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8

Clement stood at the command console in the CAC, his personal displays floating above the board at eye level in 3D high definition, his foot tapping impatiently on the grilled metal floor. The ship’s clock was steadily counting down, with just three minutes to go now until the Agamemnon and its pod of companion ships became the first group to drop out of LEAP space and into normal space at the Trinity system.

To his left Captain Yan called up the ship-wide com system and spoke into it, addressing the entire ship at one time. “Attention. This is Captain Yan. Three minutes to exit from LEAP space. I repeat, three minutes to exit from LEAP space. All personnel should be at their transition stations, all passengers should be in their cabins. Lockdown orders are in place. Stand by.” She hung up the com system and looked to Clement. “Locked down for the transition, Admiral,” she said with a nod.

“Thank you, Captain. Colonel Lubrov, status of the companion ships in the pod?”

“All confirm ready for the transition, Admiral,” said Lubrov.

“Thank you,” he said again, then turned his attention to Ivan Massif at Navigation. “Course report, Navigator?”

The tall Russian responded immediately. “Course is steady and confidence in our data is high, sir. We should come out within twenty-five hundred kilometers of our designated Trinity system entry point, sir.”

Clement nodded. “And that’s pretty accurate for an 11.5 light-year journey through warped space.”

“Thank you, Admiral.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile, then turned his attention to his helm officer and Massif’s wife, Mika Ori. “Status, Pilot?”

“Speed decreasing steadily to 1.0086 light, sir. On schedule to exit LEAP space on the clock, sir. All subsystems report green.”

“Thank you, Commander.” He looked over to the empty engineer’s station, not surprised that Hassan Nobli had chosen to ride out the exit from faster-than-light travel in the reactor room. Clement clicked on his direct com line to the engineer. “Lieutenant Commander Nobli, final report on the reactor status?”

Nobli’s voice came through the line and over the speakers so that all the CAC crew could hear his report. “Reactor at one hundred percent efficiency and winding down, sir. No issues at this time. The exit from LEAP quantum-fluid space should be smooth and orderly, sir.”

“Excellent, Engineer. Stand by. I’ll want a full report once we’re in place.”

“Aye, sir.”

Clement looked at the clock, two minutes, ten seconds. “Helm?” he asked, looking for an update.

“Deceleration already underway, sir. Sub-light speeds are confirmed. We should exit LEAP space with no forward motion,” said Ori.

They all watched then as the clock counted down. The telemetry on Clement’s speed display showed the rapid deceleration of both the Agamemnon and the rest of the companion pod. This kind of deceleration wouldn’t be possible in normal space, but the quantum fluid of the Liquid Energy Absorption Propulsion system literally bent and distorted space, allowing them to do things that weren’t possible in the unaltered natural universe and keeping them from ending up as blood spatters on the ship’s interior walls.

They watched in silence as the clock counted down. At thirty seconds, Yan began to count down. When she got to ten she unhooked the ship-wide com line again and counted down to the entire crew. “Seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . .” They all felt the slight shift like a gentle bump, almost undetectable, but noticeable to an experienced spacer. At zero the ship exited the LEAP bubble and returned to normal space, completely stationary.

“Status?” called Clement.

“Ship is at station-keeping with no forward motion,” reported Mika Ori.

“We are 239.4 kilometers from our exact targeted entry point,” reported Navigator Massif. “About 10.021 AUs from the Trinity star, sir.”

“Thank you, Ivan. Status of the rest of the ships in the pod?”

“All ships in the pod are reporting they are in normal space with no transition incidents,” reported Com Officer Adebayor.

“Nobli,” said Clement into the com, “how is our miracle reactor?”

“They’re both perfect, sir, off-line and cooling down. I’ll have the standard thrusters ready for you in ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Nobli.” He turned then to Captain Yan. “Prepare the Agamemnon to head inward toward the planet Bellus. Mr. Massif will give you the course.”

“Absolutely, sir,” replied Yan.

Clement turned to the Agamemnon’s XO. “Colonel Lubrov, once the captain has set our course and speed please be sure the other ships in the pod are given same information with orders to follow the Agamemnon into the inner Trinity system.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Captain,” he said to Yan again, “how long until the second pod of ships arrives?”

