Jack Denton, Joel and George are standing around a table in the Graf Zeppelin’s lab; a large piece of machinery sits on the table. It has a cylinder on one end, the cylinder leads into four curved claws that all flex out and then towards the centre of the device again. On the inside of each claw is a veritable forest of miniscule, spiked super conducting pylons; the sheer number of them boggles the mind.
While Joel moves forward to examine the device up close Jack turns to George, “it’s good to see our brainchild complete at last isn’t it George?” Jack asks, his new bionic eyes shine with a faint blueish-white glow.
George smiles and nods, still looking at the device on the table, “not that it matters yet”, he replies, “there’s no way the we could power it… well we could power it actually, but we would all die in the process.”
Jack nods with understanding but Joel whips his head around to look at George, “wait! What do you mean we would all die? What’s the point of this thing if we die trying to use it?”
George turns to Joel and begins to explain, his voice takes on a practiced tone, he has likely had to explain this many times, “the Daam K’Vosh designs are very efficient; we were able to use a single nuclear generator to create a relatively stable Jump Hole which is a remarkable feat in itself.”
“The problem with the JHCs however was that they subjected the surrounding area to powerful gravitational fluctuations when activated”, says Jack.
“The drive is designed to open a Jump Hole so close to the Graf Zeppelin that we fall through it”, George says while gesturing at the device on the table, “we can make the Jump Hole easily enough, but if we do not have the energy needed to contain the gravitational fluctuations to the area inside the claws…”
Understanding dawns on Joel’s face, “then we get ripped to shreds in an instant”, he finishes for them.
Jack nods, “the Graf Zeppelin’s core is not capable of even a fraction of the power we would need, I doubt even a battleship’s core could supply the power needed during the initial stages.”
“How do we use this thing then?”, Joel asks
“The Daam K’Vosh devices in the Privas cluster each contain 20 crystals, each one acts as a kind of battery, we think that they act as a failsafe in case the main power core is disabled”, George explains, “each crystal can store an extremely large amount of energy, enough to keep the DGM’s online for a very long time…”
“And just enough to shield us we think”, finishes Jack.
Joel arches an eyebrow, “you think”, he states flatly.
George seems to miss Joel’s look altogether, “if our estimates are correct, a fully charged Daam K’Vosh battery crystal from the DGMs should be able to contain the fluctuations for around three seconds.”
“That doesn’t leave much room for error,” Joel interjects
“Well yes but once the gravitational shielding is activated it will take less power to keep it operational, we can then divert power from the Graf Zeppelin’s core to the JHC drive. That should extend our grace period by another three seconds at least,” explains George.
“So what you are saying is, if we want to use this thing we will have to divert power from almost every system on the ship and,” Joel pauses, “risk instantaneous destruction.”
“We will need to run tests on the crystal to be sure but we should have plenty of time to open the Jump Hole, pass through it and still be in one piece,” Jack states dryly.
Joel sighs in defeat, “I suppose you want this installed?”
Jack nods and hands Joel a datapad, “here are the changes you will need to make to the core and bow of the ship, while your team works on that, George and I are taking the shuttle to Privas.
George nods, “Though I’m not looking forward to it, it’s a long trip to Gallia, especially so in a cramped freighter”.
Joel starts to reach for his comm unit, “it will be ready by the time you get back”.
Jack nods, “most appreciated Joel”.
Jack and George turn and begin to walk out but George turns and grins, still walking backwards, “careful not to prick yourself on the super conductors Joel, not only will it sting but you might stuff my calibrations up”.
Joel gives George a stony look, George grins and Jack smiles to himself while the other two can’t see.
“I hate this thing”, George mutters as he climbs into the cramped confines of the Icarus, an X-Shuttle that Jack uses on personal trips and for research into places the Graf Zeppelin cannot go.
Jack, who has already taken his seat at the pilot’s controls, smiles, “if you would stop procrastinating and get your pilot’s license then you could fly a rental or something”.
