Prologue

LIBERTY 72 - Hidden Treasures – 2671 in the Year of our Lord …

 

The Galactic Core

 

     LIBERTY 72 was always a survivor. Today could very well have been the end of its lucky streak. Even before Block II Hulls LIBERTY 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, and 74 were built to confront Otaw 3, a planet 5,730 light years from Earth, Block I Hulls LIBERTY 65, 66, 67, and 68 were already attacked and disabled or destroyed, again in the Otawian Star System. Before that day, humans had no proof in aliens. And when the proof was discovered, Liberty Enterprises kept that information to itself, and the government kept to itself its secret that it knew through government monitoring programs all of the secrets of Liberty Enterprises. Many argued whether a corporation should even have such military powers, but the owner had decided it must, realizing that given the crippling nature of the attack, be well armed indeed when going in the name of a corporation and a humanity to another world to send Earth’s message that such attacks will not go unchallenged, and Earth demands better treatment in the future. Newer, better Block II Liberty ships were designed specifically to counter the observed capabilities of the Otawians.

      The very young Captain Joseph Carr had cheated death before. In fact, in the wake of the attack on the innocent Block I ships guilty of passing through someone else’s space, he had been chosen to be the test pilot of the scaled-down Block II prototype. The 1,020 foot long design had been miniaturized to a 28-foot long prototype designated 71340-O, and the initial test flight was supposed to be a short trip around the Solar System before returning to the runway on the Island of Kauai.

     He never even got out of the atmosphere. He had heard all sorts of accounts from others about the reaction by the W-258 Range Test Director on the Pacific Test Range off Kauai, and his frustration that he would have to destroy the craft as it appeared to come towards a populated area, and a double frustration when the uplink commanding the vehicle’s destruction had failed. Carr considered himself both fortunate and unfortunate to be alive, but as bad as the wreck was he was truly the lucky one. But the daytime nightmares would not go away. As crushing as the g-forces would be of the acceleration, only a tiny amount would be allowed through by the prototype’s artificial gravity systems and the systems designed to counteract inertia in the frame and on anyone inside it. That is, until the systems would fail, at which time he would feel everything, unconscious or not. The decision to let inertia through when windows or recreated views to the outside were presented was just to avoid vertigo. His craft would accelerate so rapidly that he would be at Mach speeds before even leaving the launch rails built several miles over the water off of the famous rocks on the Northwestern edge of Kauai.

“Cabin pressure checks good. Navigational computers are online. Saturn Station waypoint plugged in. I'm finally going to Saturn!”

     “Sounds like a plan, Joe. But turn your defog elect switch O-N ‘on’ so you won't have to look through ice when you get there.  Have good telemetry on the port and starboard flywheels. Inertial Stabilizers and Courselators are at speed. Keep an eye on your alpha, beta, and theta as you pass through max-q. Just like in the simulators. Okay, Joe. Check your circuit breakers now.”

     “Circuit breakers are in. I’m ready, PTR.”

     “Okay, then, Seven-Thirteen-Forty-Oscar, stand by for ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one--launch! Mach number five, six...passing twenty-thousand feet and climbing.”

     “Ed Jones here, Joe. Good telemetry downlink. See you a little inside track.  See you throttling down and resetting lower port flywheel. Okay, you're on track now. Stand by for solar input cutover to guidance and Inertial Stabilizers.”

     “ Roger. I’m indicating I’m at a mile a second now.”

     “This is PTR. Confirmed, Oscar. We see you at Mach number ten at fifty-five thousand.”

     “Roger, PTR. I’m now passing through sixty-five thousand - showing a problem. I've lost computers and power. Pressure warning on the engines--venting on system number three...correction, all four LSE Pods's offline! Beginning restart sequence on the LSE's. No joy, PTR, come in! Nothing heard, passing in the blind. My computers are down. I'm spinning out of control! Passing to Subsonic. She's right-side up! I'm getting out of here...the ejection sequence should work with minimal power to the computers ... if I can get any control back I’ll try to put her down somewhere safe for you. I might even be able to reach the Kaumuali'i Runway if I’m lucky enough. Oh boy, really feeling the g’s now …”

 

     And then, he blacked out. It so happened that from east to west, at an incredible speed, the whole world had lost power with one notable exception, Tokyo. The day Wednesday February 28^th 2666, or in some parts of the world Thursday March 1^st would live in infamy the way a December day in 1941 or a September day in 2001 once was immortalized for generations, but certainly not centuries but to avid historians. Elsewhere, Albategnius Spaceport on the moon was spared, but Daedalus Spaceport on the other side was not. Once realizing the fate of Daedalus, a huge humanitarian migration began to leap help from the near side to the far side of the moon. Whatever the destructive forces were that destroyed the computers and power generating systems on the far side of the moon, they did not affect the rescue teams.

