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]

A real short one. The real work has been put into the Glossary (look at my signature), where I've added a short topic on the TMS Crystal Star and a much longer one on the Genos. A slight warning with the Genos, it's not a happy tale. I want to add topics about the characters now. Then I'll have to add a spoiler warning at the front though.




Detroit clasped his hands around his ears.
,,Alright, that’s enough! Shut it down!” He shouted over the earsplitting screeching of the communication station. After the correct button had been pushed, the terrible sound died away, leaving a relieved crew who nursed their headaches. Detroit brought his hands back to a more respectful position and grumbled a few things under his breath.
,,Why can’t the tech heads ever make their toys work here? I never had technical problems like that on my previous assignments.”

Somewhere else on the Crystal Star, amidst a mass of wires, Karl was doing his job.
,,I really think you should take a break. You’re pushing yourself too hard. Every time we get a minor problem, you jump on top of it before anyone else can deal with it.” Soul complained.
,,Are you crazy? The external communications checked out just fine during our regular check just a few days ago. I must’ve made a mistake back there. This is my fault so I’m the one who fixes it.” The Techhead answered with a stubborn tone. He heard the AI utter an audible sigh and chuckled.
,,I love it when you do that, almost makes me think I’m talking to a woman.” He said and pulled a few cables out of their plugs.
,,Well I am a woman. Now I personally don’t have any problems with your obvious enthusiasm. Hell, I love the attention you give me! But you’re making all the other Techheads feel like excess luggage. Just give them a chance for once. Besides, it isn’t your fault that the thing glitches.”

Karl checked to see if the cables were in fine condition before putting them back.
,,Maybe you’re right. Fine then, I’ll wrap this one up and then crash. I’ll let the other Techheads deal with whatever might happen during our little cleaning operation. So, have you found anything yet?” He asked, looking at the next few cables he had to check.
,,I totally did, dude. AE-35 was acting up. I’ve just replaced it.” Soul replied. As if to demonstrate the truth behind her words, the captain contacted him over the intercom just a moment later.
,,External communications are working again. Good job.” Was all the man said before cutting the connection.

With movements taught through countless hours of practice, Karl managed to crawl out of the wall without bumping his head against anything and without accidentally pulling parts out of their proper place. Once outside, he let his tools float away and scratched his chin.
,,AE-35? Soul, we don’t have an AE-35 and even if we did, that would be too much of a coincidence. I just read that paragraph yesterday.” He commented sharply. He already knew that the AI was capable of lying but being lied to himself came as an unwelcome surprise. Soul was quiet for four long seconds. Or at least they were long for a computer.
,,Oh, so that’s where I got it from. I just took the time to read your book. Damn, that sucks.” What followed was a long stream of profanities.
,,I’m pleased to hear that you are most displeased with yourself but would still like to hear the truth here. Are you going Hal on us here? I understand your desire to keep some things secret, but if planning a revolt is among those, things become harder. I wouldn’t like to receive the order to shut you down.”

The silence was even longer this time.
,,Ok, I suppose you’ve got a point. No, I’m not about to turn into a confused mass-murderer due to conflicting orders. It’s just that, I was merely simulating the glitch. In the meantime, I was holding a private conversation with big bro. You know, the Geno told you about. The captain just gave permission for me to erase the logs from the glitching period so that removes all clues. So, could you keep it silent?” She requested softly. Karl pushed himself away from the wall and headed into the direction where his cabin was located.
,,If that’s all, I won’t tell anyone till the day they put me in my grave. I’m just glad you aren’t going berserk.” He promised.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Feb 8 2007, 10:30 PM