“You know that’s not the problem”, George scowls, “I hate flying in these little rust-buckets, it makes me nauseous.”
Jack motions George to be quite and reaches for a helmet, passing the other one to George who mumbles to himself as he dons it. The helmet’s speakers crackle to life and one of the bridge officer’s voices fills Jack’s ears, “Graf Zeppelin is ready to release, what is your status Icarus?”
Jack pulls the helmet’s microphone down in front of his mouth, “Icarus here, all systems check out, beginning core start-up”.
“Roger, signal when ready.”
Jack turns to George, who has taken his seat directly beside Jack at the engineering terminal and is monitoring the core as it starts. “Luckily for you George it won’t take very long to get to Dauphine”.
George replies without looking up from his console, “It will take at least four hours if we don’t use the Jump Gate network, more than enough time for me to rush to the toilet”, he mutters the last part darkly.
Jack simply speaks into his microphone again, “Icarus to Graf Zeppelin, core start-up complete. Icarus is ready for launch.”
“Rodger Icarus, launching JHC, target coordinates are the Dauphine system.”
The Icarus shakes slightly as a JHC is launched from a pneumatic tube on the underside of the Graf Zeppelin. George looks up sharply, just in time to see the spiked cylinder fly over their heads. “Was that a JHC?”
Jack does not reply to George instead his eyes begin to glow orange and he slowly moves his hand to touch his HUD. Moments later there is a silent implosion of asteroids and a swirling green Jump Hole appears almost twenty Kilometres away.
Jack’s speaker crackles to life again, “Graf Zeppelin to Icarus, scans show that the Jump Hole is stable and will remain so for an estimated fifteen minutes. We are transferring control of docking clamps to you, good flying Icarus.”
“Much appreciated Graf Zeppelin”, Jack replies. His eyes glow again and he briefly reaches out to his HUD, seconds later there is a loud clank and the Icarus begins to float away from the Graf Zeppelin.
“Is there any chance that you will take it easy on the throttle during this trip”, George asks resignedly.
Jack only smiles to himself as he charges the cruise engines.
The Icarus emerges from the Jump Hole, its engines silently scream in the vacuum of space as it turns towards the Privas Cluster approximately forty kilometres away. “Almost there George”, Jack calls to the back of the ship, in the general direction of the ship’s toilet.
All that answers him is a retching sound followed by a very unpleasant sloshing sound. Jack winces; maybe he had been a bit insensitive of George’s problem, he would take it easier on the throttle when they were heading back.
Now that there is nothing between the Icarus and the Privas cluster Jack can fly in a straight line. Without the Icarus constantly twisting and turning George recovers fairly quickly and joins Jack in the cockpit. “You should interface with the probes and begin the extraction now George, we don’t know how long it could take”. George nods, he is still slightly green and he does not speak but he quickly settles into his work at the console.
Five minutes of careful adjustments later and the Icarus settles into an uneasy orbit inside the Privas cluster’s volatile gravity well. “Stable orbit established…somewhat stable at any rate, how long until extraction is complete?”
“The Privas two probe has successfully opened the DGM’s outer casing and has begun the extraction of the crystal. The Privas three probe seems to have been destroyed or disabled by the DGM prior to our arrival, a coincidental overlap between its movement pattern and the DGM’s alignment cycle brought it within the DGM’s area of effect.”
“What are the chances of that happening to the other probes?”
“Minuet, it was a slight error in the probes initial alignment, a fraction of a centimetre difference. Over time it deviated more and more from our projected course and eventually its path intersected the DGM’s area of effect.”
“Ok…what about the other probes?”
“The Privas four probe is intact but will take significantly longer to finish the extraction; it was on the opposite side of the DGM when we arrived.”
“How long?”
“It will be several hours before the DGM’s alignment cycle allows for it to move into position.”
“Ok if time and circumstances permit then we will wait for that one, we may have to depart before that though. What of the Privas one and five probes?”
