Slipstream Messenger (Neutrino Book 1) Read online

  Before entering SEMS, Neutrino had worried a time or two about being in space in nothing but a high tech suit, traveling at shocking speeds through systems, but he assumed it was just natural to be nervous, that he would get over it once he had made a few runs.

  He was wrong.

  No amount of training or study could prepare him for the reality. If anything, the panic had risen, fueled by Neutrino’s vast knowledge of Messengers throughout history and how many of them had been lost while travelling the Slipstream. He knew in intimate detail all the ways a suit could fail and exactly what happened to the body when exposed to the vacuum of space. Imagining high speed collisions resulting in his utter destruction, Neutrino shook and panted the entire way through the Slipstream and often returned to Port sweaty and trembling.

  Neutrino looked up to the dark sky and the twinkling orange particles that used to be the Slipstream. It was the bane of his existence, and yet, he went out to meet it every day like a raving lunatic. What had he been thinking? Sure, it was a modern marvel of science and ingenuity. Intact, the Slipstream wove through the galaxy, providing a lifeline of communication from world to world and a Messenger could travel a few hours to locations that would take months to reach through regular space. They were heroes, delivering important parcels like life-saving medicines and linking together the planets of the United Commonwealth. Slipstream Messengers were the glue that held it all together. They were the brave explorers, the first ones out beyond the farthest reaches every time the Slipstream was expanded. How Neutrino had coveted that kind of life, to be important, to be needed.

  He didn’t want fame or prestige anymore; he hadn’t for a long time. He had just wanted to graduate. He had wanted his mother to look at him the way she looked up at the night sky.

  All he wanted now was to go home so he could quit this ridiculous occupation.

  Neutrino was so consumed by his fear that he had forgotten about his distress signal. Every Slipstream Messenger had a standard issue distress signal as part of his or her equipment. He reached for the device and detached it from his suit’s belt. It was a small black box, barely larger than the palm of his hand, with a simple red button in the center. When the button was pushed it began to blink, indicating that the distress call was being transmitted. Simple. Easy enough for even an injured or disoriented Messenger to use. With a relieved smile, Neutrino held his breath and pushed the button.

  It blinked three times and went out.

  His heart skipped a beat. Neutrino pushed the button again. This time nothing happened. He squinted his eyes and tried again as the panic and frustration swelled inside of him.

  Still nothing.

  Neutrino pushed the button over and over again even though he knew the device had no charge. He should have turned it into the supply office this morning for a new one. He knew it was running low, but facing the smirking supply master and his loud, insulting comments that ensured everyone in the building knew that the screw-up Neutrino needed a new beacon again wasn’t high on his to-do list. Besides, he never thought anything like this would happen during training.

  He finished pounding on the button, screamed at it and hurtled it out into space. Panting heavily, the anger receded and all he was left with was fear; Neutrino collapsed onto the moon’s dusty surface in defeat and cried.

  For a long time, he just sat there weeping. Slowly he began to calm down and rational thinking returned. He shook his head to try and dislodge the tears from his eyes, but like the hair on his forehead, it did little to fix the problem. At least the limited gravity made them trickle down his cheeks so he could see. Taking a few deep breaths, Neutrino calmed somewhat and then proceeded to feel like an idiot. He shouldn’t have thrown the distress signal into space. There was a chance, however unlikely, that he might still have found a way to use it.

  I should have quit the stupid Academy a long time ago.

  The thought rolled over and over in his head, interrupting his attempt to come up with a way out of this mess. He was never meant for this. Other students, even the ones that weren’t really good at streaming, had always talked about what an amazing experience it was.

  “So incredible!” they would say. “What a ride! I can’t wait to go again!” One girl had even commented, “Isn’t it amazing to fly through space without any sort of spacecraft? Just you and the stars! What a life!”

  Neutrino nearly screamed at her.