Yan looked at her floating display and swiped right twice to find the panel she wanted. “Estimate another three minutes for pod two to arrive, 6.5 minutes for pod number three,” she reported. Clement merely nodded at that report and then went quiet, letting his people do their jobs as they waited for the rest of the migration fleet to arrive. Clement kept his eyes on the ship’s clock.

The panic, when it came, was tight, quiet, and nerve-racking.

The second pod, led by Captain Samkange of the Corvallis, did not appear on schedule. Yan reported they were overdue, but Clement stayed tight-lipped, aware that all eyes in the CAC were looking at him to evaluate how serious the situation was.

At seven minutes post-mark both the second pod and the third pod, commanded by Captain Son of the Yangtze, were both overdue. It was time for Clement to act.

“Captain Yan,” he said in a commanding voice, “go to station red, repeat station red.” At his call the CAC broke into a bustle of activity. Automatic alarms went off throughout the ship. Orders went out to increase the ship’s state of readiness and passengers were told via the alert system to remain in or return to their cabins. Clement looked at Yan. A look of concern was etched on her face.

“What do you have for me, Captain?” he said anxiously.

Yan hesitated for only a second, but Clement knew her well enough to know that pause was cause for concern. “Unknown situation, sir,” she finally replied. “Both accompanying pods are overdue.”

“Can we go back into LEAP space and try to contact them?”

“We can, but that would leave the rest of our ships unprotected.”

“That may be necessary.”

She looked at him deadly seriously. “We should wait, Admiral. Those ships were with us every step of the way, and I find it highly unlikely they’ve simply vanished from the universe at our journey’s end.”

Clement looked to Lubrov. “Colonel? Any suggestions?”

Lubrov’s face was blank and dispassionate. If she was worried, she didn’t show any of it outwardly. “In my opinion, sir, we have to take the Agamemnon back into LEAP space, try and backtrack and locate the other pods, and if possible, try to reestablish communication with them through the quantum tether.”

“And leave the rest of the fleet alone and unprotected in a new star system that they don’t know?” challenged Yan. Clement sensed the unmentioned tension between the two women finally coming out. Yan, always the cautious one, clearly hated Lubrov’s suggestion.

“Do we have another option?” snapped back Lubrov. Yan was about to respond with an even stronger argument, based on the rising rose color of her face, but Clement inserted himself into the conversation before tensions could escalate.

“We have other ships in the fleet that have LEAP reactors. It seems clear we should send one of those ships out to look for the two missing pods, but I don’t want to leave this group alone or undefended in this system.”

“What do you suggest we do then, sir?” said Yan. Her tone wasn’t challenging, but it wasn’t subordinate either. Clement thought for a moment, aware that both of his junior command officers and the entire CAC crew were watching him. They were all aware that he was about to make a critical decision, even if they had their eyes and ears focused on their stations and their work.

He made his decision. “Call the junior helm, navigation, engineering, and communications officers to the CAC immediately, Captain.”

“Aye, sir,” she responded, and proceeded to call the juniors to the CAC over the com.

Clement waved Ori, Massif, and Adebayor over to the command platform. He opened a direct com down to Nobli in Engineering so that he could listen in as well. When all were present and leaning against the railing, he gave his orders.

“Engineer Nobli, you will prepare the Beauregard for deployment. Get your techs down to the landing bay and warm up her reactor. We’re going out to find our missing ships.”

“Aye, sir, but that will take maybe forty minutes,” said Nobli.

“You have twenty, Hassan.”

“Understood, sir.”

Clement looked to the rest of his command crew on the railing. “The Beauregard has the most time running a LEAP reactor and operating in quantum space in this fleet. I intend to take advantage of that experience, and of the experience of her crew, to conduct a search and rescue of the missing pods.” At that point junior officers began arriving in the CAC to take over at the empty stations. Clement looked to his trusted crew, who had come through a massive crisis the last time they were in the Trinity system. “I hope you all fancy a fishing expedition. I don’t mean to be lighthearted about this, but we have two missing pods of ships and I’m not willing to leave the ships that are here undefended.”

