6 Billion A.D./Hero of the League

Chapter 5: Hero of the League

Tentative Synopsis: Rigel finally finds Sophiy who convinces him to play a pivotal role in the League as a new threat emerges.

5.1

"It's Rigel."

"What about him?"

"He's been acting strange lately."

"Strange how?"

"Sad, depressed. Sometimes crazy."

"Oh, that's normal. It's an effect of the virus."

"It affects the brain?"

"It does."

-

As he reclined on the virtual beach, he picked up his favorite book.

-

Rigel went berserk on the battlefield. Was it the disease or the plant?

-

Did he just see Vespa kiss her? Or was he just seeing things?

-

He heard ten thousand voices booming through his head.

-

Was that a real concept? Or did he just invent it?

-

Dismissing the voices in his head, the sights seen only by him, the false notions, the plant-induced visions, Rigel dove head first into the fray.

-

"Just because they say it's so, doesn't make it so. If ten thousand people said that, it still wouldn't be true."

-

The crowd nodded in agreement.

-

"So what are we supposed to think?

"We're supposed to think for ourselves. That's what he said."

-

"Thirty people in Section 5 were cured."

"That's because they thought it would work. It's a placebo."

-

"So why don't we just convince the rest of them to believe it?"

-

In the heat of battle, Rigel closed his eyes, visualizing victory.

-

Among the incoming lasers, he could see clearly.

-

Rigel expertly navigated through the opposing fleets.

-

Sitting among so many of his former sworn enemies, Rigel seemed surprisingly comfortable.

-

Since the League formed as a defensive association against the threat, then worrisome, of invasion, it had become increasingly activist.

-

I am on your side, the Sentience thought.

-

"We think it's an artificial intelligence from the ancients."

-

"That's one theory," he said.

-

The first war put a long dent in the economy. The economy continued to grow since then.

-

At least, that's what the official League statistics showed.

-

The League organized the event to bring together some of the better racers.

-

A trade fair for members and prospective members of the defense forces.

-

Unbeknownst to the organizers, some enemy agents had registered.

-

5.2

She looked at the glowing screens in the data center. Same old, same old. Then Vespa glanced at the display in her visor. Activating an overlay, she matched the Order bases in her visor over the map on one of the screens. It suddenly became obvious.

-

The layout of Order bases appeared in a pattern. Each base was precisely laid out along a spiral. Tracing back the spiral towards its center, she could now infer where there was probably a key base, or a special resource, or something.

-

Flipping off the screens in the data center, Vespa switched her visor display to local environment mode. A bevvy of information updated constantly as she made her way back to her bunk.

-

The ship also had an animal pen. Here, beasts from different planets had been collected, mostly for study. Some also had practical uses, such as producing molecules for lubricating the ship reactor. Also, some of the crew liked to visit the animals during their time off. There weren't too many other entertainment options onboard.

-

When Vespa woke up, her time sensors indicated that she was running late. Jumping out of her bunk, she threw on her data center uniform, and rushed back to work.

-

"Any ideas where the virus came from?" asked her supervisor.

"I have an inkling," Vespa answered.

"Where?"

"Look at this map," she said, opening her overlays on a large screen.

"Oh, my," said her supervisor.

-

As the years went by, the ship developed. Crew installed a new reactor. The control systems received an overhaul. After two hundred and fifty years, the outer hull was the only part remaining from when the ship launched.

-

Vespa grew older, too. After overcoming her initial fears of the mission, she gradually became an old hand. She knew the ship data records better than most anyone. She still felt anxious while talking with other crew in person, especially with visors off.

-

Gar, another worker in the data center, befriended Vespa. Together, they often cracked jokes about the different populations in the planets they flew through. Especially in the backwater planets. Vespa often wondered whether residents even realized that there was a pandemic.

-

The pandemic had spread like wildfire. It even reached planets and asteroids off the main traffic routes. Some scientists speculated that the virus could survive in a complete vacuum, even though this defied any sane theory.

-

The ship reached deeper into pandemic territory. At this stage, no ordinary ship would get clearance. The crew went for years on end without seeing any other ships. All personnel had to wear protective gear, even while sleeping.

-

Experiments conducted onboard, on a mock virus that mimicked the pandemic virus, revealed bizarre behaviors. The virus did indeed seem to survive in a complete vacuum, or a near to a complete vacuum as one could muster on a ship. The scientists felt even more perplexed.