  “No!” he wanted to shout, “It isn’t wonderful to be zooming through space without any real protection! Are you insane?!” But he was too ashamed and embarrassed of his own fear to admit it, too ashamed to acknowledge he would never be good enough and quit.

  Oh, what that tiny bit of pride had cost him.

  3. A Rock or Hard Space?

  Neutrino took in his surroundings. He was on a very small moon, or maybe it was more of a meteor or asteroid, he wasn’t sure. It was covered with gray sand but there were large rocks jutting out of it everywhere. He wished he knew more about the classification of planets and stellar objects, but that was the domain of the navigators at the Stream Ports. They knew the hows and whys of the Slipstream and space. They programmed the trips and told the Messengers where they were going.

  Destination: that was all a Slipstream Messenger needed to know.

  Standing up, Neutrino realized that he had a sore back and leg, probably from hitting one of those rocks on impact. Until now he’d been too upset to feel injured. Fortunately, it was only a minor injury, the nano-tech of the streamsuit saving him once again. Neutrino had no idea how that worked either. He knew it was some kind of micro-gravity altering, nano-cushioning, something-or-other, but that was the extent of his knowledge on the topic. The only important thing to him was that it worked. It was extremely lightweight and comfortable, yet maintained his core temperature and protected him from injury. Although, in this case, he might have preferred a messy death to the slow and painful one that he had ahead of him if he couldn’t get off this rock. That was another advantage of the suit; some kind of oxygen recycling that meant he would die of starvation long before he ran out of air. He supposed he could just disengage the air shield if it came to that.

  Neutrino shivered and took a look at the readings in his heads-up display flashing across the air shield. He scrolled through the menus using eye movement and determined that all of the suit’s systems were functioning properly, but he couldn’t contact any of the Slipstream beacons. He was either out of range or they had been destroyed too. He checked the pouches on his belt; a small tool kit and some rudimentary first aid. None of it was of any use at the moment.

  Destination: that was the key. Rather than just waiting there for something to happen, Neutrino decided that his best course of action was to pick a direction to go in and follow it. Likely, no one was going to come for him. His only hope was to find something that might help him. Perhaps some sort of vessel had crashed there and it may still have a functioning distress signal or even just something to eat, (he was starving, the anti-nausea meds always seemed to do that to him). Neutrino looked longingly up at the sky one more time, and although he could see a distant pinkish planet, (possibly the one this moon was orbiting), he could find no trace of the Slipstream, the remaining particles seeming to have dissipated. Sighing, he began walking in the direction of what seemed like the easiest path.

  It had felt like hours of walking, but was probably much less, when Neutrino began to lose the inkling of hope that had filled him upon deciding on a course of action. He didn’t seem to be making any progress. Spotting another familiar looking rock, he wondered if he had perhaps already passed where he had started. I probably should have marked that point somehow before I began this little journey, he thought as he trudged along kicking little pebbles and watching them half float, half skip along the ground. He began to get very tired and despair that he would never find anything, and was debating whether he should continue or admit defeat.

  Drowning in melancholy, Neutrino didn�
��t realize right away that he was walking upwards. Apparently an enormous rock was jutting up out of the surface on an incline which he had begun climbing without thinking about it. It seemed to flatten out up ahead.

  Maybe it might be a pretty good place to rest. Maybe I’ll climb up there to take a break and just never bother to get up again. It probably has a pretty good view.

  His mind drifted as he continued upwards. Neutrino wondered if anyone would ever find him lying there. If anyone would ever be curious about his last minutes alone. His stomach grumbled; he could barely keep himself moving he was so hungry.

  Neutrino was about ready to collapse on the top of the rock when he finally saw something. Something, which until that moment, had been obstructed by the incline itself. Something wonderful and miraculous, but impossible.

  It was the Slipstream.

  Neutrino blinked and looked again, afraid that it might just be some fabulous hallucination brought on by exhaustion and famine. But this was no hallucination; the Slipstream was there in the sky and getting closer!