      Many in the world wanted to suspect Tokyo was responsible, if only because of its miraculous good fortune, until realizing that so many of its space and air vehicles had lost power and in many cases burned into the atmosphere or into the ground. In fact Tokyo wasted no time at all broadcasting a denial that any of this was their fault, even though there were very few in the world able to hear their transmissions because their own technologies had been sent back to the 18^th Century. The other survivor on Earth beyond some scattered parts of Antarctica was deep in the ocean, the Liberty Enterprises sea-base and the attached ship construction yards at the undersea Marcus-Necker Ridge. The reason for survival was different. The Liberty Enterprises base was saved from the destruction by several miles of water above it.  Tokyo, it turns out, was just lucky enough to be saved by an eclipse of the Moon between the source of the damage and Earth. Later surveys confirmed Ganymede Spaceport, Charon Station on the moon around Planet Pluto, and on Planet Mars the Sternbach and New Atlantis Spaceports were just fine. So it was a surgical, but not perfect strike on Earth that the Moon could not escape. So, it was quickly determined, the attack was deliberate. Why would the aliens bother with destroying humanity when they could spare Tokyo, have Earth fight World War VI on its own, and simply target infrastructure and technologies? After all, no intelligent species would ever put so much importance on such a vulnerable thing as a computer or a power grid, would they? No doubt as space stations around Earth went dark and fires from tens of thousands of crashing vehicles on Earth appeared, the aliens had overstated the intelligence of humanity.

     Kevin Duncan, the President and Jonas Bu’Tan, the Vice President of Liberty Enterprises knew exactly who had caused this surprise attack, because they recognized the trademark design of the alien vessel from the downlink back to Earth when the Block I Fleet was attacked over Otaw 3 on October 21^st, 2262. Duncan’s wife was aboard one of the ships, and he was quickly losing his health in guilt that he had allowed her to go on that mission, not knowing that she had actually survived and was waiting for a rescue that would come when LIBERTY 72 would get there 6 years later. They would meet again when her ship would be carried back to Earth, but the damage had been done and he would not live long after that. The corporation went to Jonas Bu’Tan.

      Joseph Carr had been rebuilt with composite alloy bones that replaced his crushed bones but saved his tissue and all other parts of his arms and legs. This was a personal favor from the doctor assigned to him who also happened to be his best friend. Doctor Janay O’Hara, originally from Dublin had in fact disobeyed corporate orders to merely replace his limbs with artificial biological electronics, a much less expensive and time consuming process than to try to place lightweight incredibly strong bones in his crushed limbs, leaving him with unbreakable bones but not superhuman powers. As a compromise that would later become standard and logical use of stronger unbreakable bones, metabolism-powered ligament boosters would be added months later to give his limbs powers more in line with the capabilities of the bones, still keeping as much original limb as possible, at great expense to the medical branch of Liberty Enterprise. O’Hara’s to disregard authority from corporate interests with no medical expertise made her one of the least rewarded employees of Liberty Enterprises, but one of the corporation's best doctors. The relationship between O’Hara and Carr was a long and complicated one, but unfortunately, she was killed before Carr's eyes, execution style, by the Otawians on Otaw 3 and Carr knew he would never find another like her. But, in time, he knew someone good for the Joseph Carr in the future would come along. As a matter of fact, she was already there, in the background. At the time, however, Cynthia Ferrando was back on Earth, about to take command of the first Block III Liberty ship that ironically was built in another solar system in the ultimate in corporate outsourcing.

      As Earth’s infrastructure was in shambles, probably a decade from returning to normal, and given the survival of the Liberty Enterprises construction base, Duncan and Bu’Tan quickly decided to go take care of this Otawian problem once and for all. They did, after all, fail to release their knowledge of the Block I Fleet’s demise to Earth because they were afraid how Earth would react to the proof in dangerous aliens. That decision, Duncan now admitted, was a mistake. Now there could be no doubt how humans would react, because they had just watched their cities burn, their loved ones die, and their computers go completely dark, and it was increasingly obvious aliens were responsible. The mandate was clear – to use the lessons learned to design technologies impervious to the cleverly embedded destructive signal in the Otawian Array’s directional waves in the next generation ship, the Block II ships, and to send six larger, more capable ships directly to Otaw 3.

