“Holy shit they’ve got a pool.” Honey exclaimed.

Shiina smiled as she heard him use his favourite swear word. Her waken up uncle didn’t want to stay lying down any longer, and had of course insisted to know everything that had happened while he was unconscious.

Like Oliver, he hadn’t understood the story about Nate technically being seventy years old, but he was satisfied by the fact that Nate had saved him, and that Shiina and Tess trusted him somehow.

He was currently looking at the ship’s architecture and technology, accompanied by his niece.

She followed Honey inside the room, it was of modest size, with a low roof made of mosaic tales with a free take on Ulysses fighting against a giant sea serpent, and faint lighting all around the empty pool.

“This place is amazing! Look at this!” Honey walked towards the least interesting thing in the room, the ambient thermal regulator.

“This model has vanished from the market ten years ago! Thermal exchange between cooling liquid and water was overflowing and mixing together when you put the temperature above forty-five degrees Celsius!”

“Uncle. You’re a large bear, don’t act like the nerd mechanic as well, those are too many stereotypes at the same time.”

He laughed happily. “Says the little cub who reads too many science-fiction novellas.”

“Relativity isn’t science-fiction, it’s physics.”

“Neeeeerd.” He sang back at her.

She sighed. “Where are we going now?”

“Wait, look at those valves!”

“Honey!”

“Yes, yes. Let us go drink something upstairs then. I am thirsty and I was told there were some hidden treasures of the drinking type on the upper floor.”

“I think Nate is sleeping in the bar room.”

“Well, he should have chosen a better spot then!” Honey left the room and walked back up the stairs.

They passed Oliver, carrying boxes on top of each other.

“Need some help?” Honey offered.

“No, I’m simply stacking all the food I found in the apartments to the kitchen freezer. Those are the last boxes.”

Shiina raised an eyebrow. “You could have done two trips and avoid the risk of breaking your neck, you know?”

“Never.”

Honey laughed joyously, and after avoiding the funambulism game of their hierarchic superior, they went through the reception area then continued their way up towards the apartment floors.

“It’s really a beautiful ship. A bit old-fashioned, especially the electronics, but it’s truly a nice-looking ship. Obviously made for a private group, named Site. I saw the name written everywhere. I never heart about it, but they must have a shit-ton of cash.” His uncle commented as he gazed at the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

“I miss the Saviour.” Shiina responded.

For a fraction of a second, her uncle’s expression became sombre.

“Me too Chi, me too.”

The bar’s door opened as they approached it.

“So this is where you didn’t want me to explore an hour ago.”

“We should let him sleep.”

“I will be as soft and quiet as humanly possible; he won’t even hear me coming.”

“…Why does that sound like you want to assassinate him?”

“Because he dared share a drink with my niece without my express approval.”

Shiina punched him in the shoulder.

“Argh. Chi!”

“Oops.”

He looked at her with disapprobation, then examined the bar. “I understand the reason for the door now. Some pressure is being exerted on that window. Better not find ourselves here if we ever get attacked. Impressive view though.” Jupiter was still visible behind Nate, lying down on the couch in the corner of the room, but the planet was now reduced to a large, orange coloured point in the infinity of black.

“Be louder.” Shiina commented.

“You really like him. You are only protective over the people you like.”

“No, I do not even know him. But if what he told me is true, and I believe it is the case, well then, I would really not like being in his boots right now.”

“He seems quite young for an old man.”

“Because he is young. Anyway, let him sleep. What do you want to drink?”

“What do they have in whiskeys?”

Shiina went behind the counter, already preparing to avoid all the pieces of broken glass, but those had been pushed to the side. Not worried about hurting herself, she freely looked at all the bottles stuck on the wall.

“Just wine…” She opened a cupboard. “Ah! Scotch, American or Japanese?”

“American.”

Liquor glasses were miraculously still intact, well-protected under the counter, and as such Shiina put one in front of her uncle and filled it with the American whiskey.

“You won’t join me?”

She shook her head no. “Once a day, tops.”

“Joy killer.”

“No nano-tech replaces a liver.”

He drank his glass in one go.

“By the way uncle, be nice with Nate when you introduce yourself. He told me American soldiers killed his mentor, he seemed close with him.”

