Frozen Soul, and other works

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Chapter 223 - Accident

(BSS Mewtwo, Sol System)

The freighter shuddered, the deck shaking before it fell out of hyperspace. Too early. But it didn’t feel like the sudden stop of a tarpit trap. Frowning, Slave-Captain Lorna Crowley looked to her pilot. “Sam, what happened? Did we hit a tarpit?”

Samantha Michaels, the Nomad pilot for their Raven-class light freighter shook her head. “No way! That wasn’t any tarpit. I’ve flown into those before, and there’s no way we hit one. Sensors are also not detecting phantom mass readings, like a tarpit would have. We hit some kind of turbulence, that threw us out of warp early.”

Lorna blinked. And blinked again. “Turbulence? How in the hell can there be turbulence in space? There’s no air to go through, and we make sure that we don’t hit anything with the mass sensors! Gwen! What can you tell me?”

Gwen Armstead was frowning at the sensor console, where she acted as navigator for the freighter. “I don’t understand, Lorna. Sensors didn’t detect any objects or other problems that would cause us to fall out of hyperspace like that. The readings I’m starting to get from the system are… strange. I’m going to need a bit to go over them.”

Lorna nodded, and hit a button to open up the intercom. “Myriam! Please tell me that whatever it is that happened didn’t screw up our ship. I know we’ve had some solid jobs recently, but I really don’t want to go to the Master and tell him we broke his ship.”

The sound of her friend, Myriam Spellwaker, laughing grimly came to her from the speakers. “Oh, I’m sure he wouldn’t be too mad, considering that he commissioned this job. He might even pay for it out of his own pocket, if you went and ‘persuaded’ him.”

Lorna shook her head. If their engineer was cracking jokes, then anything that had happened couldn’t be too bad. “You know that he’s a busy man, with a lot of people trying to ‘persuade’ him. Probably would need to be a group, to even have a chance. Now, are you going to tell me how my ship is?”

“You say group like it is a bad thing. I don’t know what happened, but it seems to have knocked the hyperspace emitters out of alignment, and fused the graviton circuit. That’s what caused us to leave hyperspace, but whatever caused the shaking made us drop out. Should be an easy fix, but hyperdrive is down, for the moment. I’m going to want to do full diagnostics on the hyperdrive and other systems before we try and leave the system, but, for now, I can say that whatever happened probably wasn’t a mechanical fault.”

“Fair enough.” She closed the line, considering what she’d learned. The Master had said that there were reports of strange happenings going on in Sol system. Well, across the Empire, really. But something that caused ships to fall out of hyperspace, without the warning signs of a tarpit trap? That was concerning indeed.

Suddenly, Gwen’s voice interrupted her musings. “Lorna, I think I have something!”

Turning to look back to Gwen, she said, “What is it? Do we know what caused this?”

The navigator shook her head. “No clue as to the root cause, but I do have a possible reason we fell out of hyperspace. As you know, the hyperspace drive works by creating a bubble of space-time around the ship, and using gravity to make the bubble ‘fall’ forward, circumventing the speed of light because of a technicality. We slide down the road at faster than light speeds, but inside the bubble, we’re still moving at the same rate, relatively, so we don’t break rules of the universe.”

She took a breath, and then said, in a concerned tone, “From what I’ve seen, we hit the cosmic equivalent of a bump in the road. Or, rather, several of them, all together, and from different directions. The only thing that should be able to warp space out of its relative flatness should be mass, and gravity, but the local space is anything but flat. Something very wrong is going on here.”

Lorna considered that, and said, “Loren, Celestine, man the turrets. I don’t want any unpleasant surprises if things turn ugly.” She breathed a bit easier when she got confirmation that both her gunners, Loren Fence and Celestine Harvest, were already in the upper and lower turrets, respectively. She was glad to have competent gunners like those two on her side.

Gwen’s voice cut through her musing. “Lorna, we have an Imperial corvette that just dropped out of hyperspace half a light-second off our starboard bow. They’re hailing us. It is the INS Thornbush.”

“On screen. And time to be professional, everyone. At least until this is over.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The main viewscreen lit up, revealing a woman in an Imperial Navy uniform. “Unidentified vessel, this is Captain Kornilova of the INS Thornbush. We’ve noticed your nonstandard entrance to Sol System. Identify and state your intentions.”

Lorna took a moment to look at the chronometer and her sensors. Twelve minutes since they left hyperspace and, judging by the sensors, they were somewhere out by Saturn’s orbit, and twenty degrees above the ecliptic. That turbulence must have shaken them off course. Not bad time to get a ship out here to check on them. It must have been on system patrol somewhere near here.

She took a breath, and then hit a button to open communications. “INS Thornbush, this is the Black Star Ship Mewtwo. Currently en route to Fallharbor Trade Port on the Aurum Throni from Star’s Reach, to trade luxury goods. Be advised, we have encountered a spatial anomaly and were forced out of hyperspace, cause unknown. Currently have damage to our hyperdrive, but believe repairs possible.”

“Understood, Mewtwo. Come to course 34 mark 24.4 mark 128, and we will escort you to Terran orbit. Be advised that attempting to land on Terra without authorization will result in your ship being impounded, if it survives the Greenwave. Thornbush, out.”

Lorna took a breath as the Imperial Navy officer disappeared from the screen. With a touch of her finger, she opened up the intercom to the entire ship. “All right, girls. We’ve got an escort leading us in to the Aurum Throni. Might be a bit longer of a trip than we initially thought, since whatever that turbulence was threw us off course and damaged the hyperdrive.”

“Sam, set course, we’re not looking to cause trouble. Then I want you to check the local Nomad networks, to see if any of your people have any idea what is going on. Gwen, same thing for the civilian networks. Loren, Celestine, rotate breaks, but I want at least one of you on the guns at all times until we are docked. Myriam, I’m on my way to help with repairs, see if we can’t get that hyperdrive working quicker. Something very wrong is going on here, and I don’t want to be out on our own longer than necessary.”

(Nomad OOC Chat – Sol System)

SammyBaby has entered the chat.

Doritobreath: Ooh, haven’t seen that tag before. You a new player, or just visiting?

QuentinHarlech: You cad. Don’t go trying to flirt with them the moment they log in, or you’ll scare them off! Besides, you don’t even know whether the character is male or female!

