Faster Than Light: Babel Among the Stars

3.

TheRelocation began almost as soon as the Spatial Preservation Act wassigned by Chairman Harlan Stephens. It was a period of six months,scheduled pursuant to the Act, in which the Republic would slowlydecommission its entire fleet of faster-than-light starships. Duringthis period, the remaining starships would run alternate routesbetween all the habitable planets. They would no longer carry tradegoods or supplies, only people. The Spatial Preservation Act gaveevery person in the galaxy the right to demand a single ticket to anycolonized planet. This way, in theory, everyone could choose wherethey would live out the rest of their lives.

Ofcourse, this wasn’t how the Republic spun the situation. They toldeveryone that the end of faster-than-light travel was temporary. They assured the people that their scientists would work tirelesslyon a solution to the reality-warping problem of the Heilmann Drive. Either they would fix the Heilmann Drive or come up with an entirelynew engine. The Republic said that the Relocation was designed toallow people to choose where they would spend their “extendedplanetary residence” until the trade routes could be safelyre-opened.

Anyonewho paid attention knew this was a lie. The Republic was not puttingits starships into drydock. They were not sealing them away. Theywere destroying them. Every time a starship was decommissioned, itwas disassembled and melted down into scrap metal. The few engineersand scientists who knew how to build a Heilmann Drive weresequestered on Earth. They were forbidden to speak to anyone, evento confirm whether or not they were working on a solution to restorefaster-than-light travel.

Asthe Relocation wound down, people began to realize that it was theend of inter-galactic travel. Tickets aboard the remaining shipswere sold on the black market at exorbitant prices. Riots consumedthe major starports, even forcing some of them to shut down. Thiscut off several planets before the end of the Relocation. One byone, planets were isolated from the rest of the galaxy. And itseemed like that isolation would last forever.

Theend approached, and a name for this new era emerged. They called itthe Fall. After almost two thousand years of skipping across thestars, mankind had been struck down and descended back to theconfines of the planets.

Noteveryone accepted this fate.

*

Sethsat in his cell and stared at the wall. His arms hurt from beingbound behind his back for several hours. He was starting to wonderif he’d made a terrible mistake. From what he knew about theRepublic legal system, if they decided to charge him with disruptingthe public assembly, he wouldn’t see freedom for at least a year. He’d be stuck in a cell just like this one. Absalom and the Bureauof Criminal Affairs would be sure of that. By the end of hissentence, every starship in the galaxy would be destroyed. It wouldall be over and there would be nothing to be saved.

Hoursago, when he was standing at the assembly and listening to ChairmanStephens, he thought that the best thing he could do was cause ascene. No one around him was outraged. No one was protesting. Theywere all going to take the Fall sitting down. They refused to put upa fight. He thought that if he showed everyone that they couldresist, then maybe they would follow suit. If he questioned thechairman, maybe they would question him too.

Thatwas a foolish hope. Most likely, no one even heard him once he wason stage. All everyone saw was a crazy young man get stun-prodded. By now, the Republic had probably picked through his therapists’records for choice quotes, fed them to the media, and made him out tobe an unstable loner.

Nowthere was nothing he could do to stop the Fall. It was inevitableand it was going to all happen while he was stuck in a jail cell.

Hismind raced with all the other things he could have done. He shouldhave started small, convinced others to follow him. He should havemade someone else charge the stage. It was a good opening gambit,but it was a poor move on its own. Once the patsy was in jail, Sethcould have built him up to be a martyr for the cause.

TheRepublic imprisoned people who opposed their ideology all the time. Unfortunately, the Republic’s ideology was incredibly popular onEarth. The Fall wasn’t popular. An imprisoned dissenter could bea catalyst for a true opposition movement...but only in the righthands. Seth knew that he could help build a narrative like that. But that meant he had to get out of jail.

Sethstruck his head against the bulkhead in frustration. He hated thathe had to depend on other people. It was entirely possible thatthere were others like him on Earth—people who saw his brief momentof rebellion and wanted to follow in his footsteps. But no matterhow smart they were, no matter how dedicated, Seth couldn’t trustthem to continue his fight. He had to do it himself. Now, becauseof his foolish hastiness, that would be impossible.

Thedoor on the far end of the room slid open. Seth sat up, expecting tosee Commissar Absalom. Instead, it was just one of the guards. Hewore a red jumpsuit that was fading near the collar and the sleeves. Seth knew that this meant he’d been here for a long time. Mostjail employees were young. Their uniforms were bright and freshlypressed. Jail guard was a low-level post in the Bureau of CriminalAffairs and most people were promoted out of it within months. Notthis guard. He was probably starting to think he’d spend hisentire career here.