His uncle grimaced. “Most likely lunar police then. More effective than terrorists when it's about killing innocent people.” He signalled Shiina he wanted a refill, and once the liquid back into his glass, he instantly gulped it down.

“I won’t argue with you on that point.” She shrugged.

“And I will be careful with him. I need to thank him, in any cases. Seems like he did not hesitate one second. You are certain it is not the gun you were aiming towards him that convinced him?”

“I think he was forgetting it even existed half the time.”

“Aaaaah, scientists. Finding out the truths of the world in exchange for their lifespan.” He pointed towards his glass.

“Nope, you’re starting to spew out philosophy.”

“That’s the loss of blood! Not the alcohol!”

“I think that’s reason enough.”

The bar’s door opened.

“Honey! What are you doing? Alcohol!? And Shiina are you pouring it to him?” Sam exclaimed in horror.

“Hey, I was that close to dying, be lenient little sis.”

“The fact you were that close to dying is exactly why…” Sam sighed. “Get this bottle back in its place Shiina, you shouldn’t encourage him.”

“Yes, mom.” The daughter exclaimed as she rolled her eyes.

“Samantha, did you come here just to stop me from drinking or…”

“No. I would have liked for you to abstain, though. Tess needs you on the top bridge, she wants your opinion on something. I’ll be waiting for you upstairs.”

And Sam left as soon as she finished her sentence.

Shiina looked at her go, before turning back to her uncle.

Nate was coming closer to them, looking like a freshly out of the grave zombie.

“Could I have some water?” He asked weakly as he sat down next to the mechanic almost twice his size.

Shiina found a water bottle in one of the mini-fridges at her feet. She noticed that it was not turned on. She poured down tepid water inside another shot glass and placed it in front of him.

“There are no other glasses.” She apologized.

“Thanks.”

Honey looked at him, and Nate finally seemed to realize the presence of the man-bear.

“Oh, hi. You’re the one that was hurt, who was the one shouting at you?”

“Sam, my sister, and her mother.” He said pointing at Shiina. “Nice to meet you, I’m Honey Clarke.” He extended his hand.

Nate shook it. “Nathanael Lloyd. But call me Nate. You’re not an American soldier coming to kill me, are you?”

“No, I’m the Saviour’s mechanic. Well, was the Saviour’s mechanic.”

“Shiina told me about your ship, I am sorry.”

“Thank you. Twice in fact, you’re apparently the reason I am alive.”

“Not really. I just turned on the engine to create gravity.”

“Engine you invented. So you did technically create what saved my life. Thank you.”

Nate did not say anything, he seemed surprised. He turned around to face the young woman, then drank directly from the bottle of water.

“You told them.”

“They are my family. They are trustworthy.”

He sighed deeply. “If you say so. But I barely know you and I do not share your optimism. How many are you? Four? Five? Can you swear every single one of you will resist temptation? This technology could make you some of the richest people on Earth. Can you be certain no one will be interested?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Rich?” Honey asked out loud.

“Really uncle?”

“I was joking…With regards to me, I would exchange all the gold in the world just to gain access to every part of this ship. It is like a relic but in pristine condition. The conception, design…it is just like the ships I was 3D-printing when I was a kid!”

“God’s View is a revolutionary ship. Entirely designed and built on the Moon, mainly using resources mined on the lunar ground. It was worked on by at least forty artists and the best private engineer company, using the best builder-robots available on the market so that everything could be worked on remotely.” Nate's chest rose in pride.

“Erm…that’s really nothing special?” Said Honey out loud.

Nate’s expression darkened. “Ah. Of course. In any case, I am still the one controlling the ship.”

“Erm…on this subject.” Shiina began.

He gave her a suspicious look.

“We may have found a temporary solution so that we don’t have to destroy your ship and your invention but…”

“But?”

“…It would mean you have to give the rights of the onboard computer to our captain. All administrative rights.”

He laughed. “There is no way I am going do this.”

“It’s to camouflage the ship. It would make it be recognized as our ship, the Saviour.”

“One look and…”

“True, but United Nations administration is so slow, they will never come to check if our ship has changed.”

“I do not get it. How can you change a ship with access to the ship’s computer?”

