Faster Than Darkness

Phenomena

"Seriously, Mike? It's Tuesday, man. What the hell?"

I glared at my stubby coworker and angrily hefted the bottle in my hand. "Not for me, dummy. Chief Albunoz has a meeting and he wanted something special to serve his guests."

Steve muttered a "yeah, right" and went back to work, his stubby fingers flying over the keyboard. I watched in silent fascination for a moment, amazed at the fact that the man could accurately hit one key at a time with those sausages. Then I turned and stepped off down the hall towards Albunoz's office.

In a sea of cubicles, Albunoz was the only one with a real office. In fact, he even had a glass-enclosed reception area and a receptionist. Technically he was the Chief Engineer of Electra Inc. Southwest, but practically he was more of a sales representative, hosting guests and trying to hook the big jobs that kept us in business for years at a time. He was fond of saying that if he only got one contract a year, the glass reception area and receptionist were still worthwhile. In my mind, the receptionist was always worthwhile, regardless of how many sales Albunoz made.

Rachel was not only stunningly beautiful, she was incredible at her job as well. The whole reception area was her domain, and it just oozed crispness and competence. All our company awards were lined up on shelves, along with signed glossies of our engineers with celebrities and powerful politicians and framed pictures of our accomplishments. The woman herself was dressed in a white blouse and a pencil skirt that brought out her fabulous curves, and wore just enough makeup to accent her beautiful smile.

She flashed that vicious heart-stealer at me as I walked in, but I remained stern. Her smile faded as I walked up and slammed the bottle of wine down on the desk, then her eyes widened as I leaned in and kissed her on the lips. As I pulled back I kept my face completely straight. "You, young woman, are in trouble," I uttered in my best baritone.

"And why is that, Mr. Conan? Did I do something wrong?" She rested her chin on her palm seductively.

"No. You did something right. You have a date with me tonight, and that always means trouble."

"Oh yes. How much trouble am I in this time? So much trouble that we're going somewhere nice?"

"Actually," I responded, "you're in more trouble than you've ever been in before. You're in so very much trouble that we're going for a hike."

She laughed. "I was hoping you'd say that. I know that you feel obligated to take me to the nice places once in a while but I don't like them nearly as much as being outside. The weather is supposed to be perfect today, too. Where are we going?"

"That, my love," I responded as I reached out and caressed her cheek, "Is for me to know and you to anticipate. It should be amazing, though. Now I better get this bottle in there before the Albino gets impatient."

Only she and I called Albunoz the Albino. It was our special joke. With his black hair, light blue eyes, and remarkably pale skin, though, I was surprised that no one else called him that. He looked up as I came in, his thin face framed by dark curls making him look like the world's biggest bookworm- a title which, to be honest, he could definitely compete for.

"I have here for you," I announced as I strode into the office, "a bottle of Castello di Ama Chianti, '95 vintage. Good enough for you?"

Albunoz nodded absently as I placed the wine on his desk. There was a moment of silence as he stared into space-that moment that meant he was about to say something important, to someone he trusted. With people he didn't know well Rostierri Albunoz was all business. But around Rachel and myself and a few others, he was quiet and thoughtful and took his time to speak.

As I waited, I let my eyes wander over some of the new titles on his shelves. Two walls of his office were covered in book shelves, but unlike the other aspects of his office that were designed to impress potential clients, these were purely functional. He consumed books voraciously, and the contents of his shelves changed constantly as a result. Rachel was usually tasked with boxing up and getting rid of his old books when he was done with them, and as a result I had my pick of the titles he disposed of.

Quantum Explanations of Metaphysical Phenomena... Not exactly my thing. String Theory And The Speed Of Light... Up-and-coming new guys trying to pick apart Einstein. Whenever I read those I end up having a good chuckle at the author. Radiation Metallurgy and Particle-Containing Materials Engineering... That one sounded good. It'd probably make its way into my hands in a few weeks.

"What do you think of faster-than-light travel, Mike?" Albunoz uttered in his mellow voice, snapping my attention back to the moment. His question caught me off guard and I took a moment to respond.

"Well... " I fumbled, "if it is possible, either within or beyond the realm of Einsteinian physics, it depends on phenomena that we have not yet discovered. Additionally, the energy requirements would be incredible, and the energy dispersion of deceleration would take years to resolve on its own with current technology."

Albunoz pursed his thin lips and glared at the picture of Lady Kinick II, one of our greatest achievements, in Earth orbit with the coast of Africa in the background. It was a beautiful picture, with the lights from all 367 of the station's decks rivaling the Moon in the background for brightness.

"It's been found." Albunoz broke the silence again. "The phenomenon, that is. And, apparently, the technology not only to power it, but to deal with the energy dispersal issues."

I plopped down into a chair and fingered the stubble on my chin. "Has anyone tested it yet?"

"On a small scale. Sending a beer can across a room and that sort of thing. Theoretically it should be scaleable, I guess, but I don't need to tell you the risks involved with something like this."

Indeed not. The last attempt at faster-than-light travel had put a new star in the sky that was still burning out.

"So... Let me guess. Someone discovered this phenomenon, and wants us to build a ship to utilize it?"

Albunoz nodded. Electra Inc. specialized in light-duty space liners- the kind that usually ended up shuttling civilian laborers to Earth's nearest three neighbor planets. We didn't make an effort to compete with the big heavy-duty and mining-class carriers from Rockodyne Corp. and SpaceMax, but it was no secret that our carriers were faster, tougher and better-engineered. If not for the Janitell agreement that prohibited militarization of intra-planetary space, we would doubtless be serving a number of government contracts.

Albunoz glanced at his watch. "The client is supposed to be here in 15 minutes. Would you mind staying as a reference?"

" I'd be honored," I answered, and it was no joke. Albunoz made no bones about the fact that he hadn't done any practical engineering for years, but he was nonetheless brilliant, so to be asked by him to serve as a reference truly was an honor.

"Then grab some wine glasses, please. The good ones-this is a meeting that might define history."