Faster Than Light: Dobhriathar Read online

Faster Than Light: Dobhriathar

  by Malcolm Pierce

  Copyright 2010 Malcolm Pierce

  Chapter 1

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

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

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

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

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

  Now there is only one.

  *

  Caitlin Adair ran her fingers along the worn velvet of her green dress. She was nervous. It felt like it was the first time she’d ever been asked to do her job in her entire life.

  Her mother died from a wasting disease when Caitlin was only eleven years old. This was a traumatic enough experience on its own, but Caitlin’s mother was the Governess of Balashyre, one of the largest cities on Airlann. As her oldest daughter, Caitlin was expected to step up and take the title for herself. And she did, but she never took on any of the responsibility. Her mother’s retainers and advisers handled everything for her.

  Now Balashyre faced a situation that befuddled the wise men and women of her court. It was nothing they’d ever dealt with before. There was a starship sitting in a field just outside of the city walls.

  Caitlin took a deep breath. She was seated behind her heavy wooden desk. It was a piece of furniture that belong to her mother, her grandmother, and a line of governesses that stretched through the centuries.

  She thought about all of the wise women who had sat at the desk and wondered what they would do in this situation. Starships were not permitted on Airlann. They were banned by the Treaty of Fréamhaigh along with all other industrial and post-industrial technology. This would have been a crisis at any other time, but this wasn’t just any other time.

  “Governess?” a soft voiced asked. It was one of Caitlin’s serving maidens. She was standing in the doorway. “Captain Seth Garland of the I.S.S. Fenghuang is here to see you.”

  Caitlin leaned back in her chair and tried to look imposing. It was difficult. She was only twenty years old. Her skin was pale, barely touched even by the gentle Airlannian sun. Nevertheless, her eyes were sharp and focused. Even if she’d never done it before, she had a job to do. She had to protect her people.

  “Send him in.”

  The maiden nodded and ducked out of the room. Caitlin prepared herself. She closed her eyes and put her head down in prayer to the Goddess Airlanni. Her red curls fell around her face as she reflected on the task in front of her.

  Caitlin had only met off-worlders once, and it was a brief and unpleasant encounter. They were traders who visited Balashyre shortly after her mother’s death. She refused their business, as was custom, because they dealt in unworldly goods. They did not take this well and accused her of oppressing her people. They even went as far as to suggest that her mother would have survived the wasting with their tools.

  “It is an honor to meet you, Governess.” At the sound of the surprisingly soft voice, Caitlin looked up. A young man now stood outside her doorway. He was small, barely taller than Caitlin herself. His skin was the color of papyrus, his eyes were narrow and dark. He had short but straight black hair, haphazardly slicked back towards his neck. His clothes were alien, a dark form-fitting jacket that didn’t seem to display any rank or insignia, and stiff pleated pants.

  “Why would you come here?” Caitlin asked. “Of all places, why Airlann?”

  Seth did not immediately respond. Instead, he took his time stepping into the room, considering the question. “I believe that my starship is the last one in the galaxy,” he finally said.

  Caitlin furrowed her brow and slammed her fist down on the desk in front of her. There was a good chance that the captain was actually younger than her so she hoped she might be able to scare him after all. “That was not my question! Why here?”

  The captain didn’t even flinch. He just stopped in the middle of the room and held up his hand. “You didn’t let me finish. I believe that my starship is the last one. I don’t know. The People’s Republic has lied about plenty up to this point. If they have a ship to send after me, they won’t think to look here.” Now he took another step towards her. “I came here to ask for your help.”

  “Why would you think anyone here would be willing to help you? Are you insane?”

  Seth smiled. “I don’t know. What do you think?”

  “I do not think that it is any of my business! I do not think it matters!” Caitlin exclaimed. “Starships are banned in my city, on this planet, and now, if I have heard correctly, throughout the galaxy. I should have you arrested.”

  A quick grimace flashed across Seth’s face. For just a second, Caitlin thought that he might be reconsidering his decision to come to Balashyre. But he immediately recovered, leaning forward to speak in a low tone. “I have always been amazed by Airlann. How do you do it? How do you maintain a society that so completely rejects the progress of the last two thousand years? There are so many wondrous sights to be seen in the galaxy, so many things to do...and that’s all without mentioning the drugs.”

  Caitlin clenched her teeth and hissed at the captain. “You are just like the others. You think that we need your technology and your medicine. You don’t understand that--”

  “I don’t mean medicine,” Seth said. “I mean drugs. This is the only planet that’s kept Opizone off the streets. That stuff is fantastic, or so I’ve heard. I’ve never tried it. I think five percent of all humanity has some sort of addiction to--”

  “You do not amuse me, Captain Garland. Please get to the point.”

  Seth nodded. “What I’m trying to say is that it’s remarkable what this planet has done. Everyone is free to leave and yet...they don’t.” He paused, thinking. “Or I guess they were free to leave, at least before the Fall.”

