2164 AD
૨૧૨૫ MA
Ted finished shaving and dried off his face; he had let his beard grow during the first mission to Tau Ceti, and he had thought about doing it again on this mission – but he had to admit, he looked better without one. Well, at least his wife thought he looked better without one, and her opinion mattered more to him than his own.
He missed Tig, especially on the long stretches between stars. It was funny; it wasn’t like he hadn’t missed his family on the trip to Saturn, he had. He’d been far less in communication with them, far less in communication with anyone, really. They’d had relativistic comms; by the time they’d been out a month, conversation was difficult. By the time they’d been out two months, it was impossible. Not that Mukta and Lenya and Oliver weren’t good people and good company, but it was still lonely.
Now, he could talk to Tig every few days, talk to his family, talk to almost anyone. He had the seven other members of his crew. And the entire mission would last less time than the voyage out to Saturn had. By rights, he should feel it less. But he felt it far more than he ever had on any other mission.
The intercom sounded.
“Captain, personal comm for you.”
“Thank you, Lt. Uɉa. Send it through,” he said.
“Good morning, husta.”
“Morning, honey,” Ted said. He walked over to the viewscreen and brought it up; he could watch her on his gool, but she hated the avatar that the gool generated in his stead. Not because it didn’t look just like him – it did – but because it wasn’t really him. “How’s Titan Station?”
“Same as always,” she said. “Well, almost the same. You remember the rumors that Opito Jons was going to be transferred?”
“Oh, no, they pulled the trigger?”
“Yup, she’s leaving tomorrow on a shuttle back to the Core; she’s going to be CAG of Garsdana Alpha Starbase.”
“Dang. Hate to lose her, she was great. Though she’s got to be happy about going home. Garsdana’s what, two Imperial light years from Navyenev?”
“Not even. We’re throwing a party tonight, I’m getting her a gift from both of us; any suggestions?”
“A better collision warning system for the Thoon-class shuttles?”
Tig chuckled. “We’re fine as long as our pilots keep their eyes forward. I was thinking a 3.5 megaliter cask of wine. Real wine, not sim. They’ve got a white on sale at the import-export shop for Ɏ130,000. I know, that’s fairly expensive, and it would have to come out of your savings….”
“That’s the cost of a small house, but considering we don’t need to own a house, and that she was your first CAG, and that without her, Hala would be dead and we wouldn’t have met…I think that’s a great idea. Besides, you can make it up by buying a single bottle of Hustain out of your account. We’re running low.”
“I never should have introduced you to it.”
“Like I’m the one who’s drank most of it.”
“Fair point.”
“So who’s the new CAG? They bringing someone in?”
“Not immediately,” Tig said.
Ted waited a beat; he had suspected this, and it would make sense, but he wanted her to say it. She deserved to. “So who’s acting?”
“Well…I am the senior deputy, so….”
Ted grinned. “My love, I know of nobody better. I’m so proud of you.”
“Eh, just acting CAG. I mean, Centurium Starati says that she’s treating this as a bit of a tryout, and that there’s a chance it will stick….”
“Just a chance,” Ted said. “It’s not like you haven’t been on the fast track ever since First Contact.”
“Well, it’s not like I’m commanding my species’ flagship.”
“Not yet. But there’s time,” Ted said. “So, you breveted?”
“Not yet, they’re leaving me at Decurion for the moment. Slightly disappointing, but I figure I’ll get silver squares if I do my job.”
“You will. And don’t doubt you will, Tig. I’m biased, but I’ve been around long enough to know a leader when I see one. Even if I didn’t know you, I’d know that Titan Station is lucky to have you. Almost as lucky as me.”
“I’m the lucky one. You’re coming up on Vakor, right?”
“Yup. Just lost visual on Sol Earth two days ago. Transit Vakor today, then on toward Sol Gate 7. Speaking of which, I’m going to be late if I don’t get a move on.”
“Well. Captain had better get a move on, then. I love you, Ted, and I miss you.”
“I love you, and miss you, and am very proud of you, Tig,” he said, tracing her face on the viewscreen.
“Now, go make the Decanuses tremble in fear.”
“Yes, sir! Closing comms.”
“Alcubierre out. Lieutenant Uɉa,” Ted added, hitting a button on the screen, “you can close the channel. Tell Cato that I’m on my way.”
“Aye, sir.”
Ted pulled on his tunic, and started out the door. He paused, as a shiver ran through the ship, the echo of a sudden course correction at warp speed.
He didn’t wait to hear Cato van der Graaf call him to the bridge. He was on his way, at a dead sprint.
* * *
“Jonto, Luss, thanks for coming,” Loona said, leaning against the Minority Leader’s seat on the House floor. The room was empty at the moment, save for Loona, Blrrr, Maybel Zimm, and Representative-of-the-Western-Avartle-People.
“Minority Leader asks us to meet with her, we meet with her,” Luss Kriole chuckled. “Though the floor of the House is an odd place to meet.”
“There’s a reason that I scheduled this opposite the Majority’s caucus meeting. I wanted to do it here, because it’s the best place to demonstrate it. Jonto, we’ve talked about redistricting in the past – what always ends up killing the idea?”
“That’s easy,” Jonto Cethje said. “The Majority.”
“Well, yes, but other than them.”
“Titan Representatives do not wish to surrender the glorious power of their mighty seats! To change the apportionment of representatives would be to give up their jobs!”
“So it would, Blrrr! So it would!” Loona said. “Even members who are sympathetic to the idea of fair apportionment hold back, because they don’t want to be forced into a larger district, one where they might have to run against another incumbent.”
“Honestly, it’s the reason I’ve hesitated,” Cethje said. “No offense to the non-Titans. It’s…I know it sounds bad, but I’d love to help you, but I’d hate to lose because of it.”
“It may not be the most noble of sentiments, but it is an honest one,” Zimm said. “I take it from your statements that you believe you have found a solution?”
“I believe I have,” Loona said. “And it was staring us right in the face the whole time. The corners – they’re empty. No reason to fill them – we have a thousand seats on the floor. But what if we did?”
Luss Kriole followed her gaze. His jaw dropped. “It…Emperor’s taint, could it really be that simple?”
