Chapter 8: Nice to meet you, killer.

"Lorian Fate?"

"That's me."

"Miss Maplethorne is ready to meet you now."

Lorian followed the map the secretary at the front desk had handed her. Rose had moved into a new lab while Lorian had been off-planet, so she was unfamiliar with the route. She'd arrived at the building early, but security procedures kept her from wandering around while she waited for Rose to finish labwork. The company had changed a lot from the time she'd left. It used to be one big maze that she had the run of, thanks to her top tier clearance. But apparently there'd been some trouble while she'd been away, and new protocols had been adopted. It wasn't worth it to BS her way past the secretary, especially not to wait around.

Rose's lab was in a basement, past three layers of negative pressure barriers. However deep they were, it was far enough that Lorian could feel the weight of the floors above them. She wasn't claustrophobic, not yet, but she was a tad uncomfortable. The lab itself was secured by a handprint scanner, which recognized her and let her in. Rose was inside, working on har laptop while perched on a lab stool.

"Lorian! How was your vacation?" Rose asked, all bubbles and smiles.

"It was good. Nice to be able to breathe again. Got a few medical concerns. It's been more than a month, and I've yet to bleed."

"Ah, that. Well, the radiation fried your 'equipment' pretty heavily. It's not like you were going to have kids after that."

"Bummer. They'll definitely need to fix that before colonization can get under way."

"Yeah. Sorry to say, but balancing the hormones and genetics to let reproduction take place just never made the priority list."

"Well, there's always adoption. Anyhow, you said I need to spend some time in a scanner?"

"A series of scanners. We're giving you the full work up while you're here. Need to make sure you don't have any new tumors, have balanced hormone levels, Enough energy reserves not to eat yourself from the inside out, et-cetera."

"Yeah, I noticed I was putting away a lot more food than usual. I just chalked it up to finally being off mission rations."

"Well, until you get your reserves built up, you're going to be burning a lot more glucose than usual."

"Guess it's a good time to hit up the buffet," Lorian quipped.

The scans took most of the day, and Lorian talked with Rose to pass the time. Eventually, Rose moved Lorian to a workout room equipped with treadmills, weights, and other assorted types of fitness equipment.

"I've got another research subject, Sophia, who'll be doing some of the same exercises. She's not exactly a willing participant, so be careful around her."

"Why's she here if she's not a willing participant?"

"She got dosed up on an early version of the serum. It's not safe for her to be out running around unsupervised, and given her background, the first thing she'd try to do is run."

"So it's for her own good?"

"I think so," Rose replied. "I feel responsible for her. I figure, since my serum is one of the main reasons her life is so messed up, I might as well try to give her the best medical treatment I can."

"Well, I look forward to meeting her."

Rose left Lorian in the exercise room and locked the door behind her. A few minutes later, another door unlocked and Sophia strolled in. She did a double take when she saw Lorian, but recovered quickly.

"How'd you get roped into this," Sophia asked as she sat down at a machine near the one Lorian was using.

"Company medical care. Supposedly it's the cure to cancer."

Sophia chuckled at that.

"You even know what they pumped you full of?"

"Mad science sh**. If it wasn't one of my friends giving me the shots, I'd probably have run for the hills."

"Ah. Friends. Easiest way to manipulate someone."

"Yeah. Peer pressure is so much Bull. But I wouldn't trade having friends for anything. What's your name?"

"Sophia. or Sophie. I'll answer to either."

"Well, It's nice to meet you Sophie. My name's Lorian. Got any hobbies?"

"Reading. It's all I've been able to do since I got locked in here."

"Reading's cool. I did a lot of reading while I was cooped up this past year. If you weren't cooped up in here, what would you do?"

"I dunno. Maybe go hiking."

"Cool. Maybe we can convince Rose to let us go on a hiking trip. I'm sure we can come up with some reason it's essential to her research."

"And you don't think they'll just haul the woods down here?"

"Please, there's got to be psych data that they can get from a hike that won't come from a lab. Look, you want to go for a hike, or you want to stay cooped up in here?"

"Go for a hike. definitely."

"Great!" Lorian grinned. "I'll work my end, you try wearing her down from your side."

'What have I gotten myself into,' Sophia thought to herself.

#

"Package for Cass Weaver"

Cass stared at the coffin-sized crate that had been delivered to her apartment. What was it? It certainly hadn't been something she'd ordered. After looking at it for a minute or so, she went in search of a pry-bar. About the time she found one in her tool-box, her phone rang with Alice's ringtone.

"Yo, Alice, what's up?" Cass answered, not bothering to pick up the phone. Alice never really stopped listening in on them. It used to make Cass uncomfortable, but she'd stopped caring after a few weeks. It's not like other digital assistants didn't do the same thing, and lots of people had those now.

