NOVELS

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One Giant Leap

By Wayne Austin

Why is it still here? With a slow shake of his head, Calvin gnawed at his lower lip. What had he missed?

It had to be something so simple, so obvious he couldn’t see it. But what was simple about this oddity, this curio of trans-dimensional quantum cosmology? With over a billion equations, some with more than a million variables, many of his peers doubted a solution could be found, even with the latest parallel Planck processors. Why didn’t the drive work? Could Jamakovic have been wrong?

As Calvin stared at the interstellar drive, he drifted from the center of his office until he was only a meter from the display that spanned the back wall. What had he missed?

Once, he used to bristle at being called arrogant but that was because he never doubted himself. Now, every day was a fight. Like a greedy parasite, self-doubt gnawed at his soul, and if it wasn’t for Kwan’s support and her love, he would have been consumed in its flames.

A glint caught his eye: light reflecting off a support container for one of three micro black holes — old friends. How his peers had lauded him a quarter of a century ago after saying it couldn’t be done. Creating them was his crowning glory and the first step to the stars. The memory made him feel old, worn out. Even Atlas had tired of supporting the world on his shoulders. Calvin peered into the drive’s interior and the glint reappeared, a dim point of light moving, now joined by another. Both flickered as they passed behind the girders that crisscrossed the spherical cobweb of gantries, which were littered with a mishmash of drive components and antennae, and which entombed a volume of space a mere kilometer in diameter.

He closed his eyes and pictured the black holes. They danced around each other, flirting, teasing, and then they approached for a brief ménage a trois.

And when consummation does occur add a dash of muons, a spray of neutrinos, flavor with up and down quarks, tweak the electric and magnetic fields until they alternate and resonate beyond belief and hey presto! Disappear here and reappear there. Universe, here we come.

Except it didn’t work. Calvin chewed on his lip and scowled at a memory.

One visiting meddler had described the interstellar drive’s bare bones as an overblown amusement park, all lit up with fairy lights, but without any rides. A cash cow with three black hearts, the fool had said, and laughed at his own witticism. For Kwan’s sake, Calvin had forced himself to laugh along. Better to do that than try to explain away the failure.

Once, there had been enormous hope, but time had whittled that away. Fifty years? But was it really such a waste? Without the moral support of all those who shared his dream, the peace would not have lasted, and he could never have dared to come so far.

But now that Mason was in power....

With a soft sigh, Calvin grimaced as he stared at the drive and once more tried to play games in his head with the complex mathematical equations.

The hiss of a door opening interrupted his reverie. He smiled without turning and waited, expectant. Then, at last, a pair of hands touched his shoulders, caressed and squeezed, and a warm zephyr dusted his ear to herald the arrival of a kiss from soft lips, sweet lips. His opposite number, Kwan Soon Lee, niece to the Legate of the Third Electorate was not one to dwell on protocol when they were alone together. How long had it been since she had burst into his life, eager to bolster their shared dream and carry on the fight? Twenty years? If it weren’t for the great political divide separating the IDA and the Third Electorate, he would have married her long ago. His smile turned to a grin as he took her hand and twisted round to face her.

But instead of a gentle peck, she crushed her lips to his in a smothering embrace while her eyes bubbled with excitement and drew him in.

Calvin pulled back and scowled at her. “Okay ... what is it? The new fempto-camera? It’s shown something?”

Kwan just grinned and said nothing, but her eyes twinkled even more.

“Kwan!” Calvin’s paper-tiger scowl deepened. “Director Kwan Soon Lee, I wish to notify you of a serious breach of protocol. All experimental results are to be reported to both directors simultaneously. I believe that you have been notified of important results before I have. On behalf of the International Democratic Alliance, I must protest!”

Kwan pulled on her “official duties” face. “Duly noted, Director Calvin Leicester. As representative for the Third Electorate, I must lodge a formal complaint regarding the tone of your protest.”

“In that case, I must—”

“Oh, shut up!” Kwan jammed her lips to his again and surprised him by working her tongue into his mouth. Then, as he responded, she pushed him away and dabbed at the controls on her wristlet. The transport belt around her waist drew her away. Then she stopped and stared past him at the interstellar drive.

“It works!” she said, breathlessly and then touched her wristlet. As she pirouetted with a gleeful smile, her bob of hair, black as the ace of spades, whirled around to form a gossamer spiral galaxy. “It works, it works, it works!” She slowed to a halt with an ecstatic fervor in her eyes.

“What does? The camera?”

“No! Oh dummy. The drive! It worked. It transferred.”

“What are you talking about? It’s still here!”

“It did! The camera caught it. In one frame it disappears. It transferred for two whole fempto-seconds. Here, see for yourself. Mah-jongg,” she commanded her virtual assistant, “play sequence, ‘Fempto-cam Soon Lee 47’.” She turned to the display. “This is from ten pico-seconds before.”

Calvin held his breath as the display blanked. Could it be true? For two fempto-seconds? But that was far too short — he quashed the thought, not wanting to break the spell.

An image of the drive appeared, and in the display’s top right corner, a counter raced through a fifteen-digit number in chunks of a thousand. Speckles of white noise flickered over the surface of an invisible sphere, twice the drive’s diameter, and white, blue-tinged flares leapt out from the drive’s structure to fill the void in-between, only to vanish.

But more appeared and hopped about the interior of the sphere as the counter slowed to a single-digit crawl. So far, nothing unusual.

“Watch,” Kwan whispered as she stared at the screen in rapture. The counter clicked over.

Like all the times before, a flare erupted in the center of the screen, surrounded by a golden halo ... and nothing, no drive. Calvin’s mouth went dry, and his throat tightened as the enormity of it hit him. No drive. Then more speckles erupted amidst another golden backdrop and the drive reappeared. The counter had increased by three.

“Play it again,” Calvin whispered, but the words caught in his throat.

He watched, open-mouthed, and as the sequence repeated over and over, his excitement grew. Then it peaked. A young man’s fierce desire swept through him, and a primitive urge erupted, demanding instant gratification.

“Come here,” he growled in a breathless voice.