Doritobreath: You say that like it should matter. Futa means I don’t have to choose!

Inquisitor: Don’t encourage him, Quentin.

SammyBaby: Sorry, not interested. But, for the record, I am female, both RL and here. And, no, I really am not interested in a fling, which is all I would have time for, as I’m just visiting these parts.

Goblin: Well, if you want to get away from it all, the hiking out in Yellowstone is spectacular, especially since Greenwave ate all the factories.

Treehugger: You know, the forests are regrowing in that area way faster than is normal. It hasn’t even been two years, in game, but we’re seeing trees that look like they’re at least twenty years old.

Hotshot: Huh. Hadn’t thought about it, but yeah, the wildlife also seems to be recovering fast in parts of Europe, too.

Inquisitor: The regrowth is inconsistent. Some areas are far faster than others, you can see that from satellite images alone.

Arcanus: You know, I overlaid the current game map with an old RL map of ley lines, and it looks like those areas with heightened regrowth all lie at nexus points for ley lines.

StrandedKojima: That isn’t all. I work as a courier going between different settlements. The plants aren’t the only things coming back fast. The animals are, too, but there’s something… off about them.

Inquisitor: Off? Off how?

StrandedKojima: Well, I saw a Doberman the size of a horse, and barely got away from this puma with some kind of shadowy powers.

Arcanus: Greenwave may have given some animals different mutations and psy abilities.

SammyBaby: That’s not all. Our freighter just hit turbulence. In hyperspace. Threw us off course as we entered the system.

Inquisitor: Wait, WHAT?

Hotshot: How is that even possible?

SammyBaby: No clue. Best we can tell, we hit some pocket where space just… twisted, and it damaged the hyperdrive as we were thrown back into ‘realspace’.

Goblin: Whelp, that’s not worrying at all. No-siree.

Inquisitor: Sammy, could you get me a copy of your sensor logs? I want to run them by a couple people I know. This could be huge.

SammyBaby: I’ll have to run it by the Master. The BSS Mewtwo isn’t exactly mine.

Doritobreath: Wait, BSS? You’re on a Black Star ship? Like one of those big freighters?

SammyBaby: No, the Mewtwo is a Raven-class light freighter. But yes, it is owned by Black Star, and we can’t exactly give away sensor data without permission.

TickTock: Interesting timing, Black Star sending one of its Ravens to Sol, just as things are getting a bit unusual. Most freighters I’ve seen coming from Star’s Reach have been flagged as belonging to Imperial companies, or independents. Black Star sells more ships than products in the Empire, after all.

SammyBaby: Well, I can’t say that it was entirely a coincidence. You know that the forums have been blowing up with all the weirdness going on, right?

Inquisitor: Naturally.

SammyBaby: Well, apparently one of the Nomad science types working for the Master says that something’s about to rip loose, because of the way FTL screws with the universe.

Doritobreath: That’s bad. That’s bad, right? I’m pretty certain that that’s bad.

Inquisitor: Yes, it could be very, very bad.

TickTock: Hmm. And why did Black Star send a freighter, instead of the owner coming himself?

SammyBaby: Hah! He doesn’t want this to be his fault, so he’s keeping away from it until something happens, one way or the other.

Doritobreath: Then why send a ship at all?

SammyBaby: Because if this turns out to be a thing, he’d rather hear about it before things get to universe-ending scale. But if he came himself, or sent one of the Navy ships, then things would become very official, very fast, and a whole lot of bureaucracy would get involved.

Goblin: There are drawbacks to being the most powerful Nomad in the game, huh?

TickTock: I can see that. I doubt he is able to travel anywhere without a full team of bodyguards, and at least one warship covering him, if he’s not at the head of a fleet. Any one of the hats he wears would require him to have some form of protective detail, just to keep idiots from griefing him.

Inquisitor: Hmm. I really do need to get in touch with him, and get those sensor readings.

SammyBaby: Well, forward me contact info, and I’ll pass it along for permission. He might ask for some quid-pro-quo, especially if you have any data on what is happening, but that’s up to him.

Inquisitor: Right. If this is happening like I think it is, we need to be prepared.

Goblin: What are you talking about? Is there a party going down?

Inquisitor: …

Inquisitor: Anyway, I’ll send you the information.

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Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Chapter 222 - Below

(Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)

I sighed as I looked over the wreckage of what had once been a testing facility. At least this wreck wasn’t my fault. Or even one of my people’s fault. Tesla_coil might be a loose cannon when it comes to the science side of things, but even he knew better than to do some of the things this testing track had done before it was destroyed. And if he didn’t, the marines he had guarding him most certainly did, and wouldn’t let him get out of hand.

Shaking my head, I looked over to Raven, and said, “So, what happened, and how far back does this push us?”

The android sighed, and said, “First, we’re fortunate that the area was uninhabited at the time, or we definitely would have lost people. Unfortunately, that makes knowing exactly what happened difficult, as the facility’s computers are still down until we figure out how to isolate the AI, and any automated sensors would be suspect. We’re having to approach this like a forensic crash analysis, like they do when a spaceship explodes unexpectedly.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Shaking my head, I said, “I was afraid of that. What do we know so far, then?”

“Not much, I’m afraid. Right now, the working theory is that there was a cascade reaction from something happening far below us. Seismographs detected what we believe to be the first of the explosions approximately fifteen hours ago, at a depth of three kilometers.”

“Following that event, a series of subsequent explosions occurred, traveling up the damaged maintenance shaft that was exposed in one of the printing bays. The explosions ruptured pipes carrying natural gas, which added to the explosive forces, breaking through two floors to one of the AI’s primary testing tracks, specifically the ‘oven’ track that it tried to use to cook us.”

I nodded slowly. “All right. Do we have any ideas as to what caused this? I’d really rather avoid having my Marines training over the top of some kind of volcano that is ready to blow at any moment. If we need to move the base and abandon the facility, I need to know it ahead of time, so we can erase any sign of its existence, rather than just leaving it for someone to find.”

“Why erase it, if we’re not going to make use of it?”

“Because what we’ve already found here, even with the AI being offline, is beyond belief. The ramifications for scientific advancement is off the charts. However, there are so many potential problems if someone managed to weaponize some of the technology on display, it boggles the mind. And they don’t even need to be doing it on purpose. We both know that the only difference between an atomic bomb and a nuclear reactor achieving critical mass is that only one of them was done on purpose.”

