Nine Page 2
Raan held a letter in his hand, and idly glanced at it. It was a letter from his daughter, handwritten, on parchment.
Sassia refused to be a party to his quest. They had undergone blazing rows and finally stopped talking. Her last communication had been brief.
Father, If you insist on doing this damn silly thing, please don't do it in this damn silly way. It's not too late. Come back home. I love you. S x.
He crumpled the letter and threw it aside. It was the only other object on board the paired down freighter. He was alone.
Through the vision port he could see the four Wolf Mk2 escorts awaiting their signal. He thumbed the narrow-band comms.
'Gentlemen, all systems show green. I am ready to make the jump. Proceed directly via galactic hyperspace to Rexebe following the collapse of my exit wormhole. If all goes well, I will see you there once I have jumped back from the ninth chart!' Raan glared at the ships as they lazily turned around. 'Move it! Faster! Get away now!'
Simple words of acknowledgement followed from the escorts, and they peeled away from the freighter to give him a clear zone to jump from. Truth be told the pilots were more than glad to put some distance between themselves and the erratic professor.
Raan checked the power monitors, witchspace drift correctors and drive units for a final time. Everything looked as he expected. The jump should take him to the calculated co-ordinates of the ninth chart with enough charge to conduct a second jump back to chart one.
He flicked the wide-band comms open and started the countdown, he'd deliberately programmed the computer to start from a different position.
'Commencing witchspace countdown. Nine.... eight.... seven....' the on-board computer began to chant.
He sat in the pilot's chair awaiting the disorientation of the witchspace jump, familiar now after the long hard trudge across the charts... almost there...
This is it, the culmination of my life's work. To see the ninth chart, to prove to all and sundry that there is somewhere beyond the eighth chart, to arrive there and return with photographic evidence! To see the other side of the ninth wormhole! Soon, oh so soon! Nine!
'Three... two.... one.Witchspace drive engaged.'
The stars faded away as the reassuring witchspace tunnel appeared. The iridescent coloured rings of non-light surged past the ship. Raan breathed a sigh of relief.
It worked! It worked! Ha! No witchspace drive malfunction as I was warned, no interstellar space drop-out or Thargoid invasion fleet, no anomalies, finally! No anomalies...
He paused. Surely the witchspace transfer should have completed by now? He checked the time indicator. Ten seconds, fifteen, twenty. Still the rings sped past.
He checked the drive units. The wormhole had been created exactly as planned. It was as predicted.
A half remembered thought came back to him, a snatch of conversation. Fitzroy!
'And if you're wrong, if there is no ninth chart, nothing on the other side of these errant wormholes? If my theory of closed curves is right?'
Closed curves! The rings continued; nine, eighteen, twenty seven, thirty six...
It can't be! My theory was perfect! Dimensions in harmony, the cube of the first three numbers! One, three, nine! Perfect! NINE!
More rings; forty five, fifty four, sixty three, seventy two, eighty one.
An eternity of damnable rings!
Raan perceived the nature of his predicament with absolutely clarity and heart-shocking despair. He broke down, thrashing around the bridge in fury, smashing consoles and instrumentation as he finally surrendered to the madness that had driven him here.
'Nine! Nine! NINE!' he raged, foaming at the mouth.
The rings continued to float past, as they would for eternity.
For the ninth wormhole had no other side.
Author's Note
This is a bit of 'proper' Oolite Sci-Fi. There's a bit of plagiarism here, though I'm not actually sure from which stories I've pinched some of these ideas. I suspect some past master of Sci-Fi I read in my youth will be turning in his grave, but there's not much I can do about that. Doubtless someone will be able to tell me.
I recycled the characters of Raan and Sassia from my teenage ramblings – it seemed only fair to dust them off after so many years.
I wrote this story in about four hours, to see if I could come up with something compelling in a short space of time. Let me know what you think!
Author's Note
This is a bit of 'proper' Oolite Sci-Fi. There's a bit of plagiarism here, though I'm not actually sure from which stories I've pinched some of these ideas. I suspect some past master of Sci-Fi I read in my youth will be turning in his grave, but there's not much I can do about that. Doubtless someone will be able to tell me.
I recycled the characters of Raan and Sassia from my teenage ramblings – it seemed only fair to dust them off after so many years.
I wrote this story in about four hours, to see if I could come up with something compelling in a short space of time. Let me know what you think!
About the Author
Drew has written a series of novels and short stories for the 'Oolite' Universe, along with other contemporary ebooks. You can find them at his website below.
Connect with Drew:
Email: drew@wagar.org.uk
Drew's Website: http://www.drewwagar.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drewwagar
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/drewwagar
Linked-in: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/drewwagar