Author's note: Well, this chapter won't be the last I'll publish, but I am burning through what I already wrote faster than writing new chapters. So, it is possible that soon I'll have to slow down a little with my publishing. Just as a warning to prepare you.
Q&A:
Trinity: the replicators are an old plot line and there's no need to revive them. Besides, the Asgard would probably leave the Alliance on the mere mention of using the accursed machines. Not to mention the Vargas could have fought something similar and have a way to win or maybe corrupt them. In short, not a good idea. And yes, they are smarter here, or rather here there's no IOA.
random norvegian: the descendants only existed because they dialed the gate to go back home while recharging inside a star. This was the incident that sent them into the past on a planet in the same galaxy. Since this event didn't happen, and won't happen, there are no descendants in this galaxy, which btw is a different galaxy the one in the show. The Destiny traveled three more years. Me describing a ship with 'him' is probably from the first book. The reason is because in my language all nouns have a specified gender, and you can now easily guess which gender a ship is in my language. Later I learned to watch for it and to use 'it' or 'her' if the person speaking felt more attached to a particular ship.
It could. Unfortunately, the millions of Mark III combat armor had been built and spread to the troops. No way the Mark IV can replace the Mark III in the book. Just think that the Mark IV will be a complete redesign of it. Unfortunately, it will be used only if I'm about to write a fourth book.
Just a passing comment. If genetics were involved with the Terrans quickly developing weapons, then all human races in the Milky Way galaxy would have the same genes since they were taken from Earth as slave less than ten thousand years ago. Evolution doesn't work that fast.
Funny you ask since this chapter deals with the Furling Legacy.
Never played Eve Online so I'm unable to oblige, sorry. I'm also of the opinion that - contrary to popular belief - size matters, but only to a point. There is no plausible reason to build a ship that would have a volume (and hence mass as well) equaling 1000 dreadnoughts! 10 times longer X 10 times higher X 10 times wider gives you 1000 times bigger volume than a dreadnought. And volume and mass are closely connected. I would rather have a thousand dreadnought than one 20km long that uses the same amount of raw materials. The only reason for introducing such a big ship would be if there's a component, usually a weapon that necessitates such a big ship. Even the barge I introduced, have a specific role, which is to cross vast distances as carriers of entire fleets. However, such ship is not meant to fight as it would have several negative attributes. Like awful maneuverability because of its size and relatively small amount of space for weapons since space is used to carry other ships. From out own history, we know that building something that is good at everything ends up being good at nothing.
Paul R: Well, this and then chapter 8 will give you a few clues in regard to Liam. But just a clue, not more. :D
Well, thanks to my beta and hope you'll enjoy this latest chapter.
It was an amazing site. One he had never seen before, and for a good reason.
Only now that he was aboard the Destiny he was able to marvel at the universe in such a wondrous way while using this strange way of FTL travel. The view in the observation deck had an incredibly calming effect, something he was in great need after the voyage the ship had taken near a yellow star. The ship had been in desperate need of power and solar energy was the only source available to replenish its reserves. Young hadn't been certain if the ship could survive the process involved. After all, the Destiny was a several-million-years-old ship, so it wasn't strange that he had some doubts.
As it turned out, and thankfully, his fears were unfounded.
It was amazing to think that more than ten million years ago after the Alterrans had reached the Milky Way galaxy – a voyage that in itself took a thousand years to complete - they were already able to build unmanned ships capable of surviving such a long journey. Even more amazing was that they were capable of practically flying into a star in order to replenish their vast energy reserves. It wasn't strange that other races were calling them the Ancients, as even back then they were among the most advanced races in the known universe.
Even though what the Ancients had built was a marvel of technology, the ship had too many years under its belt and had gone through some rough times. That is if the holes in the hull were indicative of that fact. Someone must have played some nasty games with the ship, and he really wanted to know who and more importantly for what reason they had done so. There was a lot he didn't know about the Destiny, but he was certain that an automated ship built by the Ancients would have never attacked somebody without provocation. Moreover, he was certain that even if attacked first, even in that eventuality the ship would have tried to avoid engaging rather than resolving to return fire.
Therefore, the burning question was - why was somebody trying to destroy the ship?
The next important dilemma was - had they just happened to be in the same place where the ship had just happened to exit FTL or had those aliens, whoever they might have been, have a way of tracking the ship? The first assumption didn't sit well with him. He simply didn't believe in coincidences. If his reasoning was correct, then it meant that the second option was the correct one. It meant that somebody was tracking the ship, somehow.
Young heard steps coming from behind. He turned to see who it was. "Oh, is it already time for our meeting?"
"It is," Lora answered, taking a seat next to him on the bench.
"How are the repairs proceeding?" Young asked. Thus far, Lora and her army of scientists and engineers had worked diligently to keep the ship from breaking apart, and this was yet another progress report on how well the ship's repairs were coming along.
