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Subspace Gambit

A bit of a new thing while I'm working on Chrysalis.

Find the actual story under the cut.

Content warnings:

Xenophobia, war, death.

Don't hesitate to tell me if I missed one.

[Log started. Date of creation: Approximately 10 years ago]

I sat on the bridge on the starship Renard. There wasn’t much else for me to do. The engineering team was hard at work at our repairs, and I didn’t want to impede them. The sooner we were out of enemy territory, the better. Our hydrogen thrusters were firing periodically, but we relied on inertia to keep us moving towards the border. It was slow, but with our faster-than-light drive, we would have been home already. The Martire Drive. Created in the 21st century, inspired by science-fiction of the 20th. Creates a bubble around the ship to push space itself at superluminal speeds. My orders were simple, that we needed a distortion factor of at least four to get out of here quickly. Sixty-four times the speed of light. I pulled up the plans of the drive on my tablet. It was really a marvel of technology. Improved hundreds of times since the original prototype, but the main thought was still there. The major difference was the energy source. Because the enormous amount of energy needed wasn’t sustainable, we had replaced basic nuclear fusion with this material that we had dubbed Vancium in English. As I was mindlessly observing the 3-D model, a voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

“Captain!”

I looked at the source. “Hamilton!” Sawyer Hamilton. The engineering officer on the Renard. I put down the tablet and met his eyes, my hands clasped behind my back. “Report.”

“Yes, sir. My team is working quickly, but we’re lacking Vancium. We won’t be able to hold our speed at distortion 4.”

“Well, how long can you hold it?”

“46 Earth days. We’re still looking at half a year travel.” He lowered his voice. “And between you and me, this ship doesn’t have half a year.”

I sighed. “Reroute all power from medical to the engine. If Brown didn’t need Vancium when he invented the Martire Drive, neither do we.” Hamilton opened his mouth to protest, but I shook my head. There simply wasn’t another option for us.

My hands behind my back, I walked to the window. Our hydrogen engines were still firing. Stars streaking past us was always a beautiful sight. I relaxed, placing my hand on the panel. We were going to make it, I was sure of it.

The ship jolted. I almost lost my balance. “Hamilton!”

“Hydrogen engines down, captain. We were just hit by a macrophoton beam.”

“Oh my—what do they want with us now?”

“To eliminate us.”

I growled. “Fine. Call the bridge crew to the bridge. Get all possible crew members to a combat booth. Martire Drive is unessential at this point. All unnecessary power to shields.”

“Right.”

Hamilton took his position at the sensors. The other members came up quickly. I took my seat in the captain’s chair.

“Captain James, a ship is requesting a transmission,” Lieutenant Liu said. Our communications officer.

“Open channel,” I requested.

On the viewscreen, an image we were all expecting but dreading appeared. They were the ones who had opened fire on us. One look at them and you’d swear they were from a fantasy novel. Quadrupeds. Winged. The sharpest claws you will ever see in your life. Scales rougher than sandpaper. Just as dangerous as they looked. The Ngal were a species of space-faring dragons. They didn’t breathe fire, but their weapons did.

“Lieutenant Liu, adjust translator to Ngal,” I ordered. When she was done, I spoke to them. “What do you want?”

“We have come to…trade,” their commanding officer said. “You have something we want.”

“What is that?”

“Your method of faster-than-light travel is more convenient than ours. Hand it over.”

I saw Hamilton’s eyes brighten. He looked at me. I nodded. “What do we get out of this trade?”

“Your lives.”

“Sir, their weapons are trained and ready to fire,” Liu said.

“May my crew and I have a moment to decide?”

“Five minutes,” the commander said. “And we expect a certain answer.”

The communication ended. Hamilton met my eye. “With your permission, sir?”

“Go ahead.”

“I believe that I can upgrade our drive to enter their subspace.”

