his face. Yen frowned. Surrounded by what Yen had to assume was his own technology, there was still something that seemed to keep the scientist on edge. He had learned long ago that when a man seemed nervous about his own plan, it was usually doomed to failure. Gingerly, not wanting to alert anyone to what he was doing, Yen began to probe the scientist’s thoughts.
“Thank you, Captain, for allowing me to be here,” Dr. Birand said softly, with a faint stutter. He glanced up at the holographic portrayal of Earth, hovering above his head. Smiling, he began pacing the stage as he talked, as though the movement helped him gather his thoughts. His speech came slower as he methodically selected his words for greatest effect. “You can all see the image hovering above the stage. Ever since the Great War, Earth has spent a small fortune building one of the most elaborate satellite systems in history, a system so complex that no ship stands a chance of passing through without being summarily destroyed. The access code changes every twenty-four hours with the new codes being shuttled to inbound crews only when they enter the solar system, and that only happens after a whole litany of authorization codes have been verified by Earth’s central command. Even if we tried, we would stand no chance of gathering all those access codes from any of the captured Terran crews.”
Yen saw the flicker of faint images, peeled unwillingly from the mind of the scientist. Broad golden lasers, the result of harnessed solar energy, fired from satellites surrounding a blue and green planet. His heart beat faster. To wield such power would make a man unstoppable.
The Uligart stopped pacing and faced the crowd, a look of confusion temporarily cast upon his face before he continued. “So what options do we have?”
“Don’t attack Earth at all,” someone yelled from the back of audience. Nervous laughter sputtered through the crowd, though Yen was pretty sure the man wasn’t joking.
Dr. Birand smiled softly. “No, unfortunately we will be attacking Earth. It does, however, still leave us with the problem of Earth’s defenses. For the past few years, I have been heading a secret research project that would be invaluable in just such a situation. The results of those years of research are sitting on this very stage with me.”
Yen’s eyes fell back to the pedestal, covered with electronic wires as though wrapped in a cocoon. A disturbing series of images flashed in quick procession through Yen’s mind. Flayed skin and exposed organs quickly overlapped with disgorged eyeballs and animals with missing limbs. Yen jerked his eyes back to Dr. Birand, but the Uligart’s expression revealed nothing of the troubling thoughts flowing through his mind. Walking calmly across the stage, the doctor picked up a glass cylinder and carried it to the pedestal. Setting it down, he left his hand on top of the object as he addressed the audience.
“What we developed during the past few years will mark a change in the way the Alliance will travel through space. But for now, until it can be produced and implemented throughout the Alliance, it has been more locally installed for your use. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you warp technology!”
Yen narrowed his eyes as he watched the nervous man. Warp technology was a myth, something that had been speculated amongst the scientific elite for generations. The concept of moving at instantaneous travel between two points was a fairy tale, as far as Yen was concerned. Even the scientific community was unconvinced that using such technology wouldn’t destabilize the region in which it was used, resulting in a black hole rather than passable portal. It was obvious that others shared Yen’s mentality. There hadn’t been the gasp of surprise that the doctor had obviously been expecting. The skepticism he now faced obviously made him even more nervous as Yen could see large droplets of sweat forming on his ridged brow.
Eager to move the presentation forward and see what proof he brought, Yen spoke up. “How does it work, doctor?”
Dr. Birand turned quickly to the new voice. He held up two fingers, which he drew together as he spoke. “Ah, well, it’s a little complicated. The basic principle is that we found a way to fold space, so that point A and point B, which are normally millions of miles apart, are touching one another. The physics behind it are simple, so long as you understand…”
The doctor’s mind had gone blank as the air around Yen wavered faintly. He tried his best to contain the shimmering, so as not to give himself away. He pushed the doctor forward, reveling in the twisting of a weak-willed mind. The doctor had no mental defenses against Yen’s intrusion, so Yen began dropping psychic suggestions. The technical aspects of the technology bored Yen. If he were to be impressed, Yen demanded a demonstration. It was that thought that he psychically implanted in the doctor’s mind.
“You know what?” Dr. Birand said slowly. “I’m sure the technical aspects of this are boring. I think this would just be easier if I demonstrated it for you.”
Moving to the rear table, Birand picked up a handheld console and began typing feverishly. Around the pedestal, the wires began to glow as electricity coursed through them, powering an unseen engine within the center of the cocoon of wiring. The noise built until it filled the room and drowned out the muttering of the still skeptical audience members. From the side of the pedestal, a small two-prong fork emerged from the wires. Between its metal prongs, red electricity arced wildly, rolling from the base of the fork to its tips before sputtering out into the air above. Yen could feel the hairs on his neck stand on end as the entire room seemed charged both with tension and with an unknown energy. He leaned forward, mocking the moves of Adam and Penchant beside him. The entire room seemed to be leaning forward in anticipation, suddenly sharing the doctor’s enthusiasm.
Before Yen had time to probe further, a crack split the air. A shockwave fell over the crowd, throwing them back into their seats. Wind whipped Yen’s hair into his face and, as he brushed it aside, his eyes fell on the center of the stage. Hovering above the split fork, a red whirlpool had formed. Its tapered end disappeared only a few inches beyond the event horizon and pointed toward the empty table across the stage. Just over the rushing roar of air being pulled into the wormhole, Yen could make out the doctor’s gleeful laughter.
Stepping forward, the doctor stood behind the pedestal, just a few feet away from the angry, red wormhole. It flickered as though alive and aware of the scientist’s presence. Yen could see the air pulling at the doctor’s laboratory coat, drawing it closer to the event horizon. The doctor didn’t seem to notice as he reached out and nudged the glass cylinder toward the glowing red disk, hovering in the air. As the cylinder drew near, Yen could see the forces pulling it into the wormhole. It teetered momentarily, as though unsure whether or not to enter, before the suction of the event horizon pulled the cylinder inward.
From Yen’s point of view, he couldn’t see the object as it entered the wormhole, nor as it was stretched into the finite funnel. He strained to see anything in the air that might betray the destruction of the object or its obliteration in the heart of the wormhole, but he could see nothing. A commotion drew Yen’s attention away from the hovering wormhole. Adam pointed across Yen’s body, toward the previously empty table on the far side of the stage. Following his gaze, Yen saw the completely intact cylinder resting unassumingly on the table, as though it had been there all along.
A hush fell over the crowd as they watched Dr. Birand reach over and throw a switch, effectively shutting off the power to the wormhole. The red circle shimmered unstably before dissipating into the air. Yen looked back and forth from the cylinder to the cocoon of wiring around the pedestal.
“And this technology,” Yen said, sitting upright in his chair. “It will safely get us past the satellite grid around Earth? We’ll be able to warp a Cruiser right past their satellites and into their atmosphere?”
“Not quite,” Birand stammered. “The technology hasn’t been perfected for moving so great a mass as a Cruiser. However, while repairs were being made on the
Yen frowned, not convinced. He kept remembering the distorted images that had flashed through the doctor’s mind just before activating the warp engine. Yen was sure that he and the doctor had differing definitions of the word “safely”.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
