Faster Than Light: Babel Among the Stars

6.

Theoutrage over the Spatial Preservation Act was not limited to Earth,or even the three planets under Republic control. Riots and protestsbroke out everywhere, especially at ports and docks where seats ondeparting starships grew rarer and more expensive.

Notall of the resistance was underground. Several worlds wereunprepared for isolation from the rest of the galaxy. They did nothave infrastructure in place to be self-sufficient. Interplanetarycorporations depended on the trade routes for their very existence. Their shareholders would be bankrupted by the Fall. These planetsand companies organized opposition around the galaxy, and attemptedto pressure the Republic into altering its plans.

Therewere reports that a few groups attempted to seize departing starshipsto prevent the Republic from closing the trading routes. This ledthe Republic to station military officers and troops on all the shipsin the galaxy. The soldiers meant less room for people wishing torelocate one last time before the Fall.

Resentmentincreased across the galaxy, but there was nothing anyone could do toforce the hand of the Republic. They controlled the starships, theycontrolled the trade routes, and they decided that it all had to end.

*

Sethsat in his bed and stared at the pill bottle. It was empty. He’dswallowed the gnostin inside just a few seconds before, and wasalready starting to regret it. There was a chance, however unlikely,that the pill was a fake. Maybe it was poison, and he’d justfinished the job of his assassin. Maybe it was a tracking device,and he was going to lure himself into a trap. Maybe it was all justa complicated scheme overseen by Commissar Absalom to reveal Seth’sduplicity.

Allof these options were entirely realistic to Seth. But thealternative was far more interesting. After all, there were veryfew people or organizations capable of producing a custom gnostincontaining a hidden message. It didn’t just require the ability tomanufacture complex electronics so small that they fit in a pill,though that was a significant hurdle.

Gnostinswere programmed by biochemical engineers and artists who were paid afortune for their work. They created pleasant and controlled dreamsusing only electrical signals transmitted to the brain through theupper digestive track. It was a difficult job. Even the simplestgnostins, which only tapped into small portions of the nervous systemto create vague pleasurable sensations, had to sell hundreds ofthousands to turn a profit. Tailoring an individual gnostin for asingle message would cost so much money, regardless of otherconcerns, that the possibility was too intriguing to ignore.

Sethdidn’t like gnostins. He hated to lose control of his own mind. He hated that the technology was used to deprive his father of hiscraft. But he had to see this through to the end. So what if it waspoison? So what if it was a trap? If the images he’d been copyingwere not the real Heilmann Drive plans, Seth had nothing to lose.

Moreimportantly, it was too late to go back. His lips were numb. He wasalready starting to feel the tranquilizers within the capsule. Theywould lull him to sleep, and then he would experience whatever dreamwas hidden within the intricate circuitry.

Abrief moment of panic surged through his body as he felt his musclesrelax. What if Commissar Absalom or one of his guards decided tocheck on him? They would find him unconscious, clearly under theinfluence of drugs. Absalom would want to know more, maybe he woulddiscover the gnostin and...

Heavyfog rolled into Seth’s consciousness and calmed his mind. Therewas nothing he could do but go with it. He closed his eyes and wentto sleep.

Darknessoverwhelmed Seth in seconds. It was the kind of darkness that couldonly come with a chemical sleep, sudden and absolute, but he remainedconscious. The gnostin was taking effect immediately, broadcastingsignals to his brain, hijacking his dreams for its own purposes.

Littlepinpricks of light broke through the black air around Seth. Theywere stars, flaming to life in front of him, illuminating the nightsky. One after another broke the darkness, until Seth was staring atthe vast expanse of space.

Atfirst, Seth felt giddy. It was like he was flying through the voidhimself, unencumbered by massive starship around him. He did nothave to glimpse the stars through jaundiced lens of a camera, orthrough the thick protective sheen of hardened windows. His eyesdarted around, picking out the constellations and clusters, trying torecall their names through the haze of sleep. The gnostin gave himonly a measure of control within the dream. It still disrupted hisconcentration and Seth struggled to connect the stars he saw with thestars in his mind.

Beforelong, the excitement faded and Seth was overcome by a profound senseof awe. He was a proud man, and was sure that nothing could humblehim. But here in this vision, he was forced to realize just howsmall he was. No matter what he did with his life, no matter howgreat he became, he would never rival the sheer scale and power ofthe celestial bodies that surrounded him. They burned for millionsof years, eternal forges that fused the elements that made up everyatom of every simple and complex system in the galaxy.