Kwan drifted over; her gray eyes locked to his. A lazy half-smile, expectant, played over her face as, without a word, Calvin reached out to touch her collar. Her tunic split to the waist. She laughed, wicked and sultry, as he tore it from her shoulders to expose delicate alabaster skin, but a brutal kiss silenced her. How dare she tease him like that? But though his tongue sought hers with a demand for instant consummation, her tongue fought back with its own fierce desire and dared him to dominate her.

Then an animal frenzy took hold, like they were two lovers joining for the first time, and as they tumbled out of control, Kwan closed her eyes and moaned in ecstasy, something she hadn’t done in years. And all the time, her words danced in Calvin’s head.

It works, it works, it works!

Calvin stared at a world map on the display and tried not to scowl as he pondered the latest outbreaks of fighting. In only a week, the number of clusters of glowing red dots had grown and if the situation continued to worsen, soon the stretches of pale red along the borders between the International Democratic Alliance and the Third Electorate would join up in one continuous line. Why did there have to be such a divide between the pale blue that engulfed the continents of North and South America, Europe and Russia, and the strident yellow swathe that swept from China down through south-east Asia to swallow up India, the Middle East and Africa?

“Do you think there will be war?” Kwan asked.

Calvin thought about it for the moment but couldn’t bring himself to admit to the truth staring him in the face. “No, they can’t be that stupid. Besides, both sides have been threatening war for over a hundred years. Mason’s posturing, that’s all. Every new president does it.”

“I’m not so certain.”

Calvin flicked to a news feed from the unaligned nations for a least-biased picture. Not that he needed to bother. None of the propaganda channels could tart up this old whore. It was the same old story that had been played over and over down the centuries. A stream of trudging skeletons fled the remnants of a town blown up and lasered to a pulp. Oblivious to snipers, they staggered on in small clumps, past mutilated bodies, carved up animals and headless corpses. Calvin shook his head and winced as laughing IDA soldiers kicked a morose head around.

The camera balked an old woman, eyes beyond caring, but before she could utter a word, a neat hole punctured her brow, just above her right eye, and she sank to the ground with the camera following her all the way down, gorging on her death throws. Calvin sighed. Hatred would feed on hatred.

Yet out here, in this small piece of heaven where the Oort cloud ruled supreme, it seemed so remote, so unreal. He pulled Kwan close and buried his face in her hair to hide his pain. His project had bound the two power blocs together in an uneasy marriage for so long, he had forgotten what a hell Earth could be. Now divorce seemed imminent.

“What will we do?” she murmured.

“Nothing.” Calvin looked up and dismissed the reality on the screen. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re too remote to be affected. Besides, I think we’re the last people on their minds.”

“I hope you’re right.” Kwan rubbed her arms as if to ward off a chill and Calvin drifted over to hold her. “But I agree. We shouldn’t let it affect us. Most of my people will go along. Chang may not, but I would expect that. He is the Polit.”

“Kosta will be the same, but I’m sure, with a little persuasion, he’ll see the light. Okay, let’s forget about this for the time being. Jarvis, get rid of that.” For a moment Calvin mulled over his indifference as his virtual assistant cleared the display and the interstellar drive reappeared. But it wasn’t indifference, it was a protective mechanism to stop him waking in the middle of the night, screaming.

He stared past Kwan at the drive. One transfer. That’s all it would take to bring this madness to an end and give people a reason to live. One transfer. And the universe would be ripe for the picking. It would turn minds from war to exploration — a miracle. Was it too much to ask for?

Calvin let Kwan go, pushed the thoughts aside and cleared his mind, ready for battle. “Let’s see if we can crack this. Jarvis, call them in.”

The troops drifted in and settled into a loose circle: a pair of mathematical physicists, a pair of interdimensional topologists and a pair of quantum analysts — one IDA and one Third Electorate representative per pair. In the early days the station had boasted over a hundred personnel. Now they numbered twenty, evenly split along power bloc lines.

Calvin called up the latest work on the equations and watched as a host of symbols took up the display, all interconnected with silvery transparent tubes in which smaller icons moved back and forth and his gaze was drawn to two symbols that stood out in the center of the display. He mulled over the red disk with a yellow bulge for the sun and different colored bumps for the planets and breathed in its calming influence. Though he was expert in many fields, Local Matter Distribution was his safe haven. No one would dare question him. His gaze drifted across to where a golden orb dazzled with flickering white rays that streamed away. Solar Particle Flux was Kwan’s domain — her yin to his yang.

Then his gaze flicked to Interdimensional Translation Functions and he sucked in a deep breath as he stared at the pulsing azure pentagon with lime trimming. How open-minded would they be?

He crossed his arms and said nothing as the group settled into an easy banter. Ideas flowed back and forth. Arguments came and went. He listened and watched and considered but didn’t partake as each scientist expanded parts of the model and delved into deeper levels to prove a point or disprove another. There were plenty of good ideas and they went nowhere.

Calvin waited until the arguing died down before he put forward his suggestion. He had been doodling with it for weeks, wary of presenting it. The last few dissenting voices petered out. Coughs punctuated the silence. Eyes slowly turned to him, expectant and then questioning.

Kwan nudged him. “This isn’t like you. Don’t keep us in suspense.”

“I’ve ... been playing with an idea. It’s probably stupid.”

His audience murmured for him to continue.

“Interdimensional Translation isn’t really my area of expertise. I’m sure Pieter and Casey will shoot me down.” He looked to the two interdimensionalists for confirmation.

“No, no,” Pieter protested.

“Absolutely not,” Casey agreed with his Third Electorate opposite, “we’re both open to any new ideas.”

“Well....”

Calvin expanded the Interdimensional Translation Functions module into an exploded view of its subsets and drilled down eight levels. He hesitated before selecting a green cube with a yellow expanding spiral atop it and a violet cube with a shrinking spiral. It was a crazy idea. The cubes expanded into matrices, their cells either containing yellow numerical values or glowing red Chinese pictographs that represented tensor equations. He stared at them and faltered as goosebumps danced up his arms. It was sheer arrogance to think he could tame these beasts. How dare he think he could penetrate their sheer complexity and get away with it? But the idea had nagged him until he couldn’t refuse. Except now, it would all unravel.

