“How are we feeling, Mister Manderley?” Captain Durand sat upright in her chair. Sure, she liked to fold her legs under her while traveling, but the first jump of a manned ship outside the solar system required a little bit of decorum. Or at least shoes. The atmosphere on the bridge was one of tense excitement. There was going to be no celebration until the jump and the first mission -- the exploration of a star with a twin-planet system in the habitable zone -- were concluded. But that didn’t mean people weren’t treating this with a little fanfare.
“A little stressed, Captain,” Jackson said, “but I think that’ll pass when we hit shift-space.” Hasan chuckled, and the tension in the room dissipated a bit as people smiled at Jackson’s little joke.
“And how is the ship, Helmsman Manderley?” Despite the fact that she felt like she was chiding him, Cathérine couldn’t help but smirk.
“She’s raring to go, Captain.” Manderley’s voice, husky as always, was brimming with determination and energy. Cathérine got the feeling like he was a good litmus test for the feelings of the crew present. Still, she didn’t want to jump into things -- no pun intended -- without making sure everyone was suitably prepared. She pressed a button on her console.
“Attention all crew,” she said, and made sure to look around the room, including her bridge crew. Clinton and Hasan’s gaze especially she held a little longer. She had the feeling she’d be relying on the two of them plenty. “We’re about to embark on a journey not many have ever had the honour of undertaking. We will be the first to see many things, things no human, no creature, no living thing has ever witnessed. We’ll be surprised, and we’ll be ready. Everyone here has been chosen because of a track record of excellence. You represent the best and brightest humanity has to offer.” She looked at Hasan. “We will witness impossible things.” Then Clinton. “We will do impossible things.” She looked straight ahead. “We are going to be amazing. Now, all hands… prepare for shift jump.” She smirked again, and flicked off the intercom, whispering to herself. “Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times…” she mumbled, and then, loudly, “Mister Blake!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
“On your order.” He raised his eyebrows in surprise, and she had to nod at him to confirm that, yes, it was going to be his honour. There was something in the boy that she found familiar, and she knew he was going to be a great captain in his own right some day, if he overcame his insecurities. And what better way for her to ensure her legacy by beginning to train it right away? Clinton took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders. She even saw him planting his feet a little wider.
“Helm,” he said, firmly.
“Aye, sir.”
“On my mark.” There was a second of silence that hung in the ear like a deafening roar, like the feeling of a being on a rollercoaster just before it went over the edge, of weightlessness one might feel while diving just before hitting the water. Everyone held their breath.
Clinton exhaled. “Mark.”
And then space folded itself, the stars went ‘vworp’, and everyone on board the Sollipsis became the first human beings to travel faster than light, outside the solar system.
---
The feeling of the universe shifting, the vacuum of reality closing before them as they were shifted forward through space at speeds of relativistic impossibility while technically standing still, was impossible to comprehend. Clinton’s body tried to tell him it was both being catapulted through the universe faster than reality would allow, while simultaneously not moving at all. Perception changed, as if the ship and everyone on it had been compressed into a single point and then extended into a line, stretching infinitely, from the birth of the universe to the birth of Clinton Blake to now. He saw himself as he was a second ago and ten years ago and two decades ago, approaching time and reality from the wrong direction, and then he met that person coming the other way, the image of Clinton observing himself only seconds ago, on the bridge of the first vessel to ever attempt a journey like this. He should be proud.
It was disappointing. Despite everything, he looked like a boy, young, inexperienced, out of his depth. He’d never seen himself like this, his life stretched out into a single moment, and it hurt him to look at the figure in front of him. He knew he should be proud of the man, the boy in front of him. But he felt disappointment. Maybe even anger. He didn’t belong here. He looked ridiculous. He felt ridiculous. A kid playing pretend at being a man. He sighed deeply. He knew that this was the imposter syndrome talking; the therapist had said as much during their sessions. But that didn’t take away the revulsion he felt while looking in the mirror sometimes, as if the figure on the other side of the glass had personally slighted him. As if his anger could will that person out of existence.
Another second, and his infinite perspective was squashed back in on itself and he stood on the bridge, which was just disorienting as slipping into what Jackson had referred to as shift-space. There was a flickering of his perception, as if he had been looking at things through a screen which had just been tuned to a different channel. He blinked to get rid of the feeling, then looked around. Nobody seemed unaffected, which was a small consolation. If he’d been the only one touched by the experience, he would’ve felt significantly out-of-place. Well, even more-so than usual. Hasan rubbed his face and then ruffled his own hair. Jackson absent-mindedly ran a hand over his throat. Evangeline and Maria were both breathing heavily, brows furrowed.
But Alex and the Captain were the ones who grabbed his attention. Both of them sat quietly, staring ahead. Though Clinton couldn’t see their face, he could tell by their shaking shoulders they were crying softly. Captain Durand, too, had a tear running down both her cheeks. When she noticed him watching she wiped it away, and then nodded at him. Only when he nodded back, did he realize he’d been crying too. The bridge was quiet as a funeral. This had not been what they’d expected. Would every jump be this intense? Clinton sure as heck hoped not.
Hasan was the first to break the silence. “Captain,” he said, and his voice cracked. He tried again. “Captain, could I speak to you in your quarters, please?” Captain Durand looked at him, her jaw tense enough to bend steel around.
