Faster Than Light: The Fallen Goddess



  Faster Than Light: The Fallen Goddess

  by Malcolm Pierce

  Copyright 2010 Malcolm Pierce

  Chapter 1

  First the wheel, the horse, and the carriage conquered the land. Then longships, frigates, and cruisers tamed the sea. Planes and helicopters lifted man into the clouds. For centuries, there seemed to be one horizon that could not be crossed. The stars were so vast and so empty that no vessel, no matter how fast, could traverse them.

  The Heilmann Drive changed everything. Any distance, no matter how great, could be leapt in a matter of seconds. In the blink of an eye, a ship carrying hundreds could move from one end of the galaxy to the other.

  Man spread out across the stars, laying claim to planet after planet. In 2187, the year the Heilmann Drive was invented, there were exactly two planets in the universe known to support human life. In 2195, there were humans living on twenty planets, with at least three dozen more colonizations planned.

  Not a single complex alien life form was found in all of the worlds settled by man. Earth was the only planet which fostered multicellular organisms. But as time passed, it did not matter. Civilization splintered as isolated cultures developed on every new world. Within a thousand years, each planet seemed quite alien to the others.

  One thing held them together. One thing kept them united as the single human race. The Heilmann Drive. Ships leapt between the planets every hour, carrying goods, passengers, and information. At the apex of interstellar travel, there were over three thousand starships operating at any given moment.

  Now there is only one.

  *

  Towers of metal and glass thrust up into the deep blue skies of Ediston, nearly piercing the atmosphere itself. These skyscrapers were once the gleaming pride of the planet, the technological empire of NewPasTur. They were home to the luxurious offices of the greatest captains of industry. Now the windows were dull, frosted with grime. Flowing banners hung from the outside walls, emblazoned with the words of desperation.

  “Cheap lofts!” Cubicles were now bunk beds.

  “Move in today, no credit check!” Board rooms were now wash rooms.

  “Sunlight 18 hours a day!” Corner offices were now hanging gardens. There was little farmland near Ediston, but people made do. Vegetables were raised outside high-rise story windows. Grains could be grown between two strips of industrial carpet.

  The streets ran like rivers of the poor and destitute. Those who were wealthy enough to leave were already gone. If they didn’t leave the planet before the Fall, then they moved from the city shortly afterward. Once they were gone, the fuel dried up and the shipments stopped coming. Ediston was still the capital city of NewPasTur in name only. The government had abandoned them, perhaps in the hope that they would destroy themselves.

  The skyscrapers shook as an explosion ripped through the skies of Ediston. Movement on the streets stopped as everyone turned to look up.

  It was a starship. No one on NewPasTur had seen a starship in over a year.

  The vessel was a dull gray, the color of gunmetal and mercury. The hull was long and narrow, almost like a sword. There were no pipes and no exhaust. There were no windows. The sub-light engines were small, barely large enough to take off and land from a planet or a moon The rear of the vessel glowed an unnatural purple hue as the ship settled and hovered above the city. Everyone on the surface knew the meaning of that soft glow. This ship had a Heilmann Drive. This ship could travel faster than light.

  Hope filled the hearts of the men and women below. Some of them saw their ticket off of the rapidly disintegrating planet. Some of them saw a return of the Old Economy and perhaps the rebirth of Ediston.

  The ship shuddered. It let out a loud groan. For just a second, it looked like the savior of Ediston would collapse under its own weight.

  Aboard the I.S.S. Fenghuang, a similar terror spread throughout the crew. In the command center, navigator Lance Reynolds, a burly man in his mid twenties, felt his heart stop. This was only the second time in his life that he’d plotted a course for a Heilmann Leap. The first time hadn’t been so bad. The Fenghuang ended up a few light-years away from its destination and no one was hurt. This time was different. This time he’d leapt straight into a planet’s atmosphere. That was the first thing his captain told him never to do.

  “Are we in the atmosphere?” Captain Seth Garland yelled. “What was the first thing I told you?”

  Lance spun around in his chair and glared at Seth. “What did I say? I’m not a navigator! I’ve never done this before!”

  “Well neither had I, before I found you,” Seth replied. “And I did just fine! I managed to leap to several different planets without killing myself in the process.”

  Lance glared at him. “Well we’re not all as brilliant as you, Captain.” Seth smiled. “Good point.” He was a wiry young man, barely twenty if out of his teens, but confident enough to fill up the captain’s chair on the bridge. He had dark hair and a wispy beard that betrayed his youth. His eyes were the shape of almonds and his skin was pale. He looked to Lance like a Yuanian, but Seth insisted he was a homeworlder, born and raised on Earth. “Well, looks like we’re not dead. Good job, Navigator Reynolds. Pat yourself on the back.”

  “You do not need to be so disrespectful,” Caitlin said. Lance breathed a sigh of relief. Caitlin Adair was the Governor of Balashyre, a city on the planet Airlann. She had porcelain pale skin and long, wavy red hair. She was seated at the communications console on the other side of the command center.

  “I am sincerely sorry, Governor,” Seth replied.

