Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier (3 page)

It was only a couple of days later when we found our first
worlds that supported life.  Three of them, all within hours of each
other.  None of them were available to colonize, they already had intelligent
life.  I could hardly believe how fast, and how close, we had found
them.  Out of a hundred probes, three percent of them had found something,
dropped off a stealth sensor, and moved on.  I knew there were nosy
scientists no doubt using those sensors to spy on our, until now, unknown
neighbors, only a few hundred light years away.

I suppose it wasn’t too surprising, there were thousands of
pre industrial worlds inside the twenty-seven thousand light year stretch of
the old Knomen empire.  Only fifty in that vast space had achieved
interstellar spaceflight.  The galaxy was full of life, and I wondered if
we’d ever figured out who, or what, had seeded humanity across the stars. 
We may not be exactly alike, but we were all too similar for any other possibility
to be true.

Two of them looked to be in an iron age.  Swords, wagon
parts, farming implements, and so much more, all made with a hammer and
anvil.  I think the most bizarre part is the pictures I took a look at
looked… familiar.  Like it could be Earth, if the people didn’t have red
skin, or more compact bodies.  The forges looked like something right out
of the middle ages.

The third was even more advanced, well into the industrial revolution. 
A lot like the nineteen fifties on Earth.  They had no space presence yet,
not even a satellite, but the sensors picked up weak television, radio, cars,
dirigibles, and other such markers.  The inhabitants had more body hair, and
were a bit taller.  I think they were more peaceful too, like most of the
races that survived the Knomen, I didn’t see any signs of huge wars or a large
military in the data. 

A small part of me wanted to go have a look, after all, I
could even go down there and morph my body to look like a local.  But it
was a wishful thinking moment, I was happy where I was and with my life. 
The inventions and science more than the admiral part, but I liked being
busy.  Plus, I could always look into the scanner feed, and be one of those
nosy scientists myself.

So far we hadn’t seen any indication of an interstellar
presence out toward the rim, but then we’d just gotten started.  Three
hundred lightyears
was
just over one percent the
distance we needed to go before we ran out of stars and hit the void. 

“Stand up, step away from the console, and help me pick out
a dress.  We’re going out tonight.”

I sighed and logged out as I glared at her.  Sure, I
was kind of happy she didn’t let me become a hermit, but then I didn’t want her
to know that.

“Where to?” I asked plaintively.

“We’re way to young and sexy to be stuck in this tin can,
drop the whining and let’s go.”

I suppressed a smile, “You didn’t answer the question.”

She shook her head, “Come along,” and turned around and
walked out.

I rolled my eyes and followed, of course we went straight to
the landing bay, and took a shuttle down to the house.  We wound up having
a good night.  First, I got to enjoy the house and view, it was a couple
of hours until sunset, so we got in the hot tub and watched the mountains out
back, while drinking a little wine.  It was a great way to relax, unwind,
and remind myself I wasn’t a stuffy old admiral, but a young woman that needed
some fun every once in a while.

After which, we got dressed up, went to dinner, and then
went dancing.  It was a blast, thank god for my best friend…

Our test ship was built, and we flew it straight
up
above the disk of our galaxy just over ten thousand light years.  Probably
overkill, but Kristi and I had no idea what to expect from our
experiment.  I also had those shield missiles launched, to be used as
sensor drones.  A few were close, some were almost a light year away.

“You ready?” Kristi asked with a grin.

Of course, we were sitting safely on my command ship, the
A.I. was flying the test ship, and with quantum communications we had real time
data and connection to make decisions.  I felt like a child lighting their
first fire cracker, there was no way I was going to hold it in my hand so to
speak.  I took a moment to verify all the sensors were running and
recording data.

I grinned back, and turned it on.

Where once there was a back wall in the chamber, there was
nothing.  It wasn’t black exactly, it was void.  Of course, without
the sensors we wouldn’t have seen anything with the naked eyes, it was as
designed, a micro-singularity, or black hole.  Way too small to see
without sensor enhancement.  Nothing crazy happened either, so at least I
knew it was contained.  For
now
.

“Al, start the testing.”

It was a little tricky, we had to test for effects, since
dark energy was invisible, and wouldn’t show up on the scans directly.

