Palimpsest, Thunderfield [red queen ebook TXT] 📗

Chapter 1

In nanoseconds it elongated to a meter length and charged particles jetted out. In milliseconds the slit extended to a kilometre, if the process had stopped at that point then they would have shot by oblivious and impervious. The process did not stop, the growth of the rent accelerated. Particles escaped in a vast sheet into 3D space. Then the Perryman wormhole ruptured.
Two weeks since departure and two days after ingress, it was mid morning as Max pushed through a loose crowd of people and approached the port side elevators. He entered the nearest as a breathless smaller and younger man followed him and asked,
‘Where were you last night?’
‘Cards with Isaac and Bob,’
‘Again?’
‘Twice a week.’
The younger man changed subject, ‘so if I only do three months do you really think I can get back in time?
‘I am sure you can Enrique,’ the doors closed as he hit the twelve button and the large elevator began its smooth drop past eight levels.
‘But why do you…’ he paused as the box swayed, ‘why do you want to give up the opportunity of a lifetime?’
‘It’s because I have two opportunities of a lifetime, and I want both.’
‘You can return to the formal anytime,’ the floor panel indicated deck twelve, and the doors hummed open.
‘I know but this formal stuff is at Oxford,’ said Enrique.
They exited the elevator onto a less crowded deck, weaved around a woman and two small children, turned left, and left again into Passage Four. The taller man with the cropped brown hair strode ahead of his companion. Enrique’s thick black wavy hair bounced as he skipped every third step to keep up.
‘So do you think I can get enough done in three months, if I really put the effort in, because I still want to pass.’
‘You could pass with a distinct….’ Max veered left his shoulder brushed the wall, ‘did you feel that?’
‘Kind of vibration, weird.’
Max continued, ‘with a distinction but not if you cut it short.’
They passed a dozen cabins either side before reaching 4.19. Apart from two cleaner-utes further along the passage was empty as Max punched a code into the key pad, the door slide open and he entered home. At the entrance to the cube he paused, the place needed tidying, dropped clothes on the floor and across the un-made bed to the left. Books, papers and maps covered most of the desk to his right. Opposite the door the kitchenette sink and countertop was littered with pots, crockery and cutlery, there were food packs left out, and the cupboard doors above the sink were ajar.
His work schedule was not due to start till two in the lab back on deck Four.
‘Come in and sit down, let’s talk this through,’ he said.
In many other cabins crew and passengers went about their business. Most of the population ate, slept, played and worked, Routines continued as the four thousand souls aboard the PaxCargo Liner Jacquard had a further two days to barrel down the Perryman before it re-emerged into another bubble of civilisation.
Transitions through wormhole egresses were well known precision navigations; the ship had been through dozens as it traversed between bubbles over two decades, and had run the Perryman route a few times between the Earth and New Albion.
This time ship and crew were unprepared as they approached a unique event in human space travel. No sound, no light, no gravity shift indicated anything unexpected was about to occur. There was nothing to alert complacent crew and passengers that a miniscule subatomic hole had opened on the skin of Perryman.
Minutely at first the ship’s course deviated as it went into a series of microelectronic spasms.
There would not be a smooth automated transition of a planned egress. Every single unsecured artefact and person was tossed into the air. On Deck Twleve, Cabin 4.19 the bed Max was sat on suddenly catapulted him towards the opposite grey panelled wall, mattress, pillow and covers followed.
‘What the…’ Max twisted in mid air, he glanced at Enrique, who lay crumpled into the corner of the sofa. Then Max’s horizontal body hit the wall side-on above his desk, breaking off the wall lamp with his shoulder.
The lights went out and there were sounds. Alarms rang in Passage 4, from the washroom toiletries clattered, in the kitchenette pots and utensils clanged and the coffee jar shattered. There were bangs and screams outside, chaos, and from Enrique a panicked high pitched squeal.
The lights flashed back on and the photo of Max’s brother and his family bounced out of the wall fitting and fell upwards, along with papers, pens and maps. The surroundings rotated as blue ceiling and grey walls wheeled. The air born contents of the room bounced from the desk wall upwards. Max thudded into the blue plastic ceiling, the impact dented several panels as his left knee and left side of his head both hit hard.
A few seconds after being thrown off the bed he was motionless, and for a minute he lay and looked down to the floor, coffee granules and broken glass floated in the air between as they spread from the kitchenette. Enrique was in the far top corner, wide eyed he stared at Max.
After several minutes it ended as abruptly as it had begun, the Pod gravity returned and men and debris fell to the floor, which caused Max more bruising and a nasty cut across his lower back as he landed on a metal frame chair. Enrique had been luckier when he landed half on the sofa where he had started and half on Max’s flung mattress.
Max was on the floor and gradually got his breath back. The noise of mayhem from outside had subsided, but the alarm bells kept going, and there was a strong smell of coffee.