“In fact, there’s room for four more blocks of 100 seats, if we wanted to add them to the ends,” Loona said, gesturing the other way. “And that assumes we don’t do something radical, like the more circular arrangement of desks that the Senate has, or something simple, like not necessarily having seats for every elected member – again, like the Senate does. I know, I know, those get more contentious. That is not the first step. The first step is simply to add five hundred seats to the House. That will allow us to correct the imbalance in membership, not by increasing the size of Archavian seat sizes to 50 million citizens, but by decreasing the average seat size to 33 million citizens – less than a million more than the current Archavian averages. Indeed, given the general five percent rule already in place, we wouldn’t even have to take a seat from Archavia to do it.”
“It would still dilute the power of representatives,” Kriole said.
“True, it would,” Maybel Zimm said. “But seniority is important, and the members currently holding seats would retain theirs, or at least, would have a chance at retaining them. Their seats would lose strength in the long run, but as long as they were re-elected, they would still wield a significant amount of power.”
“It’s been a long time since we added seats to the House,” Jonto said. “Two hundred years. Do you think people will accept it?”
“It won’t just help non-Titans; yes, it would give them 424 more seats, but another 76 would go to predominantly Titan districts. Those 76 seats would go slightly more to the conservatives than us; it’s not enough for them to support it, I know, but it’s enough to blunt their biggest argument.”
“It will be difficult for the greater-portion-of-the-house group to say the lesser-portion-of-the-house group is doing this just for political gain,” signed Representative-of-the-Western-Avartle-People.
“Indeed, long-term, this would end the non-Titan bloc. We are not unanimous on the issues, as you know. We disagree amongst ourselves. It would be better if we could join your caucuses in good conscience,” Maybel Zimm said. “This would allow us to.”
“This will take time,” Jonto said. “We don’t have a majority, even with non-Titans.”
“True,” Loona said. “This could not be done this session.”
“However! If you are willing to support this glorious change in power, to give the mighty Ler, the wise Dunnermac, and the brave Avartle more glorious strength, we will agree to join the minority when the time comes for us to! We will become a part of your glorious battle!”
Jonto blinked. “Given how close we are to a majority, and how tenuous things are for Zeramblin, and how the seats would change if human emancipation can get through….”
He looked around the chamber. “I can sell this to New Empire. And we can sell this to the Empire itself. It’s not about power. It doesn’t matter if it helps the conservatives in the end – it won’t, but that’s…that’s not why we do this. It’s just fairness. Same reason we passed the Dunnermac Equality Act.” He looked back at Zimm. “Your people deserve equal representation. It will take some conversation, but I feel certain New Empire will support this.”
“The position of Forward has long been for reapportionment. We will absolutely support this. We already do. Will Aspire?”
Loona smiled. “My caucus is always the most difficult on issues like this, I know. But I pitched this idea already; most of them were where you were, Jonto. They were happy to support it if they could keep their jobs. This lets them keep their jobs.”
“So it’s agreed,” Jonto said. “This will be a position of the minority. We’ll make it official at the next meeting.”
“Actually,” Zimm said, her eyes twinkling, “all we ask at the moment is your agreement. Your support. We do not want to…what is your idiom? Show your reserves?”
“Yeah, from Tol-Bot. That’s actually brilliant,” Luss Kriole said, with a laugh. “Keep it hidden until it’s time to use it. Hells, the majority won’t know what hit ‘em.”
“That is the plan,” Representative-for-the-Western-Avartle-People signed. “It will be greatly amusing to see how they react.”
“One question, though,” Jonto asked. “What happens if the humans are emancipated? What happens to seats then?”
“That is a pathetically easy question!” Blrrr howled. “We have room for thousands more seats for the pathetic, tiny humans!”
* * *
“Sitrep!” Ted called as the door to the bridge opened.
He noted that Cato had already taken the helm from Ahek Uɉa, who’d been bumped over to comms, where she was saying, in better-than-passable Archavian, =((Λitαᴋno ҍfixмαp)) ((Λitαᴋno ҍfixмαp)) Шεκ εxzι Γi Λitαᴋno =Ayкjvҍιjεp=) Πpαxi oπxшεpo)=
“Came out of nowhere, sir,” Cato said.
“What came out of nowhere?”
“Collision. Collision. Collision,” warned van der Graaf’s helm; she swore, and turned as a flash zipped past the ship. It was reasonably distant, but its presence, combined with Cato’s turn, sent a shudder through them again.
“Someone’s buzzing us in warp? Are you kidding me?”
“No, sir. That’s their second pass. Came within about three kilometers of disrupting the warp field.”
Ted stared, aghast, at his screen, watching the ship slow, then began to turn again.
One nice thing about warp travel is that it’s almost impossible to hit something at warp speed. You’re not actually moving, you’re folding space around you. Anything smaller than you will generally be pushed around you as you pass by it — which is fortunate, as hitting even a micrometor at warp speed would annihilate you completely. If you accidentally run into something bigger than you – and the odds are highly against it – then you will find your warp field disrupted and probably collapsed by its gravity well before you get close enough to be hurt.
It is, however, possible to run into something while traveling at warp speed: another object traveling at warp speed. It’s not easy, mind you. For one thing, you’re both going really, really fast relative to the universe, and intentionally colliding at those speeds is very difficult. For another, if your warp fields aren’t synced up, you still will likely push past each other; your warp fields might intersect, but you won’t.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that this can cause the warp field to collapse asymmetrically, allowing the space bent around you to become bent into you, or through you. This can be a minor issue. Or it can cause all baryonic matter in the area to spontaneously transform into energy. The problem is that it’s hard to know which will happen until it happens.
Of course, this isn’t a problem for ships that can beat Warp One — their fields are stacked so densely that this disruption rarely breaks all the way through to the ship inside them. It usually just means a brief loss of speed and a burst of profanity over the comms channel at the joyriding idiot who got too close.
Unfortunately, the Alcubierre‘s top speed was Warp 0.72.
“I don’t fucking believe it,” Ted said as the ship swerved to avoid another collision, this only 2.6 kilometers from affecting the warp field. “What kind of idiot buzzes someone at warp?”
