A Larger Universe (41 page)

After the meeting, Tommy picked up his clothing packages and
went with Sisle to the group of women, never men, who altered clothing. 
Mom
was right, there is sexism everywhere.

He left Sisle with the women and a promise to come back for
her in an hour.  He needed to take care of the collar activators.  One
activator he placed in the satchel's secret compartment.  He scattered the
other activators and collar devices in the, now empty, hidden storage
compartments under the track room, under the targeting room, and under the
stairs below the bridge.  He intended to always have the satchel with him, but
he had to be prepared for it to be taken from him. 

After the fitting, he didn't have much time for Sisle for
several days.  As usual, he had to do the computer programming for the
gravitation sensor project.  A few of his guild's members showed promise, but
too much depended on this being right. 

When he wasn't doing that, he worked with Seth to build some
new types of missiles.  The main one was a bomb filled with metal balls and
explosive that could either be detonated by a proximity fuse or by radio
command.  The only guns available in
The People's Fist
configuration
were
The People's Hand
's forward gun tubes.  A cone of high-velocity
metal balls should be much harder to dodge than four solid missiles.

When the seamstresses came as a group to deliver the altered
clothes, he realized that he had no way to pay them, but they wanted only his
thanks.  The words he said to each woman while clasping her hand were
heartfelt.  They had helped him prepare his present for Sisle.

With satchel strap over his shoulder and a double armload of
clothes, he walked into his lord's chamber.  After putting the clothes down, he
punched in the code to lock the door.  What he was about to do must not have
witnesses.

He turned from the door to find Sisle standing at the edge
of the pond, looking at him. 

"Why are you doing this?” she asked.  “Why are you
giving me presents?"

"Because I want to" was the only reply he was
willing to make.  "Will you humor me and try on one of these?"

"I will, but I'll never be able to wear any of them
outside this room.  Everyone will laugh at me."

"I won't laugh at you.  Which one do you want?"

"The blue tunic.  It looks the most like what I’m used
to."

"On Earth, we call that a dress.  My mom had a dress
like that."

She looked at him for a moment, then started taking off her
tunic.

"Wait."  He could feel his face turn hot as he
turned his back to her.

"You can look now," she said a moment later, with
a teasing sound in her voice.

Her usual tunics covered her from the base of the neck to
upper calf.  This dress ended slightly above her knees and, at the top, was
scooped below the collar bones.  The metal band glinted like a silver choker
and emphasized her long neck. 
I've got it bad.  She is so beautiful, it
hurts to look at her.

"Do you like it?" she asked.

He took a deep breath.  "Do you mind turning around for
me?"

She spun, whirling the dress to mid thigh and exposing more
of legs shaped by years of training.

I could watch her do that all day, but there's no point
in delaying any further.
  "It needs one alteration.  Look the other
way."

Tommy had read the instructions to the collar activator
three times.  Since he bought it, he had woken twice from a nightmare in which
he tried to use the activator on Sisle and blew off her head. 
Nothing to
it.  Much simpler than a computer.
  He turned the dial and touched the
activator to the collar.  A blue light flashed.  That meant the explosive was
deactivated.  Another click of the dial, another touch, and the collar fell to
the ground at Sisle's feet. 
She's still alive!

Sisle gasped, jerking her hands to her neck.  "What
have you done?  How did you do that?"  Her legs wobbled, and she sat down
on the floor and began crying.

Tommy sat down beside her and waited for the crying to stop,
but, instead, her crying became racking sobs.  She finally took a deep breath,
leaned into his shoulder, and pressed her face against his neck.  He hesitated,
and then put his arms around her.

She mumbled something into his neck.

"What?"

She lifted her head and looked at him.  He felt her breath
on his cheek.   

"This won't work, you know," she whispered.

"What won't work?"