He swallowed and forced himself to go on. It was better to look a fool and fail than to not try. He had lived by that mantra and now he could die by it.

“You know how these are the mirror images of each other.”

Pieter and Casey nodded.

“Well ... I was going through Jamakovic’s autobiography again and in particular his account of how he came up with the translation functions and how he found a solution.”

“It was a seminal work,” said Pieter.

“Incredible insight, given the mathematical tools he had to work with,” added Casey.

Chang, the Third Electorate’s topological geometrist, shook his head with a solemn frown. “I don’t know how they could have worked with such primitive tools.”

“We’ve come so far in the last hundred and fifty years,” said Kosta, his haughty voice rising, “thanks mainly to the brilliance and expertise of our scientists. The International—”

Calvin coughed. “That will do, Joseph. We are all friends here, we don’t need any point scoring.”

Kosta looked down and his cheeks reddened to match his mass of curly locks. “Yes, Director.”

Calvin glanced at Kwan as, with hands clasped together across her stomach, she waggled an index finger at Chang and her brow furrowed in a slight, no-nonsense frown. Chang bit his lip and refrained from making a retort. With the escalating situation back on Earth, both political officers were going to be trouble and if war broke out ... there might just be a red dot out on the edge of the Oort cloud.

With a slight purse of his lips, Calvin continued. Time would only tell. “As I was saying, when I read his autobiography, I was fascinated by the decision he made that allowed him to find a solution. He actually assumed that this,” he highlighted the violet cube, “should be the mirror image of this.” He pointed to the green cube.

“That’s because each is the reverse transfer of the other,” said Casey, “they have to be mirror images.”

“Yes, but my point is ... they represent the reverse transfer back to the origin not to the destination as Jamakovic — and everyone after him — assumed was true.”

“But the spatial description equations describe the destination,” said Pieter. “They determine the destination, not the reverse transfer functions.”

“Ah,” said Calvin, “but that’s an assumption also. I’ve searched all the research papers since then and no one has ever questioned this or tested its validity.”

“But no one could test it back then,” said Pieter.

“And Jamakovic couldn’t have come up with the solution without that insight,” said Casey.

“And there you are. Because Jamakovic was such a genius and such a dominant figure in his field, no one ever questioned that he could be wrong.” Calvin held up his hand to forestall Pieter and Casey. “Don’t get me wrong. He’s a hero of mine too. But so often, history has shown, time and time again, how science has been held back by dogma ... by beliefs that an idea — an assumption — is true. That’s what struck me has happened here. I think these reverse transfer equations don’t just describe how to return to our four dimensions, I think they also describe where to return.”

“But what about the destination spatial descriptions?” Kwan asked. “It’s been shown that if they’re not accurate no solution is possible.”

“We can never know the full details of the destination,” said Chang. “That’s why we employ an approximate solution. We can never solve for a perfect solution.”

“But we don’t want a perfect solution,” Kosta retorted. “It’s stable, so you’ll never return. Trust a—”

“Joseph!”

Kosta refused to look at Calvin. Instead, he glowered at Chang through lowered eyes. The feeling was mutual. Calvin looked at Kwan and raised his eyebrows with a wry smile.

“I think the destination details are necessary, but only to assist in reconstruction of the transferred information. Without it, the information is scrambled. I think we’ve been telling the drive what it’s like where it is supposed to go, but actually telling it to go nowhere! All the radiation we see emitted, it’s because we’re describing a destination that is not where it is going to. I think the drive has worked perfectly for the last ten years.”

Calvin waited for Pieter and Casey’s reaction. They tried to be tactful, but their faces betrayed their doubt. Still, it didn’t matter. The idea was out now and free to nag them into submission. He felt the tension release as a wave breaking over him, rinsing away his doubts. No matter what they thought, they would do as he ordered. He was a director and Kwan would back him up. All he had to do was to convince them to put their hearts into it; make them believe he might be onto something.

“I have a few ideas....”

The door slid shut behind Calvin. Now, with their goal so close, why this? And why to Kwan? He stared, glum-faced, at her, floating before the display, staring at the drive, lost in thought. For a moment, he admired her svelte figure, so well highlighted by her starburst orange and teal jumpsuit, the way it followed every curve. And not once had he ever tired of exploring those well-worn paths. The thought prompted a twinge of guilt. How could he be so selfish at a time like this?

He drifted over and put his arms around her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she needed him now.

Kwan nodded but said nothing. It was her inner strength he also admired as much as anything else. With the assassination, she had just expressed a wish for some time alone and then had buried herself in work. No tears, no gnashing of teeth.

“Your uncle.” Calvin shrugged. Sometimes, mere words couldn’t convey what needed to be said. “I know how close you were.”

She softened a touch. “He never had any children.”

“I’ve seen the official reports — they’re a beat up. It was too efficient to be terrorists and I doubt Mason ordered it. Besides, there are plenty of other ways to start a war.”

“I think it was Vanawhatti. I’ve never liked him.”

“But he’s Ohng See’s best friend,” said Calvin. “His faithful deputy. For what, ten years? I can’t believe—”

“I’ve heard ... since Mason came to power, that Vanawhatti has been critical of Ohng See’s conciliatory moves toward the IDA. Vanawhatti is a hawk. He won’t back down.” Kwan sighed and scrunched up her shoulders. “This is bad for us. He’s always opposed our project, now he will pull out. I know it.”

“Mason’s going to cancel as well. ‘Fifteen years of waste’.” Calvin rubbed his chin on the top of her head. Despite all the turmoil around them, they were still as one, and just as she needed him now, he also needed her more than ever. “Damn! We’re so close.”

“One transfer. Neither would dare pull out then.” Kwan turned to face him and put her arms around his neck. Her eyes took on a misty, far-away look. “Just imagine what we could discover. Those planets we’ve found with oxygen atmospheres. There could be intelligent life. Who knows? And we could be the first. Imagine it!”

