Chapter 1
Captain Alice Liddell ran a final system check on the Portal Voyage Node vessel 01. The prototype vessel had been designed to generate a wormhole through space, stabilize its far end, and hopefully allow humanity to finally spread among the stars. Alice was stationed at an empty point in space, close enough to be observed from Mars but far enough that a catastrophic failure wouldn’t hurt said observers. It had taken her months to reach that point in space, and it was finally time for the vessel’s first real test.
“P.V.N. control, this is P.V.N. one. Testing quantum relay, over.”
“PVN one, this is PVNC. We read you loud and clear. Please report signal delay.” Portal Voyage Node Control was located back on Earth, which meant that radio signals would take about four minutes to cross the distance, resulting in an eight-minute delay between Alice’s message and Control’s reply.
The quantum relays, however, were completely unaffected by distance, and should allow for instantaneous communication.
“Signal delay is 0.2 seconds, Control. Quantum relay is green. PVN one reporting all systems green, and ready for test activation.”
“Roger that, PVN one. All systems green on our side. You are clear to start test activation. Good luck, Alice. Drinks are on me when you get back to Earth.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Sue. Activating wormhole generator in T minus two minutes.”
For nearly two minutes, no more words were said. Not by Alice. Not by Susan back in PVNC. Not by the observers at PVN Mars.
During that time, the huge elliptic antennae that were the main part of the wormhole generator, and which gave the vessel the nickname “Rabbit”, spread out from the front of the vessel. Blue light began gathering in the vein-like channels cut into the ears, slowly spreading to cover the entire surface of each antenna.
“Activation in T minus ten seconds,” Alice called, just as twin beams of blue energy shot from the middle of each ear, visible even in the vacuum of space.
“Nine.”
The beams met each other a kilometer in front of the vessel.
“Eight. Interferometer reads perfect alignment.”
“Five.”
Instead of passing through each other like beams of light would, the beams collided, creating a blue orb in space.
“Four.”
The orb grew larger with each passing second, until it was large enough to contain the Rabbit itself.
“Three.”
The orb seemed to collapse, leaving behind a patch of space that was somehow blacker than everything around it.
“Two.”
“One.”
“Wormhole activation successful.”
Alice could hear the cheering from PVNC, but was too intent on the control panel in front of her to join.
“Beginning shutdown sequence,” This was the first test of the wormhole generator, and nobody had any intention of going through it yet. That step would come a lot later, with a vessel far better equipped for whatever waited on the other side. “Deactivating antennae.”
The blue light covering the surface of the antennae started retracting towards the middle.
“Generator charge at fifty percent and dropping.”
The ‘ears’ had turned completely dark, and the beams shut down, leaving just the sphere of blackness in front Alice.
“Shutdown complete. Wormhole should dissipate in…”
White light erupted from the middle of the wormhole, blinding Alice and interrupting her report.
“…five seconds,” completed Alice. “Where the hell am I?”
The cockpit of the Rabbit was gone. Alice was sitting on a stone floor, in a windowless room constructed of dark grey stone.
“Insufficient data, Captain.” The voice was unfamiliar, and completely uninflected.
Alice turned towards the sound, and was astonished to see what looked like an anthropomorphic robotic rabbit. It was wearing a flight suit that looked identical to her own.
“Who, no, what are you?”
“I am Portal Voyage Node vessel zero one, designated ‘Rabbit’, Captain.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“You can’t be! PVN one was a spaceship, not a… robotic rabbit person!”
“Nevertheless, I am Portal Voyage Vessel zero one, Captain.”
“How is that possible?”
“I have no information regarding your query, Captain.”
“OK. Fine. If you are PVN one, can you contact Control?”
“Negative, Captain. There is unknown interference that is preventing the quantum relay from connecting.”
“It shouldn’t be possible to interfere with the quantum relay!”
“Nevertheless, the interference is there.”
“Fine. Fine! This is about as far from our expectations as we can get, but we’ve planned for me getting stranded. We need to reestablish communications and get back home. Sue can try to understand what the hell happened later. She’s the one with all the fancy degrees. I’m just the stick jockey.”
Muttering half to herself and half to the thing claiming to be her spaceship, Alice took a longer look at the room she found herself in.
Not that a second glance revealed much more than the first. The room seemed to be completely featureless, except for what appeared to be a gas lamp hanging from the ceiling and a single closed door. A door which proved locked when Alice tried to open it.
“Damn it. Doesn’t seem to be any other way out of here.”
“If you would step aside, Captain,” said the robotic rabbit, “I am capable of opening the door for you.”
“Go ahead then,” Alice stepped away from the door.
Blue light began to gather on the robot’s ears, the pattern of lines instantly recognizable to Alice as the same pattern that signaled the activation of the PVN one’s wormhole generator.
“I don’t think this is a good idea, Rabbit. Sue said that wormholes have to be opened in vacuum.”
“Do not be concerned, Captain. I could not open a wormhole here even if you ordered it.”
