Most people consider me as I consider myself; generally easy to get along with, able to roll with the punches in accord with my family reputation as a Kirk, and a commander in business comparable with the no-nonsense but caring manner made famous by my fleet cousin J.T.
People like to forget the other side of that: like Cousin J.T., if you leave me no choice, I will blow you clear to whatever kingdom your deity has coming if that's what I need to do to protect my people, and I have thirty times as many people out here as my rear admiral cousin has under him in near-Earth command because I am the owner of two companies.
Nothing much happens from day to day in terms of danger in Kirk, Dixon, and Oahuapedal Solutions: we are the back office solution for a lot of other companies involved in communication past and present using our proprietary technologies.
25 years into running Kirk and Dixon Shipping, I wished I could say things had settled down, but everything on the frontier was always new, and that particular milestone also lent itself to its own problems. People had problems with me being 24 and already six years in business and daring to do the things I was doing with my best friend and business partner Rufus Dixon. Our attitude of “we're not going to eat your lunch, big established shipping companies: we're going to go eat at a table you're not thinking of and make you chase us” got on our competitors' nerves then … but nobody thought we were going to make it.
25 years later, it was like people woke up with scores to settle, because not only had we made it, but Kirk and Dixon Shipping was eating at tables off which they could barely get the crumbs. There was more than enough business for everyone to do, but there was a pecking order to it, and Kirk and Dixon Shipping was firmly established at the top.
Now most people weren't going to actually do anything, because again: there was enough business for everyone, and most people weren't going to throw their whole life and company away over some foolishness.
The problem is, one found out at the most inopportune times who the fools were.
As the CEO of my company at age 43, with 25 years in business, I didn't do that many shipping runs myself, but I did go out to have a look at galactic phenomenon that affected shipping across interstellar regions, and the phenomenon known as the Lightning Braid, a complex field of energy resulting from the interaction of two binary stars that had become neutron stars that were themselves orbiting a black hole – that had been a recent development, and suddenly we had this long braid of energy jetting off that rapidly rotating phenomenon.
That braid is not quite drawn to scale … it was about two Solar Systems long, or about two thirds of a light-year, sweeping around its own common center of gravity formed by those two neutron stars and black hole. Simple geometry tells one that that the circle it made had a diameter of about 1.3 light-years, and a circumference a little over eight light-years. It was also moving through space at nearly light speed, and rotating very near that same speed … but on that scale, the fact that it had moved into major shipping lanes meant it was going to be in an inopportune place for years.
Fleet captains are paid to study phenonemon like the Lightning Braid; freighter companies generally do not have as much patience because going around things meant time and therefore money lost. At such times, companies that normally competed sometimes came together and pooled their insights on how to deal with this in a way that kept shipping going and supply chains running. It wasn't just our business at stake, but all the people that depended on us across the frontier.
There were two different ideas about what to do: some company leaders liked the idea of using warp fields to alter the flow of that braid and get it out of the way, and others, including myself, preferred the idea of re-tuning freighter shields to just deal with the fringe of the braid, meaning ships could skirt it and not have to go all the way around.
The fleet representatives sent out to look the situation over agreed with those of us who thought the re-tune was the best idea, for moving light and gravity with warp fields was dangerous to the point that even saying that is an understatement. A shield re-tune was dangerous as well, but not to that extent.
The fleet was willing to do the specific work, but the fleet had its own schedule and none of our commercial urgency, so I brought out my own team of engineers, including Mr. Oahuapedal, to figure it all out for everyone, with another two companies also volunteering.
One of those company heads had been for the warp field movement, and he had 25 years of scores to settle with me … so, he and his team decided to do the experiment they wanted while my team and I were in the way.
My first mate, Mr. Swan, called me while I was in engineering monitoring the re-tune.
“Captain, the edge of the fringe is moving faster than the speed of light toward us … accelerating rapidly … .”
“How fast can we get the warp engines back on line, Mr. Oahuapedal?”
Mr. Oahuapedal's tentacles number 800 or so, and he hit every board in engineering at once.
“No shielding – three minutes. With shielding: ten minutes.”
“We don't have ten minutes – we don't have three – Captain, that fringe is moving at Warp 5 now!”
“Time for Plan B,” I said. “Mr. Oahuapedal, remember how we ran a whole simulation for this?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Initialize that frequency for the shields, now, and then get the warp engines back online so we can initialize the Beamerling warp skip.”
Mr. Oahuapedal turned pale to the tips of his tentacles, but did as I ordered. We had five ships in the area, and none of them were going to be able to escape that braid moving toward us at Warp 5 in the state of work we were in. There was only this way.
“Mr. Swan, get all personnel to the transporter room – all of you except Mr. Oahuapedal are to transport out in a minute, and get all the distance you can on impulse on every ship.”
“Captain –.”
“That's an order, Mr. Swan.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
He got moving, and in the transporter room duly reported that he was beaming out after he had beamed out all the rest.
“Captain –.”
“Go, Mr. Swan. I'm 43. You've 25. I need someone to take over as CEO anyway. Go, Mr. Swan.”
He beamed out, in tears, but he followed orders.
