Slip Space

It’s a story as old as time, and space. Man meets alien. Alien and man fight. War happens. Today is like any other day. Deep in sector DaMa-223 two interceptors are fighting it out. Scouts of their own accord. The human Dante, captain of the Velator is in an intense fight with an alien space craft. Dante was no stranger to combat, he had nearly 40 kills before he finished his second tour. Nearly 700 now. Unheard of in the Intergalactic Earth Defense Force. This fight was proving to be quite the challenge, the alien interceptor had maneuverability on him, but he had speed and acceleration. The 1D-3 craft was a formidable space craft. Dante banks around a flying piece of debris as he launches a photon into the alien craft. “That’s a hit you scum!” He screams out loud to a cockpit of just one person. The ship sparks and starts to veer in a pattern Dante had never seen but never the less he followed.

Zebkork has been a pilot his whole life. Even at a young age he was a natural pilot. He constantly improved and pushed the limits of space craft. When he was enlisted into the Korkian Defense Force he was over joyed, but the reasoning was somber. The humans had destroyed a base in a far away sector, who knows how many more they had eradicated. Zeb had 400 or more kills on his record. There was still a debate with command on if a carrier counted as one or more. Yet another debate on if he got the kill or the rookie did. Never the less, his current foe was formidable. The fighting tactics were nearly as precise as lasers. Pushing a for a shallow bank just shy of the remains of a space fight long gone Zeb pushed his Kork-V-34 to near breaking limits. Coming so close the tail of his craft hit the debris. It wasn’t enough to damage, but it certainly didn’t feel like it was without a scratch. Happy with his maneuver he banked slightly tighter attempting to get behind the human. The joy he felt however quickly faded when he heard the undeniable sound of photons smashing his ship. The ship spit some errors on his screens and snapped him out of things. Hoping to recover this fight he pounded the throttle and headed straight for a large piece of a carrier type craft. Maybe he could hide or get away.

Zeb smashed into the remains of an experimental ship that was aboard a carrier that had long floated here in space. Dante dodged it barely. Just as the ships passed an unknown force had been put in motion. Aboard that ship was technology for wormhole travel. Something both Korkian and Human kinds had been working on for years. What only the dead knew was this ship has successfully accomplished it before it was ripped apart. Not by the act of the traveling by wormhole, but by a Korkian ship when it attacked the mother ship carrying the only known data on the experiments. No one knew this was out here. Zeb and Dante however, were about to find out exactly what the technology was capable of if things got out of hand.

The sparks flew wildly as the two pilots kept up their dogfight. Not from their ships. But from the debris. Lights flew and the core of the engine roared to life. Just as this happened both fighters radar light up like stars. There were hundred of signatures. Unfriendly ones. Both fighter broke from each other and attempted to flee. Better to fight another day then be discovered and possibly captured. Little did they know they were both trying to flee the same direction. Unaware that neither of them knew what was happening. Both were about to enter slip space when their ships stopped completely. The engines were screaming, the slip space generators roaring, nothing moving. Each of their status not clear to the other one they both start looking around. Space is a vast creature. Spotting just one thing you have seen before or anything up close was nearly unheard of. However as they both look around they made eye contact. At best they were a few hundred feet from each other.  Both tried to turn ships to fire but nothing on their consoles wanted to respond.

Both pilots started looking around more and they both spotted the dark truth. A miniature black hole had opened up. Both of their ships were trapped in its pull. Having days of fuel they were not completely concerned. It wasn’t unheard of that these little holes could form pockets and then immediately disappear. Usually lasting for seconds, but at best an hour or two. Time was on their side for now. Dante took the time to take stock in his gear and rations. Zeb did similar. Both keeping a close watch on each other the whole time. Zeb decided to check the progress of his ship and the black hole that just opened up behind him. Turning his sensors to actual speed instead of relative speed. This was something that he had never encountered before. His ship was traveling at zero. Not just not moving but the speed was in such a way that the console itself just displayed a single zero. Then just as he is about to dismiss it as a malfunction he sees it register -1. They are being sucked in.

