Slave Empire - Prophecy (9 page)

Tallyn guided
them along a corridor to a lift, which whisked them down several
floors. He stopped before a numbered door that slid open when he
pressed a button beside it. They entered a comfortable, sleek room
with two sleeping alcoves, tasteful, but sparsely furnished and
functional. Tallyn showed them how to switch off the lights and
summon an attendant when they woke, then left them to sleep.

Chapter Five

Tallyn settled
into his chair on the bridge and studied the main screen, which
showed the star field around Earth, and in one corner, the dull
grey-brown orb. The sun was just starting to form an arc of gold
along its edge, prelude to the dawn of another drab day on the
surface. Only the twinkle of the tiny crystals that covered the
many consoles broke the bridge's silent gloom. A crew of five sat
before them, their hands occasionally touching a crystal as they
attended to the running of the ship.

Dim holograms
hung in the air before certain crew members, while lists of data
scrolled up before others. The overall atmosphere was one of hushed
industry, somewhat relaxed now that they were in orbit. Tallyn
looked over at Marcon, who sat at the compiler's console, his eyes
flicking over three holograms. He monitored all the ship's
functions, ready to correct any errors that other crew members
made. As usual, Tallyn hated to disturb him; he always looked so
busy.

"Marcon, set
course for Atlan. We've got what we came for, let's go home."

"Yes, sir." He
turned and touched the crystals on his console, causing those on
other consoles to light and alerting the officers who manned them
to the new directive. They ran their hands over their boards, or
pressed their palms to sensor slots to communicate with the ship's
neural net. Two pilots entered the bridge and lay down on their
couches, strapped themselves in and pushed their hands into sensor
slots to link with the ship. The whole exercise took a little over
a minute, during which time the activity in the dim room rose to a
high state of tension. Marcon reeled off the list of procedures for
his commander's benefit, in case he decided to change anything.

"Course laid
in. Neural net expanded and online. Pilots linked. Back up net
online. Proximity repellers charged, course changing. Preparing to
link with the transfer Net." He paused, his eyes scanning the
scrolling holograms. "Link successful. Heading reached in five,
four, three, two, one... Transfer Net charged, acceleration factor
five, normal status, all systems functional."

Tallyn sat
back and laced his fingers as Vengeance turned out of her orbit
with ponderous grace, curving away towards a distant star. He could
imagine how the sun's light would glint on her sleek silver flanks
and flash on the many protuberances that robbed her of any great
claim to beauty. As a star ship designed purely for space, her
array of antennae, weapons and emitters was only possible in a
vacuum. He had seen many ships use the Net, and knew that a web of
golden lines crawled over her, embracing her in a crazy cage of
lambent power, like snakes of lightning. The transfer Net activated
in a flash of pure energy, and with a twinkle, the ship shot
away.

During the
five-hour trip, Tallyn ate a meal and relaxed in his cabin,
enjoying a new holofilm from Atlan. On the bridge, the crew's
subdued industry continued. The pilots each spent two hours in
control of the ship while the other observed. Marcon was relieved
after three hours, his head undoubtedly aching from the strain of
the high level of vigilance necessary from a compiler. His
replacement, Vandiar, informed Tallyn of their approach to Atlan
half an hour before the transfer Net dispersed. Tallyn entered the
humming bridge and sank into his chair, glancing up at the blank
screen.

"Where are
we?"

"Decelerating.
Fifteen minutes to Net dispersal," Vandiar informed him. "You came
quickly, sir."

"I usually
do," he grumped, settling back to wait.

From inside
the ship, Net dispersal was no more interesting than its
initiation. Only the resumption of the external feeds brought any
new sensations to the crew. After the prescribed number of minutes,
the main screen filled with the welcome image of his home
world.

Tallyn gave a
curt nod. "Good. Get us an orbit, and have them send shuttles. I'm
sure most of the crew want to go to the surface, and we'll need a
maintenance crew to replace them."