"I know what you're doing, and the collar is just the
visible part.”  She snuggled closer into his arms.  “The artisans don't wear collars
and they're still slaves.  As long as the Nesu control the ship, I'm still a
slave.  I'm your slave.  Changing the clothes I wear or taking off my collar
doesn't change that.”  She suddenly pulled away from him.  “Only if I'm free to
choose will either of us honestly know how we feel about each other."

He felt as if she had hit him in the gut.  This wasn't
turning out right.

"Besides,” she said, “I can't go outside this room
without the collar.  Don't you know that?"

He tightened his arms, drawing her close again.  "Yes,
I do know," he said.  "Ull told me only the council could free a
slave.  They won't, will they?"

She sat up straight, pulling completely out of his arms. 
"You must put the collar back on."

"Maybe I do, but I don't have to activate it," he
said.

"What?" she asked.

"For one of these," he held up his cylinder,
"to explode the collar, it must be activated."

"You can do that?"

"The instructions say I can," he said, pulling
them from an inner pocket.

"And only you would know?"

"Only I would know."

She hugged him so fiercely, he was sure his ribs would
break.  "Oh, Tommy, you do make me wish I was free to like you!"

She let him go.  "Now put the collar on me.  I want to
try on the other clothes you gave me."

She had put on her sixth outfit when the doorbell chimed. 
Lord Ull wanted Tommy on the bridge, so of course he had to go.  If he wasn't a
slave, why did he jump whenever Lord Ull called?

She enjoyed seeing Fen's eyes on her while he waited for
Tommy to get his satchel.  She wore the "shorts and tank top," and,
from Fen’s reaction, Tommy wasn't the only one who liked the way she looked in
it, even if she was small.  Before being given to Tommy, Fen would have been
her choice, if she could have chosen.  He seemed a lot smarter than the other
men she knew, even if he was just as muscle-bound. 

She touched the collar.  Not having the collar on her neck
had been a shock after wearing it for four years.  As Tommy had snapped the
collar back on her neck, he said if he couldn't free her without freeing
everybody, then everyone must be freed.  She hadn't known what to say.  He
seemed to care so much about her, and she didn't understand why.

She also wasn't sure how she felt about him.  He wasn't
handsome in a way she was used to or like anyone she could have imagined before
she met him.  He wasn't ugly, though, just different.

And what was the explanation for all the stories she had
heard?  Whenever she went to the meal room, her friends shared some gossip with
her.  How strong he was.  How fast he was.  How smart he was.  Even an
impossible story about Tommy beating Lord Ull in a fight. 

Those same friends wanted to know what he did with her, and
saying "nothing" didn't satisfy them.  She had tried to tell them he
was considerate and shy, but they didn't believe that, either.  Those words
didn't fit any male they knew.  Warrior men were taught from early childhood to
be aggressive and demanding.

When she had asked if they had heard stories of Tommy being
the one who would free them and take them back to Earth, they had said yes,
then laughed.  What the artisans and farmers thought didn't make any
difference.  The warriors would never give up their privileges, even if given
the choice.  Most of them, anyway.  The lords mostly left the warriors alone;
the artisans feared them; and the women had to obey them.  The warriors knew
enough about Earth to know life would be different there.

What if he is the chosen one, though?  If he is, I should
be helping him.

Tommy found Ull and Leegh waiting for him on the bridge. 

"If you are done with the computer work,” Ull said, “we
are ready to begin the first test of the gravity sensors.”

"I finished yesterday.”  Tommy pointed at a new monitor
mounted in front of the command podium.  “The program will display the results
on this monitor and one like it in the targeting room, if the Communications
Guild has made the proper connections."

"They said they were done," Leegh responded. 
"We deployed two sensors for this test on the outer surface of
The
People’s Fist
.  Will that affect your results?"

Tommy shook his head.  "We would have better resolution
with more sensors," he replied.  "But that should be enough for a
test."