The light continued to spread over Rabbit’s ears, and just as Alice expected, twin beams of energy shot out of them and hit the door. Instead of the wormhole, however, the beams caused an explosion that tore the door of its hinges, letting sunlight into the gloomy room.
Alice considered pointing out that Rabbit was an unarmed prototype vessel, but it seemed somehow insignificant next to the fact that five minutes earlier it was also a multi ton spaceship.
“Lead the way then,” Alice gestured for Rabbit to precede her.
As the two left the room, Alice had to close her eyes at the bright sunlight, and was therefore unable to see the source of the new voice that greeted them.
“Halt, Witch!” came the shrill cry. “Return to your cell immediately, or I’ll be forced to attack!”
“Lower your weapons,” Rabbit answered the voice. “I will use all necessary force to protect the Captain!”
“Wait, both of you!” Alice shouted, blinking furiously to clear her eyes. “Hold fire, Rabbit!”
“Holding fire, Captain.” Rabbit answered calmly
“Get back, now!” The other speaker was far from calm, his voice becoming even shriller. “I will not let you escape!”
Alice, whose eyes had finally cleared enough to see, looked in the voice’s direction. Arrayed in a semi-circle in front of her were ten… things.
They looked like people, but were made of smooth white stone. The only spots of color on the figures were red hearts painted on their torsos. A different number of hearts on each figure. The statues were holding musket rifles made of stone, half aimed at Rabbit and the other half at herself.
Behind the statues stood two men and one woman dressed in white uniforms. They appeared to be unarmed, and each one had a heart embroidered on the upper left torso. The man standing farthest away from Alice also had a red chevron above the heart.
“Hand commander Jack,” ordered the same shrill voice, which Alice could now see was coming from the man in the back. “Destroy that Knight!”
The second man, who was standing behind the five statues aiming at Rabbit, raised his hand.
“Hand, aim!” he shouted, and the statues in front of him shifted their muskets in Rabbit’s direction.
“Wait!” Alice cried. “We come in peace!”
“Primary directive: protect Captain Liddell in effect,” Rabbit’s voice was still completely without inflection, but its ears were once again starting to glow. “Primary directive: self defense in effect. Overriding orders.”
“Hand, fi…” Jack started to lower his hand, but was interrupted before he could complete his order.
“Hold your fire!” The shout came from yet another man in uniform. He was running in Alice’s direction, one hand holding on to his white top hat. As he got closer, Alice could see that he was wearing the same uniform as the others, but where they had a heart embroidered on it, the newcomer had a patch on his hat with images of a heart, spade, diamond and club.
“Suit Commander King,” the newcomer shouted as soon as he came to a stop. “What is going on here?”
“The White Witch Queen broke out of her cell, Deck Commander!” The man with the chevron on his uniform came to attention, and saluted the newcomer. “We were just about to destroy the Knight and force her back in, Sir!”
“Stand down, Suit Commander.”
“But sir…”
“I said to stand down!”
“Sir, yes sir!” The suit commander saluted again. “Hand Commander Jack, Hand Commander Paige, stand down!”
The two hand commanders repeated the order, and the stone soldiers shouldered their muskets and froze.
“You too, Rabbit,” Alice ordered, relieved to see the blue light fade from the robot’s ears.
“Now, does this look like the White Witch Queen, Suit Commander?” The newcomer asked.
“I don’t know, sir. Nobody has seen the Witch Queen since she was imprisoned, sir.”
“Seven feet tall, and her skin white as salt, Suit Commander. Does this lady look to be seven feet tall and white as salt?”
“No sir.”
“Very well then,” the newcomer turned to Alice. “Please forgive my subordinate, miss…?”
“Liddell. Captain Alice Liddell.”
“A pleasure, Captain. I am Deck Commander Amadeus Hatter, at your service. The White Witch Queen escaping from her cell had been out worst nightmare for longer than anyone can remember, and that door blowing up is a certainly cause enough for panic.”
“That’s quite all right, sir,” Alice answered. “You’ve stopped him in time, and no harm was done to either side.”
“Thank you for your understanding, Captain Liddell. Now if you’ll excuse me, my deck and I need to start looking for the actual witch. With luck, we can catch her before she rejoins her sister and her army.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, commander, but the cell was empty when we got there.”
“Then the witch has a head start? This is worse than I thought.”
“But sir,” King blurted, “The door was locked! This rabbit knight thing blew it up from the inside!”
“He’s right,” Alice agreed. “We had to blow the door to get out, but the room was empty.”
“How did you get into the locked room then?”
“I’m not certain, actually. We were testing a new wormhole generator, and just suddenly appeared here.”
“What is a ‘wormhole’, exactly?”
“I’m not really up to the full scientific explanation, but it’s sort of a hole between one place and another, which one can use to go through without crossing the distance.”
“A Rabbit Hole?” exclaimed the deck commander. “You opened a Rabbit Hole into the White Witch Queen’s cell?”
“Not intentionally?”
“But that means the witch must have gone through to the other side when you entered. We’ll never find her now!”
“Damn it,” Alice grumbled. “I’ve got to find a way to warn Sue!”