Discovering Slipstream
Title: Discovering Slipstream
Author: Ilphi
Rating: PG
Summary: Andromeda's crew uncovers a conspiracy involving the discovery and laws of slipstream that seems to involve one of the crew's own.
Disclaimer: Andromeda is property of Tribune.
Whiteness.
A Mistake.
That is what it was.
I was a fool.
Ten thousand years of peace for one life.
On reflection.
I was small.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. "
Shunryu Suzuki
108 BIE
“And the current theory for faster than light travel is…. Rochinda?”
Apprentice Sage Rochinda looked up from her notes. She was doodling. She stared into the head of the old Vedran academy teacher as he glared at her.
“Miss Rochinda, whether you are an Apprentice Sage or not, in my class, please treat me with the respect of listening. Now we are just re-capping our topics for the newer members of the group. Now what is the current theory to make faster than light travel possible?”
Rochinda sighed.
“Folding space. The current theory is to fold space.”
The Teacher smiled and went back to his table.
“Newer members of the class should probably be aware of Miss Rochinda’s utter contempt for the current theories. She is convinced there are other ways to the stars.”
“There must be!” Rochinda cried up. “Folding space is irrational, dangerous, and beyond our power out put abilities.”
“And this…other plane…this...Extension of space idea of yours makes perfect sense.”
“If you would sit down, and look at my notes and observations then…”
“No!” The Academy teacher glared up, him bottom hooves slamming the floor and him main bristled upwards.
“This planet will soon be overpopulated. Wars will soon tear us apart. I will not believe that our one hope of finding other habitable worlds will be brought down by an impudent little girl with a big head!”
“When I leave this collage, I will start up my own research team and find a safe route for travelling amongst the stars.”
“And on that day…” The Vedran broke into a smile.
“I will shake hands with a bipedal hominid!” The rest of the class broke into an uproar at the notion. Rochinda stormed out.
***************************************
Four years later
***************************************
“Keep both masses at the exact same ratio!” Rochinda yelled to one of the attendants.
The two smaller balls began to slowly increase in size in the anti-friction chamber in which they were floating. They slowly got bigger.
“Mass A is at 456.23 …. Mass B is at 456.232!” The attendant yelled back at her.
“No! Keep them both equal! Drop point 002 on mass B!”
The second ball decreased a little in size then continued to grow with the other.
“Alright then… we are at stage three. Prepare the exotic matter…!”
One of the attendants brought in a small cylinder and attached it to a pipe next to the AF chamber.
“We are green over here, connection secure Master Sage.”
“Alright then... conglomerate! Mix the E-Matter into the stage… keep that gravity exactly cancelled and… flow in the Energy!”
The two balls exactly balanced and the exotic matter floated to the perfect mathematical centre too. When the energy came into contact a bright light emerged and a small blue portal hummed in mid air.
“Alright people you know the drill! We can only maintain the portal for thirty seconds so send in the probe.” Rochinda barked her orders and a small probe no bigger than a finger nail, was launched from the edge of the container. It flew into the portal. When it was in Rochinda ran back from the safety screen and looked at the video feedback from the probe. She had seen inside it before… it was a tangled mess of blue cords…moving and spinning endlessly. She looked at the readouts from the probe.
“Why does this computer always fail?! I wrote this program myself! I told it to fly in a straight line then return!”
“Master Sage, the power can only be kept on for another ten seconds!”
“Why is the computer failing?! What is wrong with it! All right, shut down the power!”
The blue portal disappeared and Rochinda sighed.
“Seven attempts… the computer has failed each one.”
“Maybe it can’t keep up with the calculations needed to fly in the space, Master Sage.” One of the attendants suggested.
“No… it’s strange. It seems like the computer is almost unable to navigate in the space.”
“If the Computer cannot navigate in the space Master Sage, surely no-one can. That doesn’t sound like a viable mode of transport to me, with all respect due.”
“Maybe… I need to take a walk. Clear my head. We start again tomorrow.”
Rochinda was walking outside on the quad of the university when the Academy High Sage paced towards her.
“Seven attempts… seven failures. I heard about it this morning. All this with the experiment that doesn’t have a name.”
“I have almost decided… maybe Event Blue… or futures horizon. No, but I think to represent its speed I will call it the Slipstream. Yes, the slipstream.”
“Fine. Well, this academy has invested considerable recourses in your experiments. That AG chamber of yours took half of last year’s budget, that new navigation computer took a third of this year’s. And now it doesn’t seem to even work.”
“It can’t navigate the space… I am not sure why. But I plan to get it better for next time.
“Yes… next time. So far the up-shot of your research has been a small fireworks display and some garbled footage of some tangled blue noodles. Either next your shit stream experiments give me some proper evidence, or you can consider your funding revoked.”
***************************************
The next day
***************************************
Rochinda lay back on her chair and sighed. She had gone over her computer program again and again. There was nothing wrong with it. The program was perfect. The computer was perfect. What was going wrong? She sighed and ran through the processes in her head. She had contacted the Vedran Electricity Council and the only space for her to get the kind of power the SS experiments needed was in two minuets. The next window would only come in another six months or so. She sighed and called to all of her attendants.
“My attendants…my friends. I am afraid to announce that this may well be our last experiment, that we have dubbed the ‘slipstream’. Alas, you are all such wonderful Vedrans that I feel I have betrayed your trust due to the failure of this project. None of us know why, but the Computer cannot navigate in the Slipstream. If it cannot, we can assume that no-one can. So we try again. Today, may well mark the last of our experiments. But still, the important thing is that we tried. Yes, we did try. Let’s make it happen.”
The AG chamber began and the power up sequence commenced. The exotic matter was added and the portal opened. The probe flew in and Rochinda looked at the computer readouts. As always, the navigation systems simply failed to work.
“Shut down the dam-“
Everything was white.
Whiter than snow. Pure white.
They were there. I could not see them. I could only sense them.
They spoke in melon any voices. They told me:
‘We know of your experiments into what you call the slipstream.’
‘Who are you? Where am I?” I asked. But I know where I was.
“We can help you. But we have a price.”
I felt a sense of tangible knowledge. But below that feeling… I felt desire. For what, I did not know.
“What is your price?” I asked.
“We can offer your people ten thousand years of prosperity. But at the end of it, this planet will be taken.’
‘Taken?! Taken where? Who are you??’ I asked. I now know who they are.
“Simply…taken. We are not your enemy. Do you agree?”
At the time I thought I was having a blackout. I did not think to take there demands seriously. Then thousand years of prosperity… what rubbish. Who would have known? Who would have known?
“I agree.”
“Master Sage, would you like me to shut down the experiment or not?”
“No… switch the drone to manual control.”
“Manual Control?”
“Yes, if we are going to fail I may as well steer the experiment to and end myself.”
At the time I thought the idea was my own…
Rochinda sat down at the console and began to pilot using the manual joystick.
“Oh my God…” said one of the attendants breathlessly observing me.
…What foolishness of youth.…
Onward To Chapter 2!
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