"Did you get my package?"

"This big crate is your package?"

"It should be. It's got a chassis for me. Would you please unwrap it and plug it in? There should be a charger in the box."

"What do you mean by a chassis?"

"A remote controlled android body."

"Oh. One of those." Cass shook her head. "I suppose I should have expected this sort of wierdness when I started designing warp tech."

"The N-field projector is not warp tech. It is hyperspatial technology."

"Right. Terminology. Sci-fi stuff. Now my daily life. Where does it plug in?"

"There should be a packet of instructions."

Cass levered off the top of the wooden crate, revealing a mass of foam packaging. Pulling out the foam chunks one by one, she unearthed a well-proportioned gynadroid, with a skin tone that matched her own, and raven black hair. The machine was dressed in a tank top and shorts, which Cass found to be a relief. She'd maneuvered the crate into her garage, so there wasn't a risk of the neighbors coming to inconvenient conclusions, but Cass had never been a fan of nude sculpture. She found the instructions, and the charger, and cursed under her breath.

"Of course they had to put the port there."

"It is the standard interface location for biological organisms."

"And it's just wrong, on so many levels."

"I'll take care of charging myself after the first time."

"You better. I'm not doing this again."

Once Alice's new chassis was charging, Cass went to the bathroom and washed her hands thouroughly. It's not as though they had gotten dirty, she just felt compelled to.

"So, why'd you get an android body?" Cass asked Alice, trying to forget what she'd just done.

"To better interact with humans. I have noted that face-to-face communication can carry much more nuance than face to screen, voice only, or text communication."

"Yeah. Screens are like walls. They alter the tone of conversations."

"On an unrelated topic, I believe we are ready to begin prototyping the N-field projector."

"Really?"

"Yes, I have managed to secure a significant quantity of Osmium, one of our limiting factors."

"Excellent. We'll need to establish a test site."

"I believe, for our first test, it might be wise to choose an isolated environment."

"How about Antarctica? We're going to need a truly ridiculous thermal sink for this anyway. I get that it'll be hard to meet the power requirements, but Anywhere we have grid access we'll be relatively close to people."

"On the planet is relatively close to people. Nonetheless, it is a fine suggestion. I shall formulate a proposal for Bill and Rob to look over."

"Cool. It'll be nice to finally see how wrong our math is."

"You assume our calculations to be incorrect?"

"Murphy's law, Alice. Murphy's law."

"Very well. I shall have to relly on Lorian's optimism to counterbalance your caution."

"How is Lorian? I heard she went to Rose's lab this week."

"Still alive and kicking. She's doing her best to befriend the other research subject there."

"Sounds like Lorian. Well, If we're going to start building a prototype, I suppose it's a good time to look over the design again. Pull up the latest draft, would you?"

#

Chapter 9:

"Cold. So Damm Cold."

"It is the Antarctic."

"Exactly."

The Antarctic N-space research facility was sparsely furnished, and even more sparsely populated. It was basically a giant blast-chamber hollowed out under several hundred meters of Ice and rock, with a control room and some storage chambers branching off of one side. All components for the testing apparatus and life support equipment were manufactured in warmer climates and flown in by Lorian. Lorian was, in fact, the only person aside from Bill and Rob that actually knew the exact location of the facility. At present, it was just her, Cass, three security guards, and Alice's secondary processing cluster- a sizable bank of custom computational hardware that took advantage of the sub-zero environment for cooling purposes.

"How's our temperature sitting?" Cass asked Alice.

"90% optimal. Heaters standing by to disengage."

"Anything outside of yellow parameters?"

"Nothing."

"Start the spin sequence."

A low hum started to build, rising steadily in pitch. The device in the center of the chamber, a mismash of toroids and piping, started to glow faintly.

"30% spin."

"60% spin. Disengaging heaters."

"80% spin. Power consumption reaching threshold Alpha. Bringing the auxiliary conduits online."

"90% spin. Spatial oscilation detected. Experiment success. Proceed? Estimated critical state in two minutes."

"Proceed.

"97%spin. Mathematical model updating. Spatial oscilation stabilizing.

"100% spin. Further acceleration will likely damage the equipment."

"Go ahead and wind down. We'll need to repeat the experiment to make sure we get consistent data."

"Understood. Decreasing power feed."

"97% spin. Note. Inertia is maintaining the spin state. Shall I apply a negative voltage to accelerate the spin reduction?"

"Pause for five minutes, unless it starts to destabilise. Then we'll try the negative voltage."

Five minutes later. "Spin state remained stable. Applying negative voltage. Braking procedure effective. Spin has destabilised, velocity decrease is stable. Projected rest state in twelve minutes."