  “The Fall?”

  “That’s what they’re calling it out there.” Seth motioned upwards, at the ceiling, but he clearly meant to point to the stars. “The death of space travel. The splintering of the human race. The end of progress, as far as I’m concerned. We’re all stuck on our own planets now.”

  Caitlin felt her heart skip a beat. “We are...trapped.” It was as if she never thought of it that way before. The first time she heard about the Fall, she was glad. The rest of the galaxy was coming to the same realization that the people of Airlann discovered centuries before. But now...

  “Is everything all right?” Seth asked.

  As painful as it was to admit t
o herself, Caitlin wasn’t sure. “There is a tradition here known as the Sraithing,” she said. “When we turn sixteen, we are given the opportunity to leave Airlann for a month. Sometimes even more. We can explore the galaxy, visit other planets, and learn for ourselves the dangers of technology.” She sighed. “I never got that chance. Before I was old enough, I inherited my mother’s calling. I could not leave, even though...”

  Caitlin was not going to say any more. She was surprised at how much she’d already revealed to the young captain. She did not want to tell him that she barely had any responsibility on Airlann and that, had her retainers been willing to cover for her, she could have participated in the Sraithing like all of her peers.

  “If you arrest me, there will be no more Sraithing,” Seth told her. “There will be no more galaxy. Just this planet.”

  “The People’s Republic said this was a temporary issue. They said they would re-open the trade routes.”

  “They lied. Just like I said”

  Once again, Caitlin surprised herself with how disappointed she was. “Somewhere, deep down, I always thought that I would get to see the stars.”

  Seth smiled. “You still can.” He reached across the desk and extended his hand. “Just come with me.”

  Caitlin looked into his dark eyes and was transfixed. She hadn’t thought about leaving Airlann for years, but there was something about Captain Garland that lead her back to those long-buried dreams. Despite herself, she stretched out her arm and took his hand. It was soft, as if he’d never worked a day in his life, either.

  Suddenly, Captain Garland’s eyes flashed red. He squeezed her hand. His calming voice became an unnatural growl. “You’re coming with me!” he hissed, and pulled as hard as he could on her arm.

  Caitlin was yanked from her chair and felt her legs give out from under her. She braced herself to hit the floor, but the impact never came. Instead, she watched as the ground itself crumbled beneath her. A mighty quake shook the office, splitting the earth in two. She slipped between the cracks and then there was nothing. There was only darkness beneath her, a never-ending pit.

  Seth was gone, her home was gone, Airlann was gone... There was only the void. And she was falling faster and faster.

  A scream rose from her lungs and flew from her mouth, but failed to fill the dark expanse around her. It was as if she had no voice. She was helpless. She couldn’t even cry out. There was only silence... And then...

  “ALL CREW REPORT TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM.”

  At first, the booming voice confused Caitlin even more. She couldn’t see where it was coming from. Then she realized that she was lying down. She was still falling, but she was on her back and she wasn’t moving.

  She was asleep. It was just a dream.

  “ALL CREW REPORT TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM.”

  Caitlin’s eyes flew open. The first thing she saw was the gray metal ceiling of her quarters. Then she looked over to her left. A large view-screen displayed the dark depths of the stars outside.

  She remembered where she was. She was on the I.S.S. Fenghuang. She was now a member of Seth Garland’s crew. No matter how many times she had the nightmare, she found it was almost a relief to discover it was real. She accepted his invitation to join him on his mission and now they were hundreds of light years from Airlann. There was no going back.

  And now he was waking her up because she had to go to the conference room. She had the quarters farthest to the back of the ship, where the artificial gravity was lightest and closest to the mild pull of Airlann. Everywhere else on the vessel gave her a headache after too long. Even in her room, she still felt like she was falling when she closed her eyes.

  Caitlin didn’t have much of a frame of reference to compare starships, but she knew that the Fenghuang was a mess. According to Captain Garland, the Fenghuang was built to survey uninhabitable planets in uncolonized star systems. It was not meant for even short-term habitation, so most of the crew quarters were actually refitted cargo holds. Their beds were stiff mattresses tied to crates, some of which carried food and supplies for their mission.

  The conference room itself was just a laboratory with most of the equipment stored under the tables. There weren’t even chairs, so the crew had to stand around near the walls waiting for everyone to gather. Caitlin was the last one in, so they were waiting for her.

  “Glad to see you could join us, princess,” Alena Heilmann said once Caitlin finally stumbled into the room. She was a tall woman in her early thirties with long, wavy blond hair. Her steely blue eyes were narrow as they watched the Governess. She stood next to Captain Garland at the front of the room.