Sethsmiled. This meant one of two things. Either he wasn’t very goodat his job or he wasn’t very good at following orders. Either way,it gave him hope.

“Finallydinner time?” Seth asked. He saw the guard was carrying a traycovered in foil. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been in jail butit made sense they would eventually have to feed him.

Theguard looked down at Seth and gave him a half-hearted grin. “Breakfast,” he replied. “It’s morning.”

Sethmarveled at this. The time passed far quicker than he expected. “Nowonder I’m starved,” he said. The guard set the tray on theground and pushed it towards the energy field surrounding the door toSeth’s cell. “You know you’re the first one to come and seeme? Other than the commissar, of course.”

Almostimmediately, the guard straightened up. He smoothed out the front ofhis uniform and looked left and right. “There... There is acommissar here?” he asked.

Thiswas even better than Seth hoped. The guard knew nothing about thecircumstances surrounding his incarceration.

“That’sright,” Seth said. “His name is Phaer Absalom. I’m surprisedyou haven’t seen him around. He’s hard to miss.”

Theguard started to sweat. Seth could tell that he was thinking. Maybehe had seen Absalom, just never took notice of the rank on hisuniform. After all, Absalom was young for his post and it was easyto be distracted by his leg. “Well, I’ve got your breakfast. Maybe I should go--”

“Youwouldn’t want to make any mistakes,” Seth interrupted him. “Notnow, not when there’s a commissar snooping around.”

“Mistakes?” A brief look of panic flashed across the guard’s eyes. “Mistakeslike what? Did I do something wrong?”

Sethshrugged. He carefully moved across the ground, towards the plate. Then he wiggled his wrists, still tied behind his back. “How am Isupposed to eat like this?” Seth asked.

“I... I don’t know,” the guard replied. “That’s a good question. We don’t usually restrain our prisoners here and... Oh... Maybe Ishould go ask someone if I’m supposed to untie you.”

Witha grin, Seth craned his neck to make eye contact with the guard. “You’re clearly supposed to untie me. Otherwise, I’m not goingto be able to eat. And then I’ll pass out and everyone will wonderwhy I wasn’t given any food.”

“Butto untie you, I’ll have to deactivate the energy field. Then youmight be able to escape.”

“Wherewould I escape to? This is a jail. I don’t think I would make itfar.” Seth laughed. He pushed himself a few inches closer to theenergy field. “What’s your name?” he asked.

Theguard considered whether or not he should answer. He must havedecided there was no harm in it. “Arthur Weller,” he said.

Sethnodded. “And how long have you worked here, Arthur?”

“Fiveyears.” It was just like Seth suspected. That was a long time forsomeone to remain a prison guard. Most people within the Bureau werestreet investigators or military police five years into their career.

“You’venever seen a prisoner tied up before? That’s a surprise.”

“It’snot how we do things here. We usually don’t need to.”

“Whereis ‘here’?”

Again,Arthur spent a few seconds wondering if he should respond to Seth’sinquiry. Again, however, he chose to trust his prisoner. “CentralAmericas Correctional Facility Six,” Arthur said. “East wing.”

Sethtook a deep breath. This was interesting. He already figured he wasin the American Zone. The public assembly where he was arrested wasonly a few miles from the RSIR campus. RSIR was located on the coastof the Washington Region. That made sense. But CorrectionalFacility Six was considerably further south in the American Zone,well within the Columbian Region. There were at least fourteen otherlarge jails between RSIR and Correctional Facility Six.

“Whydid they bring me here?” Seth asked aloud.

“Itsaid on the tablet outside that you disrupted a public assembly,”Arthur replied. He was trying to be helpful but he just soundedfoolish.

Everythingstarted to come together in his head. That was why it was time forbreakfast. They had to transport him across the continent. But why? Why couldn’t they just take him to one of the many adjacent jails? Why would they take him all the way here?

“Itdid work,” Seth said aloud. A wide smile started to spread acrosshis face. “I made it on camera. They heard me. And now... Someone thinks that I need to be hidden.”

Arthurwas puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

“It’salmost fifteen hours later,” Seth replied. “By now, there arevid clips of me being hit with a stun-prod circulating the planet. Most people probably think I deserved it. Maybe I did. But thereare enough people who think I didn’t.”

“I’mso confused,” Arthur said.

Sethtook a deep breath. “Don’t worry. This is good for you. I wasgoing to try and escape. I’m still not sure how I was going to dothat yet, but I would have figured something out. It would have madeyou look really bad no matter what. But good news, Arthur! I don’thave to do that.”

