Suddenly, the sound of static filled the air. Seth and Alena looked up. A deep voice emerged through the noise. “Captain Heilmann! There are multiple ships coming out of sub-light speed on the radar. They will be here within minutes.”
Seth knew exactly what that meant. “It’s the PIR.”
“What do I do?” Alena asked.
“Come with me. Come on board the Fenghuang. We’ll leap away. We can solve this.”
Alena wilted. She looked down. “This ship… My crew… I promised them that they would make it home to Linaria.”
“We don’t need them! We need you! You can solve this. You can—” Seth stopped speaking as
Alena pressed her fingertips against his chest. “No. Go back. Save yourself. Save the last compression engine. Save the last Heilmann Drive.”
“Maybe we can take you with us! What is so important about—”
Alena pushed Seth towards the airlock. He stumbled backwards into the decompression chamber as she walked away.
“Close airlock,” Alena said. The onboard computer responded and the sound of grinding gears filled the decompression chamber. Seth wanted to rush forward, to grab her, but he saw the doors sliding shut. It was too late.
Seth was back on the Fenghuang where he was safe. His ship could leap away from any threat. But Alena was gone. She was on her own.
*
“Captain, the Republic ships are closing fast,” Lance said. He tapped away at the control panel in front of him. “What should I do?”
Seth held his head in his hands as he sat in his chair on the command center. He didn’t know what to say. Alena sealed the airlock aboard the Ragnar. The only thing keeping the two starships together was the docking clamps on his side. “Leah, is there any chance they can outrun the Republic ships without us?” he asked.
Leah, who was now in the back of the command center, replied quickly. “It’s not possible. The ramscoop drive would take at least thirty minutes to get up to the basic subwarp speed of the Republic craft.”
“What if—”
Leah cut off Seth before he could even begin. “If we leap with their ship attached, they’ll be crushed and burned along with the rest of the space dust we leap across.”
Seth nodded. He assumed that was the case. He was just going to ask to be sure. With that option gone, there was no getting around it. They were going to have to leave her behind or fight it out. The Ragnar had a few weapons, but upon a quick survey they appeared to be Maser cannons built in the early 2200s. The Fenghuang might be able to take out a single ship with a quick, planned leap through it… assuming all of the Republic vessels stood perfectly still. Fighting was simply not an option.
“Detach the docking clamps,” Seth said, as much as it hurt him to leave Alena behind. “Deploy one of our drone scouts, attach it to the hull of the Ragnar. I want to be able to follow them.”
“Drone scouts?” Lance asked.
“It’s actually the button that says ‘missile’. Remember, it’s a science vessel.” Lance cringed as he pressed the button labeled “missile”, worried for just a second he was about to kill the legendary Alena Heilmann. The ship shook softly as it launched a small pod which immediately attached to the side of the Ragnar. Lance sighed in relief and wondered when he would start trusting Seth.
“What now?” Leah asked.
“We need to leap away,” Seth said. “Far enough that the Republic will think we’re gone… but close enough that we’ll be able to receive a signal from the drone scout in a reasonable about of time. I’m thinking sixty or so AU outside of the Kuiper Belt. They’ll think we’re long gone even if we’re just out there.”
Caitlin turned back to face him. “Captain, the Netcomm is lighting up. Looks like they want to talk.”
“They don’t want to talk,” Seth quickly answered. “It’s a ruse. There’s no reason to open a Netcomm channel with them.”
“I… I already did,” Caitlin said. She cringed as she expected Seth to scold her. He didn’t. Instead, he seemed to recede into his chair, as if out of fear.
The view-screen at the front of the command center lit up, displaying the commander of the Republic ships. He was an intense man of imperceptible age. He had no wrinkles, but a shock of white hair and a face tortured by a lifetime of anguish. He wore the dark crimson uniform of the Republic military and proudly displayed his rank of Commissar. No matter how old he was, Seth was sure he was the youngest Commissar in the Republic. His name was Phaer Absalom, and Seth knew him all too well. He was the military mastermind behind the enforcement of the Fall.
“So this is your conquering fleet, Mr. Garland?” Absalom asked. “This is what you warned me about?” His lips quivered, as if suppressing laughter. “How… delightful! It’s some sort of historical artifact. Apparently you plan to defeat the People’s Republic with antiques and curiosities!”
Seth leveled his gaze at the view-screen. He was silent.
Caitlin was not. “What is this about conquering?” she asked. Seth continued to stare forward, not responding.
“The Republic fleet will be within firing range in fifteen seconds,” Lance announced.
Seth sat up in his seat. He clutched the armrests of his captain’s chair. “Once the leap is calculated… ” He sighed. “Do it.”
“We’re just leaving her behind?” Leah asked.
“I would never leave her behind,” Seth said, looking straight at Absalom, hoping the threat was implicit.
“The ships are closing in!”
Seth grimaced. “Then go! Leap!”