     So in 2268 at the advice of one of the assigned MD’s to LIBERTY 72, Jopseh Carr was allowed to pilot LIBERTY 72 off the ocean surface and into space, in many ways finally victorious as the defeated test pilot. He was quickly assigned as First Shift Pilot, to sit at the very front of the Mission Control Center with the best view. In fact, the controls and console design were not different between the wrecked test platform 71340-O and LIBERTY 72. But instead of reporting to Dave Joliff on the Pacific Test Range, he would report to the person sitting directly behind him in the elevated rather comfortable Commander’s Station in the Mission Control Center. Carr truly respected the unconventional Victor Martin who really wanted nothing more than to get the mission over with and retire back from whence he came, the rocky hills overlooking the New Atlantis Spaceport on the much lower and level Isidis Planitia to the East of his house up the long and winding … and dusty road. His wife had become unhappy watching her husband’s unending vacation from a law enforcement and military career, the last of which was Commander of the New Atlantis Spaceport, and Debbie Hernandez-Martin gave up a lot to move to Mars to be with Victor, and it was she who pushed so hard for him, against his cynical nature, to accept the offer to command the Liberty Fleet, even if it only ended up to be one ship and a recovered relic. Through Martin’s unconventional style and command presence, the mission was a success, but upon arriving on Earth Martin was through with deep space. And knowing what he knew now about the importance of Liberty Enterprises’ success when the governments were incapable of doing anything on its own like what the corporation could do, he stayed on as Fleet Admiral of sorts, knowing that the corporation needed someone to run strong interference on government attempts to block the corporation. After all, the government correctly pointed out, if Liberty Enterprises had not been exploring deep space, the Otawians might have never found Earth.  All true, Martin knew, but the present is affected by what was, not what might have been, and like the proliferation of nuclear technologies, one can only make the best choices based on available options.  In the battle against the Otawian Arrays, only LIBERTY 72 survived, and against all odds the ship reached an understanding with the Otawians, after a brilliant military campaign.

      So leaving LIBERTY 72 came back victorious, with Amelia Duncan’s LIBERTY 65 attached to its Sun Deck in the same manner 747’s once carried Space Shuttle Orbiters atop them, Victor Martin made a rash decision to hand the ship over to Captain Joseph Carr. Not even Martin would have known at the time that Carr would be more than a museum curator, but unexpected developments came along that would call for a major refit to LIBERTY 72 and its launch on a mission intended to save the corporation that was getting hammered by the media and through political operatives with interests in competing corporations.  Such a star to stardust strategy had struck corporations before, and the 21^st Century saw many such struggles for vehicle and exploration giants, even the famed Toyota which would have to be patient and deliberative to preserve its name from ruin, even if technically their product was still on average far above the competitors whose cheerleaders in elected office were on the attack, but for other reasons.

      It had already been an expensive decade, as LIBERTY 65 was no longer capable of Superoptic travel, and the other eight Block I and Block II ships had been destroyed. The ones constructed starting with LIBERTY 75 were making great progress in experimentation, discovery, establishing the first network of interstellar bases and supply depots, and even a passenger tourism business, but in every conceivable way they were being out-promoted, out-sold, and out-done by Sunshine Mining.

      It wasn’t fair, that Sunshine Mining had so many friends in the media and allies in political circles subsidizing them at taxpayer expense, if only because if there was anything of which Sunshine Mining was transparent, it was its evil, take-no-prisoners, cut-throat way of doing business. Investors, to date, ignored the moral deficiencies of the business model and rewarded handsome returns. And as a result, Liberty Enterprises was suffering, called by the media as its own worst enemy based on its do-it-alone approach without forming alliances with government. So of course, the media said, it’s natural that if you’re not with the government, you’re against them. And the quote heard over and over by Jonas Bu’Tan, the new President of Liberty Enterprises, was “So?”

        So more money was invested on the modified ship known as LIBERTY 72-X than on the original Block II Fleet combined to make her ready for the most improbable and dangerous mission possible. Experts had never seen the Galactic Core – they thought they would when the first faster-than-light revelations about observations in the Universe would make it possible, but unfortunately not only are stars and planets seen by the nature of their atoms as light (giving the moon, for instance, a color based on molecular make-up as seen as a Superoptic radiated presentation with no distinction of reflected light on one side or the absence of it on the other), but dust shines as well, and so the same dust that darkened the view of the galaxy’s interior from Earth also blinded the view with the bright fog of Superoptic-emanated faux-light – or the quickly arriving mysterious vision of the outside universe that registers on the human eye but can not be light in the Superoptic realm. The constellations shift, so that they are seen not where the stars were when the light left to appear to human eyes on Earth, but where they are today in the greatly abbreviated transit in the Superoptic realm. Some stars had gone Nova, others had appeared that wouldn’t be seen to eyes on Earth for a very long time.  With this knowledge, it would be known when many stars would be visible on Earth as supernova, and some were so named already by years tens of thousands of years away.

