Space debris had always been a problem with deep space flights, and early ship designs used to employ enormous amounts of shield material in front of ships to absorb and deflect rocks and debris, which would be pulverized by the time the ship reached another star. Soon newer technologies were developed that converted the speed of the ship into powerful magnetic shielding that deflected debris. Larger objects that couldn’t be deflected were detected and avoided by a good navigator who had to constantly adjust the ship’s trajectory while being aware of other objects in the ship’s path.
The role of the ship’s navigator had been to figure the trajectory of not where something currently existed, but where it would be whenever the ship was calculated to get where it went. Nobody Captain Mynervood ever knew had been better at this than Strek Lusu, the Pripican who had been observing a particle in the path of the ship that wasn’t going to be affected by the magnetic shield, and had also been too big for the warp shield.
Strek had been a first generation Pripican so his four-legged form required the stool in front of the navigation station to be removed. Pripicans were four-legged, and didn’t really ever sit that much unless laying down to sleep. Otherwise they stood firmly on four very strong horse-like legs. “Captain! The object is not going to move out of the way. I’m going to divert our course .0003 times a degree of angle.”
Captain Mynervood routinely would look in on the navigation station to supervise. The post needed constant attention, but Captain Mynervood spent a lot more of his time supervising the Nephrican navigator that replaced Strek when Strek’s shift became over. The navigator had to calculate where they wanted to position the ship accurately, or they could be lost.
“I you me of the action appreciate informing. Please proceed.”
Strek calculated the coordinates and even double-checked against his own calculations. That had been part of a navigator’s job.
“I see .00076 percent of the correction appears off. I’ll recalculate as I correct.”
The numbers always drifted a little. It had become the art of navigation to dance a spaceship across the curvature of space/time to its destination. Captain Mynervood pointed a tentacle at the star Holdus that shined in the view port. “The star Holdus the ship’s grasp still approaching. I you us there Navigator Strek will get us know.”
Strek looked up from his meticulous calculations at the star Holdus in the view port, which still approached. It had been as if he had forgotten it had been there in plain view on the view screen. “Oh yes, we are well within a perfect approach from here.”
“I you to your job Navigator Strek will leave. Your eyes alert keep.”
“Yes sir, I’ll remain alert and vigilant Captain.”
“That I not do doubt.” The Captain left the Navigator station confident that it had been in good hands. He valued Pripicans like Strek and often even turned to Strek for his characteristically levelheaded advice.
The Captain strolled down a long hallway of his ship The Beyonder. The Beyonder had been an eloquent luxury spacecraft that he found himself taking extra pride in. He indeed had inherited an excellent ship, which still seemed brand new. This had been a recreational mission with passengers here to enjoy in style the experience of galactic evolution. The Captain passed several passengers that were out looking for more of the ship’s many available amusements.
The hallway led to one of the viewing areas where a Nephrican couple where observing the navigation shift in course, which Strek currently still performed. It had been one of those rare moments when the stars in the view port would shift a little. Even without the occasional shift, the view of mighty Magphoreus in the second age would be indescribable to behold. When a shift had been noticed however, it indicated a large object being avoided. This, if you kept a sharp eye out, provided a rare and exciting close up view of something close passing by the ship at 401,760,000 miles an hour. The couple had been keeping company with the young boy named Trunlio who had been by himself on this space cruise to become an Eagolim. Captain Mynervood could tell that the boy’s company became less and less appreciated.
The Captain intervened. “So Trunlio, I how you are for awhile doing have not checked. You recently eaten have?”
The young Nephrican spoke up. “Sir yes. I a meal with the Purmultas here had. I the greatest time on the cruise am having.
“That good to hear is. You to the swimming pool have been yet? You to swim like do?”
Trunlio had not been to the pool yet. “This ship a pool has? You me where it is can show?”
That went according to the Captain’s plan. He lured the young boy away from the two lovers who obviously wanted to romantically embrace, away from the child under the spectacle of the galaxy’s 2nd Age bar of stars that shined brilliantly through the nebulous dust. A romantic space cruise needed to be savored by lovers while it lasted. Even though The Beyonder had to be at space for approximately two Earth years, the time within the ship moved exponentially faster than the universe outside. Therefore to the passengers on this ship, only a couple of Earth months of time would seem to pass. Nephaprican galactic evolution had been just at its beginning during this dawn of the sub-light speed hyper-acceleration age, which began uniting three legendary intelligent forms of life to the tightly knit cluster of the 15 legendary stars of the galactic empire known as Nephapricus.
As Captain Mynervood escorted the boy to the location of the ship swimming pool he turned to observe a passenger that then abruptly turned down another corridor out of the Captain’s view. Trunlio noticed the exchange.
“That passenger us Captain is following?”
“About that passenger son do not worry. You if he or anyone else you bothers me let know.”
“I sir will.”
