For a moment, the entire cockpit was bathed in a harsh, blinding light emanating from the main view screen which forced Patrick to shut his eyes as he turned his head away instinctively. When he reopened his eyes after several seconds had passed, the light in the cockpit had returned to normal and the view screen displayed the most hypnotic image he had ever seen in his life. Brightly glowing strips of light twirled here and there, almost dancing around clouds of various colours and sizes, with images of unrecognisable objects appearing and disappearing with great rapidity. The whole swirling miasma seemed to sway and rotate as Patrick tried to take it all in. He suddenly realised that he was feeling somewhat sick looking at the view screen but that in no way deterred him from continuing to stare at it in awe and wonder. His thoughts were interrupted by Saleek exhaling loudly to his right.
‘Whew! Finally....we actually made it!’
‘Saleek...what is that on the view screen?’
‘Oh right, you’re probably not used to it, are you? No probs, I’ve got it,’ said the spiky lyan as he flipped a switch on a control panel and the view screen went completely blank.
‘Hey, what are you doing?’ asked Patrick, unaware that he was pulling a face as he did so.
‘Sorry, I thought you didn’t wanna have to look at it anymore. Most species can’t stand it...’
‘What was it?’
‘That is super-space, my friend. Or at least, your version of it.’
Patrick’s brow creased in confusion as he said, ‘Wait....what??’
‘I thought you knew. You’ve travelled through super-space before, haven’t you?’
‘Yeah. Well, only once and that was aboard that deep space transport to get to Nexus One in the first place.’
‘You mean you’ve never actually looked at super-space as you were passing through it?’ asked Saleek, a smile creeping onto his lips.
‘No, never.’
‘Oh man, how can I explain it? Well, here goes. Basically, super-space exists parallel to normal space and time but sort of....underneath it. Or is it above it? Anyway, it seems to be infinite but no one really knows, since the normal laws of physics don’t actually apply to it, which is why it is separate from what we call normal space in the first place.’
Saleek stopped for a while, unsure if his explanation was making any sense to his passenger who was looking completely lost.
After a deep breath, he continued, ‘Anyway, our jump drives allow us to jump from normal space to super-space and back again, hence the name. It takes a lot of power to make the jump drive work though. If you lose power while you’re travelling through super-space, you can’t get back to normal space and you’ll be stuck in super-space forever. Exactly how the tech works is a bit beyond me, it ain’t like I got an advanced qualification in science or anythin’, but essentially the jump drive slices a small hole in normal space and we pop through, then the universe seals up the hole all by itself. We can use our normal engines in super-space but our speed is increased massively ‘cause we hitch a ride on all the faster-than-light waves which constantly flow through here. This allows us to travel between local star systems in a matter of hours, whereas with regular engines it would take months and months to get there. Then, we use the jump drive one more time to cut open a hole in super-space and we pop out the other side, right where we wanted to be.’
‘But what about the images I saw on the view screen? Where does all that come from?’
‘Like I said, nobody really understands super-space, except that we know it’s home to faster-than-light waves as well as particles we can’t accurately measure or see properly. The view screen is designed to convert whatever is around the ship into visual data and display it on the screen so we can see what’s out there. Whatever is out there is way beyond the spectrum of visible light, so far beyond the known laws of physics that our brains just interpret it any way they can. That’s why I said it’s your version of super-space – since everyone’s brain is different, everyone sees different things when they look at it. It’s seriously freaky stuff though, if you ask me. It really weirds out most people, since it doesn’t look like anything they can make sense of. I don’t mind it one way or the other though.’
‘Huh...’ breathed Patrick, his eyes looking glazed as he stared at Saleek.
His mind had been pushed to the limit due to the events of the last few hours and now this....it was just too much to take in.
In a sort of haze, Patrick mumbled ‘I thought it was kind of cool...’ and trailed off.
‘Well, one of the perks of havin’ your own jump drive. Life as a thief ain’t just danger and nail-biting tension, there are some good bits to it as well. Such as the view,’ Saleek flicked a switch and the view screen flashed into life once more, ‘and picking up your reward when your client gets his package. All in a day’s work, my friend.’
He was again grinning and appeared to be back to his old self – the way he had been when he first met Patrick back at the spaceport. Patrick found himself once more drawn to the vibrant, ever-changing images on the view screen, as he took in all that travelling through super-space had to offer. Saleek let his companion enjoy the view for a while as he tapped various commands into the computer terminal adjacent to the pilot’s chair.
After a while longer, the spiky alien turned to Patrick and said, ‘Hey, dude. Listen, we’re in the clear for the moment; we can’t be tracked while we’re travelling through super-space. Why don’t you get some rest? You look like you’re about to have a nervous breakdown or somethin’...’
Patrick had to admit that he did feel nauseated, extremely tired and bit shaken up by everything that had transpired over the last few hours. Now that they were back in space, his body clock had been shot to hell and he had no idea if it was time for lunch or time for bed. A tad reluctantly, he lifted his body out of the comfy chair in which he had been sitting. Patrick suddenly realised that his muscles were aching and his body felt very heavy indeed.
After everything that’s happened, maybe a rest is exactly what I need...
‘Okay, sure. Um...is there anywhere I can go to lie down for a bit?’ the human asked, yawning involuntarily.
It was as if his body had decided it was time to sleep and if he didn’t lie down soon, he was liable to fall asleep standing up somewhere.
‘Yeah, I’ll show you. Zeeree, engage autopilot,’ commanded Saleek as he swiftly got up from the pilot’s chair and, cradling the artefact under one of his arms, lead Patrick to the door leading out of the cockpit.
The frantic, garbled images of super-space faded and were replaced by the calm features of Zeeree, set against a white background on the main view screen.
‘Autopilot engaged,’ she said to no one in particular as the human and lyan had already exited the cockpit, leaving her in charge.
The corners of her lips curled upwards into a satisfied smile; she enjoyed having people onboard but one of her favourite things was simply piloting the ship all by herself, no one to give her orders, no one to control her, just her and the vastness of space in which to play and explore. She gave a satisfied sigh and turned her attention to making minor course adjustments as the craft sped through super-space at a phenomenal velocity.
Saleek lead Patrick through several corridors before they arrived at a grey door marked with Standard characters representing “Crew Quarters. Room Three” in large black symbols.
‘Just press this wall contact to get in,’ explained Saleek as he tapped a rectangular glowing panel on the wall adjacent to the large grey door.
The door instantly slid to the right and retracted into the wall, allowing the pair to enter the small room beyond.
‘There’s a contact here,’ said Saleek as he pointed, ‘which will open the door when you’re ready to come out. Till then, you won’t be disturbed, I promise. There’s the bed. If you need anything, just call Zeeree – she monitors every part of the ship constantly.’
‘Thanks...’ mumbled Patrick as he collapsed onto t
he bed, unable to stand or keep his eyes open any longer.
He was so utterly exhausted from being alert and tensing his body for so long that within seconds he had drifted into a deep sleep.
Chapter 8