"All breaches have been patched up except for the large one in the domed structure. Even though it is the largest hole, even without repairing that particular one, the shield is now under much, much less stress. Soon, we can start working on replacing any burned-out shield emitter in order to restore the level of redundancy the ship had a long time ago when it was still new."
"Are you going to install a new type of shield emitters, like those we have on our current ships?" Young asked.
"No, that wouldn't be a good idea. The ship is still under the control of the main computer, and the last thing we need is to confuse it with components it doesn't recognize or that work differently than the current ones. We could end up doing more harm than good. For now, I think our priority should be to restore this ship to its original specifications. Then, once we gain full control of it, we can think of how to improve various systems, if needed of course."
"All right, it is your area of expertise; therefore, your call to make," Young replied. "What I'm interested in right now is if you were able to access the ship's logs. More specifically, information pertinent to the damage sustained. Did you have some luck with that?"
"I did. I will send you all the relevant data I was able to gather thus far. I had time to access only the last few thousand logs until now, so I don't know everything the ship went through prior to the last few galaxies these last logs recorded. It appears that there's an alien race that is chasing the Destiny for quite some time now, and they are responsible for some but not all of the damage. What they want from the ship, I don't know, but there is a clear pattern. In most instances, the ship simply went back into FTL as soon as the aliens appeared, though a few times the ship was in dire need of resupplying, which the aliens readily took advantage of. That's when the ship sustained most of the damage. I can't say if I understand what the aliens are trying to achieve, and I'm no military expert by anyone's standards, but it seems to me as if maybe the aliens want to damage the ship just enough to prevent it from returning into FTL. I think they are trying to board it."
"Wait! Are you saying that these aliens are chasing the Destiny even across galaxies?"
"Yes, they are. I don't know if their domain spans through that many galaxies, but my guess is that only a small group of a few ships is included in this chase. If this was their domain, they could have easily sent more ships at once. Enough even for the Destiny to be unable to escape before sustaining crippling damage."
"It makes sense. Still, Destiny just spent three years traveling between galaxies without stopping even once. What did the aliens do in these three years? And why would they force themselves to participate in such a long chase just for a ten million years old, automated ship?"
"This ship contains a precursor chair that was used as a repository of knowledge. To our current standards, this is old technology and its content is outdated, but maybe to these aliens it is invaluable," Lora replied.
"Even we didn't know what this ship has onboard until we board it. How would the aliens know that the ship has a repository of knowledge onboard?"
"Maybe they didn't. Maybe they simply assumed that there must be something of great value onboard," Lora responded. "Or maybe they were just bored in their own galaxy and have jumped at the opportunity of chasing a strange ship that travels through the universe on autopilot. Who knows? After all, they are aliens and we have no way to assess how they think. This precludes us from forming any theory on their way of reasoning, one that has a higher probability of being correct than what simple guessing has."
"You're right about that," Young replied, thoughtfully. "We know nothing about how these aliens think. However, from what you just told me, I don't think they'll stop chasing the ship anytime soon."
"I agree, which is a problem. The moment we gain complete control of the ship, I was hoping we could stop and make repairs to the energy capacitors and the engines. However, I can't start working on them if there's a chance of an attack. The ship needs to be on minimal power if we are to work on repairing these particular systems," Lora explained.
"I don't like the idea of being defenseless either. I was also thinking that our current defenses are inadequate," Young added yet another reason why at the moment facing dangerous enemies is a bad idea.
"Why do you believe our defenses are inadequate?" Lora asked.
"It is true that we have gained control of the plasma turrets and the main weapon, but the effectiveness of the main weapon is far below optimal," Young began explaining. "One of your scientists just told me that it could cause a critical overload to use it at more than 30 percent of its full strength, and that is not the worst part either. From the configuration of the ship, it can easily be determined that an enemy vessel can slip behind it with relative ease and fire at the aft section with impunity. The Destiny doesn't have the maneuverability our warships back home have, which means that for the Destiny the only way to face an enemy positioned astern, is to flee by entering FTL."
"You must understand Commander that the Destiny was never intended to be a ship of war, and yes, the best way to evade an enemy with her is and it will probably always be to enter FTL."
"I understand, and I'm not trying to compare the Destiny with our warships either. I'm simply stating the facts as I see them. At the moment, we can rely only on the turrets, and we have no complete coverage with them." Young replied. They have now patched up the ship and are in the process of replacing the shield emitters that had burned out. This will increase the ship's defensive capabilities by a non-negligible margin. Yet, its offensive capabilities were still woefully inadequate, in his considered opinion. "What can you tell me about the shuttles?"
"One shuttle is in flying conditions. The other needs work done. It appears the shuttle received a strong blast in the forward section while under Destiny's shield that still managed to cause some serious damage. We have replaced the window, meaning that the craft is airtight again, but the front console has some burned-out circuits that need to be replaced."