Captain Mynervood already knew about the Agents of Ea that were on board his ship following him. He already knew all about whom and where they were, and Captain Mynervood had become determined to be watching them at least as close as they were watching him. The Captain and the boy continued to the swimming pool. Nephricans were almost better swimmers than they were at walking, and swimming had been an always fondly embraced pass-time, ever since the species first evolved away from an amphibian ancestor.
After dropping Trunlio off at the swimming pool the Captain began altering his course down the corridor that led to the ship’s cafeteria as he sensed another strange presence again. Captain Mynervood stopped to look around. Ever since The Beyonder first took off he found himself at times sensing the presence of something or someone around him. It had probably been some kind of surveillance technology used by the Agents of Ea on board to watch him, but Captain Mynervood had the feeling that this invisible presence had been something completely different. Captain Mynervood began to believe that The Beyonder had a ghost of some sort on board.
Nephricans were a very rational species that never embraced at any time in their history a belief in ghosts, and Nephricans were perfectly indifferent towards death, and they had even evolved comfort in viewing the phenomenon as a genuinely final end. This view of death for Nephricans probably manifested as their characteristically ambitious rush to accomplish things in life, and they always were in a hurry. On the other hand philosophies of life after death were part of Pripican culture from the very beginnings of their much longer more romantic history. That had been where Captain Mynervood had first learned about ghosts during his early space journeys.
*
The Pripican spies Fluisudal and Jaden were in their room getting ready to go to the ship cafeteria for a meal. The Beyonder had a luxurious cafeteria, which included an extra formal area that had been for passengers that made special reservations. Fluisudal had already done that for their next meal, so they were both looking their best. Rationing and producing food on deep space missions had been essential for a journey’s success. In the ancient history of space travel there had been entire crews of spaceships that had before starved to death, as well as documented occurrences of cannibal
ism. Ironically the initial problem that presented itself when speeds began approaching .6 times the speed of light in the current hyper-acceleration age, had been that missions would actually be over-stocked with food. At first enough food would be taken to feed the crew for the time the trip would take, but at such incredible speeds the flow of time in the ship actually moved much faster, and crewmembers nourished their bodies in synch with the faster rate of time.
Jaden brushed the tangles out of her backside fur while wondering what took Begalius so long. “Begalius should be back by now. I’m not sure if it is a mature enough artificial intelligence program for this mission. Begalius is like a little child that spends its spare time immersed in old fiction stories that were published long before any real advancement in Pripican culture. What could it possibly be learning from such ancient fiction stories from those old cultures during the brief fossil fuel age?”
Fluisudal put on a nice jacket that draped a skirt around his four legs. “I am fascinated by the quanta-nanocode being’s interests. It is the stuff of a personality that is developing Jaden. I know he loves the old fossil fuel age vehicles, and stories that were popular at that time about law enforcement and villains. It reminds me of myself when I was first maturing.”
“What maturing? You are as immature as Begalius. That’s why you two get along so well, and why they say, males never grow up.” Evidently even five billion Earth years ago the nature of the male gender as notorious for being immature and child-like had been already well established in the Pripican culture at the time of this story.
Just then the coin-shaped object that represented the physical form of Begalius jumped off the table that it had been laying motionless on. Then the object started flying around the room. “I’m back now Jaden. I am sorry for the delay. I was watching the Captain during the ship’s latest trajectory adjustment. We were correct in suspecting that the ship’s scheduled maintenance on Holdus-2 had really been a cover story. I was able to locate the ship’s secret orders in the computer records. The Nephricans are going to transport secret contraband to the planet Caleb, which is orbiting the star Yat.”
Jaden had been impressed. “Well done Begalius. I apologize for my doubts about you before.”
Fluisudal became inspired to explain the warp avoidance technology used by the ship so they didn’t have to constantly dodge debris. “This ship makes very few deep space adjustments because it utilizes the latest warp technologies to avoid collisions with debris. We have created a substance that will reverse its own subatomic charges with the right counter-occulting electronic currents applied to it. The front of the ship is covered with this subatomic charge-reversing substance, which makes the front of the ship exist in another universe called warp space. This amazing technology promises to provide a way to travel faster than the speed of light someday.”
Jaden just had to interject. “Only if it is possible to travel faster than light. Many scientists argue mathematical proof of the impossibility.”
“I know such travel is impossible in this universe, but warp space isn’t in this universe.”
Begalius just hovered between the two centaur-like beings, and thought they were starting to get off topic. “Another reason I didn’t get back when expected is because I have observed that there are Agents of Ea on board, keeping track of Captain Mynervood’s movements.”
Fluisudal spoke. “This may be another attempt to murder the Captain. The last attempt destroyed his ship, and five members of his crew died only when it failed to destroy them all.”
Even Jaden agreed with his conspiracy theory. “I think you may be right Fluisudal. That is another part of your mission Begalius. Captain Mynervood is a very highly respected good friend of the Pripican Empire. Don’t let them harm the Captain. The last ship that the Captain was in charge of was sabotaged, but these Agents of Ea probably won’t kill the Captain by destroying this ship while they are still on board.”
