The World Of Alcubierre

Episode V

Admiral Levinson reclined in the plush leather chair, his feet thrown up on the conference table in front of him. The cask of brandy he had been saving for their arrival at Alpha Centauri was opened and he was luxuriating in a quiet moment alone, one of the first since the nightmare revelations of a week prior. He was proud of the Alcubierre's crew, they had responded to the moment with the sort of professionalism he aspired to in the training but rarely reached in practice.

A small chime pulled him from his reverie. Sighing, he removed his feet and tugged up the zipper on the side of his uniform before answering, "Enter." He was not scheduled to return to duty for another eight hours, but privacy was a prize, not an expectation, at times like these.

The door slid open, revealing Science Officer Griggs, who entered, a nervous look on his face. Levinson grimaced, wondering what new horror Jack had conjured up in his experiments. It was getting to the point where he dreaded seeing Griggs despite the fact they had spent the better part of two decades in the black together. "You're getting to be the last person I want to see during my off hours Jack," Levinson poured Jack a fresh glass and nudged it across the table, "Out with it."

Jack slumped into the chair opposite of Levinson. His grey hair was frazzled, his blue eyes haggard and drawn. It looked like he'd gone on a three week bender and then played a game of rugby before falling down the stairs on the way home. Levinson winced, trying not to think too much on home. Jack reached out, taking a sip of the brandy. A little of the tension fell out of his shoulders when the burning liquid hit his throat. He took another sip and then set the glass down. "I've got bad news Kai."

Levinson freshened up his own glass, took a long draw and then shrugged, "What else is new?"

"Mostly everything, we're well into the uncharted here." Griggs replied. He was taking the upending of the universe's rules the hardest of the crew. The realization that two plus two might not add up to four outside the home bubble was not sitting easy with him. It was hard to be scientific when you had no idea what you could trust.

"Well, we signed up for the uncharted, so we can't complain too loud when that's where we ended up."

Jack snorted, "Sure, but I was hoping for something within reason." His words fell off and a silence ensued, each regarding the other for a moment.

"You said you had news," Kai said.

"We're working on the fly. You know all bets were off once we dropped the bubble. None of the physics makes any sense--"

Kai held up a hand, cutting Griggs off, "Jack, we're past disclaimers at this point. Just give me what you got."

"Well, we managed to chart out our course. It took some doing since we're trying to do it off of radiation smears, but the long and short of it is that we're way off from where we are supposed to be."

"No surprise there."

"No, I guess not. The catch is that we're way off. As in, we're out of the clear path," Jack said, his voice cracking on the word clear. He cleared his throat and then took a hurried gulp of the brandy, eyeing Kai over the rim.

"Out of the clear path," Kai repeated, the words coming out as a breathy mumble. "How bad is it?"

"Very."

Kai gave him a baleful glare, clearly expecting more.

"Asteroid belt bad. We're heading for the Proxima Barrier." The Proxima Barrier was a cluster of irregular orbit debris, mostly asteroids though a few were big enough to pass as a dwarf planet, that lay between Sol and Alpha Centauri. Their flight had been timed to avoid it, but those plans were clearly no longer applicable.

"Are we heading for a collision?" Kai asked.

Jack nodded slowly in the affirmative.

"Can we divert course?"

Jack shook his head, "Not at this speed and not with the time we have."

"All right, well, I thought you told me that it's fine if we're the object in motion." Kai said, his voice raising in volume, annoyed at the cat and mouse game.

"We will be."

"Then what the hell are we talking about Jack?"

"Home, Kai, we're talking about home." Jack replied quietly.

"What about it?"

Suddenly, Jack threw his glass at the adamantine steel wall. The glass plunked against it and bounced off unharmed. The wall, on the other hand, had a prominent scar on it from the interaction. "You ever see a glass survive a run in a steel wall Kai? You remember when you punched the wall yourself?" Kai nodded numbly, "All right, well, when I say we'll be fine, I mean it. We could punch through a planet and be fine right now as far as I can tell. The problem is that while we come away without a scratch like the glass over there, the planet and everything around it is going to feel real different about things."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if we run into the Proxima Barrier at the speed we're projected to, the shockwave from the collision may destroy Earth. It will take a few decades, but eventually it'll get there and that will be the end of home sweet home." Jack made an explosion sound to assist in the explanation, it was wildly incongruous with the seriousness of the situation.

Kai paused, eyeing his friend. Jack wasn't above a bit of color in his descriptions, but he was getting loose. Maybe the pressure was getting to him. Kai brought it back to the main thread. "What are our options?"

"As far as I can tell right now, none. In one week, we will collide with Proxima Barrier and unleash a force the likes of which this galaxy hasn't seen since the big bang."

"What about all of these new laws, isn't there a chance we're missing something?"

Jack shrugged, "Best I have come up with is that could scuttle the Alcubierre. We're still running calculations on the relationship of mass to energy and force outside of the home bubble, and maybe reducing our size might reduce the impact reaction energy enough, but I don't know."

Kai pressed his lips together, his expression making it clear what he thought about that. "Anything else?"

"Not unless you've got a wormhole in your back pocket."

Kai stood up, any thought of rest and relaxation dispelled for the time being. He returned to being Admiral Levinson, hardened and focused, "Very well Officer Griggs, you have a week to figure it out, but I expect to hear more options by tomororw. Dismissed."

Jack sighed and came to a stand. He snapped a salute, before turning on his heel and exiting the way he came. After he left, Admiral Levinson walked to the far side of the room and leaned down to retrieve the glass. The delicate crystal was unblemished, unmarred by any imperfection as a result of its battle with the wall.

Frowning, Levinson clenched his fist, causing the glass to shatter.