  No one was entirely sure whether ‘Captain’ or ‘Governor’ was the superior rank, especially Lance. ‘Navigator’ wasn’t a rank at all and yet that was how he was assigned.

  The only other person on the ship was Leah Wu, a scientist from Yuan given the title ‘Mechanic’, which was also not a rank. She was in the engine room, keeping tabs on the Heilmann Drive.

  Leah’s strong, shrill voice crackled through a speaker near the back of the command center. “What was that? What just happened?”

  “Nothing to worry about,” Seth replied. “Are we right to stay in one piece?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “Excellent news,” Seth said, feeling his nerves calm a bit. Despite her role as mechanic on the Fenghuang, Leah had no clue how the Heilmann Drive even operated. If it had been damaged in the leap, she could not fix it. No one on the ship could, though that was hardly their fault. Only a few people in the galaxy would even know where to begin.

  A light flashed on the console in front of Caitlin. She sat up straight and tried to remember what that meant. When she couldn’t, she turned to ask Seth. “This glass sphere is lighting up. I am not sure what to do.”

  Caitlin’s homeworld, Airlann, rejected post-industrial technology. Shortly after colonization, a transport full of their citizens were killed after an inexperienced navigator plotted a Heilmann leap outside the galactic rim. This led to a reactionary, neo-Luddite movement which became cemented in their very culture over the following millennia. Even though they knew of the technological wonders of other worlds, Airlannians were content to live as if they’d never left Earth’s 18th Century. Caitlin was not only adjusting to space travel but also to electricity.

  “That is probably the NetComm. I’m guessing our friends down on NewPasTur have noticed us. Press the button below that.”

  Caitlin cautiously followed orders and the large view-screen in the front of the command center flashed. Once black, it was now filled with the face of an older man in a bright orange military uniform. Seth resisted squinting as the fluorescent color of the jacket filled the r
oom with blinding luminescence.

  “By the rim, Cait, you need to figure out how to turn down the contrast on that thing.”

  The man on the screen did not even seem to hear Seth’s comment. Like the citizens on the surface of NewPasTur, his eyes were filled with hope. A wide smile stretched across his face. He started to raise a salute but he couldn’t complete the motion. He was just too happy. “You… You’re here. Salutations! The Fall is over! Let me be the first to greet you!”

  Seth cringed. He sat forward in his captain’s chair and held onto the armrests. “About that… ”

  He didn’t let Seth finish. “Just transmit your codes and we can begin preparation for the re-opening of the trade routes. You have no idea what this means to NewPasTur, Captain.”

  Lance and Caitlin exchanged worried looks. Seth was nonplussed. “Listen, who is this that I’m speaking to?”

  “My name is Boston Raynor, the Ginn Prime of the NewPasTur Air Force. I am authorized to receive the re-establishment codes from the People’s Republic. I can provide you with—” Seth held up his hand. “That’s not necessary. You see, Boston… I’m not with the People’s Republic.”

  The grin disappeared immediately from Ginn Raynor’s face. “I do not understand. Our sensors show that you have just leapt into our airspace. You are operating a Heilmann Drive. You… ”

  “My name is Seth Garland. And you are just the person I want to talk to. Because it is clear to me that you understand the importance of interstellar travel for your planet.”

  “Transmit the re-establishment codes, Captain.”

  “I don’t have any codes, but if you’ll listen to me, I can—”

  “Then you are in violation of the Spatial Preservation Act of 4191 and I have been vested with the authority to arrest you in the name of the People’s Interstellar Republic.”

  All of Ginn Raynor’s hope had turned to anger and hate. His face was twisted into a sneer. His lips quivered. It was almost as if he had to keep from crying. Caitlin saw it. Lance saw it. Seth was not so ready to abandon this cause.

  “There is no People’s Interstellar Republic anymore!” He exclaimed. “There is no ‘interstellar’ anymore. Except for me. That’s why I want to talk to you.”

  Suddenly, the control panel in front of Lance flashed to life. Lights blinked across the top and his eyes went wide. “Captain, they are launching fighter drones.”

  Seth was not deterred. He stood up from his chair and walked towards the view-screen. “I see you have ordered your troops to take me down. Just hear me out first.” He took a deep breath. “They told you they would come back, didn’t they? They told you that they wouldn’t abandon you. They told you they were working on a solution. Listen to me, Boston, they lied to you. This ship, this ship I’m standing on, is the last one. They were going to destroy it. That’s why I took it.”

  Ginn Raynor just glared straight ahead. Seth stared right back, despite the fact that he was far shorter than the massive head on the view-screen. Their standoff continued until Lance interrupted.

  “The drones are two minutes away,” he said. “Should I ready our weapons?”

  Seth shook his head. “We don’t have weapons.”

  “We… We don’t have weapons? But what about this button on my console that says—”

  “The console is mass produced, put on every ship in the former Republic fleet. Trust me, we don’t have weapons. This is a science vessel. Hit that button and I believe you’ll launch an atmospheric probe.”