-

Meanwhile, Order scientists had become vaguely aware of the research. Their own scientists had been taking a different approach, without any results to show. The League worried that their sworn enemies would steal their research, but mitigated this with hope that a cure would become available, or anything at all.

-

One thousand years after launch, the crew had a massive party. Of course, none of the original crew remained, even as lifespans continued to extend. Still, the new crew shared their genetics, and perhaps more importantly, their mission, with the original crew.

-

At the party, Vespa got somewhat tipsy on a solution of aldehydes. Rigel, seeing her sway in the reduced gravity, offered her a shoot of Vigerix plenifolum. "This'll calm you down," he said.

"Oh, thanks, I was just feeling spacey," she said vacantly, grabbing the root.

"Listen, there's something I want to tell you," he said.

"What is it?"

"It's something I've wanted to tell you for a long while."

"Go ahead."

"I… I--"

As Rigel stuttered, the music dropped. In its place, a voice filled the room.

"Greetings, crew," the voice said to raucous applause.

"Listen, tell me later," Vespa yelled at Rigel, returning to her aldehyde stupor.

-

The ship kept going.

-

"We've been at this for hundreds of years, and we still haven't made much headway. In some ways I feel like we've even fallen behind," Rigel said.

"So? Things often take more time than expected," answered Sophiy.

"So, sometimes things don't work out at all the way you expected," said Rigel.

"That's true, too," she said.

-

Vespa shuddered. After spending so much time in the data center, she thought she knew just about everything. But there it was. Staring right back at her. From her own visor.

-

The virus colony squirmed. It was as though it reacted to her thought. Of course, it didn't actually squirm, because it wasn't actually a virus colony. Only a model of a virus colony, which Vepa had assembled in the data center. Or rather, which Vespa had watched assemble itself. For to develop a virus model is one part creativity to ten or more parts spontaneity.

-

The virus colony, or technically the virus colony model, reassembled itself. Even after she poured hyperterasic acid, or technically hyperterasic acid data, into the model, which theoretically ought to have killed it, the virus colony model survived.

But what made Vespa shudder was something beyond that. For she had already seen dozens of virus models survive hyperterasic acid. Instead, she had just watched the colony model reassemble itself into a defensive position before she added they acid data into the model.

Was it smarter than her?

"It must be a mistake in your model," Vespa's supervisor told her.

-

Vespa sent the virus data to production. There, staff took her colony model, and made it into an actual virus. Of course, this required placing the virus within sealed containers, which met interstellar safety standards.

Still, Vespa worried. What if the virus got out? After all, it seemed capable of impossible feats in the data center. Why not in the physical world, too?

-

"You're worrying too much," Vespa's supervisor told her.

"But it's a real threat!" she said.

"Look, I already told you that you must have made a mistake in your model. Also, you were late again this morning. Why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

"I don't need a break," she said. "I need to feel comfortable that we're not introducing a risk into interstellar space."

"We already are a risk in interstellar space."

"Another risk. We report directly to the League. We can't allow another virus out, especially in this already infected sector."

"How do you know it's another virus? Isn't your theory that this is the culprit?"

"It's only a theory."

"I never want to hear 'it's only a theory."

"It's my theory," Vespa said.

"Well, what do we do with theories?"

"We test them," she grudgingly admitted.

-

"I think it's an excellent idea," Rigel said.

"You do?" Vespa asked.

"Of course! Now we can finally test our remedies."

-

Vespa remained nervous. She woke up at night in a cold sweat.

-

"Oh, great! Now look what you've done!" he screamed.

Their visors both showed it, clear as a starlit day.

Rigel had tested positive. The virus, which Vespa had developed in the data center, which the production department had made into an actual virus, had infected Rigel.

-

"I told you it was a bad idea!" she said.

"So, you're the one who went through with it," he contested.

"You're the one who's infected," she answered.

"Thanks for the sympathy," he said sarcastically.

-

The virus showed an unusual shape. Each cell twisted about itself, linking up to three others. The colony formed a bizarre tapestry, winding its way through the container. This shape seemed to cost the virus, as it grew more slowly than other strains. Still, the virus seemed able to survive almost anything.

