Overdrive (27 page)

“Shut up. I know.
And its going as fast as it can.”

“What? This is
it?”

“’Fraid so.”

“Oh shite.”

On the view
screens ahead of them, the orange glow from the fast approaching Nova burst
blotted out most of the stars. Tarquin angled the ship away from it and asked
Ram Terry for their destination.

“Gitane. Its on
the way to Novelle New Zealand and we have a Church outpost there.”

“Why don’t we go
direct to your homeworld?” asked Logan.

“I suspect we’d
get intercepted by the Areopagites. They know that’s where we’d go and will
probably have ships already waiting for us.”

“Fair enough.”

Tarquin shrugged
and fed Gitane’s co-ordinates into the ships AI. “Whatever. We’re at the 10
kilometer clearance zone now."  He looked at the other two. “Ready to make
history? I’m bringing the Overdrive on…now.”

Logan looked
surprised. “Amazing. Over space looks exactly like real space and I didn’t feel
a thing.”

Tarquin rubbed his
forehead. “That’s because we’re still in real space you idiot.”

“Oh.”

Felix’s worried
face appeared under Tarquin’s eyelid. “We should be far enough away from Fever
now Tarq,” he said. “Bring the Overdrive on line.”

Tarquin glared at
him. “Felix, we have a problem.”

◊

Gabriella had just
resumed her seat on the bridge of
Blazing Trumpet
when one of her
Templars reported the
Hot Tucker
moving out of her docking bay.

“Well, request
clearance to depart you moron.”

The Templar looked
scared. “We have Princess. It was denied.”

“Denied?” she
almost screamed. “What do you mean denied?”

Looking unsteady
on his feet, the Templar swallowed before replying. “Fever’s space authority
has denied any departure’s this close to the burst.”

“Well, what the
fuck are they doing," she said, pointing at the view of the
Hot Tucker
on the central display. “Lapping the space port?”

The Templar looked
lost. “I don’t know Princess.”

“It was a
rhetorical question.”

“Oh.”

“Right,” she said,
smiling grimly. “If that’s the way they want to play it.” Swiftly relaying
orders to the crew, the 1km long Valkyrie rose on its AG and made the short
journey to the exit field.

“Captain, bring
the field disruptors on-line.”

“Yes Princess.”

Gabriella settled
back into her seat. “Fire.”

The
Blazing
Trumpet’s
bow weapon’s port contained an arsenal of destructive
potentiality, including field disruptors, massive plasma cannons and
slipmissile batteries. Two field disruptors, each 20 meters in length, sent
glowing pulses of energy at the exit field. The field, not designed to
withstand disruptors of that magnitude, immediately collapsed. The oxygen
filled chamber began to violently empty its contents into the void, sucking
small ships, people and the odd AG cart into space.

Fever’s spaceport
authority, perhaps preparing for the Nova burst or responding to the hostile
action of the Areopagite’s, began closing the outer Nova doors. The doors, 5
meters thick and made from a complex metallic polycarbonate, had an outer
coating designed to reflect the heat from a Nova burst. Unfortunately, the
development company had not seen fit to coat the inner surface of the great
doors. It melted under a withering barrage from the
Blazing Trumpet’s
plasma cannons.

Unheard by the
three ships intentionally heading for the exit and by other ships and
passengers unintentionally taking a jaunt into space, warning sirens starting
screaming inside the asteroid as large vacuum seals were put in place.

The
Blazing
Trumpet
sailed serenely through the still glowing jagged space in the
asteroid’s shell. Massive Ion engines came on line, swiftly moving towards an
intercept with the
Hot Tucker
. An explosively decompressing body spurted
its red contents over the bridge view screen.

Gabriella got out
her nail file. “Get a maintenance robot out there and clear that mess off will
you?." Sammael, standing at her side, moved to obey.

Dwarfed by the
huge Valkyrie, two other ships glided out of the asteroid.

◊

“Eight minutes
Felix.”

“I know. I know. A
couple more minutes and I’ll have the problem nailed. Now piss off.” He cut the
link with Tarquin.

Behind the small
freighter, the Nova burst had almost reached the outer atmosphere of New
Jupiter. The inhabitants of the five settlements on the surface had activated
their Nova screens and heavy duty fields. The inhabitants of one were very
hungry.

The problem with
the Overdrive seemed to be its interface with the ancient Slipdrive. Felix made
a few last hurried adjustments, closed the panel and prayed.

“Alright, try it
now.”

Ironic really.
After spending his entire life dismissing religion and belief as the recourse
of the weak, he resorted to it when it came to the crunch. Contemplating this
dismal thought, he was suddenly struck with a horrible pain in his head and
collapsed, unconscious.

On the bridge,
Tarquin activated the Overdrive. Immediately, his head was wracked by searing
pain. Falling to the floor, he maintained consciousness long enough to watch
Logan do the same.

Puzzled, his own
brain filled with an intense pain, Ram Terry examined the bodies on the floor.
They were still breathing. Reverting to his native language in times of stress,
he posed a deep, theological question to the cosmos.

“Baaaaaaaaaa?”

◊

Behind the
Hot
Tucker
, The Areopagite Valkyrie was almost within firing range. Gabriella
was about to give the order to fire slipmissiles at the freighter’s engines
when it disappeared in a brief, dazzling flash.

“What happened?”
she demanded. “If someone tells me they accidentally blew it up, I will not be
happy.”

The Captain turned
towards her. “I don’t know Princess. It just disappeared.”

“Nospace then.”