He turned to Yan. “Captain, you will remain here aboard the Agamemnon and you will lead this fleet inwards toward their destination at the planet Bellus. Colonel Lubrov will accompany me along with Commanders Ori, Massif, Nobli, and Lieutenant Adebayor aboard the Beauregard to search for our missing companions. Colonel Lubrov, I suggest we bring Lieutenant’s Telco and Tsu and a pair of your Marines in case we need some muscle to assist the lost ships. Our mission will be search and rescue, so prep the ship for up to two days of searching.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Clearly something has gone terribly wrong here. I don’t want to risk my flagship on a rescue attempt when it might be needed here, in the Trinity system. We have eighteen thousand migrants and fourteen ships out there somewhere, and we need to find them. Now go and do your prep, everyone. We will meet down in the landing bay on board the Beauregard in twenty minutes.” Everyone nodded and there were grave looks all around, but also grim determination in their eyes. Clement had been proud of this crew many times in the past and he was sure he would be again.

With that he moved to Yan’s position and activated the ship-wide com. “Attention. This is Admiral Clement. We will be attempting a search and rescue of the missing ships in the other two pods aboard the Five Suns Navy gunship Beauregard. All other vessels are to proceed with the Agamemnon under the command of Captain Yan to the planet Bellus, where we will begin an orderly transition to the settlements that have been prepared there. Please do not worry until we know there is something to worry about. Focus on your jobs, your families, and your loved ones. We will report as soon as we have any new information. Admiral Clement out.”

“Sir,” started Yan, “how will we communicate with you if we aren’t in quantum space? We won’t be able to use the tether.”

“We’ll have to use the longwave packet system, Captain. It may not be as fast as the quantum tether but it will be enough to keep you updated as to our progress.”

“Very well, sir.”

And with that Clement handed the con to Yan and headed for his cabin, there to get out of his formal uniform and into his EVA flight suit.


He had to send a com to his parents telling them he was leaving the ship and what the circumstances were. He got a supportive reply from his mother, but nothing from his father. He called in to Yan again to please keep an eye on them in light of his absence.

When he got to the Beauregard Clement entered through her cargo bay door and went up the familiar metal gangway to her bridge. There he found Ori and Massif at their familiar nav and helm stations, Colonel Lubrov at the XO’s position, and Kayla Adebayor at Communications, talking back and forth and prepping the ship. He paused for a minute to take in the full bridge of the one ship he could truly call his own in this fleet. After a moment to absorb his surroundings one more time, he sat down in his command couch and hit the com, calling down to Nobli in the reactor room.

“How long until we’re ready, Hassan?” he said.

“Give me seven minutes, Captain; I’ll have her warm and humming.”

“Time is important here, Nobli.”

“I’m aware of that, Cap . . . Admiral. We’re doing the best we can. We need to be safe, sir.”

Clement took in a deep breath. “We do, Engineer,” he said, “but we also need to be fast.”

“Understood.”

Clement swung around his command couch and sat down in it for the first time in nearly two years. He had to admit it, this ship, this bridge, this crew, felt like home.

“Hassan, in your opinion, how did this happen?”

“I don’t know, sir, but it’s at least possible that there is some sort of time/space displacement scenario going on.”

“Which means, what?”

“It means that the LEAP drive may be powerful enough to warp not only space but time as well. Those missing pods might just drop out of their LEAP bubbles at any time, none the wiser that were ever off-mission. This scenario was a theory that was considered, but we believed it was a very low probability of it occurring. The fact is, this technology is still early in its development.”

“Thanks for letting me know this could happen in advance of the mission.”

“Admiral, if I told you about every possible scenario—”

“Not now, Nobli. I’ll write you up later. For now, we have to improvise, and I expect your best performance. Understood?”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Clement cut the line and swung around his command couch to the XO’s station.

“Colonel Lubrov,” he said, “get this ship in position on the landing deck. I want us to be spaceborne as soon as Nobli gives the all clear.”

“Yes, sir,” said Lubrov, then proceeded to call in orders to the Agamemnon’s landing bay staff.

“Incoming call from Captain Yan,” reported Adebayor.

“I’ll take it,” said Clement. Adebayor punched the com through to the captain’s console and Clement pressed a button to open the com channel. “What do you have for me, Yan?” he asked.