* * *
“Whoa! That was ridiculous, pally!”
“You ain’t seen nothin’, Siggy. Get ready for another turn. Gonna aim for four decaunits this time.”
“Kriso, I think you need to stop.”
“Siggy, your boyfriend needs to stop worrying. I’m not going to hit the little buggies. Just scare ’em.”
“Will you listen to your girlfriend instead, Kreese? You’ve had too many Hustains to hit a four-decaunit window. You’re not that good a pilot when you’re sober.”
“Damm it, Prim, will you get off my back? I know what I’m doing.”
Kriso Jocoxe did not know what he was doing, not that he particularly cared. He had his ship, the Arkor, a Regulus Corvette Mark IX with less than a thousand light years on it, and it flew like a dream, almost as good as a fighter. And hells, if he did hit the human ship, he had his father — Lord Beistoni Jocoxe — to smooth things over. Not the first time he’d buzzed someone. First time he’d buzzed humans, but hells, hit them, they aren’t even people.
He lined up, gauged their speed, and hit the throttle. “Hold on to your tails, kids,” he said, grinning, as he sped past.
“Damn,” Kriso’s best firend, Siargeu Tausse said. “Pally, that was…you were about six units away. Units, pally. It might be time….”
“What are you, scared, Siggy? Don’t go boring on me. I don’t have to bring you along, pally.”
“No, he’s wising up, Kriso,” Heust Ralyssoly said. “Look, you’ve got three people in this ship telling you to stop. Stop.”
“It’s my ship, and I’m next in line for the primacy. Any of you part of the 79 families? No? Right. We’re gonna aim for a decaunit this time.”
“You do, and we’re done, Kreese. Don’t be an idiot,” Lytoprim Musy said, shoving a lock of blue hair out of her eye. “You’re going to hurt them or hurt us.”
“Settle down, Prim,” Kriso said, bringing the Arkor about. “I’m not going to hurt us.”
* * *
“Damn! That was way too close!” Ted shouted.
“Sir, they aren’t responding.”
Ted looked up. They were slowing again; clearly, they were timing their speed, trying to get close enough to scare them. If they’d wanted to collide, they could have. This suggested to him that they weren’t dealing with assassins, but joyriders.
He wasn’t sure that made him feel better. “Okay, decrease speed to level 5.”
“Decrease speed?”
“Yes, commander. Ahek, stop beating a dead horse.”
“I…have not heard that phrase….”
“They aren’t going to answer. Turn to Imperial channel two, and declare an emergency, and turn our transponder to emergency beacon. Go ahead and use English, your Archavian is good, their translators are better.”
“Aye, sir. Krypter, krypter, krypter. This is the Earth Vessel Miguel Alcubierre declaring an emergency. We have a vessel repeatedly intersecting our path at warp speed. Our transponder is at emergency beacon frequency.”
“Alcubierre, this is Vakor Station. We have your position. We will direct a ship to intercept…best time is probably about ten minutes.”
Ted grimaced; he hoped his attacker would either get bored or continue to miss. Ten minutes would be a long time.
“Vakor Station, this is Alcubierre actual, thanks, and tell the pilot that they can let the QFR boil over.”
“Affirm that, Captain Martínez. We’ll be there as fast as we can.”
Ted was gratified to see the ship miss them by a good million kilometers — dropping speed had thrown off their timing. He just hoped that would bore them, and that would be the end of it.
* * *
“Oho! Little shaar wants to play, does he?” Kriso said, laughing. “Smooth one. All right, they’re at Warp 0.5, huh? Okay, we can get really close now. Their shell’s smaller. Think I can hit four units?”
“I think you’re a felgercarber.”
“Four units it is!”
The Arkor dove on a much tighter arc, but Kriso swore, as he saw the human ship was dropping out of warp entirely. He turned, the ship about, and dropped the Arkor out of warp.
“You little…all right, we’ll do this relativistically.” He fired his gravitic thrusters, aiming to go right over the Alcubierre, but the human ship jumped back into warp, leaving him behind.
“Frak!”
Prim giggled. “Yeah. You’re an amazing pilot. Getting outshaared by a ship that goes a millionth as fast as this one. It’s almost as amazing as you are at sex.”
“You haven’t complained.”
“I don’t mind a guy who’s still learning if he’s someone I like. It can be fun. But when he’s a jerk…well…let’s just say he’d better know his way around. And Kriso, you really, really don’t.”
“You’re blowing your chance to get with a future Lord.”
“Keep telling yourself that, pally.”
Kriso growled, and set off after the human vessel. The fraking little worms. Frak them. He’d scrape them off his windscreen like the bugs they were. He would run it down, and match warp fields, and then….
“Holy frak!” Kriso shouted, pulling up on the yoke as a freighter came right through his path. It was distant, but so much bigger that it could have destroyed the tiny corvette if its timing had been off by more than a second.
“Yeah, that is mean, isn’t it?” a voice called over the comms on clear channel. “A ship that much bigger than you pulls right through your warp plot, it must terrify you. Can’t imagine anyone awful enough to do that.”
“Do…do…you…do you know who the frak you’re messing with? Who are you?” Kriso seethed.
“Kru Hocle,” the woman’s voice replied. “And I don’t much care. You’re a frakking joyrider. You out of high school yet?”
“I’m a senior at Vorsha Colonial, you frakker!”
“I thought that was a good school. Anyhow, you’d best kill your engines and sit there, killer. Don’t know if you noticed or cared, but Vakor Station’s got you dead to rights. Should be here in five minutes. Don’t even think about….”
Hocle laughed, as she saw the corvette turn and start to run. “Knew that was coming. This is Yenev Interstellar Freight 472, felgercarber is heading off at 392 carom 194, gonna run.”
“Is he? This is Grelau Cybertainment 46, he’s running right into me.”
This was almost literally true, as a smaller frieghter — though still mammoth compared to the Akor – flew across the Akor’s path.
“Shaka!” Kriso shouted, turning the ship. But a yacht was now coming at him full speed, this one a Regulus IV.
