Conundrum by Michael LaRocca

Author:Michael LaRocca
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
Published: 2011-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

"A woman walked into a bar and asked for a double entendre, so the bartender gave her one."

"Get off my bridge."

"I get no respect."

***

"We're free of gravitic attraction, outside the range of gravitic repulsion, back on course for 51 Pegasi under ICF," Weinberg stated.

I'm sure lots of interesting stuff happened before then, so forgive me for missing it.

A mild frown. "No indication of our antagonist out there." Type type. "That's odd."

"Commander," said Dorothy. The concern in her voice worried me.

Several pairs of eyes focused on the battlespace. I saw a lovely starfield there. Then I looked at the eyes of the knowledgeable and realized that the starfield wasn't quite so lovely.

"That is odd," Weinberg repeated.

"Why do you suppose that is?" Dorothy asked.

More typing. Not by me, of course.

"What's the worst thing that could've happened to us when we bounced?" I asked.

"The most likely outcome would be our deaths," said Weinberg.

"So glad you didn't broadcast that over shipwide intercom."

"What would be least likely?" Karen asked.

A pause. Weinberg began typing. "Shit."

Not an encouraging conversation, is it?

"Epsilon Aurigae," Weinberg began.

Dorothy was nodding before he finished. "It's in its eclipse."

I read his face. I read hers.

We are so fucked.

"Captain Butler," Weinberg asked, "where is Captain Vido?"

"Sick Bay. During our latest episode of shipwide visions-"

"Ah. She was blind again."

"Yes sir. Her sight came back, but after she shattered her wrist bones. Doctor Bagshaw should be done with her in about an hour."

"Can you hold down the fort until then, or do you want to call Chauncey?"

"I've got it."

Chauncey, I presumed, was third or fourth shift Communications Officer.

Weinberg stopped typing. "This is indeed a historic moment."

"But not because we're going to Epsilon Aurigae," I guessed.

That made him smile. Epsilon Aurigae is about 2000 light years from Earth.

"No, Ensign, that was just a quick check of a hunch."

"Or a dark foreboding premonition," said Dorothy.

"Every 27 years, Epsilon Aurigae becomes two or three times dimmer due to an eclipse that lasts about two years. Before our experiment, it was about seven years since the last eclipse and 20 years before the next one. But as you've just heard, right now it's in the middle of one."

We are so fucked.

"Based on that and a number of other measurements, I can safely conclude that we did succeed in reframing hyperdimensionality, but that we did not bounce into Weinberg Space. Instead, we have traveled through time."

The pause was neither dramatic or pregnant. It was necessary.

"Now look at the battlespace. That's the starfield before our little conflagration." Type type. "That's what we're seeing now. Same stars, different locations. We haven't moved. They have."

Time travel. I felt my sphincter tighten.

"Which direction?" Dorothy asked.

"That is what people in Ensign Drake's time might call the million dollar question. Captain Butler, I believe you're the most qualified to answer it."

Realization dawned on her lovely features rather quickly. "No incoming messages. I can hail Space Force, but..."

"Since our communications system doesn't predate us, that's safe enough. For our systems to still be entangled after our leap through time is less likely than flipping a coin and having it land on the edge.

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