Captain Sandra Harrington stood tall on the command deck of the C.S.S. Reality, her sharp eyes locked on the holographic display that mapped the vast expanse of space in front of them. Beyond the edge of the display, past the cold, endless void, lay the most significant discovery in human history—a massive Einstein condensate bubble, encompassing not just Earth but the entire solar system and the surrounding space. Its vast, shimmering surface stretched out in all directions, spanning a staggering radius of 0.65 light years. The bubble glowed faintly, a translucent film of energy that encapsulated the stars within it like a cosmic snow globe.
Harrington's pulse quickened as she observed the bubble, maintained by an array of emitters—10 million stations, to be exact—each one hovering over the surface, meticulously spaced over 4 billion kilometers apart. It was a feat of engineering beyond anything humanity had ever created, dwarfing even the most advanced man-made structures. The emitters themselves were monolithic constructs, immense towers of sleek, metallic plating, rotating slowly in place. Each emitter was equipped with massive energy pylons that pulsed rhythmically, like the heartbeat of a leviathan, sending energy across the bubble's vast surface. These towering constructs hovered effortlessly in space, suspended by forces incomprehensible to most. The sheer scale of the infrastructure was daunting, the distances unfathomable.
They were close now—only a few hundred thousand miles from the nearest emitter. The Reality floated in the darkness like a speck of dust on the edge of a vast and invisible tide.
"We’re right on the edge," murmured Mattwo, her second-in-command, his voice carrying a nervous tremor. His gaze flicked between the display and the looming structure in the distance. "This is crazy, Sandra. We need to turn back."
Harrington didn’t respond immediately. Her gaze was fixed, calculating. They had just jumped into the Earth system—or rather, outside of it—into the space beyond the bubble. The Reality drifted there like an insect perched at the edge of a shimmering, impenetrable wall. The translucent dome of the bubble rippled slightly, undulating as waves of energy passed across its surface from one emitter to the next.
The emitter array in front of them was just one of millions, but what made this situation particularly risky—and utterly insane—was the Confederation ship patrolling nearby. They hadn’t expected that. After all, with 10 million stations spread across billions of kilometers, the odds of encountering a manned station were astronomically low. Yet here it was: a sleek, black Confederation cruiser, gliding silently around the emitter like a predator stalking its territory.
Harrington could see it on the display—a dark, angular shape, bristling with weapons and scanners. It was patrolling methodically, sweeping the area, watching. Waiting.
"Turn back?" she finally said, her voice cold and resolute. "We’ve come this far, Mattow. There’s no turning back now."
"But, Captain," Mattwo protested, his face pale as he glanced nervously at the readouts. "That ship could could call for reinforcements. We don’t have the firepower to engage full armada directly, not out here."
"That Confederation ship has its orders, just like we do," Harrington replied sharply, her tone unyielding. "They’ve just activated a Level 5 shift, Mattow. Do you understand what that means?"
Mattow swallowed hard, nodding slowly, his throat dry. He knew exactly what a Level 5 shift meant. It was a complete reset—a massive recalibration of reality within the bubble. Anything inside could be altered, reshaped—an entire solar system’s worth of data wiped clean or rewritten in an instant. But the key detail, the one that Harrington clung to like a lifeline, was that once a Level 5 shift was initiated, it would take weeks—possibly months—before the Confederation could initiate another.
"This is our window," Harrington continued, her voice unwavering, the fire in her eyes burning brighter. "They won’t be able to make another move for weeks. That gives us the time we need to get in, reach the Observer, and figure out what the hell the Confederation is really doing in there."
Mattow clenched his fists, his knuckles whitening as he stared down at his console. The Observer—the Confederation’s main base of operations inside the bubble—was the ultimate prize. If they could reach it, they could gather intelligence that no one else in the system could dream of. Secrets, strategies, and the key to understanding the shifts. But it was a suicide mission if the timing wasn’t perfect. The Confederation ship in their way made everything more complicated.
"And the emitter array?" Mattow asked quietly, almost to himself. "What if they detect us before we get through?"
"They won’t," Harrington said firmly, her voice cutting through the tension. "We’ve been planning this for months. Everything is in place. Our stealth systems are tuned to counteract their detection grid. This is our only chance to get through the bubble undetected, and we’re taking it."