“No Princess. Our
sensors report no disturbance in the fabric of Nospace.”

“Fuck it,” she
said. “They must have used the Overdrive. Thought it was broken.”

“Obviously not,”
said Sammael.

“Thanks for that,"
she replied acidly. “Let me think.”

“Ah, Princess…”
The Captain of the Valkyrie approached her chair hesitantly.

“Not now. I’m
busy.”

“But Princess…”

“Fuck off will
you?” The Captain retreated and looked nervously up at the rear view screens.

Gabriella
continued her musing. “Now they won’t go back to Novelle New Zealand. I’m sure
Metatron has that place blockaded by now.” She turned to Sammael. “What’s the
closest inhabited planet between here and Novelle New Zealand?”

“Gitane,
Princess.”

“Right then. Set
course and fire up the Slipdrive.”

“I believe the
Captain wanted to tell you that the Nova burst is about to hit.”

“What!?”

The two ships
following the Valkyrie, seeing their quarry disappear in a flash of light, cut
their losses and engaged their Slipdrives. Filling a volume of space stretching
almost eight hundred million kilometers in every direction, the Nova burst
caught the Valkyrie and swallowed it within an infernal maelstrom of
superheated gas and fire.

The
Blazing
Trumpet
disappeared.

Chapter 8

Felix regained
consciousness and found his head in a soft lap. Softer hands were stroking his
hair. His head, despite the ministrations, felt like someone had hit it with a
large and heavy truncheon. Opening his eyes, he looked up at the concerned face
of Crystal.

“Are you alright?,"
she asked gently.

He groaned. “Yeah.
Felt better though.” He sat up, rubbing his temples, and found himself still in
the engine room.

“What happened?”

Crystal shrugged.
“You tell me?”

“Must have made a
slight miscalculation in my adjustments. Didn’t quite penetrate the barrier to
Overspace, hence the backwash.”

Crystal looked
concerned. “Are we going to be alright though?”

Felix took a deep
breath and exhaled slowly. “I think so. If the pain was any indication, we have
certainly made the transition to Overspace and back out again.” He looked at
her curiously.

“How about you?
You don’t look like you suffered from the backwash at all.”

She smiled almost
shyly. “I didn’t black out and my headache only lasted a few minutes. Ram
Terry’s the same. Walter, Bruce and your two mates are still out.”

“Looks like I’ve
got some work to do.”

“Before you do, I
think you should come and have a look on the bridge.”

“Why?”

“Don’t argue. Just
come.”

“Oh, alright.”

She helped him to
his feet and led the way to the bridge. They passed the prone forms of Walter
and Derek in the cargo bay. Crystal had found some soft packing material and
placed it under their heads.

Arriving in the
bridge, they found Ram Terry perched atop one of the command chairs. He was
looking out at something on the display screen and didn’t notice Felix and
Crystal’s entrance. Logan and Tarquin, also with packing material for pillows,
were starting to stir on the floor.

“Your Raminess.
He’s here," said Crystal.

Ram Terry started
at the sound of her voice and looked around.

“Crystal.” He
breathed with relief. “You startled me.”

“What are you
looking at?” asked Felix.

The ruler of the
Church of the Holy Lamb got down off the chair before replying. “I think you
should have a look for yourself.”

The display
console was set in such a way as to be only visible from one of the two command
seats. Felix moved into a position where he could see it. His mouth opened in
disbelief.

The screen, quite
literally, was filled with stars.

◊

“So what are you
trying to tell us Felix?," asked Logan.

They had gathered
in the cargo bay, which although cramped, was the only space on the ship large
enough to accommodate them all.

Felix looked
elated, surprised and slightly confused. “Well, it seems the Overdrive had an
unexpected side effect, something we never encountered in the test phase.”

“Yeah, come on,
out with it,” said an impatient Tarquin. His head was still pounding.

“We didn’t get to
Gitane as expected…”

“Really,"
said Logan dryly.

“…we jumped,
almost instantaneously I might add, to the centre of the galaxy. Hence the
reason for all the stars.” He smiled at the others. The others looked suitably
impressed.

“I may be a little
slower than you others, but doesn’t that put us in a bit of a predicament?,"
asked Walter.

Felix’s smile
faltered. One of the major problems with intellectuals is that they rarely stop
to consider the implications of their genius. Felix was no different.

“But don’t you
understand?” he pleaded. “This is unprecedented in the history of humankind. To
be able to travel instantaneously over thousands of light years is amazing. It
will revolutionize space travel in a way that the Overdrive never could.”

“Look Felix,” said
Logan impatiently. “Bollocks to that. Can you get us back to Gitane or not?”

“I suppose so, he
said hesitantly. “I think I remember all the modifications I made, but don’t
you guys want to have a look around first. Honestly, we’re the first people,
excuse me your Raminess…”

“You’re excused”

“To have made it
to the centre of the galaxy. Imagine that. We can check out the local stars.
Even try and find evidence of intelligent extraterrestrials.”

“Sorry to rain on
your parade,” said Tarquin. “But the life support on this ship can only sustain
us for another 6 hours."

Felix looked
crestfallen. “Bugger.”

Crystal gave him a
hug and planted a full kiss on his lips. “Never mind sweet. We can find some
nice planet with a beach next time we come here.”

Felix perked up
slightly and looked guiltily around at the others. “Well, I suppose I should go
and make those repairs.”

“That’s probably a
good idea," said Logan.

“I’ll come with
you," said Crystal. Felix nodded and headed off for the engine room,
Crystal trailing in his wake.