nodded, and pulled up her line to Science, "Do we have any additional information on those Combine vessels? Effective range? Weaponry?" She glanced at the readout on the mass drivers. Full green. She had less familiarity with the weapons system than she did with the engine, but her work on ship wide stress thresholds told her she ran more than a few risks firing the weapons. Even if the weapons did not undermine the structural integrity of the ship, there was no guarantee they would not be part of the collateral damage from the ensuing explosion. If the Combine forced her hand, she may not have a choice. For the sake of humanity, she could not allow the Alcubierre to fall into alien hands.

"Nothing from ZyyXy on the ships. It went silent as soon as we communicated we intended to utilize its wormhole once it was available. We still have no been able to precisely determine when it will form or where it will exit." There was a frustrated sigh from Bailey, "I will see what I can do, but having a conversation with it is very different than reading Jack and ZyyXy chatting. I don't think we have the same magic."

"Lives may depend on it Officer Greaves. Get us whatever information you can. I'll proceed in the interim with what information we have available," Idara replied, knowing that it was not much. The Combine had threatened ZyyXy and its ship, then the Admiral had gone dark and almost immediately afterward, the Combine ships were coming toward the Alcubierre. Idara was not very encouraged by the fact pattern. Something had gone very wrong, but she did not have any sense of what it was or how to fix it. Her first attempt at commanding a starship was proving to be far more complicated than she might have hoped for.

She opened a comm to Chief Security Officer Ben Rodriguez, who was ensconced in the second bridge located deep within the guts of the Alcubierre. If she or the bridge was incapacitated, auxiliary systems and command would fall the to failsafe systems located there. It was a precaution all electronic vehicles of any size took since the Automic Wars. Humanity would never place its faith in a single line of defense, particularly when it came to electronics, again. "Chief Rodriguez, we're broadcasting a warning to stand down on repeat, but it's not effective. As a precaution, I have armed the mass drivers in hopes that the Combine's sensors would pick it up and reconsider its course of action. "

"I can see that Captain, I'm reading a full charge on both launch chutes." There was a pause. "You going to fire them if they get too close?"

"I'm wondering if you have any other options. Something that does not carry a risk of destroying Halcyon and us along with it," Idara replied.

"We could throttle 'em."

"That's not a part of the spec--

"Yeah, I know. Not in the manual anywhere, but it don't mean it can't be done," Ben replied.

"How do you know? Have you done it before?"

Ben snorted, "Buncha times."

Idara searched her mind for a reason why they would ever do such a thing. Ben supplied the answer without her needing to ask. "Used to ride tin cans back in the Automics." Idara knew Ben had come up in the United World Defense Force, but she had always pictured him on the ground rather than up in space. "Every so often we would get bored waiting to die. If we got bored enough, we'd knock on our neighbor's door. Give 'em a clanger."

"Knock on--"

"Give 'em a friendly little bump. Make sure they were still awake. Scared 'em half to death."

"You fired a mass driver at an allied ship?"

A pause. "Like I said, you can throttle 'em down. They're harmless once you drop 'em below armor thresholds. Just a big clang."

Idara wondered the entire world was insane outside of herself. Perhaps that just meant she was the one who was insane. Regardless, it was an option. "How long does it take to throttle one down?"

"Already done. Chute one is at two percent."

Idara glanced down at her command console. Mass driver one was no longer green. A bright orange replaced it now. She had no idea what the Chief had done, and she had every intention of following up on the matter, but for the moment, she was thankful for option.

"Lieutenant Bera, inform the Combine ships we will be firing a shot at the nearest vessel if it does not reverse course," Idara said, her palms slick with sweat. She was only lightly familiar with military protocol, and she wondered whether Ben might be a better option for her chair at the moment. Strange that decades spent on the forefront of science and research would provide so little insight into how to handle this moment. While she had played a role in the war, she had never been in war. She decided immediately that she had no taste for it.

"They are still incoming."

Idara felt trapped. The Alcubierre was not meant to be in this situation, fighting it out with another sentient species twenty-five thousand light years from home. It did not have the appropriate sensor. It did not have the secondary maneuvering systems.

All it had was asteroid busters.

Idara swallowed, "Fire at the nearest ship. Chute one." Her throat was dry, the mantle of combatant resting uneasily on her shoulders.

"Yes Captain, giving them a clanger with chute one," Chief Rodriguez's graveling baritone rang out over the comm.

Idara leaned forward in her chair, hoping the Combine would decide the abort. A small icon appeared, the tracer for the mass driver launch. A moment later it disappeared, intersecting with a marker bearing the callsign Combine #17. The marker blinked once and then was gone. A moment afterward, a shockwave rocked the ship, the inertia dampers struggling to compensate.

"I said chute one," Idara exclaimed, her fingers clutching the armrests in an iron grip.

"That was chute one. Two percent output, wouldn't of even made a dent in our plating," Ben said, his voice unsteady.

