The Stars Came Back (3 page)

Everyone at the table:
Greetings/Hello/How are you?/Welcome.

He nods his head around the table in general acknowledgement.

Helton: Howdy.

He picks up the slim e-reader (
about the size of a sheet of paper, no bevel) and scans it. He touches a few items that light up to order.

INSET - He touches Lamb & Rice Pilaf, vegetables* (note at the bottom says “*synth”) and Iced Tea. Most of the items have the asterisk, and the price totals at the bottom as he chooses.

Meanwhile his tablemates chat quietly among themselves; there is a droning of others doing the same, the hum of the air system and engines, and the clatter of silverware. He sets the menu down and looks up, listening to what they are saying. The wives are generally playing up what their husbands do, and the Doc and Senator are unsuccessfully trying to act modest while playing up their skills and influence. Trask is more seriously modest. He is a wealthy mining and manufacturing magnate, the Doc a neurosurgeon, the Senator on several committees.

Helton
glances at Bipasha and she is looking at him. Dressed in a lovely, brightly patterned dress, nice jewelry, nice hair, very attractive, she nods in greeting.

Helton: Helton. Hope I’m not taking anyone’s seat here?

Bipasha: Bipasha. No, it’s free… I’m headed for Niven. You?

Helton: Yes. Visiting family.

He looks inquiringly at her.

Bipasha: I just finished school
, and my uncle has an import/export business there.

Helton: You don’t sound too thrilled about that.

Bipasha: I had kind of hoped that I could travel more and find a job on my own before my family talked me into anything, but… He’s an honest man with a good business, so I’ll work for a few years while I look for something with more excitement and possibilities. You? Any business, or just the family?

Helton: Wellllll… (
Looks a little uncomfortable)

Bipasha: Running from the draft?

Helton: No! I served my time, but… well, it just got a bit complicated.

Bipasha looks
skeptical. Helton drinks a sip of water.

Bipasha: Being a soldier is a perfectly respectable profession, if you are a good one.

Helton: Agreed, I just didn’t like the guys giving the orders. I’m a teacher now. Well, was… My sister is on Niven. Her husband needs some help. I was headed that way and things went off the rails…

Bipasha: Yes, lots of plans getting changed these days.

Helton: Isn’t
that
the truth.

A waiter shows up with a tray
to serve them dinner.

INSET - The plate put before Helton only has the barest resemblance to what he ordered.

Bipasha: (Eyeing the plate before her uncertainly) This is vindaloo?

Helton: Hmmm. I’m sure it’s edible, even if it isn’t quite what you had in mind.

They both tentatively take a bite of their respective dishes, and look at one another, then simultaneously make a face and shrug as if to say “eh, OK, but nothing to write home about” and keep chewing.

FADE TO BLACK

FADE IN

INT - DAY -
Starliner dining room

Most of the food has been eaten, people chatting at their tables, except Liner Engineer, who sits tiredly in his seat being ignored, and ignoring most of his food.

A man, Lag, approaches the table. He’s wearing a conservative, somewhat Edwardian dark suit with brass buttons, a high collar shirt, jacket, and vest, looking like a well-to-do businessman: short hair, no whiskers, mid 40s, broad shoulders and powerfully built.

Lag: (
Indicating a chair between the Doc’s Wife and Bipasha, across from Liner Engineer) Is this taken?

Chorus
from the table: Oh, not at all/Please be my guest/Have a seat/Welcome.

Lag: Ah, thank you. Sorry I’m late. Always more details. (
Half to himself as he picks up the menu) Hmmm, what are the choices?

Everyone else goes back to their conversations while Lag looks over the menu reader, makes a couple of rapid selections and sets it down. He then turns to Bipasha and is about to
speak when the ship’s announcement system chimes, and the familiar calm female voice comes on.

Announcer: (OC)
May I have your attention, please… Navigation has informed the Captain that due to a change in the regional subspace conditions and news our schedule will be somewhat altered.

A
collective groan rises from the around the dining room. The passengers listen attentively and exchange looks.

Announcer: (OC) We still
expect to arrive in Niven on the scheduled date. We will be detouring through a swirl headed our way, stopping briefly at a transfer station point outside of Eldari to exchange passengers, then continuing to Balltic and Niven. Ship time will be approximately five days, universal time about seventy-two hours plus a short time at Eldari for transfers. We will be arriving at the Eldari transfer point in about ninety hours. That is all.

The dining room erupts in murmurs of excitement, confusion, and relief, depending on the person.

Senator: (To the table) I don’t understand; we’ll be on the ship for five days, but we will arrive at Niven in only three? And we won’t get to the transfer for ninety hours? That doesn’t make any sense.

Lucreti
a Trask: Yes, that’s impossible… how can we get there before leave?

Helton: No, we won’
t.

Liner Engineer looks acutely at Helton. The others at the table look at Helton
curiously.

Helton: The details of FTL are complicated of course, but the basic idea isn’t. Universal time, how time passes in the conventional universe where we usually live, passes as a pretty constant rate everywhere. According to the clocks on Niven and where we just left, we’ll arrive in
-system in three days. But time moves differently in subspace, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but always forward, depending on a lot of things: what kind of drives you have, what sort of gravity wells you pass, which way subspace is blowing, and-

Doc Wife: Subspace blows?