Thisfeeling frightened Seth. He didn’t understand it. It threatenedto engulf him and swallow up his ego. It wanted to destroy him, toremake him into something else.

Wasthis what the religious zealots of Vangelia experienced in the throwsof their passion? Was it this reverence for God that made themcommit atrocities? Was this how the true believers of the Republicfelt? Was this dedication, this all-consuming trust and reverence,what drove him to follow their orders?

Itdidn’t feel so bad. Faith in the galaxy was not faith in some godor some government. Faith in the stars was not mindless. It wasrespectful of the forces which truly created him. It made sense tosubmit to it, to give in, to see what they desired of him and--

No.

Sethshook his head. None of this was real. He wasn’t hovering inspace, surrounded by the stars. He was lying in a bed in a Republicmilitary base, under the influence of a very dangerous pill.

Itwas trying to brainwash him. It was trying to control him.

Sethremembered all the rumors about sensory stimulation. The Republicfeared that it could be used to program someone’s mind, to convincethem to do something they would never do on their own. It was blamedfor terrorist attacks and summarily banned.

Someonewas trying to do it to him. This wasn’t an ordinary gnostin. Itdid not pass through Republic regulation. It was not tested orinspected. It was manufactured off-world, by someone who thoughtthey could make Seth into their puppet.

Theywere wrong. He was stronger than that.

Thiswas all a dream, and a hostile one at that. It would be easy enoughto wake up, to force his body to remember the bed beneath him. Butit wasn’t enough for Seth to simply fight off the influence of thegnostin. He had to understand what it wanted him to do, and whowanted him to do it.

Thegalaxy around him was just an illusion. Seth focused his vision tolook past it. Unlike a sensory stimmer, the pill could not react tohim. It could not adjust to compensate for his realization that itwas trying to hypnotize him. The gnostin would continue to try andprogram his mind, and he could use that to his advantage. He had tosee past the deception, to the core purpose of the vision.

Oneby one, the stars blinked out of existence. Seth pushed off from hisposition in the dreamscape, forcing himself towards the darkness. Heneeded to see what was behind all of this. To do that, he had toface it.

Theclicking sound of clockwork mechanisms filled the air. Behind thestars, behind the darkness, Seth saw massive metal gears turningwithin large, intricate scaffolding. It was like the galaxy thatseduced him was nothing more than a mechanical illusion projectedonto a screen.

“Whatdo you want?” Seth yelled, as if the gnostin inside of him couldhear his cries. “Just tell me!”

Suddenly,the gears stopped moving. The strange mechanisms surrounding thegalaxy slammed to a halt. What did this mean? Even though Seth waspushing past the intended effects of the pill, everything heexperienced was still coded within the device.

Wasthis just some extended metaphor for what was happening to the galaxywith the end of faster-than-light travel? Was it a subliminalmessage meant to reinforce his brainwashing? Or did it go beyondthat?

Sethclosed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was somewherecompletely different.

Hewas standing in a large room full of computers and electronic panels. After a few seconds, he recognized the various fixtures. One was anavigation interface. Another was a communication console. This wasthe command center for a faster-than-light starship.

“Wheream I?” Seth asked. “Why are you showing me this?”

Ablinking light caught his attention near the back of the room. Oneof the buttons on one of the panels was flashing. Almost as soon asSeth saw it, another button flashed. Then another. Then the panelshut down, and another console lit up on the other side of thecommand center.

Ittook Seth a few seconds to realize what he was seeing. When it allcame together, it was like someone kicked him in the stomach. Thiswas the start-up sequence for a Heilmann Drive.

Usually,the command center on a starship was manned by several people. Theyall had their own role in preparing for takeoff. Working together,they calibrated the systems and allocated power to the proper partsof the ship.

Thisvision was showing him everything. It was preparing him to do ithimself, with no help. It was showing him how to steal a starship.

Itall made sense to him now. Whoever gave him the gnostin was tryingto brainwash him into hijacking one of the remaining Heilmann Drives.

Almostas soon as Seth realized this, the viewscreen at the front of thecommand center flared to life. He turned to face it. There was amap projected onto the screen. He approached it, squinting, tryingto make out what it said.

