CHAPTER 8 – INVERSION

DATE POINT: FEBRUARY 15th, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL, BLACK SITE S33

LIEUTENANT PAUL KARST

Today was finally the day. After six weeks of endless, repetitive drilling, mock fleet exercises, and obsessive systems testing, Henry finally gave his certification that they were ready for launch. A few rogue technical and electrical issues had been sorted out as well in that time, and they had been fully provisioned. They were as ready as they could be, and there was a strong positive energy on board.

“Helm, get us disengaged and ready to move out once STC gives the all-clear and we get those drift charts.” Henry commanded, looking very much at home at the railing overlooking the rest of the CIC below.

“Aye, captain!”

The past six weeks had done little to improve their working relationship, but Paul had little care for such matters. So long as Henry respected his authority and counsel, they didn’t need to be buddy-buddy. The crew, however, had really come together as a team in the constant drills and stress of the past weeks. Even Paul had to respect the end results of Henry’s application of “appropriate and consistent discipline combined with his intimidating work ethic and strict standards”. Paul chuckled at the idea that the words which admiral Young had first written about Henry in his recommendation, even as he saw it bearing fruit before his eyes.

The way many of the junior officers practically worshiped the man made Paul sick to his stomach, but the results spoke for themselves. Paul had to resign himself to being about the one person on the ship who refused to bless the ground that Henry walked on. It helped a bit when he imagined himself to be a mouthy Marc Antony to Henry’s bargain bin Julius Caesar. His crew seemed to respect him well enough for the description to match, so far, at least. Time would tell if he could hold them all together.

The newest bane to Paul’s existence was Ensign Preston Jenkins. Henry had unceremoniously dropped the kid on his staff because while he had decent combat marks and proficiency scores, he had failed to fit in amongst any of the various commands. He was an insufferable know it all, a history nerd, and an unrepentant people pleaser. He made Paul physically ill, so he responded in the only way he knew how; with a relentless effort to whip the poor sod into shape using the liberal application of vicious mockery.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“No, but to be fair I usually just tune you out.” Paul replied, coming back into the conversation. He could see it all over his face that Jenkins took that one to heart. He had better do something about that.

“But I'm sure that you are used to the signs of that by this stage in your life, anyway.”

“Leave the poor kid alone, Paul, I know you see a lot of your own worst in him, but he's a good kid, you're just projecting. You? No hope left for redemption; Jenkins at least has a shot.” Henry snorted, the minimization boiling Paul’s blood. Not that he would give him the satisfaction of a visible reaction.

“Then again, if he hangs around you too much maybe there won’t be any hope for him after all. You do you, Ensign, don’t let this bad attitude get you down. Remember, the only person he hates more than you is himself.” Henry said, in fine form.

Then again, perhaps respect for Paul's authority might just be too much to ask from Captain O’Toole. He had created a monster, and he himself was mostly to blame by being so hard on Henry from the start. Paul couldn’t let this go unanswered, he prepared himself for a witty response.

“Captain, STC has updated the asteroid drift charts for us and has given the all-clear to launch. The doors are open, you just have to give the order.”

“Excellent, Helm, release the docking clamps and get us out of here. I will plot us a course to the nearest bend of the gravitational superhighway so we can begin our first official in-system FTL test. Thank you, everyone for your hard work these past six weeks. I'm beyond proud of all of you. Like the explorer's of old, we venture forth into both danger and discovery. This is what we as a species do best, and I couldn't ask for a better crew to share this journey with! Today we set sail on the sea of stars, carrying that ancient drive to explore and expand with us into our last and largest frontier. Today, we make our first steps towards ensuring mankind has a guarantee of a tomorrow!”

A rousing cheer could be heard throughout the CIC. Paul resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead viewed the man’s charisma and leadership skills through a more pragmatic lens, rather than trying to compare it to his own abilities.

They certainly had picked the right man for the job. Why did it taste so sour to him? The next hours passed quickly as they flew ever faster away from the gravitational pull of Neptune heading out of the Kuiper belt, accelerating at an even one and a half gees.

“Approaching the closest bend in the gravitational superhighway, correcting inclination to the direction of the stream.” A shift's helmsman reported.

“Perfect, Helm, prepare to merge us into the stream. Engineering, prepare the null barrier system, be ready to invert the effect on my command. Raise barrier!”

The exterior camera feeds went dark as the outside light was cut off by the null barrier.

“Invert now!” The display began to blare a warning of excessive heat buildup in the barrier system as the out-pouring hole torn in spacetime from which flowed the null matter that formed their barrier was forcibly widened to allow their ship to slip through the baryonic barrier and to slip headlong into a rushing river of pure null matter, now flying inside the higher fifth dimension it came from.