  Now both Caitlin and Lance looked at Seth in terror. But he didn’t divert his gaze away from the view-screen. He was sure he could reach Ginn Raynor. “I have spoken with the governments of Airlann and Yuan. I have their representatives on board. We are going to end the Fall. I want your help.” He pleaded with the Ginn. “With NewPasTur as a partner, our new alliance has the industrial and commercial hub it needs. However, if you destroy this ship, you destroy the hope of ever re-establishing the trade routes.”

  “The Heilmann Drive was outlawed for a reason!” the Ginn roared back. “I know you look down on us and you wonder how we’re surviving without the trade routes, without the Old Economy. But this is a sacrifice we must make for all of mankind. If you refuse to submit, our sacrifices will be in vain.”

  Seth took one more stride forward. “If that is what you believe, then you and every one of your people will die on this planet. You will never see the stars again.” Ginn Raynor did not flinch.

  “Captain, the drones are thirty seconds away,” Lance said. “And apparently we don’t have any shields, either.”

  “It’s a science vessel,” Seth repeated.

  Caitlin counted down the seconds in her head as the stalemate continued between Seth and Ginn Raynor. “I don’t want to die here,” she said under her breath, assuming it was inaudible.

  “No one is going to die,” Seth replied softly. He looked back up at the view-screen. “You ever heard of manifest destiny, Ginn? First man conquered the ocean. Then man conquered the galaxy. Are you going to let us stop there? Are you going to put an end to the trajectory of our species?”

  “I won’t let you destroy… everything.” Ginn Raynor shook his head. “I apologize. Not to you, to my people.”

  A loud klaxon filled the command center. Lance stood up straight. “Drones are arming their weapons.”

  “Don’t worry about your people,” Seth hissed at Ginn Raynor. “I’ll be back for them. The future is no place for fear.”

  “The drones have locked on, Captain! What do I do?” Seth grimaced. “Leap.”

  The sky above Ediston shimmered as the purple engines of the I.S.S. Fenghuang spun to life.

  CRACK! The sky was split by the sound of fighter drones dropping out of sonicspeed. It was followed by silence. The bustling streets of Ediston stood still as they watched the hawk-nosed planes twirl around the Fenghuang. For just a few minutes, they had a future. They envisioned the return of their planet, of the industries that made it so prosperous during the Old Economy. Now they watched as their own government attacked this beacon of hope.

  The hovering vessel was not fighting back. It was not launching missiles. It was not even knocking the drones out of the sky with masers. To the desperate inhabitants of Ediston, the Fenghuang looked as if it was about to martyr itself.

  The fighters flew closer and closer, ready to engage and blow the last starship in the galaxy to pieces.

  A rumble echoed through the streets of Ediston. A gust of wind swirled across the ground and twisted towards the starship. A blinding light flashed between the skyscrapers, and the starship was gone. The fighter drones were left circling an empty spot of sky, firing their missiles into the air.

  The Fenghuang had leapt away just in time. The people, knowing nothing of what transpired between their leader and the captain of the ship, cheered.

  Their hope was not dead.

  *

  “So, this is a mutiny?” Seth asked. He stood tall, at least as tall as he could stand, at the head of the conference table in the boardroom of the Fenghuang. His crew—all three of them—sat around the table. “You want to start ordering me around?”

  Caitlin sighed. She sat near the other end of the table. “No, it is nothing like that.”

  “First of all,” Leah said. “You are not even really a Captain. At least not in the military sense.” She brushed her long black hair out of her face and stared at Seth with her dark eyes. “And second, you are endangering our lives. This… This is not what any of us envisioned when we joined you. We’re not sure you have a plan.”

  Seth examined the faces of his crew. He was losing them. Once they were eager to join him; now they were questioning their decision. Was NewPasTur the beginning of their unease, or was it the breaking point? He was alienating his only allies. He had to talk them down.

  “I do have a plan but that did not go as I expected,” he said. “NewPasTur should have been more receptive to our cause. They are a planet of indu
stry, a planet of technology, and they were hurt by the Fall more than anyone. My reasoning was sound, I just happened to run into a petty bureaucrat who thought he knew what was better for his people.”

  That was not enough.

  “I think I want to go home,” Lance stated. “I want you to take me home. I don’t want to die out here.”

  “We’re not going to die.”

  Leah didn’t want to hear it. She pushed her chair back from the table. “How can you say that? If we’d tried to leap a few seconds later, we’d be atmospheric dust right now!”

  “But we’re not,” Seth countered. “And that has to mean something.”

  The three crew members just stared at him. “This ship was built to be manned by nine people,” Caitlin said. “There are four of us. There are no weapons. There are no defenses. None of us know how to repair the engine if it is damaged. And if we keep making rough leaps, even I know it will be damaged. Do you not see? This is a fool’s errand. We cannot continue.”

  Seth stretched his arms across the table and looked at his crew. His weary eyes still shone with passion. “But we must,” he said. “I must. I would rather die on this ship tomorrow than die after a hundred years on Earth.” He sighed. “Just tell me where you want me to drop you and I will. I will pilot this ship alone if I have to, but know that wherever you decide to go… you will spend the rest of your lives there unless I succeed.”