“Good news, Admiral! One of the missing pods has appeared at the designated rendezvous point; it’s Captain Son and the Yangtze pod, sir. All ships are fine and all the captains and commanders are reporting everything is normal. There is a discrepancy of thirty-three minutes between their shipboard clocks and our shipboard clock. We’re investigating this anomaly but I have nothing to report as of yet.”

Clement hesitated for a second. “I trust you to work this out, Yan. Send me the data that you have and I’ll bring it up with Nobli once we’re back in LEAP space.”

“Sir, we could wait to see if the third pod shows up.”

“Negative. We’re going out after them,” said Clement. “Follow your orders, Captain. I will check in with you as soon as we have any more information.”

“Yes, sir.”

Clement called down to Nobli again, anxious for an update. “Still need five minutes, Admiral. This reactor hasn’t been run in a while, since her initial tests. And we don’t want an accident, do we, sir?”

“No, we don’t, Nobli. I don’t care what you have to do to get her warm. Have Tech Reck throw a hammer at it if you have to.” He turned to Lubrov. “Estimate until we’re in position in the landing bay, Colonel?”

“Six minutes, Admiral,” replied Lubrov.

“I just bought you an extra minute, Nobli. Don’t disappointment me. These are going to be the longest six minutes of my life.”

“Aye, sir,” said Nobli, then signed off.

Clement sat back in his chair, and waited.

Impatiently.


When they finally got their clearance from the landing bay crew to depart the Agamemnon, Clement checked in with Nobli one last time and simply got a green light on his propulsion app board in reply.

“Commander Ori, thrusters please,” he ordered.

“Aye, sir, thrusters are hot.”

The Beauregard lifted off the landing deck and proceeded slowly through the length of Agamemnon’s massive landing bay, then crossed the environmental static shield and out into open space. Clement activated the com. “You may proceed inward with the fleet to Bellus, Captain Yan,” Clement said, “Beauregard will report once we’ve made contact with the Corvallis pod.”

“Good hunting, Admiral. See you at Bellus.”

“Best of luck, Captain.” Then he closed the com.

“Mika, give us fifty thousand kilometers before we engage the LEAP drive. Ivan, take us back on the same course we came in on. Kayla,” he said, using Adebayor’s first name as a way of showing her he considered her as one of his senior crew now. “As soon as we’re in LEAP space engage the quantum tether and try and raise Captain Samkange and the Corvallis.”

“Understood, sir.”

He hit the com again. “Nobli, LEAP power to the pilot as soon as you’re ready.”

“Will do, sir.” Clement remained pensive while he waited. Finally Ori signaled she had LEAP power ready.

“Go, Pilot,” he said, and the ship began generating her quantum bubble in front of her nose, accelerating toward light speed as they entered the fluid space.

“Superluminal speeds achieved, sir,” reported Ori a few moments later. Clement, and he assumed the rest of the crew, felt the gentle tug of acceleration as the Beauregard slipped above the light-speed barrier. It was almost imperceptible, but to Clement it signaled a significant crossing of the bridge, a step toward mankind’s future. He allowed himself the luxury of that moment, before turning his thoughts back to the task at hand.

“Navigator, take us back the same way we came in.”

“Aye, sir,” replied Massif.

“Communications officer, activate the quantum tether and try to raise the Corvallis.”

“Already on it, Admiral,” Adebayor replied.

Clement sat forward in his captain’s couch, his console pushed to one side as he focused on the main panel display at the front of the bridge. It showed a rich mix of visual and tactical readouts, along with telemetry about the ship’s course, speed, and overall functioning. They were already making 1.5 light speed, and he could tell Ori was pushing the LEAP drive as hard as she could. Clement was shifting uncomfortably in his couch, so much so that the XO stepped away from her station and went to his side.

“Your crew know their jobs, sir,” Lubrov said quietly, so that only the two of them could hear.

Clement looked at the colonel. “I know. It’s still hard for me to sit here and feel like I can’t do anything about speeding up this search or finding those lost souls.”

Lubrov nodded. “This is part of the frustration you feel about being an admiral, isn’t it, sir?”