     But science had been very good in predicting the density of the stars near the Galactic Core, and much had been known over the years through observations in bands beyond the human eye’s ability to detect, and through gravimetric shifts observed in the stars that could be seen in those unseen bands made visible by shifting the observatory from light bands to other frequencies. There was a central core, roughly spherical, formed by an unknown type of radiation belt or particle shield, not unlike that of a radiation belt or hemisphere where particles accumulate, but much more dense, powerful, and subsequently dangerous. The decision was made early on to orbit 1,000 light years over this central sphere at Superoptic speeds, (Indicated Speed Matrix or) ISM 1 would do, which was still, in a straight line a comfortable 10 hours of travel from the shell. ISM-1 was the low-end speed for the TRS or Tunnel Ratio Speed Engines, as it was always easier to go at this speed, or 876,600 times the speed of light than it was to design a lower speed where complications would creep in with maintaining a segregated tunnel from the normal dimensions and physics of the surrounding, somewhat visible, but untouched Universe. Also, a slower speed would cause a disruption in the smooth easy flow programmed in to keep time on the ship at the same speed it elapsed on Earth. If the created Tunnel would collapse, the ship would suddenly be floating along at Sub-optic speeds at about a quarter the speed of light. Anywhere else, this would normally be no cause for alarm. Here, so close to the radiations and gravimetric influences of the Galactic Core, it would be certain and instantaneous death by multiple, sort lived tortures.

     Joseph Carr looked ahead to the Pilot Station, where he stared his career on this ship. Julie Perkins, who started out as the sassy broadcast star for Atlanta’s Urban America Music Network was always good at handling dials, levers, buttons, keypads, and switches with great rhythm. Still setting achievement records with each passing month both on this ship and in the charts back home, Carr knew she a much better pilot on a bad day than he was on his best. Her sassy attitude was seen for what it was – an attempt to entertain others, to express a candid, unwelcome, and often incorrect opinion, and to make the time pass more quickly. Many did not tolerate her as well as Carr did, because today he needed the best pilot money could buy, and he was sitting behind her, although much more comfortably as her chair was almost on the deck, in the style of old cockpits, so that she could use the twin pedals at her feet to fine-tune ship steering. Plus, her lower position at the window gave him clearance to see the front windows just as well, unobstructed by the Pilot Station. Unlike Carr, Perkins liked to have her feet elevated, calling the station “her personal recliner with a great view of the heavens.”

     There were two other stations to his left, almost at an equal distance from his chair, with an angled side window. At one was Antonia DiNyro. She was on LIBERTY 72’s maiden flight and remained the Chief Engineering Officer, appropriately in the Engineer’s Station seat. Most of her systems, including the central Engineering Control Room, were rarely populated. Rather, they were under automated design and monitored or controlled from here. A wide variety of systems were available at her fingertips, including the TRS or Tunnel Ratio Speed Engines now forcing the ship literally into an altered Universe by powerful rectangular generators at both Engineering Wings of her ship, the Courselators, which using gyroscopic energies close to the power of a miniature created black hole (times six) gave the ship an ability to turn at Superoptic speeds, and to merely change attitude at Suboptic speeds, the Push Stick, or the powerful beam clearing a path for the ship as needed, the Electromagnetic Force Field Bubble, or EFFB which provided protection for the hull, and the Sublight 4-pack, as she called them, the Linear Spike Engines, or LSE’s that provided launch, deorbit, trans-orbit, interplanetary and to some degree interstellar mobility. She also had control of the systems needed to land and launch the ship from a planet, including the landing gear and the Vapor Thrusters which served the role of the ancient reaction control systems for spacecraft. Almost all of these systems, but not all as solar was available for planetary or inner solar system use relied upon the Cyclocentric Anante Reducer, or CAR Processor, which basically disassembled water, inverted one of the hydrogen atoms into antimatter, and then recycled it all as life support, fuel, or power. The LSE Pods also benefited from a spice of antimatter, giving them far more thrust potential than the old rockets. With the Inertial Stabilizer systems holding the ship together, the craft would be able to accelerate out of an atmosphere and out of orbit quickly, with the thrust of an active volcano – some say with more.  Carr’s only complaint about Antonia was that she had refused to cross-train others beyond those necessary to sit this MCC position competently, and to date, he could not find a way to get her to share in all of the information that indeed did make her so valuable to him.  But as her duty Second Shift and Third Shift Engineers knew more about Block II Engineering than the Chief Engineers of the other Block II Liberty ships, he knew his complaints with her would only go so far. With the modifications that were required to turn this ship into LIBERTY 72-X, no one but Antonia DiNyro could really be trusted with the engineering systems on this mission.

