The Missive of Dissent was a wreck. Armored plates were missing across her scoured hull, some holes vented what little atmosphere that was in the ship into space. The Imperial fleet ignored the ancient civilian vessel-made-warship as it made for the planet of Birmingham.
Alex watched through what few cameras remained as the Rebel fleet activated their ripple drives to retreat further into New Dominion space. He was not alone out here, six hundred other ships floated broken in the outer system, but he was pretty sure he was the only one in his division to survive.
Most of the delay fleet were more scrap than ship, he was lucky that his vessel looked more damaged than it really was. That wasn’t to say it would be ready to fight tomorrow, or even a few weeks from now, but onboard repair bots were confident they could restore the ripple drive.
“Good thing I’m no longer human.” He thought to himself as he looked around his VR cockpit at the view from the unbroken cameras. Alex was now a replicant, his human body had passed away due to a new virus on Carolina. They had a vaccine for it now, but thirty years ago it was a death sentence.
He had chosen replication over death, and the Imperial State had placed him in the computer banks of an old transport ship, bringing in supplies wherever needed. You didn’t get to choose your job after death, some apparatchik in a suit decided that, but he had to admit, this was better than running a garbage truck.
Replicants were given VR environments to inhabit, usually pertaining to their occupation. His default environment was what would have been a small starship, from the cockpit to the engineering bay. He also had an android body to use onboard or to interface with biologicals at space stations and such.
Once he joined the rebellion on New Dallas they hacked his systems and gave him full control over the former CARGO 33H6B8. Half of her bays were stripped out to make room for torpedos, shield generators, auto-factories, forges, and drones. The other half was filled with the raw materials and nanites necessary to make onboard repairs. The rebellion was lacking in dry docks to refit ships, so it was up to each captain to do their own repairs.
He spoke to his onboard AI, “Kara, how long until the ripple drive is back online?”
Kara spoke back, almost as a whisper into his ear, “Approximately three standard hours until repairs are complete.”
Alex nodded to himself, that was fine, he would make all necessary internal repairs while the fleet surrounds the now evacuated planet. Their job was to place the interdiction mines in the Oort Cloud and then make their way back to the outer system incase they needed to slow the fleet down further. It ended up being a slow retreat, giving up ships for time.
“I’m sure some Admiral in that big fuck-off fleet is going to be gnashing his teeth when all his hails get him is an automated AI message.” He chuckled as he took another sip of his coffee.
He pressed a button on the cockpit chair and it spun around to allow him to exit into the confines of his spaceship VR. Someone once told him this was what a cargo ship’s interior looked like in the time when organic humans crewed them.
Once out of the cockpit he found himself in the common room. It must have once been a communal kitchen/dining/entertainment room for the crew. A large table sat out before him with all manner of food. As he walked by he picked up a chicken nugget and stuffed it in his mouth as he made his way further into the ship.
The next corridor led to the berths, this was where he knew the VR was modified, because he made the mods himself. Instead of half a dozen doors on each side, there were only two now. The one on the right was his bedroom, the one on the left was a huge shower/tub/sauna.
The next part of the ship would have actually have been the cargo holds, but the VR makers skipped this, since there was no reason to make actual cargo holds in vert. As such it now opened into engineering. In front of him sat a real time representation of what was really happening in the back of the ship.
Thousands of repair bots, ranging from the size of flies to the size of cows crawled over the bay. The bots resembled six legged spiders, but with tools attached all over their bodies. It was an interesting sight, watching them work. Like some giant hive working together. Of course, this was all in vacuum, and zero g.
The heart of the ship lay before him, an astonishingly small chamber, only three meters in height and three meters in circumference. He looked at the monitors, all showed green. A relief, as if any of the things those screens showed a problem he and his ship would be atomized, or imploded, or something weird like that.
For the chamber held a new reactor, not something so ancient as a micro-fusion like the original ship boasted. No, inside here was a Kugelblitz. A micro-singularity feeding off individual quarks, and putting off enormous amounts of hawking radiation, which the chamber then converted into electricity for the ship.
He walked around the catwalk to look down on the ripple drive. This was original to the ship, and as of yet nothing in the verse topped it. Sure the newer models were smaller and more complex, but they didn’t perform any better than this one.
He wasn’t entirely sure how it worked either, he was told it somehow rippled spacetime in front of the ship allowing the fusion torches to accelerate the vessel at ridiculous speeds and ignore normal physics. He didn’t have the math for it, and when Kara explained it to him it gave him a headache. It was still impressive as hell though.
Seems like a torpedo managed to blast a chunk of armor straight into one of the giant coil thingys. Luckily Kara knew how to fix it and was organizing the bots to do just that. He also wasn’t sure if Kara was sentient.
Oh sure, the big foreheads told him that she was integrated with the ships computer just like me but was non-sentient, really good at anything ship related but unaware of the universe at large beyond what she was programmed to do. Something about never understanding counter-factual information or having a what-the-fuck moment. He had his doubts though, Kara surprised him sometimes.