Calvin chuckled. “You are such a romantic. I would never have believed it when I first met you.”

Kwan looked away and dipped her eyes. “You corrupted me with your decadent ways.” Then her eyes narrowed, and her voice took on a hard edge he hadn’t heard before. “I want this for my uncle. He believed in this as much as I do. And for that I will take great pleasure in making Vanawhatti lose face.”

Calvin grunted. “I doubt that. Vanawhatti will only turn it to his advantage.” He hugged Kwan to him, and she buried her face in his neck.

“I can’t make the funeral,” she said.

“You can say goodbye here ... a memorial service.”

“I already have, just my people. Sorry, it seemed best.”

Calvin kissed the top of her brow, closed his eyes and rubbed his cheek against her hair, savoring the peach scent. Soon, all he’d have were memories to savor if Mason and Vanawhatti had their way. “Oh, to hell with them, all of them. They can take their petty rivalries and blow themselves to kingdom come for all I care. If only we could get this to work!”

“We will. We’re close. Too close to give up.” Then Kwan’s voice took on a teasing lilt. “They all believe in you now, you know. I overheard Pieter and Casey talking yesterday. They’ve put you up on a pedestal alongside Jamakovic.” She reached up and ruffled his short hair.

“Yes, it’s so easy to mold such young brains.” With a chuckle, Calvin caught her hand and pulled it back down behind his neck but didn’t let go. “Unfortunately, you know me for who I am.”

“And I still love you. I think I’ve been duped.” She reached up to kiss him.

“Excuse me, Calvin.”

He groaned. “Yes, Jarvis?” Kwan closed her eyes and dropped her forehead to his chest.

“You asked to be notified of any incoming or outgoing messages.”

Kwan raised her eyebrows in a question.

“Just a precaution,” Calvin muttered. Kwan had to know they were both targets now, even though the drive was the prize. “Yes, Jarvis?” he asked out loud. “What have you to report?”

“An encrypted message has arrived for Joseph Kosta.”

“Can you decrypt it?”

“No, it is a level five military crypt.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“So we haven’t been forgotten after all,” said Kwan.

“No, and I expect there will be a similar message to Chang as well.”

“But what can either of them do? We don’t have any weapons.”

“Are you so certain? I wouldn’t put anything past them. Still....” Calvin gave Kwan a gentle squeeze and kissed her forehead before letting go. Neither side would have the drive if he had any say, and he knew they were in perfect agreement. “I think we better get back to work, we may not have much time.”

The declaration of war came as a silence. Satellites that were always in constant communication with the station went dead. It would take three hours to get confirmation, longer if it had to come from Mars, or the Jupiter or Saturn bases. Strange how events so far away could affect everyone on the station. Friendly opponents adopted cool demeanors. But a local cease-fire — of a kind — had been agreed to by one and all, even Kosta and Chang. That surprised Calvin more than anything did.

At least Kwan hadn’t changed. Nor had he.

Messages began to trickle in, first from Mars, and then from the closer belt mining stations, although those were more a cry of relief. Two weeks later the military stations around Jupiter and Saturn came online. Encrypted messages arrived, not for Calvin and Kwan, but for Kosta and Chang. Calvin adjusted the contrast on the wall display until he could just make out a faint blue halo around a black speck that hung, suspended, to the side of Jupiter’s giant, banded bulk in the center of the grainy image.

“I was afraid of this,” he said, “especially after all that military traffic. I think we’ve got a month at most.”

Kwan swung the telescope to point at Saturn, a small, ringed jewel further away than Jupiter. The image came to rest on another but smaller blue halo.

“That’s Le Blanc,” she said. “But the Beijing won’t arrive until five hours after the Amazon.”

“You’ll have to leave before then. You should go now while you have the chance.”

“Chang will veto that.”

“But I don’t trust Kosta. I don’t know which one I’m more worried about. I wish I knew what their orders were.”

“I doubt they’ll do anything until the Amazon arrives, they’ll be too busy watching and worrying about each other.”

Calvin moved the telescope back to the Amazon. The blue glow blinked off. He frowned and turned to Kwan. “It’s starting to brake. That’s only three weeks. You need to leave.”

“No, there’s still a lot to do.” She drifted over and reached out to squeeze his arm. “You need us for the final adjustments. Mah-jongg, what is the latest a ship can leave here and escape the Amazon? Assume its destination is the nearest belt settlement.”

“Five hours and forty-three minutes before the Amazon arrives, acceleration one-third gee, vector 42.34 degrees West and 17.68 degrees South.”

Calvin scowled as the display altered to show the solar system overlaid with a solar celestial sphere, the space station a sparkling emerald out on its edge. A white arrow extended down toward the ecliptic and in toward the sun’s bright yellow ball. Why couldn’t she do as he asked just this once? The Amazon might not be able to intercept her, but she would pass within firing range.

“See?” Kwan patted his arm. “Plenty of time.”

Calvin shook his head. “If Kosta lets you leave, or Chang for that matter. And if you do ... one-third gee? You’ll burn up too much fuel to brake.”

“We’ll have enough to slow so they can rescue us. It won’t be easy, but it’s only two months. And the belt settlements are neutral. We should be safe.”

Kwan snuggled into Calvin’s chest to forestall any argument. Her decision was a fait accompli. Calvin rested his chin on her head and closed his eyes.

“It’s a pity I can’t order you to leave,” he said in a dour tone.

“I wouldn’t listen to you anyway.”

“I’d feel much happier if you weren’t here.”

Kwan pulled back to stare at him, her eyes wide, all innocent and filled with a child-like earnestness. “Don’t you want me anymore?”

Calvin gaped at her. Then he chuckled and pulled her back to him. “You know what I mean! I don’t want to risk you being captured ... or worse.”

The supply shuttle undocked from the interstellar drive and rotated toward the station. Its next trip would be its last. Calvin sighed. At least Kwan didn’t know what he planned. He flipped the display back to where a blue glow masked the Amazon.