Honey intervened. “Easy. What differentiates a ship from another, in the landing station's eyes, is the ship’s captain and the registration it’s locked in as. If the ID and the password and the captain are correct, then the system considers there are no discrepancies, and so no one comes and checks on the ship.”

“That’s absolute madness. The number of exploits it brings is unfathomable!”

Shiina smiled. “Well in truth, not so many. There are some of course, or it wouldn’t be the UN administration, but first, you would actually have to want to steal an UN ship’s identity. Which is quite a big risk, with little reward. No-one likes United Nation ships. You won’t steal one of their mining vessels because it would be useless. Asteroids are the most well-protected things in space. And the others? There are only a few military ships, which have other fail safes, and then transport and science ship. I think the administrative side of things for them is much stricter. But because the Saviour poses no major threats, it can’t move asteroids, it doesn’t have weapons and it’s only made to carry its crew and a rescued crew from a distressed ship, it is forgotten by the administration. We had our first check-up last year. It was the first time since the ship was constructed!”

“What about the ship that shot at you? Won’t anyone notice that it’s missing?”

“Yes. This is why it’s only a temporary solution. We can say that we witnessed a weird scene. We can edit our recordings taken from the Saviour to make it seem like the ship that crashed into the mining vessel is the Leisurer, but after some time...”

“Someone will notice the trickery.”

“Yes.”

Nate fell into his thoughts for a moment. “I don’t know.”

Honey looked at him, silently.

“Shiina?” The young woman’s headset turned on.

“Captain?”

“Where is Honey? Does he not have his headset? I am waiting for him.”

“Where is your mic?”

“I forgot it in the med bay, I think.” Her uncle explained.

“The captain is waiting for you.”

“I’m going.”

Nate stood up with them.

“I will follow you. As maybe the best way to make you understand my side of things, is to show you what my engine can do.”

“I thought you didn’t want to show us?” Shiina asked in surprise.

“You know too much already. Either I trust you, either I’ll have to…” He left the room, a dark look on his face.

Honey looked at his niece with astonishment.

“Did he just say that he was maybe going to kill us?”

“I think, yeah.”

Honey whistled in appreciation. “He has got some balls. Or he is absolutely batshit crazy. Take your pick.”

“…And this is Samantha Clarke.” Honey and Shiina heard their Captain speak as they entered the main bridge.

“Shiina’s mother, right?”

The medical officer didn’t answer his question.

“Ah, Honey, Shiina. Here you are. Oliver should not be far behind.” Tess said as she saw them enter.

Shiina noticed that the room wasn’t as well lit up as before.

“May I?” Nate asked the captain as she was sitting on the main control seat.

Tess Foncet rose, with a slight grimace. “Don’t put my crew in danger.”

“That depends only on you.” He sat down on the seat and pushed a few keys on his keyboard, then said: “Open the solar panel arrays to 30% extension.”

A slight metal noise could be heard through the ship. A few moments later, the room lit up again.

“Much better.”

The main bridge’s door opened, and the first officer arrived behind Shiina and Honey.

“What is going on?”

“Nate wants to show us something.” Shiina explained to him.

“Is it a good idea to let him be in charge of the ship?”

“I always was in charge of the ship. Vocal activation is present throughout the entirety of it.” Nate had heard him and was answering him. “The only difference is that from here I can control the engine in a much safer manner. I’d rather avoid a sudden ten g acceleration just because the computer misunderstood me.”

Oliver grimaced.

Nate was not looking at him. “I will stop the engine. Sit down in one of the seats and put on a belt. I will put us in zero-g for a few minutes. Shiina, are you the best at understanding physics here?

“Yes.”

“You and the captain can sit down on the anti-g seats next to me then. You’ll be able to see what I’m doing.”

“Are we really listening to him, captain?” Oliver asked.

His officer nodded, and only then the crew began to move into position.

“This is a bad idea…” Sam whispered loud enough for everyone to hear her. Despite her reluctance, she still sat down next to Honey on one of the soft couches placed all around the command centre in those strange “luxury” areas.

“I will open the curtain.” Nate announced.

Above their heads, a large metal curtain started to open, revealing a large glass window. It was not as big as the one in the greenhouse, but it was large enough for them to see the weird circular structure at the front of the ship. It was illuminated by large floodlights that had turned on while the curtain had opened.

