Breach

fiction by michael werneburg

2002.07.26

"I don't know if there has been a breach this significant in the past. It may be without precedent."

He stroked his jawline with one palm and said, "That doesn't sound good."

"It's not. Standard procedure at this point is to confiscate the material."

"Hmm, yeah, that makes sense. But how do we know these aliens are not a threat. I mean, maybe they've got some serious firepower down there. Or," he said, glancing around, "hanging around up here in orbit?"

"Yes, your Highness, they might." She brought up some charts on the main console. "But we know who we’re dealing with. They don’t have subtime technology, and haven't expanded very far. You see the star systems highlighted here, here, and here?"

The Prince nodded.

"Extrapolating, we can guess that they have been in the neighborhood for a few dozen decades. But we know their home-world is actually over here."

"That's only two hundred and fifty light-years from here."

"Yes, your Highness." She was glad he could read the chart. "To your question on weapons, the analysis indicates that they likely have advanced kinetic projectile weapons, nuclear weapons, and maybe some primitive energy weapons. Certainly nothing that's going to harm us in subtime."

"Okay," the Prince conceded. "And we can retrieve the waste in subtime, as well?"

"Uh, that's standard practice no matter the circumstances. I mean, regardless of whether an alien presence factors into the situation. Less chance of contamination, that way."

"Right, contamination. Is extraction something that this crew must do physically?" the Prince asked. He was fidgeting with his coffee vessel, turning it over and over in his palm.

"Why, yes, your Highness." She wondered what the man was driving at. Then it dawned on her. "But that's the duty of regular crew, not yourself."

"I see." The Prince took to the vacant Captain's station and made to set a foot up on the console. The Lieutenant gestured at her console to disable the man's terminal as he did that, lest his boot heel cause calamity. The Prince lounged back and watched the aliens moving about on the screen. After a time, and with a wondering tone said, "So, we get to spend some time among the Caofsh?"

"Time among them, your Highness?" she asked, with a polite laugh. Was the Prince making a pun?

"Yes, I'm keen to get a closer look at these people!" the man declared.

She wondered what that meant. Subtime technology made interaction with people outside your subtime field quite impossible. "So, you do want to come along?"

"Oh yes, wasn't I clear?"

He hadn't been, but she simply nodded.

"I want to understand the risk that an intervention would entail. Remind me, Lieutenant. Just how does subtime help us, here."

"A local field is established where time flows differently. Energy and matter can still enter and exit, but there is a shift. Imagine how light bends when it moves from air to water. If time inside the field moves faster, we can accomplish tasks swiftly, well before an outside observer catches more than a glimpse. Conversely, if time moves slower inside, outside events transpire more rapidly."

"And I want to say that we cannot move backward in time?"

Almost managing to keep the scorn out of her tone, she told him, "No, your Highness."

"OK, a lot to work with there, nonetheless."

"Your Highness?"

He swung his feet off the console and stood to stare at the planet before them with a proprietary air. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Marl and Hiram exchanged a look. "Uh, yes sir. In a case like this, approval will be here in a matter of thirty minutes."

"I'm not inclined to wait."

That took her aback. The man's radical shifts in mood baffled her. "But we're not waiting. But the descent has a list of actions without which we could break up in the atmosphere or crash-land or pop out of subtime. Please refer to your console, you'll see the intervention checklist before you."

He did as she bade, looking over the list. "Fine, so it's three against the world!"