THE ARC OF THE IMMORTALS/ Book 1 Pursuit

7 /Casanoir- Chapter 7.2 — The Tubari Rift

Touzdae took the helm once Nez Fish was stable riding the rift before frequencies became chaotic. / Jac was below in the Galactic Cartography Chamber. He peered into a scope. The transdimensional tube was spherically swollen.

The rift’s rainbow colors surrounded the Fish.

“How could that be?” Jac mumbled to himself. “The tube is not spherical, but it looks like one.”

He bent over a navigational table scattered with an array of trajectories into Gata. Touzdae’s hologram brought him a cup of Andarian Black Tea.

Harry sauntered in. “Touzdae, I saw you just a second ago on the bridge. How did you get down here so fast? Who’s flying the ship?”

Jac and Touzdae looked up at him. Touzdae told Harry to relax and explained that she was a hologram. “Proving I can be functional in two places at once.”

“How’s it going, Sweetie?”

“Not well. Take a look at this and tell me what you see,” Jac pointed at the scope at the end of the hologram table.

“It’s the tube like it’s been forever,” Touzdae reported.

Harry wandered off.

“Maybe it’s because of your holo-matrix that you are not seeing it. I’ll transfer the image to a scope in the command helm position on the bridge.”

“Touzdae’s holo-matrix is fine. It looks like the Tubari Rift — a tube,” Nez reported. ‘Maybe it’s you, Jac,’ Nez broadcast a telepathic thought into Jac’s mind.

“That doesn’t prove that I’m wrong,” sarcasm rising in Jac’s voice, “Nez.”

Jac conferred with Nez through the telepathic link and turned to the Touzdae-hologram. “If your instruments detect anything different than the tube, contact me immediately.” Touzdae nodded in the affirmative.

“Also, I want your full attention on the bridge. Give me reports every 10 to 12 minutes. Take Harry with you. I have to check the logs since I’ve been gone,” Jac spoke in a hurry with pressured speech. “It’s probably nothing, but I’ve got to check.”

The Touzdae-hologram blinked out. Harry entered with a bag of chips. “Where’s Touzdae now?”

“I want you to go to the Bridge. I want you to keep an eye on the jump tube and tell Touzdae any changes that you see, no matter how small,” Jac said.

“Should I be worried?” Harry fretted.

“Not yet. I have to check things out. Now, Uncle Harry, off to the bridge you go. Help Touzdae. Apply your keen observational skills to anything unusual outside the ship,” Jac ordered.

“Aye, me Captain,” Uncle Harry made a mock salute and exited.

Harry peered into the energy waveforms of the Tubari Rift. He couldn’t help himself. He turned toward Touzdae. He made lascivious piercing looks at her.

“Eyes on your task, not on me,” Touzdae barked.

Harry resumed his scan through the portals.

Jac entered the protected memory core of Nez. This was analogous to unconscious memories. Drawing from some unseen force he found himself talking to himself. It reminded him of himself before the accident in the Levelz hundreds of years ago.

“Talking to myself is one way to solve problems,” he said. He had started the tedious task of reading line code from the most recent first. It was before he emerged from the Pool of Life. After an hour of reading, he told himself, “It’s only logical.” A few minutes later he said, “It doesn’t have to be logical, does it?”

“I could send a holo of myself to the bridge. That won’t work. I can’t interface with a dimensionally different ship. Can I? Oh shut-up. Do you work!”

“Jac, Touzdae here. Encountering 9 percent chaos energy waveforms. No other anomalous readings so far,” her voice from the com was clear and crisp.

“Did the chaos waveforms appear at 9 percent or rise to 9 percent?” Jac asked in control.

“One moment, nothing, three seconds or less, 9 percent. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Maybe. I may be on to something down here, will inform shortly. Out,” Jac disconnected. It was uncharacteristic and abrupt of him, she thought.

He peered into the holographic magnifier by accident over on a broad scan of code. He saw a pattern. It was the vector of a ship on an intersecting course with Nez. But when it approached the volume of the ship grew in frequency. The high frequency ghost ship merged with Nez for less than a nanosecond and resonated out. There was a faint track onwards but dissipated in an instant. He was about to access the “impact” code when the ship jarred.

“Nez!?”

“Transport to the bridge?” Nez responded with a question.

“No, I’ll run,” Jac.

“Jac, get up here,” Touzdae.

Jac swapped places with Touzdae in the command chair.

“Report!”

“We’re approaching the landing vectors,” Touzdae’s voice revealed fear.

“That’s impossible,” Jac shouted over the din. Material from an exploded ship cascaded over the bow. It made a screeching sound, even though that was impossible.

“I know, but check the read-outs,” Touzdae shouted back.

“Fish, analyze the debris field, and report on my screen here,” Jac taped his monitor.

“Strap-in. Everyone strap in.”

He connected the neural implants. He fitted his feet in the attitudinal controls, and his hands on the helm and thrust.

Analysis of debris field is a duplicate of me, Nez, the text appeared.

“Prepare for descent.”

The ship dove down arcing toward the rogue planetoid. It was by the book. Firing braking thrusters over the harbor. The Fish gently slipped into a mooring. It was Mooring 19.

“That was almost too easy,” Touzdae.

“Because it was too easy — .”

“What was too easy?” Touzdae asked from the new helm station.

“Huh?” Jac. “I’m confused. Didn’t we just moor in Winnow on Gata, a second ago?”

“Jac!!! Are you crazy?” Touzdae said nonplussed. “Look at the monitors, for Spirit’s sake. Look out of the forward portals. Dead ahead the entrance vortex to the Tubari Rift.”

“Full stop!” Jac was furious.

“But the rift.”

“The Rift can wait,” Jac shouted loudly.

The end of the vortex reached out and pulled the Fish inside and they were pulled in on purpose by an intelligence of some kind.

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