“This is a Hadron collider.” The physician announced. “You can’t really see the impact chamber as it is mainly hidden behind the central pillar of the ship, the Anchor. He aimed his finger towards the big structure going through the ship from top to bottom, a meter in front of his seat.

“Is the impact chamber that little piece sticking out up there?” Shiina asked. She was gazing upon the metal ring, where the pillar passed through until it stopped just before the other end of the collider. Just there you could see a little part of a sphere coming out behind the Anchor.

“That’s it. Our Hadron collider is not much. It is superconductive, because of the void, the temperature and the incredible pressure created by our micro diamonds system. Everything together lets us accelerate particles to something close to lightspeed without needing kilometers of radius of structure.” Nate described to them the engine as he had done with the company’s shareholders. They had mainly just nodded as if they understood everything he had been telling them.

“But…a hadron collider doesn’t create thrust?” Shiina asked.

“No. Neither does this one. It pulls on the Anchor, towards the impact chamber, and by reaction, this pushes the ship forwards.”

“It pulls on the Anchor? How?”

Nate grimaced. “I will not explain in detail how my engine works. I can just say that in the end, it creates a powerful but restrained gravitational well.”

“Ridiculous.” Sam exclaimed from down the control ramp. “The only thing creating gravity is mass. If you want to produce something akin the gravity on Earth with a gravity well, you will need to find yourself in front of something as massive as Earth.”

Shiina had had enough of her mother’s pessimism for today, but on that point, she had to agree with her.

Nate gave out an exasperated sigh. “Gravity is not created by the force of mass. That would be like saying that gravity exists because of gravity! Your understanding is not fundamentally wrong, but it is simplistic. Gravity is created by time, time is influenced by mass[1]…and time is what my engine manipulates.”

Tess looked at her spacewalk specialist. “Shiina?”

“I…I seem to remember something about that.”

“Well, until you can refresh your memories about basic general relativity, you’ll have to trust my word for it. In the meantime, let me tell you about the potential of my engine. I’m turning it off.”

The onboard IA, with its suave and feminine voice, exclaimed: “Impact in cessation.”

Little by little, they began to feel more and more light, until their whole bodies became akin to a leaf and they floated on their respective seats, only held there through their belts.

“No gravity.” Announced the onboard computer as if it wasn’t quite obvious already.

“Shit, the shot glasses.” Honey worried.

Nate didn’t pay any attention to him. “There are two types of ‘fuel’ that we use to create the reaction in the impact chamber. One of them is stable, it’s the one we were experiencing moments ago, and the other is extremely unstable, and should never be used if you don’t want to face…unforeseen consequences. It is not necessary to use that though, the stable version has enough applications already. What is the maximal acceleration that the current ships of this age can produce?”

It was Honey who answered him. “Russian military intercept vessels can theoretically reach 20g for a few seconds before overheating.”

“With a fusion reactor?”

“That is correct.”

“…That’s actually impressive.” Nate’s voice really sounded impressed. “But in the case of my engine, it can hold on a 30g acceleration for over two months with its current reserves. If those were full…well we’ll probably reach triple that.”

There was a long silence.

“Captain Tess, you can verify what I’m saying yourself. Here on my screen is the fuel we are currently carrying, I’m sending it to your screen as well as our total mass, our current acceleration, and our relative speed compared to Earth. We are currently not using any fuel, the electricity is provided by the ship’s batteries and the solar panels. I will activate the engine again, and put us back into trajectory with the Lagrange station. You will be able to see for yourself how much fuel it uses and observe its effects on the ship’s speed, with nothing other than the Hadron collider. You can do the math then and tell me if what I told you was wrong.”

Tess gave a look at her medical officer downstairs, but the latter was already hitting the numbers on the tablet around her wrist.

“To replicate what he pretends we can do, we would need one thousand eight hundred billion tons of hydrogen. And that is without counting the weight of the fuel.”

“Yes, because a fusion reactor is effective compared to our previous ways of creating energy, but in the grand scheme of things, it is far from performant. It only manages to catch a few per cent of the total potential energy in matter.” Nate noted, not surprised about the absurd results. “I will turn on the collider. Do you see the numbers in front of you captain?”

“I see the fuel gauge. But I don’t know what it is.”

“Look at the total mass used percentage. You don’t need other data than that.”