‘This place really needs a tidy now,’ he said.
He got up slowly, rubbed new bruises and saw Enrique was unhurt. Instinctively Max picked detritus, and then above the general noise there was knock from outside, a familiar voice yelled, ‘Max, let me in’
He opened the door ‘Jess, were you outside in that?’ he looked down to a blond 21 year old, grazed forehead and a thick lip.
‘I was in P3 just leaving for top deck, what the hell was that?’
‘No idea, quite a shake up.’ He looked down the passage, there was little debris, one of the cleaner-utes struggled upside down like a beetle, and other passengers emerged from nearby cabins, several nursed at minor injuries.
‘Come in,’ he had to shout above the alarm. Inside he switched on his monitor, power was OK, ‘I’ll check ships-net.’ Jess rubbed her neck, ‘I was thrown all over the place.’ She pulled her crucifix chain back into position.
Max tapped the keyboard, and saw the announcement page had not been updated, it still showed the evening’s schedule. ‘I need to call around, Enrique keep checking the ships-net’. Glass and coffee crunched as he walked towards his desk and up-righted his bent chair. It reminded him of the pain in his back, he felt with his hand, there was blood on his shirt.
‘Grant and Asif were working out, Dino was out with that girl, the rest I don’t know,’ said Jess.
Max grabbed the cabin phone and rang two numbers, each time no one answered, there was blood on his fingers now, and that smeared the phone, on the third dial he got a response.
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s Max - you OK Phil?’
‘Yeah, I’m OK, do you know what happened?’
‘God knows what it was,’ Max panted with adrenaline, he forced himself to speak in a steady voice. ‘The cabin systems seem to be functional so it may be over. Can you get the others on your deck; I am in my cabin with Jess and Enrique. We will check deck 12, OK?’
‘Sure.’
‘If they can walk tell them to meet at the lab, in twenty minutes. Call me as soon as you’re done.’
He dialled again, ‘Turner, you OK, its Max.’
‘Oh, man, you don’t waste time’ Turner groaned ‘I think I bust my fingers.’
‘Can you walk? If so make your way to the lab, right now’
‘Sure can, how’s everyone else?’
‘Jess, Phil, Enrique and myself are OK, working on the rest, see you there in twenty minutes.’
He completed one more call then turned to Enrique at the computer, there was still no information but he looked relieved.
Jess repeated her first question ‘What was that?’
‘I have no idea, wormholes are supposedly smooth, just transitions can get a bit bumpy I’m told, if the alignment is off.’
‘That was no off alignment, that was a car crash,’ said Enrique.
Max looked at them both, he felt unsure and responsible, ‘there is nothing on ships-net, or the PA, so I don’t think the bridge knows either, let’s go to the lab’.
It was seventy meters down P4 but he couldn’t get into his long stride as people congregated in groups up and down its length. Max led the students up the stairs to avoid the elevators in case a further power failures. On Deck Nine someone had been flung down the stairs, a dozen people surrounded a motionless woman in a blue track suit.
What do I do now? thought Max, ‘bloody hell’ he mumbled, then a bit louder, ‘keep going.’
They reached Deck Four when the alarms ended, and emerged from the stairwell just as an announcement came over the public address.
‘Attention all Passengers, the incident we experienced is over. All support and engineering systems are functioning. The crew are making thorough checks and we will update you with the status as soon as possible.’
They passed offices and workshops, nameplates identified the NA Government Statistics Department and the Ariston Laboratory. Out of sight there was a cacophony of indistinct shouts and bangs, amidst them clearly audible were commands from an officer for everyone to calm down. Max decided to ignore it. The noise was from the far side of the deck, probably the opposite corner to their lab and so not my problem, he thought.
They reached the lab, the sign on the door said Comm. U Project Office. Val the lab technician was there as were two female students, they all looked healthy, unhurt. At the same time three male students arrived, one with the sound of loud skinrock music, Max frowned at him, and the music was quickly muted. They were followed by Dino with his girlfriend and then Isaac who was a year older than Max but still a student nonetheless. Finally ten minutes later two sweaty lads in sportswear came in from the fitness centre, everyone was there except Ronan.
The room was part laboratory and part classroom. Fortunately most of the equipment was stored away and safe, though one cupboard door was open and a smashed microscope lay on the floor.
Max expelled air, and addressed the group ‘Ronan has messages in his cabin and on his comtube. We will wait here an hour, if he doesn’t show up we start a search. Can everyone walk?’
‘Why wait, we should start looking now,’ said Phil,
‘OK, OK, let me think a minute.’
Max saw Phil held a comtube in his left hand ‘Who has their comtubes with them?’ Seven hands went up. ‘Good, I lost mine, are they working?’ they nodded.
‘Split into pairs, with at least one comtube between