     The other station to his left was the Survey Station. This was the one currently occupied by Antonia’s twin, Antonio DiNyro. He had also been with LIBERTY 72 since the maiden voyage but had left, returning only because of his excitement for this mission. He deeply resented that Victor Martin had passed him over to put a young pilot by training, and not a good one at that in his opinion named Joseph Carr in command of the ship on such an important science mission. But because his only ticket to the mysteries of this part of the galaxy would be aboard Carr’s ship, he had decided to humble himself to follow the orders of someone he personally despised. The Survey Station used a multitude of sensors in many bands to determine what was happening all around the ship. The greatest disappointment for Antonio so far was that at Superoptic speeds, the forest-through-the-trees syndrome would prevail and while technically it was an achievement to be on the other side of the galaxy by going around the back side of the central galactic core, nothing but the immediate central sphere of the galaxy, the densely populated soup of passing stars too violently young and restless to have planets around them, and the fog of interstellar dust in all directions outward prevented a good view of that back side. Perhaps on a future mission the ship could simply navigate around the core and keep going out to see what could be found there. Antonio had recommended sending out a few Class A Survey Drones – the kind that stay faster than light and give an extended view to the ship’s sensors (as opposed to Class B Drones which are used for low-orbit or high-atmosphere long-term, long range reconnaissance over a planet). To his disappointment but not surprise, Carr denied the recommendation, saying that he needed to have those Class A Survey Drones on the ship and ready to use as a signal flare or log buoy in case of disaster. 

     Mirroring symmetrically the stations from his left to his right, Carr looked first to the station closest to Perkins, at a combined Weapons and First Officer’s Station. Monique Rivers, the woman sitting there now was his First Officer, at his request. She was formerly an unpleasant, high-ranking executive in Liberty Enterprises, made so by being the niece of Kevin Duncan in a company which often picked family ties as the first qualifier to senior leadership. Rivers was opposed to Liberty Enterprises going into space, preferring instead to wait until the government of Earth could go on its own terms that when she could not stop the initiative to launch the fleet to Otaw 3, she resigned her position in Liberty Enterprises to go to work for Sunshine Mining, the major competitor.  Shocked by what she found there, she was outwardly cordial but inwardly overjoyed when Carr offered her a chance to come back to Liberty Enterprises – not as a high-ranking executive, but rather as his First Officer. This had grated Antonio DiNyro all the more, as he felt that if he could not be offered command, at least he should have the First Officer position. Carr felt that he needed someone who would point out the obvious that he had missed, and to offer a frank opinion on any subject. Rivers certainly had no problem expressing herself, then or now. She had also been the arch-rival in the corporation to his eventual girlfriend, Janay O’Hara, and the one discussion that remained unspoken was about how badly Rivers had mistreated O’Hara. But, Carr knew, Rivers did have a conscience, or she would still be at Sunshine Mining, and not here. She was still rather unpleasant, but surrounded by the true love and admiration of the crew, she was starting to melt and reveal that under that ice was a warm heart.

      To the right of Carr, almost to his side and opposite Antonia DiNyro’s station was a being hard to describe in human terms, for she was not human at all. On the first trip to Otaw 3 the Trucowls escaped detection by the humans, but on the second trip, the one LIBERTY 72 was embarked upon, the Trucowls could hide no longer.

     It was learned that Otaw 3 was a planet filled with warring but not exactly advanced intelligent birds. A Trucowl rebel went there to formulate an alliance with radicals, exchanging technologies for a promise to help him launch a military attack on the ancient Trucowl Monarchy over on Trucowl 5. In the process of doing so, a coup had occurred and forces working with the Trucowl rebel built the ships responsible for attacking the Liberty Fleets and Earth. With Trucowl help, LIBERTY 72, once it arrived, was able to re-seat the legitimate government of Otaw 3 and Victor Martin made a daring decision to go talk to this Trucowl Monarchy before bringing the ship home. It was there that the survival of LIBERTY 65 was discovered, and the ship could be recovered. But before leaving Trucowl 5, a young energetic exchange student was offered in return for the then-First Officer Yukiko Kogure, who would remain on Trucowl 5.