Clement thought the XO was being a bit forward, but he had to admit she was also being very insightful. This was their first time working this close together, so he wanted to give her some slack on her approach to being his second-in-command. He turned away from her and put his attention back on the main display, then sat back in his chair. “I’ve never really been comfortable with being an admiral. I’ve always been a ship captain, because I felt at that level I could make a difference. You could do things to affect the outcome of an incident or a crisis. Where I am now I can really only set policy, not carry it out. And frankly, Colonel, that does wear on me. For now, though, I’m just happy to be back on the bridge of this ship.”

“You consider the Beauregard to be your ship, don’t you?”

“As much as any other ship I’ve ever commanded, yes. She represents many things to me, and if I was being honest with myself I would admit that I never wanted anything more than to be captain on board this ship.”

“Well,” Lubrov said, “when this is all over and we find our missing ships, maybe you can demote yourself back to captain.”

“It’s a thought. But who would I put in charge of the fleet, exactly? There’s not really anyone in the Kemmerine sector that I know well enough or trust enough to put in charge of the Trinity worlds.”

“Not even captain Yan?” That surprised Clement. He thought of the two women as rivals, but what Lubrov had just said was a high compliment toward Yan. It seemed that both women under his direct command were more complex than he gave them credit for.

“I need Yan to captain the Agamemnon.”

“What about one of the older officers at Kemmerine Station? Some of them would make good administrators.”

“You’re probably right,” said Clement. “Right now, though, what we need is captains, commanders, and flag officers with deep-space experience. We’re far short of that experience right now, and only by doing these kinds of missions will we get that experience. No, Colonel, I’m afraid I’m going to be stuck at the top of the Five Suns Navy pyramid for a while longer yet, until promising senior officers like you and Yan, and Samkange and Son, are ready to move up to the bigger roles.”

“Very good, sir,” she said. “I’ll go back to monitoring the telemetry and see if I can pick up a residual LEAP signature.” Clement nodded at that and she went back to the XO’s console.

Clement asked for updates from his reports but none of them had any positive data to report. Growing pensive again, Clement put his com implant into his ear canal and called down to Nobli in the reactor room.

“Yes, Admiral,” came Nobli’s familiar voice in the com.

“Hassan, I need to know something. How likely is it that we would be able to detect and locate the missing pods of ships while traveling in LEAP space ourselves?”

“Well, sir, it’s far more likely than a needle-in-haystack-type scenario, but at the same time, it’s not easy. Once we dropped out of LEAP space and broke the quantum tether, we essentially disconnected ourselves from the network. LEAP signatures are easy enough to identify once you locate them, but we really know very little about how the physics actually work in LEAP space. It could be a long shot in finding them. Having said that, if Captain Samkange has figured out that they’re missing or off course, he could conceivably devise a way to let us know he’s out here.”

“And what way might that be?” asked Clement. Nobli grunted, the verbal equivalent of a shrug for him.

“Well, I know he didn’t train on this, but we did discuss shutting down the reactor energy flow for microseconds at a time as a way of leaving trace particles of protons or electrons, sort of like the old Morse code. Those particles could then be scanned by a searching ship; even in the quantum fluid it would leave a trail. It’s by no means exact and certainly not something that we trained for, but that or something like that could attract the kind of attention that would help us find them. And Samkange was briefed on these scenarios. I’m just not sure how seriously any of the captains or commanders took that part of the briefings.”

Clement rubbed at his face with both hands for a few seconds, then put his ear com on mute, but kept the line to Nobli open. He turned to Colonel Lubrov again. “Colonel, start prioritizing scanning for trace groupings of protons and electrons along our path. It’s a long shot, but it might give us a chance at finding the Corvallis group pod, if Captain Samkange was paying attention during his briefings.”

“Aye, sir. I remember those briefings on communications in a potential crisis. Perhaps it made an impression on Captain Samkange or one of the other ship commanders as well.”

“Perhaps it did,” said Clement, feeling in his gut that it was a long shot. Clement paused then before saying the next possibility. “You should also look for any sort of mass discharge of antimatter, just in case one of the ships exploded while shutting down her reactor.”

“Aye, sir,” said Lubrov, grim faced at that prospect.

