Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) (30 page)

“Of course, Your Grace,” Gil'Da bowed before
hurrying from the officer’s mess. The three ladies all looked at
her inquisitively.

“Sasha? You know you can’t hide anything from
me,” Tiana said while leaning close, obviously expecting to garner
a response. Sasha ignored her goading, and went back to poking at
her meal.

“Fine,” Tiana muttered with a huff as she
leaned back, a forced pout on her lips. Lady Bhool and Regalia
glanced at each other, an unspoken word passing between the two at
the exchange. A minute later, Tho'Mos entered, bowing stiffly.

“Your Grace asked for me?” Tho'Mos said with
a wide, toothy grin. Sasha put down her spoon and looked up at the
older man, with long, bone white hair, and wrinkled skin that told
he was well over 200 years old.

“An idea has come to me and I thought you
would be in the best position to be able to explain if it would
work,” Sasha told.

“You honor me, Your Grace,” Tho'Mos nodded,
his curious stare joining those of her companions.

“The atmospheric production facility is
located in engineering correct?” asked Sasha.

“Yes, Your Grace,” Tho'Mos responded
instantly, “and I think I know what you're thinkin', if we try to
turn off the atmosphere to the rest of the starship, the backup
systems will kickin’, which are located in each department and
inaccessible to us,” Sasha nodded, having figured as much, but she
wasn't thinking of turning off the atmosphere.

“That thought did occur to me, but after
recalling the method the assassin tried to use,” Tho’Mos’s eyes
went wide, “I was thinking more along the lines of introducing an
“agent” of some sort into the air supply, perhaps allowing us to
put everyone to sleep?” she found the idea sounded ridiculous as
she voiced it, but Tho'Mos seemed to consider it, tilting his head
in thought, before slapping his leg.

“By Origin, that could work!” Tho'Mos forgot
himself, but Sasha didn't mind. Lady Bhool cleared her throat.

“I see a few problems with this plan, Your
Grace. Mainly, the scrubbers and the foreign agent alarms. If we
introduce a foreign agent at the main atmosphere production
facility, the scrubbers will remove it immediately, and if we
introduce it further into the system, the foreign agent alarms will
create a similar situation to if we turned off the atmosphere all
together,” Lady Bhool explained.

“I see,” Sasha’s head drooped, having
expected as much. But Tho'Mos stood, rubbing his jaw, seeming to
still be considering her suggestion.

“ I shoud' be able to alter the code,” he
started, his voice low like he was talking to himself, “for the
foreign agent alarms to recognize it as normal, everyday air,” he
looked up, seeming ready to repeat himself, but held his tongue
when he realized he was speaking his thoughts. Sasha and Lady Bhool
shot up at once to speak.

“That's impossible,” Lady Bhool won the race,
“the detection list is hardcoded into the starship’s primary matrix
system. You'd have to create a bypass within the primary system
with a diagnostic matrix, then isolate the coding and do a complete
manual rewrite. It would take weeks, if not months outside of
refit,” Lady Bhool blustered. Sasha's heart fell again, finding
she'd jumped out of her seat in excitement, where Lady Bhool had
still been thinking logically. But to her surprise, Tho'Mos just
grinned, like he had a secret he couldn't help but share.

“Ah, my apologies, ma’am,” he saluted to Lady
Bhool when he noticed her glare, “that would normally be true on
most starships, but here, on this particula’ starship we have
somethin’ that will allow us to bypass that ol' little problem,”
Tho'Mos now had everyone's undivided attention and seemed to be
relishing in the fact.

“Which is?” It was Tiana that called him out
first.

“Vin, My Lady,” Tho’Mos replied while bowing
and saluting at the same time, “It can patch me directly into the
primary matrix to allow me to do the codin’ without having to
remove anything or perform a bypass with a diagnostic matrix,”
Sasha spun towards Lady Bhool, who could only stare at Tho'Mos in
disbelief.