     Trucowl 5 housed a very ancient species with thousands of centuries of space experience, but they were definitely on the decline, perhaps because they had chosen to remain rigidly committed to their idea of a Monarchy, which did have its benefits it seems because it had lasted for longer than humans had the wheel. But with the Monarchy came a set of ethical guidelines called ‘Precepts’ which were not always to the benefit of the Trucowls. For instance, when a high-ranking traitor left the planet to form a rebellion, Trucowls could not harm this or any other Trucowl because of Precepts – only Otawians known to be separate were legitimate targets. When Trucowl 5 was in a position to stop the Otawian attack on Earth, the planet chose inaction even though Trucowl 5 was in no small part responsible for the attack … again because of Precepts. In fact the only way to be killed as a Trucowl would be to break Precepts. No such Precepts were written to defend the Crown of Trucowl 5 because such laws were deemed to be ridiculously unnecessary. The last Precept was written thousands of Earth Centuries ago that ended with one last Precept: no Precept may be added, changed, or removed.” So for the last 3 years, Yukiko Kogure was on Trucowl 5 as Earth’s Ambassador, and Fioha Secowm was with LIBERTY 72, in her specially modified skis when anywhere but at her tailored station where gravity was lowered and in her crew apartment. She came with only one condition: That Trucowl Precepts take precedence over everything important to the humans. That would mean, Carr was told, that he is in direct standing orders not to endanger her life on Trucowl 5 by asking her to break, reveal, or contradict her Precepts. There are to be no torn loyalties – her loyalty is to be first and foremost to the Trucowl Crown.

     Her station was called the “Mission Historian Station,” which was perfect for her since she literally did have a photographic memory and an instant ability to memorize and accurately transcribe everything heard from the crew of importance, to say nothing of other species never known to humans who speak exponentially much faster. She was an obviously gifted translator as well, and all around good will ambassador. For years Carr had struggled for some way to describe her species. They had two legs, which resembled those of a lobster more than a human. She had two arms, but which in their resting position looked more like whale flippers with hundreds of fingers at their edge than human arms. She had a body that for lack of a better term gave her the appearance of a stuffed animal the touch of a wet chamois tightly pulled over a warm sponge. She had a very cute, very large head with cute and huge eyes off a little to the side that on Earth would identify her more likely to be prey than predator. She had only velvet fuzz for hair, that she said grows enough to cut only once every five Earth Centuries. Earth scientists said of her that she has similarities to insects, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, and invertebrates, but has no DNA linking her to anything on Earth for better classification. As, Secowm replied, can be expected, since she is not of that planet, and Earthlings should not be so amazed she can survive in the vacuum of space or enjoy eating dirt and rocks like humans enjoy sugar and candy. So far as a waste removal system, it appeared that they simply converted waste to light, and their hue made them impossible to hide in the dark. The hue was transparent based on the mood, and could not be masked. Thus, Carr was happy that in all the time he had known her she had only been truly angry a few times, and never at him. She could see things far beyond the optical capabilities of humans, and she could hear things she usually preferred to ignore two decks away. But once Carr learned of this capability he would understand better why she would spontaneously giggle in the Trucowl way of shaking uncontrollably without a sound.

     Fioha Secowm had often said that she was happier on LIBERTY 72 than she ever was in her hundreds of years of life on Trucowl 5, and she had personally hoped that the assignment would never end until Yukiko Kogure died an old lady on Trucowl 5. Carr believed her. After all, Trucowl’s best expert in Earth languages was the best at many things on Trucowl 5, but she would never gain a single promotion up any ladders of success in her culture, for she was a mere Commoner and would be nothing more, no matter what her successes were, for the rest of her Centuries-long life. The nobility and aristocrats would never climb, and she would never fall. Here, she had freedom, and effort was rewarded with things beyond her imagination. Carr had come to learn to read her emotions well, and that’s what bothered him now.