"Let's say that you can make it spaceworthy again. In which case, could you make them capable of protecting Destiny's rear when under attack?" Young asked. He wasn't thinking of creating true warships, he knew that would be too difficult to do on a simple space shuttle that was more than ten million years old. What he wanted was to have two craft that could run interference until the Destiny turns to face the enemy with its weapons. Even a 60-degree change in course could be enough for the plasma turrets to swing just enough to fire at whoever was glued astern. A little more and the main guns could come into play as well.
"We can repair the second shuttle, but I don't know what we can do to make them capable of fighting a capital ship. Those shuttles don't even have a shield capable of protecting them against such a strong opponent."
"Well, then, could we maybe give them one?" Young asked.
"I suppose we could place a shield generator and emitters on them, but the onboard power won't keep them powered for long. It was never meant to power something so energy intensive as a shield is."
"What if we place a dozen of our Naquadah units to feed the shield generator directly?"
"That could work. Ten of those units and a dedicated high energy capacitor should be enough for a shield meant for such a small vessel," Lora answered, thinking of the viability of the plan.
"What about weapons? And maneuverability?" Young asked.
"Well, we know now a lot more about weapons than we knew ten million years ago. We could replace them with more modern plasma cannons. It should give them more strength and a greater rate of fire. For maneuverability, we could tweak the inertial dampeners a little and install new and more powerful thrusters. We should then install a better controlling system for the pilot…"
Young understood that Lora was now fully immersed in the planning phase of a new and exciting project. As much as he didn't plan to have the Destiny seek other aliens and get into fights with them, it was very plausible that they could encounter a few of them no matter if they wanted it or not, and when that happened, he wanted to be as prepared as he could possibly be.
"…but the problem is that most of the changes can only be done from the outside. It means the ship needs to exit FTL and lower the shield before people can go outside and start working on the shuttles."
"So, you are saying that all of it can be done but that it is risky, just as with the other repairs that also require the ship to exit FTL. It seems to me that we will have to risk it. We should work on whatever we can while in FTL and get everything as ready as possible so that the final repairs are done as quickly as possible for when we are going to exit FTL."
"I think we can do everything at the same time. We have enough people for it. The most time consuming are the repairs on the energy capacitors. Much more time than the engine or the shuttles will take, at least that's the part that needs to be done on the outside or while stationary."
"I agree. I also think that those are all things that we must do. Another request, though. Is it possible for at least one shuttle to have a hyperdrive installed?"
"Well, we are a little low on the rare elements used in hyperdrives, but I think we should have enough to build one small prototype and install it in the rear compartment of the shuttle. That also reminds me. We should start thinking about sending people through the gate on missions of exploration and if necessary to gather raw materials."
"How are we going to make the Destiny wait for them? I mean, extracting materials isn't something that you can do in a few hours."
"I was thinking more in terms of sending teams far ahead and let them spend weeks or even months working on the planet while the Destiny travels towards them."
"I thought the distance between gates placed on planets and Destiny can't be that large."
"Given enough power, the Destiny can even dial Earth. Therefore, there are no restrictions in contacting another gate from the Destiny whatsoever. The problem is the gates on the other side that don't have any extra power source like the DHDs in the Milky Way or Pegasus galaxy. Because of it, these gates are capable of contacting Destiny only if the ship is close, relatively speaking that is. Nevertheless, for sending people ahead of our current position, that part is easy to do. Then, once we get near, we pick them up with whatever they were able to collect. In addition, I would like several teams to travel from gate to gate and explore this galaxy a little. I know that our mission is not that of exploration, but being in such a distant galaxy is an opportunity that won't repeat itself very often. We definitely shouldn't squander it."
"I agree," Young answered.
"You do?" Lora replied, clearly taken aback by the prompt reply.
"Yes, I think we should find a planet with the materials we need but also suitable enough for the team or teams we send to be able to live on it for a longer period. I also agree that, if it is possible at all, we should have a few teams traveling to other worlds and see what's out there. Who knows? Maybe they get lucky and meet some new race or something else as exciting as that. I think it's better than sitting on our laurels onboard the Destiny anyway," Young explained his point of view, suddenly remembering something. "We still don't know why the ascended wanted us here in the first place, though, do we?"
"No, we don't," Lora replied. "However, I'm certain they must have had a good reason for telling us to come here."
"Ah, yes. The mysterious and on most days of the week very puzzling and somewhat annoying ways of the ascended that rarely explain what they truly mean or want. How could we ever live without that?" Young added, with sarcasm dripping out of him with each word spoken.
He only hoped that, at some point in the future, they would find out the real reason for them having to come here. He also hoped that that particular future would come in a relatively reasonable amount of time. After all, he wasn't a very patient man.
While lying in bed, Soren meekly opened his left eye. His face was burrowed deep in his pillow, barely allowing one eye to peek at the room. The room wasn't big. It was just large enough to accommodate a bed and a few personal belongings, uncaringly put here and there on the floor. There was also a weak light coming from the illumination on the walls. Enough to see, yet not too strong to prevent him from sleeping soundly.