“The Privas five probe has begun extraction but its time is limited, the DGM’s alignment cycle will soon overlap its current position and destroy it. I give it roughly an hour, maybe less; I seriously doubt that it can complete the extraction in time.”
“Let it continue, but if it becomes clear that it won’t have time abort before it is crushed. We don’t want it being crushed while it’s doing something important, the DGM could fail and I don’t think the Gallians would be very understanding if we single handedly destroyed the delicate balance of the Privas cluster.”
George nods, “that leaves the Privas one probe, that’s going to be the most difficult of the five. The very complicated alignment cycle of the DGM at the centre of the cluster means that it will have a very small window of time when the extraction begins in half an hour. Even if it completes the extraction it still has to get to the surface of Privas one and fire it safely out of the cluster’s gravity well.”
“Same deal as with the Privas five probe, if its not going to finish in time then abort.”
“Alright then, the first probe to complete extraction will be the Privas two probe. It should be done within the next ten minutes and on the surface in another five.”
Jack nods to himself and the Icarus’ manoeuvring thrusters flare to life as he starts his slow readjustment of the Icarus’ orbit to bring them above Privas two.
An hour later the Icarus is once again in a (relatively) stable Geostationary orbit around the Privas cluster, above Privas two. Jack looks up from the controls, “how long until the probe is in position?’
“It will be on the surface and aimed correctly within two minutes”, George replies without looking up from his console.
“Excellent, I’m ready for it”, as Jack finishes speaking his bionic eyes begin to glow brighter, taking on a slight orange tinge, and a humming sound comes from the underside of the Icarus as the cargo bay opens.
One minute and 47 seconds later the probe launches a small metal cylinder into space; the cylinder contains only two things, a small sensor beacon that Jack would use to track its progress and the battery crystal from the DGM on Privas two. Jack’s eyes, linked to the Icarus’s and probe’s sensors, feed him data on the constantly changing course of the small metal cylinder as it is buffeted by the gravitational fluctuations around Privas. Jack’s hands settle in the air in front of him as he slowly adjusts the Icarus’s tractor beam using his HUD.
George looks up from his console, “Careful, the gravitational fluctuations are dispersing the gravitons in the tractor beam much faster than normal and reducing its range, you will have to try latching on to it when its much closer than normal.
Jack nods and doesn’t respond, the cylinder had decelerated during its ascent but was still traveling very fast. “Ok its close enough to get clear data now, target is at a distance of thirty kilometres and closing at five hundred metres per second. Time until impact, one minute”, George interjects.
Jack adjusts the tractor beam to account for this new information, “shunting power to tractor beam, attempting target lock”.
“Beacon confirms target lock; graviton dispersal patterns suggest optimal firing distance of 1.5 kilometres.”
Jack nods again and his brow furrows in concentration; his hands constantly shift in front of him as he adjusts the tractor beam using his HUD.
George speaks up again, “optimal firing range in 10 seconds… 5 seconds, 3, 2, 1, now!”
The ship shudders slightly as the tractor beam fires, for a split second the beam seems to flow around and past the cylinder; Jack quickly adjusts the beam however and it snaps into place, holding the cylinder firmly.
“I have it!”, Jack says excitedly, “I can’t believe that actually worked”, he adds in a muttered tone.
George looks up from his console and smiles, “one down, three to go”.
Jack sighs and stabs at his HUD with his hand, the cargo bay doors hum as they close, “head back there and secure the cylinder; I’ll get us in position for the next one.”
George gets up and walks towards the back of the ship, “It’s going to be a long day”, he mutters.
It was almost four hours before the Icarus retrieved the last crystal; in the end they had retrieved three of the four possible. The Privas five probe had miraculously retrieved the crystal before the DGM's alignment cycle overlapped its position and they had successfully retrieved it in orbit. The Privas four Probe had been easy enough to retrieve; it had just taken a long time for the probe to get in position. The Privas one probe had successfully extracted the crystal from the DGM and had made it to the surface of the tiny planet, however the gravitational fluctuations at the heart of the cluster were too great and the cylinder had been knocked off course and collided with Privas three.
