THE DOOMED STARSHIP
CHAPTER 1
Starship Arcturus 3015.622 Standard Galactic Date (SGD)
Eddies formed in paraspace, in those ghostly dimensions swirling outside of the familiar universe. Within the tunnel created by that seething vortex sped two starships, Arcturus and Vega. They hugged a cocoon of normspace about them, for without that fragile bubble of familiar dimensions these vessels would instantly cease to exist. At least, that was the understanding of the best astrophysicists, and nobody had dared to challenge their hypothesis.
On board the Arcturus, the Command Circle was just assembling. Janine had already taken her place at the large circular table when Captain Drak entered the room along with the First Officer. Drak nodded to her. "All set to transmit protocols when we re-enter normspace?" His question was phrased in LingX, a common tongue throughout many of the star systems.
Janine nodded. "Yes, sir. The broadcast burst will consist of the standard protocols required to enter the Chacan System plus our offer to remove all anti-probe screens to allow them to scan us."
Drak took his place at the table. "Very good. This shouldn't take long."
The First Officer remained standing. "Are we really going to permit them to probe this ship? That's completely against fleet regulations!" As he glared at Janine, he called out, "Ship. Is such scanning permitted?"
A pillar of light sprang up from a circular plate in the middle of the table. Instantly, the pillar coalesced into the appearance of a human head, a projection of the Artificial Intelligence that truly ran the ship. Its name was Arcturus; but it was commonly referred to as simply ... Ship.
The hologram turned to face the First Officer. "Such scanning has been authorized for this one transit." The head rotated back to Janine. "You may proceed as planned. Would you like me to issue the burst automatically?"
Janine shook her head. "No, thank you. I shall take care of that myself."
The AI regarded her for a moment. Janine almost shivered under the gaze of those pale blue, almost human eyes.
She forced herself to sit back and relax; there was nothing more for her to do until after the transit. And so she activated her personal monitor and the Viewing Lounge sprang into focus. Clustered before the screens was an exalted assembly which included the ship's Second Officer, the Medical officer, and the whole Frontierian ambassadorial legation to Terra Nova. Glasses of a pale orange fluid were raised in a toast to the ship's crew. The Traders had also been invited, but few had put in an appearance. They had seen such transits many times before.
Idly she listened on her sub-conductive implant as the Second explained why they would transit close to a neutron star—something about the strong curvature of normspace easing the transition. Unless they could start and finish interstellar treks close to such an object, they required enormous amounts of energy to initiate the Vortex Tunnel. Janine laughed to herself as she thought of how embarrassed the Second Officer would be if someone asked him for a more detailed explanation. Even the astrophysicists at the training academy had difficulty with that!
This was Janine's first trip as an officer, and she felt proud as she looked down at her holoplate.
Janine Laurier
Communications Officer
Starship Arcturus
A three‑dimensional image of her head swam just behind the letters. She thought of her father whom she hadn't seen now for six stanyears, and knew he'd be just as proud. Matthew Laurier was a Trader, dealing mainly between the Sauran and Chacan Systems. With any luck they would meet this time. She had missed him terribly these past few stanyears.
YOU ARE READING
The Doomed Starship
Science FictionThe story begins with the sabotage of starship Arcturus by an agent who has been tricked into believing that the ship was an unmanned drone. When he discovers that the ship not only had a crew, but that one of its members was his own daughter, he e...