He sighed. It was time to get up, again. Oh, how he wished that his Alterran body would let him sleep more than four hours a day, the usual amount of sleep needed for his kind. That way the days would be more bearable than how they were feeling right now.
Once upon a time, he thought fondly of the mission he had embarked on. It was the time just after Liam had turned him into an Alterran, almost five years ago. He was the first Edenian to receive such a great gift, which had given Soren a great sense of accomplishment, for he knew that he wouldn't have received it if undeserved. He had then been tasked with the very important mission of leading an expedition far, far from home into uncharted territory in order to find the Furling or anything related to them that they might have left behind and that could help the SGA in their fight against the Vargas. There was no doubt in his mind that the success of this mission was of the utmost importance and that failure could possibly mean the alliance losing the war against what, with each passing day, appeared more and more to be an unbeatable opponent. Happy for the confidence Liam had given him, he went on this long-term mission with renewed vigor, determined to return home with a positive outcome.
Soren rose from his bed, dragging himself towards the bathroom. As he entered, the lights flickered automatically, as they always did. He was sure the lights will continue to come up on their own many more times after this one time, the same as he will as well wake up day after day, countless more times and slowly walk to the bathroom in order to wash his face.
Soren neared the sink. The mirror above was reflecting his face. He sighed, thinking how his uncut beard and hair were making him look like a homeless person. It had been seven months ago, when, in a moment of great frustration, he decided that he wasn't going to shave anymore until the very day when something in this hellhole changed. The day when something of some importance did finally happen on this accursed Sphere the Furling had left behind. Since he was now seven months due for a good shave, it wasn't difficult to realize how nothing whatsoever had happened in all of that time. It had been a pathetic attempt on his part to challenge the universe itself. An attempt to impose his will so that the universe would reply by finally giving back meaning to his existence. Meaning that he had lost in the last three years. Years spent doing nothing but waiting for something to happen in this accursed place. Day after day waking up only to wait for the moment when it was time to go back to sleep, only for the process to repeat itself endlessly each day.
As if the universe cared if he shaved or not.
All this time he had spent on the Sphere, waiting and then waiting a lot more, all for the moment when they finally had the Key in their grasp. The Key needed to activate the very important, yet still unmoving and completely dormant Sphere so that he could complete the mission and finally go home. The worst part of these last few years had been that he had to spend them alone, with people coming only from time to time and for only a few days at the most before leaving him alone once again. Of course, the reason why he had spent all this time alone was because he was the only Alterran on this mission, hence, the only one to whom the doors in this massive construct would ever open when stepped in front of them. Not to mention the only one to whom any other system would even acknowledge his existence for that matter. It was the reason why there was no point in having anyone else on the Sphere since, without him being constantly glued to them, they couldn't even move to the next room. They could become stuck in a corridor or a bathroom, with not even the lights reacting to them. There was no reason for anyone to stay in such a place under such conditions, yet somebody needed to stay onboard for the remote possibility of something important finally happening. Maybe the Sphere suddenly deciding to activate, or to give them more access than what they currently had, which was only to access a small portion of a mostly unimportant library, with nothing that was even remotely related to the Sphere, its operating system or any clue on how to find the missing piece, the Key that was only mentioned in some old scroll where it was stated that it actually did not exist.
Whatever that meant.
He really needed to shave, but he swore that he wouldn't do it until the very day when something different from the usual crap he had suffered for so long finally happened. It didn't have to be something mind blowing like suddenly finding the long-sought Key with the ability to activate the Sphere fully in order to leave this accursed galaxy he hated so much, even though he wouldn't mind that one happening one bit. No, he knew the chances of something so glorious and mind-blowing happening was astronomically small. He would be happy even with something much, much smaller.
Anything would do.
Soren sighed. He then proceeded to wash his face and brush his teeth. He then dragged himself back in the other room and slowly put some pants on. It was the extent of dressing he was prepared to do for yet another boring day in which nothing worthy of mentioning would happen. At least today was the day when one of their cruisers was coming. At least today, he would have a chance to speak with another sentient being. It was now time to move to the hangar bay where he would await their arrival. He had no choice since the only way to allow a ship that didn't have any Alterran onboard inside the Sphere was to activate the hangar's massive outer doors manually, which could only be done by an Alterran and only from the hangar bay.
As he walked, the corridor illuminated and the doors parted ways as he approached. Why did the Furling make this Sphere react only to an Alterran? Why didn't they anticipate the need to override such behavior so that not only him, but maybe others could remain on the Sphere as well, if for no other reason than to at least keep him company? Why did the Furling hate him so much? They had the ability of foresight. They should have been able to anticipate that he would have to spend almost three years alone and with nothing to do other than wait for something that will probably never happen.
For how much longer would he have to keep his beard the way it was now?
The procedure was simple. There was a panel in the hangar bay near the main doors, and he only needed to input a sequence of four symbols on it in order to open the outer doors. He did that, and now he only needed to wait.