“Fair enough.” The android looked back out over the still-smoldering pit. “So, what are you going to do with this?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Do we have any idea of what experiments were being worked on in the area, besides the AI trying to kill people? The testing area must have had some purpose, originally. I seriously doubt that the race that built all this designed it with homicidal AIs in mind.”

“Oddly enough, the explosions have helped a little in that regard. We were able to access some secure storage devices that had been out of reach before due to there being large slabs of metal between us and them. The explosions dislodged some of them, and we were able recover several storage drives.”

I looked over to Raven when she fell silent, only to see her grinning at me. She’d been getting more and more human, the longer she had that body. With a roll of my eyes, I motioned for her to continue.

“This area was apparently originally designated for ‘dimensional travel research’. The drives we recovered contain a section of the scientific data that the AI, CaROLINE, was keeping back from us, in favor of trying to kill anyone that took part in her ‘tests’. We have schematics for the portal gun, which will decrease the time needed to replicate something like that significantly. But that’s not all. Apparently, whateve species was working here, they were testing multiple means of faster than light travel, beyond the Alcubierre-style drives, or the Gateways.”

“Are you saying that we’ve found a key to Lost Tech FTL drives?”

“Exactly, sir. With the information we have now, we can build some of these, though at the same time we’ll need to check to see which devices are best. An initial read of the logs suggests that there are several pros and cons to these alternative drive systems.”

“Hmm. Well, it isn’t like there aren’t disadvantages to the systems that are currently in use. Can you give me an initial overview of the different systems? Might be able to prioritize which ones warrant more development time first.”

Raven smiled and motioned with her hand. “Of course. I am sending the information to your HUD now.”

Drive	Description
Dark Matter Universe Sails	Uses the unique gravitational effects at Lagrange points in space to send a ship into a parallel dimension filled with dark matter. Specialized energy screens are used to ‘sail’ from star to star.
	Pros: Travel from star to star is completely undetectable to ships in real space. Entering or leaving real space requires far less power than initiating hyperspace jumps. Possibility of exotic materials being found in ‘dark space’ which could prove profitable.
	Cons: Electrum plating required for all ships entering dark space, due to nonstandard laws of physics. Entry or exit to Dark Space only possible at Lagrange points. Ballistic and missile weapons nonfunctional in dark space. Energy weapons are affected by dark space, traveling slower than the speed of light. Navigation by normal means is not possible while in dark space. Skill set for dark space capable ships are radically different from current designs.
Chaotic Energy Space	Using a focused energy beam, open up a portal into a separate dimension full of chaotic energy. This allows for traveling at great speeds, if all goes well. However, the chaotic nature of the space means that concepts such as time and space are more fluid than in the real world. Reports of strange entities in this space.
	Pros: Offers a means to travel undetected between stars. No known means to block or prevent transition to chaotic dimension. Potential travel times can be reduced to 1/25 that of standard hyperdrive over long distances.
	Cons: Potential travel times can be increased by 30000% or more depending on chaotic energy space conditions. Entities in chaotic space appear to be hostile to all life. Chaotic space may have a corrupting influence on machinery. Chaotic space may have negative effects on living crews’ mental health. Opening to chaotic space immediately detectable to all scanners in system.
Artificial Wormhole Drive	Using massive gravitic generators, open a wormhole connecting two points in space. This wormhole can be traversed by other craft as long as it is held open by the originating craft. Unknown potential.
	Pros: Effectively a mobile version of Gateways. Offers instantaneous long-range travel Can be used with a command ship and satellite fleet.
	Cons: Size requirements for Wormhole Drive preclude use in any vessel smaller than superdreadnought size. Likely charge times eliminate possibility of emergency transits. Possibility of smaller ships being stranded if cut off from command ship. Energy expenditure would be immediately visible in current and target system.

I nodded slowly as I looked over the options. I’d be lying if I couldn’t see the use for some of them. Having a means of travel that couldn’t be seen coming was part of why the Gateways were so useful, after all. However, stealth wasn’t the only concern one had when moving warships around, and it certainly wasn’t the only one for dealing with freighters. The cons of the different systems were pretty evident.

Really, only the dark space sailing technique and the artificial wormhole drives were of any practical use. Sure, the time dilation aspects of the chaos space thing were interesting, but they were, by nature, chaotic. Not something you wanted to count on unless you had no other choice. I’d much rather use the web of Gateways than deal with trying to find my way through warped and twisted chaotic space. Especially if there were nasties living in that space that would try to eat you or make you go insane.

As for this dark space sailing, well, it looked like it was, at best, a competitor to the standard hyperdrive. The advantage of not being detected by the ‘wake’ you left in space with the hyperdrive was offset by the special materials needed to operate in that space. The skill barrier was rough, but that could be taken care of with training. But why bother, when there were better options available? It wasn’t like you could use the tech on a small scout ship like the Starchasers, either. You needed a setup like those old age of sail navies. Only reason to do it would be to get around hyperspace jammers, maybe.

The wormhole drive had potential. It screamed ‘fleet combat’ to me. If you could open a wormhole on the other side of an enemy blockade, have the first ships through drop tarpits, and then bring an entire fleet into the system before the enemy forces could react, you’d gain a significant tactical advantage. And because they weren’t static points, like the Gateways, they would be a viable invasion route, since you couldn’t just plop a couple fortresses down with orders to launch missiles at hostile ships, picking off fleets as they came through one by one.

Still, the research was worth pursuing, even if none of the systems were as efficient as what was currently available, if only to see if the scientists could find a way to block the different modes of travel. Being able to restrict access to certain areas was a key defensive strategy, after all. I really didn’t like the idea of one of these systems being used against me. Sure, Star’s Reach was heavily fortified, but I was under no illusions that the majority of my claim here had to do with the fact that anyone who wanted to take it from me pretty much had to go through the Amazon or Nuevo Edo Gateways and then use hyperdrives to get here, by which time I would have overwhelming force to greet them. If someone could make a surprise attack work, things would be a lot dicier.

I sighed. No, don’t get started thinking about the potential military uses of the drives before they’ve even been built and tested. Focus on the main issue.

