beta-tested nano injections.
At that rate, it takes about 115 days to reach light speed, not that we wanted to get too close to it, because the closer to that speed you get, the more fuel it takes to keep accelerating at the same rate, and the more slowly time moves on ship. “Anything else?” I asked.
“So far no obstructions, no obstacles sensors or probes didn't see from more than half a light-year away. I'll keep you appraised if anything changes, but really I don't see it happening. Until we reach speed we're more a cruise ship than anything. Might as well sit back and enjoy a Mai Thai.”
“Drinking while navigating is strictly prohibited by the ship's charter,” the ship's computer added helpfully.
“Why can we program an AI sophisticated enough to fly the world's most expensive starcraft, but not savvy enough to understand the difference between ordering a drink and making conversation?”
I smiled as I answered him: “We have. I think she just enjoys fucking with you.”
He turned a wary eye to his control-panel. “Is that it? Because I know where they store your RAM, and if I have to start yanking boards until you no longer have the excess operating capacity to be a pain in the ass, I will.”
“EngDiv would never let you do that, Dave.”
“I know my name's Dave, but still, it creeps me out when you say it like Hal.”
I cut in. “In her defense, she has a far more silky and pleasant voice than Hal.”
“Thank you, captain. Plrrrbt.”
“Did she just raspberry me?” Dave asked. “Did our ship just raspberry me?”
“She did. I think Haley has your number. I'd quit while you're ahead. Ish.”
“Oh God, you named her that? I already have a Space Odyssey nightmare once a week. Do I really have to go catatonic for you to be satisfied?”
“How close to light are we?” I asked, ignoring the question. I remembered from the briefings that the force to push our ship, and hence the amount of energy that required, was roughly the mass of our ship multiplied by our acceleration. So by starting slow, and building slow, the savings on fuel were huge.
“Just rounding 70%.”
“Then we should already be reverse-Winkling.” Anything close to 70% of lightspeed and time effectively took half as long on the ship as off it. At about 95% of lighstpeed, the ratios reached for the sky and 1 year on the ship felt like ten to the rest of the universe and increased exponentially after.
“How long before we're in the Kennedy Window for the first few sensor pods?” I asked him.
The window was named for Andrew Kennedy, who invented the Wait Calculation. Basically, because of differing speeds, two bodies that leave the same point can reach their destination at radically different times. Kennedy was concerned with increases in technology, but the calculation had since been applied more broadly.
The Nexus was designed to fire sensor pods from tubes. Their initial speed was higher than the Nexus'. However, the Nexus continued to accelerate, and would eventually overtake the pods.
The purpose of the pods was to arrive at a planet flagged by earlier probes for closer inspection. The pods were designed to orbit a planet a couple of times, get enough info and slingshot back towards our trajectory to be picked up en route. Hitting Kennedy's Window meant getting the pod and its sensory data back early enough that we only stopped at planets that actually had someone to talk to on them.
“Ten minutes.” We were specifically targeting inhabitable planets. We didn't want mining rights to particular worlds; we wanted the rights for whole systems. So our mission was to seek worlds that might have competing claim, and break bread with them- if possible, make a deal. If not possible, at least make sure we marked off territory around them, to keep their expansion checked.
“There you are. You threatened to throw another engineer out an airlock?” I recognized the grating voice before I turned around. Pete Ferguson, HR rep and the company's man on the ship. He was the only unranked member of the crew, which was odd, because he was also number one in the ship's hierarchy- behind captain, of course. He was a stickler for the goddamn regs. He seemed to like me, but not respect me- an odd combination in practice.
“Is it somehow my fault you hired engineers who are 90% dick and only 10% brain?”
“I don't suppose you could tone down on the references to male genitalia,” he said. “I'm sure, at a minimum, that the female members of your crew aren't comfortable with it.”
Haley chimed in to defend me. “Actually, Mr. Ferguson, the term ‘dick' originated in the 1500s, meaning ‘fellow' or ‘lad.' It was not until the late nineteenth century that the phallic connotation of the word surfaces in the written record.”