Kristi asked, “Anything, besides the expected gravity and
other expected forces I mean?”

I shook my head, wondering if my guess had been wrong. 
I’d been so sure.

“Not yet.”

Al finished the battery of tests about fifteen minutes
later, it looked like a bust.  I’d been so sure though.

“Al, rerun the tests please.”

Kristi raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged, “Maybe it’s like a trickling spring?  It
might take time to build up and pool.” my voice full of doubt.

Kristi snickered, “Maybe.  So… a black hole is the
pool, and it will take time to fill with water?”

It sounded so stupid when she put it in those terms, even if
I was the first person to compare it to water.

Al interrupted, “The results are slightly different, I
suggest rerunning the tests until equilibrium is reached.  It seems the
singularity is both the containment and attractant for some type of energy of
phenomena we are unable to directly measure.  However, I’d suggest using
the comparative concept of charging a battery, rather than filling a pool.”

Kristi and I stared at each other.  Sometimes, since
the upgrade, Al’s suggestions seemed a little bit too human.

“That… sounds like a plan Al,” and then added banally,
“Let’s do that.”

I took a deep breath, “So what do you think now?”

Kristi shrugged, “It could be dark energy, or it could be
something else, completely different, that we can’t scan for or measure for directly.”

I shrugged, “I guess we’ll find out.”

Hours passed, and the data just kept getting more
skewed.  According to the data, there was more energy contained in the
singularity than any reactor known.  It was a huge leap from the fusion
reactors that powered the ship.  If the fusion reactors were a candle, the
singularity, or dark energy reactor, would be a volcano.

Of course, I had no idea how to tap that power.  No
more than we knew how to tap gravity.  We could convert all sorts of
things to power systems, heat, pressure, motion, magnetic fields, and much
more.  But like gravity, we didn’t really understand how dark energy
worked, it was like trying to build a puzzle around a missing piece.  I
wasn’t giving up, all that power, there had to be a way to convert it to usable
energy.

Kristi broke me out of my delusions of grandeur, “This is…
crazy.  I can’t believe you were right, but based on the indirect
evidence, you built a dark matter reactor.  Or is it a black hole
reactor.”

She laughed a little bit, it sounded unsure.

“Both.  Yeah, we have a lot of work to do as
well.  We have to one, figure out how to tap the energy, and two, we need
to figure out how to safely shut it down.  If it was shut down now, I
imagine the dark energy would tear the ship apart.  That’s why I put in so
much redundancy, and an ejection system.  I think to start I’m going to go
over the gravity equations, dark energy isn’t really energy at all, it’s more
like a force, like gravity.  So, we’ll see.”

She frowned, “How about adding shields and weapons? 
Dark energy would ignore all shields, and tear a ship apart.”

I snorted, “Sure, and while I’m at it, I’ll build a wormhole
device, after all there is more than enough power to do so.”

We both frowned and looked at each other, as we realized my
sarcastic joke… wasn’t really out of the realm of possibility.  The
biggest restraint on opening a wormhole through space and time was lack of
power.  Let me amend that to the biggest restraint to
trying
to
open a wormhole, and testing those very old theories, is lack of a power source
that even came close to the theoretical requirements.  Of course, this
brought us back to actually figuring out how to extract the fantastic amount of
power we’d just discovered.

Kristi lost her mirth, “Umm, we shouldn’t share this with
anyone, at all.  This isn’t something we’d ever build on Earth anyway, so
when we come clean we should specify space only if the powers that be aren’t
smart enough to.  You realize we slanted the balance of power with Shield
defense missiles, and especially the gravity anti-FTL missiles.  This will
turn balance on its head.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t do this, but we
need to be wary about how we present it.”

I nodded, “Maybe even military only, civilians don’t need
it, at least not right away.  So you can run with the weapons and
shields?”

Kristi frowned, “Fine, I’m the weapons person anyway, and
our projects aren’t interdependent anyway.”

I shook my head, “How so?”

Kristi shrugged, “You want to build some kind of power
converter right?  To power the ship, which by the way makes you evil to
want central power like that.  To make it a weapon or shield, I’ll need to
manipulate the dark energy itself.”

“Right,” I said softly, “That hadn’t occurred to me
yet.  Don’t worry, we’ll keep the fusion reactors around in case we need
them.”

