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Faster Than Light: Babel Among the Stars

  Malcolm Pierce

  Copyright 2012 Malcolm Pierce

  Faster Than Light: The Fallen Goddess

  Faster Than Light: Dobhriathar

  1.

  First the wheel, the horse, and the carriage conquered the land. Then longships, frigates, and cruisers tamed the sea. Planes and helicopters lifted man into the clouds. For centuries, there seemed to be one horizon that could not be crossed. The stars were so vast and so empty that no vessel, no matter how fast, could traverse them.

  The Heilmann Drive changed everything. Any distance, no matter how great, could be leapt in a matter of seconds. In the blink of an eye, a ship carrying hundreds could move from one end of the galaxy to the other.

  Man spread out across the stars, laying claim to planet after planet. In 2192, there were exactly two planets in the universe known to support human life. In 2195, there were humans living on twenty planets, with at least three dozen more colonizations planned.

  Not a single complex alien life form was found in all of the worlds settled by man. Earth was the only planet which fostered multicellular organisms. But as time passed, it did not matter. Civilization splintered as isolated cultures developed on every new world. Within a thousand years, each planet seemed quite alien to the others.

  One thing held them together. One thing kept them united as the single human race. The Heilmann Drive. Ships leapt between the planets every hour, carrying goods, passengers, and information. At the apex of interstellar travel, there were over three thousand starships operating at any given moment.

  Soon there will be only one.

  *

  Seth Garland blinked through the pain searing through his head. He tried to rub his eyes but he couldn’t pull his hand up to his face. His wrists were bound behind his back.

  As his vision adjusted to the darkness, Seth realized that he was in some sort of jail cell. It was a small room with a bed and only one entrance. The door was enveloped by a shimmering energy field. There was a man standing on the other side of the field. Seth could see his legs. One of them looked larger than the other. That was odd.

  How did he get here? His memory was hazy. The last thing he could remember was the public assembly. He was standing in the crowd, watching Chairman Stephens speak. But he couldn’t hear him. It wasn’t the Chairman’s fault. His voice was certainly loud enough. Seth just couldn’t bear to listen to him anymore. But what happened next?

  “Look at me!” the man on the other side of the energy field yelled. Seth glanced up at him. In the dim light, he looked old. He had white hair and an unsteady posture. The only clearly visible part of his body was the insignia on his chest. He was a commissar, one of the highest ranks in the Republic. It was a designation usually only given to senior military officers. But as the man leaned down to stare into Seth’s eyes, Seth realized that he was much younger than he thought. His face was smooth. His blue eyes shined even in the dark jail cell.

  “Who are you?” Seth asked. “Where am I?”

  The man took a deep breath. His leg twitched and he grimaced. He extended his arm and leaned against the metal wall of the jail cell. “I am Commissar Phaer Absalom and you are in the custody of the People’s Interstellar Republic.”

  “Custody? What is this about?”

  Absalom clenched his teeth and growled as he spoke. “How can you hate the Republic?” he asked. “I don’t understand.”

  Seth wasn’t sure what to tell him. He didn’t know where to start. Still, as he tried to formulate a coherent answer, his head cleared. Everything was starting to come back to him.

  A few hours ago, at the Assembly, Seth had grown tired of listening to the endless litany of platitudes spilling from the mouth of Chairman Stephens. Seth didn’t attend the assembly to hear a bureaucrat congratulate himself and his government for an hour. He’d hoped to ask a question, a very simple question, that everyone seemed to be ignoring in this time of crisis. It wasn’t anything inflammatory. It was an entirely reasonable inquiry.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. The Chairman wasn’t taking questions and he wasn’t giving answers. He was simply content to spend his time talking about the amazing efforts of the Republic and its valiant efforts to protect its citizens. It was all bullshit and Seth decided to take matters into his own hands.

  Seth bolted through the crowd, pushing people down, and climbed up on stage. He thought about trying to grab the microphone away from the Chairman but the guards were closing in. There wasn’t time. Instead, he yelled at the top of his lungs. He wasn’t sure if the cameras picked up his voice, or if any of the reporters near the front heard him. If he made it through to just one of them, it would be worth it. He could still remember what he asked, because it was the only thing he’d been thinking about for the last three months.

  “They’re going to take the stars away from us,” he shouted. “Do you understand that?” Then the stun prods hit him.

  On the other side of the energy field, Absalom snorted. He took a few steps back and grabbed a folding chair that was leaning up against the far wall. He placed it in front of the energy field and awkwardly tried to sit. There was something wrong with his left leg. He couldn’t bend it. Even as he sat, he kept it extended to his side.

  “This is all quite a sin-blooded shame, Mr. Garland,” Absalom said. “I’ve looked over your records. You could have been a valuable asset for the Republic. Under better circumstances we could have been friends.” He shrugged. “But that was not meant to be.”

  Seth glared at him and struggled with the bonds tying his wrists. “Think about what is happening,” he said. “They are undoing thousands of years of human progress! They are dividing resources, not to mention families and friends and...and the entire human species! How can you just let them do it?”

  “I’m not letting anyone do anything,” Absalom spat. “I am the one doing it.” He gritted his teeth together, as if the very sight of Seth made him sick. “The Chairman and the High Council have entrusted me with the enforcement of the Spatial Preservation Act.”

  Seth could tell that Absalom expected this would make him angry. It didn’t. In fact, a smile broke out across Seth’s face. He tried to repress a laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I thought I failed,” Seth replied. “I thought no one even noticed me. But if you’re here... If they really sent the man in charge of this travesty to see me, then I must have gotten someone’s attention.”