EUROPAOBSERVATION BASE

Seth’sheart skipped a beat. The Europa station was where all of thestarships were being decommissioned and scrapped. It was the laststop for every faster-than-light vessel in the galaxy. Seth had beenthere a few times, but he’d never been allowed to see much of thebase. It was top secret.

Thismap showed every hall, every life support duct, every closet, everyroom, every passageway... It was everything Seth needed to get toany part of the station at any time. This included the repair bay,where the ships were being scrapped.

Itwas clearer than anything else in the dream. Seth focused on it andtried to remember it, just like he would memorize anything in reallife. Whoever made the gnostin knew that he had an incrediblememory, since they knew of his plan to copy the Heilmann Drive plans. This was here so he could take it out of the dream, into the realworld, brainwashed or not.

Justas he was about to commit it to memory, the dream began to collapse. The panels in the command center flickered and faded away. Sethcould feel his bed around him. The light in his room back on thebase pricked his eyes. He could hear soldiers outside his door,marching down the hall.

Sethpanicked. It was too early. There was still so much that he didn’tunderstand. Why was he supposed to steal a starship? Where was hesupposed to take it? He knew he could get the answer from thegnostin if he just had time. But its message was over.

Hefought against the end of the dream. He tried to stay asleep. Andas he struggled to pull out everything about the pill, everythingabout the plan he was supposed to undertake, he could find only onelittle nugget of information. It was a name. It was a company, acorporation that Seth had never heard of before, but he was sure theywere the ones who manufactured the gnostin.

LachesisTechnologies.

*

“So,what were you able to find out?” Seth asked. He swirled his drinkin front of his face. It was a strong Linarian gin mixed with limejuice, and he had to keep himself from sipping it too quickly. Hedidn’t want to get drunk. He was afraid he might let somethingslip.

WillaGreen shrugged. “About Lachesis?” she asked. “Not that much. Why didn’t you just ask your new military friends? I’m surethey’ve got better data than I’m able to dig up.”

“BecauseI don’t want them to know I’m poking around,” Seth replied. Heset down his glass. “That’s why I came to you.”

Sethand Willa sat at a quiet bar near RSIR. It was the first time Sethhad seen anyone from the school since he charged the stage at theChairman’s assembly. For weeks, he’d been sequestered from thepublic. He was practically property of the Republic Military. Asthe de facto spokesman and civilian voice within the enforcement ofthe Spatial Preservation Act, they wanted to control him.

That was then. This was now, after the attack near the Mid-Canadazone. Absalom was beginning to trust Seth, and when he told him thathe had a date with a former classmate, the commissar didn’tquestion him. He didn’t even send along a military escort.

“It’san interplanetary corporation operating mostly on Yuan and Quantron,”Willa finally said. “They started as a mineral outfit a couplecenturies ago, buying up a few established mines and strippinguninhabited star systems. They were a second-rate operation, anddidn’t have much influence until about fifty years ago. Then theybegan to expand aggressively, forcing their way into several otherindustries. They sold off their mines fairly recently, and now dealin less tangible goods.”

Sethraised an eyebrow. “Pharmaceuticals? Recreational drugs?”

“Theyhave a chemical productions subsidiary, but that’s hardly wherethey get most of their profits. Mostly they buy strugglingbusinesses, rehabilitate them, and spin them off to investors. Its avery profitable operation.”

“Thatall goes away after the Fall,” Seth replied. He looked off towardsthe back of the bar. Was that what this was all about? Were theyjust after money? It didn’t feel right. As much as he hated theSpatial Preservation Act, opposing it because it would hurt profitswas just despicable. Brainwashing someone to steal a starship formoney wasn’t much better.

Itcouldn’t be that simple. Seth refused to believe it. If they weretrying to get the Heilmann Drive plans from him, it made sense. IfLachesis could produce its own faster-than-light starships, then itwould be able to prevent the Fall. In fact, they’d be able toprofit from it. But what could they do with a single vessel? Thetheft of a lone starship would not re-open the trade routes. Itwould not allow them to continue their interplanetary business. Agalaxy full of ships, zipping between worlds, was the only thing thatkept them afloat. One wasn’t enough.

