Kulsat
Ship :
Centauri
System :
Blind both
physically
and Kinemetically, and trapped inside a small tank surrounded by
water on a hostile alien ship was enough to make Justine feel overwhelmed.
Knowing there could either be a mass slaughter or a revolution just outside her
reach, the outcome of which would directly decide her own fate, Justine fought
to keep herself from succumbing to the emotional overload.
Sounds didn’t travel very well into her terrarium, but what
she could hear, she couldn’t interpret. Had her efforts returned Red Spot to
physical form? Had Three Crescents repaired his energy rod and blasted her? Was
he finishing his insane task of killing every non-Risen on the ship?
The Kinemetic radiation coming from the alien Risen started
to seep back into Justine’s system, and her
sight
returned to her
slowly.
In the span of a few seconds, she saw what had transpired
during her blackout. Three Crescents had reconnected his energy rod and was
blasting it at the other aliens, but he was doing it out of desperation. As if
Red Spot’s courage had bolstered them, the other Kulsat charged Three
Crescents. They grabbed loose tools and canisters to use as weapons. So far,
none of them had gotten close enough to strike Three Crescents, but he’d killed
more than half a dozen of them and wounded several others.
Red Spot was still alive, Justine saw, but she was injured.
One of her tentacles hung limply from her torso—perhaps a graze from the energy
weapon.
Helplessly, Justine watched the army of cephalopods throw themselves
at Three Crescents, but he seemed an expert in his aim and kept fending them
off.
The sheer numbers were on the rebels’ side, though. As if
sensing that he couldn’t keep up his defense forever, Three Crescents quantized
himself. In control of himself in that state, he raced out of the laboratory,
leaving the survivors and Justine behind. He was no doubt going to report to
Long Fingers.
Justine didn’t know how many Risen were on board the alien
ship, but one was all that was needed if they decided to quantize the entire
vessel. Once everyone was neutralized in a photonic state, the pilot could
navigate back to their home system, where the numbers would undoubtedly favor
the elite Kulsat rather than the rebels.
Red Spot swam to the terrarium and turned on the translation
computer with a flick of one long tentacle. The familiar hum of the link on her
collar gave Justine a sense of comfort she hadn’t expected.
“Red Spot,” Justine said. “Are you all right?”
The little alien typed. “Your concern is unexpected. I will
continue. I am not certain our actions were wise, however. We have no power
against Long Fingers.”
Behind her, dozens of Kulsat waited, as if unsure what to do
now that they had succeeded in scaring Three Crescents away.
Justine said, “Is there a shuttle on this ship?”
“Yes, we have six such vessels. They are used to mine the Gift
of the Grace on asteroids. The shuttles do not have the engines to use the
Grace.”
The Grace. According to Alex’s story, that was what Ah Tabai
had called the race who created the system of star beacons. Maybe, for the
Kulsat and the other Emerged races, the name was homonymous for the power of
Kinemet, the photonic state of being, and for the race that had first mastered
the technology.
“Do you have any of the Gift on board?” Justine asked. “If
we can get some of it to my friends and our ship, we might have a chance.”
Red Spot turned to the aliens behind her and signed to the
group. Several of them signed in return, and the back and forth went on for
what seemed like forever—at least, to Justine.
She waited, barely containing her impatience, as Red Spot
spun back to the computer and took a very long time to type the results of the
conversation.
“There are several stores of the Gift on board. We can
collect a quantity of it and load it on the mining shuttle. The problem we have
is how to bring you to the shuttle. Your observation platform is affixed to the
hull. Even if we could move it, the loading door to the shuttle is too small
for it to fit. There is no provision for one of your kind on the shuttle. Our
alien biologist informs us that you are an air-based species and cannot process
oxygen under water. It will only be a short duration before Three Crescents and
Long Fingers return to destroy us.”
A few times, Justine tried to interrupt the message that
came in, but since it had been pre-typed, there was no way to stop the
translation. She bit her lip until the machine voice finished speaking.
