Officer Karīsa Niue could barely contain her excitement. Being selected for station duty was a great honor, especially at her young age. Since the earliest history of Kānean society, her people had seen height and depth as an escape from the planet’s harsh surface, bringing them closer to Paradise and to the gods. She tapped her fingers on the shuttle seat’s armrest and craned forward to see Babel 7 floating in the darkness of the pilot’s viewscreen.

“How much longer?” she asked.

“Should be about twenty minutes,” the pilot said. “We have to wait for this convoy to dock and then we should be cleared for landing.”

Niue vibrated in excitement–well, as much as one could wearing a five-point harness belt.

The pilot yawned, then turned back to talk to his passenger. Raising one eyebrow, he said, “Station life really isn’t that exciting, you know.”

“I’ve never been off planet before!” Niue said. “All of this is exciting for me.”

“Well, you’ll get used to it,” the pilot said. “I’m Costello, by the way. Transport pilot for the Subspace Authority.”

“Why is it called that, anyway?” Niue wondered aloud. “We’re in normal space right now.”

Costello shrugged. “Well, the real purpose of this station–and all this infrastructure–is to protect and maintain the Stargate, which obviously takes you into the subspace dimension. The Authority started as more of an administrative body but kept expanding over the years.”

“I wonder if I’ll get to go into subspace.”

Costello shuddered. “Better hope you don’t. Best case scenario you throw up on your first ride. Worst case you pass out and start hallucinating the future.”

“What does it look like, anyway? All the descriptions I’ve read seem to disagree.”

“I really can’t describe it. It’s… like an oil slick but instead of a rainbow of colors, it’s a garbled gradient of different dimensions. I don’t think the human mind can really wrap around it–or, most sentient minds, I mean. Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Niue said. “I know the Alliance is mostly humans. You’ll get used to it.” She craned forward again with a conspiratorial air. “So… can you really see your own future?”