Theycouldn’t be haughty enough to believe they could reverse-engineerthe Heilmann Drive. Hundreds of scientists had tried over the lasttwo thousand years. It was impossible. The only way to build onewas to follow the plans exactly. It was all so intricate that onceit was put together, there was no good way to figure out how to takeit apart without detailed instructions.

Sowhy did they want him to steal a ship?

“Youcould have found all of this yourself,” Willa said. “All it tookme was a records search and some time on the net. Why did you needme?”

“BecauseI’m sure they’re watching everything I do on the net,” Sethreplied. “I can’t let them find out that I’m interested inLachesis.”

Willasighed. “Oh Seth, you’re always up to something. What is itthis time? Do you think you can somehow leverage your job with themilitary into a way off of Earth before the Fall? Maybe you thinkyou can swing a job with Lachesis? Good luck with that. They’reprobably going to collapse after all is said and done.”

Sethglared at her. “At least I’m doing something,” he said. Hewasn’t sure why he was so angry. He should have been glad that shewas missing the point of his questions. There was just somethingabout her tone that frustrated him. It was like she disliked him forhis ambition. Why was that such a bad thing? “How about you? What are you doing? The Fall is going to make RSIR obsolete. Theydon’t need diplomats anymore.”

“I... I am trying to figure that out,” Willa replied. “But I’m surethat the Republic has some plan for us. They’ve spent so much timetraining us, they won’t throw us by the wayside.”

“Itwouldn’t be the first time they destroyed an entire profession,”Seth said. “But if you have faith in them, who am I to argue withyou?”

Willaturned to look him straight in the eye. “What’s going on withyou, Seth?” she asked. There was something strange and unfamiliarin her gaze. She often teased Seth about his plans, and about hisdistaste for the Republic. But now it was like she was finallytaking him seriously. “A few months ago, you were talking aboutbringing down the Republic. You wanted to start a revolution. Now... You’re working for them. You’re making speeches insupport of the Fall. Everywhere you go, you’re side-to-side with acommissar, like he’s your best friend.”

Sethlaughed. He put his hand on Willa’s shoulder. “You’remy best friend,” he said. “You know that.”

“That’swhy I’m worried.”

Anawkward silence set in between them as Seth tried to figure out whatto tell her. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing anymore. Hisplan to steal the Heilmann Drive design documents fell through. Nowhe was just a shill for the government, the last thing he wanted inhis life. The most hopeful facet of his life was that a corporationhe’d never heard of wanted to brainwash him into stealing astarship. At least that was something. At least it was interesting.

“Whatif I have the only starship in the galaxy?” Seth asked.

Willalaughed. “Ah! Another crazy scheme. This actually makes me feelbetter.”

Sethlooked at her, his eyes wide. “But lets just say, theoretically... What happens if there’s only one starship? And one person incontrol of that starship? Think about what that would mean.”

“Someonewould kill you. If not the Republic for stealing the ship, the firstgovernment that wanted to take the ship from you. It’s crazy, andlike all of your plans, it’s just a fantasy. People have tried tosteal ships before. It never works.” Willa smiled. “But it’sgood that the real Seth is back.”

Themore Seth thought about it, though, it wasn’t just a crazy plan. It made perfect sense. As Civilian Liaison to Absalom’s team, Sethhad access to every ship that was decommissioned. Thanks to theLachesis brainwashing attempt, he knew the exact layout of the EuropaStation. That was where all the ships were stored prior to beingtaken apart. He also understood how to power up a starship.

Timewas running out. If he didn’t do something, the Republic woulddestroy the last Heilmann Drive in existence. If the original planswere truly lost, it could never be rebuilt. The dozens of planetsacross the galaxy would be forever stranded, forever alone, and itwould be the end of human society.

Ifjust one thread could be preserved, if just one ship could survive,there would still be hope. And if Seth was in control of thathope...

Hecould rebuild the system the way he saw fit.

*

Sethand Absalom stood at the window facing the stardock at Europastation, watching the mechanics outside take apart yet anotherstarship. They were fairly far along. The Heilmann Drive had beenstripped from the chassis. The shielding modules were being removednext. Working in teams of two, the crew carefully withdrew the powercells from the side of the ship with their kinetic gloves.

“We’regetting close,” the commissar said. “I’m afraid that theresistance is only going to grow. I’m afraid of what might happenas we approach the end. Did you hear about the riots on Linaria?”