“Bring some of the Gift here, to me. Once I’m recharged, I
can turn to light and follow you to the ship. We won’t have any way of
communicating while I’m in that state, but if we can find my ship and my
friends, they will be able to help us.”
Red Spot made a unique set of signs to her, which Justine
took as acknowledgement. The little alien then turned around and handed out
instructions to the small band of revolutionaries. The individual Kulsat swam
off to complete their assigned tasks. Only Red Spot remained in the lab.
“Is everyone with us?” Justine asked.
“We are conditioned to obey those in authority. The Kulsat
on board regard me as their new sub-commander. I told them Three Crescents is unit-defective
and wanted your alien technology for himself. That is the reason they attacked
him. They are all still loyal to the Consortium. If they encounter Long
Fingers, however, he will be able to counter my instructions.”
Justine felt herself grow frustrated with the Kulsat’s
culture. They were alien to her in every sense of the word.
“Are you still loyal to the Consortium?”
Red Spot replied. “Yes.” She continued to type. “Our kind
has been persecuted throughout history. When the Grace disappeared from the
universe, the other races became jealous of our knowledge and warred against
us. They invaded our home world. Only because of our superiority were we able
to survive. Now, we are the dominant race in the galaxy, but we are not secure.
The other races continue to plot against us. Only with the final component will
we assure our continued survival.”
If what Red Spot said was true, then the Kulsat had reason
to be paranoid of other worlds. Justine asked, “Why did you save me?”
“The Consortium believes all non-Kulsat races are an
imminent threat and must be expired to ensure our continuance. The Consortium
believes non-Kulsat have no value. The Consortium believes Deficients have no
value.” She held Justine’s eyes as her next statement filtered through the
translator. “You believe all beings have value. There is validity in that.
Perhaps there is an opportunity to reevaluate some of the polices of the
Consortium.”
Justine was overwhelmed by what she was hearing. How many
other Kulsat felt their culture was overzealous in its xenophobia? Although it
was difficult to avoid imposing one’s own values on other cultures, Justine
didn’t know how a society could progress when it completely discarded those who
failed to achieve the Kinemetic change.
She would save her philosophizing for later. Right now, time
was working against her.
From what she gathered, Three Crescents and Long Fingers
were completely ensconced in their status as elites. They believed the rest of
the Kulsat were thoroughly subjugated; the ship didn’t have much in the way of
internal security. That slight advantage would disappear the moment Long
Fingers felt the situation was out of his control.
Even if they all managed to get on the shuttle and flee the
ship, the moment the two Risen became aware of the exodus, they could easily
pull her back, as they did when she was on the
Ultio.
Then they could
blast the shuttle to bits at their leisure.
Justine had to increase her chances of escape, somehow, and
ensure the other Kulsat weren’t killed in the process.
“Red Spot,” she said, “are there any other Risen on the ship
besides Three Crescents and Long Fingers?”
“No. We are not military. We are a mining vessel. There is
only one science leader and one ship leader on board.”
“Can you describe the layout to me? Where is the main cabin,
engineering, crew quarters, loading dock, everything?”
“Yes. I can explain that.” Red Spot typed for a long while.
∞
By the time Justine absorbed all the information Red Spot
gave her, she had a very solid idea of the ship’s geography.
She sensed one of the non-Risen Kulsat returning to the lab.
He was carrying a small quantity of Kinemet—the Gift of the Grace—in a spherical
container. The radiation level was minimal, and Justine assumed the enclosure
was made of some kind of damping material, like the titanium they had used in
Sol System to keep the Kinemet from playing havoc with nearby electronics.
As the alien got closer to Justine’s tank, she felt a surge
ripple through her. Although she’d been able to absorb second-hand radiation
from Three Crescents, that had been little more than a drop of water on the
tongue; nowhere near enough to quench her thirst. Even sealed by the damping
container, Justine could feel every fiber of her being reaching out for the
nourishment of Kinemet.