“Computer, transfer navigation to engineering – how are we coming, Mr. Oahuapedal?”
“We've got the shields on the protocol – I'm tuning with a quarter of my tentacles and working on getting the warp drive up with the other three-quarters.”
I checked on what was happening outside.
“Well, we're about to know if the shielding ideas the fleet offered us work in real time – it's not how we planned to do it, but …”
45 seconds later, we were staring down the inside of a fringe braid.
“Shields are holding,” Mr. Oahuapedal said, “but the power drain is immense. Shutting down everything but warp engines and navigation – even life support has to go, Captain.”
“Well, if this next part doesn't work, it won't matter anyway,” I said. “It was a pleasure working with you, Mr. Oahuapedal.”
“A pleasure and a great honor, Captain. I would not have left you even if you had ordered it, so thank you for caring enough not to make me a mutineer at the end.”
“Now you know I wouldn't do that to you, my friend.”
19 years earlier, Capt. Dixon had rescued a baby Beamerling from captivity and I had gone on the journey to return the Beamerling to his home. His father had given us a supply of warp-skip crystals that synthesized what his son had done to get us to his home before his growth literally melted Rustbucket 1 – they could put out a warp field sufficient to get a ship strong enough for the strain to Warp 30! No such engineering existed anywhere in the galaxy – but all I needed was a warp field strong enough to stop the braid coming at my remaining vessels and already overtaking mine.
Mr. Oahuapedal gave his attention to helping me get the crystal in place. Then we turned the engines on and sent out our warp field.
The vessel began a fine tremor, and it says much for how well it was built that all that happened at first was that tremor as two warp fields collided in front of us – one ship's field versus five.
“We should be at Warp 1,” Mr. Oahuapedal said. “Warp 1.5 … Warp 2 … Warp 2.5 … Warp 3.5 … Warp 6.75 … Warp 9 … ”
Five times five is 25. Five times six is 30.
“Warp 20 … Warp 20.5 … Warp 21 … Warp 21.5 … Warp 22 … Warp 22.5 …”
Outside, the fringe of the braid moving over us was slowing down …
“Warp 23 … Warp 23.5 … Warp 24 … Warp 24.5 … Warp 25...”
Even that was not enough, because the braid had its own rotational speed … there would never be a point of equilibrium and stillness because of its constant movement around its center of gravity. Warp 25 was not enough to stop it, and Warp 26 was not yet enough to do what we needed done.
Meanwhile, the fleet was seeing this on long-range sensors as the braid was being squeezed between two different immense warp fields...
Full fleet admiral Elian Bodega was rushing to the scene at Warp 9 with every ship he could muster up, probably saying “What in the whole universe?” along with some other interesting vocabulary.
At Warp 26.5, the braid began to move backwards in our vicinity as the warp field we were generating exceeded the strength of the field against us and even the rotational movement of the braid itself.
Meanwhile, Mr. Oahuapedal had deployed two dozen tentacles to hold himself in position, and was hanging onto to me with a tentacle … even artificial gravity was going out.
“Captain, we've got about a minute at the rate of decline of our structural integrity.”
“That's more than they have – somebody over there is going to panic and cut and run.”
We were still increasing in field strength – at Warp 28.5, one of those ships reversed course.
That brought the field strength against us down to a combined Warp 20, meaning the braid was moving toward them at Warp 8.5.
As all of them panicked, the effective speed of the braid overtaking them went up to Warp 28.5, briefly – I cut power to my ship's warp engines, and of course the spin of the center of gravity for the braid kept moving in our direction, so the speed of the braid moving backward began to slow down … but at Warp 28.5, the decay would take days.
Needless to say, no ship anywhere not able to do Warp 29 could escape that braid moving toward them at Warp 28ish all of the sudden. Meanwhile, as soon as my ship was clear of the braid, Mr. Swan beamed Mr. Oahuapedal and I out, and all of us went to maximum warp in the opposite direction to escape the warp core breach that was inevitable on my own ship.
I lost one ship and none of my men. My bitter competitor lost himself and all his ships and men at the scene, and his heirs faced severe sanctions on the surviving company for “flagrant space-time violations.” They were devastated and desperate and had no clue what to do … and sold the company to me for a song and considered me a hero for taking it off their hands.
I will never forget meeting Admiral Bodega after that.
“How did you –.”
Then he turned to my wife, his full fleet admiral colleague.
“How did he--.”
We smiled.
“It was just one of those things, Admiral,” I said, and my wife smiled and shook her head in apparent perplexity as we walked off.
“Proprietary secrets,” she said to me with a giggle when we were out of the admiral's earshot.
“Yes, ma'am,” I said.
Cousin J.T. called later that day.
“I'd ask how you did that,” he asked, “but as one Kirk to another, I know it is probably better that I not know.”
“You know I learned well from you, J.T.”
“I'd tell you to stay out of trouble, Mark, but, that's not possible in Kirk life, so, glad you're alive, and try to stay out of trouble for at least a week. Can you do that?”
“I'll try my best, Cousin.”
Four pure fractals made in Apophysis 2.09 give us this epic adventure!