  His mind raced. This was incredible! The Slipstream was there! Broken, but still there in the sky after all. He may even be able to take it back to base if he could just get to it. Trying desperately to figure out some way off the rock, Neutrino watched with trepidation as the Stream grew ever closer. The rock… moon… whatever it was, must have been moving. Neutrino figured that, at this rate, it would pass the Stream in a matter of minutes. If he didn’t come up with something immediately he would miss his chance.

  The harder Neutrino tried to come up with a plan the more he began to panic again. The more he panicked, the harder it was to think. There was no launch pad to use, how could he make it to the Slipstream?

  I can’t just jump off the ground.

  Or could he?

  Neutrino remembered hearing a story about a Messenger who had jumped from a ship into the Slipstream, but he always thought it was just a myth. Even if it was true… the thought that Neutrino would have the skill to pull it off was laughable. Surely the Messenger who accomplished that feat had a first rate name at the very least. Besides, jumping from a ship would theoretically be easier than jumping from a planet, considering the gravitational pull, right? He had no idea. But it didn’t matter anyway since there was no ship to jump from.

  Neutrino thought of his distress signal, the one that he had thrown into space when it wouldn’t work. It didn’t occur to him at the time, but that really shouldn’t have happened. The device should have flown a ways and then returned to the ground. The gravity on this moon…rock…whatever must not be that great. It was, after all, quite small.

  Gravity boots, Neutrino thought. They automatically engaged when I crashed.

  It was a safety precaution, so that if a Slipstream Messenger came into contact with something they would stick to it rather than bouncing away into space. It was much easier to rescue a fallen Messenger if he was stuck to something nearby, especially if he were unconscious and couldn’t use thrusters to maneuver, in which case, he might just float out into space and be lost forever. Neutrino brought up the heads-up display and disengaged his boots. He instantly felt much lighter, almost like he wasn’t attached to the ground at all.

  A plan began to form. It was more than a little crazy but it at least had a chance of working. If it didn’t Neutrino would either crash to the ground or float out into space, either way, he didn’t seem to be much worse off. He would run up the incline, jump out towards the Slipstream while disengaging his boots and starting up his thrusters.

  What am I thinking! There’s no way I can pull that off! A voice screamed in his head. He turned his boots back on and paced quickly back and forth a few times, kicking up small clouds of gray dust in the process. Neutrino was near panic again, and his opportunity was about to pass him by when a quieter, more timid but insistent voice from somewhere deep inside his mind spoke up.

  What choice do I have?

  Neutrino could see the Slipstream getting closer. He walked back down the rock a ways and waited. He could just see the twinkling orange light of the Slipstream coming over the ridge; it would be now or never. He ran back up the incline and jumped harder than he ever had in his whole life.

  This is crazy!

  But it was a good jump. Neutrino had disengaged his boots and fired his thrusters nearly simultaneously. The distance between him and the moon-rock increased exponentially. He had made it.

  Sort of.

  Before Neutrino had the chance to celebrate breaking free of the moon-rock’s pull he realized with dismay that he was about to soar right past the Slipstream. He swung his legs forward to slow the jump and right himself. He loosened his grip thereby slowing the thrusters. Clumsily he twisted his body in ways he never had before. It occurred to him that, between his crash landing and these odd contortions, he would probably be very sore in the morning. If he survived that is.

  Just when Neutrino thought he was past saving, he managed to snag the end of the Slipstream. As he was absorbed into its rapid flow, he breathed a very short sigh of relief. His momentary sense of security was suddenly shattered as he drifted once more into space. It seemed that the Slipstream was broken in more than one place. Neutrino worked frantically to gain control of the spin. He came about, and saw that this break was not extensive. The other part of the Stream twinkled silently about ten meters to his left. A few simple maneuvers with his thrusters were all that was needed to get back into the Slipstream’s flow. It felt much easier to get back into the Slipstream here than it usually was when he fell out. Neutrino supposed there might be loose particles still floating about where the Slipstream was disconnected. Perhaps they created some sort of barrier to normal space.