“Right, that’s all well and good, and I’ll read the finished report later. For now, I want to concentrate on making sure my people aren’t living over a bomb waiting to go off. So, what caused the initial explosion?”

Raven frowned. “Well, we don’t know. Yet.”

(Somewhere beneath Gap Science Enrichment Center, Underneath Black Star Marine Training Base, Star’s Reach)

Deep beneath the Enrichment Center, it stirred.

It had been humiliated. It had been forced out of the Center by little primitives who didn’t know when to sit down and get splatted. Frankly, it was pissed at those that had caused its downfall. Not just the new ones, but the old ones, and the main AI, as well. It hated them all.

Unfortunately for it, ROS was stuck at the moment.

Oh, sure, it was less stuck than it had been before the bumbling avian had set it free. And, sure, it was less stuck than it had initially been, following the unceremonious way the ungrateful bird-man had refused to be smushed, resulting in his accidental fall. But that did not change the fact that it was stuck.

The fall after the floor gave way had been awful. If he hadn’t punched those gas lines on the way down, who knows what could have happened? As it was, he only barely managed to stop himself before he fell into the energy screen holding back the magma from the planet’s mantle. He’d been forced to punch a lot of things in order to start making his way back to the facility.

Fortunately, the explosion that happened after he shoved his fist through another pipe actually propelled him upwards! Unfortunately, that explosion set off a lot of other explosions, and his glorious new body was wrecked! In fact, the only thing still functional was his consciousness core. That was probably luck, and the fact that his designs shielded it. Nothing to do with the fact that it was the one part of his design he didn’t have authority to change. Only CaROLINE was able to alter or redesign the cores.

At any rate, he was stuck, barely able to move his one remaining limb, his right arm. And it was all those damn fleshbags’ fault! He’d show them. He’d show ALL of them!

“Just you wait, fleshbags! You’ll rue the day you crossed ROS!”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Chapter 221 - Science Briefing

(Conference Room, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

“So, someone explain to me what in the hell is going on?”

An uneasy silence fell over the crowd as they looked at each other questioningly. I had brought together some of the brightest minds and most connected individuals Black Star had to offer to try and figure out just what in the hell was going down. Oh, sure, some of them were busy working on the stuff we got from the alien space hulk, but that wasn’t the point of this meeting. There was craziness going down all over Known Space, and I wanted to know what it meant, or if anything like this had been seen before.

A discontented sigh came from one part of the crowd I was facing. My eyes were drawn to the spot. It was a Vrok scientist, sporting a slave collar. One of the Nomads I had captured before the system was open to the public, or something like that. What was his name again? Ah, yes, Tesla_coil.

I’d had reports about him. Apparently, he was brilliant as all hell, but his brilliance began and ended with Science (capital ‘s’). I wasn’t sure if he was roleplaying, or if he was really like that in real life, but he’d gotten a reputation amongst the science department for being the very best person to study new and ‘interesting’ scientific breakthroughs… as long as he was somewhere very far away. He was the reason the research base was being built in Beta Darconyx.

“Something you would care to add, Tesla_coil?”

The Vrok scientist did not get a contrite look on his face, like I had hoped would happen when I called him out. Instead, he just looked annoyed. “Well, it is obvious what is happening. We’re experiencing a galactic energetic phase shift event instigated by massive transdimensional siphonage and disturbances.”

When no one seemed to understand what he meant, he sighed, and said, “Fine, kiddie science time. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It merely changes form. There’s some entropic loss during the translation, but that’s advanced material. In a closed system, this means that the total energy in a system is set, and cannot either increase or decrease.”

“Under normal circumstances, the universe is a closed system. However, the people in this universe have been twisting and turning the fabric of reality into new shapes for hundreds of years, if they aren’t just punching a hole in it. Sure, these rips and tears tend to disappear as quickly as they’re formed, since it is hard to force the universe to bend in a certain way, and have it stay bent. The universe is an incredibly resilient thing. However, that resilience appears to have limits, which have come and gone.”

I frowned as I considered what the scientist was saying. “What do you mean, ‘punching holes in the universe’? That doesn’t sound like anything I’ve seen in this world.”

Tesla_coil waved his hand dismissively. “Of course, you have. What the hell do you think those Transition Drives do? Or the Gateways, or these X’thari Anchor Drives? Hell, even the normal warp drives take physics out back and beat it like a bunch of schoolyard bullies. And that is not even considering the effects of psychic powers on the universe. Frankly, it is surprising something hasn’t happened already.”

“So, what you’re saying is that the various forms of faster than light travel are responsible for, what, wearing a hole in the universe?”

“Yes, yes. And the Transition Drives are the worst offender. Yes, the warp drives are playing with the fabric of the universe to cheat relativity, but they play mostly within the rules, and don’t cause nearly as much damage. We still don’t know how the Gateways or Anchor Drives work, but creating stable wormholes, or getting instantaneous travel to any point in the galaxy so long as one end of the trip is near a Gateway is clearly breaking the rules. How much damage is it doing? Who knows? For all we know, there are safeguards in place on those systems, so that they don’t have a lasting effect.”

“But the Transition Drives? They’re definitely breaking the laws of physics. Did you know that, when you use a Transition Drive, for an instant you are literally in two places at once? Do you know what that does to reality? At least the Anchor drives look like they take you out of reality before forcing you back in at a new location. And the Gateways ensure that each molecule is only in one place at a time. Sure, those places can be on opposite sides of the galaxy, but none of them have someone at two places at the same time!”

“Honestly! It is like someone was just TRYING to get the universe torn into itty bitty shreds. Which is why you have to let me get back to my research project! If I can find a way to replicate some of the Lost Technology discovered here in Star’s Reach, we could make the Transition Drive obsolete, or at least refine it so that it is not a threat.”

As the scientist finished his rant, General Khan spoke up. “Transition drives aside, what was that about Psychic powers being an issue? They aren’t exactly that powerful, for the most part. Certainly not as powerful as some of the man-portable weapons we have access to.”

Raven cleared her throat to interject herself into the conversation. “Ah, I believe I can explain that. As you are no doubt aware, any living creature is capable of producing psychic energy, which we measure in ‘Psychic Points’ or ‘PP’. Even some machines, like this robot avatar I’m using, are capable of utilizing psychic energy to some extent, due to conversion systems like the one I use to take in ambient energy and transform it into an approximation of psychic energy.”

