Going Relative - A New Short Story
Another 'Tall Tale' I hope you enjoy. It is the inspiration for a longer work sitting patiently on the peg.
GOING RELATIVE
Going Relative excited Kendrik Van Laar more than any other part of space travel.
All the other facets of interplanetary travel were potentially filled with
tedium.
Getting into orbit was a bore even if the
view was spectacular. He was surprised just how quickly the awesome curved
expanse of Earth's sweet blue atmosphere became just a backdrop as the rail car
climbed The Beanstalk from Singapore to Clarke Station high in
geo-stationary orbit. Climbing The Beanstalk may have been the most
efficient method of getting into orbit but it still took most of a day to
travel the thirty-six thousand kilometres into orbit. The coaches were
comfortable if well used. Kendrik had taken this trip many times and was well
prepared. He always had something to read.
Flying the expanse of interplanetary space
was extraordinarily dull too. Once blue-green Earth and her silvery companion
dropped away beneath Scallywag's fiery stern, there was very little to
indicate you were going anywhere at all. Interplanetary travel was relatively
slow. It took weeks to fly from Clarke Station to a place where the
gravitational curvature of space was sufficiently flat. Once there, the Brin-Hamilton
Un-Relative drive could fold the fabric of space-time around their
fragile ship.
Being in an Un-Relative state was
even worse than travelling through the solar system at interplanetary speeds.
When the Brin-Hamilton engines enveloped Scallywag in its own
bubble of space-time, there were no stars to help chart your course, no
fluorescing nebulae painting the dark, no pulsars flashing in the deep
distance. The Un-Relative fold of space was an all-encompassing panorama
of grey that appeared to stand off a few meters from Scallywag's hull.
Sensors that penetrated the grey did not last very long. Worse than a thick fog
at night, there were no guideposts, no changes, nothing at all, endless grey.
It took careful work to calculate the
precise incept vector but once the engine was engaged there was no roar, no
shaking, nothing that would even wake a finicky baby. The universe faded to
grey. When the engines turned off, you were there. Although no ships had been
lost, it was still classed as hazardous duty.
The Brin-Hamilton drive was simple
and fast, but the journey was deadly dull. It took sixty-two days to travel ten
light-years. That was the maximum range for a single Un-Relative flight
and Scallywag's mission, looking for new colony
worlds, meant it had to make many such jumps. Habitable planets were few and
very far between.
It took a special breed of explorer to cope
with the extended periods of inactivity. Kendrik did not find the isolation of
being Un-Relative particularly galling. He had done most of his work
before the launch and had little to do until they arrived. They were out of
communication but Scallywag's
entertainment library was excellent and the crew were all performers of one
description or another. The Captain was a remarkably good stand-up comedian and
impressionist. Kendrik could tickle the ivories when he had the urge to put on
a solo show but was not usually called on to play, as there were some excellent
keyboard players onboard. He was, however, a dab hand with a triangle or shaker
and had a passable baritone that had him recruited into many backing-singer
line-ups. Some crewmembers worked so well together as musicians, they left the
tedium of space travel to form professional ensembles.
Going Relative, returning to relativistic space, was gentle, if you watched it
through the big monitors in the mess, or the displays at any duty station. They
could only convey a minute fraction of the experience. The sensations did not
translate through remote sensing devices. To experience Going Relative
in its fullness, you needed to go extravehicular.
Kendrik did a quick head count as he cycled
out of the airlock and smiled to himself. The full complement of off-duty crew
were positioned to get a clear view of the grey space beyond Scallywag's slender prow and were, for the
moment, reclining in comfort. He would have to squeeze in somewhere to get a
clear view.
On Scallywag's first return to Relative space, there had only been
four out on the hull: Lieutenant Hokulani Mason, the Rubenesque security chief.
Like Kendrik, she never missed a Transition. Bo Bergström, a life
support systems engineer was there and Trent Deans, a young ensign on his first
interstellar flight.
It had taken considerable persuasion to get
young Trent outside. Watching the Transition was something that had gone
out of style with this crew but when Captain Leyland gave his wry blessing,
Trent was up for the challenge. His bubbling enthusiasm for the experience had
sparked a resurgence of interest. Trent's excitement was contagious.
The second Transition had twelve
observers, the third had sixteen. For this last Transition, all
twenty-five off-duty crewmembers were here. Kendrik wondered whom he could
persuade to squeeze over so he could get a clear view of the prow. His comm
buzzed and he chinned open the channel flashing on the edge of his
Heads-Up-Display. A HUD vector pointed to the source. It did not have to.
"Over here." Trent waved his arm
about, bouncing about on the deck. Kendrik smiled once more. He enjoyed being
with the keen young ensign. He was perched on the leading edge of the
observation platform between Lieutenant Hokulani and Kimberly Pham, the comm
officer. Kimberly was nearly seventy but did not look it. She had been in the
Exploratory Service since she was in her early thirties and did not appear to
want to retire any time soon.
Hokulani and Trent had been seeing a lot of
each other on this last leg and seemed very happy together. Kimberly looked
over her shoulder and began to wriggle sideways to give him room at the edge.
Trent and Hokulani squeezed closer together if that was possible.
"I thought you were going to miss this
one. Transition's due in less than a minute." Trent’s excitement
would have bounced him from the deck but for Hokulani's arm around his waist.
"You know me. I wouldn't miss it for
all the ice in Saturn's Rings," Kendrik's smile broke into a grin. Trent
looks more wound up than usual. "What's up?"
"The Captain said yes. Hokulani and I
have been given permission to combine our living quarters. As soon as Transition's
over we're moving in together."