“Youwere going to escape?” Arthur asked. “So that’s why you wantedme to untie you.”

“No!”Seth exclaimed. He gritted his teeth together. Now that he’dfigured everything out, trying to talk with Arthur was justinfuriating. “I wanted you to untie me so I could eat breakfast. I was going to figure out how to escape after that.”

“What?”

Thatwas it. Seth was done. He didn’t even want to deal with the guardlong enough to get himself untied anymore. “Just bring me thecommissar. Tell him that I’m ready to deal.”

“Deal?”

“He’llunderstand.”

*

Sethleaned to the side and reached across his body. After hours ofimprisonment, it felt good to stretch. His arms and hands werestiff. Even his back ached. And he was still hungry, but that couldwait.

“Iwasn’t the first protester, was I?” Seth asked. “Just thefirst to make it on camera. The first to really get noticed by thepublic.”

CommissarAbsalom grunted. He leaned against the bulkhead near the door. “Ido not know what you’re talking about.”

“TheRepublic has done a good job. Or it was doing a good job. When Iwatched the news, it sounded like everyone was happy about the Fall.They all accepted it. I wondered how that could possibly be thecase. But now I know. You just hid it. You covered up all thedissent because you wanted all the dissenters to think they werealone.”

Thecommissar was silent. Seth watched him as he thought. He wasworried. That meant Seth was more right than wrong. Maybe some ofthe details were off, but there was enough there that he’d hit anerve with Absalom.

“Whatare you thinking, commissar?” Seth asked.

Absalomglared at Seth through the energy field. “I am wondering how youcould be so confident when I control your fate. If I gave the word,you would never see the light of day again.”

Thissent a chill down Seth’s spine. The thought terrified him. Ifbeing stuck on Earth forever, was bad, living in a cell for the restof his life was a hundred times worse. But that wasn’t going tohappen. Seth was sure of it, so he hid his fear well.

“Arethey using my words?” Seth forced a smile. “I thought sayingthat the Republic was taking the stars away from the people wasdramatic. Maybe overdramatic, but I wasn’t going for subtlety. Are the new protestors copying me?”

CommissarAbsalom clenched his teeth. He was trying to hold back his anger. It didn’t work. “How can you know what’s going on out there?”he shouted. Little specks of saliva flew into the air in front ofhis face. “It’s not possible! You’re nothing but a hell-boundliar! It’s--”

Sethbreathed a sigh of relief. He was on the right path. Now he had todrive the point home. He had to scare the commissar even more. “Minutes after I was arrested, video of my outburst spread acrossthe communication networks,” he said. “It was too fast for youto control. The media couldn’t suppress it, only try and spin it. They called me crazy. They might have even lied and said I wasdiagnosed with some kind of mental defect. But this just made itworse. The people were primed to turn on the Spatial PreservationAct. The more the media tried to control the narrative, the morethey rejected it. Soon there were similar outbursts at smallerassemblies across the globe and--”

“SHUTUP!” Absalom screamed. He reached up and grabbed at his temples. “You are just guessing. You can’t possibly understand what Ihave to deal with.”

Quietsettled across the room. Seth knew he shouldn’t push Absalom evenfurther. As he’d indicated, the commissar had the power to havehim shipped off to a remote prison for the rest of his life. Even ifthat would be a terrible political move, Absalom might just do it outof anger. If Seth was going to out-wit the commissar, he would haveto make sure the commissar kept his wits about him.

“Youthink you are some sort of freedom fighter,” Absalom said. “Butwith one stupid, fool-hardy outburst, you have undone months of work. It was not easy to get the people to accept the SpatialPreservation Act.”

Sethtook a deep breath. He still had to proceed carefully. “So youadmit that the Fall is unpopular?”

“TheFall? What a ridiculous name.”

“Weflew among the stars. And now...”

Absalomsighed. “It is apt, but it fails to understand the complexity ofthe situation.”

Sethturned and headed towards the bench near the back of his cell. Hewas glad to be free of his bonds, but he didn’t want to standanymore. He thought it might make him seem too confrontational. Even though he was sure he could manipulate the commissar, he wasn’tin control.

“Youhave a problem,” Seth said. “I’m that problem. Yes, I’veguessed about most of it, but I know that I was transported acrossthe continent for a reason. I know that you’re here for a reason. Clearly, I did something. Something...interesting.”

“Isuppose it does not hurt to tell you,” Absalom replied. “Thatyou have guessed correct. The Republic is so benevolent that, forhundreds of years, there has been no reason to protest.”

“Wrong,”Seth exclaimed.