     Upon learning of the assignment to the Galactic Core for LIBERTY 72, her reaction went from unexplained astonishment to grave concern. She had not been the same since. Her presence on the MCC would be an eight-hour day or more for Earth humans, but with her speed and brainpower she could come up once a day for a half an hour or so, complete a day’s work, and go down to do the things she enjoyed more throughout the ship. But there were indeed scientific discoveries being made on this trip, and each time, Fioha Secowm had picked a conveniently bad time to block some bands of the ship’s sensors for scheduled maintenance. Once it would be a coincidence that she knew before the ship’s sensors would of the discovery ahead, and had programmed the maintenance far ahead of time. Whatever the discoveries were, she or the Trucowls had already discovered them, and there was something about them she didn’t want Earth humans to know. Carr was infuriated – not at her but at his orders to never get involved with Trucowl Precepts, even if it meant the safety of his ship was at stake. All in the name of duty and honor, he tried to tell himself, if his crew is sacrificed over this 3 foot 6 inch alien’s cover-up of past Trucowl sins. Look at the bright side, he told himself. She must know that if we go, she’s going with us, and she’s not a crazy Trucowl.

     Survival was always low so far as statistical probability. If this crew were to take one for the home team and give up life itself in the name of exploration, it was only because Liberty Enterprises had grown so weak, and a truly damning human space effort called Sunshine Mining had become so strong. This was, in many ways, an offer to sacrifice it all for the good name of the company and the better valor of achievement through playing fair and doing the right thing.

     Taking almost a year to make modifications to the ship, every conceivable problem had been anticipated. A great deal known about the center of the galaxy was programmed into this ship’s survivals. It was the unknown elements that caused the most uncertainty, and an unchartered region such as this, where stars spiral out to become planets and stars long down the road, was certain to have hidden perils. This mission, meant to be a contemporary equivalent to the 1960’s manned lunar landings on an object much closer to Earth, was inspirational with one caveat – the ship would take quite some time to be within communications range again to announce success. Few on Earth had placed bets that such a day would ever happen. After all, this was an attempt to circumnavigate the Galactic Core at a very close distance from the unproven, real, and previously theorized spherical shell surrounding the core.

     The transparent composite alloy windows had auto-polarization, of course, which kept light entering the Mission Control Center down to manageable levels. One such window was ahead of the DiNyro twins to the left, another ahead of Rivers and Secowm to the right, another overhead, another behind the MCC, and the last ahead of the ship. It was a magnificent view. As the trip was far beyond the range of LIBERTY 72-X, the external fuel pods were also placed on a specially constructed rig around the ship and one by one, from outer to inner tank, they were used and discarded.

     The ship went out at an incredibly slow ISM 1, which roughly equated to only 100 light years an hour, but this was the speed for best Superoptic fuel efficiency. It was planned to only have just enough fuel to get back to Earth, but if they fell short, a refueling ship could come meet the ship and get her home.

     The first discovery happened after LIBERTY 72-X approached a direct orbital insertion over the central sphere westward, meaning that it had cut left of the Galactic Core instead of going straight up the 122 Radial leading from the core to Earth’s Radial. When reaching the 229 Radial, with Fioha Secowm at Antonio DiNyro’s side in conversation, she appeared relieved that his ships sensors picked up what the crew now calls a galactic updraft. It was a dimension-bridging force, almost like a volcano or at least a geyser, shooting particles and photons and magnetic forces from an apparent whirlpool formed within the gasses, dust, and particle streams of the sphere. The ship was literally pushed outward but seeing this ahead of time a smooth ride would be guaranteed.

     Then, much later, at the 349 Radial, Secowm was again at Antonio DiNyro’s side, some scan bands were down for maintenance, and again an identical Galactic Updraft was planned. Being the competent show-off as she was, Perkins pre-set the ship’s Pilot Station to automatically account for the updraft so that the ship would not go even one light year off course.

     It had been planned to break off and come back home, but to Secowm’s alarm they did the math and figured out that if the galaxy has two such streams exactly 120 degrees apart, then at the 109 Radial there should be a third. Here, they would be very close to just turning left and exiting stage left towards Earth with almost a straight shot outward to get home. 

     And so here they were, again with Secowm this time at her own Mission Historian Station and visibly nervous, with everyone else at their consoles, and with Julie Perkins at the Pilot Station ready to push only a second button for the ship to respond with a counteraction to the ship’s sudden upward momentum as carried by the third Galactic Updraft.

     It didn’t exactly happen that way.

     “Approaching the galactic radial at one zero nine degrees on the Galactic Grid,” said Julie Perkins. “Here's where we expect the third and final jet stream of gravity and time distortions.”

