__________________________7____________________________

Hopeful Beginnings,
or, Irkk Plays (Yet) Another
Practical Joke On His Lifelong Friend
by Jeremy Hussell


Sector: Unknown
Q-dex: Quarantined

With a jerk, Nurol was thrown back against his seat as the pod hit the first deceleration net. He watched as the image in front of him showed
the net rip and fall away from the pod, its purpose fulfilled. Behind the pod he could see multi-legged Ydmyn workers already moving out across
the net to repair the section the pod had just punched through. Around them the green, moss-covered walls of the shaft moved past at a slightly
reduced speed as the pod moved deeper into the ship-state. Above them, through the already repaired net, Nurol could still see the stars, as if from
the bottom of a well. As always, they called to him, inviting him to go out and explore distant places. Unfortunately, his contemplation was interrupted
when he was again thrown back against his seat as the pod hit the next deceleration net.

"Irkk! Turn that image around, I want to have a little warning when we hit the next net!"

"Ha! Getting too old for this kind of thing, are we Nurol?" cackled the bird-like Olrak in the seat on his left.

"I remember when you would insist that I keep the view pointed out at the stars until we
had come to rest on the fourth net," said the Olrak to his right.

"You must finally be gaining a little of the wisdom that's supposed to come with old age!" it continued, as the Olrak strapped in above adjusted
the view so that it showed the third net approaching from the front. As always, Irkk was being irreverent.

Irkk looked exactly like a small flock of gray, jay-sized birds with iridescent colours constantly shimmering across the feathers of their heads.
Individually, an Olrak is only about as intelligent as a two-year-old human, albeit an incurably curious two-year-old, always getting into things and
becoming fascinated with shiny objects. But together, in a flock, those iridescent sparkles on their heads act as some sort of communications link,
binding their minds together into a single individual so long as they are in line of sight of one-another. The result is a single sentient, an Olrawan,
that can match wits with any human. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as Irkk would insist), Olrawan personalities tend to concentrate all the rambun-
ctiousness and exuberance of their Olraks, often making them perpetual pranksters and clowns.

Nurol could practically sense Irkk's grin, even when all the Olraks in its flock were strapped to their seats. Suspiciously, he checked all around
him for anything out of place, something missing, or not where it was supposed to be. Finding nothing, he looked back at the view and relaxed as
they hit the third net, and he was pushed back into his seat, much more gently than the first time. Then he looked back at one of Irkk's Olraks.

"You're not about to play another practical joke on me, are you? I know something's up,
I've known you too long for you to pull something on me."

"Would I do that?" said the Olrak he was looking at, feigning innocence.

"Yeah," said the one behind it. "I've learned my lesson, I'll never coat the wall handles with
glue when we're being chased by an angry senog again."

"Nope, never again," repeated the first.

"Then why are you sparkling in purple so much? You always do that when you're up to something."

"Er... look! Here comes the fourth net!"

This time, the net didn't break, but stretched and then rebounded. The fourth net was sticky, so instead of rebounding back up the shaft, the pod
stayed put as the net absorbed its motion. Wasting no time, four Ydmyn workers launched themselves from the walls and glided towards the pod,
trailing lines in the microgravity. Working quickly, they attached their lines to the pod and sprayed a solvent on the bottom to detach it from the net,
then began to haul it into a side-tunnel.

"I'm not going to be distracted. What are you up to Irkk?"

"I'm not up to anything... not really... I'm not even planning a practical joke right now. Um, here comes the airlock."

With a synchronized shove, the four Ydmyn pushed the pod through a layer of translucent material stretched across the tunnel, which sealed itself
tightly around the pod, allowing only a tiny puff of air to escape before healing behind them. The Ydmyn, protected by their chitinous exoskeletons
from the vacuum and able to go hours without air, turned back and headed out to get the next pod. Meanwhile another quartet appeared and began
to guide the pod down the tunnel again. Within seconds the tunnel opened out into a large space, criss-crossed with tree-branch supporting beams, and
crowded with more pods, Ydmyn, other types of transport, and the occasional piece of debris the Ydmyn had captured and brought in. With practiced
motions, the quartet of Ydmyn moved the pod to a nearby support-branch and secured it there, then moved off. Another Ydmyn, this one with limbs
obviously specialized for cutting, approached along the support.

