Wings of Light., No L and no C this time. Ok, there is quite a bit of c. Options

[jack cloudy]

Next one. Ok, several things first.
1: THIS IS NOT FANFICTION. No, this is a story taking place in an original universe. I hope no one minds.
2: Don't expect regular updates. This is an attempt at a professional novel so I want to plan it out and get all the good stuff in it. Foreshadowing, multiple plot lines, character interaction, cool hardware and a god, or maybe two.
3: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Also known as: Technobabble and Handwaves explain everything.
4: The laws of robotics are not implemented here. Sorry Isaac, but I want them to drive the cool stuff. They don't have time to babysit some organic wimps.



WINGS OF LIGHT

CHAPTER 1: Lights, colours, not here.

Without a sound, the SS Hesphire moved to its destination. It would have been useless to expect any sound as such a phenomenon had a hard time travelling through the vacuum of space.
,,This is your captain speaking. We are approaching the wormhole leading to the Eden system. The estimated time for our arrival is approximately half an hour from now. There will be a short burn for course corrections. We advise that all passengers strap themselves in till we’ve entered the wormhole and stabilized our course. If you require any help, our crew is willing to assist you. Thank you.” The disembodied voice echoed through speakers all over the ship.

With this announcement, everyone dropped whatever he or she was doing and moved to the observation deck. Entering a wormhole was always an exciting event for those who were new to interstellar travel. There were also those who were not new to interstellar travel. They also moved to the observation deck, though for a different reason.

Belonging to the second group was Paul Anthony Detroit. Every single cell of his body revealed him as a true veteran of space. He smoothly sailed from wall to wall, without any of the awkward bouncing of the average tourist. His clothes were tight fitting like those worn by all true space farers, yet without looking like a diver’s suit, oversized pyama or any other kind of embarrassing outfit newbies wore. The passengers he passed were mostly less successful in their choice of clothing. Wide, flowing clothes were fashionable these days yet had the unpleasant habit of getting stuck between doors or flowing away from the areas they were supposed to cover. Easy to use belts for strapping down clothes to the limbs were standard issue on civilian ships carrying passengers.

Thanks to his skill at zero g manoeuvring, he arrived well before the other passengers and secured the best place of all, the ceiling. Instantly, a steward pushed off against a wall to reach him.
,,Please mister, you may want to sit in one of the seats. Free floating during course corrections are not advised.” The young man, barely in his twenties, warned. Detroit looked down at the traditional name tag and smiled.
,,Well mister Rein, I can assure you that part of a g is not going to be a problem for me. Unless the SS Hesphire is using an illegally rigged High-performance Fusion torch and will be running multiple gees. In which case I would have to arrest everyone onboard.” He responded with the cool tone of voice that could come from only one kind of person. Military officers, the high-ranking ones.

The steward wisely backed off, allowing Detroit to enjoy the view. The man looked how everyone else entered the observation deck and got strapped in. There was some chaos but the stewards managed to get their job done and everyone strapped into a chair. He smiled again as he thought of the faces they would pull upon seeing a wormhole.
,,This is your captain speaking. We shall initiate our burn in 30 seconds. Anyone who is not yet secured should grab the nearest support and hold on for the next few minutes. Thank you.” This time, Detroit did follow the advise. He reached out and grabbed a small handle jutting out of the glass dome that covered the observation deck at the nose of the ship.

Little puffs of hydrogen jetted out of the minuscule thrusters spread across the Hesphire’s hull. The long cylindrical vehicle turned its nose around slowly. Two minutes later, the thrusters fired again to stop the rotation. Now the main thruster at the far end of the ship fired. Unlike during the turn, the acceleration caused by the main thrusters was felt by the people onboard. It felt as if you were suspended in the air under a parachute with a gentle breeze pushing you along.
,,This is your captain speaking. We are entering the wormhole in five…four…three…two…one…entering now.”

Necks were stretched in awkward positions, eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets. The stars disappeared, to be replaced by pure darkness. Slowly, a hint of disappointment spread across the two dozen or so faces gathered on the observation deck. Detroits smile grew bigger.
,,No lights, no fancy colours, no humming sounds, no sudden acceleration. This ain’t your average holovision show. Welcome to real space. It is boring, it is slow and it rarely takes you anywhere interesting. At least you won’t find bad looking aliens with worse looking rayguns at every corner.” He spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. Then, he laughed. Yes, the passengers would be angry with him for the rest of the trip but why should he care? It would only be a week or so and then he would be back where he was supposed to be. On a ship of his own. One with guns, big guns.
“And twenty-two wormholes away from the action.”