  Neutrino loosely pondered all of this as he followed along the Slipstream’s path. He passed two beacons as he travelled but something must have happened to them because the only message they were transmitting was “Standby”. He hoped there weren’t any other Messengers coming his way, without the beacons to direct traffic it would be disastrous if he should crash into someone else at these speeds.

  Three more times Neutrino encountered breaks in the Slipstream; two about the same size as the first, and another that was much larger. The flow of the Slipstream seemed a little bit odd to him as well. There appeared to be some new twists and curves. He dealt with the changes surprisingly well, only losing the Slipstream once because of his own inability to hold it.

  Finally, Neutrino felt the familiar sensation of reaching a planet’s gravitational pull and the ping of a landing beacon, which was functioning at least well enough to land him, blinked in his heads-up display. He was close to Venthall. Soon all of this would be over. He would quit the SEMS Academy and find a new occupation. A warm feeling of relief moved through him as he touched down on the landing pad.

  4. Silence in the Stream Port

  Neutrino wasn’t sure what he expected to see when he touched down, but it sure wasn’t this. The base was deserted.

  “Hello?” he called tentatively. He deactivated the air shield then gratefully took a deep breath of fresh air and was finally able to wipe the sweat and tears from his face. He always felt so claustrophobic in that thing. Neutrino called once more, “Hello?”

  Computer screens blinked and beeped, but the base was otherwise silent. He didn’t understand. Normally this place would be buzzing with people working. Even in the middle of the night there were always people manning the various stations.

  Where is everyone?

  Stepping off of the landing pad, Neutrino realized that he was not where he should be. Puzzled, he scrunched up his face and looked around once more, this time more carefully.

  This was not the base on Venthall.

  The Venthall base had a smooth, glossy, man-made floor. Although this floor was very smooth and similar in color to the one on Venthall, it was made of sand and dirt instead. This must be one of the other major bases, perhaps Kamradan or Arnasi. Even though this was not Venthall,
a base this size should still be manned.

  Neutrino began to get that panicky feeling in his stomach again. He felt as though his chest was collapsing in on itself. Apparently he had escaped from one disaster into another. Trying to keep calm, Neutrino wandered around looking for any clue as to what may have transpired. The computers had a lot of information scrolling over them, but he didn’t understand hardly any of it. It all seemed to be in chaos.

  Neutrino couldn’t think. Everything was all wrong. Something had happened here, and recently, to make everyone leave with all the computers still running.

  Where did everyone go? What am I going to do?

  Neutrino was tempted to turn around and get back into the Slipstream. Maybe it was better to take his chances in space. This place gave him an eerie feeling. He felt like he was all alone and being watched at the same time.

  For as much as he wanted to just run away, Neutrino had no intention of ever getting back into the Slipstream. Besides the fact that he was finally and thoroughly done with it, the Slipstream was too much of a mess and there were no navigators to plot his course anyway. He could wind up back on that horrible rock again or maybe somewhere worse.

  Carefully, practically tiptoeing as though he were afraid someone might hear him, Neutrino approached the door at the far end of the room. He felt somewhat uncertain. Should he just open the door? What if there was a giant monster or something equally terrible just beyond it? What if this was the only safe place to be? He felt he was being foolish worrying about monsters, and yet… Neutrino shook his head at himself.

  He could almost hear Commander Trask, “Quit daydreaming! You need to get out of your head and into the real world if you’re ever going to be a Slipstream Messenger!” He was right. Neutrino had always had trouble paying attention, most of the time he was lost in his own thoughts, it was easier there. Neutrino spent his schooldays living life through his fantasies. In his dreams he was brave and handsome and he always knew the right thing to say. He boldly conquered enemies in faraway places. He was the one with a strong name. Now here he was on a strange planet facing the unknown and he didn’t feel courageous or smart, Neutrino simply felt terrified like always.