Void Piercer

Chapter 4: The Speed Limits for Suckers

Once aboard the Clarik we're moved to an observation room, for as Q'vic calls it, the full effect. The room is nothing more than a lounge with a screen on one of the walls, but Q'vic explains this is incredibly rarer, what with everyone tapped directly into the local internet. We get there just in time and watch as space tears apart in front of us. It's hard to describe, and personally, I'm surprised a video camera could catch any of what's happening outside the ship.

The tear is blinding white with pinpricks of black in contrast with the pitch black with pinpricks of light that surrounds it. The pinpricks are moving, with new ones flashing to life and others blinking out. And then there are tendrils of blue and red the lead everywhere and nowhere at once.

We pick up speed and slide through the tear and emerge into a new plane of existence. A place, if our theoretical physicists are right, that is just our own universe, crumpled to the point of unrecognizability. We finish sliding through the gate way, and looking back, I can see what had been a two dimensional circle on the other side, is now a sphere of deepest black and brightest stars.

The gateway collapse into nothing behind us as we continue on. The camera changes perspective again, displaying from the front of the center hull. Surrounding the view are the six outer hulls, and as we watch they seperate and extend outwards. The hulls reden and their images blur, as if viewed through soapy water. Then they're gone, leaving nothing in their wake.

"Impressive, isn't it," says Q'vic, who is currently lugging around her corpse. "Shure, there was a problem getting something larger than the Shoke limit into hyperspace, but it's important to be able to emerge combat ready."

"Where are the engineers," say one of our engineers. "I must meet them immediately."

"Sorry, that is not an easy thing to accomplish."

"That's disappointing, I was looking forward to learning how this stuff works. Which is probably the reason why you're not letting me at it."

"No, that's not it. We know you wouldn't be able to replicate our technology. You might figure out hyperspace entree, but navigation, you have no chance."

"We're a resourceful people," they respond to Q'vic.

"The Jun'e have beacons that we aim at. How or why they work is unknown, furthermore, the Jun'e don't need them, so, you know, good luck. The reason you can't meet our engineers is that there aren't any aboard, at least no hyperdrive mechanics." They drop their corps and wave their hands wildly. "You see, because of the Shoke limit we can not leave the ship in one piece. Sure, we can exit and enter in one piece, but that exhausts massive quantities of fuel to shrink ourselves small enough to do that. And that's for only a few moments. Warp drive can take hours, so we pull the ship into small warp capable portions."

"What, you took a warp drive and turned it on inside of hyperspace?"

"I'm not a physicist or engineer, and my translation software is lacking in anything science related. No, it's not a warp drive, we can't just turn it on for superluminal velocities in realspace, but it works similarly to a warp drive."

"So, this section doesn't have a gate generator or wormhole or whatever, but it must still have a warp drive."

"Nope, we maintain all velocity by frame drag, we're surrounded by warp bubbles on all sides, the space inside all of them does differ by more the light speed with the speed inside."

"You seem rather free with this information," Nog notes. "What's the catch?"

"You are, we caught you, but we're going to let you go when we get to Many Circles."