Tallyn made
his way to his guests' quarters and pressed the plate beside the
door to activate the entry call buzzer. The portal opened, and he
entered to find Rawn eyeing him, looking sullen and dishevelled. He
muttered and went into the bathroom to splash his face. Rayne
stretched and yawned as she slid from the shelf-like sleeping
alcove, her hair tangled. She smiled, and Tallyn returned it.

"I hope you've
had sufficient sleep. We've arrived at my home world and will be
disembarking soon."

Rayne's eyes
widened in shock, and Rawn emerged from the bathroom, his face wet.
They stared at him in horror, and Tallyn realised his blunder and
strived to correct it.

"I apologise.
I should have warned you before we left."

Rawn raised a
finger and wagged it, water dripping from his chin. "Listen,
buster. Just a few hours ago, we were on our own planet, and now
you tell us we're on the other side of the bloody universe? You
kidnap us, feed us drugs, fry us with weird lights, confiscate our
clothes, and fly us a thousand light years without so much as a 'by
your leave'? Bugger 'warned us', what about 'asked us'?"

Tallyn
frowned, a little nettled. "You're in my care. You've come to no
harm. All that was done to you was for your benefit, and the safety
of my crew. It was unavoidable. The trip was necessary. Rayne had
to be brought to the safety of Atlan, where she can be guarded and
cared for. Informing you of our departure would have been a mere
courtesy, and I did say you would not be returned to Earth. There
was no point in staying in Earth orbit any longer."

Rawn wiped his
face with a towel, looking incredulous. Rayne went to a chair and
sank into it, her eyes downcast. Rawn tossed the towel onto a
nearby shelf and stepped closer to Tallyn.

"You may find
that all quite satisfactory and logical to your little alien mind,
but what about us? We never even got to see our world from space.
We never had the chance to say goodbye. Maybe we have feelings you
lack, but you could have found out about that first."

Tallyn
inclined his head. "Perhaps. I regret any distress this might have
caused you. I understand your anger, and I would have the same
reaction if it was done to me. However, returning to view your
planet is a simple matter, and can be arranged sometime in the
future if you wish."

Rawn glanced
at Rayne, looking mollified, but still angry. "You okay, Ray?"

She nodded,
fighting the sensation of unreality that threatened to overwhelm
her. "How far are we from Earth?"

"Seven point
four light years, by our measure of time," Tallyn replied. "Since
our days are twenty-eight of your hours long, it would be around
eight light years of your time. If you're feeling shock, I can have
the doctor give you a tranquilliser."

"No, I'm fine.
But I would like to know how we got here so fast. We could only
have been asleep for a few hours, unless you did something to
us."

"I didn't do
anything to you. You've slept for five hours, which is how long the
journey took. At the moment, we're waiting for shuttles from the
surface, so I have time to explain it to you if you wish."

"That would be
nice," Rawn muttered, sitting next to Rayne.

Tallyn took
the third chair and settled back. "Obviously we travel a great deal
faster than light. We do this by using what's called a transfer
Net. Essentially, we tap into a parallel dimension that comprises
pure energy, where things like time, weight and distance don't
exist. By establishing a link with the energy dimension, we draw
power from it, and at the same time use it to ferry us through
space. You could liken it to one of your electric trains, which
draws its power from an overhead cable, and uses it to drive its
wheels. The only difference is that the link is also a tow. The
energy dimension exists everywhere in the known universe, and
everywhere in the energy dimension is in the same place and the
same time."

Rawn shook his
head. "You've lost me. How's that possible?"

"As I said,
distance and time don't exist in that dimension."

"So you go
into the other dimension, then come out where you want to?"

"No, not
exactly. That's how it works for the transfer Net with which we
transport people and supplies, like the one that brought you here.
In the case of the ship, it never actually enters the other
dimension. The power needed to achieve that is too much for our
machinery to deal with. The ship has no engines, as such. What we
have are complicated conduits, through which the energy is
channelled. It's difficult to explain." Tallyn looked a little
vague, gazing into space.

"We're not
morons. Explain it as it was explained to you," Rawn suggested.

"Okay. Imagine
the universe is a series of layers, like a sandwich. We live in one
layer, and the next layer is a mass of energy so powerful it exists
everywhere at once. We establish a link with the energy, which,
since it exists in all places, is able to tow us through space. We
plot a course, and the link moves us at the speed we wish. The
speed is actually infinite, but our ship's structure limits
it."