A flash of light. The I.S.S. Fenghuang was gone.
*
“We have to go back,” Seth said. He crossed his arms. He could see the look on Lance’s face: fear. He could see Leah’s expression: worry. And he couldn’t miss Caitlin: anger.
“You lied to us!” she exclaimed. They were all standing in the command center of the Fenghuang, which now floated in stillness several dozen AU from the Kuiper belt. “You told us that you were going to re-unite the worlds! But you just wanted power for yourself. You wanted to conquer the PIR! You did not steal this ship to help humanity, you stole it because with it you are the most powerful man in the galaxy.”
Seth spun and glared at her. “You saw Earth. You saw your real home and no one else on your backwards planet can ever say the same,” he hissed. “And I lied about nothing. That man—Commissar Absalom—and I have a history. I never intended to conquer anything. I just told him that because I wanted him to worry.”
Leah stepped forward. She was not quite as angry as Caitlin, but still concerned. “This isn’t about a few stray words, this is about your plan. Or your lack thereof.” She sighed. “Suddenly we need Alena Heilmann to fix the Heilmann Drive? Someone who all of us knew was dead is now absolutely necessary? What were you planning on doing if Alena Heilmann was not miraculously alive?”
“She’s not necessary,” Seth said. “Just very useful.”
“You never had a plan, did you?” Lance asked. “Just grab the last starship in existence, go around to all the planets struggling with the Fall… and what? Extort money from them? Power? What were you even trying to do?” The command center was quiet.
The truth was this: Seth’s crew was correct. He did not have a plan. He never had a plan.
The truth was this: Seth was a student, albeit a star pupil at the Republic School of Interplanetary Relations. The RSIR taught young, ambitious recruits how to handle the cultural differences that had arisen between the various planets in the galaxy. Even though the Old Economy provided almost every nation, every culture, every world, and every person with the potential to lead a comfortable life, there were still conflicts. There were fights between planets and even interplanetary wars. In exchange for use of the interstellar trade routes, the People’s Republic required all disputes to be mediated by a diplomat trained at the RSIR.
The truth was this: Seth did not want to be merely a diplomat. Diplomacy was a means to
an end.
Seth steepled his hands in front of his face. He was going to have to explain himself. “I stole this ship because I had to. I never had a plan. I made promises where it was convenient. I made threats where it was necessary. All I wanted was to save this ship, to save the hope that one day humanity might once again be re-united.”
The crew was still quiet. He was only telling them what they already knew. He had to give them more. They wanted an apology. Seth was not sorry. There was nothing to be sorry for. But he had to give them what they wanted. “I regret that I brought you all on board before I knew exactly where this was going. I may have misrepresented my goals and means. But now I have a plan. And now there is absolutely something we must do. I’d hoped to save this ship, to save what it represents. Alena Heilmann can help us do that. And she can do better. She can improve it. She can end the Fall.”
“So until now, you had no endgame?” Leah asked.
Seth shrugged. “I had no opening. But what does that mean now that everything has changed? We have to rescue Alena Heilmann. The Republic has no interest in ending the Fall. They will hide her, they will imprison her, because she threatens the very core of their power.”
The truth began to set in among the crew. All three of them joined Seth for different reasons. Caitlin wanted to see the stars just once before she died. Leah was devoted to the advancement of technology and saw this as a chance to stay on the cutting edge, no matter the legal repercussions. Lance had spent his life traveling between the planets and felt stranded on a single world. They all thought that Seth was something more, that he had a grand vision for the future, and that they could play a part. Now they realized that he was just a man, a man who happened to steal a starship, and a man who had no idea what to do after that.
“You lied to us,” Lance said. “You said you could save the galaxy from the Fall.” He gritted his teeth as he thought about the situation they now found themselves in. “But now, it looks like you proved yourself right. You may be a piece of shit, but it looks like you stumbled into the right rimsdamned place at the right rimsdamned time. The galaxy needs Alena Heilmann.”
“I was supposed to live my entire life in a single city, on a single island, on a single planet,” Caitlin said. “Now I have seen the Earth, the source of everything. I have heard the voice of Alena Heilmann, the woman who made my society, my planet and my life possible. Now I have the chance to save her. You may have betrayed me, but you have made me more than I ever could be. You’re right. We have to go back for her.”
“But how?” Leah, the engineer and science officer, was the only one still unconvinced. “We have no weapons. We are nothing.”
Seth smiled. “Why” was the problematic question, and they were already getting comfortable with his answer. Now they were asking: “How?” And the answer to that was quite simple.
“We attached a drone scout to their ship before we jumped,” Seth said. “And it’s been sending back data ever since. They have taken the Ragnar and Ms. Heilmann to an observation outpost on Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter. That’s good news.”
“Why?” Lance asked.
“Because,” Seth said, now beaming. “I’ve broken out of that outpost before.”