Helton rearranges a few things on the table, clearing out things from the centerpiece, putting a carafe at one end and a bauble from the centerpiece near the other. While he does this, he explains:

Helton: Yes. There are
twenty-two dimensions, as you may have heard. Three in space that we can normally perceive, plus time. The physics are similar, but different, in the other dimensions, and by transitioning into them we can do things like go faster than light can here in
our
universe. But, just like space bends from gravity and solar winds blow here, things are neither smooth nor static in the other dimension. It’s kind of like wind. A little bit of wind and you can walk or fly normally and mostly ignore it. If there is a strong tailwind blowing you get there faster; if you are bucking a strong headwind it takes longer, but the distance is the same. If a hurricane is passing through, then you can’t go anywhere-

Bipasha: A
h, the “Deep Black”…

Helton: -yes,
that
is where the subspace is simply much too turbulent to transition into and fly.

The others look at him with a mix of
interest and incomprehension on their faces.

Helton: Pretend this (indicates the centerpiece on the table) is an island. That (pointing to the bauble) is your ship, and that (points to carafe) is your destination. In a light tailwind blowing from you (points to the Flight Engineer on the end), the ship could sail down either side of the island at the same speed, but going back would be s
lower. But if a strong wind was blowing from you (points to another) at an angle
across
the island, then sailing on that side would be fast, but the other side would be slow and difficult because of all the wind eddies and swirls there. If a hurricane comes through, then no one sails anywhere, they just hide in the harbors and hope for the best (he puts the bauble in among the details of the centerpiece), which is what happened when Eta Carinae blew. The Dark came in because subspace was not navigable. The local effects of the stars and planets swamped it close in, so A-grav and accelacomps worked in-system, but not FTL. It sounds like right now we’ll be able to catch a wind that blows us, very quickly, past you (he tosses the bauble to Bipasha) then to you (indicates she should toss it to the Penger Trask, which she does) then on to Niven (it gets tossed to the flight Engineer). Because we are going further
in subspace
against a wind as it were, it’ll take longer
ship time
, but Niven hasn’t moved, so our
real
time hasn’t changed much.

Lucretia Trask: OK, I guess that
sort of
makes sense…

Helton: Like I said, the details are complicated
. If you are not interested in math and physics it’ll make your head hurt, but just remember time always goes forward, just at different rates depending on your path. Kind of like how time
seems
to go fast when you are having fun, and
seems
to drag when you are bored. Sometimes weird things happen, like being able to go a lot further, a lot faster in universal time, but it’ll take much longer ship time while using less fuel, or more time on ship but less in universal time. Just imagine different weather and winds and currents and islands and mountains with the sailing ship, and it’ll be easier to visualize, even if it’s not entirely accurate.

Lag: One of the better descriptions I’ve heard.

Helton: Thanks. I’ve had to explain it more than a few times.

Ship Engineer: Oh?

Helton: I’m a teacher. Between classes and a passel of nephews and nieces-

There is a sudden burst of cheer
s and laughter from a table at the far side of the room, where a group of young men and women (mid teens to early 20s) seem to be having a very good time.

Doc Wife and a couple of the others glare at them
. This is not the group’s first outburst.

Doc Wife: I wonder where the parents are? Children without manners should not be abandon
ed in public like that.

Lag: (
Sighing) No rest for the wicked. Excuse me, please.

Surprised looks on their faces, the rest of the table watches him stand up
, glass in hand.

CUT TO

View of the table full of young
adults on far side of dining room

Lag
approaches the table. Sitting there are seven young Plataeans (four male, three female) dressed in dark, almost uniform style clothes, somewhat similar in style and color to Lag’s. They are celebrating loudly. He smoothly helps himself to the one empty seat at the table. After a moment they all notice him, turning silent and eyeing warily as they do so. Lag’s expression is cheerful, and his demeanor friendly. He speaks quietly and sincerely.

Lag: I understand that congratulations are in order. To adulthood!

He raises his glass to them, saluting around the table, and takes a sip. They return the salute with their glasses, some of them just sipping, some tossing back the rest of their drink.

All others at the table, loudly but
unevenly: To Rights!

Lag: So! Who took the biggest risk?

A small young lady at the table smiles shyly and raises a timid hand.

Lag smiles in some surprise and nods to her, again raising his glass, but not drinking
.

Lag: And?

Plataean1: I tried a 4.5… but I only scored a-” she’s cut off cheerily by Lag.

Lag: Ah-ah.
Don’t dwell on the mistakes;
learn
for them. Even
trying
for a 4.5 is a daunting task. Quite commendable to take on a serious challenge. You aimed high and passed. Learn from it and move on. (Looks around the table) High score?

An
obviously tipsy young man of nineteen leans forward to brag.

Plataean2:
I
got a sixty-seven! With THREE extra points!

Lag: (
Sounding honestly impressed) Oh, outstanding! Well done!
Three
extra points are not easy. A score like that is an excellent way to start the resume!

Lag looks around the table, and sees one young man who looks slightly sullen, and not quite as celebratory as the others. There is also something
not right about one sleeve of his shirt. He nods towards him.

Lag: (
Concernedly) And how did you do?

Plataean3: (
Downcast, slowly then faster as he explains what happened) Well… only an 8… I went for a star-drive apprenticeship, and would have earned a 4 on performance, but on my last shift a power conduit I should have checked blew and took this… (holds up the stump of his arm, gone about halfway between shoulder and elbow) They docked it down to a 1… I’m good at math, so it was supposed to be an easy assignment for me. If I hadn’t got the conduit properly shut down and a tourniquet on my arm in time it would have been worse, though.