She could feel the tension thickening on the bridge, the subtle shifts in the crew’s movements, the way their eyes darted to one another in anxious glances. But they trusted her. They had to. The Confederation's control over the bubble was absolute, and the secrets they were guarding inside—about the Observer, the shifts, and the manipulation of reality—were too important to ignore. No one had ever gotten this close to unlocking the truth, and Sandra Harrington wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip through their fingers.
"Status report!" Harrington barked, her voice commanding as she stepped up to the center of the bridge, her gaze never leaving the display of the Confederation ship.
"All systems are green, Captain," Ensign Vickers reported, his hands moving swiftly across the console. "Shields are at full power, engines stable. We’re reading normal energy levels across the ship."
"Good," Harrington replied, pacing slowly as she processed the data streaming in from all systems. "And the cloaking field?"
"Optimal efficiency," Vickers said, glancing back at her. "We’re invisible to their scanners for now, but I don’t know how long that’ll last."
Harrington gave a short, determined nod. It was risky, sure, but risks were part of the game. The stakes were too high to turn back now. The Confederation’s grip on the bubble was the only thing keeping humanity in the dark. If they could break through, get to the Observer, they’d have the answers they needed. Answers that could change everything.
She turned her attention to the display once more, eyes narrowing as the Confederation cruiser continued its patrol, oblivious to the danger lurking just outside its reach.
"We’re going in," Harrington said softly, more to herself than anyone else. "Prepare for entry into the bubble. This is it."
The shimmering surface of the Einstein condensate bubble loomed ahead, the emitters pulsing with the rhythm of a machine that controlled the fabric of reality itself.
Captain Sandra Harrington stood at the center of the command deck, eyes locked on the looming surface of the Einstein condensate bubble. The unusual sight of hesitation on her normally stone cod face as the C.S.S. Reality crept closer, the faint shimmer of the bubble rippling in front of them. They were only a few thousand miles from the bubble’s edge—just a breath away from breaking through.
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And then the proximity alarms blared.
"Incoming!" Ensign Vickers shouted, his voice cutting through the air like the blade of the captain's knife. "Confederation ship—direct course! They’ve spotted us!"
Harrington’s face tightened in irritation. So close. She spun toward the holographic display, eyes locking onto the sleek, predatory shape of the Confederation cruiser, hurtling toward them at full speed. The ship had been patrolling in lazy loops moments ago, but now it was charging like a vengeful beast.
"Brace for impact! Shields up!" Harrington barked, her voice sharp with urgency.
The C.S.S. Reality jolted as the first barrage of fire from the cruiser streaked across the void, lighting up the darkness with brilliant flashes of energy. The shields flared brightly under the assault, the entire ship shaking with the force of the hit. Most of the impact was absorbed by the ship's metallic alloy, but some damage still made its way through, as plate sections broke off and ricocheted into space.
"Shields holding, Captain!" Vickers shouted, his fingers flying across the console. "But we can’t take many more like that!"
He was right. The C.S.S. Reality had once been a top-tier ship, capable of holding its own against a Confederation armada. But that was in its prime, with a fully trained crew. Now, after years of patchwork repairs and maintenance shortcuts, it was a shadow of its former self. The ship's reputation—the legends surrounding its voyages—had kept most would-be attackers at bay, but now it was being put to the test.
"Return fire! All weapons!" Harrington ordered, her eyes flashing with intensity.
The ship responded in kind. Railguns roared to life, sending streams of molten projectiles into space, while massive energy cannons fired with a deep, resonating thrum. The bolts of energy tore through the blackness, slamming into the Confederation cruiser’s shields with bone-rattling force.
The ship's railguns glowed, making the Reality look like a gauntlet of destruction.
On the viewscreen, the Confederation ship veered to the side, the blasts from the railguns tearing off a small part of its aft section. Non-critical damage. The cruiser retaliated. Plasma beams lanced toward the Reality, and her shields flickered violently under the strain.
"Evade!" Harrington shouted, gripping the railing as the Reality banked hard, trying to avoid the incoming fire. The ship groaned under the pressure, the deck tilting as the engines screamed to pull them out of the line of fire. The cruiser altered course, pursuing relentlessly and closing the gap.
"Deploy fighters!" Harrington ordered, her mind racing through the tactical possibilities. "We need to slow them down!"
“We don’t have the men to pilot them, Captain," Ensign Vickers replied.