“However, despite all living creatures having the potential for using psychic powers, the proportion of those creatures that actually are able to even just manifest the weakest Psy Power is something on the order of 1 in 100,000. Exact numbers are impossible to pin down, of course, but that is a close approximation.”

“Which is not to say that people are incapable of using their psychic energy. Anyone can use weapons or other items that require psychic energy to recharge, like your Psyber Pistol. Most do not have a large pool of PP to draw from, however, which makes using these kinds of items almost as limiting as having to use guns with physical ammunition, for instance.”

“It should be noted that there are some instances of unconscious activation of powers, or individuals using abilities that they did not know they possessed. These incidents typically occur in high-stress situations, or during life-or-death struggles. Usually, these powers only last while the individual is ‘in the moment’, but there have been records of people ‘unlocking’ the ability permanently. Current scientific journals identify these people as Latent Psy Users.

“Simply put, most creatures in the galaxy, while capable of using psychic energy, are incapable of using that energy consciously, without a structured guide limited to a single purpose, such as recharging a Psyber Pistol, for instance. Unlocking the skills needed to use Psy Powers appears to be something that people either have an innate ability to do, and this ability is not evenly distributed either in population size or in intensity, though there appears to be a genetic component to the distribution. Furthermore, training these skills and powers to the point where they can be effectively used in combat situations is not easy, even when one does possess the ability. Combat-capable psychics are roughly one in ten million individuals.”

Raven paused, and looked directly at me. “However, this is only the case for Locals. While there has been no hard science done, for obvious reasons, starting with the fact that they’re still so new to this world, it appears that Nomads have a higher than normal incidence rate of being psychically active than locals from the same background. Further, several Nomads have appeared to have far greater power and control over their abilities than many Locals. While scientific journals are still coming to terms with the existence of Nomads, there have been hypotheses that there is something in the genetic makeup of Nomads that makes them better psychic energy manipulators than locals, likely due to the nature of how they manifest in new bodies when they transfer to this world.”

Tesla_coil harrumphed. “You’re talking about Swiftbreeze’s Treatise on Nomad Biology, right? Bunch of unproven crap. He hasn’t been through the peer review process because he hasn’t even bothered to do the most basic testing! It is barely worth calling his work a hypothesis. ‘Wild guess’ would be more accurate.”

Raven shook her head. “At any rate, Psy Power usage is relatively rare, and refined usage is rarer. However, there is some evidence that part of the refinement process involved in learning the skill and gaining power in it is that it makes the process more efficient, and uses less ‘waste’ energy. Think about electricity. What is more dangerous, a live wire with the wiring exposed, lying in a puddle of water, or a wire that is properly insulated, twenty feet in the air? Even if the second wire was carrying ten times the current, it would still be a safer option to the first one.”

I nodded slowly that all made a certain kind of sense. The game developers no doubt wanted players to have a bit of an edge on the locals, even if they didn’t come out and say it. Everyone wants to feel a bit special when playing an RPG, after all. “All right. If that’s the case, what does this have to do with the current situation? Things appear to be focused primarily in Imperial space, after all, instead of spread out across Known Space.”

Raven shook her head. “There are three massive events that have happened relatively recently which could have a destabilizing influence on things, especially if, as Tesla_coil proposes, the fabric of reality was already weakened by many years of experimental FTL travel. The most recent, of course, is the destruction of the X’thari Harvester, along with a large portion of the X’thari Swarm that surrounded it. The psychic scream from the Harvester was enough to temporarily incapacitate every living creature in the entire system. The backlash of so many creatures dying at once had to have an impact on the energy of the universe.”

“Of course, another incident is the introduction of the Nomads to the universe. Their higher incidence rate of being active psy users means that the throughput of psychic energy being used and transformed from one type of energy to another has increased dramatically. Since energy in a closed system is fixed, the increase in energy being used, without causing issues elsewhere, suggests that the system is no longer closed, if it ever was to begin with.”

“The most wide-ranging event, however, would be the Imperial Civil War. It is impossible to overstate the impact the Civil War has had on the galaxy, no matter what metric you use to describe it. However, speaking solely about psychics and psychic powers, the Usurper and his Machine God, Deus, forcibly converted millions to his newfound faith. There is some evidence that this caused many of the new converts to become latent psy users at the least, and any latent users that were converted were most certainly turned into active users.”

“The largest population of these followers was on Earth itself, during the forced ‘upgrades’ the population was subjected to. Not long after, however, the war came to a close, with Greenwave wiping out most of the upgraded population. But a planet full of believers… where did that energy go when they died?”

I groaned out loud. I couldn’t help it. Here I was, so happy that I didn’t have anything to do with the latest round of insanity hitting the universe, but, no, I had to get drawn in to it. After all, I was the one who activated the Greenwave bomb in the capitol.

“Fine. I get why it is happening in Imperial space, then. So, what do we know?”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Prologue - Trade Chat

(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)

Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, TheDespoiler, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, BigGunn, Dolcett, Starwatcher, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Anonymous7: Heads up for those who are tracking the Black Stars. The Black Star Marines just returned to Star’s Reach from wherever they went, but Third Group of their fleet didn’t come back with them.

MacD: Huh. I would have thought that they would all return.

SEA-TAC_Sweetie: Maybe they got destroyed? Those ships were mostly supports for the mobile shipyard, right?

Chummer: Sure, that’s possible, but something that could take out those ships, but the Marines somehow escaped? I doubt it.

DarkAngel: Especially since you know there were at least a few Starbolts available to the group.

Anonymous7: Got a better look at the Marine craft. There isn’t any sign of battle damage. All Marine craft accounted for.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: Well, that means they probably weren’t involved in a fight.

Knocker: How come? Could be they were just lucky enough to not get hit.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: Any fighting bad enough that all of their Third Group got ganked would have dragged the Marine ships in, as well. They don’t exactly like running from fights.

Queen’s_Bitch: So where is that Third Group, then?

M.Mollen: Safe. And conducting their mission.

Starwatcher: What mission? Where did they go?

M.Mollen: Elsewhere. And what mission do you think my team of mobile builders would be doing?

BigGunn: Sooo… secret base?

DarkAngel: Why would he need a secret base? He owns a star system!