Sighing to himself he walked out of engineering and into his spa-like bathroom. He had time to kill and while he could frame-jack his time sense to allow it to pass quicker, he preferred to stay at real time in most situations. Combat was of course the exception, he stayed at maximum speed throughout the battle, milliseconds taking full minutes. At that speed all of his VR except the cockpit wasn’t rendered to aid in the processing.
He was always astonished at how real his VR experience was. The room had a spa-like feel to it, maybe it was the faint smell of bleach covered by lilac? Or the slightly damp wood grain on the door of the sauna? He shrugged and took off his uniform before climbing into the huge multi-headed shower room to washed off.
Of course he didn’t need to actually clean himself, he was a program inside a computer, but after the battle he felt like cold sweat clung to him. Then after the shower he climbed into the sauna and pulled up a comic book on his tablet while he enjoyed the heat.
He was just settling into the bathtub when Kara suddenly appeared in the bathroom. She was in her usual hologram form, a slight blue haze around her with her arms crossed behind her. “The fleet has diverted their course.”
Oh shit, had they detected he was still operational? He could swear he saw Kara peeking into the tub, “Are they turning around?”
Kara shook her head as she spoke, “They are not, they are heading for the star.”
Alex checked his databanks on the Birmingham system, “That’s strange, there is nothing orbiting the star of military value.” He said as he reached for his towel.
Kara didn’t move as he stood up and started drying himself off. Did she glance down quickly or was it his imagination? He gave up on drying himself and waved a hand, his uniform instantly appeared over his formerly wet and nude body. “Alright Kara, show me what they’re doing.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
They walked to the common room and above the table sat a representation of the Birmingham system. Sure enough, Kara was right, they were heading for the star, they had deviated a full AU off course since he was taken out of the fight. He reached down and grabbed a slice of pizza and looked back at the hologram.
“Any idea what they could be doing?” He asked Kara as he took a huge bite.
Kara shook her head, “Unless there is some secret military base inside the orbit of the first planet there should be no reason for them to go there.”
Alex chewed some more and swallowed, “I’ve never heard of a cloaking device capable of hiding an entire base, hell, I doubt they could cloak something the size of the Missive. What are they up to?” He asked himself as he paced back and forth.
Finally he turned to Kara, “Record whatever they are doing, be ready to send a string message to command in case this is something important. The Imperials don’t take a dump without planning it out, and this smells of something nasty.”
Kara cocked her head, “Sir, sending out a string message will draw attention to us, and I remind you our ripple drive is still offline.”
Alex nodded before grabbing a chip and dipping it in cheese sauce, “I know, I know, just be ready in case we have to. Hopefully they won’t do anything too nefarious until we get the drive back up.”
Kara nodded and disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared back in the spa. Alex shrugged, his AI assistant was a little strange, even more so than others he had met or heard about from his comrades in the rebellion. He grabbed a pudding cup and a soda and walked over to the couch. He put down his treats on the side table before plopping down into the overstuffed cushions.
Grabbing his game controller, the screen in front of him came to life at a save screen. He sat back, “I’m gonna beat this boss if it kills me!” He declared as he got to work swinging his sword.
________________
Some time later Kara appeared in front of Alex, directly in front of the screen. “The Imperial fleet has launched torpedoes at the local star.”
Alex sighed, paused his game and stood up, still holding on to his controller. “Ok, show me what they’re doing.”
They both walked over to the large table where the hologram of the system floated. Red triangles represented the Imperial fleet. “Ok Kara, why would they be launching torpedoes at the local star?”
Kara kept her hands behind her back, “Unknown, but immediately after launching the entire fleet activated their ripple drives and should be leaving the system within the next few seconds.”
Alex leaned over the table to look closer at the hologram, “Do the torpedos converge on a single point or are they all just fired towards the star?”
As Kara spoke the red triangles vanished from the holo, “They are all converging at the center of the star.”
Alex stood up straight and frame-jacked to maximum, the rest of the AI outside the table and the hologram disappeared from view as the hardware strained under the load, “I don’t like this, I can only hope they didn’t leave a small cloaked ship behind. Send the string message to New Dallas actual. Bypass chain of command, send it highest priority.”
Kara nodded and the message was sent. Suddenly the hologram flashed red and readings began scrolling on both sides.
Alex looked over to Kara, “That looks really bad, gravity is spiking off the charts.”
Kara’s eyes turned radiant blue as she started consuming and compiling data, Alex would have done the same but Kara was much faster at it. He was after all, still a human in software, not an AI built from the ground up to process literally anything thrown at them.
Kara turned back to Alex, as her eyes faded back to just bright blue he could swear he saw fear in them. “The star skipped nova, supernova, or even kilo nova. It is imploding into a singularity as we speak.”
Alex looked back at the holo as the star was noticeably dimmer and smaller, then checked his time sense. Only two milliseconds had elapsed, “Wait, Birmingham was a type G star, only a little larger than the Terran Sun, how could it possibly become a black hole?”
Kara’s eyes flared bright blue before fading, “It is a singularity, not a black hole, there is a difference. While black holes are points of infinite density, this is not. There are quasi-particles escaping the dying star, I believe what we are witnessing is a tear in space-time.”