“Are we late to the party? I hope not. This is the Pygmalion, Taron Dande, commanding. Yenev Interstellar, Grelau Cybertainment, you’ve boxed this doofus and well.”
“Captain Dande, don’t know as I’ve made your acquaintance. Farsi Epes — Kru Hocle has the Yenev Interstellar. Nice ship, but let us handle ’em, they hit you and your boss won’t be happy.”
“My boss is the same as yours, ultimately, Captain Epes — and trust me, she won’t mind any of her ships getting dented if it helps bring in a joyrider.”
Taron angled his attack to force the hostile ship back toward the two large freighters, knowing that the fool at the helm of the corvette would likely assume that Taron actually wanted him to go there. Certainly, the Pygmalion looked like the least dangerous ship.
Kriso turned toward the yacht. He could slip by it and jump to warp — no way the rich idiot who owned it would want his ship hurt. Of course, Kriso ignored that he was a rich idiot who had no compunction about having his ship hurt. He laid in his course.
Taron grinned, and hit a button. “Targeting on. You got ’em ranged?”
“I’ve had them ranged for three minutes, dad,” Manto sighed. “Rings of Herekleos, this is how I end up spending my leave.”
“Right. Are you claiming you’re upset?”
“Only that Odin doesn’t get to see it live,” she said with a grin, firing the weapon.
An object flew out, hitting the Akor directly amidships. It stuck there, and began to bore into the hull with four lasers. Eight seconds later, it dropped four droids into the cavity, which homed in on the ship’s power systems and disabled them, as expected, fourteen seconds after that.
“Gorram, Dhan Armac, you make fun toys,” Taron laughed, watching the ship drift aimlessly. “Unidentified vessel, this is the Civilian Cruiser Pygmalion. You look to be in distress, do you require assistance?”
Kriso slammed his hand down on the controls. Everything had suddenly gone dark save for environmental controls and communications. “You’re gonna pay for that. My dad’s Lord Jocoxe. He’ll have your balls!”
“He’s awfully scary,” Kru Hocle laughed. “Big man, trying to scare us with daddy’s name.”
“You’re not fit to shine his shoes.”
“I was a senior crewmate in the corps, sonny, you don’t scare me. Besides, I’m a year from retirement, you want to get me fired, then I get to retire early.”
“Breaking in, this is Miguel Alcubierre actual. Thanks to all three of you; he was about a millisecond away from breaking our warp field.”
“Saw that,” Epes said. “Captain, had you on long-range – you at the helm, or your ship have a pilot?”
“Pilot’s my executive officer, Cato van der Graaf – she did some nice flying.”
“Gorram right. These joyriding kids are a menace. Sorry you had to deal with it. I live on Vakor, so doubly sorry it’s in my home system. We should treat guests better.”
“You’re talking to them like they’re people,” Kriso Jocoxe grumbled.
“Gorram, you little shaka. They’re a hell of a lot better people than you are. You have the guts to fly a sub-warp-one ship twenty light years? I didn’t think so.”
“Listen, you….”
Suddenly, a voice broke through. “All ships, hold position and stop engines. This is the ISS Gorrk. We are on approach. Repeat, hold position, stop engines, and prepare to transmit your data logs for the last hour.”
“This ship disabled mine! They fired a weapon! My father is Lord Jocoxe, and….”
“This is Gorrk actual, be silent, pathetic Titan! Our glorious communications officer did not tell you to speak to us! Transmit your data logs and be silent!”
Captain Drrntr shook her head when the comms officer reported that four of the five ships had transmitted logs, with the exception of the Arkor.
“The Arkor is refusing to send its logs, says it will require an order by an imperator. But based on the logs from the Alcubierre, they’ve violated at least six laws.”
“I am unsurprised, Commander Florem!”
“There are some indications that the other three may have violated some laws….” Niseu said, though he said it with a grin.
“What indications! Such indications must be illusions! I see three ships that came to the aid of a fourth. If the pathetic and dishonorable ship appeared to be inconvenienced, they have only their own cowardice to blame!”
“I agree, ma’am. Recommend we pick up the vessel and bring it in to Vakor Station.”
“Agreed! Communications, inform the Arkor! And then open a channel to the Alcubierre!”
Ted was relieved, more than anything, when the call came through from the Gorrk.
“Pathetic, honorable human ship! Apologies for the interference in your voyage! And fine flying by your pilot! I was a pilot before I was a glorious, powerful commanding officer, so I am well aware of the skill required!”
“Honorable Captain!” Ted shouted, startling his bridge crew. “I agree, my brave pilot is as fine as there is! I have not made your acquaintance; I am Ted Martínez.”
“Captain Martínez, you know a glorious and honorable friend of mine, my former executive officer, Captain Lauryna Gwenn! She has told me of you and your skill.”
“Aha! You must be Captain Drnttr! Captain Gwenn has told me of your ability and bravery, ma’am. I am honored to meet you!”
“Agreed! Do you require any assistance?”
“No, Captain! We thank you and the other ships that came to our aid! Safe journey, and…uh…Trrl srkss tgh Lr.”
“Fine Lerish! You honor me, captain! A glorious journey to you as well!”
Ted leaned back, and said, “Cato, resume previous heading. Incidentally, what’s the Curie’s top recorded speed?”
“Level 7.141, sir.”
“Well, we are behind schedule. Ahead, Level 7.19.”
Cato van der Graaf grinned. “Aye, sir.”
“I’ll be in my quarters; patch me through to the Pygmalion when you get a chance, Lieutenant Uɉa.”
* * *
Taron let his daughter take the helm; she was as good a pilot as he had ever been. Better, really – she had quicker reflexes than he did, a result of her hybrid heritage. And she had her birth mother’s bravery. The ship was frankly better off in her hands than his. Besides, he knew a message would be coming through.
“This is Captain Dande.”
“Taron, were you shadowing us?”
“Of course we were shadowing you,” Taron said. “And doing a bad job of it. I didn’t want you to know you were being shadowed. Unfortunately, that meant we were hanging too far back. Lucky the freighters were nearby, I almost had to explain to Pryvani how we blew it.”
“Better her than Tig,” Ted said. “Look, I appreciate it…I do. But we’re trying to do this on our own.”
