Becka's Notes

The Whisper had been in hyperspace for only a few minutes when Mark’s voice came over the intercom. “Okay, I found the trail.”

“So soon?” Amanpreet couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.

“Yes,” he said. “I’ve never saw a more obvious trail in all my time as a tracker. It’s almost as if it’s leaving a trail deliberately. But I don’t like where the trail is leading us.”

Amanpreet’s stomach flipped. There were many dangerous regions in hyperspace and she knew which one was closest, but she needed to be sure. “Where?”

“The Spaghetti Transit,” he said flatly.

Amanpreet closed her eyes and winced. That was what she’d feared. The Transit was a notoriously hard hyperspace corridor to navigate. It got it’s name from a phenomenon unique to the region. Strange, sticky strands that floated in massive clumps through the area. Not only did they snarl ships travelling through it, but could also prevent all but the most skilled navigators spotting the wells of mind light they used to triangulate their position.

“Shit!” Kane said from where he was monitoring the shielding. “I’m glad I don’t have to navigate this trip.”

“Have you ever navigated the Transit, Mark?” Amanpreet asked.

“No,” he said. “Well, not outside simulations.”

“Ah,” she said. “Drop us out of hyperspace when you reach the edge. This is not a good situation to be learning in; I’ll take over. I’ve done it a couple of times when I was in a hurry.”

“That must have been some hurry,” he said. “Who goes in there deliberately?”

“Am, apparently,” Niobe said. “Is it really that bad?”

Amanpreet wrinkled her nose. “Define bad,” she sighed. “It’s strange, and can be dangerous, but there are worse things out there.”

“Only you could say that, Am.” Kane shuddered. “It’s bloody dreadful!”

“Yes,” she said. “It–” She paused as a slight shudder informed her that they had returned to normal space. A moment later the hatch to the dome opened and Mark emerged.

“Are you sure about this?” Mark asked. “I’ve never met a navigator who will go in there willingly.”

“I am,” she said. “We’ll be fine.” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt as she rose to her feet and headed for the dome.

“Double check the shields. We don’t want any of the spaghetti getting in here and it will if we’re not careful. It passes through most normal matter like it’s not there.” She cringed at the memory of her last trip into the Spaghetti Transit. A clump of the things had penetrated the dome and tangling in her hair and sticking to her skin.”Damn! I’m going to need a bath after this.”

“Several baths,” Kane said. “Last time I skirted the transit it took me weeks to get clean and we’re going into the heart. Ships get lost in here, you know.”

“We’ll be fine,” Amanpreet said. “I promise.” She clambered up the ladder into the dome.

***

Mark was right, Amanpreet realised, the Fish did seem to be leaving a trail deliberately and it was leading them straight into the Spaghetti Transit. Why was it going there? She didn’t realise she’d spoken the thought aloud until Vanna responded over the intercom.
“Perhaps they live there? Fish can survive in hyperspace indefinitely, and from what I know of the Spaghetti Transit it would be a good place for them to have hidden from the Mez.”

“That’s a good point,” Amanpreet said. “I think you may be right. Perhaps that’s what’s got them riled up recently – the fact that we’ve been gradually getting closer to their home. But in that case, why is it leading us in? I hope this isn’t a trap. Let’s move slowly, anyway.”

The trail of the Fish led Amanpreet deeper into the Transit than she’d ever dared navigate before, but fortunately the way that their quarry had torn through the strange strands meant that the Whisper didn’t get tangled much. However, she was about to announce that they were turning back because they were getting too deep, when the hyperspace spaghetti unexpectedly cleared to reveal a Jupiter-sized void that looked and felt almost like normal space, even though she knew they were still in hyperspace.  “I- I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Never mind whatever you’re seeing, Am,” Vanna said. “Check the sensors out. This is impossible.”

“Huh?” Amanpreet glanced down at the console and her heart skipped. They weren’t blank! Whatever this void was, the sensors were detecting it as if it was normal space. “How is this poss–” She broke off as she saw their quarry floating motionless just ahead of them. “Oh my! Is it waiting for us? I think it is.”

“What?” Vanna asked.

“The Fish,” Amanpreet said. Then, as several more Fish appeared out of the dark, she added. “It’s here, and it’s not alone.”

–

Prompt Post 14 is here. Come and leave a prompt.

Comments Welcome.

A/N: Thank you to Kamala for volunteering to my new beta reader for Whisper :-D

--

 

"It's not just your species though," Midori said. "They've attacked human Fish as well and they attacked Amanpreet's Stick."

"The attack on the Whisper seems to have been a mistake," Umi said. "And we suspect they don't realize that not all Fish are crewed by us. It's not immediately obvious, of course. And even if they do we don't know why they are attacking now."

"So the prototype Fish could navigate hyperspace on their own but the current ones can't because they're only class three intelligences?" Amanpreet asked. "I suppose you tried that because of how badly hyperspace exposure affects your people?"