Dante had been trapped on one of these before, thankfully for only about 30 seconds. This one however was at nearly an hour. Then his ship revealed he had a new incoming hail from an alien ship. He naturally attempted to answer it but was met with a high pitched and then suddenly slow message.  It was so distorted he couldn’t understand it. A few more trickled in until finally one came through clear. “Human, we are trapped in a black hole that is progressively pulling it into it. The time dilation has been a trouble to deal with. Please calibrate your radio to send signal 2 light seconds ahead of my ship.” Zeb’s voice boomed over the intercom. Dante was put off by the request. Just as he was second guessing he decided to check his relative speed. “Negative three?” He said with a bit of a shock.

While Korkian and Human space flight is different it is also very much the same. To be a pilot in space you have to be extremely good at math. This situation was something else but the math was still quite sound. Dante quickly pulled a small calculator out and hammered the numbers. “Yea, about 2 light seconds should do it.” he said to himself. He quickly jammed the coordinates and sent his broadcast. “While we are enemies, it looks like we found ourselves in a bit of a problem. It looks like neither of us can make it out of this one alive unless the black hole lets up. Which its been 2 hours.” The words rung through to Zeb and he clicked on his communications again. “Well, there is a way to get out of here…-” Just as Zeb started his sentence Dante finished it. “-but being enemies do you think you could trust me or I could trust you? I think we both agree we would rather die than let the other go.” A slight sense of defeat and acceptance washed over both of them. They both knew the odds, they both knew the other wouldn’t trust them.

Hours ticked by, the two ships falling closer and closer to the point of being instantly sucked into the hole. Both men, while of different cultures were doing everything they could to try and find a way out. Doing the math, looking for alternatives to propel themselves, or gain some kind of forward motion. Both had figured that they could get some extra propulsion but the risk would be heavy. Blowing up their own ship came with deep risks. It had been 6 hours, both of them figured they had maybe another four hours before they had to make the choice to risk everything. A thousand options, none of them would work without the other.

Dante did it first. He clicked on his communicator and just started talking candidly. Speaking about his home and about his life. After about ten minutes Zeb started to do the same. They spoke like this for an hour before Dante broke. “I am sorry Zeb. I do not know what started this war, but it looks like its going to claim both of our lives in the end.” This slightly infuriated Zeb. He knew what started it. “Dante-” He said collecting his thoughts. “-I am also sorry at the way things have happened. But, The Korkians know what caused this war. There used to be a planet in sector A-23B. This was a large planet that was used mostly for vacation and trade. The humans blew it up. When we lost communication with the planet we sent scouts and found a quite large human carrier that was torn in half after the core went critical. There were combat vessels everywhere. They found a handful of survivors who were not on the planet directly and they told the scouts that the human ship jumped into the sector and within the matter of a minute the planet was destroyed.”

Zeb was recounting this story to Dante and thinking about all of the black-site operations that were done. It had only been about 20 years since the war had started. Both men were young enough this was in their life time. Dante then spoke up as Zeb finished. “Do you know the name of that ship by chance? I am not saying I do not believe you, but there is no record of this happening or being carried out in the logs of human history. I am trying to piece together what could have happened. If this is an error or something larger. I never rule out the possibility of my government deciding to do something crazy and cover it up. But this isn’t a tactic I have ever hear of.” After a few minutes Zeb sent an image to Dante’s console. “It looks like the hull said it was the E.D.F Hope.” Zeb relayed as Dante read it.

Dante gave a slight huff and a giggle. “Zeb, that ship had an experimental warp core in it. It was docked at the shipyard just off the Pluto station. They were doing some testing with a smaller version of it when suddenly the two cores reacted to one another and ripped the whole bay from the station. It killed about twenty million people when suddenly the whole bay was gone. It happened so suddenly the space station couldn’t compensate and it collapsed the hallways and everything. Not a single survivor.” Dante spoke in a more somber tone. Much the same tone that Zeb spoke of when speaking of the planet’s destruction. Zeb spoke up after a moment of silence. “So your saying that this war started twenty years ago because humans were testing an experimental ship core and destroyed a planet on the other side of the galaxy by pure chance? This sounds totally absurd!” Dante’s voice changed to almost a whisper as he sent nearly a thousand files to Zeb’s ship. “This didn’t happen twenty years ago. This happened five hundred years ago.”