General Sanchez, the new commander of the IDA’s Jupiter base and one of Mason’s right-hand men, had sent a few perfunctory greetings. There were no special instructions, no need for alarm, merely an inspection tour to show the flag and raise morale, nothing more. And pigs might fly.

Kwan had received similar messages from Le Blanc. Word had gotten out and this little research station had become the place to be.

Where is she?

The clock in the top corner of the display ticked over — six hours to the Amazon’s arrival, six and a half to transfer. If it worked. Calvin took a deep breath to calm his nerves. It was time to say goodbye.

“Jarvis, where is Director Kwan Soon Lee?”

“I cannot locate her.”

“Who was she with last?”

“Polit Kosta.”

A shiver, like a faint electric shock, ran through Calvin. “And the other Third Electorate personnel?”

“Except for Polit Chang, they are grouped together in Corridor Fifteen, Section Eight, moving toward the Departure Lounge. Polit Chang is moving along Cross-corridor Nine.”

Calvin let his breath ease out through his lips. “And where’s Kosta?”

“Polit Kosta is in the Departure Lounge.”

“Damn,” Calvin muttered as a bad feeling swept over him. His fingers danced over his wristlet’s controls and with a jerk, his transport belt dragged him out into the corridor. Kosta wouldn’t have killed her, not if Mason could use her as a bargaining chip to undermine Vanawhatti. Still, Kosta liked to be a loose cannon.

He tore into the lounge and slammed to a halt. Kosta pointed a pistol, a standard, military-issue Boch that could fire smart, explosive-tipped bullets. Calvin fumed. How dare he smuggle a gun like that aboard?

The Third Electorate scientists cowered against the inner wall of the lounge and the red dot of the Boch’s laser danced across them. It paused for a second, jittering over its target’s heart before moving on to another prey. Kosta had a wolfish grin and narrow hunter’s eyes. It was the first time Calvin had seen his Polit smile or show any enthusiasm for the whole year he had been aboard.

“Put that away,” Calvin snapped. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“They were trying to escape. By rights, I should shoot them.” The red dot zipped across the group and as one they cringed.

Pieter held out his hands to appeal to Calvin. “Director Leicester—” The laser darted across to stop on Pieter’s forehead. He hesitated with a wary glance at Kosta before continuing. “Director Lee assured us she had an agreement with you that we could evacuate if your warship arrived before ours.”

“That is correct.”

“You don’t have that authority!” Kosta snapped.

“I am the IDA director!”

“My orders supersede your authority.”

“What orders?”

“From General Sanchez.”

“I haven’t heard about any orders. They should come through me.”

Kosta’s eyes laughed at Calvin. “This is a military matter, not civilian. Andreas, send ‘Sanchez Message 245-1’ to Director Leicester.”

Calvin opened the message on the lounge wall display and scanned through it. A veiled scowl crept onto his face. He shrugged at Pieter.

“So, if you don’t mind, Director—”

Chang shot into the lounge, holding a pistol similar to Kosta’s. He caught sight of Calvin and took aim. “Ah, Director Leicester—” He glanced to the side and saw Kosta, but before he could swing around, Kosta fired.

As the bang reverberated in the room, flesh, blood, and fragments of bone spattered out from just beneath Chang’s armpit and his arm spun round to point an accusing finger at Calvin. He flinched as something solid smacked into his stomach and then careened up into his chin.

Death had such a casual disregard for life. Had Kosta shot Kwan or had Chang?

As Calvin wiped his hand down over his face and blinked to clear his eyes, he tried to force his mind to think straight. Kosta had to be stopped, even if it was only to honor Kwan’s wish. To the side, Chang’s head bobbed as his body twisted in slow motion with arms and legs aghast. Balls of blood trailed from the gaping wound in his chest, wobbling as they arced through the air. Calvin gagged at the offal smell. A sudden vision of Kwan’s lifeless body drifting amid red baubles made him shiver. Had Kosta?

He picked at a stubborn shred of skin stuck to the end of his nose and paused as Chang’s pistol floated before him. It was armed, but only Chang could fire it. Calvin grabbed it and drifted over to stop Chang cartwheeling.

Pieter and the others huddled together. The woman next to him whimpered and turned away to bury her face in Pieter’s chest and his arm trembled as he held her. With his mouth clamped shut, his eyes, terrified, beseeched Calvin.

Calvin snatched a look at his hand holding the pistol — rock steady. Just like Kwan would have been in this situation. It felt like time had slowed. Where was she? Had Kosta killed her?

The gun felt solid, real, demanding.

Kosta waved his pistol at the group. “Who wants to be next?” He had his mouse and now he wanted to play with it. The red dot flicked from scientist to scientist, back and forth, teasing each one. In killing, he had become a warrior. It smirked on his face. Calvin despised him and all he stood for.

Where is Kwan?

Calvin eased his arm up until it rested alongside Chang’s arm so that Chang’s hand caressed his hand, the pistol close to Chang’s thumb. There would still be enough body warmth to fire the pistol.

Where is Kwan?

Kosta kept his gaze on his prisoners. “What do you think, Director? General Sanchez doesn’t really need prisoners.” He turned to sneer at Calvin. “Perhaps you should join them, considering your treasonous relationship with that slut Lee—” Calvin lunged for Chang’s hand. “What are you doing?”

The pistol slid into Chang’s lifeless grip, but Calvin fumbled. Then Chang’s thumb touched the pad on top of the gun.

Kosta twisted and whipped his pistol around as Chang’s pistol came alive. Kosta fired twice. The first bullet hit Chang’s body and exploded to the left of Calvin. It didn’t matter anymore; nothing mattered. The second grazed Calvin’s cheek and exploded behind him as Chang’s body twisted in his grasp. Why didn’t Chang’s pistol fire?

Pieter lunged at Kosta and crashed into him, knocking him off-balance. Calvin wheeled to follow Kosta, trying to keep Chang’s thumb in place on the firing pad, but the pistol slipped in his grasp and its laser zipped back and forth across Kosta as he tumbled a full circle before regaining control.

Kosta pivoted to aim at Pieter and hesitated. Then he rolled to aim at Calvin. For a second the red dot stopped on Kosta’s stomach and Calvin squeezed the lifeless hand as hard as he could.