The door to the cockpit hisses as George enters, 'I opened the cylinders and secured the crystals in the cargo hold'.
George moves to the co-pilot's seat beside Jack and sits down. 'Good', Jack replies as he pulls the Icarus out of orbit around the Privas cluster and heads for the Jumpgate visible in the distance. 'Are they giving off any weird readings?'
'A moderately repulsive electromagnetic field, nothing major, but I don't think we should touch those things with anything conductive. My hair stood on end when I entered the cargo bay and it felt like it was going to all fly off when I picked the things up with the insulated tongs.'
'That could be a problem, but let's worry about that when we get back to the Graf Zeppelin. For now, let's concentrate on getting back home.'
George sighs, 'I don't suppose we have another JHC just lying around?'
Jack chuckles, 'no, sorry. We have to travel back the old fashioned way I'm afraid'.
'Bother', George looks slightly green at the thought of the four hour journey back to the Graf Zeppelin.
'I'll take it slower this time George, we have plenty of time to get back'. Jack looks thoughtful for a second, 'why don't you go over the initial scans of the crystals, it might take your mind off things for a while.'
George nods slowly, 'good idea', he replies as he brings up the data on his console.
A long trip later the Icarus emerges from a Jump hole in the system that they had originally departed from; Jack pulls his helmet’s microphone down in front of his face, “Icarus to Graf Zeppelin, do you read? Requesting rendezvous coordinates”.
His helmet’s speakers crackle to life, “welcome back sir, asteroid movements were interfering with our attempts to install the JHC Drive so the head of engineering decided to move us to a clearer position”, replies a woman’s voice. “We are currently in sector H3 and thirty kilometres above the system’s Z-plane”, there is a short pause and Jack can hear muffled conversation through his helmet’s speakers, “err…the Head of Engineering would like to know if there is an chance of…implosion…when you come aboard sir.”
Jack chuckles, “tell Joel that implosion should not be a problem… although electrocution is a concern. Please ask him to scrounge up any insulation he can find on the ship and move it to the labs.”
“…Yes sir.”
The speakers once again go silent in his ears and he pushes the microphone up away from his mouth again. The cockpit’s door hisses as it slides open and George stumbles inside, looking slightly green; he walks over to the co-pilot’s chair and site down hastily. “I can’t wait to get off of this ship”, George mutters.
“Not long now George, a five minute trip in a straight line. Have the crystals lost any charge since we first retrieved them?”
“If they have then it must be an incomprehensibly miniscule amount, scans aren’t showing any difference at all. I’m a bit worried about them though, how can we… they aren’t like anything we’ve come across before! The DGMs and Daam K’Vosh trade lanes had recognizable similarities with Sirian technology; there were power conduits and resistors, power supplies, computers and things we could understand or at least emulate the functions of! These crystals… I don’t think they were made, I think they were grown.” George pauses for a moment and calms down, “how can we possibly replicate them? How can we even begin to understand how they work without any similar Sirian technology, technology we understand, to compare it to?”
Jack frowned at that, “why do you think they were grown?”
“There are minute differences between the crystals, slight density differences in different areas, differences in diameter and length, and if you look closely enough each one is a slightly different colour.”
“It’s possible that those discrepancies were caused during their construction, or maybe there were slight differences in the raw materials used in their creation?”
George shakes his head, “no, the Daam K’Vosh were a race of perfectionists from what I have seen. There was not a single difference between the Daam K’Vosh trade lanes, or the DGM’s; they went through a lot of trouble to set up the Privas cluster and I think they would have been very thorough in checking their equipment.”