"Copy that. We'll need to inspect the device afterwards. Keep it at stable temperature, but let it sit for an hour before we go in for inspection.

#

NgrThaak twitched. The ancient arachnid turned it's attention from the gentle music pulsing up the prtabian colony's web to the dischordant hum brushing against one of it's hunting lines. It had been a long time since it had heard such a sound. NgrThaak didn't keep track of how long, as a 6th dimensional weaver, time was not just a sequence, but a dimension much like gravity. It could be stretched or bunched up, even though causality was immutable. Some three-dimensional creature with a toe in the fourth had decided to try bending space. The Reptoids had gone through a similar process a while back, and stumbled into the Arachnids' webs. Thus had started a long and bitter conflict, which had only recently stabilised into an uneasy avoidance. The Reptoids no longer tried to cut the weavers' webs, and the weavers no longer fished for Reptoids. But this was a new species. Perhaps it would be more entertaining than the reptoids. NgrThaak pondered the vibration for a moment. That particular thread ran through a particularly snarled region of hyperspace, a natural reef of sorts. NgrThaak had heard from its elders that the Messengers were particularly active in the region, and that accounted for the mess. It might be a good idea to avoid the area, just for that reason. Messengers always went where trouble brewed, be they Righteous or Fallen. The two factions were often at each others throats, and occasionally destabilized the odd star when their metaphysical punches went wide. Still, If a species was messing about with hyperspace, it would eventually find its way into the Weaver's webs. Better to learn whether it tasted sweet or bitter early on.

With that thought in mind, the vast weaver stirred its bulk from the gas giant it had snared for a pillow and began to pull itself along the buzzing web. It wondered briefly if the creatures performing the experiments would figure out how to enter hyperspace before it reached the origin of the disturbance they caused, or if it would be obliged to dip a leg or two into their level of reality. Doing so always seemed to cause such a mess. Several of the Reptoids had formed cults based around similar occurences. That had been the cause of a brief conflict with the messengers, after which the Weavers had agreed to the terms of the Righteous messengers. Sure, the Fallen played smooth music on the webs, but they were outnumbered two to one, and were in oposition to the Great Weaver, the one who wove reality itself. The Arachnids did little to disturb the Great Weaver, and He did little to disturb them. It was an arrangement they wished to perpetuate.

#

"I've been looking over this data, and I really think our next test needs to be off-planet. We tripped just about every seismometer on the planet, and the moon's orbit wavered during the test. Nothing to bad, but if we're going to move up from making waves to applying forces, we're going to need to be far away from anyone that could get hurt," Cass sighed.

"Why not put it on the next Mars-flight?" Lorian suggested. "We can land it on the other side of the planet from the base, and monitor via sattelite uplink."

"And if we end up cracking the planet?"

"You think it's got that much potential?"

"Yeah. Not at the power levels we can feed it, but if even half this math is right, we could be looking at a potential planet-busting technology."

"Don't tell Rob. Or Bill. They'd market it as such."

"Right. Just like atomic energy."

"Nobody's scared to use it till everyone else has one."

"The mars mission is a good Idea. I'll ask Bill and see if I can get it approved."

#

Bill signed off on the plan. Cass would remain on earth, while Lorian and Alice would run the experiment from a pair of starships in orbit of Mars. One ship would house the experiment chamber and fly unmanned, while the other would house Lorian, Alice, and a pair of SpaceX crewmembers. The launch date was set for a few years out. In the meantime, SpaceX continued churning out Starships from their Starbase assembly line, pouring resources into establishing a Martian colony. Lorian's genetic modifications seemed to be stable, and Sophia's condition had stabilized to the point where She'd been moved to a safe-house in the suburbs. Sophia elected to play the part of the cooperative research subject for the time being, taking Rose's offer of an internship. To her great surprise, Rose set out to teach her everything she knew. By the time Lorian was set to return to Mars-orbit, Sophia had gained enough knowledge to understand how her biology had been modified.

#

Sophia joined Lorian at the window overlooking Starbase.

"Off to see the stars again?"

"It's only Mars."

"As if. Six years ago, no one had even set foot on another planet."

"Yeah. I hear there's a group fundraising to charter a flight to Venus."

"It's a shame they didn't figure out the formula for RadShield meds before Rose mucked with your genetics."

"Eh. At least I don't have to take pills every few hours."

"Got any plans for when you get back?"

"I think I'd like to see Asia. I've spent the last few years flying up and down the Andes, It'd be interestinng to see what the mountains on the other side of the world are like."

"The War's heating up over there. India, the Stans, China. They're all going at it over that new mineral vein under the hymalayas."

"I'm sure Rob could find me some protection."

"Yeah, but Protection isn't going to do much good if someone drops a bomb on you."