Bang!

The gun flicked Calvin’s grip. A red spray spurted from behind Kosta, and he hunched up and wheezed a scream, then squeezed off a parting shot. But it went wide, and Kosta drifted backwards, his face frozen in surprise. Calvin stared at him in a daze. A merciful death was more than either of them deserved, but Kwan? She had to have made it to the escape ship—

A siren burst into life.

Calvin whipped around to see a panel open in the wall. A small robot darted out and raced toward a crater in the far corner, near Airlock Two, where the wall met the outer window. Already, a crack had begun to spread across the window.

He pushed Chang’s body away and turned to the scientists.

“Please!” Pieter cried out. “Don’t!”

Casey and the other IDA scientists dashed into the lounge. “We’ve detected gunshots. What—?” He fell silent as Chang’s body drifted past. A man next to him pointed at Kosta and stifled a gasp.

“Go!” Calvin waved Chang’s pistol at Airlock One.

Pieter hesitated. “But—”

“Don’t argue. I made a promise to Director Lee and I’m keeping it. She would have done the same for me.”

The third Electorate huddle crept toward the airlock and one by one they slipped in until only Pieter remained. “I wish....” He straightened up and smiled a thankyou at Calvin. “It’s been an honor to work with a scientist of your caliber, sir!” Then he scrambled in, and the door slid shut.

“Chang must have killed Kosta,” said a woman behind Casey.

“They must have shot each other simultaneously”, said another.

“No, Kosta shot Chang and I shot Kosta.” Calvin turned and pointed Chang’s pistol at them.

“That won’t fire!” said Casey.

“We both know that.” Calvin cocked his head and offered a rueful smile. “I should be the only one to take the blame.”

“But—”

“He’s right,” Casey cut off the woman. “When Sanchez finds Kosta dead, we could be held responsible. But what about you, Director?”

“Oh...” The pain of Kwan’s loss hit him then. “Don’t worry about me.” He blinked to clear his eyes.

The siren changed to a high-pitched, warbling evacuation alarm and the robot went into overdrive, trying to patch the cracks, but there were too many. A small piece of plasglass blew out.

Calvin waved Chang’s pistol at Casey and the group. “Now get out of here. Move!” As he hustled them through the entrance a soft breeze erupted from the corridor and pushed him back. “I’ve got a flight to catch,” he muttered.

The breeze strengthened and a safety panel slammed down to cut off his air supply. He dashed for Airlock Two, and as the alarm faded in the thinning air, the door slid shut behind him. Air flowed in and he sucked in a deep breath. Not that he cared much for living. But Kwan had believed in him. If she were here, she would be disappointed if he didn’t go on. Besides, there was nothing to keep him on the station.

Calvin hit the button to open the door to the shuttle.

In the left half of the display, Sanchez glared at Calvin from the director’s office. “Consider yourself under arrest, Leicester — murder and treason. You let Kwan Soon Lee escape.”

Calvin froze for a second. He doesn’t know!

Two human soldiers flanked Sanchez and an impressionist’s idea of three mechanized centaurs floated behind them. In the right half of the display, a shuttle braked on its final approach to the drive.

“Order the shuttle to turn back. It’s thirty seconds to transfer.” The seconds ticked away and still the shuttle continued its approach. A chill swept down Calvin’s arms and his stomach churned. If the drive didn’t work, his whole life would be for nothing, although Sanchez wouldn’t let him live long enough to waste time pondering it. The thought made him chuckle, a dry, humorless laugh, and for a moment he forgot Kwan’s loss.

“That drive is IDA property. Do not attempt to transfer. Kosta has kept me well informed, and in his opinion, your rush to attempt this is pure folly. You could kill yourself.” Sanchez softened his gaze. “Calvin, think of your reputation. Kosta assured me you were close to success, very close, but you need more time. Who knows? Maybe after the war....”

Calvin ignored Sanchez and mentally counted down the last ten seconds. The shuttle breached the two-kilometer surface.

Zero.

Calvin’s head scrunched. He had an odd sensation of his brain expanding out of the top of his head and then snapping back. The stars blinked to new positions. An alien sky greeted him. The drive worked.

It works, it works, it works! Kwan’s words reverberated in Calvin’s head and her loss cut through his soul.

A warning chime brought him back to reality. He looked at the display and watched the front half of the shuttle tumble end over end toward the drive. Four bodies spewed out.

Three human shapes waved and kicked with frantic motions and then stopped as if snuffed out. The fourth made no effort to stop tumbling. Two of the soldiers smashed into gantries and ricocheted back into space. The shuttle crunched through an array of antennae and continued past, overtaken by the third robot, which had missed everything and would sail on to oblivion.

With a shake of his head at the stupidity of the military mentality, he noticed the stars in the background. Something was wrong. They didn’t match any of the simulations.

Calvin flicked the display to a sensor on the other side of the drive. He gasped. A brownish-orange band ran across the lower left quadrant of the view and as his eyes adjusted, he began to pick out a pale red nebula.

He enhanced the image to draw out every nuance of color and reveal the nebula in all its glory. It was suffused with exquisite olive cirrocumulus and shot through with delicate frozen wisps of azure lightning that faded to dark blue before becoming intermingled with subtle yellow auras that were too subtle for any painter’s palette. He had known that the universe was an artist far greater than any mere dauber the human race had ever spawned, but this ... magnificence! The nebula’s glowing, ghostly presence engulfed him, awed him.

Only it shouldn’t be there.

Calvin crossed his arms and hugged himself. He wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. The nebula called to him, ensnared him in its hypnotic light and drove away the niggling thought that, perhaps, Kosta may actually have been right.

With a supreme effort he closed his eyes. “Jarvis, analyze the stars and the nebula ... spectra and distributions. Find out where we are.” He opened his eyes to surrender to the nebula and heard a noise behind him. As he spun around, Kwan pulled herself out of a storage compartment.

“Oh!” Her face lit up as she stared past him. “Isn’t it beautiful!”

“Kwan! You’re alive.”