The statement hung in the air. Earth ships hijacking foreign FTL travel was completely unheard of. And this was unknown enemy territory. We had little idea how it worked, other than they used subspace. It wasn’t instant, but it was superluminal. Plus…

“I’m sorry about your brother, but this could get us back to Earth,” Hamilton said. “Or at least back to the milky way.”

I walked to the viewscreen. It wasn’t a perfect plan. There were flaws. But Hamilton was suggesting it. Either he was desperate, or he was sure his gambit would work. The question was, did I want to risk it? I sighed. “Very well. What’s the ETA on this alteration?”

“About ten minutes.”

“We have five.”

“We need ten.”

I fixed his gaze. There was no way we would survive ten full minutes, and he knew that. He fiddled with his communicator on his wrist. His finger was hovering over the call button.

“Please, sir. Can you buy us the time?”

“Very well. Work quickly, and alert me when we’re ready to jump.”

Hamilton speedwalked off the bridge as quickly as he could. I turned to the rest of the crew. “Liu, alert the crew of an imminent subspace jump.” Liu nodded. The announcement rang throughout the ship. As I sat down in my chair, the viewscreen came back on. The Ngal were sitting on their bridge, an expectant look in their eyes.

“So, do you have an answer?”

“We will not give you our technology.”

“Then we have no choice. Fire!”

“Divert all power but engineering to shields!” I called. “We need to buy Hamilton as much time as possible!” The ship jolted as we were hit again. “Hydrogen engines, full power!”

“Sir, our hydrogen engines are down.”

“Right. Simple thrusters, then. As long as we aren’t a sitting duck.”

The ship jolted. I braced myself. A couple more shots missed. I wasn’t too sure how long we could hold out for. More and more damage to the hull. Alarms were blaring in my face. Right before I was about to give up, I got a message from Hamilton.

“Ready to jump, sir.”

“Understood. Initiate subspace jump.”

The space around us distorted. Alarms blared louder than I had ever heard them. Louder than you’d ever want to hear them. Then, everything was the strangest colour I had ever seen. It was as if all the colours of a rainbow had merged into one. But it wasn’t white. Hamilton ran back onto the bridge.

“Walker, start mapping,” I ordered. Our interstellar navigator and pilot.

“On it, sir. I believe that starboard side is towards Earth.”

“Then go.” I felt the ship turn, almost knocking me off my chair. I held on tight to the handles, expecting a barrage at any second. “Walker?”

“Mapping still in progress, sir. Our sensors are picking up strange readings.”

“Okay. Are we being followed?”

“Not as far as I can tell. But it won’t be long before the Ngal realize what we did.”

I nodded. The ship continued heading forward. Not much else to do but wait. I wasn’t going to distract everyone from their jobs. Hamilton had his nose in his console, surely making sure our drive didn’t fail. Liu was the only one who looked like she had as little to do as I did. One of the detriments of having a specific job. I didn’t really have anything to do except give orders. Of course, I was glad I didn’t need to give orders, but it did get slightly boring. Liu didn’t have anything to do unless we had to negotiate or met a new species.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but I didn’t feel my crew let down their guard for a moment. We were in completely uncharted territory. And I wasn’t about to be one-upped by them. I kept my eye on the view screen, though our sensors were getting blurrier the more time we spent in here. My eyes were straining by the time Walker spoke. The ship had come to quick stop, almost sending me off my feet. I made a mental reminder to get Hamilton to look at the dampers when we were out of the fray.

“Sir, if we don’t jump here, we risk jumping directly into the Kuiper belt.”

“Hamilton?” I asked. “Can we handle one more subspace jump?”

“I believe so.”

“Initiate subspace jump.”

The world streaked past us, but without any alarms this time. Engineering had probably solved that problem. But there was another one. As the Kuiper belt came into view, another problem arose.

“Code red!” I called. But it was too late. They had been expecting us. The Ngal ship took a shot and…

Everything went white.

[Log recovered from the orbit of 50000 Quaoar]