“Hell yes! We're in!” Henry shouted, after looking over all the relevant displays to confirm.

They were riding the expansion of the universe in a baryonic bubble, traveling much like an air bubble trapped in a current of water flowing under the surface in a vast cosmic ocean.

“Fist of the Argonauts, you are clear to launch when ready. Remember, you will be our eyes and ears out there, stay vigilant.” Henry said. Moments later, the Indomitable Will shuddered as the Fist of the Argonauts launched from her saddle and accelerated ahead, activating every sensor it had.

“So how are we supposed to navigate in here again?” Jenkins broke the silence.

“We can read the vibrations and feedback from the inside edge of the baryonic bubble to determine upcoming shadow hazards. Most of our active sensors still work with minimal distortions as well. For the most part we simply need to ride in one of the currents and we will be fine. These currents flow along the same pathways as the gravitational superhighway, which we have already mapped mathematically through the whole solar system.” Chantal replied, it may not have been her precise area of expertise, but she knew it well enough to explain the concepts in a language that sounded enough like English to be understood.

“Whoa, cool! As above, so below. Makes total sense. So long as we stick to the gravitational superhighway we should be safe then?” Jenkins asked.

“Yeah, we just gotta watch for disturbances that might indicate smaller shadow masses that are caught in the stream. The flow of the stream itself pushes most masses out of the stream anyway, and it naturally flows between and around the gravity wells of large objects, so it really shouldn’t be a big issue.” Chantal replied cheerfully.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound so bad. What’s a shadow mass?”

“The fifth dimensional imprint left by a three dimensional object still out there in spacetime on the other side of the baryonic barrier that is imprinted into our reality as we pass by in our higher dimensional travel. We aren’t entirely sure what form they will take, though one disturbing idea put forward was that they will possibly be exact mirror masses made of pure antimatter, but that is just one hypothesis. I obviously don’t need to describe why that would be a huge problem if it were true though.”

“Pure antimatter?” Jenkins face suddenly went white along with half the crew in earshot. “We wouldn’t happen to have an anti-antimatter shield of some type, would we?”

“No, silly, there is no way to shield against an antimatter collision out here, without photonic shields or some other sci fi tech we haven’t invented yet. For the most part, small particles of any type will be deflected out of our way by the surface tension at the edge of the baryonic bubble, we will just have to watch carefully for the larger bits. Anything too large we will have plenty of warning to dodge thanks to collision warnings sent from the Fist of the Argonauts up ahead. They're a comparatively tiny target compared to us, so their risk was determined to be small enough as to be manageable. That is part of the reason we are capping the acceleration rates and our top speed while we are still collecting data to feed to the computers. You know, making sure that the data continues to match the predictions from the model we are actively refining.”

“Can we please go back to normal reality now?” Jenkins said, with an edge of panic in his voice. “We did our test; I would rather not play antimatter chicken any longer than I have to.”

“Nah. The Fist of the Argonauts is the one truly playing antimatter chicken. They're a smaller target and can maneuver much easier than we can, so like I said, it was deemed an acceptable risk. We will have plenty of warning if we need to dodge, we do have a Q-Comm link to them after all.” Chantal said, radiating calm. Jenkins seemed unsure. Paul wished he had popcorn.

“Ensign, you heard the doctor, we're well prepared for that probability. The Inversion FTL drive test will continue until we reach the Oort cloud as planned where we will dump heat into some asteroids and take on water before making the long push to Alpha Centauri. We're traveling only marginally faster than the speed of light as we are inside the heliopause still. The expansion of the universe runs faster in the voids between galaxies than within the voids between stars, and it is hardly notable above the speed of light within the solar system itself. That being said, we are still the fastest man made object in history. As we continue to accelerate into this stream, we will gradually reach many multiples of the speed of light in equivalent travel time when we re-enter the third dimension. Without the infinite energy requirements imposed by the proximity to the time layer in the third dimension, and a huge efficiency boost to our telekinetic drive due to being surrounded by such plentiful amounts of Null matter, we can accelerate constantly without a hard limit through these streams. We have it all figured out, it is no more or less safe than sailing through a heavy storm back on Earth. Think of it like a bit of turbulence. The risks have been managed and safeguards are in place.”

Jenkins seemed to take Henry’s words in stride and to calm down notably. Thankfully, the other crew that had been verging on panic also seemed to accept his confidence in the situation as their own for the most part, though there were still some nervous whispers. Paul studied him thoroughly in moments like these, eager to learn the secret behind his charisma so he could apply it to himself.

“Fleetwide directive; All hands I am proud to report that we have successfully tested the Inversion drive! We are currently enclosed in a river of null matter in a dimension outside of our home dimension, protected by a tiny pocket of our home dimension and by the ingenuity of mankind. This ship and this crew are ready for this challenge, and we will face it boldly together.”