Both pilots were silent for a long time. Zeb was analyzing the data, comparing the ship to his data and the story. It was almost too perfect. The pieces fit together. It seems both of these species had lost a significant portion of their population in what amounts to a crazy freak accident. As Zeb was putting it all together he looked up from his console. Outside in space was a large piece of debris that was starting to pull towards them. Quickly Zeb flicks on his communication again. “Dante! Check your two o’clock!” Dante was pulled from his thoughts. Racing already then he saw the words. ‘E.D.F Hope’ Dante came on the radio. “Zeb what are the chances? There is no way this isn’t connected. What if this is the key to stop our fighting?” Zeb was having a thousand thoughts. “Honestly, I am not sure the two of us could stop a war between our two people. What if we could get some data from this ship? Do you have the schematics? Maybe that will help.” Zeb spoke as his screen lit up with complete details of everything the ship had to offer.

Both men were silent over the next hour jamming their consoles looking for information and trying to get anything they could. Both of them found the key to their search at near identical times. “There is the main computer!” They said at the same time. Both men laughed pretty deeply and Dante spoke up. “We can get the data directly from that computer if we can access the console. Its risky but I could shoot my grapple over to it and get everything. This has to be enough to end this war Zeb.” Zeb spoke slightly somber. “The only problem Dante is that if you gather this data then even if we get it to our people they will never believe it. I have to be the one to capture this data. But in doing so, it is likely to destroy your ship.” His voice trailed with actual sadness, Dante felt it.

“Well.” Dante said. “How about this then. I board your ship, you detain me and we do it anyway. Worst case we both die and this isn’t our problem anymore. Best case this works and we can be on vacation on Earth in a few months. The in between is I die and it was at least a good effort. I think we both agree that trust has to be given some place and I am willing to do it first.” Zeb knew he was right and knew that Dante would be tortured if they captured him. “Ok, if it works then I will gladly take you up on that offer. If you shoot your grapple at my ship you can reel us together and we can do a boarding action. This can also be our getaway should things go sideways. We blow your ship, use the explosion to escape and I drop you in friendly space in my escape pod. With a complete record of this.” Dante jammed at his console and lined up the shot. “Ok, I am going to hit the nose so that it doesn’t hurt the ship.” Dante and Zeb both doing the math working with one another to get the shot just right. Knowing if this didn’t work then both of them died anyways. With a some what unsatisfying lack of sound the grapple released. The arc for the black holes gravity coming into play heavily. Just as it looked like the shot was going to miss Zeb shouted. “RELEASE THE GRAPPLE DANTE! IT’S GONNA MISS!”

Like the longest ten seconds in any species history the arc of the grapple was like taking the very air out of your lungs all at one time for minutes at a time. Then just like the men planned, the grapple snagged the front of Zeb’s ship. You could feel the tension from between them lessen. Dante pushed a few buttons and slowly his ship started to move towards Zeb’s. He clicked on the communicator again. “It will take about 5 minutes, we might lose an hour of our time so might correct those calculations while I get my suit ready.” Zeb had already done them. It was more than an hour. They had less than thirty minutes left to pull off this maneuver. “You won’t like the numbers Dante. Instead of saying them out loud, lets just assume we get one shot at this and make it happen.

The transfer of Dante to Zeb’s ship was simple enough. While they were scouts they were plenty capable of using boarding. They linked the two ship’s computers so that they could control them both from one console and share data. Then Dante let Zeb put his containment cuffs on him and sat him in the unit in the cockpit. “Ok then, we shouldn’t waste any time. Zeb immediately started to position his ships grapple to pull the computer over to him. The two men working together to make the math work again. Being completely sure this did not fail. Dante went over what he knew and checking Zeb. “So the travel time should be about five minutes when you shoot it. The angle should be about thirty degrees off, and you will have to dual charge the booster to make it hit. If it over shoots slightly that shouldn’t be a problem since your grapple is quite large. Just do me a favor this time. Don’t doubt the two best pilots in the galaxy, and certainly hope we don’t meet the third from this action.” Zeb chuckled at the last words and laughing he responded. “Well interstellar space incidents seem to be our specialty. Lets just hope the next guy is worse than us at least.” He then let the grapple fly. Starting a timer for the calculated travel time.