  Alena was the chief engineer on the Fenghuang and the inventor of the Heilmann Drive, the machine which made faster-than-light travel possible in the first place. That was two thousand years ago. Caitlin still didn’t understand how Alena was still alive, let alone relatively young. Captain Garland said it was “time compression” and the effect of traveling at over ninety-nine percent of light speed for centuries at a time. That didn’t help her make any sense of it.

  “I was asleep,” Caitlin said. “I apologize. I doubt we are in any hurry, so hopefully it will not inconvenience any of you.”

  In the opposite corner of the room, Lance Reynolds groaned aloud. “Stop apologizing,” he said. “It just makes them think that they’re in charge.”

  Lance was a large, muscular man in his late twenties. He had dark skin and kept his head completely shaved. He was a professional athlete and politician. Before the Fall, he represented the entertainment industry of the planet Berkshire in the parliamentary government of the Incorporated Industrial Worlds. After the Fall, the parliament was dissolved and his baseball team, the Berkshire Bulls, didn’t have anyone to play against. He joined Seth after Berkshire agreed to grant the Fenghuang safe harbor. This was all shortly after Caitlin joined the crew, and Berkshire was the first new world she visited.

  “We are in charge,” Seth said. He glared at Lance. “I am in charge. Don’t forget, this is my ship.”

  Lance just shrugged. “Whatever.”

  There had been tensions on the ship ever since they brought Alena Heilmann aboard. When she appeared rather unexpectedly after two thousand years, she forced Seth to realize that he didn’t really have a plan for ending the Fall. That didn’t sit well with Lance and Caitlin, who joined him because they believed that he did.

  “Just get on with this,” said Leah Wu. She was the final member of the Fenghuang crew. Small and unassuming, with jet black hair and eyes, she was probably the one angriest about the changes aboard the ship. Seth recruited her from the planet Yuan because she was regarded as among the best engineers in the galaxy. But even she couldn’t figure out how to repair or maintain the Heilmann Drive. Alena seemed to make her redundant, and she had more reason than anyone else to want to end the Fall. Her sister, who had been trained to operate a Heilmann Drive, was trapped on Earth. The People’s Republic had sequestered anyone with knowledge of the engine shortly before the Fall.

  Seth nodded. He looked around the room at his crew—all four of them. “I know a lot of you have been concerned about the fact that we don’t have energy shields on the ship.”

  “We were almost shot down twice last week!” Lance exclaimed. Seth chuckled but Lance wasn’t trying to be funny.

  “The Fenghuang is a science vessel,” Seth continued. “It was not designed for combat, so we don’t have the energy generators necessary to just install shields. Fortunately, Alena had an idea.” He looked to her to finish

  “Energy shields weren’t invented two thousand years ago,” she said. “For some people, that might have posed a problem when trying to design energy shields for a new ship. But not me.” Off to the side, Leah groaned audibly. Alena’s arrogance hadn’t made her addition to the crew any easier. “I realized that there was a better way to power shields th
an an on-board fusion generator. The Heilmann Drive could provide more than enough energy. Most of the power generated after a leap has to be dissipated into heat. Shunting some of it to shields is simple, and I don’t know why none of your scientists have thought of it.”

  Now Leah just had to speak up. “Because most of us don’t even know how the Heilmann Drive works! If we were allowed to see the designs, I’m sure we’d come up with all sorts of modifications.”

  Alena simply ignored her. “In order to get the stellarium crystals needed for the shield emitters, we’ll be traveling to Epsilon Andrii. It’s one of the only stars in the galaxy that can support a stellarium mining operation.”

  Most of what the crew said was senseless babble to Caitlin, who barely understood how an electrical circuit worked, but this caught her attention. “Wait a moment,” she said. “Is this a mine on a star? Forgive me for being ignorant, but how is that possible?”

  Unlike the objections of Lance and Leah, Alena actually took the time to address Caitlin’s concerns. She turned to face the Governess and smiled. “The mine is not actually on the star’s surface. The mining platform orbits the star at a safe distance for habitation while an attached mechanized rail system travels into the corona of the star and harvests various gaseous elements. There is also a processing plant on the station, which produces stellarium.”

  “Will the crew of the mine be friendly?” Caitlin asked next. She remembered the last few planets they’d visited. Most of them were hostile. They believed in the Fall. They believed that the Heilmann Drive was dangerous and that the Fenghuang posed a threat.

  Seth was the one to answer this question. “The mining platform is abandoned,” he said. “There are no habitable planets in the Epsilon Andrii system. They crew evacuated before the Fall and went home.” Caitlin nodded. That made sense to her. If there were no colonies in the star system, the Fall would have trapped them on the mining platform. “That means we might be able to make it a base of operations for awhile. I’m sure all of you would appreciate stable gravity and sunlight.”

  Caitlin could see Leah nodding to herself out of the corner of her eye. “Let’s do it,” she said. “I’m sick of places that are trying to kill us. An abandoned solar mine sounds creepy, but not actually dangerous, so it’s a step up.”