“If this is about the jump, I’m afraid I’m not in a position to--”
“It isn’t,” Prakoso said, and straightened his back. “Mister Blake too, if at all possible.” The Captain looked at Clinton, and then back at Hasan. She’d gone from exhausted apprehension to a cautious curiosity in just a moment. She stood up.
“Mister Manderley, you have the bridge.”
“Aye, Captain,” Jackson said, his voice even quieter than usual. As he followed Hasan and the Captain into the Captain’s Quarters, he couldn’t help but be equally curious and concerned about what the Science Officer would want to talk about in private. Once they were inside, Hasan raised a small data node, and then inserted it into a wall screen.
“After… that,” he said, waving vaguely as if trying not to draw the attention of what had happened to them on the bridge, “I wanted to put my mind on other things. So I figured I’d do a system-wide scan.” The screen showed a small red dwarf star, with little lines highlighting its planetary bodies, orbiting gently. “We’re at our destination. This is supposed to be the Delta Pax system. Everything is here.”
“Then why do you look so worried, Prakoso?” Captain Durand asked as she crossed her arms. He tapped the screen, which zoomed in on the binary planet system orbiting Delta Pax. They were barely visible.
“I didn’t pick much up, but I figured I’d run a full scan, right? We’re here to see Pax II and Pax III, so getting some early readings would be good.” A lot of numbers appeared on the screen. Clinton recognized some of the acronyms, but a lot of it was gibberish to him. “Background radiation’s a bit high, not all of the composition levels are where we predicted them, but I figured, that’s normal, right? We only had predictive models to go off of before now.” He looked at the other two. “That’s what I figured, until I saw this.” He pointed at a number. It didn’t seem particularly more or less important or scary than any other number on the page. “There’s spikes in electromagnetic radiation on consistent frequencies that were…” he paused. Clinton looked at him, leaning against the Captain’s desk. “They felt rhythmic, but not… astronomically rhythmic.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to explain,” Prakoso said. “It’s a feeling I had, and I was about to send it to the lab to cross reference it with the data we had on Pax II, but on a hunch, I figured I’d tune some of our scanners to it. See if we could get a read on it.” He paused, as if waiting for his audience to interject. Neither Clinton nor the Captain were particularly inclined to do so. “It’s best if we listen to it instead.”
He pressed a button on the screen again, and a display of wavelength appeared on the screen. Hasan pressed play. It sounded like a lot of white noise to Clinton, but there seemed to be a thrum underneath it, like a loud note being played, muffled, in the distance. Behind the static. Hasan brought up some dials.
“You heard that too, right?” Clinton nodded, and the Captain made an affirmative noise. What was he getting at with this.
“Is there tectonic activity we hadn’t anticipated?” Captain Durand asked. “I don’t think you’d have pulled us aside for something as trivial as subterranean noises.”
“You’re right,” Hasan said, and gently adjusted the dials. “That’s because we’re not listening at the right frequency. Something’s distorted the signal, stretched the frequency. But if we turn it up…” The noise behind the static pitched up, and the slow thrum Clinton had heard before became more noticeable. He leaned forward, trying to place the sound. It was hard to make anything out, sure, but it felt to him like something he should be able to recognize. Hasan looked at them both again. “So I cleaned things up some more. I was curious, right?” He adjusted the sliders some more, and Clinton and the Captain listened in stunned silence for a minute. They looked at each other, then at Hasan, and then at the screen. After the experience he’d just had, Clinton had not been particularly ready for this kind of revelation, and from the looks of it, the Captain hadn’t been either.
“Holy…”
“Yeah,” Clinton agreed.
“Yup,” Hasan said. “You get why I wanted to reveal this to you in private first.”
“Good thinking,” Cathérine said, chewing her lip. “I’ll need to make an announcement.” Clinton could only agree. In a situation like this, it was important to make sure the narrative was controlled, so nobody would draw the wrong conclusion, and make any rash decisions. He shook his head. Today was looking to be a lot more intense than he’d anticipated, by an unimaginable degree. “Send the data to my terminal so I can show people what you showed us,” she said. “And the cleaned-up audio too, if you please.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and left the room.
“Clinton,” the Captain asked, “what do you think?” Clinton breathed through his nose and looked at the screen as if staring at it would make the revelation easier to handle. He was still reeling from the implications.
“I think…” he said, “we’re going to have to be very careful.”
“Agreed,” Captain Durand said, and they both looked at the recording, still playing on a loop. Through the speakers came the unmistakable sound of voices, speaking in an unknown language, clearly, loudly, and, it seemed, very angry.
I am getting some definite trans feelings from our dear first mate. Not even to make any declarative predictions but... Well, it's there.
Also they found themselves some aliens I guess. So far this has had a distinct Stat Trek vibe to me, but I wonder if we'll get some genre shifts as the Solipsis visits new systems. Looking forward to reading more!
all three trans people on the bridge crying, is my guess.
Hm - I'm assuming that its not just "see yourself in the past", though that would certainly be enough for several of them. Perhaps the form of warp madness here is "forces you to unwillingly confront your traumas"? Hardly a pleasant experience, though hopefully they find a stronger reality field soon
"oh shit, egg"
Hmmm... The warp making you see the past made our egg, the non binary pilot and the captain all uncomfortable... True in the final case it could be her past time during the war but this feels like a deliberate choice
Hot dang! The universe is brimming with life
Klingons?