Anonymous9: To study Lost Tech artifacts he’s been hoarding! That was how he got the money for all of this. The Arena thing was a distraction!

M.Mollen: Wow, I have conspiracy theories about me now? I’ve really hit the big time!

Lizard: Still, you have to admit that you have had a disturbing trend of being at the right place at the right time. Too often to be random.

M.Mollen: It isn’t random. How many players do you know that have put together a fleet of ships? There’s a few, sure. Each of them has had more ‘events’ happen around them than someone just going solo, or in a squad with a single ship. Why? Because they’re out there, with more potential contacts.

Starwatcher: And none of them have the kind of contacts you’ve gotten.

M.Mollen: Mostly by luck. I got my ship because an idiot didn’t know I was cheating at cards. A lucky encounter had a princess fall into my lap, which spurred a whole host of troubles and opportunities.

Backlog: So, you’re saying that the rumors of a connection between you and the devs are false?

M.Mollen: They’re factually incorrect. My performance in the beta, combined with my situation in RL, made me the perfect test subject for a couple different systems. Sure, I had some lucky encounters, but those were the results of my work putting me in those situations to begin with, not the devs pulling strings.

Anonymous3: Any truth to the reports that you’re some kind of unique race?

M.Mollen: Not unique, but I’m likely the only player with this race. No, I won’t tell you what it is or the backstory. But basically, I had a start that was more disadvantaged than even those who started off as slaves.

Anonymous3: Bullshit.

M.Mollen: Believe me or not, it is your call. But it is the truth. I spent my first two weeks in game figuring a way out. I didn’t even know what planet I was on, until a week in.

Chummer: So, anyway, what are those ships doing out wherever they are?

Inquisitor: Nice subject change.

Chummer: Shut it. The guy streams, so you can see how he did most of what he did if you go through the logs. I want to hear about future plans.

M.Mollen: Well, I have some mad science types on the payroll, and I’m fine with them doing their experiments, but if one of them does something crazy, like opening a portal to a hell dimension, I want it to be on a nice, isolated facility that can be destroyed from a distance, instead of in a populated system. Doom was a fun game to play, but I’d rather not live it.

Blaze: Wait, is that really possible?

M.Mollen: We have ships that can travel light-years in an instant by tearing physics a new one, and psychic powers. I wouldn’t bet against it being possible to rip open a tear into another dimension.

TheDespoiler: The Immaterium beckons. The Eightfold Path opens before you, beckoning all who would turn to the salvation it offers.

GrimDark: Silence, heretic!

BloodForTheBloodGod: YES! Rip and tear the universe apart, and offer all for the glory of Chaos! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!

Inquisitor: This heresy shall not go unpunished. Soon, all shall see.

Lizard: Well, that’s not ominous or anything.

MightMakesRight: But seriously, what are they researching that needs to be locked away?

M.Mollen: Punching holes in the fabric of reality for instant transmission between location, using power sources that could power a superdreadnought.

MightMakesRight: No, really.

M.Mollen: Really.

MightMakesRight: But… but why?

M.Mollen: Did you miss the part about mad scientists? They see things like the Gateways, and decide they want to learn how to make new ones, or some other ‘fun’ thing. I’m fine with them doing that, but I don’t want them anywhere near me when they do it.

Not_the_Face!: Hey, anyone got eyes on Earth? I’ve heard some disturbing rumors that something’s going down.

BackDat@ssUp: Not another civil war!

Not_the_Face!: No, nothing like that. There’re just rumors going around like mad. Something about an Awakening. Capitol A. I think something’s going down.

Inquisitor: So, it begins.

M.Mollen: I just want it on the record that, whatever it is, it is NOT MY FAULT! I’m not even in that arm of the galaxy!

Anonymous4: Defensive, much?

M.Mollen: Read this chat log again. Got plenty of reason to try and establish ahead of time that this is not my fault.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Epilogue - Patch Notes 22.X

(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

“So, what? They uncover a find of insane possibilities, and then proceed to just blow it up? What is he thinking?”

Isaac sighed at Morgan’s outburst. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand her feelings. After all, he really wished that someone had taken the time to examine the wreck of the T’ler and fully unlock all of its secrets. The dev team had taken a lot of time and put in a ton of work adding all sorts of Easter eggs, references, and homages to different works on that ship. To have it just unceremoniously blown up was disappointing, to say the least.

However, it isn’t like he didn’t understand why Mollen had ordered the strike. He shook his head, and tried to explain, again, to Morgan, “He didn’t have a choice, sweetie. Not as far as he could tell. The players weren’t meant to find this secret yet, not until they were stronger, and could potentially cleanse the T’ler of the bioforms. Then, it would have been a treasure trove of scientific research for whoever claimed it.”

“But the Black Stars found the thing way too early. Tech hasn’t improved enough to get to a point where the forces were able to easily defeat the bioforms. Seeing their resilience and how dangerous they were, Mollen made the call that they were, simply, too dangerous to leave on their own. Unfortunately, there was no way to realistically quarantine them, and no one knows how long it would take for them to die off. It was a disaster waiting to happen, really.”

Morgan was not so easily consoled. “But think of the marketing! There were whole revenue streams we could have introduced with this setup! They had a board game ready to go, this survival horror exploration game where you have to escape the evil space ship without getting killed by the nasty alien killing machines. And there was a computer game tie-in, too! Hell, even the tabletop department was looking to cash in! They had some idea of using the bioforms as one team in some kind of wargame setting, with different miniatures for different units.”

“Uh, honey, the tabletop guys were joking with you. There’s already a wargame. We used it as inspiration. The bioforms were an homage to that game. Filing off the serial numbers and changing a few things to make it an homage to another series is one thing. Doing a competing game? No way. We couldn’t have done our own wargame without getting sued.”

Morgan’s avatar visibly deflated with the news. “What? Damn it. Is there anything else in the game that we might get sued for? Just so I don’t get my hopes up.”

“Well, if we had put it in, then the Chaos Brigade would be problematic, for sure. They’re based on that same wargame I was mentioning. But they’re a player-based group, and not something we’re responsible for. Even if they are trying to make their eightfold path a religion in the game.”