“You are, Ted,” Taron said. “Trust me – I didn’t offer you a lift to get you back on schedule, and we haven’t been following you the whole way. We were here in Vakor to try to keep what happened from happening. I know this will sound crazy, but I know better than you how humans are viewed out here. Fortunately, it was just an idiot kid, but it could have been worse.”
“It doesn’t sound crazy,” Ted said. “I’ve talked to Manto. I’ve talked to Nick and Sophia. And many, many others. I was lucky to be born on Earth, and to stay there. But if we’re going to help the humans here, we have to prove that we’re not weak, that we don’t need rescuing. That we don’t need Titans hovering over us as protectors.”
“Well, you don’t,” Taron said.
“We just did. Literally, just did.”
“Not at all. You were the victim of an idiot flying through your warp plot. That can happen to any pilot, Titan or human. Yeah, you needed help, but not because you were human – because a jerk was breaking the law. That’s all we’re here for, Ted, to make sure that you’re able to make your trip without a Titan stopping you. You’ll do fine otherwise. And if it makes you feel better, Manto took the shot.”
“It does, a bit,” Ted sighed. “I do appreciate it. I don’t want it to sound like I don’t. And if you’d do me a favor, can you get the contact information from the other pilots? I’m going to request that both get the Gagarin Friendship Award. You get one too, but I know where you live.”
“Of course, and you don’t need to reward me. I’m just doing my job. And Ted…if you want us to stop shadowing you, we will.”
Ted looked out the window. “No, no, that’s fine. Just…if I make a mistake, if we fly into a star or something…you have to let us make mistakes.”
“Agreed, captain. Safe journey.”
“And to you. And tell Dokimon Dande-Kramer to hurry up and get through command school, we could use her back on Titan.”
“I will tell her that, though no promises. We could use her on Avalon, too.”
“I’ll bet. Alcubierre out.”
* * *
By the time Kriso Jocoxe had been processed at Vakor Station, he had a whole plan in place.
True, the plan was complicated by the three passengers, all of whom had said that they’d told him to stop. And it didn’t help that his blood alcohol level was slightly above the legal limit for a pilot. And the fact that they’d flown to Vakor from Vorsha without legally filing a flight plan was problematic. But he’d been in worse jams before.
And so he’d impressed upon everyone that his dad was Lord Jocoxe, and that his dad was a powerful and rich man, and that they’d better not treat him bad, or his dad would go after them. He told his initial interrogator on the ship that he’d only answer to the commanding officer at Vakor – he didn’t know or care who it was, but he assumed the commander of a two-bit station like that would be impressed if the son of Lord Jocoxe offered to, say, add a new landing pad at his expense if this all went away.
And they’d finally told him that they would send the commanding officer in, and so he waited patiently in the interrogation cell, a disarming grin on his handsome face, ready to sell this hick on exactly why he or she should defer to a richer, more powerful family.
The door opened, and he looked at his interrogator.
And the smile slid off his face.
“Hello, Kriso. I understand you have a father who is rather powerful? It’s funny, I do too.”
Centurium Antero ColVanos, the commanding officer of Vakor Station, slid into the chair across from Kriso Jocoxe and flashed a winning smile.
Kriso didn’t say anything. There was nothing to be said.
Some familiar DX tropes here
1) Everyone in the racist dude’s group hates or disagrees with the racist dude yet they are still his friends for some unknown reason. Then the racist gets busted and we all live happily ever after, yet the logical conclusion in this world is that he would escape punishment due to human status in order to further discomfort among humanity towards Titans, thereby generating story.
2) Plotholes: How’d these numbnuts know where the Human ship was? Does future tech not protect against drunk drivers seeing as a person slamming even a shuttle at warp speed into a planet with a population could kill thousands. Were the freighters just hanging out nearby or were they called and how’d they outmaneuver a shuttlecraft.
3) No danger: Was I worried for even a second something might happen? No, that would have created tensions, anguish, story. Plot armor surrounds the ever growing cast worse than Tyrion of GoT. I figure sooner or later Ted or Tig or both will die because its logical from a story point, yet I had no fear here and do’t worry for any of the 40 or so others. A mild interest at the beginning with the conflict was quickly squelched by the overwhelming arrival of friends and allies to help. Not exactly the underdog are the humans?
4) No point: I had a feeling that maybe we’d have a moment where someone who is working against humanity or for the separatists/federation would have had a hand in this, like getting the dude drunk and giving the coords of the human ship and building up his confidence or anger. All in order to cause an incident that Earth would have a hard time forgetting and would cause trouble overall. But no, that didn’t happen. I feel so little fear of the bad guys in this story, what do they do? Are they even alive? No, just a drunk rich kid, move along.
Look, you can badmouth me for my criticisms all day long. Granted I’m opening here a bit hostile. But don’t bother with the “free story” stuff or the “read another story”. I’ve read them all, I like this world and I like the overall story structure. My point is that I feel so little story here anymore. When Niall was struggling I felt it, Luke, Darren, Izzy, same for so many characters. Loved Aisell’s tortured decisions, Eyrn’s passion and discovery of a new world, Naskia’s journey, and so on.
This chapter epitomized my growing ambivalence (begun in early to mid Contact) towards anything that happens anymore. This chapter fails because any real reader wouldn’t worry for a second that the growing cast would have any problems, that the racists wouldn’t be busted and isolated, that the system wouldn’t work out to help humanity despite the central nature of the struggle of this story is that very system is oppressing it. This is a downhill “struggle”. All the Titans are always such good kind people, except for the few racist dicks, the hybrid kids are completely good despite massive reasons as to why they’d be ostracized or have massive issues yet they seem to be doing fine as of last (Odin, Manto, Sorcha to name 3). Humanity is being allowed tech, access to Titan military station, accepted pet stuff with little problem, all our POV characters seem strawberry gumdrop good and ok with all the probs. I apologize if this comes off as too harsh, but I honestly wonder if anyone else sees this as anything other than the inevitable march to victory with barely so much as a speed bump?