Kristi snickered, “Very wise, those EPS manifolds are always
breaking down at the worst possible time.”

I shook my head, hoping neither of us would ever grow up.

I added, “And hey, we might not figure out anything, it
could be a dead end.”

Kristi looked at me like I was an idiot.  What did I
miss?

She shook her head, “You’re too naïve sometimes
Alicia.  What would happen if you flew that ship into a solar system, and
then shut down the sixteen gravity emitters on purpose.”

Holy shit.  I turned white as the blood drained from my
face.

She nodded, “That’s right, you just built the first bomb
that may be capable of ripping a solar system apart down to its component
atoms, sun included.  Assuming our theories are correct.”

She was right, oh, probably not the way it was right
now.  But it could take out a good chunk of the solar system.  To
take out the whole thing we would need to increase the size of the singularity,
which would be really easy, simply expand the field generated by the gravity
emitters.  I had a feeling I was going to have nightmares tonight. 
To put in perspective though, the anti-mass FTL system has the potential to
create an extinction level even on Earth, we just need to make sure there are
enough safeties and protocols to make it as safe as the current fusion
reactors, ones that can’t be bypassed.

I groaned, as I read over the recent report and set of
orders from the USFS board.  Apparently a representative, Marlon, was
coming from one of the Knomen colonies to discuss the treaty.  Nora,
Senna, and a number of other races would be represented as well.  A few on
the board wanted me present during the talk to even out the Knomen’s unfair
advantage of soul reading.

Not that there was anything to truly negotiate, the treaty
was pretty much take it or leave it.  But they wanted my presence to make
sure the Knomen were serious in their intentions, and that it wasn’t simply an
attempt to spy for the royal family.  That I was part of that royal family
wasn’t lost on me at all.  I also had the idea there would be hard
feelings from some of the other races.  Knomen had us under their thumb
for months, which meant I was only slightly annoyed at my birth race.  For
some of the people present it would be years, and in some cases,
centuries.  That’s a lot of pent up stress, and plenty long enough to
develop a deadly grudge.

I wasn’t naïve enough to believe some of those races
would’ve rather we’d destroyed Knomen for their enslavement of the galaxy for
their high handed bureaucratic madness.  Perhaps enslavement was too
strong a word, it’d been more like many kingdoms being forced to be vassals and
pay tribute to one central kingdom.  Or maybe like the mob going around
the neighborhood for protection money.

No matter how it was defined, it meant there was some
potential for nastiness.

When the Knomen ship arrived outside the system, and started
their approach at sub-light speed, I sent him an invitation to shuttle over, so
we could travel together.  At least they were respecting our no FTL in
system rules.  I thought it wise to evaluate him first, and then the large
group of aliens at the meeting, rather than attempt to do both at the same
time.  I stopped by my quarters on ship to make sure both myself, and my
uniform was presentable, and then headed down to the shuttle bay to await our
guest. 

I’d expected an arrogant person.  Instead, Marlon was
rather nervous and tentative as he exited the shuttle.  I walked over and
shook his hand.

“Welcome aboard.”

Marlon smiled, “Thank you, it is good, but strange, to be
here.”

I returned his smile and waved for him to follow me over to
my sports shuttle.

“Oh, in what way?”

He didn’t respond right away, and I could sense his feelings
shift around from nervous, to hopeful, to doubtful.  It was almost
painful, but I realized he either thought we’d reject him, or… something else
bad.

When we took off he said, “If we sign this treaty, your, and
the other worlds, will truly defend us?  Many of our people find this hard
to believe, because of the way our race has treated them over the millennia.”

I sighed, “You would understand, you were in much the same
position weren’t you?”

He shrugged, “Perhaps, you could say we were second class
citizens, under the people at the home world, but that would mean every other
race was third class.”

I frowned and decided to be bluntly honest, especially since
he could read me as well, “Earth would come.  I believe the rest would as
well, maybe not out of love for your planet or race, but because if they fail
to answer a call through the treaty, they would be kicked out, and no one would
come to their call.  Maybe in the future that can change?  Have the
Knomen colonies started to trade with others yet?”

He shook his head, “What we have to offer, they can get
elsewhere.  We have nothing unique.”