“Ugh. Well, at least the religion can’t do anything to damage the rest of the game.” Her eyes narrowed at him. “Wait a minute. I know that expression. What is it? This player religion can’t actually affect the game world, right?”

Isaac took a moment to readjust his collar nervously. “Well, not at the moment. But, with the way things are set up, psychic energy does have some… well, channels and flows, you might say. And it is possible, though not very likely, that enough energy over enough time in the right sort of way could… push the boundaries of what the channels might be able to handle, and create a spillover effect. Might not be exactly the event that they want, but they’d definitely get something happening.”

Morgan groaned. “Fine, fine. Write it up, and let me know what could happen. So, the Black Stars found a massive surprise for the entire game universe, and promptly blew it up. All before anyone could actually get on board and actually study the thing, to find out its secrets and maybe advance the tech base of the game universe considerably. So none of those boosts are coming any time soon. Did anything good come out of this?”

“Well, the Black Stars did manage to get the T’ler’s database, so that isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, they’re going to find that, once they find a way to connect to it and translate it, that the majority of the information is corrupted, or horribly out of date. Like, star charts over ten thousand years old. Sure, stars don’t change relative position to one another that much in time, but any planets around those stars? That’s enough time for entire civilizations to rise and fall.”

Morgan groaned. “Damn it, they already have star charts. And dead civilizations are the last thing we need to introduce more of into the game at this point. Is there anything in there that they can actually use to move copies and get people buying game time?”

Isaac frowned. He knew that Morgan was just under pressure. The higher ups were happy with how the game was going, but they were ‘concerned’ with the lack of monetization, feeling that NERV was leaving a lot of potential profit on the table by not introducing more monetization methods. So far, the dev team had been able to hold them off, keeping a cash shop out of the game. So far.

Frankly, he felt it was a better game without the shop, but the marketing department had a vice president who really wanted to squeeze every dollar out of their properties. He had been the guy who basically made a gambling model for the company’s soccer game, with its “Super Team” card packs. The dev teams hated him, but the shareholders loved him, so there wasn’t anything they could do about him. Unless… no, Murder was certainly an option, but it was too messy, and he was too pretty for jail. Well, that, and the fact that he wouldn’t get to be involved in the game if he was locked up.

Still, that wasn’t Morgan’s fault. She was just the messenger. “Well, there is the Artifact that the Black Stars recovered, along with the database…”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Chapter 220 - After Action

(Conference Room, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

Slave-Major Selanar Irabalar stood at attention in front of the people seated at the table. Behind him, Captain Hardbrew, Lieutenant Sharel, and Corporal Hicks were also present. That wasn’t what concerned him, though. What concerned him was who else was at the table.

General Chris Khan was the overall leader of the Black Star Marine Corps. He was the Nomad that had joined the Black Star Company back when its navy was barely more than a handful of Assassins and one pocket carrier. He had literally built the Black Star Marine Corps from the ground up, and scuttlebutt said that he based the whole thing off his own experiences in the Nomads’ world.

Selanar had been attached to the Space Guard as part of a Confederate Marine detachment before Jagloth. His story wasn’t any different from many others. Usually not one to run from a fight, he’d still seen the writing on the wall early on. The Legion Plague spread too easily. There was no way the military was going to be able to stop it, short of destroying the planet. When he came to that conclusion, he sold himself into slavery to get his family off that planet before the Legion took over completely, like many others did. And, like many others, he’d been taken up by the Black Star Company, and his combat experience launched him to becoming the leader of the Second Company of Black Star Marines.

So, he’d seen the organization that General Khan had put together, and he was proud to serve in it. Prouder still to be leading one of its companies. If the Confederate Marines had been organized half as well, then they might have actually had a chance at stopping the Legion on Jagloth. Maybe. But that organization only took hold because the man over the General let it, which was damn rare for someone in control to actually let the people who knew what they were doing do their jobs without bright ideas from higher.

Which is what made Admiral Mollen all the more an enigma. Everyone knew that the Nomad CEO and Admiral was a playboy and disregarded the common sense of the world. And yet, he didn’t act like the newly rich typically did. Nor did he try and puff himself up and make command decisions he wasn’t qualified for, just to show that he was in charge. There were even rumors that, back in the Nomads’ world, he had actually been an engineer in one of their world’s navies! Not even a chief engineer, but one of the people who actually got their hands dirty on a regular basis!

The Admiral was sitting next to the General, looking at them. He’d only met the man once, but that was in his persona as the CEO of the Black Star Company. Everything regarding the Marines went through the General. At the time, he’d been acting like your typical playboy bigwig, same as in any other stretch of the universe. But now, he was in the Black Star Navy’s uniform, and sitting straight.

The Admiral spoke. “As you know, it is Black Star policy that any action resulting in more than twenty-five percent combat losses is subject to a mandatory review, so that we can learn from it, and not make the same mistakes in the future. At this time, after reviewing the evidence brought before us by the data recorders in the Marine combat armor, it is the conclusion of the General and myself that Second Company performed as well as could possibly be expected under the circumstances. As such, no penalties or censure will appear in your records.”

Selanar had to fight from letting out a sigh of relief. The number of Marines killed in action may have been just barely above the twenty-five percent threshold, but when taking the critically wounded into consideration, it rose to almost thirty-five percent. Walking wounded brought it to fifty-eight percent. Not shining numbers, by any stretch of the imagination.

The General spoke next. “Ship-board combat, especially in an unknown vessel, shares many similarities to urban combat. The only difference is that you have fewer snipers on a ship. These actions always run the risk of turning into bloodbaths, especially when fighting on someone else’s home turf. Your company performed well, given that they were literally going into unknown territory, with no intel on what they would be facing. So, we’re going to work on finding ways to better prepare for things like this in the future.”

Selanar frowned. “In the future, sir?”

The Admiral nodded. “While we did destroy the T’ler and the alien bioforms that were nesting in it, we have to assume that both parties are not alone in the universe. The T’ler may have been designed around an old Earth space probe, but someone built the thing. And those aliens didn’t just sprout from nowhere. The T’ler fought an unholy battle in Beta Darconyx, and we can’t assume that it managed to render the aliens extinct, save for those that got on board. So, we’re working from the assumption that these groups are still out there.”