Clement tapped his ear com to resume his conversation with the Beauregard’s engineer.

“I want the truth, Hassan. How likely is it that we will find the Corvallis pod and the missing ships?”

“I would say we have a better than twenty percent chance of finding them, sir, if they’re still out there. But you have to remember that Samkange wouldn’t necessarily know he’s overdue if our space-time warp scenario is happening,”

Clement rubbed at his neck now, more out of nervous habit than anything else. “Nobli, what if they couldn’t shut down their reactor? What if they couldn’t drop out of LEAP space?”

“Then they would likely be heading on the same vector that the fleet was coming in on.”

“Which means in backtracking we’d be going the wrong way.”

“That’s true, sir, but remember, the Yangtze pod lost thirty-three minutes somewhere in LEAP space, but to their clocks they came out at the rendezvous point right on time. As we’ve discussed, the LEAP drive probably has properties that can bend not only space, but time as well, which makes sense as space and time are essentially part of the single dimension that we live in. But if that’s true, then Captain Samkange and the rest of the pod could think they are perfectly fine, and still think that they are on their way right on schedule to the rendezvous point. In which case us searching for them is a waste of our time and resources.”

“I don’t think searching for lost or injured comrades is ever a waste of time and resources, Nobli.”

“I know, sir, and I feel the same way or I wouldn’t be here. We just have to remember sometimes that we’re in the very early stages of using this technology, and we don’t really know its full potential to affect our lives, either positively or negatively.”

“Thank you, Hassan,” said Clement, a feeling of dread rising in his gut, then he cut the line.


Clement decided to stay quiet for a considerable time, letting his people do their jobs. After two fruitless hours of searching Clement stood up and called the bridge crew to his station and patched Nobli in through the main ship com. “I want opinions from each one of you. Is there something that we’re doing in this search that we shouldn’t be doing, and conversely is there something you think we should be doing that we’re not?”

Mika Ori spoke up first. “We’re making about twenty percent more speed than the migration fleet did, sir. We’ve already passed the point where we had the last quantum tether communication with the Corvallis pod. We know they came this far, so I think searching for them further back on the course we came in on is probably a waste of our time.”

Clement looked to navigator Ivan Massif. “Do you agree, Ivan?”

“I do, sir,” said the tall Russian. “At this point, I think we have to assume that they overshot the rendezvous point at Trinity either because they didn’t know that they were at the exit point, or because they simply couldn’t stop. I would recommend we reverse course and work past Trinity to see if they overshot the rendezvous point.”

“But if they did overshoot the exit point, where could they be now?” asked Clement.

Massif looked down at his watch. “They’re four hours overdue at this point, sir. With the speed they were making they likely aren’t even one one-hundredth of a light-year beyond Trinity.”

“Can you plot us that course, and do we have the speed to catch them?”

“I can plot it, sir, that’s the easy part. But Mika and Nobli will have to tell you if we can catch them.”

Clement looked to his pilot. She didn’t hesitate. “We’re already traveling twenty percent above their speed relative to us, sir. We can definitely catch them, but we have to stop and turn around first.”

“So ordered. Ivan, lock in our course. Nobli, prepare to drop us back into normal space, and then resume superluminal speeds along the navigator’s new course.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Nobli. “That maneuver will take about twenty-one minutes to execute, sir. We’ll need to lean out the reactor output to slow us down, then once we drop back into normal space I’ll have to reset the reactor. That takes about ten minutes. By then we should be able to resume on the new course.”

“Then let’s get to it.” The bridge crew scrambled back to their stations. Clement put out a hand to hold back Lieutenant Adebayor. “Kayla, I want you to send a longwave communications packet back to Yan on the Agamemnon after we drop out of LEAP space.”

“Yes, sir.”

Clement nodded. “Give her a full update along with our position, as close as we can estimate it. Let them know where we are and what we’re doing. Request an update on the status of the Trinity fleet.” Adebayor nodded and then went to her station to prepare the packet. Clement looked to Lubrov. She made eye contact with him and then shook her head. Clement nodded, acknowledging his worst fears about the crisis. Then he sat back in his chair and sighed.

Things were not going well.


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