The plan was to accelerate the ship up to seven times the speed of light, only possible now that accelerating through the spacetime medium had been removed as a limiting factor. Inside the null matter stream, their modified TK drive could accelerate them far more efficiently than ever before. By accelerating up to and down from seven times the speed of light, they estimated they would be able to traverse nearly two light years from the Kuiper belt to the inside edge of the Oort cloud in a few short months instead of many long years at sub-light speed or even at a full C.

“So much tasty data! This is so exciting!” Chantal positively beamed.

“Just make sure that our helmsman knows what to look for to spot incoming antimatter, so we don’t annihilate ourselves trying to get there.” Henry laughed as a means to diffuse the tension.

“Their ASI support will be better than any human at course correcting the ship in time. The Fist of the Argonauts is feeding us sensor data from the stream ahead of us and is linked to us by Q-Comm for instant communication. All we need to do is make sure that we update our predictive models with all this delicious data we are taking in.” Chantal said, referring to the Adaptive Synthetic Intelligence that helped in various ship systems to operate at speeds and efficiencies that human beings simply weren't capable of achieving alone.

“Hey LT, you think we'll be safe from the antimatter, right?” Jenkins asked Paul.

“I know that if we aren’t safe, we won’t live long enough for it to matter, so why worry about it?” Paul said with a smirk.

Jenkins followed him out of the CIC, terrified and stumbling over his words. Honestly, the man made it too easy to shake him. Paul caught a warning glare from self-righteous Henry to which he rolled his eyes and walked out of the room in disgust.

“You don’t really mean that, do you? Because that’s not very funny LT.” Jenkins prodded, Paul smirked, glad that the kid finally seemed to be growing a spine, at least enough of one to challenge Paul just a little.

“I don’t know Ensign, what do you think? Do you think we are going to perish in a blaze of particle annihilation, or do you think our little pea shooters will be able to deflect what we can’t dodge? Don’t tell me I have to do your critical thinking for you too, now.”

“Well, Dr. Washington is really smart… and the Captain seemed so sure of himself….”

Paul turned around, sick of the bullshit. “What do you think, Jenkins? Forget what they said or what I said and remember that you have a working brain too. You heard the evidence yourself, come to your own conclusion and own it.”

“I… I think we're gonna make it.” He said with some finality to it after being silent for nearly a minute

“Well good, hold on to that thought and don’t be so quick to let the opinions of those around you change your mind. Especially not when you have made your mind up based upon actual data points over some invented fear. If you can keep your head when others around you are losing theirs, you will actually stand a real chance of surviving even the most hopeless of situations by that one difference alone.”

“I need to write what you say down, LT! I don’t know how you got so wise, but I'm willing to learn anything you would teach me, please!”

“Oh, stop the groveling already. You and I are far from the same and you have such a long way to go. But… you have some redeeming qualities, buried deep down far below the incompetent surface. I suppose I would be willing to teach you some things, even if it is just to make you less annoying to hang around with.”

“Thank you! You won’t regret this!” Preston said, genuinely excited.

“I already do. We have months of boring FTL time ahead of us, why don’t we pick up our training where we left off. I could go for grinding you into the mat a few times. Just try not to tap out so quick this time.” Jenkins followed behind eagerly, disgusting.

If he was really to be saddled with him, he may as well help mold him into someone actually useful. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do with his time while stuck on this godawful flight. Suddenly, the ship seemed to lurch under their feet, nearly knocking them both to the ground.

“All hands, this is your captain speaking, prepare to stow all non-essential gear and tools in anticipation of a rather bumpy ride. We will need to actively avoid inbound debris at periodic intervals, the last thing we need are injuries from flying tools. I am ordering the ship to follow combat maneuvering protocols at all times while traveling in FTL from here on out.”

Paul pulled himself back to his feet. Combat maneuvering protocols were stressful and slowed down even the most basic tasks. This was going to make a long, boring trip into something outright tedious. It would appear the antimatter threat was going to have side effects with real world consequences.

“How long are we supposed to stay in FTL for again?” Jenkins asked, radiating fear again.

“Eight weeks, give or take, from the Kuiper belt to the Oort Cloud, peaking at seven times C mid-trip, including deceleration time back down to regular old expansion speed, basically one C, or the speed of light. We have to decelerate down close to C to slip back through the baryonic barrier and re-enter real space safely. We'll give the crew some time to rest and restock our water and oxygen reserves before we attempt the nearly twelve-week FTL trip from the Oort cloud to Alpha Centauri.”

The ship lurched again, and for just a second, the corridor was bathed in emergency lighting before the regular lights came back on.

“Wasn’t that supposed to have been fixed?” Ensign obvious asked. Paul simply stared deadpan at Jenkins for his stupid question.