Umi made a sound of assent. "Yes, this was at the time before we abolished slavery. All navigators were slaves because we thought no one would risk their lives voluntarily--"

"You were wrong about that," Midori said drily.

"True," Umi said. "But only because we now pay our navigators a ridiculous amount and have extreme limits on jump duration. Back then we were less careful of our navigator's lives until we started losing not just them but ships--"

"Oh! Oh my!" Amanpreet exclaimed. "Did the prototype Fish know about your navigators also being slaves?"

Umi made a thoughtful sound. "History doesn't record that but I cannot imagine that they didn't. Why?"

"Well from what you said not many of the prototypes escaped," Amanpreet said. "So maybe, just maybe, they've been breeding out there in the depths of space and now they've come back to rescue their fellow slaves not realizing that your species has moved on since then."

Inside her environment suit Umi bounced in surprise. "That... now that is a workable theory. I hope you're right because in that case my sister is probably in no immediate danger.” She made a series of squeaks in her own language, then, and when Amanpreet and Midori looked at her questioningly explained. “I was praying for her safe return. She's intelligent so if you're right she should be able to explain to them.”

“We should still try and track them,” Amanpreet said. “Because it is just a theory.”

“Do you have some way to track a ship in hyperspace?” Umi asked. “We've never found a way to get sensors to work there.”

Amanpreet shook her head. “No, but ships leave temporary traces in hyperspace that a skilled navigator can follow. It's difficult, though, because they vanish quickly. We probably have a few more hours before we lose them.”

"Are your navigators skilled enough?" Umi reverted to the formality Amanpreet associated with the Mez as she made her request. "And if so will you help us, please, Captain?"

"I don't know," Amanpreet replied. "It's never come up. But I am." She pulled a face. "If neither of them can, I'll do it myself."

"Thank you," Umi said. "You are kind to someone you barely know and who has just admitted that her ancestors committed a terrible crime."

"The key word there is ancestors, Umi," Midori said. "It's no one living today's fault. The Council is not going to punish your people for what happened. Though they may censure you for keeping it secret after it became relevant."She returned to preparing the vegetarian sushi. “Nearly ready. Have a piece of bread while you're waiting if you want.”

“I'm fine, thank you.” Amanpreet said, then jumped slightly as Midori's intercom made a chiming sound.

Midori reached out tapped the button to activate it. “Yes?”

“Can you come to the administration hub, please, Midori. Mei found something.”

Midori gave the half rolled sushi a mournful look before replying. “We'll be there as soon as we can.” She turned off the intercom and sighed. “So much for lunch. I'll finish rolling this and we can take it with us.”

***

"So what have you found?" Midori asked without preamble as they arrived in the hub. She placed the box of sushi on the counter and offered Amanpreet a pair of chopsticks. "Help yourself."

"Thank you," Amanpreet said.

"Oh! I didn't mean to disturb your meal, Administrator Midori," Mei said. "Please forgive me. But I reached the section of the book just before the end, and the star that went supernova and depopulated Talis - it wasn't natural. Someone deliberately destabilized it to destroy them. They think it wasn't just that star or them either. So that was their warning - that there is a species out there that sometimes commits xenocide for unknown reasons."

"Interesting," Midori said. "But it's been a very long time. Maybe that species is long gone..." she trailed off as the Tkin made a negative sound. "What else?"

"I thought of that and asked Sangat to check their computer system, now we can communicate with it. It's still detecting the communications of the unknown species, though it also states they are far away and little threat right now, but they sweep through this part of space every thousand years or so and they are due back soon."

Prompt Post 12 is here. Come and leave a prompt.

Comments Welcome.

inventrix

• I want to do a Space Opera with giant spacefaring bioengineered creatures called 'fish' as vessels . (Though the protag has a more normal vessel either due to relative poverty or ethical problems with 'fish'). This is also the universe that has my sulphuric acid aliens in it - so you may want to check out that tag though some time after the first contact in the ficlets in the tag.  (Note while the sulphies bio-engineer their vessels the 'fish' are made by a different group of aliens) Why do I want to do this? Because...


• Examples of the genre: Skylark of Space, Lexx, Farscape etc.


• By "story premise", I do not mean a plot summary. I am not looking for plot twists or plot details, but rather pieces of a general idea of the starting point.


• Example of a story premise: "[Main Character] is approached in a bar full of aliens to ship a cargo to a distant lanet but on route she realises it may not be entirely legit." (This one is really general and rather cliche, but you get the idea.)
• Each week I will put up a prompt post where readers can suggest prompts. More on that in the first prompt post. I plan to put up the first prompt post on Wednesday 8th January. This post will remain active until then.
• If all goes well the first installment will go up on Wednesday 15th January along with the second prompt post.