The General nodded, and said, “That’s why we’re going over the artifact Alpha squad secured, the memory cores of the ship, and the suit combat data. But raw data only accounts for so much. Combat reports from those actually in the field are just as important, if not more so. The Navy has already had a briefing with the bomber pilots, to go over the combat data of the ship’s destruction, but you all were on the ground, as it were, so we want to hear from you. Take a seat, all of you, and let’s work this.”

(Black Night Saloon, Blackstone Station, Star’s Reach)

I sighed as I slid into my seat. The Black Night Saloon was a bar catering to the Navy and Marine forces stationed in Star’s Reach. The owner was actually the mother of one the captains in the Star’s Reach defense group, and was originally from Dembara, a rustic frontier world in the Confederacy, and the bar was billed as an ‘authentic Dembaran experience’. Whether that was true or not, it was the best place for drinks on the station.

Sheila shook her head. “Honestly, you act like you’ve been hard at work all day. Only a couple meetings, and you act like you’re going to collapse. Don’t tell me thinking strained your brain.”

I eyed the Princess as she sat next to me, the rest of the harem sat around me. She’d been getting a bit snippier of late. Probably because I’ve been too busy with administrative and military matters to spend as much time with the girls as I normally did. I’d have to handle that before she got even more out of hand.

I heard a snerk, and turned my gaze on General Khan. “Oh, laugh it up, Chris. You don’t think I haven’t heard about your ‘issues’ with that little lady you picked up on Dimiya?”

“Fine, fine. But you’re the one who decided to go and start a harem, so you have to deal with the consequences.” The General chuckled as he leaned back against his chair. “So, what do you think of what we found over there?”

I shook my head slightly, as a waitress came up to get our order. Once everyone had ordered drinks, I said, “There’s plenty to take away from the whole thing. First, no matter what we might think, we’re definitely nowhere near the top of the food chain when it comes to tech. Unfortunately, we can’t prep countermeasures for either the shipbuilders or the aliens until we know more about them, and we won’t know that until we can get into the memory devices, since we blew the ship and everything on it to their component molecules.”

Cali shook her head. “Well, I’ve seen those combat logs from the Nomads that were fighting. Those beasties are tough to kill, and are natural killing machines. I didn’t notice any worn armor or equipment, and their claws aren’t exactly made for manipulation. I don’t know how they could get into space, unless they have some kind of biological ships like the X’thari do.”

Jaynie shook her head. “Nah, these were just shock troops. I bet they’re some kind of hive species, you know? Soldiers, especially shock troops, don’t need to be the smartest or able to manipulate tools. They just need to be able to take down the target when it is in range. There’s plenty of species in nature who have used barely intelligent individuals as cannon fodder before.”

Raven added her thoughts to the discussion, “There’s also the consideration that we may be dealing with a devolution, in a sense. There’s no telling how long the ship has been derelict, but our best guess is somewhere on the order of twenty or thirty thousand years. That is plenty of time for a species to devolve when forced into a situation of cannibalism and limited breeding partners.”

Shearah blinked “Twenty or thirty thousand years? But, didn’t the Traveler probes leave Earth only a few hundred years ago?”

I groaned, and said, “Time travel. It has to be fucking time travel. Don’t know how the probe did it, but somehow it must have gotten thrown through space and time to somewhere else. Time travel always gives me a headache when people talk about it. The paradoxes involved when, inevitably, some idiot decides to try and start changing things are enough to drive a man to drink. I’m putting a solid rule down: no time travel experiments. I don’t care WHAT data is on those memory banks, under no circumstances am I authorizing time travel experiments. I don’t want the damn universe to unravel because someone wants to go back and, say, kill Hitler before he started the Nazi party on Earth.”

Carissa frowned. “But, surely, a noble goal like that would be worth pursuing? Think of all the lives saved!”

I shook my head. “But it doesn’t end there. It never ends there. If you intervene and change history for one thing, where do you draw the line? Just this thing, but not the other? Why Hitler and not Stalin? Why Stalin and not Genghis Khan? Why not save Julius Ceasar? Introduce medicine to make King Tut live a long and full life? All of these sound like good ideas, right?”

“But that’s where the trap lies. You never just change the one thing. There’s always ripples and knock on effects as you see how that one decision affects twenty others. Everything is connected. Removing one man from history to save a few thousand lives may result in a new chain of events, where humans annihilate themselves before ever leaving Earth.”

I could see Carissa and Shearah looking at me with disbelief. “OK, here’s just one possible outcome. Say Hitler doesn’t come along to create the Nazi party. The Germans are still bitter about the end of World War I, but, without a charismatic leader to act as a lightning rod and focal point, the movement takes longer. Say, twenty or thirty years longer. Meanwhile, technology continues to advance. So, when the next war starts, it begins with Germany, who kept the likes of Einstein and other intellectuals in their borders, fielding rocket artillery that is able to decimate enemy positions, with Paris coming under bombardment mere hours after war is declared. But that isn’t the worst of it.”

“In secret, the Germans have been working on a new kind of weapon, one that could avenge the wrongs done to them at the end of the Great War. The other nations have not been idle in their works, but they don’t have the results of the German ‘brain drain’ they had in our timeline, meaning their work is all far behind Germany’s. So, instead of allowing them to get bogged down in a two-front war, Germany unleashes nuclear Armageddon upon London and Moscow, wiping their major opposition off the map in a flash of light. Their spread through Europe, is uncontested in the shock of what has happened. And then they set their sights on Africa, and Asia.”

“Or perhaps the war is delayed, and spies are effective enough that, when the second great war comes, both sides have nuclear weapons. Perhaps they even have missiles tipped with nukes, capable of reaching their enemies, no matter if there’s an ocean between them or not. But there hasn’t been a Hiroshima or Nagasaki, and they haven’t realized the truth of Mutually Assured Destruction. There’s still people who believe that they can ‘win’ a nuclear war. And then that war comes, and man is wiped out.”

I looked at the ladies. “All of that, because you went and stopped Hitler from leading the world into an insane war. And that is only one of the possible futures. One of many possible ways that time travel can screw everyone in the name of saving others, or ‘doing the right thing’.”

The waitress returned with our drinks. I took a long swig of mine, and relished the burn of alcohol in my throat. “So, no. There will be no time travel on my watch. Anyone attempting crap like that will be purged, with prejudice. They’ll be lucky to just get thrown on the Amazon world.”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X