| Chapter 3 |
| Figures and Facts |
| 20:28 SET 2193 General Brungess kept his one bit of god news to himself until the staff meeting that Mansel called in his ready room. He revealed, much to everyone’s comfort, that not all of Earth had been taken. There were small pockets of resistance in Australia and South America that had not yet crumbled to Marauder (or, as Brungess put it, Maradine) and his iron grip. “Fleury, what the heck happened?” Mansel asked in the staff meeting. “I have a theory, Captain,” the Chief Engineer stated, leaning back in his chair. “I have conferred with Lieutenant Commander Talaj, and she agrees with me.” “Well let’s hear it,” demanded Lieutenant Commander Serena, leaning forward, palms flat on the table. The Chief Engineer paid little attention to her outburst. “I was forced to vent the neutridium and the deutronium because the containment field had been cracked. I didn’t want the two particles integrating with each other. It had never been done before, but scientists knew the results would be volatile. “I chose the front vents because it was the button closest to me. I figured whatever happened between the two particles would happen out in space, and the results would be nowhere as catastrophic as if the particles mingled on board the ship.” “Go on,” Mansel encouraged. Fleury nodded. “I was right—results were better out in space than on the ship. The contents of both particles are so unpredictable that when they mixed in space, they created a star.” “A star!” exclaimed General Brungess. “Now we’re able to create stars!” Fleury’s briefing continued after Brungess had calmed down. “Only problem with the star is, it collapsed instantly and compressed itself. And we all know what happens when a star collapses and folds in on itself.” Lieutenant Hardy answered for the group. “A wormhole.” “Exactly. Since I vented the neutridium and the deutronium right in front of the Explorer, we entered that wormhole just as soon as it formed.” “So that is what caused the violent tremors?” Commander Vaughn asked. “No.” Lieutenant Talaj took it from there. “The ‘violent tremors’ as you put it are owed to the Explorer’s grazing that collapsed star, which ended up being in the middle of the wormhole. It’s often called the ‘singularity.’ We entered this wormhole and came out somewhere else.” “That’s acceptable,” said Mansel, who was always open to new and radical suggestions. “The questions now are where are we and how do we get back to our own time and place?” “I have a proposition, Captain,” Lieutenant Commander Fleury said, steepling his fingers together. “I propose that we entered an alternate universe, not too like or unlike our own.” “An alternate universe?” Mansel echoed. “Like something from that old Star Trek series?” “Precisely.” Fleury left his seat and began to pace around the room. “If that is so, that usually means that there was one critical event here that happened simultaneously as we arrived. That is yet another factor that opened the wormhole.” So what could that one event be?” Mansel asked. “And what do we do when we find that one event?” Fleury shrugged, uncertain. “Hard to tell what that one event was. It could’ve been something on Earth, in Imperial space, or in regions we don’t know exist.” The table went silent as the staff mulled over Fleury’s last comments. “So when—if—we find this one event,” offered Commander Vaughn, “what will happen?” Lieutenant Commander Talaj fielded that question. “Theoretically, if we find and alter that event, the universe will open itself up and allow us passage back to our own time.” “Wait a minute,” interjected Lieutenant Ingle. “You mean that if we alter one random event, the universe will unfold? That’s not possible.” “No one totally understands the working of the universe, Lieutenant,” Talaj responded. “Why don’t we just do the same thing we did to get here? Mix the two particles?” asked General Brungess. The Chief Engineer shook his head. “Not possible,” he said, looking down at the table. “Not enough of either substance left to created and collapse a star." “So we might be stuck here a while?” Lieutenant Hardy asked, looking at Fleury. “Like, how long?” Tony Fleury leaned back in his seat. “It all depends on if we can find that one event,” he said, looking doubtful. “And of all the things that go on in this universe, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll find it anytime soon.” “We might not need to look far,” General Brungess spoke up. “I might have the answer for us.” |
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