Star Traders

At breakfast in the morning Jayne sat by Jake. “I’ve decided we should all go into Hyperlink at the same time, Jake. I would feel a lot better that way. I hate to worry about whether Lars will come out of Hyperlink near us as we approach E-6 or that that damn drug doesn’t work.”

“That’s probably a good idea, Captain,” Jake said. “I was going to recommend that we do just that. I’ll give Lars a call after breakfast and apprise him of that decision. In the meantime I’ll try to find a way we can hook up physically with the Expedition ship in such a way we will have access to it throughout the trip back to E-6. We have to oversee the work on the guidance system the Expedition group will be making for us out of the small Gravity Wells anyway. If we can hook up directly, it would simplify things. We could work on it for the entire return trip to E-6.”

“Great idea, Jake! I’d like to wander that ship and see how they do things too,” Jayne commented. “Can you believe these people spending thousands of years in that ship? Generation after generation of Larn were born and died there. It’s amazing! I doubt very much we would have the intestinal fortitude as a race to embark on such a mission.”

“That’s because we have a sense of equality with one another. The Larn have no such sense. They know they aren’t up to the intelligence of the Dran and accept the situation, for the most part, happily,” Jake explained. “We, on the other hand, would be hard pressed to accept it.”

“I’m looking forward to studying them on the way home, anyway,” Jayne said enthusiastically. “They are such a fine people. More like a favorite puppy than anything. A puppy who talks to you!” she laughed.

“I’m just glad we have a place for them back on E-6,” she continued. “It would be a shame should they have to spend another thousand or more years looking for a world to settle on. It must be exciting for them to think they will make planet-fall in a month or so after all those years in space.”

“Personally, I’d like to study their defense system,” Jake said. “They successfully held off the forces of Epsilon 4 for months. They claim they would have only lasted another couple of months, but I don’t know if that time estimate was due to starvation or running out of defense missiles. I’d like to study those missiles they have left. They have to have a great identification system to be able to destroy all those incoming missiles with their own. I want to know how they did that. We might just learn something from them. From what I saw on E-6, the Expedition ship must be a long ways ahead of our own technology. The Dran on E-6 have nothing that could do that.”

Two days later they were in position far enough from Epsilon 4 to allow transition to Hyperlink to be safe. The original controls that put the Expedition ship into Hyperlink earlier were still in place. The Earth Princess was attached to the main ship by what was a universal hookup made of the soft but immensely strong plastic that adhered to the hull around the lower hatch. The connection was very strong, and two other links were made with other pods of the mother ship. They were now connected with three of the pods, and had ready access to the expedition ship.

Lars and the prize crew Jayne had originally left with the Expedition ship came back aboard the Earth Princess before the drop into Hyperlink. They would all be hooked up to their bunks just in case the drug preventing motion sickness didn’t work. They were all optimistic, however, that it would work fine.

Assure and several of his lieutenants were invited for the last meal before the transition took place. They looked a bit worried about it all, never having experienced a voyage in Hyperlink.

“You are very sure of this, Captain?” Assure asked raising an eyebrow.

Jayne smiled. “I wouldn’t put my crew in danger on purpose, Assure. We came out this way, and I’m sure we can get back the same way. The only concern I had was whether your ship could be brought along with us. Having dropped your entire ship into hyperlink without any bad affects earlier has certainly allayed my fears, however. We should be near our home planet in about 30 days, give or take a couple of days. Jake tells me the time depends on whether we are speeding away from or toward Sol.”

“I still am not convinced we can travel faster than the speed of light,” Assure shook his head. “All theory from our science people claim that the speed of light is a constant and will always measure the same, and that it is the ultimate speed of anything in the universe. They claim that the mass of anything going close to the speed of light will increase and become infinite at that point.”

“Apparently there’s something wrong with the theory,” Jake said, nodding to Assure. “Our mathematicians have the same trouble trying to explain the apparent rift in the theory. But, I suppose when observable fact denies theory, the theory must be wrong. Theories change often. I recall a theory some 60 years ago in our world that claimed one could not exceed the speed of sound.”

Assure stared at him with disbelief. “Are you telling me your people have only exceeded the speed of sound in the last 60 years?” he asked.

“That’s right, Assure,” Jake laughed. “Hell, we’ve only had electricity for a bit over 120 years!”

“Unbelievable,” Assure shook his head. “And you have come this far in so short a time?”

“Well, we had a lot of help,” Jayne added. “We discovered your existence 50 years ago and have been stealing your technology ever since! Our own technology is ahead of yours in many cases, but we had no knowledge of Gravity Wells. Our home world still uses fossil fuels for power!”

“That would be extremely expensive,” Assure commented, “What with having to mine the raw materials and then refine it for use. We use it too, but only as a lubricant. There is nothing in nature that is better for that purpose.”

“It is. It’s extremely expensive,” Jake said, nodding, “A very large portion of our population is engaged in the processing of oil for power. Then one must build an internal combustion engine in order to burn it. And then we are faced with the pollution by-products that go along with the burning of those fuels.”

“Which brings us to why we want you to settle on E-6.” Jayne broke in, “We need workers to supply our world with Gravity Wells. You see Assure; we don’t have Larn on our world. Whenever we need something done, we must hire people to do that job. The people we hire are people just like ourselves.”

“You mean cleaning and all the menial jobs are done by people like yourselves?”

“That’s right. It does make things difficult at times, but we get along quite well with it.” Jayne said.

“I cannot imagine how you do it. It doesn’t seem possible. Larn are very happy doing those jobs and we Dran are just as glad to be managing them and not have to do those jobs. We both have a role and are very well suited to it.”

“Well, it wouldn’t work with us,” Jake mentioned. “It’s too much like slavery. We tried slavery centuries ago. It didn’t work. The expense of keeping the peace was way out of proportion to the advantages it might have given.”

“We do not consider the Larn as slaves!” Assure said angrily. “They work to provide us with food and the necessities of life. We provide them with what they need in technology, health and well being. We do not force them to work. They have their own society, their own laws and do their own enforcement. If a Larn does not carry his weight with his people, he is rejected by them and will soon starve.”

“Whatever works for you is fine with us. We have no intention of changing things. It’s just interesting how your society works, Assure,” Jayne said. “We have enough trouble of our own without borrowing yours too.

“In a few more hours we will be ready to drop into Hyperlink and begin our voyage to E-6, Assure. Are you ready for your long voyage to end?”

“We have been ready for it to end for many years, Captain,” Assure said somberly. “Many of us never thought it would happen in our lifetime.”

“I’m sure you are going to be pleased with E-6, Assure. It will take some getting used to; however, for we Earthmen are there also. But there’s plenty of room. I would imagine you could have your own continent!” Jayne laughed.

Distribution of the drug for motion sickness was completed to all the Earthmen within the next hour. All Earthmen were placed in their bunks just in case the drug didn’t work and Jayne went down to the ship that had been fitted with the drive near the center of the Expedition vessel to do the honors.

“Attention!” Jayne said into the microphone, “We will drop into Hyperlink in 5…4….3….2….1…” Jayne hit the control.

It worked. The drug, that is. The Earthmen did not get sick, and the huge ship sped toward E-6.