The Navigator 2: We the People (2 page)

"It's okay Shana, you did your best," Becky replied.

Symms had stayed with Becka and had heard the conversation. He put a comforting hand on Becka's shoulder from behind. "Captain, do you know if Joe's men made it to the pods and did they find the hostages?"

"One of them did Doctor. Lieutenant Garreth has a pod full of people from the detention area. He said that Lieutenant Carter and a few Navigators went back to carry the wounded to another pod. Garreth had to remain with the group because some of them were Jared's guards." She paused. "The other Lieutenant is not in any of the other pods."

"What a mess." Symms replied. "At least we know the computer won't eject the pods in hyperspace. We need to call the Admiral and let him know what happened here."

"Agreed, just let me get us away from this area and I'll call him," Shana replied. "He's not going to be very happy. Several other shuttles are on their way to assist us. When the pods were ejected, they automatically began transmitting distress signals; that's how I know I have all of them. I'll hand off some of the pods once we meet up with them."

"You've done very well, Captain. You've saved a lot of people today," Symms replied.

"Yeah, but one thing I would like to know; where did Jared take The Citadel?" Shana asked. "I can't see him heading for deep space."

"Jared believed he was a god in human form. He felt the ultimate rule of our entire races was only his right and proper due. He would have taken The Citadel to Earth," Becka replied. "It would be easier for him to control things from there."

"I can see that," Symms replied. "We need to warn the Admiral as soon as possible so he can prepare a proper greeting for our newest megalomaniac."

"I'll make the call now and share him to your screen. You might want to close the door so we don't upset our passengers anymore," Shanna suggested. "Please stay there, Doctor. I'm sure he will want to speak to all of us."

Symms nodded and closed the door behind him. It was cramped, but there was just enough room for two people in the small chamber. Becka readjusted the chair to give him a little more room.

"Thanks Becka," Symms replied.

The woman nodded as Hawkling's image appeared on the monitor in front of them. "Report please, what's going on out there? We have alarms going off all over the damn place."

Becka sighed. "Sir, Senior Navigator Jared Smalls took The Citadel into hyperspace during our operation. Major Anderson was able to give sufficient warning that we were able to evacuate most of the station prior to the event. Unfortunately, it does not appear that Major Anderson himself managed to get off the station before it jumped. At this time, we cannot confirm the completion of any mission objectives. However, the rescue of hostages was partially accomplished. Several Navigators as well as regular civilians were found in a detention area and moved safely to a pod. One of the men assisting, and several able bodied Navigators returned to the detention area to carry the wounded to another pod. They did not make it."

"Fuck," Hawklings said softly. "How many did you manage to get off the station?"

"Roughly eighty percent of the people we knew about, Admiral," Shana replied. "I'm still compiling a list for you. I would also mention that nine civilians were also taken from the station detention area. There has not been enough time to speak to any of them, so we do not know how many others might still be there."

"Do we know where Jared is taking the station?" Hawklings asked.

"No Sir, but based on his personality and actions to date, we believe he has jumped for Earth. We feel he would think he could take control of the Council from that position, as well as the remaining world leaders," Symms added. "Sir, we believe Jared has deified himself. He feels the rest of the human race should worship him. We feel he would do what was needed to make this come true."

"Do you think this is what he had planned for after you developed that shield device?" Hawklings asked.

Symms nodded. "It would protect The Citadel from external attack by other gifted people. However, he was forced to act before we had a chance to install it. Also, Major Anderson and one of his men are still on the station. Unless something else changes, I don't see how Jared Smalls will survive the trip to Earth."

Hawklings looked thoughtful. "That doesn’t make much sense. We could just retake the station with regular troops once he arrived here. I can see him jumping the station here, but there has to be something else we’re missing." He paused in thought. "Wait, how could he jump to hyperspace? I thought the positioning of The Citadel was to prevent it from jumping?"

"No Sir, the position would prevent it from accidentally jumping, not from an intentional jump. The part that has me worried was that he did not move the station away from the solar gravity wells before jumping. What effect will this have on the stars?" Symms replied. "For that matter, what effect will it have on the station itself? It had to be damaged to some degree by the heavy gravity."

"Could that be the cause of the wild gravity fluctuations we were getting closer to the star?" Shana asked.

"Probably, but I would think they would calm down after a bit; stars are very powerful and nothing we could do to them should be able to destabilize them for very long," Symms replied.

"I think you should probably rethink that, Doctor, these readings are getting stronger," Shana replied.

"Doctor, please return to your lab as soon as possible and try to figure this out," Hawklings said. "Becka, could you speak to the rest of the Navigators and try to determine who is loyal to Jared and who is trustworthy. Also if he has need of it, try to assist Dr. Symms in his research. Captain, you've done very well, if possible, could you remain available to Dr. Symms? We need to figure out what the star is doing and if we need to begin evacuating the planet."

They all nodded agreement and understanding of his orders. "You've all done very well, and I am proud of you. Good work; all of you. Becka, Joe will be alright, he's a very resourceful man. Captain, once you've handed off the pods, make for the medical center in New Hedron. I'll make sure they're expecting you." Hawklings replied and ended the call.

"Is it just me, or did it sound like he knows more about what's going on than we do?" Shana asked.

Symms snorted. "Knowing the Admiral, he probably does."

After the call ended, one of the first things Symms did was open the door again. He sighed. "Sorry, I'm a little claustrophobic. I'm okay on ships and shuttles, but really tight places tend to get to me."

Becka gave him a half smile. "It's also the hyperspace distortion effect. We're all nervous, and some of us are leaking. Joe taught me how to feel it, I admit, it could just be my anxiety, but I think I'm feeling distortion as well."