"Apparently that was too much to ask for.” Paul said, deciding upon fatalism.

“Well, hopefully there isn’t anything else wrong with the ship, or there aren’t any more dangers with FTL we aren’t aware of yet. I haven’t heard of an mere six week gap from christening to commissioning before. I feel like maybe we are making a huge mistake by launching now instead of waiting a little longer to be really sure. I have a bad feeling about this. Especially since you didn't break the bottle.” Jenkins said, shivering.

“Jenkins why in the sweet fuck would you say that out loud? Filter yourself sometimes, what's wrong with you?” Paul spat. For one tiny moment he actually wished for his sister’s company of all things, probably as a buffer, he mused. Just what was happening to him?

Jenkins said nothing and followed a little further back, pouting. This was going to be a long trip.

THE NEXT DAY....

DATE POINT: FEBRUARY 16th, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL, BLACK SITE S33

FIREMAN APPRENTICE ANDREW REESE

It had been difficult going these past months, slowly testing the loyalties and thoughts of those around him but his efforts had truly begun to bear fruit. Andrew now had a core of believers, including a few on the lowest rungs of the command ladder. No officers yet, but there were two noncoms whom were wavering now and showing signs they were possible ideological fits for recruitment. He had to be careful, however, as the wrong person speaking up would prove disastrous. The state of constant danger they found themselves in now that they had transitioned to FTL had proven to sow the perfect type of discontent to give him an opening with some, or to push others over the edge.

"This antimatter bullshit is really getting on my nerves. I can't believe we're going to have to deal with this shit for the next two goddamn years!" Ed, his first and truest recruit said to the group they were eating with in the mess.

"I know what you mean, this whole mission is bullshit. I didn't sign up for this crap. Did you hear about Riley?" Another person he didn't recognize spoke up.

"No, what happened?" Ed replied.

"She was on the quick lift when we swerved to dodge one of those antimatter pieces yesterday and she fell and broke her arm. They tried to hush it up, but word is getting around anyway. One of my buddies almost got crushed by a falling crate that he didn't have time to strap down this morning." The new person replied. Andrew smiled, they were almost making it too easy. He sent up a silent thank you to the heavens for the turn of his fortunes. There were murmurs of discontent around the table.

"I almost banged my head yesterday pretty badly." Another person chimed in.

"To think this whole mission is based off a lie, too. They couldn't even tell us the truth until we were already on a ship headed over here. They've been playing on our patriotism, but something doesn't smell right to me, especially since this is all being kept secret from the feds. Like what else are they keeping from us?" Andrew chimed in, trying to keep his excitement hidden.

"Yeah! He's right, you know. Why are they keeping this a secret for anyway? I thought we were supposed to be working together as a species, the Navy should know about this. I mean, we cracked FTL for Christ's sake! This could change the whole course of the war!" Andrew and Ed shared a knowing look as the new guy fell right into their hands without even knowing it.

"That's if this trip doesn't kill us first." Ed said.

"Nah, they said they've tested the Inversion drive, right? I'm sure they've done everything they can to make sure we make it through safe." Another person chimed in, though they didn't sound too convinced.

"Tell that to Riley. I don't know man, you know what happens if just one piece of antimatter gets through right? They've already proven they're willing to lie to us just to get us on board, and they're willing to lie to the feds. How can we trust them that they've really thought everything through. What if we run into an antimatter storm too large or plentiful to dodge and for our point defense to deflect everything in time?" Andrew chimed in. Nobody seemed to have anything to say this time for a long moment.

"Dammit, I didn't even think of that... There goes my sleep tonight." The other prospect Andrew had identified replied.

In a masterstroke of universal timing, the ship lurched hard, knocking the spork from their first prospect's hands and sending their plate shifting off the edge of the table.

"I think I've lost my appetite." Their newest hopeful recruit stated as he stood up. Another person got up as well, looking really uneasy and moving to dump the remains of their tray. Andrew subtly nodded to Ed to follow the first one. Andrew stood to follow the other.

Maybe, just maybe their little conspiracy would grow by a few more members today. If not, there were thousands of other potential recruits all he had to do was play it smart and keep sowing seeds of fear. They didn't need all that many more to really start spreading doubts, especially once the sabotage really started kicking in, that doubt would feed on itself. They had to put a stop to this mission, everyone's lives depended on it. They had to turn back at all costs, rethink everything, maybe even find a way to leak the knowledge of the Inversion drive to the government so better testing could be done before humanity tried again.

Andrew tapped on his mark's shoulder once they were out of earshot of the rest of the mess hall.

"Hey there, my name is Andrew. I heard you talking back there and I think you're right to be concerned. Can I get your name?"

Andrew smiled, reminded himself once more to play it cool and slow, and got to work.