Shiina was looking at the same thing on her screen that the captain was, but the symbol on the fuel tank reminded her of something.

“Electrons?” But then she shook her head in denial, it could not be that simple.

Nate sighed as he hit some keys on his computer. “That is correct. Electrons. Now that you know that, you can imagine what’s next. You just discovered a technology 95% more effective than a fusion reactor. The energy that it could provide is so high that you would only need a few handfuls of engines to provide enough to satisfy all humankind's needs in energy for a millennium. And it only needs relatively easily obtainable particles, that you can find everywhere, to work.”

“We would become the richest men and women alive.” Honey exclaimed.

“Without a doubt. Now, imagine people brutally killing an innocent scientist getting their hands on this. Imagine they manage to transform all this energy into a bomb.” Nate continued.

Tess blinked in shock. “Sam?”

“I have no idea what it would do…”

“Me neither.” Nate admitted. “My reactor isn’t made to explode. The unstable fuel has severe effects, but only in a small radius around the impact chamber. But the potential it has…my mentor’s equation, Dr. Gestalter’s equations, they predict energies around the ones of a supernova.”

For the first time, the expression of the medical officer was not annoyance and disbelief, but doubt. “My measures…that’s exactly the kind of energy they were showing.”

Nate raised an eyebrow as he looked at her, but he didn’t add anything. He simply pushed on the Enter key on his keyboard.

A deep rumble echoed through the ship’s fuselage.

“Impact.” The computer announced.

“Impact.”

Little by little, gravity came back, and Tess saw the numbers on her screen start to change.

“Impa…Imp…Im…I…IIIIIIIIIII.” Repeated the onboard computer before shutting up.

“Gravity restored.” It finally said.

The crew had their feet on the ground again.

“Oliver, come and record what you’re seeing on the screen and Sam, do the maths.”

“What’s telling us you’re not giving us fake data?” The first officer asked.

Nate pointed at the metal wall in front of them. “There is a movable panel on the wall, just there. If you do not believe me, you can just directly look at the hydrogen levels. The ionization process is displayed directly on it.”

On that last note, Nate stood up and left the room.

Tess followed him with her gaze, and once he was gone, she spoke to Shiina. “Watch him.”

“Really? He hasn’t lied to us once I think it is clear that…”

“Stop him from doing anything stupid.”

“Oh. Got it.” Shiina nodded and left the main bridge.

“Oliver?”

“Yes?”

“I want you to scrap every recording we have of this ship from our database. Keep the data we’re collecting just to check if what he is saying is true, then scrap them too. I want no mention of the engine, Nate, anything, nothing can be recovered.”

“You believe his story?”

“Even if it isn’t true. Are you ready to take the risk?”

“No.”

She then talked to the rest of her crew. “Is any of you ready to take that risk?”

“No M’am.” Honey responded in his perfect American accent.

Sam stayed thoughtful.

“Sam?”

“I…if it is true, we need to blow up this ship as soon as we’re back on Earth.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. And blowing up the ship won’t save us in the long run. It also helps that if we don’t camouflage ourselves as the Saviour, we won’t get authorization to land at Lagrange station, or anywhere else, without getting boarded and investigated upon. And the Saviour is not allowed to take off without me. I understand what is at stake, but I would enjoy not throwing myself in the sun for no reason. Shiina rightly said it to him. If everything that he told us is true, then this technology was discovered almost fifty years ago. Believing that no one will discover it again in the future is blinding ourselves. We need to find another solution. Oliver, I will need to use your contacts.”

“Will be done. We have got some time to think, though. Don’t you want to wait a few days before deleting everything?”

“No. It won’t be useful to us anyway. But you are right about the time we have to think. It is also a week we must use to convince Nate we will not steal his engine and sell it to the highest bidder. It is a week where we must convince him to give me full access to the ship. End of conversation, everyone, get to work.”

“Captain? What am I supposed to do?” Honey asked as he walked up the little steps that were separating the lower luxury level and the command centre part.”

“You rest and when Sam decides you’re back in full health, then you’ll help Oliver with his work.”

“Got it. I’ll go examine the temperature regulator in the pool if anyone is looking for me.”

“That’s not resting!” Shouted Sam.

But her brother was already gone.

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[1] This is not science fiction