The original experiments on and near Stream's moon had
tested the predictions of the new physics with two devices.  The first was the
original version of these sensors.  In the three-dimensional universe, gravity
waves traveled at the velocity of light.  For higher dimensions, the theory
expected gravitational effects to travel faster than light as seen from our
universe.  The sensors tapped into this higher dimensional realm.  The second
device generated gravity waves by creating and manipulating quantum-level,
higher-dimensional, objects, as did the Kadiil drive.  The passive-sensor
device shouldn’t summon the Kadiil.  They hoped. 

Tommy sat at the new sensor station and brought his program
online.  The monitor came alive, changing from gray to multicolored as the
sensors also powered up.  The software drew fine lines on the screen, marking a
sphere in perspective view.  Tics marked degrees around the equator and one of
the meridians.

"We are getting results, I think," Leegh said. 
"The spot in the middle has to be
The People's Fist
, between the two
sensors."

"Let me adjust the range inward first, where we are
sure of what we are seeing," Tommy said, as he expanded the spot to fill
the entire 50-inch screen.  "This should show
The People's Hand
and
My Flowing Streams
."  The expanded spot showed two smaller embedded
circles, one at the center and one at the edge. 

"This program needs more work," Tommy said. 
"On a directed view, it should be possible to get a 3-dimensional view
just as we do with the radar screen."

"Can we see just
The People's Hand
?" Leegh
asked.

Tommy typed on the keyboard, and the circle at the edge
expanded to fill the screen.  At this resolution, the drive cylinder in the
ship's core could be distinguished as a darker rectangle.

"Does anyone mind if I try to look inside the drive?"
Tommy asked.

When no one answered, he adjusted the focus downward, until
the drive, rotated with the long side horizontal, filled the screen.

"And again," he said, as the picture zoomed inward
slightly. 

At this level, vague darker objects were visible.  On one
side, a flickering spot, no larger than one pixel on his screen, drew his
attention.  The pixel took three tries to find, and its enlargement brought a
gasp from Tommy and Leegh.  The rippling moiré of an active dimensional tunnel,
a wormhole, filled the monitor! 

"Try the other ship," Leegh said.

Tommy backed off the range until they could see
My
Flowing Streams
, and then zoomed down until another moiré appeared.

"How big is the mouth?" Leegh asked.

"I am not sure, but something less than one millimeter. 
I expected to measure large objects, not small ones.  Another sensor would also
provide more resolution."

"What is that?" Ull asked.

"A microscopic dimensional tunnel," Leegh said. 
"Those used by the Kadiil for travel are much larger."

"Why would there be such a thing inside the
drive?" Ull asked.

The silence stretched until Tommy asked, "What else
could travel through a dimensional tunnel, and where would it be going?"

"The mathematics indicates anything that could travel
through our space could travel through the tunnel,” Leegh responded.  “As to
where it could be going, to the other end of the tunnel, wherever that might
be."

"That was a stupid question," Tommy said. 
"Light?  Radio waves?"

"Either of those," Leegh replied.  "Any form
of electromagnetic or gravitational energy."

"I wonder," Tommy said, as he leaned over the
sensor console, "what is nearby."

The monitor jumped to the original picture, showing the
asteroid as a centimeter wide spot in the middle of the screen. 

"The distances you see are approximate until we do some
calibration," Tommy said.  "Call them a good guess, but not
reliable."

The People's Fist
floated six light hours from
Toblepas' sun, and the initial screen showed nothing.

"That should be out to 50,000 kilometers," Tommy
said.

"One hundred thousand kilometers."  A single blue
pixel marked the position of
The People's Fist
on an otherwise blank
screen.

"One hundred fifty thousand Kilometers."  Still a
blank screen.

"As far as we are from a star, this might take all day,"
Tommy said as he typed in a command.  "We had these on a computer game I
played on Earth."  The monitor showed several arrows pointing off the
screen's edge.

 "Earth has enough of these computers for some to be
used for games?" Leegh asked.