Absalomheld up his hand. “I don’t want to hear your theories. I’mtalking about the truth. I’m talking about history. But thatdoesn’t matter. What matters is that the people have forgotten howto stand up to the Republic. And now, when it is ever so vital thatthey fall in line, I fear you may have reminded them of their power.”

Ittook all of Seth’s strength to resist celebrating. He wanted tocheer, to run around his cell and shout with joy. The people ofEarth were waking up. This was what he always wanted to happen... Unfortunately, it took the end of space travel to do it. No amountof protest was going to wrestle control of the Heilmann Drive awayfrom the Republic in the coming months. This victory was so pyrrhicthat it wasn’t a victory at all.

Foras long as he could remember, all Seth wanted was a revolution. TheRepublic had finally done something so terrible that the people werewilling to fight back. But these means did not justify the ends. Seth now had a more important goal. He had to prevent the Fall. Theprotests would help, but they wouldn’t be enough.

“Timeis short, commissar,” Seth said. “People are angry. They’regoing to get angrier. It’s been less than a day. You can stillspin this to save yourself a lot of trouble.”

Absalomstared at Seth, puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

“Forthe moment, I am the face of the uprising. I got within a few feetof the Chairman. I asked him the question on everyone’s lips. ButI’m only the start. By the end of the week, everyone will forgetabout me. There will be a thousand faces like mine filling thestreets. You need to use me while you still can.”

“Useyou? Mr. Garland, you’re not making any sense.”

Sethtook a deep breath. He hated what he had to do next. “Make mepart of your team,” he said. “Let me take a look at the plansfor enforcing the Spatial Preservation Act. Let me see the data fromthe scientists about the dangers of the Heilmann Drive. Bring mealong when you decommission the starships. It will look like you aretaking your criticism to heart. More importantly, it will look likeI was proven wrong.”

CommissarAbsalom was silent. He stared at the ground. Seth wondered if he’doverplayed his hand. Did he move too quickly? Did the commissar seethrough him? There was no way he could guess what Seth planned, buthe could certainly deduce that there was an ulterior motive behindhis suggestions.

“Yourdistaste for the Republic is well-documented, Mr. Garland. In lightof that, am I supposed to believe that you staged this entire fiascojust to become part of a Republic task force? What are you playingat? Surely this is all a ruse to sabotage me somehow.”

Sethshrugged. “What could I be playing at? I assume that I’ll beunder military supervision the entire time. What could I do tosabotage you?”

Absalomconsidered this. As expected, he could think of nothing Seth coulddo to stop the enforcement of the Spatial Preservation Act rightunder the noses of the Republic security forces. Still, Seth’ssuggestion didn’t sit right with him. “Why do you want this?”

NowSeth really had to work. It was obvious Absalom wouldn’t take hisoffer at face value. He’d risked prison to stand up against theFall. Now he was claiming that he would just turn his back on hisown cause. Seth had to come up with a reason for getting arrested,for going through with a charade just to offer this plan.

“Yougot me,” Seth said. “This is really what I wanted. I wantinside access to the beginning of the Fall. That’s why I chargedthe stage. I wanted to be noticed, and now I am... You know why?” Absalom shrugged. Seth laughed, as if it was all so simple. “Whenthis is all over, I’m going to write the definitive book about theFall.”

“Abook?” Absalom asked, incredulously.

“Myeducation at RSIR is worthless now. I’ve spent the last coupleyears learning how to solve disputes on other worlds. Soon, therewill be no other worlds. So I decided I would become a writer. Whatbetter way to start than by writing the definitive account of theFall?”

Sethheld his breath. He wasn’t sure if Absalom would buy it. Thestory felt ridiculous. But it was the best he could do on shortnotice. He started a series of protests so that he would berecruited into Absalom’s team, where he would get an inside look atthe beginning of the Fall.

Finally,Absalom spoke. He didn’t even address Seth’s cover story. “Youare right. If we integrate you into our team, it will show thepeople that the Republic listens. The Republic is transparent—atrue government for its people.” A strange glint appeared inAbsalom’s eye. It was almost like he believed what he was saying. “So, are you be willing to publicly state that you were wrong aboutthe Spatial Preservation Act?”

“Areyou asking me to lie?” Seth replied.

“Wewill give you access to everything you asked for. Once you see it, Iam sure you will be convinced that I’m right. But if I’m goingto consider your offer, I have to know that you will publiclydenounce the dissent against the Act. That is the only way this willwork.”

Sethfelt sick to his stomach. He was about to betray everything hebelieved in. But it was the only choice. It was the only way hecould hope to stop the Fall.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll do it.”