-

A technician poured radioactive material into the container, through a one-way valve. At first the virus seemed to break apart, with cells dying. Soon, however, the colony closed off and destroyed the decaying parts, including the radioactive material. It then continued to grow around this scar.

-

"Is it the same as my preexisting infection? Rigel asked nurse.

"We're still not sure," said the nurse.

"How can you not be sure?" asked Rigel. "Can't you run a test?"

"We've run dozens of tests. Every test we have."

"And?"

"And, it looks related, but our technologies can't show the distinction."

"Why not?"

"I won't get into the technical details, but basically these are different strains of virus than anything we've seen before. They grow differently. It makes it harder to see what's going on inside."

-

Rigel looked forlorn.

-

Still, having this death sentence at least made him realize the positive things in his life.

-

As Rigel reflected on his condition, he appreciated the chance to have done so much in such a short time. Few people had seen as much space as he had.

-

Rigel also wanted to find a cure, not just for himself, but also for all those other people who got infected -- or were going to. Even if he didn't meet them in person, Rigel liked the feeling of contributing. He wasn't entirely sure why.

-

The ship cruised ever further.

-

The inhabitants here didn't even know that their asteroids had been cordoned off. As far as they knew, things were normal, other than the deadly infection going around.

-

On one asteroid, Ternor, three people became infected in one local day. The next local day, five people became infected, The next, fifteen.

Panic set in among some people, the hypochondriacs. But most residents of Ternor kept going to work, the same as they would have anyways. Kids on Terner kept on catching the beasts that swam in the liquid mercury pools.

-

Rigel scrolled through the news on his visor. Nope, still no cure.

It was difficult to get news to the ship at all. The base beamed it out in large chunks, which arrived seemingly randomly. Whenever a chunk of news did arrive, some of the crew raced to view it on their visors. Other crew members didn't bother, either because they figured it was already out of date, or because they just didn't care.

-

Vespa continued to spend long nights in the data center. Her supervisor remained concerned, but as long as she was also showing up in the morning, however tired, he couldn't stop her.

-

For days and nights on end, she experimented with different acids, bases, other chemicals, temperatures and lights, even with other virii. Yet, she was unable to defeat this strain.

5.3

Rigel floated around the zero-g plant chamber.

He liked the silence here. The beauty of the plants.

-

"No!" yelled Morp. "That's insane!"

Rigel smashed the test tube.

-

"But that would be dangerous," said Morp. "As much as we want stronger soldiers, we can't risk the consequences."

Rigel knew vaguely from his recollection that these chemicals were unstable, and could produce a chain reaction with the physical environment. He didn't recall exactly what would happen, but decided not to risk asking Morp and revealing his ignorance.

-

The ship was also equipped with one-g and ten-g plant chambers. Each grew a different set of plants, which were adapted for those gravitational environments. Additional controls ensured adequate supplies of water, fertilizer, and other nutrients.

-

The plants hovered loosely throughout the chamber. Some vines spread throughout large swathes of the volume. Trees grew out in three hundred and sixty degrees, forming spheres that would have looked preposterous on a planetary surface.

-

"Try this one," he said, handing her a root cutting.

-

She warily nibbled on the root. "Mm," she said, surprised that it tasted sweet instead of bitter.

"Now look around," he said.

Looking around the zero-g plant chamber, she was even more surprised. Gone were the plants she had seen just moments before. In their place hovered altogether different plants, in bright hues of indigo and turquoise and bright pink and yellow.

"Cool, huh?"

-

The one-g plant chamber resembled a more normal spaceship module, rather than the huge sphere of the zero-g chamber. As they walked through together, she recognized some plants from her home planet.

-

In the ten-g plant chamber, huge flat plants sprawled along the floor. The antigrav suits they had donned before entering made them look like space clowns. Still, they were able to walk through the heavy mess with ease.

-

"This one makes things smell funny," he said, handing her a flower. She sniffed it. "No," he said. "You don't smell it, you chew it. Then everything smells different for around half an hour."

-

"So all the plants have these funny effects on the body?" she asked.

"No, just some. It's a specialty of mine. I'm a psyschobotanist."

"That's what I thought when we first met," she said."

"No, it's a job title. Like janitor or writer or something."

"Oh," she said.

-

The test tube shattered into ten thousand pieces.

Liquid spilled out into the room.

Air bubbles formed in the liquid.

Where the air bubbles formed, cracks formed in the air. The cracks spread into the walls, floors, and ceilings of the spaceship.