Symms nodded. "That wouldn't surprise me in the least. This has been a stressful event for all of us."

'Becka? Are you speaking to Doctor Lenard Symms?'
a woman's voice said in Becka's mind.

Becka held her hand up to Symms and spoke out loud. "Yes I am, who are you?"

'
Uh, my name is Cassie. Please I really need to speak to both you and the Doctor; it's very important
,' Cassie replied. '
But no one can overhear you
.'

"Cassie?" Becka said and her eyes grew large. She pulled Symms back into her chamber and closed the door from the console. "Doctor, Cassandra is speaking to me telepathically. She said she needed to speak to both of us in private and that's it's really important."

"What? She's still alive? Wonderful! We've been so worried when she didn't come back; is she alright?" Symms asked happily.

'
Please tell Lenard that I am well, and have been living on Earth. After escaping the federal government, I began seeking out others like me and doing research into our abilities as well as hyperspace. That's why I need to speak to both of you,
' Cassie replied, and Becka relayed to the doctor.

Cassie continued. '
First off, let me tell you that Joe is still alive, but he's trapped with the rest of the people on The Citadel. Before it jumped, Joe deleted the destination data from the equation. The Citadel itself hasn't moved. I need you both to do some calculations on a navigation computer; I think this event might be destabilizing the star.
'

Becka quickly relayed the information to Symms, who looked confused, "Cassie, the equation won't work with null values in the destination section. The station would have jumped out then immediately back in."

With Becka acting as translator, Cassie replied to Symms. "He was rushed and the event was already in progress. He deleted the temporal equation as well. They are stuck in place and in hyperspace. The main navigation computer may have been tampered with as well."

"Oh shit." Symms replied. "Becka, can you give me a particle image of the area where the station was? Extrapolate the inclusion of tachyons as well please."

'
While we're waiting for that, Joe asked me to find out if the hostages were rescued from the station,
' Cassie said to Becka.
'I think he is going to try to get back on the station and somehow try to rescue them.
'

"Back on the station? What do you mean, Cassie?" Becka asked.

'
He made it to an escape pod, but didn't get far enough away from the station before it jumped. He was trapped in the event horizon of the warp field. Personally, I don't know how he thinks he can get back on the station; he would have to cross open space from the pod to the station,
' Cassie explained.

"Uh, no, he can do it. Joe has the ability to jump short distances without a ship," Becka admitted. "But I think he has to see where he's going in order to do it."

"What? Why didn't you tell me about that?" Symms replied, overhearing Becka speaking to Cassie.

"Because Joe made me promise, Doc. I think he was going to talk to you about all of this later, after Jared was dealt with," Becka replied.

Symms nodded. "That makes sense I guess. We're going to have to be careful about the information though; after what happened to Cassie, we don't want to put any more lives in jeopardy."

"I appreciate that, Lenard," Cassie replied though Becka.

A live video image came up on the monitor for the nav console. Symms looked at the video closely and shook his head. "Oh, this is not good. Not good at all."

"What do you see, Lenard?" Cassie asked.

Before he could answer, Becka did. "Neutrino emissions are off the scale. This looks like a hole in space."

"That's exactly what it will be soon enough. For lack of a better description, the hole in space the station went through is still open. It has to be because the warp field from the station is keeping it that way. One way or another, that warp field has be removed or we're looking at the extinction of the human race," Symms said.

"If Joe jumped out of there on his own, that should pierce the warp bubble forcing it to collapse. What I don't know is what will happen to the station and all those on it?" Cassie replied. "This is one of those unforeseen, worst-case scenarios we could never dream up."

"Well, it's here now, so we better figure out a way to fix it or none of us will survive," Symms said.

"With no relative velocity, returning to real space should have little to no effect on the station or those inside it, right?" Becka asked.

"If it were in open space, quite possibly, but that's not what we have here. Look at those particle emissions; the station would drop out right in the middle of that. Even without the solar flare increase that will be starting up soon, they'd be fried by the radiation storm," Symms replied.

"So if Joe gets the hostages and can use his ability to get them out of there, it should collapse the warp field, but it will kill them because of the radiation. What if he jumps them someplace else, like to the planet?" Cassie asked.

"He would have to be able to see it, and that's a hell of a long jump without a ship," Becka replied. "The only other time he's made a jump like that was a distance of a few hundred yards. He also did it alone, he might be able to carry one person, but we know there are at least four or five left to rescue."

"He'll have to jump the whole station out of there," Symms said. "He'll have to reprogram the nav computer to make a jump from inside hyperspace."

"No," Cassie replied. "He'll only need to jump the pod out. The station is not going anywhere."

Joe was getting impatient and was just about to try to 'jump' across to the bay when Cassie spoke to him again.

'
Joe, I was right, there isn't much time. The station has created a rupture in hyperspace and it's starting to destabilize the stars. You are going to need to collapse the warp field somehow or we're going to end up with a quantum singularity where the Centauri system used to be.
'

Joe answered her, speaking out loud this time. "I'm not an astrophysicist by any stretch, but I know that wouldn't be a good thing. What did you find out about the hostages?"

'
There are still four or five people left to rescue on the station. Becka didn't say, but I could see in her mind that one of your men and a couple of other Navigators had returned for the wounded when time ran out. That's too many for you to carry out. Doctor Symms suggested that you would have to reprogram the computers to make a jump from inside there
.' She paused. '
You need to know, that if you only collapse the warp field and drop the station back into real space you'll be killed almost immediately by radiation and the increased gravity. That rupture is really raising hell with the stars
.'