“You didn’t think I would miss this, did you?” She gave him a peck on the cheek and ducked past to ogle the nebula. “We’ve done it! We’re the first people to travel beyond the solar system. I can’t believe it. Isn’t it amazing?” She clapped her hands and laughed.

“But ... but I thought—”

“Did you think Kosta would let me leave? Or Chang? And where better to hide? What made you think you could keep this a secret?” She nodded at the modifications that had converted the cramped diagnostics workplace into a control room. “You think I don’t know you? Anyway, why do you think Sanchez came all this way out here — to the station, I mean?”

“To secure it?”

“To secure me!”

“What do you mean?”

Kwan broke away from the nebula’s pull and turned to him. “Mason wants me as a hostage. My family is powerful, and they could be a threat to Vanawhatti. That’s why Le Blanc was chasing Sanchez. To save me ... or kill me. I think those were Chang’s orders. Did they get away? I was worried about Kosta.”

“Yes,” Calvin managed to say. How could Kwan be so calm when all he wanted to do was sweep her up in his arms and berate her for putting him through such hell while laughing and crying at the same time? And yet he just felt too numb to act.

“Le Blanc’s probably changed course to try to intercept the shuttle ... I hope they make it.” She chuckled at his dismay. “Really, Calvin, you should keep up with politics. I expect Chang—”

“Chang’s dead.”

“Oh.”

“Kosta killed him.”

“I was afraid—”

“I killed Kosta. I thought ... nothing. It doesn’t matter. I’m just so glad you’re here.”

Kwan tilted her head sideways to regard him through curious eyes and her mouth opened a couple of times as if to ask a question. Instead, she drifted over and rotated to press her back up against him.

“Hold me,” she said.

Calvin pulled her to him and let out a long sigh. To hell with politics. To hell with them all. He hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head as some of her calm seeped into him. What had come to pass didn’t matter anymore. She was alive and they were together. That was all that mattered.

Kwan reached up to tousle his hair. “It’s so beautiful.” Calvin looked up and followed her gaze.

“Yes ... yes it is.” Together they lost themselves in the nebula’s embrace.

“This isn’t what I expected,” Kwan said at last.

“No, but I think I know what’s happened. The equations don’t take into account your mass being here. I’m surprised we actually transferred.” He laughed as if he had heard a bad joke. “God knows where we are.”

“I had my fingers crossed.” Kwan pulled his arms tighter around her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin your greatest moment.”

“What? We would never have seen this. I expected to see nothing more than a few stars. Jarvis, why is it taking so long to work out where we are?”

“The computers are calculating the reverse transfer. Shall I lower its priority?”

“No.”

“But if we don’t know where we are,” Kwan squeezed his arm, “will just inverting the solution work?”

“It should since we know where we came from. The problem will be in maintaining the coherency of our information during transfer.” Kwan shifted against him to show she wasn’t so sure and in silence, they slipped into the nebula’s embrace, as if that could ward off their harsh reality.

“Calvin,” Jarvis announced at last, “I have our location. In rounded figures, we are 1423 light years from Earth and four light years from the Orion Nebula.”

“Fourteen hundred light years!” Calvin gasped. They were only supposed to go a tad over forty.

“The Orion Nebula! Oh Calvin.” Kwan twisted in his arms and turned round to face him. Tears glistened in her eyes and her mouth worked, unable to find words to express her feelings. As she tried to brush her tears away a tiny sphere of liquid escaped her fingers and wobbled to freedom only to die against Calvin’s tunic. “How does it feel to be famous?”

“Ha! We’ll only be famous if we get back.” Calvin’s smile faded away. Le Blanc would be arriving soon. “If there’s anyone left alive.... Jarvis, how long before we can transfer?”

“Two days and seven hours.”

“Can’t we stay longer?” Kwan asked, “A week?”

“I only have enough food and water for two weeks and now that’s halved. Besides, the longer we delay the less accurate the return solution becomes.”

Kwan twisted round to take in the nebula again. “I could stay here forever.”

“Come on.” Calvin patted her shoulders. “Since you’re a stowaway, you’ll have to work your passage. Now let’s get to work! There’s data to collect and I’d like to analyze the transfer solution to see if we can figure out why we traveled so far.”

“In a minute ... in a minute.”

The stars reappeared, familiar and reassuring. Calvin let out the breath he had held. They were home and he had worried for nothing. With a rueful smile, he began to massage his temples to alleviate a strange sensation — the same as after the first transfer.

Oh well, a small price to pay for the chance to explore the galaxy.

When Jarvis calculated their location at two hundred million kilometers from where they had left, but further in toward the sun, though on the same side of the ecliptic as the station, he looked at Kwan and shrugged. There would be a few days delay before their triumphant return to the station.

First though, it was time to let the whole solar system know of their achievement. He transmitted a report of their trip on all civilian communication channels while he waited for an acknowledgment from the station to the drive’s identification message. But the seconds kept ticking by.

“Strange, I can’t detect the station. That’s odd!” He pointed the drive’s main optical telescope at where it should have been, but there was only empty space. No debris — nor any warships. “What’s going on?” He scanned for the closest planets and scratched his head as one by one they appeared. First Neptune, then Saturn and then Jupiter, but all in wrong positions. “I don’t understand it,” he muttered.

Kwan looked up from the communications console with a worried frown. “I can’t find any signals, just this odd noise.”

Calvin instigated a scan of the region of space around the station’s expected location with lidar and, as an afterthought, began a scan of the space around them with radar. He stared at the lidar monitor, willing it to give a sign. If there was even a shred of debris, the lidar would find it. The moment for the expected return passed — nothing. The control room seemed to grow colder with each passing minute. Then radar returned a signal. It matched the station’s signature, only the station was over three hundred and fifty million kilometers away in the opposite direction. It didn’t make sense.

He redirected the main telescope and the station appeared, a frigid, lifeless remnant, at home with the left over trash from the solar system’s birth.

“It’s ... dead.”

Kwan covered her mouth and a soft “Oh” escaped her lips.

Calvin turned away to hide his dismay. Their only lifeline led nowhere. There would be no rescue ship, just a slow death.