“Thatshould have been expected,” Seth replied. “After all, we’rekilling their god.”

Thestate religion of Linaria was premised on the worship of AlenaHeilmann, the inventor of the Heilmann Drive. They believed that shewas a goddess who descended to the Earth to give humanity the powerto travel between the stars. The Spatial Preservation Act wasdecried as heresy only days after it was passed. The Republic had toclose its embassy and withdraw all of its citizens out of fear ofreprisal.

“Youare a diplomat,” Absalom said. “You’ve spent years studyinghow to deal with other cultures. Maybe you can talk some sense intothem.”

Sethlaughed. “Are you kidding me? They execute people there fordefaming Alena Heilmann. If I try and explain to them that herengine is causing some kind of physical erosion of the galaxy...”

Absalom’sface twisted into a look of sheer revulsion. “They still haveexecutions on Linaria? They’re no better than rims-damnedVangelia.”

Thispiqued Seth’s interest. He was surprised that Absalom was sodisgusted by capital punishment. “You telling me the Republicdoesn’t kill prisoners? Come on...”

“No!”Absalom exclaimed. “Of course they don’t. Sometimes, Mr.Garland, I wonder where you grew up.”

Sethleaned down and rubbed his temples. There was no official deathpenalty in the Republic, but Seth was certain that it was used allthe time. Political opponents disappeared, the supposed terroristsarrested across Earth were detained and never heard from. Prisonersjust faded into oblivion. It seemed unlikely that, even with themassive bureaucracy, they were simply lost. But why would Absalomlie to him now? After all the classified information he’d shownSeth, he wouldn’t just toe the party line on this subject.

“Istill don’t know what happened to my father,” Seth said. “Hisprison sentence should have been up seven years ago. He never camehome, not that any of us expected him to. He never wrote. He mightas well have disappeared the day he was arrested.” He glared atAbsalom. “Pardon me for thinking that he never made it out of thatprison. Maybe he never made it in.”

“Well,I could look into that for you,” Commissar Absalom said. “I haveaccess to all manner of databases. Maybe I can figure out where heis now.”

Sethfelt his hands start to sweat. He wasn’t even sure why. “That... That would be great. But what if he’s alive? And what if heisn’t on Earth?”

“Whatof it?” Absalom replied. “You would know that no one killed him. And maybe you could learn to trust your government a little.”

“Butit will be too late to see him,” Seth motioned towards the window,where the workers continued to pick apart the carcass of the starshipoutside. “What if I find out he’s still on Gammaron the dayafter the trade routes close? What good is that?”

Absalomshrugged. “You’ll still know.”

“Notsure what that’s worth,” Seth said. “I barely remember him. That means I barely knew him.”

“Thosearen’t the same thing,” Absalom replied.

Sethdidn’t reply. He wanted to end the conversation. He didn’t wantto have to tell the commissar to look, or not to look. He wasn’tsure whether he wanted to know. No matter what he discovered, itwouldn’t change anything. The Republic still took him away, as faras Seth was concerned.

“We’rereally getting close, aren’t we,” Seth said, changing thesubject. “How many more ships remain?”

“Twenty-three,”Absalom replied.

Wheelsbegan to turn in Seth’s head. He already had the basic structureof a plan to steal one of the remaining ships. Even with all of theinformation he gained from the Lachesis gnostin, it would bedifficult. He needed everything to go just right. And he needed tobe able to convince Absalom of a particular course of action. Hejust hoped that he’d done enough to earn his trust.

“Theriots and protests are only going to increase,” Seth said. “It’sgoing to get ugly.”

Absalomnodded. “I know. It doesn’t seem like they’re listening toyou.”

“Thisis a big change in everyone’s life. It’s going to take more thana RSIR student to convince them that it’s a change for the better. We need to re-evaluate how we’re presenting this to them.”

“Presentingit?”

Sethtook a deep breath. He really hoped he could sound sincere. “Weneed to stop worrying about the other planets. They can’t doanything to us anymore. With twenty-three starships running threeroutes a day... The only people who can meaningfully affect Earthare people who are already here.”

“Whatdo you mean?”

“Weneed to convince the people of Earth that when the last ship isdecommissioned, we’ve done something good,” Seth said. “Itshould not be a somber moment, it should be a grand celebration.”