-

Space itself seemed to break apart.

-

"Look what you've done!" Vespa screamed angrily at Rigel. He grimaced.

-

Talk:

I'm thinking that Rigel acts like he's going along with Morp, but at the last minute he starts the chain reaction. It looks like it will cause catastrophe, but instead it does something positive like uniting lines of productive hydrogen throughout space.

-

The lines quickly spread beyond the quadrant, out to distant stars.

-

Through vast fields of raw hydrogen.

-

Talk:

Mining space for fusion material.

-

Morp led Rigel and the other prisoners through the hallways.

-

"Here," he said, "you'll have a chance to swear allegiance to our cause."

Rigel and some of the other prisoners frowned.

"Or," Morp added, "we can execute you. It's your choice."

-

Rigel swallowed his pride. "I swear to abide by the rules and principles of the Order," he repeated.

-

"I understand that you're on of our special guests," Morp said to prisoner Rigel.

Rigel looked on, without saying anything.

"Oh, do be a dear. Tell us why you're here."

A guard prodded Rigel with the butt of his weapon.

-

As Rigel put on the Order uniform, a transformation took place.

-

Vespa looked out the viewport.

Stars. Tens of thousands of stars. And empty space.

-

"If he doesn't come back, I'm going to get him," she said out loud.

-

Vespa donned her uniform. It wasn't a League military uniform. It didn't permit her to leave the ship. Still, it gave her a sense of confidence. A sense of mission.

-

As she walked by the plant chambers, she thought back to when they first met. How he had shown her the different chambers, the different plants. How she had tried some of the plants, and they had made her feel funny. She carried on.

-

Five minutes after getting to the airlock, she stopped in her tracks. "Oh!" she let out, turning around. Rushing back to the zero-g plant chamber, she jumped up so fast that she almost flew into a wall. Then, regaining her balance, she grabbed a shoot of Permutatix fortis. After biting off a wad, she stuffed the rest into her spacesuit, then went back to the airlock.

-

Permutatix fortis: This hardy perennial favors non-gravitational environments. With its web of shoots emitting alternating leaves, it makes for an attractive plant. The shoots confer strength and vitality. The leaves are toxic, and are not used.

The Botanist's Book of Craft and Lore

-

Flying out into the emptiness of space, Vespa looked around in wonder.

-

Without the shoot of P. fortis, she probably would have passed out in shock. It's difficult for a mind to understand space, while in it. Without the comforts, the references of a planet, an asteroid, or at least a spaceship.

-

Vespa glanced quickly at her visor display. 1050. She still had time.

As she swam through the short distance of empty space separating the space suit from the scout ships, the thought of death briefly flirted with her mind. Then, burping up a hint of P. fortis, Vespa darted into the scout ship.

The League had stationed these scout ships as emergency escape vessels. However, they proved so nimble that crews during emergency routines took to playing war games with them. From there, it wasn't far to taking on their scout roles, flying through large distances, often near or in enemy territory.

Vespa wasn't trained to fly a scout ship. She wasn't trained to fly at all. Still, with a strong desire for adventure, and a healthy dose of P. fortis, she managed to fake her way through the control panel. Figuring out that the obvious green button was for power, and the lever was for thrust, she jolted away from the parent ship. Instantly, alarms started ringing throughout the parent ship.

"What's going on?!" yelled the captain.

"It's one of our own. She took a scout ship towards the nebula," answered a lieutenant

"She?! Who is she?"

"One of the staff from the data center. Name's Vespa."

"Data center? I thought they were supposed to be boring."

"They were."

"There are always exceptions, I guess."

Vespa cruised towards the Order's front line.

Not knowing where Rigel was, or where she was headed exactly, Vespa darted through more space.

A blip showed up on the radar. The Order technician observed the blip with curiosity as the unknown ship veered ever closer to their side. It wasn't marked as an Order ship, or an ally. Was it an intelligence probe? Was it friend or enemy?

As the effects of the P. fortis faded away, Vespa looked around herself in shock. What was she doing here? Had she lost her mind completely? Here she was, ten thousand megameters away from home territory, in fact nearing enemy territory, in a scout ship. And she wasn't even trained to fly!

-

Panic set in. Vespa looked around in confusion at the control panel. It didn't make any sense to her. She had no idea how she had even managed to get here, or start the scout ship for that matter.