Alex took a mill to think about that, “So they used the gravity at the center of the star to rip a hole in space time, and now that hole is sucking in matter and energy like a giant bathtub drain?”
Kara nodded, “Essentially yes, it’s far more complex than that however. I am sending an update to New Dallas actual.”
Alex waved his hand as Kara sent the string message, before him showed progress windows of repairs to the Missive. The ripple drive was nearly repaired, he looked back over to Kara, “About forty five minutes until the ripple drive is online, are we out of danger from this distance?”
Kara shook her head, “The tear is still expanding, if it does not stabilize soon it will swallow New Birmingham in eight minutes, and us in forty. However, that is assuming its maximum rate of consumption is light speed.”
Alex turned on the fusion torch engines and started moving the ship towards the outer system, even at the pitiful .8g he calculated it may not be enough. “Kara, divert all repairs to the ripple drive.”
Kara sighed, wow, she actually sighed? “All repairs have been allocated to the ripple drive, I can’t speed up the process, we have every available repair bot on it.
Alex put his hands on his hips, “What about my android, would it help?”
Kara shook her head, “It isn’t rated for the vacuum or temperature, it was designed to look human and do small repairs, not fix starships in void of space”
Alex looked down as he thought, “Ouch, that was kind of harsh. But she’s right, it was his way of interfacing with real space, not a true repair bot.”
Kara’s eyes flared blue again, “Current models show the tear is accelerating, we will not be able to get the ripple drive online before the ship is swallowed. Even allowing for distance traveled with our engines.”
Alex looked from Kara to the hologram, the star had stopped dimming and was a shimmering gray color as it continued to swell. “Kara, are there any theories on whether space time can repair itself?”
Kara looked over to him, “Only theories, and ripping a hole in space was a theory until today. It is estimated that there is enough energy in the cosmic medium for the universe to heal from a rupture, but it would swallow vast portions of space before it would cauterize itself.”
Alex waved to the hologram to show the local map of the galaxy. Birmingham sat in a crescent formed by the Imperial Navy’s push into the rebellion held territory. “Kara, how far out would this tear extend according to those theories.”
Her eyes flashed blue before fading, they looked sad somehow, “It will engulf all of New Dominion space, plus or minus twenty light years. There is no way to evacuate the local systems in time, the singularity is expanding exponentially, and as it is feeding on space itself, it is defying Einsteinian physics. It will reach New Dallas in two days, and Frankfort in three.”
Alex ran his hand through his hair, “If the theories are wrong and the universe can’t recover from a tear?”
Kara shrugged, “Then this will destroy not just our galaxy, but the universe as a whole.”
Alex paced back and forth, “If we jettison raw materials will that give us enough time to get repaired?”
Kara shook her head, “I already ran those calculations, the ripple drive will be theoretically operational, but the coil alignment can’t be done in that time frame.”
Alex stopped and turned back to Kara, “What happens if we activate the ripple drive with the fields out of alignment?”
Kara looked up for a moment, “All records of failed ripple fields have resorted with loss of the vessel.”
Alex nodded, but he knew Kara had a tendency not to give him all the information she knew, “When you say loss of vessel, do you mean they explode, or implode, or tear themselves apart somehow?”
Kara shifted a little, “There is no information in the databases, but there is never wreckage, the ships seem to simply vanish.”
Alex knew he had to push an answer out of Kara, she never volunteered new information, “Ok, so if matter can never be created or destroyed, and these ships were made of matter, how is that possible?”
Kara’s eyes glowed brighter blue again, “It is not possible that they were completely destroyed, but perhaps misplaced.”
Alex chuckled to himself, “Misplaced eh, seems hard to misplace a couple hundred thousand metric tons of space ship, millions if they’re bigger than the Missive.”
Kara looked back to the hologram, “Some of the more fringe theories state that they were pushed past the finite curve of the universe. Others simply state the ship tore itself apart at a quantum level over light years and the sensors at the time simply couldn’t detect the additional mass.”
Alex nodded and reached down for a cookie, “So we either do nothing and let this tear in the universe devour us or we see what happens if we activate our ripple drive without synchronizing the fields. Can you come up with any other options Kara?”
Kara looked down, “I cannot, those are the only two options available.”
Alex smiled, this was far from his first brush with death, hell, he just had one earlier today, “Well then, I think I’ll go with the ripple drive option, past the finite curve sounds better than oblivion to me.”
Kara nodded, “Very well Captain, the ripple drive is now functional, but we have no idea how out of synch the coils are, do you want to try to bring them more in alignment?”
Alex nodded, “Yeah, best guess scenario here, but don’t cut it too close.”
Kara went into command mode to change up the repair bots orders, “We will be ready in three standard minutes.”
Alex finished his cookie and frame-jacked to normal time sense. He walked over to his couch which had once again rematerialized and looked at his controller. He put it on the side table and vanished his soda and cup of pudding, then walked over to the cockpit, sat down and spun the chair around.
His rear camera display showed nothing but the gray swirling singularity, Birmingham already swallowed as it grew. “Are we ready Kara?” He asked.
Kara’s voice was the whisper in his ear, “Ripple drive activation in ten seconds, see you on the other side Alex.”