69
Surrounded by the machinery that filled this part of the ship, Raul hung in the air, suspended by the stasis field, which now responded to his mental commands as easily as his missing legs once had. His connection to the Rho Ship was better now, evolving in a way that changed with each of his repairs to the damaged shipboard systems. With each of the micro-power cells he managed to bring online, his abilities increased. Not his mental abilities; those were tied solely to the neural network that formed the starship’s computerized brain.
But each power increase allowed Raul to bring new systems online, giving him better control of the gravitational worm fiber technology with which he had been experimenting. Initially, the worm fibers had provided a tiny point of access to a distant location, so small that he could only tap into existing communication networks. The power required for even those tiny space-time singularities was monstrous, each attempt bringing him close to draining his shipboard reserves. If he totally drained the power, then the neural network would fail, leaving him without the knowledge to repair the system.
That danger should have been enough to stop him from trying anything else until he had totally solved the power problem. But a stronger impulse consumed him: Heather.
In his darkest moment of despair, while he had briefly been disconnected from his starship, one thought had saved him, giving him a reason to reconnect. A new purpose seized his mind, a purpose that drove him to restore much more of the ship’s former glory.
At this point, Raul didn’t even have a good plan of how he was going to accomplish what he wanted. He wasn’t worried though. He would figure it out. Somehow, Raul would get Heather to come to him. Then he would introduce her to the power that came from a true connection. He would perform the operation himself so there would be no need to sacrifice those lovely legs.
Raul glanced down at his own legless torso. It wasn’t so bad. He still had all the necessary equipment to slide between those legs. Then Heather would find out just how well he could manipulate the spectral fingers of the stasis field. It was a shame he hadn’t yet had any sexual experience to draw upon, but there would be plenty of time for practice when he had his soul mate. Once he hooked her into the ship, he would be able to monitor exactly what felt good and what didn’t. Raul took a deep breath. He’d have Heather begging for more before she knew what was happening.
Noticing his rising heart rate, Raul turned his attention back to the task at hand. He could daydream later.
With the new matter conversion cell operational, he’d been able to recharge the ship’s energy storage units. With that reserve power added to what was produced by the two operational matter conversion cells there should be enough to create a larger worm fiber, one that could serve as an optical pinhole. Maintaining the worm fiber viewer for several minutes should be possible.
The problem was that Raul didn’t have enough power to do that and to completely mask the external effects such a worm fiber would produce. The best he could do was to reduce the gravitational signature to a minimum.
Raul reached out with his mind, his neural network bringing the power cells up to maximum as he began the worm fiber generation sequence. A tiny gravitational wave pulsed outward as the singularity came into existence, its extraordinary potential well contained by the alien technology that brought it into being. It hung there in front of him, so tiny that no human eye could see it, no broader in diameter than a molecule, a place where here and there touched.
No longer aware of his own body, Raul’s mind manipulated the massive computing power of his neural network, viewing and correcting for the changes in the singularity so that it stabilized despite nature’s best efforts to destroy the microscopic abomination.
Raul shifted the controlling fields, drawing much more heavily on the power available to the system. Once again a gravitational pulse swept outward, this one larger than the last, possibly even detectable by Dr. Stephenson’s instruments. The worm fiber bulged, quickly expanding to the size of a visible pinpoint as Raul fought to reestablish control, something that required him to divert all available computational resources to the task. For several seconds the outcome of his efforts remained in doubt; then, as if it had just given up the fight, the new, larger worm fiber stabilized.
Without hesitation, Raul focused on the pinhole, changing the visible zoom level until he could see through it to the far side. It was a perfect peephole, one side of which was here in the ship while the other side was wherever he chose. Raul recognized the outside of the building that housed Rho Division, but he did not have time to linger. Shifting the containment equations slightly, Raul experimented on moving the far end of the worm fiber. The first shift took him too far, the dense evergreen forest outside producing a momentary disorientation as he recalculated his position. British Colombia.
Three more jumps provided the necessary calibration of his equipment. Raul shifted the fiber back to central Los Alamos, moving it along rapidly now. The view froze on a familiar house, the windows now broken out by vandals, the flowers that had once graced the window boxes long since dead.
A momentary pang of remorse surged through Raul’s mind at the thought of his dead father. Where was his mother? As Raul lingered, a sudden awareness of his rapidly dwindling power supply caused him to reassert self-control, once more moving the viewer along the highway at a speed no car could match. Reaching White Rock, Raul positioned the worm fiber outside another familiar house. It passed through the front door as if it had no more substance than a dream.
The living room was empty, as was the kitchen. A peek into the garage revealed that the family van was missing. So Heather must be out with her mom and dad. A wave of disappointment assaulted Raul, but he refused to allow it to slow him. Moving the viewer upstairs, he once again passed through a door, this time into Heather’s bedroom.
Her bed was a double, the pillow covers and duvet done in beautiful hand-stitched floral patterns. As the power alarms sounded in his mind, Raul lingered just an instant longer, feeling his heart thumping in his chest as he stared at the place where Heather slept.
Allowing the worm fiber to collapse in upon itself as he powered the system down, Raul smiled. It would take several days to restore the energy reserves he had just used up. But when he did, he would be looking in on his old girlfriend once again. And next time he would make sure it happened around bed time.