It had taken fifteen minutes before he began hearing the sound of the cruiser's thrusters after it passed the force field that held air from venting in the emptiness of cold space. It took ten more for the ship to land and for people and some supplies to be beamed just outside of it.
Finally, someone to talk.
Walking briskly, Soren reached the approaching men. "Loral."
"Soren," Loral replied while giving him a measuring look. "I see you haven't shaved yet."
"Has something happened that would make me want to shave?" Soren replied.
"No, nothing worth mentioning."
"Well, somehow I was certain your answer would be like that," Soren replied, a little deflated. If nothing new happened on the sphere, there could at least be changes somewhere else in the galaxy. Apparently, there were no changes anywhere else either. "What about the other races in the galaxy?" He was fishing for something. Anything would do.
"A few skirmishes here and there between what's left of the Alliance and the Senarians, but no major engagements that could possibly shift the situation in anyone's favor," Loral replied.
Soren was already inputting another code on the same panel that was meant to close the hangar bay doors. He then stepped near the doors that obediently reacted to his presence. The other people that were present except for Loral took the cue and began walking through the door while carrying the supplies they brought. Soren and Loral followed behind them. "So, the galaxy is still in a state of a stalemate, with us playing as nothing more than uncaring spectators. Almost as depressing as my life on board this sphere."
"It has been a little under three years since the last time anyone came near Cydonia. The show of force in which the Alliance led by the N'Gati lost more than two-thirds of their invasion fleet against our defenses inside the system was a strong enough deterrent for anyone with similar ideas to back down quickly. The Senarians must also be rejoicing that we are out of the war, which means they have no intentions of risking us suddenly changing our minds by them sticking their nose near our system and accidentally provoking an incident. Three years ago, the Senarians were in a difficult position. We didn't know that the Senarians were at a breaking point back then. It is funny to think that if the N'Gati hadn't betrayed us, or if the other races had sided with us instead of with them, this war would have ended a long time ago. However, us leaving the alliance has given the Senarians the much-needed breathing room to recuperate. Now it is difficult to know who's going to win this war, or if there even will be a winner at all for that matter."
"Hmm, I agree. Three more months and the Senarians would have capitulated. Still, after the N'Gati betrayed us and the rest of the races sided with them, I had no intention of continuing to fight and risk our people's lives for them," Soren replied, sighing. He needed once again to remind himself how the Alterran did things, not to make the same mistake twice. It usually took many years before the Alterrans made any kind of Alliance with another race. Only after thoroughly having vetted all the candidates, then and only then would they begin to contemplate the possibility of joining a war that wasn't theirs to fight, to begin with. He made a mistake in this galaxy. He should have stayed hidden and worry only about their mission, which was to find the Furling Legacy and not to meddle in the affairs of the locals. They were planning to leave this galaxy in any case and getting involved, as it turned out, with very treacherous people never amounts to anything good. "Any news from back home?"
"They established a connection two days ago. We quickly exchanged data packages in the ninety milliseconds the connection stayed open. We were able to send all of our reports and receive some news from back home, but nothing of great importance."
"So, the war against the Vargas still continues in the Milky Way galaxy, while our people are cooped up inside the pocket universe the ascended Alterrans made a long time ago," Soren replied, more to himself than to anyone else.
"For the most part, yes," Loral replied nevertheless. "They are still trying to develop some weapon the Terrans think will completely turn the tide of the war in their favor."
"I read the reports from last time where there was mention of their intentions to build such a weapon. The theory is sound, but I think the Terrans are underestimating how much time it will take to develop it, if even possible. Such projects usually last for decades, with very little progress being made in the first few years."
"Still, you must admit that if they succeed…"
"I know, I know. If they succeed, then they have created the ultimate energy weapon. Frankly, am scared of such a weapon even existing. I'm even more scared of the thought of the Terrans, a race that is still very much divided on their own planet, owning such a weapon. Finally, I'm practically panicking at the thought of such a weapon being stolen by some of the other races in the Milky Way galaxy. If developed, larger versions of the same could easily be constructed. Versions that could break apart entire planets or even stars at a subatomic level. As if having created those accursed space-time displacement torpedoes wasn't enough. I'm actually glad that they can't be mass produced and that they become inert after six months. If fallen into the wrong hands, they stop working and become useless."
"The Terrans ingenuity in building advanced weaponry is one of the main reasons why we were able to win against many enemies without incurring crippling losses," Loral replied, clearly playing devil's advocate.
"There is that to think about too, yes," Soren replied absentmindedly while entering the main chamber where the hologram of a Furling had first appeared. He knew that the people on Eden should be thanking the Terrans. In no small part, they were responsible for the Vargas losing at the Battle of Eden, both in space and on the ground. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that the weapons they were creating were something that should never exist. The knowledge the Alterran possessed was incredibly vast, yet they never devoted much time developing energy weapons. The development of the drones was the pinnacle of Alterran weaponry, and the weapon was well received by their people because it could be used for disabling an opponent rather than outright blowing them up. Energy weapons could rarely be used in the same fashion. If you used high yield energy weapons as the ones they now had, it was for one purpose only, and that was to destroy what was in front of you. "Still, I think the instability of the Terran society is of great concern."