-

"Stay calm," she said to herself. Rehearsing some of the lines she vaguely remembered from the data banks, she searched in desperation for anything relevant. "The blue suns of… No. When the gravitational tides come in… Um, no."

After coming up blank, it suddenly hit her. "When in doubt, cast back a fresh root. The Botanist's Book!"

Vermitrius claris. A fuzzy stem yields succulent purple leaves. Grows spherically. The entire plant is known for its ability to reveal scientific truths in geometric shapes. When in doubt, cast back a fresh root.

The Botanist's Book of Craft and Lore

Vespa reached through her pack, digging down until she hit it. A fresh root of V. claris that she had taken from the zero-g plant chamber. Luckily it had survived the journey.

Choking back the bitter root, as pieces of dirt crumbled down her throat, it dawned on Vespa. Here she was, seeking out Rigel, whom she loved. After all those times when he had said that he loved her, and she felt nervous. Now she knew. She loved him, too.

Vespa was on a mission to rescue Rigel. Even if he had turned to the enemy. And she now understood exactly how the controls worked on the scout ship.

Adjusting the wing flaps, throttling up, she zoomed through the megameters.

Enemy craft came at her, but she expertly veiled the scout ship. Vespa maneuvered through their ranks undetected, reaching deep into enemy territory.

-

Vespa burst into the control room.

An armed guard confronted her. "Halt! This is an Order ship. You are wearing a League uniform. And not even a League flying uniform. What is going on? Answer now or you will be shot."

Vespa struggled for words. Suddenly her mind went blank. Not at the most opportune time.

"This is your last chance! Answer now or you will be shot."

Vespa blurted out: "I am an Order intelligence agent. I am returning for debriefing. Put away your weapons." She didn't even know where the lie came from.

The guard looked at her in confusion. "Hold on. I need to see your ID on my visor."

She quickly sent a fake to his visor.

-

Quintium (deuterium, tritium)

-

[Happy, sad, drunk, high]

-

"These herbs make you happy."

"Then why don't people use them all the time?"

"Because they also make you see strange things, which not everyone likes. It's complex."

"And what about these?"

"Those grasses? They don't look like much. And they make you sad."

"So why does anyone at all use them?"

"Again, it's complex. They taste decent. Also, they kind of let you forget stuff."

"Why would you want to forget stuff?"

"It's… complex."

-

"It's called quintium. Sort of like deuterium or tritium, but with five hydrogens."

"And what's so special about that?"

"Nothing intrinsically. However, with the right techniques, it's quite easy to fuse."

"So?"

"So, you can make enough power to get to the stars."

"Oh."

-

"Where do you get this quintium?"

"We mine it from space."

"Mine it? From space?"

"Yeah. There are certain deposits. Among the nebulae. You know that the nebulae are mostly made out of hydrogen, right? Well, some areas contain higher proportions of H5. We have tools and technologies to find those locations, then mine the quintium."

-

Together, Rigel and Vespa walked through the one g plant chamber.

"What else can your plants do?" she asked.

"Well, let's see. There are plants that make you see colors differently."

"Like, red instead of blue?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"What else?"

"Um. There's this shrub. If you eat the berries, you may die. But if you survive, then you're supposed to be able to levitate. Not sure if it's true."

"Aren't you a psycho-"

"Psychobotanist? I am. But there are things that even we psychobotanists don't know."

-

She handled the flower delicately. As her fingers slid up and around the petals, a smile brightened her face.

-

5.4

The...

...

I eventually made the rank of Colonel. Sophiy planned a grand party. There were...

...

Sophiy looked at me affectionately, “I’m so proud of you!” I know, look at me a military man like my father. I hero I suppose. Sophiy said, what’s wrong, you are a hero. “No I’m not. But if it makes you happy then I’m happy. “Rigel are you doing all this for me?” “What if I am.” If being a soldier will make you love me, the that’s what I’ll be.” “Rigel we talked about this.” Sophiy tell me you love me! “Rigel you know I can’t.” Then I’ll become a general, general supreme, the most famous person there ever was. What will it take. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing you can do.” You’re so cruel. You know how long I searched for you. “Rigel I should go. Enjoy the party, you deserve it. “Go ahead run away like you always do! Run away! Sophiy was gone before I finished my outburst.

5.5

The...

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