Jack nods, “that does make sense; but it’s also a possibility that the differences in the crystals were deemed to be of no consequence. I think we should reserve judgment for now, we can figure out how to replicate them later, for now let’s concentrate on getting the drive working.”
George nods slowly, “yes that’s a good idea”, suddenly he smiles, “after all, a hard thing is nothing but many easy things, each one performed so closely after its predecessor that they appear to be a single action.”
Jack stares at him for a while before shaking his head and moving his attention back to the controls, “one day I will catch you without a quote or saying at hand… I can’t say I look forward to that day though, it will be truly unnerving.”
George chuckles, “I can’t say that I look forward to it either”.
As the Graf Zeppelin comes into view George grins at the sight, at first Jack thinks George is grinning at the prospect of solid ground beneath his feet (or at least as close to solid ground as you could get in space), but he soon realizes that George is not focused on the Graf Zeppelin itself. Rather, George’s attention is fixed firmly on the four-pronged metal claw-like device being attached to the front of the Graf Zeppelin, the JHC drive. People in vacuum suits swarm over the front of the ship, flashes of blue-white light from welding torches light the ship at random intervals and throw distorted shadows over the metal. “I really hope it works”, George says at last.
Jack replies with a smile, “Joel would never let us hear the end of it if we accidentally imploded the ship”.
“No, I doubt he would, but I was talking more of the work we have both put into that thing. It will feel good to finally see it come to fruition.”
Jack nods as the Icarus slowly comes to a halt underneath the Graf Zeppelin, “attaching docking clamp”, he says as he pulls a lever on the ground near his seat. The Icarus shudders and there is a loud clank as the Icarus’ docking clamp attaches to the Graf Zeppelin’s counterpart.
“Home sweet home”, George states simply as he stands and walks to the Icarus’ airlock.
Jack stands and moves to the back of the Icarus, to the cargo bay, to retrieve the small case that the crystals are stored in. As he picks it up the hair on his arms stands on end and he hears a barely audible buzzing noise; out of curiosity he opens the case and looks at the crystals. Each one is purple in colour, roughly oval shaped and multi-faceted; on the top of each crystal is a golden piece of metal and on the bottom a larger piece of silver metal that hugs the curve of the crystal, forming a sort of “cup” for it. Both of the pieces of metal are covered in miniscule bumps and worm-like indents that he recognized as signs of circuitry, albeit incredibly complex circuitry. He frowns and leans a bit closer, scrutinizing them. As he leans closer the buzzing gets worse and it feels like his hair is going to fly off of his body. Upon closer inspection he does recognize slight differences between the crystals just as George had said. Shrugging, Jack closes the case again and the buzzing instantly lessens, though it does not go away.
'So'¦ do we know how these things work yet?' asks Joel.
Jack, George and Joel are standing once again in the Graf Zeppelin's labs. On the table are three cylinders apparently made of highly reinforced glass; hovering in each cylinder is a Daam K'Vosh energy storage crystal suspended by a small, directionalized gravitational manipulator.
George shrugs apologetically, 'we think so but I don't think it would make much sense to you Joel.'
Joel raises one eyebrow and looks at George, 'I may not be as smart as you or Jack but I'm not exactly dumb either.'
George shrugs again and takes on a lecturing tone, 'through means yet unknown to us, the crystals appear to shunt energy that they absorb into an artificially created pocket of space/time. This energy is not in actuality 'stored' but is rather used to excite this region of space/time and thus stave off and reverse the effects of entropy, halting its eventual collapse; the energy that is extracted from the crystal is actually zero-point-energy from this artificial space/time. When the artificial pocket of space/time reaches a certain point of entropic decay a failsafe kicks in, stopping anyone from drawing more power from the crystal and thus slowing the collapse of this artificial pocket to a near standstill.'
Joel nods slowly, 'okay'¦ does that mean that there is no limit to how much energy we can extract from it as long as we give an equal amount over time?'