"Time to go. I'm still not distracted though. Let's move."

Nurol unstrapped himself, as the Olraks let the image dissolve and freed themselves. With a crunch, the Ydmyn cut through the tough shell of the
pod, carving a hole into their chamber. While Nurol and Irkk exited, the Ydmyn moved aft and began to crack open the pod's other compartments,
revealing the supplies inside.

Picking a point across the room, Nurol aimed carefully, waited a moment, and then leaped off the support, heading precisely towards his chosen
landing area. The Olraks followed, flying easily in the micro-gravity, moving past and around him.

"Don't even think about bumping me off course, Irkk."

"Yes, I know," said one of the Olrak, folding its wings and coasting along side him.

"We can make course changes in midair, and you can't, and if I play that trick again
you'll make me start towing you around."

"But that doesn't mean it wasn't funny the first time!" laughed another as it shot by, heading in the opposite direction.

"So what are you up to?"

The Olrak coasting alongside Nurol looked annoyed.

"It always amazes me how persistent you are, Nurol."

"Yeah, you're so single-minded!" commented another as it passed by.

"If I were you," continued the first "I would be watching that bundle of
cargo that's about to cross our path with at least four of my Olraks."

Nurol glanced at the bundle of supplies, at least ten times his size, which was slowly being hauled across the chamber by a team of Ydmyn.

"It's been, what, something like sixty years now that I've been living in microgravity.
I may have been a klutz at first, but I know what I'm doing now."

Nonetheless, Nurol and Irkk watched carefully as the bundle cleared their path just moments before they passed by. If Nurol had not waited a
moment before jumping, he would have collided with the bundle. A few moments later, the Olrak beside him unfurled its wings and began to brake,
while Nurol prepared to land on the support-branch ahead. With practiced grace, he landed on his hands and feet, grabbing at the bark and vines to
prevent himself from rebounding. Letting his feet drift, he looked about as Irkk regrouped, and spotted an exit tunnel nearby in the wall of the
chamber.

An Ydmyn worker paused for a moment and watched as Nurol turned himself about and pushed off towards the tunnel, then turned away as he
and Irkk disappeared into the tunnel. If it had stayed a moment longer, it would have heard Nurol's receding voice asking:

"So, what are you up to?"

==============================

Nenle had never seen so many humans together in one place in her entire life. Why, hundreds, even a THOUSAND people had shown up for
the gathering! Dozens of children her own age AND species! The only downside was that since the gathering was being held in a section of the
ship-state that was being spun to give weight, Nenle couldn't SEE anything. Instead, she found herself surrounded by a forest of legs, unable to
see the musicians and singers up front. She could hear them warming up, getting ready to sing the songs, so she began to move through the crowd
towards them as fast as she could, hoping to get to the front before they started. It looked like she was going to make it, when all of a sudden she
ran right smack into the back of somebody's legs. She lay there for a moment, dazed, and then she was being hoisted up by the old, white haired
man who's legs she'd run into. She found herself sitting on his shoulder, far above the crowd, with a really good view of the singers and musicians
up front.

"Wow, you sure are strong! I didn't think anybody could lift me at this weight anymore!" she told him.

"Oh, this? It's not as strong as I grew up in. Look, they're starting the songs."

