Escape to Earth-Living Legends (24 page)

Michael smiled at her and nodded. The Welken Royal said, “Let’s do this. Just tell us what you think and we’ll stop you when we’re completely over our heads or lost.”

Michael looked at Lukas and he shrugged. He really wished his father was present but he decided to give it another try. He looked out at the room and started. “I think when I’ve tried to convey what I’m seeing to others, I jumped into the nuts and bolts without setting up what makes me believe what I’m seeing.” Michael lifted a small microphone, “Computer please put the module on the layers of space on the main monitor.” The main monitor suddenly showed an image of what looked like a multi-layered golf ball. There was a huge black inner core with a small pink layer around it. Above the pink layer was another layer with multiple colors.

Michael looked at the image and said, “This image is what we use to teach our new pilots about the various places they can fly their ships.” Michael looked out at the assembly, “Does everyone recognize this image?” Most nodded but many said, “Yes.”

Michael smiled and said, “I want you to look at this image and tell me which of those spaces came first.” The room was silent as they thought about what Michael asked.

After ten minutes, Salud said where everyone could hear, “OH MY GOD!” Michael looked at her. She was shaking her head and looked at him, “You have to be right!”

Lukas’ eyes were narrow as she looked at him, “What’s the order? Which came first, then second, and finally third?” Lukas looked back up at the image and Salud said, “And how do they differ?” Lukas’s eyes went wide and Salud smiled, “You got it?”

“I do.”

The Welken Royal commanded, “Will one of you tell me what’s going on?!”

Michael used an electronic pointer and moved it to the black inner layer, “Do any of you think the other two spaces existed before the void?”

A Goran Fleet Commander thought, “Why do you think the void was first?”

Michael did a quick shrug, “Possibly because the other two are above it.” The Goran nodded sheepishly. Michael waited and no one else responded to his question. “If the void came first, what came second?”

The Royal said, “It must be the barrier to separate normal space from the void.”

Michael nodded, “Now what do we know about the void and the barrier. How are they alike and how are they different?”

The Audon said, “You can move faster than light in both of them.”

Michael nodded, “And the main difference is?”

“You can move much faster in the barrier than you can in the void.”

Michael looked out at the room and said slowly and deliberately, “So in the first space, you can travel faster than the speed of light. In the second space you can travel much faster than you can in the void.” He paused and said, “If that pattern holds true…what would that mean for normal space?” Michael expected the largest resistance to the concept to come from the Leaders and military but he immediately heard an uproar come from the scientists. “This is Hog wash!” “Impossible.” “You are out of your mind!” “You can’t travel faster than light in normal space!” He waited and looked at the Welken Royal. He stared at Michael and it was clear he understood what Michael was saying. Michael smiled and listened to the shouting scientists.

Lukas sounded a tone and the room slowly grew silent. He looked at Michael and said, “You have a reason to believe this?” Michael nodded. “Share your reasoning with us.”

Michael smiled, “I’m going to ask someone else to do that.” Lukas’s head went back and Michael turned around, “Jan, please step forward and tell us what you know about this.” Jan looked like a deer caught in the headlights. She started shaking her head and Michael said, “Relax, I know you’ve read a lot of information on things that relate to this discussion. You don’t have to say if you believe them or not. Just share what you’ve read.”

Michael stood up and took the microphone out of its holder and took it to her. He held it out to her and she closed her eyes and blew out a slow breath. She opened her eyes and Michael lowered his eyes. She shook her head and took the microphone. She walked out in front of the huge table and shook her head again. Michael looked around the room and leaned over Salud’s shoulder and said into her microphone, “Hold your comments until she finishes and I’ll entertain any questions.” Michael went to his chair and nodded to Jan. Josey and Jay looked at each other and grew angry. If any one said anything disparaging to Jan…

Jan bit her upper lip slightly and then turned to the scientists, “One of you yelled that it’s impossible for anything to move faster than the speed of light in normal space. You know that’s not true and I’m surprised you said it.” The scientist that shouted the remark had to force herself to be silent. Jan looked around the room and said, “There have been experiments that have been done in the early twentieth century on my home world that showed things can happen in normal space faster than the speed of light. It has been proven that if an energy wave is divided into two identical waves that then move away from each other at the speed of light, if something happens to one of them that changes it, the other wave instantly undergoes the same change even if they’re separated by light years. The same thing happens with objects made of matter. If a piece of matter is split into two identical pieces, if one of them undergoes a change, its twin will instantly change to match it.” The scientist that shouted moved back in their chair and tried to look small.