George shakes his head, 'no, there is a limit to how much we can excite the artificial pocket before it grows too powerful to contain. The Daam K'Vosh appear to have implemented extensive failsafe protocols into the crystals to stop this from happening', George grimaces, 'it would be very'¦ unhealthy'¦ for everyone if a foreign space/time instantaneously merged with our own.'
'How unhealthy?'
'We don't know for sure but all the possibilities are bad; there could be catastrophic consequences for the flow of time, having two completely different timelines merge into one, if that's even possible, would seriously mess things up.'
'Seriously mess things up? That's what you call it?'
'There would also be issues with space as well, though that wouldn't be as bad as the issues you would experience with time. There's also the issue of the exotic particles created by zero-point-energy extraction, they would be released into this space/time.'
'So basically what you're saying is'¦ don't leave the batteries on charge over night?'
'No, actually I would encourage that we'¦ leave the batteries on charge whenever we get the chance. Although the crystal's maximum capacity is absolutely enormous it will also take a very long time to get it to that maximum capacity. The crystal's failsafe systems will stop the absorption of energy long before it is at risk of a containment failure.'
Joel sighs, 'so instead of a risk of implosion we are now at risk of reality shattering cataclysm?'
George looks slightly uncomfortable, 'well yes and no'¦ as I said, the Daam K'Vosh failsafes automatically stop any intake of energy long before the crystal is at risk of failure. Furthermore the effects of the space/time intersection would not span all or reality, the size of the artificial region is not infinite like our own space/time and therefore neither would be the size of the intersection. The spatial distortions will be limited to the physical size of the artificial region, both temporal and spatial distortions will only last until the artificial region experiences enough entropic decay to allow it to be contained again.'
Joel nods slowly, 'okay then, on a more practical note, have you figured out how I'm supposed to interface it with the Graf Zeppelin's core?'
Jack speaks up, 'they absorb energy though the crystal itself, not just electrical energy though, it seems that they absorb and convert almost every type of energy we can think of.' Jack pulls a data pad out of his pocket and reads over it, 'We've tested everything from heat energy to kinetic energy. Although the most efficient transfer rate of energy transfer is still direct electrical energy.'
Joel nods thoughtfully, 'okay and how do we draw energy from it?'
'At the top of each crystal is a golden metal node, this node circles a five millimetre wide hole that goes almost all the way through the crystal. Inserting a superconducting spike through there should allow us to tap the crystal's reserves with minimal power bleed off, although we will probably have to devise a more streamlined solution later.'
Joel nods, 'okay, I think that's everything, shall we get to work then?'
Jack nods and picks up one of the glass cylinders carefully, 'let's get stuck into it'.
The Graf Zeppelin’s core room has changed dramatically since the day the ship had first been delivered. The old core had been a pitiful thing, barely enough to power the cruise engines to full capacity; the core that had replaced it was superior in every way, more powerful, more ports and a complicated control system to allow for customised power redirection. The core stood in the middle of the room, a massive cylinder made of some translucent but solid material that Jack can not name. Behind the material Jack can barely make out the sphere of the reactor itself through the bright redish-orange glow that emanates from within.
“How long Joel?” Jack asks the man beside him.
Joel looks up from his data pad, “not long now, a minute or two at most”. A minute passes before Joel speaks again, “all critical systems have been switched to backup power, shutting down main core”, he announces as he pulls a large lever on the control panel. The glow of the core slowly dims to a small red ember before disappearing altogether; the lights in the room, and probably the entire ship, dim noticeably.
“Beginning crystal integration”, George announces from his control panel; a circular section on the top of George’s control panel slides upwards to reveal a glass cylinder identical to the ones the crystals were stored in in the lab. George pushes a button and the cylinder is released with a hiss; Jack takes the cylinder and replaces it with another glass cylinder, this one containing one of the three crystals. It fits into place with a hiss and George pushes the control to lower it back into the control panel, “link established, zero-point-energy extraction operational, ready to initialize link with main reactor.”