You say you like the stories, but it seems clear you don’t like DX’s. As for why, that remains a mystery to me, but maybe it’s because DX is good at giving INFO, maybe more so than CONFLICT (that said, most people here seem to look forward to both). As for “inevitable march to victory” as you put it: yes, that’s generally how stories work, unless they’re a tragedy genre. Regarding your points:
0) This story is called “The Debate”. The Alcubierre’s Journey is (at least in my opinion) a side story for a little bit of action. While the political scenes are very insightful, there’s no question there’s not much action there. Again, take from that what you will, but this isn’t one of the novels, and it’s unlikely anyone but JS is going to kill off a major character.
1) Pretty much a fact of (real) life as well. Whatever the case, Kriso and the other 3 are friends/lovers and he just happens to be *really* drunk, and quite a bit stupid here. Presumably when he’s not drunk he’s slightly more sensible, but it’s clear he expects his father to be able to bail him out of most anything.
2) Pretty much all these questions are answered or implied in the story. He didn’t know where the ship would be. Or more specifically, he didn’t necessarily know the Alcubierre specifically would be flying through here. Titan tech is apparently sufficient enough to track nearby ships, and when you fly at a million times the speed of light or more, nearby is pretty relative.
As was mentioned in the intro, slamming into something much bigger than you (that’d be a planet’s outer atmosphere for what you’re asking about) causes the warp field to disintegrate. Sure, even at sub-light speeds you could end up killing somebody, but presumably populated planets have automated and manned mechanisms for dealing with large objects (eg a drunk kid’s craft) hurtling into the planet.
It’s pretty clear from the story the freighters just happened to be in the area. Taron was tailing (badly) the Alcubierre and almost got there too late because of that.
3) Fair point, but seemingly not really DX’s writing style. If the wiki is any indication, what you will get from his stories is facts. Lots and lots of them.
4) Again, there’s only no point to the story if you feel every chapter of every story must have all 5 stages of plot. The humans really don’t need some empire wide conspiracy setting them back in every chapter, as it seems like you think they do.
OHH is a couple chapters into a new story, TD has Hybrid supposedly later this year, and JS has a number of stories in various stages of publication. Maybe one of those stories will be to your liking if you liked Physics and Exile. Each of the authors definitely have there own style, which I think is what makes the whole so good. Personally, I enjoy DX’s style because I’m into facts and figures, but I can see how that might come off as more boring than some of the others.
Very well then. Let me write you a story perhaps better suited to your particular tastes.
An operative working for the Federation gets Kriso drunk at a bar and gives him the quadrants of the human ship. Kriso buzzes the human ship in a drunken joy ride prompting Ted to send out a desperate distress call to the nearest Titan station. The Titans receive his message but refuse to offer help in any shape or form due to their dismissing the humans as beneath their concert. They further admonish Ted to keep their emergency channels clear for “real” emergencies and laugh him off the coms.
With no help coming, Ted elects to take matters into his own hands and takes the helm of the ship in an attempt to out maneuver Kriso in a game of intergalactic and inter-species chicken. The two ships joust back and fourth continuously, each time getting closer and closer, but each time Ted maneuvers away at the last second further frustrating Kriso. Eventually Ted manages to maneuver his ship close enough to the Kriso’s ship to destroy it’s engines when he hits it with his own ships after burners, disabling Krios. Ted prepares to fly away leaving Kriso stranded when suddenly Kriso’s ship explodes, engulfing Ted’s ship and destroying it. There are no survivors.
This sparks outrage throughout Earth and the Empire. The Titans blame the death of a prominent nobel on the reckless actions of humans using technology far too advanced for them and begin calling for the humans of earth to be contained, including the removal of earth military personnel from Titan Station and the restriction of all human space travel beyond Mars. Earth blames the death of a prominent captain and his crew on the failure to the Titans to enforce their own laws for the sake of humans and call for the Titan embassy in Nevada to be immediately shut down and all Titan personal to leave earth.
Tig manages to turn her sadness at her husbands death into determination to uncover the truth about his death and so steals a shuttle from Titan Station and flies to the scene of the accident. After sifting through the wreckage she manages to recover the black box from Ted’s ship and learns that the explosion that destroyed Krios’s ship started in the cockpit, not the engines. Ted’s maneuver couldn’t have been responsible. The only logical solution was that a bomb was planted on Krios’s ship and remotely detonated in an attempt to make it look like the humans were responsible. But before Tig can alert anyone to her findings, her ship is tragically destroyed by an explosion starting in the cockpit. There are no survivors.
In the ensuing political confusion, Zeramblin is ousted in coup by Qorni who quickly moves to reverse all human rights advancements while also declaring the government of earth a hostile entity to the Empire. Loonah tries to block Qorni’s take over, but unfortunately the launch party for her latest book that she was attending with her pet humans and a famous Tolbot player is blown up by a Federation extremist. There are no survivors.
Meanwhile, the U.N. military sends a massive army of troops to lay siege to the Titan embassy. The Titan military personnel stationed there refuse to leave and engage the earth military. Eyrn pleads with both sides for some kind of sanity but is tragically killed in the impending volley of gun fire. The Titans successfully repeal the earth forces after an intense battle, prompting the U.N. to launch a nuclear strike on the embassy, completely destroying it and spreading nuclear fallout for over a 100 miles in every direction. There are no survivors.
Qorni in a rage declare this an act of war and sends the full force of the Titan fleet to subjugate the humans of earth once and for all. With the imperial armada temporally distracted by their carpet bombing of earth, the Federation take this opportunity to declare their independence from the empire and launches a preemptive strike on Archavia, capturing the capital. In response the Dunnermac, Ler, Avartle, and Jotunn launch an invasion of the Federation descending the empire into full blown civil war.
In the ensuing chaos, the insectoids launch a massive invasion of the empire. They sweep through the outer colonies, burning entire worlds in their wake. Archavia lies in ruins, Earth is burning, and Avalon is repossessed to pay for trillions in back taxes owed by the Tarsuss corporation. Amongst all the destruction and death, a single figure stands alone. Niall Freeman gazes across the rubble that was once his house, and the charred remains that were once his family. In his hand he holds a cylinder containing a strange, sparkling grey liquid, the last gift of Dahnyle Armac. With a heavy sigh, Niall breaks the cylinder over his head and in an instant he is consumed by a swarm of infinitely spawning microscopic machines.