The Myot Ruler shouted, “That’s a bunch of rubbish!”

A Myot Scientist sitting in the second row stood up, “Great Leader, what she’s saying is true. It has been proven that it happens.”

The Myot Ruler looked at his scientist and was thankful he had interrupted to prevent him from being embarrassed further. Michael leaned over and said into Lukas’s microphone, “Please hold your comments.” He looked at Jan, “Please continue.”

Jan looked out at the assembly and said, “I thought that this was an absurd idea and that the ones conducting the experiments had to have made a mistake. But the more I read about their findings, I realized I couldn’t argue with the results. So, I looked for information on how the effect was explained. There were two schools of thought and one postulated that somehow, the objects were never really separated but were somehow still in contact with each other. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity did not match up with this position; after all, he originally postulated that nothing can happen faster than the speed of light. He took the position that the original energy wave or piece of matter had a predetermined shape that it would take and both twins took that shape at the appropriate moment.” She waited and watched the assembly digest that bit of information. “In other words, everything in the universe has a predetermined outcome.”

The Audon was waving his arm and moving up and down in his chair. Jan saw him and looked at Michael, “I think he should be allowed to speak.”

Michael leaned over and said, “Go ahead.”

“Are you trying to tell me that everything is predetermined?”

“That’s how Einstein explained this.”

“Yes, but are you saying that free will doesn’t exist?”

“If you can prove it does, Einstein’s explanation falls apart.”

“But…OK, let’s say I have a multi-surfaced ball with many behaviors on it. I roll it and it comes up ‘lay on the floor’.”

“Einstein would say it was predetermined that it would come up that way.”

“And if I ignore the first roll, roll it again and it says jump up twice.”

“Einstein would say it was predetermined you would roll it twice.”

“That’s absolutely asinine!”

Michael watched Jan interacting with the Audon and was amazed that the Leader was not at all angered by her. She seemed to disarm him with her smile and gentle delivery.

Jan looked at the scientists sitting in front of her and said, “It really isn’t. Many here today believe exactly that and they possess more information than many of us here.” Many of the scientists nodded.

The Audon snorted, “That’s a circular argument. No matter what happens, you can always say it was predetermined.”

Jan shrugged, “If you can prove free will, the argument falls apart. But so far, no one has come up with an experiment to prove free will.”

Michael smiled and said, “Thank you, Commodore.” Jan nodded, walked around the table, and handed Michael the microphone. He watched her go back to her seat and heard Josey say, “Jan, you make my head hurt!”

Jay kept his eyes on Michael and heard Josey. He saw something in Michael’s eyes as Michael looked at him. Jay closed his eyes and nodded slightly. He opened them and saw Michael smiling. He knew he had a new brother. Michael turned around as Jan said, “If you would just read the material, you’d get it.”

“Forget it; you’re the reader.” Jay winced and knew Michael was listening. Oh well.

The Welken looked at Michael with his head cocked to the side, “What does all this mean, First Commander?”

Michael smiled. The Welken was with him. “I intend to conduct an experiment that will prove we have free will.”

Everyone in the room, and especially the scientists, were surprised by the comment.

“And exactly how do you intend to do that?”

“We’re going to prove that it’s possible to move in normal space faster than in the barrier.”

“Now that I would like to see.”

Michael turned around and looked at Jan, “Which school do you belong to?”

Jan turned from Josey and said, “I don’t believe everything is predestined. I believe those waves and objects are still in some kind of contact.”

“With your permission, I’d like to do something.”

“What is that?”