"I don’t need them manned! I just need something between us and them! Deploy them now—twenty should do. Mattow, target our own fighters as soon as they launch. Fire once you have a lock.”
Twenty fighters launched from the bay, spinning aimlessly in space. The cruiser headed straight for them, its sensors dismissing the unmanned fighters as no threat.
"Fire!"
The Reality’s railguns took aim at the fighters and fired. The Confederation ship continued its pursuit, unaware of the trap. The fighters exploded in a chain reaction, the shockwave catching the cruiser and sending it into a spin.
A moment later, the Reality unleashed a punishing volley of railgun fire aimed directly at the Confederation cruiser’s rear thrusters. The projectiles struck true, sending sparks and debris flying as one of the enemy engines exploded in a fiery plume. But the cruiser didn’t stop. It pressed on, its remaining thrusters blazing, firing wildly as it corrected its heading and advanced.
"Shields at 30%, Captain!" Vickers yelled, his face pale. "We’re taking too much damage!"
The ship shook again, harder this time, as a barrage of plasma fire ripped into their shields, sending a cascade of sparks raining down from the overhead panels. Consoles exploded, smoke filled the air, and the lights flickered as the power systems struggled to maintain integrity.
"Get us out of here!" Harrington barked. "Full speed ahead, now!"
The engines roared to life, propelling the Reality forward in a desperate attempt to outmaneuver the Confederation ship. But the cruiser was fast, and it wasn’t letting them go without a fight. It closed the distance, its weapons locking onto the Reality with lethal precision.
Another explosion rocked the ship as the cruiser fired a concentrated blast that slammed into the Reality’s aft section. The impact sent crew members flying from their stations, bodies slamming into walls as alarms blared and the ship groaned in protest.
"Damage report!" Harrington shouted over the chaos.
"Multiple hull breaches in the lower decks!" Lieutenant Hargrove called out, his voice tight with strain. "We’ve lost weapons control on the starboard side! And... we’ve got casualties."
Harrington’s gut twisted. The smell of smoke and scorched metal filled the air, mingling with the cries of injured crew. But there was no time to dwell on it now.
"They’re closing in, Captain!" Mattow called, his eyes wide with fear. "We can’t outrun them!"
Harrington’s mind raced. They were outgunned, outclassed, and the Confederation ship wasn’t relenting. But they were also close—so close to the bubble. If they could just break through…
"Divert all remaining power to the forward shields!" Harrington ordered, her voice cold and determined. "And prepare for a collision course."
Mattow’s head snapped toward her, disbelief flashing across his face. "A collision course?"
Harrington’s jaw clenched. "If we’re going down, we’re taking them with us."
The bridge crew exchanged nervous glances but followed her orders without hesitation. The ship’s engines screamed as they accelerated toward the bubble, the Confederation cruiser right on their tail, weapons still firing.
"Captain, we can’t—" Mattow began, but Harrington cut him off with a sharp glare.
"We don’t have a choice!" she snapped. "All power to forward shields! Full speed ahead!"
The Reality surged forward, banking hard to the right. Only those strapped into their restraints or holding onto the railing remained steady; the rest of the crew were flung from their stations. The cruiser kept firing, speeding toward them, plasma beams lighting up the blackness like the glowing hand of a god.
The two ships met in a deadly collision, the Reality tearing through the cruiser like a fist through a glass window. For a brief moment, the Reality was engulfed in a red and yellow halo of destruction.
The whole ship rattled like a tin can from the explosion, the temperature on the bridge spiking. “Report!” Harrington yelled as she struggled to her feet, kicking debris away from her.
“Systems are offline, Captain!" Vickers gasped. "We have partial power to the thrusters and limited maneuverability. It’s going to take some time to assess the full damage.”
"Set a course for the emitter," Harrington ordered, wiping blood from a cut above her brow. "We enter now. Repairs can wait."
The Reality groaned as its engines roared back to life, limping the last few thousand miles toward the emitter and the entrance to slow space.
The ship lurched violently as it breached the bubble, the sudden shift in physics wreaking havoc on the remaining systems. Harrington was thrown against the console, pain shooting through her side as she hit the metal hard.
"Status!" she gasped, pulling herself to her feet.
Vickers, barely on his feet, scanned the controls. "We’re inside, Captain!"
Harrington exhaled sharply, relief flooding through her. They had made it. But at what cost?