     Carr nodded, even though it seemed to be a ridiculous motion at first, somehow Perkins had eyes in the back of her head, so he wasted the energy to do so. “It’s really hard to believe these galactic tornadoes in physics are so evenly spaced around the Core. Miss Perkins, maintain orbit fifty-six hundred light years away from the center of the core. That will keep us far enough above the shell to avoid crashing into it, while close enough to study it.”

     “No offense, Captain Carr, but after two weeks, that order is getting very old, Captain,” said Perkins.

     “We’re done after this,” Carr reminded her. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back in range of the Broadcast News Nets soon enough, and you’ll be able to see your latest song is still in the Top-40.”

     “Cha-ching,” Rivers joked.

     Antonio DiNyro then turned, which was not surprising since Fioha Secowm had turned shortly beforehand towards him. “It is very odd, but you have to admit, the discovery of three equally spaced strings of distortion jetting from the shell of the Galactic Core is bound to land us on the cover of some unread science journal. And …. now – there it is. Now picking up the distortion on our space displacement sensors. Julie, this one appears to have twice the strength of the other two. This one should really push us away from the core, even more than the other two did.”

      “Okay,” she said. “Modifying the program to handle the one-two punch. Scripting for a way not to be thrown halfway to Andromeda from here. I just want to get back to Earth. But as I calculate things, we’ll be unable to hold altitude. Best I can do is settle for getting thrown up a few light years. Do you want me to steer around this one, Captain?”

     “No,” said Carr. “We need to be the experiment package going through. We know the ship’s mass so we can use that to gage and measure the power of that thing.”

     “The Push Stick is detecting the stream, but this one lacks the particle streams we saw in the other two. Contact with the outer envelope in 3, 2, 1 …”

     Suddenly there was a crashing sound heard throughout the ship, only because one of the rig connectors had snapped loose. “Inertial Stabilizers and Courselators are overloading, Captain,” said Chief Engineer Antonia DiNyro.

          “It must be a reverse stream,” said Fioha.

          There was a slight pause. “No particle stream,” offered Rivers, “Joe I think she’s right – it has to be the inverse of the other two streams – those two were the out door, and this is the in door.”

          “And Captain,” said Perkins, “if we don’t do something fast we’re going to be the particles going in next. I’ve killed the Navigational Script and I’m going to emergency climb on manual - we’re going nose-down too fast. I can’t hold altitude – the nose isn’t coming up fast enough.”

     “You’re trying too hard!” shouted Antonia DiNyro. “Julie – listen to me. You have to back off – this ship is about to snap into a thousand pieces!”

     “Hold your Alpha,” ordered Carr over-riding his Engineering Officer. “Monique,” he said to his First Officer, “make preparations to jettison the Rig.”

     “Sadly,” she said, “I concur. I’ve just calculated we’ll never get over this Galactic stormdrain before it sucks is in. We just don’t have a chance with this much mass. Getting rid of the extra fuel tanks … we have a chance. We’ll never get home, but we have a chance.”

     “Captain,” offered Secowm, “this could be a gateway of sorts. Maybe we could enter here and exit somewhere safe … like back  out the other side, or in some other galaxy where we can find a gateway back.”

     “You read too much Sci-Fi, Fioha,” said Carr. “This vortex drains to the black hole at the center of the galaxy that will turn us into miles long spaghetti before vaporizing us. Unless you’re prepared to give me better information, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

     The alien was obviously conflicted but she turned away, knowing she could not break Precepts. Then she turned shortly back to Carr. “It could be that ships striking a Black Hole at Superoptic speeds have a better result.”

     “Do you know that for sure?” he asked. She ignored him, and so for the moment, he decided to ignore her.  “We have to jettison the external fuel tanks. Let me know when we’re ready to blow the rig, Monique.”

     “Almost there,” said Rivers.

     “You have to do something very, very soon!” Antonia DiNyro implored, “or we’re all dead.”

     “It’s a hard choice, my friend,” said Rivers, “and we’re likely to lose some people – but not all of us.”

     “That’s why Victor Martin gives me the big paycheck, my friend. What are we waiting for?”

    “Antonia,” said Rivers, “transfer whatever water you can from the external tanks, then dump them. I’ve sent the program over to your station.”

          “There’s no time for that,” she said. “I’ll show you why later. Jettisoning the rig in three … two … one …”

          There was a tremendous crashing sound, massive thrashing of bodies back and forth, up, and down, and a loss of power and then of gravity as the ship successfully changed course, TRS Engines automatically taking the ship with a sudden freedom to move on a long voyage towards an Earth it could never reach.