She turned quickly, and almost toppled off the man's shoulder, but he steadied her with his arm, and then the performers were beginning to sing
and play. She listened, fascinated, as they began to sing the stories of the Greater Galaxy, a place fractured into thousands of bubbles, each one containing
its own reality, its own stars and civilizations. Songs about strange planets, larger than any ship, some barren but with spectacular natural beauty, others
lush with life and inhabited by fantastic peoples or dangerous monsters. Stories about great empires spanning many star systems, empires with wondrous
magics or astounding technologies. Sometimes both! Stories of renowned explorers, people who learned to cross the walls between the bubbles and traveled
the galaxy seeking new places and peoples, learning new and wonderful things. Tales of the rise of empires and organizations that followed the explorers
and began to spread to the different zones of reality, and find each other. Stories about those that by one, the explorers were either rescued by a ship-state,
or made contact themselves, and joined the descendants of the explorers who had come before, among the diverse native sentients.

For hundreds of years, little changed.

Then a new type of explorer began to arrive. They belonged to an organization called Omnet, and they possessed technology like nothing seen
before, salvaged from an ancient, galaxy-spanning empire. Implants called biolinks allowing sentients to understand each other's languages. Artificial
minds, called synths, wielding immense information processing capabilities. With these wonders came new hope: perhaps, with the aid of the synths,
progress could be made on finding a way to cross the wall. For decades we labored, and learned much. We designed our own version of a biolink,
and the design quickly spread to all the ship-states. We attempted to make our own synths, and although we failed, we managed to create primitive
computers based on light manipulation magic. But no progress was ever made on propulsion.

Then, one day, another exploration ship from Omnet arrived, much like the others. These explorers were different, however. They were Omnet's
ast attempt to explore this zone, and if they did not return, Omnet would declare this zone too dangerous to explore and place warnings around it to
prevent others from needlessly going to their deaths. A final, desperate attempt was made to find a propulsion system that would allow the explorers
to escape, but all lines of research led to dead ends. Shortly thereafter a war started in the inner system over the limited resources remaining there.
The ship-states there viewed synths as valuable strategic advantages, and attempted to capture them and to prevent their adversaries from capturing
any. One by one, the synths were destroyed, or lost under mysterious circumstances. There may be a few left, hidden away by one player or another
in the inner system war, but none are left in the outer system, where they would have continued trying to find a way to escape this zone. Nor have any
more explorers arrived in the years since then, so we must assume that Omnet quarantined our zone.

At this point the singers and musicians stopped for an intermission. The crowd rustled, and conversations started.

"That's such a sad story," Nenle told the old man.

"Well, you don't know the ending yet. Neither do they. Maybe it'll be happier. I've got to go soon, so you should
look around for someone you know."

Nenle looked about, and spotted her mother making her way through the crowd towards her. Within a few moments she arrived next to them.

"Hi Mom! This man lifted me up and let me sit on his shoulder so that I could see the show!"

Turning towards her, the old man said,

"Hullo. I'm Nurol. Your daughter was having trouble seeing over the crowd, so I helped her out."

"Thanks very much. I hope she hasn't been too much trouble."

"Not at all. I've got to get going now though."

Nurol lifted Nenle and passed her to her mother, then set off through the crowd towards the front. Nenle watched him go, until an Olrawan flock
passed overhead, distracting her. The flock settled on the stage up front, and then, with a ripple, an image appeared in the air above, conjured into being
by the Olrawan. The murmur of voices died down as the people in the crowd began to pay attention.

"Your attention please!" said all the Olraks in unison. "We have here with us a distinguished visitor!
He arrived on board the ship-state you see in this image, Baudetvenfe, which is currently holding
station less than thirty klicks away. Sixty-three years ago, the last Omnet explorers arrived in this zone.
Among them was a 17 year old waverunner named Nurol. He is here among us today, the last living
sentient to come from the Greater Galaxy!"

Nenle watched in astonishment as the old man clambered up onto the stage to stand underneath the image of Baudetvenfe.

"Greetings sentients!" he shouted to the crowd, and grinned as they cheered.

"I have come here to make you aware of a momentous event. We are lucky to be here to see it happen,
and we will remember it for the rest of our lives. I myself have..."