*
Meanwhile in another room on the ship there were three male Nephricans that were sitting on stools watching surveillance equipment that actually didn’t follow the Captain. These Agents of Ea were on board still controlling the Captain’s humanoid son Adma. Humanoid crewmembers onboard The Beyonder didn’t bother wearing hologram disguises like they did on the planet Nephrica, and part of initiating Negolim passengers into the status of becoming Eagolim had been to let them in on the humanoid evolutionary secret. Soon this secret would surely get out that the humanoid version of their species will inevitably and unavoidably dominate their fledgling galactic society like a whole new galactic species to replace the terrestrial version.
One of the Agents of Ea spoke up. “Adma to the rendezvous point his weapon to receive send.”
*
Adma had been learning the basics of ship engine maintenance in the reactor section at the back of the ship with his half-brother Ulusu who had also become a close friend. After finishing his duties Adma began taking a different route back to his room. The Beyonder had been an enormous deep space vessel with areas that Adma had still not begun to explore. He walked aimlessly through the ship passenger bays, which had become a hobby that had already made him lose track of time a couple of times since this space journey began.
Adma seemed to know where he had been going as he walked down a quiet hallway that had been empty until a Nephrican appeared waddling down the hallway in the other way on his three legs toward Adma. Their eyes met, and then they immediately both dramatically acted like they didn’t know each other. Then the approaching Nephrican pulled out a gun from behind some skin cloth, and began to point it at Adma. The Nephrican handed Adma the gun as they passed each other in the hall. Then the Nephrican continued down the opposite direction as if nothing had happened, while Adma quickly hid the pistol beneath his skin cloth crew uniform. Adma then returned to his room to hide the deadly weapon that he had just acquired.
* * *
Speeding across the 3.4 light years between the stars Poa and Yat another smaller spacecraft hyper-accelerated to the star named Yat. The ship began to turn around to begin the 3.4 Earth years of deceleration time before it arrived at the star of its destination where the planet Caleb orbited beneath frozen methane and ethane skies.
On board this spacecraft were members of the Pripican Empire from the planet Pripica. They were on a mission to find out what the Nephricans were doing on the planet Caleb. The news about the evacuation of the research facility had reached authorities on the planet Pripica. They also knew about the researchers being replaced by Prospero Napels, a notorious mad scientist inventor from the Nephrican species. The Pripicans already regarded Prospero as a dangerously reckless scientist who the Nephricans admired and even encouraged for the sake of the collective Nephrican obsession of being better than the Pripicans. Nephricans just never seemed to get over the Pripicans defeating them in the Great Galactic War, which Nephricans so foolishly started in the first place.
The Captain of this Pripican mission had been named Captain Swain who stood on four legs at the bridge while overseeing the beginning of the spaceship’s deceleration. The small ship had seven crewmembers that were anxious to get to the Yat star system in order to gain intelligence on what diabolical experiments the Nephricans had handed an entire star system to the likes of Prospero to conduct. Rumor had been that Prospero was on the verge of another break-through by the Nephricans in the science of teraforming lifeless planets. It had also been controversial amongst Pripican astrophysicists that the planet Caleb had really been a lifeless world. It featured temperatures well below what could sustain Nephrican and Pripican life forms, but scientists theorized that maybe a more silicon-based life form could exists on the planet Caleb. Perhaps the discovery of such a life form had been why the planet Caleb needed to be evacuated in the first place, with a notorious mad scientist left behind to finish the genocidal job. That had been what this ship full of Pripicans had been on its way to investigate.
Captain Swain’s crew we
re named Gonzal the male navigator, Ceres the female chief engineer, Antone the male physician, Lonzoa a male engineer, and Sebast another female engineer. These crewmembers were fur-covered centaur-like Pripicans however, another crewmember on this ship happened to be the Captain’s own second-generation male Eagolim son named Ferdinand. The Captain’s furry son stood behind his father on two humanoid legs. A special humanoid ship uniform had been tailored to accommodate the Pripican version of the evolving galactic humanoid anatomy. Pripicans had fur that made them indifferent to clothing, and they also didn’t grow clothing out of their bodies like Nephricans did. Pripicans did however acquire a taste for clothing as they evolved into more and more intelligent egocentric animals.
Unlike the gray-skinned hairless Nephrican humanoids, Ferdinand had been covered by multi-colored fur, similar to his brown-furred Pripican parents. Ferdinand had a thick mane of hair atop his humanoid head along with a well-groomed beard and mustache. This fur had been more evolved than the brown fur of regular Pripicans, and it displayed different colors according to the mineral content within it. His body stored minerals in the hair, which the body’s metabolism then would draw upon for nourishment. The Eagolim Pripicans were more open with the terrestrial (Negolim) types of their species concerning this new galactic humanoid version of Pripican being born to parents that had their DNA altered by deep space travel at .6 times the speed of light.