"Instability?" Loral asked, unsure. "Liam worked hard to place the right people in charge of the Terran Federation. Why do you think there's instability?"
"You just said it, didn't you? Liam had to work hard – emphasis on hard – to put the right people in charge, which means that in the future the situation can easily change. The problem is that their society has people who are prepared to help other races in the galaxy completely selflessly, like those currently in charge of the Terran Federation, but also many others who aren't like-minded, but who seek power and a leadership position above all. With the next elections, the situation can easily turn because Earth still has many who don't care about anyone besides themselves. This is the biggest difference between the Terrans the way they are now, and a society like the Alterrans, Nox or Asgard. Electing someone else among any of those three races wouldn't change their overall policy by much because every member of their society has strong moral values, a rational mind and vast knowledge about the universe, which means they all have similar convictions that are difficult to shake. These are the factors that assure only minute changes can occur in their policy when a new leadership is selected. The situation on Earth is different. New elections could bring smallminded, irrational, uneducated, amoral and also very selfish people to lead a race that has weaponry capable of erasing star systems from the galactic map."
"Is this really about the Terrans, or are you just venting your frustration for being cooped up inside this sphere for so long and with no one to talk to?" Loral inquired.
Soren could not deny Loral's accusations so easily. "True. There could be some frustration at work here. However, that doesn't mean that my concerns are unfounded."
Beside Soren and only a meter away was the place where the hologram of a Furling had first appeared. Now, it appeared it was time for the hologram to pop out once more after so long.
"Warning… warning… long range sensors have detected a high-level hyperspace event," the hologram spoke at the same time as the dimmed lights in the room began rising in intensity.
"What the f…" Soren spoke while looking at the room that was suddenly coming back to life all around him. There was still the question of clarifying what the hologram exactly meant by high-level hyperspace event. He reasoned it probably meant a ship from an advanced race was the cause. "How high was the detected level you spoke of?"
"The sensors detected what appears to have been a hyperspace window opening from the Kappa band," the hologram reported.
"Kappa band? Are you kidding? What could possibly have been traveling through the Kappa band?"
"Warning. Warning. The construct is initiating protocol Omega as specified by Creators before departure."
This was getting better and better, and it seemed that the hologram wasn't about to give much information freely and without them having to place further inquiries."Specify protocol Omega please."
"Current action is to bring Singularity reactor to full power. The current level is 30%... 34%... 37%..."
"Translate that power output in joules per second," Soren asked, curious.
"Current power generation is 2.3x10^24 joules per second."
"Holy cow! That's power generation on par with that of a small star. For what possible purpose would we ever need such a power output? Where is the power going?"
"Such power output is needed to charge quantum flux capacitors before ignition of the construct's wormhole drive. Capacitors will reach the needed amount of stored energy in 22 minutes and twelve seconds. The stored energy will allow the wormhole drive to translate the construct for the needed 12.982 light years in order to reach the detected high-level hyperspace disruption."
"What is the reason for wanting to reach it?"
"A reason wasn't specified by creators. Only actions needed to be taken once the event was recorded by the sensors."
"Oh, that's just great? It's going to be another in a long line of great surprises from the Furling. Well, we are at least moving… Crap! Something new has happened!" Soren stated, promptly turning towards a taciturn Loral. "We have some time before this thing moves. I'll walk you to your ship so that you can inform them to strap into their chairs. I have no clue how bumpy this ride is going to be. We are going to block every door we pass through with some boxes so that you can come back without me having to wait for you."
"All right. What are you going to do in the meantime?"
"Well, I'm going to go shave first," Soren replied with a joyful grin plastered on his face. "Then I'm coming back here so I can ask this hologram here a few more questions. This whole thing seems to have been predestined to happen and the Furling knew about it."
Soren was moving back to the room where the hologram was located. He had shaved and even managed to clip his hair, all in record time. Now dressed in acceptable clothing – clothing appropriate for a normal person with goals in life - he was prepared for everything that awaited them when in less than five minutes the Sphere would move. To his knowledge, for the first time in eons.
Entering the room where the hologram was, he immediately noticed that Loral was back with a few more people. Apparently, he had decided that this was the best place to be when the action started, and he probably thought that bringing a few more people in case the construct magnanimously decided to grant them some modicum of access to its systems.
"How long?" Soren asked.
Loral turned to face him. "The hologram just informed us that we have three more minutes."
"Can't believe that we are finally moving. Can't believe that this thing has a wormhole drive either," Soren said, puzzled. Even to the Alterrans wormhole technology was something impractical to use, if not outright forbidden.