He trailed off as the crowd's attention suddenly focused on the image of Baudetvenfe, and they began murmuring and pointing. Turning around,
he craned his neck and looked up to see what was happening. He could see intense activity around the right-hand end of the lumpy, dark green,
peanut shaped ship-state; thousands of space-capable organisms and sentients moving over the surface, visible only as tiny dots at this range. Many
were clustered along a line dividing the last fifth or so of the ship from the rest. Peering more closely, Nurol suddenly realized that the line was actually
a gap between the two sections, and it was getting larger. Shocked, he turned to the Olrawan and whispered:

"Irkk! Is this happening right now?"

"Yup! Isn't it grand? Baudetvenfe is dividing!"

"I can't believe you didn't warn me! You... THIS is what you were planning!"

Speechless, Nurol turned around and sat down to watch the birth, since the crowd was no longer paying him any attention. After a few moments,
he began to laugh.

==============================

Now that there was nothing more to see, Nurol was addressing the crowd again.

"Believe it or not folks, I had no idea that was about to happen. Irkk here,"

He gestured at the Olrawan.

"Tells me that the new ship-state is to be named Eiaoa. It's about 30 km in diameter, bringing Baudetvenfe down to about
140 km. I'm sure many of you have never been present for the birth of a ship-state. In over sixty years here I've only seen
a handful myself. This is because the ship-states don't grow very quickly out here in the outer system, due to the scarcity of
resources. Before Irkk interrupted me, I was going to tell you something that could change all that. Almost a year ago,
Baudetvenfe was out by the wall. While there, we encountered an eccentric wanderer ship-state called Aitn. So far as we have
been able to find out, no one else had been close to Aitn for over fifty years. During this time, they had been doing independent
research on the wall and its properties. When Aitn contacted us, they claimed to have discovered a way to safely cross it."

Nurol paused for a moment to let the crowd absorb this. They were absolutely silent, even the children could sense the sudden tension in their
parents, all of whom were descendants of explorers trapped in this zone.

"They transferred their designs and research to us, and several of their scientists joined our crew. Then they tested their theory."

Behind and above him, the image Irkk had been projecting flickered and changed to show Aitn, an oblong ship-state, floating in front of the wall.
The usual light-sails were absent, and no traffic could be seen moving across the surface or in the space around the ship-state. Slowly, with an almost
majestic grace, the ship-state began to move towards the barrier. The closer it approached, the faster Aitn accelerated. By the time it hit the wall,
Aitn was moving so fast that only a blur could be seen. It vanished quickly, and after a few seconds, Nurol spoke again.

"We estimate that their speed when they hit the wall was almost five percent above the critical threshold needed to pass through intact."

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then a roar as everyone began talking and shouting. People were hugging each other, crying,
jumping for joy. Nurol stood watching it all, smiling from ear to ear. When things eventually calmed down again, he continued.

"Unfortunately, Aitn never returned." A groan could be heard from the crowd at this.

"However, we have checked and double-checked their research, and we believe they have something. It's completely
novel, something the rest of us never thought of. Instead of searching for a propulsion system, they stumbled across a
potential solution completely by accident. They discovered a small interaction between gravity wells and the wall. It only
affects very large masses, and only happens near the wall. Ship-states are large enough to be affected, although only a
planet or star would feel a non-negligible effect. But as you saw, they found a way to make the effect anything BUT
negligible. We believe that with some hard work, and the help of the research left to us by Aitn, a ship-state will cross
the wall and safely return within a year. Welcome to the Greater Galaxy, sentients!"

==============================

In later years, after they succeeded, and the inner system war was ended by the influx of imported resources, Nenle sometimes joined the musicians
when they gathered to sing the songs. She helped them sing the song of Nurol, the young waverunner trapped for long decades in their zone, with no hope
of return to his native worlds; and the song of the events that day, when they learned of hope.