These machines spread out across the empire, hopping from planet to planet, consuming all organic life they find. Soon the entire galaxy is consumed by their ravenous hunger. The universe left a lifeless husk as the last stars slowly twinkle into eternal night and are are gone. There are no survivors.
Oh sure, I’m the harbinger of doom eh :p
Oops, I mixed up the authors a bit, sorry. Dann is the one writing the other story in progress now (“Training Day”) and OHH is the one doing Hybrid.
I like this story 🙂
Yes, Genguidanos story does sort of remind me of my reaction the first time I watched final scenes in Hamlet 🙂
Shoot, guys, someone guessed the ending…. 😛
@Genguidanos : setting aside the fact that your story doesn’t fit with much of anything we know of the titanverse, it was nice. 😉
Nice and yes, uninteresting because way too pessimistic.
You just demonstrated that a story too extreme, either in pessimism or optimism, is usually pretty bland plot-wise… which is exactly Per Angusta’s point, actually.
Quod erat demonstrandum, congratulations ! 😛
@Genguidanos
Well wow, that was kind of incredible. Amazing In a dark way. But you missed my point at several stages yous could have reversed the fortunes of the good guys to win after some limited failure t hat you mentioned. They could have overcome that. It shouldn’t be a string of darkness unless you want that, and its ok to know the good guys will win. Its just lacking in drama when they win ALL THE TIME. Name the last time the good guys suffered a setback, its a while.
Nighteye nailed it, a story where i never worry about the large cast of heroes is dull as is pure pessimism. If the good guys will always win what’s the point? Does anyone suffer, does anyone have to deal with significant issues? No? then explain why not
1) We don’t really know what Kriso’s companions think of humans. They disagreed with Kriso because he was breaking the law and risking either the humans or themselves getting hurt. But pretty much any titan who doesn’t regard humans as vermin would react like that. Actually, the ‘breaking the law’ and ‘risk themselves getting hurt’ bits would make most titans who care nothing about human lives disagree with Kriso as well.
2) Just because something isn’t explained doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a plot hole. The Alcubierre passing through Sol Vakor may have been a subject of the local news, and if spaceships have transponders like aircraft in real life do, then it wouldn’t be hard to track the Alcubierre down. As for shuttles slamming into planets, aside from the “gravity wells can disable warp” thing that TheSilentOne already mentioned, it’s known that military ships and Titan Station have shields. There is a good possibility that Archavia and similar places have shields protecting the entire planet.
3) The whole series has yet to kill off a major protagonist. If it happens I expect it to be in one of the major stories, not in a bridging story called The Debate. Not that I’m saying that it cannot happen (I for one was worried while reading this chapter), but criticizing this story because it didn’t happen now is a headscratcher for me.
I get the impression that you don’t enjoy the stories here anymore because THERE MUST BE DRAMA, so you’re looking for conflict and for people to die for the cause. I can understand that somewhat, but only somewhat. People should always act according to their character and circumstances. If fighting makes less sense than diplomacy then people shouldn’t start fighting unless that’s their character, even if fighting is more exciting to read about. As for killing off protagonists, my opinion is that it should only be done to advance the story, such as to provide motivation for the survivors or to show the horror of the present situation. Killing off a protagonist just for drama is something that I strongly dislike; I tend to care about protagonists, so I feel cheated when one is killed off just because the writer couldn’t think of any other way to get an emotion out of me.
4) I doubt the bad guys are going to make a move at this time. All indications are that when the Tarsuss Committee presents its findings, that’s when all hell is going to break loose. Anyway, this chapter reinforces that the bad guys aren’t the only ones making life difficult for the good guys. Even a drunk joyrider poses a danger when humanity has to build and fly its own ships because the Empire still isn’t convinced that humans are no less a people than any other species.
ah the bigotery seems universal neither human one or titan
Ted played a pivotal role in the Titan Station incident and had a hand in taking down Solis. He is known to the emperor, the floor leader, minority leader, Lady Tarsuss, and a host of military officers and flag officers. I so saw the appearance of the prince coming, how could you not. Kriso thinks he’s a big fish, but he sure picked on the wrong ship.
I’m sure Ted’s pride might be a little bruised. (They might need a couple people to hold Tig back when they tell her about it.) It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Of course the fact that they are taking a prototype ship with less than a warp 1 field on an interstellar voyage highlights what was discussed early. Humans take a lot more risks pushing the envelope than Titans would.
Last thing, they talked about room for 4 more blocks of 100 seats, and also adding 500 additional seats. Where are they getting the extra 100? Should I read more into that?
I noticed that too. Loona mentions that they can add 400 more seats without rearranging the room, but that they could fit more if necessary. Also, seat is being used somewhat ambiguously in that passage, but its use mirrors say, the US house and senate. It can either mean physical chairs (4 blocks of 100), or it could mean positions (500 seats). Ideally you would have a chair for each person, but apparently that’s not the case already in the Titan Senate, and Loona mentions it as a possibility for the House as well.
Regarding the actual numbers though, 500 is just the amount needed to correct some imbalance in citizens represented by each seat, and is ignoring where they would put the new members. Of this, apparently 424 of those seats would go to distracts that were primarly non-Titan, so maybe that’s part of the concern. Real life redistricting is a big deal I don’t even pretend to understand, and its pretty much hopeless to understand Titan districts with just a couple sentences in passing. The wiki doesn’t give much additional info, but it does note the current total, 1000 seats, so adding 500 more would be a huge deal.
As I understood it, 4 blocks of 100 seats can be added “if we wanted to add them to the ends”, plus another bunch (likely 2 blocks of 100) by filling the corners, which are currently empty. If so, then the end result would look like this (X = current block of 100 chairs, O = future block of 100 chairs):
OXXXXOO
X
X
OXXXXOO
So, is the Alcubierre‘s voyage a well-know fact in the empire ? Or did Kriso have priviledged information ?
Either way, how does a civilian ship track down another ship at warp speed ?
More importantly : the Alcubierre‘s mission is widely public on Earth.