"Why's that?
There's no substance in space."

"There's a
great deal of substance in the form of dust, meteors and other
debris. Our scanners warn us of obstacles, and proximity repellers
deflect the dust."

"What are
those?"

Tallyn smiled,
and Rayne reflected that, although he had a nice smile, she had yet
to see him use it with enough enthusiasm to reveal his teeth. Her
curiosity about his dentition was growing, meanwhile. He glanced at
her, perhaps sensing her stare, and launched into another
explanation.

"Proximity
repellers are powerful, negatively charged coils of super magnetic
alloys. They will repel anything, from a planet to a dust particle.
Even air molecules react to a certain degree. We also call it
anti-gravity, when it's used on a planet, but those systems are a
lot weaker."

"Is that how
you generate gravity on this ship?" Rawn enquired. "By reversing
it?"

"No." Tallyn
looked patient, apparently resigned to explaining everything. "The
gravity on this ship is generated by a layer of super dense metal
on its underside. As I'm sure you know, the denser the object the
higher its gravitational pull. This metal is extremely dense, so
much so that to call it metal does it an injustice. Lead would be
like cloth next to it."

"Why can't you
use the super magnetic alloy things?"

"The proximity
repellers? That would be extremely dangerous, since, if you
reversed the polarity and turned them into attracting magnets, they
would work differently on different parts of the body. Liquids,
solids and gasses all react differently. They would not generate
true gravity, but rather a magnetic attraction that, if it was
strong enough, would flatten the ship before it made people stick
to the floors. You understand? Metal is far more magnetic than
flesh."

"But surely
gravity works the same way? The denser something is, the heavier it
is," Rawn pointed out.

"Ah, yes and
no. The difference is, a measure of water, or flesh, can be
compared to a measure of lead, let's say. The lead, though a
smaller amount, would weigh the same, right? But with magnets, the
measure isn't weight, it's attraction, and flesh is like feathers
compared to lead when you talk about attraction." Noting Rawn's
blank look, he elaborated. "Look, you know how strongly an ordinary
magnet attracts a ferrous metal, right? But it doesn't do anything
to flesh. So imagine how strong it would have to be before it
attracted something as nonferrous as flesh."

"I see," Rawn
muttered, looking a little awed. "We never discovered anything like
that. Not as far as I know, anyway." He looked at Rayne, who raised
her brows and shrugged.

Tallyn went
on, "But you must understand, these are not ordinary magnets, they
attract, or repel, all forms of matter, not only ferrous metals.
The comparison is not really valid; it only serves to elucidate my
point. An ordinary magnet, no matter how strong, would not attract
flesh."

Rawn nodded.
"I get it. And all this runs off the power you suck out of the
energy dimension?"

"Correct.
Everything that requires power. You never discovered the energy
dimension, which is why your culture foundered and destroyed itself
by using combustible fuels. A Net link would have saved you."

"Pity nobody
told us about it," Rawn muttered.

"Unfortunately
for you, we don't interfere with primitive cultures. The
destruction of a good, living planet like yours is a great shame.
There aren't that many of them around. Many intelligent races come
from worlds whose atmosphere we would find toxic. Most have a
metabolism that burns hydrogen, since that's the most plentiful
element around, and generally found in all atmospheres. They're
able to live very comfortably in an atmosphere like yours, but we
can't survive in their air, which often lacks sufficient
oxygen."

Rayne stared
at him, the sheer eccentricity of his words leaving her dumbstruck.
She would never have considered a metabolism that burnt hydrogen,
but why not? It was just as combustible as oxygen, and far
commoner. Tallyn, surprisingly, looked a little embarrassed by her
scrutiny, and glanced away. Rayne mused that this was one of the
few emotions she had seen him express, apart from the stiff, rather
false smiles he apparently forced himself to make. She wondered if
all Atlanteans, or, indeed, alien races, were as reticent as him,
or if smiling was just not an Atlantean expression, but one he put
on for their benefit.