"I do not know how the technology works. All I know is that it is supposed to be an instantaneous method of travel, but that for some reason it was never used by the Alterrans," Loral said.
"It is not just for some small reason. It was because the technology is inherently dangerous. Essentially, you're gambling every time you use it."
"I do not understand. Didn't the Terrans find a race in the Milky Way galaxy that is using an instantaneous method of travel as their only means of traveling at FTL speeds akin to this one?"
"Well, it is true, yes, and I believe that their method is, if not identical, very similar to the wormhole drive theory the Alterrans had worked on a long time ago. The only difference that can possibly exist is in the method of initiating the initial connection between two points in space. After that, both technologies can do only one thing, which is to tear a hole in space and translate to the other side by making a sudden, infinitesimal shift through the tear. However, this is not the problem with the technology. The Colonials the Terrans have met are using their jump drives to cross up to a hundred light-years distances at a time, which, frankly, are laughable distances if you take into account today's hyperdrives and how much a ship using one can cross quickly and more importantly much more safely. No, the reason why the technology is dangerous is because, with the increase in distances, there is also an increase in the uncertainty of what awaits you on the other side. Not to mention an increase in the standard deviation of the calculated exit point. When large distances are involved, a ship could, both, miss the target by possibly even light-years, or even if you're right on the spot, there's still no guarantee there isn't some other object waiting for you there. There's no sensor capable of telling you what's in space hundreds of thousands of light-years away. All this means that you're gambling your life and the lives of everyone aboard every time you use such a device for travel, hoping that indeed space is so empty that the chances of bumping into something solid are infinitesimally small."
"So, why would then the Furling put such a device on this sphere? If it is so dangerous?" Loral asked, clearly not liking what he had just heard. Especially since they were all going to use said dangerous method of travel in mere minutes.
"I only have conjectures at this point. The first, and the one that I like the least, is that they didn't have a choice. This sphere is the size of a moon, which means opening a hyperspace window that size and moving such mass inside hyperspace can't be easy. Then there's the question of how much can this sphere accelerate in hyperspace and even worse, how dangerous it is to use a massive hyperdrive on a construct such as this one that has a singularity in it that is creating a massive gravitational distortion. All this makes me think that in this case, a hyperdrive could be more dangerous than a wormhole drive. Another option is to use a warp drive, which is probably the safest method there is for a sphere of this size. Yet, that method falls short when it comes to speed. With such a drive, it would take years at the very least to cross the void between two adjacent galaxies no more than a few million years apart. The sphere would then be useless in the war against the Vargas where the goal must be to have a platform capable of traveling half across the galaxy and be able to attack at the heart of the Vargas."
"So, essentially, what you are saying is that this construct has a drive that is dangerous to be used, but since there no other way, the Furling decided that it was worth it, is that it?"
"Maybe," Soren replied, thoughtful. "As I've said, these are only conjectures with no concrete data to back any of it. There could be that the Furling have found some way to overcome the inherent hazard when jumping longer distances, like when you're jumping to other galaxies. Just because I can't think of any way they could have done it, doesn't mean they didn't succeed in creating something the Alterrans couldn't."
"Warning… warning… charging of the quantum flux capacitors has been completed. Wormhole drive is now entering its ignition phase…"
Soren could feel a slight tremor going through the sphere, indicative that something big was happening. "This is amazing. Frankly, I thought the vibrations coming from a drive capable of moving a moon-sized ship would be much worse. This must be a great piece of engineering. As expected from the Furling."
The vibrations were now a little more pronounced as if they were meant from the very beginning to inform the people to brace themselves.
"Warning… warning… Wormhole drive has now entered its final phase. The drive will engage in 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… engaging."
It felt weird. It wasn't the same as when you jumped off a cliff, yet, there was no closer way to describe what Soren felt at that moment. And a moment was exactly how much it took the sphere to change location. "Is it over?"
"Construct has traveled the distance of 12.987 light years, with an error of .01 kilometers in the planned exit point. Short range sensors are now able to detect the cause of the detected high-level hyperspace event, currently located 2,980 kilometers from our current position," the hologram explained.
"Can you display the cause so that we can see it?" Soren asked.
In thin air, next to the hologram, a large display two meters wide sprang to life. Soren intently watched what it was displaying. Slowly but surely, his eyes grew larger and larger in utter disbelief. Not very distant from the sphere, a ship floated lifelessly while spinning awkwardly on one of its axes. The fear Soren suddenly felt was because he could easily recognize the ship. It was a ship three kilometers in length, pitch black and he knew it was one of a kind. Liam had built that ship so many thousands of years ago for himself, even before the Edenian race was born.
And the fear he was feeling was caused by the sight of the damaged hull. Countless holes, with some parts of the ship, large parts, completely torn off and missing. The display was also showing preliminary information gathered from the scans the sphere had done. Soren caught the data showing the ship had no power left except for minute amounts in the backups. There was no detectable life support throughout the entirety of the ship either.