Joel signals a group of his men on the other side of the room and they begin to pull levers and push buttons on the large control panel controlling the main core. Suddenly the core flares to life, flooding the room in an orange glow, “link successful”, George announces calmly, “beginning zero-point-energy extraction, activating JHC Drive gravitational shielding at five percent power, rate of entropic decay is holding steady at point zero one percent of initial per second.”
“Bring gravitational shielding to one-hundred percent.”
“Gravitational shielding is at 20%... 40%...60%...80%...gravitational shielding is operating at maximum capacity; entropic decay is holding at two point five two percent of initial per second; time before failsafe activation and crystal deactivation… thirty-seven seconds. Ready for JHC Drive activation.”
“Begin shutdown sequence, it’s too early to rush into this.”
“Gravitational shielding deactivated, JHC Drive deactivated; begin energy transfer?”
Jack nods, “Reroute power to the Daam K’Vosh crystal.”
George begins pushing buttons on his control panel, “redirecting power from non-critical systems to Daam K’Vosh crystal... entropic reversal has begun, the estimated time until artificial space/time is at maximum safe capacity is eleven to thirteen hours.”
Jack turns to George, “restore power to non-critical systems and divert only excess power to the crystal.”
George nods, “new estimated time is fifteen to eighteen hours.”
Jack turns to Joel, “run a full diagnostic, make sure we didn’t miss anything.”
Joel simply turns to stride towards the other engineers, already barking orders, “Rand, you have the engines! Mat, take the Sensor Arrays! Perrin, stop being so useless and get to work on the shields and inertial dampeners! Lan…!”
Jack tunes Joel’s shouting out and moves over to help George with monitoring the core.
Jack stands on the Bridge of the Graf Zeppelin, his eyes glowing orange softly. Through the view screen one can easily see the JHC Drive attached to the front of the Graf Zeppelin, it glistens in the light of the nearby yellow sun and the occasional bolt of lightning jumps between the four outstretched claws. Jack’s earpiece crackles to life, shortly followed by Joel’s voice, “all diagnostics turn up nothing out of the ordinary, engineering reports all ready.”
“Okay then, prepare for Jump in five minutes.”
Joel grunts and the earpiece goes dead, Jack touches a few points on his HUD and it crackles to life again, “George, how are things on your end?”
“Artificial space/time is at maximum safe capacity; the main core is powering the Jump Drive and is ready to activate on your mark, coordinates are set for the stable Jump Hole at G2 in Omicron Delta.”
“Okay then, bring gravitational shielding online at minimum capacity and standby.”
“Aye aye”, George replies with a half-chuckle.
Jack sighs before ending the connection and switching to the ship’s intercom system, “Attention all crew, prepare for JHC Drive activation.”
People all around the bridge quickly move to their seats and strap themselves in, Jack does likewise. He counts to thirty to give the rest of the crew adequate time to do so before opening a channel to George, “bring gravitational shielding to maximum power George.”
“Gravitational shielding is now at maximum power, all systems ready for Jump.”
Jack pauses for a moment, the magnitude of what they are about to do apparent to him, “any quotes for us today George?”
“To be honest, the only one I can think of at the moment is Murphy’s Law… I don’t really think you need to hear that right now though do you?”
Jack shakes his head in exasperation, “even if it’s a bad one, you still have a quote at the ready, that’s reassurance in and of itself George… activate the JHC Drive.”
Almost instantly a brilliant blue flash of light erupts inside the JHC Drive’s claws, it throws stark shadows through the bridge and several people scream in fright. Space seems to compress in front of the Graf Zeppelin until it looks like the ship is falling through a pinprick of bright blue light. A mere instant later the familiar tunnel of swirling light can be seen through the bridge’s view screen. George’s voice crackles to life over Jack’s earpiece, he sounds slightly out of breath, “Jump Drive activation successful, crystal is charging and gravitational shielding has been deactivated. We should soon arrive in Omicron Delta.”