Chapter 4
It was only three years after the debut of the Heilmann Drive—one year after the disappearance of Alena Heilmann—when the first accident happened. One of the reasons the drive was so effective was that it could power itself with matter gathered and compressed in the path of a leap. The instantaneous fusion of space dust, small asteroids, and other matter provided more energy than even the largest starship needed.
Unfortunately, the Heilmann Drive could not differentiate between matter. It compressed and fused anything and everything in its path. This meant navigators had to find a straight line between the beginning and end of the leap that did not touch any stars, planets, or moons.
For those first three years, everyone believed that the reason it was necessary to navigate around large bodies was the safety of the ship. They were afraid that leaping through a planet or a star would overwhelm the Heilmann Drive and destroy the vessel. Then it happened. A haphazard leap across the galaxy sent the U.S.S. Magellan on a course directly through Upsilon Scorpii, a star approximately 500 lightyears from Earth. The Heilmann Drive was stronger than anyone could have ever expected. The Magellan survived, surprising even the navigator, who had realized his miscalculation a second too late. The star, however, did not fare so well.
Even though only an incredibly small portion of the star was compressed during the jump, it was still enough to start a chain reaction. The star collapsed into a black hole, destroying the Upsilon Scorpii solar system. It was then that the United Earth Alliance, the organization which would later become the People’s Interstellar Republic, realized the darkness behind the Heilmann Drive.
It was not only the greatest engine ever built. It was also the most terrible weapon ever built. Leaping through a solid object destroyed it, no matter what that object was or what it was made of. Asteroids, starships, moons, planets, and even stars could be obliterated with a single leap.
This danger, however remote, led the People’s Interstellar Republic to take control of all interstellar starships and starship technology. Only a select few were taught how to operate the Heilmann Drive and even fewer were taught how to build them. This control was remarkably successful. Despite its potential, the Heilmann Drive was never used as a weapon of war.
Until today.
*
“You’re sure about these numbers?” Lance asked, looking over the coordinates Seth handed him. “I feel like we’re trying to thread a moving needle.”
“If I’m wrong we are shot down over Europa. Or we destroy the moon and kill Alena Heilmann along with hundreds of others.” Seth crossed his legs and stared forward at the blank view-screen in the command center. “In other words, I’m not wrong.”
The crew was silent. They were haunted by their doubts, both about this mission and about their so-called captain. He was not the man they thought he was. He did not have a grand plan to end the Fall. He was brash, impulsive, and dangerously inexperienced. His motives seemed far more self-serving than altruistic.
That didn’t matter. Seth was the only person who could save Alena Heilmann. She was a legend to most and a goddess to a few. She was supposed to be dead, lost to the winds of time. But the galaxy needed her again and she had returned. Now she was in the hands of the People’s Republic, specifically in the hands of the men charged with enforcing the Fall. She was an inconvenience to them, a danger to their beliefs and their livelihoods.
Now the only person brave—or perhaps stupid—enough to mount a rescue mission was a traitorous student with a stolen starship.
Lance was scared for his life, but knew he could not turn his back on this imperative. Leah was furious that she’d been hooked into this aimless rebellion, but she could not ignore that she was now needed. Caitlin regretted ever leaving her homeworld, but realized that she had the chance to be part of something bigger than any of her ancestors ever imagined. The woman trapped on that moon was the reason Airlann even existed. She led her people from a single world and, behind her, they conquered the galaxy. If the Goddess Airlanni was real, undoubtedly she was something like Alena Heilmann.
“I have seen more than my sisters ever will,” Caitlin said. “If I am to die before my time, let it be now. Let it be for this.”
“We’re not going to die,” Seth replied. “But still, that’s a good attitude.”
Lance felt his muscles tighten as he realized how close they were getting to the leap. “Captain, we’re fifteen seconds away.” He took a deep breath. “The Europa sensor relay will enter the leap window in ten… nine… eight… ”
“Calculate the leap,” Seth said, his voice wavering ever so slightly. “Be ready on my mark, but keep counting.”
“Five… four… three… two… one… ”
“Airlanni b
e with us now.”
“Leap.”
*
The Europa orbital sensor relay was cresting just across the dark side of the surface when it began to shudder. It was just a creak at first, but within seconds the steel structure started to collapse.
For dozens of years, it had circled and twirled around Europa in perfect harmony with the moon. Now it broke off from its path and dived towards the surface. As it dipped out of orbit and began to burn up against the atmosphere, it lit up the darkness around it, illuminating a long, gunmetal starship hanging ominously above the moon.
In the command center of the Fenghuang, Lance’s hands were shaking. His finger still held down the trigger for the Heilmann Drive. He hesitated. He was one second late. Now he was sure they were all dead.
Everyone else was still. Caitlin stared at the console in front of her, waiting for it to light up with another threat from the Republic Fleet. Seth grasped the armrests of his chair, expecting a maser blast, a missile, or worse: an explosion he wouldn’t even feel because it would kill him instantly. Leah watched as the ship’s sensors came back online and…