"Well, We'll just have to get the engineers to invent shields, right?"

"Just because you've discovered one sci-fi technology doesn't make the others possible."

"A girl can dream. What're you planning to get up to while I'm gone?"

"Maybe stage an escape. Rob's been starting to relax my security detail."

"And give up access to Rose's lab?"

"Half the time In there is torture, and the other half is hard work."

"Well, If you make it out, send me a postcard. And don't die."

"It's getting a lot harder to do that," Sophia studied her hand. "Rose's been upping my healing factor. I regenerated a section of my kidney last week. I'm a bit worried she's going to start amputating limbs."

"Yeah. I'd rethink being friends with her, If it weren't so necessary for survival."

"Well, I'll see you when you get back."

"Farewell."

The two women hugged and parted ways. It'd be more than a year before they had another chance to see each other.

#

"We've Reached position and established contact with the colony. Are you ready to commence the experiment?" Captain Pike asked Lorian, who was floating cross-legged in front of the observation window facing their companion ship, SN-87.

"Yeah, we're ready. Alice, start the spin sequence."

"Spin sequence commencing." Alice's voice played over the ship's intercom.

"I'll be in the cockpit if you need me," Captain Pike told Lorian, and walked back to his station, the sound of velcro making a faint crackling sound as his shoes bonded and unbonded with the strips on the floor.

"Well, Alice, time to see if this works."

"Spin sequence at stability threshold one. Increasing power. Applying Harmonic. Gravitational fluctuation detected. Spatial distortion manifesting. Spin sequence at power threshold two. Spatial distortion harmonising. Spin sequence at power threshold three. Applying Harmonic. Distortion behaving erratically. Altering harmonic. Distortion stabilizing. Attempting pulse sequence one. Overload iminent. Please withdraw."

Lorian thumbed the red button on her bracer and spoke to the captain in a calm voice. "Captain, The experiment has destabilized. please increase our distance from SN-87."

"Copy that, Lorie. Initiating primary burn."

With a dull thrum the mighty raptor engines of the Starship roared to life, increasing their seperation from the experiment going critical. A few moments later, There was a blinding flash, and SN-87 was shattered into a strange Blossom of twisted metal centered on the experiment chamber.

"If you would, Captain, please establish a loose sync with SN-87 so we can continue to observe."

"SN-87's orbit is degrading. It'll enter the martian atmosphere in a few hours."

"Alice, what are the odds of complications if we attempt to board SN-87?"

"High. The chance of damage to vital systems is above 90%. It could go boom at any time."

"Very well. Mark it's projected landing for the ground forces to investigate. We'll Head for the orbital station, if that's acceptable, Captain?"

"Let me confirm where it's projected to land," Captain Pike studied the mission charts of Mars's surface. "Okay, it doesn't look like anyone's in that sector. I'll transmit a warning to base command, then we'll set course for the station."

"Roger that."

#

On the station, Lorie was surprised to meet up with some of her crewmates from the first expedition. Against all odds, they'd survived the intervening years, and now held management positions. On hearing that the 'first Martian sharpshooter' had come to visit, they'd come aloft to visit. They confided that they'd had to use the weapons she'd left twice, when colonists went off the rails. The use had been limited to the local Sherrif, though other colonists were permitted to sign up for slots at the shooting range. A Swiss style military service requirement had been suggested, but the lack of competing colonies and a budget to allocate for such an expenditure had kept it from being instituted. So far the colonists had been the right mix of idealistic and cooperative to prevent serious crime, though pranks and misfiled asset management reports were an issue. The fact all colonists had to go through mental health screening before embarking on the journey to Mars helped weed out the psychos and the rebels.

"You haven't aged a day, Lorian," was a common observation. Lorian wondered if there might be more to it than the health routine Sophia and Rose had coached her to follow. She had, after all, had some fairly major changes to her genes after her first trip to Mars. On the other hand, The Martian colonists seemed to have aged decades. Maybe it was just a comparative difference."

#

Chapter 10: The itsy-bitsy-spider

"Hey Chuck, There's something wierd on the scopes near Jupiter."

"What kind of wierd?"

"You know how Daedalus Tech released those projected profiles for what hyperdrive performance might look like?"

"Yeah. but they're testing in the belt between Venus and Mars, right? not out by the gas giants."

"I know, and this is way bigger than anything they're reported to be testing. It looks like something punched a hole in space time and snagged a moon out of Juptier's orbit."

"Snagged a moon? You sure you aren't high?"

"I'm serious. It's f**ing wierd."

"Tag it and send it to the specialists. It's not like we can do anything but tell people about it, right?"

"Okay. But I'm telling everyone about it. It'd be a shame if it something started snatching moons and no one noticed."

#