When Klaus had conducted his experiment on her, he’d used a
milligram of the kinetic metal. Justine sensed the Kulsat had brought her at least
a full gram. If she never quantized herself, that much would most likely be
enough Kinemet to sustain her for the rest of her life. It was being in the
photonic state that consumed Kinemet at a rapid rate.
Hungrily, she waited for the Kulsat to get to her tank. With
Red Spot’s assistance, the two swam up to the top of her glass cage and placed
the container in the cylinder that had been used to feed her previously. They
placed the cylinder in the delivery mechanism and triggered the winch.
As the Kinemet was lowered within her reach, Justine heard
Red Spot’s message come through the translator.
“Only a Risen is capable of opening the container.”
For a moment, Justine’s impatience got the better of her,
and she felt a rush of heat to her cheeks.
Whatever substance the container was made of must be
impenetrable by physical means. Since a Risen had the ability to quantize
others at will—as they had done to her—then it followed that they had the
ability to quantize objects as well. Once the sphere was converted to photons,
the Risen had full access to the Grace inside.
The problem was that, even if she were fully irradiated,
Justine didn’t have any idea how to quantize anything except herself. Radiation
still leaked out of the container, but at a rate so slow it would take her an
hour or longer to become charged enough to make the change—and even then, she
would use up that charge very quickly.
They didn’t have that kind of time. It was hard to tell how
long it had been since Three Crescents had fled the lab, and she expected him
and Long Fingers to show up any moment and take control of the situation. When
the Kulsat had quantized her to bring her aboard their ship, Justine had not
been conscious in that state, much the same as none of the other passengers on the
Ultio
—Alex included—had been aware during the journey.
Justine didn’t know nearly enough about the ‘Gift’ of light,
although she’d spent over four years in that state. Given the chance, she was
determined to learn as much as possible.
She held the sphere close to her chest, and sat on the floor
of the tank, letting the Kinemetic radiation flow into her. She would hold on
as long as she could.
Soon, another alien entered the lab and signed to Red Spot,
who conveyed the information to Justine. “We have loaded the shuttle with the Gift.
Squiggles Over A Small Circle spotted Long Fingers on the bridge, but did not
interact with the ship leader. Perhaps Three Crescents has not reported us to
him yet.”
That was good news, Justine thought to herself. That would
give them more time. It also hinted that Three Crescents may have exceeded his
authority, if he was afraid of letting the ship leader know what was happening.
Red Spot typed. “The rest of the crew are on the shuttle
waiting for instructions.”
Justine said, “I need a little more time with the Grace
before I am charged enough to quantize myself. You three get to the shuttle and
get off the ship—”
The mechanized voice interrupted her. “The others are
helping only to get you away from Three Crescents. If we leave you here, they
will see no reason to leave the ship.”
“I promise,” Justine said, “I will get to the shuttle as
soon as I am capable.” She didn’t know if Red Spot could interpret the
sincerity in her words, so she looked through the glass at the cephalopod so
that the alien could see it in her eyes.
“You have not employed deception to me in the past. I do not
believe you will employ deception in the future. We will be waiting for you on
the shuttle. Utilize haste, Justine.”
With that, Red Spot and the two others flicked their
tentacles and darted out of the lab.
It had only been a few minutes with the Kinemet, but Justine
was already feeling the effects of its influence. She wished she knew how the
Kulsat Risen were able to quantize others. After decades of experiments, the
only method NASA and Quantum Resources’ scientists had discovered for
quantizing a ship was to use a quantum drive.
Justine had read many of the theoretical papers about the
process, and while she sat there waiting to be fully charged, she reviewed all
the texts stored in her memory. The crash-course took her several minutes to
complete, but by the end, there was nothing in the experiments to suggest the
possibility of external quantization. Of course, no one had imagined that it
was possible to quantize anything without a quantum drive—which, basically, was
a high-powered hydrogen bombardment device.