Michael looked at the Goran High Leader, “I want you to take her thoughts on this subject and share them with all of the scientists in the room. Especially Amanda, Trevor, Budge and Nudge.”

Amanda said, “Hey, I agree with Einstein.”

“Then you won’t mind seeing a different point of view.” Michael looked at Jan and saw her uneasiness. Michael smiled, “Come on, Jan. Averel has invaded your privacy more times than you can count and she’s never revealed what she sees. The High Leader will only share information that relates to the topic you just discussed.”

“Are you certain about that?”

The Goran Leader stood up, “You may be assured that is all that will be shared.”

Jan sighed and tilted her head, “Let’s get this over with.” The Goran stood up and stared at Jan. Every scientist and engineer in the huge room closed their eyes as the information was linked to their minds.

It took longer than Michael expected and at the end the Goran said, “There was a great deal she didn’t mention.”

Jan shrugged, “I didn’t want to sound crazy.”

Michael looked at Nudge and Budge and saw their eyes were looking off in the distance. Many of the scientists had that expression and Amanda said, “OH MY HARD HEAD!”

Trevor smiled, “Looks like old Einstein took the simple route.” Amanda nodded and Michael said, “I’m going to adjourn this meeting for now. The Leaders of the Alliance Members please plan to meet with me tomorrow morning.”

The meeting ended and the attendees rushed up to the front table. Michael listened to those around him but kept his eyes on Jay. Josey started to walk past him and he grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear. Her eyebrows came together and Jay whispered in her ear again. Her eyes widened and she turned and looked at Michael who was staring at her. Josey saw his expression and after a moment, nodded. Michael softly smiled at her and she returned it. She started walking away and Jay took her arm again, “Are you all right?”

“I am. I think I realized when he started discussing relativity that I was out of my league. However, there is one person that I’ve given a lot of thought to and it’s time I did something about it.” Jay’s head went back as she walked down the row on the back wall and stopped in front of Budge, “I have a question I need your help answering.”

Budge smiled, “What is that, Josey?”

“What does it take for a girl to get a man’s attention?”

Budge’s head went back, “Are you talking about yourself?”

“Who else?”

“Well that’s easy; just walk in the room.”

“Then why have you ignored me?” Budge’s mouth fell open and Josey said, “Come on, we’ll discuss it over dinner.” Budge closed his mouth and rushed to catch up with her. She took his hand as they left the room.

Nudge walked up next to Jay, put his arm on his shoulder, and watched them leave. “Now that’s something I didn’t expect.” Jay nodded. “Do you think he’s up to the task?”

Jay started laughing, “Probably not but we won’t tell him.” Nudge laughed and they shook hands.

Michael listened to the exchange and smiled. He looked at Jan, who was surrounded by scientists. She glanced his way and saw him staring at her. She saw something in his eyes and, after a moment, she smiled. She didn’t need telepathy to see what Michael was feeling. She turned back to the scientists and didn’t care if this was predestined or not. Life had just changed.

M
ichael looked at Jan sitting at the weapon’s console on their new Attackship and saw she was nervous. “Hey.”

Jan replied in a shaky voice, “Hey.”

Michael stared at her and took a breath. He looked at the floor and then looked up at her, “I need you to try and understand something.”

“Such as?”

Michael blew out the breath he was holding. “I’m certain that you’re aware that I’m attracted to you?” Jan stared at him and then nodded. “The thing is, I’ve never been in a relationship with a woman. I was deprived of that in school and I’m moving through uncharted space here. I don’t know how to act, what to say, or any of the other things a man would do with someone he was attracted toward. If you are frightened of me, we will never look at what this could possibly become. We’ll be stuck in place without moving forward. That frightens me more than I can say. I’m out of my depth here.”

Jan stared at him and saw the trouble behind his eyes. She relaxed and stood up. She walked across the bridge and put a hand on each of his command chair arms. She leaned in and kissed him gently. She backed up and he pulled her in and kissed her again. The kiss lasted much longer and when Michael broke the kiss he saw her huge smile. “What? Did I do it wrong?”