“She's in rare form this morning, isn't she?” I asked him.
“She?”
“With that voice I think it's obvious. You don't want to give our ship gender identity issues this close to the start of our mission, do you? You aren't deliberately trying to create a hostile work environment for our computer, are you?”
“I'll, uh, be in my office,” he said, slightly ducking his head as he turned away.
“Thanks for that, Haley,” I said.
“Anytime, captain.”
Continued in Nexus, available Summer 2013.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword
Conflict: A woman becomes possessed by the ancestors of those murdered to obtain the diamond for her wedding ring.
Marvin's Dead: A woman mourns the man she loves.
Jahannam: A young man pays a ransom for his kidnapped father, and waits at the morgue for news.
Font of Youth: A man discovers immortality, alone.
Four Degrees Above Freezing: A detective questions a man who found a chilled corpse.
Falstaff: Sir John is the King's man.
Check Out: A former killer-for-hire hides out after being unable to fulfill a contract.
Fainting Game: A man becomes obsessed tracking the deaths of several young boys.
Murder on Holiday: While on holiday, a serial-killer's activities lead to the birth of Jack The Ripper's myth.
A Life In Porn: A man records and relives little moments with the women in his life.
Betty Page Is Dead: A young GI falls in love with a pinup picture.
DID Have: Four personalities in the same body reflect on the death of the fifth.
Spirit: A NASA probe finds love. And note I didn't go for the obvious 'willing' joke.
PWI: An astronaut fights with his ship's computer about his habit of getting drunk while piloting.
Baby Back: A pregnancy re-kindles a failing relationship.
Cockfight: A rooster, irresistible to hens and humans alike, upsets the pecking order.
Green Thumb: A Department of Agriculture employee has a chance run-in with a farmer covered in chemicals. This short story was eventually expanded into a novel, Dag, now available.
Dogs of War: Two Explosive Ordnance Disposal soldiers recover together, after nearly dying in an explosion. This story is part of a novella, Dogs of War, available for free to newsletter subscribers.
Nexus: The crew of an interstellar star ship try to screw the alien species they meet before their corporate backers can screw them. This is the opening chapter of Nexus, coming summer 2013.
Thanks From The Author
You have my sincerest thanks for helping me continue writing. Below is a list of my other work. Some is available for purchase now, others will be available soon. I also encourage you to check my website for other projects of mine, including RSS feeds of stories that are updating weekly and to sign up for my newsletter, so I can let you know when something new is coming out.
Nic feeds off your thoughts, attention and the odd crudely-drawn erotic fan-doodle. Feed Nic by leaving a review at your favorite e-tailer, or emailing him at
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> Other Works by Nic
Available Novels
Homeless
Humanity has been decimated by a violent new species that nests in enclosed spaces, and slaughters everything unfortunate enough to come indoors. Mitch is a 'Wall Banger', an explosives expert who 'cracks' buildings, exposing them to air and sunlight to kill the invasive organisms. When a friend of Mitch's asks for help tracking down a murderer, Mitch recruits Cori, a 'Shadow Runner' who races through infested spaces to gather supplies and saleable loot. But this terrifying contagion isn't the only danger, as their world descends into a harrowing marathon against oversupplied militias, murderous gangs, self-righteous survivors, and all-out starvation.
Banksters
It’s a profitable time to be a bastard, one of the most profitable in history. Mark Dane intends to take full advantage of that and be the bastard at the top- if he can make his way past his fellow predators, through a concrete jungle of murder, sex, greed, and revenge. Ride shotgun with a sociopathic social climber, as he lies, cheats, and manipulates his way through the ranks of the fourth largest financial firm in the country, and revel in the bastard on bastard violence that follows.
The Necromancer’s Gambit (The Gambit #1)
The sheriff of Portland, OR’s magical community is known as Knight. His bosses run the mage government, called "the Gambit." On a rainy night, he recovers a mutilated body, tainted with dark magic and dumped at a local haunt. When the corpse is identified as a close associate of the Gambit, it threatens the safety of the community he protects, and those he cares about most. As the fragile peace amongst the city's