“Vin! Is this true?” Sasha asked without
looking for a PDU. A bronze sphere appeared above the center of the
table, being projected from somewhere Sasha couldn't guess.

“Yes, Grand Duchess Sasha Alutia. This is
well within my capabilities. I am, however, unable to assist with
the altering of the code itself or become directly involved in the
current conflict on the ABF Princess One,” Sasha looked back at
Tho'Mos, unable to hide her concern.

“Don't you worry, Your Grace. I can have that
system rewritten in a couple a days,” Sasha felt the blood drain
from her face.

“Make it a day, Senior Deck Engineer,” Knight
Admiral Bhool broke in.

“Very well, Countess Bhool,” Tho'Mos grinned
widely while saluting.

That was the first time Sasha had heard
Knight Admiral Bhool's noble title, which was usually only used in
non-military social situations, but could also be used in place of
her military title, since it carried the same respect. Tho'Mos
bowed again to the rest of the noble ladies before rushing from the
officer's mess.

“Do you think he can finish in time?” Sasha
looked back towards Lady Bhool. “Cutting an entire day seems to be
asking too much,” voicing her concern.

“One thing you must know about engineers,
Your Grace,” Lady Bhool leaned forward, a tight grin on her lips.
“They always triple the time required to perform a job. Not because
they are lazy, but because they know something could, and most
likely will, go wrong. So remember, if the work is urgent and
within a third of their quoted time, they will usually not complain
if you ask for them to rush,” Sasha let out a confused sigh,
feeling her concern fade slightly, but not completely vanish. She
looked up at the expectant faces that surrounded her.

“Well, we have a day to kill, why don't we
try to figure exactly what we will do with Duke Zehman and Sir
Simwa once we get our hands on them.” Her words were met by a
circle of icy smiles.

“This is food?” Trent muttered, poking at the
bowl holding what looked eerily like what had exited his stomach
after his last heavy night of drinking. But he found himself
salivating all the same, the unworldly aroma that in no way matched
its greenish-brown coloring and lumpy texture wrapping him in
bliss. Finding his hunger overpowering his eyes, he grabbed the
bowl from what the voice in his head had called a nutrition
dispenser, along with a plastic cup of what appeared to be water,
and moved across the smooth black floor, to one of the many round
tables scattered throughout the cafeterias interior.

The food tasted beyond what Trent expected,
flavors he had never before experienced exploding across his
tongue. Each bite shifted between
sweet
,
sour, or slightly tart, while some seemed to be a mixture of all
three. He shoveled the contents down his throat, it having been so
long since he had last eaten a meal as good as this. When he
finished, he leaned back, rubbing his full belly, thinking on his
next move.

A few questions were still burning in the
back of his mind and he thought this might be as good a time as any
to get some answers.

“Please provide me with information on how
the NHA is capable of traveling through the universe,” he thought a
question he knew impossible to answer logically, hoping it may help
in finding the corporation responsible for this ruse.

The Theory of Relativity still existed and
only allowed movement up to the speed of light, since as you
approached that speed, energy creation would become immense while
time would slow for the traveler. This would make it impossible to
travel between stars in any semblance of reasonable time, not to
mention making travel between galaxies a completely ridiculous
notion. Trent took a sip of the refreshingly cool water and waited
patiently for a response.

“Excerpt found in;
Introduction to
Spaceflight One
, class resource for TSB General Training
School: Interstellar space travel is separated into two categories:
Instantaneous and Faster than Light, or FTL. Instantaneous
interstellar travel allows movement between two points in the
universe instantaneously through the use of the Doroneonn Theory.
The Doroneonn Theory, discovered 15,000 galactic years pre-NHA,
states that every location within the universe has a discernible
universal location code. If one could locate one code, all other
codes could then be derived. Sir Doroneonn, during his research,
was able to pierce the fabric of the universe with a specialized
probe with similar properties to a singularity, and access what is
now known as the recondite universe, allowing him to determine the
universal location code as the universe rebuilt itself during the
probe’s removal.