Will the UN publicize this incident – at the risk of inflaming anti-Titan sentiment ?
Or will they (try to) sweep it under the rug again, making the same mistake as before ?
I’d really like to see the diplomatic consequences of this event, if any.
Neither I suspect. As Taron said, this area of space has some hostility against humans. As far as tracking, I imagine it something like a sports car driving close to someone walking down the middle of a (otherwise empty) highway.
Regarding the UN, why should they mention anything at all? The ship was inconvenienced maybe an hour or two, no one was hurt, and as far as I can tell, there was no actual damage. It was a single snobbish Titan who doesn’t like humans, and Earth already knows there are Titans like that.
Okay, so you’re saying, let’s sweep it under the rug. It’s an option of course…
Not everything that happens is newsworthy. If anything, if it were reported, it should be for the fact that a few good samaritan captains decided to intervene to basically do a citizen’s arrest on the jackass. It was the drunken playboy son of a rich family thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. If anything, that’ll make titans more relate-able for humans. And seeing him actually arrested and very likely charged would probably impress people.
Pretty much. I mean, “Mission almost failed due to one snobbish Titan kid…blink here for more” is awesome blink-bait, but is more or less entirely unhelpful. As far as adding any useful information though, I can’t see how mentioning it would in any way help. Earth at this point already knows that Titans exist, and that not all of them are nice. I think the sensible thing to say, if anything, is “We experienced some minor setbacks as could be expected, but overall the mission was a success” Anything more is just asking for unneeded trouble. I guess it’s sweeping it under the rug, but let’s be honest, governments not telling you every little detail that happened on a mission.
I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something here. Is there a reason you could think of that publicizing the incident would be in any way beneficial? Certainly willing to reconsider my opinion if there is.
The trip itself is something something newsworthy. And on the long stretches of nothing, anything that happens becomes news.
We also know whales exist, but what if one almost collided with one of the first transatlantic ship crossings. Now supposed they also had access to modern day internet and radio when it happened, because that’s basically what this is.
The information blockade is gone, and Earth news sites have access to some Titan news steams now don’t they? No need for the government to decide what to release. I imagine they’ll be all over the heIr of one of the 79 families getting arrested and what for. And in turn, the blink bait sites will be all over that as soon as the word human is caught by what ever search filtet they are using.
@TheSilentOne : “I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something here. Is there a reason you could think of that publicizing the incident would be in any way beneficial? Certainly willing to reconsider my opinion if there is.”
Well, such a high profile mission will be on high scrutiny from the public, so hiding the incident might be doomed to fail.
As for the rationale, a whole chunk of The Debate is about not hinding unpleasant things from humans like they’re dumb animals who can’t cope. That was actually the main point of most of the story so far.
Now that the truth about the Empire has been exposed, entire governments are gonna be voted out and rightfully so : is it wise to make the same mistake again ?
Asshole titan stopped by good Samaritan titans, immediately punished. Not sure what the blowback would be or how its particularly newsworthy. Now if they damaged the Alcubierre, or worse, then yes there would have been massive news and had huge implications on Earth politics. As it was they were inconvenienced about an hour.
It’s not like the Alcubierre is the only newsworthy thing happening on Earth. Also, because of how long term its mission is, it’s not like people are constantly watching their GOOL for more information. It’s probably more like:
“Oh cool. Earth’s first warp ship. Hey cool, it actually works! Okay… now let me know when something else happens, cus I’ll be playing video games, chatting online, and working my ass off to pay for my tiny little apartment.”
People have short attention spans when it comes to things that don’t affect them directly or that they aren’t passionate about.
You have the guts to fly a sub-warp-one ship twenty light years?
The narration doesn’t mention exactly who says this, but it seemed to be one of the freighter pilots. My guess is that the passage of an Earth vessel through Sol Vakor is unusual enough to have been an item in the local news.
As for tracking, it’s more likely than not that transponders are standard issue on spaceships. Aside from that, spacetime warps apparently involve a lot of energy and might therefore be easy to detect with spaceship instruments.
As for tracking, it’s more likely than not that transponders are standard issue on spaceships. Aside from that, spacetime warps apparently involve a lot of energy and might therefore be easy to detect with spaceship instruments.
Light or any other EM radiation from stars passing through a warp bubble would go through extreme Doppler shifts to an observer outside the bubble as the bubble appeared to move in front of distant objects. Indeed that’s likely to be a communications headache with point to point transmissions in high traffic areas near inhabited planets. I suspect there are certain locations where warp travel is prohibited for that reason. That would be a good question for the better looking Dr. Freeman.
That would be Naskia *right*? (In all seriousness though, for anyone not quite as familiar with the characters, that *would* be Naskia, as R/D into long range communications is exactly what she does for a living)
I giggled with glee at that last bit, Loona has become a fine politician, and Dhan gets a much needed appearance. I figured Kriso would find himself dealing with Pryvani through Taron, but Antero is even better.
Great stuff, part of me it’s Manto firing a Dahn weapon that takes out the joyriders. E tarth humans, empire humans, and human sized hybrids got to stick together! Cameo by the Prince was hilarious, you done fucked up bad Kriso.
Loona playing magnificent bastard is always nice, especially since ‘Roddy’ has been stealing her spotlight lately, and yeah I guess space wouldn’t be an issue for humans. :p
Get fucking wrecked you little shit brat! Oh that was so satisfying.
Hehehehe… Oh, what fun to be exploring the universe with friends and acquaintances! What a fun expedition… Clever political maneuvering, too. Great stuff, Maynard! ;-}
Oh that’s just hilarious. Good luck threatening or bribing the heir to the Emperor.
Kriso may have been speechless at the moment but he obviously has a big mouth. An idiot like that doesn’t get interrogated by the crown prince and not tell the world. Of course Kriso’s spin will be his dad called the emperor to make it happen but the essential message will get out there that messing with Terran ships is a really bad idea. That’ll scare off the joyriders, leaving only the real bad guys as a threat.
Ted acting surprised he had someone riding shotgun is the only element that’s off in this episode.
One thing for sure, you don’t want to challenge one of Pryvani’s yachts with anything less than capital ship firepower and even then it would be risky 🙂