Chapter 11: On the Way to Gaytopia.
Kalli adjusted her shirt in the mirror, taking another glance to admire the Death Dancer symbol on her breast pocket. She took a moment to run a brush through her brown hair before going downstairs to meet the guys for breakfast.
Jake and Mike were sitting at the table by the window where they'd eaten dinner the night before. Jake glanced up at her as she approached and let out an audible groan. "Oh no, now there's two of you!"
Mike laughed heartily. "Ah, you know you love us. What would you do without us?"
Kalli snickered and sat down next to Mike. "Fish for breakfast?"
"What else?" Jake said. "Now, if you two suicidal nutcases don't mind, I'd like to reach Hamilton in one piece, thank you very much."
"Naturally," Mike said. A naked mermaid hopped out of the water and delivered their morning fish and seaweed meal. Mike casually ogled her briefly.
"Thank you." Jake picked up his fork and started eating as the mermaid returned to the water. "Now," he slapped a data pad with a map on the table, pointing at it emphatically to punctuate his words. "I suggest we go through Gaytopia instead of Lesbia. It'll take a bit longer, but it should be considerably safer, seeing as there are fewer gay Military pilots than there are ones who want to try to ogle the Lesbians, and it's less of a major crossroads."
"That's no fun," Mike said.
"Bah. Ogle Kalli some more or something. We're going to Gaytopia."
"Fine, fine."
Kalli peered over to take a look at the map herself. Once they got through Gaytopia, they'd still have to cross New Scotland before reaching Hamilton. "What's in New Scotland, then?" she asked.
"Goats and Sheep, mainly," Jake said. "They're pretty militant, though. We won't be able to land there, and there's a fairly heavy Military presense in the system, particularly around the jump gates. We'll have to go through the Glasgow Nebula to get to the jump hole to Hamilton. It's not really patrolled very well, due to pockets of volatile gasses making traversing it a dangerous prospect. Which I'm sure you two will enjoy." He rolled his eyes.
"We'll be just fine," Mike said lightly. "Maybe Talia will decide to turn up eventually, too."
Kalli looked up from the table and peered out the window across the water to where she'd seen the light the night before. She couldn't really see anything today, though. Maybe it was too far away. She'd have to look when they took off and got a better vantage point.
They finished eating and headed out to the landing platform again. The sun was shining and seabirds were flying above the rippling sea. When they climbed into their ships and took off, Kalli immediately flew off over the water toward where that light had been.
"Where are you going, Kalli?" Mike asked.
"I want to see where that light was coming from."
As she neared the opposite shore, she saw a sizable complex with a tower. She suspected that whatever had made the light had been from the top of the tower, as the rest wouldn't be visible over the horizon anyway. But it had to have been pretty bright. Then as she flew over the complex, she spotted what appeared to be a large fighter-class ship under construction in the courtyard. Kalli quickly hit a button to do a scan of it before veering off toward space.
They waited until they were well away from Darwin and heading toward the jump hole before asking what she saw, since she didn't volunteer anything immediately. "So what was it?" Jake asked.
"I'm not sure," Kalli said. "But I did see something interesting there. There was a ship under construction. The computer can't identify what type it is, but it's totally unlike anything in its database."
"Send it over here," Mike said. "I'll see if I can make sense of it." Kalli transmitted the data her scan had picked up to him. "Hmm. Now that's interesting. According to a quick simulation, this thing shouldn't even be able to fly."
"Well," Jake said, "Maybe it's some kid's science project and they're flunking?"
"Doesn't look it," Mike explained. "It's design incorporates far more advanced concepts than any student of that level would know about. Not without also knowing that it's far too massive to even get off the ground with current propulsion technology."
Kalli mused over that for a moment. "That would imply that they're either idiots, or they know something we don't."
"Either a better engine, or lighter materials than we normally use in constructing spaceships," Mike went on. "And any lighter and the hull wouldn't be able to take a hit without being ripped apart. Besides the fact that the structure in there in the first place is made of much heavier and stronger materials than are normally used..."
Jake commented. "Now Mike, I didn't know you were a spaceship design expert."
"I'm not," Mike said. "I've just been in this business long enough to know what works and what doesn't. Hmm. Another simulation indicates it would require approximately nine times the power output of our engines to get off the ground at all. And it's not large enough to carry an engine of the size that would be required. I suppose they could haul it into space using external engines, but it would still need the additional energy to overcome its increased inertia to properly accelerate at any speed viable for real space travel."
"Okay, now you're scaring me, Mike. You're starting to sound like my professor."
"I'm just doing it to annoy you, Jake," Mike said lightly. "I don't really know what I'm talking about anyway. Honest."
"Yeah, whatever you say."
They managed to reach the jump hole to Gaytopia without further interference from the Military. Apparently traffic off the usual trade routes wasn't closely monitored in the Darwin system. Although this jump hole was also quite a tricky ride, they emerged safely in the Gaytopia system.
"Here we are," said Jake. "Gaytopia. Can't you just smell the hot man-love?"
"Right," Mike said. "And I suppose you're going to want to land and take a break, too."
"Oh, boink Kalli or something. I've almost gotten killed like twenty times in the last week. I need a breather."
"Uh-huh. Alright, alright. Let's land. But I'm staying on my ship, thanks."