It was again what seemed like a lifetime. Both men counting the seconds in their heads. The timer goes off and Zeb already is pulling the main computer to the ship. Another ten minutes to pull it back. Things are getting dicey. A bit of a shake happens about half way making both men inhale deeply. Holding it for what felt like an hour. Zeb then goes to retrieve the computer dragging it into the ship and putting it into the holding container. Making sure its not going to shift while he extracts the data from it and also start working on their exit plan. Zeb lets the computer fly copying the data checking on it ever few seconds while he calculates the perfect point to explode Dante’s ship. He looks over at one point sees some dates and data and then has to double check them. “Dante, it looks like the dates here are not from five hundred years ago. They are from the exact day that the Korkian planet was destroyed. There is an exact gap from the destruction of station Pluto, to the moment the planet was destroyed.” Zeb puts the files on the monitor in front of Dante. Dante confirms it as well. “This is incredible. Did we somehow traverse time?” Both men are perplexed deeply but there is no time to think on that.

Zeb keeps jamming in the data to detonate the core of Dante’s ship perfectly. “So it looks like we have ten minutes and we have to do this. I have everything in if you can check my math quickly.” Zeb says sending the data for review. Dante looks everything over. Doing the math again at every step and verifying numbers. “Your math is impeccable as always Zeb. Going to be honest, I am not sure how I hit you when this is how good you are. I have to account this down to pure luck.” Zeb realized this fact as it was spoken. “Might be a little bit dicey after all. You did some decent damage. Ok, the numbers should still work. Lets hope and pray to whatever being that you can. Heck, pray to all of them.” Zeb started the counter for the entire process. Everything had to happen exactly on que or this was going to blow them both up, and any hope of ending a war.

The timer entered the final stages and Zeb was checking on the straps for Dante. Making sure nothing happened to this human he now considered a friend. Dante gave a nod as he checked everything. “This ship have the foam dampening stuff? I think we both know how rough this is about to be.” Zeb laughed. “Not to worry friend, if it doesn’t penetrate the hull, we will live.” He turns to his console strapping himself in mashing a few buttons on his console. Both men were not prepared for this, they knew this. They also knew the other wasn’t. No amount of calculation could prepare them for this. “Hold on to your everything!” Zeb said as he initiated the detonation. Increasing throttle to over drive the engines. Dropping armor weights from the ship all at the same time. In what could only be described as the most impressive light show this side of the galaxy. Dante’s ship detonated with a shower of sparks and wave of energy. Both men had a watch on the speed of the ship.

The ship was now a coffin or a chariot. The speed sitting at a steady -20 light seconds. Then as Dante’s ship and all other weight released it goes up to -19. -18. Progress. Suddenly a wave of energy washes over the ship and tingles every sense in their body. The ship jumps to 3 light seconds. Then to 50 light seconds. They were going to make it! Zeb started to cheer slightly with a light laugh and Dante relaxed greatly. “We might just make this after all.” Dante said breathing heavily from nothing more than holding his breath. Then both men didn’t expect the turn of events. Suddenly Zeb hits the controls dodging the remains of the Hope. Just as it passes over the ship the speed of the ship plummets to -200 light seconds. In what is an instant they are swallowed by the black hole. Things seem off though. Both men expected death but suddenly they are sitting in space, unmoving. Zeb then speaks up and immediately unlocks Dante’s restraints. “Dante, you will never believe this. Come look!” His voice sounds half panicked and half excited. As the viewer comes into vision he sees the only thing he needs to see. There sits in space two massive chunks of a ship. Both identical in nearly every way. The hull of the Hope. Then the unfortunate realization wash over both of them. “Could we stop this war from ever happening?” Dante spoke up first. Before them lies the remains of the planet as well as the ship that decimated it. But not just one, two of them.