"Congratulations!" Kendrik leaned
forward to catch the lieutenant's eye. She was usually quite bold but she
blushed shyly as she smiled.
"Thank you for bringing us together.
I'm going to petition the Captain to have your position as ship's match-maker
formalised," Hokulani said with a giggle and Trent’s chuckle joined in. Why
the ship's crew come to me with their emotional issues is a mystery. He had
no formal training as a counsellor but, for some reason, the crew took his
advice seriously. Most ship-born romances didn't last long, more a symptom of
boredom and close confinement than a deep intimate connection but Kendrik had a
feeling that the relationship that had blossomed between Trent and Hokulani was
different.
"Ten seconds to Transition point."
The bridge announcement overrode the pressure-suits comm channels. Everyone
stopped their chatter and turned their heads towards the tapered prow.
"Five seconds..."
The Going-Relative Transition began.
Flocks of multi-winged lilac butterflies
warped out of the grey, followed closely by flashes of golden flowers. They
appeared from a point in the infinite grey that also seemed to be only twenty
to thirty centimetres in front of Kendrik's nose. Depth perception was
different, fluid. The green of a summer meadow mixed with dark chocolate segued
into the deep blue/green of an ocean burnished with silver highlights. Purple
streaks swam by, accompanied by sinuous orange creatures pawing at the void.
Searing particles chased them away, leaving feathery blue and red trails in
their wake.
Trying to diminish the intensity, Kendrik
instinctively blinked and squinted. He knew intellectually that blinking did
not help but he could not, initially, fight the instinct. He had to relax into
the intensity. It did not really matter if he blinked or did not; his eyes were
not really seeing much at all. His brain perceived the pyrotechnic display
directly from the Transition point. The intensity of the coloured forms
pouring from the Transition point ramped up until it was almost painful
but you could not look away.
Vision was not the only sense Transition
stimulated. Each of the flashing colours began to have a distinct flavour. The
bright yellows brought forth the taste of honey and the smell of growing
things, damp and fresh from a passing shower. Blues tasted like peanut butter.
Reds were hot tangerine chillies with a hint of sour cream that smelt of rose
essence. Greens were sweet as freshly picked baby peas and carried a scent of
new mown hay.
A wave of goose bumps spread across
Kendrik's skin as an illusory feather sensuously stroked his spine. Gentle
fingers spiralled out from the base of his skull, tracing arcs short and long.
Warmth spread from the tips of his fingers and toes, pouring into his hands and
feet, up into his legs and forearms. When the gentle heat radiating from his
shoulders and thighs met the fingertip arcs, a moiré pattern of sensation rippled across his back. Ice, cold as an arctic blast,
and fire from the heart of a sun flayed him.
Choirs of angels began to sing in praise of
life and Kendrik felt his heart burst with joy. Some told of hearing of choirs
of angels, some of screaming twentieth century Heavy Metal guitars, and some,
the esoteric an-harmonic sounds of the Kolkata music school. Kendrik had
experienced Transitions where he had heard everything from sweeping
symphonic strings to the deafening roar of The Talimannar Temple Drummers.
Those angelic voices, sweet and soft, intense harmonies stacked into the
infinite, that made his soul resonate ecstatically. If not for the Transition's
stimulation of his other senses, anchoring him in his physical form, Divine
Harmonies would have swept him away.
The pyrotechnic visual display flared into
psychedelic brightness, tastes, and smells swept through him so intense Kendrik
almost gagged. The Divine Harmonies roared into progressive overload
tearing at the dark corners of his mind. Fire flashed over his skin transmuting
into the bitter cold of interstellar space. The colours flashed, brighter and
faster until they blurred beyond mortal comprehension. Louder and more intense,
the Divine Harmonies cascaded through impossibly fast arpeggios,
drifting closer and closer to white noise. Flames seared his skin; the gentle
tracings of the fingertips now felt more like a sharp knife slowly peeling the
skin from his back. It was all too much, too fast, too intense, all sense of
self swept away into a light that was brighter than a million suns. Kendrik
felt himself dissipate into the infinite.
Sensory overload slowly faded into darkness
sprinkled liberally with pinpricks of light. Blinking, Kendrik struggled to
recognise his environment. His consciousness, so recently spread thinly through
the vastness of the universe, took a few moments to recognise it had returned
to a single human body. For a moment, all that Kendrik could hear was the sound
of his panting breath and the pounding of blood through his ears. The whoops,
cheers, and laughter of his shipmates penetrated his consciousness. They were
back in the real world.
"Transition complete. All systems show
green. Planetary survey probe ready for launch, Captain." The sounds of
the bridge crew going about their duties snapped Kendrik back into his
personality and he realised he was slapping Trent on the back with one arm and
hugging Kimberly with the other. She was laughing and did not seem to mind. Her
face was split wide in an ecstatic grin as she squeezed him back.
"Launch the planetary probe,
ensign." Captain Leyland's voice was calm and controlled. "What was the
Transition duration?"
"2.013 seconds sir."
The Transition felt like a good
omen. Before it failed, the automated probe sent to this system had reported on
one, possibly two, planets in the Goldilocks zone.
Now the real work could begin.
_______________________________________________________________________
Image Attribution
'Going Relative Vortex' is constructed from these sources:
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Time-Vortex-wallpapers-400663_1071_897.jpg
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/131/7/c/Abstract_Vortex_by_blacknightrider.jpg
http://www.superbwallpapers.com/abstract/vortex-18324/
http://www.diamondlantern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Purple-Vortex.jpg
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs15/i/2007/097/8/2/Blue_World_3__Vortex_by_tennyocelestia.jpg
http://buzzerg.com/wp-content/uploads/8589130561969-abstract-color-vortex-wallpaper-hd.jpg
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