The ship was lifeless and cold, as the void of space itself.
"Oh, crap!" Soren said, not knowing how else to describe this moment. "From the data that I'm seeing on the display, there are no life signs."
"There's no mistake. That is Liam's ship," Loral added.
"Warning… Warning. The scanning has detected the presence of the sought key component. The construct will now begin retrieval," the hologram notified, still very much sounding like a machine.
"Wait? What?" Soren was getting more information he wasn't prepared to process yet. He was still stuck at the revelation that Liam's ship had been turned into Swiss cheese.
"Could this key component be the Key that we are missing?" Loral asked.
Soren turned to face his colleague, uncertain. "You mean… the Key that doesn't exist? That Key?"
"Well, whatever it is on board Liam's ship that this thing is seeking, it definitely didn't exist when the Furling built the sphere so long ago," Loral explained.
"You might be right," Soren replied, thoughtfully. On the display, he noticed some beams coming from the Sphere and grabbing Liam's ship and steadying it in place so that it wouldn't spin, before slowly beginning to pull it closer. "Hologram, can you tell us what the key component is."
"You do not have the authorization to know until integration process is completed."
"Great! Thus, we are still stuck with no access to any of the systems. How long is the integration process going to take?" Soren asked, hoping that it wouldn't take a few more years of his life and that once it was done they would finally get some answers.
"Integration process will take approximately 6 days and 22 hours to complete."
Soren turned to face Loral. "Seven more days it seems. Hopefully, after that, we will get some real answers?"
"At the moment, I'm more curious about the whereabouts of Liam. I think the Sphere's scanners wouldn't miss his life signs if he were aboard that ship," Loral added, his face clearly showing how worried he was.
"No, the sphere was able to detect my presence as an Alterran when we first came with a short scan. There's no chance it would miss another Alterran presence," Soren agreed. "Which begs the questions, where is Liam and who could do this to his ship?"
"We watched the recording of what Liam had done at the Battle of Eden. Thinking that somebody could do this to him and his ship is frightening. But then again, we are fighting a frightening enemy, aren't we?"
"That we are. I'm also intrigued how the various pieces of this puzzle are slowly coming together. All this can only be possible because of the Furling's ability to see into the distant future. To think that they built the Sphere in the same galaxy where Liam's ship somehow manages to travel through the Kappa band until it completely exhausted all of its energy reserves. Only somebody capable of predicting the future far in advance could have done it," Soren explained.
"Maybe, but I think that the ship actually came here because it knew we were in this galaxy. It knew its energy reserves wouldn't last long enough to travel another hundred million light years in order to reach the Andromeda galaxy. Even for Liam's ship, such distances are not a trivial matter," Loral added.
"True, true. Still, even in that case, it means the Furling constructed the Sphere in a remote galaxy where Liam's ship could reach it and be retrieved by us. This event could change the course of this war in our favor. It is possible that Liam's ship has crucial information we need in our fight against the Vargas. There could be information on how to find Liam as well. That is if he's still alive," Soren concluded on a more somber note.
"That is something I have no doubts about," Loral replied immediately. "I'm sure Liam will play a crucial role in this war, and since this war is far from over, I'm certain that Liam is still alive. We just don't know where he is. He's... like the main character in this epic story anyway. Therefore, no chance of him dying on us. No chance at all."
"I hope your optimism eventually gets rewarded. I really do," Soren replied. "Well, there isn't much we can do now than to wait and see what happens in 6 days and 22 hours. Hopefully, the patience we displayed while staying in this galaxy will be rewarded with this sphere finally giving us some answers and maybe even full access, so that our mission can come to a satisfactory end, once and for all."
It was true that they would still need to wait before answers could be given, but after having waited for years while living alone on the Sphere, Soren was certain that the seven days before the integration of whatever the key component was completed, would pass in no time at all. He also hoped the Furling were done with pranks, puzzles and games in general, and that now the time to act has finally come. Loral was also optimistic that Liam was alive. However, Soren didn't like the current situation one bit. Liam's ship was in bad shape, which meant it probably had to escape in a hurry in order to evade destruction. That also meant two other things. One, Liam wasn't on the ship at the time of departure. It meant he was probably on some other ship or maybe a nearby planet and was for some reason unable to return in time. Two, the ship would have never left Liam behind without Liam's explicit instruction to do so and certainly only under protest. Moreover, the ship controlled by William would have attempted to retrieve Liam if it was at all possible. The fact that it didn't, meant the ship was in such a state that such an attempt was impractical or there was no way to locate Liam. Both options didn't leave Soren with much hope that they would find Liam's whereabouts easily.
Soren sighed. He was fed up of having to wait. He was even more fed up of knowing little to nothing of any real use. It was making him fill powerless and unable to do anything other than sit and wait.
Thank you for reading another chapter. I hope you liked it. Reviews are always appreciated. So, leave one if you feel like it.