“Further study found that it was possible to
inject a different location code into the recondite universe as the
standard universe corrected itself, allowing one location of the
universe to exist in two places simultaneously. These altered
locations would exist for less than a picosecond before collapsing
as the structure of the recondite universe reformed to correct the
irregularity.

“Later research found that there was a way to
keep altered location codes active indefinitely by building a
specially designed containment sphere which would simulate the
correct location code to the recondite universe while maintaining
the simultaneous location codes. Originally known as the
Sudalimialis Jump Hole System, based on the creator, Emperor
Sudalimialis, was later shortened to just, SJS Gate. This system
allows NHA starships to travel anywhere in the universe,
instantaneously, through the use of the SJS Gate network.” Trent's
head was spinning, unable to fully grasp the explanation before the
voice moved on.

“Faster-than-Light travel, or FTL, is
utilized when an SJS Gate is unavailable or impractical, and is
performed through the use of the Neutron Star Drive Propulsion
System, or NSD for short. The Neutron Star Drive Propulsion System
uses the energy of a bundled mass of active neutrons to power a
starship’s systems, propulsion, and weapons, while also providing
gravity, inertial compensation, energy dampening, and time
“anchoring”.

“An NSD core is created through a process
similar to the formation of a natural neutron star, though the
resulting creation is of a mass of 99.99E
¹⁹
percent less
density, or 1.79E
¹⁶
kg, and a surface gravity of 5.8 x
10
¹¹
less intensity, or 58 Origin gravities, then its
natural cousin. But even with a mass density and gravitational
intensity of the artificial neutron star being significantly less
than normal, it would still make its utilization impossible in a
starship design.

“This is where the concept of black hole
physics, or BHP, versus standard universal physics, which were
discussed in the previous chapter, come into use. Through the
manipulation of a BHP field created within the NSD core by the
utilization of unstable singularities that double as a failsafe
system, allows for the altering of mass and rational time, even
while existing within the rules set by standard universal physics.
Combined with the gravity manipulation ability of a dark matter
containment matrix, the NSD core will add no perceptible mass or
create a detectable gravitational well on the starship in which it
is installed, allowing the creation of a gravity manipulation
field, or GM filed, that permits NSD equipped NHA starships to
travel at FTL speeds, without the expected time dilation effects,
energy creation, or loss of “anchor” to the rational timeline,
which we will be fully discussing in future chapters, and to travel
at speeds that are only limited by current sensor range,” Trent
sighed as he cutoff the explanation.

“I guess it could be possible,” he muttered,
given he knew nothing of this so called black hole physics or
standard universal physics it referred. He decided to keep an open
mind, having met too many ignorant people over the years who would
disregard anything that didn’t fit their narrow set of beliefs or
knowledge. Though the throbbing of his mind at the strain of trying
to grasp the concepts made him decide against delving further into
this particular line of questioning. But another idea began to gain
strength...
was this really a corporate experiment?
The
question made him realize his own stupidity;
why hadn't he asked
the voice directly?

“Please inform me of the corporation
responsible for this facility.”

That’s why,
he gritted his teeth as
the annoying tone that told of an unanswerable request echoed in
response. Once it faded, he decided to hold off on further
questioning, deciding it best to ask someone in person. But first,
he had to find out where to start searching.

“Please inform me of the location of all
personnel in TSB Earth Base.” A simple question he probably should
have asked sooner.

“Please be advised; all TSB personnel have
been called to active-duty by acting TSB Commander, Knight Captain
Quinn. Nonessential and injured active duty TSB personnel can be
found within medical bay one and freight storage area one. Non-TSB
personnel can be found in Base Command and Control, Docking
Command, Barracks Two, Three...” The metallic voice continued
listing off the location of non-TSB personnel, and after a minute
he cut it off.

He stood and started towards the outer
corridor, wondering why the remaining TSB personnel would be
confined to medical bay one and storage area five, while non-TSB
personnel seemed to be scattered throughout the base. A shiver
crept up his spine as a sense of impending doom was the only answer
his mind provided.