[jack cloudy]

Sexy? You should see the other ships. I'll try to make a model of those. Now some of them are what I would call really sexy. Ahem, enjoy the short update.


The Geno sitting behind the controls of the ‘Glorious Rustbucket’ stirred.
,,Hmm, nothing beats a good nap. So, what’s the big deal? All I heard was that you found a recently cracked planet and wanted me to go take a closer look.” He said while stifling a yawn. His human companion rolled his eyes.
,,What if I tell you that it is a secret?” He grunted, not really interested in a conversation. The Geno laughed.

,,Listen, monkeyboy. I’m a Geno. I’ve dealt with secrets before I could walk. Which means, within ten seconds after getting out of my tank.” He countered. The human sighed.
,,Alright, you’ve got a point. Our point is that our telescopes picked up artificial objects resting on some of the bigger pieces. Also, you may have noticed that dustcloud orbiting at high speed. High enough relative speed, and even a fleck of dust will tear through this bucket like a knife through butter. Well, our techs also revealed an empty ‘corridor’ of sorts, about 87 metres wide. The Daedalos doesn’t stand a chance in hell at squeezing through.”
,,So you want me to squeeze through instead since the Glorious Rustbucket is both smaller and capable of pulling a few more gees.” The Geno interrupted.
,,Sure, no problem. I was meant for stuntflying anyway. Got any specific locations you want to visit?” He continued.

The human looked into the being’s pitchblack eyes.
,,If I told you that that corridor drops us off in a relatively empty bit of space within spitting distance of a continent-sized rock with a mostly intact wreck on it, would you believe me?” He inquired. He grinned when the Geno looked surprised.
,,Wreck? You mean as in, spaceship that made a rough landing?” He stammered. He then grinned widely.
,,Now that sounds damn cool. I can’t wait!”
The Human shrugged.
,,Just make sure we don’t get a rough landing of our own.” He said dryly.

Detroit winced and clutched his head.
“Too much alcohol yesterday. Ow, I hate hangovers.” He thought as he checked the time. Seeing that eight hours had passed since he went to bed, he got up and entered the bathroom. Ten minutes later, he’d showered, brushed his teeth and stepped out of the door fully dressed in his uniform. Forty years of experience in a military organisation had made him an expert at quick hygiene.

He moved to the required airlock at a running pace. Seeing as how his work involved long terms of zero gravity with short terms of intense gravity, he trained his muscles at every chance he got.
,,Airlock 26. That’s the one.” He muttered and pressed the small button next to the door. The door slid open, allowing him to pass. The guard standing on the other side snapped a salute which Detroit returned. Apparently his face had been shown to those who needed to know. That was fine with him, he absolutely couldn’t stand delays.

Detroit took a moment to look at the empty corridor stretching out before him. He felt how he was beginning to sweat due to barely controlled excitement. Getting a new command always produced this feeling. He sniffed up the air that would fill his lungs for the next few months and then listened to see if he heard anyone. The only sound was the soft whisper of the air flowing through the ship. Everything else was silence. Detroit shrugged. Perhaps he was simply early. He certainly wasn’t the only one with a hangover from last night’s party.

A loud thumping approached him from behind. Detroit turned around to see how a short spider-like robot clattered around. It unfolded one of its many arms and detached a wallpanel, revealing the complex electronics behind it. Detroit watched with interest how the robot crawled into the mess of wires. Little sparks pointed out where its arms were working.

,,Excuse me.”
Detroit looked in all directions but failed to see the source of the voice.
,,Excuse me. Are you by chance the captain of this ship?” The voice said. Detroit now knew where it was coming from. He moved over to the nearest communication unit mounted on the wall.
,,Yes, I am. Why didn’t you contact me earlier?” He asked a bit annoyed for the delay. It was tradition that the captain’s arrival was announced when he came onboard.
,,Sorry, local intercom connections were busted. I’ve got ARU-179 working on it to your right. Anyway, it will be a while before the crew has boarded. You could go to the observation deck. There’s a lovely view of the local planet.” The voice informed him. Detroit looked at the robot once more.
,,Apologies accepted. I’ll be up on the observation deck in a few moments. Perhaps we could meet there in person?” He answered.
,,Sorry but no. That would be quite…inconvenient right now. Well, enjoy the view.”

As the robot sealed the wall, Detroit walked away. Soon again, the only sound was that of the air flowing and a soft thumping of robotic feet.