I laughed, “That’s not entirely true.  But I can see
why you haven’t even considered it.”

He looked over at me in surprise, “What do we have?”

I shrugged, “In the Knomen empire there were spies and
facilitators.  Obviously facilitators are a thing of the past, but spies
would be a good export.  Consider exploration, one of the things the
Knomen empire did well was recon on societies entering the stage where the FTL
discovery was imminent.  The emperor kept all that in the family, but
obviously that is no longer the case.

“You can charge for some of you to go out, recon a world and
its laws, society, along with its customs and taboos.  Our race is the
only one that can do that easily, since we can change our aspect so readily.”

He sighed, “But not many are needed.”

I shook my head, “Not many
were
needed.  Without
that ridiculous five light year exploratory limit per year expansion and new
worlds are going to start popping up a lot more than in the past.  Another
thing you have going for you is soul reading.  Imagine showing up hired
for one world to make sure the other world is honest in their dealings. 
Then that world will want their very own soul reader for negotiation.  In other
worlds, use the strengths of our race to serve and help, instead of dominate.

“And of course… for a price.”

I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing with these
suggestions, but I didn’t think it could hurt.  They would need some kind
of export to afford imports, and the export of singular talents seemed obvious
to me.

Marlon nodded, “I will think on this, and bring it up with
my leadership when I get back to our worlds.  If I may ask, what is your
intention toward the Knomen home world?  I only ask, because I fear if they
once again regain power, they will call us all traitors if we sign your
treaty.”

I shrugged, “They are under enforced protection.  They
will remain that way until my cousin sees reason, or the people grow tired and
overthrow him.”

Marlon muttered, “Enforced protection?”

I nodded, “We are quarantining the planet and won’t let them
off, but we will also defend them if anyone tries to attack.  We bear the
responsibility of their lives, since we took away their ability to defend
themselves on their own.”

Marlon asked thoughtfully, “And the other treaty worlds?”

I shook my head, “The Knomen home world is not a part of the
treaty.  They aren’t required to weigh in, since it was only us who took
the system.  I don’t expect anyone else would lift a finger if they were
attacked, a hard truth, but I’m sure it comes as no surprise.”

Marlon shook his head, “The colonies would, for the sake of
the population, if you could trust us not to try and displace your Earth
fleet.”

I pondered that a moment, “I would trust you, but I’d need
to meet the command staff in person before I’d feel comfortable with it.”

Marlon didn’t seem the type, but I imagined some of the
power hungry in the colonies resented Earth from taking their exalted position
in the galaxy away, even if their worlds will probably be richer for it, not
being under the thumb of my cousin any longer.  We ran out of time for
discussion when we arrived at the U.N. complex. 

I knew the way, so I escorted him through the building to
the large meeting room.  The entire board was there, as well as fifteen
more people, including Senna from Leira, and Nora from Tressia.  Seven of
the worlds weren’t present, but it was hardly a requirement.  There was no
voting someone in, if a world signed they were in, if they violated the treaty
they were out for at least fifty years.  It was that simple.

At a guess I’d say all fifteen people were only there to
work out trade and other agreements, not because of the treaty itself.  At
least, that was probably the case before they heard a Knomen colony wanted to
join.  I could feel how tense the room was, but I believed Marlon could
win them over if they gave him a chance.  He was the first Knomen I’d met
that wasn’t ridiculously arrogant and blind to reality.  Even my
grandmother, who I liked, was arrogant beyond belief.

When I caught Nadia’s eyes, I nodded almost unperceptively,
just to let her know that Marlon at least, was on the level.  I stayed in
the back, and gave half an ear toward following the conversation.  It was
basically a very flowery way to go over the blunt questions we’d covered in the
shuttle together.  Marlon wanted to make sure his colony would be equal in
the eyes of everyone else in the treaty, and everyone else questioned him about
why he wanted to join and probed for ulterior motives.

As far as my perceptions, he didn’t really have one. 
As far as the others, there was definitely anger there, but no one threatened
to walk out if we let him sign on.  I felt a little sorry for him, but
then that was life.  It would take years before they would ever be
trusted, and many times that for the home world when that finally got sorted
out.

At least no one tried to kill him…