“Calvin,” said Jarvis, “a message has arrived for you.”

Kwan looked up and a smile burst onto her face. They had a reprieve after all.

“Go ahead, Jarvis.”

The display flickered and cleared. A young man with dusky eyes embedded in the light-amber complexion of his round face stared out at Calvin. Then his calm smile faltered, and he brushed an errant strand of hair from his face and teased it back into place in the straight black mop that fell to his shoulders in an unusual hairstyle. For a second, the corner of his mouth betrayed a nervous tic and he tugged at the sleeves of his strange uniform — a gold, turquoise and ruby sash on a gray bodysuit that Calvin couldn’t place — to gather himself. The uniform was neither IDA nor Third Electorate nor like anything from the unaligned nations. Calvin stared at the ovoid insignia on the man’s chest and wondered what the orange seven-pointed star on a green background meant.

“Welcome, Calvin Leicester. Please....” The man broke into a grin like an over-excited child and tripped over his words. “Can we go again?” he asked someone out of view. “What ... you’re transmitting? Oh.” He breathed in and froze. After several seconds he let his breath seep out and began again. “Please, accept my apologies for taking so long to reply. When they contacted me, er your format is rather old, well we all thought it was a hoax, I mean ... after eighty years? But now—”

“Pause message! Jarvis what is the year time-stamped on this message?”

“2457.”

“What?”

Kwan’s brow furrowed. “We must have traveled forty years into the future on the first transfer and another forty on the return. That’s if the equations are symmetric.”

“It doesn’t make sense.” Calvin scratched the stubble on his chin. “We collapse our three spatial dimensions and expand three micro-dimensions. Time shouldn’t be affected.”

Kwan had Mah-jongg calculated the year matching the position of the planets. It agreed with the message. She bit her lower lip. “It looks like you’ve invented a time machine as well. Pity.”

“Jarvis, continue message.”

“I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Mansur Leicester. I’m your ... great, great grandson. Who would have guessed?”

Calvin stared at the screen, too stunned to follow the message. After his divorce, he had lost contact with his children, so consumed had he been with his dream. And then Kwan had come into his life. Mansur’s words flowed over and around him, and he caught snatches. He and Kwan had disappeared eighty years ago at the start of the Great War.

Eighty years! We’ve been gone eighty years! My great, great grandson ... everyone I know must be dead.

Except for Kwan.

“So you see,” Mansur’s voice drifted back to Calvin, “we’re a united planet at last. I’ve ... er,” he blushed and looked down before looking back up, “carried on the family business, you could say. Unfortunately, some of your work — your last breakthroughs — they were lost during the war. In fact, some has just turned up recently ... in Pieter Johanssen’s archives on Circe. You must remember him. He died in 2384 after he was captured trying to get back to Earth.”

Pieter dead? Kwan choked back a sob. Calvin drifted over to hold her. He wanted to tell her that Pieter had died nearly eighty years ago. It was ancient history. Except, three days ago, Pieter had been alive.

“Your work will be invaluable.” Mansur’s voice grew enthusiastic. “All the details you’ve transmitted, they’ve filled in the gaps. Ten years ago, we resurrected your old black hole construction facility and next year we start construction on another drive. Leicester’s folly, some have called it.” His face lit up with a brilliant grin. “But not now! At last, my ... our dream can come true. When you disappeared, it was captured by telescopes all over the system. ‘Our finest moment in our darkest hour’, that’s how history puts it. Back then you gave everyone hope all through those terrible times.

“And now ... with your help ... now that you’re back, both of you ... it’s been an unsolved mystery: what happened to Kwan Soon Lee? There are lots of theories and now you’re back....”

Mansur paused to consider his words and looked sheepish after his outburst, then his eyes darted sideways to someone out of view. “Oh...? Yes.” He looked back. “A rescue ship has left Saturn, but it won’t reach you for two months. If you can hold out for that long—”

Calvin stopped the message, then shrugged as he held Kwan. “‘If you can hold out for that long.’ What shall we do?” He squeezed her tight.

“If I had known returning would be so painful ... I would have rather stayed at the nebula.”

“And die of hunger and thirst? That’s a miserable death.” He winced as she elbowed him in the ribs.

“Oh, you’re such a romantic!”

“Well, what do you suggest? Whatever way you look at it, we’re dead.”

“You don’t have to be so blunt. I don’t know.... Perhaps we could be like Romeo and Juliet.”

“And poison ourselves? With what?”

Kwan turned to face Calvin, her gaze steady, her face somber. “No, I mean we could kill ourselves. With our last kiss, we could open the airlock and be sucked into space. We’d be dead in seconds — short and sharp.”

Calvin gave her a wry nod. “Still, it’s not very heroic. I can see the footnote in their history now: And they committed suicide.”

“But you would still be a legend.”

Calvin threw his head back and laughed. “Now who’s the romantic? Anyway, it’s our legend. You have just as much right to the fame as I have.”

“Even so,” a sad smile played over Kwan’s face, “I admit I would rather live than be famous. Isn’t it strange? I feel so calm. Now that I know death is inevitable, I accept it. I’m not afraid. At least I got to see our nebula. It might be centuries before another—”

“That’s it!” Calvin pulled her close and kissed her brow. The answer was staring him in the face.

“What is?”

“If we transfer back to Orion’s Nebula and then return—”

“I see!” Kwan’s face lit up. “We tell Mansur to have someone waiting for us in eighty years.”

Calvin hesitated. Now that he thought about it, there was so much that could go wrong and what right did he have to raise her hopes only to dash them. “Even if it works, we’re short on supplies. Food is the main problem. We could stretch it to two weeks, three at most. It may not be enough. We might arrive too far—”

Kwan put a finger to his lips. “We won’t know unless we try.” She combed her fingers back through his hair and around under his ear until her palm cupped his cheek. “Take me back to my nebula.”

“Your nebula?” He couldn’t help but smile. That was why he loved her. “Very well, your wish is my command. Jarvis! Start calculating the transfer.” He kissed her smiling mouth.


The End