"Captain, the Combine vessel is no longer registering on the scan. We're getting multiple pieces of space debris in its former location," Ganesh Bera broke in, his head rapidly moving between the readout on his console and then the holo-emitter, clearly trying to make sense of the information. "The ship is...Captain, the vessel appears to have been destroyed by the attack."

"It was supposed to be a warning," Idara said, her own eyes trying to find Combine #17 among the clutter of the other callsigns on the holo-emitter. "It was supposed to be a warning," she repeated, a quiet numbness settling over her. She had killed. She was a killer. Man had finally found out it was not alone and she, a scientist, had fired the first shot and killed it. Her mind began to run around in circles, feeding on the loop.

"The other ships had paused, but they're recommencing their movement." Ganesh gulped. "Instrumentation is reading a power surge on the closest ship."

"Taking evasive maneuvers," Lieutenant Min Lee called out, her fingers of her left hand flying across the console as she input a series of evasion parameters based upon projected line-of-attack scenarios stored within the ship's navigation framework. Immediately the Alcubierre began to weave back and forth, the holo-emitter registering the movement by the to-and-fro swaying of the icons on the local space scan. Inertial dampers worked in tandem with the framework, ensuring the crew weathered the movements without notice.

"Incoming!" Ganesh shouted.

The ship shuddered as the engines cut out and the links blinked off. Both were restored shortly after.

"Status!" Idara said, her voice managing a calm tone even as it rose above the bustle of the bridge.

"They fired an EMP," Bera replied.

"We've lost main, but the failsafe is up. We've got partial on the QVT, minimal life support and a few other emergency systems. Not quite a sitting duck, but we ain't a swimming duck either," Ben spoke over the comm. They'd been saved by a relic of post-Automic engineering -- the redundancies built into power generation and distribution in every ship. The backup triggered whenever energy resources hit a critical state. Alcubierre was considerably less fortified than warships, so the systems were only a one time get-out-of-jail.

Ganesh swiveled in his seat and looked back at the Captain, "Another three ships are in range. We're registering more surge buildups."

"Maneuvering is sluggish, but there's not much we can do escape EMPs," Min relayed immediately after.

"Chief Rodriguez, chute two." Idara's cheek twitched slightly, the only sign that she had ordered the destruction of the ship.

"Out of luck, Captain. Mass drivers can't draw power from backup."

Idara sank back in her chair. A trembling hand reached for the command console.

"Incoming!" Ganesh screamed, his voice hoarse.

Idara tried to bring up the Zed Protocol. The self destruct would work even on the backup. Her fingers shook as she tried to enter the command code. Tap. Tap. Tap. The moment hung in time, slowed down and crystallized. Idara had failed her commander and her crew, but she would not fail humanity.

"The surges are off the grid, they're gone!" Ganesh hollered, almost jumping out of his chair, casting the information up on the holo-emitter.

Idara's eyes widened and looked up.

"Vanished. All right before they hit us, like they were cut off." Ganesh pulled up the readouts. "It's...it's a wormhole."

A priority comm from Science opened, and Bailey spoke in a breathless voice, "Incoming message from Z, it says 'Go.',"

------------------

Kai snarled as he hurled his body against the frame of the enormous metal door. The bulk of his spacesuit absorbed most of the impact, but his shoulder was growing numb. The door was considerably worse off, the great gate shuddered and groaned under the force. The dents from his fists earlier had been replaced by enormous gouges, impact craters from where his shoulder had collided with the metallic surface. He had lost count of how many times he had charged, but Kai knew he had one more in him.

Just like he had one more in him the last time.

And the time before that.

Perhaps it was better for the Combine that he had not shared his thoughts with them. He did not think they would find the malevolence that brewed within appealing. He had come to this place in hopes of finding a path to peace. They had cut him off from his crew and left him in the dark.

So be it.

He crashed into the door again.

He fell to the ground.

He had another one in him.

He staggered to his feet and stumbled back toward the platform in the center. He hunched over it, gathering his breath and taking a moment to spit some of the accumulated phlegm coming up from his searing lungs. Kai was not a young man any more, but he had spent a lifetime cultivating stubbornness and a head hard enough to break down any wall.

He stood, raising his arms above his head and stretched them back. "Witness this."

He charged again, the dull clunk of his spacesuit's boots thunking against the polished surface of the Adjudication room. A few feet before the door, he crouched down and leapt off of his feet, his head and shoulder forward. He slammed into the wall.

It groaned and then bowed inward.

A tiny sliver of light appeared between the two halves of the gate.

Kai sunk to his knees.

The uplink icon appeared.

The Alcubierre. Still there. Still alive.

He pulled up the command console on his wrist uplink.

A message icon appeared.

The uplink went dead.

Kai, dread overcoming him, opened it. Not knowing what to expect, fearing what it might contain.

It was a simple message.

Short.

Sweet.

We will come back.

Kai slunk backward. He lay there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, now illuminated by the c***k of light from the door.

He began to laugh.