Read Faster Than Light: Babel Among the Stars Page 3

  *

  Seth sat alone at the bar, running his finger around the rim of his glass. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been there or how many drinks he had. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered any more. If he wasn’t absolutely sure that the Republic doctors would pump his stomach, he would have continued drinking until he passed out.

  Everything was over. All of his dreams were dashed to pieces and he wasn’t even sure how it happened. He’d watched all the news reports. He’d heard all the theories. He’d listened to the scientists. They said that the fabric of reality was at risk.

  Seth wasn’t worried about reality. Reality had a way of surviving against all odds. Instead, Seth feared the response to these scientific findings. Already, the Republic had formed a commission to explore the possibility of phasing out the Heilmann Drive. That didn’t just mean the end of one particular piece of technology. That meant the end of faster-than-light travel altogether.

  Every planet in the galaxy would be cut off. They would all become isolated and would have to become self-sufficient. The idea seemed ridiculous to Seth. It was impossible. So many planets depended upon interstellar trade that there was no way they could survive without it.

  But the Republic was seriously considering it. And there was vast public support for it. Everyone in the Republic was so afraid. They were cowards who preferred to run away from the problem of folding space rather than fight it.

  “What’s got you down?” a woman asked.

  Seth looked behind him and found Willa Green, one of his classmates at RSIR. She was almost a foot taller than Seth and probably weighed twice as much as him. Despite that, she was one of his more attractive peers. People on Earth, in general, were over-fed and under-motivated. Many of them made it worse by becoming insufferable slobs. At the very least, Willa made some effort to be presentable in public, brushing her wavy brown hair and keeping her black uniform clean.

  “What do you think has me down? The end of human progress.”

  Willa sat down at the bar next to him. “You’re overreacting.”

  Seth’s eyes went wide. “No! No, I’m not! The Republic has spent the last millennium keeping us from our potential and now they’ve figured out how to actually shove us back into the dark ages. Bravo!” Seth clapped his hands together and began to applaud.

  “Careful,” Willa said. “I might have to report language like that.” She was one of the first people Seth successfully enlightened about the secret riders to PIR funding bills.

  “Go right ahead,” Seth replied. “I don’t care anymore. The PIR has plenty of documentation on me and my opinions. It’s only a matter of time before I’m blamed for the next terrorist attack.”

  Willa leaned closer to him, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You know they don’t really do that, right? They’re not the monsters you think they are.”

  “They’re going to take the stars away from us,” Seth said, his voice slurring as he almost tripped over the words. “Don’t defend them.”

  “You should take a break,” Willa told him. She grabbed his glass and pulled it away just as he was about to take another drink. “Besides, I have something better for you. This will really get your mind off of this whole Heilmann Drive mess.”

  She reached into her purse and pulled out a small plastic bag. Inside, were two brown colored gelatin capsules. Willa held them up to the light and Seth could see the intricate circuitry inside.

  The pills weren’t drugs. They were tiny digestible electronic devices called Gnostins. Once swallowed, they began sending electrical pulses through the nervous system that stimulated the visual, auditory, and pleasure centers of the brain. They could be tailor-made to create specific lifelike hallucinations that lasted for approximately one hour, until the capsules were broken down in the stomach.

  “I don’t take those,” Seth said, waving them away. “That’s not the kind of escape I’m looking for.” Then he grabbed his glass away from her and took another sip.

  Willa crossed her arms. “Oh, but you’re fine drinking yourself into a rims-damned stupor.”

  Seth held up his glass. “This is real. This isn’t just in my head.” He sighed. “Who am I kidding? You wouldn’t understand. You’re just like all the others. You’re just like everyone.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Lost,” Seth said. “You’re lost adrift among the stars. Everyone is. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t even know where we were. But don’t worry. Someday, I’ll show you the way. I’ll show everyone...”

  Willa laughed. “Oh, and how are you going to do that?”

  Suddenly, Seth looked up with an intensity he rarely showed to anyone. His slurring voice became focused and crystal clear. He pursed his lips and replied:

  “I’m going to bring down the Republic.”

  A silence fell across the bar. Willa stared at Seth, waiting as if she expected him to tell her it was just a joke. But it wasn’t a joke. Seth meant every word. It was something he’d thought about for years, though it was the first time he’d been willing to say it aloud.

  The PIR was broken. They did nothing but hold people back. They were the reason no one ever developed a better faster-than-light engine. They were the reason no one ever explored the universe beyond the galactic rim. They were the reason that everyone on Earth was a bloated caricature of humanity.

  “You... You can’t be serious.”

  Seth smiled. “Why do you think I enrolled in RSIR?” he asked her.

  He knew this was something everyone wondered about him. Typically, RSIR recruits were incredibly patriotic. They were dedicated to spreading the values of the Republic across the galaxy. Not Seth. He just wanted the power that came with being a diplomat. In particular, diplomats were allowed to travel to any planet in the galaxy.

  There were dozens of worlds out there that suffered because of the Republic’s monopoly on space travel. They could be united. They could be motivated. All it would take is the right person... Seth was sure he was that person.

  “I’m not comfortable talking about this,” Willa said immediately. “You’re my friend, Seth, so I’m going to pretend that none of this happened. But if you ever--”

  Seth held up his hand. “Don’t worry. It’s all meaningless now. The RSIR, my dreams, everything... They’ve decided that faster-than-light travel is unsafe. If we’re smart, we’ll all start looking for new jobs.”

  Willa furrowed her brow. “What are you trying to say? Do you really think they’ll ban the Heilmann Drive? That’s ridiculous.”

  “I don’t think they’ll do it. I know they will. It’s only a matter of time now.” He took one more drink, then decided that maybe it was time to stop. “After all, I’ve seen it before.”